A Dutchie Party

Hello all,

For those of you who may recall, I have in my arsenal of friends a lovely friend from the Netherlands (also known as Holland). My friend, Lieke, inspired the post, "The Dutch," and now has inspired another. 

This past week I went over to Lieke and her husband's house to attend a Dutchie Party - a birthday party, no less. It was Like's birthday and I knew I was in for a cultural and wonderful treat.

For my long time readers, you know of my affinity for baking. Birthday cakes happen to be my specialty, but I'm not talking about your standard sheet cakes. Oh no. What I made for Lieke's birthday, was a dark chocolate tart cake with Grand Mariner and a hint of orange. It may have ended up looking like this:

Yep. It tasted as good as it looked, but we'll get to the feasting part in a minute.

While Lieke, my friend Christy and I caught up, Lieke's husband made us dinner. This is a normal routine in the household and Stephan is an AMAZING cook. Christy was given an assignment by Lieke to write her birthday card entirely in Dutch, a language that neither Christy or I could begin to speak correctly.

 But, Christy is an excellent friend and did as requested marvelously. Of course, the words that she wrote were literal (like, how in the States if we said, "it's raining cats and dogs," Americans know that to mean it is raining heavily, butt people in some countries would duck for cover because those words together do not translate to have the same meaning) and apparently she read like someone from South Africa, but the heart was there and that was evident.

We all sat down together and ate ridiculously good Dutch pancakes. What's a Dutch pancake you may be wondering? Well, unfortunately, they were so good that I did not stop to take a photo of them, but here's my attempt to define their goodness: imagine a thin pancake, not so thin as a crepe, but not so thick as your average American pancake. They are usually served with raisins in the batter, but due to the fact that the market we visited did not have raisins, we went without. They are also usually served either sweet or savory - sweets tend to have apple slices right inside of the batter, whereas savory have BACON!!!!!!!!!!!! Cooked right into them. Can you tell which was my favorite? 

With the bacon ones, we spread Dutch syrup on top and rolled them up like you would a stuffed crepe.. The syrup was thick, but not like molasses. It went perfectly with the bacon. For the apple pancakes, we put cinnamon or an apple spread, which was like apple jam.

The food was incredible and Stephan kept bringing pancake after pancake to each of our plates. I honestly have no idea how many I consumed, but it felt like a lot.

After the delightful dinner, we sat at the table a long while, planning our next adventure. During the span of this, I went to use the restroom (uh-oh, a bathroom story!). Everything was fine until I realized after flushing, that there was a significant amount of water on the floor. I looked at the toilet and realized that water was pouring out from the back tank of the toilet! I kid you not, I had just been thinking, "Wow, this is a great place to live. I hope to find a place like this where everything is cutesie and works properly." Alas, it was as though I had set up the curse intentionally.

Calmly, I approached Lieke and Christy to say, "I hate to be the bearer of this news, but the toilet is leaking from the back and there is water all over the floor."

We all went rushing into the bathroom to see what was going on. Armed with one or two towels, which were soaked in a minute's time, we flushed the toilet to see what was going on. Sure enough, the water was coming out from the top of the back tank. We lifted the top of the tank to see if the water was not draining properly, only to have a gushing tube shoot water out at all of us, getting us and the bathroom only more wet. 

Several side splitting laughs later, I was able to turn off the water going into the toilet, stopping the intense water flow from further spraying us. So what caused this unlikely oddity? Lieke and Stephan told us that the building supers had been working on the water pipes, so they were not terribly surprised that something like this would happen. Let me tell you, I still felt bad for being the lucky soul to raise their awareness to this issue, but luckily I was armed with cake.

After Lieke tested her other bathroom (it was ok) and called maintenance (they only have emergency responses to "plugged up toilets"....) we all sat down and prepared ourselves for the dark chocolate treats. 

Christy and I both asked for smallerish pieces and we knew that Lieke was likely to return with just a bite, but what she came to us with was a bit of an embarrassing amount of riches.

We laughed, we talked Lord of the Rings, and dreamed of lands void of spiders (legend has it that there are no spiders in New Zealand, and if you know the truth to this and if it is contrary to my belief, please don't crush my dreams....Christy!)

We didn't leave Lieke's place until well after midnight. Staying awake at work the next day proved to be an interesting and entertaining challenge, but it was worth it. As you all well know, my mantra is "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit." - Henry David Thoreau.

Now go on, everyone, go eat yourself some home made chocolate cake.

Your humble author,

S. Faxon

PS - I gave myself bangs this week. As my dear readers, I trust and rely on your responses. What do you think? Should I change my picture on the blog at the top of the page, from me with Asia in the background (in the photo, I'm in Europe with Asia behind me) to the following picture depicting my "tude". As you can see, the picture is complete with cat tower and a scrimshaw necklace with a tall ship on it. It's up to you, readers, to let me know what you think! Please leave a comment below with your opinions!

A Long Holiday

Happy New Year dear readers! 

May it already have left you with a open mind and an open heart.

Three day weekends have always been an extra special treat for us working folks, but this weekend was gilded on the calendar for me. I'm averaging six days a work week, more typically seven; having a two day weekend is extraordinary, so when three full days of openness appeared in my sights, my spine began to tingle with excitement. A three day holiday, three days of freedom. It was a daunting task to wait for this weekend of liberty, but I think I performed the task and saw through the dream masterfully. Curious? Well, settle in and come along for the adventure.

The flu had been staring me in the face all week, seeping it's creeping clutches into my body, but my determination to enjoy my weekend was champion!

 

The holiday started when I hopped off a boat with ripped pants, a large new throbbing bruise on my thigh, and a broken nail. (Working on ships is not always so glamorous as Hollywood makes you believe, but it is still wonderfully fun.) Even these seemingly negative moments were nothing to weigh down my good mood. I rushed to the house of my bestie, borrowed a pair of her jeans (a thousand thank yous to you, Toriiiiii!) and we were off! I had endured a tougher than usual week at work, fighting the flu being the least of my worries, so even seeing my bestie was enough to make my weekend great. But we were off of one of our adventures - laughter, silliness, and good food are standard details in our time together. 

We drove to La Jolla to enjoy tapas and happy hour at Roppongi, an exquisit sushi bar. We shared three yummy dishes of spicy calamari, ahi tuna, and hummus. We laughed and tasted delicious food and sipped superb cocktails. 

From there we went on a little walk to find a sweet spot for wine and dessert. We found a little restaurant, called the Hake, that neither of us had noticed before, but boy were we glad when we did! Victoria enjoyed a wonderful chocolatey cake and I ate a savory cheesecake paired with a sweet port. Soooooo good! Once our bellies were full, we hopped back in the car and headed back to her house to watch Gaaaaaaalaaaaavaaaaaant! It is hard not to say it without singing it. I have never laughed so hard at a comedy as I did watching the first few episodes of Galavant. If you haven't started seeing this yet, start watching.

The next morning, I slept in before skipping off to an hour massage. After a stressful week, there is no better way to relax than with a deep tissue massage. I found a Jamba Juice on my way home and treated myself to their new ginger kale drink. It was really refreshing, but I've been consistently impressed with their new veggie line. The rest of the day, I was able to get some much needed errands done, including purchasing a new pair of jeans after losing yet another pair to the ships. At the end of the day my mom and I went on a lovely sunset walk around Mission Bay. It was beautiful. One of my favorite things to do is to inhale the sunset on the coast. There is something primordial, earthly, empowering and clarifying about the crisp, color filled hour of twilight.

It was a wonderful, peaceful day and the evening I spent working on my books and sipping tea.

The next day, I had a fun surprise planned for my mom. 

We spent an easy morning enjoying breakfast before heading out, eastward bound to a lovely mountain town known as Julian. Julian is a historic mining town in San Diego county,  but it is perhaps best known for its pies. Yep, pies. The charming town is surrounded by apple orchards and honest to goodness, the pies that come out of that town are divine! And while of course an object of this adventure was to get a pie or two, my mom and I went to Julian to enjoy a wine tasting at Orfila. (We brought home a traditional apple pie and a boysenberry apple crumble pie...soooo good.)

For my Southern California readers, you may think it odd for us to go to Julian for a winery that is in Escondido, but, indeed they have a brand new tasting room in the mountain town, and it was the cuteset and best wine tasting experience I have yet enjoyed. 

We sat at a little table and before we got our first 2 ounce round, I set up our little spread. As I would soon tell many people who were so impressed by our table, "This isn't my first time at a wine tasting." I'm sure that paints me in a flattering light, but one thing you do when you wine taste is to try to find a wine that pairs with your favorite foods, so why not bring them with you? Crackers, Brie, hummus, salted meat, and a box of See's chocolates were the spread that I set out. I'm sure you can understand why we received attention. Hopefully we served as inspiration for future wine tasters, although bringing one's own snacks is hardly innovative.

The wine we sampled was absolutely wonderful and we brought back three bottles to continue our appreciation of the wine later. 

The drive home was a long, lovely ride. The sunsets in Southern California during this time of year have something extra about them. Something beyond this world. 

We made it home safe and sound. We opened up our bottle of Grenache and after dinner heated up and gobbled down boysenberry pie.

It was a lovely holiday.

If there is to be any morale from this tale of my holiday, don't wait for planning and schedules. Maybe set a few goals, but don't marry yourself to limits or boundaries of time. We're constricted enough by the clock. Take a deep breath, take a leap, get out, and go.

Until next week dear readers, and expect big things to come from me in this new year...

Your humble author,

S. Faxon