Check out the new goodies I got from the land of the Finns! J went there last week to visit his parents. I was unfortunately unable to join him because of work, but he and his parents were sweet enough to send some stuff back for me.
Here’s Muumi showing off some of my haul. The wider can is muikku (the little fishies we ate during the summer) in tomato sauce and the smaller can is poropaté (reindeer paté). Both of them are made by the company Kylmänen, and the cans proclaim “Official Supplier of Santa Claus – Founding Member of Santa Claus Foundation”. Well if Santa eats this stuff, then it must be good! 
I can’t wait to try them, but I have to do some research to figure out what to serve the paté with.
There was also this gorgeous bottle of cloudberry sauce, made with organic cloudberries and no preservatives. I hope you can see it from the picture– the glass bottle has a reindeer molded into it. This sauce would be amazing the next time we make sweet pancakes, and I know we’ll keep the bottle long after the sauce is gone.
Look, Muumi has some candy to indulge in too! Three different types of Fisherman’s Friend, which is unfortunately not available in Estonia, and some Tyrkysk Peber gum in Frozen Eucalyptus flavor. I must admit that I am not a huge fan of Fisherman’s as a candy, but I will drink the booze produced by dissolving the candy in vodka. However, last week I had a persistent dry cough that grew worse at night and kept me awake. I was desperate to sleep and had no cough medicine in the house, but I remembered that I had a pack of Fisherman’s stowed away. What the hell, I thought, it’s worth a shot. I suffered through the taste of two pastilles, and you know what? No more coughing for the rest of the night. Those things WORK. While they are far from my favorite candy, I now realize that those bad boys will help my throat get through the winter.
Other items in the stash, though not pictured, are a bag of frozen reindeer meat (it’s my turn to try cooking something with it!) and some deli-type reindeer meat slices, which will be awesome as part of a leisurely weekend breakfast. Ah, sweet, delicious reindeer…
(In the next post, I’ll tell about what goodies I sent to Finland to deserve these gifts!)
