Mojoblog

Vous avez de la chance, chers lecteurs, car grâce à notre nouveau projet photo on est forcés de prendre des photos tous les jours et du coup s’il en reste des potables c’est le blog qui en profite. Vendredi il faisait grand froid, et la campagne était toute gelée. Le brouillard était très épais, par moment sur l’autoroute on avait l’impression d’être tous seuls sur la route. La c’était plus clair:



En milieu de journée le brouillard s’est levé en laissant des petits cristaux de glace sur toutes les brindilles qui passaient:



Avec un grand ciel bleu, c’était vraiment magnifique.



Les brindilles avec des piquants avaient encore plus de cristaux, dommage que je n’avais pas d’objectif macro pour m’approcher plus près.

Ce dimanche nous étions invités pour prendre le thé chez ma collègue Vanja à Assen. Une vue très Groningen en se dirigeant vers la gare:



Elle emmène sa petite famille tous les dimanches faire une promenade dans la campagne, et comme la météo était incroyable (grand ciel bleu le lendemain d’une grosse chute de neige), nous avons profité d’une promenade magnifique.



Comme toujours et partout, il y avait des petits rigolos en vélos sur les pistes enneigées.



On est tombés par hasard sur un troupeau de vaches poilues, qu’elles étaient mignonnes!



Enfin ce n’étaient pas que des demoiselles, mais grâce à son anneau doré dans le nez ce taureau était très sage.



Meeeeuuuuuh!



La campagne était vraiment ravissante, on a eu une chance inouïe d’aller se promener le bon jour.



Et dire que les vacances sont finies...



Rien que d’y penser ça fait pleurer.....

Mojoblog ne devient pas (encore) un blog culinaire, mais mes petits biscuits du jour sont tellement bons que je ne peux m’empêcher de vous en dévoiler la recette inspirée de How to Cook Everything Vegetarian par Mark Bittman. J’ai aussi fait la version au chocolat et cannelle aujourd’hui, mais ce sont ceux au citron qui sont mes préférés. Comme d’habitude pas de beurre chez nous, mais une recette à l’huile d’olive. D’autres parfums sont possibles en variant les huiles, les noix et les liquides, par exemple la version cardamome/pistache que j’aime beaucoup aussi.



Pour une trentaine de petits biscuits
Préparation: 40 minutes

- 1 tasse de farine (moi j’utilise de la complète)
- 1/4 de tasse d’amandes concassées
- 1/4 de cuillère à café de levure
- une pincée de sel
- 1/4 de tasse de sucre (j’utilise du sucre brun tout le temps)
- 1/4 de tasse d’huile d’olive
- 1 oeuf
- le zeste et jus d’un gros citron

Si l’on veut faire un glaçage:
- 3 cuillères à soupe de sucre glace

1. Préchauffer le four à 180°C. Mélanger la farine, les amandes, la levure et le sel dans un bol.

2. Fouetter quelques minutes le sucre, l’huile et l’oeuf, jusqu’à ce que ça mousse et s’allège. Ajouter le zeste et jus du citron. Si on veut faire un glaçage, réserver quelques gouttes de jus de citron pour la fin. Mélanger délicatement le mélange de farine aux ingrédients liquides pour juste incorporer sans trop mélanger.

3. Faire de petits tas de pâte sur une feuille de papier cuisson ou une feuille en silicone. Enfourner pour 10 minutes tout rond, ou jusqu’à ce qu’ils commencent à prendre de la couleur sur les bords. Après quelques minutes de refroidissement, transférer sur une assiette pour finir de refroidir.

4. Pendant la cuisson, préparer le glaçage: mélanger le sucre glace et quelques gouttes de jus de citron pour former une crème de la consistance de chocolat fondu. Placer cette crème dans un sac congélation. Quand les biscuits sont un peu refroidis, couper un tout petit coin (environ 1mm) du sac à congélation, et faire de jolis dessins avec le glaçage sur les biscuits.

Mon fond d’écran du jour m’a rappelé de vous informer de notre petit projet photo pour 2010:



Prendre au moins une photo par jour et la poster sur le nouveau photoblog Mojo 365. On se partage la tâche, donc ce sera une photo de l’un ou l’autre, en principe tous les jours.

Et pour ceux qui se demandaient, la photo ci-dessus vient du pied d’un glacier en Islande.

As everything is closed on Ryan’s birthday here, I prepared his birthday dinner at home this year. We’re spending the day in the train tomorrow so I decided to do it last night so we could enjoy the leftovers today, his real birth day. He’s always looking for new photographic opportunities, so he spent a good chunk of the afternoon taking photos while I was spreading flour all over the house. You would never guess how technical food photography is, and he tried a lot of settings to get to these photos.

The main dish: spinach and ricotta ravioli, all from scratch.



All the ingredients and the preparation are pretty classic, but every step takes a certain time, so along with the rest of the meal I spent most of the day in the kitchen (there are worst ways to spend Christmas day though, I would say).



The hardest step was to close the little pockets of filling without leaving air bubbles and avoiding that the little piles conglomerate.



The first try (below) wasn’t very pretty, but I got the hang of it quickly.



Some precision operating the cutting wheel:



And I let the army of little ravioli dry while I was taking care of the other dishes.



For example, to prepare the wild mushrooms before sticking them in the oven with thyme and olive oil as an antipasti.



And was it good? Oh yes! The ravioli, served with a simple tomato sauce, were the best spinach raviolis I had ever had. The foccacia with sun-dried tomatoes was also fabulous. The roasted peppers with basil-flavored oil are always a success. All this was served with an arugula and pine nut salad, and finished with a grapefruit sorbet, not completely sorbeted but very refreshing. Can’t wait until next year for the next birthday dinner!

My desk at work is next to a wall of windows oriented to the south, so I see the sun rise every day until about 10° above the horizon and then go back down. As soon as it pokes through the clouds we often get beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Yesterday night on the way back from work it started snowing a tiny little bit, and I even fell off my bike on a thin layer of snow on cobblestones. But we’re not in Boston anymore, so I didn’t expect anything very serious with snow in our new country. Imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains this morning...



That’s right, not an optical illusion but actually 10-15cm of snow on the city!



I got ready quicker than usual to walk to the carpooling place and take photos along the way. Looks like the snow plow hasn’t come yet...



A lot of bikes are buried, when they are not in use with not-so-prudent-bicyclists who still try to bike in a loose and not-melted snow...



I walk in front of the hospital, it’s really coming down. Not easy to take photos in a snow fall (not a blizzard though, just a heavy snow fall).



Notice the sunk houseboat on the foreground. Poor thing.



Yes, you read the correct time, it is quarter to eight and it’s still pitch black except for the snow that won’t stop falling.



It seems that everybody thought the same thing when leaving their house this morning: there can’t be that much snow, I should be able to go to work... But there is more snow than one may imagine while looking out the window, and without plows all morning it’s not that easy to get around. Here is the fishmarket without the market:



Almost eight o’clock, I arrive to the meeting point of my carpool as the sky is starting to lighten.



Kris is clearing his car. He promises to pick up a colleague about 2km away from his house, then to drop me off at home with the car. After a half-hour spent driving for about 1km towards the pick-up place, we turn around and he goes back to his place, on the other side of the city from our house. I walk home, after 2.5 hours to cover just a few kilometers slower that I could have walked. Sweet, my first snow day!

Beautiful weather on Sunday when we woke up, but we weren’t brave enough to catch the morning light so we went out around 3PM to catch the decreasing light instead.



All the other photographers in the city were also out.



Our future house just above the parking sign:



The Saint Joseph church (we call it San Jose of course):



An interesting reflection spotted by Ryan but also possible as a self-portrait:



Our street is decorated with statues at each intersection, which is a lot of statues:



This shows that we still get some sun sometimes:



You need to catch it before is disappears though.



A cute little store that I had never noticed before:



The sun is set, bars wake up.



We enjoy for a few short moments the sky still blue in the beginning of the night.



The university:



The official city hall for weddings and other events where photos are taken (the city hall where we go for administrative purposes is all concrete and shapeless):



And finally a classic Dutch view, a vending machine of hot burgers and croquettes at any time.

It had been too long since the last time we took photos, it was time for an excursion. Today we went to Bremen in Germany for the Christmas Market that just started. Actually quite a good reason to be excited about the upcoming holiday season!



While we were enjoying some tasty hot wine, a witch convention was singing Christmas carols, perfectly in tune.



The fun team, Jelle and Kris, driver and car owner.



All these cabins were selling very intriguing things, such as these decorated gingerbread hearts and other candy.



The symbolic statue of Bremen:



Still in the candy aisle:



But there are also puppets:



Bird houses:



And guess who we ran into... The red and white chubby-cheeked old man himself, together with Miss Freimarkt 2009 who was making little kids sing.



Then we went in the ferris wheel of the main plazza, to enjoy the view.



Along with a pretzel, fried cheese and mushrooms and hot chocolate tasting, it was a wonderful day!

Can you believe, dear readers, that Mojo is about to buy a very cute apartment in an old house on the side of the city center of Groningen! We signed a contract (all in Dutch) that would make us owners early January, so we have time to make a few changes before moving-in in February before the end of our lease on Gerbrand Bakkerstraat. We want to meet the other people living in the house before we send the contract back, which should happen this week. Isn’t this some great news?


The house is divided in four apartments, and on the photo below we would have the top right corner, including the center balcony.



The big windows, oriented south-east, will probably be very pleasant.



I let you erase in your head the furniture of the current owners, and we’re thinking of putting the dining room in the big bright room, but you get an idea.



It’s on a quiet street with chestnut trees and grass on the center strip, in a fancy part of town. Without the need for a car and in the middle of a housing crisis, we can afford to indulge ourselves with a nice house!

Friday 28th of August 2009 was the wedding of my very good friends Benjamin and Manon. Whay an amazing celebration!



Everybody seemed to have a good day, and the event was well documented.



The back of her dress was just as pretty as the front, as you can see below.



Ryan and I had the honor to be seated across the table from the lovebirds!



In principle if you read this blog you should recognize these kids:



One of the spectacular moments of the evening was when we all lit up some mini hot-air-balloons of silk paper that flew up in the sky... It was an excellent idea and a magical moment.



We all wish them a lifetime of happiness together!

With our very important guests, my family had the responsibility to show the Mauges in all their splendor. My mom took us to the Oriental Garden of Maulévrier, just below Cholet.



My mom is so cute in her pink dress from Groningen!



Everything in this garden is perfectly trimmed and maintained.



We had a very pleasant afternoon.



These balls are sculptures that float on the water, but these looked broken.



After an excellent time in the countryside, we took the train to the capital.



No doubt, they were there!



The fisheye in big cities is very practical, no need for back-up space to fit everything in a photo!

For a family reunion we spent a gorgeous weekend in Bétahon in Brittany. We got spoiled by perfect beach weather.



Picnics, games, danses, splashing around, cousin time, walks on the beach... Can it get better than that!?



At low tide the beach is muddy as far as the eye can see:



The best thing to do then is to walk along the beach and pick up pretty rocks.



The visiting Americans (Ryan’s mom and a friend of hers) loved it too!

I’m a bit behind in my blogging, the month of August has been quite busy. Let’s go back to the vacations with my family, with below an excursion at the island with the unpronounceable name of Schiermonnikoog. I can assure you that despite a long and painful training to pronounce this word (practicing with a Dutch colleague), nobody can understand what I mean when I try to say where I went.

Such a cute tourist family...



After lunch on the island we went to rent bikes, as usual the best way to discover the Netherlands.



Even on islands they find the way to have rivers... It’s only when we went to France where everything is too dry that I noticed how green the Netherlands are.



On this photo the grass is pretty yellow though, bad place to describe how green everything is here.



Ah, finally some normal grass! The country is pretty much a giant swamp, so there is always water not-too-far below the roots.



As usual in this country, the boat is king (with the bike, which is stored on the boat):



The village on the island was absolutely charming.



While waiting for the return boat, Mr Sheep and his pretty two-colored fleece.



There are still plenty of islands to discover along the North Sea not far from here, yay!