Heavier taxation on sweets

The Finnish Finance Ministry has made a proposition on an additional tax on candy and sweets, sweetened soft drinks, chocolates and products containing cocoa taking effect by beginning of next year.

The proposition is based on the risen consumption of confectionery, obesity and deteriorating dental health becoming more common amongst the young during the past ten years and a similar tax was actually already in force in Finland between the years of 1926 and 1999.

This additional tax on sugar is estimated to bring in about 120 million more euros a year to the state budget, and also hopefully leading to decreased consumption of confectionery with it resulting in long term savings in dental and health care.

What I wonder here is, why only these items? Why not tax all un-healthy foods more? The higher consumption of junk-food must also have deteriorating effects on the health amongst the population. And why not lower the taxation of healthy foods?

Anyway, today is the car free day for the 11th time in Finland, a day people are encouraged to leave their car at home and use the public transports, go by bike or walk instead. According to what I’ve heard, today, in the city of Jyväskylä 3000 free bus tickets are handed out, and public bus fares are available at a reduced price in the capital region . This in order to encourage better health and exercise routines, as well as being more friendly to the environment.

Buy nothing day

To day is the "Buy Nothing" Day and the intention is to discourage people from shopping and to live without spending money, if only for this one day.

Well I fortunately did my weekend shopping already yesterday, so at least I am game for it even if unintentionally.
But the idea is good; we buy too much unnecessary things without even thinking about it.

Anyway, now Finland's largest retail fashion chains have confessed to having been selling textiles produced with Uzbek child labour, with out knowing about it of course, and the S-Group might even take some of the products off their shelves.

All textile companies are now trying to determine how much of their textiles might be originating from Uzbekistan as the Finnish retail chains wants to trade fair in all lines in the manufacturing of their products.
The cartoon Cow & chicken has been my favourite for long, but seeing it in reality is putting me off meat once again as it already did some 15 years ago, when I turned vegetarian for over a decade and am strongly considering of doing it again after having seen what I saw on the TV last night.

The Finnish welfare organisation Oikeutta eläimille, which would be "Justice for Animals" in English, provided the A-studio TV program with footage of animals cramped together in extremely bad conditions. The footage showed dirty facilities full with sick and injured, suffering animals. As the footage was shown without reference to where it takes place now Evira, the Finnish Food Safety Authority, wants to thoroughly investigate the truth in these claims and the organisation has been asked to give the addresses so the veterinary authorities can inspect the farms in question. The animal cruelty allegations hit the news big yesterday and they were even discussed in the Parliament, but I think that is fair as if we are to keep animals for food and to eat them, then they have to be respected for what they are and not kept in poor conditions in order to make a quick profit.

Unfortunately as our lives have become so urbanised most of us today are not even conscious of where the food comes from, how it is produces or how it appears on to the shelves in the supermarkets where we buy it to carry home in order to cook it and eat it. Milk comes from cartons and meat wrapped in cling-foil.

Piece of cake, or should I say peace of mind?

Red nose

Comic relief, red nose day campaign, originally created in 1988 in the UK, was now on Friday held for the first time in Finland.

1, 6 million euros were gathered for charity in the work against child labour. The other of the national TV stations Yle broadcasted 6 hours of special red nose program issues for the charity campaign during the night in order to collect money.

The idea has been to buy you a red nose and do something funny you have always dreamed of doing with the idea of doing something fun for charity. I wonder if Rudolf the red nosed reindeer joined the fun.

And I just got mine absolutely free, the offspring has cursed me with the flu and nobody has bothered to make me any soup. Thank God I had some ready salmon soup in the freezer to heat up !

Helping out

A strange thing I have noticed here in Finland is that sometimes when you are asked to help you are out of some peculiar reason meant to ask when it is convenient for the help you have promised to give. Like for instance when a friend needed help with help with babysitting a toddler with chicken-pox in the early feverish stage just to run a couple of errands on her own like the pharmacists and so on. She never managed to ask me when it was convenient for me to baby-sit, or whether I could baby-sit at a certain time she wanted to go out. In the end she got angry with me as I did not understand that I was expected to have an opinion when she wanted my favour so in the end she told me off by phone in not a very nice way.

How was I supposed to know what she wanted without her either telling or asking me? It’s like when moving your friends don’t arrive to help you with carrying your furniture until the next day when you’re packed gone and unpacked in the new place.

The weather was supposed to be raining all day with intermittent rain showers and as thus the day was completely wrongly planned as most part of this lovely sunny day has been spent indoors cooking after a short shopping trip down to the market when the rain was pouring down earlier this morning.

After a lot of peeling of carrots, beetroots and onions a great deal of chopping were made on the peeled carrots, beetroots, onions and cabbage for the annual bortsch soup. It has now been simmering on the stove in a large saucepan for hours to obtain the right taste. Bortsch soup has one advantage before many other soups, it gets just better for every time you heat it up and most part of it goes in the freezer to be savoured on cold winter nights together with some soured cream. I also managed to get a medium sized pumpkin as pumpkins tend to come in an oversized format, too big for me to handle on my own. So some pumpkin has also been simmering on heat for the traditional pumpkin pie and a very nice pumpkin pickle I learned to know here in Finland and have become very fond of.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day so the plan is to go mushroom picking but as the weather turned out to be this nice today I wonder if the weather Gods will be gracious enough to let us go out in the woods without getting wet all through.

Creamy stuff

The government budget talks have now agreed upon a cutback on the VAT on food in October 2009 with 5 % of the current rate of today’s 17 %.

I really wonder if that makes any difference to the consumer retail prices anyway, the shops and supermarkets tend to hike the prices up before such changes in order to be able to afford the prices going down with the tax reduction. Another thing that recently has been up for discussion is the origin of food, what it contains and where it comes from as many producers just refine what they have bought elsewhere and mostly not even locally or nationally.

Just recently one of the Finnish dairy manufacturers had to withdraw one type of food cream, which is a cream with lower percentage of fat than average cream, from the supermarkets. This cream in question was not even real cream made out of cow’s milk but instead a concoction made of vegetal fats with preservatives and other additives making it cream-like and said to be healthier than ordinary cream as it contains more vegetable oil, thus also containing more unsaturated and healthier fatty acids.

The reason for the manufacturer being obliged to withdraw the creamy stuff was that the guar gum used as emulsifier in the product was discovered containing too high levels of dioxin and according to the cream manufacturer the dioxin containing guar gum in question originating from abroad as it does of course not grow in Finland. Even when food is made organically, grown locally here in Finland, how do you know it is not grown next to the most trafficked roads in the country, right in the middle of a big city or next to a chemical plant? Even though the food is grown without fertilizers and pesticides, according to my logic it is not organically grown with nearby sources of pollution.

Where does our food come from originally?
How healthy is it ?
Anyway, it snowed yesterday in the most northern parts of Finland and snow is quite rare this early in the year and up in the north people woke up with 5 cms of snow that had fallen during the nightIt is currently colder than it usually is in the rest of the country as well and the fall is well on its way. Funny you always look for the migrating birds to arrive in the spring and especially for the swallows to return to Finland, but you hardly ever see them leave, they just disappear every fall over night like they have done it one more time. Of course you see the other migrating birds flying to the south for the winter in long rows, singing as they leave.

Going off

One thing I have been wondering about is that everything and anything is marinated in the supermarkets here in Finland.

When walking through a supermarket there are chopped, sliced whole or diced chicken, fish mostly salmon, meat chopped, sliced whole or diced and chopped, sliced whole or diced poultry and they all come in several different marinades and packed ready to just fry in a pan.

Then there are the unseasoned ones, the same fish, beef, pork, chicken and turkey but without any spices that is more expensive than the marinated ones. And what do they put into the marinade that makes them less expensive than the plain, unseasoned meats? Or has the plain meat after the best before date has run out been re-packed and shoved into a spicy sauce to conceal it not being as fresh as before?

And what is in the marinades anyway as there are plenty to choose between the tangerine, garlic, herbs and barbeque ones only to mention some for each of your chopped, sliced whole or diced variety of chicken, turkey, pork and beef?

This is said to be a development during the past few years as people have less time for cooking, well how hard can it be to season it in your own way and being sure of its’ freshness and how it tastes without the spices to cover it if being slightly off?

Anyway, the strangest things begin to happen with people when they fall in love, their personality alters and the younger the person is, and the unsure of themselves the persons are, the more they try to match their partners, their boyfriends and girlfriends. And as you begin to date and go steady, you want to see the other half as much as possible and the time is limited if you are going to different schools and do not share a hobby.

Now the latest turmoil in our home had been discussions about all of a sudden quitting about a hobby that has been around since early childhood, which during the years has become a way of living, and it would be hard to be without it as much of the excessive energy is used that way, and I think it would be the wrong thing to do right now.

Even sadder is that the offspring has good chances of becoming a professional in it, if not even real world class champion but surely to live of, and many others would give their right arm for being as good as that. Well maybe not, they would not be able to without the arm but you get my drift, so now we are trying to talk calmly about thing and explain that too much time together might even be bad for the relationship as you have to be an individual, to know who you are yourself, before you can be joined and one with somebody else.

At least that is what I have learned from life. Maybe it is some kind of marinade this love thing too, you just don’t see it yourself while being in the middle of it and too much company might also sadly enough make relationships go of prematurely.

Coleslaw?

My “favourite” morning TV programme, Ruokala, “The Diner” is now back from its’ summer break and yesterday morning they began their cooking with bold new twists and turns in international cooking. I guess their ambition to make people here in Finland experiment with their cooking trying out new things.

It is a nice try but it just remains that, a nice try, as the outcome is not what they advertise using the names of their dishes or is this just a poor attempt to "Finnocise" food?!? (That would mean to make food more Finnish)

Well, coleslaw may not be a trademark and I have seen recipes with thinly shredded fennel in it, as I have seen apples julienne in it but the basics have always remained the same; finely shredded cabbage with thinly sliced onion and carrots Julienne with a mayonnaise sauce seasoned with salt and perhaps coarsely ground black pepper. And the choice between red or white cabbage is not a major one as they taste about the same, just differ in colour.

On morning TV they made a coleslaw with shredded cabbage, carrot, thinly sliced apple, thinly sliced red sweet peppers, parsley, leaving out the thinly sliced onions, seasoning it with salt and left it to season for a while, preferably for a couple of hours with some fresh lemon juice. Then after a while a sauce is to be made to go it out of mayonnaise and soured cream to make the sauce a bit lighter with a dash of Tabasco for added flavour.

It is like making a sauce beetroot soup but leaving out the beets and using peas instead, you get something completely else. Why call it coleslaw as they did not make coleslaw, they made something that remotely reminds of coleslaw.

Or making a Béarnaise sauce adding some Stilton cheese to it. Which might not be a bad idea, the taste might be magnificent or extraordinary but it would not be sauce Béarnaise anymore.

TV diet

I was surprised to find out that there were about 2000 cases of malaria during the years 1941-1945 in Finland during the II world war when the summers were extremely warm. Most of the malaria cases appeared on the Carelian peninsula which then was a part of Finland. Wow, with the summer heating up more and more every year we might be getting malaria back, together with other so far unusual diseases here in the Nordic countries.

Strange how many ads on the TV are for either something edible or potable which makes it hard to try to diet. Have you ever been on a diet and all the ads seem to be just what you are craving badly in that instant?!? Junk food, ice-cream, sweets and candy, frozen pizzas ready to heat up in the microwave, crisps, cookies, cider and beer, crisps…and it just goes on and on until you just give in and empty the fridge of all its’ content. Or completely surrender to your cravings by you getting into your car to drive to the nearest drive-thru to eat loads of junk food. Watching TV is no good when on a diet! I better get on with fixing breakfast now, before it is too late and I am off in my car.

Salmiakki-chocolate

The pre-shows of the semi-finals with audience of the Eurovision were held yesterday and the real semi-finals will be held between 28 countries competing to get to the finals on to be held on Saturday.

As always you never can tell who will win, it had always been impossible to predict the winner. But I can understand that Lordi won last year, they were the only ones with their clothes on and doing “Kiss”, disguising themselves to keep their privacy. Which I think is brilliant!

Well this year, according to the glimpses I have seen of the contestants, a lot of them are wearing clothes but I guess the most different and standing out number is the Ukrainian one. Maybe they will win?

The Finnish entrant is played too much on the radio and TV commercials so I am getting pretty bored with it, I am sorry to say. And talking about music, first Robbie Williams did his “Bee-Gees” and now Justin Timberlake is also sounding as he has got his b*lls in a vice. Just wonder why?!? Both have got real nice voices, why howl?

And now to something completely different; in the last two years or so various strange concoctions with chocolate apart from fruit and nuts have appeared in the supermarkets here in Finland.

There is one variety of chocolate with the mint-chocolate candies called “Marianne” crushed in it, and you can now also get McFlurry at McDonalds with Marianne crushed in it. Then there came the chocolate with Daim, or Dime as it sometimes is spelled in some countries, crushed in it and you could also get a McFlurry with it crushed in it. I am not sure if this still applies, about the McFlurry I mean.

I guess almost everybody knows what liquorice is but maybe you are not familiar with Salmiakki if you have not visited the Nordic countries and tasted it.

I am not sure how to explain it to you but I guess salty liquorice is the closest I can get describing how it tastes. So now they mixed Salmiakki with chocolate. I have not yet tasted it, have not dared to but my off-spring has, the one who has been experimenting with what goes in porridge in the morning, even though my kitchen has been left in peace from porridge cooking for a while. Anyway, the whole chocolate bars was eaten but not with pleasure and the comments were not favourable for it so I guess it must have been more the off-spring’s sweet-tooth that was aching.

That there are more than one ice-cream with Salmiakki and it is not as bad a combination I think, as long as the ice-cream is not too sweet. I kind of like it, but tasting this Salmiakki chocolate needs to be considered carefully. Hey, I’ve tasted stranger things than that and the Vodka spiced with Salmiakki is not bad at all! Actually it is dangerous stuff as you loose count of how much you drink as it does not taste Vodka at all.

And as it nowadays is completely okay for celebrities to publicly confess certain forms of addictions in the tabloids such as being a chocoholic for instance I am sure there must be Salmiakkiholics too!

Who will be the first celebrity to confess to this addiction?

Or has someone already done that ?

No more soup, please!

There has been a boom for six years in the consumption of champagne and sparkling wine in Finland and 50% of the bubbly wine sold in is actually sold for Vappu, not for New Year’s Eve as you might have thought.

Imagine 1 million bottles bubbly wine sold!

With the ever growing demand for sparkling wine the Finnish manufacturers of berry wines try to match the thirsty Finns, to give them a Finnish alternative of bubbles.

Today the worker’s rallies celebrating Labour Day are sure to be quieter than the student’s carnevals held yesterday were. The celebrations yesterday began already early morning with various activities in different cities. Statues were traditionally capped with their white hats earlier in the night and the new students received their white hats at midnight.

In Helsinki about 20.000 people gathered yesterday to celebrate Vappu in the city and the police inform that this was just an ordinary Vappu celebration but this might have had something to do with the cold weather.

Well, I am still stuck in the soup kitchen hoping for quick recoveries of the ill.
I am sick of making soup and chamomile-tea all the time.

Soup day

A friend of mine suffers from soft tissue neuralgia, so called fibromyalgia with pains since years. She was just recently diagnosed and has since then been trying different medications for her condition with various results.

She has tried all the antidepressants which are said to be good use in this particular condition but has had to discontinue using them due to everything from violently itching rash to allergic reactions with her throat swelling up and difficulty to breathe. She continued with some beta-blockers but they did not do the trick as the anti-depressants did disregarding from the side effects.

Now the latest one for her to try is a medication also used for epilepsy and neuralgia. This medication is told to have the side effects of making you drowsy and giving you nausea. Well, quite the opposite, for her at least. She has now been on the medication for three days with first dose taken at nights to taper on steadily increasing her dose for two months time. Well, she has so far been sleepless with her pains increasing since she began to take the medication.

Three hours sleep since she began with it, no need for uppers for her but need for more painkillers though.

Anyway, off-spring is quite quiet today, there is a flu that is passed around and bed is the place to be with mummy making soup and chamomile tea. So I guess I could do with some of her medication to keep up with the cooking.

So I better get some more soup going on the stove!

Baking a cake

I wonder what is with us people as we always tend to leave the things we have a deadline for to the latest possible moment to have them done?

As I once made a delicious cake and promised to bake on for the birthday of a friend once, it now has become a tradition for me to make the cake every year for the celebration.

Well, in between the baking I today found out that it is not only the liquorice-wrapper that is going to be changed into something new after having been the same for 80 years. Last year the candy-bar named Geisha from the same manufacturer lost its’ beautiful geisha-girl from the wrapper.

Anyway, as I am not the candy eating type as you might have understood as I did not notice it before it was mentioned on the news, it came as a complete surprise. The candy-bar is quite delicious and I do buy it now and then, but as you might guess have not done so recently.

The geisha-girl was probably on the wrapper for 80 years too and the producer Fazer removed her “to be able to expand on the International market” and not to spread "racial stereotypes". Who can be offended by a Japanese girl dressed in her traditional kimono on a candy-paper? The coloured boy I can somehow understand.

Anyway, got to go now, cake cooled down and ready for the icing.

An apple a day

Every autumn a thing occurs in my home that I am not at all pleased about. No matter how I clean or what else I do, every autumn at about this time of year we always have to cohabit with these flies from Hell. Ordinary people might call these tiny little flies “fruit-flies” or “banana-flies” but I just hate them and call them “flies from Hell”!

Even if there is no fruit anywhere in the house and all fruit is safely kept away in the fridge at this time of the year and we still get the flies. Little tincy-wincy orangy-brown ones, lots of them and all over the place!
When my daughter was a pre-school she did not like to eat fruit. Fruit is good for you so I made her have some anyway. So she hid the fruit in between the extensions of the dining-room table. That year was the worst invasion ever of flies from Hell!

I cleaned out everywhere the flies could originate from, removed anything they could digest on, no unwashed glasses with orange-juice were left in the sink, no sugar out, nothing. And still the flies were there, they just thrived and multiplied themselves. I was just going completely bonkers with this puzzle of hell-flies!

Until one day when I was polishing the dining-room table and saw where all the flies were coming from. They came out from down beneath the extension-boards! And there were lots mushy old pieces of peaches too. God, it was awful! There were millions and millions of the flies! Well, the table was carefully washed with disinfected, the house thoroughly sprayed with pesticide and you might guess that my daughter was told off pretty well about hiding the fruit…My daughter nowadays enjoys her fruit.
She eats an apple a day to keep the flies from Hell away!