The morning is a little hard, but last night was a lot of fun, with great food and better company. The hosts put a lot of effort into making each dish and they even went to the effort of buying local crayfish, rather than the imported. There was talk of catching them next year, but I am skeptical.
In Australia, these would be called yabbies and my favorite is "red claw", but I have never been yabbying myself. I have gone crabbing once upon a time, but that is a little more active.
As you can see, our hosts put in some decoration effort too, with the napkin flowers made by their daughter, who has taken an interest in searching and making stuff from YouTube. More kids should do that, rather than watching adverts for products.
There were no kids last night though, with everyone having a babysitter for the night. The group was made up of three local couples (including us) as another set weren't able to make it from Helsinki-way, due to illness. Their loss was our gain. But, now we are in the group and we have been charged with hosting duties in 2022, which gives us time to learn to cook something.
We used to cook a fair bit, but since Smallsteps was born with food allergies, all the effort went to preparing food for her and we ended up eating whatever we could that didn't take much effort. This bad habit has continued with the renovation work and we should start breaking the cycle, as the drawbacks stack up fast.
Despite the aching head (we don't drink much often), for the rest of the day we have to dive back into the house to clean and then base paint a bit, as well as remove some piles of reno trash from the garden and I will cut the grass, now that most of the leaves are out of the way.
It was nice to finally get a little bit of much needed space away from the day in and day out of current life, as well as spend time with friends talking about all kinds of things that range from the very important to the completely useless.
A long time ago (it feels like) my own friends would gather for an annual crayfish party, which was always a highlight of the year. However, we have all moved on in some way, with some moving out of country, so the tradition was lost. I am not a fan of most traditions in the world, other than those that bring friends and family together to eat good food and talk together. The official occasion doesn't matter much, the purpose is to build relationships.
I think many people get lost in the rules of tradition, not the reason for them. The reason is always to being people closer together, and a table of good food is probably the best meeting point there can be.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
We used to love catching baskets of crayfish as kids. We used to catch them by sight fishing, tying a piece of bacon onto a string, waiting for them to grab it, then pulling them out. Ours here were never big enough to actually be able to have a claw to eat though. Wow, those are like little lobsters! I'm drooling over here!
This sounds fun, but time consuming - did you eat them?
The ones in Finland are a bit smaller than the imported ones, but they are tasty :)
Oh yes, the tails on ours (freshwater creeks and lakes) were about the size of your thumb (if lucky) but oh so tasty. Where I grew up, we called them "crawdads". We would just toss the tails into a pan with butter, give them a quick heat up and yum!
We would just toss the tails into a pan with butter, give them a quick heat up and yum!
This sounds like something I would enjoy!!
I'd really like to feel a touch of compassion for your aching head. But I don't, not even a teeny bit :)
MUD BUGS! We used to make a big deal of catching them for our July 4th celebration. There were four teams and the prize for catching the most was that your team didn't have to pay for the beer. The other three teams split the cost.
I liked using old window screen for the bugs. Rig a very light line to each corner, put a little bait in the middle and go away. Come back in the afternoon and pull the line in.
Bait choice was seriously important and widely discussed. My preferred bait was road kill. PRO TIP Use a flat shovel to scoop the road kill off the road (flat is really good in this case) and use your shovel to cut the bait into usable chunks right on the road. It's a lot easier to do there. Shovel it into a garbage bag and you are good to go!
We built a 55 gallon drum into a holding pen. We'd put a couple pounds of Oatmeal in the barrel so the Crawdads would clean out a little before we ate them.
A good time was had by all.
That is clever.
Armadillo?
I have heard of people eating roadkill in Australia (kangaroo) - does that happen there?
We were talking about how long they can be kept like this, any ideas?
Nope. This was up in Washington, no Armadillo though I'm sure they'd work fine. Mostly rabbits but the occasional coyote and skunk. Skunk is the only animal that smells better after it's been dead a couple of days.
I've heard of it. Some of our employees called Pheasant "Road Chicken".
I'm sure they'd last a couple of weeks. Our pen had some water running through it all the time. Our contest lasted exactly one week. Some teams may have stockpiled a few before the start :)
lol. have you ever been sprayed?
I think we'd only need them stored a few days, as I don't think we would need to have that many each - though I can go through a few :)
I've never been sprayed but my brother and a couple of dogs have :) Not a pretty thing.
I think you could keep them a week with ease. They seem pretty hardy.
Good day to you. There's nothing like sharing a good meal with friends, especially when the kids are being taken care of and you have the chance to relax and talk like an adult for the evening. My mom would take our four for a sleepover once in awhile and it was always so much fun. Ourselves and two other couples would take turns on hosting and the food was always amazing, almost a competition, hehe.
Oh and the headache thing? Usually well earned...😋
My wife and I are definitely going to have to get some practice in before our turn. Do you have a specialty dish?
Oh, we are also planning as a local group to do a weekday event, where one family makes a lot of easy to prepare food and everyone joins in for an hour or two. It gives everyone a bit of a rest and keeps us talking :)
Hummm? Specialty dish, oh so many I could recommend, depends on the crowd.
I find a great dish to have , and you can do it ahead of time, a veggie lasagna. Simple to make, usually a crowd pleaser. Then get yourself a nice big wild caught salmon filet, dress it up a little and throw it on the grill, can be baked also...oh so good.
I like the weekday gathering idea, even just for appy's and a nice glass of wine.
Fun to just hang out and chat.
Thanks for stopping in.
One thing that is quite abundant here is salmon, which generally come in from Norway. I was thinking about the lasagna too, but unsure if the veggie one would be a hit with people who eat as much meat as some of my friends :D
Certainly we also feed on sight. This food looks delicious and the table is very well decorated! The food has long since left its exclusive function of feeding us to become a bond. Sitting around the table is an excellent way to relate to others. Unfortunately, daily life makes us mechanize the preparation and consumption of our food, leaving aside "the art", the love, which must exist in the preparation. It's good that you had a great night "among adults", despite that slight headache. Greetings and have a good rest, @tarazkp
I think the food culture in Finland was for survival only as they aren't very social here, but this has been changing in the last ten years.
How was your weekend?
Not as good as yours. Jajajajaja. ;) In Venezuela we are in the radical week and it is expected that in the next week we will start selling gasoline. That has the population in expectation. Some leaders are calling the streets, but it will be dawn and we will see. I hope your headache is over. Greetings and a million thanks, @tarazkp!
Does this mean that there will be some economic easing?
Yeah a good place to meet and discuss issues and just to relax in some friendships.
Our invites have dried up as neither of us drink and people regard it as an insult when one refuses a drink or a beer. But such is life and glad that you guys had a good time amidst all of the daily hassles!
I think it was kind of like that here before, as there was the assumption that people can't have fun unless drunk. I used to drive most of the time, so I rarely drank.
Last night was even better, because they are good people - natural and open.
Well then you know what I mean and it is great to let your hair down in a while especially with all of the stress that you are under.
We are in a way happy that things are this way, as it means more time to do our own thing. Nothing worse than sitting sober in a drunk party lol.
]
Glad that you enjoyed the company as there are enough unnatural and closed people in this world :)
Especially around some drunks. There are those people who are fun and talkative, there are also those who get weird and aggressive.
Oh yeah, in my construction days in small towns, I often went for bar lunches, as they were cheaper and at times delicious.
A little guy would timidly come in and ask for a beer. After the beer a double and after that another double and so on.
What a transformation, as then he suddenly transforms into a very loud lion.
The bartender would phone his house and his missus would arrive indignantly to slap him around and then to take him home :)
Only one of many that I have watched my friend!
Meeting with friends for dinner or to spend a couple of days together is a great way to treat yourself, especially if you are not the one cooking :)
The food was brilliant and I am already nervous about what we will make in 2 years from now :D
Legit looking spread!
Yabbying is quite passive. Bait the net, throw it in, tie the rope to something, walk away, come back later; Got yabbies. I went hunting, in NSW around the Darling River, which is where I got my biggest haul of them. We ended up having to throw them back each night as there were too many for the four of us to eat. Good bush tucker. Not as fancy as yours though.
they are bloody delicious, shame to throw them back. I have never done it, but I remember one school camp up near Cairns where two students caught enough for us all to have our fill - there were 140 of us :D
Definitely a decent spread and you will meet these people when you are next here - probably for a BBQ :)
Yeah, I've been to places where there are so many of the little buggers that one gets tired of eating them. That trip I mentioned before, we ended up cooking them then sautéing them in butter and powdered garlic then adding them into some pasta. Not bad for a meal in the outback 500km away from the nearest town! Lol.
Yeah, happy to have a BBQ with your friends, I'll brush up on my Finnish...I can say hello goodbye already so...Well, that may still be the extent of my linguistic skills at the time. :)
It is funny how even delicacies get tiring. I have always said that I could always eat sushi happily, but I have probably hit that barrier. Steak is the same. everything in moderation.
With these friends, you may have to brush up on your English to keep up :D
Hmm, ok I'll leave my Australian home and roll out my English...Complete with accent and all. I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
Traditions are very nice, they keep people together. The hosts did a great job with the table decoration! I love it!
I am all for good food traditions! :D
Hehe I can understand, everybody loves a good dish. What's your favourite? Does Finland have a national dish, like the kind of food one must really try when going there?
You are correct that the occasion doesn't matter. It's the gathering of family or friends to do anything or just nothing at all but sit and talk with good foods. It's nice you got the chance to relax with friends.
When I was young, my siblings and friends would trek down to the nearby railroad tracks with our short poles, chicken necks, and buckets to catch crawfish. We called them crawdads. They were tiny, and we sometimes had to dig them out of the mud when the water was low, but there were plenty of them to fill our buckets.
Funny, I picked them for the rest of the family. I didn't like crawfish then and still don't to this day. Then we'd pick some strawberries and head home. Those were the good times I remember.
Do you like any types of shellfish, or just don't like crawfish?
The strawberries reminded me of a dish the other night, which was melon and dried meat, dipped into a strawberry and vinegar sauce - it was pretty great :)
I like all except crawfish. Oysters (fried) is my favorite.
For some reason, the strawberries grew right next to the railroad track, so we just took advantage and grabbed some where we were there. My mom would make jam and preserves. I love strawberries to this day. I've never eaten strawberries together with any type of sauce such as vinegar. Sounds interesting though.
We used to have a fish party at the beginning of summer, this looked really nice with the gorgeous table. Is it still allowed to be together with the covid rules in your country? We can only have parties of 4 in total. And you have to be 1,5 meter from eachother
Yes, the restrictions are mostly lifted, although they weren't overly strict anyway. More common sense stuff. In public there are rules of distancing, but again., nothing overly policed.
Yeah a good place to meet and discuss issues and just to relax in some friendships.
Our invites have dried up as neither of us drink and people regard it as an insult when one refuses a drink or a beer. But such is life and glad that you guys had a good time amidst all of the daily hassles!
hey @tarazkp i want know if you have any idea how can i know which have muted me for tag abuse
I you know please let me know soon | thanks
These random weird questions about abuse are annoying :D
Do you mean on communities? What you might want to do is stop abusive behavior ;)
sorry about that
That's a lot of cray. Yay for being able to get out for a night :)