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Last Supper
2007-06-01 11:47:00
Well dear readers, I’m about to embark on un-chartered territories, I’m going to do a detox/fast. Not, a “I will drink coffee and booze for a couple of weeks” kinda fast, but an honest to goodness period without food and only a detoxifying and nutritive juice based drink for a certain amount of time. While I’m at it, I’m going to kick my cigarette habit of 16+ years. What’s the point, if I’m still hitting the Lucky Strikes everyday, eh? I love my food, but I also love my body, which has become a wee bit sluggish and definitely out of shape. It’s time to do a bit of spring cleaning and start afresh. After careful consideration, some proper research and some glowing recommendations, I’ve chosen the method and I start tomorrow.  Tonight I had leftover pea and mint risotto with Italian sausages, which in my defense, were only thrown in at the last minute as a quick way of warming them up; and lovely green salad with c...
More About: Last Supper , Supper , Suppe

Enchanted Forest
2007-05-31 15:40:00
  About two years ago, I was thumbing through the Dutch version of Elle Décor, Elle Wonen, and my eyes fell upon the most enchanting plate I’d ever seen. I’ve never considered myself a “tableware” kinda girl; I don’t even own a complete set of dinnerware, glassware, or silverware, for that matter. I would definitely say that I’m more concerned with what’s on the plate, then what it looks like, but Tord Boontje changed all that for me. Tord Boontje, is a Dutch-born designer, who graduated from both the Design Academy in Eindhoven and the Royal College of Art in London. He’s worked for and designed for the likes of Studio Alchimia, Alexander McQueen, Swarovski, Habitat, Kvadrat, and Authentics who carry my beloved Table Stories series of tableware. The distinctly Scandinavian style paired with the fairytale-centric renderings of animals, flora and fauna, are at once beautiful and spookily haunting. I am so in love with ...
More About: Forest , Enchanted , Fore , Chan , Chant

Birthday Girl
2007-05-27 15:44:00
Today is my 33rd birthday (gulp), its 3:00 pm and I'm still in my bathrobe sipping champagne. I started my day by opening my presents in bed and had a lovely "fry-up" for breakfast, what more can a girl ask for, really?! In the last two weeks I've baked about 9 dozen cupcakes, as well as a 12-inch, filled and frosted 2-layer cake; and the only cake I want for my own birthday is one that I haven't made.I'll leave you with some pictures of what's kept me busy this week: the cupcakes I took to my day job for my birthday, that were also a test run for the bigger cake that made for my friend's 40th birthday. I'm off to finish my champie and slip into the bath till it's time for my dinner and a movie date with E!
More About: Girl , Birthday

Leftovers: Ganache
2007-05-24 21:33:00
Recipe for leftover ganache...take as many scoops of Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream (or any other good quality vanilla ice cream) as you need, reheat ganache to pourable state, pour ganache over the ice cream and garnish with loads of raspberries. Perfect for every occasion.
More About: Gana , Leftovers , Nach

New Love: Ganache
2007-05-23 23:41:00
In the Netherlands, it's traditional to bring sweet treats, normally cakes or vlaai to your work in honor of your birthday. I like this tradition a whole lot better then, the other birthday tradition of picking up the tab on your birthday. I firmly believe that your birthday should be a treat for you, not others! E.'s birthday was last week, and so I took the opportunity to try out some new recipes and ideas for cupcakes for him to take to work. I decided on two different kinds of filled cupcakes, a whole new adventure for me, having never made filled cupcakes before. After much thought and a bit of inspiration from my newest cookbooks, I decided to make a devil's food cupcakes laced with coffee, filled with ganache and topped with white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, and yellow cupcakes filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon glaze. chocolate lover's fantasy --- the triple chocolate cupcake!  lemon-luscious!The ganache was super easy to make and easy to work ...
More About: Love , Gana , Nach

Crème Brûlee for My Baby
2007-05-22 17:07:00
I've been promising E. for two years that I'd make crème brûlee for him, which is basically the entire time that we've been together. He even bought me one of those handy little blow torches to aid in the process, but I somehow just never got around to making my all-time favorite dessert for him. Even worse, we've even gotten into the habit of picking up Bonne Maman's ready-made crème brûlee from the refrigerated section of our local supermarkets, which never fails to leave me blushing somewhat ashamedly, and muttering something to the effect of "I really do need to make crème brûlee for you." the substituteSo this weekend, I decided to finally make the much discussed crème brûlee and give my birthday boy a special treat. Keep in mind that we had a quite a power-packed four-day weekend with three very late nights, not excluding our own little combined birthday soiree on Saturday night. My best-laid plans of making c...
More About: Baby

Restorative Hangover Breakfast
2007-05-17 20:29:00
Thursday morning, 11ish: Me:    (Groaning) I'm hungry... E:    (Reciprocating my groan) Yeah, me too... Me:    I need breakfast, preferably a fried breakfast! E:    Me too.Me:    We don't have any bread, though... E:    I could go get some... Me:    You'll have to ride all the way to the AH on the Elandsgracht, all the shops are shut cause it's a national holiday... E:    Oh, yeah, you're right... Circa two hours later: Me:    (Yawning and stretching) I know�I can make biscuits! E:    (Yawning, rolling over and pulling the covers over his head) Uhm-hum...Me:    You're on egg and bacon duty! Today is Hemelvaartsdag or Ascension as it's known in the English speaking world, which for me it means nothing more then an excuse to take tomorrow as a bridge day and celebrate my baby�s 35th with a nice long weekend. Un...
More About: Breakfast , Hangover , Brea

Sexy Kitchen Wear
2007-05-10 18:44:00
I love aprons, you can never have too many, especially sexy ones. I especially love this apron because it's called the Thelma apron. For me, the name conjures up memories of Thelma on the 70s TV series Good Times, whom I affectionately named my sassy Empire Red Kitchen Aid stand mixer after. I can just envision myself with the two Thelma's shaking my hips to "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, while whipping up something sweet. 
More About: Sexy , Wear , Chen

An Ode to the Beet
2007-05-09 19:23:00
Yesterday, I shared some boiled beetroot from my lunchtime salad with a girlfriend and colleague who at twenty-seven had never eaten one in her life! I was shocked, as I consider her a real food enthusiast, but she explained that she'd been a picky eater as a child and that even her beet-rich southern German heritage had not enticed her to try one. Although I don't remember eating beetroot very frequently in my own strictly vegetarian childhood, I've never disliked it and recently have started to become obsessed with the beet. I think it started last fall when I was suffering from some neck pain (post-traumatic stress syndrome from my last job) and went to my chiropractor for some tweaking. He is also a practitioner of Chinese medicine and told me that one of my tender spots was on the liver meridian and that maybe I should do a little detox and up my intake of certain vegetables, such as beetroot and radishes. Needless to say, I skipped the detox, but I did start buying pre-bo...

What's Gracing My Bedside Table at the Moment?
2007-05-08 17:41:00
Although I've heard as much positive as negative commentary about Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipes, I personally enjoy her blog. It is not for nothing that she is considered as an expert in her field and I want to learn all that I can. I purchased The Art of Cake based solely on the inspirational words of Warren Brown, founder of CakeLove in Washington, D.C. I have to say that I've paged through both books and the first thing that caught my eye, was the fact that you the measurements are given in US and Metric measurements, as a proper professional cookbook should be. I was too thrilled, this means more time getting to know my recipe and less time calculating measurement conversions, yeah! I've already started studying The Cake Bible, and the The Art of Cake will definitely be up next, first soak up all the knowledge and then tackle the recipes; sure to keep me busy till the end of the year!
More About: Moment , Table , Beds