Asparagus x 2

When I read a blog about asparagus on Seven Spoons, I immediately thought to myself: I should be eating more asparagus! Although I pride myself in eating seasonally, sometimes I still forget that I should make the most of these beautiful ingredients while they are actually still in season. I made a catastrophic error when I discovered in winter that the next time pumpkin will be back in season, I'll be in bloody South East Asia, probably just trying to survive monsoon season. Determined not to make the same mistake twice, I have already made excellent use of this Spring's rhubarb - last week alone I prepared one spicy pork dish, one bellini and one iced tea, all with fresh rhubarb. This week I was so inspired by Seven Spoons' blog on asparagus that I decided to make its asparagus with hard-boiled egg vinaigrette, which we served with some steak. But, since we also came across some asparagus tips on the market while we were looking for new swimming trunks and flip-flops for Jochem to use during our world trip, I decided to also prepare those with some olive oil, lemon juice and Parmesan cheese, courtsey of Jamie Oliver.



Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver



Source: Seven Spoons

PS: We also had these amazing blueberry pancakes for lunch!



Source: Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

i ♥ utrecht, part ii

One of the best things about living where we live, is the fact that we are a mere 5-minute walk away from a lovely park called the Griftpark. This exact spot used to be a contaminated industrial site which has since been cleaned up and restored into this park. I like the park, although ever since I went to Edinburgh and have seen what kind of 'parks' (if you can call it that) they have there, this park seems rather silly and small. To me it feels like an urban park because it seems like a lot of design went into the making of it (which it probably did). This makes the park very organized and leaves lots of room for cute little restaurants and bars near its premises, including a little floating island where you can have drinks. It also houses a small children's farm with lots of barnyard animals and a communal garden for elementary school kids. Jochem and I like to stroll in the park during the fall and winter, while during the warmer days of the year I have shared many a bottle of wine and scraped-together bbq there. Here is a collection of my favorite photos of the Griftpark over the years:

Jamie Oliver's Stroganoff

Although I love going out to restaurants and trying new things, I get just as excited by the thought of staying in and cooking myself. I often try new things at home as well, but sometimes I prefer to make a dish that I know will be good. I like this idea of comfort food - cooking something simple yet delicious that you know will not disappoint. I think that it suits my personality, since I'm the kind of gal who can watch a favorite movie a billion times without getting sick of it - knowing what's going to happen is a comforting thought and I am somehow capable of recreating the sentiments I experienced when first watching it. I have the same thing for music, books and food.

When it comes to food nostalgia, however, I usually go for the slowly roasted soup and/or homemade tomato sauce variety (whether with pasta or on pizza). This stroganoff recipe has slowly crept into my comfort food repertoire and considering the windy, rainy and downright cold May we've been having, this dish seemed like a logical choice for tonight's meal. It holds some of my favorite ingredients ever (mushrooms, cream and lemon zest) and is rich in flavor yet at the same time fresh and zingy. Although it is more of a fall dish, I enjoyed it very much on this chilly spring evening.

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

i ♥ utrecht, part i

You didn't actually think that, now that my "What I Cooked Today" posts are over, I would leave you high and dry, did you?! The truth is that I just can't stop writing about my silly little life, if only to amuse myself. I've written some blogs lately, some about food and some about other joys, but the truth is that I already had a concept for a new series in mind before my other series was finished. This time I would like to write about what I love about Utrecht. There is, after all, so much to love, and to be even more forthcoming: I think it might help me say goodbye.

The first thing that I want to - no, MUST - write about is my apartment. How could I not? It has been my home for almost 6 years. It has sheltered me in good and in bad times. It has seen me sleep in, fight, read novels, drink beer, do yoga, cook and clean. Besides the first 18 years of my life, which I spent in Almelo, and those 3 wonderfully crazy years on the UCU campus, it's the only home I've ever known. And let's not forget that Jochem and I (plus several family members and friends) turned this place into what it is today through weeks of hard labor.





But let's not get too sentimental and forget the things that I absolutely dread about this place and will not miss at all. Just to mention a few, I hate:
- The fact that I need to not close the door of the bathroom in order to have enough leg room to sit comfortably;
- That every surface is covered in at leat 5 coats of paint;
- The dust, which hides in corners and between cracks;
- The stained carpet in the bedroom;
- The teeny tiny balcony that only fits 2 chairs (although, I must admit, that's also what I kind of love about it);
- The fact that, when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I have to (1) go downstairs and (2) balance very steep stairs;
- The creepy noises it makes;
- The draft;
- The cold in winter (especially when it comes over night during a holiday weekend and your heater breaks);
- The heat, oh my, the heat that comes during the humid Dutch summers.

So what do I love about this place? Well, first of all, we have a lot of space. Although the apartment is old and badly kept, we have 2 whole floors for the 5 of us (me, Jochem, Bicho, Manchego and Pesto - so just 2 human beings). I love that we are able to have separate rooms to do separate things in. It keeps things simple and organized (not that I'm into all that or anything).



Another thing that I've always loved about this place are the windows. They are quite big and offer a lot of light and sunshine into our home, which is so important when fall arrives and the days grow so much darker so soon.

I wouldn't say that I have a favorite spot in my apartment. How could I choose? Obviously, I love our yellow kitchen, as well as the dining table, where we shared so many good meals and where I drink my cup of coffee every morning.



I definitely have a soft spot for that teeny, tiny balcony of ours. Sometimes, when it's really hot, I get up early to just sit there to drink a cup of coffee and enjoy some cool, fresh morning air. Sometimes, at night, I like to take a beer or a glass of wine up there to look out into the world and fantasize about what my life could possibly be like. I treasure those moments of quiet solitude in my otherwise hectic existence (if not in real life, then at least in my head).



Plus: I love the view of old houses built against each other. It makes me feel enclosed, safe, and part of something.





But I would say that I spend just as much time in the other rooms of our apartment. I will never forget the seemingly endless hours that I spent in our study/guest room studying and writing papers. Perhaps that's why I don't like it there so much anymore, although Jochem still spends most of his evenings there behind his computer. In the winter it's the warmest room in the house, so I often lie on the couch and read novels or watch a TV show on my laptop.

I like to be in our living room when there are a lot of people around to share food and conversation or to watch a movie from our big couch. Although it is rare now, Jochem and I used to spend hours on that couch watching Friends or Bones. I also love to look at the map of the world above our couch and dream.



The bedroom is a place where I like to do my yoga, although the cats often make it hard. Sometimes we use our bed as a living room and spend whole days there as if our apartment were no more than a small studio. Sometimes you just don't need much.





With so many good memories attached to this place, the thought of leaving it often fills me with intense grief and sadness. But I think that it's important to learn to distinguish between the house in itself and the way I felt in it. A house is, after all, just a nice pile of bricks. We make it a home by living in it. But then again, maybe I already learned this lesson, or otherwise I probably wouldn't be quitting my job to spend 9 months as a penniless backpacker traveling the world - I would apply for a mortgage instead. So I guess that thinking about leaving this place has become like an almost healed wound that I just keep licking, so as not to forget, ever, that I was here once, living happily.

Pancakes, Brownies & Pasta

In April I started giving exam training every Saturday, which means that Jochem and I don't have as much time together during the weekends as we used to. It's just temporary (2 months) and for a good cause (world trip), but when we do have a whole day to be at home together (no errands or prior engagements, but just TV and food in our pajamas), I'm all the more grateful for it. I wanted to take advantage of this sudden splurge of time, and so we got a bunch of ingredients to make this Sunday as filled with comfort food as possible. We made ourselves:

Banana Pancakes



Source: Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

Cocoa Brownies with Salted Peanut Butter Icing



Source: Not Without Salt

Spicy Penne with Cauliflower



Source: The Silver Spoon: Pasta

Russian Egg and Mushroom Salad

Today another one of my favorite food bloggers is featured: Molly Wizenberg. This lady writes beautiful prose and posts lovely pictures on her website Orangette and also in her book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table (though no pictures in the book, just on the website). Today I made her Russian egg and mushroom salad, which I served with some leftover tortillas and chives. It was so simple, but so good!

Source: Orangette

Tarte Flambée

Thanks to my friend Anna, I am now a faithful reader of a couple of food blogs (you can find their websites on the right in my links). I started out just looking at the pretty pictures, but lately I've also been enjoying the stories behind the images, and today I made my very first dish that did not come from a cookbook but from the world wide web: tarte flambée. Tarte flambée is basically a pizza with a creme fraiche base as opposed to the more traditional tomato sauce base. Top it with bacon, caramelized onion and chives and you've got one very happy me!

Source: Not Without Salt

Cider

The weather in NL has been kind of crazy lately. Not too hot, luckily, but very sunny with hardly any rain. The other night a big thunderstorm finally arrived and today the weather is still pretty warm, but cloudy. When I was looking through our pictures of Edinburgh, I came across this picture that Jochem took on Sunday in Almelo. It is a glass of cider on my parents' dining table in their garden. It sure makes me wish that it was summer.

Literarily Challenged*

By writing this blog I hope to absolve myself of a massive amount of guilt considering the topic of this blog, while hoping that the Gods of Literature do not strike me down because of it. It's a secret that I've kept to myself for years, but since it is never going to be resolved as it should be, I think that it's about time to confesss my sins. These are that:

I. don't. like. Wuthering. Heights.

I don't like Wuthering Heights! I DON'T LIKE WUTHERING HEIGHTS!!!

I mean, it's just so... so... BORING! But what the hell is wrong with me?! I love British women writers! They are my favorites right after the American white male misogynist writers of the twentieth century, like my good old thesis buddy Ernest Hemingway. I mean, I devoured Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and I've read Jane Eyre at least three times. Who knew that Charlotte Brönte's little sister would end up to be such a wannabe?

I have tried to read Wuthering Heights twice. The first time I was an exchange student at UCLA and taking a class on British Women Writers by one of the country's foremost experts on Frankenstein. I didn't make it past chapter 1. A few years ago I tried again on own. I didn't get past the first chapter then either. The last thing I tried was an audio book where a feisty young British lady tells me the story of Heathcliff and Catherine. I made it till chapter 10 but got so wound up that I eventually quit.

Me, a quitter! What kind of a perfectionist does that make me? A very imperfect one, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, I am left to wonder how I somehow did manage to get through the first fifty pages of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude before actually starting to like it. For the love of God, I read all 1,000+ pages of James Joyce's Ulysses (not to brag, or anything)! What is wrong with me?!

This novel has just been haunting me. It's like a taunting neon sign on the top of my TO DO list, saying: "This is the ONLY book in your bookcase that you still haven't read!" (well, besides Salman Rushdie, but who cares about him, anyway?). But despite all my efforts I just cannot make myself read this novel, even though:

- I like books.

- I like to actually read books (as opposed to leaving them on coffee table to peruse through at will and/or to impress guests).

- Several degrees in English Literature.

I mean, it's all very well to return friends' books as one can pretend that said friends' taste in books differs from self, but quite different when novel is one's own and has been one's own since a certain English Lit. class 7 years ago, yet one still hasn't managed to finish. But I guess that it's time to admit defeat. I just wish that it would stop staring at me.


* I am pretty sure that this blog, and in particular its writing style, was heavily influenced by Helen Fielding's novels Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the two books that I have been reading lately while I obviously should have been reading Wuthering Heights.

i ♥ edinburgh!

Last week Jochem turned 25. I remember, when I turned 25, that I really liked being 25. It seemed grown-up yet still had that feeling of possibility that comes with being young.



Jochem was born near Bieldside in Scotland and lived in Aberdeen during the first three years of his life. He has always wanted to go back so I took him as a surprise for his birthday. I kept it a secret for over 6 months right up until the KLM lady at the check-in counter asked: "Where are you flying to this morning?" and I yelled: "To Edinburgh, we are flying to EDINBURGH!" I don't think that Jochem saw it coming. Although the train to Schiphol gave away a lot, he thought we might be going to Napels, which is all I've been talking about for weeks (who wouldn't want to fly to Napels and do nothing except eat pizza margarita?). I never thought much of Scotland. Cold. Wet. Windy. Pretty much just like home except with mountains and castles instead of fields and windmills. Once I bought Jochem a Lonely Planet, however, and did my reading, I became quite excited about spending 4 days there. Now that I've actually been, I love it. If it were a city in the Netherlands and I didn't have to go through the hassle of moving abroad, I would move there. Instantly. Without even thinking about it.

We are not people who care about major sights or museums (except when we found out that there was a National Pasta Museum in Rome that featured paintings of tanks shooting macaroni at the people - like, OH MY GOD!). We did some sight seeing, of course.

On Thursday we took a walk around our neighborhood, Leith, and visited the Royal Yacht Britannia.



On Friday we took a bus tour across the Highlands to visit the Glenturret Whiskey Distillery - a birthday gift from friends. At night we had takeout in bed at our lovely B&B while watching reruns of the Royal Wedding on TV (when in Rome...).



On Saturday we explored the Old and New Town: Calton Hill, Real Mary King's Close, Greyfriar's Bobby, Greyfriar's Kirkyard, Edinburgh Castle and the Princes Street Gardens. At night we went to one of those huge movie theaters and saw Red Riding Hood.





On Sunday we first made a quick stop at Dunbar's Close Garden before heading for quite the athletic climb (in a dress!) over Arthur's Seat. This is where I got sunburned (sunburned! In Scotland!). The weather had been unbelievably beautiful after all - except for some clouds on Friday morning and a little rain on Friday night, we have seen nothing but clear blue skies and sunshine. After that endeavor it was back to the airport and I, for one, was quite sad to leave the city, our beautiful guest house, our hosts Robin and Tracey, and Robin's cute little dog Lola (if you ever visit Edinburgh, make sure to check out the Ardmor House).





What I enjoyed most about Edinburgh, was the nature inside its city limits. It makes Utrecht's parks look like silly little wannabes. The city has cute walled herb gardens, huge parks and one big mountaneous formation. But overall the city is very green, with lots of trees and plants and streets in a widely set-up city plan (Old Town excluded of course). My favorite moment was hiking up Arthur's Seat in the sun, wind in hair, amazing views, and a feeling of being so grateful to experience such rugged beauty and, dare I say, wilderness inside the city.

Besides that, of course, we ate a lot! The Lonely Planet was helpful, but our hosts proved to be most useful. They managed to get us a reservation at The Kitchin, even though the only spot available was a late 2.15 PM lunch on Thursday (I believe that Tracey may have said something along the lines of "What on earth were you thinking?!" when we first uttered our wishes to eat there on such short notice). This very hip and kind of intimidating restaurant run by Tom and Michaela Kitchin (yes, that is their real name - you cannot believe how jealous I am!) has one Michelin Star and delicious food. The chef only uses the best of what Scotland has to offer and is all about supporting local farmers, caring for livestock, using fresh, organic ingredients and all that good stuff. It was my first time eating in a Michelin Star restaurant, but I liked it a lot, although I wished that the servers wouldn't constantly stare at me in order to figure out if I needed anything else...

That same day we also had dinner at one of Edinburgh's best fish restaurants: Fishers. From the outside this restaurant doesn't look like much, but don't judge a book by its cover because the fish is fresh and delectable and the place is stuffed with locals (always a good thing).

One of the other places I really liked was Monster Mash, which feels more like a diner than a restaurant and which serves comfort food. Probably the opposite of The Kitchin in many ways, but just as enjoyable. Here I had a shepherd's pie and Jochem attempted to relive his childhood fish 'n' chips experience.

Probably the most adventurous thing we did was eat haggis. Yes, I am talking about the sheep's internal organs that are stewed in a sheep's stomach. First of all, it is not actually served inside of the stomach (or at least it wasn't to us). Second of all, it's quite good! It's like minced meat, except it's quite peppery and the texture is a little bit more like chicken liver than the real minced meat. It looks like minced meat as well, and mixed with the mashed potatoes, I liked it even more than the Angus beef hamburger that we also ordered, just in case. I guess that most people are just put off by what's in it, but in that case I want to tell you to just get over yourself and look closely at that box of frozen chicken nuggets that you're about to put in the fryer.

All in all, I had a great time in Scotland (and I hope that Jochem did as well). I hope to come back someday and eat more food, see more sights, and enjoy good weather again.

Foodies Unite!

Please read this article by Eric Schlosser titled Why Being a Foodie Isn't 'Elitist', which includes a mention of Jamie Oliver.

"The survival of the current food system depends upon widespread ignorance of how it really operates."