Week in photos

* On Tuesday I attempted to make a classic Manhattan cheesecake. That led to another set of complaints that go something like that: "What do you mean you don't have that kind of sour cream/yoghurt/mayonnaise/quark/cheese curd in here???" Unfortunately for other countries, Estonian dairy industry is the best in the world. In here (to my knowledge), the only things close to sour cream are kermaviili (nearly not as soft and satin as proper sour cream) and smetana (too thick). Estonian yoghurts taste a lot better than yoghurts in here. They don't even sell proper fresh mayonnaise that could be found from refrigerators; there are some weird mayos on regular shelves (which makes you think that who knows what has been put in them...) And they don't sell any cheese curds. Not a single one can be found. I want my cheese curds!
Okay, rant over. If there is something I miss food-wise, it's Estonian dairy products. (And cheap booze, occasionally.)
All that irrelevance aside, the cake was good! Recipe seemed quite accurate, except I maybe would have had to add more melt butter to the biscuit-bottom, as it was a bit loose in the end. But that didn't affect the taste.


* On Wednesday, our freezer broke down. Generally, I don't care much, it's natural that gadgets break down once in a while. However, this breakdown came with annoying humming noise in regular intervals. We could not unplug the machine because the refrigerator part seemed to be working and there were foodstuffs in there. I'm the weirdo that cannot sleep with machines on, some weird lights in places, anything blinking, anything humming. I tried sleeping with earplugs, but still faced two sleepless nights. I was really angry at the fridge. This fridge also seemed quite ancient, I have no idea how old it must have been. It was made by ElektroHelios, a company bought over by Electrolux, which used to make appliances mainly in 1970ties... I have a sneaky suspicion this fridge was *very* old.
And now it gave up. The freezer died and we had to find new home for frozen berries, fast. They were divided between Jan's parents and sister. I kept four boxes and ate litres and litres of smoothies and fruit cocktails. That is the benefit of a broken refrigerator :) On the picture: smoothie-to-be made of a banana, blueberries, strawberries, redcurrants, plain yoghurt, milk and honey. Heavenly.
On Friday the new refrigerator was transported to our humble home and the old one was taken away. When I heard that the shop is only sending one transportation dude, I prepared to see 2x2 m giant man who carries 2m+ height refrigerators on his back. Well, the dude was quite big, but to my disappointment, he used a nifty lifter machine to transport the big home appliances.


* I got a new vauva on Tuesday /D The last phone I was using was old... It was the stylish Nokia 7370 (I got jealous looks back in the days when I got it and it had just been launched). I think it served me for 5-6 years without breaking down once. That's Nokia quality for you :)


* Cat life. In addition to regular fancy cat food and snacks that Jan-Erik orders from Germany, this time the package also contained a massage brush. Mammu sure enjoyed her spa-treatment this morning.
On the first photo is Robert in the radiator nest. The nest is attached to radiator and it's very warm there in winter :) Robert loves the nest, he's hugging it as can be seen.
The last photo could be called "The Big Couch Love". I have a feeling that some day, the cats are gonna leave this couch wrecked :p They use it like 10+ hours a day.