Jewish New Year

So, though it's a day late, the non-baker got together with some of her friends two nights ago and made a kugel and ate round challah in celebration. The kugel was one of her friend's recipes. They began by separating egg yolks from whites.
Then they mixed butter, cottage cheese, milk, and cream cheese using an electric mixer.
Then they boiled the noodles.
After they were boiled, they mixed the noodles and dried apricots into the bowl of milk fats.
Then they poured this into a dish and beat the egg whites into stiff peaks, which went on top of the other mixture.
This went into the oven for around 40 minutes and then took it out of the oven (and put in their store-bought whole wheat round, golden raisin challah.)
After the challah was warmed up, it was time to dig in. So they cut out pieces of both and set out to eat.
The kugel was fantastic and it made for a sweet and rich way to start off the Jewish New Year.

Brunch in the Netherlands

After a night of partying in Amsterdam, the Baker and the non-baker headed back to Haarlem. But they were hungry and so they stopped into a cafe for brunch. The Baker got a beef carpaccio open-faced sandwich.
The non-baker got a chili sauce chicken open-faced sandwich.
But because they both like to try new foods, the Baker and the non-baker decided to switch halves, so that they ended up with one of each.
Though it may not be immediately evident, these sandwiches were huge and after eating them, the Baker and the non-baker were stuffed. Brunch? A complete success.

Dutch Host Kids Make Dinner

That evening, the Baker and the non-baker took the train back to Amsterdam and went to the Dutch Host Son's apartment that they had been to before. There the Dutch Host Family's Children (well, four of the five of them) cooked them the most fantastic dinner. They started off by cutting up some seed bread.
Then they started cooking up some bacon.
They drained the majority of the grease (though they saved some of it to use later) and put the cooked bacon in a bowl.
But bacon was not the only thing on the menu. The extra bacon grease was poured into a pan to use to cook the onions (especially since bacon grease makes things delicious.)
They cooked down the onions in the pan. In the background they were cooking the filling for the vegetarian stuffed mushrooms by cooking down a second set of onions.
They cooked the onions down further. At the same time, they boiled the potatoes.
The cooked down onions were the next dish that they added to the dinner. Then it was time to make the baked vegetarian stuffed mushrooms. The Baker and the non-baker helped ready the mushrooms.
They finished off the filling by adding cream cheese with chives to the onions which melted down and created a nice sauce.
Then they stuffed the mushrooms with the filling, topped them with slices of cheese and then popped them into the oven.
But clearly, that was not enough food. They also decided to make traditional Dutch beans, which they cooked by boiling on the stove.
But again, still not enough food. The Dutch kids also decided to make fried potatoes. They first boiled the potatoes. Then they drained them and sliced them up.
Then the potatoes were thrown into the pan.
Finally, they felt that this was enough food when they added a bowl of applesauce to the mix. They put the food on some make-shift tables in the living room.
Everyone filled their plates up and dug in. The food was absolutely incredible and perfect.

Hanging out in Haarlem

The next day, the Baker and the non-baker went shopping in Haarlem with their Dutch Host Mother. Then went into an Albert Hein and several dozen clothing stores. After shopping for a while though, it was time to eat and the Dutch Host Mother took them to a nice little cafe. The non-baker started off by having some mint tea.
The Baker got olive soup with seed bread.
The non-baker got an open-faced seed bread sandwich with a lentil curry on top.
And the Dutch Host Mom got a huge salad, which also came with seed bread on the side.
The cafe was housed in a little shop that was adorable. Not only did it sell food, it also sold furniture and notebooks and jewelry.

And after their lunch they kept walking around Haarlem. They went to a church and then to a museum where they where they stopped in the museum coffee shop for a snack. They got tea and apple tart/pie.
And, as per usual, the bill came with chocolates. Those chocolates were filled with hazelnuts and hazelnut cream. The Baker and the non-baker very much approve of chocolates that come with the end of a meal.

Beach Shack Restaurant Dinner

The next day the Dutch family took the Baker and the non-baker to a local restaurant that one of the hosts' sons had recommended. The restaurant was especially fun in that the whole thing was set up to look like a beach shack. It was by a canal and they brought in sand and beach chairs and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. So, they all decided to have drinks outside so as to enjoy the open air. The non-baker got a pear nectar and ended up having to water it down.
Unfortunately it got colder and so they moved inside for dinner. The non-baker and the two Dutch parents decided to get the seafood pasta with toasts with anchovy butter.
The Baker and the Dutch son who had recommended the place both got the vegetarian pasta instead.
And the Dutch daughter who was with them got an enormous burger.
Because the Dutch son was friends with the chef he also gave them some other side dishes for free. Bags of tortilla chips and plates of fries accompanied the meal, which landed them with a ton of food.
It was a wonderful dinner, even if they didn't manage to eat even half of it.

Walking around Amsterdam

So, the baker and the non-baker went walking around Amsterdam with one of their hosts' sons. He gave them a wonderful tour of the city and in return, they walked the entire thing. It ended up being somewhere upwards of 10km total.

One of the first things that they passed was a wonderful outdoor market, housed out of carts. All the food there looked delicious. There was a vegetable cart, a cheese cart and a bread cart.
However, they did get hungry after a while and so bought some Dutch fries from a shop that was over 100 years old. However, they couldn't quite stomach the idea of eating their fries with mayonnaise (ick!) and so instead went for mustard (which made their host think that they were a bit weird.
Then they bought their Dutch host some chocolate dipped almond cookies, a traditional Dutch treat, though they both declined getting some. The non-baker wasn't hungry and the Baker, regardless of whether she was hungry, is not such a fan of almond cookies.
Then they got hungry. So they went for sandwiches at a cute cafe by one of the canals. The sandwiches were delicious. The Baker got a chicken sandwich with copious amounts of salad and the non-baker got baked goat cheese with honey. But because they were so hungry they polished off their food before they had a a chance to even take a picture of it.
Their day walking around Amsterdam was fun and the food was delicious. Then their host son walked them over to his apartment where his friendly female roommate decided to cook the Baker and the non-baker dinner. First she cooked some ravioli.
Then she sauteed some mushrooms, added some wine and cream to make a wonderful creamy mushroom sauce.
Then she spooned it out on top of the ravioli, added some arugula and some salt and pepper and presented it. It was fantastic.
Afterwords she offered them a pudding with a less solid top- sort of a sauce on top- for dessert. It was strawberry flavored and quite fun. When they moved the plate, the entire thing jiggled.

And now to the Netherlands

After spending a wonderful few days in Finland, the Baker and the non-baker were off to the Netherlands (Haarlem specifically) to stay with another set of home exchange friends, the Dutch family. Post their arrival, they were a bit hungry and so snacked on crackers and cheese and tapenade. Dinner was similarly wonderful- pasta with all sorts of vegetarian and meat toppings (creamy chicken, mushrooms, tofu, a sort of falafel-like thing but with creamy tomatoes inside and steamed broccoli.)
Dessert was just as good- pieces of the Dutch Grandmother's homemade apple pie/tart, pieces of brownie and cups of coffee (for the Baker) and tea (for the non-baker).