Extempore Weekend Cottage Getaway

Last Friday a good friend of mine was here in the city with having some time off his studies. Last time I saw him was in Tampere on my bicycle tour several weeks ago, so it was good to chat and get updated on things.

He and his father were planning to head to their summer cottage, and having not yet visited it myself for some reason, I decided that hell, I should tag along – not sure when there's going to be another chance with our lives filled with changing factors nowadays as young "adults".

We arrived late at night and hit up the candles and fire into the hearthstone for some warmth.

This baking oven will soon get some usage...

There's no running electricity, so evening/night will be spent in candlelight and headlamp when roaming outside.

We arrived late, but it's never too late for some barbeque; champignons and chicken. The chicken was damn good by the way, I think it was tenderloin.

...and just a tiny nightcap. This bottle had been unopened for months, and my friend's dad decided to uncork it.

The next day we started preparing our meal of the day, and what else would be a better dish to simmer in a baking oven than Karelian stew! Meat cubes, onion, carrot and our own twist, sweet potato. And of course, potatoes on the side.

Then just some salt, pepper and water, and it's ready for oven.

Using the baking oven is quite simple even though it doesn't have any modern flexible attributes; just put a fire inside, keep feeding it wood for an hour or two.

The bricks surrounding the oven will get charged with warmth and the oven will keep warm for hours.

When it's been heated long enough, the embers are taken out and the stew is put into the oven.

Let simmer as long as you like, the longer, the better.

Meanwhile, me and my friend decided to check the woods for some mushrooms, because there's some really good shrooming grounds nearby where they have picked dozens of liters of funnel chanterelles, and those were exactly what we were after too.

Let the hunt begin.
^{Heh, I really like this hat that my friend borrowed to me.}

Look what we found!

Some really damn good funnel chanterelles!

We had to get back before we would've found more of these; "Hey, there's more! Fuck, we're already full. But we just cannot leave the shrooms! But were full, but, but... NOOOOOOOOO!"

Of course, there's no Finnish cottage without a sauna bath in candle light.

Finally, after having the Karelian stew simmered for 6 hours in the oven, we took it and ate the whole thing! Even though we were three hungry men, it was more than enough for us.

Heh, funny, we accidentally boiled our potatoes into smashed potatoes – they were floury type, and peeling them before boiling cause them to become mushy, but it kinda worked because it nicely sucked all the broth of the stew.

Utilizing the left-over heat still in the oven, we heated it for a moment, and put a rice porridge to get prepared in the oven over the night to eat first thing in the morning.

Can't get any more well done than that.

Luckily we had a sunny Sunday so we were able to wash the dishes outside with ease.

Getting back home, me and my friend divided our mushroom catch 50/50 and now I got plenty of mushrooms to prepare into several dishes! We even found few yellow chanterelles right on the cottage plot.

I really like spontaneous trips like this.