Food

Prezzies

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20141222_112029After Christmas dinner it was time for prezzies. First we exchanged gifts with my parents, and after they left, Nienke and I continued the unwrapping party with our gifts for each other.

We’d already given each other one of the prezzies the day before, but now it was time for the rest. We usually set a budget, and always go over, but I think we never went quite as far over as we did this year 😀

Mom and Dad gave me the CD with the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy. A definite hit as the songs keep getting stuck in my head 🙂 I got Mom a bath set with lotion and fluffy things, and for Dad dried meat sausages, he always likes a good sausage.

Nienke gave me awesome things! Starfleet Academy and Medical Academy buttons, a necklace of the Elven brooch given to the Hobbits, a colouring book and a cute story book, a letter E, and the best thing ever: a USS Voyager model kit. I’ll have to order paint first, but I can’t wait to build it.

I got Nienke a Comic Con Exclusive Buffy Pop Vinyl, the eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, a 1:64 model of the Impala from Supernatural along with a replica of Dean’s necklace that Sammy gave him, blue fuzzy gloves, a guitar stand and the unicorn plush from Despicable Me. The cats each got a toy, as well.

Then tonight Kim came by to watch the Olivier B. Bommel movie Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel and then we saw Flushed Away before also exchanging gifts.

I’d gotten both Nienke and Kim a chocolate bar, and gave Kim a set of mugs with owls on it, as well as a bracelet with a Mockingjay pin. I’d also gotten some toys and candies for her cats. She got me chocolate, fudge and a Pop Vinyl of Invisible Bilbo!

Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack

Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, true to its name

 

Starfleet Academy departmental buttons

Starfleet Academy departmental buttons, Starfleet Medical Academy button and a Star Trek general button

 

Lord of the Rings Elven brooch necklace

Fantastic Lord of the Rings Elven brooch necklace

 

Undead Pets book

A cute little book about Undead Pets

 

Feel Good colouring book

Very pretty Feel Good colouring book

 

USS Voyager model kit

Best gift ever 😀 USS Voyager model kit!

 

Invisible Bilbo!

Invisible Bilbo!

 

Chocolate hippos! And fudge *swoon*

Chocolate hippos! And fudge *swoon*

 

Dinner of Champions

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20141225_191427I started yesterday morning with making the dessert and the starter. Like last year, I planned a cheesecake, but unlike last year, I went for slightly smaller portions and more decorative. So I baked it in a cake tin so I could press out shapes.

The starter was a combination of two tiny cream-cheese and ham pastries and two pieces of deviled egg. The pastry cups were store bought so I stuffed them with herbal cream cheese and topped it with prosciutto. I then boiled the eggs and made a mustardy filling.

By the time noon came around, the cheesecake was cooling, the pastries and eggs were in the fridge waiting for the evening, and all the vegetables (carrot, potato, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) for the main courses were sliced, diced, shredded and what not.

This left me enough time to have a cuppa tea and relax 😀

Later in the afternoon I finished the dessert by using a ring mold to cut out four circles and decorated it with blackberries on top and sliced strawberry around it.

After that, it was time for actual cooking. I started with a traditional oven roasted chicken and veggies. After quickly browning the chicken in a pan I put the sliced and diced carrots and potatoes in an oven dish, mixed with herbs and spices, spread the chicken on top and shoved it in the oven to forget about it until the rest was done.

20141225_191052Then I put the cut broccoli and cauliflower in another oven dish and made a cheese sauce. When that was done, I poured it over the veggies, and added this dish to the oven, also.

For the third dish, I stir fried shredded Brussels sprouts and cabbage with bacon bits and curry powder.

And finally, I made chicken saltimbocca: chicken covered with prosciutto, spinach and parmesan and then rolled up. First it gets cooked on all sides so it stays together better, and then the pan is filled with a chicken broth and it is boiled in that for a while.

While these were finishing up, I got the rest out of the oven/off the stove and on the table and starter plated up. Time to eat!

The food was well received, even Dad, who normally doesn’t really say anything about it but just eats, came out and said he liked it. Even the dessert, which I think he skipped last year, went in smoothly. I call that a win 🙂

Tonight it’s Nienke’s turn to do dinner. The plan is roast beef with broccoli and cream sauce and roasted potato. Sounds delicious!

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Strange Things Did Happen Here

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Saw Mockingjay (part 1) tonight with Kim. I was very curious to see how they would continue and especially how they would split it. The first two parts were really good, so I was hoping they would continue that trend. And they did.

It’s a really good film. A comfortable pacing keeping the action happening while making time for emotional gut-punch moments so you actually get to experience the feels and not rush through them. I think they made a good choice where to make the cut and end this part. This way parts 1 and 2 aren’t just one film that just happens to be in two parts, but each have a different all-over theme.

They also made a really good rendition of the Hanging Tree song, which is very nicely sung by Jennifer Lawrence. It becomes a tune that sticks in your head.

We stopped at Starbucks on the way back since I’d seen the sign announcing the return of the Christmas flavours the other day and I love honey almond hot chocolate. It’s like drinking a liquid marzipan bar, one of those with a thin layer of chocolate around them.

Waylon

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I went to see Waylon perform at the Oosterpoort yesterday with Kim and Ingrid.

We met up at Mr. Mofongo’s to have dinner first. I had this awesome beef tenderloin with roasted vegetables (red onion, paprika) and chorizo, on a bed of seasonal vegetables (haricots, parsnip, yellow beet, red beet puree, pumpkin and roasted chestnut) with baked potatoes and orange mayonnaise. It was absolutely delicious!

Dessert was a crème brûlée with red berries and raspberries and a glass of amaretto.

20141129_202703We then headed for the Oosterpoort and, once there, found ourselves some good seats. Most people were seating themselves near the stage or standing in front, but we went for a little further away and up. Since he was playing the small room, this was still close enough to see everything, and by sitting a bit higher up, we could see over the rest.

The concert itself started a little after eight and for the next three! hours, no break, Waylon sang, and talked, and it was fantastic. He played songs from his newest album, songs from his previous album and even a Common Linnets song. I was a bit disappointed, though, with that one specifically. It is an emotional song, and one of my personal favourites. He did most of the song very well but decided to mess up the last few lines, in an attempt to be funny, which so didn’t work for me. Besides this minor thing, I loved the rest. I definitely recommend going to see him if you can.

Ghosts

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10271562_10152497273468155_464091770207115951_n. 1-11jpgI ordered a ridiculously large cat tree for my monsters 😀 It’s fantastic, and I think they’re gonna love it!

Wednesday I went to see If I Stay with Ingrid and Nienke. It was a fun movie (insofar a movie about people dying or almost dying is fun). It matched the book well enough, and I liked the actors (especially the parents).

The next day, as if to compensate, wasn’t so good. I felt out of sorts and crappy the whole day, and then when I went home I got annoyed at the darkness (brain: stupid winter), the train (brain: why don’t you leave now instead of on your scheduled time in 15 minutes), the people in line at the Burger King (brain: order faster!) and the people working at Burger King (brain: gimme ma food!).

Luckily, when I got home, I cuddled the cats and made snacks for Friday’s party which made me feel better.

Friday evening we had a little Halloween party with some friends. We’d decorated the house and with the snacks it was all set. To stay on theme, we had Halloween music for background and later watched a Halloween movie 😀

*scary noises*

 

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Intestines and feces

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Pumpkins and stuffed roaches

 

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Severed fingers

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The whole of it

 

Funko’s, Faults & Food

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Funko'sI discovered Funko’s Pop Vinyls recently. It took a while but I finally found an online retailer in this country with good prices that seemed reliable. So, after giving it some thought and compiling a rough wish list of sorts I ordered Illidan and Arthas from Warcraft. However, these were backordered, so it will be a while before they finally come 🙁

To curb my impatience I ordered some more from their in stock collection and yesterday these arrived: Robby the Robot (from Forbidden Planet), an Andorian (from Star Trek) and Dr. Whooves (from My Little Pony). They will make an excellent start of the collection 🙂

20140827_193012In the afternoon I headed for the city to meet up with Gert. We went to see The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve read the book a little while ago, and liked it. It was a good movie, nice treatment of the book, and hits the feels where and how it should. I cried.

After, we went to IKEA so Gert could buy a wardrobe (and have it delivered, there’s no way we’re dragging that through the city public transport…) We stopped at KFC for some food. I was pretty pleased with that, since the KFC there is the only KFC in the city and I’ve been wanting to go for years now!

We then went back to the cinema to watch Guardians of the Galaxy, again 😀

20140828_155453Today, I hung out with Gert again. We played some games while awaiting the delivery of the wardrobe. He’d said yesterday that he would then put it aside, so it was no trouble at all for me to hang out. But of course, as it is with new things, and especially things-to-build, it itched. So, rather apologetically, he asked if I’d mind…. And since building together is not only more fun, but also faster, especially with big pieces, we built a wardrobe.

After we were done, Gert went out and got us gloriously spicy Thai food, so we would be refreshed and ready for that night’s movie. This time we went to see Magic in the Moonlight. It was pretty good. The storyline was interesting (1920’s medium debunker falls in love with the girl he’s supposed to debunk and falls for her ‘gift’, too). The scenery was beautiful and I liked the actors playing.

Tick Boxes

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Today I discovered sugar buns 😀 I already knew (and love!) Frisian sugarbread, but today I went with Kim to the supermarket during lunchbreak and there they had sugar buns instead of a whole loaf. The texture is the same as the bread, but it has the typical top layer of a bun. The sugar is mostly in the bottom part and along the edges. I bought some small packets of butter to go with it and had these, later on the day, for dinner. They are glorious!

Tomorrow I have my second actual appointment with LifeLines. After the original intake a little over four years ago (may 2010) I have done a couple questionnaires, but this is the first come back appointment where they will retake blood and measure things and so on. Tonight I realised I’d forgotten to fill in the digital questionnaire they included with the appointment e-mail. Since it has to be done before the appointment, I quickly wrestled through it. I usually hate them since they are often unclear in their questions, and I find many hard to answer. The typical questionnaire has sections for what you’ve eaten the past 4 weeks and their intervals are kinda sucky as they go from 2-3 days a month to 1-2 days a week which is a different kind of measurement to the similar 4-10 days a month.

My eating habits are fairly irregular, so for me an answer like 4-10 days a month is much more likely than 1-2 days a week. Take those vitamin yoghurt thingies. I buy them occasionally, in six-pack. And since I share that with Nienke, it means I get three. I then drink those on three consecutive days. Then I might not buy another for two or three weeks. Then, when I do buy another, it’s another three consecutive days. So all in all I’ve had them 6 days a month, but not 1-2 days a week.

I give that same feedback on the questionnaires every time, but I’ve never seen a change. Ah well, one can always hope.

And another thing that pissed me off: my gender. The first page is always double check info. So I re-enter my date of birth, my gender and my weight. However, when I chose Man, I got an error message saying it didn’t match the previous entry (from 2010) and I should check my answer. In itself a valid thing, if you make a typo or a misclick, it’s good they force you to recheck. However, I could not progress past this page of the questionnaire unless I changed that answer. Eventually I did, I do want to give them all the data they need, but they will be getting a talking to, tomorrow.

I had already asked them to change my initials and gender when I mailed them a few months ago to change my address. I got a nice mail back saying it was changed. And the e-mail I got was nicely addressed with the right initial. But it still sad Mrs. *sigh*

It’s almost August. It’s almost August.

And a bonus: the hardships I have to endure when I want to type things 😀

Lapcat

Lohues

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I’m back from a glorious night out with Mommy dear. We had dinner at Het Feithhuis on their back terrace. It was a lovely place to sit, but it got a bit chilly quicker than expected. We had an amuse with potato cream and paprika and something, it was quite tasty. For the main course, I had steak and Mom went with chicken. The dessert was the best, it was a platter for two with seven or so (per person) tiny dessert items like pastries, ice cream, fruit and combinations thereof.

After that, we walked towards the Schouwburg to go see Daniel Lohues perform. He writes and sings beautiful songs about life in the dialect of Drenthe. Songs that are deceptively simple and straightforward and can hit you like a brick. Between the songs he told stories and anecdotes in typical Lohues fashion. All in all, it was a wonderful performance.

Gathering of the Tribe

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Yesterday was Mom’s birthday. I brought her presents in the morning and then left again to go to Singing Class. I told my teacher I’m quitting singing for now. It frustrates too much, and I was never truly happy with the every two weeks frequency of the lessons (both time and money-wise).

In the afternoon I went back to the Parents for the birthday party. In a surprise move, I found there all my relatives from the other side of the country. I knew they were around since they were spreading my recently departed great-aunt Veri’s ashes. But they never confirmed if they were gonna come by for Mom’s birthday, so I wasn’t really expecting them. I only had a few minutes to catch up as they were leaving again (it’s a long drive back home for them). As usual, the party was great, it’s always good to see family again, especially on birthday gatherings. I went back home early in the evening as I have a cold and wanted to get an early night.

Ooh, I almost forgot! I bought a new TV Friday. Nienke’s TV in the living room is of good size, but our living room is bigger and it is sometimes troublesome to see small things well from the sofa’s. I settled on a nice 40″ Samsung Smart TV which will be delivered next Thursday.

Today was a nice relaxing day. Got up late, had an Easter brunch, then played games, and worked on my ticketstump scrapbook (a very basic one). While doing that, I listened to a Doctor Who audio book, which was fun. But it did reinforce that audio books really aren’t my thing. It doesn’t feel like a book, it takes more concentration just to stick with the story (as opposed to reading where it sort of happens automatically). I can’t just sit and listen so my hands always have to do something, which then distracts from the story. When reading, since I’m holding the book then, I don’t have that problem. I will however subject myself to it again, as there’s also an audio play of Romeo & Juliet with David Tennant I haven’t listened to yet.

I did a quick trip to the Parents to retrieve birthday leftovers, as we do each year, and once back home I had cake and finished Sorcery and Cecilia, which is a fun book.

Passion

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So… Tuesday my new manager, who I’ve had all of two weeks at the most, announced they’re stepping down. No word yet on successor, but that might take a while. Interesting to see what happens with a power vacuum like that.

Yesterday I went to the movies with Gert. We watched Divergent first. He hadn’t seen it yet, and I didn’t mind watching it again. After we had a little break and then went in to see Yves Saint Laurent. That was a very good film. Insofar I’m familiar with the fifties and sixties it seemed to me a fairly realistic film that gave a good picture of who YSL was and how he was shaped by his life and experiences.

We had dinner at Pappa Joe’s and then went for ice cream at Toscana, they have the best selection of flavours ever.

Tonight, The Passion was in Groningen.  A huge musical show and parade to play out the passion of Christ. Various singers played the key biblical figures singing contemporary songs to symbolise the emotions and events of each sequence. Meanwhile a huge group of people carry and follow this huge shining cross to the center of the celebrations. This is the third time or so they did this, and since I’m not a Christian, Easter has little meaning to me in this sense. Since, however, it was Groningen, I did watch it on TV. I tweeted some comments during (and really, they had the stupidest hashtag: tp14…) but in short: the guy playing Jesus had the right vibe going, especially beard-wise. The guy playing Judas is a musical star here and it showed. His voice was by far the best for an event like this and he had this brooding vampire vibe going which worked well.

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