cookbook testing: ottolenghi

One of the last wedding gifts to arrive is one of the most handled so far…

Ottolenghi: the cookbook was a wedding gift from my old youth workers and arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago (sticking half out our mailbox which made me do a excited skip when I saw it).

Alice wrote in the card that they had been really enjoying cooking the recipes, which if you have ever been invited to their house for dinner, you will know is a good recommendation. I still remember the wild raspberry ice cream Alice made for dessert once.

Since the cookbook arrived it has been my bedtime reading most evenings. I have devoured every word, and the book is now liberally covered with mini post-it notes, marking all the recipes that need to be tested urgently.

On Saturday night I got in from the Serve the City project I had been volunteering on and decided tonight was the night to try the first recipe out. And I knew exactly what I wanted to try first…

Caramelised endive with Serrano ham

I had never eaten endives, or chicons as they are called here in Brussels, before I moved here, but now they are one of my favourite vegetables. Rasmus and I have a restaurant near St Gery that we really like. The mis-matched tables, chilled atmosphere and the fact that the unchanging menu is written up on the wall help but really we just go there for their chicons: stuffed with meat, wrapped in bacon, and served up with mash potato, gravy and broccoli. So. very. good.

So I went that way with this meal. I followed the recipe instructions pretty close except for substituting bacon for the serrano ham which was more expensive. And then I cooked mash potatoes and green beans to go with it.

It was really yummy! The chicons are caramelised in butter and sugar and then a stuffing of breadcrumbs, parmesan and thyme is spooned on top and each one is covered with the strip of bacon and baked in the oven for 20 minutes.

If all the recipes in the book are this good, I am going to need to utilise that gym membership a bit more often… ;)

On my “to-cook” list next are: Chargrilled asparagus, courgetters and manouri; Cauliflower and cumin fritters with lime yoghurt; Turkey and sweetcorn meatballs with roasted pepper sauce; Sweet potato galettes; and Parmesan and poppy biscuits. Anyone fancy coming round for dinner?!

one year

what a different a year makes…

first christmas market weekend 2008: first weekend as a couple

first christmas market weekend 2009: seven weeks married

preparing the table

Since Marissa was doing all the cooking for thanksgiving, I took my “hostess” duties very seriously and spent a good hour making the table look pretty.

We have so much purple from the wedding, in the form of leftover decorations and wedding gifts. So I decided the colour theme would be purple and white/cream.

I made a quick trip to the beautiful flower shop down the road for some roses and those other pretty wee things. The lovely vases were a wedding gift from Rasmus’ mormor (granny) and looked perfect!

The glass jars are the few left over once we finally got rid of the other 100+ we had collected from family and friends for the wedding decorations. I put some of the purple beads that we spent hours stringing the night before the wedding (I say we – I didn’t do any of it but we had a small army of family and friends in my parents living room stringing away) into the glass jars and put a tea candle in too.

Funny story – a few hours later I discovered the beads are actually plastic not glass, when one of them set on fire :)

Marissa laughed at me for colour coordinating the chairs with the plates and napkins… but hey, it would just not have looked quite as good if I’d put all the white chairs down one side.

Finally, I made name tags for everyone who came, using a stamp I found in the art shop when I was meant to be buying more supplies for the wedding thank you cards :)

I wrote the names on in silver pen and then added this verse from Matthew underneath, which I thought was very fitting considering how many countries we had represented around the table…

“Many will come from the east and the west and take their place at the feast in the kingdom of heaven”

thankful

On Friday, we celebrated Thanksgiving.

Yes, Thanksgiving was actually on Thursday. But this was a rather “alternative” celebration anyway, seeing as we were only three Americans and nine others from UK, Denmark, Bosnia, Romania, Canada, and Belgium.

Marissa cooked the whole amazing meal, including the HUGE turkey, and I had great fun decorating the table and making the individual apple pies and pecan pies.

With friends like these, there’s a lot to be thankful for.

1 december

I’ve lived through so many World AIDS Days that they can become a bit uninspiring.

There was the first year I really took notice of the date, living in South Africa, working with children who had lost parents to the disease, making friends with a lot of the locals and the statistic of 33% infection rate for that area suddenly becoming awfully real to me.

There were my uni years, campaigning with the One World Student Society, collecting signatures to push for free treatment, organising a fundraising ball in the town aquarium.

As I get further from my experiences in South Africa it becomes harder to recall why I was so passionate for this cause. It feels so very far away. Even the experience of getting tested myself (as a precaution when I came home – I was very sure I wasn’t infected but the incredible fear of what could be was still overpowering) seems a distant memory.

But it’s still very real and very painful for so many families across the world, particularly in Africa.

I spend a lot of my work days researching EU policy on HIV&AIDS, pushing for new programs, reminding about forgotten people groups.

But today I am thinking only of one woman. Whose photo I have only seen, I have never met or spoken with her aside from a few short texts. She lives in Togo and is the wife of a good friend. And she is HIV positive. And I’ve seen the pain in his eyes when he speaks of it, and I’ve read the struggles between the lines of her text messages.

And that reminds me that this is still real. And we must not let our hearts be hardened by repetition. We must keep remembering, keep pushing for change and keep loving and supporting.

sneak peek: official wedding photos

We’re going to our friend Joanna’s wedding in the UK tomorrow. She was the saint who put up with sharing a one-room apartment with me for ten months here in Brussels. We spent the whole ten months single and now we are getting married within six weeks of each other. Her fiancée James is wonderful and I’m so looking forward to sharing in their day.

So because I won’t be posting again over the weekend, I am rewarding your patience with a sneak peek of the official wedding photos… this one taken at the Palais de Justice in Brussels.

Our awesome wedding photographer is Andy Rous, based near Oxford. His website is under construction but you can contact him via facebook or leave a comment and I’ll send you his contact details :)

practising

The evening before the big day, we were due to meet our vicar up at the church to do the service rehearsal.

Rasmus and I agreed to meet my dad and sis there, and drove off to the car wash quickly right before for a few minutes break and of course to ensure the car was sparkling clean when we drove away in it the next day.

We got back to the church at 5 and everyone from the house was there, minus my mum who was finishing up the cooking. or cleaning. or maybe it was just her ploy to get ten minutes break.

Our vicar introduced himself to our families and then asked me and my dad and sis to go out the church to practise coming in.

Which was the moment I looked at Jen and we both got hysterical giggles.

The kind you just can’t stop, even though it is meant to be a serious moment.

It didn’t help that I was giggling with Jen and we have been known to fall off our chairs from laughing so hard together.

I think I just suddenly realised it is happening TOMORROW. We are getting married tomorrow.

And it was insane and exciting and terrifying and wonderful.

Which is why I couldn’t stop laughing. Makes perfect sense, right?

Well half way down the practise-aisle, I got my laughter under control. The vicar skipped over the vows but had us practise the exchanging rings part.

And suddenly my fiancée is saying “I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage” and I know it is only a practise and it’s not real until tomorrow but it is so very intense and I can’t quite force my lungs to breathe.

Until Rasmus makes a popping noise as a pretend-slides the ring onto my finger…

And the whole practise-congregation collapses with laughter.

aunt sally

Aunt sally is not a relation of mine. In fact she’s not a person at all.

It’s the name of an old English pub game that is only played in Oxfordshire and some of the surrounding counties. But there it is taken very seriously, with pubs having teams who compete in a league against other local pubs, the results of which are all posted in the local newspaper.

My Dad is on the team for our local pub The Red Lion so of course we had to introduce this game to all the visiting Danes!

The general idea of the game is you throw a heavy wooden stick at the “sally” which is a kinda oval shaped thing balanced on top of a metal pole. You have to knock down the sally without hitting the pole. It’s actually pretty hard!

We had a practise round and then a game of English(speaking) .v. Danish. We won. But only by one point I think. We all pretty much sucked at the game… it’s so very hard!

This is my favourite photo from the game. Rasmus pose is perhaps valid considering the previous throw had landed amongst the spectators rather than anywhere close to the sally… :)

so proud

Jen, you are beautiful and so wonderful and I am oh so proud that you made it through three years at that crazy college and graduated on Friday and that they recognised all your hard work by giving you the prize! I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to see it but I am possibly the most chuffed big sister ever. I love you heaps!

the day before

So begins the wedding story.

Because I know some of you are thinking bad thoughts about me for delaying it so long…

We planned the wedding for the Sunday. Partly because of the cool date. 11.10.09. Seriously. You should see how nice it looks engraved inside our wedding rings.

But we also planned it then so that in laws would have a full day to meet, hang out, decorate and cook together and get over any remaining language phobias :)

The day dawned gloriously sunny – with my parents still adamently claiming the forcast for Sunday was almost as good (I was checking the forecast too and was reading it a little more realistically!)

After the initial excited awkward introductions we headed up to the church to begin the decorating.

The WHOLE family was there. Four of my family, seven of his. Plus two of the most fabulous women you would ever have the chance to meet.

This is Ellie. She flew from SOUTH AFRICA so that I could put her to work decorating, flower arranging, baking…

She was a good sport. Partly because I let her resume her favourite pastime of mocking me. Which she does in a northern accent and is good at. She was like my chief un-bridesmaid. Do they exist?

This is Fancy. Aside from having the most wonderful name ever to be bestowed upon an infant, she is also my fashion guru, and pretty much lifestyle guru. She flew from LAS VEGAS for the wedding.

Also, she will probably dislike that I just post (posted? postet?) this photo of her on my blog for potentially millions of people to see. (Ignore the fact that I have about three readers a day for a moment will you and allow my hyperbole to exist)

So we spent much of our morning in the church. And if you had walked in this is the fun chaos you would have witnessed…

Much much flower arranging.

Cutting of tulle. By the men of course. We give them the really manly jobs to affirm their masculinity.

My 80 year old Grandpa taking care of the candles in the chandelier. And everyone else wondering who allowed him up a ladder.

And my husband-to-be in his normal position: seven page to-do list and spreadsheets in his back pocket, delegating all jobs to other people. Apparently this makes it all go smoother and faster. Hmm.

Here is my bridesmaid and my chief un-bridesmaid taking a break. They should pretend to be doing something quick or my husband-to-be might delegate them another task…

Wondering why my dad looks so excited?

It’s because he is about to introduce the Danes to the most marvellous game ever to be created.

No, it’s not rugby. That was a good guess though.

It’s called Aunt Sally.

Full English(speaking) vs. Danish match analysis coming soon…