Food Friday: St. Patrick's Day

No corned beef and cabbage at our house this year, mainly because I wasn't motivated to figure out where to buy it.  I could have been motivated if Peter seemed interested, but instead he told me he wanted bacon and eggs and Irish soda bread.  Easy enough, except in a country which hasn't yet figured out that bicarbonate of soda works as a leavening agent in addition to an antacid.  Luckily I had already thought this through.

A couple of months ago I went on a baking soda mission here.  I knew the American store sold it but, used to paying 50 cents a box, the markup was too much to take.  Then I checked a drugstore here and bicarbonate of soda was 3 Euros for a teeny tiny package.  So, on our last trip to the States we brought back the one box from the apartment.

The other ingredient I had to figure out was buttermilk, but I was pretty sure it's called karnemilk because I overheard a conversation between a flight attendant and a passenger once about a karnemilk mix up (the package is red, so Americans tend to think its whole milk).  At the Albert Heijn I verified my hunch with a worker by asking if it was "sour" and "kind of like yogurt."  He confirmed my suspicions.  I used the River Cottage recipe, and learned that after years of being a pretty good soda bread maker (it was always our go-to homemade bread in our tiny Greenwich Village kitchen) I learned that I wasn't scoring the bread deep enough.

The result was probably the most perfect (so perfect it deserved 2 pics) soda bread I ever made.  My family LOVED it.

Birthday

My little boy turned 4 this month!  He is currently in the midst of a month long celebration, which includes 5 little parties in 3 countries with 13 relatives!

A couple of days before his birthday I explained to M that it's customary to request whatever meal you want for your birthday dinner.  I fully expected him to want chicken nuggets (an American favorite we can't get here), a burger or perhaps even roast beef.  What did he request:  black pudding.  I found a British food shop near Vondelpark and made a pretty decent fry up if I do say so myself.  I really enjoyed the scientific precision needed to make sure it all came out at the same time.

This was M's portion.
The adult portions were a bit more artistic (not cut into bite sized pieces, with fried tomato).

Marzipan Batsignal!  I was so proud of this I made it my Facebook photo!

M liked the gifts we got him:  a doctor kit, the Toy Story films, some Playmobil knights, and a mask and snorkel.  M requested a Batman cake and I just about pulled it off, making a bat signal out of marzipan.

A few days later, we headed to London, where M had yet another birthday celebration, then the day after we returned, my parents came for a visit.  Next week we head to my sister's for Halloween, and yet another birthday party for M.

Nihola Love

 Today I rode the Nihola Family bike.  I think I'm in love.

Riding with Mairtin has been challenging.  I'm nervous, and nerves and bike riding don't mix in a fall-on-your-ass kind of way.  While the Nihola is a bit wide, and somewhat tough to wheel around urban sidewalks, riding it on roads and paths is a dream and actually strengthened my cycling skills.  It steers easily and shifts smoothly.  The shop was near Vondelpak, so I took the majority of my test ride there.  My biggest challenge riding with Mairtin has been balance--his seat is perched high on my bike and the extra 40 pounds creates something of an inverted pendulum.  Since the Nihola is a trike, balance is simply taken out of the equation.  I didn't realize this until the end of the ride when I was stopped at a light and didn't need to put my feet down.  The downside:  The pricetag.  At about $3,000, it's in the same range as a car.

Between the test ride and my errand to the British General Store (to get the black pudding M requested for his birthday dinner), and the wrong turns I took, I must have cycled about 5 miles today.  What a great way to get around.

Tomorrow is my little boy's 4th birthday. I can't wait to celebrate!