Watch The Code!

Nope - not referring to some movie or Youtube video...
I'm warning all of you living in Finland to be careful when pressing the button at the grocery store when weighing your fruits, veggies or baked goods!
I was in a rush the other day and must have pressed the wrong button when weighing some Karelian pies for my kids (that rye snack topped with rice or potato and butter) because when it was scanned by the cashier - she said something about "koodi" and gave me a very stern and pissy look.
I was smiling like an idiot because my kids had stopped screaming for all of 5 minutes so I could pay for the groceries and I'm sure that looked like "GUILTY AS HECK".
She scuttled off and came back a couple minutes later with the proper code and price tag stuck on my brown paper bag...there was a difference of 20-odd cents.
I didn't even apologize because I had no idea what was going on - and was hopping from one foot to the other hoping she'd hurry up before my kids realized it was lunch time and they should be screaming as loud as possible for their food....again - looking antsy and guilty...and like a foreigner.  Go me...

I paid and left and when I told my friend this story - she warned ME!
My friend read in the local paper that some guy pushed the wrong button or didn't weigh his avocados properly and the Police got involved....and he was fined a ticket of 160 EUROS!!!
So be warned of what button you press - take that extra second to double-check...or you might end up with a VERY expensive grocery bill!

The Asian Food Store

Oh wow! I'm so excited!

As previously mentioned, my husband Tim, is gone to England for 3 days or so....with the luck he's been having to get there - I can only imagine how long it'll take to get back...(it's been bad luck by the way).
Anyways!  My friend Katri has graciously offered to help me with walking the dogs and V�in� - and I'd probably be hanging off the ceiling had it not been for her help!

Today we opted to go shopping - since it was so hot in my flat and outside - we figured air-conditioned stores were the way to go.
She had mentioned to me that there was an Asian grocery store in one of the K-City Markets.  I had never heard of this before.  And it turns out I've been near this Asian Food Store before!
It's in Sepp�l� (hope I spelled it right) - so it's quite a drive away from my flat - but there are buses...I just need to know which one to take.  (Considering the amount of stuff I bought - I probably shouldn't learn what the bus route is!)

I found:

• Garlic and Black bean sauce
• Small bok-choy (like a leafy lettuce - since K Market didn't have any regular bok-choy)
• Pockey!  Only chocolate and strawberry dipped (but I didn't buy any).
• Rice crackers flavoured with seaweed
• Hoisin sauce
• BBQ pork marinade powder
• Some frozen dim sum
• BBQ Pork steam buns
• Dumplings (But not the wrappers to make my own - that made me kind of sad)
• Pickled radish  (I think this is the right stuff - I'll know once I open it)
• Chinese sausage
• Shrimp chips (shaped like French fries...so good...)
• Shrimp chips/crackers (often eaten with Peking duck I believe)

I think that's everything................hmm.  Anyways, I spent far too much money....my husband will probably have a fit.

However, I figured if I go there once every 2-6 months (the later the more preferred I think by Tim) - it works out to be �ber cheap per month! :-)

It was pretty well stocked - no empty shelves, lots of options in the freezers and fridge....lots of beverage and sauce options...I was impressed!

**Sorry, no photos available as the husband has my camera...remember?**

Blueberries make your fingers go purple...

So Tim came home early from school today (he also went in early) and we decided to go hiking in the woods behind our building. It was sunny and cool and just warm enough that I didn't need a sweater.
I wish I brought my camera! There's still a lot of greenery - considering our leaves are already turning color...and the dogs looked so ecstatic when Tim found a "blueberry patch". I put " " around blueberry patch because it really should be called a "Blueberry Forest". The patches were huge and everywheres! I normally have a hard time finding blueberries because they're usually here and there and wayyyyyyyyy over yonder...but nope. I stayed in one spot for about 5 full minutes - collecting berries.
I will be uploading photos on Facebook shortly - and yes your eyes are correct. All I had with me were a couple clean and empty doggy bags - so I filled one half way (about 2 cups) with the wild berries we found. I think I could spend all day there picking and there would still be plenty to go around. I don't think many people go as far into the woods as we did - there were so many berries. And about 99% of them were in great condition! Even the ones that had landed on the earthy grounds were in great shape.
Blue's paw has a purple stain on it - from running through the patches and both him and Loki got excited to find something they could eat (and not get in trouble for - like grass or poo...the second being very rare but still) that they would just munch on different parts of the patches and hope there was a berry or two attached. Once they realized that Tim and I were actually picking them - they'd sneak up on us and sniff the patch, waiting for the fingers to grab the berry and SLURRRP! The berry was gone. Very clever dogs.

We also tried a dessert with blueberry and a custard sort of filling too. It's not too bad. I've noticed that some of the packaged baked goods has black specks in it - possibly saffron? Either way - it's yumm-o.

Marinated meat seems to be a normal trend (doesn't seem like you pay an arm and a leg for extra marinade - unlike Canada...you're expecting to pay atleast another 2-3$ if not more), chicken is very cheap (wings or other pieces), along with pork. Steak doesn't seem to be very common here ...mind you I haven't really looked in the big grocery store - that was a quick run-around while we had someone driving us. However mixed beef and pork chunks for stew is very common along with the ground mixture...I recall Heidi Klum making her "famous German Balls" on Ellen DeGeneres - and she used a mix of ground pork and beef...maybe a European thing.

PS They don't call it "Finland" here...it's "Suomi"....weird eh? Something written in English will say "made in Finland" for example...but on our new dictionary - it has "Suomi" instead.