We made Mummo's porridge for Mummo

My mother is staying with us for a few days while my Dad is away and the kids wanted Mummo's Porridge which is really known as:
Marja Puuro (Berry Porridge)

8 c cranberry juice
1/2 c sugar to sweeten.

Bring to boil and then slowly sprinkle in 1 cup of instant cream of wheat with a wisk. Lower the heat, but still let it bubble. Cook for 10 minutes with a lid on.

Now, pour it into a large pyrex type bowl. Place the bowl in a pan of cold water. Beat the mix until it's much lighter in color. My mother used to tell me to stick out my tongue and when it looks that color, it's done. Keep it on the counter top for at least an hour and then serve with milk or half and half and a sprinkle of sugar. It goes especially well with Finnish Pulla bread.

My mother served this combination upon arrival of many guest in our home, especially each time a new group of Mormon missionaries on their way to Finland came to our home for an evening of Finnish cuisine and culture.

Our kids now call this Mummo's Porridge and plain cream of wheat or farina Papa's Porridge because it's what each often made for them when we'd visit. My Dad makes breakfast, so we'd have his then and my Mother did the rest of the cooking, until her health prevented her from her passion of cooking. We still asked her lots of questions while we were making it, since we don't make it too often and wanted to make sure we did it correctly since it was being made for the expert.

Now my kids especially like it on Valentine's Day since it's pink. I didn't get it made this V-Day since I didn't have cranberry juice on hand, so we did it today.

Snap, crackle, pop -- rice krispie (treats) save the day!

15 minutes before the rest of the family was leaving for a neighborhood skiing party I wasn't going to, (sore back) I remembered the flyer said, chili will be served, but bring a treat to share! No time to be creative, so I quickly grabbed my sister-in-law's Rice Krispie Treats recipe and made a batch.

Rice Krispie Treats
1/2 c. butter or margarine
5 c. marshmallows
7 c. rice krispies

Melt butter a little in microwave. Add marshmallows and micro about 2 minutes. Add rice krispies and stir. Pour into lightly greased 9x13 pan.

PHew! I handed them the pan as they walked out the door! No time to cut them, so I sent a knife along and knew that the 20 minute ride, would be enough for the rice krispie treats to set up. If I had gone along, I would have been balancing the pan on my lap as I cut them into squares just before arrival. It'll take longer to write and edit this blog than it did to make those treats last night!!

I did not grow up making or eating rice krispie treats. I did grow up eating rice rispies and listening quietly for snap, crackle and pop to speak to me at breakfast. Thanks to my brother's wife's recipe and my husband's family making/serving "rice berry chickies" as one of his brothers called them as a child often, we occasionally make them, like last night and for chocolate fondue.

Recently we were invited to another family's for a potluck and games. Santa brought our family a chocolate fountain fondue for Christmas, so we took it and brought various items like strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, chunks of bite size pound cake, etc. to hold under the flowing chocolate (chocolate chips with a little bit of oil). The hostess was serving rice krispie treats and everyone ended up using them in our chocolate fondue. It was perfect! Rice Krispie Treats in chocolate fondue are much better than pound cake or marshmallows alone, so now we serve them instead or in addition. Strawberries are still hands down everyone's favorite with chocolate! One of our children can hardly wait to try white chocolate next. Do you have any ideas to share?

For those peanut butter lovers, who want a twist to Rice Krispie Treats, here it is. Since 1 family member doesn't like the site or smell, let alone taste of peanut butter, we don't make the recipe below very often. Funny thing, I love peanut butter, but while I was pregnant with this child, I didn't like peanut butter either! Don't count on making this one in under 15 minutes from start to finish and out the door!

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies with Chocolate
3/4 c peanut butter
1 c corn syrup
1/2 c brown sugar
Melt these together.
2 T margarine or butter (optional)
5-6 c rice krispies, add, stir.
Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

Top with:
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips
1 c butter scotch chips
melted together.

Enjoy!

Making Doughnuts

Title: Raised Doughnuts

Description: My cousins make these doughnuts every year near Christmas (usually Christmas Eve) and deliver them to friends and neighbors. You can see them delivering donuts by bike and making them in their new aprons December 23, at www.ciresplace.blogspot.com.

My cousin said, "Our family tradition came about because on a very snowy Idaho Christmas in the late 50's or early 60's they were homebound. No one could travel to see us or we to see them. Velva announced, "We'll still have fun. Let's make doughnuts" (she actually said, 'spudnuts', which is what you would make if you were in Idaho!) So we made this delicious treat on what became a memorable Christmas Day. . . We now have friends who eagerly await their doughnuts each year."

Ingredients:
2 packages or 2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
4 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
2/3 cup powdered milk
2 cubes butter or margarine, softened
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
12 - 14 cups flour

Directions: Add warm water to mixer (I use my Bosch.) Add yeast and part of the sugar. Let sit for five minutes. Add powdered milk, butter, sugar, salt, and eggs. Mix slightly. Add three cups flour, mix together, then while mixer is on slow sped, slowly add remaining flour until dough begins to leave sides of bowl. Knead dough for 3 - 5 minutes.

Place in large bowl and let rise until finger leaves an indentionPunch down and take about 1/4 of the dough and roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut with doughnut cutter (or we have also used a drinking glass with the top of the salt shaker for the hole :) (We used a medicine measuring cup to cut the center.) Let rise until doubled. Continue cutting doughnuts adding scraps to the new dough.

Fry in deep hot oil (375 degrees F) until browned, turning just ONCE. (We used our electric fondue pots and set our temp at 325 degrees.) Test the oil with a doughnut hole to make sure temperature is right. If you try to fry too many at once, the oil cools down too fast. My cousin says they fry outside because that fried oil smell isn't the favorite in the house. Drain on paper towels. While warm, dip into glaze.

Glaze: 1 cup water to each pound of powdered sugar. Place in a deep pan and heat until dissolved. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1 tsp. mapleline flavoring. Glaze doughnuts on both sides and place on a rack over cookie sheet to drain.

Our family decided to make them last night as part of a birthday celebration and for a fun treat to eat. One of our kids said these are as good as Krispy Kreme which is saying a lot from them. My husband said they used to make doughnuts growing up too, so he enjoyed making these as well and said it's a great recipe.

We did share some of these doughnuts because this made 4 dozen and that is just too tempting for us. I'm sure we'll make them again and again. I want to thank my Arizona cousins for sharing their Christmas tradition with the rest of us. The cousins use www.myfamily.com to share recipes, photos, news and to just stay in touch between family reunions.

Making Our Mother's Pulla Recipe

Title: Pulla--Finnish coffee bread braid eaten in all homes in Finland. So common you can buy it any day there, but if you want it in the states you must make it yourself.

Often, served when you visited our family's home or if our parents came to visit you -- our mother's trademark!

She did not have this recipe with her when she came to the States nor had she been the baker in the home. The oldest girl in each family was the baker. So she developed this recipe with trial and error. Now other Finnish Americans, American neighbors and even Finns in Finland use her recipe as well. After making it for over 50 years, she can no longer make it herself. She even taught our Father to make it when she no longer could, but now many others carry on her legacy.

Ingredients:

3 T dry yeast, dissolved in 3/4 c. warm water

3 c hot milk, powdered is okay

3 c sugar or less

2 1/4 t salt

6 eggs

2 cubes margarine, softened at room temperature

3 T crushed cardamom

12-14 c flour It does need to be adjusted for sea level from high altitude with less flour. Add enough flour until it pulls easily away from your fingers as you knead it. She never measured, but knew by the look and feel.

2 more eggs for basting

Directions: In a large plastic tupperware type bowl (need the lid ready), add sugar and salt. Pour hot milk over them. Stir to dissolved. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 3/4 c. warm water. In another bowl, beat eggs then add to large bowl with milk, sugar and salt mixture, stirring well. (This cools the mixture so you can then add the yeast from small bowl). Add crushed cardamom, stir well. Add flour, a little at a time, then add margarine, working it in with your fists. On a floured surface, knead it for 8 to 10 minutes, adding enough flour if necessary to make it pull away easily and is smooth. Put the lid on your large plastic tupperware type bowl. 

Place it in the sink filled with hot water. Change the water every 30 minutes. Let rise to double--about when lid pops up. Because dough has so much butter and sugar, it is slow to rise, about 2 1/2 hours. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll about a cupful of dough, making a rope about the size of your two fingers and about 18 inches long. Make 3 or 4 ropes and braid together. Place on a greased cookie sheet or on baking paper sheets. Two fit on each sheet. Place a dish towel for over them and let rise for 1/2 hour. Baste with a beaten egg. Sprinkle with slivered almonds and "rae" pearl sugar, smaller in size than rock salt.  You can get this at Scandinavian shops.  

Bake at 375 for 12 minutes then turn the pan around in oven so it'll brown more evenly and bake for about another 12 minutes. *You may purchase french bread loaf bags from your local bakery section to put the loaves in.

Number Of Servings:  6 loaves
Preparation Time:   Plan a time when you can be around for 5-6 hours.

At Christmas time, leave off the rae sugar and after the loaves have baked and cooled, brush powdered sugar glaze on and decorate with red and green candied pineapple, cut in 1/4ths and placed alternating along braid. *For the Christmas deliveries, our Father cuts cardboard pieces the length and width of the pulla and covers them with aluminum foil. Once the pulla is on the board, he puts plastic saran wrap over the pulla and scotch tapes it underneath all the sides. Then they place a gift tag and red or green Christmas bow on it. One Christmas our Father made wooden bread boards which either had one of the other of her two mottos wood burned into them. Her mottos "The thing you share with others is the thing that you enjoy!" and "Breathes there a wife with soul so dead who to her husband has never said, this is my own real homemade bread!"

When one batch is ready, we'd don our red elf hats and go deliver the fresh pulla to the next round of friends or neighbors. Merry Christmas and Hauskaa Joulua!

I only made Christmas Pulla loaves for our extended family Christmas party shown here and to give my parents and siblings this Christmas and for our own family to enjoy. I know one of our brothers also made pulla loaves this Christmas for his family and yet another brother's daughter made it for their family too. Also there are several relatives, friends and neighbors who now make it themselves for their families as it's just not Christmas with out our Mother's Pulla!

In our family growing up and still in mine now, we make Pulla boys and girls to eat on Christmas morning with hot chocolate (we aren't coffee drinkers) and sometimes we have our traditional rice porridge with a lone almond for good luck to the receiver in it. It's always fun to stuff the raisins in for the eyes, nose and mouth. I'd always pick them out when it came time to eat them though. We made Pulla boys and girls this Christmas. Each person gets to decorate their own with hair and face how they want to.

I am so thankful for this tradition and getting to help my mother make it since I was 3. She said I asked her at 3 during Christmas, "Mommy are we running a bakery?" Now our children like to help make it and eat it too. Her legacy continues. Bread is the staff of life we were taught growing up. It is to be reverenced, enjoyed and appreciated.

Finnish Christmas Dinner Menu

I'm busy making prepations for my side of the family's Finnish Christmas dinner party. A typical Finnish Christmas Dinner includes ham, fish, casseroles and salads. Here is a suggested menu.

Ham
Porkkana Lattikko (Carrot Casserole)
Peruna Lattikko (Potato Casserole)
Lanttu Lattikko (Rutabaga Casserole)
Beet and Apple Salad or Cranberry Salad
Hapan kaali salaattii (Sauerkraut Salad)
Ruis Leipa (Rye Bread)
Sillia-- Pickled Herring
Gravi Lohi – Raw thinly sliced Salmon strips
Karjalan Piirakka (Karelian Rice Pastries)
Egg Butter
Sima
Desserts
Riisi Puuro – Rice Porridge w/ almond in it
Rusina Soppa – Raisin Soup
Pulla Cardamom (Coffee Braid)
Joulu Torttuja (Prune Filled Tarts)
Piparkakut (instead of gingerbread)
Assat S shaped cookies

The menu always includes casseroles. These are three that our mother always served on Christmas Eve. Casseroles were used because they didn't have access to refrigeration in those days, so they used root vegetables of potato, carrot and rutabaga. It's not Christmas to me if I don't taste these sometime during the season.

Title: Peruna Kiusaus (Potato Temptation)

Description:
I call it "Matchstick Potato Casserole". This is a potato casserole used in Christmas dinner, but also easy to make for any time of year.

Ingredients:
6-7 coarsely grated raw potatoes
2 cups chopped onion
2 1/2 - 3 cups heavy cream
salt and pepper

Directions:
Peel and grate potatoes into cold water. Grease a 913 dripper pan and put potatoes (drain of water) and onions in layers. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the potatoes to barely cover. Bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours. Great served with ham or any meat.
Note: You may add 1 1/2 - 2 cups of cubed, cooked ham. If you are of "Scandinavian" origin, you may want to add a can of Anchovy Fillets with juice, but use less salt.


Title: Porkkana Laatikko (Carrot and Rice Casserole)

Description:
This is the traditional Finnish Carrot and Rice Casserole.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 cup half and half
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons brown sugar
salt to taste
2-3 Tbs. chopped almonds


Directions:
Boil carrots in salted water until done. Drain and save the water. Remove carrots from pan and add enough water, if necessary, to make 1 1/2 cups pour rest of of liquid back into the pan and let it come to a boil. Stir in uncooked rice. Cover and steam on low for 20 minutes. Meanwhile mash cooked carrots. Add half and half, beaten egg, and brown sugar, mixing well. When rice is done, stir into carrot mixture, adding salt to taste. Pour into a well greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.

A great compliment for meat dishes, especially ham. Freezes well.

Number Of Servings:Serves 6-8.

Preparation Time:Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.


Title: Lanttulaatikko (Rutabaga Casserole)

Description:
Even if Finns don't eat it, they make it for the smell at Christmas. Our mother always makes and eats it.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 lbs. rutabagas (yellower than the turnip)
1 1/3 cups half and half
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
3 eggs
3/4 cup dark Karo syrup
1/4-1/3 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
1/2 t white pepper
salt to taste (remember some salt comes from the salted water you cook the rutabagas in)

Directions:
Peel and cut the rutabagas into very small pieces. (They take a long time to cook.) Cover with water. Sprinkle on some salt. Boil until soft. Mix half and half and and the bread crumbs in a small bowl and let "swell" while the rutabagas are boiling. Drain and save 1/2 c of the cooking water. Mash rutabagas very fine adding water. Add cream and crumb mixture into the mashed rutabagas, mixing well. Add beaten eggs and Karo. Season with spices being careful not to use too much nutmeg as it develops a stronger taste while baking. Salt to taste. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Keeps well for several days in the refrigerator. Reheat to serve. Freezes well.