Making a spicy Bolognese

Making Spaghetti Bolognese is one of the simplest recipes, and usually turns out quite delicious. Here I'm going to share my own, spicies, version of this classic dish.

What you need:
1. Two garlic gloves
2. One tomato
3. 1 chili pepper
4. One red/yellow onion
5. 1 cup of meat stock
6. Pasta, dry or fresh
7. Spices (basilic, pepper, oregano)
8. Minced meat (400-500 grams)
9. Organic mashed tomatoes
10. Mashed blue cheese or parmesan (according to taste)

First, you should start cooking the pasta in plenty of water so that it won't turn sticky.
While the pasta is cooking, start cutting the vegetables into small pieces. Fry them together in some oil until brown, then pour on the meat stock and let it cook for a while into a nice, brown paste.

The meat should be fried separately in a frying pan for a while, until relatively brown (it will further get ready in the sauce pan later).

Using a stain protector can be a good idea!

Now you can cut the tomato into small pieces and put it together with the mashed tomato sauce and meat into the sauce pan. Put the spices in (according to taste) and let cook for about 10-15 minutes on medium heat. This way all the flavours will blend together nicely and give a rich, aromatic taste to your Bolognese!

Home made guacamole

Making your own guacamole sauce is quite easy; all you need is the right (fresh) ingredients and a sharp knife. I prefer to make my own guacamole since the manufactured versions contain so little real avocado compared to the real one.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
1-2 Garlic gloves (according to taste)
1 Avocado
1 red onion
1 package of Crème Fraiche
2 fresh tomatoes
Juice from half a lime or lemon
Pepper (according to taste)
Tiny amount of chili
Half a teaspoon of salt
Balsamic vinegar (according to taste)

Making:
Cut the tomatoes and the onion into small pieces with a sharp knife, slightly mix together in a big bowl and let it rest for a while. While the vegetables rest, take off the shell of the avocado and remove the seed inside.
Mash the content into a smooth, green paste and mix it with the vegetables.

The garlic can be mashed or cut into tiny pieces. (Personally I prefer mixing it with olive oil for a easier blending process). Then mix it with the vegetables. Let it simmer for 15 minutes while blending occasionally.

Mix the Crème Fraiche, lime juice and the chili into the mixture. Add pepper, salt and vinegar according to taste.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrapping and open it when it's time for usage (usually it will last approximately 2-3 days in the refrigerator).

Photos from Ekenäs autumn

Porvoo panorama

A month without meat (?)

A week ago, I decided to stay for a whole month without eating any meat at all. The first week hasn't really been any different from any other week really, since I have tried to be without meat earlier too.

The only thing I have noticed is how much more you have to think about what to purchase in the supermarket. I have also cooked my own food almost every day, since it's easier to compose vegetarian meals than to look for pre-made ones. Pasta with kidney beans, green beans, cashew nuts and onions is a nice completely vegetatian meal that's also quite inexpensive since the ingredients can be purchased as frozen or in tin cans. Fry everything until nice, and put a bit of chili sauce on it if you want to. It's also good with fresh cut rucola salad.

Many people have different attitudes towards meat, myself included. Before this experiment, I ate meat almost every day (which isn't good for you), and I don't know yet if this month will affect my eating habits later on in the future.

Editing your photos in Adobe Lightroom

I have been using Adobe's photo processing application Lightroom for some time now. I really enjoy the control it gives me over my pictures before I "develop" them. By developing I mean the processing of RAW format pictures. Using this format, the camera user gets the full range of image information from the camera (if it supports this format). Many times, the white balance or the exposure time hasn't been optimal; in these situations it's preferable to be able to modify these values later.

Some of the features in Lightroom include selective colour editing, image histograms (where one can brighten or darken shadows, compensate for too bright highlights etc.) Since my own camera has quite a high noise ratio at higher ISO speeds, I also appreciate the noise reduction feature (which surprisingly doesn't reduce too much details in my pictures). Photoshop's own Camera RAW-feature also has most of Lightroom's capabilities, but I prefer Lightroom because of it's excellent file organizing and labeling functions.

Lightroom can also (obviously) be used for regular JPEG processing, so more consumer-oriented camera model's pictures can also be enhanced with this software. However, if one has a camera with RAW capabilities I highly recommend using them when doing Lightroom editing.

Lightroom 5 introduced the new Radial Filter, which gives the user more control over specific parts of the image (for example the ability to bring forward certain details in an image and make other details softer).

Another important thing to take into consideration is your monitor. Usually, the monitor that comes with your desktop or laptop computer is quite badly set up from a colour perspective. Your monitor has the ability to be calibrated however, which basically makes the colours more comparable to how your pictures will look when printed out or viewed on other (calibrated) devices. I have used the Spyder 3 Professional calibrator myself, and noticed quite a big difference after calibrating my monitor (the colours are much warmer and looked incredibly cold prior to this process).

Stockholm and back

Last week, I visited the kingdom of Sweden, utilizing a discount coupon I received from a friend of mine. We travelled with Silja Line, a popular Finnish cruising company that constantly competes with Viking Line, another company. Personally, I don't find any of them particularly different from each other experience-wise, but I enjoyed the layout of this particular boat (Symphony). It has a so-called promenade deck in the center of the boat, consisting of several restaurants and shops; I got the feeling of a downtown shopping street.

Because we travelled on a Tuesday-Wednesday night, there weren't particularly many people onboard. However, we did only encounter one so-called "Walking Dead" (a person so intoxicated he/she has problems walking like a living person). The absence of drunks was actually quite relaxing, considering how many times I have witnessed stupid behaviour and sometimes engaged in it myself as well.

On a sunny Wednesday morning, our ferry arrived in the Stockholm Archipelago. We quickly purchased a (quite expensive) day-pass for the underground transit, and then continued into the Old Town. With hungry stomachs, the Pakistani restaurant Lilla Karachi seemed like a viable option. The promise of free beer and soda was compelling, as well as the price. For that small amount of money (around 7 euros), we got big servings of Tandoori Chicken and Beef Curry. The service was also fast and efficient.

Rolling further on full stomachs, our next stop was the Carl Larsson commemorative exhibition in Stockholms Nationalmuseum. A quite big variety of works were displayed here; as one of the most famous Swedish 19th century painters Larsson made quite a mark with his works. I noticed how many different styles and compositions this man was able to create; portraits of famous Swedish people and a few landscapes were all very interesting in their own way. I also enjoyed the many sculptures in the main entrance hall.

After this art lesson, our journey continued to Åhlens, one of the biggest department stores in Stockholm. That wasn't that interesting for me, since one can purchase the same products in Stockmann for example.

After a quite unnecessary trip to a fast food restaurant, our journey headed back to the ferry. I will definitely continue visiting Sweden in the future since it's a nearby and friendly location with my native tongue as main language.