Dutch cheese

something i have been enjoying a lot since we are back in the netherlands; dutch cheese. so goooooodddd!!! we really didnt eat a lot of good cheese in the usa, i have to say..... above you see the big yellow cheeses... in some fancy shop in amsterdam for tourists.... (i dont think this shop was there 3 years ago, but i could be wrong. taken back in december as you can see by the decorations).

other things i enjoy; "drop" (liquorice) and cookies! we eat way too many cookies... i very well remember the first time i bought some cookies in the usa (nearly 10 years ago now, how weird is that!). when trying them, i thought there was something wrong with them. probably i had bought a pack that wasnt sealed properly. so the next time in the supermarket i got cookies again. and then i realized that that was probably how they were supposed to be; soft and chewy! it was the weirdest thing to me, and i never really got to like american cookies. dutch cookies are hard and crunchy! 

ah, we enjoy croissants too, and lots of other dough-stuff. like cheese in puff pastry.... hmmmm, and properly fried fries... its a miracle i actually lost some weight since being back..... :D

Smoked herring

in the open air museum they smoked herring and eel. i remembered that smell and all those fishies from when i was visiting the museum years ago, and nothing has changed..... this is in the house on the left in yesterdays picture. when going home we bought one of each to bring with us for dinner with friends. i liked it less than anticipated (the fish that is), so many little fish bones and too much of a hassle to clean it all.... but it was so pretty, seeing all that fish lined up!

Dutch dining

on my birthday, it was actually only the second time we went out to dinner since i am back in the netherlands. as i mentioned before, going out to dinner here is just so much more expensive, much slower (which can be a good thing), and the service... well... it can be OK, but often it is less than that or even plain awful. however, at least the food is usually much tastier :)

in the usa, it took me quite a while to get used to the overly friendly (and to me a little fake) "Hi, my name is ... and i will be taking care of you today. please let me you if you need anything, ok?" but it was not difficult to get used to the endless possibilities when ordering. at first it was a bit intimidating, and i was always jealous of the real americans ordering exactly what they want, without the waitress having to sum up all the possibilities (types of dressing, bread, size, types of milk etc etc). it surely took me a while before i could order like that..., and i was real proud when i could!! :D

so... now back to dutch dining. i guess it will be shocking for americans. it might take ages before they notice you are there and want to order something. you will not get water automatically (more often than not there will be a note on the menu saying that they dont serve water. unless you pay for bottled water). you will not be able to order salad A with dressing from salad B, and you will not be allowed to take your leftovers home (but the portions arent crazy big like in the US so thats usually not an issue anyways). moreover, you will have to pay for everything. see that bill above? it lists a 0.75 cents (about a dollar) charge for the mayonnaise!! here in the netherlands we eat our fries with mayonnaise, but you will always have to pay for it. this is even the case at mc donalds!! i liked that in the USA there was always a ketchup bottle on the table, and it was never a problem when we asked for some mayo, they would just bring it (and not bill it!).

now when we sat down, the waitress asked what we liked to drink. tim wanted a beer, and he could choose between a normal or a large (0.5 ltr) size. then i said to him; lets take the large and we will just share it! (i also still have to get used to the fact that now everyone can understand again what i say, although in the US sharing has never been a problem). when the beer finally came, the guy bringing it put it in the middle of the table and said "i understood you want to share this beer??!!" and then put 2 straws in the beer. only when he left i understood this snark... i actually should have called him back to explain himself, but i didnt want to make a scene. but thinking about it still pisses me off!! we were there to enjoy ourselves and drink as much as WE want, even if that means sharing one beer. and as you see, 2 entrees, 1 beer and 2 coffees came down to 37 euros, which is 50 dollars (at least there is no 20% tip as waiters here get a normal salary. you can tip as you  like, or not tip at all, although they will not appreciate no tip at all)

It's closing!!

of course i still follow the news from boston every now and then... but the news that the above restaurant is closing i first saw on facebook... when i saw it posted here as well, i knew it was true... this is on route 1, in saugus, not too far from our apartment, and so we drove by it quite often in weekends. the lawn is decorated with lifesize cows, and the place (just like the cactus) is gigantic. at first we were hesitant to visit the place (after the cows and the cactus we were afraid what would be inside), but once we finally did, we kept coming back every now and then. for me it was not so much about the food (the vegetables were absolutely awful, even the corn!! but tim loved the baked potato), but more the "experience". i think the decor has never changed since it was built (the 2 story restaurant opened in 1961), and i wouldnt be surprised if the waitresses were still the same as well (once our waitress asked tim when we got seated; "whats the matter son, you hungry or somethin?!" with that typical boston accent). there is crazy carpet on the floors, beautiful booths to sit in and weird cowboy-stuff on the walls. i think some of the guests had been coming there since its opening as well, so every time we were there i just couldnt get enough of watching around... if only i had been brave enough to take pictures from the inside, had asked people for portraits... but well, i didnt... (here is the last burger i had there).

according to this article, at its top days, the hilltop employed 50 cooks, 180 waiters and served 5000 meals a day. when we were there, it was usually not too busy (except the one time we took someone there and had to wait over an hour). this picture was during our last drive on route 1, we had just had to bring our couch to the dump and i was frantically photographing all that crazy american stuff on route 1 one more time... for us foreigners, this was really a typical american place, like we see in the movies, and if we were ever to visit boston again, it would be a place to go back to. but.... they are closing october 20th already!! i wonder what will happen to it. i hope at least the cactus will stay.... (and they should make a museum out of the place!!)
here you can see a video about the closing (they interview 2 guests inside the restaurant)

Dutch market

this was this morning, at the market... a salesman was demonstrating some fancy window wiper. i think something that soaps and immediately wipes it... i was surprised by how many people were actually watching...!

it took a while, but friday was the first time me and tim finally went out to dinner somewhere in the netherlands. we also had a beer somewhere, and we got reminded "how it works here". funny how you forget simple things like that. first of all, you just take a seat. there is no waiting to be seated. but then the next challenge is that you actually get noticed by the waitress (this can be hard). and when she (or he) finally does, it can take quite a while before they bring your order, AND you are (at least outside on the terrace) often required to pay immediately. its easiest to have cash in those cases, but in the us i really got used to always pay with card. especially in restaurants. its so convenient! (so we both didnt have any cash). here tim had to go inside the cafe with the girl to pay with card. then we had dinner, and again it felt weird to just walk into the restaurant and choose a table. we again had some trouble to get the waitress' attention, and when we finally ordered, it took ages for the food to arrive.... but it was very good! hmmmmm... and lots of vegetables (something i often missed in the us when eating out). so good i totally forgot to take a picture... :)

American diner

this was back in boston. saugus, to be precise, on route 1. quite a typical dinner in a very american diner.. no? somewhere between the fries is a gigantic burger! when the waitress brought it to our table, i wondered why i ordered this... haha... i was recovering from one of the many colds i have had this year and didnt eat much. but it was our last time in that restaurant.... buuuhh!!

back in the netherlands we have not been out to eat once yet! its easier, faster and cheaper in the us (and usually even more unhealthy than here). ah, and most restaurants are open till late, not like here where you can often find the kitchen closed by 9, or earlier... 

compared to yesterday it was a little less hot today. rain was expected but didnt come. it did in the south of the netherlands, where it turned into quite a mess. in some places it rained in a few hours as much as normally in a month!

Oooh, waste!

its still gorgeous weather but i dont allow myself to go out since i should be looking for a job... :( tim gets up very early every day, and comes back relatively late, and i want to work too!! i guess its always the same; once you work, you wish you had days to spend doing nothing. but without the immediate prospect of work, its actually not that much fun. so... i havent been exploring much, certainly not the way i used to in boston. even though amsterdam is sort of a new city to me (at least to live in, and biking... well... im still not a pro... hahahaha. ofcourse, once you learn how to bike, you will never forget it, but to bike with confidence through busy streets, packed with pedestrians, cars, other bikers and  public transport... iieeekkk).

what i dont miss is the above; paper cups for coffee! here i had an espresso. it did not even fill 1/8 of that cup, but i did get a plastic lid (to the right), and the paper holder to not burn your hands (to the right), such a waste!!! moreover, putting that little coffee in such a huge paper cup... makes it cold before you can drink it... now thats not to say we dont have paper cups here in the netherlands. but its definitely less and i hope it stays that way. on the other hand; we have not been out to dinner once since i am back! its just different here. the ease, speed and availability of food at any time of the day (or especially (late) night) is just different here. ah well, a home cooked meal is probably healthier and cheaper... :)

Hello again....

ok, ok, its time to stop hiding and finally write another post again.... this monday i was still in the craaaazy heat of boston (it was well over 35 C, i think), frantically getting the apartment entirely empty. even though several people had come by during the weekend i hadnt managed to dump all our stuff with them and so it was really time to trash things. i realized i never have trashed something that you can still use and i did not like it at all! all that stuff that we used now just disappeared in the dumpster... :( i also had placed a bit in the hallway of our apartment complex, and at least fellow residents were taking stuff from that...

somehow i managed to get the place entirely empty (with the help of my sister), and then it was time to lock the door and go to the airport.... :( i had quite some luggage; two 22-kilo suitcases, and a 15-kilo small (!!) hand luggage that i was forced to check in as well (grrrr!!). 

and so... since tuesday i am back in the netherlands. in amsterdam, to be precise. it all feels weird. the weather is shitty, i cannot run down to goto the pool or gym anymore. in public transport (the ticketsystem changed during my 3year absence) people are all staring at their phones (just like in boston. when there, i always thought that was an american thing, haha), and when talking on their phones they do it sooooo very loud!! (much louder than in boston, i think). when i bump into someone i mumble "sorry" in english (with my dutch accent, ofcourse). i havent done much yet, aside from unpacking my suitcases and going to the shops around the apartment here. i dont like that i cannot find my way in the supermarket (i like routine, i guess), nor that the eggplants and zucchini are so very very expensive!! ($1,30 each!!). at least there is good cheese, as you can see above. and my boston mug, a gift from someone at work!!

i need to fill the kitchen cabinets again with spices, herbs, sugars, flours etc etc.... the apartment really needs to be painted and there is not enough space for all of my clothes and shoes (and this is already before our shipped goods are here! which come in a few weeks). so...., im just grumpy about all of it and i guess it will take a while.....

Holland style...

quite a while back i saw this product in "our" supermarket here in the usa. of course, i had to buy that! i know we often had them at home, although i wasnt the biggest fan of them. when trying these, i was really disappointed. those were nothing like the dutch "zilveruitjes" (pickled silverskin onions). they were not at all crunchy, as they are supposed to be... :( so... after one bite they were left in the fridge for months, since i first wanted to take a picture before trashing them... maybe we had a bad batch, but i think these are just american style holland-style onions (the barn in the background also looks more american than dutch to me).

wikipedia tells me that you can hardly find these onions fresh, they are almost always already pickled (like above), and are often eaten as a snack (with a beer or something), but are also used in soups (never had that, i think) or in casseroles.

its funny how almost everyone always refers to "the netherlands" as "holland". i myself never do that, but have noticed that sometimes people then dont know which country you are talking about. but as soon as you mention holland, they will say "aaaah... amsterdam....". for an entertaining video explaining the difference between the netherlands and holland, go here (it was going around on facebook at some point). warning; during the 4 minutes they manage to make it actually really complicated!! :)

Bye IHOP

slowly we are saying goodbye to some of the places we like to go. one of them being IHOP (i.e. the international house of pancakes)... :) not every week of course. just every now and then! we got up really early on sunday, and we were rewarded for that; the restaurant was still pretty empty. coming in a little later on the weekend and the place is packed, with many waiting to be seated (which luckily goes relatively fast). to us, such breakfast places with too much food for not that much money and cheerful waitresses are really american. something i will miss when back home.... (although being able to get great bread and pastries just about everywhere is a nice alternative)

a full thermos of coffee and pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon..... hmmmmmm.... the above is just 9 dollars, and then something for the coffee. we shared the middle plate, but each had our own pancakes. far too much food, but oh so good! in the beginning i was overwhelmed by all the choices you always have here. you cannot just order something, everything has to be specified; how do you want your eggs? bacon or sausage? etc etc... nowadays i often can just tell the waitress what i want, and dont need to have them tell me all the options (often far too fast so i miss half of it), followed by eehmmm, uuhhhhmmm.. hmmm, ok, i'll take that.... im pretty proud of that... :) i now also like that you have options, and literally can order things exactly the way YOU want it, not the way the restaurant always prepares it (which is usually not the case in the netherlands). dressing on the side? sure! whole wheat bread instead of white? absolutely! no cheese? we'll take care of it! and if its not exactly the way you ordered it, they take it back without a problem (usually.. :) ).

That's small!!

and this...... is, indeed, a SMALL ice cream. a small! can you believe it?! i think in the netherlands this will be size gigantic, probably not available or crazy expensive. and guess what? i ate it all!! yumyumyum. this was my lunch today.... it was a bit too much, but oh so very good.

not too far from our apartment is a local ice cream shop, opened from april until october or something. its usually crowded.. and they are open until 11pm at night. the first time we went there was just out of curiosity, we drove by every so often at any time of the day, and there were always people waiting in line. we hadnt had dinner yet, and both (!) ordered a medium-sized ice cream (you see, at that point we hadnt lived in the usa for that long yet... so what did we know!!). a medium is much larger than the small you can see here!! it was so good that i somehow ate it all, and then i was full for the remainder of the evening. no dinner for us!!

with the small you can order 2 flavors (and their selection of flavors is enormous). usually i only get one nevertheless; moose tracks (vanilla ice cream with very tasty pieces of chocolate and tiny peanut butter cups... hmmmmm). today i decided to be a bit adventurous and also got "death by chocolate". i did request that the moose tracks was put on the bottom, as i wanted to finish with that... yumyumyum. too bad its all gone now...

(its diary delight in malden for those nearby)

Artisan? Creative?

finally, i try to join theme day! somehow i always forget. either we are away, or suddenly its the third already.... theme day reminds me that time is going so fast, too fast. while at other times it goes so slow....

this month the theme is "creative artisan". artisan is a funny word. i guess i have mentioned it before, but here in the us i noticed its on a lot of expensive products in the supermarket. fancy breads, cheese, etc. often accompanied by the words "old world", "european", "according to ancient recipe", etc etc. it always makes me laugh.... i tend to avoid foods with those words..... as i posted before, i started baking my own bread about a year ago, and we havent bought any bread from the store ever since (except when on holidays). and am i glad! most of the american bread is horrible in taste (what taste..?), or crazy expensive (and still not that tasty...). at least around boston; recently we had some real good bread on the west coast during our road trip!

but... i dont feel like an "artisan" when baking bread. i also dont think its science, although many people seem to approach it like that. ooh, when baking bread you have to be super precise, you have to weigh everything carefully, the dough has to be at the exact temperature, and only then you will get a good, tasty loaf of bread. thats just funny... people have been baking breads long, long before there were scales or thermometers.... oddly enough, i do feel sort of an artisan, and even a creative one when i make soup. while so much easier than making bread, the process of making soup seems artisan to me. throwing some herbs in, some vegetables, some spices perhaps, letting it cook slowly for hours, adding some more (while its actually just all the stuff you want to get rid of!!). and guess what? i actually dont really like soup. i just like the process of making soup (and the immersion blender afterwards!!). so, above some homemade real dutch split pea soup (its real because the spoon can stand in the soup, meaning its very thick, as this type of soup should be), together with my favorite sourdough seed-bread, fresh from the oven.... isnt it old-world? artisan... ? ;)

(i have been taking pictures of my food the past weeks, since tim was away for 3,5 weeks. every now and then i would post them to his facebook-wall, to show that i was indeed still eating healthy while he was away (and ofcourse, to show him what he was missing....). this was one of them).

here you can find all theme day participants!

Only $10.50!

i was running out of fruit and vegetables. but i cant drive, and our favorite supermarket is a 10-minute drive away. so... i went to haymarket in boston! its a 15 minute ride or so with the subway, and the market is right outside the station (which is aptly named haymarket)

the t-shirt stand next to the subway station was already selling t-shirts saying; "boston marathon, 04/15/13, we will never forget", which i just found sad and a little creepy.

i spent 10 dollars and 50 cents, and above you can see what i got. the quality greatly varies at haymarket, sometimes the stuff they sell is literally rotting, but what i got today seemed all very good. except the strawberries; 2 boxes for 1 dollar! they are about to go bad, so im thinking to bake some sort of strawberrycake tomorrow..... they also had 3 pounds of tomatoes for 1 dollar, but i decided the small box with cherry tomatoes was enough for me...

(for the scientists; yes, those are 2 50ml falcon tubes on top of the stove....)

I baked

this morning, when i was about to leave the apartment, i checked my phone (which i dont do very often), and saw a message from tim: "whats happening? suspects arrested? public transport closed? stay home, ok?" only then i really looked out of the window and saw that there were absolutely no cars parked; on a normal weekday all spots are taken well before we leave. this monday i had texted tim; "i am NOT at the finish line, i am in the lab. explosions occurred at finish, dont know whats happening." this because tim is in the netherlands (since 2 weeks by now), and im still here in boston. news travels fast and nowadays everyone has a phone, so while thats a good thing, it can also cause worries; why did i not yet hear from him/her?!! when i texted tim, he hadnt heard the news yet, but it was already on the dutch tv...

today indeed i could not goto work as all public transport had been suspended, and everyone was asked to remain inside and lock their doors as one of the suspects was on the loose. while i was still sleeping, tim had been following the news for hours already (theres a 6 hr time difference). when i went to sleep, i knew there had been a deadly shooting at MIT, but had no clue it was related to the marathon bombings. i am not in boston, but a little outside. but "a little outside boston" is exactly where all terror happened today. again, i can only say, luckily not in my area...

 just like anyone else in and around boston, i guess, i couldnt concentrate on much other than the news.... and when the power went out, even though it went right back on again, and i heard something fall at the same time, i just jumped up... something i normally would not even notice, now made me paranoid, although the suspect was thought to be in another area than where i am.

so i baked. something with yeast, salt, water and flour. ooh, and a lot, lot, lot of butter. it was not hard, but it did take a lot of time. in waiting, not in actually doing (as usually is the case with bread). i could have made croissants out of it, i guess, but the recipe said to make knots, and so thats what i did.... long after they were baked came the news that the suspect was found hiding in a boat in someones yard, and from that moment i was even more glued to the screen of my not-so-well-working computer (in the absence of a tv). i am glad they got him now. only 19 years old. i wonder if we will ever know what in the world is going on in his head....

Giant sign

i thought it would be interesting to see what kind of photos i was taking 2 or 3 years back. so i went to the folder of 2011, and looked up what pictures i had for april 18... living in the us for 3 years made us used to certain things. things i before thought were so odd, different, or just unknown to us.... when i look back, i see why i took certain photos, but also realize that nowadays i dont really see that anymore, or it doesnt strike me as interesting... (the number of photos i am taking in/around boston has also decreased quite a bit)

take giant signs, you dont see that in the netherlands. billboards, yes, but giant signs, sometimes bigger than the place the sign is for? no. here is one, taken april 18, 2011. we have driven past this sign so very often. its on our way into boston, and i dont really see it anymore... , but i like the hamburger-eating-man! we have never been to this place, but at yelp it gets quite good reviews, and it seems to be a place you go to after a night out. there is no seating, and everything is a little old and dirty... (thats another thing, by the way, americans really like to give their opinion about everything. they write entire reviews on restaurants, bars, products... )

In line

these people are waiting to eat something in the center hall of the museum of fine arts in boston. we were there a few weeks back. its always amazing to see the restaurant being entirely full, and having people wait like this. its just in this gigantic open space that connects the different parts of the museum. somehow those eaters are part of the collection too, if only for just a while.....

we never ate there and do not have the desire to ever do so... :)

Removing snow

this is the main street in our apartment complex, sunday afternoon. as mentioned, the snowplowing crew started their work when the snow just started coming down, they worked when the storm was at its height (the harsh wind blowing snow in your face wasnt the most fun part when we walked around friday night to "experience the storm"), they were still working when we went to sleep around 1 in the night.... i dont know whether they worked through the night, but i do know they were already working while we were just waking up.... they worked the entire saturday, sunday, and this evening i saw the bulldozer still being operated. our complex has 550 apartments, not small, but not huge either. imagine the amounts of snow and the huge amount of work being done so that we could just open the front door and walk around without sinking deep into the snow. one of the perks of apartment living, not having to shovel yourselves!! :) the least thing i could do was baking a cake for the crew, but then we broke the cake in 2 (it didnt want to come out of the bundt pan in one piece), so i baked another one..... not much work compared to what the shovellers did!

above they were removing the huge mountains of snow they had made the day before. it was loaded into the truck, and moved to the little snowfarm at the end of our complex; i guess that himalaya of snow will be there for quite a while, even though it was relatively warm today and yesterday (and even raining today). because of all the salt and other bad chemicals, the snow cannot just be dumped into the ocean, as was being done years ago. so... its piled up high, and being a pedestrian can be quite difficult... :) you have to check were you can cross the street, is there a gap on the other side too, or do i have to climb the snow? and as its melting, large, deep, muddy, salty puddles have formed. but no! im not complaining, the snow was great and now i get to wear my real snowboots that are meant to sink into the mess and still keep my feet dry!! 

ah, and, something really important; it was officially a blizzard. the national weather service said so. the past days this wasnt certain yet, so i am glad it is a fact now...... ;)

A blizzard...?

yesyes, i was complaining about the little amount of snow we got last sunday as well as yesterday. and today all everyone could talk about is the huge amounts of snow we might get this friday/saturday. wherever i was, the question was the same; have you heard? the snow, friday?! well yes.... a snowstorm, a blizzard even, might visit us this friday, bringing huge amounts of snow. possibly "breaking all records", "potentially historic". superlative onto superlative... lets see.... i hope it will just b a lot of snow, but not a lot of mess... its good that its supposed to start friday evening so that we have the weekend to enjoy the snow or recover from it.

apparently, people already started preparing, bread isles at supermarkets are being emptied. i guess we are good. we havent seen the bread isle in many months!! one night tim had to do some work and i was so very bored.... but baking yet another cake would require us to spend every free hour we have in the gym, so i decided to try and bake a bread for a change. the dough was so very sticky! tim had no clue what i was doing, until i asked him at some point to please release me from "the dough".  i remember how he was laughing when he saw what i was doing, not knowing what exactly it was i was trying to make there... somehow that dough did become a bread, and i was soooooo very proud!! just somewhat later i got a sourdough starter (a truly amazing gift!!) from a friend, i bought all kinds of flours, seeds, nuts and this book. and well... since then we never bought bread again. i am not afraid of the dough anymore and tim does not have to release me from it... and (usually) every saturday we now have fresh bread, straight from the oven. a crispy-crunchy crust, some butter...... worth every bit of time and effort, yummm!! (above the sourdough bread with sunflower, sesame and flax-seeds we had last saturday). so yes, breadwise we are ready for the snowstorm.......

Back home!

while we already came back friday night, i was a little too lazy over the weekend to write a new blog post. while in the netherlands i did not get fully over the time difference (at midnight i felt very awake each day), back in the us im tired early in the evening! grrrrr....

on saturday we had to refill our empty fridge, and on sunday we went for a hike in the woods not too far from our apartment. i actually meant to spend some hours in the gym this weekend, but too lazy for that as well. at least we went this evening, and it was very necessary; while in the netherlands we didnt move too much and we ate a LOT! all those typical dutch things that we cannot get here in the usa..... hmmmm, it was so good. and ofcourse, the tasty typical dutch things are not the most healthy or low in calories..... 

starting november or so, until the end of the year, you will see pastry stands (i.e. "gebakkraam") like the one above. they sell "oliebollen" and thats the first thing we ate when we arrived. oliebollen literally translates into "oil balls", and thats what they are; dough, usually filled with raisins, currants and/or succade are scooped into balls, deep fried and then covered in powdered sugar. hmmmmm!!! traditionally, this is eaten at the last day of the year, and not one or 2, but many, right from the frying pan. the leftovers are eaten in the day(s) afterwards, either cold or rewarmed in the microwave. here you can find the recipe (on a lovely site featuring typically dutch recipes that i recently discovered). we ate a LOT of other stuff, for the dutch among you, these things will sound familiar and we ate them as if we hadnt eaten them for ages and wont for months to come (which is probably true); kaasbroodjes, saucijzenbroodjes, poffertjes (homemade; those you can often buy on the street as well), roze koeken, drop (ofcourse!!), fries, kroket, kaassouffle, banketstaaf, and certainly also lots of dutch bread and real dutch cheese (hmmmmm), many, many mandarins  (sooo good and they are soooo cheap, especially when compared to the us, and without the stones they almost always have here). and, and and.....! so yes, we stayed only a week and ate for 2 or 3.... whoops.... but it was just sooo very good! tomorrow i will goto the gym again, i promise....

Thanksgiving migration

i believe today most real americans traveled to someplace else in the usa to get where they want to be to celebrate thanksgiving, tomorrow! as you know, most americans stuff a turkey and then bake it in the oven for several hours. 

the above sign is somewhere close to plymouth, where the settlers first got off the mayflower into the new world in 1620, and the origin of the first thanksgiving, most likely (as you can read here). had never seen a turkey crossing sign before, so i took a picture while we drove by (i already missed the alligator sign in florida, and the "dont-pick-up-hitchhikers-this-is-an-active-prison-area" in new hampshire).

when i was back in europe in september, i was "shocked" by the small ovens people have there! after almost 3 years and lots of baking, i really got used to the big american oven (i guess its big because it has to fit an entire turkey once a year?!), and dont really see it as big anymore at all (unlike when we just got here), maybe i should bring one back to the netherlands.. (an oven, not a turkey!)