By the way...

...I have finally figured out how to make falafel. Expect a recepy soon, because this is GOOD.

Savory hangop

For the last week of August me and my family went to our summerhouse in France. My younger sister Clara and I love cooking together and so had taken upon us the task of cooking. Cooking and grocery shopping in France is so much more fun than it is at home! The farmers market is like a celebration of color, there are so many different kinds of vegetables, herbs, fruits. When you're used to shitty Dutch supermarkets you wont know what hit you. 

The star in this dish is not the soup, it's the topping. Instead of using creme fraiche we made a savoury hangop. Hangop is yoghurt that is strained from all the liquids, resulting in a very full, creamy and delicious substance, somewhat resembling greek yoghurt. The great thing about this is it tastes like it's extremely fattening, but it's only yoghurt. I like that.

So for dinner we made a grilled peppersoup with a savoury hangop and garlic croutons for topping. The soup was delicious, but the hangop was a real winner. Wanna try?

This is not cooking - Bruschetta

I usually make this is as a small bite before dinner, to make sure my guests aren't starving while I'm cooking. I just use smaller slices of bread. Last week however I was just too tired to cook properly so I ate it for dinner while watching Monte Carlo (with Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester). Which is a tip if you like horrifying chickflick as much as I do.

I have to warn you about one thing, I'd recommend eating this when you're by yourself or with people who are close to you and don't mind you eating like an apeman. Not very suitable for first dates, I think. It's just impossible to eat this in an elegant manner! When I was done eating this I didn't have to moisturize anymore - my face was completely covered in olive oil. I couldn't stop thinking about SATC and overeating. Ieuuww...

Final note: if, like me, you don't like raw onion and intend on skipping this - you really don't have to. Because of the bread and the mozzarella it's really not as dominant as it can be in a salad. It's also a little less sharp because you marinate the onion a bit in the olive oil and tomato fluids. I cheated though, I left some of the onion on my plate. 

Bee loves... Falafel

So I had never eaten falafel before. Weird, I know. But I have now, with the great company of nice weather and a glass of white wine at Deli, at the Naschmarkt in Vienna. I know you're supposed to eat it with pita bread, but we had it served in a wrap, with tahini and tzatziki. I loved it! Expect a falafel recepy soon (or maybe not soon, depending on how difficult it is ;)). Tips anyone?

Another day, another salad - Potato salad

Okay so to start with, I ate this salad some time ago and can't find my notes anywhere... So instructions on this might be a little bit vague. But it's just a salad and it doesn't really matter thát much. Does it? It's pretty delicious (and simple) anyway so I just had to post. It's nice and green and the apple gives it such a fresh bite, it works wonderfully with the dressing. You should try, really!

Food equals love

You know how memory is associated with taste and sound and smell? My memories get activated by taste. The most precious of my childhood memories are associated with good food. I can remember tastes from when I was two years old. One of my first memories associated with taste is actually quite a bad one, even though I remember only the good part. It's the day my tonsils we're removed. I was almost two years old, it was the fifth of december. Which is, by the way, a holiday in the Netherlands. It's Sinterklaas. Not very surprising, there wasn't a waiting list that day. They put me in a bed on wheels, which was very exciting. My mom and dad were there as was my beloved teddy bear Bobine. I got my narcosis and it tasted like banana. I love banana. All I remember is this, a fantastic party in a riding bed. I can't seem to recall what happened afterwards, but my parents told me the rest of the story. When I woke up, I was angry. All this excitement and a nice bananatastingnarcosis and then waking up with nightmarish pain. Sinterklaas (a sort of Dutch Santa Claus) came in bringing me a present and I threw it away and yelled at him. I was furious at him and my parents and went to sleep. Waking up, the first thing I asked for was my present. Which was, by the way, a supernice puzzle of Donald Duck.

Sunny salad

Summer has only showed it's face for a moment here in the Netherlands, and it's been raining ever since. Thankfully we can bring summer into our kitchen and on to our plates!