Weird Christmas plans in the Netherlands

So last Friday I went to visit my friend in the Netherlands again..

It's weird as we were all full of fun in an airport with people traveling hither and thither, all full of happiness.

We started off in similar fashion having a few drinks because the working week was done, I was getting a bit of me time. Which for me personally I think is really important if you have young children. As sometimes you sort of lose yourself and just need a day or two to remind yourself there is another world out there and it not just nappies. Although can't last anymore than two days as I miss the cuddles.

So we had wine and cocktails at the airport:

Mojito

Followed by drinkies on the plane.

Some poor (Drunk) girl behind us had never flown British Airways before, and needed to tell the whole flight how happy she was that you got a free drink. She was only 20 and on her way to a rave in Amsterdam (Ah to be young and foolish).


The flight from London is really quick just under 1 Hour, that the great thing about living in the UK Europe is just on your door step. But I think in the UK as there is a body of water separating us, we feel further away. I haven't been to nearly enough of Europe as I should have been. Although that's because I'd rather head over to the States so always saving my pennies for that.

But I do plan with the little one a few more jaunts to nearby places to expand his horizon and my own. Especially as you can drive to Europe so can take all the stuff we need with us too.

We got off the plane and headed for the train. OMG coming from England where the train service at best is bad, to go on to the ATM service in the Netherlands, like night and day. So cheap for starters.


All the trains have free Wifi and when you log on it gives you information on when you will arrive at your destinations.

Absolutely bloody brilliant. To celebrate how great it was we had a bit of fizz (Although I have now discovered that you are not supposed to drink on these local trains so I apologies to the authorities and vow not to do it on my next trip).

We arrived at our destination and were reading for a great night, my Friend had just moved into a fabulous new house just on the Edge of the little town of Hilversum. It is beautiful she worked in fashion for years so has the most amazing eye for detail pair things together that I would never even think of.

I love her dog or as I call it the "Friends" dog.

As we were just settling for a big session of drinking and eating the sad, heartbreaking news of the Paris attacks was emerging. It's hard to fathom how awful it is. This misguided people driven by hate, taking innocent lives of people just trying to get on in the world.

I know a lot has already been said, and who am I with my lowly blog to add more? I'm saying something as I am a person in this world and I have a voice and even if only one person hears it could make a difference. All I am going to say is Hate breeds hate, compassion will always breed compassion. People have been hurt have lost loved ones and had their lives turned upside down in the most devastating way. I feel nothing but sorrow for everything that went on. I hope that we find some way to end this terrible loss of life.  And the most important thing is we all stay strong and keeping love and compassion in our hearts as that is the best way to beat hate and fear.

So was a bit subdued when we went to bed and got up the next morning especially as the scale of the horror unfolded. But we where there and we wanted to enjoy our time.

So we headed into Hilversum for a quiet day of drinking an eating.

As we were in the Netherlands we came across a sex shop, not my thing but I did like the theme of the window very autumnal lol

then we headed to the market, I loved it the last time and loved it again. So many stalls filled with fresh produce and it smelt divine. We picked up some yummy cheese for later on in the day.

As we skipped breakfast went back to the same place we went before "Flinders"  to get some eats. I got some traditional food of Bittenballen which are deep fried bites filled with meat (Don't know what kind of meat and thought best not to ask) but they were delicious but so fattening. We order the Fish Bittenballen and some great cheese bites. That were like spring rolls with cheese in the middle. Total Nommage

We also added some lovely dipping bread.

Washed down with a fantastic Gin and Fever Tree Tonic - Well I am on my holidays don't judge lol.

There seemed to be a commotion going on outside, our friend informed us it was the local Christmas parade. It is to mark the arrival of Santa coming by boat from Spain to the Netherlands. Now I normally happy and fascinated by other countries traditions. although I was slightly uneasy about this one.

Now I'm all for people, especially the kiddies having fun and feeling the Joy of Christmas. But I, as coming form London, didn't really get or understood Santa's helper "Black Pete". where people get dressed up put on black face make up, bright red lipstick and a curly black wig and give out treats to the children.

Now this is not my culture or my tradition so I am the first to say I don't full understand its significance. also someone tried to tell me it was because of the coal from going down the chimney (Although that would not account for the Red lip and curly wig). But in a western multicultural place it seem very outdated.

So people tried to modernize it and a caught a picture of this lovely lady with a pink face.

 But Our friend told me that only 18% of the population see a problem with it. I just think round children it send a weird message. Although it wasn't sinister in anyway and the kids loved getting the candy and all the local seemed to be having fun. I just think a bit of modernizing to bring it in to the 21st Century would make it a truly amazing festival.

Also got to see Santa and he seemed fun.

As for me I prefer the Elves version of Santa's helpers rather than these garish Petes

We stayed in the cafe most of the day gassing about this and that we even had to order some more food love array of meats and cheeses.

 at around 5pm we left to go and meet our friends son and his new girlfriend. All I can say is he was brave considering we're a nightmare at the best of times but after a drink it's a lot worse.

We met at the Soul Kitchen and after another round of deep fried snacks,

Some more drink and a chat with the Bar owner.

Sitting out in the cold

We moved onto shots to warm us up.
JAGERBOMBS

had a great chat and then made the long walk (which was all of 7 minute) back to our friends house where we all curled up on the couch again and had some glasses of fizz an tucked in the cheese we purchased.

Next morning and our last day boo. We awoke to our amazing hostess cooking us bacon.. mmmm bacon which was especially nice as she doesn't eat it.. I know mad right.

to make the most of our time before we headed back to the airport we went to the lovely town of Urtrecht.


Had drinks on the train again (Sorry still didn't know at that time it was bad).

Utrecht is fab, it like a mini Amsterdam with beautiful canals

Lovely architecture

Yummy shops and a great cafe culture.

we managed to find this great restaurant De Beurs and as it was dry we sat outside for a bit of a cocktail

it was so nice we went inside to have some lunch.

I have a big burger.

So yummy so tasty and medium just the way I like it.

So after being very well fed we had to make our way back to the train station and boarded the train back to Schiphol...


I was very excited as it was a double Decker train, we don't have these in the UK and I think they are very cool - but then again I am sad.

So plane home (after extensive Security which was heighten due to everything that been going on), cab back and just in time for a big huge mummy hug before bedtime. That what making go away great you get so excited for going back and giving the little one a big tight squeeze and just getting a beaming smile in return.


So apart from the obvious it was actually a good weekend and just want I need to re-charge my batteries before the Christmas Rush..

Christmas and the Low Fat Pizza

Hi Guys

so after the inactive (by ways of cooking) active (by ways of everything thing else) last week I managed to get back in the Kitchen yay.

Well not after going out to look for some decoration and coming across this rather creep snowman.

The little one was less than impressed lol.

I had time to make a lovely low fat "Cauliflower and Sprout Based Pizza" okay not as doughy as a normal pizza which I do adore - mmmm Dominos 

But if you trying (mostly in vain, like me) to loose weight especially before the festive season. As I know we'll all say no, I'll be good and won't go mad and then by new year you've realized you have eaten enough to feed a village for a year and drunk enough to fill in the local swimming pool you won't fall to far into your pit of regret. This is a healthy alternative.

A really simple and fun thing to do - good for gluten free and with a few tweaks to topping can even be a vegan meal (Although as my version contains topping of Egg, Cheese and ham definitely would need them removed lol)

So to make the base it very easy just get a Cauliflower and some sprouts:

Prepare them for cooking, Don't know why but my mother always says when you cook sprouts you need to put a cross in them and as the old adage goes "Mother Knows Best" so I do it too.

Cook in water now normally if you were having these as a side you would cook them for 15-20 minutes depending on how soft or firm you wanted them but for the pizza base I would say 25 minutes to get them nice and soft for mashing.

Once cooked drain the veg thoroughly then mash together. (some people add an egg to this mix to get them to bind better, but I find it works well without it.)

Prepare a baking tray line it with baking parchment and add some spray oil

Then add the mixture to the paper spreading it then and even and trying to shape it into a circle. I know mines a bit cack-handed but I am dyslexic and dyspraxia I find fiddle stuff sometimes difficult.

doesn't matter too much as when you put the topping on it will look awesome.

So you need to place that in a 200 degree oven for around 18-20 minutes - till the sizes start crisping up.

Once that's done take out of the oven and leave to cool. Then you can choose and add your topping - anything you want it's up to you.

I added:

cheese, Peppers, Tomatoes, chilies, Prosciutto and an egg.

I fried of the peppers a little first as I find they cook better.

Then for the Pizza I add a Tomato Puree and spread it evenly across the base.

Then you can arrange the topping in anyway you see fit.

then back in the oven at 180 for around 12 minutes.

What you are left with is a yummy low fat and healthy Faux Pizza.

Honestly it is so filling I had this over 3 meals as it was so big.

even something fun to do with the kids as, as soon as you have the base you can let them go mad throwing the topping on. I use to make french bread pizza with my mum when I was young and it was always one of our favorite meals.

So glad I got time to do some cooking this week as we still in pre moving hell. I hate all this stuff as there are so many forms to fill in and people to contact and anyone reading this who is dyslexic knows that form are a big pain in the pants. coupled that with the added stress as there are legal documents and you want to make sure they are filled in exactly right.

But the more stressed you get the worse your dyslexia gets. I really hate the process hopefully in years to come they might make it easier for us lot. but until then I'll go back to pulling my hair out and quadruple checking then getting my mum to check everything I do.

Couple this with the little ones new hobby of putting his toys down the loo ~(UK Slang for toilet) would show you a picture but I didn't think it was seemly putting a pic of the Bog (Another UK slang for Toilet) on a blog about food - somehow I don't think they go. This also cause further distress and he was not happy that I wouldn't let him have the toys back straight after I removed them from the toilet. Evil Mummy wanting to wash them so they were clean lol...

Thank goodness I am off to the Netherlands for a break this weekend, it can't come soon enough.. That does mean however that next week's blog will be full of fun, food and fantastical stories of our antics lol.

Amok in Amsterdam - Part 2

So we headed out into the city. We ambled through the red light district where the window displays were just opening up. I expected it to be a lot seedier. I actually was more intimidated by the coffee shops (not that I went in any). Naively I thought they’d be like the coffee shops you get over here with people sitting around sipping expensive Latte with a smoke in hand.  But they were dark dingy and some had loud house music pouring out and the clientele seemed to be proportionately male.

The red light windows had “ladies” in their underwear sitting on stools more often than not engrossed in their phones. I did wonder what they were doing I assumed it was just regular things like doing an online shop or texting their mates. I even saw one women eating noodles while waiting on her next customer.  I think it didn’t seem as sleazy as it is legal, so out there in the open; and I hope less likely the women are forced into situation they are not happy with.

We pootled around the streets looking for a bar, it was only around 6pm but due to the sizes of the bars and the number of people (it was Saturday night) we found it hard to find somewhere. We did eventually stumble into a bar where we could get a seat, didn’t catch the name, but from their selection of only Red or White wine I decided on trying another beer.  I tried a palm as we sat around and chatted about what we thought of Amsterdam and it collective array of nightlife and shops. We’d even, on the way, passed the “Condom-ory” a museum/shop dedicated to the wonderful world of the protective aid.

My Palm beer wasn’t very nice, also this is where I decided to taste S salted liquorice at that point the beer tasted a bit better at least when it was taking the foul liquorice taste out of my mouth. Once we’d finished we decided to head over to the less festive part of time to find another drinking establishment (and some pain-kills for J neck as the wasp sting was still hurting). We walked past the station again and headed into a different part of town.

This was a more residential part of the town with lots of houses/apartments. Because of the time of day the lights were on. Also because, as H informed me, in the past the people of the Netherlands used to suspect people of Witchcraft if they shut their curtains, you could see right in to people’s living rooms and kitchens. So of course we had a nose, and I surmised that I could definitely live there although I think I’d need a lottery win to have a house in that part of the world.

Even though we’d only finished eating around 2 hour previously we passed this lovely little restaurant called Duende www.cafe-duende.nl . H thought it might be Dutch tapas (Never did find out what that is) but it was traditional Spanish tapas. The restaurant was quite out of the way and we only found it as we had just wandered aimlessly through the streets. It was beautifully tiled and like the other restaurant a bit cramped we moved 3 times till we all were happy with our table.

It was a really relaxed atmosphere and the staff were brilliantly helpful giving us English menus so some Cava we ordered meat, cheese and Olives, deep fried cheese, Spanish meatballs, Tomato and herb topped bread, garlic prawns and my favourite calamari. At first we were worried that this would not be enough for the 4 of us. Although after digging in we all were feeling full again but did manage to finish ever last bit of food J. It was delicious and I would recommend anyone heading that way if you can find it eat there. H said she would definitely bring other visitors out that way. Giving it a 9/10 only 1 point off as there wasn’t enough sauce with the deep fried cheese lol..

Having our stamina levels topped up we walk all of 5 building before we found another restaurant/bar with outside seating. It did boast the appearance of blankets and heaters so we decided to sit outside. After ordering a bottle of Pinot, we discovered that the there was only one blanket, luckily J and myself was already under it, so we were in no mood to give it up. Also the heaters even though they were put on after a horrendous noise and a burst of flame from the gas powered monster, both us and the bar staff agreed that they were better off than on.  So we sat in the cold clear evening chatting and drink wine.

While we were half way through our glasses in between our shivers. Some of the group wanted to go home, I pointed out it was only just gone 8pm and I insisted that we stayed out till at least 10pm lol. J spotted another bar across the street, our next destination. We crossed the deserted road, toward the deserted bar, unsure it was open due to the lack of patrons. Finding the door open, Im sure there was an unnatural creek and I hear a distant crow caw, we wandered in.  The walls from ceiling to floor were adorned in framed football shirts and it smelt of beer and broken dreams.  The bar boasted a barman and a lone drunk sitting slumped over the bar. The rest of the girls were in a merry mood, I was slightly worried we wouldn’t make it out alive.

It was my turn and we decided to have aperitifs S & I had “43” and J&H had Drambuie. I got the order while smiling and nodding when the drunk on the bar started talking to me in Dutch even though I ordered in England. I paid my money, grab the drinks and made it back to the table. 80s music was kicking out over the PA system. We sipped our cold warming liquid and bopped along to the sounds of yester year. We were definitely started to get more relaxed and H now has some singing evidence on her phone. The girls wanted to stay on as we neared the bottoms of the glass. I was starting to get worried about our safety as I looked over my shoulder back at the bar.  I have never seen a man clean a glass in a more sinister way. So using my great power of persuasion and the fact they were all a bit merry we headed on.

One more street then another bar, back to fizz and we plotted making our fortune, by writing our story of how we met. Think of the famous five with four, drinking and talking nonsense.  As it had gone 10 we could head back to the station. Even thought there was a sign pointing one way in our infinite wisdom we turned and went the other way. A couple of street later we ended up at another bar up the stairs and had wine. We got chatting to some locals who recommended we try the local Gin “Jenever” it was horrid, burnt all the way down. Although I did manage to finish it off.

Next thing we knew it had gone 12 and we didn’t know what time the trains ran too so we high tailed out of there. We had an interesting time getting back, one of the crew decided to lie down in the street for a photo. We flagged a cab when we realised the GPS was broken and we ended up even further away from the station. We had 7 minutes to make the train he drove like the wind got us there with 3 mins to spare.

I leaped from the cab like a Gazelle followed closely by another one of the gang. I darted across the road dodging cars and Trams. Turned around to see where the rest of the team were. One was hot on my heels the others…. Well all I’ll say is one was on the floor tried to get up only to end up back up on the floor when my other friend oblivious to what was going on right next to her was calling to us over the busy road. Needless to say we missed the train and had to wait 45mins. So I had some more fries covered in Mayo and Ketchup, think there was more Mayo and Ketchup than there was chips.

End of the night we got back to Utrecht couldn’t get a train back to Hilversum so flagged down a cab. After leaving by the steepest train step in the world seriously they must have built it on a side of a cliff. Go in turned to our host and asked her where she lived, which at the time she was unsure of. Luckily as the chips had soaked up some of the booze we managed to him to take us aback to a Hilversum landmark and directed him from there.

So finally back after a brilliant day. I scaled the mountain of the stairs got a huge glass of water and fell into a drink induced sleep.