Sous un Ciel en Couleurs: cooking

Jeroen Meus & I - Antwerpen boekenbeurs 2012

As much as I love books and cooking, when I went to Antwerp's annual "boekenbeurs" I didn't expect to meet my favorite chef, Jeroen Meus (who happened to have written his 4th cooking book).

What I like the most about the way he cooks is that it's accessible to anyone, whether you know how to cook or you're a total beginner, his explanations are always very easy to follow and he really makes it fun to try new things.

His books are written in the same fun and easy-to-follow way as his program, Dagelijkse Kost, that I try to follow every week or so (I love that they put a big review on Sundays). I love that he takes you to other culinary cultures as much as regional cooking and most importantly that the ingredients are always in season.
Thanks to him, I learned to cook Belgian famous meals (that my mother-in-law cooks deliciously) like "Stoofvlees", "Varkensgebraad" and "Balletjes in tomatensauce" and I love learning about where all this cooking comes from. Here's to many more "lekker" recipes and great evening of cooking!

No little notes

Today I woke up early to prepare one of my favorite Belgian dish: stoofvless (or stoverij).It's a meat dish with lots of onions, herbs and beer. It's kinda the same recipe as boeuf bourguignon, but instead of red wine, they use brown beer. It's lighter and tastes way better, to my personal opinion.
Since BabyLuv ordered so much meat, I decided to bring some to my young student today: last week, he almost fainted because he got sick and I'm pretty sure it's because he's not getting enough food in his system. He works pretty hard during the afternoon and in the mornings, he's with us, speaking a foreign language. That's pretty consuming!

He welcomed it with eager and finished the whole plate in a minute. I'm really glad he liked it since I'm still new to the process and the well-cooking of this recipe. It's funny the effect food has on people: it's like all of a sudden any traces of stress, boredom or anger flies away. I ache for those who can't have enough every day...

p.s. My student is getting enough food from his family: he's just a teen who doesn't really care if he eats or not during the day. I just wanted to treat him with some homemade dish so I was sure he got something before heading to work.

No little notes

Julie & Julia is a must-see. It's funny, down-to-earth, adorable, modern and historical at the same time and it has this sense of it-could-be-me that I love.

Julie decides to write a blog about a challenge she took: make the recipes Julia Child wrote in her French cooking book. Julie is so passionate and absolutely lovely.

Julia is amazing and loves challenges too. Meryl Streep is better than ever. Every time I watch a movie she's in, I'm in awe: this lady can act. I'm pretty sure you could give her any character, she'll make it her own. She's such a chameleon!

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When I first selected Waitress, I wasn't sure about it: it seemed a little old-fashion and I was prepared to be disappointed.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how well played it was and how the story really made me want to change the world and take more chances. The characters are so lovable and the story is really sweet. And when you know that it could happen for real, it's all the better.
I was very impressed by Keri Russel's act: she was genuine, lovely and proved me wrong about the movie. She made me realize that you can't put people in boxes and have to give them a chance. And that is what I'm looking for in a good movie.

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Today, BabyLuv decided to make his deeeelicious soup again! You can say I was the happiest girl! I really love when he cooks the things I love, especially when it's his homemade recipe. The soup was a bit different but didn't taste any less good. I think he has a secret he's not telling me, but I love this, it makes me want to kiss him over and over again. I LOVE HIM!

preparation

yumminess

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Emi gave us a gift card on Thanksgiving for a homemade brownie.

BabyLuv and I LOVE chocolate and everything that is homemade, so Emi's gift was just perfect. We set a date on a lazy Saturday to go to her place and as soon as we arrived we could smell the delicious smell of cooking brownie. That was heaven already!

Emi also made some vanilla ice-cream. I just couldn't believe how good she was treating us: vanilla ice-cream is my very favorite!

Thank you so much Emi, for having us and preparing us one of the best homemade brownie we've ever had.

Doesn't it look appetizing?

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BabyLuv made the most delicious soup I've ever eaten. Seriously it was an orgasme culinaire as we say in French. The ingredients were so good together and the spices just the right amount. I'm already begging him to make some more.

I noticed that he becomes better and better at cooking and he really has a good sense of great tastes. He cooks often and I always tell him how good it is.

I'm so grateful I have my own private chef!

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Today we wanted to make a special fresh and filled-with-vitamins meal since BabyLuv is sick: BabyLuv cut two carrots in little pieces and added some benedicta ; I cut two tomatoes and added a bag of mozzarella balls + basilicum and olive oil. We had a little piece of meat and some sautéed potatoes.

Here's the result: it was absolutely delicious and a treat to the eyes!

No little notes

I tried to make some carrés (means "square") today. I have to admit, I need some practice: I put too much inside the dough and it overflew, it was somehow tasteless or too sweet. For the savory carrés, I used minced beef and brocoli + caraway. For the sweet carrés, I put a half banana and a half kiwi + apricot coulis & icing.

The savory carrés were very good in taste but needed a bit more spices.

The sweet carrés were too full and sugary and not so good looking.

I'll definitely want to try again. BabyLuv didn't like it so much, but I think with the right ingredients and spices, it'll grow on him. Also we both liked the savory version best.

No little notes

Peter et moi adorons le flan. C'est un de nos desserts préférés lorsque nous sommes en vacances.

Hier il y avait une action dans notre supermarché: si on achète une pâte herta et un mélange préparé herta, on reçoit un plat à tarte. Alors comme je n'avais encore jamais essayé leur flan, je me suis dit que c'était l'occasion.

Mon avis : c'est bon ! Mais...

Ce n'est pas le meilleur flan que j'aie mangé. Le meilleur se trouve, bien sûr en boulangerie-pâtisserie ou bien chez ma Maman.

J'en étais lassée assez vite, je conseille de préparer un flan seulement si vous avez des invités ou alors de mettre des fruits dedans pour le rendre plus varié.

Je vais quand même essayer de faire un flan moi-même, ce n'est pas trop compliqué et je ferai certainement une petite variante pour ajouter un peu de fantaisie.

J'ai d'abord posé la pâte dans le moule et j'ai coupé les morceaux qui dépassaient. J'ai ensuite mélangé la base de flan avec 500ml de lait (sans-lactose). C'est très rapide!

Si on veut que le flan soit plus épais, on met moins de lait.

J'ai versé le mélange dans le plat.
(Attention, c'est un peu juste : je conseille de mettre moins de lait ! )

Et voilà le résultat !

Bonne dégustation!

2 little notes

Melt some butter and add the onion.

Add the mince beef until it's cooked the way you like it. Add pepper and salt and spices.

Put the meat away and start cooking the vegetables. Here's the eggplant.

Then the zucchini. Add salt and pepper and spices as you like.

You have to skim the vegetables and the meat otherwise it's going to be very greasy. Mix.

I don't have pictures of the laying of the ingredients and neither of the béchamel sauce because I had to go to work.

You start with the mix of beef/vegetables, cover with some tomato sauce and add some béchamel and then a lasagna sheet. Repeat. Add the grated cheese. Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Wait until it's cooled down a little and serve.

I used one-person dishes so we could eat the lasagna out of them, it's really practical.

Enjoy!

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