Failed attempt nr. 1

Ever since I tasted the very first macaron in my life at Laduree in Paris, I’m hooked… I love the texture of these phenomenal cookies and the taste is just well…. to die for!

Last year I was in France with a friend and we found this little bakery in Dijon where they had macarons, so – you guessed it – we had more then our share of them. At that point I thought that it would be really cool to try and make them myself at some point in time. So I told my friend (who does not cook at all) who started to laugh and told me that was impossible…

I admit that the prospect of making these beauties myself was indeed a bit daunting and not something I would attempt to do lightly, but it had been done before right and I am not one to not take on a challenge. Still it is now almost a year further and today is the day I am making my first attempt at a macaron. I am saying attempt on purpose since I already know the outcome…

It all started quite well I think; I had bought the ingredients the day before, split my eggs, mixed the almond and the icing sugar, made my sugar syrup and thought I had done all the things correctly untill I put everything together and you just know that the batter is too thin…

Putting the stuff in a piping bag and then making rounds all equal in size proved to be another challenge I did not master at all! I didn’t have the right size tip but I don’t think that I can blame the tip for everything else that went wrong (I would love to do that though…!!) If it was only the size that would have been wrong, I could have lived with it, easily! No problem…

I let the mismatching size macarons sit outside for about an hour, which apparently is necessary to harden the shells a bit. So I did and then popped them in the oven at a 145 degrees C. I sett the timer for 15 minutes but when I checked after 15 minutes they still seemed very fragile when I took one out of the oven. It broke immediately. So I left them in the oven a little while longer, but as it turned out – none of that mattered! I could not get them of the baking sheets. I tried a knife, I tried a cake knife, I tried to rub the blade in oil to make it more smooth, but whatever I did… no success. So this is how it all finally came of the sheet…

I was planning to bring them to my parents in law tomorrow when we go there! O haha… I already see their faces before me when I present them with this sugary mess… I guess I have to make something a little bit simpler tomorrow, so at least I have something!

I emailed the queen of macarons, Helen aka Tartelette, with a cry for help and apparently I have used an Italian recipe for meringue instead of a french one.

Don’t think I will give up!! My friend will no doubt laugh herself silly when I present her with the last picture of how my first adventure into the world of making macarons ended. But at some point I am going to have to prove her wrong. Even if it takes me 10 batches of failed macarons (who by the way, despite their apparent look, where still very tasty. I have a sugar overdose now!)

So again, I present you with failed attempt numbero uno!

Raspberry goatcheese salad

There is something about salads that I just cannot resist. They are so versatile and you could literally make a different salad everyday and never make the same one in your life (well, not sure if that is an actual fact, but it feels like that to me anyway!) plus I also find that it is absolutely perfect for getting rid of some leftovers.

I had raspberries leftover as well as some lovely goatcheese that I bought at the farmer’s market this saturday. I had used a large part while making the goatcheese and smoked chicken quich that I had made before but still about half was left in the fridge, so it seemed like a perfect meal to make when I saw a recipe in the Allerhande (supermarket magazine) this week.

I am not sure what has happened to the weather here, but ever since last sunday it has been absolutely terrible. Remember we had that lovely sunny weather and it was so hot out there, that we couldn’t even stay out in the sun? Well, I can tell you that has all completely disappeared and I mean… completely!

Yesterday I had a hairdresser appointment with a friend and we also always use that to go shopping and yesterday that meant we went cookbook shopping… We did not want to walk too far as the downpour was just too bad to stay outdoors for longer then absolutely necessary and there is this fabulous cookbook bookstore very close to our hairdresser (let’s face it; that alone would be reason enough to go to the hairdresser and have an excuse to visit that store!!)

I bought the newest Donna Hay book, a small book about making macarons… (yes, it’s finally gonna happen and today will be the day), a book called “take away’ by Les Huynh, also full of fabulous recipes.

Anyway, more books to try out. As if I did not already own way too many cookbooks, but I simply cannot resist them. I read them at night, before I go to bed! Haha… Anyway, I am gonna go back into the kitchen after having eaten this lovely fresh salad (recipe below) and will now go and have my first ever attempt at making my own macarons!! Say tuned for the final results.

Goatcheese, raspberry and pinenut salad

Roast some pinenuts in a dry frying pan and keep aside to cool of. Make a dressing out of balsamic vinegar and olive oil (1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss some lamb’s lettuce on a plate and add some chopped spring onions on top. Add crumbled goatcheese, raspberries and the pinenuts and drizzle some of the dressing on top.

And you’re done! How quick is that! Enjoy!

Farmers market Almere

It has been one of those things we’d been meaning to do for a loooong time; going to the farmers market here in Almere. Now that we’re on the subject of shopping; can I just complain for a little bit about the lack of good produce here in Almere? There are really not a lot of places where you can buy good vegetables other then the standard fare you will find in any supermarket. Even fresh herbs are sometimes hard to come by. Ok, you can now buy pots of basil, parsley and sometimes even mint in the supermarket, but finding dille or fresh cilantro can be a real challenge. (which is why we’re now attempting to grow them in our garden!!) So going to this farmers market we were hoping to find a good source of edible goodies. Well, yes and no. It was very very small. I had hoped for a larger selection of things, but there was literally only 7 stalls in total. The things that they did have looked good and I especially liked the vegetables. All very seasonal and looking rather good as well.

Next to restaurant de Kemphaan

The market is held every saturday at the estate of the Kemphaan which is all about organic farming and a huge area as well. There is a restaurant next to it, looking out over the water so that was a lovely place to have coffee. Next to the Kemphaan is Stichting Aap, which is a foundation that is famous for rescuing monkies worldwide from mallpractice, such as keeping them as a pet or animals that are used for entertaining tourists and have let miserable lifes in general. A lot of the monkies there are seriously damaged, either fysical or psychological and can at least enjoy the rest of their lifes in relative peace and quiet.

After the market we decided to head to Almere Haven for a nice light lunch. The weather is still gorgeous, although thankfully slightly less hot then the previous days, so on a terrace in the shade we both enjoyed a lovely sandwich…

Goatcheese and honey sandwich

Smoked chicken sandwich

Tonight’s gonna be another Jamie recipe; canneloni!!

Beans on toast

There are many things that can be said about Jamie Oliver and you either love him or you hate him (apparently) but you cannot say he has a lack of enthusiasm for cooking and product in general! Yesterday we were watching an episode of Jamie at home which we have on DVD (in case you were wondering; I am a fan.. ) and this particular episode was about beans, peas and anything related to that family. With the fresh pods from his garden (what a garden!!!) he made this lovely recipe, which is really quick and really simple and I found it very refreshing with the weather right now. So definitely a fabulous lunchrecipe. Healthy too!

It’s incredibly hot and humid right now and huge thunderstorms are being predicted for later this afternoon, which – quite frankly – is probably good since it’s too hot to do anything really. Yesterday I decided to go for a bike ride to my parents house which is in a little town called Eemnes. But to get there you have to cross a bridge and it’s 25 kilometers to get there (so  yes, that is 50 km in total) and that may not be a huge distance for a lot of people, but for me it’s a big distance! Plus on top of that it was 30 degrees C yesterday as well. Luckily I got fed fresh strawberries at my folks so I was nourished before going back.

Why is that you always have the wind against you on the way back?? Anyway, I made it. Slightly sore bum today though…

I was up early this morning as I had to get to Amsterdam to pick up my brand new Canon Eos 5D Mark II!! Whoohoo!! Photos above are taken with this new toy (well not really a toy with these prices..) The one thing I am a little unhappy about is the fact that they thought it was a good idea to change the battery type from the original 5D to the 5D mark II! That means I have to get a whole stack of expensive new batteries. I hate it when they do that for no good reason really as the other ones where perfect.

I will play around with it and let you know how I like it! Curious about the filming too!!

Here is the recipe for the lovely lunch I had!

PEAS AND BROADBEANS ON TOAST WITH MINT AND MOZARELLA (serves four) From at home with Jamie

500 gr fresh peas in the pod (about 150 gr out of their shells)

700 gr broadbeans (about 250 gr. once pods are removed)

fresh mint, use only the leaves

seasalt and black pepper

extra virgin oliveoil

50 gr grated pecorino, plus some extra for serving

juice of 1 lemon

4 slices of sourdough bread

1 clove of garlic, unpealed, cut in two

2 large balls of mozarella

a handful of peasprouts (I couldn’t get those so used wild rocket instead, which works well too)

Remove the peas and broadbeans from their pods and put them in separate tubs. Keep the smallest ones apart to mix through the salad.

For pureeing the beans and peas, Jamie is telling you to use a pestle and mortar but I chose the lazy option and used a small kitchenmachine. Mix half of the mindleaves with the peas and ad some salt. Puree and then ad the broadbeans. Make it all into a thick green paste.

Gizmo hiding from the sunshine

Ad a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to make the puree lovely moist. Add the grated pecorino. If the puree becomes too stiff you can thin it with a little extra olive oil.

Add about 3/4 of the lemonjuice – that will bring all the flavours together. Have a taste and if needed ad salt and pepper to taste.

Grill or toast the bread on a bbq or on a grillpan on both sides and rub them only twice with the halved garlic and cover them with a big spoon of the puree and half a ball of mozarella.

Add the peashoots, the rest of the mintleaves and the small beans and peas that you kept separate in a bowl with the rest of the lemonjuice, salt and pepper and put the salad on top of the crostini. Decorate with a few drips of olive oil and some grated pecorino.

Now to just leave you with something rather funny; I was throwing something away in the bin at the end of the garden and heard serious buzzing. We have a bird’s house hanging there which is occupied by a nest of bumblebees. The house is hanging against our shed and we’ve had the bumblebees there for the second year now. I had a quick look to see what all the buzzing was about and then I noticed this tiny bumblebee sitting in the opening of the house flapping it’s wings like crazy. That was the humming sound I had heard! I think he was trying to get some cool air into the nest. I can only imagine how hot it must be in there if they do that! I thought it was rather cute.

In the meantime the thunder and rain has started here, so hopefully it will become a little bit cooler now!

Mozarella sandwich

For the last couple of days the weather here has been gorgeous. Temperatures are somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees, so lovely weather. However; I seem to have a hard time enjoying it. The problem is that things have become quiet after all the busy weddingstuff I have done in june. I have only a few appointments in july and even though it is the same every year during the summer months; I worry…

Maybe that is one of the things of being your own boss; you have the good things such as freedom and no boss, but on the other hand, I find that I worry so much more. So instead of enjoying the weather and relaxing a bit I am thinking on how to get more customers. Should I call everyone (everyone is on holiday), should I be more active on the internet (where, where, where??) or what should I do? Anyway, I know it’s silly, but I cannot help myself!

And another advantage of actually having a boss and colleagues (referring not really to the boss here, but more to the colleagues!) is that you can complain to your co-workers if you’re having an off-day. I have no one to complain to. Everyone is at work, Tom is gonna be home really late today and all my friends are busy. Boohoo… Is this a serious case of feeling sorry for myself? O haha… Sorry, this is just a terrible whining session, so just ignore it!

I’ve rented out the studio for the day as well, so I cannot go there and do some stuff either (which I would normally do..)

Anyway, enough of the complaining!! I am sure there are loads of you out there who are now going “What??!! Is she insane to complain about being home on a lovely summerday with no other obligations then to read a book in the garden??” I profusely apologize, but a girl has a right to complain once a year, don’t you think?

I’ll stop now and go and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. It’s still Holland, so it might turn at any minute/day..!

I had a simple yet delicious lunch this afternoon, with a toasted sandwich and basically a salad on top with rocket, mozarella (buffalo ofcourse), tomatoes and parmaham underneath. I was meant to add a little bit of balsamic vinegar but that became a large splash as I had my thumb in the wrong spot I think… It was still very delicious though!

I wanted to add roasted peppers on top as well, but in the end decided against it. The tomatoes are quite good flavoured, so that was enough!

Loved it!

Bakewell tart with lemon curd..

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800′s in England.

Let me first start by saying a big thank you to Lisa! I know the reveal date for the Daring Bakers is the 27th of the month, but for some strange reason it had gotten stuck in my mind that it should be the 1st. So I was planning on baking these goodies on the 27th. Thinking I would have plenty of time to take photos the day after… How wrong was I!! Lisa made a comment on one of my other posts saying she was curious on how my bakewell post would turn out.. At which point my alarm bells started to ring…Oops…

The one good thing was that I had been planning on baking them this afternoon anyway, it was just all a bit different than I thought and I would have stupidly posted them a couple of days too late if it hadn’t been for Lisa. So, big thanks Lisa!

As we speak the shells are in the freezer cooling down, but I thought I start writing about my bakewell adventure already now. So will write along as they – hopefully – become ready.

I had never made Bakewell tart before, but I have said the same thing of every Daring Bakers challenge sofar, so maybe I should find a more original line. Haha.. It’s true though. Our baking adventures when I was a kid didn’t go any further then appletart and regular cake. Ofcourse I have baked various other things since living on my own, but there is still loads and loads to learn. As was also the case with this fine exampe of baking.

I started with a slight problem on the butter becoming soft too quickly. As luck would have it, it is an extremely warm and humid day here today. The kind of day you have before a giant thunderstorm (which is what is predicted for the weather later today) so any ingredients that were cool coming out of the fridge warmed up fast. My hands didn’t stay cool for very long either, so I don’t think that helped when grating the butter.

Mixing the ingredients for the Frangipane was straightforward so no surprises there, although I was very happy that they mentioned that it would look  a bit curdled. I would have been worried otherwise!

I kept the dough in the fridge for slightly more then half an hour but as soon as I tried to roll them out with the rolling pin, it was pretty obvious that that wouldn’t work. O… gotta run downstairs again..

Filled with jam

So the tarts are in the oven now… Ok, where was I… Yes, so when rolling it out, or trying to roll it out it broke instantly. Basically falling apart. So instead of rolling it out; I grabbed a bit and pressed it into the tartforms, making sure to make the dough as even as possible, although I am sure it is not quite.. I am not sure what I have done wrong. Possible not cold enough? Would that make it ‘unrollable’? After having them in the freezer for 15 minutes I filled them with various jam-flavours. I did not go for the homemade option. I have made jam once before and thought it was quite a nice thing to do, but I am not a big jam eater so I thought the store bought option would be better. At one of my favorite shops “Dille and Kamille” they sell tiny jars of jam, so you can buy different kinds and still not be stuck with loads of jam. I chose Apple-cinnamon, blueberry, raspberry and I found lemon curd as well (not easy to find here) so I used that too. Not

Not very consistent dough

sure how the lemoncurd will come out, as I’ve never really used it before. But I love the tangy flavour so am thinking it might be good.

I now have to wait for 30 minutes untill they are ready before I can tell you anything else… so till then…

O my god… Those little things turned out to be absolutely delicious. I was a bit anxious that they wouldn’t come out right, as our oven is not the best and half of the tartelets are actually on the too dark side, but just slightly. It just heats unevenly.

After half and hour they were done and ofcourse I managed to throw one on the floor while getting them out of the oven. And why does that always happen with one of the yummiest flavours?? I love apple/cinnamon but that was the one I dropped..

The one I just ate was the lemon curd and it was delicious! The frangipane has come out really nice and light and wonderful in texture and flavour and the crust is – I think – how it is supposed to be.. Love it!! Thanks to Jasmine and Annemarie for hosting this one!

Here is the (lengthy) recipe.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Papardelle from Fifteen Amsterdam

I can’t even remember how we saw that this festival was going to take place, but I had bought tickets for it over the internet ages ago and yesterday it was finally time. We had chosen to go in the afternoon (you had to pick either morning, afternoon or evening) as we figured that friday evening would simply be too crowded to see anything or do anything.

Taste of Amsterdam is an international foodie-event taking place for the first time in Amsterdam. A lot of restaurants had been invited to make their signature dishes as well as some of the better known chefs would come and give demonstrations or workshops. I think it took place last year in London, so I am not sure if it will be a recurring event or if they pick another country each year.

Taste of Amsterdam

It was relatively quiet in the afternoon which was fine as we had all the time to look around and pick some of the lovely tasters. The first one was from Fifteen in Amsterdam and I chose the papardelle with pesto, rocket and pecorino. Tom had the ravioli filled with mint, ricotta and parmezan (I am not entirely sure if I got that right) in a mint sauce. Both were very different but equally delicious and I think also my favorite of the things we tasted. Obviously there is too much to taste all of it.

Burger from restaurant Sophie

It wasn’t for free but all the dishes were about 6 or 8 euro’s a piece. The dish on the left was a small hamburger from restaurant Sophia with truffelmayonaise and gooseliver. I didn’t particularly liked the gooseliver on top of the beef as it was a bit too creamy for my taste but the truffelmayonaise was delicious, although I wasn’t too impressed with the greyish color of the mayonaise… That’s just a wrong color in food I think!

While the bites were small, they were also quite filling so we didn’t have more then three… Would loved to have tried some of the others as well!

We spend the last of our coins (you had to buy separate ‘florijnen’ to pay at the various restaurant stands) on a delicious glass of rose. I bought some artisan bread and lovely cheese to take home, so that is what we had for dinner! (well, Tom put something else on the bread as he doesn’t like cheese..)

So all in all it was a fun event and we were lucky to have picked the afternoon as the evening was filled with rain! And since it is outdoors, that is not the best thing… Definitely worth going back there next year. It wasn’t spectaculair but it was a nice way to try out various restaurants for a very small amount of money!

Classic bagel

While this is certainly not the most creative bagel you can come across I do think it is one of those classic combinations that are just soooo good! I had to be in the studio today and figured I might as well have some fun with my lunch before eating it… I didn’t feel like cooking anything (way to hot here right now!!) so I just got myself a few bagels, salmon, creamcheese and fresh chives and rocket. I then tried out various compositions and lighting things, just for fun and to see what the difference is if you vary light and angles on the exact same subject. I normally don’t do a lot of dark shots but I kind of like the one above. I think it is one of my favorites but let me know what you think!

Version 2

The second one is a much lighter setting as I used one Bowens from the left behind and a fill-in from the front/side. Also the props are much lighter which gives a very different feel to the whole shot.

version 3

Version 3 is a top view with light from left behind and fill-in from the front side again. I used top views a lot when I shoot at home. There is usually some clutter on our dining room table and shooting from above eliminates most of that..! So it just tends to be out of laziness..

I was really planning on posting this yesterday but guess what; I got hacked again! For the second time in one week and this one was a pain as I couldn’t get it fixed without help. And since I found out after working hours I had to wait untill today.

So then it was finally fixed although I am kind of worried that it will be happening again soon! Seems to be a sport to annoy people enormously! Fingers crossed I’ll be ok for a while.

I bought an Ipod Touch today as well. Whoohoo!! I am a bit of gadget fan, so I don’t really need it, it’s just a fun thing to have. I have a blackberry which I use for business, so I did have a good phone so no need to buy an Iphone. The Touch is basically an Iphone but without the phone. Fine by me! Still figuring out how to use it though…

We also went to a food festival in Amsterdam today but I will be posting about that tomorrow!

Grote markt

Last week I went with my friend Fiona to Antwerpen (for those who don’t know, that is in Belgium) which is really only a very short ride away. Yes Christie… you can get to another country from here in  about two hours… We were quite lucky with the weather as it had been rainy the entire week but as you can see from the above photo we had lovely weather. Still a bit chilly but sunny enough to do some serious shopping!

Fiona had her mind set on buying a chandelier. She is moving back to Scotland (where she comes from) and wanted to have one of those ones for her new home. Now we had anticipated heavy traffic on our way to Antwerp, but funny enough, had none, so we were in the city around 9.15 am. Far too early and most shops where still closed!

We did manage to find a coffeeplace that was open so we could wake up a little and wait for the other shops to open in the meantime. Ofcourse coffee would not be complete without a lovely bit of apple cake

The good thing about us having to search for a coffeeplace was that we found magazine heaven! Oooo my goodness, it is a good thing that this shop is so far away as I would gladly spend a fortune everyday there just getting my favorite magazines all in one place! I should have taken a photo of the store but completely forgot since I was browsing the magazines. Imagine a huge store, entirely filled with magazines from every country in the world. Ordered by subject. So obviously I went straight to the cooking section and bought loads of cooking magazines! I mainly buy UK magazines as those are – besides the dutch ones – readily available here. So that is Goodfood and Olive. But here they had separate additions and o, too many wonders…

Fiona was worse though. She spend 200 euros on magazines in that one shop! We had to go back to the car straight away as all those magazines weigh a ton ofcourse. Imagine…. we had to go back to the car to drop of our purchases after having been in the city for less then an hour. Quite the accomplishment I would say. Anyway, having dropped of our load we continued down the streeets in search of antique shops where the chandeliers would be. It was a bit of a walk from the center so we got hungry on the way and had to stop for lunch in a lovely little cafe. I chose the Tuscany platter with bread, parmaham, parmezan, pesto, ricotta and some salad. Basically making your own sandwiches from the ingredients on the plate. It was lovely!

Tuscany platter

You see I also got to play with my new toy. Since we will be going to Indonesia in August, I have bought a little camera that can also go underwater. I chose the very new Canon Powershot D10. I haven’t tried it underwater yet, but the photos on this blogpost have all been taken with this camera. It’s an ok quality for a compact camera and will certainly do well for snapshots on holiday! Can’t wait to test it underwater though!

We found the antiquestreet  and there was so much choice in chandeliers that it was hard to pick one, so Fiona ended up wanting two, but unfortunately one appeared to be broken so in the end she bought only the one beautiful chandelier. Now I am not a chandelier person and the chances of finding one in our home are non-existent, but some of those old ones are quite pretty and if you have a house to suit the lamp it can be quite pretty. (I am thinking old castles now, mind you!)

Since we were done at about 6 pm with shopping we figured we might as well have dinner as well before heading back to Holland as we would otherwise just be stuck in traffic forever. Unfortunately; Antwerp is also quite a touristy place so finding a good restaurant can be very tricky. We were deceived by the good looks of the exterior of the place and as it turned out the food was crap. We both had no starter (we just had icecream before so felt that would have been too much) but just a main course. I had an entrecote with gorgonzolasauce and as you can see from the photo the meat is huge.

Terrible dish!

Getting large chunks of meat is normally not my thing. Tom is the big meateater in our household, so this was just too much for me. The veggies that went with the meat; I am not sure what they did with it but it was horrible, horrible… Sour almost and completely overcooked. The meat was too stringy and just really not tasty at all. So that was a bit disappointing really. Fiona and I both like a good meal and we go out for dinner on a regular basis and normally we pick really good restaurants but this was just bad. So bad even that we decided to not have coffee there either, but somewhere else.

So that was a slightly disappointing end to an otherwise fun day. Traffic on the way back was also moving along nicely so all good!

I had some leftover stuff in the fridge which I wanted to use for a lunchsalad for this afternoon. I had seen a recipe in the goodfood with leftover pasta… Ofcourse I did not have any leftover pasta, but cooking some fresh was not really a problem ofcourse…

That’s one of the things I love about being at home during the day; I get to make things you wouldn’t be making in an office! Man, what did I get there other then stale sandwiches…? Well, ok, that is really untrue as we had a fabulously big cafetaria where you could get salads and all sorts of other stuff, so I shouldn’t complain but somehow the food you make at home is soooo much better. Plus – let’s face it – even the best cafetaria in the end serves the same food most of the time… And it’s just not exactly to your own taste, plus it is kept in those warm bins for too long usually.

Pasta dish

I’ve been having a rather strange day today… All due to the fact that some kind of lunatic is sending deatthreats to Tom via email. He is convinced that Tom slept with his wife…. Now most of you don’t know Tom in person, but I know for a fact that nothing could be further from the truth. And we have a strong suspicion that the wife (a former colleague of Tom) has come up with that story to cover something else. I don’t know… whatever the case is; this guy is seriously mental and potentially dangerous.

He started by sending messages on the fishing site Tom is on. Then he started sending an email to Tom and this morning he started sending emails to me. Quite innocently pretending he wanted to have photos taken of his kids… Ofcourse I asked him what the hell he was doing and never got a normal answer.(I did get a lot of not so normal answers…)

Anyway, I will spare you the full details, but let’s say that it is very unsettling especially since Tom has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. We’ve both been trying to call the woman in person but she is not available. And leaving voicemail messages sofar has not had any response.

The police will possibly need to become involved soon too if this doesn’t blow over… It’s ridiculous and very scary too… We’ve already called the police for advice so we’ll wait one more day and press charges if it’s still the same tomorrow.

How weird can it be right? I am not sure if writing about it here is wise, but I just had to get it of my chest and it’s unlikely he is gonna be reading my blog… Fingers crossed this will not end in drama!

O and for the salad… I tossed together gorgonzola, tomatoes (dried and fresh) and for the sauce capers, pesto and a little bit of red onion chopped finely. Delicious!