February fun

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. We took it easy, since after the NT2-II exam last week I was extremely tired, and for some reason the boy is also not sleeping very well. So I had the time to figure out what's going to happen with the blog. And I even added the "posts you might also like" widget, complete with  a little image. You will find it at the end of each post, so you can easily navigate the blog. I had been wanting to add said widget for a while and only now I could took the time to figure it out. If you are looking for something specific you can always use the search function on the right, or use the labels to get all the posts on a specific topic.  

So, on to business. I have made a rough plan for future posts and I will commit myself to blog on a regular basis (and not pretty much at random as I had been doing). January Joy made me realize deadlines and structure are actually helpful. I will be here 3 times per week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday will probably be a "life/what's in my mind" kind of post. The other two days will be either "Travel-Places", "Adventures in the Kitchen", "Building our home/ DIY" or whatever ramble I come up with. I hope you will stick around. Also, feel free to email me at any time (poppiesandicecream@gmail.com) with suggestions, questions, or free chocolate and know that I absolutely love your comments, so don't be shy :).

This weekend was kind of exciting, as I did a veterinary consultation pretty much for the first time on my own (meaning not while interning at a clinic, under the supervision of a senior Vet). On Friday afternoon a friend of mine told me that her cat walked on something sharp and had a small wound in one of her paws. It was since then limping, avoiding to put its paw down when walking. So on Saturday morning we went to visit the cute cat. It had indeed a very small wound, which is healing properly. I checked the temperature, all the vital signs, its state of alertness and how it was walking. The wound is not infected or swollen and the little critter has no fever. Good signs. Moreover the cat was very playful, eating, drinking, jumping around and even sneaking outside when it gets the chance. I advised them to disinfect the wound every day and keep an eye on the cat. If it continues to limp after a week, it should be taken to the vet for X-rays and further analysis, but I abducted and adducted its leg (I folded it and felt it) and it let me do it, did not seem in pain and did not "feel" broken. So I think it will be fine. 

We got to eat a tamale on February 2, candlemass, national tamale eating day in Mexico.

What was also cool is that we did an exchange of services, a bartering of sorts. You see, this girls is starting her own business, selling tamales and other Mexican food, and so she "paid" us with (delicious) tamales and some pickled jalapeño chiles. We also took advantage of the last bit of the sales and I finally, finally found corduroy pants that fit well and were not outrageously expensive (we got a 50% discount yay). I will finally be warm again. I used to have red and fucsia pants, but I wore them until they ripped apart and I hadn't been able to replace them, it is so hard to find good jeans / pants. How was your weekend?

Joy all year

Joy all year will be my new mantra. It took a while for it to dawn on me,  I like to believe the word found me, not the other way around. I was very inspired by Fiona's search for "Brave", her word for last year, and how it made her grow and learn. I wanted to have such a guideline for this year. Sure, I had kind of chosen Patience at the beginning of 2012, and perhaps, just perhaps I became a tiny bit more patient, albeit by force (though the boy still says I am the most impatient person that he knows). This year I want to make sure I will be happy. I made the decision to strive for it. I have come to realize (the hard way) that how I feel depends on me, solely on me. There will always be situations that are completely out of our control. But we do have the power, the control of how we react to those situations. And so I will continue on January Joy's mood and continue to search, chase and be aware of the little gems of joy that we can find everyday. After all, regardless of what the future has in store for us, we only have to live for today. And I can choose to be happy today. It's in my hands. It turns out Joy is also Fiona's word for this year (I asked and she totally agreed on it, too, being my compass for 2013). And I was also inspired by the fabulous Zoe, from Conversation pieces, and her argument that we should say "Happy all year" instead of "Happy new year" as we hug and kiss each other on New Years' Eve. So join me on this journey as I focus on finding Joy everywhere, on being present every moment.

*Image by pink polka dog.

#January Joy 31: Re-evaluate

 It is the last day of January, it went so fast. I want to keep on going. I mean, I want to keep on looking for the joy (but more on that coming soon). Florence's prompts, this being the last one, are over. I am so happy I jumped in and took the challenge because I feel like I've learnt a lot in one short month. First of all I learnt (remembered?) that I work best under pressure, when I have fixed goals and a date by which I should achieve them. I have set a calendar with things I'd like to accomplish, some of which I am so excited about, that I can't wait to tell you. One of those was taking the bull by the horns and finally presenting the NT2-II exam. It's over now (and as I write this I feel brain dead). Except it's not really over  because I am not sure whether I will pass it or not (listening and speaking were extremely hard). Anyhow, I think I will start using an agenda again. Or follow the advice of MayiCarles and get organized.

So... let's look back. I never showed you the result of the orange dye on my hair. I ended up choosing a blondish-copper kind of color instead of one of the red ones because I didn't want the color to be too old-lady-like. Since I had 1 year old highlights that were sun-bleached and had become very light, the color went in really well in those parts. The rest of my hair is still dark brown (though you see the reddish hue under the light), but now the contrast between the dark natural part, and the dyed parts is less harsh. I quite liked it.  We went on a date... for breakfast. Breakfast dates should be a must. They are absolutely the best, and breakfast food is so delicious.

We made a list of the places we'd like to travel to this year, we booked some tickets, and we were able to (unexpectedly) scratch London off that list. We went for (several) winter walks and I was happy to discover the first flowers of the year are already in bloom. Maybe they are crazy, but I like to think Spring is just around the corner. As for reducing my sugar intake... the complete sugar free diet lasted (only) for a week. But, but... I discovered that I can drink herbal teas without any sugar. I got a bunch of those (on sale) at Tesco and will drink black tea and coffee (which I am unable to drink without sugar) only every now and then as a special, rare treat. I don't like to go fully extreme on things because I am like teenagers, as soon as something is "forbidden" I want it even more. But we do keep an eye on labels and make sure there is no added sugar in the foodstuffs we buy. For instance, no more tomato sauce in a jar for us.  Banning sugar altogether was not going to work for me. After all the budget talk, we finally went to the bank and joined our accounts. And we are due to start our salsa lessons on February 5th. That's next week! Marcela might have convinced me to give running another try, with this program.

 All in all I loved January Joy. And here's why, in Rebecca's words:

"There’s always a reason to feel under the weather, a hard day at work, miserable weather, life not working out the way you had planned. #JanuaryJoy was about making time for yourself, finding joy in the little things, feeling proud of things you can do, making the most of new experiences and fitting in things you never manage to prioritise."

La vuelta al Mundo: Historias en mi cama

Dreaming of London.

 Este mes para el juego fotográfico de "La vuelta al mundo", el tema propuesto por Jackie  fue "Historias en mi cama". Según las instrucciones se trataba de:

<<...capturar trazos de nuestra cotidianidad... se puede ir mas alla de la vida cotidiana, puede ser fantasia, sensualidad y cualquier cosa que tu quieras que sea. Lo que nos interesa es la vida en las camas. Desde siempre he utilizado mi cama para leer, para ver películas amapuchada, para probarme ropa, escuchar música, organizar mis gavetas, conversar con mis mejores amigas o para saltar con mis hijas. Cuando viaja a España de vacaciones de verano, mis tías y abuela se desesperaban un poco por esta costumbre mia de usar la cama como escenario natural de un monton de actividades. Para ellas era algo asi como una pieza sagrada de museo: una vez rigurosamente tendida en la mañana era practicamente pecado arrugarla otra vez. Como usas tu cama? Con quien duermes? Que ves desde allí? Cómo se ve desde arriba? Como te ves tu en ella? Que texturas tiene? Que sensaciones evoca?>>

Si no conoces a Jackie, te recomiendo que visites su blog  Casi en Serio ya que es como una dosis de alegría. Me encanta seguir la cadena internacional de fotos tomadas por aquí, por allá y por todas partes. Todo el mundo puede participar, las instrucciones están aquí. Y aqui está mi contribución.
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This month for the photographic game  " La vuelta al mundo",  Jackie challenged us to show the world the stories that happen in our beds. Normally our beds are the scenery for all kinds of activities: reading, organizing, relaxing, watching movies... It was about documenting those little gems of everyday that make life special. If you don't know what I am talking about, here is the link to Casi en Serio, Jackie's blog that is like an overdose on joy and loveliness. Anyone can join this game: every month a new photographic challenge is prompted, if you are interested the instructions are here. 

Packing for London...

The lovely Misha, chilling while I chilled!

#January Joy 30: Make something naughty to eat: Caramelized pineapple Crème brûlée.

Finally, I am back home. What a long exam that was (from 10h to 15h) and I've only been through half of it. The famous NT2-II  (Nederlands als tweede taal) exam is divided in 4 parts: writing, speaking, listening and reading. You can do each part separately, but if you are intense like me you do 2 parts each day. I am done with writing and speaking, and tomorrow I'll do the rest. Then I have to wait 5 weeks for the results. 

For anyone who might be interested, there have been some brand new changes to this exam. I can only assume this is part of their objective to attract only highly educated immigrants (argh). As of this month, one part of the written exam (which used to be a classic pen and paper test) is now fully digitalized. You are given a computer and you have to write directly in a word-processor kind of program. Here's the catch: not only do they evaluate that the grammar, spelling and use of language is correct. They also check if you format your text accordingly: as in they actually grade you on the use of feautures such as bold, italic, bullets and paragraph spacing. What! Not everyone is going to be a secretary in their life. Not everyone will have to write reports. I for one would be happy working mostly in a farm full of cows and goats, no fancy formatting skills needed. What irritates me the most is that many of the immigrants that are so often criticized come from countries with very difficult situations where they may not have had access to computers. Why are we been graded for computer literacy skills on a language test? It is so completely irrelevant and it strikes me as elitism. Moreover, as of January 1st 2013 the price of the exam DOUBLED. And if I understand properly (and this depends on the rules of the city where you live) the subsidies for a Dutch course that used to be given for free to any foreigner who requested them, in an effort to facilitate the "integration" process have been removed (I never got this subsidy because I was stupid enough to independently enroll myself to a course, and then they never refunded me for it). They keep making it more difficult, and the people in the worst situations, those who are the most vulnerable are the ones who will suffer it. To add to all of this, they make you pay at the public libraries (how are they public then? In Spain and Switzerland anyone can make use of public libraries for free). But they don't have any problem complaining about "the others", how they are here to take your jobs and how they do not want to be part of the society. I think I better stop ranting.

So let us change to happier subjects and focus on making sweet things. One of the first things I knew I wanted in our kitchen was a blowtorch. I would then be able to caramelize things like lemon meringue pie or yes, crème brûlées. We had had our (plasticky) torch for a while, the boy was not even sure it was safe (I got it on sale once), but we recently got some gas and gave it a try. It was magic!  These pineapple-cinammon crème brûlées are delicious and very easy to make. I made sure I found a recipe that did not require to bake them au-bain-marie as I don't have an oven pan who would fit all my ramequins. They were so good, we ate them in a day and a half. 

What you'll need
1 can pineapple, in slices.
½ cups brown sugar
1-¼ cup  cream
1 cup  milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 whole egg yolks
⅓ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 sugar, for caramelizing. 

What to do
Heat oven to 260ºC , and position oven rack 6 inches from the broiler. Arrange your pineapple slices on a buttered oven pan. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the pineapple. Place the baking sheet under the broiler, and broil until the pineapple turns golden brown. This will take about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Center the oven rack and reduce temperature to 90ºC. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk and cinnamon until it just begins to boil. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until well blended but not airy. While whisking, slowly drizzle in about one quarter of the hot cream-milk-cinammon infusion. Still whisking, slowly add the remaining hot cream. Do NOT stop whisking at any moment. Doing this will prevent the eggs from curdling.

Arrange the caramelized pineapple pieces in the bottom of your baking dishes.  Tap your custard mix against the counter to get rid of air bubbles, and pour it in your ramequins, over the pineapple slices.
Bake the crème brûlées for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the centers are set.  To tell if they are done, tap the sides of the dish, and the custards should hold firm. Now place the custards on a cooling rack until they reach room temperature. Cover each dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours. We were so impatient that we just put them in the balcony for about half an hour until they were cold (see the cold European weather has its advantages). 

When ready to serve, sprinkle the top of each custard evenly with about 1 tablespoon of sugar. Using a blowtorch, brown the sugar until it bubbles and colors. Repeat for each custard. If you do not own a blowtorch, no worries, you could also caramelize the sugar using your oven.
 Sprinkle the custards with the sugar topping.  Place the pan under the broiler. Watch the custards carefully. Depending on your oven, it can take a few seconds or a few minutes to caramelize the sugar. When the sugar bubbles and browns, remove the custards from the oven. Let them sit a few minutes before serving.

Studying, answering questions....

Hello. This is just a short message to let you know that there will be a  "#January Joy 30: make something naughty to eat" post coming later.  It's just that right now I am busy busy studying as I will be presenting my official Dutch exam (at least 2 parts of 4) in a few short hours.  Wish me luck. (Otherwise, nothing really happens except we lose some cash).

PS. That is the boy grandpa's Dutch-Spanish thick dictionary from the "Real Academia de la Lengua Española" printed in 1947. Such a gem.