WYNWOOD WALLS

Wynwood is a Miami warehouse district between downtown and midtown that has become very happening, young, artsy, hip and fashionable. It's booming. It's a bit like Miami's version of New York's Meatpacking District and Soho.    

I like Wynwood Kitchen for a casual lunch. It's inside these great graffiti walls. There's also Jugo Fresh - one of my favourite juice places in Miami.

 Heidi x

INSIDE MY CUPBOARD

Here's some of  my dried food cupboard essentials:

• rice: wild, brown or basmati
• quinoa: red and white
• pasta: spelt, whole wheat, rice, quinoa, amaranth
• noodles: kelp or soba
• pulses and legumes: puy lentils, green lentils, split peas, cannellini and black beans
• canned sardines and anchovies
• nuts & seeds: cashews, almonds, hazel nuts, pecans, sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds
• nut & seed butters: almond, hazel, tahini, hemp, sunflower seed 
• crackers: both dehydrated and baked
• buckwheat flour
• baking soda
• maple syrup
• raw and/or manuka honey
• raw cocoa powder
• dried fruits: dates, raisins, fruit rolls, fruit strips (my kids love these)
• raw chocolate: my favourites 
• superfoods: cacao nibs, goji berries, chlorella & spirulina powder, bee pollen
• shredded coconut

Heidi x

WHAT I WORE: IN DUBAI

So what does one wear in Dubai? I guess a lot of my wardrobe will be sitting redundant apart from during visits to Europe and from now when shopping on I shouldn't as much as look at anything else but summer clothes. There are obviously some rules too when it comes to choosing what to wear in Dubai. Shoulders and knees should be covered. To respect this the best possible item of clothing has got to be a maxi wrap dress with sleeves. Although having said that the v at the front is probably too low and therefore better worn with a cami underneath. The dress in these pictures is an old one from DVF. This season they have it in a few different prints and colours out of which this is my favourite one.

(Here a demonstration of the negative sides (literally) of hair extensions. If you let them dry naturally without brushing this is what they look like from behind. Or at least mine did! Not the best look. However... I'm now free of them and intend to stay that way.)

Have a smashing Saturday ladies (and gentlemen...?)!

Minna x

HAPPY WEEKEND!

I just wanted to quickly wish you all a lovely, happy weekend! This was my girls last night. This is them most nights, watching their bedtime tv. Don't be fooled though they fight too. Baby M wants everything Little M has. She's a feisty little thing. I'll  never have to worry if she can stand up for herself... Anyway, bye for now!




Minna x

DUBAI MARINA AND ABOUT SCHOOLS

I forgot that I had a few more Dubai posts that I wanted to share with you. So here we go! We took a stroll along "The Walk" in Dubai Marina one evening whilst there. To my knowledge it's pretty much the only place in Dubai where you can actually do that; have a walk. The walk is lined up with restaurants and cafes where you can sit outside and watch the world go by.

I can't remember what was behind this but I would imagine that I was being a cheeky monkey. Sometimes I just can't help being so damn funny.

The main purpose of this trip was to take Little M to a school assessment. Yes, yes, I know... all the Finns out there are now thinking OMG she is not even four years old! (In Finland you start school at the age of seven and a vast majority of children simply attend their local school.) That's exactly how I felt too. However the school assured me that it wouldn't be a test as such, all it would involve would be playing with a teacher. And that it was, too. That didn't mean that I wasn't nervous about Little M's behaviour beforehand. I was pretty sure that she wouldn't willingly leave my side. I was totally wrong. She excitedly took the teacher's hand and marched off. She came and waved at me half way through. I was stunned. She was in there for about an hour and apparently hadn't stopped chatting for one moment. Guess that was a good thing as they accepted her. She has a place in a lovely school for the coming September. That was my biggest worry about Dubai so it was a huge relief.

Finding a school wasn't easy due to very high demand especially in her age group. The whole process can certainly feel like a full time job at times. The next job is to find us an apartment or a house to live in. I've done a lot of research and ground work so let's hope it won't be too hard when the time comes.

Minna x

QUINOA & BEAN BURGERS

I came up with these delicious burgers over the weekend when I didn't want some left over quinoa and cannellini beans get waisted. I followed a recipe I found online very vaguely and was so pleased with the outcome that I wanted to share it with you. 

You need:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• approx. 1 cup cannellini beans (I used dried) 
• 1/2 cup of brown rice flour
• 1 carrot
• approx. 1/2 stalk of leek (white part)
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 handfuls of spinach (I used frozen)
• handful of fresh coriander
• handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
• approx. 2 tbs of liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 2 tsp of garam masala powder
• pinch of ground cumin
• pinch of paprika
• pinch of black pepper
• pinch of ground coriander 
• pinch of dried chili flakes
• pinch of turmeric

Boil the beans until they become soft (if you are using dried ones you can either soak them over night or boil them for 20 minutes, let them soak for an hour and then boil them again). Boil the quinoa in 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water until it's cooked. Combine the beans, quinoa, brown rice flour and garam masala in a large bowl.

Wash, peel and dice the carrot, leek, tomatoes, garlic, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. Mix them in a blender with defrosted spinach, a splash of water and the liquid aminos or soy sauce. Blend until the vegetables get fine and a paste kind of texture. Don't blend too much so they turn into a sauce.

Mix the vegetable paste with beans and quinoa and add all the spices. I put roughly 1/2 - 1 tsp of each to add flavour. Make little patties and fry them in medium heat until they get golden brown. I fried mine in coconut oil and for quite a long time, about 7-8 minutes each side. You could also bake them in an oven or grill them.

I garnished the burgers with avocado and some arugula and tomato salad - yummy and for the kids I made little burgers with cheese, buns and the whole thing.            

Heidi x

WHAT I WORE: WITH PSYCHEDELIC JEANS

I know it's spring time but I can't help but be very in love with black. The older I get the more I love it. I've also come to the conclusion that you can never have too many black accessories. It feels very tempting to go for the latest, interesting colours but if you opt for black instead you end up with something that you get so much more wear out of. This is something I wore a couple of weeks back. I got these IRO jeans in New York. They're nice and low on the waist and very comfortable to wear. Btw doesn't London look lovely with all that green? Can't wait for the weather to warm up again!

Blazer: Rag & Bone

Jeans: IRO

T-Shirt: American Vintage

Booties: Gianvito Rossi

Clutch: YSL

Cuff: Chanel

Sunglasses: Dita

Minna x

A LONDON HOT SPOT CALLED CHILTERN FIREHOUSE

I've been very bad at blogging about London restaurants. Now that I'm about to leave this amazing city I thought that I should change this and do as many posts as I can about those oh so many restaurants that truly deserve it. London has the most incredible restaurant scene. There's something for everyone and new, great restaurants are constantly popping up. 

THE hot spot in London town at the moment is called The Chiltern Firehouse. It's located in my old neighbourhood Marylebone, which has up to now been lacking of this type of restaurants despite its central location and close proximity to Mayfair, which is home to many of the best restaurants in London.

I went to The Chiltern Firehouse for the first time last week. I loved it as soon as I stepped inside. Such a cool venue; what used to actually be a fire station has been beautifully decorated creating an incredible atmosphere. The food certainly didn't disappoint either! Oh and the waitresses and the waiters must be the hottest in town! Very New York.

The biggest reason for me to not normally blog about the restaurants I frequently dine in is the terrible pictures... When you photograph food (or anything) in low light, with your iPhone, using a flash the result is always plain awful. So I do cringe looking at these yellow toned, grainy pictures but I have no choice as dragging my huge DSLR to dinners just wouldn't be convenient or even appropriate. But let's try and overlook that. This was my incredibly tasty octopus starter.

And this was my iberico main. Again AMAZING.

The kitchen is open so you can see the staff hard at work creating delicious dishes.

I can't recommend a restaurant highly enough. However unless you know someone or someone who knows someone remember to book your table about two months in advance! And that's no joke!

Minna x

WEEKEND STUFF

How was your weekend? Here it was cold, sunny and rainy. The weather just couldn't decide what it wanted to do so it did it all and kept on changing every five minutes. 

We spent Saturday out and about in London. I had already packed our winter coats away but had to take them out again as the temperatures dropped a fair bit from last week.

On Sunday we drove off to my Mother-In-Law's house for a super relaxed day. The kids love it there. They're having a "sleepover" there next weekend and Little M is trying to negotiate an extra night. Much more fun than at home!

Baby M looking somewhat neat on our arrival. (Well if you ignore the sticker on her cheek...)

Fast forward an hour and she was wearing nothing but a dressing gown, her filthy clothes packed tight in a plastic bag (you don't want to know...) and face smeared with chocolate.

Our rule is that on weekends the kids can have treats and have a say on their meals. During the week it's healthy all the way.

The sky looked spookily but beautifully blue. I don't tend to edit my pictures (no time, no Photoshop) apart from the odd cropping or adding contrast so this is how blue it really was. 

I will certainly miss all this in Dubai. Hopefully we'll manage to come back often enough.

Minna x

A DAY AT ANANTARA, DUBAI

Now that I started talking about Dubai let me take you back to a lovely afternoon spent at the new Anantara Hotel on the Palm a few weeks ago. 

Anantara is located at the very end of the Palm so a bit of a drive away however very much worth it. I like the Palm. You get a lovely beach with beautiful views and it has a certain calmness to it.

Our friends were staying there so we took a little dip in their pool. Little M got to show off her swimming skills.

Later on we returned to the beach to make some sand castles. 

There was some competition over a very fancy handbag. 

It helps to be the taller one.

This particular afternoon was my final turning point. The point where I realised that I had started to look forward to living in Dubai. Being able to spend a day like this on regular basis can't possibly be a bad thing? I have a feeling that the kids won't mind it either...

Minna x