Helsinki, Day 1

The lamb shanks were delicious and made me wonder why I've never cooked lamb shanks. They came with delicious looking potatoes, which were kind of dry, so I really just finished the lamb and was full.

We were too busy to have lunch (though had a milk shake at Helsinki's McDonald's mid-day), but we went to Belge, a Belgian restaurant for dinner and I had the first of several beers on this trip--I hadn't had beer in years, but this Belgian beer tasted really good.

The hotel had a wonderful breakfast buffet every day and I started off my 3 days in Finland with cereal topped with yogurt and fresh berries, a piece of coffee cake, a mini donut and a glass of orange juice.

Airplane Food

When we got settled into the hotel in Helsinki, we went off looking for food and ended up back at the hotel. where I had a Vegetarian Bruschetta with buffalo mozzarella and truffle oil that was amazing.


We thought there were going to be no meals served for lunch on Finnair so we bought these snacks...and then when we'd finished them, they gave us HUGE sandwiches (I ended up throwing mine away)

They served us a turkey and cheese wrap along with juice and yogurt for breakfast on British Air.
For dessert we had mango/passionfruit cheesecake that was delicious. I could have eaten another one easily!
I had no way to get my camera out to take a picture of my dinner on the Brit Air plane to London, but it was a fantastic vegetarian lasagna.

This was a pannini that we had at the San Francisco airport while waiting for our plane. It was delicious!

We have left for Russia.

I'll be taking pictures of meals while
we're gone, but won't be posting them
until we return in July.

Warning to would-be robbers:
there will be 7 dogs and a house sitter
in the house, so go elsewhere!

Not the same without a ball game

I had such a craving for a good old hot dog. I hadn't had one in years. So I had one today. And then was sick to my stomach all afternoon (great when you're trying to pack for a trip!)

(I'm probably going to skip dinner tonight)

Breakfast

I had more banana bread for breakfast, and left the rest for Ashley to eat while we're gone.

Dinner

I made a meatloaf for dinner, so we could have leftovers tomorrow, and I wouldn't have to cook before going to the theatre. I added bean salad to this and it was fantastic.

Fruity Lunch

Still full from banana bread, so I just had a nice juicy fresh peach for lunch, while I looked over some books about our upcoming trip.

Banana Bread

We had some bananas that were going dark, so I made a big banana bread.

Yogurt for dinner

I was so full of the cherries I'd been eating all day--and Walt wasn't home tonight--that I just had yogurt for dinner.

Lunch

I really wanted a Swiss cheese sandwich, but we had no bread, so I made Swiss cheese biscuits and had a biscuit with the end of the cherries.

Waffle Wednesday

It's Waffle Wednesday again. We had leftovers from last week's toasted coconut waffles, so I heated up one of those and topped with more freshly toasted coconut.

Huge Artichokes

I got these HUGE artichokes at the fruit stand also. It was so big that's all I needed for dinner--and even then I couldn't finish it all.

A Fresh Snack

I stopped at a fruit stand on the way home from Sacramento and got these gorgeous cherries...an gorged on them all afternoon!

Lunch at the Olive Garden

I met my friend Kathleen for our monthly lunch at the Olive Garden in Sacramento. We always have the same thing--a bowl of soup, salad, and bread sticks.



Today I tried their chicken soup with gnocci. I think of all the soups I've sampled, this is my favorite.