"What I Cooked Today" Day 318

The longer I keep this blog, the more my posts become collages of nights spent with friends. Aren't food and friends intertwined, after all? On my day off I went to Amersfoort to have dinner with my friends. The meal was centered around a grasshopper pie, around which we quickly materialized an oven dish with potatoes, red onion, chicken and sausage as well as three different dips for our doritos. These dishes were either inspired by Laura Zavan's My Little Italy (in the case of the dips) or Nigella Lawson's Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home (in the case of the oven dish and the grasshopper pie). Enjoy!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 317

Today Jochem's mother came over for dinner. Both of us had to work late and neither of us had time to do groceries, so we served her some leftover soup with toasted bread, plus our last slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Luckily, she liked it!

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 15 January 2011 / Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson

"What I Cooked Today" Day 316

The other day I realized that those lovely winter vegetables that I actually adore but never seem to use very often are almost out of season in the Netherlands. The next time that they will be in season I will be somewhere in South East Asia, probably not eating potatoes. So we got some red beets for dinner today: pretty AND delicious!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 315

Today Jochem and I made a simple pasta and lentil soup from southern Italy accompanied by plain crostinis and some Parmesan cheese. So simple, so good.

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 15 January 2011

"What I Cooked Today" Day 314

An impression of today (after the much-needed sleeping in, having breakfast, updating the internet, cleaning, doing laundry, biking, doing yoga and taking a shower (what else are Sundays for if not to run errands?)):

It was sunny, so we took a long walk around our beautiful neighborhood.



We made a quick stop at De Bakkerswinkel where we sat outside in the sunshine and read our books (The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert, respectively).



We had a quick snack (black coffee with French chocolate cake for Jochem and latte machiato with a coconut brownie for me).



After another long walk we ate way too much at De Kust. A shrimp 'kroket' for me (for those non-Dutch readers (if any): I'm sorry, but there's just no translation for this weird yet delicious staple dish of the Dutch culinary world).



Gnocchi for Jochem (told you he was mad for it!).



Pappardelle for me.



Sardines for Jochem.



Finally, we all went to bed early where Manchego and I passed out during Oliver's Twist.



Great day.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 313

Today Jochem's ex-stepmother, Joke, and her partner, Kees, come over for dinner. We don't see them very often, but when we do, it's always nice to catch up. We made three new dishes for the occasion, including one of our favorite things in the culinary world: gnocchi! Jochem is a particular fan of gnocchi, but I, especially, was always a little intimidated by the daunting task of actually making it ourselves. Turns out that it's not that hard (as Jamie Oliver says: kids can do it)! We served our gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce made with fresh roma tomatoes, garlic, dried chili, basil and rocket. We also made a lovely broad bean salad with ham, parsley and rocket to accompany the dish, but we forgot to take a picture of it - sorry Nigella!

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 12 August/September 2010



For dessert we made a flowerless chocolate and lime cake with marguerita cream, which I believe was a huge hit. It was pretty good: rich with chocolate but light because of the lime, so it's easy to have a lot of without feeling full. Jochem had two pieces!

Source: Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson

"What I Cooked Today" Day 312

These past couple of weeks I have been feeling very restless come Friday night. It's the weekend after a long week of work - I don't want to sit at home, I want to DO things! Go out! Have dinner downtown! Have drinks at a hip bar! Finally see those Oscar-winning movies! Unfortunately, being close to broke all the time makes any of this nearly impossible. The least you can do then is prepare good food and have the people you love around. So Jochem and I invited Bic over for our favorite pizza with braised pork and Love and Other Drugs. At least that's something, right?

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 311

Today Jochem and I cooked a Greek tomato soup with rice and one special ingredient: tahini (sesame seed paste) that we had bought at the Moroccan store downtown on Saturday. We mixed the tahini with lemon juice, salt and pepper before adding it to the soup. We served the soup with feta and parsley and also prepared some garlic crostinis. It left the most wonderful aftertaste!

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 15 January 2011

"What I Cooked Today" Day 310

Today Bic and Mag came over to cook for us. Instead of writing about it, let me show you what they did:

















Thank you, my sweet friends, for a wonderful dinner!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 309

Today we made one of our favorites: broccoli and cauliflower stuffed cannelloni with homemade tomato and béchamel sauce with lots of grated cheese, mozzarella and basil. I can never get enough of this dish!

Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver