Last post!

last post of 2014!!! this year went by fast, and i didnt post much, nor took a lot of pictures....  several big things happened, though.... the first half of 2014 i was still out of work and i sort of had given up on ever finding a job. when other people started to come up with "alternatives" of all sorts to my joblessness, however nice it was, i felt it truly was hopeless.... while tim was working long days, i just went to the gym, looked and applied for jobs, went to the supermarket, baked bread. days did go by fast, and at some point going to the supermarket became an event all by itself. end of february i applied for a job, right on the deadline (i think there was one hour left). i felt i had all the skills they asked for, but couldnt quite get what kind of work it would be. they actually had another position too, slightly different; but for that one i even had less of a clue what the work would be about. having applied for one, i forgot about the other and eventually missed the closing date on that one. months i heard nothing..... and guess what?! i was invited for an interview, did NOT get the job (became second), but was invited for the one i didnt apply for. and thats the position i now got!! i think its the best possible match, it turns out it has all the elements i was looking for (science, learning (LOTS of) new things, social relevance). but.... around the same time tim got a new position on the other side of the country. so.. when i finally returned to working life, we also had to adjust to living apart. thats not as easy as it seemed, but i am so very happy to be working again (and feel so bad for the numerous people i know that still have not found a job).

other than that, tim got his PhD this year and i could finally expand my shoe and clothes collection... something i could not allow myself while out of work... :)

so... thats about it. the year started bad for me, but really ended great, and i am looking forward to go back to the office again next week, even though my little working-from-home-while-on-the-other-side-of-the-country-with-tim was very pleasant too. it felt like a mini-holiday, work included (sure, i didnt work VERY hard).

enjoy new years eve! and who knows, maybe next year i will post more! maybe not... ! :)

Weekend flowers

took this last week while working from home. one of the things i like about my work is that it is totally ok to work a day from home. its even stimulated... whereas with labwork that wasnt possible of course, now all i need is a computer and an internet connection (more or less...). at first i was hesitant, but i am slowly getting into the habit of staying home on wednesdays. unfortunately, i dont win a lot of time with it, although each tuesday evening i hope i will. but come wednesday morning.... i really do NOT want to get out of bed as early as i have to when i need to catch the train... so... the won time in the morning is usually slept away, and in the evening its spent in the gym. the dishes? still there.... :)

ah, but i did find some time to take a picture of this plant on our table..... :)

Endless baking....!

soooo...... the last of my 10 breads is now in the oven.... pfew!! i started thursday with the first batch (then you onlw throw some sourdough starter, flour and water together. but still, you need to think ahead!), kneaded most breads yesterday (and baked 2 as well, that need to "rest" at least 12 hours before you slice them, to let the flavors enhance and blend together), and then started baking this morning. i think i put the oven on around 8, and now, 5 in the afternoon, its still on and has hardly been off..... aside for 2 of the "easy" breads (ie no sourdough breads), i kneaded them all by hand, as you can see here.... i dont mind the kneading. the baking is the trickiest part, and takes the most time (especially since only bread fits each time, as opposed to my american oven where i could do 2!). each time, even though i baked bread so often now, i sill wonder whether "it worked" this time, and how the bread looks (during the first part of baking the bread is covered, so its always a surprise...) flour is everywhere, and i could find some dough on the dress as well, as usual....

anyways.... now its almost done! i baked a variety of breads and i hope people will like them. since i was baking anyways, i also baked 1 bread for our own lunch (yum!), and some apple cake yesterday...  after this, i think the oven needs a break.... :) and time for us to finally check out the festival!

House boats

these boats are not for sailing (anymore), they are for living!! some used to be real boats, others arent, and a few still can be used to get around..... this is in a canal in the city center of groningen.

tim also lives in a boat now. but not here! its a bit more outside the center, and there is a real garden, and more privacy.... ever since i visited a boat a few years back, i have wanted to live on one at least once... now i sort of do. in the weekends... :) for poor people like us its perfect; a free standing house!!! who can get something like that in the netherlands?! it moves too, gently (and sometimes a bit more, when large ships are passing through the large canal nearby... or because of the weather). its really a totally different experience, living on the water. its cute to see the ducks all assemble when you get into the kitchen. i guess they want food. and indeed, its very tempting to just throw whatever food you dont want into the water (that actually happens a lot, quite often an onion comes by, or an apple, or a piece of... etc etc). and its fun to see boats come by while you are having breakfast.... its not too big, but big enough (as most of the stuff is still here in amsterdam), and the kitchen is actually bigger than the one in amsterdam. or rather, its square instead of a long, narrow hallway, so 2 people can move around in it..... i should take some pics... next time im there! (this weekend tim is coming to amsterdam...)

Happy Easter!

i never decorated our apartment for Easter, but this year i did a bit, as you can see. we also had some chocolate eggs, but we ate them all before easter arrived. then i didnt want to buy new ones, as im sure they are cheaper after easter (and we really dont need more chocolate anyways).
yesterday the weather was amazing again, and i spent some time in the sun on the balcony. excellent! and i think today will be even better.... jaayy!

Morning rainbow

this was early morning, yesterday. it was about to rain, or probably already raining back there... but in reaity the rainbow looked better, ofcourse....

on either side of the apartment are similar apartmet blocks. when i took the photo, i saw the guy opposite from us busy in the kitchen. i hope he didnt think i was taking a picture of him! (but it prevented me from taking more pics...). on the other side we have the living room and some big windows. the apartment straight across from us is for sale, and the other weekend it had "open house", so people were coming on and off to check it out (its old and overpriced, not in the best neighborhood. but... in amsterdam and supposedly this neighborhood is "up and coming"). we were having lunch and i thought they could not really see us as the blinds were down. but... 2 girls started waving frantically, when we were watching them all.... good to know!

in our apartment in boston we never closed the blinds. our apartment was on a corner (and the windows, espcially in the bedroom, a bit smaller); no other apartments in sight. i definitely liked that better..... i do have to admit its fun to study your neighbors, from many i more or less know their habits when at home (or at least some of them), even though i have no clue who they are or what they do, and never see them on the street or something!

Dutch tulips!

i forgot to post yesterday. or rather... i waited and waited and then it was late and i just wanted to goto sleep. thats what often happens....

i bought the above tulips a week ago in utrecht, where i used to live before we moved to boston. there i always bought flowers at the same flower stand, and the past 4 or 5 (or more) years the price has not changed. nor have the people selling the flowers. except that the little boy (the son of the owner, i guess), grew quite a bit bigger by now (in both directions, up and sideways). i got 50 tulips for 5 euros (about 7 dollars!). i kept a bit more than half of it, and gave the remainder to my mom last week. look how pretty! and the grew quite a bit..... (never mind the mess on the table...)

i really missed buying flowers when we lived in the USA. but mostly they offered ugly colored bouquets for outrageous amounts of money, or just one pathetic rose. and mostly already blooming... so just for that its good to be back in the land where the flowers come from....

Construction work!

do you see that giant birds nest to the right?! i noticed it yesterday when we were eating in the sun, outside on the balcony (!!). a couple of magpies (what a cute word for that bird. we call them "ekster") were flying with branches far too big for them (sometimes they hardly could get into the air, so big), dropping them off at their home. i thought they would just sit on top of the pile of branches, but they were entering right in the middle of it, so its really a house. i wonder how many rooms it has and what kind of furniture they are making....

our house could use some construction too, but unfortunately thats not going to happen as long as we live there. the block next to it is completely renovated and the entire floorplan changed, im sure for the better. we have 2 rooms (and a kitchen and a living room), but their shap is so odd you cannot really use the space to the fullest. too bad it wont change much by adding some branches!!

Messy kitchen

while tim was working all day, i tried to make dinner, dessert and bread. the result you see above... an exploded kitchen... next to the yellow spoon the dough for the bread that i will bake tomorrow morning....  (after taking this picture i wonder how all those people writing cooking blogs do it. some post a picture of each step in the baking/cooking process. how do they manage to make everything look neat and orderly? and how do they not get annoyed by cleaning their hands to use their camera every step of the way?!). in the left corner our new breakfast plates, arent they cute? (from some outlet sale 2 weeks ago). above the sink a little reminder taken from the usa to wash your hands to prevent spreading germs. thats such a weird thing to see everywhere in public bathrooms for a dutch person... i had to take that back home. i certainly still miss our american kitchen.... (i do have to admit it was often as messy as above, there was just more space to make... well, even more mess!). anyways, i did clean up the kitchen after taking this picture...

so... the last hour of this year is ticking away. amsterdam sounds awful the entire day already; anyone can set off fireworks today since 10 this morning and i wonder how many people are going crazy with that!! some bangs are so very, very loud! i dont think there has been one minute of silence today (the news told me some 70 million euros, nearly 100 million dollars, were spent on fireworks this year!).

now, all the best for the coming year! and who knows, perhaps i will be able to post every day in 2014.... ;)

Our pets

i have shown you these birds before, but since we hung some food for them, we can often admire them right in front of our living room window! its like having pets, but without the hassle! usually they come in the morning and the afternoon, sometimes they try to be on that little wire with 3 of them... they eat quite fast, but a lot falls on the ground (messy eaters! good they are on the other side of the window). it seems like they often peek into our living room, and as soon as i come too close, they fly away. when there is no food anymore, they still come and sit on the wire, every now and then, but much less then when there is food! to me its really interesting how quickly they figure out there is food....

Tiny kitchen...

here it is... our tiny tiny kitchen.... as opposed to our kitchen in the usa, this one is in a separate room, and not overlooking our living room. no fancy high countertops with barstools... just a tiny place with too much stuff.... cooking several things at the same time (like making dinner and cookies) is really a challenge, as there is not enough space to put your mixing bowls, cutting board, etc etc. and then there are the dirty dishes that need a place too as we dont have a dishwasher (and we dont do the dishes every day, then we could make do with just 2 plates, and we have several!!). in the usa we had so much space that we could keep appliances like toasters etc on the counter, but here we have to put them away after use.

as opposed to the usa, we separate our garbage here, so there is the general trash can, a plastic bag for all the plastics, a paper bag for all the paper, and then we have the glass bottles and the bottles with deposit. 

when one is in the kitchen, its not that easy for the other to pass, and that sometimes really gets on my nerves... as i have mentioned several times, the oven is also much tinier than the one in boston. on top of that, theres not a lot of space to maneuver, so i am not very good at putting a very hot, very heavy cast iron pot into the oven; i usually make tim do it. then i open and close the oven door to make it all go faster. however, to do that, i need to step onto the balcony, as tim is standing on the other side. when we bake bread its usually in the morning and more often than not i am still in my "robe" (such a funny word), so i guess it must be a pretty weird sight when i step outside just to open and close the oven door... :)

My bread!!

i tried baking sourdough bread a bit since i am back in the netherlands, but the first time was a total disaster (too much water for the flours here, they take up much less water!! so i had some weird, huge flat disk instead of a bread). then i just made simple breads with commercial yeast (and bought croissants, haha), but last week with all our stuff from the USA also my dutch oven arrived, that you can see here in the back (i got it from tim for my birthday last year), so it was really time for baking bread!! to get a nice bread you need to create some steam in the oven. this is to keep the dough moist and supple so that it can rise in the oven as much as possible (the cracks you see here were just cuts i made in the dough before putting it in the oven, then the yeast makes the bread rise and the cuts bloom open). to create steam you can put a tray of hot water underneath the loaf, but the easiest is actually just throwing the bread into the dutch oven. the enclosed compartment creates a steamy environment and without any effort the bread does what it should..... jaaajj!! i was so happy when they came out of the oven. the only frustration is that the ovens here are so very tiny... :( in the usa i could bake 2 loafs at the same time, but here only one fits, grrrrrr... the oven being so tiny also made it quite a hassle to get the hot pot in and out of the oven, i of course managed to burn my hand (luckily not too bad).

i just looked up why a dutch oven is called a dutch oven, and that was quite interesting! in the late 17th century, the dutch were just very good at making these pots. the brits liked them, imported them and called them dutch ovens. then the immigrants brought them to the us, and the name stayed. the settlers just loved the durability and versatility of the pots, and they became so valuable that people often put in their will what was to happen with their dutch ovens after their death!! wikipedia also tells me that the dutch oven is the official state cooking pot of texas, utah and arkansas... whatever that may mean...

ah, and dont you love our "delfts blue" tiles? i think they are amaaaazing! very fake ofcourse, just adhesive tile stickers that i bought somewhere on sale, but i think they instantly made our kitchen look so much better!

Our stuff.....

.... did indeed arrive today!! jaaaajjj!! i kept waking up this morning, and every time i thought the movers were somehow standing in front of our door (one time i even imagined them saying something in english... at 5 or 6 this morning). but... they called to let us know they would be arriving in 1.5 hours (they came from the UK). of course they rang the wrong doorbell (we live at the 4th floor but the house number is 3, but next to the bell it says 4 and then tim made a note saying its 3, and so everyone always rings at our neighbor, who is not too happy about that). compared to the real city center of amsterdam, the streets here are not too tiny. but they are one-way, and apparently too small for the gigantic moving truck (they had stuff from others as well), so they parked on the main street. buuuhhhh, i really looked forward to seeing the huge truck coming into the street so that i could take a picture from the balcony. they had carts, tim helped them and in no time all 19 boxes and our lovely bench were in the hallway downstairs; and i never got to see the actual truck!!

we didnt drag them all upstairs. right now we dont have enough space and also still need to paint the bedroom. but its so nice to have some of the stuff back again!! and yep.... as you can see above, i had that huge plastic container of cheese balls shipped home... i just couldnt resist, and when there was still some space i decided i could nicely use it to pack some of all the spices, seeds and flours i had collected in the us.... and next to it my cook books! jaaaajj, so nice to have those back... (especially the bread book). theres still more kitchen stuff... so i will have to be creative in finding space for it all in the already overflowing kitchen..... 

we bought elvis a few weeks back here in amsterdam (i never cared for elvis until we visisted graceland.......). ah, and to the far right you can see (part of) our orange bread box hanging on the wall.... i do hope the walls are strong enough... ;)

From Boston...

tomorrow... if all goes well, we should get our stuff that we shipped from boston. these boxes, to be precise... i wonder whether they still look like that. i hope they do..... may 29 they left our place in the usa, so thats ore than 2 months! i remember some of the things we packed and i am eager to see that stuff again (like the mug above... i cannot comment as to how that came into our possession, but now at least i can pretend, even in amsterdam, i am in the IHOP.... ;) ). the kitchen stuff (like pie pans and my marble dough roller), my sports clothing (3 pairs of running socks is not enough!!), oooh, and of course my shoes... all my shoes.. 

friday we last minute had to pay some customs fee to ensure they would deliver our stuff tomorrow. apparently the container with our stuff was chosen for a random check, and we had to pay the extra costs for that (100 dollars). quite a bit annoying, and not part of the deal. i hope it doesnt mean they went through all our stuff......

so now its time to sleep. all those boxes somehow have to get up 4 stairs, and we were too cheap to pay the moving company to do that for us...... ah, it will save me from going to the gym to do weight lifting... 

OK, hot...

this afternoon the tiny kitchen reached a toasty 34C (over 93F). the living room was only a tiny bit cooler (31C). the house has a flat roof and we are on the upper floor..  yes, very close to the sun at the 4th floor (5th for americans).... ;)

somehow i decided i should just bake some bread. at least the oven took less time to heat up, but the dough didnt behave as it should (added too much water; the flours here are different and i havent figured the right measurements out yet, buuuhhh. and of course, it was a little too hot for the yeast.)

so above you see the kitchen. its not much bigger than what you see here, really, grrr. on the other side is the countertop with the stove, oven and no space for a dishwasher (or fridge, its in the next room, grrr again. the fridge that is, there is no space anywhere (or money) for a dishwasher!)). if one is in the kitchen, its not easy for the other to pass, theres simply not enough space (or maybe that should be an incentive to spend more time at the gym...?). at least tim recently hung some rods so all the pans are hanging on the wall, that really cleared up some cabinet space..

and in the mean time, its still hot, even now, well after midnight. it cooled off a little, but not enough for a good night of sleep, im sure. and guess what, it was record breaking hot. for the netherlands that is. and on this particular day (so what kind of record is that!?). and not in amsterdam, but in the south of the netherlands. it was 36.9 C at some point (98.42F), somewhere, and thats still less hot than what we experienced in boston, or in the desert during our road trips... :) reminds me, i should post some pictures of that one of these days!

oh, and i just love this tiny clock! i got it from ikea last time we were there, and you can flip it to any of the four sides, then it lights up a particular color, and gives you either the time, temperature, timer, or the alarm setting... perfect for a tiny kitchen... 

Amsterdam street....

this afternoon we had to be in this street... when we arrived it turned out to not be a street at the moment! so we parked our bikes and walked... as you see, there are still lots of bikes everywhere, and some people were just biking regardless (as many dutch do, but im not good at that). here i bought my first things off the dutch craigslist (i.e. marktplaats); a 70s (i think) breadbox! its huge, and painted in orange with flowers. and... you can hang it on the wall, so thats what tim did when we got home. i like it so much! perfect for our homebaked bread...

we also completely changed the setup in the living room. if you look at this pic; we now put the couch in the corner with the pink wall. but.... that really required the white wall painted into some bright color... so today we bought the brightest orange we could find, and now that white wall is orange... (pictures some other time). a bit extreme perhaps, but we both really like it. ah, and we finally got some rain. ofcourse right when we were out biking; we got soaked entirely.... but after all that heat without any rain it was kind of fun, actually....

Reporting live.....

... from amsterdam. im currently sitting in our 33C (91.4F) living room. the heat is crazy! and so it was yesterday, and sunday. and the days before... but today and yesterday are the hottest. as opposed to boston, houses, shops (except supermarkets of course), and even the local gym are not equipped with (proper) airconditioning, as its usually not this hot, and not for this long. i was just enjoying the light breeze by opening the balcony doors on either side of the apartment. a tiny breeze, but still... then i needed something from the kitchen and saw there was lots and LOTS of smoke, clearly not from a BBQ or something. ash particles were coming up too, and had already landed in our bedroom. what was it? then i saw that the idiot downstairs neighbour (i have no clue who they are, but now i know they are idiots), decided to just burn all the trees they had cut down from the neglected garden a week ago. that was all very, very dry ofcourse, and was burning like crazy. pfew, was i happy i hadnt just hung out the white laundry!!

i texted tim, mostly to figure out whether i should perhaps call the police or something. but before i knew, i heard the sirens and police and 2 firefighter trucks arrived. by then the neighbours had already put out the fire themselves, and from what i could see they were not opening the door for the police!!

now they are all gone again, and its too hot to get the vacuum out to get rid of all the ash.... :( wonder what eventually happened..... it was interesting to see how many people suddenly appeared to be home, standing on their balconies to see what was going on....

Purple flowers

im a little lazy today, so here the flowers again, they opened!

i hope kay can identify them, because i actually dont know what kind of flowers these are... :)

Yeeeeeeejjjj, flowers!!

one of the reasons its great to be back in the netherlands; i can buy cheap flowers again. and everywhere.... okok, above no flowers yet, but they are about to come out, maybe tomorrow... and they will be pretty and purple! its still warm here, hot even. although we have to miss the pool right downstairs like we had in boston, we now at least have a little bit of outside space. a balcony on either side of the apartment! in the morning there is sun on one, and in the evening theres sun on the other. another great thing i have to get used to again; its light out until after 10!! like really light... in boston it was always dark before 9 (and in winter, like here, around 5).

stuff im not so happy about; the tiny, tiny kitchen. and no dishwasher anymore.... buhuhuhuh.

Beautiful day!

today the weather here was  great!!! we got up early. earier than the pool was open, so we started painting the living room until we could go swimming. theres a olympic sized outdoor pool nearby.. i guess it has been at least 3 years since i swam in a real pool. compared to the little pool in our apartment complex, this one seems enormous and swimming one lap suddenly seemed endless.... really nice...! then some sun, definitely much less strong than in boston (but tim still got a little bit of sunburn),  and more painting... the living room should finally be done by tomorrow! 

ah, the above picture was taken on july 4th, independence day, last year. we were on cape cod and had a great day of biking and swimming....