Life is more than the Cubicle

Christmas in Belgium

This year, I went to Belgium with my parents for Christmas. My mom proposed a trip back in July or August and I wanted to check out the Christmas markets in Germany since they are famous for them. Well, mom shot that down wanting to go somewhere new so I suggested Belgium.

We flew out Christmas day (had our family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve) and flew basically the entire day to Brussels. From Brussels we took an hour long train to Bruges and walked the town.

First waffle of the trip

The architecture and design was absolutely stunning

Picture of my parents by the canal

Inside the first of many churches

The next day we woke at around 7 and tried to find breakfast. However, it was as dark as night and no places were open. Apparently people don't stir until about 9am.

One of the cute chocolate shop displays

We climbed the Belfort tower and its 366 steps and took pictures of Bruges from the top of the tower. It's pretty intense to be up in the tower when the bells ring, which they do every 15 minutes.

We also walked through the choco-story chocolate museum where they had cute little displays like this around the museum

Lunch was a giant sausage and some fries from one of the markets

We also toured De Halve Moon brewery (The Half Moon) and got a free beer at the end.

The next day we explored through the Gruuthuse and Groeninge museums

Belgium is known for their intricate lacework and this vintage lace from the early 1500s is pretty impressive

Outside of Gruuthuse which was a private estate for many years before being converted into a number of different types of buildings. Now it's a museum housing artifacts from early life in Bruges

3 of the 5 bottles of beer that I bought on this trip

Popped this guy open. It was from the De Halve Maan brewery

And had a tasty pastry treat

The day after that, we took the train back to Brussels and journeyed through the city a la Rick Steves' walking guides

The main square, Grand Place

Yum

Exhibit of Mannekin pis costumes

Grand Place light show

The next day we did an upper Brussels walking tour

Museum of musical instruments

Walking up the stairs to the Coudenberg Palace and Royal Palace

Coudenberg church and statue near the Royal Palace

Inside the church

Taking a break in the museum of fine arts (Magritte Museum)

And more beer

Another church

Peeing boy

Waffle with chocolate and strawberries

Then I cut my own part of the trip short because I wanted to be at home to start my new job so I left the day after this and took a 6am flight from Brussels to Frankfurt.

I've never seen an airport this empty. Kind of scary

12:49 AM
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Thanksgiving Dinner with Friends

This year I had the pleasure of having 2 thanksgivings. One with friends the sunday before and one with my parents followed up with a wonderful thanksgiving dinner of hotpot with some of the far from home transplants. It was a week of very good food and a bit of overeating.

Below are pictures of the things I made for the sunday dinner. Turkey, dressing and pie

I had about four hours to get all of the cooking done so here is how I did it.

First, I started with pumpkin persimmon pie. The easiest recipe that I've ever encountered. And super tasty too!

The crust is made in the food processor. Just whirl around until it forms a ball like above

Then press into your pam'd pie pan and bake

Then take some tasty persimmons provided by your wonderful friends (thanks Daniel and Kim!)

And mix with pumpkin and spices and sugar. This is where I experienced the saddest thing in my life...I ran out of cinnamon. It was traumatic

Then pop into oven and bake until this goodness happens

Then I made root vegetable stuffing.

I have to confess. I burned it a little. Forgot that it was in the oven when I started preheating it to cook the turkey. Sorry friends. I do love you and I'm not trying to kill you, I promise.

Made some whipped cream but left it in the fridge instead of taking it to the party because I'm S-M-R-T

Then take turkey, that is spatchcocked (or cut out the backbone with great difficulty and break the breast until it lays flat), spread with butter and herbs and five spice on one side and place veggies on the bottom of the pan). Cook turkey for 1 hour

And make stock while waiting. This is the regular turkey stock. There is a backbone in there somewhere

And this one is the "chinese" style stock with the neck, garlic and ginger. Yes, it is being cooked in my wok

Turkey done! (Actually slightly overdone, sorry again friends, I really do love you all)

After this cooking fiasco, I participated in the turkey trot on turkey day morning, then had turkey lunch with my parents. Then I met up with some of my far-from-home friends and we had our own turkey day dinner of hot pot.

Then I got sick and stayed home all weekend. It was productive.

Hope you all had a happy turkey day!

8:15 PM
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Cooking Update

Pictures of the some of the things I've made recently

First were apple brownies that I brought to a friend's wine night

The recipe was super simple and was basically throw everything together in the mixer then add in the apples and bake

Accidentally wrapped them before I took a picture

They were good but a little mushy, will have to figure out how to firm them up

A bit later I made some chicken buns using biscuit dough, shredded chicken and hoisin for a slightly asian flavor

They turned out beautifully

Now, I am embarking on a mini Thanksgiving dinner. I initially signed up to bring stuffing. Then I found a nice pie recipe.

Then we ended up with only one 20 pound turkey which would not feed the 30+ adults and 7 children in attendance. So I figured, If I'm using the oven to make the stuffing and pie, I might as well just throw a turkey in there.

So I bought this beast from Safeway. I have never encountered a turkey this big. Usually my family tries to find the smallest one that we can to feed the 4 of us.