A stormy celebration of the Feast of St. Martin

Yesterday's weather forecast was spot on -- stormy from late in the afternoon and into the night. 

Heaven indeed opened up and the wind blew without respite but they were not reasons enough to deter my 3-year old girl and the other kids in the neighborhood from celebrating the feast of Saint Martin (Sint Maarten) which they had already anticipated for weeks. This feast means that children with their lanterns go from house to house singing St. Martin's songs and in return, they will be rewarded with candies which they put in their little bags.

We arranged to meet up with our neighbors at 6:45pm and we barely able to make it to the appointed time as Siefko had to come from The Hague and me from Amsterdam, meeting up in Amersfoort and rushing to the creche in Nieuwland to pick up Francesca. 

Francesca enjoyed the whole St. Martin's adventure with the other kids. Though she didn't know all the songs by heart yet, she tried her best to sing just the same. 

By the time we were done with visiting the neighbors, the battery-powered paper lanterns were just irretrievably broken from the rain and wind. I felt so sorry for the little ones who wanted to keep their lanterns in pristine condition, hoping that they can go again for St. Martin's adventure on a nightly basis ;-)

Autumn splendor in the Veluwe

Weather was forecasted to be dry last 31st October so we headed to the Veluwe for that autumn walk and photoshoot. I could almost murder the weatherman for the wrong forecast as it was raining endlessly when got there. The park is not so far from our place, actually just about 20 minutes drive. Entrance fee is € 7.50 per person and € 6 for the car. The car can also be left parked by the entrance (saves €6) and just make use of the many bikes to explore the whole expanse of the area. Not something to do on a rainy day but in summer or a dry autumn day, the idea is very appealing.


Quoted from the website of De Hoge Veluwe:  http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/14

De Hoge Veluwe National Park is the largest actively managed conservation area in private hands in the Netherlands. The Park covers 5,400 hectares of woodland, heathland, peat bogs and drift sand. It enjoys a wide variety of plants and animals and provides habitats to extremely rare Red List species. Together with the Kröller-Müller Museum, the Sculpture Garden and Country-residence/Museum Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, the Park forms a unique and (inter)nationally renowned combination of nature, art and architecture.

We've been to the Kröller-Müller Museum a couple of times in the past so that was out of our itinerary this time. This museum though, is certainly worth a visit as the collection is quite impressive. There are a couple of Van Goghs and if you are an avid fan, certainly a visit here is a must. The sculpture garden is also interesting and if you have the heart for climbing, then a controversial railing-free stairway to the top of a hill with an incredible view of the Veluwe treeline should not be given a miss. 

We opted to head to the direction of the Museum Jachthuis Sint Hubertus which has been designed by a famous Dutch architect who also designed the Beurs Berlage (stock market building) in Amsterdam. A typical design from the 1930's, the building does not appeal to me but I was told that it is an architectural treasure and the interiors have also been so well thought about. Hmmm…something to explore another time.

We walked around the area of the Museum Jachthuis but Francesca was not up to it. The ground was also very soggy. I took pictures but all at lightning speed because of the rain (camera on one hand and umbrella on the other). Some came out blurred. Darn!

Francesca can only think of in terms of playgrounds as the place to be…not the autumn colours that hubby and I were gushing about. We headed to the park centrum where a playground, an information centre and another museum can be found plus a very nice restaurant. We needed to indulge Francesca first at the playground to work out that boundless energy before she was ready for lunch. It was very wet at the playground but to this little girl, that was no reason not to play.

Lunch at the restaurant was a pleasant surprise. Siefko who never goes for warm lunch meals was tempted to order the wild boar stew with mashed potatoes and red cabbage on the side. Francesca had her pancake while I had a melange of potato salad and cold cuts plus bread and butter.

After lunch, we were already intending to go home but Francesca egged us to head to the opposite visitors information center with the underground museum. She saw at the entrace of the building this board where she can stick her face out. She loves it so we complied. Going inside the info center, we were led to an underground museum whose design was very well thought of. 

On our way out of the museum, we heard that there was some activity going on outside. True enough, there were these hunters who were performing for the crowd using their horns the various musical signals they use. Pretty interesting…

Tosti

This is one of hubby's fave comfort food and one that can be made in flash.  The ingredients are simple and straightforward:  slices of old white bread, cheese slices and margarine or butter.  Oh, don't forget a flat-bellied pan too.

How to make the tosti:

1. Smear the bread slices with a little butter then put the cheese slice on top.  Do this for 2 slices of bread and then put the slices together.
2. Smear the outer sides of the bread slices with butter.
3. Place the tosti in the pan, set the heat/fire to medium.  When the tosti is brown and crispy, turn it until the other side has also become brown and crispy and the cheese in the middle is melting.
4. Serve with a glass of milk.

Other variation is that you can also aside from the cheese, add slices of ham.

Eet smakkelijk! 

Nature tripping

autumn colours at Groeneveld

autumn colours at Groeneveld

rhododendrons in bloom at Soestdijk Palace

playful butterfly at Pelagaccio (Tuscany)

a bee up close

morning mist in spring

Mussels cooked in beer with homemade cocktail dipping sauce

We were at the city centre last Saturday to do a bit of winter shopping for Francesca and couldn't avoid the lure of the open market to check out the fish stalls.  I was thinking of getting my hand on some tiny fish called "spiering" in Dutch which I ate two weeks ago for lunch to make my version of the Pinoy "okoy" but unfortunately, it was not available.  I ended up buying 2 kilos of fresh mussels and a kilo of mackerel which was a real bargain.  The fish seller was even so nice to hand me a pack of smoked salmon as a complementary give-away.

Siefko introduced me to eating mussels or "tahong" as we call it in the Philippines, the Dutch and Belgian manner.  Years ago when he was still living and working in Belgium, we would normally dine out on Belgian mussels cooked in beer and served with Belgian fries.  I now have my own version of the dish which is just as good.

In the Philippines, I remember that we cooked mussels by sauteeing it garlic, onions and ginger and adding chili leaves.  Oftentimes it is recommended for new nursing moms as a good way to stimulate milk production ;-)

Here's my take on this dish:

Ingredients: Mussels cooked in beer

• 2 kilos mussels (good for 2 persons)
• 1 piece carrot, sliced
• 1 piece white onions, sliced or chopped
• 1 piece leeks, sliced (spring onions or dahon sibuyas can also be used as a substitute)
• stalks of celery, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 a bottle of beer equivalent to about 150ml

Cooking instructions:

1. Placed the cleaned mussels (cut off the hairy stuffs sticking out) in a deep pot.  I used our soup pot for this purpose and the raw mussels should be about just 60-75% in the pot to give space for the mussels when they open up.  
2. Season the mussels with salt and pepper.  Add the beer and the vegetables (onions, leeks, celery and carrots).  Shake the pot with the lid on so that the seasoning and the vegetables are evenly distributed.
3. Cook the mussels in medium heat, shaking the pot from time to time so that mussels are cooked evenly.  This should take about 7-10 minutes or depending when you see that all the mussels have opened up.
4. Served the mussels with a cocktail dipping sauce and some slices of french bread, cucumber, paprika and radish.

Making the cocktail dipping sauce is a matter of rough guessing.  I normally just throw in the ingredients and just taste the resulting mixture for correction of this and that ingredient.  Hence, the quantities below is something that you can vary according to preference:

I love cocktail sauce.  The little perkiness from the brandy is also lovely.  Thus, we have brandy in the house not for drinking but simply for making the cocktail sauce.  To make this sauce, just mix the following ingredients:

Ingredients:  Cocktail Dipping Sauce

• 7 tbsps. mayonaise
• 2 tbsps. tomato ketchup
• salt and pepper to taste
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp ginger syrup
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp brandy

You can dip anything on this sauce from the mussels to the bread and the raw salad veggies.

Poached pear in port

Pear is a typical autumn fruit and it is something that I can't resist when I am at the grocery.  I was just supposed to get some butter and vegetable which Siefko forgot to include in the AH delivery order we had but the sight of those pears at almost nothing for a kilo was too hard to resist.  I used not to eat pear till I tasted it as a dessert with vanilla ice cream and cream on the side and it was amazingly good.  Since then, I came up with my own version of the recipe and just loves it as dessert to go with any Dutch-themed dinners.

I normally don't have hard and fast rules when it comes to ingredient contents.  My cooking style has always been on the cowboy side, using more my feeling rather than being so strict with the amount of ingredients.  Anyway, let me give you an approximation for this poached pear recipe.

• 1 kilo pear (for poaching/cooking to distinguish it from the pear for raw eating)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 100 ml port or red wine
• Peel of 1 citroen
• 2 to 3 pieces of cinnamon sticks

Instructions:

• Peel the pear.
• In a saucepan, add water to a level that is about 2/3 when the pears are submerged in it.
• Add the sugar, port, citroen peel and cinnamon sticks.
• Bring to a boil and then lower the heat/fire that the pear will just be simmering for the next 2 hours. 
• Occasionally turn the pear from one side to the next.
• After 2 hours, the pear will be soft, the liquid will be reduced to half or less.  Let it cool down.

• You can serve it with vanilla ice cream and cream or just eat it as it is.  I love it just as it is.  The sauce have so much flavor from the port, the aroma of the citroen peel and cinnamon stick.  

Fried chicken

To complement the chicken tinola, fried chicken is always a good choice.  Expect the hubby and the in-laws to over-eat as simply these combination of dishes is just perfect especially on a chilly and rainy day.

My version of the fried chicken is easy and simple, the ingredients are few and very basic so that the flavors remain distinct.

 

Ingredients:

Chicken, cut in pieces

Garlic, finely chopped

Fish sauce

Black pepper, finely grinded

Lemon

Cooking oil

 

Cooking Instructions:

1.  Marinate the chicken for an hour or two in the following:  fish sauce, lemon juice, finely chopped/pressed garlic, ground pepper.

2.  Fry the chicken over medium heat until brown and crispy.