"What I Cooked Today" Day 66

Today I had left-over asparagus quiche with potatoes and cheese. Jochem is still in Germany. The weather is still hot. I am still uninspired and grateful to be having so many left-overs from Monday. I did, however, prepare politically correct haddock with salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Unfortunately, the whole meal quite literally fell apart as I was cooking it, but as my dad always says: it doesn't really matter how your food looks, because where it'll end up there are no curtains either (which, FYI, sounds much better and funnier in Dutch).

"What I Cooked Today" Day 65

I predict a dry spell. Food-wise I mean. It is HOT in my apartment and Jochem is spending a couple of days with his mother in Germany and I am not motivated at all to cook extravagant dinners for, you know, just me. Today I ate the left-over watermelon salad from yesterday. Then some chips. And then some Oreo cookies with milk. And then I had two slices of bread - one with peanut butter and one with Nutella. Plus a cup of tea. Uninspired is what I am when it's hot like this.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 64

The weather has changed from a comforting warmth into a hot and sticky blanket that always embraces you, pressing down, wherever you go. I am reminded of how unsuited my apartment is for summer, a fact which I always tend to forget, as I drag around the fan with the same emotional mixture of necessity and repressed irritation as when I drag around the heater in winter. My cats are considerably affected by the heat. For the first time, ever, since they joined my little family neither Bicho nor Manchego finishes their nighttime serving of cat food, not even after their second try. This is unual for a pair of cats who will eat raw tofu and broccoli from your dirty kitchen floor while you attempt to prepare a decent meal. I often find Bicho on the floor, panting like a dog. Jochem went to the Hague to attend a bbq. I stayed in Utrecht in my oven of an apartment. Sitting behind my computer I remember the 9 days I spent behind it last year when I rewrote my master's thesis - my fingers are thick, I feel sweat trickling in places where I didn't know sweat could trickle, like at the back of my knees, and I can actually smell it too. The frat boys down the street have parked their seventh-hand couches on the street in order to watch soccer in the sun while drinking lots of beer - a recipe for guaranteed sunburn and hangover if you ask me. The Netherlands plays Slovakia tonight. I head over to Bic's for cool food. I bring a favorite dish with me: the asparagus quiche with potatoes and cheese (Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver). I also bring a new dish: a watermelon salad with cucumber, mint, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver). I bring 6 scoops of ice cream from Roberto Gelato, the best ice cream parlor in Utrecht run by a family with Italian roots. I am late for the game, but luckily we're not really watching. We drink cold water and leftover champagne without bubbles. We eat our food and discuss Dutch politics. After watching a documentary about the Taj Mahal and an episode of Air Crash Investigation, I return home to do the dishes. The sun hits my back with surprising intensity at 8 'o clock in the evening. I have the fan a mere centimeters from the left side of my body and hope that it won't accidentally fall into the dirty dishwater. I would forever be reminded as the dead grad student who got herself eloctrocuted in the midst of her dirty pans. Only 26 - so young. When I was walking towards Bic's apartment, just a couple of blocks from my street, and I felt the sugary water from the watermelon drip onto my calves and new favorite dress, I felt rushed and sweaty, but sublimely happy to be carrying good food to a good friend. The Netherlands beat Slovakia 2 to 1.

To Travel

I love to travel. Unfortunately, I don't get to do it as often or as much as I'd like due to a number of irrelevant factors (money, time, cats, work, grad school, boyfriend's schedule and such), so I try to make each and every little trip as special as I would any abroad adventure. Like this weekend, when we went to my hometown. I pack some things, grab my man and cats and hit the road (or, when you're a student living in the Netherlands, public transport). I often find myself giggling and actually jumping up and down at the mere prospect of spending a couple of hot hours on a train with my loved ones and some luggage. I love to travel.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 63

Tonight, after spending the afternoon at the swimming pool, Jochem and I cooked mac 'n' cheese. I LOVE this recipe for mac 'n' cheese, which says a lot, because while living in the US the thought of mac 'n' cheese really grossed me out. Of course, as always, it all comes down to using fresh ingredients. We added tomatoes, fresh thyme and high quality cheeses to make it extra special.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 62

The weather lately has been great. Imagine blue skies without a cloud in sight, lots of sunlight and a little breeze. This is a rare occurance in the Netherlands, mind you, whose summers tend to be grey and wet in order to make up for the little heat waves in the spring and fall. This weekend Jochem and I dragged our two cats into a bus, a train and another bus to spend a couple of days at my empty parents' house. Said parents are spending two weeks in southern Spain and we decided to leave our sticky apartment for cooler climates inside this house. Also, since we're both almost done with school for the year, we spend a lot of time doing summery things, like having ice cream downtown and spending a few hours at the pool. Of course there's also cooking involved, but in a different form than you may recognize from our usual cooking. Of course one of the holiest of Dutch summer pasttimes is the bbq. Having a 1-square-meter balcony, no matter how comfortable when sat on alone, rather complicates this task. Therefore, having a brother and sister-in-law who invite you to their family bbq is such an easy way to go. Unfortunately, so is leaving you camera in the process.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 61

Tonight Jochem and I had another traditional dinner date with our four friends. This time we were invited at Erik and Marjolein's place in Amersfoort. I was really glad to have been able to arrange this date, since Michiel and Marije will be in Malaysia during July and I'll be in France for most of August, which basically means not seeing each other for two months. This time, instead of just showing you what Jochem and I cooked, I will show all of our cooking, which is really quite impressive.

Jochem and I cooked Peruvian ceviche, which is raw tuna steak marinated in lemon juice, salt and chili. We added lots of red bell pepper, spring onion, mint, coriander, water cress, black pepper and olive oil. I had no idea what to expect from this dish, but it turned out to be the perfect fresh starter for today's weather.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver



Erik and Marjolein were inspired by their Italian cooking courses to prepare this wonderful main dish. They made these stuffed tomatoes as a side dish.



And pasta with fresh fish, spinach, homemade pesto and homemade tomato sauce.



Michiel and Marije made the perfect fresh dessert to round off the meal: semifreddo with strawberries.



Cheers to another successful dinner date!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 60

Yesterday's big spending called for dramatic measures, so instead of preparing the two extravagant dishes I had in mind, I changed my mind and decided to make something that my family and I refer to as Spanish spaghetti (pasta usually being an Italian dish and this being my Spanish family's answer to it). Not only is it cheap as chips, it's actually a really tasty dish that you can make in a big pan - ideal for when you're having lots of people over for a pre-soccer-world-cup-game dinner. So before the Netherlands beat Cameroon to a pulp, I prepared this dish (which my whole family, including my little brother, has already mastered) for my friends. I hope they enjoyed it!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 59

Food-wise, today got completely out of hand. Having almost finished the school year and having a friend who is A) sick of her master's thesis and B) in love with coffee, I arranged to meet her at a cute little place in our neighborhood for a cup of coffee. I even brought my own lunch to school because we were 'only' going to have coffee. But coffee turned into coffee + bagels. It being such beautiful weather we decided to have a glass of Prosecco at another cute little place. Then Jochem joined us and we ended up sitting at said cute little place for hours having rosé and overpriced hors d'oeuvres. When we finally got up we bought even more overpriced food to eat at home. It was like a food frenzy/financial nightmare! We didn't even finish all of it because we were so full with booze and snacks. Luckily there are no pictures to testify to the fact that I should wait to actually receive my grown-up salary before spending it...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 58

Jochem and I really don't feel like cooking this week and today was no exception. We both got home at 7 and decided to make a quick pasta dish from left-over ingredients. We used:

- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 sad and lonely spring onion
- a couple of mushrooms
- the inside part of a yellow courgette (we used the outside part for a crispy salad to accompany the delicious mackerel tortillas from Thursday)
- ricotta
- grated cheese
- red wine vinegar
- spicy olive oil
- lemon juice
- Parmesan cheese (because you can never have too much cheese)

Throw all it in one pan, stir fry and mix it with freshly cooked pasta. Enjoy!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 57

Believe it or not, but I had pizza today for the third day in a row. You see, I had a couple of pizza slices left over from yesterday, since I ate the whole pizza on Saturday and was kind of sick the rest of the night, so yesterday I decided not to do that again. Being quite busy graduating and stuff I find that my culinary originality is hard to find these days, so what the hell, let's have pizza again so I won't even have to think about it. Luckily I have a sweet boyfriend who was nice enough to pimp it with spicy olive oil, fresh basil and Parmesan cheese. But still, it's left-over takeaway pizza...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 56

Alas, food lovers, I had to work again today and had pizza once more. Moreover, my portfolio (the damn thing I've been working on since August) is due tomorrow. So are the grades for which I'm supposed to have reviewed my students' tests. You catch my drift.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 55

Today was brutal. I had to work from 9 till 6. Giving exam training. On a Saturday. Good news for me: free pizza with colleagues. Bad news for you: boring blog. Must. Sleep. Now.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 54

Of course Jochem and I had a ton of food left over from yesterday and we used it to make ourselves a little Friday night dinner. We put the salsa from the gorditas into some tortillas with creme fraiche, gaucamole, coriander, lime juice, spicy olive (me), Mexican chili sauce (Jochem) and grated cheese.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 53

Today I cooked for Jochem and 10 colleagues. I met my colleagues in August when we all started our internship at the same high school. Over the months we've grown quite close and what better way to celebrate this friendship than with food? I had cooked for my colleagues once before in December and that time I made a really big deal out of it with a long table and 8 courses. Tonight I kept things a little bit more informal by cooking lots and lots of Mexican food. It cost me half a day's work, one cut in my left ring finger and a couple of hurt eyes (chilis, argh!), but I believe it was a success. After we returned from our laser quest (which is FANTASTIC fun by the way!) I presented them with three courses, all of them coming from the book which they had given me the last time I had cooked for them.

For starters I cooked gorditas (Spanish for: little fat girls) with salsa. The salsa consisted of feta cheese, red apple, tomato, spring onion, pumpkin seed, sunflower seed and coriander sprinkled with lime juice.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver



As a main dish I had bought a bunch of tortillas and prepared three different fillings, one with meat, one with fish and one vegetarian option, namely minced pork and green chili, grilled mackerel and courgette salad and homemade tomato sauce. Of course all of it was offered with lots of creme fraiche, homemade guacamole, grated cheese and fresh herbs.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver



For dessert Jochem and I had made a mole chocolate cake the day before. It took hours to prepare, but it was worth it since it was one of the best chocolate desserts I have ever made. We served it with whipped cream and mole spices.

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver



KWC!!!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 52

Today Jochem and I made tofu tandoori again. Whenever we buy tofu we always buy it in bulk because it's cheap as chips at the little Asian store downtown. It was good to have a simple dish for dinner, because I was home late due to traffic and we spent the better part of our evening preparing dessert for my colleagues who are coming over for dinner tomorrow. But more on that later...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 51

Today I cooked a lovely dinner for Bic, Mag and myself (Jochem had dinner with Eyal in the Hague to celebrate the finalization of their final project, which is like a bachelor's thesis for Hotel Management). I made a quiche with mushrooms, onion, garlic, spinach, cream, tomatoes and grated cheese. This recipe was inspired by one of my lovely colleagues who convinced me to make a quiche, which I had actually never done before. Her and me have been working together for almost two years now; first during our masters and now during our educational internship. She's a great colleague to have and she manages to make my mundane days a little more colorful, what with her fancy clothes, food embellishments, dance marathons and Lush anecdotes. She's kind of like me in the "I'm a twentysomething and don't know what to do with my life" kind of way, even though we are radically different in most other ways. Still, it'll be weird not to work together next year. Anyway, she introduced me to this great dish but in the heat of the moment, while I was transporting the quiche to Bic's place, I forgot to bring our camera so I don't have a picture! You'll have to wait until the next time I make it, I'm afraid...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 50

Today Jochem and I cooked a pasta dish with tinned tuna. I try not to eat tinned tuna too much because I keep being told tuna will soon be extinct, which is a real bummer because it's cheap as chips and I love it - it reminds me of the tinned tuna, mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches that my mom used to make for me and my brother during summer holidays in Spain. So, occasionally, like today, I make it despite its obvious political incorrectness. This pasta is made with red onion, mushrooms, garlic, ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh basil, Parmesan cheese and spicy olive oil.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 49

Today Jochem and I finally cooked green chili. The first time we made this dish was for Anna and Ashwin in Brussels and it's been one of our favorite dishes ever since. It is a mix of minced pork, green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, green chilis, garlic and sage. Serve it on roasted tortillas with creme fraiche, green salad leaves, spring onion, mint and chili sauce. The best part of this dish is the combination of spicy minced meat, light cream and fresh greens. Great food for lazy spring Sundays!

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 48

Today I had a long day of work after a long week of work and afterwards Jochem and I had to travel to Tilburg for Marije's 26th birthday party. So, we decided to cook something simple: new potatoes with red onion, green peas and grated cheese. Jochem loves this dish because it really tastes like real butter. I love any dish that is easy to make and tastes wonderfully fresh. Plus: it's a good vegetarian alternative to any filling dish!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 47

This whole green chili business is getting ridiculous. Jochem and I have been trying to make it for almost a week now, but something always comes up. And today was no exception. I didn't make it home until 6.45 PM this evening - a personal record. I figured that Jochem would be at home by 7, as always, which gave me 15 minutes to clean up. But at 7 he calls me to tell me that he won't be there by 7 because he just left school at 7. What a perfect way to start one's weekend! I thought, knowing that it would take him an hour and a half to come back. Being extremely tired from work and in no mood to cook by myself, I got some 'patat met' and a 'broodje kroket.' So there!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 46

I always feel a little sad when I have to return to REAL LIFE after having escaped it for a while, so when I got home from Amsterdam while Jochem had returned to the Hague to start work again, I felt very uninspired to cook something original. I decided to leave the green chili until tomorrow evening and pimp pizza for tonight. I bought two basic pizzas with tuna and added mozzarella, red onion, fresh basil, Parmesan cheese and spicy olive oil. I also made something for my 4 HAVO students, because tomorrow's our last English class together. I made a mix of toffee cupcakes with dates, apricots and raisins with vanilla icing, and so-called chocolate rocks with a mix of dried nuts and fruit. I just hope they'll like it...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 45

Today Jochem and I sped from work to Amsterdam to spend a night at the NH Schiller Hotel, Jochem's soon-to-be internship hotel. We were invited as mystery guests to rate the hotel. It was pretty nice to enjoy Jochem's 'connections' so soon in the game! We visited the Anne Frank House where I had actually never been before (I know, shame on me). We had dinner at the hotel and followed the Dutch election results from the bath tub. But, as you can guess, we did no cooking. While wandering the streets of Amsterdam we did, however, find something that I thought was really cool: a Burger Bar. While you wait a very quiet Asian man prepares freshly minced meat into a tasty hamburger while you choose from an array of bread and toppings. There's even water and soap because you know you''ll spill! I believe it's a chain, which kind of bums me out, but other than that I thought it was awesome! Look at the massive amount of mayonnaise with the fries!!!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 44

Today I made dinner for Jochem, who's in denial about suffering from massive amounts of pain due to his wisdom teeth having been pulled at the hospital today. Since chewing appeared to be somewhat problematic, I made something that would be easy to consume: chicken tandoori. Chicken tandoori is still one of my favorite dishes, although probably more because of nostalgia than because of anything else. It comes in one of those premade packages that you have to add a couple of fresh ingredients to, and I know from personal experience that it tastes nothing like the real chicken tandoori that I always order at my two favorite Indian restaurants downtown. But this was the first recipe I ever mastered. My then boyfriend taught me how to make it when I was a 17-year-old student still living in Almelo. This was in 2001, and for years it was the only thing I could cook, so I would often make it for friends and family (my family has become so sick of it that I'm afraid I've spoiled them as far as Indian food is concerned for the rest of their lives). But I still love it. It's a real comfort food to me and, in light of the more culinary activities I've been doing lately, really easy to make as well. Over the years I've become quite the chicken tandoori expert by tweaking the recipe - a little more water here, a little less creme fraiche there, and there you go! I've also started using tofu instead of chicken because we only buy organic meat and organic chicken has to be one of the most expensive things out there (so next time you see chicken filets on sale in your local supermarket, know that they are most likely not the happy kind of bird). Jochem hasn't been very happy with this decision, but today it came in handy because of his inability to chew. Today he could just swallow the thing!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 43

Today Jochem and I returned to some of our own cooking. We decided on a simple pasta dish which was kind of a pasta carbonara with a twist. We cooked tagliatelle with broccoli and a sauce made from creme fraiche, cheese and egg yolk. We finished it with fresh oregano, fresh basil, spicy olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Delish!

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 42

Today I won't cook either, but for very good reason. At least I think so. My parents are coming over from Almelo to take Jochem and me to Amsterdam to have dinner at Fifteen to celebrate that I am now with job. Since Fifteen is one of my favorite restaurants, I couldn't be more thrilled!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 41

Today I did not cook. Jochem traveled to Brabant (basically another country) to spend the day with his friends. I don't blame him because said friends have a pool and since our teeny tiny balcony doesn't even fit a bucket to put your feet in, he couldn't be spending this day any better. I had a great day though. Jochem and I woke up early and made our weekend sandwiches with bread, loads of butter, fried eggs and lots of cheddar (besides the British, no one would eat this for breakfast every weekend besides us). I had my Spanish coffee in my pajamas on our balcony. Then we had an appointment at JoHo, our travel guru/agency, to talk shots for all of the trips we'll be taking in the future. We got a lot of useful information and two shots each - one for Hepatitis A and B and one for DTP ((Diphteria, Tetanus and Pertussis). It was all fun and games until the doctor told me that I was really stupid for not getting myself to a hospital after getting bitten by a stray cat in Istanbul. Since it was hardly a scratch and I washed and disinfected my hands and my Rough Guide said that only paranoid people worry about rabies in Istanbul, I figured I was out of harm's way. But apparently that was stupid. Since the cat bit me in my hand and I was in Istanbul three months ago I would've been crazy or dead by now had the cat had rabies, but that was scary for a little bit. Anyway, afterwards I bought some goodies because, hey, I have a job now and that means that I can treat myself to nice things. Then we had lunch at a downtown terrace. I just got home and plan to spend a couple of blissful hours on our balcony reading and drawing with the charcoal I just purchased. Then at 7 I'm having a simple dinner with my sort of boss and then we're going to the Studiekring's annual party. Enjoy this sunny day!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 40

Today we cooked something that is quickly becoming one of my favorite dishes. We reran part of Jochem's birthday dinner by preparing köfte kebabs made from lamb, including roasted tortillas, pistachio nuts and creme fraiche and a spicy salad with red onion, parsley and mint. It is so delicious like you won't believe! I must admit that I have been a bad cook this week. I've been extremely busy finishing my master's and Jochem did most of the cooking. So honor to him for making such a great Friday night dinner!

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 39

Something bad happened. Yesterday Jochem and I cooked a wonderful dish. One of our favorite dishes in fact. Thai curry with lemon rice. We often make this dish whenever we want to impress our guests or whenever we feel like something exceptional. It is a wonderful mix of fresh ingredients, lots and lots of different herbs and spices and coconut milk. You can make it with meat or fish, but we prepared it with roasted bell peppers. However, yesterday Jochem and I were so busy entertaining our guests, Jochem's ex-stepmother Joke and her boyfriend Kees, that we actually forgot to take a picture! And since it really is very good food, we didn't have any left-overs, except for some sad left-over curry sauce in tupperware. We were kind of bummed out when we found out, but rest assured that we will make this curry again fast enough and then we will definitely take a picture.

Source: Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 38

I must admit that Jochem did most of the cooking today, since I was too busy having Coronas in the sun (see: previous post). But he did good! We had vegetarian quesadillas for dinner with olive tapenade, creme fraiche, grated cheese, tomatoes, chilis and roasted courgette. It was 8.30 when Jochem was finally done cooking and I'd had such a long day at work and was so ravenous after all the beer that I breathed it in!

The Simple Life

When you're not thinking about the future (or at least pretending to be) your mind has room for more mundane things. Although I was too busy at work to join my colleagues when they went to have a drink in downtown Culemborg, I did enjoy a cold Corona with lime on our teeny tiny balcony while listening to Chris Rea. And then I had another one. But I wonder: should I be worried about the fact that my neighbor, the same sorority girl who got me hooked on the Amélie soundtrack one year ago, is playing the Spice Girls' second album as we speak? Because I kind of am...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 37

Today Jochem and I cooked something simple. I was working on a massive research report till 7 PM and Jochem wasn't home until 7.30. We made omelets with potato, served on ciabatta with tomato salsa with basil and mint. Add a big spoonful of creme fraiche and you're good to go!