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Thanks for visiting my website! Think of this site as my online home and you're my guest. You will find information about day to day recipes, as well as photos I consider fantastic from places I have been to and I like to share .
We hope you enjoy and come back often!
RECIPES
You will find cooking tips and recipes from my future cookbook . Occasionally, I'll post recipes from dishes in response to your requests.
We hope you enjoy and come back often!
RECIPES
You will find cooking tips and recipes from my future cookbook . Occasionally, I'll post recipes from dishes in response to your requests.
First BBQ I have made in Belgium,for a dear friend
I have arrived in Belgium in November 2014. In the short time of accommodation to this beautiful country and its famous ' Belgian fries, fabulous chocolate and fantastic art-like cities ', it constantly popped the question "what you do/ work ?"
All my life I have cooked... so there :) I cook !
And so, it has been followed by a second question - "Can you prepare a small b-day dinner for 20? Just family."
Of course I have accepted. It was for me a challenge. With all the years I have been cooking, and working in this all different places from a cultural point of view, I have tried to put together a menu to satisfy the belgian exigence.
With the time passing and getting closer to the dead time limit, I received constantly news - "there will be 25 ...30 , ... can we make it for 40?" At the end we got to the magic number of 60 people. I had to rethink the menu over and over again to fit it to something I can do by myself, alone. Well ... to make a dinner for 60, is not easy. And to make it alone, you need to have super powers. Peter, my dear one, has supported and helped me in everything. From building up the menu adding his 'Flanders' touch, to shopping, tasting, and helping me with the preparations.
And so, we agreed to change from a formal dinner to a fancy barbecue.
Traditional Romanian filled up eggs, Palestinian falafel, Italian cherry tomatoes with mozzarella and basil, French paté with grapes, Spanish boquerones with olives, Belgian paprika soup and of course , famous smoked salmon with caviar and soft-herb cheese cream - formed our appetizer.
Of course we wanted to make it special all the way along, and next to the traditional red and white bbq sausages, burgers and
satés , we added Sweet-Chilli Thai Coleslaw, Turkish oriental salad, red Porto sauce, mushroom sauce and special bbq-adapted
'pollo al ajillo'
All my life I have cooked... so there :) I cook !
And so, it has been followed by a second question - "Can you prepare a small b-day dinner for 20? Just family."
Of course I have accepted. It was for me a challenge. With all the years I have been cooking, and working in this all different places from a cultural point of view, I have tried to put together a menu to satisfy the belgian exigence.
With the time passing and getting closer to the dead time limit, I received constantly news - "there will be 25 ...30 , ... can we make it for 40?" At the end we got to the magic number of 60 people. I had to rethink the menu over and over again to fit it to something I can do by myself, alone. Well ... to make a dinner for 60, is not easy. And to make it alone, you need to have super powers. Peter, my dear one, has supported and helped me in everything. From building up the menu adding his 'Flanders' touch, to shopping, tasting, and helping me with the preparations.
And so, we agreed to change from a formal dinner to a fancy barbecue.
Traditional Romanian filled up eggs, Palestinian falafel, Italian cherry tomatoes with mozzarella and basil, French paté with grapes, Spanish boquerones with olives, Belgian paprika soup and of course , famous smoked salmon with caviar and soft-herb cheese cream - formed our appetizer.
Of course we wanted to make it special all the way along, and next to the traditional red and white bbq sausages, burgers and
satés , we added Sweet-Chilli Thai Coleslaw, Turkish oriental salad, red Porto sauce, mushroom sauce and special bbq-adapted
'pollo al ajillo'
Then came the fun part: cook and taste. And we went back to try, and returned to cooking ... and we were finally done and prepared for the big event.
It was a long, hard but fun experience.
And then the most demanding of juries formed by friends and family issued its verdict:
This is wonderful !!
It was a long, hard but fun experience.
And then the most demanding of juries formed by friends and family issued its verdict:
This is wonderful !!
Thank you Ria Van Loey Meeusen for giving me the opportunity of this fantastic, one of a kind day !