KNITTED BRIDGE

 

My first encounter with the knitted bridge in the Westerkade area of Utrecht was actually in the first few weeks of my new life in The Netherlands. I never seemed to have gotten around to writing about it, which is somewhat odd since I was in complete love when I accidentally stumbled upon it. The correct term for the whole concept  behind the knitted bridge would in actual fact be 'urban knitting'. This one in particular has the wishes for the community written down on squares of fabric by the children of the Westerkade.

 

THE SECRET LIFE OF AN AU PAIR

 

I  am quite perplexed as to why I titled this post  the 'secret ' of an au pair, when really it's not.

Au pairing is a strange thing to describe, and although I swore Id keep this blog as tastefull as possible regarding travel and design, I cant seem to avoid this topic.

 

Some days I only deal with the 3 boys I look after for a mere hour, yet I find myself crawling back into bed of exhaustion afterwards. This is where the 'lazy' part of being an au pair comes into play. After taking numerous naps in a day, what happens after mostly entails sitting in bed on the internet where I hound all my social media sites and a few travel blogs along the way. Yeah sure I do a post here and there but for the most part I have become extremely lazy!

 

Along with being lazy, comes the constant habit of eating. Because I am in the house on a pretty much 24/7 basis, I find myself eating even when I'm not hungry, be it biscuits or broccoli. I find comfort in staying In my tracksuit pants all day and can't even be bothered on trying on my pair of favourite jeans I brought along in fear of knowing they will most likely not fit anymore.

 

Its very easy to fall into the trap of being lazy whilst being an au pair, but as a pulled myself out of bed to do the grocery shopping today, I passed an old man crossing the road wearing his wooden clogs. All I could do was smile and tell myself that only such a sight would be seen in Holland. I most certainly wouldn't have seen that from staying in my bed all day...

 

UNPLANNED AVDENTURE

For the most part, my weekend consisted of laying in bed, watching children's films and getting up every now to take a bathroom break. On the odd occasion, when Michelle and my nicotine cravings set in, we would wander in the forest and happily smoke cigarettes while sharing stories of friends in South Africa. We reminisced about both friendships and relationships that had come and gone and the people we missed back home. We lazed in bed till 12 each morning and only got our day started by 1.Today we ventured out of Driebergen on our bikes on what we regarded as somewhat of an ' unplanned adventure'. The weather was crisp and cold and we biked along golden tree lined roads whilst autumn leaves fell to the ground. We passed green pastures with cows and goats grazing and admired a few castles along the way. When the cold got the better of us and could no longer feel our frosted fingertips, we biked back home, snuk into our central heated rooms and crept under our fleecy covers.

Its been an odd experience the change of seasons in Holland whilst everyone back in South Africa is basking in the thirty six degree sun and sipping on summer cocktails.



MOOSHED AND MASHED

Winter is fast approaching us here and Holland, and with that comes the age old Dutch Tradition of  'Stamppot'. What this can roughly be translated to it 'mashed pot' where potatoes are boiled and mashed followed by adding fine chopped up vegetables and letting that soften in the mix. Once the meal is dished up on a plate, slices of smoked sausage or 'rookworst' are placed ontop and sprinkled with bacon. What I find somewhat bizarre is that some families eat this dish with 'appelmous' or apple pure' on the side as if its some sort of desert. It is a very simple dish that the Dutch take pride in and I have found myself digging in for seconds, minus the appelmous thank you very much.

Although the basis of any stamppot is potatoes, almost any vegetable can be added as a filler. Carrots and sauerkraut are a favourite in my household, as is andijvie (a green leafy vegetable similar to lettuce)and kool (a sort of kale like vegetable). The first few times I ate this dish, I could barely stand the fact that there was almost no seasoning and flavour and most of all  no SALT. However, the more I began to eat this dish the way the Dutch do, I started to realise the 'rookworst' and 'spekjies' (bacon) was so salty itself, that they didn't bother to season the rest of the dish, quite ingenious if you ask me.

STUFF ON BREAD

When one first hears 'stuff on bread' you might conjure up images of tomatoes, cheese, marmite for us south Africans, or jam. For the Dutch, this image is slightly warped. Hagelslag and muisjes are such commonalities for a topping, it would be odd if someone didn't have it. Within the first month or so of being here I thought this tradition was a complete outrage. I just didn't get how smearing butter on bread and then sprinkling it not so generously was seen as tasty and nutritious.

 

What I found even stranger was that there were hundreds, if not thousands of varieties of the stuff.

 

Muisjes

Muisjes translates into 'mice'. Yes, mice, a strange thing to call a topping (strange is becoming the operative word in so many of my posts it seems). The story behind its name is in actual fact due each sugar coated aniseed having a small string, resembling the tail of a mouse. I never knew what these kernel type things tasted like before I came to Holland, but to all of you out there who don't know, its a crunchy liquorice flavour.

Gestampde Muisjes

This is pretty much the same as above, but its crushed into a powdery form. I don't have much of an opinion on it, excepts that the Dutch love it just as much as every other topping.

 

Anijs Muisjes

These look like white mouse droppings and also taste like liquorice. As far as I know, their ingredients consists of sugar, and sugar. Like I said a really 'nutritious' snack.

Chocolade Hageslag

This is probably one of my favourite toppings and I will disclose why. When I was a young girl my mom would always buy the chocolate sprinkles for cakes and keep them in our pantry. Having the sweet tooth I do, I naturally hunted them down and gobbled them up in one go (I'm shocked I wasn't obese as a child). I was scolded for this as they were meant for cake decorating and not for my enjoyment. You can just imagine how my inner child's sweet tooth went completely bonkers and self discipline out the window when I heard that they have this on their bread as a topping for general daytime meals. In the past month I have started to love the stuff and more often than none I find myself spreading chocopasta on a slice of bread and generously sprinkling chocolate hagelslag on top. I would say it has taken priority  on my list of guilty pleasures.

 

MISTER POTATO HEAD

 

The Dutch like their potatoes. No.. that cant be right, let me rephrase. The Dutch love their potatoes, be it boiled, steamed mashed or baked (which is actually pan fried, they seem to call it something its not). Regardless in which cooked form this vegetable takes, the Dutch can't seem to get enough of it.

 

In preparing dinner the other evening, I spontaneously decided to spice things up (excuse the irony Im uing) and grill potato wedges, something I was certain the family had never cooked before. Back home in South Africa my mom would make the most delicious assortment of grilled vegetables wedges consisting of butternut, potatoes, sweet potato and onions seasoned with all kinds of flavours and spices.  I thought I would spare my host family the shock of something that extreme and opted to use just the potato. I lightly doused them in olive oil and a weak sprinkling of rosemary (the Dutch way) before throwing the pan into the oven.

 

Whilst the wedges were happily grilling away, my host father returned home and asked what I was cooking for dinner, curiously pressing his nose against the glass of the oven. I beamed at my response of grilled potato wedges, when he turned and looked at me with the most confused and blank expression, merely responding 'why'? I couldn't quite comprehend why he questioned this, as if he was perfectly happy with eating bland, boiled and boring potato the same way day after day, week after week.

 

After serving the wedges to the boys and finally sitting down to the meal I had slaved over, I sneakily glanced over at the 3 boys and noticed they were devouring (more so than usual) these triangular shaped pieces of potato as if it were a piece of heaven. I relished in the brief moment of acknowledging my job here was done...