In My Kitchen in November

My post for In My Kitchen this month is quite dominated by my shopping from Norway, and also much more sweet than usual. However the first picture with the double rainbow is a view from my kitchen at home. I didn't buy that much this time on holiday, but found some nice products to take with me back home nevertheless. I'm sharing this post with Lizzy from Good Things for this month's In My Kitchen edition.

I fell in love with this little cow character from Litago's chocolate milk cartons in Norway. The milk was very tasty as well, but don't you think that the cow in its wellies is very nice. 

Of course I had to buy some crisp breads, while travelling in Norway. It's possible to get quite decent crisp breads in the shops here, but the Scandinavian ones are just the best.

We also got some Ægir Brewery's beers and a beer glass to take home with us. I'm saving the beers for a while for a special occasion and the glass is really nice as well. Have a look a my Ægir post as well, if you are more interested about the brewery.

I got a big bag of Skolekridt, or better known as Liitulaku to me, liquorice sweets filled with salty liquorice at the Oslo airport. They are made by the Finnish company Fazer and they are already my childhood favourites. They look like actual chalk for chalk board, but definitely taste much much better!

Another airport buy was a larger packet of Fisherman's Friends that my partner likes.

Several bags of the veggie friendly Colin the Caterpillar fruit gums went to Norway with us as a travel snack. These fruit gums that also come as sours are very good, and I'm so happy that a gelatine free supermarket sweets range is available consistently in this country. I really adore Colin.

Recently my mum sent me some Finnish chocolate, Fazer's Salty Toffee Crunch in Milk Chocolate, and also some nice xylitol chewing gums. I've been enjoying these products very much.

A set of two vegetable tea towels from Ikea are also newcomers to my kitchen. New tea towels are always welcome here.

After a little while I again managed to find cloveless garlic, which I really like. It's quite a juicy and fragrant garlic variation, and also a little bit more convenient to chop, as there's only one larger clove.

Seasonal squashes in all shapes and forms have been in my kitchen and will continue to do so for a while yet. I've been cooking soups, stews, pasta dishes, anything really with them.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my kitchen.

Your VegHog

Foodie stuff from Finland

As usual I ended up buying quite a few Finnish products to take home with me from the holiday. I wanted to share some of my bounty with you in case you're interested.

I expanded my Moomin bowl collection (normally I always buy a mug) by the ancestor of the Moomins bowl. I really like the artwork on this and the rare ancestor character is quite intriguing. Also these bowls are quite a convenient size and shape for many kinds of dishes.

And since we were in Finland, I bought even more Moomin products. I found these cute small Moomin napkins that feature some of the more rare characters. I'm sure they'll soon be seen in my food posts.

I had to buy proper rye bread in bulk again and freeze them for future use. They are very good after toasting. I also bought these root vegetable breads (beetroot & carrot and parsnip and carrot), thin oat crisp breads and rye crisps. These will be lovely as work lunches and evening snacks.

You may already know that I'm a fan of a certain healthy berry, sea-buckthorn, so I got this sea-buckthorn jelly and dried sea-buckthorn powder. The powder I normally use in baking and in yogurts. I'm not quite sure yet how to use the jelly the best way. Somehow I have this idea combining it with fried halloumi. Would that work?

Here come the Moomins again! My partner really likes these Moomin blueberry-raspberry liquorice sticks, so we bought a few to take with us. 

 

I visited the Kyrö Distillery Company again and apart from tasting their drinks, I bought their new product Cranmary raw chocolate. It's vegan and contains gin, cranberry and rosemary, a very good combination.

Fazerina are probably my favourite Finnish chocolates. Even though I don't eat much chocolate, it's nice to have a Fazerina occasionally. They are milk chocolates with a truffle filling, so good!

This was my foodie shopping from Finland. I hope you like the products. Most of them will be seen on the blog later, I'm sure.

Your VegHog

Weekly shopping

I've done my weekly shopping and look very much forward to cooking with these ingredients! Finally I have a can of jackfruit. I'm not sure yet what I will cook with it, but I'm sure it will be tasty. I'll need to look for some inspiration from my fellow bloggers. I can also see other lovely fresh and light summer dishes in my immediate future. All shall be revealed later.

Here is what I bought:

• Lambs lettuce
• Quorn escalopes
• Paccheri Rigati pasta
• Gooseberries
• Jackfruit
• Onions
• Soya sauce
• Harlequin squash
• Nutty muesli
• Tomatoes
• Beer
• Baby spinach
• Dry yeast
• Garlic
• Chilli ketchup
• Gem squashes
• Carrots
• Udon noodles
• Pineapple juice
• Fresh peas

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Today's food shopping

Today I went to the shop a little bit more prepared than usual, as I had chosen beforehand a few dishes that I would cook today and during next week. I was even organised enough to check the cupboards what I already had here, and then off I went.

So these are the items shown in the picture, can you guess what type of food I'll be making next week?

• grated mozzarella
• different types of tomatoes
• red chillies
• oat cream
• lamb's lettuce
• fennel seeds
• mozzarella
• tonic water
• greek yogurt
• lemon
• butter
• toasted sesame oil
• pasta
• tahini
• sweetcorn
• pasta
• onions
• lime ginger
• oregano
• lemongrass
• coriander
• basil
• bell pepper
• red onions
• coconut cream
• rapeseed oil
• thai basil
• hazelnut milk
• olive oil
• sugarsnap peas
• beer

Have a wonderful week!

Your VegHog

Inside my shopping bag

Almost a year ago I wrote a post Inside my shopping bag and I thought that I could post a second one now. Weirdly here are some same items as back then, but on the other hand that's quite normal for me. This is my weekly shop that I'm going to extend with the contents of my dry cupboard and freezer. I normally go shopping once a week. However sometimes I have to pick up a few things during the week too, if I haven't planned my shopping list properly or if I happen to crave for something else. These are all quite typical products for me, but I think that I usually have a bit more fresh vegetables in there than this time.

This shopping contains:

Red chillies

Red chicory

Thyme

Onions

Orange juice

Pistachios

Lemons

Havarti cheese

Margarine

Beer

Coffee

Tomatoes

Soy sauce

Apple juice

Pumpkin gnocchi

Garlic

Spelt flour

Yogurt

Pomegranate seeds

Coriander

Blood oranges

Potatoes

Cider

Carrots

This was all this time. Enjoy your week!

Your VegHog

Foodie shopping

As I already wrote in a previous post that I would write separately about my holiday shopping not to clutter the holiday photo post too much. So I'll introduce here some of the food and kitchen products that I brought with me from Finland to the UK. I didn't have the time to use any of them much yet, but they will surely become handy, tasty or amusing in no time.

My absolute favourites were the hedgehog tea towels by Lapun Kankurit that I got in Helsinki. I already have some other tea towels from the same makers, but these must be the best ones ever. I'm not revealing them fully in the photos, as they will be making many appearances on the blog in the future.

Then I purchased also from the Lapuan Kankurit shop an interesting tea in a retro tin. It's called Kyläkaupan Teesekoitus (tea blend of the village shop) made by Metkatuote, and it's a blend of green and white tea flavoured with lingonberries, vanilla and lotus flowers. I'm sure the tea will be tasty, but don't you just have to love the tin!

My mum gave me this lovely coffee tin with cute animal artwork on it. There is also good Finnish coffee and a wooden measuring spoon within. This makes a great addition to my coffee shelf.

I love using healthy berry powders in breakfast bowls and baking. The dried powders are a convenient way of storing some of the berry goodness of the Finnish forests. Now I filled in my dry cupboard with new ones and am going to taste the lingonberry one soon. Lingonberry was somewhat a theme here, as I also bought sugar with added lingonberry flakes. That should be good for baking too. I'm not quite sure yet where I will use the sea buckthorn syrup, but I'm sure I'll think of something. Dried chanterelles were also a mandatory item on my shopping list as usual. In the background there's a dried nettle bag hiding.

I can't get enough of mentioning my local Napue Gin by Kyrö Distillery Company and of course had to bring a bottle with me, so good times are ahead.

Herra Hakkaraisen Täysksylitolipastilli are tooth friendly dragees in strawberry and pear flavours. They are good for after meals and in between.

This Kasviskeittokirja is a Finnish translation of the German original Vegetarianisches Kochbuch für Freunde der natürlichen Lebensweise by Eduard Baltzer, the founder of the first German vegetarian society. The original was published in 1869, if the info that I found was correct. It's from around that time anyway and contains old vegetarian recipes and nourishment info flavoured with the attitudes of the time. It's quite funny to read at times, but many nutritional facts haven't changed from those days. Maybe I'll cook something from this book soon and then I'll make sure that I'll post it here.

I always buy lovely napkins where ever I go and this time I took with me Kirsikkapuisto (cherry park) by the Finnish fashion designer Jukka Rintala and a white horse napkin Nøkken som hvit hest by the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen from Ateneum's The Magic North exhibition, which by the way was truly magical.

I also bought my favourite cheese Oltermanni, rye nachos and crisps, some dried soya and pea protein products, chocolates and rye bread. It seems that I only bought food! Well isn't that quite important anyway? Have you done some interesting food shopping lately, on your holiday or at home?

Your VegHog

Inside my shopping bag

I'm not sure, if this post interests anyone, but I just wanted to share with you what my typical supermarket shop for a week or so contains. I normally do a big shop on the weekend, but I might have to add some items to those during the week. As I have quite a well equipped dry cupboard with different spices, flours, pulses, pasta etc., I don't often need those items from my local supermarket. My shopping bag normally contains quite a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit, which was the case again yesterday. I also buy my regular basics like cheese, milk and yogurt weekly. Milk I mainly need for my morning coffee, sometimes for baking too. My standard weekday breakfast is Greek yogurt with berry powders, fruit, granola or flaxseed.

Here are most of the items that I bought this time, but I might have forgotten some: Bell peppers, butternut squash, continental salad onions, portobello mushrooms, mini plum tomatoes, pineapple, pomegranate seeds, shallots, garlic, potatoes, black grapes, watercress, Curiosity Cola, Orchard Pig cider, halloumi, White Fox cheddar, vegetable stock cubes, breadcrumbs, coffee, milk, eggs, Greek style yogurt and buckwheat noodles. I'm sure you will soon see dishes cooked with these ingredients on the blog.

I would be very curious seeing into your grocery shopping bags, so please share links below in the comment box, if you have posted about the subject, or just tell me about your typical buys.

Your VegHog