Friday's Fave Five, an Eventful Week

There is a lot that made me happy this week and I want to share it with you. That's why I'm joining Susanne's Friday's Fave Five, looking back upon the week that has passed and sharing some of it's highlights.




1. A dinner party and a lovely evening at our daughter Patsy's. 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. Patsy is an excellent cook, her food looked as good as it tasted!

2. A big event in my town yesterday. There was an important bicycle race going on in my town yesterday. The 100th edition of the Scheldeprijs departed and arrived in my town. Of course, I had my camera clicking! The photos are here if you're interested.

3. The new plates I bought earlier this week. They look adorable and they match the pink and green bowls and cups I bought last year.

4. The new kitchen faucet my husband installed. It's on the top left of this collage and I'm very happy with it!

5. A postcard from Provence, France. Nobody seems to send you postcards anymore, but my friend Nana does! It's on my kitchen table now, and it makes me long for our own holiday there.


Project 366 #97

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!

From the Archives ...

This collage was posted about a year ago, on March 26th. It looks like we had some very nice weather then? Today it's cold and gray, (no rain though) and there is no way we will be able to eat outside this weekend. But hey, I should not complain. We've had some gorgeous Spring weather the past two weeks as well, and nobody can take that away from us, can't they?
I hope you'll have a good weekend as well, no matter what weather!


This one was taken today. Project 366 # 91

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?

My Weekend in Pictures

The weather was mostly clouded and overcast with some sunny spells late Saturday afternoon, and some heavy rain on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday was quite a busy day. I was up early and I quite enjoyed doing some little chores and making preparations for lunch.


We went to the market to get some cheese, and a chicken for the chicken fricassee I wanted to make the next day for supper.



I had sorted out some new Weight Watchers recipes and planned our meals for the weekend the previous day, so I didn't have to worry about what to cook and make sure I bought all the right ingredients.



We had Belgian endives with Brie for lunch. ( Click the link to find an interesting site about Belgian endive)


After lunch I did a little photo shoot of our new car. Photos will follow!
We still had a couple more errands to run, and my husband needed to deliver some paperwork in Mechelen, so we wanted to spend some time visiting Mechelen.



I wanted to make photos at the beguinage but that was nothing more than a couple of small streets, not photogenic at all. Instead we visited the Saint Rombouts cathedral and took some pictures there.



When we got back, it was after dark already and I still had to cook! I made salmon with leeks and fresh pasta. Easy to make but it tasted divine!



After supper we did a little wine tasting experiment, because we wanted to find out which cava was the best. The more expensive one turned out to be the best one.



Project 366 # 65



My hubby slept in on Sunday and I enjoyed some me time reading the paper with the cat on my lap.


Sunday breakfast should always be a feast in my home, so this time we had breakfast with bubbles. It was almost noon by then anyway!



In the afternoon, I divided my time between my computer and the kitchen. Some cooking, some blogging, editing some photos ...
I made a chicken fricassee from scratch and a Moroccan turkey tajine for the next day. For dessert I made a chocolate mousse with Maltesers, also a Weight Watcher's recipe.



After supper we watched the Ultimate Dance Battle on television, and that was it ...
The weekend has whizzed by in a jiffy! Should I mention it was too short?