The Dutch Landscape... at your home.

I have just spotted today on Casa de Valentina blog the following colourful carpets  works of art:

Above: Landcarpet The Netherlands, from Florian Pucher.

Above and below: Liz Eeuwes offers you the possibility of having the tulip fields of Lisse under your feet.

Adriana Calcanhotto in Amsterdam

Brazilian singer Calcanhotto is going to perform on the 29th October at Bimhuis, in Amsterdam.

Piet Heinkade 3

1019 BR Amsterdam

020 7882150

Cake in a Mug (Bolo de Caneca)

(Post bilíngüe. Em português, veja depois da versão em inglês.)

Essencia de Amora blog

Diva Diz blog

Eu Capricho blog

Um No' e Nada Mais blog

Divina Cozinha blog

Afonso Loureiro blog

Now that is getting cold, you are all alone and wish to savour a chocolate cake...
and not making lots of cutlery and bowls dirty...
or waiting a lot...
Here is the solution: cake for one ! Easy and ready in three minutes !
Just follow the instructions below:

Ingredients
1 large egg
4 (table) spoons of milk
3 (tb) spoons of oil (sunflower)
2 (tb) spoons powder chocolate
4 (tb) spoons of sugar
4 (tb) spoons of flour
1 (t-e-a) spoon baking powder

Place the egg in a large mug (300ml) and beat it well with a fork. Add the oil, sugar, milk and the chocolate and mix well. Add now carefully the flour and mix. Finally add the baing powder and mix it delicately. Place the mug in the center of your microwave oven, cross your fingers and turn it on for 3 minutes at 750W. Good luck !

Note: Again: use a LARGE mug - otherwise half of it will come out and your cake will look like a brown mushroom or a monster. Please resist to the temptation of opening your microwave oven to check how things are going on. You can have you cake with ice-cream or topped with nuts, chocolate sprinkles, Nutella or jam - if you wish. Do not share this recipe into two mugs. This recipe is for one cake. If you need to make two cakes, just prepare one and when it is ready repeat the whole process for another cake.

Greetings from Holland blog

Eu sei, eu sei, essa é uma receita batidíssima e que anda aparecendo muito em blogs brasileiros de culinária por todo lado. Então resolvi também testar e postar por aqui. Sabe quando da aquela fominha de comer um bolo de chocolate e você não quer utilizar uma forma, fazer sujeira e esperar muito ? Essa é a solução ! Bolo para um !  Eu fiz o primeiro para meu filho, deu certo e repeti o processo para fazer a segunda caneca para minha filhinha.. Aprovado. É muito fácil - mas siga 'a risca as instruções. Vamos lá:

Ingredientes

1 ovo
4 colheres (sopa) de leite
3 colheres (sopa) de óleo
2 colheres (sopa) de chocolate em pó
4 colheres (sopa) de açúcar
4 colheres (sopa) de farinha de trigo
1 colher (café) de fermento em pó

Preparo
Coloque o ovo na caneca e bata bem com um garfo. Acrescente o óleo, o açúcar, o leite, o chocolate e misture bem. Adicione a farinha e o fermento, e mexa delicadamente até incorporar. Leve ao microondas,  por 3 minutos na potência máxima (utilizei 750W). Enquanto espera, cruze os dedos e faça o sinal da cruz . Boa sorte !

Dicas
* A caneca deve ter capacidade para 300ml.
* A medida da colher de fermento deve ser rasa.
* Resista a tentação  de abrir a porta do forno.
* A receita e' para UMA caneca.
* Se quiser fazer dois bolos, use a receita inteira para cada caneca e coloque cada uma no forno separadamente.
* Sirva o bolo com coberturas, caldas, castanhas ou sorvete.

Today I Love

Today I love... this projection on the statue of Christ the Redemeer.
Project : Fernando Salis.
Music: Heitor Villa Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras # 7
Have a wonderful weekend you all !

Hoje eu estou adorando: projeções do abraço do Cristo Redentor no Rio de Janeiro, de Fernando Salis. Música de Villa Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras no. 7. Um bom finde a todos e uma otima semana !

Repurposing objects

Urn as a sink.

(I have snatched this photo a long time ago from a French website. If somebody knows who the author of this image is please just let me know and I shall give the credits here). Gorgeous ! However, I wonder whether it is possible to easily clean the bottom of it.  

Above and below: downtown Zaandam, metal trash bins were upgraded to flower vases.

Above, spotted in a restaurant in a place in Perigueux this summer: a pot that was formely used to preserve pate'  is now used as a serving bowl for a dame blanche dessert. My husband asked me whether I was going to serve desserts to guests in such pots from now on. I prefer to use it for butter.

Above: one of the rooms at a hotel in Milan. All rooms have this graphic of a female face a la Sophia Loren on the walls - and paper bins. I asked the manager whether I could buy one and he ofered it to me as exchange for some translation work. Below: an ex-paper bin transformed in socks bin now graces my bedroom.

The tea box above is a Jan Des Bouvries concept for... tea bags (how original). I bought it at Douwe Egberts shop using lots and lots of D.E. coffee package stamps - plus adding some money. But why keeping 9 different types of tea flavours when I use only two ? And during parties my guests prefer coffee. Thus... from tea box to bijoux box. I like to wear big bold jewelry, and this big box suits perfectly my storage needs.

No gas ? No problem ! Just grab an iron and grill some sausages on it (on chicken, or beef...). Medium, no wrinkles please. (Image snatched from the hillarious Brazilian food blog "Rainhas do Lar"). Hahahaha !!
On a previous post I  published under the label "gardens" you can check more objects serving for a purpose different from what they orginally were made for. 

The Dutch Always Know It Better

The Boomerang Wok: the Dutch solution for making wokking easier (wokking for dummies). More info at:  royalvkb.com

Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life

(Image above: available at the official site of Body Worlds)

A bit of a cultural agenda: a fascinating travel through human bodies can be made visiting the exposition Body Worlds, since last month in Rotterdam. The expositon aims to show to the visitors that our bodies are not only a natural and complex system of processes - but also a personal task: your body is the result of the way you choose to live your life.
The human bodies (a total of 20) used in the exposition were treated with a  technique called plastination. This method was developed by German doctor ans scientist Gunther von Hagens in 1977. It consists of several stages, as follows:  embalming, dissecation, removal of body fat and water, forced impregantion with silicone rubber, positioning of the body as desired and finally the curing/hardening.

BODY WORLDS is the only anatomy exposition in the world which is based on a donor program. In the world there are eleven thousand donors who decided to donate their dead bodies to be used in expositions via plastination. About thirty donators are Dutch. (if you wish to know more about donating your body for plastination visit:  http://www.koerperspende.de/en )

In The Netherlands you can visit the exposition in LP II In Las Palmas Rotterdam up  to the 23rd January 2011. Below, two beautiful videos to give you an impression.





Our life is made by the death of others.  (Leonardo da Vinci)

Sal Gorda, Tapas Bar & Restaurant, Amsterdam

Last Sunday we have been with another family in the Vondelpark. Before 5 o'clock (kids eat around 18 h in Holland) we started to wonder where to have some dinner. During years we try to drag this other family to try out a certain tapas restaurant with us. Because it is situated just a stone thrown away the Vondelpark, they enthusiastically said "yes !"

Sal Gorda is established in an old charming buidling in the South area of Amsterdam. Let's check it inside, shall we ?

I have been into some other restaurants in Holland which supposedly serve Spanish food - in a Spanish ambiance. So fake ! Dutch brown cafes transformed into Spanish restaurants with tacky, dusty decorative elements, African sculptures, rotten furniture and chipped clay dishes/bowls. That is not the case of Sal Gorda. All objects, lamps and especially the wall tableaux made of tiles were really Hecho en España.

The restaurant has two main rooms in two different floors. But there are also some niches for couples.

We ordered chicken, meat balls and bread with garlicy saus for the kids. For the grouwn-ups shrimps in garlic (left) and (right) baked meat.

Toasted bread with goat cheese, herbs and roasted nuts. Excellent.

Above: little octopuses with garlic. I found it overfried.
Champignons al ajillo y persil. Big, warm pieces of mushies in olive oil with garlic and parsley. Very yummy.

Patatas bravas (potatoe chunks in a spicy sauce). Also the tortillas and salads were very good. But I found the portion of fried sliced eggplant too small  (4 thin slices) - and therefore overpriced.

Above, by the entrance, the bar. Because we started there very early, the kids could be now and then a bit lousy  - there were no other people near us. Not many desserts (flans, ice-creams and chocolate pie), but delicious anyway. The service was correct and smiley -an Argentinean waiter and then a young Dutch lady were helping us - the ambiance is great and I definitelly recommend the place.  Oh, they have very good caipirinhas too, with real cachaça by the way !

Call me kitsch (Me chama de cafona)

Autumn in the Northern Europe for me means: mushrooms and pumpkins. Especially the mushies, they are everywhere in my village - gardens, trees, grass... even on the outer walls of the gym I go to (it is a brand new building).

At an impulse, I have bought today the mushies you see on the photos. They are made of wood and very pretty.
O outono no norte europeu e' anunciado por cogumelos.  Num impulso, comprei hoje esses que vi numa floricultura. Sao feitos de madeira e encantadores.

I have inserted them in vases around my living room. The result you can see on the next photos.
Distribui todos pelos vasinhos da sala de jantar. O resultado voces veem nas fotos a seguir.

And this mushie came with a bonus ! A tiny escargot (equally fake, of course) on it.   Esse cogumelo ai de cima veio com um brinde: um caracolzinho (de mentira, claro !).  

Kitsch... or kitsch ? Well, I have a good excuse to play around with tacky mushies. I just say "Actually I do not care much about them - but the kids find them cool and begged me to buy some". Hahahaha !

Qual a desculpa que eu dou pra essa cafonice ? Ah, que eu tenho criancas e que eles acham lindinho, hahaha!

Mussels Time !

Photo above: DesignSponge.com

Mussels... the Belgian way. With fries and Belgian beer, natuurlijk.

Check here for the whole story and yummy recipe - while the link lasts.

I invite you to my kitchen. Let's prepare mussels - my way ! With two chefs in the kitchen it goes quicker. One chopps the veggies (onions, shallots, carrots, celery, garlic...) while the other washes, debeards and srcubbs the mussels and discards the broken/open ones. Fry at low heat the veggies in oil or butter.

Add the mussels into the pan. I also added a splash of white wine and some spoons of tomato sauce.

After three or four minutes shake it, shake it !

Ready. You may sprinkle some cilantro and pepper if you wish.  

Would you like some beer to drink ? Or maybe wine ?

I prepared two sauces, mayo with garlic and white pepper and another with mayo, green olives, cappers, parsley and dill. We do not prepare French fries at home (so much smoke - ugh!) , we prefer to have our mussels with warm white bread and home made sauces.

Eu preparei dois molhinhos para acompanhar: maionese com alho picadinho e pimenta em po' branca. O outro era maionese com azeitonas verdes, alcaparras, salsinha e dill. Preparamos uma baguete fatiada quentinha no forno e pronto.

And the liquid from the bottom of the pan can be used as a base for a soup. I just added cooked diced carrots and enjoyed it the following day.

Com o caldo que sobra na panela eu acrescento cenoura picadinha cozida e faco uma sopa pro dia seguinte.