Luik-Guillemins Station

We stopped by to check out the new Luik-Guillemins train station in Luik (Liege) the other day on the way back from the Ardennes. Wow. Open, airy, light and actually peaceful, if you can say that about a train station.

Roodkapje (en de Grote Boze Wolf)

Er was eens een meisje dat Roodkapje heette, omdat ze altijd een mooi rood mutsje op haar hoofd droeg. Op een dag riep haar moeder Roodkapje bij zich. Ze gaf haar een maandje met een fles wijn, koekjes, appels en en heerlijke peperkoek.

"Grootmoeder is een beetje ziek", zei ze. "Wil jij dit mandje naar haar toebrengen?" Natuurlijk wilde Roodkapje dat doen. "Maar wel op het pad blijven, hoor!" "Ja mamma, dat beloof ik." En daar ging Roodkapje, op weg naar haar grootmoeder.

Onderweg kwam Roodkapje een wolf tegen. "Dag meisje", zei de wolf. "Dag wolf", zei Roodkapje. "Waar ga je naartoe?", vroeg de wolf. "Ik ben op weg naar Grootmoeder met een mandje vol lekkers." "Wat lief", zei de wolf. "Zie je die bloemen daar? Daar zal Grootmoeder vast ook heel blij mee zijn." "Dat is te ver, ik moet op het pad blijven", zei Roodkapje. "Ach", glimlachte ze. "Er kan toch niets gebeuren!"

Roodkapje verliet het pad en plukte de bloemen. De wolf zag zijn kans schoon en rende naar het huisje van Grootmoeder. "Grootmoeder?", zei hij met en hele hoge stem. "Ik ben Roodkapje!" "Trek maar aan het touwtje kind, dan gaat de deur vanzelf open", riep Grootmoeder. De wolf trad binnen en vrat Grootmoeder in één hap op. Toen trok hij een jurk van Grootmoeder aan, deed haar slaapmuts op en ging in de bedstee liggen.

Intussen had Roodkapje een grote bos bloemen geplukt. Oei! Het was al laat. Ze rende naar het huisje. Snel liep ze naar binnen. "Grootmoeder?" "Roodkapje!", riep de wolf met verdraaide stem. Wat zag Grootmoeder er vreemd uit! "Grootmoeder?", vroeg Roodkapje aarzelend. "Wat heeft u een rare stem!" "Ughu, ughu, ik ben een beetje verkouden, mijn kind!" "Enne...wat heeft u grote oren!", zei Roodkapje. "Daar kan ik je beter mee horen!" "En van die grote ogen!", zei Roodkapje. "Maar liefje, daar kan ik je beter mee zien!" "En Grootmoeder? Die grote tanden?", vroeg Roodkapje. "Daar kan ik je beter mee opeten!" De wolf sprong uit bed en vrat Roodkapje in één hap op. Tevreden over zijn volle maag klom hij in de bedstee van Grootmoeder. Al snel snurkte hij zo hard dat de koffiekopjes in de kast ervan rammelden.

Er liep een jager langs het huisje van Grootmoeder. Hij bleef even staan en luisterde. "Grote grutjes", dacht hij. "Wat snurkt die oude dame! Eens even kijken!" Hij stapte het huisje binnen, en zag de wolf in de bedstee liggen. "Wie hebben we daar!", sprak hij. "Als dat de Grote Boze Wolf niet is. Zou hij soms Grootmoeder opgegeten hebben?" De jager sneed de buik van de wolf voorzichtig open met zijn zakmes. Hé! Daar bewoog iets. Iets roods... "Roodkapje!", riep de jager. "Die dekselse wolf! Kijk, en daar is Grootmoeder." "Was me dat schrikken", zei Grootmoeder terwijl ze uit de wolf stapte. "Heeft iemand zin in een kopje thee?" "Ik zal eerst die buik van de wolf vullen met stenen", zei de jager. "Dat zal hij niet leuk vinden." En dat vond de wolf inderdaad niet leuk. Toen hij wakker werd viel hij na een paar tellen dood neer.

Even later zaten Grootmoeder, Roodkapje en de jager gezellig te smullen van thee, wijn en peperkoek. "Nou", zei Roodkapje met volle mond. "Dat is nog goed afgelopen! Een ding is zeker: ik ga nooit meer van het pad af!"

An American Ranch in Belgium

One of Andy's clients has a second home in a small village in Wallonia on the edge of the Ardennes. Andy did the interior of the main house a couple of years ago, but the home was a B&B at one point and has a seperate guesthouse that the client is now ready to renovate. It is about a 2 hour drive so the client invited us to come and stay the night in the guesthouse on Saturday night, and then meet with him and his girlfriend on Sunday to discuss colors and take measurements.

After the meeting on Sunday we took a walk to check out the local 'American' ranch and saloon, Little Creek. It was everything you'd expect, complete with American and Texas flags flying by the corral. I don't know if it was the kitsch or maybe just a little homesickness, but I found the saloon horribly depressing and couldn't wait to get out of there. But the walk was nice and we met some charming livestock along the way.

Oh, and I had my first escargot the night before. (Or as I said in my Dutch class today, in order to practice the past perfect tense: "Vorige zaterdagavond heb ik voor het eerste een escargot gegeten, daarvoor had ik nog nooit escargots gegeten." ) The menu said 'petit gris' and we both thought I was ordering the tiny gray north sea shrimp that are so common here. Ha.

Witloof met Ham en Kaassaus

Before I got here Andy ate with his parents almost every night. He would generally take a break somewhere around dinnertime, stop by and wolf down a plate of whatever they were having, and then go back to work for an hour or two.

Of course, when I got here that all changed and I found myself suddenly faced with making dinner for two on a daily basis - which is harder than you might think when you consider selection, language, the metric system and the fact that I am not a great cook to begin with. But I had lots of time on my hands, I like to experiment, and Andy will eat just about anything so I've had lots of fun keeping us fed and dinner has become my favorite part of the day.

Along the way I decided it would be nice to serve up something traditional now and then and so far I've managed to pull off a couple of dishes. I thought I'd share one of them with you in case you are curious about what 'home-cooking' is like here. In general Flemish food always involves meat, potatoes and sauce, and sometimes 'groentjes' or (non-potato) vegetables.

Witloof (Endive) is maybe the most popular 'groentje' in all of Flanders. Like the other vegetable that Belgium is famous for it's fairly bitter, but in this recipe it works. Or maybe I've just been assimilated. I do remember hating it the first time I had it, and loving it the last time. But I think that had more to do with the cheese - Emmental vs Gruyere - than the witloof. (You might remember that Emmental landed on my 5 Things I Hate About Belgium list last year.)

The recipe below is one I cobbled together from various versions I found online. I was really happy with how it turned out. (That is not my photo but it is pretty representative, although mine had more sauce.) If you decide to give this a try I'd love to hear how it goes!

Witloof met Ham en Kaassaus

Ingredients (2 people)

• 4 heads endive
• 4 thick slices smoked ham
• 2 cups milk or cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (not Emmental!)

Method

1. Cut the ends off of each head of endive and remove any loose or dirty outer leaves.


2. Steam the endive for about 25 minutes or until you can almost stick a fork all the way through (you are going to cook them in the oven so they don't need to be completely done).


3. Drain the endive and let them cool while you are making the sauce.


4. Melt the butter and then add the flour and whisk it until it combines with the butter.


5. Slowly add the milk (or cream) while whisking. Keep adding until it is the consistency you want.


6. Add the nutmeg and 1 cup of the cheese and stir until the cheese melts.


7. Squeeze any excess water out of the endive, roll each head in a slice of ham and line them up in a baking dish.


8. Pour the sauce over the top and then sprinkle over the rest of the cheese.


9. Bake in the oven at around 350 degrees for 20 minutes or so. Turn on the broiler for the last few minutes to brown the top.


10. If you really want to be Flemish, serve it with fries or mashed potatoes, because it's not a meal without some form of potatoes!!!

Smakelijk!

A Year in Belgium

Exactly one year ago today I stepped off a plane and started a completely new life. I sold my house, my car, my furniture, my belongings, and left my family, my friends, my job, my favorite restaurants, pools, hiking trails and basically everything that was familiar. And no, it doesn't seem like yesterday, it seems like ages ago.

I managed to keep the blog going for the first few months, but then I really started to feel the effects of the move. For the first six or eight months I walked around in a daze most days, totally overwhelmed by how much new information I needed to absorb just to get through the day. New relationship + new house + new location + new language + new culture + no friends + no family + driving/visa application/grocery shopping/job interviews/cooking/and don't forget the metric system = total mental and emotional exhaustion. I don't want to make it seem like it was all bad - I've done lots of really fun things, met lots of great people, learned all kinds of new things and done a little travelling. But it was, as was to be expected, a difficult transition. So I had to disappear for a while.

But I am over the hump now, and so I have decided to mark this day with the resurrection of the blog, so that I can catch everyone up on my adventures since the beginning of the year. And so that I can do a better job of keeping in touch.

I am taking a full-time (6 hours/day) intensive language course right now so I don't know how often I'll be able to post, but I am really going to try.

Please know that I love and miss you all and that you have all been in my thoughts.

5 Things I Love About Beligum and 5 Things I Hate

In no particular order.....

Love:

1. Radiators, or more specifically the way they make a room feel warm and cozy without being smelly, messy, dangerous, sucking all the moisture out of the room or requiring any attention other than to occassionally adjust the knob

2. Italian coffees (with Amaretto), available pretty much anywhere, perfectly acceptable after any meal and almost always obscenely strong

3. Roundabouts, or 'rondpunts', no more sitting at lights and less U-turns!

4. n-ch-n-ch-n-ch-n-ch....it is a 24x7 party here on the radio and there are a million stations ranging from pop to electronic to terrible French music. They will play and/or re-mix anything. I have heard Welcome to the Jungle back to back with Lionel Richie and then straight into Katy Perry or the latest Kings of Leon. And starting on Friday night they take it up a few notches to full-blown rave all the way through Sunday morning when they count down the top 50 of the week. And besides the radio, there are at least 8 non-stop music video channels. Which leads me to ask: Are they Belgians, or are they dancers? (If you were listening to Belgian radio on a daily basis you would totally get that reference.)

5. Bottle refunds, specifically beer bottles. You can buy a case (24) of either Jupiler or Stella Artois for around 9 Euros and when you bring the bottles back they give you 4.50 Euros back! Granted they are 25cl bottles (8.4 oz) but you can also get them in 33cl (11.15 oz) for a couple Euros more.

Hate:

1. City Hall, or at least the people who work there and specifically the girl I talked to yesterday. She was a snotty bitch and I walked out knowing little more than I did when I came in and having no idea what I am waiting for or for how long, just that I have to wait.

2. Cheese Croquettes, or 'kaaskroten'. Or any other kind of kroketen for that matter. This sounds like something that I would put on the other list, but somehow they have managed to make the joy of deep-fried snacks into a mushy, flavorless mess.

3. Parking lots, all of which have clearly been designed for mini-coopers and the like. I am forever making 3 point turns to get in and out and am always squeezing through the door.

4. The Metric System. I don't care if the entire world uses it, I am over it. Don't ask me how long, how fast or how heavy something is because I am tired of doing so much math in my head.

5. Emmental (Swiss cheese). Apparently this is the only choice for 'melting cheese' in the entirety of Belgium (and maybe France). Yes, there are tons of great soft cheeses, fresh mozarella, gouda and on and on and I'm certainly not complaining about those, but they know nothing of Cheddar, or any other cheese that would go on nachos or into macaroni. It's Emmental, or nothing. Have you ever had beef tacos with Swiss cheese? I don't recommend it. It's depressing.

We are going to London in the morning for the weekend with some friends. I'm excited except for the part where we are underwater on the train for an hour. Being someone who holds their breath for the two minutes that the L train goes under the river to Brooklyn, I am just trying not to think about it. Kookai will be with us so I'm hoping she might keep me occupied.

Sint Niklaas and Zwarte Piet

I know.

I have alot of catching up to do.

I think of things I want to put on the blog all the time but somehow posting on the blog is the one thing that never gets crossed off of my to-do list.

I'll start where I left off:

December 6th is Sint Niklaas Day and some of Andy's friends arranged a gathering in the pub across the street for their kids, and friends' kids. Andy agreed to play Zwarte Piet (one of them, there are usually six to eight, but there were only two travelling with Sint Niklaas to Kortrijk this year).

Once I got over the initial shock of people (my boyfriend) actually wearing blackface in public, it was pretty fun. (OK, I didn't really get over it but everyone seemed baffled and/or bored by my friendly but strenuous explanations of why it was not OK to wear blackface, so I finally just shutup and went along.)

There were 15 or 20 kids and they had basically the same reaction that kids do to any costumed person - some were thrilled, some were terrified. Lots of candy was handed out and lots of photos were taken with SinterKlaas (which is Sint Niklaas' other name - the man that comes at Christmas here looks exactly like our Santa Claus but he is called the Kerstman - translated = Christmas Man - and he doesn't bring anything for the kids).

The transformation:

Don't forget the red lipstick!

And the aftermath. After lots of scrubbing. Nice eyeliner: