"What I Cooked Today" Day 212

I started my not-so-new-anymore-but-definitely-first-real-grown-up job exactly 3 months ago today, and you might be pleased to read that I still enjoy it very much. There are, in fact, a lot of things that I like about it besides my daily duties. Like the fact that I can wear the same pair of jeans to work every day without judgement. And how everyone, and I do mean absolutely everyone, bonds over peanut butter sandwiches over lunch. Or how about the fact that my boss refers to my boyfriend as 'Mr Nuria'? And the fact that 'customers' is considered a dirty word. Plus, of course, the fact that we are all passionate about offering the best educational services to our students. Yes, there are many things to be enjoyed at my particular office job. An additional one I experienced today at our quarterly office drink. My colleagues and I from the secretarial department were in charge of organizing it, and, lucky for me, they enjoy cooking as much as I do. While one colleague made pumpkin soup and another made a quiche, I made a spinach tart. I was quite nervous about it since it is not 'my' recipe but a friend's, but it turned out just fine since my colleagues finished it all. I was just a little sorry that I didn't have anything to spare for Mr Nuria, who actually helped me a lot yesterday while making it.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 211

Today was leftover day, but probably one of the best ones yet. We used the leftover lasagna sheets to make pappardelle. We mixed the leftover béchamel sauce with some creme fraiche to thicken it as a sauce. We sautéed the onions and herbs, which we had originally used to flavor the béchamel sauce, and served it with some leftover chicken, garlic and lemon over the pasta. Great stuff for a Monday evening!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 210

Today Jochem and I made lunch for my parents who came to visit. We made that oriental soup that I had planned to cook on Friday. It had tomatoes, red, yellow and green bell pepper, red onion, loads of garlic, couscous, coriander and two essential spices: sumak (which is made from a sweet and citrusy red berry) and zahtar (a mixture of sumak, thyme and sesame seeds). We served it with tortillas that we had roasted in the oven with some olive oil, sumak and zahtar. Jamie Oliver calls this his Astoria soup, after the neighborhood Astoria in New York, which apparently has a lot of Egyptian restaurants (I always thought that it was renowned for its Greek restaurants, hence the surprise). Sumak and zahtar may seem pretty random, but come in quite handy once you get into oriental cuisine. They're hard to come by though, at least here, because we bought our sumak in Istanbul and were given our zahtar by a dear friend from Israel. The soup was delicious by the way - rich in every sense!

Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver

PS: For dinner Jochem and I finally made it to Badhu - an old hammam turned restaurant/hotel on the other side of the Griftpark with lots of oriental mezzes. Great atmosphere, great food!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 209

Today Jochem and I finally hosted the much-anticipated dinner date at our apartment. We started the meal with Michiel and Marije's dish, which was an oriental couscous dish with squash and halloumi cheese.



Jochem and I had made quite the ambitious lasagna with homemade tomato sauce, homemade béchemel sauce and homemade pasta.

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver



As a side dish we had also made roasted pumpkin, served in its own shell.

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver



For dessert Erik and Marjolein gave us chocolate mousse with Grand Marnier.



Thank you all for another great dinner date!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 208

Today did not exactly go as planned. I had planned to make an oriental soup with tortillas together with Jochem, however, I had to work overtime and Jochem was stuck in public transport due to a fire at Utrecht Central Station. So I came home to a cold, dark and empty house to a massive load of dishes from yesterday and I decided to change plans, call Bic, get some take-out, and watch reruns of the Dog Whisperer. Silly me, though, also brought a bottle of rosé which I finished all by myself. Top that off with a glass of port and you've got on sick me on your hands. Barfje.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 207

Today I decided to make something that I thought would be simple, but which was anything but. It was a dish with cod, mushrooms and bread, but included a couple of very dificult procedures, like sieving the brown butter and puréeing the mushroom sauce. It was way too fussy in my opinion, more like something you'd eat at a fancy restaurant, but, I must say, the flavors were wonderful. I used to never really like cod, but this tells me that with the right ingredients, anything can be tasty (or, you know, just by using loads of butter).

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 13 September/October 2010

"What I Cooked Today" Day 206

We had quite a bit of beef and gravy leftover from yesterday, so we decided to make another favorite Dutch staple meal of mine: mashed potatoes with mashed red beets! I would like to dedicate this post to my mother, who is Spanish by the way, because she has helped Jochem and me over the phone countless times over the last couple of days to help us recreate some of my favorite childhood dishes. Plus: she was the one who told us to put sautéed onion with the red beets, which was just brilliant!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 205

The Dutch may not be known for their cuisine (probably justifiably so), but there are some dishes that even I can appreciate. Now, there were a lot of things that I didn't care for when I was young. Sauerkraut. Red cabbage. Bell pepper. Chinese food. Anything spicy. But what I have always loved (and I do mean: LOVED) are Brussel sprouts! I never get those people who don't like Brussel sprouts - what's not to like?! You can do a million things to them and they always keep that signature taste. But today we made them the way my mom used to make it: with potatoes, mushed to a pulp, with braised beef and lots and lots of gravy. It was awesome, but of course not as good a mom's.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 204

Today Jochem and I had leftover stew for dinner since we made a little bit too much over the weekend. Jochem had chicken stew and I had lamb stew. Plus: we ate it at the kitchen table, which is worth mentioning, since despite all of our snobbery, we usually eat dinner in front of the tv.

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 13 September/October 2010

"What I Cooked Today" Day 203

Today Jochem and I made stew again! Partly because I really wanted to make Jochem happy on his Sunday off (which was quite the unexpected luxury), partly because I was too lazy to think of a different dish to cook today, and also because I already had all of the ingredients at home due to yesterday's stew and figured: might as well. This stew, however, was made with red wine and lamb.

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 13 September/October 2010