Last week I spent a few days in the east with my parents. My mother teaches at a primary school (she has such an irregular tropical schedule, it's not normal), so she had a week of spring break. I came straight from New York and I thought it was an excellent idea to sit out my jetlag there a bit. I wrote my pieces every day from the meadows, but afterwards we snuggled up together by the fireplace, made appointments for pedicures and did shopping in the village (which I really like, you know, little villages and such). The local perfumery had a great sale so we went wild and ended up spending a fortune (totally duped), we bought fresh tights at the “underwear shop” and printed recipes to shop at the local farmer. All terribly quaint, I know, but I found it incredibly nice to be together.

Baking is an art

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Something I really don't have enough time for in Amsterdam. My mother is the best cook in the country, so my parents‘ kitchen is a paradise for me. I used the Kenwood about three times a day and the oven was permanently on. I made delicious banana bread and a failed apple cake (I used coconut flour instead of spelt flour, that didn't go well). I'll give you the recipe for the banana bread. Very easy and quick to make. If you have a good food processor, it goes even faster. You can just take a slice out of your hand or with a layer of nut butter, it's also tasty.

Here's what you need and how to make it:

4 tbsp chia seeds
3 eggs
50 grams of coconut flour
50 centiliters of water
50 grams of oats
4 tablespoons of chia seeds
A rectangular cake tin
1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon
A rectangular cake tin greased with coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Put the bananas in a blender and mix them until smooth (did you know you have incredibly delicious ice cream if you put this in the freezer for a few hours?).
Whisk the eggs fluffy in a bowl. I used a food processor for this. Then add the coconut flour, water, and cinnamon. Now mix well again. Then add the banana mousse along with the chia seeds and pumpkin seeds. Pour the batter into the cake tin and put it in the oven for 40 minutes. Do check it occasionally, of course, and if you want the cake a little firmer, you can leave it in the oven a bit longer. I found it deliciously a bit moist after 40 minutes and I love that.

This makes my life so much easier

Now the village also has a cooking store, so in principle, I could just live there. I saw a Spirelli lying there. My savior in need. By the way, you can also here buy it on bol.com. This handy little device makes strands of vegetables. It's actually a kind of pencil sharpener. The vegetables need to be long, thick, and large (yes, I said that all), otherwise it won't work.

I made the zucchini noodles (pasta made from zucchini) from Rens Kroes and the next day I had a bit left over, so I ate that together with some scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. It was divine.

Jamie forever

My own kitchen is full of cookbooks. Ottolenghi, Donna Hay, Chickslovefood, Rens Kroes, Amber Albarda, but Jamie Oliver remains my one and only. I made his oven chicken on Saturday night. Just fill it with lemon, garlic, and some thyme. Then coat it in oil and into the oven with some vegetables. Every ten minutes, spoon the juices that come out back over the chicken and it becomes wonderfully tender. You just have to be patient, because the little creature needs to roast for more than an hour. In the meantime, I drank chilled Spätburgunder. My dearest wine. It's a very nice light red wine. Even though the alcohol percentage isn't that high, after two bottles, you're tipsy, I can tell you.

Book seeks woman TV dinner

I definitely had a hangover so yes. The week in the east was over and I got in the car to Amsterdam for Boer zoekt Vrouw (I absolutely stay home for this program) with friends. I opened a bottle of white wine again, we ordered Thai and sat with our plates on our laps in front of the TV.

So. That was my week. Did this wannabe fit girl do any sports this week? Nope. It was mostly a lot of good food and the wine flowed abundantly. Sometimes that's nice too.