Another hurdle behind me

Just a short update to let everyone know that as of today, I have maintained my status as a competent driver, two left feet and all. In two weeks, I will receive a letter which I can take to the town hall in order for an adjusted license to be made.

All thanks go to my jaunty driving instructor, Mr. Oerlemaans and my brain that is still capable of acquiring new knowledge. Hip-hip hurray!

I'm relieved both that I passed the test and that lessons are over. The test went as calmly as had I envisioned it though it didn't hurt to have a little nervousness under the arms. One doesn't want to be so cocky, after all, when all could go wrong in a second. Now I can get on with other things. Of course, I gave myself time this afternoon to think about what those things could be. First, I shall get on with ironing, washing dishes, cracking nuts, and just let the inner wheels turn as they may.

Now that I have my license, I can rent a car back home like before. And, as long as I don't own an auto here, I thought it might be an idea to at least rent one once in a while just to keep me sharp. You know, tour the wine fields of France or something.

Root vegetable soup

Of course, I found this recipe online. Posted by Misty at Shaker Gourmet blog. My comments below in italics.

Root Vegetable Soup
From Shaker Oddjob (her Google name), who found the recipe in the November issue of Fine Cooking magazine and says that it is "easy and delicious". It IS easy but, dang, it takes a long while to prep! However, for all the ingredients, it cooks quickly.

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
4 slices bacon cut in half crosswise
2 med. red onions (peeled & chopped)
2 cloves garlic (peeled & mashed into paste - adding a little salt while mashing speeds the process)
1 tsp. caraway seed (Misty hates caraway, so she substituted cumin seed)
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
2 quarts homemade or (if store bought) lower-sodium chicken broth
2 dried bay leaves
5 med. carrots (peeled and small/medium diced)
2 med. purple-top turnips (peeled and small/medium diced)
2 med. Yukon Gold potatoes (peeled and small/medium diced)
3/4 cup pearl barley (picked over to remove any stray pebbles)
4 tbsp. lemon juice

Put dried porcini mushrooms in a small bowl. Heat some water on the stove to near boiling (or boiling, doesn't matter) and pour over porcini until covered. Let sit for 10-15 minutes (prep. other ingredients as needed/possible while waiting). Remove reconstituted mushrooms from water, chop and set aside. Take the water and pour it through a fine sieve (or wet paper towel/coffee filter) to remove grit and set aside the filtered "liquor".

In a six quart Dutch oven (or larger) brown bacon over medium/medium-high heat. When cooked remove bacon & set aside on a paper towel-lined dish to cool.

Add chopped onions and 1 tsp. salt to the rendered bacon fat in the bottom of the Dutch oven and cook (stirring occasionally) until softened (about 6-8 mins.)

Add garlic paste, caraway, and thyme. Cook (stirring constantly) until fragrant (about 30 secs.). Stir, and heat on medium-high until the soup begins to boil (skimming foam as needed). Turn down heat so the soup simmers, cover, and simmer until barley has softened and cooked through (about 20-40 mins.) (Salt and pepper to taste while soup is simmering.)

Remove & discard bay leaves. Add & stir in the lemon juice. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with the cooked bacon crumbled over the soup.

Makes about 8 hearty, adult servings. Enjoy! We did.

Shoes and soup

Two more pairs of shoes I bought a month ago. Already, that orange pair have a good coat of scuff love. Though my shoe size has increased by a whole size because of my brace, I no longer feel like Bozo the clown (poor Bozo gets such a bum rap). I guess all change just takes time to get accustomed to.

This makes a total of six pairs now and a woman with simple taste has got to be well pleased with that. I am thankful that I preferred comfortable shoes before. I'd just have one more thing to mourn over if I'd been a high-heeled gal, toch?


Fall is quickly cascading into winter these days. Just a fun couple of fotos which capture the daily ride with my pal, Hazel.

Speaking of my pal, his intestines have been on the fritz lately (description omitted). It was bad enough that his vet requested that he be brought in. He was given a couple shots and immediately there was a difference in his demeanor - more the energetic Hazel of old than the sluggish one since summer's end. Bonus.

On top of that, he was to be fed five days worth of special meals: a combination of boiled chicken, eggs and white bread. This meant spending Monday night boiling a whole chicken, six eggs hard and mixing them with a half loaf of white bread. Wow! Quite a treat for the little guy. And, boy oh boy, did he love it. But as the diet ended this morning with the last portion plus pills, he just as quickly snarfed down his old standard tonight. Goed zo, Hazel!

You might remember my facebook post of gratefulness for ladybugs, a.k.a. lieveheersbeestje in Dutch (good luck on figuring out the pronunciation). These are the best photos I could render of the blessed afternoon bugfest. Notice the one in close-up is black with orange spots. I'd never seen one of this type before coming here. As they were all together, I noticed loads of various patterns this day, orange with black, 6 spots, 2 spots, small spots, big spots. Who knew?

I assume they're still hanging out in my parasol but I'm leaving them alone these days as it's definitely not weather for balcony sitting.


Do you know this fun guy with a fungi? Well, anyway, another beest of an edible puffball! We dug into it this week after Nico filled it with savory goodies and baked it in the oven. I wouldn't say it was my favorite but it was delightful in other ways. As a funny side note, the stew stayed well-insulated even after he got back home from walking Casper.

Saturday, I made a yummy winter soup. I will post the recipe separately as it's quite lengthy. I've never made such a soup as I didn't exactly grow up a fan of carrots, potatoes or turnips let alone all together in one pot.

Hope you've enjoyed this post and thanks for keeping in touch!