Butternut Squash & Sage Lasagne

When I take to the road in the car, all of twice a week,  I have noticed since moving back to Belgium, that from August onwards every blummin' house  has pumpkins lying near the front door as decoration.  It makes me want to scream !!!  It was never a tradition before I left, 15 years ago.  Most people didn't even know what a pumpkin looked like and only just a few might have made soup out of them once in a blue moon. What has happened ?
I agree that pumpkins can make a great display, but it's not special and it just looks daft and tacky when everyone is doing it.  Never seen anywhere with a bunch of leeks in a decorative fashion beside a front door.
They are first and foremost food, people ! And not just for soups. Don't just waste them on a decorative display that you have to throw in the bin in a month's time.  Yes, in a month's time, because they have been harvested too early and therefore won't keep that long.

I'm feeling better already for getting that of my chest.  Pffft.

Let's tuck into the butternut squash,  just harvested.  Only had 8 sheets of lasagna left in the box, so why not use them for this recipe.

ingredients  this one I prepared for Bert and myself and there were no leftovers - for once.

• 1 butternut squash,
• 3 onions
• a couple of garlic cloves
• 1 chilli
• a bunch of fresh sage leaves
• pumpkin seeds, toasted
• olive oil
• course sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• parmesan cheese - freshly grated
• 8 sheets of lasagna

preparation

• Preheat oven to 250°c
• Cut the butternut squash in half, length ways, scoop out and disgard the seeds.  Cut roughly in chuncks of a similar size.  No need for taking the peel off as it will go tender.
• Spread out on a baking tray.
• Peel and chop the onions, in same size chunks.  Add them to the squash.
• Throw in some cloves of garlic, unpeeled, they will steam in their peel and you can squeeze them out over the vegetables when they are ready to be served.
• Finely chop chilli, a few of the sage leaves and sprinkle over the squash and onion.
• Just  drizzle with olive oil and throw over some sea salt.

• Put it in the hot oven for around 20 to 30 minutes.  You need to spread the vegetables out and see to it that they are not on top of  each other, or they will steam instead of roast.
• They will be ready when you can easily stick a sharp knife through the squash. You don't want them too soft, they shouldn't fall apart. They should also have a light brown colour on at least one or two sides.
• In the meantime bring some salted water to the boil and cook the pasta al dente.

• In a small pan, heat some olive oil  and fry the other sage leaves.  Scoop out and drain on kitchen paper.  The crisping of the sage goes very quickly, so no distractions, please.

• When the oil has cooled of a little it can be poured in with the drained lasagna sheets, it'll give extra flavour and a nice shine.

• Put a lasagne sheet on a plate, then a serving spoon of roasted squash, a sprinkle of  parmesan.  Repeat until you have used up your ingredients. End with some squash, black pepper, parmesan, toasted pumpkin seeds  and not forgetting the fried sage.

Link naar recept in het nederlands

Lasagne met Geroosterde Muskaatpompoen

Vegetable Count Autumn 2010

We have a serious problem concerning the garden.  Never do we stay long enough in one place to really enjoy the fruits of our labour.  Now don't take this too literally, because we do have nice crops of whatever we grow.
A garden, even the kitchen garden is an ever evolving process and best results are really noticable when you give it at least a few years of your undivided attention.
Last spring we had a rainwater tank of 5000 liters installed, underground.  Yes, we brought a digger in and moved some earth around. This rainwater harvesting will hopefully see to next year's watering of the vegetables in and around the greenhouse.  We will benefit from it for a good while in early summer, unless we have a scorcher of a summer, like the one past.
Yup, we have a greenhouse ! Not just any old greenhouse !
Ta Da ......

Yes, I know, I know, it looks like we will be starting our own little  Eden Project .
Last February, I started nagging Bert for a 'smallish' greenhouse, just for the benefit of not having all my seedlings in the kitchen, while cats trample over them or just take a snooze on top of my trays with freshly sown seeds.
Bert not being happy with 'any old greenhouse' he trailed the internet to find him one in the shape of a dome.  Now, before Bert makes up his mind, several months pass us by and  when he finaly opted for a supplier somewhere near end of May - by that time, I've had a few months worth of seedlings in the kitchen.....once again.
He ordered his dome shaped greenhouse from the UK, here at Geo-Dome .
As Paul from Geo-Dome makes them to order, we were well into 'high'summer, before Bert and a friend of our's, Marc, collected it with a van.  It comes in kit, but it was remarkably easy to put together and took Bert about two days, all in all.
It isn't 'ready' for full use yet as we want to make raised beds, so fingers crossed that by next sowing season I will be able to do it in the geo-dome.
I admit, I didn't have  too many seedlings, as I used up all my old seeds that I had acquired whilst living in France and I bought maybe a few new packets of lettuce seeds. Some worked, some didn't, but that was fine as I didn't have anywhere yet to plant them out.  Bert made some lovely raised beds with old wooden pallets, which we filled with the soil that had been dug for the rainwater tank and compost.

Earlier in the year I had dug some 'flower beds' and I used every little space I could find to plant some veggies.

Over the summer we've had some yellow patissons (only had one white that suddenly appeared late September), a couple of tomatoes, rainbow chard and lots of salad leaves.

Now that autumn is here we've collected our four mini pumpkins and lovely buternut squashes.

Also a few mini aubergines, they weren't meant to be minis, but they didn't get the best start in life as I rescued a plant that looked so miserable in the Aldi-supermarket, for which still I paid the full asking price of € 2.49

My chillies are still green, because I didn't sow them until late in the season.

Next year.........it'll be a succes !
We are lucky, though, that my cousin - I call her Auntie Mia, don't ask - who lives nearby, gives us loads of vegetables that her husband grows so succesfully in their garden.  Hopefully, by next summer I will be able to repay them in kind, you know, some sort of veggie swap.

Carrot Cake

The first time I had carrot cake, must have been in 1995 in Killarney,  Ireland.   Hermans Continental Coffee Shop, a tiny place with about 4 tables and a counter full of baked goodies, located in the Innisfallen Shopping Center. 

Even though the baker, himself, was German, the women serving in the café were full Oirish colleens and it was a quirky kinda place, that we visited every trip to Killarney, after that first time.

I cannot remember, however, if I consciencely chose carrot cake or if I just pointed at what looked interesting at the time.

A good slice of moist, dense texture, with the right amount of  cinnamon, pecan nuts and the most beautiful orange specks of grated carrot.  It was nothing like the cakes I knew from my neck of the woods, that are usually dry, overly sweet and to my mind, uninspiring. 

The cake was in two layers, filled with cream cheese frosting, flavoured with lemon zest.  The frosting was also spread, in a rustic kind of way, over the top and sides.

While living in Ireland, there was no need for me to bake Carrot Cake, ever, because the numerous tea & coffee shops did all the work for me and what I liked most about these places, was that cakes and scones would be homemade and they all looked so rustically gorgeous.

Now, I am dreaming away to The Riverside Café in Sneem.  A lovely mug of strong tea, sugar bowls on the tables, also large jugs of the best milk with a help-yourself-attitude.

Okay, back to the here and now. 

Don't know what happened, but about a month or two ago I suddenly thought about Carrot Cake and I was going to make one

I didn't have to look long on t'internet to come to my favorite website for baking.  The trusted  The Joy of Baking website.  I have used it before for other baked treats and it is very, very good.

So here is the recipe for Carrot Cake , but as per usual I didn't follow it to the letter, I added grated apples that came from our small tree in the garden.  No, just no ! No pineapple !

For the lovely people in the choir I will translate it 'roughly' into dutch.

Worteltjes Cake   Nederlands recept

 

Chestnut soup and recipes for disaster

Next week will be the first aniversary of my participation in the choir Cantate from Aarschot.

http://www.cantate-aarschot.be/

It took me a while to get back into singing after a break of about 6 years, but I enjoy it tremendously. Meeting people and singing together is fun !

One of the issues I have, is that because I spend a lot of my days on my own, with Bert only joining me after his work day and as we all know, he ain't no great conversasionalist, I tend to go beserk when I go to the choir practice and I talk, talk, talk to anyone catching my eye.

Not only do I talk incessantly, but I also show signs of hyper-activity. I start flapping, laughing, joking, acting clumsily, just being an embarrassment, really.

So yesterday evening, the choir had a concert, titled No Depression In Heaven and we performed songs from The Great Depression in the US during the 1920's - 1930's, together with Norbert Detaeye, who is a fantastic jazz-pianist. After the concert the choir had organised a drink and a Bowl of Soup, for which I prepared a Smooth Chestnut Soup.

As I like helping out where I can, I joined a chore group in the morning to prep everything for the reception.

It all looked very pretty, with Lena's gorgeous little flower arrangements and all. Glasses were set out on tables to serve from, beers in the fridge, soups (also included here were Jos's Pumpkin Soup & Tineke's Tomato Soup) in the fridge. We had sweeped the floors, laid nice tablecloths etc. . Perfect !

When we were about to leave, I just kept on rabbitting and not looking where I walked, I ran into the table with the glasses on !!!

The Sound of Breaking Glass ! The feeling that goes through your entire body, filled with dread, humiliation, not knowing if you want to cry or start laughing hysterically.

Lucky for me, my singing companions haven't lost patience with me, ....yet, so they started cleaning up all the mess and in the end only four glasses got broken, even though it looked like the whole shebang got blown to smithereens.

Okay, I can live with one public embarrassement a day, but not two !

This is what happened when the concert had finished. People were already leaving for the reception, still plenty around to notice what I did next.

The venue being a 'modern' church from the 60's/70's, I walked down the steps from the altar and tripped ! No I didn't fall with my knickers on show ! I gripped one of the gold-sprayed aluminium banister uprights of the pulpit instead. Only, it came loose at the bottom end.

Can't really remember what happened after that, it's a bit of a blurr, only know that some sympathetic choir members helped me to regain my balance and tried to slam the upright back into place.

How do you brush yourself off and walk away with your dignity intact, after such a stint ? Should I lock myself up and let someone else throw away the key ?

No, I think I should just take a deep breath before I go and mix with people, take a step back and relax instead of being like an uncoiled spring once I leave my own four walls.

I can but try.

Chestnut soup

I will say this again. This recipe is only a general guidline and if you want to add a bit more of this and less of that, it will still make a fantastic soup.

Ingredients

A splash of olive oil, you can use butter if you like

2 or 3 onions, peeled and chopped

1 or more cloves of garlic, peeled, roughly chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1/4 celeriac, chopped

fresh sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

3 liters of vegetable stock ( I admit using stock cubes - organic from Kallo)

About 250 grams of roasted and peeled chestnuts

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a pan, sautee the onion & garlic.

Add the thyme, bay leaf, carrots, celeriac and chestnuts.

Sautee for 5 more minutes, before adding the stock.
Let it come to the boil and let it simmer till the vegetables are soft.

Take of the heat and fish out the woody thyme stalks and bay leaf.

Blend with your handheld blender until the soup is smooth and velvety.

Season with salt & freshly ground black pepper.

I did make an extra topping for the soup based on Delia Smith's recipe for bacon and thyme croutons.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/soups/chestnut-soup-with-bacon-and-thyme-croutons.html

I fried in olive oil some smoked lardons, onion, croutons, loads of fresh thyme, some extra chesnuts (roasted, peeled and chopped), when cooled I added oodles of freshly chopped flatleaf parsley.

Add as little as a tablespoon on top of your plate or bowl of soup. Autumn (or fall) on a plate.

Note : You can also add a splash of sherry, port, brandy or whatever tickles your fancy, to the soup. It gives it another dimension.

As a gesture of gratitude to the choir members for putting up with me this last year I'll be baking a 'carrot cake' for the next choir practice. They won't know what hit them. First chestnut soup, then carrot cake, whatever next !

Nederlandse versie van dit recept

Lemon Curd Recipe For Josée

Ingredients

Grated zest and juice of 6 lemons

400 g white sugar

150 g softened butter

5 eggs, beaten

Method

Heat the lemon zest, juice and sugar gently in a sauce pan. Stir until sugar has dissolved.

Add the butter, while stirring until melted.

Au bain Marie, add the eggs to the lemon mixture, stirring all the time, gently, for about 30 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Do not boil as the mixture will curdle.

Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal. After cooling keep refigerated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nederlands

Ingredienten

Geraspte schil & sap van 6 citroenen

400 g kristalsuiker

150 g zachte boter

5 eieren, geklopt

Methode

Verhit op een zacht vuurtje het citroensap en schil met de suiker, roer tot de suiker is opgelost.

Voeg de boter erbij en roer tot deze is gesmolten.

Au bain Marie, de eieren bij het citroenmengsel voegen, en zachtjes blijven roeren (ongeveer 30 minuten) tot het mengsel glad is en aan de houten lepel blijft hangen.

Niet laten koken anders gaat de curd schiften.

Giet de curd in gesteriliseerde glazen bokalen. Sluit af en laat afkoelen.

Bewaren in de koelkast.

Our new home !

Especially for Phyl & Dawn, a few photos of our new abode.

Easter Brunch

Beautiful table decorated by my mother.















I prepared the Eggs Benedict (with smoked salmon) on homemade muffins.

Made an assortment of buns. Here, brioche-style easter bunnies, some with sultanas, some with chocolate chips. Served them with homemade jams.















After a walk, we were ready to attack the Pavlova.

Easter fun at mother's home.

We've spend Easter Sunday at my mother's home.

My little nephew, Mathias had his first taste of gathering easter eggs. He never knew what he was supposed to do, and at first he picked them up and went in the direction of the chicken coop, as if he was going to bring them back to the chickens.

He also went straight for the little ones that were wrapped in bright coloured foil and left the chococate ones behind, or for Tara, my mum's dog.

Days like these makes me feel really happy to be surrounded by my family again.

Here are some pictures of the happenings

Here my brother, Rijkaard, showing his son how it should be done.

Pick up the eggs, put them in the basket.....

However, Mathias has other ideas and he tips the eggs out of the basket.....

Mummy, Joelle, to the rescue and they put all the eggs in the basket again.

Ooops, Tara has found an easter egg also.

What a year it has been !

Not exactly my favourite one !

It has been a long time since I last updated this blog and for that I want to apologize.

As from my previous post you can see that we moved from France back to Belgium. I have had the greatest difficulties to adapt to life here again.

First of all, our lovable dog, Kerel, died rather suddenly on the 7th July, kidney faillure. Why, we don't know, as he got the finest dog food we could afford. It was devastating for us, and fellow pet owners will know what the feeling is like.
All of our six cats adapted very well to life in Belgium, so no problems there.

Another thing is, that I didn't fall in love with the house, nor the area. In fact, I started to hate the house so much it left me feeling numb and depressed. I hardly cooked a few meals, all other times we had take-away chippy, pizza, kebabs. It all resulted in me having put on more weight, and it has also given me a health scare (blood pressure very high, to the extend that my heart muscle is already enlarged). That's me on medication and a low salt diet and leaving out saturated fats (damn, and I so love salted butter).
I disliked the place so much that we started house hunting almost immediately after we moved in. After viewing many, many properties -sometimes losing the will to live- we found a great place (for Belgium) and we moved in on 17 th, January. .... to be continued.
I do enjoy seeing my family and relatives on a regular basis, though, and it was lovely to spend Christmas with them again.

On the move.....again !

Yes, we didn't expect this to happen so soon. After all it's only four and a half years since we first arrived here in France.

But things happen and we decided to move back to Belgium after more than 12 years. At some stage Bert will need surgery as the cartilage has all but disappeared from between his neck vertebra es. His mother passed away, just before Christmas, which also made us re-think our future. I have started to miss my family, relatives and old friends too much and I would definitely like to see more of my new nephew, Mathias.

We therefore made the decision just before the New Year to move back home. We bought a little house in a village, called Geetbets. It is about 20 minutes by car to my mother's place, apparently just the right distance.

Since deciding, we have already packed half of our belongings and dumped them on my mum, well not literally, she has a hangar/garage where we were able to store things. Our house here in France is on the market, but we will arrive in Belgium with the rest of our stuff on May, 4th.

So here are a few photos of the new place for you to sample, while I get on with the packing.

And then there was Mathias...

My very first nephew, my mother's first grandchild, my brother's first born.

He was born on the 20 th September 2007, weighing 3.820 kg and measuring all of 50cm.

I would like to congratulate my brother, Rijkaard and his partner, Joëlle.

They have a very beautiful, gorgeous, scrumptious baby boy. Needless to say that I have already fallen in love with him, and I haven't even seen him in real life yet, because of distance.

Update on the Summer kitchen

Look at this. These pictures have been sitting in the 'Draft - section' of my Blog since the 30th May. It is about time I put them out there for everyone to see the work that has been going on during the summer.

Here, Sarah and Friedel, unloading rocks to go under the concrete floor.



Ezra and Andrew mixing concrete

Andrew, smoothing out the surface

Catpaw prints, as always. Now, it wouldn't feel like home if we didn't have catpaw prints in every bit of concrete we pour.

Friedel and Andrew, leveling for the barbecue to sit.