September 2012 in Pcitures

September was a pretty busy month for us. We don't usually travel much, or even leave Utrecht that much. But this month we left the country twice and traveled to Scheveningen for a groupon dinner with friends. (Dutch test: can you correctly say Scheveningen?)

Caipirinhas! Yum

 Here we are at Rodezio Brazillian Restaurant in Scheveningen enjoying lovely cachaca cocktails. We went with our Brazilian friends. The food was very tasty, not as good as when you are in Brazil, but close enough for Europe.

After many months of trying, Islay finally made it to the top of our screens. And once she got there, she didnt know how to get back down again....

We went to Cologne, Germany for Jamie's birthday. I don't know why we hadn't gone earlier. We both love Cologne. I found a really awesome hotel to stay in called Antik Bristol Hotel. Every room has antique furniture from a different period. I told them it was Jamie's birthday and they gave us the honeymoon suite! It was amazing.

 This is a church with a room full of bone decorations in Cologne.
 Creep-tastic.

Islay tried to climb inside our packing cubes while we were packing to go to England. I think she wanted to join on the adventure.







We went to England at the end of the month for Jamie's older brother's wedding. They had a small ceremony at the registrar's office and then a reception. It was a chilly and windy day but also super sunny and bright - a bit strange for England in autumn.

So bright! Too much sun!

Potato chips

About 3 years ago I began an unnatural love affair with potato chips after having not eaten them for over 10 years (not out of dietary concerns, i just wasnt interested). So of course when I moved here the potato chip selection was one of the first things I checked in the supermarkets.
They do of course have Pringles and Lays and Doritos here, but they are really expensive, so I've been sticking to local brands. And they are a bit odd. In flavor choice that is.

Common potato chip flavors here:
Paprika (really? that stuff doesnt really have a flavor....)
Bolognese (A potato chip flavored like a pasta sauce? Weird, but not bad tasting)
Cheddar Onion, or Onion Cheese (again, weird, but not bad tasting)
and finally...
BBQ Ham
wait, what?
BBQ ham???? Sure, real BBQ ham is great if you get it from the right place that knows what they are doing.... but a potato chip flavor? In the Netherlands no less, not exactly a place renouned for their BBQ.... Yeah, I'm going to stay far away from that one. I cant imagine anything less palatable than a potato chip fake flavored like ham. blech.

weekend away

After a hellish homestretch, my thesis was printed and submitted on Friday morning. I am so beyond relieved that it is done. Then I packed and took the train down to southern Maryland to visit Amanda and Jason.


I knit them a beer cozy as a thanks for having me over for the weekend. Do you recognize this yarn? (: It's ChOrG! My Kool-Aid hand dyed! I love this yarn. It's so soft and smooshy. It's very pretty all knit up.


On Friday night the three of us went out to dinner, Amanda got her 3rd tattoo (some stars on her wrist), and then we went back to the restaurant (next door to the tattoo parlor) and had celebratory drinks.










On Saturday Amanda and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was dreary, chilly, and pouring rain when we got there which was a giant bummer. But luckily around noon the skies cleared and it got sunny. I didnt get any pictures of the yarn because the festival was jam packed. I could barely get in some of the stalls to look at the goods!!
Sadly I did not find yarn for specific projects, or a shawl pin that I liked, but I did get some beautiful yarn. I tired to take pictures of it, but it was so bleak today that I couldnt get good ones.






Here are some sheeps for you to enjoy. I didnt see a whole lot of alpacas. There were some bunnies too but all the little kids were crowding around them so, no pictures.













After the festival Amanda, Jason and I went out for yummy Thai food. Here is the appetizer platter - it's a party on a plate! Notice the random party explosion coming out of the shrimp thingy. It was very nom nom.

















Today brought more rainy, depressing weather so Amanda and I decided to spend some quality time crafting. Here is Sydney claiming the ironing board as his own while Amanda quilts. I sewed up a new WIP bag.










For the WIP bag, I used this tutorial that I had used before..... But... either we read it wrong the first time or Amanda and I were doing something wrong today, b/c the pattern as written didnt work. The 21 inches of the big rectangle doesnt fit all the way around the 6x6 inch bottom square. Both Amanda and I tried. I ended up having to cut the bottom squares down to 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

It's a beautiful bag though. Muchas gracias to Amanda who let me dig through her fabric stash for this!










And here is the inside fabric.


It's definatly not fabric I would normally buy for myself, but when I saw it today I really liked it. I dont know what's up with me and red lately. But whatevs, I'll run with it.











Here it is next to the first bag I made. I think my sewing today was not the best quality, but I think non-crafters would have a hard time finding fault with it. I really like that it's taller. Now I just need a cord to cinch it up. I thought I had a light blue shoelace but I dont, it's purple. So I might knit a brown I-cord.


All-in-all, a lovely weekend! And as soon as the sun comes back I will post some pictures of the crazy awesome yarn I bought at MDSW!

I also finished one shawl, and made serious progress on the never ending stole of grey. But the damn thing still isnt close to being done and I have 4 days! Yikes! - I gotta run now and go knit some more!

Procrastination

Since I'm having trouble concentrating on Anything today (I'm currently watching TV, reading, blogging, and I've got knitting sitting next to me) I thought, why not post about a few of my favorite things in Europe. I've been thinking about Europe "in my spare time" haha considering the Big Move is ~10 weeks away.
These are a few of my favorite things (in Europe):



Really old things randomly interspersed through the cities.
Brick from where the canal used to be, the water has now moved several feet and there's a path where it used to be.
Utrecht, Netherlands










Art. Lots of it.

One of Monet's waterlilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, France









Faces on buildings. Everywhere! I could write a whole post on faces, maybe I will.....
This one is on some historic building in Bruges, Belgium










Chocolate!! Believe it or not, this is the Only picture of Chocolate I have. I ate the rest too fast. Maybe I have this b/c it's the only piece of "special" chocolate I bought. The rest was good stuff from grocery stores. This was from a specialty shop in Gent, Belgium.








Alcohol!! Specifically beer, beer, and more beer, and some jenever. Both are in this picture from Gent, Belgium. No surprise that plenty of my favorite things are from Belgium as Gent and Bruges were my favorite cities.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

Every month or two I get a new baking obsession. In Jan and Feb it was the Pillsbury poppin fresh grands biscuits. I just couldnt get enough. I loved the pop when you open the canister. And the buttery flaky goodness.

This month, its corn bread. MMMhhmm. But reg corn muffins kinda bore me. So I looked around the kitchen to see what I could add to the reg "Jiffy" box. Wheat germ and blueberries! I've been trying to eat more of both since apparently they help hair grow.
So this recipe is pretty simple.

I dont think the box or the recipe has changed in 50 years.
(yes there is lard in the mix, that's why it tastes so damn good).

1 Box "Jiffy" cornbread. Make as suggested.
Add 2 heaping tablespoons of wheat germ.
Let stand a couple minutes.
add 1 heaping cup frozen blueberries.
spoon into muffin cups cook 20 mins at 400F.



This is what they look like
Yummy goodness
I think that this ratio of berry to mix is the max berries you can get away with. The still have structural integrity, but you can tell they are on the verge of collapse.






And what do you eat with them for dinner? Some ham of course. B/c if there's 1 thing Anthony Bourdain has taught us, its that pork goes well with everything and everything goes well with pork.

Roast Cornish Hen

It's going to take a while to write this as I'll be taking "eye breaks" but I wanted to get it down before I forgot it - this meal was really yummy! (until I hit a bloody part deep in the hen) (note - cook longer than 1 hour in my oven)

I bought a little Cornish Hen since they were on sale and I had been craving some sort of roast with veggies since Marty's mom made pot roast for his b-day dinner. I've also been lusting after Pilsbury flaky buttery biscuits in the little rolls that POP open thanks to that meal as well. I suppose cooking inspiration is a good thing right? Esp for me since I'm a self proclaimed "bad cook, great baker." I looked up this recipe and altered it a bit since I didnt have all of the ingredients.

2/8 of Lemon and 1 garlic clove went inside the hen.
Rubbed hen with olive oil and covered generously with sea salt and pepper and celery salt.
Cut up red potatos and carrots and onion - into pot with ~4 whole garlic cloves.
Cook in oven uncovered 25 mins at 450 deg.

Meanwhile make basting sauce.
I heated a chick bouillon cube and H2O (didnt have broth). Then I added a squeeze of lemon juice, olive oil, and some National Bohemian Beer. (didnt have white wine)


(Go ahead and laugh. It's crap beer I know, but its
the only alcohol I have besides red wine and rum. - neither would have worked for this recipe, but the beer had possibility. still light tasting, still alcohol)

Turn oven to 350 deg and pour basting sauce over hen. Then baste every 10 mins for 30 mins. Remove from oven and use juices and garlic cloves to make a sauce by boiling it down a bit.

It was all very tasty and yummy until I hit some blood while trying to cut off a wing. So clearly an hour in the oven is not enough. I'm not a big fan of blood so I decided just to eat the veggies and callit a night. I had already eaten some of the meat before I discovered the uncooked part anyhow. So I cut up the other half of the potato and another carrot, added some more garlic cloves and covered the hen up and popped it in the fridge. I'll "re-heat" / finish cooking it tomorrow for dinner. It was yummy. And the skin was the best part - and yes, it's good for you. Well, um, maybe not scientifically proven but my Great-Gramma always said to eat the skin and she lived through the Depression and past her 100th year. Therefore, I trust her advice.