by AlegriaDesigns
This is a delicious entrée or main dish for dinner on a cold winter day
1 can of chestnuts
2 onions
1 cube chicken broth, or 1L mml (4 cups +) chicken broth
1 litre (1 quart) of water only if cube broth is chosen
20 cl (3/4 cup ) cream
olive oil
Optional : pancettas
Sauté the minced onions, add the chestnuts and stir.
Add the chicken broth and the water if a cube is used.
Cook for a 1/4 of an hour.
Season to taste
Add the cream and puree everything in a blender.
Cook slices of Pancettas with olive oil.
Serve the soup with a slice of Pancetta in the plate
Enjoy :)
Showing posts with label expats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expats. Show all posts
Friday, 1 October 2010
Friday, 24 September 2010
Expat Recipes: Sticky Date Pudding
by AnacDesigns
2 cups of chopped dates
1/4 cup of water
1 cup of packed brown sugar (granulated will do too!)
60 g of butter
Boil all of the above at medium heat stirring often for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down for 10 minutes.
[You can prepare the cake pan in the meantime]
Mix in the following one by one:
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1-2 eggs
2 cups of flour
Place the mixture in a buttered and lined 22 cm round cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. in a pre-heated oven at moderate heat (180°C). Pierce cake with skewer, if it comes out clean it is ready!
It will be easier to take the cake out of the cake pan if you let it cool down a bit. [You can make the toffee sauce in the meantime]
Toffee sauce for topping:
Combine 60g of butter with 60 g of brown sugar over medium heat in a pan until boiling. Reduce heat and stir often until smooth. This will take about 2 minutes.
(If you use granulated brown sugar it will take longer with the toffee sauce and you have to be extra careful not to burn it)
Be careful not to burn yourselves!
Spread over warm cake.
Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
2 cups of chopped dates
1/4 cup of water
1 cup of packed brown sugar (granulated will do too!)
60 g of butter
Boil all of the above at medium heat stirring often for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down for 10 minutes.
[You can prepare the cake pan in the meantime]
Mix in the following one by one:
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1-2 eggs
2 cups of flour
Place the mixture in a buttered and lined 22 cm round cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. in a pre-heated oven at moderate heat (180°C). Pierce cake with skewer, if it comes out clean it is ready!
It will be easier to take the cake out of the cake pan if you let it cool down a bit. [You can make the toffee sauce in the meantime]
Toffee sauce for topping:
Combine 60g of butter with 60 g of brown sugar over medium heat in a pan until boiling. Reduce heat and stir often until smooth. This will take about 2 minutes.
(If you use granulated brown sugar it will take longer with the toffee sauce and you have to be extra careful not to burn it)
Be careful not to burn yourselves!
Spread over warm cake.
Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
My Most Surreal Moment
by JustOneLook
[Note: We've had a few minor technical problems, so please forgive the late publication of this lovely and moving blog entry from Linda.]
'll try to keep this lighthearted. I thought this would be a good date to write this... September 5th., to share with my new friends (tribe that is)!
I have lived away from England for many years and 'adjusted' to not being around for special events; weddings, births, birthdays, etc., although I have managed to fly 'home' for both my nieces' weddings but when my elderly mother was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery , it was really hard.
Should I go now?-will she be too sedated to know I'm there, should I wait until she's home from the hospital ? or will she think I don't want to be there, will she make it through?....dilemma, dilemma! Finally I went over when she came out, to help my sister.
The next few years were tough, with a young family to care for in America and my mother in and out of hospital in England as though she was checking into a hotel for the weekend! She insisted on living on her own and when she didn't feel well she'd call the doctor and she'd be right back in the hospital. I never knew if it was serious or not.
The last time she was hospitalized I was booked to fly over for my niece's wedding and Mum was unable to attend...she was in fact far worse than I had realized. Leaving her in a hospital bed to come back to my husband and children was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and it tore me apart. I knew it was the last time I would see her.
Weeks passed and the expected news came late one night on September 5th. My sister called to say that Mum had 'checked out of the hospital' for good this time. (Not being flippant,...just trying to keep this lighthearted)!
I immediately said 'Oh no it's .........(my niece's) birthday' and my sister said 'No it's not it's .......(my nephew's) birthday'. (They have back to back birthdays 5th & 6th). We had this back and forth conversation for a minute or so then I realized!! While I was standing in my kitchen in South Florida on 5th September, my sister was calling me from England and telling me our mum had died on 6th September...the next day for me!! THE most surreal feeling ever. I still get goosebumps when I think of it. Some people don't 'get' it. I think you ladies will.
It's been 10years since my mother passed away and I will buy some chrysanthemums (for my mum) haha as I usually do and I will try to keep them alive, as I usually don't! Perhaps they are annuals?!
Thanks for being here to listen,
Linda
[Note: We've had a few minor technical problems, so please forgive the late publication of this lovely and moving blog entry from Linda.]
'll try to keep this lighthearted. I thought this would be a good date to write this... September 5th., to share with my new friends (tribe that is)!
I have lived away from England for many years and 'adjusted' to not being around for special events; weddings, births, birthdays, etc., although I have managed to fly 'home' for both my nieces' weddings but when my elderly mother was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery , it was really hard.
Should I go now?-will she be too sedated to know I'm there, should I wait until she's home from the hospital ? or will she think I don't want to be there, will she make it through?....dilemma, dilemma! Finally I went over when she came out, to help my sister.
The next few years were tough, with a young family to care for in America and my mother in and out of hospital in England as though she was checking into a hotel for the weekend! She insisted on living on her own and when she didn't feel well she'd call the doctor and she'd be right back in the hospital. I never knew if it was serious or not.
The last time she was hospitalized I was booked to fly over for my niece's wedding and Mum was unable to attend...she was in fact far worse than I had realized. Leaving her in a hospital bed to come back to my husband and children was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and it tore me apart. I knew it was the last time I would see her.
Weeks passed and the expected news came late one night on September 5th. My sister called to say that Mum had 'checked out of the hospital' for good this time. (Not being flippant,...just trying to keep this lighthearted)!
I immediately said 'Oh no it's .........(my niece's) birthday' and my sister said 'No it's not it's .......(my nephew's) birthday'. (They have back to back birthdays 5th & 6th). We had this back and forth conversation for a minute or so then I realized!! While I was standing in my kitchen in South Florida on 5th September, my sister was calling me from England and telling me our mum had died on 6th September...the next day for me!! THE most surreal feeling ever. I still get goosebumps when I think of it. Some people don't 'get' it. I think you ladies will.
It's been 10years since my mother passed away and I will buy some chrysanthemums (for my mum) haha as I usually do and I will try to keep them alive, as I usually don't! Perhaps they are annuals?!
Thanks for being here to listen,
Linda
Monday, 6 September 2010
Berlin via Brussels
by anakit
I don’t usually condone my fellow expats in Brussels complaining about everything Belgian. Sure the weather is unstable, but hey so it is in London, yet even movie stars choose to live there. The traffic in Brussels is ruthless, nobody obeys any rules, but then again, sometimes you get to turn your four blinkers on in the middle of the street and hold up traffic for 15 minutes, because everyone is already used to it. The check-out ladies at the super-market are slow, though not as slow as the post office ladies, still, you never feel rushed while you carefully stack your eggs and broccoli in your bag. And the services! Never mind the reluctance of shops to make any business with you, God forbid something goes wrong with your Internet subscription – though it inevitably will – and God forbid you need to deal with any sort of administration!
You can be sure that at some point one or all of the above complaints will come up at any lunch or dinner table in the European Quarter. I always feel you have to take the bad with the beer, the chocolate and excellent train connections to European capitals. But maybe it’s because I’ve been there for so long I have stopped noticing.
That is until I came to Germany. Luck, life, fate wanted it that I come spend two whole months in its grand capital. I have to admit, though not unfamiliar with this country and its culture, I did not expect much, except perhaps greasy food and lots of casual fashion. But I started living here and although I felt like the only person wearing pastels and sandals in August, I soon started enjoying the SERVICE. Oh the German efficiency! That alone is worth moving here. My jewelry supplies are delivered regularly, even on Saturdays (a blasphemy in Belgium) and the postwoman climbed up six flights of stairs to my apartment to deliver the package. Of course I met her half-way, worried she would have left with my package if I didn’t hurry enough, not unlike her Brussels counterparts. Silly me. Even out of breath she delivered the package with a smile.
Berlin is a city that takes charge. When you already think you’ve seen what there is to see, it leads you down a side street where huge painted cows are plastered onto a wall of an apartment building. It discloses a small shopping street after you have given up on ever finding shoes again. You take the wrong public transport and end up at the place where the Wall began to fall. When you ride the tram you’ve taken many times before you suddenly realize there is a planetarium nearby.
I don’t usually condone my fellow expats in Brussels complaining about everything Belgian. Sure the weather is unstable, but hey so it is in London, yet even movie stars choose to live there. The traffic in Brussels is ruthless, nobody obeys any rules, but then again, sometimes you get to turn your four blinkers on in the middle of the street and hold up traffic for 15 minutes, because everyone is already used to it. The check-out ladies at the super-market are slow, though not as slow as the post office ladies, still, you never feel rushed while you carefully stack your eggs and broccoli in your bag. And the services! Never mind the reluctance of shops to make any business with you, God forbid something goes wrong with your Internet subscription – though it inevitably will – and God forbid you need to deal with any sort of administration!
You can be sure that at some point one or all of the above complaints will come up at any lunch or dinner table in the European Quarter. I always feel you have to take the bad with the beer, the chocolate and excellent train connections to European capitals. But maybe it’s because I’ve been there for so long I have stopped noticing.
That is until I came to Germany. Luck, life, fate wanted it that I come spend two whole months in its grand capital. I have to admit, though not unfamiliar with this country and its culture, I did not expect much, except perhaps greasy food and lots of casual fashion. But I started living here and although I felt like the only person wearing pastels and sandals in August, I soon started enjoying the SERVICE. Oh the German efficiency! That alone is worth moving here. My jewelry supplies are delivered regularly, even on Saturdays (a blasphemy in Belgium) and the postwoman climbed up six flights of stairs to my apartment to deliver the package. Of course I met her half-way, worried she would have left with my package if I didn’t hurry enough, not unlike her Brussels counterparts. Silly me. Even out of breath she delivered the package with a smile.
Berlin is a city that takes charge. When you already think you’ve seen what there is to see, it leads you down a side street where huge painted cows are plastered onto a wall of an apartment building. It discloses a small shopping street after you have given up on ever finding shoes again. You take the wrong public transport and end up at the place where the Wall began to fall. When you ride the tram you’ve taken many times before you suddenly realize there is a planetarium nearby.
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| Idyll in Kreuzberg |
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Deserted Graphitti Boat on the Spree Kreuzberg, Berlin |
This city is a temptress, at first it plays it cool then slowly pulls you in, until you no longer remember you don’t really live here.
Recommended for Etsy lovers: Sunday fleamarket at the Mauerpark on Bernauer Strasse. It's more than just a flea market, it's a way to spend your Sunday. People flock there from all over the city, set up stands, perform in the adjacent park or just sit back and sip on their beer. Even if you're not interested in thrifting through piles of old dishes or handmade items, there's plenty more. You can enjoy music and lunch within the market itself or just hang back on one of the benches along the remnants of the Berlin Wall and feel the relaxed atmosphere.
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