Gelukkige Verjaarsdag

One of the cool things about living in Brussels is the extremely interesting and multi-national social circle in which we find ourselves. Case in point, our good friends Cornelle and Serge— Cornelle hails from South Africa, while Serge is a native of the Netherlands. They threw a dinner party recently for Cornelle's birthday, and we were lucky enough to be on the invite list, along with two of their other friends—Cecille (French) and Stine (Belgian). In addition to enjoying the company of this intelligent and witty group, I found it fascinating that three of the partygoers spoke language-variants rooted in the same tongue -- Afrikaans, Flemish, and Dutch. The title of this post is actually in Afrikaans, and means 'Happy Birthday'. Though I am usually able to pronounce things (owing to the singer's ear I presume), I must admit that Dutch frequently confounds me.



Here we are enjoying nibbles and some nice bubbly in C&S's pretty living room. (I'm sitting on the birthday girl's left.) Despite meeting the other two for the first time that evening, the conversation flowed easily, following interesting tracks and resulting in a lot of laughter. (You'll notice that we're laughing in nearly every photo!)



This is one of several toasts over the course of the evening. Us girls hung out in the dining room while the menfolk cooked up a gourmet feast in the adjacent kitchen. Troy makes a pretty decent sous-chef when he sets his mind to it.



Our adventure for the evening came when Troy picked up my heretofore beautiful cake, neglecting to think about the effect of metal-cake-pan-on-glass-cake-stand...and proceeded to launch it halfway across the kitchen. By some miracle of quick reflexes and a bit of gymnastics he was able to save both the cake and the stand! All that butter helped the cake retain its form remarkably well despite everything. Only a slight countertop-edge-shaped divot and a broken side. No matter, it tasted divine. Everyone was practically purring.



Here's a nice shot of Serge and Troy in their kitchen domain, offering up their glasses to a successful evening. My, but don't they look pleased with themselves.

We had a wonderful evening, and wish everyone many happy returns.

Baking, Simone Style

All cooking should start with ingredients like this . . .

Yes, that's a LOT of butter on top of a bowl of chocolate. This turned into a Simone classic . . . a cherry chocolate cake for our friend Cornelle's birthday. I thought we should have just taken the bowl to the party just as it is here and handed everyone a spoon, but Simone insisted she could make something presentable of it. Hmmph . . . What do I know?

Sayonara Sabbatical!

That's right...I'm back. After spending the greater part of the last year on a self-imposed blogging sabbatical, I've decided that I've spent enough time lounging about, eating bags and bags of Doritos, watching bad Belgian soaps, and contemplating my nostril. So I'm back on the blog . . . at least until I decide I'm not.

In celebration of my return, I got new specs . . . so if you haven't seen me in a while here's what you're missin' :

Happy Fall!

Autumn is in full swing here in Belgium. The temperature has dropped, there is the smell of chimney smoke in the air, and the leaves have turned lovely shades of russet, burnt orange, deep red, and even bright yellow. Quite a contrast from the winter-one-day-summer-the-next schizophrenia that we were accustomed to in Colorado. Like our summer, our fall has been busy and with a wonderfully-full social calendar. We recently spent a long weekend visiting friends in Amsterdam, and have been checking out some interesting beer sites and cafés here in Belgium (more posts to come on that topic for sure!). Inspired by the season, I have also been cooking a lot of autumn-flavored dishes and couldn't resist sharing a couple pictures of that too.


Fall colors along a pretty canal in Amsterdam.


Outside our favorite "brown bar" in Amsterdam, the Café 'TSmalle


We've visited 'TSmalle many times, but this was our first time sitting upstairs.


Ruthie Foster playing at Paradiso -- such an awesome show in an intimate venue!


Dinner at a restaurant specializing in traditional Dutch food. Heavy, but good.


While Troy and our friends went to work, I spent Monday exploring Amsterdam on my own.






Rembrandt's house.


Some great shops where I did some Christmas shopping.


Back in Brussels at Le Cercle des Voyageurs, a neat café/travel library.


Troy sporting his new Orval apron as he grilled up some pork chops.


The purple dish is a recipe from my new 'La Gueze gourmand' cookbook for "Choux-Rouge aux Pommes avec Rosé de Gambrinus" (aka Red Cabbage and Apples stewed in Raspberry Lambic Beer). The other dish is the wonderfully-name "Happy Rice" from my 'Autumn' cookbook. Bon appetit!