Posts Tagged With: Easter

The weather turns cold (Or: Cold for the Netherlands, at least)

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Niki

This week the temperature has been around 0-5C (32-41F). Of course that isn’t that cold for my readers from the US, but after 10 years in the Netherlands, it is cold. Luckily one of my Christmas gifts this year was a decent set of gloves. They keep my fingers nice and toasty. Mostly.

My streak of never taking a sick day at work has ended after about 20 years, unfortunately. The last time I took one I was a student worker at my university’s library back in 2003 or 2004, to give you some idea. It isn’t that I am stubborn, I just don’t get that sick that often. Or there was the one time my body decided to get sick around 7pm on a Friday evening, I was confined to the bed for the entire weekend, but then somehow felt well enough to go back to work on Monday. That sort of craziness.

This time I think it was a light version of the flu as the Netherlands is in the middle of a flu epidemic at the moment. I did test negative for corona. I suspect I picked up the flu virus at the hairdressers on Saturday as I was there for a while. Either way, the worst is over, Marco was very loving and received many brownie points, and my sick day record has officially been broken.

In other news, check out the chocolate egg selection at Jumbo (a supermarket):

Because of course Easter eggs start getting sold as soon as the New Years Eve memorabilia is out the door. Some of the flavors include caramel sea salt, nougat, creme brûlée, brownie, tiramisu and peanut butter. At this point, those all sound pretty normal as Jumbo usually has a huge selection.

Random link that might interest you: 11 books based in the Netherlands to add to your reading list from dutchreview.com.

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Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

FOAM Easter brunch (Or: A mix of savory and sweet)

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Niki

This year’s Easter brunch by FOAM was delicious, not that we expect anything different by now. Both photos were taken by Marco, who has a better eye for food photos it seems.

Let’s see. Some of the savory items include: a scone with salted butter and chia jam, an avocado sandwich, a mini spinach quiche and a scrambled tofu sandwich. (Note: that seems to be the only way I like tofu. So tiny it tastes and looks like scrambled eggs. Although oddly I also only eat eggs every 2-3 years, so who knows.)

Some of the sweet items included a coffee hazelnut milkshake, a huge chocolate chip cookie, banana bread, and a fresh fruit salad. My favorite was the chocolate chip cookie (of course) but the banana bread was a close second.

See also the 2020 edition for FOAM’s Easter brunch. That was one of the first FOAM meals we had in corona – pre-FOAM@home on Fridays. I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Happy Easter (Or: A drawing from Marco)

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Niki

Happy Easter everyone!

In the Netherlands Easter Monday is also an official holiday. Unfortunately it is back to work for us tomorrow…

On that note, check out this Easter bunny that Marco drew:

This was for an Easter card that we sent to Marco’s dad. It also included a rhyming poem (not pictured). Not bad considering he wrote the poem and drew the rabbit during a (very) short 7 minute tram ride!

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Just another Thursday (Or: Curfews and Easter eggs)

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Niki

It looks like more Dutch parties are in favor of the curfew, as long as it starts a bit later. Last weekend the rumors were that it would last from 20:00-04:00, during the press conference on Wednesday we heard possibly 20:30-04:30 and now there is talk of it not starting until 21:00. This slight compromise seems to be the only way for the government to get a majority of parties to vote for the plan, although prime minister Mark Rutte mentioned that if it starts any later than 21:00 it would not have much effect.

MPs set to vote to bring in a curfew from 9pm after a full day’s debate from dutchnews.nl

The Dutch government revised the vaccination schedule slightly. See also this article at dutchnews.nl: When is it your turn to get vaccinated? The schedule so far (or the same list in Dutch from rijksoverheid.nl)

Did you know mid-January means Easter eggs are already arriving in stores? Het is januari, dus… zijn de eerste paaseitjes gespot in Den Haag from indebuurt.nl. The essential stores that are allowed to be open during this lockdown, at any rate. On the linked page the big picture on the bottom is of the Easter egg selection at Jamin, a Dutch candy store. The article says that some of the more unique flavors sold this year are wasabi, apple strudel and carrot cake. I’m also a big fan of the color coordination, though it makes me wonder what flavor is missing in the lower right in the article’s photo.

Speaking of Easter eggs, here is the selection at an Albert Heijn grocery store (somewhere in the Netherlands):

The tweet reads: “Every Easter I buy a large bag of Easter eggs and put them in a big vase on the table. Every January Albert Heijn reminds me that I still haven’t eaten all of them yet.”

Easter in January…

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Easter 2020 (Or: A bit smaller and closer to home)

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Niki

Happy Easter, everyone! It’s a quiet holiday – we’ve opened the windows nice and wide today to get that spring breeze circulating through the apartment. This year Marco and I ordered Easter Brunch from a local restaurant, FOAM Catering. You can find them at Frederikstraat 44.

We were tempted after Marco saw the menu on Facebook:

We went with the meal and added one massive chocolate chip cookie and one banana bread muffin to the spoils. Check it out:

From left to right we have the massive chocolate chip cookie, and then next to that the banana bread muffin (sort of hidden). In the box above we have the two sandwiches – BLTA (tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado – YUMMM!) and the wakame baguette with scrambled tofu, chives and tomato. I can easily say it is the best tofu I’ve ever had. It was great and did actually look like scrambled eggs. You can see the scrambled tofu container in the lower right, as you needed to warm it up separately and then add it to the sandwich.

Underneath the sign “Like our food?” is the mango jalapeño gazpacho, my second favorite item after the BLTA sandwich. It wasn’t that spicy, and the mango wasn’t too sweet. To the right is the scrambled tofu, as earlier mentioned. In the box on the far right is the coconut power balls and underneath the two brownies. Sweets wise we kept it at the coconut power balls, which were unbelievably tasty. We saved them until last and had them with a cup of coffee. The two closed containers in the far back are the extra scrambled tofu and gazpacho.

If you’re in The Hague I would definitely recommend this restaurant – it was well worth the price and we’re already planning our next visit. And without this experience I wouldn’t have ever known tempeh bacon existed, so that’s a definite win.

Stay safe, everyone!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: | 2 Comments

Chocolate eggs by Hema (Or: Stroopwafel flavor, anyone?)

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Niki

It feels like a lifetime ago, but a few weeks ago (13 March) I was browsing in Hema. I could not resist snapping a few photos of their chocolate egg collection:

Some of the flavors included dark chocolate banana cream, white chocolate matcha lemon, milk chocolate cookies and cream (that one was almost empty), milk chocolate orange, milk chocolate coconut, milk chocolate peanut butter… I definitely learned that everyone’s favorite flavor is milk chocolate, not dark chocolate.

There was also a display near one of the entrances.

But the best (and most Dutch) flavor was…

You guessed it… Stroopwafel flavored chocolate eggs!

Categories: Everyday purchases, Holidays | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Happy Easter! (Or: Bunny butts?)

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Niki

Happy Easter! Here is a card that Marco and I received:

The card was designed by Marco’s father and his wife.

Both Marco and I were amused by the bunny butt…

Categories: Friends&Family, Holidays | Tags: | 1 Comment

Reester bunny (Or: Chocolate and eggs everywhere)

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Niki

Today Marco and I went to Kelly’s Expat Shopping here in The Hague. It’s a great store for American and British food and a store I’ve blogged about before. The one thing I get almost every time is Ritz crackers. Yum! Snagged another box today…

I was quite amused by the “Reester bunny” you could buy:

Reese's chocolate bunny (Or Reester bunny)

Their Easter selection is pretty good when it comes to chocolate, I must admit. Lots of Cadbury eggs.

Pop or soda for 10 euros - 12 pack

Did you know it costs 10 euros for a 12 pack of pop/soda? And that’s a discounted price! Back home you could get it for 2/$5 during the right sale. Of course, that’s just how it goes when you’re an expat so far from home.

And here is a fun photo from the Albert Heijn XL on Elandstraat:

Chocolate easter eggs for sale at Albert Heijn XL, The HagueAnyone need any chocolate eggs? There are lots of flavors to choose from… But still, it doesn’t compare to the Reester bunny. Don’t you just want to nibble on those ears?

Categories: Food, Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Easter and… furniture (Or: Dutch B2 course #24)

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Niki

Here is a random thing that I learned yesterday during Dutch class: on Easter Monday, some Dutch go to a meubelboulevard, or a furniture store shopping mall. At least for the last few decades. Part of this is because furniture stores are open on Mondays although these days more stores are open on Mondays than just furniture stores. They also lure you in with irresistible discounts.

A local mall in The Hague (with mostly furniture stores) by the name of Mega Stores also has a chocoladefestival (chocolate festival) on Monday to celebrate the holiday. They have two chocolate fountains and children can also make bunny ears crafts.

I also found an old article (unfortunately in Dutch) from 2008 about the traffic around Ikea in Delft. The traffic was so bad that by the afternoon Ikea was asking visitors to stay away from the area and not come on that day in an attempt to lessen the traffic headaches people were experiencing on highway A13. Of  course, Ikea seemed to be a hot place to be back then – they also closed a few exit ramps (afritten) leading to Ikea due to the traffic nightmares it was causing.

Of course this just reminds me of when Sonic restaurants opened in northern New Jersey, causing such bad traffic jams on the highway exit ramp that the police were called in for the first few weeks.

Categories: Courses, Holidays | Tags: | Leave a comment

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