The Finnish Mustard was absolutely delicious with ham on homemade bread.

The mustard from yesterday's recipe was absolutely delicious!  The only thing I noticed was that it didn't contain any salt, I wondered if this was an error with the original recipe or not.  I tasted it immediately after cooking and it was already very good, but then I added a pinch or two of salt.  I should have only added the salt to half of the mustard in order to get everyone's opinion, because the salt may have been unnecessary.  We ate the mustard with thick sliced ham from the deli, I like to buy the end pieces from the deli--they are very inexpensive and tasty.

I had to run out to the grocery to pick up the dry mustard, the closest market only had bulk mustard, not the name brand.  Really being in a hurry to get home before my children, I rushed through, but remembered to pick up some Rutabagas, doesn't a warm casserole sound good on a cold day like this?  I think even my husband will enjoy it (Did I tell you that my Finnish husband doesn't always enjoy traditional Finnish foods?  Things could get interesting around Easter because of my blog project).  Anyway, as I rushed through, I didn't check my cart carefully until checkout time.  Then I noticed that most of the cart was full of someone else's groceries!  At that point, I had no idea what to do, so I took all the extra groceries to the help desk and left them, apologizing profusely.  I'm sure somewhere there is a grandma-type who would like to hit me over the head with her purse!  

So in all the madness at the store, I forgot to buy bread.  This bread is not Finnish at all except in the spirit of using what is available.  It contains:  2 cups water (warmed for one minute in the microwave), a couple of Tablespoons of yeast, a couple of Tablespoons of Olive oil, a little salt, a half cup of stone ground corn meal (from Graue Mill, a wonderful girl scout field trip!), a half-cup of old fashioned oats, and enough flour to make the dough pull away from the sides of the bowl.  I let it rise while I picked up kid #1 from school, came back and made two long loaves, let rise a little longer, then baked it while picking up kid #2.  It was done just in time to eat before I had to get kid #3 to his Cub scout pack meeting.  We are all looking forward to winter break next week!  

Some bean soup from the slow cooker completed the meal.

Would I have done anything different with the mustard?  Maybe.  The mustard was a good consistency in the pan, but continued to thicken after it set.  Next time I would cook it a little less.

It was a little spicy, I'm wondering if more cream/less mustard would make it less spicy, or if it is just the type of dry mustard I used.  I am definitely making this again, next time I will try using corn starch instead of potato starch to see how it affects the results.  Also, I will cook it slightly less, and divide it in half before adding salt to some of it.  As long as it is served with a salty food like ham, it may not need the salt at all.

Well, time to start the lanttulaatikko, my rutabagas are waiting...