My Weekend in Pictures

Inquiring minds want to know "what have you done this weekend?" This meme hosted by Gattina helps you to remember what you did on the weekend. I agree, weekends always seem to whiz by so fast, one tends to forget. That would be a pity because they're precious moments, worth remembering. That's why I love participate and look back on Mondays to share these moments with you. My weekend in pictures ...



There is no better way to celebrate the weekend but with a little Pastis on a cold and gray Saturday. This French aperitif is instant sunshine!



We were invited for supper by our daughter Patsy, so I made us a light salad with pink grapefruit and Roquefort cheese for lunch.


I made a dressing with the juice of the grapefruit and added a few drops of olive oil with chili pepper which we had bought at Oil and Vinegar the previous day.


As you can see, Patsy was over the moon with the olive oil gift set we had bought her. It contains the same chili pepper olive oil combined with another one from Italy. ( I forgot the name!)


Turned out we were not the only two guests in the house! Patsy secretly invited more family. My husband's cousin Hugo and his wife Hilda showed up as well and that was such a lovely surprise to us. We don't get to see them half as much as we'd like to and they're always such good company! Patsy is a great cook and she outdid herself this time. The scallops she made as a starter were to die for and we had salmon as a main course. Oh yes, her food was as good as it looks!

I'm glad I had my little baby camera in my purse, at least now we have a lovely momentum of a beautiful evening!

Sunday breakfast is becoming a tradition in my house, I want to make something special each week. It is no secret that I love to bake - even now when I'm still dieting - so this week I tried a new to me recipe from my Weight Watcher's cookbook. I made scones, and they were a treat!

I combined them with goat's cheese and smoked salmon as a savory treat and we ate the rest of them with jam, strawberries and a whipped cream for tea later in the afternoon.

Project 366 # 93

The weather was a lot brighter on Sunday and although it was still rather chilly, we did have sunshine and blue skies. My husband wanted to do some paperwork, so we stayed in. I spent the afternoon reading the weekend edition of the paper and blogging. In between that I took some photos on my patio practicing the manual settings on my camera.

Later that afternoon I prepared a turkey tajine for the next day and started supper.

I made a toast with pear and Camenbert as a starter, and salmon with lentils and sun dried tomatoes as a main course.
After that it was time to watch the Ultimate Dance Battle on television. I was very pleased to see that team Min Hee won again. I think that this choreographer works magic with her team!

My Weekend in Pictures

Inquiring minds want to know " what did you do this weekend? " This meme is hosted by Gattina and it helps you remember what you did during the weekend.

As always the weekend went by much too fast and I'm glad I took so many pictures. We did not have any special plans but to just go with the flow but some unexpected things made the weekend memorable!


The weather was a bit gray and dull on Saturday, but Sunday was a very warm and sunny Spring day. We went to the weekly market Saturday morning and we had to hurry home because we forgot to take an umbrella. I bought some Primula's to add a splash of color on my patio. After lunch we did some shopping. I had two coupons of 12.5 € each we had gotten in exchange of two pairs of old shoes, so we went out to buy new ones. Here are mine, nice huh?

Around four pm we had coffee in a tea room in our neighborhood. We had not been there yet since it had new owners, and the pancakes were delicious.
That's when my hubby got an idea. "I want to go to the theatre" he said. I said "you must be kidding, we don't even know if there is a play or not?"
Half an hour later we were the proud owners of the last two tickets for a comic play. It was all sold out, but two people had canceled their tickets and we got theirs. We were very lucky, don't you think?



We had salmon with a beetroot rösti and cucumber sauce for dinner.

I had my little baby camera in my purse and took some photos of the performance.

The play was about a family party for the sixtieth wedding anniversary of the grandparents.

It was hilarious, we laughed till our bellies ached!


Sunday breakfast, always a treat...

I had gotten up early and baked blueberry muffins ...

... and made a strawberry banana yogurt trifle.

In the afternoon we did a Spring clean up on our patio. Removed dead plants and cleaned the tiles with the pressure cleaner.

My hubby always finds ways to tell me that he loves me, isn't that sweet?

We had our tea outside on our patio, enjoying the warm Spring sun.
After that I practiced with my camera some more. I have two assignments for photography class that need to get done. I made a portrait of my husband and made some abstract compositions for the other assignment. After several takes, this is the result ...

Project 366 #72


By then it was time for supper. We had scallops with endives as a starter and pork with salsify in a cream sauce. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures!
The rest of the evening was spent watching television. Or rather ... sleeping, because I fell asleep in front of the television set! LOL!

Friday's Fave Five, Spring is in the Air!

Friday again, and it has been a very good week for me. I already made a post about my weekend, ( which is here if you're interested) and now it's time to share what else I'm grateful for this week. Time to join Friday's Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.


1. It's week 10 this week. There is something about the tenth week of the year for me. It is, and has been for many many years the time of the year when my body and my senses seem to awake, and my energy starts to flow again. I can truly feel those Spring juices flowing through my veins! I am more energetic, more inspired, I feel much more alive. It's such a great feeling!

2. I bought a bunch of tulips when I went grocery shopping at the supermarket last week. I LOVE tulips, they speak of Spring to me.

3. Speaking of Spring ... There is a dove nesting underneath the conifers on my patio! Oh and the Muscari are starting to grow, my Clematis has new sprouts, nature is coming to life too!

4. The little plates you see in the bottom right picture. I've had them for years, really loved their shape (that's why I bought them in the first place), but never used them because I didn't know what to do with them! I use them as a bread plate now and they're perfect!

5. Reading the paper and some nice magazines. Really taking my time to read the weekend edition of the paper and my favorite weekly magazine. My husband gifted me this glossy photo magazine and I enjoyed that one as well!



This is my Project 366 photo for today. # 69
I took this one with my tiny baby camera, isn't that amazing?

Friday's Fave Five, Counting the Days ...

March. I'm counting the days till Spring, I am! That's why I'm using the Spring logo for this post. It's been a rather grayish week weather wise, lots of overcast skies, but the temperatures have been very high, which gives us a feeling like Spring is in the air now!
Ok, so now it's time to look back upon the past week and post about the things I'm grateful for, that's what Susanne's Fave Five is all about!

1. Great food. Last Saturday, my friend Annie and I cooked up a gourmet meal together. Later that day our husbands joined us and we all enjoyed the fruits of our labour together. I especially loved the young pigeon with apple and Calvados!

2. On Sunday my hubby and I made a photo walk in Doel. Doel is a ghost town by the river the Schelde in Antwerp. The people of Doel had to leave their houses and make way for the plans to expand the harbor of Antwerp. The entire village is up for demolition. Nature is taking over the gardens, and graffiti painters have decorated the empty houses, which gives this ghost town a very special touch.

3. My snowdrops are (almost finished) blooming. How I have loved these first signs of Spring on my patio looking at them from my kitchen window!

4. I made a menu plan for the next couple of days. I'm not much of a planner usually, but yesterday I took the time to look up some new recipes and plan what we're going to eat the next days with the ingredients I have in my fridge. I should do this more!

5. Putting my feet up and reading my favorite magazine with a cup of coffee within reach!



Project 366 #62

Food, Glorious Food!

Project 366 # 52

Foie gras, with an apple pear roquette and endives salad on the side.

Scallops with a tomato, saffron and basil vinaigrette.

Veal sweetbread with salsify and an Armagnac cream sauce.


Moelleux au chocolat.

What did you do this weekend?

I spent most of Saturday making preparations for the little anniversary dinner we were going to have later that evening. We've been together for 30 years since Wednesday and this called for something special. We had to go to the fish monger, the butcher and the supermarket to get all the necessary ingredients in the morning, and some serious cooking had to be done in the afternoon.
Below you see our second starter, the scallops with a tomato, saffron and basil vinaigrette.
I'll show the rest of the food pictures in a new post tomorrow.

We ate all our favorites, foie gras, scallops, sweetbread and a chocolate moelleux with ice cream for dessert. We drank a lovely Saint Amour with it, there was romantic music ...
My hubby even invited me to dance!



30 years later we're still as much in love as we were the first week we were together!


On Sunday, after breakfast we made a little photo walk in Middelheim Park which is now a bit chaotic because of the renovation works that are going on. We will definitely go back at the end of May when the works are finished. However I did manage to take a couple of photos. I'll do a post on that later this week.

Project 366 #51



But then hail began to poor down, so we had to return home early. I did a couple of small chores at the house, and we spent some time behind the computer editing the photos and preparing yesterday's Weekly Winners post. If you haven't seen it, it's here, I'm quite proud of it, and my hubby is very pleased with it!

Friday's Fave Five, Cold Weather Comfort Food

The week went by much too fast! I can't believe it's Friday again!
Time to look back and share some of the blessings of the past week. Time to join Susanne's Friday's Fave Five at Living to Tell the Story...





1. My photographer's gloves I found at the weekly market. At least now my hands stay warm while I can still operate my camera.
2. The new Phalaenopsis hubby bought me. The other one has dropped all it's flowers, so I cut back the stem, but it's already starting to grow shoots. The new one is a lovely pink one with big flowers.
3. We made an early morning walk on Sunday. It was cold, but it felt good to be outside.
4. I made " hutspot", now that's real cold weather comfort food! It's made with green cabbage, onions, carrots and potatoes. You brown your meat first, remove it from the pot, drain the fat, and put the veggies and the potatoes in. Add some water, put the meat on top of the veggies and let it simmer until tender. Let it rest overnight.
5. Another fave of mine is Chili con Carne. I prepared it before we went shopping and let it simmer while we were gone. The hearty smell of that lovely stew was all over the apartment when we came back! It gave me the coziest feeling!

PS: I almost forgot! My photo of the day, project 366 #41

Friday's Fave Five, Fresh Herbs and Clean Floors

Can you believe it's Friday again? Where has the week gone to?
Time to reflect on the week that has passed and post about five favorite things from your week. Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, if you're looking for the rules, they're here.

It's been a bit of an uneventful week, but I still have managed to find five favorites.

1. We cleaned the concrete tiles on our patio with the pressure washer. Now that the plumber has solved the leakage problem we can finally clean the floor of our patio again. I added a before and after picture, because I can't believe how clean it now looks!
2. My herb garden. I just love to use fresh herbs from the potted herb garden on my patio. Can't imagine Summer cooking without them.
3. Avocado and orange salad with little slithers of Parma ham. I made this for lunch yesterday.
4. Broad beans or Fava beans. I saw some at the weekly market and just had to bring them home. It does involve quite a bit of work ( you have to remove the pods first, then boil the beans for a couple of minutes and then remove the shells ) but I don't mind, they're worth it.
5. Pastis as an aperitif. It's an anis flavored liqueur, diluted with ice water. It tastes even better when the sun shines, it reminds me of our holiday in Provence!