"What I Cooked Today" Day 290

Today was Thursday, so I headed off to another Wie is de MOL?! ex-colleagues reunion for dinner. This time we hung out at Daniëlle's place, who made burritos and the most lovely apple crumble pie, of which I had two servings, which basically undid all of the biking and yoga that I did today. It was totally worth it though.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 289

Today Jochem had to work overtime (apparently, that actually happens in real life and not just in the movies) so I had some leftover cauliflower risotto by myself while watching Grey's Anatomy on my laptop. Now it's time to ride my bike/hometrainer/stationary bike!

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 288

Today Jochem and Bianca decided to meet up for coffee, which turned into a dinner date, which turned into a homemade meal for three. In other words: it was yet another great impromptu night filled with good food, good wine, and good conversation. I will definitely miss such nights when I won't live here anymore. But let's not dwell on that for now - let's dwell on the FOOD! Bianca and Jochem prepared the same red mullet pasta dish inspired by Jamie Oliver's video that we made a few weeks ago. For dessert Bianca made something called 'Go Nuts,' courtesy of her American friend Amanda Miller, which I think is ice cream + Oreos + Reese's NutRageous + salted pistachios + maple syrup. I did nothing but watch from afar, but then again I had to work till 7. We did our usual thing: read aloud to each other from our favorite books, watch clips on YouTube and listen to music. We also watched scenes from Julie & Julia. It was fantastic!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 287

Today Jochem and I had another endive salad with pear, apple, herbs and blue cheese dressing. It was good, but I have to concentrate really hard on not getting hungry again. But I guess that riding my bike (or my 'hometrainer' as Derek enlightened me the other day), followed by some relaxing yoga, followed by a hot shower, will kick that sentiment right out the window. Right?

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 286

After spending most of the afternoon traveling from Brussels back to Utrecht by train, I was ravenous when I came home. Jochem and I had been planning to eat a salad, but I convinced him to make cauliflower risotto instead. It was quite comforting (and one of my better ideas of the day I'd say).

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 285

Today Derek, Kiran and I traveled to Brussels to visit Anna. It took us about 6 months to find a weekend where all 4 of us could be present, so I was pretty excited. However, I did not prepare to cook anything. Sometimes I choose to stay away from other people's kitchens to stop them from thinking I am a know-it-all in their own house, but Anna had other plans. Since I didn't bring or had even thought about potential recipes, I decided to make green chili again (I also wanted to make bruschetta but quite inexplicably forgot to get the central ingredient: mushrooms! Luckily the green chili stuffed us all...). Afterwards my friends make me watch 2 scary movies (per my own request, I must admit, but really: what was I thinking?!): Drag Me to Hell (= GROSS) and this little French flick called Inside (= SICK, DISTURBING and, most of all, UNNECESSARY). I had great fun though seeing these old friends again, catching up, eating good food, drinking Belgian beer and French wine and watching movies together till the wee hours of the morning. Shall we do it again in another 6 months?



Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 284

Another picture-less blog post, I'm afraid. We were dead tired this Friday so we ordered in some kebab. We did cook though - I made Sunday's asparagus soldiers again with pancetta and soft-boiled eggs and Jochem made muffins.

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 283

Today I am going to Chantal's dorm to watch another episode of Wie is de MOL?! and I am curious to see what she will prepare for dinner. I had some great leftover cannelloni for lunch wrapped in a leftover tortilla. I would say that, in general, I think fusion (i.e. what I understand to mean mixing different kinds of food together and calling it new) is pretty dumb. Just pick a cuisine, perfect it, stick to it and, most importantly, don't mess it up! Jochem does not agree with me on this. Sometimes I wonder if anyone does, but that's okay. As a self-proclaimed food snob I reserve the right to have biased and unsubstantiated opinions about food. But despite this opinion, I suddenly decided today to put Italian food into a Mexican (is it indeed Mexican? Sorry if I just inadvertently offended tons of people!) holder. It was really nice and it reminded me of my good friend's chicken tikka massala burrito. I also had some tea with some leftover English pudding. Sadly, yet again, I have no pictures to prove it to you. All in all I had a pretty good day though. I had breakfast in my pajamas and read Lonely Planets before hitting my new bike. I now have a bike in my living room. It is indeed quite the monstrosity, but I am grateful to the mother-in-law for letting me borrow it. Last week I was so fed up with having back pains all the time and with my stomach just getting bigger and rounder every day that I finally gave in and decided to exercise again, despite my detest of the concept. I now combine biking with my hatha yoga five times a week (or at least that's the plan - perhaps I shouldn't jinx the plan since this is just day 1, even though I've managed to do yoga five times a week since July). I just had to do something to get back in shape and since the swimming pool I used to go to is closed due to a bacterial infection, a gym is too expensive, and my doctor pretty much forbid me ever to run again, here I am. Biking in front of the TV. I have even, and I am a little bit ashamed to say this, started eating less food than usual AND I am now choosing some low-fat substitutes. Jochem probably hates me for it, and I must say that going back to putting low-fat milk into your coffee after you've grown accusted to the full-fat kind is no fun at all. Yet I feel better than last week, which I guess counts for something. But I must run - I am going to use my 'real' bike to get some more cotton underwear from the HEMA, since I believe that I have finally surpassed the stage where I can truthfully say that thongs are "just as comfortable as normal underwear." Not to burst your bubble, men, but women who say that are liars. All of them.

Sorry for this rant.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 282

Today Jochem's mom and stepdad came over for dinner and we prepared one of our favorite pasta dishes: cannelloni filled with broccoli and cauliflower with homemade tomato and bechamel sauces. Of course we added lots of cheese, basil and olive oil to complete the dish. For dessert we made Sunday's English pudding again because we had some leftovers. Jochem has been taking pictures with his mobile phone since we are now completely camera-less, but unfortunately he forgot today. My blog is looking very sad indeed...

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 281

Today Jochem and I prepared another of my parents' treats: salmon. I like to keep my salmon simple so we used one of Jamie Oliver's recipes with lemon zest, fennel tops, sea salt, black pepper and olive oil. We served it with a cucumber, chili and yogurt salad and some fries (with mayonaise of course!). Pretty awesome.

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver