April 23, 2016

Salmon waffles.

zalmwafeltjes

Looking for an easy, quick (and delicious) appetizer? Well, I got the perfect recipe for you! On top of all that, it's original too (or at least, I thought it was original); salmon waffles. Yup, waffles stuffed with salmon... You can do that! I didn't opt for the traditional waffle dough but used puff pastry instead. That's what makes this recipe so quick and easy. How to make all this deliciousness? Find out below;

April 16, 2016

Capsule wardrobe Spring 2016

So, the first season of my little capsule wardrobe experiment is over and I'm excited to share the results. What did I think of this capsule wardrobe thing? Well, I'll be honest (as always): I didn't like it that much. I constantly had the feeling that I was wearing the same thing over and over again. I tried using the Dress App to come up with new outfits and to make sure that there was lots of variety in my outfits. This worked great at first and I'm still a huge fan of the app but after a while, I got lazy. There were just too little clothes to create different and original outfits with and secondly, there were some clothes that I wore/tried to wear but just didn't feel comfortable in. So, in short; my winter capsule wardrobe: not a big success! BUT that doesn't mean I'm already giving up on the concept though. I realize that my winter items aren't the most exciting of clothes. Before I put together the capsule, I already knew that there were quite some clothes which were relatively old and not my style anymore but I kept them in the capsule anyway because I hadn't worn them that much in the past and didn't want to get rid of any perfectly good clothes (seemed like a waste). My spring clothes on the other hand, are a lot more 'my thing' and I'm ready to give it another chance with a new season. We'll see how it goes.
Like I said, I felt quite limited in my choice of clothes but this capsule wasn't all bad. I already mentioned that there were some clothes I didn't feel comfortable in, so the natural decision is to toss these clothes or to sell/donate them. "Forcing" myself to wear these clothes again, made me realise that they're not for me anymore which made it a lot easier to get rid of them. Where I kept a lot of the items in the past because they were still in great shape (of course, they were, I never actually wore them), I was able to distance myself from them and move them OUT of my wardrobe.
Now, I'm ready to start with a clean slate and to share my new capsule wardrobe with you all. Although I'm not sure that you can still call it a capsule wardrobe as I've gone well beyond the 37 items.


Uhm... I have to admit that I don't have an inventory of my entire wardrobe so lots of items aren't included yet. Things that are not mentioned yet; leather jacket, glitter boots (woop woop), yellow pants, cardigans, ... .

Of course, it wouldn't be a good capsule if I wouldn't take what I learned from my previous capsule with me into this new one. So, I made a few adjustments in the sense that I'm no longer busy with the number of items that the capsule contains. I felt too limited in my winter capsule so to avoid this in the future, I'm no longer focusing so much on the number. On the other hand, I'm not buying any new clothes either because I still have an overload of clothes and I certainly don't want to make that worse. It's been hard not buying new clothes and I'm not claiming that I didn't buy a single new item but compared to how it was before, I'm doing pretty good (even if I say so myself). I believe that by the end of the season, the number will probably have decreased as I will be tossing things along the way. I hope I will because my spring/summer wardrobe is quite bulky so it could use a little clean up.

April 9, 2016

Flemish Stew.

stoofvlees

After I shared my recipe for a classic tomato soup, the idea dawned on me to share my recipes of other 'Belgian classics' as well. Next up; Flemish stew! Most of my fellow countrymen eat this dish with a big portion of our typical Belgian fries but to make it a little more special, I served this with oven baked smoked paprika fries. Oh.. usually this dish is made with beer but as I'm not a big fan of beer (I know, and I call myself Belgian), I left it out. If you want to make it the real traditional way, you can substitute part of the water with two bottles of beer (best is to use dark beer). Anyway, each family probably has its own recipe and here's mine:

April 2, 2016

March.

March was a weird month. It started out pretty well with lots of eating out and meeting friends but took a turn for the worse about halfway through. You'll see why...


1. As I said, lots of eating out at first; here's my dessert after a night out with the boyfriend (chocolate!) // 2. Meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in some time (again, eating out) // 3. My mom, the boyfriend and I also went to a baking demonstration... The lady doing the demonstration is pretty hilarious // 4. And when I had half a day off, I discovered a store which had a shelf full of Nordic Ware... Unfortunately, not the one I was looking for // 5. Meeting up with other friends... This time we only had coffee (really great one by the way) // 6. Careless selfies with the boyfriend // 7. I was responsible for dinner; I made Belgian stew and mushroom soup // 8. Cute little Fons // 9. Something the boyfriend and I whipped together.. Turned out to be delicious! // ... 
... and then it seemed as if the world stopped making sense. Brussels was attacked and all of a sudden all this violence, war and terrorism came really close. Besides that, we had our own issues to deal with. On that same day, the doctor told us that my grandfather would probably not make it through the week. Unfortunately, he was right.

10. So, here's to my beloved grandfather. Being the best grandfather in the world always is a shared place and I'm happy to say that both of my grandfathers deserve that place. All I can say is that I will miss you and that I'm happy you're not suffering anymore. You put up a hell of a fight but we all understand you just couldn't keep fighting anymore. 

Ik zie u graag, maat.