Uncontrolled Consumption

09/17/21

Friday morning’s breakfast was the lemon meringue tart we’d purchased the day before in Doesburg.

B0FDC73A-BF82-489E-B8D7-3987A154FB7A

(It fell over before we got it in the refrigerator and was then cut into before I could attempt a photo. That’s one reason I’m bad at food blogging, I often get lost in the allure of eating and thus forget to actually document the item, pre-consumption 🤪)

I take my lemon meringue tarts that we purchase during trips, pretty seriously, so I like to make a little event out of it 🤪
Appraise the presentation, taste the curd alone to see how lemony it really is, find out if the meringue is too airy or of the thicker consistency which I so enjoy, etcetera.

This ones meringue was on point, thick and texturally pleasing, not just an airy puff that disappeared upon biting into it 👌🏻
The curd was pleasant,  though perhaps not as wonderfully tart and smooth as some I’ve had.
The downfall of it, in my opinion, was that it had a white cake like base, rather than a crumb bottom.
I prefer having the crunch and contrast in textures, but understand them wanting to do something different from the typical tart.

That afternoon, I had a smattering of packing and preparations to complete for the upcoming weekend, as we’d be attending our cousin’s wedding and then spending a few days in the part of Holland it was being held in.

A dinner date at our sister-in-law Sarah’s was in place for that evening. So we, along with Inge, went for a little afternoon outing to the home and garden centre called Intratuin, to fill the void until we had to leave for dinner.

AC0B73FA-166D-4156-A914-991E5E6C534B

As always there was much home decor to see, and imagine finding uses for 😉 So it’s both a good and a bad thing, that we’ve only got suitcase space 🤓

After dropping Inge back at the house, we were then on our way to Sarah, who lives in Germany as you may or may not recall, depending how much attention you’ve paid over the years or if you’re a newer curiosity quencher and have only just begun reading along on our travels 😉

Schnitzel was on the menu 🤤👌🏻

1F543C67-C064-4238-91B2-986A32FB5419

That’s the thing about visiting… everyone makes sure the dish they feed you, is your favourite 💁🏻‍♀️🤪
The schnitzel along with all the sides, was delicious ☺️

B73A938C-BBC9-4DED-A154-78116A18AE39

We stuffed ourselves, no surprise there, and finished it off with some more after eight crème.

B2BA6086-08BC-45D5-9F88-46C8C7EC8F9D

Lake was as always, entertained thoroughly by the ‘children’ 😉👌🏻

ECBE2AC1-FFD9-49D5-B8C5-21EF2A0E5C3B

* I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different, and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

Dallying Through Doesburg

09/16/21

The day after he turned one, Lake truly matured in the area of sleeping. Deciding it was time to grow up, go to bed nicely, and stay that way until 9:30 for the sake of his under-rested parents 🤪👍🏻

1E1DCD69-D2C3-4062-B204-895B0F2DEF78

There were no more coffee beans in the house, so that of course had to be taken care of asap! So, Daddy and Lake hopped on the bike and went to the store to purchase some 😅

B50B5A3A-4B93-493C-921A-B27A3D09D7BD

Lake is loving his bike rides… or at least, that’s what I hear 😜👍🏻

We had a lazy morning and then went into Doesburg to do a little bit of exploration.
Walking through the streets, popping in and out of shops.

45642BC7-C53A-422C-A32B-01C2C7E22910

Lake did his best to hold onto mommy’s first purchase 😂👌🏻💗

2C5CC596-A9F1-4DC3-9B3D-2682CCE18F8B

Struggling with his chunky little hands, to maintain his grasp.

Hans is a little specialty sweet shop we went into, and though the chocolates didn’t grab my attention, something in the front display case did.
A lemon meringue tart. I couldn’t believe my luck at finding one so quickly during the trip, as usually it takes stopping at multiple shops to find one
😉

E1CE3546-2873-4AFB-8EDA-BF81C7D72F04

Mike also purchased a coffee/hazelnut dessert to try.

74824984-690E-4F60-A263-3EB53D0FD2BD

The style here is really beyond what I can attain, so clothes shopping in the ladies boutiques has never yielded too much 🙈

 

 

Ferry Snacks, a snack bar in town, was our ending note. The owner/sever paused in his helping Mike, looking at him before asking if he lived around here because He recognized him, but felt like it had been a long time since he’d seen him. So ensued the conversation of how yes, he was from there, and yes, it had been awhile 😜 We left with a promise to be back again before out trip was over 😉

7B6772FF-C349-41A7-A9F8-B6FD0ECF6E89The main course was nasi ballen, a frikandel and fries, then followed by ice cream with sprinkles 😉👌🏻

68A82373-4CC9-4BE5-878C-611692DCD689

Lake was introduced to the sprinkle addition and it seemed as though he enjoyed it, though it’s rare that he seems NOT to enjoy something so ya
😏
CD9EB37E-E34F-4EA4-9509-00D24A14EFCC

Mike ordered and picked up ‘Kapsalon’ for supper, as his mom had worked the whole day and our plan of purchasing kibbeling (fried fish) for supper hadn’t been possible since the fish shop was closed 🙄

28BF49DA-1D53-4753-B6CA-710D5AEA6ECA

Not that we didn’t want to eat kapsalon while here as well 🤓

As I’ve explained all of these dishes before, I’ll refrain from doing so again. So if you really have a question about a dish, feel free to ask in the comments 😉

* I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different, and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

 

A Delightful Descent Into Decrepitness

Mineral soaking by 8:00 am.  

If you’d ever have suggested that would be me… I’d never ever, EVER have believed you 😂

Lake slept good and I did too thanks to the medicated assist 🤪👍🏻 (Mike nearly always sleeps good. Just letting you know this fact so it doesn’t seem like I don’t care about his sleep quality 😉.)

It was still a 6:30 am wake up from him though and unfortunately we couldn’t find any restaurants that were open that early and if we waited until they were, it would be passed the  ‘first nap’ 😅

The new scheduling conflicts a baby produces 🤪

So instead, we hung out in the hotel room and filled the jacuzzi for Lake to enjoy for a bit and ordered breakfast in from the hotel restaurant.

IMG_4990_jpg

Tub time was just the right thing to tire out the sapling and he fell asleep on the sidelines of watching soccer with dad 😉

IMG_4998

Breakfast (though not presented prettily due to it having to be eating in our room 🤪) was good!
It was a BBQ breakfast bowl and I’ve begun to really love breakfast bowls.

IMG_5003_jpg

I like things drenched in sauce, if a sauce is available and I prefer savoury to sweet.
So the idea of potatoes wedges, meat, eggs and veggies, topped with sauce as a way to begin the day, is an appealing one 😉👌🏻

 

It was a beautiful day, so once Lake awoke, we headed outside to enjoy it ☺️

IMG_5014

We walked through the farmers market and then found ourselves at Wildflowers Bistro & Boutique.

IMG_5015

It was an eclectic little place to explore while waiting for our pecan sticky bun and caramel macchiato, which we then took to enjoy in the nearby park.

IMG_5018

We sat on a bench and dug out the paper bags contents.

IMG_5021
The sticky bun was nice and light without being too airy and sweet but not sickly so and the macchiato was just like Starbucks 😉

The Wandering Market was visited next, as I had read they had pottery mugs available.
There were a few but not quite what I was looking for, so we went back out to explore. Many murals were spotted along our way, which I found to be a charming characteristic 😉

IMG_5031

Popping in and out of gift shops and home decor stores, enjoying the sunshine in between each.

IMG_4764

My ever patient shopping companions  😉

IMG_4769

We stopped in at Taste Patisserie by Katrina, as we always try to hit some sort of bakery on our trips.

IMG_5027

It smelt delicious upon entering and the clean, simplistic elegance was noted and appreciated😉

IMG_5028_jpg 2

What wasn’t my favourite was that none of the goods displayed had either names/descriptions or prices.
I hate having to ask prices of things 🥴
There were two sandwich cookies to choose from, s’more or white chocolate and lemon.
I should have went for the second flavour but they were decent sized cookies and I figured my husband would share with me and he’s not huge on lemon flavours.
So, s’more it was 🤪
It was a mistake in the fact that he didn’t even really feel like cookie so didn’t want more than a bite and I don’t LOVE chocolate 🙈 But I could still appreciate the fact that it was a VERY good cookie sandwich, the texture being very pleasing 😉

It was then nap time ‘for Lake’ 😉😜

IMG_5032

So we walked back to the hotel and all partook in the nap time… an aspect of travelling with a child, that you will not find me arguing about 😴

We decided to go explore via vehicle for a little while, grabbing a Starbucks (as the room only had a Keurig machine, so I couldn’t make use of the coffee grounds I brought 😩) on the way to observing homes and architecture.

Then pausing that exploration, we stopped to try to get some photos.

IMG_5066IMG_5081_jpg
As mom is always the one behind the camera capturing cute little father/son moments, she was feeling a little left out 🙈 …and I loved all of our outfits and wanted them documented 🤪

IMG_5636

Stealing kisses.

IMG_5634IMG_5635

IMG_5633

Believe it or not… this is the narrowed down version. My apologies 🤪

IMG_5632

 

We decided to eat at The Mad Greek again, since we don’t have greek food available anywhere by us, we figured we ought to make use of it while it was there 👌🏻

IMG_4776

Mike got the boneless dry ribs and Greek salad and I got the feta fries so we could sort of share the two.

IMG_5155_jpg

It should have been called FETA with a couple of fries, as there was a LOT feta 😅
Thankfully it wasn’t as strong as the regular feta and it was easy to move around to equal out the fries and sauce ratio to go with each bite 😉
They were both very good dishes but it got to be a bit of the same flavour, so I’d say that’s where the previous nights platter was nice in offering variety.

The pool was calling our names, so we changed and went up to enjoy them for a while before bedtime, using swimming as a hopeful way to tire out the son 😋 As soon as I stepped into the pool holding him, he tried to lunge out of my arms towards the water 😅

IMG_4788

He truly enjoys himself in the water, splashing and playing but also completely relaxing when being held and allowed to simply float.

 

IMG_4782

They have flags hanging above the pool… can you spot the one for The Netherlands? 😉

 

Lake had begun to show a little bit of a rash that morning and I sent a photo to his Oma to diagnose as it had progressively gotten worse come evening.
Her conclusion – heat rash.
Which made sense with the temperature of the mineral pool and him having his wet swim stuff on so much. It’s very handy having a pharmacist on call to ease mom stress 😉
I’m paranoid that he will have an allergic reaction to something and I won’t know what to do 😅😬

 

He wasn’t overly content in his bed so he eventually ended up in ours for the night.

IMG_5179_jpg
I was wrong to expect the king size bed would offer us space from his tossing and turning though 🤪

Well, reading this now, I see my life and what it was reduced to during this getaway – mineral soaks, naps and eating at the same restaurant more than once… how old did I turn anyways ?!?! 😂

 

Decrepit – 
 
de·crep·it
/dəˈkrepət/
 
adjective  (of a person) elderly and infirm.
feeble,  infirm, weakly, wasted, doddering, out of shape, in bad shape, aged, ancient, 
long in the tooth, senile, past it, over the hill, no spring chicken
 
worn out or ruined because of age or neglect.
“centuries-old buildings, now decrepit and black with soot”
 

Meandering Our Way Through Manitoba

 

Friday, Jan. 12th

(Winnipeg day #3 recap)

My breakfast? A birthday cake flavoured macaroon of course 💁🏻‍♀️💕🎂

 

We’d left our place and drove towards Steinbach for a few, further out stops on the ‘to do’ lists of my one aunt.
We had four days and five people’s wishes to fit in, so we tried our best to accommodate 😜😬

Firstly we stopped at Bothwell Cheese to see what sorts of delicious cow by products they’d churned up.
I got a peach flavoured sparkling water (a non cow product, obviously) for the road and a chilli pepper cheese for at home 🙂

Prairie Pickers Cafe was next on the map and we enjoyed looking around at the assortment of antique and second hand trinkets and goodies ☺️ Continue reading “Meandering Our Way Through Manitoba”

1,754 Km

Saturday Jan 28th –



A fitful nights sleep was had by all.
Surprisingly for Zoe and I, since we’d slept pretty much the entirety of the day before 😜

We quickly found a bakery where a baguette, strawberry tart and citron tart were purchased for some snacks later on and then a grocery store was stopped at for the required souvenir purchasing Mike and I tend to do in at least one grocery store per trip 😏

Then it was a solid stretch of driving, taking us to our trips purpose, Mont St Michel.

We shuttled from the parking lot to the bridge which is now connecting the island to mainland.

A Disney like spectacle met our eyes.

We paused to eat our sweets and since Mike ate his faster than Zoe and I, he didn’t have the same problem we encountered.

Seagulls. Continue reading “1,754 Km”

%d bloggers like this: