A Dogably Pawfect Day #37 Welcome to the Bark Side…

Also visit Sean @ Just A Jeep Guy,
Rick‘s @ Its a Ruff Ruff World,
Ray @ Ray’s Cowboy [NSFW] and
Buddy Bear @ One Step At A Time [NSFW] and join in all the doggy fun.

La Cucina #03

Red Onion Soup Gratinee

Makes 4 servings

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 60 minutes

Shopping List:

• 55 gr or 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 gr or ⅓ teaspoon salt
• 3 large red onions, thinly sliced
• 1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1400 ml or 1 can 48 fl oz chicken broth
• 400 ml or 1 can 14 fl oz beef broth
• 120 ml or ½ cup red wine
• 15 ml or 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 sprigs fresh parsley
• 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 15 ml or 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 4 thick slices French or Italian bread
• 8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature [the real thing, not processed cheese squares]
• 60 gr or ½ cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
• 4 gr or 4 pinches paprika

TO MAKE:

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions.
3. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.
4. Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot.
5. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot.
6. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove and discard the herbs.
8. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
9. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.
10. Preheat oven broiler or grill.
11. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides.
12. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.
13. Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet.
14. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup.
15. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slices of Gruyere cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese.
16. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.
17. Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown.
18. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal.
19. Serve immediately!

Note: Make sure you cook the onions as suggested to almost a carmelized soft, syrupy, consistency. You may not need to adjust the salt in the end; the combination of beef and chicken broth and the Worcestershire and balsamic vinegar may be salty enough for many.

ENJOY !

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 618
Total Fat: 35.9 g
Cholesterol: 114 mg
Sodium: 550 mg
Total Carbs: 39.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.2 g
Protein: 29.7 g

PDF of this recipe: 20120126-Red-Onion-Soup-Gratinee

More Rest

I thought I did my best by staying indoors and not too much walking, but in the end it turns out I need more rest.

For the coming week the main room will be my bedroom, and if I have to, the bathroom.

This morning when I went for my check up my toe looked worse, the skin fell off and an X-ray was needed to see if the bone was infected too. I almost thought I would arrive home with a toe less, but luckily that’s not the case. For the coming month I have to take antibiotics, and they’ve warned me for the side effects in advance. I prefer stomach cramps over losing a toe. Because when one toe goes a next will follow… [lets not go there].

My next appointment is already next Thursday, just to see if not wearing a support stocking helps the regeneration of the skin or the blood flow, and then back on Tuesday, and on, and on, etcetera…

So it’s off to bed, where there’s no computer, but loads of books. And later tonite I can always fold out the couch into a bed and watch some TV.

 

Best Of Amsterdam #04 The Store Dutchmen & women Miss Most

There’s one store most Amsterdammers, but also most Dutchmen and women miss most when they are abroad. HEMA, originally an acronym for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam [Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam]. It’s a dime store chain with branches all over the Netherlands, but also Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and France.

Products missed most are rookworst [smoked sausage], they sell millions of them and sometimes they are even sold out! Only in the Netherlandse they’re sold freshly cooked. But also a saucijzenbroodje [sausage roll] it has nothing to do with aformentioned smoked sausage.

You find branches all through the city and the suburbs. The small branch under it’s HQ sells even stuff other stores don’t have.

Quote #58

A Dogably Pawfect Day #36

And now for something totally different…

Bradley Cooper!

Sometimes you don’t need dogs.

Also visit woofylisious Sean @ Just-a-Jeep-Guy and our other dog-friend Rick @ Its a Ruff Ruff World, and join in all the doggy fun.

Where Are My Dancing Shoes?

Last week I got an invite for the Same Sex Salsa lesson during the PinkNoord drink, which will be next week on Thursday. Good friend and neighbor Corrie also talked about it from her vacation address in Turkey and said we should go together. I’m sorry Corrie we’re not the same sex!

This afternoon at the bookshop across the street an acquaintance asked me the same question. Yes I will attend, but no I will not dance. The rest I’ve to take the coming weeks comes first and my cha-cha heels… are standing on a shelf in Phoenix, Arizona [Spo] and don’t fit me anyway.

BTW, Corrie will bring her ex. She doesn’t need me unless she wants sore toes because of my big feet.

Savoury Chocolate Dish #10

Around this time of the month all good New Year intentions have gone out the window and people are back to their normal living. You don’t have to start on the first day of the new year, you can start again tomorrow!

Spaghetti with Chocolate Sauce

Makes 2 servings

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes

Shopping List:

• 60 gr or 2 ounce spaghetti
• 70 gr or 2.5 ounce plain dark chocolate, grated
• 50 ml or 1.7 fl oz cream
• 3 tablespoons pear juice [sirop]
• 2 pears [small can], drained, cut in cubes
• 40 gr or 1.5 ounce chopped nuts

TO MAKE:

1. Bring the cream slowly to the boil and temper the heat.
2. Add a spoon of chocolate to the cream and stir, do this until all chocolate is dissolved.
3. Add the pear sirop to the chocolate cream mix and stir.
4. Pour it into a bowl and let it cool
5. Cook the pasta in 10 minutes
6. Meanwhile chop the nuts
7. Drain the pasta and put in a small bowl
8. Add the pear cubes and pour over the chocolate sauce
9. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the sauce
10. Serve while it’s still warm

Note: The chopped nuts can be hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios or walnuts

ENJOY !

PDF of this recipe: 20120119-Spaghetti-Chocolate-Sauce

Rest

Taking a rest is a hard thing for me to do. Even when they are doctor’s orders. Yesterday my rehabilitation specialist forced me to take some steps back.

I’ve got 2 wounds on my right foot and one on the left, the largest one is under my right foot and measures less than an inch square. How I got it I don’t know, but when I went to bed on Thursday there was a red spot on the floor which I brushed away with my sock and my first reaction was “BLOOD !”. Stripping my support stockings and grabbing the hand mirror to look what caused it and it showed a bloody blister.

My medical kit with special iodine, Aquacel AG, adhesive plasters and felt which is always within reach was now  great help too. I cut out the felt like a horse-shoe, pressed out the left over moisture from the blister, added iodine, a cut off piece of the Aquacel, the largest plaster I have and stuck it under my foot. Then the horse-shoe cut felt was stuck over it and all secured with a broad piece of paper plaster. One done another two to go.

On Friday I called the department to see if they could fit me in on short notice, it was hard until I asked how they liked the chocolates… I was squeezed in at 9.40. Little did I know what time I would arrive on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning the alarm clock went off at seven, I booked a trip to be picked up at 8 so if things would go alright I would arrive around nine, just enough time to get a large cappuccino and something to eat. Just before 7.30 my cell rang and the driver said she would be “a bit” early since she had a lot of passengers around eight and couldn’t take me onboard then. So I arrived before the department opened at 8. I brought some ‘bribes’ with me, the same chocolates they liked so much.

They cut away some lose flesh, a chunk of callus and then they patched me up again. Then I could go for my Java. I was on my way back home at 9.30, ten minutes before I would have my appointment. And since I do almost nothing, drinking tea, reading a book, watching TV with my feet on a low stool, or taking a nap in my chair during the afternoon, I’m not really tired. Before I go to bed in the evening all the dressings come off, I check the wounds with the hand-mirror and start re-dressing it again, which is far easier when you sit on the other side BTW. Thank the Goddess for cohesive elastic fixation bandages! You just have to apply it right so it will be still in place the next morning and otherwise you just start over again.

Best Of Amsterdam #03 Say Cheese !!!

Best of Amsterdam cheese can be found on Runstraat 7. This is in shopping paradise the 9 Streets [9 Straatjes]. And the name of the shop “De Kaaskamer“.

They’ve got all sorts of Dutch cheese, straight from small suppliers. Look, smell and taste. Craftsmanship and tradition in a very special cheese shop filled from floor to ceiling with the finest cheeses. They also sell wines, homemade salads, special hams, home roasted nuts and takeaway sandwiches.

De Kaaskamer
Runstraat 7
1016 GJ Amsterdam

And in case you want to buy online, follow this link to e-Cheese. [same company]

Click on the map for a broader view