Tag: personal

Answers to today’s questions at thefridayfive@DW.

1. At what age did you discover you had a favorite color?

No idea. I remember loving pale blue and silver as a kid as far back as I can remember. I still love silver but only like pale blue, and have since childhood added certain pinks and lilacs/violets to my favorite colors row.

2. What type (genre) of film do you prefer to see in a theater versus one you’d watch at home?

I prefer the same both in a theater and home. Scifi with horror, thriller, drama and/or action/adventure elements. Think something like Alien/Aliens or The Terminator. I do enjoy seeing visually impressive films in a theater because they look so handsome on the big screen, but I also love watching them at home on a small screen.

3. What’s your oldest object or item since childhood?

I don’t have things like dolls or teddy bears or whatever like that people usually mean when they ask this question. Those things never had much of a meaning to me after I grew out of them.

On the other hand, I have lots of old things because we divided our house hold items between us when Mom moved in with her SO and I moved on my own. So any number of plates and some drinking glasses, a kitchen table and chairs and some other funiture are from my childhood… the kitchen table and chairs are newer than the plates, because we originally had benches instead of chairs in the kitchen. The plates are at least so old that I don’t remember eating from any other plates as a kid at home. Whether they’re older than me… it’s a real possibility!

I sometimes think about recycling the drinking glasses and the plates and buying new ones, but the truth is, the old design is really functional! Much better to hold etc. than what’s been available in the shops for the past 20 years or so. Same with the forks and knives. I’ve only bought new serrated and cutting knives myself. I got some forks and knives for free with some purchase or other maybe 20 years ago, and those too are much more clumsy and unattractive than my old, old forks and knives that we already had when I was a kid.

The plates and drinking glasses are by Arabia which has been a Finnish staple for kitchen stuff for over 100 years, and thanked for being both functional and aesthetic in design. The ones I have are not the expensive, collectable/special occasion ones but the ones for laverage income families and meant for everyday use. So I guess it isn’t a wonder that they just work.

4. In what book would you insert yourself as a side character or friend to the protagonist?

I never insert myself. Instead I imagine myself to be an existing character, usually my favorite character, so someone particularly interesting.

5. What’s your favorite shape or type of cloud?

Any that covers the sun. I don’t pay attention to clouds otherwise.

Answers to today’s questions at f.riday5.com

1. What does it take to make your way in the world today?

Callous ruthlessness and sheer luck.

2. Where do you go to take a break from all your worries?

Nowhere. Closest I get is spending time with my Mom.

3. Where does everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came? (or where did everybody know your name and were always glad you came?)

At my Mom’s.

4. Which no-longer-in-business establishments are you nostalgic for, and is nostalgia generally a positive or negative emotion?

I can’t think of a business that I miss.

But I’m nostalgic for the fresh breads, cheese and meats counters that were in all the grocery shops in the 1980s when I was a kid. The bread counters had all sorts of delicious bakes that varied from shop to shop and you could ask only for as much as you needed, instead of having to buy a huge family size pack. Same with the meats and cheeses. Now all those are either too big packages for one person household, or too small package, or the right-size package but double the price of the family size. It’s maddening. And all the bakes are majority the same everywhere now.

5. Which television shows have great opening theme songs with opening title sequences?

Miami Vice, Silk Stalkings and many others but those two are the ones that first came to mind!

Answers to today’s questions at thefridayfive@DW.

1. Do you cook regularly or does someone else cook for you?

Nobody cooks for me as I live alone, and I don’t cook regularly either because of my chronic illnesses. I rather use my energy for baking, so I buy and eat a lot of ready-to-heat casseroles and vegetable soups. I usually cook 2-3 times a month and usually make something that’ll last me for a week or so as dinner. And when I do cook, I use a lot of semi-finished products such as frozen sliced potatoes because as a spoonie I only have so much energy to use, and using things like that help conserve my energy to do other things as well that day.

Usually when I visit my Mom, we time it so that I eat there. It’s always around lunch time because that’s when they have their main meal. It’s a real treat to eat food cooked by someone else, made even better that usually she makes one our old favorites that we all love but don’t make that often… so not only it’s that someone cooks for me (or we cook together) and the food is really tasty but also good company while eating! Except for those visits, I always eat alone so it’s all kinds of special 😀 

2. Which are you better at making: sweet or savory foods?

I have more experience making sweet foods (meaning: baking) so I guess that. But I’m pretty good at both, just limited in what I bother to make because I’m not very adventurous eater – I used to be picky, and guess still am. It’s just that there are textures I don’t like (they make me gag and even throw up if forced to continue), and certain tastes I tolerate if I have to but don’t use myself. I tend to stick to recipes I’ve enjoyed, or new ones that I think I might enjoy because they don’t have any of my no-thank-yous and not try out a lot of new tastes etc. I think my taste is also rather bland – as an example, I don’t like even mildly actually-spicy food – a bit of salt and black pepper is usually enough for me for most foods. Also as an example, I hate onions (which are a Finnish stable and put in pretty much all cooked meals or so it feels like) so I never use them and luckily nobody can complain to me about it because I only cook for myself!

3. If you had to work as a chef in a restaurant of your choice, which restaurant would best complement your current culinary skills?

I never eat in restaurants so I can’t name names, but it’d have to be one that specializes in home cooked food, with a menu of only maybe a dozen different meals on it at most. And each day would have only 2 different meals + one vegetable soup on offer. But really, I’m physically unable to work in that environment so I’d be fired before first week is out.

4. What is a cooking tip that you know, but other people generally aren’t aware of?

I can’t think of one…

5. Do you have a recipe you would like to share?

This one is one of my favorite casseroles, very quick and easy to make: https://www.k-ruoka.fi/reseptit/helppo-kinkkukiusaus I made it as-is the first time but felt it missed some “oomph” so now I also add 150g of grated blue cheese. I just love blue cheese and think it goes very well with the other ingredients. I also usually add in grated pizza cheese on the top after about half of the time in the oven for a pretty topping.

Mokkapalat (Coffee Pieces) is a baking favorite of mine. The recipe I use is from: https://cebicinkeittio.blogspot.com/2018/12/maailman-parhaat-mokkapalat.html I guess it’s kind of like a brownie? Mokkapalat is one of the stable bakes here in Finland. All kids and teens make it in school at the very least, and lots and lots of (most?) families bake them at least when their kids are small. There are about a million slightly different recipes but this is the one that I think is above all others (and I’ve tried like a dozen!). The cake part is soft and moist just right and the topping is enough for once (in the other recipes, you usually had to make the topping as double to get enough to cover the entire thing just barely thickly enough). I always use a Frezza Choco Loco cold coffee drink in place of the coffee in this recipe (old fashioned coffee as in the recipe is too strongly coffee tasting to me so I use one of the Frezzas).

These two have been my favorite things to make the last few years 😀 

Answers to http://f.riday5.com/2024/01/19/friday-5-for-january-19-random-topic-generator/

1. How much experience do you have with tobacco?

No personal experience at all – I’ve never even tried it. The smell’s awful.

2. What have you made with wood?

Back in school, in the short wood work course I made a little ship. That’s all.

3. What do you think of farmers markets in your area?

I’m not sure we have farmers markets here, but we do have market squares where farmers, bakers and flower growers etc. can sell their things. Most only sell during summer. When I was a kid in the 1980s the market square was filled with sellers, dozens and dozens of them and practically everyone bought their potatoes, carrots etc. there. The produce were domestic and of good quality – better than in shops. But nowadays, it’s vice versa a lot. I think it started to change in the early 1990s but I’m not sure – I just know that by the time I was an adult (I turned 20 in 1994), the number of sellers had halfed. And now only a handful remain.

They renovated the market square last year, after first building an underground parking carage under it, and now there are some sort of cafes/restaurants there in addition to the produce sellers, some of which I think operate only during the summer. There’s also supposed to be events etc. there during the summer.

4. What’s a good movie, novel, or TV show containing a shipwreck?

Alien.

5. What’s a good song with the word magic in its title or lyrics?

Black Magic Woman by Santana