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Travel With Me Abroad

Hello to all.  I’m very excited for the opportunity to share my upcoming adventures through Themetrip.  In the next couple of months my husband and I will be starting a new chapter in our lives with our big move to Brussels, Belgium. 
A little about the upcoming blog and myself: 
I love food! While eating breakfast I’m already talking about dinner. I will be posting notes and pictures of where we dine, what we eat and sometimes what I cook.  
I love adventures! With my husband being in the Navy, we have had and have the ability to visit and experience places all over the world.  I will post about our travels and experiences while living in Belgium. 

Contact Nakoma

Update

1/26/2015

2 Comments

 
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These last couple of weeks, I have been catching up with friends and family via email.  As I was going back through these emails I thought, all this information should go on my blog.  This post will not read smoothly, because I took a little bit of this and a little bit of that from each email.  
 
Everything is going really well. This last week has been pretty low key.  With everything that is going on in Brussels after the shootings in Paris, I have decided to stay around our neighborhood. Two arrests associated with the shootings in Paris were made 20 minutes from us.
I’m happy sticking around our neighborhood, because it’s super cute and has lots of little clothes shops, butcheries, cheese shops, restaurants and we have a fantastic farmers market on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday's.   
Sales! So, sales do not happen here like they do back home. Brussels allows stores to have sales I think twice a year and January is one of them.  For the whole month stores have had 30, 40 and 50% off their items.  Interesting.  I’m not sure when the next sale is.
One thing I really like here is we walk, walk, walk.  I walk to the grocery store and bring my rolling basket.  We walk to the shops, we walk to restaurants and if something is a bit out of the way we walk to the metro and then walk.  
Today, I went to the butchery shop and had them ground lamb for me.  It's a really nice shop that’s only two blocks away from where we live. I'm making Skillet Pastitsio. The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen.   It's an Italian pasta dish with tomatoes; broken up lasagna noodles, ground lamb and cream.  We will have a salad and a fresh baguette from a bakery. Oh my goodness... The bread here is amazing. I was the one who tried to avoid eating bread while living in the US.  Nope, threw that out the window as soon as we moved here.  I literally have eaten the most croissants in my life, and I can't stop eating the bread.   I will really miss the bread when we come back to the states.
I have been expanding my palate these last two months with a variety of foods. Next on my list is horse beef.  I didn’t notice if they had it or not at the butchery shop.  Horse beef is supposedly very popular around parts of Europe. I asked Adam if he would try it and he said, “Nope.” So, I guess I’ll have to order it at a restaurant. Cheval is how you say horse in French. Paard is how you say horse in Dutch. 
We finally got our car!  We purchased it over a month ago, but had to wait to get our registration before taking the car off the lot. Everything is a long process here.  With purchasing the car before the holidays, it made it an even longer process.  We purchased a Mini Cooper. It's called a Mini One D here.  The D stands for Diesel.  I finally picked it up last week, while Adam was at a conference in Norway. BEEP, BEEP! It's super fun to drive.  Oh, yes and the driving here is a bit different.  We had to take a driving course, which included two tests at the end.  The signs are crazy! There are 156 of them. 
Our building.  I was excited to meet our neighbors after we moved in.  I had this idea of becoming great friends with our Belgian neighbors.  We would have them over for dinner; they would have us over for dinner.  They would show us around the city, we would travel together and be friends forever. Well… come to find out there are no Belgians living in our building.  People from Japan occupy the other five apartments.  Last week one of our neighbors stopped by and gave us a gift.  She was super sweet and we chatted at my doorway for a good ten minutes.  She even mentioned that we were the only American’s in the building.  That made me giggle.  I hope to have the chance to get to know her a little more.  I could see us hanging out and making our weekly trips to the market. She might become my best Belgian Japan neighbor friend.  

 


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Breakfast Cookies

1/23/2015

4 Comments

 

I have been on a cookie-baking marathon over the last two weeks.  I really enjoy having a cookie in the morning with my coffee.  Doesn’t everyone?  I know it’s not healthy, but neither is eating a croissant everyday for 2 months, which is so nice to do in Brussels.  So I decided to bake, bake, bake until I came up with a cookie that I could eat and not feel guilty about eating in the morning while drinking my coffee. 
This is not going to be a sweet cookie.  It’s a breakfast cookie.  I really like having four or five (Yes, I eat four or five of them with no guilt) of them in the morning with my coffee and a banana.  Place a tbsp. of peanut butter on your plate too for some extra protein. Enjoy.
Recipe adapted from Cookie and Kate’s Low Fat Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies.


Breakfast cookies:
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2 cups mixed oats (I use Dorset Cereals with hazelnuts, brazil nuts, raisins and dates) find a mix that you like. 
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. flaxseed
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp. maple syrup or 2 tbsp. brown sugar.  I have made them both ways.  The brown sugar makes it a tad sweeter. You can also try 2 tbsp. sugar.
1 large egg
1 large banana
1/2 tsp vanilla

·      Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit  (180 Celsius) Line baking sheet with parchment paper
·      Whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flaxseed
·      Cream together the butter and sugar of your choice. 
·      Add mashed banana, egg and vanilla extract
·      Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients
·       Place about a tbsp. or a little more onto baking sheet. Bake for 10-12min

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4 Comments

Wine Tasting

1/15/2015

6 Comments

 
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Last week I was in Le Chemin Des Vignes (wine shop).  I introduced myself to one of the employees and explained that Adam and I were still learning about French wines.  He was very nice and invited us to his upcoming wine tasting.  I asked him the price and he said that there was no price, because he invited us.  I took a picture of the shop as I was leaving so I could remember the name and where it was.
Unfortunately, Adam came down with a cold that weekend.  I didn’t want to cancel so I asked my friends who have a little one if they could join me.  “One of us will go with you, not sure who…” I was pretty excited that the last minute invite worked out. 
The walk to the shop was not very pleasant.  Down pour with winds up to 25mph.  The umbrella was useless.  I was a wet mess by the time I walked into the shop. 
There were a total of 8 persons tasting.  Guess what we tasted first? Moonshine! Moonshine from Tennessee.  This was the best Moonshine that I have ever had.  It was so smooth and tasted like a dessert.  The first one was cinnamon apple.  I said first one, because we had two more Moonshine tastings.  After the Moonshine we started with wine.  3 white wines and 4 red wines.  During our tasting we were given a plate of prosciutto, salami and bread. The employee would talk in French about the wines and then he would talk to Colleen and I in English.  One of the wines we tasted reminded me of a Zinfandel.  Nobody at the tasting including the employee new what a Zinfandel was.  When I got home Adam and I were talking about Zinfandel.  After I did some research I think people around here might know Zinfandel as a Primativo.  Zinfandel has an interesting background.   
The wines at the tasting were delicious.  The wines we tasted ranged from 6.95 euro to 10.00 euro a bottle.  The Moonshine was 29.95 euro.  We started at 2:00pm and didn’t leave until 4:45pm.  That was a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.  We are going back for a Scotch tasting at the end of the month.
Cheers!  


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Weekend in Bruges

1/12/2015

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Adam and I were itching to get out of Brussels and explore.  Our plan was to go to Bruges and then a week later spend Christmas in Paris.  Well, we got a little Christmas miracle.  The moving company contacted Adam right before we left for Bruges and told us that our furniture would be delivered on Christmas Eve.  Yippee!!!  We postponed Paris by a week.
The train ride to Bruges from Brussels was about an hour.  Bruges was stunning. The architecture, the canals, the little side streets, it really was picture perfect.
We stayed at Hotel Aragon.  Couldn’t have asked for a better location.  Waking distance to everything and only a 3-minute walk to the Christmas Market.  The hotel had a very friendly front desk and a good continental breakfast.  
December, Friday 19 – Sunday 21
Friday 19
  •  Christmas Market – This was beautiful! Bruges actually had a few Christmas Markets around town, but my favorite was in the square, which had an ice skating rink.  I found these really cute troll ornaments in one of the Christmas tents.  Adam thinks they are ugly and does not understand what I see in them.  I wish I had taken a picture.  I already put them away with our Christmas stuff. I was tempted to keep one out year round. It would have been fun to leave it on Adam’s side of the bed and then move it every few weeks to creep him out.   One ornament I got was a gold cherub and behind it was a little troll smiling.  The troll has a porcelain clay face, and soft fluffy white hair. 
Saturday 20
  •  9:30 Bell Tower – 366 windy narrow steps to the top of the tower.  It was magical to be at the top.  We were able to watch how the bells ring. Reminded me of a huge music box.  So many beautiful views too.
  •  10:00 Tour Burg Square – Lots of little chocolate shops, beer shops, silk shops and antique shops.
  • 11:00 Groeninge Museum – Walking to this museum was so relaxing and we couldn’t stop saying how beautiful everything was.  The museum exhibits Flemish Primitive Paintings.  I really like this style.  A lot of the paintings have elongated bodies, or irregular body proportions.  In some of the paintings Jesus as a child looks like an old man.  I like the symbolisms used in the paintings and the colors too.  When we looked at the first painting in the museum, I really wanted to know the story. I have a really hard time looking at an abundant of paintings and not knowing some of the stories or symbols.  I went into the museum shop and purchased a guidebook.  An hour later Adam and I hadn’t even made it through the second room of art.  We decided to only read about one or two of the paintings in each room after that. 
  •  1:00 Tour/Lunch at De Halve Maan Brewery – There is no way this tour would be allowed in America unless waivers were signed or the brewery rebuilt some things for safety.  Walking up narrow stairs, having to turn around because the stairs were too steep to walk down forward.  However, this tour was awesome and the rooftop view can’t be beat. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic.  I couldn’t understand a lot of things he said, but I appreciated his enthusiasm.  At the end of the tour we got a free beer. Yummy!  Adam and I stayed at the brewery for lunch and had a few more beers.  These beers have a higher alcohol content than what we are used to. Adam’s last beer had 11% alcohol content. It was called Strafe Hendrik.  The atmosphere, food, beer was really good.  We will definitely be going back.
  • 3:30 Ice Magic, The Land of The Hobs- Huge tent filled with gigantic ice sculptures, ice slides and an ice bar.
  • 4:30 Dumon Chocolate shop – Rick Steve’s rated this as one of the top chocolate shops in Bruges.  The shop we went into was tiny and very busy. We were able to get some chocolate and it was excellent. 
After resting our feet back at the apartment we decided to go on a horse carriage ride before dinner.  I knew I would enjoy this, but I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy it.  I would highly recommend going on a horse carriage ride in Bruges.  It’s a 30-minute tour all through town.  It’s very romantic, and beautiful.  I thought that it was going to be bumpy on the cobble road, but the entire ride was smooth.
Sunday 21
  • 9:30 Basilica of the Holy Blood –Relic of the blood of Christ
  • 10:00 Salvador Dali Museum – LOVED! I didn’t really appreciate Salvador Dali’s work until I went with my mom and Uncle Frank to the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.  I was very excited to see another exhibit of his.  Adam and I got the audio tour, which was free after showing them our train tickets.  I also upgraded my ticket (5 euro more) for a glass of Cava and a Belgian Praline. Cava is a sparkling wine from Spain. We can’t call it champagne. That’s an interesting law.  I accidently called it champagne in the museum and the woman giggled and politely told me, that it’s not champagne, it’s Cava. 2 ½ hours later we completed the wonderful exhibit. 
Before we left Bruges we stopped to see the statue Madonna and Child by Michelangelo in the Church of Our Lady.  The church itself was not very impressive on the inside and the statue was very far away. I wouldn’t recommend going.  However, I’m glad we went, because we would have never known about the Picasso museum across the street from the church.   Picasso museum is on the list for our next visit to Bruges.
I’m very excited to go back to Bruges and to bring family and friends. 



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Paris! 

1/5/2015

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December 29, 2014 - January 2, 2015
We planned a last minute trip to Paris.  It really was last minute.  We decided to go to Paris for New Years and reserved an apartment a few days before Christmas.  I would highly recommend staying in an apartment over a hotel.  The prices were lower and we took advantage of eating a couple of meals in the room.  We used VRBO website and if you use your phone the app is called Home Away. 
We were told by many people that getting to Paris is so easy and not very expensive.  Well, that’s not really the case if you don’t plan three months out.  There is a bullet train that leaves from Brussels and goes to Paris in one and a half hours.  Tickets can be as low as forty euro each way.  If you plan a last minute trip expect to pay a few hundred euros each way.  The night before we left we decided to book bus tickets.  Our round trip tickets were a little over hundred euro.  The bus took about 3 ½ hours.  The ride was really relaxing.  Spacious seats, free wifi (didn’t work well), bathroom, trays behind each seat.  I would have no problem taking the bus again.     
I made a Paris itinerary for us the afternoon before we left. I don’t think this surprises any of my friends and family.  I have itineraries for everything.  We had been so busy unpacking and putting our house together, which is still not finished, we didn’t really have time to plan.
Paris Monday 29 – Friday 2
Monday:
  • 2:30 Train Station for Bus
  • 6:20 Arrive in Paris, walk to apartment
  • 8:30 Dinner
Tuesday:
  • 9:30 Notre Dame
    • Archaeological Crypt
  • Deportation Memorial
  • 12:00 Lunch/shopping Ile St. Louise area
  • Walk around Boulevard St. Michel and Boulevard St. Germaine
  • 2:00 Sainte-Chapelle
  • 4:30 apartment
  • 7:00 dinner
     We ended up not going to the Deportation Memorial, because it was closed off.  We also did not go to Saint-Chapelle, because the line was too long.  I would really like to go back to Paris to visit both. After resting our feet at the apartment we did this:  
  • Sacre Coeur and Montmartre – Lookout point
  • Arc de Triomphe
  • Champs-Elysees (High end shopping street)
  • Christmas Market (near Champs Elysees)
  • 10:30pm Dinner in the apartment
 
Wednesday:
  • 9:00 Louvre (arrive 30 minutes before opening)
  • 10:30 snack/coffee
  • 12:30 Lunch
  • 3:30 apartment
  • 5:00 O Chateau – Wine tasting
    • 1 champagne, 5 wines, cheese and meats
  • 9:00 L’Epigramme  for New Year’s Eve dinner

Thursday:
  • 9:30 Eiffel Tower
  • 11:00 Pompidou Center
Nope, this didn’t happen. I don’t know what I was thinking to plan something so early.   1:00 went to Pompidou Center, 8:30 Dinner and no Eiffel Tower.  I know what some might be thinking.   You went to Paris and didn’t go to the Eiffel Tower? Yep.  However, I did see it from many beautiful look out points.  That was good enough for me.

Friday:
  • 11:00 Bus Home

Notre Dame- Recommend arriving early.  We went inside the church and paid extra for the audio tour.  We avoided the lines to walk up the tower. 
Louvre – Overwhelming with people! It was hard to appreciate the art, because you are constantly getting elbowed, or brushed on while people walk by.  I also think the Louvre should have a no camera policy.  When we were viewing an art piece, it wasn’t the people that were blocking our view it was the amount of hands going up with cameras, ipads, iphones to take pictures.  Why do you need a picture of the art piece?  Purchase a post card, buy a book, go online.  Take advantage of enjoying the beauty of the art while seeing it.   The Louvre is definitely an all-day event.  We paid for the audio tour, which I always enjoy, because you get to hear the stories of the art pieces. 
On New Year’s Eve we went to O Chateau for a two hour wine tasting course on French wines.  This was fantastic!  We went down into a cellar with about 15 other people.  The sommelier was enthusiastic and the champagne and wines were fantastic!
A little while after wine tasting we headed to dinner.  We found L’Epigramme through Tripadvisor.  It was excellent.  We were there from 9:00pm-1:30am.  This span of time was all the courses of dinner.  We finished our wine with our dessert right before we left.  It was a very nice and relaxing way to enter into the New Year. 
The next day we went to Pompidou Center.  Oh my goodness, I want to go back. We were there for a little over four hours and we didn’t finish.  We missed one whole floor and an exhibit on another floor.  This is more of a modern and contemporary art museum featuring the late 19th and 20th century artists.  The sights from the top of the building are amazing too. 
Food.  While in Paris I tried snails and frog legs.  Both delicious and I would order again.  I especially enjoyed the frog legs.  They actually had a good amount of meat on those little legs.  The meat was tender.  I would like to try snails again.  
Enjoy the pictures.  I did not take a single picture of us on New Year’s Eve or of our dinner. Oops.
 

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I want cookies! 

1/5/2015

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I just wanted to bake cookies.  We have been working on putting our house together, and I thought that I had everything to make cookies.  I wanted my Cookie and Kate cookies!  Adam and I already walked to the market and to the grocery store.  Usually this is a fun morning and a nice walk.  However, when its 34 degrees and pouring down rain somehow into your face no matter what direction you walk, it’s not too fun.  When we got home and put everything away I started on my cookies.  I had the music going, I was feeling good and then I realized I had no baking soda.  Hmph!  To go or not to go back into the rain?  I stood in the baking aisle looking for baking soda, which was nowhere to be found.  Lots of baking powder, different flavored sugars, and crumbled speculoos (speculoos cookies are so delicious.  I call them my breakfast cookies, because I like to have them with my coffee. Oops getting sidetracked) but no baking soda.  I asked someone who works there and he understood what it was and then asked someone else for help.  We did another search and still no baking soda to be found.  He went and asked another employee, did another search and he found it!  I had such a huge smile when he brought the baking soda to me. I almost hugged him.  I’m not sure where he got it from, but it was not in the baking isle.  Mmm… Cookie and Kate cookies.  The kitchen is starting to feel like my kitchen. 

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    About Nakoma

    I have always had a passion for Art.  After attending five colleges (Navy families move…a lot) I earned my BA in Art History.  I’m thinking our first few tours will be art, art, art and then food, food, food.  I will post information about the tours we do.  

    Please note, that my blog posts will not be consistent.  We have a very busy, and fun schedule ahead of us, that might limit my time to post. 


    For those who plan to follow, enjoy!

    Cheers!  

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