Low carb fish pie (carrot and turnip mash on top). From the Hairy Bikers
When the first lockdown started, my Mum made it clear to both my Dad and me: I am not doing all the cooking on my own. You have nothing to do either, so you can take over as well. And we did. We would all take our turn cooking dinner.
Waffles. From Norway
I quickly learnt that cooking spuds, carrots and a meatball was okay, but not really for me. Mainly because I could never get all the carrots cooked. Or the green beans or the cauliflower or whatever vegetable I was cooking, as it wasn't just for me, but for my parents as well. And we love our greens.
Pizza bianca (brie, bacon, walnuts, drizzle of honey. No tomato sauce)
Instead I turned my thoughts to other dishes. Spare ribs, fish pie, chicken with gorgonzola sauce and yes, even a vegetarian dish occasionally. I collected all these dishes, especially if they were to be repeated, in a big book. Which soon became too small to hold them all. The one book became three and I now have so many different recipes that I need at least one, if not two more books.
Rice pudding cake. From Limburg in the Netherlands
Mind you, it's not all dinners. I also have cakes, desserts, soups, jams and plenty of other things as well. Like a recipe for hot sauce. Not for me, but for my Dad who likes things a tad spicier than my Mum and I do.
Cardamom knots. From Sweden
My lasagna (based on Sophia Loren's) does not just have minced meat and bechamel sauce. Oh no, it also contains salami and a lot of vegetables. A lot! The fish pie has been altered slightly to our tastes, as peas are great like peas, but not in every single meal (like the Brits do. I have always wondered whether every Brit has shares in the pea industry), so we use leeks instead. I may start off with a great looking recipe, but by the end, I have added, left out, or changed the whole thing.
Cookbook 1 is for the basics, starters and side dishes. Cookbook 2 is for main courses, meat, fish etc. Cookbook 3 (most important) is for cakes, desserts and yummies.
The books are filling up. With meals I have had several times, others that need to still be tried. I get them from everywhere: I have recipes from all over the world, which I find in cookbooks or online. And if anyone has a good one: you know where to send it!
As you may know I spent a few years living and working in Norway. The first few months were hard and I did lose weight as I didn't know what was good to eat and what wasn't. Once I had found out, the weight came back.
However, it wasn't until my sister came for the second or third time that I learned about the great Bamsemums. Basically chocolate covered marshmallows in the shape of teddy bears. She loved them and soon got me hooked. Not too often, but on occasion I could eat a whole bag of them.
I bite the head off first!
Fast forward to last year. As my sister could not come and see us for the third time in a row, we decided to get her a December box. Basically an advent calendar that went on until December 31st. Containing lots of useful things like hankies, chocolates, ginger nuts, pens and several other things. Accompanied by short badly written poems.
There was however one thing I needed my Norwegian friends for: Bamsemums. So, I put out a plea to them and within ten minutes one of my friends had promised to send some. Half of which I duly sent on to my sister.
Then yesterday a package arrived. Containing clothes that I had ordered. In a smaller size as I am losing weight you see. But next to that package was another one. Huh? Oh, it was from Norway!
Yummmmmmmm
My friends and former colleagues in Norway had pooled together and bought lots of different Norwegian chocolate, including several more bags of Bamsemums. The chocolate is great, the friends even better!
As you know I do some cooking on occasion. Partly due to Corona where my mum wanted to keep both me and my dad busy by taking over some of the cooking duties. Partly because I work nights sometimes and make my own hot dinner then. Partly because I actually quite like cooking. Especially for more than just me.
Last week I did some cooking and I knew exactly what I wanted to make: pizza. I thought about making the base from scratch, but in the end I didn't. I just bought a rectangular base, cut it in four and put toppings on.
And again, one portion
One was for my parents who do like cheese and mushrooms. So, they got a four cheese pizza with mushrooms and ham. From top left going round: Mozzarella, grated Gouda, some blue cheese and Cheddar.
The other was for me and a neighbour and was a 'white' pizza, ie without tomato sauce. But it did have brie, very thin bacon (or speck) and walnuts. Plus a drizzle of honey once out of the oven. Both were yum!
Baking cookies is a dangerous business. The two main reasons are of course: fail or not fail. If they fail, you can throw the whole batch in the bin (did do, on two occasions). If they do not fail, you run the risk of eating yourself sick. Which, I have NOT done by the way.
Let's start with the oatmeal cookies. The first batch worked out okay-ish. Even after cooling off, they were still quite crumbly. Good, but crumbly. So, I made another batch. This time with a combined recipe that did not work. At all. They would disintegrate on a look. Bin it was.
The strawberry cookie dough
Then I made strawberry cookies. I had high hopes for these. And the dough looked lovely and pink, just as it should. Unfortunately I think they were in the oven too long and instead of having pink cookies, they were light brown. And brittle. And a bit blergh. My idea of having a nice frosting on, didn't work too well either: too liquid, not a nice taste. Bin it was.
On Saturday though, I started afresh. Not with the oatmeal cookies as there is no baking powder to be had anywhere and I needed baking powder for them. Word on the street (eg comment list for the recipe) was that I shouldn't use self raising flour. So, the oatmeal cookies will have to wait until I can get my hands on some baking powder or decide on the self raising flour anyway.
Melting moments ready for the oven
Instead I started with Melting Moments. Those of you of an Australian or Newzealandian (that can't be right) inclination might know them, I learned about them through Martha Stewart (who is American). The basic recipe was quite simple with only four ingredients: butter, flour, icing sugar and custard powder. The result were slightly yellow (due to the custard powder) delicious cookies.
But, that wasn't the end of it yet. Two of those cookies should be joined together by some buttercream. Which again called for four ingredients only: butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Just to be different I added some ground freeze-dried red fruits. Definitely no bin for those!
The finished melting moments, YUM
So, what's up for the next baking session? Well, brownies, chocolate chip cookies and those oatmeal cookies. For my birthday this year I will not do cake, I will do cookies only. Stick them on a table and make sure they are all gone by the time my guests go home. With a massive sugar overload I hasten to add...
It's lovely being home alone. It has been a long time since it last happened and it feels absolutely great right now. Yesterday I went shopping for ingredients for my cookies. I had some of it already and took it all out to put on the kitchen counter (nearly full), but there were other things I needed.
I had planned to start with the strawberry cookies. I had found a great recipe on an American site (working with cups and such, what is wrong with grams?) and wanted to try it out, but by the time I started it was already after dinner and it had to rest for several hours before baking. So, oatmeal cookies it was...
The oatmeal cookies (there were six)
Which by the way tasted great. Not something I had expected as I had mixed and matched two different recipes and then added some ingredient not on the list. In the end I had a fairly crumbly oatmeal, raisin and cranberry cookie. Still room for improvement though, so today I will try one of the proper recipes with my adjusted ingredients as I don't want nuts.
Plus I will try the strawberry cookies as well. The basic recipe will be the one I found and then I will finish them with a slightly different, but in my book better, finish. It calls for egg-white and sugar, but I am going for a sugar frosting. Hopefully that will work the way it does in my mind.
There is another recipe I would like to try, but for love nor money can't find the recipe of. It was made by Martha Stewart and contains peppermint in the filling but no chocolate. The only thing I can find however is with chocolate. I have now come up with my own version using shortbread cookies, peppermint patty filling and a white chocolate dipping on half of it. To me it sounds absolutely delicious.
Then of course there is the chocolate chip cookie, the carrot cake muffin (basically carrot cake in muffin forms instead of a large tin) and brownies. Goodness me, this loosing weight thingy is going to be harder than I thought...
We take it in turns here to cook. Well, not under normal circumstances, but during Corona we do. At my mum's insistence, as she didn't want to do all the cooking. Mind you, it isn't all bad: the one who makes dinner, doesn't have to help with the dishes. Usually.
My mum is the cook who decides what we eat. Mostly. My dad is the cook who uses my mum as his armchair cook. I am the cook who will try different things. Some with great success, others ... not so great.
I might have to try and recreate this pizza I had in a Roman restaurant
Yesterday it was my turn. First I had to make dinner for my dad. He was going back to work in the evening and needed to eat his dinner at lunch time. He got boiled cabbage. Last night I had to make dinner for me and my mum. There was some leftover spaghetti and I had seen a recipe that required spaghetti.
The recipe called for goat's cheese, ricotta and parmezan. I added some bacon, although next time I will keep it original I think. It was done within 15 minutes and it tasted great. Definitely a repeat performance at some point in the future.
However, now my dad has started work again, which means his turn will mostly be taken over by either me or my mum. I am always on the lookout for other dishes. Not necessarily vegetarian, but low in carbs (ie no or very few potatoes or pasta).
This is so yummy!
I try to swap mashed potatoes for mashed turnip and carrot (on the Hairy Bikers fish pie, mmmmmm). I try to find other types of rice (cauliflower or broccoli) to cook with, although so far haven't tried it.
Basically: if anybody has a recipe for a lovely meal (low carb/vegetarian/regular): yes please! Oh, and don't worry: Yam's mock oxtail and Yam's pumpkin soup are already in my new cookbook!
You saw the curtains my mum made yesterday. But I have also been working on my stuff. Like the cardigan. I have already shown you one of them: the blue one with a red block. I made a red one as well though, with a lilac block and sleeve. I am very chuffed with them. They are two different sizes as well, which is even more fun.
When the second one was finished I started on a green one. But where the first two were a cotton (with some acrylic overlay), the green one is a wool one. And it just doesn't look as nice as the other ones. This is mainly to do with the fact that I used a smaller needle for the cotton ones and the set needles for the green one. And it makes it look sloppy.
So, when I made a mistake, I thought: forget this. I will unravel and start afresh with smaller needles, that way it will look nicer. I hope so anyway, as I haven't started yet.
Apart from doing up the room (finished) and knitting (never finished), I also have to cook on occasion. My parents and I share the responsibility, so we all have to take our turn to cook. But I don't always want to cook the regular things. Even if the dinner I had to heat up last Wednesday counted as cooking, it was just heating it up. The work of a minute really.
What I am trying to say is this: occasionally I want to try my hand at something else. At the end of last year I saw a fish pie being made by the Hairy Bikers (love them) and I have made that one twice already: it is yum. Then a couple of months ago I made spare ribs from scratch. Another repeat offender there.
This time around I thought I would try my hand at gnocchi. It sounded easy enough and indeed it turned out to be. I made a mushroom, spinach and blue cheese version for my parents (bland, not enough mushroom, too much spinach, blue cheese not strong enough were some of the comments) and a tomato, basil and mozzarella version for me (yum, too many tomatoes, didn't like the mozzarella were some of the comments).
The main thing was though: the gnocchi themselves were okay. It was just the sauce or rest of the dish that needed some tweaking. I knew their version (the mushroomy one) was bland, as there was no mention of salt, pepper or any other type of herb or spice mentioned. Plus I don't taste ever, and definitely not mushrooms. My dad did like the spinach as it was put on, my mum didn't. And the blue cheese was definitely not very blue and it was on the lower end of the taste strength scale.
Next time I will probably try a mushroom cream sauce with some garlic, then add some cheese at the end and put it in the oven for the last few minutes. The tomato/basil and mozzarella version was perfect as was, even though my mum thought the tomatoes were overpowering. She can eat the mushroom one!
PS: no photos were made of the gnocchi. Perhaps next time...
Every country has its own food habits. I grew up in the Netherlands and even though I have lived abroad for several years, my basic cooking style is always Dutch. With some foreign influences thrown in.
Of course food has names and sometimes those names can be a bit weird. Like the other day, when we had 'naked babies in the grass' for dinner. And before you all call the Dutch police: no real babies were used in this dish. I think.
Basically it's string beans (a type of flat green bean) that is sliced in small strips. They represent the grass. The babies are the white beans that are added. It is a dish that you can get ready made in jars, but when asking my parents about it: my father had never heard of it until he met my mother, whereas my mother had grown up with it.
The other food on the plate? Well, potato with gravy, all mashed up by fork and a lovely sausage. It may not be the prettiest plate of food, but as long as the food tastes good...
Yesterday was the end of the feasting and today is the beginning of the fasting (or Lent). The end of feasting was traditionally used to finish off any meat or meat products like fat. So, that's what we did yesterday.
There were some bacon cubes and fat left over from something or other and as in some countries Shrove Tuesday is Pancake Day (UK mainly), I baked pancakes! And because of the bacon and fat they were a lot more scrumptious than the ones I normally have.
My parents loved them as well, although my father was complaining about the sugar syrup. It's from Zeeland and he is from Friesland, which is the eternal struggle in this household! My mum buys the first, my dad buys the latter and in my opinion they taste okay, but have nothing on the caramel sugar syrup I like!
At the end of dinner (yes, in the Netherlands they can be eaten for dinner), there was one pancake left over and I thought that I would have that one for breakfast this morning. Wrong! My mum is apparently a pancake lover and had eaten the last one while my dad and I ran an errand last night. Washing the dishes afterwards so we wouldn't notice! A right fiendish action!
By the way, our Dutch pancakes are nothing like those American things. There are countless stories of Americans going to a Dutch pancake house and ordering 10 pancakes, thinking that is not many. As one pancake is the size of a good pizza however... And when you go to a pancake restaurant/boat/mill, they don't just come in pancake, there are fillings galore as well.
Anyway, that was the feasting done, now for the fasting. I think I will try (see what I did: try) to go without chocolate for Lent. It should be possible, albeit quite hard. We will see how I will fare...
I have made a start on a blanket and I must say it looks pretty good. Of course I am quickly running out of thread, so I will have to go down to a thread store soon to get some more. As I am using Christmas fabric, I thought using red and green thread would be good. However, the red that came with the machine (thank you Gera) is doing fine, it's the green that is moving at lightning speed.
This morning I made a little start on the photos. First of all the photos already stored on my computer, all the way back from April and May. I take the photos off of my iPhone as well on occasion and found some nice ones I might be able to use.
Now it's the crates that are waiting, although I am not sure which photos they are. I also have several albums filled with photos of my younger years, especially the foreign seasons I did (Italy, France, Yugoslavia) and my childhood. I want to get those done as well, but as people who scan will know: it takes aaaaaaaaagggggggggggeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!
I wanted to get some breakfast this morning and I knew for a fact that I had taken a carton of milk out of the garage yesterday. But, when I wanted to pour said milk over my rice crispies, it was nowhere to be found! In the end I had to get another carton from the garage. When I then looked in the fridge (again), I found the first one. Of course!
It's been nearly a week since I last wrote a post here. Don't worry: I am not sick, I have not ended up in a ditch somewhere and I have not been kidnapped by aliens.
Instead I have been working long hours this week. Between nine and a half and ten hours each day. By the time I could take the bus home, I would be tired and fed up and not really feeling up to turning on my computer. Three days! And I didn't miss it either. Instead I watched television. No, I didn't even pick up the knitting needles, which is a turn up for the books.
Then, yesterday I was off. A three day weekend, where the Friday would be spent making apple pie and the Saturday (ie today) will be spent with a union meeting. I will make my way to the meeting in about 90 minutes time from now, together with two large apple pies!
Of course before I could put the first pie in the oven, I had to deal with the smoke alarm that kept blaring. The rack on which the pie had to stand was a bit on the dirty side. In the end though I did manage to get the first pie in. Of course I didn't have enough apple/raisin mix for the second pie, which meant that more apples had to be peeled. About four kilos in total!
I wondered why that was, since before I would have too much mix. Until I looked at the cake tin. I had used the biggest of the lot I have (28 cm ⊘) instead of the usual (24 cm ⊘). Puzzle solved! Now I just need to get the second pie away from its base without ruining the whole cake (I only sort of managed the first one).
So, now you know. No aliens, ditches or illnesses. Just not in the mood!
When me and my sister went shopping about two weeks ago, we bought a lot of goodies. Nuts and crisps, cheese and crackers and plenty more besides. Usually we would eat the lot within about 10 seconds flat. But for some reason this time around...
We didn't!
Which means that when she left on Wednesday there were still a lot of goodies left. And I am slowly working my way through them. I finished the chocolate last night (after a severe hunt) and today I finally finished the salted sticks. I love those!
But, there are still crisps and nuts and more nuts (I found today) left. As for the cheese and crackers: plenty still in the fridge and cupboard. So, for the near future: no diet just yet. First I have to finish off all the possible temptations!
And no, despite the photos: I have no cotton candy.
I like fish. And so does my Dad. So, as a belated birthday present (his was in June), I had asked a colleague of mine who was going to Sweden, to bring back some fish for me. Herring in fact. Which I like. And so does my Dad. This fish however... was special!
Apparently this herring is a Swedish speciality. A delicatessen. It just has a bit of a rumour about it. Now, back in the old days, fish and meat was preserved by using salt. Use enough salt and you could keep fish for ages. One day though, there wasn't enough salt. But the Swedes weren't that bothered (apparently) and put it in the barrels anyway. Where the fatty tissue of the herring started to ferment. And ferment. A terrible smell started. But, still the Swedes weren't that bothered and ate the herring. It tasted good and a new dish was formed.
Fast forward a few years and instead of barrels, they now use cans. The herring is still salted and when it starts fermenting, they wait for juuuuust the right smell and then can it. As in: put it into cans. Where the fermenting continues and the can grows in size! Which you can buy in stores. And give to your Dad as a belated birthday present.
Our can (not this brand) didn't look quite this bad, but you could feel how it had expanded.
We had heard the stories, we had seen the videos and we were prepared: NO WAY were we going to open that can indoors. In the back of the garden, in the open air. Perfect. I set up the camera, pressed record and off we went. My Dad wielded the can-opener and the minute one hole was in, the pressure was released. Some of the liquid contents (herringy water) and some of the smell. He continued opening the can.
But the smell was fine. My Dad brought the can right up to his nose: fine. I did the same: fine. My Mum came over: fine! That was a bit of disappointment. Ah well, the taste test then. I took a large bite of the (complete, including innards) fish and started chewing. It was awful and I started spitting it out amongst the flowers. My Dad is not one to shy away and he tried a bite as well. Smaller than mine and he never got to chewing. The minute the fish hit his tongue, he started fertilizing the flowers as well. And no: we did NOT throw up! We just spat out.
My Dad got rid of the liquid in the can and then he (without thinking) carried the can inside to throw away. Right, did we say anything about the smell? Outside it was fine, inside however: blergh! Absolutely terrible. So, a bag was found and then my Mum walked to the outside bins (on the other side of the street) to throw it away.
We kept smelling it though. My Mum said it might be a good idea to do the dishes, since we had both gotten it on our hands. Well, it was worth a try, but it didn't work for me. Every time I moved, it smelled. In the end it turned out one or two drops had gotten onto my shirt, causing the awfulness. It was washed that afternoon!
Of course you now want to see the video. I know you do. You lot being a curious lot. But alas, even though I pressed the right button, I hadn't set the camera to video, so nothing had happened! And me and my Dad didn't think it worth it to get another can...
PS: there are lots of videos out there, if you want to see a really funny (and yes, really gross) one, try and find 'surströmming caravan'. It had me in stitches!
Yesterday was a quiet day we spent doing not much at all. However, Mara did use that nothing time and made me an apron. Because today we were going to bake a cake!
Mixing the carrot cake mix
Mara likes to bake apple pies and people love to eat them, so she had decided to bake one today and invite some colleagues over to eat it. And because she had some carrots left over, she decided to make a carrot cake as well.
Ready to go into the oven
The first cake we made was the carrot cake, because it needed to cool before we could put the buttercream on. It was hard work, but it was fun as well. And the apron worked really well! Not a bit of flour on me.
The finished carrot cake with the buttercream icing
After lunch Mara and Gera continued with the apple pie. Gera made the dough and Mara peeled all those apples. I just looked while more and more apples went into the bowl. 1,5 kilograms or 3 pounds of apples! Mara is not very good at following the recipe though: it said a handful of raisins and she put nearly four big hands in. But she said it would taste great.
Checking on the apple pie
In the end only two people made it down, some had to work and others had other commitments. Which means that... we have lots more cake to eat this week.
Looking at some of the photos of my past travels and trips, I came across some photos made while on one of my many tours to Ireland. A colleague of mine had done the trip before me and had given me all his notes and stuff and told me about this, that and the other. And then it was my turn.
We spent one day 'doing' the Ring of Kerry. Exactly what it says on the tin: you drive a loop around the county of Kerry! And a very beautiful loop at that. Only to be done one way though, since some stretches were really narrow. When I say some, read quite a few! It was a beautiful part of Ireland and it was a joy to be driving there.
One of our stops was at a small pub/restaurant right by the side of the road. Most of the coaches stopped there in fact, so it might have been small, but it was also always busy! There were two reasons for stopping there: the ordinary reason of food/drink/toilet and the other reason of the tiny little museum right beside.
The little museum showed life in a small Irish community, with cottages, tools and peat. A lot of peat. We could go inside the small cottages and look and wonder about how they were able to live in such basic conditions, but that's humans for you: surviving on the minimum.
The museum wasn't the main attraction of my passengers though. The coffee was. The Irish coffee. As soon as people got through the door, the serving staff started. The glasses were waiting already, containing whiskey and brown sugar and then hot coffee was poured in. After which they would hold a spoon upside down and pour cream on top. Five euros later and people were enjoying their coffee. Irish style.
I never got to taste it though. Something with alcohol and driving and such. Until one day the European laws changed and I had to have a day off during a trip. Which meant that I wasn't driving, but still very much working as a tour guide of course. It also meant that I wasn't driving and could partake in a coffee myself. Made with decaffeinated coffee of course.
Let me tell you: if you are ever being driven around the Ring of Kerry and see a sign for the Red Fox, make the driver stop and buy yourself a coffee! It's worth it!
