A weekend with Flemish food

A long weekend in Belgium is a treat in many ways! Johan and I went to Brussels to meet up with his siblings, with families, in January. It was, as usual, a great fun event. 

Surpricingly, the winter temperatures were colder than in Sweden, and the sun was shining all weekend. There are lots of things to tell, but this text will focus on the food!

A wonderfully creamy chocolate cake!

When we arrived in Johans sisters house, his sister and her husband was still at work. As a welcome instead their wonderful dog greeted us warmly (once he understood who we were) and Johans sister had prepared a welcoming FIKA! Apple pie and chocolate cake, tea and candies.

Johan and a happy Banner!

For dinner later in the evening a speciality from Belgium was served – witloof in hesperolletjes en kaassaus (endiver inrullade i skinka, med ostsås). A dish which is real winter food, and one of my favourites. Unfortunately we ate it all up so I never had the possibility to take a photo – but do try it in Belguim if you have the opportunity!

On the Sunday we met up with Johans friends at a restaurant for brunch. The brunch was surely delicious with youghurts, tea, different special sandwiches, eggs and different sorts of hams, and then sweet breads as dessert. 

Incredible brunch!

The restaurant was part of a concept store, and linked to it was a shop where they sold really high quality products, mostly locally produced. If you would like to go ther - the name was CRU in Overijse. https://cru.be/nl/

Oranges and lemons galore

Whole branches of spices 

It was possible to taste a lot - here it is pepper which can be tried!

The meat section was not bad! At all! Here small chicken and birds!

And of corse there was a chocolate section - with shop assistant ready to help you choose

"Homemade" nutcream - really nice!

Tasting a great scallop which was served with some veggies and sauce.
Delicious!

Cool fish! 

Veggies and fruit for the new year!

A new year has started and small certain steps will soon bring us into spring!

This is really a time of longing for the light and warmth, and still enjoying the freshness in the cold, or actually just cool (around 0 degrees) days outside.

Happy in the January mist outside the stables

The past year suddenly feels so much further away, but we regularly see remnants from it – in the shape of stored veggies and fruit!

This autumn we decided to test two ways of storing apples. Some nice ones we just put on the shelves inside the old milk room in the stables. And some other ones we wrapped in newspaper (I had read that somewhere, that it would keep the fruit from going bad) and we put them in a basket in our “new” cellar.

Just recently I tried some of the last apples from the shelves. They have kept themselves beautifully, and are still really good in taste. Maybe a bit sweater even, than in September. The wrapped apples will be for later, most likely they end up in a last apples pie.

They just needed a good wash - The apples had managed our storage.

In the freezer Johan fund some pear-ginger-chili-cinnamon chutney as well, which we happily consumed with grilled chicken! This will be a chutney to repeat this autumn (if we get a good harvest this year too!)

More than we thought - of carrots and Jerusalem artichokes.

Just after New Year Cecilia and I went out to harvest the last carrots! And we found quite a few! We also managed to dig out some Jerusalem artichokes (jordärtskockor). The carrots tasted fantastic, and we already decided to seed more carrots for next year. But we also tried to get the red beet roots that were still in the ground, but they were not in a fancy shape. A bit soft and attacked by both animals and frost, we learnt they these roots need to get up earlier in the season.

And we did find Mr Carrot as well in our veggie garden!