Happy Fourth of July... from Helsinki

I have the best friends on the face of the planet! Honestly. They put up with my rooing and laugh at me when I am silly. But the most amazing thing this trip is that they helped me throw the best Fourth of July party Finland has ever seen! Complete with that stupid cake. You know the one that has the berries and looks like an American flag!

More on that is a sec. First, I must give you a current status report:
Current counrty - Finland
Current residence - La casa de Jatta (Monna´s Aunt, whom I had the pleasure of staying with in Rome the last time I was out this way!!!)
Participants - Monna, Sven , myself and now, newly arrived, Claudio!

We have been in Helsinki for two days. Yesterday, we went on a sight-seeing tour that include the churchs, harbor....


***Sven in Senate Square

and it´s open air market. You can get some unusual things at this market including a necklace made out of reindeer antler. :)


***Me eating weird food from the market

Today, we went to the Suomenlinna fortress, a small island off the coast of Helsinki. We had lunch there and enjoyed watching the tourists mix with the locals (who visit the island often in the summer).


***Claudio and Monna on the boat to the island

Alright now back to my party. Since it was Fourth of July and actually I think the first time I have not been in the states for it, I decided that I was going to bring Fourth of July to Finland. My friends were up for the challange.

I put together the menu (and the grocery list) and then we all braved the grocery store to see what ingredients we could actually get in Finland. Before I walked into the store I was already worried about the ready-made box cake!

I put Sven in charge of the grilling. Claudio and Monna were in charge of the potato salad and the drinks. And I was incharge of the cole slaw and finally and most importantly, the flag cake!

It was brilliant. Sven cooked the meat to perfection and actually ended up helping me with the cole slaw (because I haven´t ever really made it myself!!)… okay, okay and also with the potato salad. But the cake was all me! And it was lovely!
We all gathered outside on Jatta´s terrace and were quite happy with the result. Jatta even provided Looney Toones napkins that were red, white and blue.

COMING SOON – The video of me singing the National Anthem as I brought the cake out to the table. There might have been a bit of Lonkero involved. ;)