Food is pretty great. I love both making food and eating food. You can find all of my recipes and restaurant reviews here. If you’re looking for other food blogs or ideas for dinner, check out the foodie blogs I read.
Food For Thought – Hot Chocolate
I love hot chocolate in the winter, especially with a ton of marshmallows. While the store bought stuff is passable, when you’re desperate, it’s fairly easy to make your own.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons of cocoa
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of cream
- 1 cup of milk
- Marshmallows
Directions
Blend together cocoa, sugar, and cream until it forms a thick paste. Warm milk in a saucepan. Pour into a mug and mix with cocoa mixture. Add as many marshmallows as humanly possible.
Food For Thought – Breakfast Bowls
“Breakfast is a notoriously difficult meal to serve with a flourish.” -Clement Freud
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Biscuits
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup Crisco
- ⅓ cup milk
Vegetable Hash
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 cups spinach
- 3 medium Roma tomatoes
- 4 button mushrooms
- 8 – 10 leaves of fresh basil
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Directions
For the biscuits:
- Heat oven to 450°F.
- Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl. With a fork, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk and mix until dough forms a sticky ball.
- Roll or press dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with floured 2-inch round cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Serve warm.
For the hash:
- Dice garlic and onions and add to a saute pan. Saute for 6 minutes until onions are clear.
- Quarter tomatoes and add to saute pan. Saute for 4 minutes.
- Slice mushrooms and add to saute pan. Saute for 2 minutes.
- Add spinach and basil.
- Fry two eggs.
- Break two two biscuits in half, place in the bottom of a bowl. Top with half of the vegetable hash. Add half of the shredded cheese and top with fried eggs.
Food For Thought – Tomatoes and Eggs
“Television is a golden goose that lays scrambled eggs; and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar. Anyway, more people like scrambled eggs than caviar.” -Lee Loevinger
This is a traditional Chinese dish, very popular in Beijing but not found in many Chinese restaurants outside of China. It is extremely easy to make and very tasty.
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 8 oz. fresh tomato (cut into thin wedges)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 cups rice, cooked
Directions
In a bowl, beat eggs with sesame oil, pepper, and salt.
In a large saute pan or wok, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add egg mixture and stir frequently, so that eggs form lumps. Once eggs are cooked, set aside. Wash out pan.
Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to pan and heat. Add tomatoes and stir frequently. After 3 minutes, add water and sugar. Cover and allow to cook for another 3 minutes. Add eggs and scallions and stir for 1 minute. Serve over rice.
Options
Stir fry mushrooms and leeks separately and add to the dish at the end.
Toss in a handful of peanuts at the end of the cooking process for some extra crunch.
Food For Thought – French Onion Soup
“Onion soup sustains. The process of making it is somewhat like the process of learning to love. It requires commitment, extraordinary effort, time, and will make you cry.” -Ronni Lundy
I tried this french onion soup recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s blog and it was amazing. You might remember Ruhlman from the Las Vegas episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. I changed the recipe slightly, to fit the ingredient’s that I had in the house.
Ingredients 
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 6 lbs white onions, thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 4 cups water
- Salt and pepper
- 1 baguette
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheese
Directions
In a large stock pot, melt the butter. Add the onions, salt them, and cook them on low heat until they turn an amber color, stirring occasionally. This takes about 67 million hours. I cooked the onions for 5 hours the night before and another two hours on the day I made the soup.
Slice the baguette into ½ inch thick slices and toast them at 100F for thirty minutes.
When the onions turn amber in color, add pepper, water, wine, and vinegar. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.
In a oven-safe bowl, ladle a serving of soup, top with bread, and cover with cheese. Broil until did cheese is melted and serve immediately.
Options
If you don’t have bowls which are safe for broiling, you can place them in the oven and bake them at 350F until cheese is melted.
Try different kinds of onions for different flavors.
Dining Out – Cafe De V
I can’t say I’ve been especially impressed with the food culture in the Netherlands. The Dutch don’t seem to be “foodies” in the way I’m used to and nearly every cafe in town offers a basic menu with basic options. Even the Indian, Thai, and Indonesian restaurants are pretty bland. So when I was searching for a place to go for dinner for my birthday, I wasn’t especially optimistic about my culinary options.
I found Cafe De V through the Wiki Travel page on Delft. I checked their website (Dutch) and was extremely impressed. The website was fresh and contained all of the necessary information (unlike many other restaurant websites.) I met several friends there and the wait staff was friendly and ensured we had a table for five.
I wanted to try all of the appetizers (Dutch) and we ended up ordering three: Zucchini Pancakes (Courgette Pannenkoekjes), Carpaccio, and the Curry Cream Soup (Kerrie Roomsoep.) The first two were tasty but the soup was stellar. The sweetness of the mangoes mixed with the spiciness of the curry was fabulous.
Curry Cream Soup
For our main courses (Dutch) we ordered: the Black Angus Burger, the Club Sandwich, the Sirloin and the steak. The club sandwich was not, in any sense, a Club sandwich. It was more like an exploded spanakopita. However, it was really, really tasty. The Sirloin was perfectly cooked and was served with a large wedge of spinach pie. The steak was unremarkable and the burger was well prepared, but served on a Foccacia roll, which I didn’t care for.
Black Angus Burger
Then we all ordered dessert (Dutch.) We had: pear cake, vanilla curd, and creme brulee. The pear cake was delicious and served warm. The vanilla curd was sour but served with honey and grilled pineapple. Eaten all together, it was delicious. The creme brulee was medicore.
Creme Brulee
I didn’t check the wine list. The beer selection was adequate; their list wasn’t impressively long but some of what they had was good quality. The price may have been the best feature. The meal, for five people with drinks, came to around €160. If you’re in town, it is certainly worth checking out.
Jameson, of course.
Cafe De V
Voorstraat 9
Delft
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