In the afternoon, I had some adventures in cooking. Pauli and Katri were having a dinner party, or "sits" as they call it on Thursday so I volunteered to make a cheesecake. I knew that the units they use to measure things in Europe is different than in the states, so I pulled out my TI-85 (calculator) to convert all of the cups and tablespoons to millimeters and deciliters. So when my cheesecake recipe was Europeanized, I went to the grocery store. Unfortunately for my first cheesecake choice, they don't sell sweetened condensed milk here. They also don't have vanilla extract or graham crackers.
So I finally decided to make a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I made a few alterations, and had problems finding only one thing - I was supposed to buy fudge topping to use in the middle and on top of the cheesecake. Well, Pauli told me the closest thing they had so I bought it. I put the cheesecake together, and swirled the fudge on top, thinking to myself that the stuff I was using was a bit runny, but oh well.
Anyway, about 30 minutes later my kitchen began to smell like something was on fire. I went to the oven, and it turned out that my spring form pan was leaking a bit. I quickly cleaned the bottom of the oven to stop the smell, and put a pan underneath to catch the rest of the drippings.
A little while later, the kitchen began to smell again. I went to the oven and the entire top of my cheesecake was black and smoking. Apparently the "fudge sauce" I used doesn't bake so well. So I cut off the top of the cheesecake, hoping to salvage the rest. Let me tell you, the cheesecake may have survived, but it looked like crap. Luckily, the raspberry topping and whipped cream made it look more than edible.
Later that night Pauli, Katri, Mikko, the guys from Stuttgart and I all met at a small polytechnic museum on campus where Pauli and Katri had rented a room for our small party. Katri made a wonderful tomato and mozerella cheese appetizer, Pauli made a chicken with peaches on rice main dish that was amazing, and for dessert we had my challenged cheesecake. The meal and company were both splendid.
Afterward, Pauli and Katri's guild was having a party so we stopped by for the end for that. They had a live band, which was followed by a DJ, then at midnight a small marching band came by to play a traditional song. The pictures are below.
