Review soft ice-cream!

Most of you may have noticed that the weather the past few days was lovely. Reconsidering it, calling it lovely would be the understatement of the century because it was simply awesome!

One can do several things on a sunny day. Among which a visit to the beach or the park could be an excellent option. By taking time to undertake one of the activities mentioned above you'll feel relaxed and you'll be able to study better after you have had a good night rest obviously ;)

Chilling in the park is nice. However... there are some side effects you might have to deal with. One of these side effects is the intense desire to eat an ice-cream. There's a simple solution to this problem though. Just go and eat an ice-cream!

So, that's what we did after we had spend an afternoon at the Leypark, Tilburg. The nearest place where we were able to get one was at Etenstijd (http://www.etenstijd.nl/).

 We did not have too many options to choose from so we agreed on eating a soft ice-cream. Choosing a soft ice-cream however offered us the chance to make a decision and have a topping of coloured sprinkels, peanut crunchy or no topping at all. We advice you not to think to deeply about it because chances are, they forget your choice..

What we looked like

The soft ice-cream was really nice and refreshing in the passionate Dutch sun. We could not say the same about the ice-cream cone. Sadly, they use those cheap ass tasteless type of cones. Since we did not want to be rude we sacrified ourselves and ate it.

What's for dinner in Holland?

When you ask that question, there is a big chance it will be one of the following dishes or a variation to these dishes... 


The Dutch love potatoes very much. The average Dutch family eats potatoes at least 4 times a week. They eat them in quite some variations: Baked, deep-fried, boiled, mashed, they will put them in tinfoil and put them in the oven... Many variations to one simple piece of food: the potato. 
I do not eat potatoes that often, I am not a big fan. I prefer pasta or rice, but for this blogpost I cooked two typical dutch meals so I can show them to you. I think these two meals are by far the two most popular Dutch meals. 


Here we go, the first one is:
Boiled potatoes, boiled veggies and a piece of meat. 
I think a typical Dutch family will eat this meal about 4 times a week, really. There will be some variation in veggies and meat, but always: boiled potatoes. 

Cooked way too much potatoes, whoops!

Would you like to prepare a Dutch meal? Here's how you do it:
Get a big pan and fill it with water, put some peeled potatoes in it and some salt and wait for it to cook... When you can easily prick a fork in the potatoes (after about 20 minutes), they are done and ready to serve. 

Do the same thing with the veggies.
Finally: bake some meat, make a sauce to put on your veggies, and dinner can be served!

And here's Dutch meal number two: Stamppot!!
This will be the same as meal number one, but the difference is: you mash it all together. Wait, really? Yeah, really... 


I am not a big fan of 'stamppot', but I came up with a variation I actually like very much. 
Again, boiled potatoes:

But now: break some cashews into pieces and take a piece of French cheese and chop that into little pieces. 

Mix those two ingredients with a little milk, the boiled potatoes and some raw endive. Mash it all together!
It will end up looking like this:

This may not seem very appetizing, but it really is. 
I would say, give it a try! It's really simple, takes about 20 minutes and you can say you ate a typical Dutch meal. Enjoy!

Review: Emmi's Swiss fondue

Hi there!

Today a review on one of my favourite meals: cheese fondue.
In Dutch supermarkets you'll find about three brands of cheese fondue. The cheese fondue I have reviewed is one of them:

Emmi's Swiss Fondue 

This fondue comes in packages of 400 grams. The box says one package is enough for 2 persons, but I bought two for two persons, you can never have enough cheese!

To heat the cheese, I put it in a fondue pan and put it on the stove. In about 8-10 minutes your cheese fondue will be ready to be served. Be sure to stirr it well while heating it or a lot off the cheese will stick at the bottom of the pan.. waste of cheese, we do not want thant to happen, right? While you are heating your fondue, you can put some bread in the oven and chop some veggies in pieces, so you can dip them in the cheese later. 

Once you have finished heating your cheese, be sure to keep it warm while eating. 

I always put in one of these things:

This cheese fondue seems to have a really nice stucture, it isn't too soft, so all the cheese would dripp of your bread and not too thick. Looks good!

What I use to dip in the cheese is simply some bread and some raw cauliflower. 

Just as easy as that! You could also dip small tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, ham, salami, whatever you like! I always like to keep it simple, for me it is all about the cheese. 

Now, let's put a piece of bread on a fork and dip it... 

Looking good, right?

The taste of the cheese is delicious!! It's a perfect mixture of cheese and wine, neither of them is dominant. The cheese still has a nice structure, it's fluid with no chunks in it. If there is something I really hate... cheese fondue with chunks, yikes!

Be sure so stir the cheese about every 4-5 minutes, so it won't stick to the bottom of your pan too much and  to avoid a crust on the cheese. 

After about half an our, we were done eating. We had eaten about three quarters off the cheese, so I would recommend byuing two packages, instead of one.

The price of one package of Emmi's cheese fondue is about 4 euro's. So a simple meal of cheese fondue for 2-3 persons will cost you about 10 euro's. Maybe not a student-friendly price, but it is so good, I love to pay the 10 euro's!

I really really liked this Emmi cheese fondue! I have tasted some other brands in the past, but this one really stands out. The taste is delicious and well balanced, the structure is good (no chunks!), it's just yummie!

I would really recommend this easy meal if you do have a lot of time to cook, but still want a delicious meal with a real Swiss taste. 

Love it!

I hope you found this review useful and I really to hope to see you next time!

Chicken and Spinach Pasta

A tasty pasta dish!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of chicken filet
• 450 gram of fresh spinach
• 1 small jar of green Pesto
• 1 small bag of grated Cheese
• 400 gram of Pasta (any type)
• 1 small bag of Pine Nuts

Preparation

Start of with roasting the pine nuts in a dry frying pan. Slice the chicken into small cubes. Cook the pasta as recommended on the package. Bake the chicken in a frying pan till it is golden. Add the fresh spinach and stir for a short moment while adding a few teaspoons (depending on how much you like green pesto) of green pesto. Allow the grated cheese to melt over your mixture. Then add the pasta and garnish it of with the pine nuts.

Enjoy!