Just at Home: Dutch flowers
Home cooking is just one part – albeit an important one! – of what makes a house a home. Hubby and I love fresh flowers to decorate ours and to that end it’s such a JOY to live here in The Netherlands.
Holland is one of the biggest exporters of cut flowers in the world. Every week, when hubby and I do our grocery shopping, we make it a point to buy fresh flowers for our home and the selection is never wanting.
Actually, our home is full of plants! We have a ‘money tree’ in our home office, indoor palm plants in the living room, orchids in the main and guest bedrooms, and more. Here are some of the cut flowers we have in-house this week.
A summer bouquet for the dining table.
3 FEET TALL sunflowers for the living room.
A gift from my mother-in-law: 12 long-stemmed roses. Sweet!
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of flower-related events and attractions here too. Here are some pics from Keukenhof,an international flower festival we visited earlier this year.
Wish my back garden was this big!
Round and round and...
Love this 'lake' of blue flowers.
Just gorgeous!
Potato and Ham Cake
It’s been a while since hubby cooked! I mentioned this to him and so he dutifully took over making dinner last night. Unlike me, hubby cannot ‘wing it’ when it comes to cooking. He needs to cook something he REALLY knows how to or he needs a cookbook beside him.
The following recipe is from a potato cookbook I bought years ago as part of my efforts to make more spud-based dishes for hubby :)
Ingredients:
250 grams ham (chopped)
500 grams potatoes
50 grams butter
1 small white onion (finely chopped)
2 tbsp parsley
1 egg
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
butter and olive oil for frying
Procedure:
- Peel the potatoes; quarter them and boil for 12-15 minutes.
- When cooked, drain the potatoes and mash them with the butter.
- Season with paprika, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Fry the chopped ham and then add them to the potato mixture.
- Add the finely chopped onion, egg and fresh parsley.
- Spread the mixture on a big plate, cover it with cling film and let it set in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Heat up some butter and olive oil on a non-stick pan and then slide in the potato and ham cake. Cook each side for 15-20 minutes.
Hubby served this with a green salad and a glass of chilled red wine. Yum!
