Mojoblog

Can you believe, dear readers, that Mojo is about to buy a very cute apartment in an old house on the side of the city center of Groningen! We signed a contract (all in Dutch) that would make us owners early January, so we have time to make a few changes before moving-in in February before the end of our lease on Gerbrand Bakkerstraat. We want to meet the other people living in the house before we send the contract back, which should happen this week. Isn’t this some great news?


The house is divided in four apartments, and on the photo below we would have the top right corner, including the center balcony.



The big windows, oriented south-east, will probably be very pleasant.



I let you erase in your head the furniture of the current owners, and we’re thinking of putting the dining room in the big bright room, but you get an idea.



It’s on a quiet street with chestnut trees and grass on the center strip, in a fancy part of town. Without the need for a car and in the middle of a housing crisis, we can afford to indulge ourselves with a nice house!

Friday 28th of August 2009 was the wedding of my very good friends Benjamin and Manon. Whay an amazing celebration!



Everybody seemed to have a good day, and the event was well documented.



The back of her dress was just as pretty as the front, as you can see below.



Ryan and I had the honor to be seated across the table from the lovebirds!



In principle if you read this blog you should recognize these kids:



One of the spectacular moments of the evening was when we all lit up some mini hot-air-balloons of silk paper that flew up in the sky... It was an excellent idea and a magical moment.



We all wish them a lifetime of happiness together!

With our very important guests, my family had the responsibility to show the Mauges in all their splendor. My mom took us to the Oriental Garden of Maulévrier, just below Cholet.



My mom is so cute in her pink dress from Groningen!



Everything in this garden is perfectly trimmed and maintained.



We had a very pleasant afternoon.



These balls are sculptures that float on the water, but these looked broken.



After an excellent time in the countryside, we took the train to the capital.



No doubt, they were there!



The fisheye in big cities is very practical, no need for back-up space to fit everything in a photo!

For a family reunion we spent a gorgeous weekend in Bétahon in Brittany. We got spoiled by perfect beach weather.



Picnics, games, danses, splashing around, cousin time, walks on the beach... Can it get better than that!?



At low tide the beach is muddy as far as the eye can see:



The best thing to do then is to walk along the beach and pick up pretty rocks.



The visiting Americans (Ryan’s mom and a friend of hers) loved it too!

I’m a bit behind in my blogging, the month of August has been quite busy. Let’s go back to the vacations with my family, with below an excursion at the island with the unpronounceable name of Schiermonnikoog. I can assure you that despite a long and painful training to pronounce this word (practicing with a Dutch colleague), nobody can understand what I mean when I try to say where I went.

Such a cute tourist family...



After lunch on the island we went to rent bikes, as usual the best way to discover the Netherlands.



Even on islands they find the way to have rivers... It’s only when we went to France where everything is too dry that I noticed how green the Netherlands are.



On this photo the grass is pretty yellow though, bad place to describe how green everything is here.



Ah, finally some normal grass! The country is pretty much a giant swamp, so there is always water not-too-far below the roots.



As usual in this country, the boat is king (with the bike, which is stored on the boat):



The village on the island was absolutely charming.



While waiting for the return boat, Mr Sheep and his pretty two-colored fleece.



There are still plenty of islands to discover along the North Sea not far from here, yay!

Une autre excursion recommandée par notre guide Michelin, voici le tour des églises rurales du nord-est. Dans la famille des photos typiques, je vous présente le moulin en arrière d’un canal.



On s’est même trouvé à passer devant un moulin ouvert aux visites, et un gentil volontaire nous a tout expliqué comment ça marchait un moulin hollandais. Celui qu’on a visité s’appelait l’Espoir (De Hoop), et c’était un moulin à moudre le blé (pas un moulin à transporter l’eau vers l’extérieur des polders, l’autre type). Il suffit d’un homme pour manoeuvrer un moulin, et notre gentil volontaire nous l’a arrêté un un quart de tour rien que pour nous montrer le tissu des voiles. Il faut dire que quand il y a un orage qui approche, le meunier a 2-3 minutes pour tout remballer et mettre le paratonnerre en place. Très intéressant.



Mais les moulins n’étaient que les distractions de notre circuit des églises rurales. Souvent de style roman et toujours en briques rouges (décoration inclues), les petites églises protestantes de la région sont très mignonnes.



Elles sont traditionnellement entourée du cimetierre du patelin, et sur les tombes gravées on trouve un certain nombre de symboles qui reviennent régulièrement: le crâne, la faux, la torche, les os, les papillons de nuit et le sablier.



En continuant vers la mer (du nord) on pensait arriver sur un petit port appelé Eemshaven, mais on est arrivé à un GRAND port industriel sans grand chose à voir si ce n’est... des ventilateurs!



Et pas que quelques uns, mais une flopée de ventilateurs. Un vrai champ de moulins modernes, à perte de vue. Les moutons n’avaient pas l’air d’y voir un problème.

Quelles vacances mémorables! Qui aurait pu penser qu’il y avait tant de choses à faire tout en haut des Pays-Bas? Je vais essayer de vous montrer quelques unes des belles balades qu’on a fait ces deux dernières semaines avec la petite famille en balade. On commence par le jardin botanique Hortus de la charmante bourgade de Haren juste au sud de chez nous. Dans les serres du Pérou, on s’est vraiment pris pour des explorateurs.



J’épargne les âmes sensibles en ne vous parlant pas des blattes, phasmes et mygales qui habitent tranquillement dans le vivarium du parc.

On ne sait pas ce qu’il y avait en haut à droite de la serre ci-dessous, mais ça devait être drôlement intrigant.



Il y avait un charmant jardin chinois avec plusieurs pavillons et de jolis étangs à nénuphars. Sa majesté Esther dans la chaise à porteurs...



Et son petit château:



Aucune des nombreuses grenouilles ne s’est transformée en prince charmant sous nos yeux...



Mais on a bien documenté la situation, dès fois qu’une chose pareille se passe alors qu’on y était.



Il y avait de nombreuses volières à perroquets, mais il semblerait que certains aient quelques problèmes de santé ou de voisinage, ce qui leur donne une allure triste mais poilante.



Il a fallu retenir Esther d’aller faire plouf avec les grenouilles qui se prélassaient partout dans les étangs du parc.



En bref, un magnifique jardin botanique à revisiter selon les saisons!

Alors que je me mettais enfin à mon ménage avant la visite de mes invités la semaine prochaine, voilà que j’ai trouvé une distraction pour m’éviter de m’y mettre... Des dizaines de papillons à butiner l’arbuste du fond du jardin!



Je n’ai pas d’objectif macro (enfin, j’en ai un en emprunt, mais je n’ai pas voulu faire toute une session photo au milieu de mon ménage, je suis sérieuse quand même) donc n’attendez pas de voir leur trompe et poils d’abdomen pour cette fois-ci.



En plus ils allaient bien trop vite d’une grappe de fleur à l’autre, et il me faudrait une échelle pour atteindre la plupart des grappes de fleurs.



Je vous laisse compter les petits papillons qui se cachent dans cette image.



Mon aspirateur m’attend!

While Ryan is in California for a “school trip”, I need to keep busy. I finally went in town with my camera to show you a Saturday in Groningen.

I leave the house on Gerbrand Bakkerstraat:



I say hi to the ducks along the hospital:



And I go around the interesting new building of the big medical center.



A short break on a bench to enjoy the perfume of roses in a charming little cloister:



Then we get in the fancy neighborhoods of the center:



The Martini tower, a local monument that we can climb. I can’t wait for the visit of tourists next week to go up there!



In the city, the local tango association is playing music for tango enthusiasts, it reminds me of Buenos Aires:



Above the tango dancers, a frozen trapeze artist:



Too many people in the main commercial street:



I prefer to go on the fish market place to go to the market. First a bunch of flowers:



Then cheese and eggs:



A piece of fish:



A few potted plants for the garden:



After all that I deserve a beer outside.



Let’s keep going towards the North Harbor, where many house boats are mooring all year long.



Most house boats are like floating flea markets.



Each one has a very particular style.



There are even feline inhabitants.



I take a right to go back by the parc.



We’re paying attention to houses for sale along the parc, very cute neighborhood:



Nap time for the ducklings, let’s be quiet.



And I admire the colorful Hortensia in the gardens everywhere.



Such a fun town!

Nicole suggested that since this was Mojo’s blog after all, it was time to post photos of the ever more ridiculous thing. Instant photos from my phone.

The first day we arrived, he started meeting cute kitties in the alley. After that, there was no way to keep him in on Saturday night when he wants to go out and hang out with his buddies.



“Can you please stop following me everywhere? I need privacy to go crash ridiculously on the bed upstairs!”



As soon as the sun is out we get the most ridiculous positions. The dead fish, the chicken legs, the otter, the puma... Here one chicken leg and 3 otter legs.



But the worse is when the humans lock him in the house. Fortunately there are plenty of windows.



And to avoid the tan lines, he makes sure to tan his belly too.



What a cat’s life!

For the third long weekend in May (that’s almost it for long weekends until Christmas though), we decided at the last minute to spend a couple days in Belgium. We got a very nice hotel in Brussels and a train ticket, and we were on our way to explore Europe.

It’s funny, Belgium is split in half between the Flemish (Dutch) part and the Wallon (French) part, and the real border between the Netherlands and France is in reality in the middle of Belgium. We noticed that the number of bikes at train stations clearly decreased as we were getting closer from the middle of the country.

Brussels, like my friend Jeanne describes it with love, is like a casual Paris. There are old shopping galleries:



Cathedrals:



And of course mussels and fries.



Certain spots reminded us of a fun trip from last year. When we crosses this street we both said: looks like Buenos Aires!



The weather was nice and it was a pleasure to walk around.



And after a long walk, nothing is better than a local beer in a bar where the decoration has not been altered since 1928. We discovered Geuze beers, an old type of beer with high acidity that uses local bacteria that hang out in the air of the region to ferment and make bubbles.



The royal palace and its neatly trimmed bushes.



On the way to dinner the light was very nice:



And on the way back from dinner we found ourselves on top of a hill for the sunset.



Wow, hills! To your left below, the Art Deco building is the museum of musical instruments that we visited the next day. Spectacular. Fortunately I had my musician to explain how everything worked, since Ryan played a bunch of instruments in his high school band.



On Friday morning, the light on the market plaza was incredible, and the tourists were still having breakfast, so we had the whole place in its beauty for ourselves.



With the flower guys it’s even better.



There are so many statues in Brussels... In the Netherlands there are very few statues of people, because they don’t want to put certain people above others. Here there are even some toothless gargoyles.



In the afternoon, a walk on the theme of comic strips took us to several walls that comic strip artists have decorated.



Then, around a corner, a dense crowd of tourists... All that for the tiny statue of the Manneken Pis, a little cherub peeing in a fountain, one of the famous “monuments” of the city!



Long weekends are so great, there is yet another next day... On Saturday we went to Brugge to spend the day with a high school friend of Ryan who lives in Lille with his French wife. It was a gorgeous day in a beautiful city.



Too bad that it’s so touristy, it’s a little less fun to be going to the exact same places as all the other vacationers of the long weekend.



Fortunately, Corey and Céline knew a few quiet streets and cafés out of the way, so we could escape the crowds momentarily.



It was a really nice trip, and despite its shortness it still felt like we escaped the already established routine of our new life.



Belgium got a seal of approval from your travel agents!

Last weekend we went on an impromptu bike ride to try our new bikes, and the sky was miraculously blue with cute puffy white clouds. This (long) weekend we had decided to go back to the same canal with our cameras, but of course the weather didn’t listen to our desire for puffy white clouds. There was some kind of high fog, a little bit like a layer of smoke from forest fires. The ride was fun, but the pictures are not so great because of the white sky.

The Netherlands (well, the north at least) are just like that:



A canal, some very green grass, a bike path by the canal, and tall trees along roads and canals. As expected, the flat country is, well, flat.



Not very orginial, a canal and a row of trees.



A little more unique, a direction tree, because you can go anywhere following the canals.



As long as you get a green light to pass the bridges, of course. We don’t know yet how it works to lift the bridges, whether there is a guy in charge of the bridge or if you need to call ahead.



A classic view, a windmill! Lost in the big white sky, but next time we get closer, I promise.



Tulip fields are further south I hear, between the Hague and Amsterdam. However, still typical, some gouda makers!



Not surprising that dairy products are very good here, with some beautiful green grass like that! Not easy to go drink in the canal when you sink in the muddy sides...



So here is our countryside landscape, and it’s possible that we’ve covered most of it already... We have to explore villages now.

Well, it looks like the camera is stuck in the kitchen! Because of some very uncertain weather (60% chances of rain, here, means very literally that during 60% of the day it will rain or drizzle) and still a lot of things to do to settle, there is not too much time left for tourism and photography.

A detail that I really like in our new city: when you order a juice in any café or restaurant, you get a freshly squeezed juice. Even corner stores and grocery stores have a selection of freshly squeezed juices and smoothies. The selection of juicers in kitchen stores is generous, and you can get 25 juice oranges for 2.50€ at the market. Our house had an orange press on the fridge when we arrived, so we got 2 lots of 25 oranges at the market on Saturday for our morning juice.



It’s a bit of a waste to leave all the good pulp on the shells, and a lot of energy went into bringing these oranges from the south where they grow, but boy is it good!



Served in our cheap promotional glasses from the thrift store, we lick our chops.

We’re still exploring Indonesian food from the book The Indonesian Kitchen: Recipes and Stories by Sri Owen, the book of the month of April at 2 Takes.



This time, I tried a classic recipe from the area according to my reading, the Gado Gado. It is a plate of fresh or steamed veggies with a generous helping of peanut sauce on top.



The original recipe suggests a particular assortment of veggies but insists that everything is possible based on the imagination of the cook, so it’s really the sauce recipe that counts here. I had on our plates: broccoli, potatoes, red pepper, arugula, bean sprouts, sugar peas and bok choy, omitting the hard-boiled eggs, cauliflower, carrots and cabbage of the original recipe. All my veggies were from the organic stand at the market this morning.

The peanut sauce was incredible. I spent a lot of time and effort again with my mortar and pestle, first with raw peanuts that had been stir-fried in our wok, then with shallots and garlic, and then I returned everything to the wok with sugar, soy sauce, water and chili powder, before simmering for 10 minutes while keeping an eye on Mojo who really wants to jump the fence as soon as we leave him outside.

Result: with fresh veggies, this vegetable plate with a peanut sauce is full of vitamins and makes a delicious meal adaptable with the seasons. We topped it off with a slice of cherry pie from the organic baker from the market... I can’t even begin to describe the cherry pie. Those who come to Groningen will have the honor to try the cherry pie, so you better plan a trip. There is also the cheese store... No, I better not even mention the cheese store.

We have arrived safely with Mojo in our new house!



It will take a few weeks for our furniture and other stuff currently on a boat to join us, but the first part of the move (humans and animals) happened without trouble. The first few days were filled with errands to run in a precise order, but now we are getting settled in our neighborhood. The challenge for the next few days is to furnish our new house: we are getting tired of camping in a big empty house and to sit on the floor all the time. But besides this technical detail, everything is going very well for us!

We had planned to buy a wok because our stove has a big central burner specially designed for this purpose, which allowed us to start cooking quickly with our basic equipment. After a trip to the Asian market and the big market in the center of town we were ready to do vegetable stir-fries and tasty Indonesian food.

I am now honored to announce a new feature of ChezMojo: a partnership with 2 Takes, the food blog of my old coworker Margaret and her Mom, M-C. They share their culinary adventures while one lives in Boston and the other in Seattle, and have common projects exploring cookbooks (M-C is writing one). I had asked her for recommendations on a good Indonesian cookbook (lots of ingredients from there available in Holland), and they chose an Indonesian book for their book of the month in April! So I’m delighted to present my first recipe a bit early: Tempeh Rendang.

Rendang is a dish (of meat in general), where the main substance is cooked in a coconut milk sauce until the sauce is very thick and impregnated in the flesh. The book said that you could also do this with tempeh, a kind of soy beans cake originally from Indonesia which is now very common in health food stores. I gathered all the ingredients for this dish, including some roots and leaves that I had never used before.

I started by chopping all the ingredients for the sauce: shallots, chilis, garlic, ginger, galangal and turmeric root.



I patiently crushed everything together in my new mortar -- it’s good for wrist muscles.



Then I heated all that in our new wok with plenty of coconut milk, a lemongrass stem, a salam leaf, and let it simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.



I had some math problems to dose the coconut milk, so I don’t know if I reached the normal result. The recipe called for 10 cups of coconut milk but I got confused in the store and only got 6 cups, but the coconut milk from the cans was extra-thick so I figured it would compensate.

And how was it? The smells that came out of the wok during the simmering were unbelievable, but in the end this dish was extremely rich and lost a bit of the flavors during the hour of simmering. Because of the enormous amount of coconut milk I would only serve a little bit of this Rendang at a time, together with vegetables and rice rather than as a main dish with pre-cooked noodles like we had it. However this mix of spices and roots that I crushed in the mortar had a lot of potential, and I will probably try to reuse this preparation for vegetable curries with a more reasonable amount of coconut milk.

In any case it was very interesting to start discovering Indonesian cooking! Until we get our stuff we are still very limited in our possibilities (no rice without a pot or rice-cooker, for example), but there are a few other recipes that we can try with our limited equipment. Yum!