I’ve really been enjoying my Kindle reader and I’ve read a lot of books over the last year or so. I thought it would be nice to share my reading list for people who might be looking for some recommendations. I try to avoid depressing books and the very predictable murder-mysteries. I have recently gotten some free books from Amazon that tempted me to read outside my normal genre, though. If you know of any books that I may like, please let me know. I’m always looking for recommendations, too!
The Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight fame) – If you liked the Twilight series, you will like this one too. It’s pretty much the same story with the same themes but with a different setting. This time instead of vampires, its aliens that take over the human bodies.
The Brass Bed by Jennifer Stevenson – This was a futuristic novel about how the city of Chicago deals with the new influx of magic and magical beings. It was a free book and got terrible reviews. The reviews were right – it was a waste of time.
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson – This was another free book from Amazon and it was given out as a teaser to get you hooked on the series. It was about a group of kids who were genetically modified to have wings. They escaped from the lab where they were kept in dog cages and hid out in the forest away from civilization (except for their internet access, of course). Like the Twilight series, this book seemed more geared to the teenaged set. It was fun, but like most first-in-a-series books, it left more questions than answers. I have not yet purchased the rest of the series – I’m still debating whether it’s worth it or not.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - A book based on the story of Jacob from the Bible, but written from the women’s point of view. It’s an interesting perspective and gives a glimpse of what life might have been like during the Biblical times. It was pretty entertaining, too.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks – Also a religious theme; this is the story of a Jewish prayer book that was rescued from destruction by a Muslim during the war in Sarajevo. In flashbacks, it tells how the book was written and how it was kept from destruction by the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazis over the years. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the history of Jews in Europe beyond the Holocaust.
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – Lisa See has written some really good books over the years. This was not one of my favorites. This one was about two wealthy girls growing up in Shanghai. They immigrated to the US during the war and faced poverty and discrimination. It was OK, but not a very up-lifting book.
Sari Shop Window by Shobhan Bantwal - This was a stupid romance novel that took place in an Indian neighborhood in New Jersey. Skip this book – it was a waste of time and had nothing new to offer.
The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga – This book was about a taxi driver in India who murders his employer. He describes his life from childhood in rural India with little education to adulthood in the city where he works for the Indian upper classes. If you’re tired of reading about the problems in America, maybe you’re ready to read about the problems of another country. This was an interesting read.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett - The Help was my favorite book of the year. It tells the story of black housekeepers in Mississippi during the 60’s. It described the rules the black women had to follow to keep their jobs including using a separate toilet. Some of the stories were sad, some funny, and some happy.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston – I didn’t like this book as much as The Help, although it is considered a classic black novel. It uses the black dialect which makes it a bit more difficult to read. The story is not what you expect either. It’s more about feminism than race relations. It takes place in the 1930’s in Florida and is the story of one woman’s life.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – Another really good book! This one is about a builder in the 16th century who dreams of building magnificent cathedrals. After seeing so many of these cathedrals in Europe, I was interested to learn more about why the Catholic Church spent so much money on the cathedrals. It explained the economic relationships between the church and the land-owners. It also explained how they were able to build such enormous structures. There was also a plot-line that kept the whole thing interesting for people who don’t like reading dry history books!
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe – This was a rather dark book about the war in the Philippines. It’s told from the point of view of a family hiding from the Japanese and American soldiers. It mixes reality with the mythology of the Filipinos which makes the book more unique and interesting.
Three Cups of Tea… Greg Mortinson – This is one of the very few non-fiction books that I have read, but well worth reading. Greg Mortinson was attempting to climb K2 when he got lost and was rescued by a group of Pakistanis. After seeing how they lived, he promised to come back and build them a school. He has made it his life’s mission to build more schools in Pakistan and actually advises the US military on relations with the Pakistanis. If you want to learn more about what’s going on in the Middle East, this is a great book. It gives some hope that not everyone is a suicide bomber and things can get better.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maquire - This book is just plain fun! Of course it’s the Cinderella story, but the characters are given much more personality and complexity than the original fairy tale. I was fascinated that the story takes place in the Netherlands and talks about the tulip trade and painting.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – Written from the dog’s point of view, this book was rather disappointing. It was not nearly as entertaining or touching as Marley and Me and it was not really about car-racing either. Not worth reading…
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel by Mark Haddon – Written from the unique point of view of an autistic boy, this book was rather funny and touching. Don’t expect it to be too deep.
My Sister’s Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult – I actually avoided reading this book for a while fearing it to be too much of an Oprah Winfrey book choice. I was wrong. While the book is about the morality of raising a child to be an organ donor for her sister, it was also about how family dynamics are affected by having a sick child.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – This book is about more than how disgusting the meat processing industry was (and maybe still is). It also talks about the people who immigrated to the US to work in the meat packing plants: their hopes, desires, and disappointments. I was surprised how much of their experience was directly related to the recent home mortgage crisis. If you haven’t read this book – do so now!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Back in France for Skiing
Last winter we had a really fun time skiing with a British group led by my coworker’s father. Since we had such a good time with the group, we decided to go with them again this year. Our destination was St. Gervais, France a ski resort area near Geneva. There are actually several resorts in the same area and you can get lift tickets that allow access to all the resorts. That gives the benefit of having a huge area to ski and explore – important when you on a week-long ski trip.
While the rest of the group was riding a bus from the UK to France, Dennis and I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva. The flight involved getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get the train to the airport. We decided to give ourselves a lot of time before the flight because the local trains have not been very reliable in the snowy weather we’ve been getting. But everything went smoothly and we were in Geneva before we knew it. A one-hour shuttle bus ride got us to our hotel right around lunch time. The UK group had arrived a couple hours before us and was already out skiing. We decided to take our time getting lunch and arranging the rental skis so we didn’t get to the slopes the first day.
Later, in the day the UK group got back from the slopes and it was like meeting with family. Of course, not everyone from last year was able to join us this year and there were some new faces, but it was fun to see the gang again. Since we were staying in a larger hotel this year, there were other people around who were not part of our group. Everyone was from the UK and they were all friendly even if they had very loud children. The hotel served a tea in the afternoon (did I mention that it’s a British-run hotel?) and dinner at 7:45 for all the guests.
Actually, the hotel does require a bit more description. It is located in a town in the valley, so it was not really close to the ski areas at all. The hotel ran shuttle buses to the ski hills every morning, usually two different buses (8:45 and 9:15). In the afternoon, they drove the buses back to the hotel at 4:15 or 4:30. During the day, the drivers and most of the hotel employees went skiing. This arrangement seems OK on the surface, but there was no flexibility for bad weather or if you just got tired. One day, it so foggy we gave up skiing at noon. We had to wait in a bar on the hill for four hours until it was time for the bus. Since we were in ski boots and didn’t have street shoes, we were not even able to walk around the shops in town. The town was about ½ mile from the bottom of the ski lift, so it was too far to walk in ski boots.
The food at the hotel was really good at dinner. The tea was tolerable, but breakfast was a disaster. They normally had croissants at various stages of sogginess and some ham and cheese slices. For the hot breakfast, they had weird combinations like beans, hot pears, and fried potato cakes. They served oatmeal 3 days running. But they served sausage and fried potato cakes with it. They never remembered to put napkins out and if you were a little late, there was very little left for you.
Our hotel room was very small. At least the ceilings were high enough that we could stand up in it (unlike the chalet we were in last year). But there was absolutely no ventilation in the bathroom. We had a corner room so the bathroom was very cold. The heater was on the far side of the bedroom and the heat really didn’t reach the bathroom. When we showered, there was serious condensation collecting on the walls, floor, and the sink and toilet. Hang a towel in the bathroom and it would never dry. With that much cold and damp, the shower was pretty moldy. The shower curtain was hung too far into the bathtub so it would cling around your legs when you showered. Hard to feel clean when you can’t get away from the moldy shower curtain. Yuck! To make it even worse, the staff did not clean the rooms. They came in every day, but we decided all they did was make the bed and turn the heat off. Turning the heat off only made the moisture problem worse. By the middle of the week, the towels stunk, but they never replaced them. I was not impressed. It seemed like the staff was spending more time skiing than taking care of their customers.
But a fun ski group makes up for a lot, and we still had a great time skiing. I spent a lot of time with a group of about 7 people. I was the youngest and most of the time I was the slowest. The oldest in our group was 82. Did you know that when you are over 80, you get free lift tickets? Her secret for fast skiing was to not make any turns. You just make yourself tired by making all those turns. I probably skied 4 times further because I like to make a lot of turns to keep my speed under control. The only time I skied faster was when the conditions were challenging. In the fog, I was a rock star!
Skiing in the fog is really pretty fun. We got into a fog bank so thick, we couldn’t see anything but white. Thank goodness the run was groomed because that was our only slue that we were still on the run. We watched which direction the grooming lines went and followed them. Stopping was interesting, too. Without the visual clues, it was hard to tell if you had really stopped or not. It was like being drunk. We would try to stop and fall over because we were so disoriented. One person in our group got motion sick from the sensation. We also skied right past the lift that we needed and we ended up in the wrong place entirely.
We had a couple days with sunshine and it was really nice to be able to see the views. On one of the sunny days, I was feeling really good (finally had my new ski boots broken in and adjusted correctly) and we skied with a guide that day. The guide was awesome because he took us on all the best runs and we didn’t waste any time trying to read the maps. If you’ve ever been skiing before, you know that they mark the runs by difficulty – but there is no definitive way to rate how hard a run is so some runs marked as easy are really hard and vice versa. A guide knows which runs will suit your ability, no matter how it is marked on the map. That was our best day of skiing.
The last day we skied was also awesome. We had about a foot of fresh powder over night. Even though it was still snowing, the visibility remained OK. The snow was light enough that it just fluffed over the top of your skis like down feathers. As people skied on it, the snow started to pile up into bumps that made it a little more challenging. These are the kind of conditions that I’m more used to, so it was easier for me than the rest of the group. The others preferred the fast groomed runs with no bumps. It’s more common in Europe to have all the runs groomed every night. In the US, if there is fresh snow, they don’t groom the runs. So, if you like skiing in fresh snow, stay in the US. If you love skiing really fast on groomed runs, Europe is right for you.
Dennis was having a lot of fun on the last day and almost missed the bus back to the hotel. I was getting really worried because we had a flight to catch and limited time to get our shuttle bus to the airport. I shouldn’t have worried about Dennis, though. He made it in the nick of time to the bus, but our shuttle bus was a full hour late. It’s a good thing I always schedule to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight. Even with the hour delay, we easily made our flight home.
While the rest of the group was riding a bus from the UK to France, Dennis and I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva. The flight involved getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get the train to the airport. We decided to give ourselves a lot of time before the flight because the local trains have not been very reliable in the snowy weather we’ve been getting. But everything went smoothly and we were in Geneva before we knew it. A one-hour shuttle bus ride got us to our hotel right around lunch time. The UK group had arrived a couple hours before us and was already out skiing. We decided to take our time getting lunch and arranging the rental skis so we didn’t get to the slopes the first day.
Later, in the day the UK group got back from the slopes and it was like meeting with family. Of course, not everyone from last year was able to join us this year and there were some new faces, but it was fun to see the gang again. Since we were staying in a larger hotel this year, there were other people around who were not part of our group. Everyone was from the UK and they were all friendly even if they had very loud children. The hotel served a tea in the afternoon (did I mention that it’s a British-run hotel?) and dinner at 7:45 for all the guests.
Actually, the hotel does require a bit more description. It is located in a town in the valley, so it was not really close to the ski areas at all. The hotel ran shuttle buses to the ski hills every morning, usually two different buses (8:45 and 9:15). In the afternoon, they drove the buses back to the hotel at 4:15 or 4:30. During the day, the drivers and most of the hotel employees went skiing. This arrangement seems OK on the surface, but there was no flexibility for bad weather or if you just got tired. One day, it so foggy we gave up skiing at noon. We had to wait in a bar on the hill for four hours until it was time for the bus. Since we were in ski boots and didn’t have street shoes, we were not even able to walk around the shops in town. The town was about ½ mile from the bottom of the ski lift, so it was too far to walk in ski boots.
The food at the hotel was really good at dinner. The tea was tolerable, but breakfast was a disaster. They normally had croissants at various stages of sogginess and some ham and cheese slices. For the hot breakfast, they had weird combinations like beans, hot pears, and fried potato cakes. They served oatmeal 3 days running. But they served sausage and fried potato cakes with it. They never remembered to put napkins out and if you were a little late, there was very little left for you.
Our hotel room was very small. At least the ceilings were high enough that we could stand up in it (unlike the chalet we were in last year). But there was absolutely no ventilation in the bathroom. We had a corner room so the bathroom was very cold. The heater was on the far side of the bedroom and the heat really didn’t reach the bathroom. When we showered, there was serious condensation collecting on the walls, floor, and the sink and toilet. Hang a towel in the bathroom and it would never dry. With that much cold and damp, the shower was pretty moldy. The shower curtain was hung too far into the bathtub so it would cling around your legs when you showered. Hard to feel clean when you can’t get away from the moldy shower curtain. Yuck! To make it even worse, the staff did not clean the rooms. They came in every day, but we decided all they did was make the bed and turn the heat off. Turning the heat off only made the moisture problem worse. By the middle of the week, the towels stunk, but they never replaced them. I was not impressed. It seemed like the staff was spending more time skiing than taking care of their customers.
But a fun ski group makes up for a lot, and we still had a great time skiing. I spent a lot of time with a group of about 7 people. I was the youngest and most of the time I was the slowest. The oldest in our group was 82. Did you know that when you are over 80, you get free lift tickets? Her secret for fast skiing was to not make any turns. You just make yourself tired by making all those turns. I probably skied 4 times further because I like to make a lot of turns to keep my speed under control. The only time I skied faster was when the conditions were challenging. In the fog, I was a rock star!
Skiing in the fog is really pretty fun. We got into a fog bank so thick, we couldn’t see anything but white. Thank goodness the run was groomed because that was our only slue that we were still on the run. We watched which direction the grooming lines went and followed them. Stopping was interesting, too. Without the visual clues, it was hard to tell if you had really stopped or not. It was like being drunk. We would try to stop and fall over because we were so disoriented. One person in our group got motion sick from the sensation. We also skied right past the lift that we needed and we ended up in the wrong place entirely.
We had a couple days with sunshine and it was really nice to be able to see the views. On one of the sunny days, I was feeling really good (finally had my new ski boots broken in and adjusted correctly) and we skied with a guide that day. The guide was awesome because he took us on all the best runs and we didn’t waste any time trying to read the maps. If you’ve ever been skiing before, you know that they mark the runs by difficulty – but there is no definitive way to rate how hard a run is so some runs marked as easy are really hard and vice versa. A guide knows which runs will suit your ability, no matter how it is marked on the map. That was our best day of skiing.
The last day we skied was also awesome. We had about a foot of fresh powder over night. Even though it was still snowing, the visibility remained OK. The snow was light enough that it just fluffed over the top of your skis like down feathers. As people skied on it, the snow started to pile up into bumps that made it a little more challenging. These are the kind of conditions that I’m more used to, so it was easier for me than the rest of the group. The others preferred the fast groomed runs with no bumps. It’s more common in Europe to have all the runs groomed every night. In the US, if there is fresh snow, they don’t groom the runs. So, if you like skiing in fresh snow, stay in the US. If you love skiing really fast on groomed runs, Europe is right for you.
Dennis was having a lot of fun on the last day and almost missed the bus back to the hotel. I was getting really worried because we had a flight to catch and limited time to get our shuttle bus to the airport. I shouldn’t have worried about Dennis, though. He made it in the nick of time to the bus, but our shuttle bus was a full hour late. It’s a good thing I always schedule to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight. Even with the hour delay, we easily made our flight home.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Paris!
Back in 2001, Dennis and I visited Paris, but the museum workers were on strike and we were not able to see the Louvre. Now that we are so close to Paris, it was a no-brainer that we would make the trip. We hate to waste good summer weather in a city looking at museums, so we decided to go in the winter. It seemed fitting to see the City of Lights during the holiday season.
Our tour began with a 3 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris. Armed with our trusty Rick Steves Paris guidebook (on Kindle of course), we easily made the transition from the international train to the local metro train. After the rather modern trains we are used to riding in the Netherlands, we were surprised that the Paris Metro trains are rickety vintage things that shake, rattle, and roll. A ride on the Metro reminded me of Mister Toad’s Wild Ride – yikes! Despite the age, we found the Metro to be convenient and cheap. Train rides in the Netherlands are 3-5 euros at the minimum and can be quite pricey for long rides. The Metro was a little more than one euro per ride – probably more comparable to the trams in Amsterdam.
Our quaint hotel was located near the Eiffel Tower, in a neighborhood with a pedestrian-only shopping street. The room had everything we needed except space to walk around the bed, but that’s typical for European hotel rooms. We didn’t spend much time in the room anyway. We arrived pretty late on the night after Christmas, so we just grabbed a quick bite and went to sleep.
Priority number one was to visit the Louvre, but breakfast was first. We had our French breakfast in one of the numerous cafes near the hotel. A French breakfast is a bit weird to me. You get coffee or tea, orange juice, a croissant and French bread with butter. It seems a bit heavy on carbs to me. A Dutch person would be wondering why there wasn’t any cheese. After breakfast, we walked to the Louvre. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but it’s fun to look at everything while you walk.
The Louvre was disappointing in some ways. All the “famous” art was mobbed with crowds. The Mona Lisa is quite small and impossible to see with all the people jockeying to get the best picture of the painting. We moved rather quickly through the important pieces with the help of the Rick Steves audio tour that we downloaded from the computer before we left. After the audio tour, we explored a bit more on our own. We found some really cool stuff that nobody else seemed to care about. It was nice to appreciate the art without so many people. We ended up staying until about 3:30 in the afternoon – pretty long for us in an art museum!
We walked back to the hotel and managed to see the Paris Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. It was getting pretty dark as we got closer to our hotel – so dark it was impossible to read the street signs OR the map. When we finally made it back, we were exhausted from walking so much – and hungry! With little energy to explore further, we found a restaurant close to the hotel and enjoyed a lovely dinner. After Dutch food, all the food in Paris is lovely!
Day 2 was the Orangerie museum. Since the Orangerie didn’t open until 12:30, we spent the morning exploring the Sacre Coer Cathedral on the north end of the city. It’s a pretty cathedral in the part of town where the artists hung out in the 1800’s. It’s a fairly seedy part of town now – but it probably was then as well. You know those artist types! We had lunch in a café near Pig Alley – the red light district. I felt the need to wash my hands frequently. It is surprising that Amsterdam is so well known for its red light district, but this area was larger and at least as colorful (just lacking the prostitutes behind glass).
The Orangerie museum houses a large set of Water Lilly paintings that Monet created specifically for this building. They were quite pretty, but as usual, we found the other exhibits more interesting. This is a small museum so we had some free time in the afternoon to explore a bit more of the museum neighborhood. We walked and we walked and we walked. After our long walk the day before, I was getting pretty tired. We had time for an afternoon break and to find a proper restaurant for dinner. The guidebook had plenty of recommendations and we easily chose one. After walking around all day, we were ready for dinner around 6:30, meaning we’d be dining with the tourists and not the locals. That was OK, but we ended up eating with American tourists. I think every group in the small restaurant had a copy of Rick Steve’s Paris. The food was good, but come on!
Day 3 was the Museum d’Orsay. This was actually the main event for me – the museum I really wanted to see – full of the French Impressionists like Monet, Degas, Renoir, and the rest. All the art is housed in a former train station which was beautiful in its own right. My only complaint was the dearth of bathrooms. There were a grand total of 6 stalls for women. 6 stalls for a huge and hugely popular museum! This should be a crime. But in the Netherlands, you are likely to have to pay for the bathroom even after you have paid admission, so maybe I should be thankful. Aside from the lack of bathrooms, the art was phenomenal. We couldn’t get close to any of the Degas paintings which seem to be quite popular, but I really like Tolouse Latreck. As an odd coincidence, a Degas painting from the Orsay collection was stolen on New Year’s Eve from another museum that had borrowed it for a temporary exhibit. I’m not sure why everyone wants to take a picture of the paintings. You can buy lovely postcards of all the favorites in the gift store – higher quality and no random heads in the way.
Day 4, we probably wandered around a bit aimlessly because we didn’t have much of a plan. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Ile St. Louis, an upscale neighborhood on an island next to Notre Dame. We didn’t have much of a plan for dinner either –except to avoid the Rick Steves crowd. We walked south of the Eiffel Tower into a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have any tourist attractions. Most of the restaurants and stores were closed, but we finally found one that was open. We didn’t spend much time reading the menu, just made sure it wasn’t 200 dollars a plate. As we entered at about 7:00, we were the only customers. They graciously took our coats and seated us in the small dining room. The waiter helped us a bit with the French menu, which was nice because I almost ordered squid by accident. The waitress, an older overweigh grandmotherly type, brought our first course. On a small plate she placed a tablet that looked like an antacid, but she said in her very limited English, “No eat!” She poured warm water from a pitcher over the tablet and it expanded into a napkin to clean our hands with. One of the few French words I know is serviette because the British tend to use this term for napkin as well. Kind of like a Far Side comic, I heard her say, “Blah, blah, blah serviette. Blah, blah, blah.”
My first course was a cream soup. You might be wondering as I was, “Cream of what?” The answer: cream. It was a cream soup with a garnish of balsamic vinegar and parsley oil, but I could not identify any flavor in the soup besides cream. It was like going to heaven. Dennis ordered the escargot (yes, snails), but they were served in a different style than the normal butter-garlic presentation. These were in a tasty stew with andouille sausage and tomatoes. For my main course, I had scallops on a bed of pureed celery root. I’ll have to try cooking celery root this way because it was really wonderful. Dennis had white fish cooked a la Provence, which means with tomatoes. At this point I should also mention the wine that was like no other wine I’ve ever had. It was a white wine, but dark yellow in color. It tasted just a bit like sherry, but very dry. It complimented the fish perfectly, “My, what a lovely fish you are, such beautiful eyes and kissable lips.” Just kidding. But it was really good. For dessert, Dennis had the better pick a chocolate cake with the molten center. My Grand Marnier soufflé was also good, but it wasn’t chocolate. I should have asked him to trade, but I don’t think he loves me THAT much! As we enjoyed our food, the restaurant was filling up with mostly French people. It was nice to eat in a less touristy spot.
On our last day in Paris, we took a walking tour (but of course!) that took us through the St. Sulpice Church. For those who have read the Da Vinci Code, you might recognize the name of the church. The tour guide told us all about the architecture of the church and described the history of how it was a pagan temple for some time after the French Revolution. We also walked through much of the Latin Quarter learning about the people who made this area famous. I leaned more about Paris in 2 hours than I did in a lifetime. I wished that we had done the walking tour at the beginning of our trip – maybe we would have found time to do a couple more. But alas, it was time to head back home.
We made it back home in time to watch the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. I fell into bed exhausted from walking nearly 10 miles a day for the last 4 days.
Our tour began with a 3 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris. Armed with our trusty Rick Steves Paris guidebook (on Kindle of course), we easily made the transition from the international train to the local metro train. After the rather modern trains we are used to riding in the Netherlands, we were surprised that the Paris Metro trains are rickety vintage things that shake, rattle, and roll. A ride on the Metro reminded me of Mister Toad’s Wild Ride – yikes! Despite the age, we found the Metro to be convenient and cheap. Train rides in the Netherlands are 3-5 euros at the minimum and can be quite pricey for long rides. The Metro was a little more than one euro per ride – probably more comparable to the trams in Amsterdam.
Our quaint hotel was located near the Eiffel Tower, in a neighborhood with a pedestrian-only shopping street. The room had everything we needed except space to walk around the bed, but that’s typical for European hotel rooms. We didn’t spend much time in the room anyway. We arrived pretty late on the night after Christmas, so we just grabbed a quick bite and went to sleep.
Priority number one was to visit the Louvre, but breakfast was first. We had our French breakfast in one of the numerous cafes near the hotel. A French breakfast is a bit weird to me. You get coffee or tea, orange juice, a croissant and French bread with butter. It seems a bit heavy on carbs to me. A Dutch person would be wondering why there wasn’t any cheese. After breakfast, we walked to the Louvre. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but it’s fun to look at everything while you walk.
The Louvre was disappointing in some ways. All the “famous” art was mobbed with crowds. The Mona Lisa is quite small and impossible to see with all the people jockeying to get the best picture of the painting. We moved rather quickly through the important pieces with the help of the Rick Steves audio tour that we downloaded from the computer before we left. After the audio tour, we explored a bit more on our own. We found some really cool stuff that nobody else seemed to care about. It was nice to appreciate the art without so many people. We ended up staying until about 3:30 in the afternoon – pretty long for us in an art museum!
We walked back to the hotel and managed to see the Paris Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. It was getting pretty dark as we got closer to our hotel – so dark it was impossible to read the street signs OR the map. When we finally made it back, we were exhausted from walking so much – and hungry! With little energy to explore further, we found a restaurant close to the hotel and enjoyed a lovely dinner. After Dutch food, all the food in Paris is lovely!
Day 2 was the Orangerie museum. Since the Orangerie didn’t open until 12:30, we spent the morning exploring the Sacre Coer Cathedral on the north end of the city. It’s a pretty cathedral in the part of town where the artists hung out in the 1800’s. It’s a fairly seedy part of town now – but it probably was then as well. You know those artist types! We had lunch in a café near Pig Alley – the red light district. I felt the need to wash my hands frequently. It is surprising that Amsterdam is so well known for its red light district, but this area was larger and at least as colorful (just lacking the prostitutes behind glass).
The Orangerie museum houses a large set of Water Lilly paintings that Monet created specifically for this building. They were quite pretty, but as usual, we found the other exhibits more interesting. This is a small museum so we had some free time in the afternoon to explore a bit more of the museum neighborhood. We walked and we walked and we walked. After our long walk the day before, I was getting pretty tired. We had time for an afternoon break and to find a proper restaurant for dinner. The guidebook had plenty of recommendations and we easily chose one. After walking around all day, we were ready for dinner around 6:30, meaning we’d be dining with the tourists and not the locals. That was OK, but we ended up eating with American tourists. I think every group in the small restaurant had a copy of Rick Steve’s Paris. The food was good, but come on!
Day 3 was the Museum d’Orsay. This was actually the main event for me – the museum I really wanted to see – full of the French Impressionists like Monet, Degas, Renoir, and the rest. All the art is housed in a former train station which was beautiful in its own right. My only complaint was the dearth of bathrooms. There were a grand total of 6 stalls for women. 6 stalls for a huge and hugely popular museum! This should be a crime. But in the Netherlands, you are likely to have to pay for the bathroom even after you have paid admission, so maybe I should be thankful. Aside from the lack of bathrooms, the art was phenomenal. We couldn’t get close to any of the Degas paintings which seem to be quite popular, but I really like Tolouse Latreck. As an odd coincidence, a Degas painting from the Orsay collection was stolen on New Year’s Eve from another museum that had borrowed it for a temporary exhibit. I’m not sure why everyone wants to take a picture of the paintings. You can buy lovely postcards of all the favorites in the gift store – higher quality and no random heads in the way.
Day 4, we probably wandered around a bit aimlessly because we didn’t have much of a plan. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Ile St. Louis, an upscale neighborhood on an island next to Notre Dame. We didn’t have much of a plan for dinner either –except to avoid the Rick Steves crowd. We walked south of the Eiffel Tower into a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have any tourist attractions. Most of the restaurants and stores were closed, but we finally found one that was open. We didn’t spend much time reading the menu, just made sure it wasn’t 200 dollars a plate. As we entered at about 7:00, we were the only customers. They graciously took our coats and seated us in the small dining room. The waiter helped us a bit with the French menu, which was nice because I almost ordered squid by accident. The waitress, an older overweigh grandmotherly type, brought our first course. On a small plate she placed a tablet that looked like an antacid, but she said in her very limited English, “No eat!” She poured warm water from a pitcher over the tablet and it expanded into a napkin to clean our hands with. One of the few French words I know is serviette because the British tend to use this term for napkin as well. Kind of like a Far Side comic, I heard her say, “Blah, blah, blah serviette. Blah, blah, blah.”
My first course was a cream soup. You might be wondering as I was, “Cream of what?” The answer: cream. It was a cream soup with a garnish of balsamic vinegar and parsley oil, but I could not identify any flavor in the soup besides cream. It was like going to heaven. Dennis ordered the escargot (yes, snails), but they were served in a different style than the normal butter-garlic presentation. These were in a tasty stew with andouille sausage and tomatoes. For my main course, I had scallops on a bed of pureed celery root. I’ll have to try cooking celery root this way because it was really wonderful. Dennis had white fish cooked a la Provence, which means with tomatoes. At this point I should also mention the wine that was like no other wine I’ve ever had. It was a white wine, but dark yellow in color. It tasted just a bit like sherry, but very dry. It complimented the fish perfectly, “My, what a lovely fish you are, such beautiful eyes and kissable lips.” Just kidding. But it was really good. For dessert, Dennis had the better pick a chocolate cake with the molten center. My Grand Marnier soufflé was also good, but it wasn’t chocolate. I should have asked him to trade, but I don’t think he loves me THAT much! As we enjoyed our food, the restaurant was filling up with mostly French people. It was nice to eat in a less touristy spot.
On our last day in Paris, we took a walking tour (but of course!) that took us through the St. Sulpice Church. For those who have read the Da Vinci Code, you might recognize the name of the church. The tour guide told us all about the architecture of the church and described the history of how it was a pagan temple for some time after the French Revolution. We also walked through much of the Latin Quarter learning about the people who made this area famous. I leaned more about Paris in 2 hours than I did in a lifetime. I wished that we had done the walking tour at the beginning of our trip – maybe we would have found time to do a couple more. But alas, it was time to head back home.
We made it back home in time to watch the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. I fell into bed exhausted from walking nearly 10 miles a day for the last 4 days.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Netherlands Love-it/Hate-it List
Shopping
Hate it – Shops close at 5:00 and are closed on Sundays. There is nothing like Wal-Mart and even the grocery stores are small with little choice.
Love it - We’re saving a ton of money because it’s so difficult to shop. We spend more time on leisure activities like biking and kayaking.
Food
Hate it – My company cafeteria sets a whole new level for terrible food. I bring my lunch every day. Restaurants are over-priced with slow service and plain food.
Love it – I have more time to cook dinner because I’m not spending much time commuting. The Dutch do make good cheese and really good apple tarts. The chocolate beats anything you can get in the US. The Indonesian food is fantastic.
Traveling
Hate it – There is so much to see in Europe that it’s hard to prioritize. It also takes time to plan the trips.
Love it –Airline travel is easier here than in the US. Flights tend to be on-time, passengers are treated like people, and baggage claim is pretty fast. Train travel is super-easy and convenient (but costs more than you think it should). Things are much closer here than in the US.
Neighborhood
Hate-it – Of course we miss our neighbors and friends from home!
Love-it – I ride my bike to work in 15 minutes. I walk to the grocery store and the city center in 10 minutes. The train station is close. And yet, we can bike and walk through woods and the heather or by the lake without having to get in the car.
Lifestyle
Hate-it – Our area is pretty traditional. Women stay home with their kids or work part time. Work is work and that’s it. Dennis and I are oddities because we have no kids and we’re much more career oriented than our Dutch coworkers.
Love-it – 5 weeks of vacation…Need I say more?
Hate it – Shops close at 5:00 and are closed on Sundays. There is nothing like Wal-Mart and even the grocery stores are small with little choice.
Love it - We’re saving a ton of money because it’s so difficult to shop. We spend more time on leisure activities like biking and kayaking.
Food
Hate it – My company cafeteria sets a whole new level for terrible food. I bring my lunch every day. Restaurants are over-priced with slow service and plain food.
Love it – I have more time to cook dinner because I’m not spending much time commuting. The Dutch do make good cheese and really good apple tarts. The chocolate beats anything you can get in the US. The Indonesian food is fantastic.
Traveling
Hate it – There is so much to see in Europe that it’s hard to prioritize. It also takes time to plan the trips.
Love it –Airline travel is easier here than in the US. Flights tend to be on-time, passengers are treated like people, and baggage claim is pretty fast. Train travel is super-easy and convenient (but costs more than you think it should). Things are much closer here than in the US.
Neighborhood
Hate-it – Of course we miss our neighbors and friends from home!
Love-it – I ride my bike to work in 15 minutes. I walk to the grocery store and the city center in 10 minutes. The train station is close. And yet, we can bike and walk through woods and the heather or by the lake without having to get in the car.
Lifestyle
Hate-it – Our area is pretty traditional. Women stay home with their kids or work part time. Work is work and that’s it. Dennis and I are oddities because we have no kids and we’re much more career oriented than our Dutch coworkers.
Love-it – 5 weeks of vacation…Need I say more?
Monday, November 23, 2009
Turkey Quest
As our friends and family in America get ready for Thanksgiving, I have another thing for you guys to be thankful for – turkeys! Turkey is one of my favorite foods. Sometimes at home, I would make turkey at non-holiday times of the year just to get my fix. Last year, I simply skipped the whole Thanksgiving tradition, preferring instead to be caught up in the local Sinterklaas celebrations.
This year, I decided that Thanksgiving was a necessity. A few weeks ago, a couple that works with Dennis had us over to their house for a dinner of traditional Romanian food. It was fun to learn a little bit about their homeland by tasting the different dishes. We wanted to return the favor and what better way than with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Having guests make it seem like it’s worth the work involved. And it was a lot of work.
The main difficulty was getting a turkey. Apparently the Dutch don’t eat a lot of turkey. At the specialty stores, I could get duck, venison, pheasant, and rabbit, but not turkey. Heck, I can even get horse meat at the grocery store. My grocery store does have a service where you can special order cuts of meat for parties and stuff. Knowing this, I carefully wrote a note with all of the details for ordering the turkey including my name and cell phone number. The guy at the meat counter said he would call me on the Monday to let me know if he could get it. When I didn’t hear anything on Monday, I asked my Dutch coworker to call the store for me. I figured she’d have better luck speaking to them in Dutch than I would struggling in Dunglish. She found out that they couldn’t get the turkey. Plan B was to call the restaurant supply store. We shop there for work occasionally and they have a large selection of unusual products. But they also could not get a turkey. I was beginning to worry that my Thanksgiving was going to feature a chicken. Plan C was hunting on the internet for a poellier (a butcher for poultry). We found one in the neighboring town and gave them a call. Lo and behold, they actually have turkeys! So, we ordered the turkey for me to pick up on Saturday.
Saturday morning, I jumped on the train to the next town. Dennis chose not to go along because he was on call for work and isn’t really allowed to be so far from home. But, I was armed with my google map so I would be able to find the poellier from the train station. It was actually not a long walk. Despite our phone call, I was still worried that they wouldn’t have the turkey for me. I was thrilled when they brought out a beautiful whole turkey and wrapped it in a couple layers of plastic. It was an 11 lb. turkey and cost me about $75 – ouch! No wonder the Dutch don’t eat turkeys. Not only are their ovens too small, but these birds are expensive! I packed the turkey into my backpack for the trip home.
As I was walking back to the train station, I noticed a rather large kitchen equipment store. I stopped in to see if I could get a roasting pan. Of course in a country that doesn’t eat turkey, you can’t get a cheap disposable foil turkey roasting pan! I ended up buying a Pyrex roasting pan with a wire rack that holds the turkey off the bottom of the pan and can be used to lift the turkey out of the pan. It had a nice oval shape, a spout to pour off the cooking liquid, and it looked like the right size. I briefly considered pulling the turkey out of my backpack to check the size, but I refrained. I did not refrain from buying a new 9x13 cake pan. I have one at home, but all the non-stick coating is peeling off. Yeah, I spent another $75 at this store.
Almost back to the train station, I noticed that this town has a market on Saturday morning. It’s really close to the train station, so it was really convenient for buying the produce for the meal. I got sweet potatoes, broccoli, apples, grapes, and pecans. At least this stop was cheap – only about $15. But the stuff I bought was so heavy my arms were falling off just walking the two blocks to the train station. I called Dennis from the train and asked him to meet me at the station to help Sherpa the groceries to the house.
Let the cooking begin! On Saturday afternoon, I made Pecan Tassies and cranberry sauce. Do you believe that I could get fresh cranberries, OceanSpray even? On Sunday I got up and started the stuffing – from fresh bread because you can’t get the premade bags of bread cubes. I cooked and cooked and the turkey came out beautifully.
Our friends from Romania came over and we explained the Thanksgiving tradition. Since it’s a harvest celebration, all the food goes out to the table so it looks like a feast! And with all the food served at once, everything gets piled together on your plate. For Europeans, this is rather disgusting. Europeans eat meals in courses, served separately and on separate plates. We explained this to our guests and they played along like great sports. They had their plates piled with everything!
Most of the food was completely new to them. Stuffing of course is pretty American, and doesn’t sound very appealing. Soggy bread anyone? Come on, it’s been cooked inside a dead bird! The stuffing got a thumbs up. Sweet potatoes got a mixed review. Waldorf salad with candied pecans was also popular even though they had to ask, “What are pecans?” Likewise the pecan tassies for dessert were totally new, but good.
Now, I have a week’s worth of turkey leftovers. This morning I had to refrain from eating turkey for breakfast – I wouldn’t want to have turkey three times in one day! MMM, turkey heaven…
Now that we’ve shared the foods from our home countries, we decided that our next outing should be to a restaurant so nobody has to cook. I think we already have our next adventure scheduled. Dennis and I mentioned our plans to visit the Christmas Market in Cologne Germany in a couple weeks and our guests thought that sounded like a blast. So they are making their arrangements (hotel and train tickets) and we’ll explore another country together.
This year, I decided that Thanksgiving was a necessity. A few weeks ago, a couple that works with Dennis had us over to their house for a dinner of traditional Romanian food. It was fun to learn a little bit about their homeland by tasting the different dishes. We wanted to return the favor and what better way than with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Having guests make it seem like it’s worth the work involved. And it was a lot of work.
The main difficulty was getting a turkey. Apparently the Dutch don’t eat a lot of turkey. At the specialty stores, I could get duck, venison, pheasant, and rabbit, but not turkey. Heck, I can even get horse meat at the grocery store. My grocery store does have a service where you can special order cuts of meat for parties and stuff. Knowing this, I carefully wrote a note with all of the details for ordering the turkey including my name and cell phone number. The guy at the meat counter said he would call me on the Monday to let me know if he could get it. When I didn’t hear anything on Monday, I asked my Dutch coworker to call the store for me. I figured she’d have better luck speaking to them in Dutch than I would struggling in Dunglish. She found out that they couldn’t get the turkey. Plan B was to call the restaurant supply store. We shop there for work occasionally and they have a large selection of unusual products. But they also could not get a turkey. I was beginning to worry that my Thanksgiving was going to feature a chicken. Plan C was hunting on the internet for a poellier (a butcher for poultry). We found one in the neighboring town and gave them a call. Lo and behold, they actually have turkeys! So, we ordered the turkey for me to pick up on Saturday.
Saturday morning, I jumped on the train to the next town. Dennis chose not to go along because he was on call for work and isn’t really allowed to be so far from home. But, I was armed with my google map so I would be able to find the poellier from the train station. It was actually not a long walk. Despite our phone call, I was still worried that they wouldn’t have the turkey for me. I was thrilled when they brought out a beautiful whole turkey and wrapped it in a couple layers of plastic. It was an 11 lb. turkey and cost me about $75 – ouch! No wonder the Dutch don’t eat turkeys. Not only are their ovens too small, but these birds are expensive! I packed the turkey into my backpack for the trip home.
As I was walking back to the train station, I noticed a rather large kitchen equipment store. I stopped in to see if I could get a roasting pan. Of course in a country that doesn’t eat turkey, you can’t get a cheap disposable foil turkey roasting pan! I ended up buying a Pyrex roasting pan with a wire rack that holds the turkey off the bottom of the pan and can be used to lift the turkey out of the pan. It had a nice oval shape, a spout to pour off the cooking liquid, and it looked like the right size. I briefly considered pulling the turkey out of my backpack to check the size, but I refrained. I did not refrain from buying a new 9x13 cake pan. I have one at home, but all the non-stick coating is peeling off. Yeah, I spent another $75 at this store.
Almost back to the train station, I noticed that this town has a market on Saturday morning. It’s really close to the train station, so it was really convenient for buying the produce for the meal. I got sweet potatoes, broccoli, apples, grapes, and pecans. At least this stop was cheap – only about $15. But the stuff I bought was so heavy my arms were falling off just walking the two blocks to the train station. I called Dennis from the train and asked him to meet me at the station to help Sherpa the groceries to the house.
Let the cooking begin! On Saturday afternoon, I made Pecan Tassies and cranberry sauce. Do you believe that I could get fresh cranberries, OceanSpray even? On Sunday I got up and started the stuffing – from fresh bread because you can’t get the premade bags of bread cubes. I cooked and cooked and the turkey came out beautifully.
Our friends from Romania came over and we explained the Thanksgiving tradition. Since it’s a harvest celebration, all the food goes out to the table so it looks like a feast! And with all the food served at once, everything gets piled together on your plate. For Europeans, this is rather disgusting. Europeans eat meals in courses, served separately and on separate plates. We explained this to our guests and they played along like great sports. They had their plates piled with everything!
Most of the food was completely new to them. Stuffing of course is pretty American, and doesn’t sound very appealing. Soggy bread anyone? Come on, it’s been cooked inside a dead bird! The stuffing got a thumbs up. Sweet potatoes got a mixed review. Waldorf salad with candied pecans was also popular even though they had to ask, “What are pecans?” Likewise the pecan tassies for dessert were totally new, but good.
Now, I have a week’s worth of turkey leftovers. This morning I had to refrain from eating turkey for breakfast – I wouldn’t want to have turkey three times in one day! MMM, turkey heaven…
Now that we’ve shared the foods from our home countries, we decided that our next outing should be to a restaurant so nobody has to cook. I think we already have our next adventure scheduled. Dennis and I mentioned our plans to visit the Christmas Market in Cologne Germany in a couple weeks and our guests thought that sounded like a blast. So they are making their arrangements (hotel and train tickets) and we’ll explore another country together.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Pedometer
Path in the foggy morning.
The haunted forest.
The sink hole that the monestary fell into. (In the background, you can see the water).
The friendly donkey - checking for treats in my pockets.
My latest fitness gadget is a pedometer. I used to do ½ ironman triathlons and I had all the gadgets: running shoes, bike shorts, tri-suits, sports bras, heart rate monitors, Speedos, swim goggles, sun glasses, and more. And now I’m excited about a pedometer. How the mighty have fallen…. (As if I was ever mighty!)
But seriously, after the stress of moving to a new country and suffering through my first very dark and rainy Fall and Winter, I found some extra pounds had become fairly well attached to my hips (and everything else for that matter). I had to do something, because this is a pretty unhealthy path. My initial attempts were pretty half-hearted. I lost a few pounds, but then got distracted. A few more months passed with no progress. At least during the distraction, I managed to not regain the weight I had lost, but I needed to get motivated
When we were in the US, Dennis was cleaning out some office junk and he found a McDonald’s pedometer. This is a pretty simple gadget that clips to your waist-band and counts how many steps you take. I grabbed it thinking it would be a fun way to stay motivated. I looked up pedometers on the internet and found out that you should aim for 10,000 steps per day, which is supposed to be 5 miles. So, I started recording my daily steps and found out that I actually walk quite a bit. I’m regularly up near 9000 steps without much extra effort. I do a lot of work in the lab and that gets me walking around. I also walk to the grocery store every few days.
I began to get frustrated with the pedometer after going for several long walks. Dennis and I walked around Naarden, a walk that we know is 4 miles, and the pedometer said I went 3000 steps. Hmm, that seems low. Then, we did a 12 mile hike that took about 5 hours. The distance was confirmed by Dennis’ GPS unit. But, the pedometer read only 8000 steps. I was hoping for a record high number, and I got screwed! I was mad. It may be important to note here that I am still a little bit competitive even though I’m not actually racing any more.
I went back to the internet (the Wizard of Oz for the Gen Xers) and found out that most pedometers are not very accurate. No kidding! I found a consumer report showing which pedometers have the best accuracy. Then, I spent a couple hours trying to find that same model in the Netherlands, and another hour trying to pay for it after my credit card was rejected (again). Finally, I got the email saying the new pedometer had been shipped. Yay! But wait, the mailman always delivers at our house during working hours (as if I don’t work). I always have to wait for the post man to do his two delivery attempts before I can go pick up my packages at the post office. Finally, after a few days of waiting, I had my new pedometer.
As luck would have it, the same day I got the pedometer, we went for a long bike ride, so I didn’t get to really test it out. We biked with an expat meet-up group for 60 kilometers (30 miles). Most of you know that a 30 mile bike ride should take a couple hours, maybe 3 hours if you’re talking a lot of breaks. This ride took 5 hours! At some points I felt like I was pedaling backwards to go slow enough. To be fair, we did get stuck for about 30 minutes waiting for a ferry to cross the river. It could have been worse because the ferry only ran every two hours. Thank goodness we got there only 30 minutes before and not 90 minutes before. It was very dark when we finally finished and it was starting to rain. It’s a good thing it was a fun group, but after 5 hours I was done being sociable. Dennis and I may not be racing anymore, but at least we aren’t this SLOW!
OK, back to the pedometer. After the first day, I’ve had over 11,000 steps per day and hadn’t gone on a real walk yet. This weekend, Dennis and I had a chance to go for a long walk. We picked a walk through the oldest woods in the Netherlands. In a country where much of the land is reclaimed from the water and by definition “new,” this is an important distinction. The woods also have a haunted legend. According to the story, there was a monastery in the forest that sunk into a big sink-hole. The legend says that it was pulled into hell and the monks still haunt the forest. It’s a big hot-spot for new-age believers and ghost chasers. A more plausible story is that there was a big chunk of ice under the ground and as it melted, it created the sink hole. Anyway, it made for a nice 11 mile walk. The walk was extra long because we started walking down the wrong road from the start-point and ended up going a mile before we realized our mistake and turned back. At the half-way point, we stopped at a café and had some tea and butter-cake to keep us going for the rest of the walk. We didn’t see any ghosts, but the sun shining through the trees was stunning. I also got to pet a couple donkeys that were very friendly and curious. In the end my pedometer said 24,850 steps! That’s better! Now I just have to loose some more weight.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Italian Sausage
I’m sure I’ve mentioned how bad the food is here in the Netherlands. I didn’t think it was possible, but our company cafeteria recently reached a whole new level of awfulness. Seriously, they even serve terrible soup. So, I’ve been cooking at home more often to make sure I have leftovers to take to work.
One dish that always makes good leftovers is lasagna. While living in Chicago I learned that the best way to make lasagna is with Italian sausage rather than just hamburger. It really gives the lasagna a whole different (and yummy) dimension. But, Italian sausage is not available here and nobody seems to know what it is. Maybe it’s really an American thing or maybe the Dutch haven’t figured out Italian food yet.
Just as I thought I would have to wait until I got back to the US for good lasagna, I realized that I know how to make Italian sausage! Yes, at my last job, we occasionally developed Italian sausage seasonings and had to test them by making the actual sausage. The seasoning itself is not difficult – just a blend of salt and spices. The sausage is fresh, so it’s just a matter of blending the seasoning into ground pork. The seasoned meat does not even need to be stuffed into a casing. In fact, most of the time when I’m cooking sausage for pizza topping or lasagna, I squish it out of the casing anyway.
It took me a couple of tries to perfect the recipe, but I finally got a version that I really like.
Italian Sausage
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground anise
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
½ tsp sugar
1 slice of white bread
¼ cup milk to make the bread soggy
1 lb ground pork or beef
Mix the dry ingredients together in a small dish. In a mixing bowl, soak the slice of bread with the milk. Add the ground pork and the seasoning. You can mix it by hand or with a mixer, just make sure to get the bread broken up and the seasoning evenly mixed. You can cook it in a frying pan and break it up into pieces for lasagna or pizza. You can also make patties or meatballs and fry them. Or you can push it into a meatloaf pan and bake it.
The other challenge here is cookies – I mean the ooey gooey chocolately chippy yummy American cookies. While many of the Dutch cookies are tasty (because they are made with real butter) they tend to be rather hard and dry. Of course, the main ingredient for these cookies is chocolate chips. Yes, it is nearly impossible to believe that the people who invented Dutch cocoa do not have chocolate chips, but it’s true. You can’t get them here. Fortunately, they do sell good semi-sweet chocolate bars that can be chopped up into pieces. That makes a pretty good substitute, especially if I can get Dennis to do the cutting. Baking soda has to be purchased at the drug store – a tip I found on the expat forums. My favorite cookies are Knapsack cookies, with oatmeal, rice crispies, and coconut. I know some stores sell Rice Krispies here because my coworkers know what they are, but I’ve not been able to find them in any of my neighborhood stores. And they don’t sell the sweetened coconut like we get in the US – only the dry flakes stuff for Indonesian food. So, I have my coworkers and my Mom send me the cereal and coconut for my cookies. Everyone at work loves the cookies. Some have asked for the recipe, but I don’t think anyone has succeeded at making them yet. Maybe you guys will have better luck!
Knapsack Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups rice crispies cereal
1 cup coconut
12 oz. chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
Scoop the dough by the heaping tablespoon onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes and cookies look golden brown on the edges.
One dish that always makes good leftovers is lasagna. While living in Chicago I learned that the best way to make lasagna is with Italian sausage rather than just hamburger. It really gives the lasagna a whole different (and yummy) dimension. But, Italian sausage is not available here and nobody seems to know what it is. Maybe it’s really an American thing or maybe the Dutch haven’t figured out Italian food yet.
Just as I thought I would have to wait until I got back to the US for good lasagna, I realized that I know how to make Italian sausage! Yes, at my last job, we occasionally developed Italian sausage seasonings and had to test them by making the actual sausage. The seasoning itself is not difficult – just a blend of salt and spices. The sausage is fresh, so it’s just a matter of blending the seasoning into ground pork. The seasoned meat does not even need to be stuffed into a casing. In fact, most of the time when I’m cooking sausage for pizza topping or lasagna, I squish it out of the casing anyway.
It took me a couple of tries to perfect the recipe, but I finally got a version that I really like.
Italian Sausage
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground anise
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
½ tsp sugar
1 slice of white bread
¼ cup milk to make the bread soggy
1 lb ground pork or beef
Mix the dry ingredients together in a small dish. In a mixing bowl, soak the slice of bread with the milk. Add the ground pork and the seasoning. You can mix it by hand or with a mixer, just make sure to get the bread broken up and the seasoning evenly mixed. You can cook it in a frying pan and break it up into pieces for lasagna or pizza. You can also make patties or meatballs and fry them. Or you can push it into a meatloaf pan and bake it.
The other challenge here is cookies – I mean the ooey gooey chocolately chippy yummy American cookies. While many of the Dutch cookies are tasty (because they are made with real butter) they tend to be rather hard and dry. Of course, the main ingredient for these cookies is chocolate chips. Yes, it is nearly impossible to believe that the people who invented Dutch cocoa do not have chocolate chips, but it’s true. You can’t get them here. Fortunately, they do sell good semi-sweet chocolate bars that can be chopped up into pieces. That makes a pretty good substitute, especially if I can get Dennis to do the cutting. Baking soda has to be purchased at the drug store – a tip I found on the expat forums. My favorite cookies are Knapsack cookies, with oatmeal, rice crispies, and coconut. I know some stores sell Rice Krispies here because my coworkers know what they are, but I’ve not been able to find them in any of my neighborhood stores. And they don’t sell the sweetened coconut like we get in the US – only the dry flakes stuff for Indonesian food. So, I have my coworkers and my Mom send me the cereal and coconut for my cookies. Everyone at work loves the cookies. Some have asked for the recipe, but I don’t think anyone has succeeded at making them yet. Maybe you guys will have better luck!
Knapsack Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups rice crispies cereal
1 cup coconut
12 oz. chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
Scoop the dough by the heaping tablespoon onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes and cookies look golden brown on the edges.
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