Tag: Food Blog

Mission: Accomplished


I slacked in keeping up the day to day journaling whilst on the trip, due to usually just wanting to go right to sleep, whenever bedtime finally came around 😅 And typically being too busy during the days, to post.

But in doing so, I now have no posts written up in advance and have to rely on photos to stoke the embers of memory, which saddens me because I know I have forgotten potentially interesting details. So from now on, it’s all just out of recollection and not from recent happenings.

Forgive me if the details are lacking 😉

09/27/21

The children were in school, so Judith had the morning to go out with us ☺️
We went to Coffee Brew Krefeld.

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A modern/earthy little breakfast spot with tasty drinks and a menu filled with healthy, yet intriguing breakfast options.
Mike went for what was possibly their only non-healthy option 🤪

It sounded good to me too, but I didn’t want to just get two of the same dishes, so Judith and I went for smoothie bowl style dishes. 

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All of us got specialty drinks which were very tasty and the presentation of it all, made it all the more enjoyable 😉

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From there, we headed into town to do some shopping. 

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Judith making it her mission to find me some clothing stores after our failed shopping in Arnhem 🤪 
And she didn’t disappoint!

In the first store, C&A, she and Mike took off, loading their arms with clothing for me and then ushering me to the change room 🤪

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I left with 5 skirts, one costing a whopping €2.99!😅 
Redeeming the shopping aspect of the trip 😉👌🏻 

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I also ended up purchasing a slightly dressier winter coat from Vera Moda. 
So then I decided the shopping excursion must end 🤪

Actually our time for being out before the kids got back home from school was up as well, so it was timely 😉 
Mike made us all some poffertjes for an afternoon bite to eat, and once we’d enjoyed those and packed up, we began our journey back to Doesburg.

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Not before some photos could be taken with each other though 😊

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(Elaine had quickly changed into the same outfit as me when she’d gotten back from school, so it was no coincidence 😉)

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Since Lake still wasn’t feeling 100%, we decided to stop in and see Oma at her pharmacy job for some advice 😉

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It was also raining pretty good so we stuck around to give her a ride home from work, rather than have her bike home. The delay due to traffic jams, which we are so not accustomed to anymore, and then the little wait for Oma, put Lake over the edge as far as being in the car is concerned. Oma held ‘Luca’  in Lake’s view and that appeased him until we got back and it was Opa’s turn to help get him back into a happier frame of mind 😉

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I Say Pancake, You Say Pannenkoek

09/22/21

1 week and 5 days in, I got my first day at the house to do nothing but unpack, tidy up, shower, laundry (though my kind mother-in-law did most of the laundry during our stay 🙈) etc.

12 days of being on the go, visiting people, and being out and about amidst other humans in some form or another, is, as some may know if they  know my personality, A. LOT. 😅🥴

I was so ready for a chill day. Meanwhile, Mike was not capable of relaxing in the day, wanting to know what we could do, or where we could go and when I stated no where and nothing, he managed to go out multiple times alone for different things, but that didn’t totally satisfy him 😏

He got us kibbeling and loempia’s for lunch.

Kibbeling being a delicious freshly fried fish with tartar sauce. The man even told Mike that the fish they use for it comes from Canada 🤔
But the seasoning and crunchy batter is 👌🏻

Lake decided to walk that afternoon!  As we were sitting in our various spots, he suddenly stood by a chair, turned and walked to Mike with no cajoling. From there he walked to me and then so on and so forth until Opa came downstairs to witness it and the game continued.

He walked between us all for some distance and time, and we figured our days of having a crawler were no more.

Opa offered to babysit Lake, while we were allowed to take out his Porsche for a ride 😎

The Pannenkoekhuis Strijland in Velp ended up as our destination.
A fairly renowned restaurant which we had never actually been to together/Mike hadn’t been for to years.

One sweet and one savoury were ordered to share, peaches with sugar and Italian.

The pancakes are a little tricky to explain, as they aren’t as thin and light as crêpes, nor are the as thick and fluffy as some North American pancakes. They are on the thinner side, but also more dense, bordering on a heavier, custard like texture.
We were without a doubt the youngest couple in there 🙈
It appeared to be ‘the’ spot for those who are let’s say…of a wiser and more learned place in having lived a more substantial amount of life 😜
The flavours on the Italian one were very nice, and the peach one was good as well, I’d just expected a little more than it came with topping wise 🤪
All in all, it was nice to try, we checked that attraction off of our list, and we probably won’t be headed back overly soon, but that’s just because we’re not huge Dutch pancake fans to begin with ☺️

John, Inge and Lake were met back in Doesburg, as they were finishing up a little snack at a restaurant there, and we didn’t have keys for the house.

Lake may have had a look of slight confusion for a fleeting moment, not understanding how mom and dad were suddenly on the path where he was after not having seen us for a while 🤪

We all headed back to the house then and later that evening, our delivery from Tout Pâtisserie arrived 🤤

The best macarons we’ve found in our European travels thus far 💗
The taste, the texture, the crunchy chewiness, the thick, creamy filling. They are amazing.

We always try to get them, but they are in some out of the way spots for us, so it gets tricky. Thinking of having them deliver, worked out perfectly 👌🏻

Lake showed his newly rekindled talent for walking once we got back to the house as well, getting giddier and picking up speed as well as some extra swaying, the more praise he received 🙈

(I say newly rekindled, because over a month ago, he was walking between us and from furniture and whatnot for a couple of days and then just stopped until now 🤪)

The Sunday Rhythm

09/19/21

An early Sunday morning greeted us.

Once again, preparing of myself, the son, the diaper bag etc. took way, and then we joined the family for breakfast. 
Adorning the table before us, were baskets holding different varieties of breads, various spreads, sprinkles and butter, cheeses, meats, juice and coffee.
A classic Dutch breakfast 😉🥐🥖🧀🥨☕️

It was a one-hour drive to church, which we experienced in the company of our hosts, as we rode together with them since we’d be returning to their house again afterwards.

We then rode back with another couple (Mikes cousin and his wife), since they’d be headed back to the house sooner and that’s always a plus where taking care of Lake is concerned, and when my having to mingle with fewer people is concerned as well 🙈

Some McDonald’s was grabbed on the drive back and for the most part, we discussed food. Which when you write that maybe it sounds a little sad, but it seems to always be a satisfying topic if the people you’re with, are like-minded food consumers 🤪

We got to tour some of their newly renovated home and loved what we saw.

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Black kitchen cabinets, high ceilings with beams for added texture and some really unique, window style room dividers which gave the space some boundaries, while also keeping it feeling open.

They live right beside the home we stayed at, so we eventually crossed the yard and relocated over there for the meal of Dutch snacks that had been picked up.

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Our evening was then spent visiting and playing a game.

Amidst trying to get Lake to sleep, which he wasn’t so willing to do as the night before. This time being awake enough to realize he was in a different surrounding than usual.

All in all, though we were away from our home, and our home away from home, the Sunday rhythm changes little. Arise early, prepare for church, attend, a decent chunk of driving, afternoon lazing about, eating and so on and so forth 😉

 

* 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 🤪

 
 

 

Uncontrolled Consumption

09/17/21

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

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(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.

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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 🤤👌🏻

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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 ☺️

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

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

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* 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 🤪

The Last Hurrah…

Day 5 – July 27th, 2020

 

Mike had told me to sleep in and rest up and I figured that wouldn’t happen, as 6/6:30 had been my usual wake up time.
I did wake up around 5:30 and told myself I MUST sleep… which I then did, until 9 🤪🙈
Which was maybe a little excessive for the plans for our day ahead but Mike said he didn’t dare wake me since I’m never usually able to sleep in 😏

Because of covid our hotel wasn’t serving the usual breakfast, so we had to head out to find substance.
‘Graze’ was where we settled in at and we got the Farm Fresh Eggs Benedict to share.

A few more little shops were entered as we meandered back to the vehicle and then we drove to find one or two more sights to let our eyes feast on, before leaving for Calgary and eventually, home.

We drove up to this view and I’m not sure of what it was called but we sat with our feet in the fresh water for a few moments while coming up with a game plan for where to go next.

I wanted to see Grassi Lakes but the only way we could see to get to them, posed a lot more steep, loose stone lined paths then I felt comfortable attempting to undertake.

So, we waved farewell to Canmore and drove on to Calgary, needing to make it in time to eat at ‘Monki Bistro’ before it closed 🤓

From mountain ranges and lakes, to roadways, vehicles and cityscapes… both unique and enjoyable to gaze upon in their own way… neither my favourite 😉😜

If you’re in Calgary, PLEASE go eat at ‘Monki Bistro’ and think of us 🙌🏻🤤
I ordered the reverse French toast and Mike got the brisket poutine.

They were both potentially flavourful but in the best way possible.

I’m the type of person that if a dish is supposed to have sauce, I want it to be swimming in it and these were both capable of being afloat 😉👌🏻

Leaving a restaurant utterly satisfied and pleased is such a good feeling. Like when you find something on a super sale or feast your eyes on an unexpected beauty.
Think I’m being dramatic? Maybe… but I don’t think I  am and we really, REALLY like food 😁

We needed to stop at IKEA to get blackout blind for the babes room, so we did a decently fast walk through of the whole place.
I found some smaller sized plates I wanted (been searching for probably a year, no joke 🙄) but of course, they were out of stock 😏
Nordstrom Rack and Homesense were also pursued and finally, we left the city.

Much later than planned… our estimated home time being in the wee AM hours and we still had ‘Drumheller’ to stop at… (but we’re young and free so that wasn’t a problem… right?) 😅

I’d told Mike we should really stop there. I’d been years ago and figured I could use a refresher but I thought he would think it was pretty interesting.
Turns out he took it on faith and didn’t look up a thing about it, so he was pretty shocked when suddenly we descended down into a totally different terrain than moments before😜

On our way to Horse Thief Canyon, we drove by ‘The Little Church’.

Which was much littler than I’d even expected😅
Surprisingly, Mike actually fit inside and it was a fun little stop… the slogan of the church being, ‘Seating ten thousand people – six at a time‘… literally, as it had six mini pews inside.

Horse thief canyon certainly evokes images to match its name… making it easily imaginable to visualize herds of horses racing through the valleys, cowboys with lassos overhead, thundering behind them 😉

Driving quickly because of the soon setting sun, we went to find the Hoodoos.

‘A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoostypically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements.’

The earthy tones and warm weather, making for perfect exploration inducing conditions…but we had McDonald’s to eat back in the truck and home to return to, so we didn’t take that exploration vibe too seriously 🤪

 

I made up my mind to stay awake with the husband until we arrived home and besides some slow/heavy eye blinks around Saskatoon, (1hr away from home) I did it 🤓

We never solidified a name for the child but we did narrow the list from three, to two 🤪
Not my favoured outcome but better than zero progress made I suppose 😏

In the end, it was a great trip ☺️💗

The driving having been so broken up for the most part, that I never endured THAT much discomfort, we had mostly beautiful weather, a lot of good food and for the most part, pleasant company* 😉

*I’m referring to myself and my husband for those who could think I was making mention of the friends/family we met up with as perhaps unpleasant, which was not the case 🤪

The time allotment was good too… we aren’t usually super slow lookers/observers etc. so we got to see a lot, in a semi short amount of time and also get a good idea of what we’d want to see again, if ever.
I’d say Jasper and the drive from Jasper to Banff, was our favourite part.
I’m sure there is much to explore around Banff itself but by that time we were fading a little and it was also so busy with people, it lost the allure a little, same to be said for Canmore.
Though we had much less time in Banff/Canmore so maybe we just needed a little more time to find their Jems 😉

We pulled up to our little home around 3:00 am, crawled into bed post haste and awoke to a sunshine filled +22 by 8:00 am.
The official end of the ‘babymoon’ and the start of unpacking, yard upkeep and checking off the rest of the ‘pre-babe to-do’s’ 😉

 

 

Familiarities And Familia

May 4th –

Mich and I headed to Intratuin, a shopping centre for gardening, home and building.

It was an indoor space with multiple stores, which was kind of required for the days weather indecision, going between rain, wind, sun, repeat 🤪

Lunch was eaten at ‘Baran’ in Germany.

Splitting a margarita pizza and each having our own form of Döner Kabab.
We left, bellies full, plates empty, Döner craving satisfied 🤓

Our nieces were then picked up, so we could take them out for some ice cream ☺️

Some little stores were looked in and the park stopped at and then a second ice cream was called for before heading to the German grocery store for schnitzel breading, meat seasoning and salami 🤓

The girls were then taken home, to let their two ice creams worth of energy run out there 🤪
We sat outside with coffee and sweets, the sun breaking through the clouds finally and when the win was calm, it was plenty hot enough to be enjoyable 👍🏻

One last broccoli tart was made for us for dinner and again, greatly enjoyed 😉👍🏻

 

May 5th –

 

Mich and I went to church in Germany again, enjoying a service preached by our old pastor.

 

We also enjoyed the same Greek restaurant again too, thinking it was perhaps a tad repetitive but also knowing we wouldn’t be having it again any time soon so repetition won out 🤪👍🏻

After lunch together, we drove to the house of some friends to visit awhile.
She whipped up a ‘typical Dutch’ loaf for us, which was very tasty. Savoury more than overly sweet and I hadn’t actually eaten it before.
Many people seem to have forgotten that I lived in Europe for over a year, telling me ‘very Dutch’ things and pointing out landmarks as if I have never been, so this loaf was an actual for real ‘first’ 😉

On our drive back to the house, this building was passed.

It had been driven by many a time before and every time, the oddity of it raised questions.
It’s windowless exterior can’t help but bring up creepy images of what may be happening inside 🙈

The rest of the evening was spent leisurely at the house, eating this and that and then packing up for spending the night at the Dutch island of Texel the next day.

Come Monday, it would be the first time that the children of my parents-in-law, their spouses and offspring would all be together, so it had been decided to take two days off and spend it all together at the Island.

 

May 6th –

 

The parents-in-law left early that morning to retrieve the brother and sister-in-law that were flying in from the states so we were going to catch a ride to the island with the other brother, sister-in-law and their kiddos.

That wasn’t until later in the morning so Mich used that time to quickly go visit a friend he’d yet to see before we hopped in with the siblings and nieces and headed to Texel.

They wanted to go to a museum with the kids for a little while in the town of Den Helder and Mich and I aren’t really museum folk, plus didn’t want to spend money on it, so we went and ate instead 🤪👍🏻

Because in the end that’s not a ‘waste’ of money either 😏… get it? 🤪💩

Back to the van and into the boat we went, taking a quick ferry across to the island.

 

The birds greatly enjoyed the snacks that had actually been brought for the humans to enjoy, but the humans ended up enjoying it most, via the birds entertainment 🤪👍🏻

Our ‘StayOkay’ hostel hotel was not one of our more luxurious stays but the beds were actually pretty comfy, the comforters thicker than most hotels and it felt clean, if only bare 😂
None of which are bad things and the ‘worst bit’ was probably the slightly jail-esque ambiance… not that we’ve been in jail to know but I feel like I can better image what a cell MAY feel like now 🤪

All the family arrived, settling into their rooms and freshening up before heading out to eat supper together before the family photoshoot at the beach.

The very cold beach 🙈🤪
Weather hadn’t cooperated and it was a windy, cloud covered, seaside temperature of 7 💨

Everyone did their best to ‘rush into their places and put smiles on their faces’ 🤓

 

Shivering strongly between pictures but getting it done within around 30 minutes and then heading into the restaurant that was situated on the beach.

I love the beach restaurants there…so many truly capture the coastal, beach vibe and have the weathered wood look 👌🏻🌊🐚🦀

Offering shelter from the elements while still feeling like your ‘in the element’ 😉

From the hot chocolate sipping we went back to our hotel, some staying outside to play soccer, some going into the seating area to be out of the elements.
You can figure out for yourself which groups Mike and I were in 😜

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