Halloween themed cookies, made by Marco. Pumpkins, ghosts and skulls. And the skulls were spicy! A bit of haberno powder, while the pumpkins were made of marzipan.
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10 year anniversary (Or: Hamburger and fries dessert)
Marco and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Wednesday. This was the anniversary of us meeting (October 19, 2006). We actually met each other after Marco went to a hockey game — Nashville Predators vs New Jersey Devils — in which the Predators won 4-3. It makes the date rather easy to remember, as you just need to look up the hockey game if you forget.
Marco surprised me with this on Wednesday night:
Trust me, this gesture was sweeter than you think.
Hamburger and fries, right? Wrong.
The fries on the left are actually pieces of waffle and cake. The lower right is strawberry, kiwi and mango with yellow sauce made to look like mustard. And the hamburger itself is made of two donuts for buns and with chocolate “mug cake” posing as the hamburger patty and strawberry sauce as ketchup.
What a creative surprise! 🙂
As we enter autumn (Or: Stroopwafel cake)
Over the weekend Roger made stroopwafel cake. Yum!
Here’s a closeup of one of the slices:
And, for randomness, here is a look at the fall mural for Eat Company, drawn by Sophia den Breems:
A different kind of workshop (Or: Making a gin and tonic)
Last Thursday some coworkers and I were invited to a cocktail making workshop. The cocktail in question – gin and tonics! Not something I drink very often. Upon entering, we were given a choice of red or white wine:
After we were told that we would be making gin and tonics, we were shown three mystery gins. There was obviously a difference in taste – some herbal, some floral. Not something I would have expected.
Sampling each of the three gins – a small shotglass of each
And here’s a look at the three gins used:
Hendrick’s, Bombay Sapphire and Gordon’s (my favorite was Gordon’s).
After that we sampled three tonics, still mystery style like the gins. One was Mediterranean, another Indian, and I don’t remember the third. The Indian tonic was my favorite as it had a bit of carbonation behind the flavor.
After we had chosen our gin and our tonic, we could add either wet or dry ingredients.
the table with wet and dry ingredients (not everything was shown here)
I kept my drink rather simple, opting for only the slightest hint of basilic basil syrup in an attempt to give it a bit of color and red peppercorns for a bit of spicy after taste. Also a lime wedge, but that was just garnish.
A coworker and I’s inventions – mostly the same, except that she chose the Mediterranean tonic and a lemon wedge. Unfortunately the color from the syrup didn’t really come through, but I was trying not to make it too sweet.
I never drink gin and tonics, but I might have to give it a try after this workshop!
Oh, and a bit of final trivia: the prevailing theory is that gin originally came from the lowlands (Netherlands and Belgium). All gins use juniper to some degree. The Dutch word for juniper is jenever, which became genever in old English, which was later shortened to gin.
3rd wedding anniversary (Or: A stay at nhow Rotterdam hotel)
Last week Marco and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the nhow hotel in Rotterdam (Dutch | English). The hotel was designed by Rem Koolhaas and currently holds the title of the largest building in the Netherlands (at 160,000 square meters).
Our room ended up being in the lower left building, in the upper left corner on the 23rd floor.
Where we were going and where we were staying was a surprise on my part – Marco only knew that it was a city in the Netherlands and we would be spending one night in a hotel.
Rotterdam Centraal, the train station. We ended up taking the new metro line E from Den Haag Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal, but that is for another blog post. 🙂
New metro station (Or: The Hague to Rotterdam)
As of yesterday the new metro station at The Hague’s Centraal station is ready! It connects The Hague with Rotterdam via metro line E. Marco and I were waiting for a bus to Wassenaar so I took some pictures from a distance:
The white tunnel form definitely reminds me of the design near the Beatrixlaan station. And another one:
Maybe Marco and I have a good reason to finally visit Rotterdam now. I think the last time I was there was for a WWE wrestling show… But that was three years ago, so I am sure I have been back since then. Right? 🙂
Remnants of theater (Or: Dr. Anton Philipszaal)
Back in December I showed a picture of the tearing down of the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in The Hague. Remarkably, there’s still a small piece of the building left:
Marco and I were on the way to Lebkov by Centraal Station for some coffee. We ended up with iced cappuccinos – yum! Since it’s a nice summer day (but not THAT nice of a summer, the Dutch meteologists say…)
And a look at their logo:
Oh, and one final fun fact – as usual, Sinterklaas candy is already popping up in stores. It’s only August people! 🙂
Summer eating (Or: Rrrollend Food truck festival by Malieveld, The Hague)
Yesterday Marco, Roger and I saw Suicide Squad at the local IMAX movie theatre (Pathé Spuimarkt). Afterwards we visited the Rrrollend Food truck festival by Malieveld, close to Centraal Station.
And what delicious food! Here’s a look at some of the photos I took. First, a look at my Asian Chicken bowl from Roll or Bowl:
Lunch and sugar cookies (Or: Summer fun)
Yesterday we celebrated Marco’s birthday at Little V, a Vietnamese restaurant. This was our first time going to Little V for lunch and it did not disappoint. I ordered an ‘eenpansgerecht’ or ‘let’s throw everything into one dish for ya’, with beef and chicken.
My drink was an awesome looking (and tasting) lemonade made of rose water.
And as a blog post bonus… a week ago I made lemon cookies! That is of note because I don’t really do the baking in the house. But this time I chose the recipe, did most of the work, and Marco was my assistant! (For the first time ever.)
The recipe was really good and I followed it exactly. Next time I would probably use less sugar, but I don’t have the sweet tooth I used to have so there is that. They were awesomely chewy (honest to goodness chewy!) and the lemon favor shined through perfectly.
See the recipe at Oh My Foodness (in Dutch) – including a very helpful video for people who don’t ever bake. Like me. See also her general recipe list.
Delft blauw guitar (Or: Random curiosities in the Rijksmuseum)
As my last post suggested, Marco and I visited the Rijksmuseum a few weeks back. Here are some of the photos I took. First, a guitar made in the style of delfts blauw:
Now look at the picture again, but this time focus on the top of the guitar. That is a bit unnerving!
More delfts blauw:
A painting illuminated from the back with lights:
And finally, a look down at the Rijksmuseum library:
I’ve always loved taking photos of spiral staircases. Pretty!
Life in the Hague 