Reindeer surprise

Holiday!! Holi-holi-ho-ho-ho-ho-hooooliday!! It started over half an hour late, my last meeting at work just went on and on and on and on and on. My brain had already shut off fifteen minutes into the meeting, and as the meeting went on for another hour, I spent quite a long time essentially brain dead. It felt like a century. But then finally it came, that sweet moment of freedom. I wanted to scream "FREEEEEEDOM" and run down the corridor to the door. I did resist temptation. I think my colleagues find me weird enough as it is. 

I had the perfect start to the holiday: an hour of combat. Great class, as usual, great energy. I'm lucky to have such a great instructor. And I got to do my favourite muay thai. Oh my how I love the moments when you stand back, wait, and then get to yell "Hyper Hyper" and get going again. Awesome. The best track ever to get out any pent up negative feelings. Certainly helped me get rid of any residual aggression that I don't want to take along to my holiday. Now I'm totally de-aggressed, exhausted (did my usual 20 mile cycle ride in addition to the combat) and well fed (I made a tomato and bacon omelette and some banana ice cream). Next, I need to pack. Tomorrow I'm off to Finland for a week. Going to go to the summer house for a while, which is why this will be my last blog post for a while. And it's not because there wouldn't be cell phone coverage and I couldn't get online. But we don't have electricity (!). Hard to blog when you can't charge your iPad. Oh well, I will just have to make up for it when I get back home.

I really look forward to seeing my family and Finnish friends. Even better, one of my friends is getting married (which is my original reason of going to Finland). I'm thrilled that I finally get to wear my full length cream dress with red and pink flowers. It's a dress I had been eying out at Monsoon for ages, but of course it was too expensive. Then I stumbled upon it in the end of season sales, so I just had to buy it. It was the will of the shopping gods. But I haven't had an opportunity to wear it until now. I also get to wear my fascinator I bought for Ascot. Oh how I love dressing up a bit. Summer weddings are lovely.

Anyways, now that I have explained why I will disappear off the face of the blogosphere for a while, I'll leave you with one last recipe. And quel surprise, it's a brunch recipe. However, for once it's not from Pinterest (yes, I heard that sharp intake of breath there in the back row). It's actually from the deep dark recesses of my mind. I wanted to empty my freezer before my holiday, so this recipe was part of that effort. Last time I went home I brought some smoked reindeer with me. I still had one pack of it left in the freezer, so I wanted to create a nice brunch using the reindeer. I also had some leftover cheese in the freezer which I wanted to use up. So this just came together. And it gave me an opportunity to try my new pink silicon pie mould. I have big silicon pie pans, but I needed a mid size one for cooking for two. And this was so cute I just had to buy it. Worked picture perfect. And cooking breakfast in the oven gives you extra time to get back into bed and snooze for a while longer, which is always appreciated on a lazy Saturday morning.

Reindeer and eggs (serves 3-4):
100 g smoked reindeer meat (ok, if for some strange reason you are struggling to find reindeer, you could replace with any other smoked meat. If you use bacon, you need to cook it first)
5 eggs
1 shallot
125g grated cheese (I went for a mix of dutch edam and chilli cheddar as that was what I had in the freezer)

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Finely chop shallot and reindeer. In a bowl, use a fork to mix the eggs to make them fluffy, add onion and meat and the grated cheese. Pour into a pie pan and bake for 20ish minutes.

One serving (a quarter of the recipe) contains  231 kcal (15g fat, 1.4g carbs and  21g protein).

The verdict:
What is it about smoked meats and eggs that go so well together? And especially in the morning? The reindeer definitely adds things to this dish you wouldn't get with regular bacon, it does have a very distinct taste of game. Which goes brilliantly with the onion. This got the approval of my culinary consultant, who had never had reindeer before. So if you happen to be around any places where you could get reindeer, do pick up a pack or two, it's really good! Incidentally, tomorrow I'm off to the land of the reindeers, and incidentally my freezer is empty. Will bring home a few packs of reindeer and pop them in the freezer as I have a list of things I want to use it for. Including my mum's famous reindeer jelly. It's epic. Although I'm not sure if it will turn out the right way with UK cottage cheese, which is not nearly as good as Finnish cottage cheese. Maybe I should just use my home-made farmer's cheese instead. Now there is an idea! Stay tuned. The InvisiblePinkOne will be back in about a week and a half.