Travels with George and Marta – Page 30 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Window Shopping in Amsterdam

Posted on September 30, 2010 by MartaSeptember 30, 2010

Orange – national color of the Netherlands

First off, I have to admit I am not a big shopper. I enjoy it but it is not one of my passions. But I do love to window shop and visit unusual shops. Amsterdam and Holland is a great city for window shopping and I’m not talking about the red light district.

First a bit about the major Dutch stores. The main department store which has a variety of upscale fashion and home accessories is de Bijenkorf. I loved visiting this store when we lived in den Haag and there is one located at Dam Square in Amsterdam. You can see it on this picture.

But if you want to get a better idea of a typical Dutch store, visit Hema. This is their good value good design store. I’d compare it to Target. It is a great place to get items for the house. There are many around the Netherlands. Blokker is similar store. For fashion – V&D is the main Dutch fashion store along C&A another Dutch clothing store. One of my favorite fashion stores is H&M which is based in Sweden. It has just recently expanded to the US.

But the real charm of shopping in Amsterdam is walking in the cross streets between the major canals ( Herengracht, Keizergracht and Prinsengracht). This area is actually called the ‘9 Streets‘. I love walking in this area. I am always charmed by some of the unique specialty stores such as the Knopenwinkel, a store which has an endless supply of buttons. Or De Witte Tanden Winkel which has a wide supply of toothbrushes.

There are other areas that are also interesting. Kalverstraat is a main pedestrian shopping street. I liked to visit the English Bookstore on the street to pick up something to read or other bookstores. Magna Plaza is behind the Royal Palace at the Dam. For upscale shopping, visit the streets in the Museum Quarter just a short walk from Leidseplein towards Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat (PC Hooftstraat). I remember falling in love with Derby dishes in one of the stores selling china along the street.

There are also several street markets in Amsterdam selling a variety of items from books, antiques to organic produce. Here is a good list of some of the markets. I wasn’t crazy about the flea market at Waterlooplein but it is worth a look if you are in the area because it is typical of a Dutch street market.

Violin maker in Haarlem

Shoe store in Amsterdam

Let’s not guess what everything in this window is used for!

Okay… not a store window but I couldn’t resist this cat in the window of a restaurant in Haarlem.

Amsterdam

Posted on September 19, 2010 by MartaSeptember 19, 2010

Amsterdam Canal Scene

My friend, TrekCapri, is planning a trip to Amsterdam in November. I love Holland. I have had the opportunity to live for short periods in both Den Haag and Leiden as part of my former job. My first opportunity was in 1990 when we were opening the office in Den Haag. The staff was small and I was responsible for hiring a permanent technical support engineer for the office. It was a lifetime dream to be able to live and work in Europe and I never thought it would be possible. It was from September until January which is an interesting time to be in Holland. The weather changes dramatically from hour to hour. Winds funnel down off the North Seas and swirl the clouds. The streets were lined with Sycamore or Plane trees. The leaves covered the sidewalks and always made for a noisy walk. One day the leaves were gone. The city had waited until all the leaves were down before coming by and sweeping them up.

The days grew short. I had not realized how far north Holland was located. By December, the sun was not coming up until almost 9am and was sitting by 4pm. But it was beautiful and so diverse. I hope to give some tips on visiting The Netherlands in the next few posts.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of a quick walk around the canal area in Amsterdam. I had a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam on my way to Nice so I took the train in from Schiphol. It takes about 20 minutes and it is quite easy. From Centraal Station, I walked up Damrak in the morning. It is pretty quiet in Amsterdam until about 10am. Workers were rushing to and fro and it happened to be garbage day but otherwise not a lot of traffic. From the Dam I walked over towards Prinsengracht which is one of my favorite canals. I walked towards Leidsestraat and then heading towards the Bloemenmarkt (Flower market) along Singel. This took about 1 hour to walk and I was back in the airport by 10am.

Looking back down Damrak. Centraal Station is in the distance. Typical tram, lights and bike path

I love the shop windows. They always have the most interesting and unusual displays

You will find a wide variety of bikes including bakfiets or cargo bikes

The typical bike is a 3 speed bike designed for city traffic. Don’t you just love her coordinating shirt and sneakers?

Typical canal house

Some can be quite narrow

But if you slow down, you can often find whimsical items

In the fall, crates and crates of Spring bulbs in the Flower Market

Photohunt: School

Posted on September 18, 2010 by MartaSeptember 18, 2010

This week’s Photohunt theme is school. The last time I was in school was in 2007. I attended Institut de Francais in Villefranche sur Mer. This is a French immersion school where I spent 4 weeks learning a bit of French. It was excellent school and I learned a tremendous amount in the 4 weeks. I have to admit the school was challenging but it was just what I needed. But more important – it was fun.

The school is beautiful and a lovely location on the French Riviera in the small village of Villefranche sur Mer just outside of Nice. September is a great time to attend – warm enough to enjoy but not too hot.

Studying in the garden

View over the harbor from the school

In the classroom – my teacher is in black.

Graduation day in the main salon

Burroughs Mountain Anniversary Hike

Posted on September 14, 2010 by MartaOctober 14, 2014

I have been looking forward to our Anniversary hike at Mount Rainier. The weather has been so unpredictable this year. The weather was rainy on our Anniversary. Of course, the sun came out on the days when G had to work. Finally the forecast was for three days of sun this week. G had a company picnic on Tuesday which was predicted to be the best weather day. We tentatively planned to go on Wednesday. But Monday morning, I checked the webcams for the mountain and the passes – perfectly clear. It also crossed my mind that if the forecast is wrong – which it typically is – it would probably rain late Wednesday. So I proposed to G that we go today. G was luke warm on the idea. But I gave him a couple of reasons and he finally agreed. We could get ready and be up on the mountain by early afternoon.

I whipped up our dinner; salad with left over grilled tuna and tomatoes and cukes from the garden with some more tomatoes and mozzarella and cantaloupe for dessert. We had to stop and pick up a bottle of wine and we were on our way. It took about 3 hours to make it up to Sunrise. They were repaving and painting the road so we were stopped behind the painting machine for about 30 minutes. We finally got on the trail around 2:30.

The sun was peaking in and out of the clouds. They had started to gather around the mountain. It was beautiful as the light raced across the meadows. The climb was tough at first but I got into a rhythm and was able to march right up and arrived at the top just before 4:00pm

We headed for our normal spot on the rocks overlooking Third Burroughs. We watched the clouds circle around while we had our wine and dinner. The chipmunks and squirrels entertained us.

Suddenly we noticed a low cloud creeping across the meadow below. It was time to go. It wasn’t going to get any better. We were soon engulfed in the cloud and hiked back through the mist. We met up with a couple on vacation from Hershey Pennsylvania and talked about hiking for the last mile.

We dumped our boots into the car and headed down. We stopped for one last look at the mountain and wished ourselves many more happy years.

Sunrise meadow and lodge

Sunlit corn lily

Trail Junction at Frozen Lake

Cloud dappled light across the meadows below Fremont Lookout

Clouds creeping in

Time to go

Packing it up

One last photo op

Heading off

Good Bye for another season

Tomato Puree

Posted on September 12, 2010 by MartaSeptember 12, 2010

Well, the trays of tomatoes ripened up and I had enough home grown tomatoes to can. The Aug/Sept2010 issue of Fine Cooking had a good article on canning tomato puree . I had mostly small little Stupice variety tomatoes that would be a pain to peel and can so I decided to try the puree.

First, I had to buy a food mill. My local general one-stop shopping store did not have them. I looked on the web and Ace Hardware came up so I went over to local Tweedy & Pop Ace Hardware in Shoreline. It was about $30 which was in my price range. I have to admit after using it, I am now wondering if it wouldn’t have been better to get the Oxo brand for $50 but it did the job.

I stemmed, washed and chopped the tomatoes – that took a good hour. Then heated them until they were soft. Next I used the food mill to puree them using the smallest plate. The Stupice have very tiny seeds so there was no way that I would remove them unless I used a chinois. I decided to go with the seed.

Next I sterilized the pint jars and brought the puree to a boil. My puree is very watery since the Stupice are not very meaty. But that will be fine – I’ll just remember to reduce them when I use them. I made 9 pints. And later in the week another batch should ripen for another half dozen pints. Yea! – after a poor tomato year – I’ll be able to get at least a dozen or so pints of tomatoes to use this winter.

Two trays to stem and wash

Chop the tomatoes

Heat until soft

Food Mill

Pureed Tomatoes

Success – 2010 Tomatoes ready for the pantry

Photohunt: Anniversary

Posted on September 11, 2010 by MartaOctober 14, 2014

Anniversary Hike at Burroughs Mountain

This week’s Photohunt theme is Anniversary. This was very easy for me for two reasons. First, September 12th is my blog’s Anniversary. I started blogging on September 12, 2003! I haven’t posted consistently but Photohunting has helped. I’ve done just over 700 posts in seven years. Here’s when I celebrated my 5th Blogiversary in 2008.

The second reason is our wedding Anniversary is in September. We have been married 35 years. Wow! It feels just like yesterday. We usually go on a hike on our Anniversary to Mt. Rainier. We haven’t made it up there yet because the weather has been cold and rainy. There is a possibility that we may not make it to Sunrise or Burroughs Mt this year. The road to Sunrise will be closing in the evenings in a week and for the season early in October. If not, we will still go up to either Naches or Paradise.

We started the tradition of hiking to celebrate our Anniversary in 2003. We haven’t made it every year. We hiked to Burroughs in 2008 and around Naches Peak in 2009. But I thought for Photohunt that I would post pictures from the first year that we did the celebratory anniversary hike – 2003.

We like to start our hike late in the afternoon. We take along our dinner to eat while the sun is setting and hike back in the dark. But the best time is watching the sun go down.

Have a great weekend.

Setting up dinner – shrimp and Greek salad

This year we also carried up a bottle of Champagne

Basking in the glow of the setting sun

Golden end to the day

Bread and Pasta

Posted on September 8, 2010 by MartaJune 9, 2017

Lots of time – that is what you have when you are unemployed. I am taking this opportunity to do more time consuming cooking. Canning has been one project. It is now cooler so I have been more interested in trying different types of bread.

My first project is trying a sourdough starter. I have never worked with a starter but I’m intrigued with it. I love sourdough. I found this recipe for a wild yeast sourdough starter on The Fresh Loaf and started up my culture. I has just about been a week so it may be ready. It hasn’t made a lot so I’m going to do more research on it. I’d like to try making bread and waffles or pancakes with the starter. I just find it very intriguing to be able to create bread without yeast. I’ve tasted several Belgium beers that also use wild yeast and they are so different. Sour but good.

I had a craving for focaccia bread. I found this recipe for Focaccia on The Fresh Loaf and I really wanted to try it. One of my favorite Focaccia bread that I have had was a potato topped Focaccia that I got from a bakery along the Cinque Terre. The combination of thin potatoes, fresh bread, oil and rosemary was heavenly. This recipe isn’t for a potato topped Focaccia but instead uses potato in the dough. Several artisan bread companies in Seattle make a potato bread so I though this would be a great second project.

The recipe starts by baking or microwaving potatoes and then grating them. Next you create a sponge. The recipe called for quick acting yeast but I had just regular active yeast. It worked fine. NOTE: The initial post on the recipe gives the wrong amount of yeast. It says 1/2 tsp and it is really 1 1/2 tsp of quick yeast. 1 1/2 tsp of active yeast works fine. Just start the active yeast first in the warm water. I have it about 3-5 minutes before adding the flour and then I waited for about 20-25 minutes until I had a sponge.

Next you add the flour. I do not have a large mixer so I did it by hand. First I added about 2 cups of flour and then added about 1/2 cup more. Then I turned it out and started kneading and added about 1/2 cup more. I used a course grater for the potato so there were a few pieces of potato even when I had finished kneading making it a little knobby.

It took about 1-2 hours for the first rise. It is cool – 65 degrees so I like using a large pan with a small amount of warm water to raise the temperature and assist the rising of the dough. After it had raised, then I punched it down and cut it in half. I knew we could not eat a full sheet of bread so I used a piece of foil to cut my pan down to size. I stretched out the dough into a rectangular shape, topped it with olive oil, fresh rosemary and salt and let it rise again. I baked it for about 25 minutes.

It was wonderful. It wasn’t yeasty at all and the potato gave it a good depth. I would have liked a bit more rosemary and salt but otherwise extremely yummy. We didn’t eat all so I’m going to try reheating part tonight and then making the other half later this week.

My third flour project was homemade pasta. I tried it for the first time earlier this summer and I wasn’t too impressed. But I wanted to try it again. I read over a couple of the threads on Slow Travel and there were several discussion regarding what type of flour to use. You want to use hard durum flour to give the pasta some ‘bite’. Last time I think I used 00 flour from Italy. I realize now that it was too ‘soft’. I also rolled the pasta too thin. It ended up being a very thin noodle.

I had a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Semolina Pasta Flour. Some Slow Travelers use only semolina and others have found it to be too dry. I decided to use 1/3 Semolina to 2/3 all purpose flour. The recipe I used was 3/4 cup of flour (1/4 cup semolina and 1/2 cup all purpose flour) and 1 egg. It was so much better. It tasted more like pasta than noodles. It was a little dry but cooked up very tasty. I cooked down some fresh tomatoes along with a bit of vegetarian bouillon, butter and herbs (basil, rosemary and sage). Oh… My… Goodness… I’m going to make it again tonight.

Kneading the Focaccia

Ready for the first rising

Ready to be punched down

Second rising

Homemade pasta

Vegetable Garden 2010 – #7

Posted on September 8, 2010 by MartaSeptember 8, 2010

Fall is coming!

Yes, in fact, I think it is here! The weather usually changes pretty dramatically here after Labor Day. This year it started just before. The clouds have rolled in. They days are gray and wet. The temperatures are just cracking into the 60s. And our vegetable garden is starting to close up for the season.

This has been a very very cool year. Some things did very well. We harvested the last of our lettuce just this week. This is the first year that we have been able to grow lettuce throughout the summer. Yep.. that cool. The beans did very well although the seeds are starting to plump so I may not be able to get fresh beans much longer. But I do love freshly shelled green beans.

The tomatoes have been pitiful. They produced a lot of tomatoes but not a lot are ripening. The rain is causing a few to rot and a few to drop off. G decided to go ahead and harvest all that he could. He is an anxious guy. It doesn’t look like enough to really can so I may cook them up and freeze them. I did drop by a local city farm stand to see what was the price of a case of tomatoes. Not too bad. $18 for 25lbs. I may get a box and can them with what I have. Next week’s forecast is for more drizzle so I don’t think many more will ripen. Anybody have any good recipes for green tomatoes?

Look how many are still green!

Stupice was the only one to ripen but very small – at most 3 inches across

Look at all that are still green!

September harvest

Bread and Butter Pickles

Posted on September 5, 2010 by MartaSeptember 5, 2010

Fall is coming fast in the Pacific Northwest. We have had almost nothing for a summer. June was rainy and cold. July and August was off and on. It is now September and you can tell Fall is approaching fast. The sun is lower, the colors are golden, leaves are turning read and the days are cool and crisp. No, No, No …. it is too soon!

Alas, our tomatoes are barely turning red. I have been itching to can so I decided to get some small canning cucumbers at this Saturday’s Edmonds Farmers Market. Gypsy Rows from Silvana had some wonderful looking small pickling cucumbers. I have never made pickles before so I wasn’t certain what size cukes to get. I went for the smallest which probably would have made fabulous spears. They also made some darn good bread and butter pickles.

I searched the web for recipes. I have always had good luck with Elise’s recipes from Simply Recipe. Her recipe sounded great – Bread and Butter Pickles. Martha also had a version of the pickles. I went with Simply Recipe’s version but cut the sugar by 1/4 cup and added 6 black peppercorns.
My cucumbers were really small so they packed in tight. The recipe only made 3 pints instead of 5. I had about 1/4 pint left over and G gobbled most of them down when he got home from work. The other 3 are in the pantry with the dilly beans waiting for a dark day when I need to remember the sun. 🙂

Aren’t they great looking pickling cukes?

Two and half pounds sliced up – didn’t take that long!

Slice in some onions and salt them

Don’t they look great?

Photohunt: Hot

Posted on September 4, 2010 by MartaNovember 2, 2014

Glass artist heating glass to over 2000 degrees F at Tacoma Glass Museum

This week’s Photohunt theme is hot. I thought first about doing the obvious – weather. We are having a couple of late summer hot days. Eighty degrees! But I thought I would share another Pacific Northwest place that is ‘hot’ – The Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Their tag line is “Hot glass. Cool art.”

I love this museum. It is so creative and imaginative. I usually start by walking across the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. My favorite area is the Seaform Pavilion although the Crystal Towers are also stunning.

The bridge leads to the top of the museum and the volcano shaped stainless steel cone that is the top of the hot shop . Stairs curve around the cone and down to the outdoor glass exhibits. Inside the Hot Shop Amphitheater, glass artists work with the furnaces that burn to 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The Glory Holes heat the glass to over 2,000 degree F which makes the glass malleable and allows the artist to blow or shape the pieces. The Amphitheater is open during museum hours to allow visitors to watch the artists.

I don’t know what attracts me the most – the danger of working with the hot glass or the beauty of the creations.