I was reading (or being read) Dennis’ blog and there was a comment posted by Arthur about asparagus and the cultural differences concerning those beauties. Being American I grew up with the one and only variety of Asparagus, green. The way I like them is sauteed in a little butter in a pan until they turn that bright vivid green. The nice thin ones so they stay nice and crunchy when you bite into them. I remember years ago at the supermarket in San Antonio they had a special, for the first time ever I saw a white and a purple asparagus, and my mother and I being lovers of the green devils we decided to get the white and purple as well as the green to have a taste test. So we went home with our little discovery and prepared the asparagus as we always did, sauteed with a a little butter, nice and crunchy…. I can still see us biting into the white “gold” and thinking to myself, “self, this asparagus is a little stringy and really not so good… not a repeater”.

Several years passed and I had fallen in love with a Dutch guy who tells me that Asparagus is such a specialty in the Netherlands and that his mom is making some for my visit since the first crop had come out when I had arrived. I thought, “this is going to be awesome”… I tell them that I love Asparagus, the lovely green crunchy kind and that I had tried the other kinds and found that the white just was not edible and I can’t stand mushy vegis. The looks on their faces should’ve given it away but I was so happy to have Asparagus I didn’t care. Ingrid (my mother-in-law) brings out her big white pot that looks like it could feed a small village (and she usually makes enough to do just that, the village being my husband) and takes off this lid. After the steam disappears from the top my face fell. I was greeted by a pot of white, mushy Asparagus in a creamy sauce. Being one to try new things (with a little hesitation) I took one (yes one) Asparagus on my plate and cut into it. I slowly took the fork to my mouth and started to chew. As I was chewing on this “white gold” I got to thinking that this doesn’t taste or have the texture of that white Asparagus I had oh so many years ago with my family and that this was really good. I then took a spoonful of white mush and happily finished my plate. I had then told the story of my mom and I’s attempt at white asparagus and soon learned that, unlike the green variety, the white needed to be peeled with a carrot peeler until the stalk feels silky and smooth. Ever since then I have learned different ways to cook and eat the white kind, but still I treasure the few times a year that I can get the green variety…. I also enjoy the look on the Dutch faces as I purchase them…

Well Dennis and I just got back from a trip up north. Despite exhaustion, a very sore back and painful hands and wrists it was AWESOME!!!!. We started out by driving to Eindhoven and going to the job center called the Undutchables, a job center for foreigners. They had this awesome shirt for Queen’s Day. It’s orange, has a big crown on the front and says on the back “I don’t know what is going on today, But I’ll drink to it anyway”. That was a small detour before we went to Noordwijk. We got to our hotel which was really cute and then headed off to the Keukenhof…. We passed a lot of tulip fields, tulips as far as the eye could see, or until the field stopped at some not so picturesque backdrops of modern houses. But it was still so beautiful. The Keukenhof was more than worth the trip. I”m sure Dennis will have the pictures up later today. But there, at the Keukenhof, we got out first cheese, not the food, but the souvenir, a fridge magnet. A delft blue shoe with tulips and it says the Keukenhof.

 The next day we headed out to Delft. Believe me when I say we went all out with the souvenirs. Since we have decided to move we have found that we want to get as much of the Dutch stuff as we can. I think we bought half of this one store in Delft. We have a delft blue Christmas ornament, mugs with tulips on them, a delft blue giraffe…. All of this very tasteful ofcourse … We will continue collecting this stuff, I”m sure, until we leave. And this year the Olympics are really going to help us go all out with pride from Oranje. It Ain’t Much If It Ain’t Dutch!!…. But Anyway Delft was beautiful, we got to see the tomb from William of Oranje, the bullet holes where he was killed and the old and new Churches of Delft. It is really a beautiful city. And the good thing is I have found inspiration for my personalised licence plate when we move to the states. Sjees…. This might seem a bit odd to any non-Dutch (those very few I’m sure) who are reading this so I shall explain. When I first moved here no one on the square where Dennis’ family lives could figure out how to say my name let alone spell it, so when we moved in together we got cards addressed to Dennis and Cheese, Dennis and Sjeen…. weird things like that…. the “ee” is like the “a” in Chase, so that was always a constant. So if you read “sjees” like that it makes sense, “shase” is what it would come down to. But Sjees is also a type of carriage from the horse and buggy times. So I figured it will be funny to those few Dutch who know me and give me a conversation topic with Americans when I am there.Oh and before you think I am all clever and actually knew what the heck a sjees was, it was a café that we went to in Delft and I jokingly said that it was named after me, he told me it was a carriage and then I said that will be my plate…. I think he is rubbing off on me after all these years hehe.

The next day we had Leiden and Gouda. Then the real cheese started (oh god, he has started to rub off on me, this might not be so good ) After walking around Leiden, during the Queen’s Day festivities (I was only allowed to wear my spiffy new orange shirt UNDER my long sleeve black shirt) we headed out to Gouda. Now if you are thinking, cool there will be places to buy cheese magnets and other funny cheese things, you will be sorely disappointed. There was nothing. We managed to buy ONE souvenir that whole day, well one that made it home anyway…. A Delft blue stroopwafel pot with windmills on it and full baggy of stroopwafels, which hasn’t been open and is sitting downstairs calling out to me…. The one thing that didn’t make it home from Gouda was , and this is something for Kim, fresh, hot, soft but crunchy, huge…. and I mean HUGE…. stroopwafels. The thing was the size of a dessert or bread plate…. she had just put the waffle dough on the thing and made them, she cut them open infront of our eyes and smothered it in gooey goodness…. I could’ve had another one, I wanted it… I knew I shouldn’t (like a lot of things, like that second piece of chocolate cake, but come on, it has milk so my dairy for the day, it has nuts so the protein of the day, it has chocolate so it stimulates that part of the brain that makes you feel inlove, and I know you are thinking I should just look at my husband to make me feel all in love and all that, but he’s not there… how else, do you think, I can have that second piece of chocolate cake? but I digress) so I didn’t…. We headed to the car and then drove back home, country blasting on the CD player and us singing…

That was such an awesome trip. I highly recommend that to anyone who wants to visit the Netherlands. Especially the stroopwafels