Necrophenia and Cheesecake.

Are two things that i have been spending the last couple of days occupied with. And what a lovely pastime they make for those lazy days following Christmas. Before dubious images of what that may entail fill your mind, i’ll elaborate that Necrophenia (for those of you who have yet to be acquainted with it) is in actual fact a book written by one Robert Rankin, and cheesecake is actually something i baked for Christmas dessert.

In terms of goodness, the two are far from evenly matched. It seems now that i’ve gotten halfway through both (getting through the cheesecake has proved far easier, not to mention more enjoyable) i can justifiably conclude that the book (which features a rock band, Aleister Crowley, the summer of love, an army of zombies and the end of the world) cannot surpass the cheesecake (which features fresh mint, after eight chocolate filling and lemony raspberry-mint sorbet).

I think this is probably because of Rankin’s style of writing, which I find arch to the point of being supremely irritating, and the fact that halfway through the book, I remain oblivious to any kind of masterful plot it might contain. My disregard or lack of understanding for said book has nothing to do with the sugar high-induced attention deficit state in which I’ve so far been reading it.

I originally picked up the book because someone compared Rankin to Gaiman, who is the author of one of my all-time favourite books (that, and the fact that it had a neat skull design on the cover), which in itself sets the standard rather high. Yet to be impressed by Necrophenia, I think I’ll plough through till the end and hope it gets better.

This cheesecake, on the other hand, is pretty good. It’s a spin on the classic baked, cream cheese version, with melted after eight chocolates and fresh mint thrown in the mix for some extra minty goodness. Unfortunately this isn't a vegan version, but you can easily substitute the egg with an egg replacer and use vegan mint chocolate instead. I tend to stray from recipes when i bake, which is why the amounts are approximations, and i encourage you to adjust them as you go along, if need be. As the cake is quite rich, it's complemented nicely by a zesty raspberry sorbet, which is super easy to make. This cake will happily feed six greedy eaters, or eight normal ones. 

After Eight Cheesecake 

For the base

• about 200g (half a pack) of digestive biscuits
• handful of rice krispies (optional, but they add a nice crunch)
• 3 tablespoons of margarine

For the filling

• about 600g of vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand is pretty good)
• 3 organic eggs (or your choice of egg substitute)
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• about 200-250g of after eight chocolates (depending on how much mint chocolate you fancy)
• about 1dl of sugar (give or take, as much as you feel is needed)
• chopped fresh mint (a handful, or as much as you like)

Crush digestives, add rice krispies and melted margarine. Line your cake tin (ideally 23cm in diameter) with the mix and pop into a 180 degree oven for ten minutes.

Whisk together cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs one by one, whisking only until consistency is smooth. Throw in chopped mint. 

Melt most of the after eights in a water bath, adding a little water and the vanilla sugar. Chop remaining after eights into chunks. 

Mix melted after eights, chocolate chunks and whisked cream cheese together. 

Pour into cake tin, and place onto lowest level of oven. Place a dish of hot water underneath the cake tin to achieve best cheesecake baking results.

Bake at 165 degrees for about an hour and ten minutes. 

Raspberry-Mint Sorbet

• Raspberries (frozen work well for this)
• Juice of half a lemon
• Chopped fresh mint

Throw all ingredients in a food processor. Add lemon/lime/sugar to taste. When pleased with result, put mix into a freezer proof container and leave in the freezer until it has set, but isn't fully frozen. Use an ice cream scoop to serve sorbet with cheesecake. 

Enjoy. I recommend enjoying a slice (or seven) with a really good book.

Yuletide mischief.

Well i'll say. The run-up to Christmas has been hectic. i'm only now realizing that the day itself is, in fact, tomorrow. While the fact that Christmas has managed to sneak up on me is in part probably due to natural light being practically absent and days being disconcertingly short, it's also due to the fact that i've been too busy to sit around counting down the days like i used to, back in the day.


Instead i've occupied my time with a precariously balanced marriage of work and play. Going to work in the sleepy darkness of the morning and emerging therefrom at an equally dark hour seems to have wreaked havoc with any sort of natural body clock i might have once had. I find myself frequently at bars and other after-dark establishments until the wee hours of the morning, celebrating someone's birthday, little christmas, or simply the fact that it happens to be a Tuesday (which is a perfectly acceptable reason to celebrate). While this is all fun and games, the daily toiling, nocturnal frolicking and averaging of four hours of shuteye per night has finally caught up with me; i've managed to catch a vicious cold that has rendered me speechless, grumpy and achy. Which means i'll probably be spending Christmas in bed with some Finrexin and a pen and paper as my only means of communication. Which probably serves me right. Oh well, at least i had a good run. And some pics to document it. 

I've written before about the curative properties of various types of chilled, blended fruit beverages. Here's a christmas version i had one morning. I threw in frozen blueberries, cranberry juice, glogi, ice, ground flaxseed and goji berries. And it brought me back to life, it did. 

One happy night at Kuudes linja, where a couple of kids decided to dance on tables outside in temperature that was well below freezing. Altogether a great idea and a brilliant night.

 

One is never too old to believe in Santa Claus. Or receive a Cthulhu stuffed toy from said geriatric, while he downs drink after drink and makes lewd jokes. Which is what happened at this particular gift-swapping shindig. But hell, that little green, winged, octopus creature is the shit. Not many can say the go to bed every night with The Great Old One.

A day trip to wintery Tallinn, featuring my mother, sister, cousin and two aunts. Our expedition enjoyed some hardcore snowfall, delicious food and copious amounts of mulled wine to warm the soul. I never knew how much fun day trips with the extended family can be. This is going to have to become an annual tradition. 

I haven't managed to break the habit of buying presents for myself yet, and i figured a small bottle of perfume could be a personal Christmas present. I'll put it under the tree with a little gift tag reading "For Nina. Love, Nina". I love this perfume though, it' all old school glamour with powdery, rosy nuances in the mix. Also love the scarf the perfume is pictured on, which was a birthday present from a certain lovely lady. In addition to the perfume, I also bought 24 bottles of Crowmoor cider, but i figured putting a pic of the perfume might be a little more classy. And wont serve to advocate a careless lifestyle centered on late nights and whimsical fancies in the run-up to Christmas. 

Now if i could only heed my own words.   

Older and Beardier.

To the great misfortune of a large proportion of my friends, i'm rather fond of theme parties, and i like throwing them whenever a suitable occasion arises. And there's really no occasion that more calls for one than a birthday. So to commemorate my 24th birthday, i thought i'd pop the facial-hair-theme-party cherry.

The idea for the party came up as a joke during a night out, but after giving it some serious thought i figured this would be an ideal opportunity to make like a bearded lady for a night. Guests were invited to arrive sporting a choice of facial hair - anything from unibrows to eyelash beards*. As long as the thing sported some follicular quality and was situated on the face, it qualified. And i'll say, the caliber and range of some two dozen facial fuzz fiends was impressive (not to mention hilarious). Also, it kinda made a mockery of the whole aging another year thing, what with those in attendance reverting to a bunch of giggling teenagers with glue-on hair in strange places.

Party food included bearded peanut butter-chocolate and coconut-lime cupcakes (green cotton candy makes for some super beard), rocket-topped retro mini pizzas, and these great swirly, stuffed pastries, the recipe for which i nicked from my friend Tuomas (also pictured above, proudly displaying his mustache collection like a frigging graduation certificate). Some time after midnight we ventured to Loose, and the fact that everyone else had de-bearded escaped me, so i spent the rest of the night being complemented and stared at distastefully in equal amounts by the folks at the bar. All in all, the positive attention an overgrown, stringy tuft of chin hair can get a girl is rather surprising. Like vanilla cigars and excessive rowdiness, this could become a birthday tradition.

* We imagined the eyelash beard. We debated on what it would look like. None of us ever got to see it. But i'm not giving up on it, i think it could work. When i see it i'll post a pic.

Happy Bearded Birthday.

And so it was that yet another year had passed, and December 11th was once again upon her. Happy friggin' birthday, me.
Now, some folks take this opportunity to dwell on the rapid decline of youth's heyday, and others get hit by serious angst about all manner of things they have yet to achieve in the process. My personal preference this year involves neither course of action. Instead, i'll face this annual aging party head on. Bring it, 24. I'll take you on with a Facial Hair theme-party (an account of which will surely follow), armed with champagne and bearded cupcakes . 
And these lil presents (that i may or may not have bought for myself).

A book, or four. Grimm's Fairy Tales. I've been wanting to get an edition of the original tales for a long while now; these are the hardcore, hardly happily-ever-after versions, not that sugar-coated Disney rubbish. Why eat gingerbread when you can eat children?


The Greatest Show On Earth is rather simply and conclusively subtitled "The Evidence For Evolution". Go on Dick, tell 'em.


I feel like some quality time with the daddy of Gonzo is long overdue, so i'll save Kingdom of Fear for the Christmas holidays.


On Monsters is "An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears". I was drawn to the cover before i even knew what the book was about, and so i was even more chuffed when i scanned the contents: Ancient, medieval, scientific, psychological, contemporary and futuristic - this book covers the whole monstrous spectrum. Especially looking forward to reading about mischievous taxidermists, monstrous births, freaks and creeping flesh, all of which have a section devoted to them.

Then i came across this dress while buying a scarf at Cybershop in Kamppi. At 34 euros, it really was a steal, and very little persuasion was required to convince me of its loveliness. i really like the cut, and the little bow is quite adorable. Also, it'll look rather fetching coupled with a beard. 

Sleep overs. Because you're never too old for one.

So it's probably been almost a decade since i've last attended a real sleep over. Drunkenly passing out on a friend's couch with a bunch of equally hammered partygoers in the wee hours of the morning does not count. A real sleep over is about pajamas, sleeping bags, late night gossip, good friends and crap movies. 
Yuck. If this sounds like something vomit-inducing out of a Sweet Valley High novel, i'll tell you it don't have to be that way. The list of sleep over activities is not restricted to playing with ponies and brushing each other's hair. Four girls had a sleep over last Friday, featuring gluttony, excrement and intoxicants. Here's how it came to happen:

• We made some seriously good food. Couldn't decide between sushi and tapas, so we had both. Works out nicely when everyone brings something, and we ended up having way more than we could manage to eat. Finger food, aside from being seriously moreish, is also ideal for snacking on through the night. All night. And in the morning. Nothing like garlic chili mushrooms and a stiff hit of wasabi for breakfast.
• We watched a crap scary movie. Yeah...getting freaked out by a cam corder view of things that go bump in the night in a suburban bedroom only works for the first fifteen minutes. Yours truly fell asleep halfway through Paranormal Activity. Not so good.
• Had mint chocolate chip brownies, Ben&Jerry's cookie dough ice cream, and marshmallow-topped hot chocolate (with a generous splash of minttuviina) for dessert. I feel like the sugar high was always the highlight of parties when you were a kid. And hey, it's good to know it still does the trick a decade later.
• Brought along a boston terrier puppy with an acute case of flatulence. At first it was inappropriately entertaining, then it got practically unbearable (what the hell do these puppies eat - that smell is lethal!), after which the desperate nocturnal swoops to rescue the white carpet from being soiled by liquid feces became just a little too funny and surreal to deal with. 

After all aforementioned pastimes, we were happy to call it a night at around five in the morning, when half of us were snoring and the other two were half-heartedly watching the SATC movie with little success.

When we finally woke up in the afternoon, bleary-eyed after varying amounts of sleep and dog turds, we were all in agreement that we should make a habit of this. There's something special about over indulgence, sleeping on an air mattress and sharing a sleeping bag with a friend and their dog (who, i was told, attempted to attack me while i was sleeping). Something that makes you wonder why people don't do this more often.

'Tis the season of Christmas shopping.

It's gotta be done at some point, and each year the prospect of entering department stores crawling with super stressed-out businesspeople (who rely 100% on the generic gift-wrapping service, cause it takes like, at least three minutes to wrap that gift for your kid), industrious mothers who are on a marathon shopping trip (and are carrying twice their weight in shopping bags) and the scary Burberry-clad grannies with sharpened elbows (which are ideal weapons for swiftly dispersing of crowds - or people ahead of them in the line) seems less and less enchanting. 

So i thought i'd make a start this year by going to one of my favorite places for xmas shopping - the TOKYO xmas sale. Hosted by the students of TaiK (University of Art and Design Helsinki), the pre-xmas market features all sorts of art and design from underwear to baked goods. It's a great place to find something a little more unique, and a great way of supporting up-and-coming Finnish talent. 

Flipping the bird at Christmas. A welcome take on the traditional xmas card.

 

I spotted this underwear at the market last year, and since then i've been wanting a pair of these briefs. What a brilliant idea. The undies, like the accompanying baked goods, are the handiwork of artistic duo Tärähtäneet ämmät, and were among the coolest items i spotted at the sale. 

What i ended up buying was a beautiful set of 36 Ex Libris stickers featuring what looks like bird fetuses in glass balls, with a third ball for you to write your name in. Definitely too adorably sinister to pass. With only three dozen stickers, only my nicest books will get one. Gives me good reason to go back next year, though!

I bought something else, too. My first official investment in art. Two girls in dresses, barefoot, having tea and cupcakes with Venetian masks on. There's something really enchanting about the seeming normalcy of their tea party that i was drawn to. And with echoes of Roman Dirge, Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland, i was happy to spend my remaining 35 euros on this. All i need to do now is frame it, hang it up, and admire at leisure. 

As a kickoff to Christmas shopping mayhem, the TOKYO sale was great. On the downside (or the upside) my gift foraging was kind of self-centered. But alas, fear not, i tell myself, because our fair city plays host to several other seasonal shopping sales: this weekend one can browse the traditional christmas gift selection at the 78th annual Naisten Joulumessut (Women's Christmas Fair), or jazz up the season by purchasing a fascinator and nipple tassels from the Burlesque/Rock'n'Roll/Vintage themed Ofelia Market. My plan is to attend both, and strictly refrain from buying myself anything. We'll see how that goes.

Naisten Joulumessut 2-6.12.2009, Wanha Satama, Pikku Satamakatu 3-5, Helsinki

Ofelia Market 5-6.12.2009, Kulttuuriareena Glora, Pikku Roobertinkatu 12, Helsinki