Copenhagen: Grod, National Gallery, and Torvehallerne

Starting the morning with a bowl of grød!

Starting the morning with a bowl of grød!

Day four in Copenhagen, we decided to spend some more time exploring the shops on the Jægersborggade. We were lucky that we chose to do this on a Saturday because some of the shops are only open a few days a week. The morning started again at Grød for breakfast, followed by visiting Kaktus, a store that sells – you guess it – only cacti. We couldn’t help revisiting Karamelleriet, where the caramels are made by hand and were so delicious that we ate all of ours before we even were back in Belgium. After a few caramel tastings – they let you sample the fresh made goodies – we visited Habengut, a traditional woodwork shop, by Søren Ulrich. All of the pieces are made by hand and we bought two tealight holders and a salt dish to bring back home. Our last stop was at Crate, a store specializing in beer and vinyl. We purchased a few Danish beers to try that evening.

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Copenhagen: Grod, Den Bla Planet, Christianshavn

Breakfast at Grød

Breakfast at Grød – spelt grød with blueberries, hazelnuts, and cacao nibs and oat grød with apples, almonds, and caramel sauce

Our second full day in Copenhagen began with breakfast at Grød, a café on the Jægersborggade that only sells grød – a type of Danish porridge. The grød was so delicious we had to go back for more later in the trip!

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Copenhagen – My birthday! Exploring Indre By and dinner at Manfred’s!

Birthday Breakfast

Birthday Breakfast – kanelsnurre and a double latte!

Koen and I are just back from a week long vacation in Copenhagen, Denmark. I can’t say enough how much fun we had! Exploring, eating, drinking…just relaxing.

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Little Butcher’s Summer Grill

Koen and me excited for dinner!

Koen and me excited for dinner!

Before we leave for Copenhagen, Koen and I celebrated my birthday Little Butcher’s Summer Grill with his parents, aunt, and uncle. Such a great present from my in-laws! LBSG is a pop-up restaurant at Park Spoor Noord. Where better to house a grill restaurant than outside at a park surrounded by green grass, trees, and playgrounds?

Yannick Van Aeken was the guest cook at LBSG for two nights only! Luckily we found out early enough to book our table. Van Aeken is a former Noma sous-chef. Yes that Noma in Copenhagen, the best restaurant in the world. So perfect preparation for our trip! To accompany the food, Paul Morel was the guest mixologist for one night only. He is the former head-bartender of The Jane in Antwerp. It was difficult to chose which cocktail to take, and we wound up just sampling a little from everything.

The menu was divided into 4 categories: Snacks, Veggies, Carnivore, and Sweets. We all ordered the “Treat Me Nice”, which is chef’s choice combination from the categories. Yum! Koen and I also received compliments from Van Aeken because we were the only people in the entire place eating with our hands! He said at Noma they always like to see people getting a little messy haha.

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Sushi Workshop Bridal Shower

Homemade sushi assortment with pickled ginger

Homemade sushi assortment with pickled ginger

Last month Chris and Hannah got married! After more than 10 years together, they finally tied the knot! Koen and I wanted to do something special for them, so we came up with the idea of a Sushi Workshop Bridal Shower – a honeymoon theme because Chris and Hannah were leaving for Japan after the wedding. Bridal showers are traditionally only done in the United States and United Kingdom, so we wanted to bring our version to the Netherlands – a fun way to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of our good friends!

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Shrimp Po Boys

Shrimp Po Boy

November 3rd is National Sandwich Day in the United States. Although I’ve never heard of it, I was interested to read about the best sandwiches in each state! So many delicious combinations! I could have guessed the Po Boy would have represented Louisiana. When I saw the photo I realized how long it’s been since I’ve had one myself – and I discovered Koen had never had one! A Po Boy is a sandwich made with a baguette, fried seafood (although I’ve only had them with fried shrimp), lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayonnaise, and hot sauce with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

I know usually I only post photos of what I have made – but my husband is an amazing cook! Rather than going to the bakery for baguettes, he wanted to try making them himself. Mmm… They turned out so well!

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Coney Island September 2014

Started our day at the NYC Aquarium

Started our day at the NYC Aquarium

After the wedding, Koen and I had a couple of days to explore NYC. Last year we didn’t have time for Coney Island because it was too far from where we were staying, so we wanted to make sure to go this trip. I am so happy we planned it in. Coney Island is unbelievably beautiful and iconic. It was like walking onto a movie set. The sunny weather also helped! Because we were staying in Park Slope in Brooklyn, traveling to the bottom of the borough didn’t take too long. We started our day at the NYC Aquarium. Then we walked along the boardwalk until we found the original Nathan’s Famous that opened in 1916. If you don’t know, the hotdog was invented in Coney Island in 1870, so of course we wanted to have hotdogs for lunch! After lunch we went back to the boardwalk for a cocktail to-go, which we enjoyed on the pier. In the photos you will see the amusement park, but it is only open on the weekends after the summer holiday. Because it wasn’t so busy, we had a nice, relaxing day!

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Birthday in New York City

Birthday cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes in Greenwich Village

Birthday cupcakes from Molly’s Cupcakes in Greenwich Village

For the second year in a row I was able to celebrate my birthday in New York City! Christina just happened to be getting married September 14th in NYC, so Koen and I made sure to plan my birthday (September 9th) into the agenda. Unfortunately I didn’t think it out very well, because we arrived on my birthday and we were exhausted. We still made it out to Cocoron, a Japanese soba noodle restaurant in Chinatown, for dinner and to Molly’s Cupcakes, the best cupcakes in NYC located in Greenwich Village, for dessert. After our cupcakes we headed back to Park Slope in Brooklyn, where we were staying for the week, to sleep off our jetlag. Unfortunately our hosts were sick and at their parents’ place most of the trip 😦

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Mint & Mango Marinated Zucchini Spaghetti

Ingredients for the sauce

Ingredients for the sauce

I’m a big fan of Courgetti and Zoodles, aka thinly sliced zucchini that looks like spaghetti noodles. I’ve tried courgetti with various sauces ranging from avocado to tomato, but this is the first time with mango! Mmm… The Mint & Mango Marinated Zucchini Spaghetti from Green Kitchen Stories is so delicious! I prepared the zoodles as a side dish with salmon with paired together perfectly.

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Wonton Soup

Wonton Soup

Wonton Soup

Mmm…wonton soup – I don’t know why I never thought to make it before! This dish was a success and I will definitely make it again. I made two changes to the recipe: 1) the supermarket in Chinatown sells wonton soup base, so I didn’t make my own and 2) I couldn’t find yellow chives, so I used scallions. I thought it was really interesting how the dish is prepared. You need two pots – one for the soup broth and the other with boiling water. When you’re almost ready to eat, you carefully place the wontons into the boiling water. Once they float to the top they’re ready, placed into each individual bowl, and topped with broth.

I wound up making a lot of wontons, so the next day Koen fried them in a wok and we dipped them in sriracha and sweet chili sauce – yum!

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