100kg of Meat, Sweat* and Laughs *(sweat not included in recipes)

Have you ever chainsawed down a tree? Well I have now. A full grown birch. Because who wouldn’t build their own grill out of fresh logs, oil barrel, and an old bed found from their grandparents backyard. And all of this work for one day only.

Well, it might seem quite excessive to have a grill that is bigger than average American tourist’s sunbathing chair. Still it wasn’t enough for us. We stepped up the game with our all natural, handmade charcoal. This exclusiveness will give our Ribs the perfect colour and fresh slices of gray alder will add a hint of smokiness to the delight.

Did I already mention that we also created our very own recipe for the ribs. It will be used for a 100 kilogram portion of pork next Saturday.

At first it seemed like a piece of cake. We have grilled some meat before. But it turns out to be bit different to do hundreds of portions instead of a handful. Big hand for all school cafeteria workers!

So there was few challenges to be expected. Were to prepare such an amount of swine flank? In the end we got lucky. But how about the cold chain? Delhi belly is newer a nice companion, especially after hobbyists kitchen day. We needed ice! A lots of ice that could keep the food cold enough before grilling. But where to keep it all so that the ice wouldn’t melt? Back to the grandparents backyard. And there it was, not a needle but a 70’s solution, under a hay stack! An old dusty chest freezer. In it we can keep everything cold enough throughout the day. Also, an old and huge cast iron sauna water heater pot will help us in the effort to cool the sparkling beverages.

It all might be just for one day. Hours and hours of working, learning, swearing and laughing. But not for an any day. It is for the Restaurant day!

Come and join us at Eino Leino statue in Helsinki 21th May 2016!

SiirBros / Panu

Aaand... It's Broken

GRRRR GRRR GRR. Did the engine sound this loud last time? I think it did. But the steering is extremely heavy. Let’s check it out. What is that pink stuff dripping to the snow and pooling underneath the car? Damn power steering…

Otherwise the car seemed to work ok. Except the heaters. But that should not be a problem in a sauna van. During summer. In mediterranean region. +30 celcius outside, +50 inside and +80 at the back. And of course there is no air conditioning. Maybe we should get a fan. One fan that would support us even when we look really sweaty and tell boring stories about Higgs bosons and castles.

Few months ago, the heat was not a problem in frozen Finland. Panu had manage to fill the back compartment with all of his belongings. A sofa, an electric bed, a non-electric chair and so on. There was a plan to get the stuff to Helsinki. But without power steering we postponed this procedure and decided to maintain the car first.

Couple of weeks ago the maintenance guy called. The power steering might not be broken. Great! But… apparently the motor was bit like Danny the Dog, unleashed. It had dropped some 25 centimeters from the original position. The mechanic wondered how it could still move to the workshop. Our Italian steed seems to be quite tough, like Italy in general. Still running without the well oiled machinery.

Anyway, if you happen to have an extra fastening part for 2003 Fiat Ducato, we are interested!

In a meanwhile, enjoy the video that has boosted our enthusiasm. It has automatically created Portuguese subtitles that can be translated into English. And the translation makes no sense whatsoever. 

Kummeli - Autolla Maailman Ympäri:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm5bjvTYtCI

SiirBros / Panu & Roope

Aaand.. it´s white

It was the second to last day of 2015. What a perfect day to grill some lunch outside. Thank you excessive CO2 emissions and thick grandma-made wool shirts! At the same time we were busy browsing with the fast connections ex-Nokialand can offer. And suddenly. Wow. “Brent Rambo approves”. A potential four wheeled powerhouse for our sauna project. Only problem was that it was in Raisio. Or so we thought.

Since we would go totally opposite direction from Raisio after the holidays, we decided to go and pick up the van immediately. The journey was not a blink of an eye but we managed to arrive just in time. 12 minutes before the closing. Would this be the right place? It was. A small shady place with lots of vans in a crowded parking lot. Inside we found a leather jacket -man with thick southwestern accent (in Finnish Turun murre but nobody understands that anyway.). He had wondered if we would ever show up.

The van felt quite good to drive. Or relatively. How good vans can be in the end? In real terms quite shit. But it felt pretty ok after three hours in tiny Ford on slippery roads. And it would fulfil all our criteria. It was white. It was high. There was at least three windows in the back compartment. As men, it is quite challenging to confess that it was mainly the number of windows in the car that was the pivotal feature leading to the purchase. Not the horsepowers. Nor the brand. Like we would know something about cars. Seven minutes of test driving and five minutes of paperwork. And there it was. Our “new” Fiat Ducato Maxi!

Should have tested it more. Shoulda, coulda, woulda…


SiirBros / Panu & Roope