Sinterklaas 2013

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My surprise for Dook!

My surprise for Dook!

In case you don’t remember from last year, the “surprises” are homemade gifts tailored to the likes and hobbies of the person whose name you’ve drawn. This year I drew Dook, Koen’s dad. Because Dook is the biggest wine lover I know, my surprise had to do with wine. I fingerpainted a map of the world, then created a pathway through the major wine countries. Starting in California, Dook had to answer questions about wine to move forward. After successfully completing the game Dook was able to open his gift!

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Thanksgiving 2013

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Turkey napkins

Turkey napkins

This year Koen and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner. It had been 3 years since my last Thanksgiving dinner, so I was excited to recreate all of the dishes  – especially since I’ve been cooking so much this year. Koen and I divided the dishes and the results were delicious! I was so busy taking photos of all the food I forgot to take photos of us and our guests haha. But here are all of the dishes and links to the accompanying recipes.

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Homemade Almond Milk

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The almond milk process

The almond milk process

I love checking My New Roots for new ideas to try in the kitchen. This time I was inspired to make my own almond milk after watching her video and seeing how simple the process is! It is really unbelievable how easy it is to make your own nut milk – I think next time I am going to try oats or another sort of nut, maybe I’ll even go a little crazy and try combinations, who knows. I was surprised by how strongly the almond milk smelled and tasted like amaretto. Delicious! The only difference I could really taste between the homemade milk and store-bought milk is that mine isn’t sweetened. I don’t think I’ll add any sugar in the future, because I always use almond milk in my breakfast smoothies that already have fruit, so natural sweeteners.

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Halloween – Carving a pumpkin!

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Lumpy Space Princess (LSP) Pumpkin!

Lumpy Space Princess (LSP) Pumpkin!

Koen and I decided this October to carve a pumpkin – only my 2nd while living in Antwerp (my 4th Halloween). I saw everyone’s pumpkin carving parties and felt the need to have my own private party with Koen. We weren’t sure what to carve, but then Koen found a lot of stencils from Adventure Time and we decided to carve one of our favorite characters – Lumpy Space Princess! We kept the jack-o-latern for 3 days and then realized why they’re kept outside in America; they really start to decay and smell awful!

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Aquatopia

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Aquatopia - located at the entrance to Chinatown

Aquatopia – located at the entrance to Chinatown

Koen and I visited Aquatopia around Halloween! The entire aquarium was Halloween themed, so amongst the fish we found cobwebs, ghouls, ghosts, and grim reapers! I also don’t remember the names of the fish I took photos of, but I will describe them as best I can. There was also an incident where a snake slithered out of his habitat – so scary!

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Tristan und Isolde in Antwerp

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Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp

Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp

For my birthday, Koen bought special box tickets for Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde! Because it was opening weekend, there was also a 45 minute lecture before the opera began with dramaturge Luc Joosten, who went into detail explaining the history, development/inspiration, and theme.  Koen and I both thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and if you’re close to Antwerp or Ghent, you should definitely try to find tickets before it closes!

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Pirashki Stuffed with Ground Beef

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Pirashki!

Pirashki!

Although I have been experimenting with many different regional cuisines, it was pointed out to me that I’ve yet to make any Persian food. After reviewing a list of Persian dishes, the Persian Pirashki caught my eye. But I was a little confused because pirashki sounds really Russian. So of course I looked it up and it turns out that there are many dishes in Iran that have roots in Russia. I had to brush up a bit on my geography and realized that the two countries are really close together, so it isn’t really that surprising that a few dishes overlap.

This was my first time making bread dough! Luckily I have seen Koen make it millions of times so I had an idea of what I had to do and what to expect my dough to look like. The result was a bit like naan, because it’s yogurt based. The combination of the yogurt dough and ground beef filling – yellow from the tumeric, was so delicious! From the recipe I was able to make 10 pirashkis, so Koen and I are having the rest for lunch today! Yum! Continue reading →

New York City: Revisiting our favorite spots

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One last Bahn Mì from Saigon in Chinatown

One last Banh Mì from Saigon in Chinatown

Day 13 was our last full day in NYC because we needed to head to the airport after lunch the next day. So we spent our last real day eating my favorite lunch again from the trip – Banh Mì from Saigon in Chinatown, and then heading back to Midtown to buy presents. I also wanted to visit the Ralph Lauren stores on Madison Avenue as well as his daughter’s candy store, Dylan’s Candy Bar. As a thank you to Christina for letting us stay with her so long, we spent our last evening seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway! The next morning we needed to pack and get our things together. For our last lunch we decided to go back to San Gennaro’s for steak and mozzarella sandwiches. Luckily we planned a lot of time between leaving Christina’s apartment and our flight. It turns out the exact time we wanted to head to the metro station was during the huge parade for San Gennaro! The crowds were gigantic and we were both with two suitcases trying to fight our way through. Then we had to talk to the police officers to try and convince them to let us cross through the parade because if we had would wait another hour it would be too late. So rather than taking 5 minutes to get to the metro station it took us 30 minutes – but we made it! At the airport we decided to have one last burger from the Shake Shack! Now we are both looking forward to going back to NYC in September!

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New York City: Russ and Daughters, San Gennaro, The Butcher’s Daughter

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Russ and Daughters

Russ and Daughters

Heading into our last days in NYC, we knew we had to try a bagel from Russ and Daughters. Christina and I left to pick up bagels to bring back to the apartment but we hadn’t realized our trip coincided with Yom Kippur. There is always a long wait but we arrived the day before the holiest day of the year for Jewish people. So it was packed! But luckily a kind stranger gave us his tickets and we didn’t have to wait more than half an hour – but some people were waiting more than an hour to place orders! But I have to say it was worth the wait (plus I had good company)! After lunch we headed to Little Italy for the grand opening of San Gennaro – the oldest and biggest religious street festival in NYC. We heard there was a cannoli eating contest and we had to check it out. We’ll never be able to unsee the contest, but at least I can check off attending an eating event from my bucket list.  I lost my craving for cannolis so we headed to The Butcher’s Daughter for kale chips and fresh juice. We were invited over to Queens for dinner at my friend Greg’s place, but of course I forgot to take photos!

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