Restaurant: Lekkerr, Schoonhoven

Last week, I spent two days at my aunt who lives in Schoonhoven. Schoonhoven is a very cute town between Rotterdam and Utrecht. It is known for the silver that used to be made here a lot. In the city centre, you will find a lot of old buildings, mostly from around the year 1600. I absolutely love to see this, as you won’t find buildings like this in Rotterdam, because of what happened here in the Second World War. It gives Schoonhoven such a charming feel. I also really like the canal that runs right through the town. On one of the sides of the canal, restaurant Lekkerr is situated and my aunt, brother and sister in law and I decided to go there for dinner.

Recipe: Raspberry Pistachio Eton Mess

I don’t really know why, but Eton Mess was something that I wanted to make for quite a while, but for some reason I didn’t. And it can be so easy to make, especially when you have ready made merengue, so the lack of time could not be my excuse. But now, I finally tried to make it! And I even baked my own merengues for it!

Eton Mess is basically a layered dessert with cream, merengue and fruit and you can make many variations on this dessert. Because we all love red fruits the most in my family and it gives the dessert a nice and fresh look, I decided to make a raspberry Eton Mess. To give it some extra color, I topped it with some vibrant green pistachios. And I can tell you it was a crowd pleaser!

Review: Oreo icecream sticks

I have a weakness for anything that has Oreo in it. It doesn’t matter if it is in a cake, milkshake, chocolate, dessert or just on its’ own. There is just something about the combination of the dark, chocolate cookies and the vanilla layer inbetween the cookies that is perfect! Sweet, but not too sweet, crunchy and soft at the same time. So when I heard about this Magnum-like Oreo icecream, I had to get my hands on it. Because, well, icecream is one of my other weaknesses (yep, I am indeed a massive sweettooth) and what could be better than combining the two? It took me a couple of months to find them unfortunately. I almost feared they wouldn’t make it to my local Albert Heijn, but then, all of a sudden, they were there! There was only one box left actually, which I took home with me of course.

Recipe: Rhubarb Tarte Tartin with a crumble base

When I know spring is around the corner, I start looking for one of my favorite products of this season: rhubarb! I just love the pink and green stalks with their sweet and tangy flavor.  Every year I like to make a new recipe with it, which is so easy, because rhubarb is a super versatile vegetable. You can use it in desserts, breakfasts, sauces, jams and of course in cakes! This year I decided to make a cake from the rhubarb, but not an ordinary one. I felt the need to use a new technique, so I decided to make a tarte tartin. This was something I had never made before and I figured it would give the rhubarb an extra dimension through the caramellising process that happens in the pan. Because a rhubarb crumble is such a classic, I wanted a to incorporate a crumble layer as well. But it is not on the rhubarb, but in the base of the cake. Sounds delicious right?

Review: Tijd voor Ontbijt

For me, breakfast is very important. I believe a healthy breakfast gets your body started and gets the brain fueled as well. This is why I always take the time in the morning to have a decent breakfast (and because I simply wake up hungry). Personally, I love oatmeal for breakfast, because you can flavor it with loads of things and you can add almost everything as a topping. Usually I put any kind of fruit on top and sometimes extras like nuts or chocolate. Lately I discovered something new in my local Albert Heijn, called ‘Tijd voor Ontbijt‘. Tijd voor Ontbijt sells different kinds of mixes with nuts, dried fruit and superfoods to add to your yoghurt, muesli, or in my case oatmeal.

Restaurant: Sugo, Rotterdam

I absolutely love Italian food, it doesn’t matter what kind of food, but I just love how the flavors are combined in the Italian cuisine. Pizza is one of the things that is a real treat for me. I don’t eat it often, but when I do, I enjoy it to the maximum. That’s why I was so exited when I heard about the opening of Sugo in the Aaert van Nesstraat in my hometown Rotterdam. Sugo sells pizza slices, so no whole round pizza’s, making it easier to have to either have just one slice for lunch, or try multiple pizza’s for dinner!

Recipe: Spring dinner with Salmon and Asparagus

The Netherlands is one of the very few countries that have two days of Easter (and Christmas). It is actually kind of weird, because the event we are celebrating is only one day, but we spread it out over two days. It does give you an extra day off work and the possibillity to celebrate with both sides of the family for example. We did an elaborate brunch with the whole family on the first day and invited my grandparents for dinner on the second day. I wanted to make something that gives you the feeling of spring, so a light dinner with vegetables and flavors of the season.

Inspiration: Wrap with smoked chicken and pea sprouts

I eat at the dance studio two times a week at the moment between teaching classes and most of the times I either buy or make a salad. It’s easy to prepare and light on my stomach when I have to dance again straight after. But now, I got kind of bored with the salads and wanted to make something different. I figured a wrap would be easy and light as well, so I looked for things to put in my wrap at my local supermarket.

Restaurant: My favorite coffee places in Rotterdam City Centre

When I go shopping in the city centre of Rotterdam, I almost always start early, like, I make sure to be there around 10 o’clock in the morning. This means I usually haven’t had any coffee yet. Since I started drinking coffee about two years ago, it has become kind of a habit to have one cup of latte or cappuccino in the morning. I don’t drink more coffee really, but I have gotten quite attached to my one cup of coffee. So whenever I go shopping I take a break at one of my favorite coffee places in the city centre. I sometimes choose the bigger ones everyone knows, like Hema, or LaPlace, but most of the time I’d rather visit a smaller and less crowded place. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

Recipe: Cute Easter Bird’s Nest Cupcakes

Even though the wheather doesn’t show signs of spring at the moment (it looks more like fall actually) spring is here and it is Easter in exactly one week already! That’s why I decided to make some cute Easter bird’s nest cupcakes on this rainy day. To get in the mood a bit already. These cupcakes are really easy to make, not too big, so you can easily enjoy them with a cup of coffee or tea and I bet they would look great on an Easter Brunch table as well.