Foody Friday Festive Cod

My New Year's dinner for the inlaws was a big hit. I was surprised that they where so enthousiastic.
We had some different appetizers and pink champagne.
Then we had filet of cod wrapped in taggliatelli with tomato salsa.
Jerusalem artichock soup with smoked salmon
Filet of hare with cranberry jus and pumpkin pancakes
For dessert I had vanilla icecream and fresh baked vanilla spiced pineapple.

It was especially the cod that was a big hit and it is such an easy recipie.
So here it is for you foody fans.

Best piece of cod. About 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick
Fresh tagliatelli
Fresh tomatoes
Semi dryed or fresh abricots
Some spring onions
Salt/ pepper
Acacia honey, olive oil and white balsamic vinegair.


Prepare in advance.
Cook the fresh pasta until it is almost done.
Spice the cod with pepper and salt.
Wrap the cod in the taggliatelli.A tricky job. The picture is of my plate and of course I had the last remaining piece so it is not the best of my parcels.
Put this in the fridge ready for use.
Made a salsa of thin slices of peeled and seeded tomatoes, thin slices of apricots and spring onions. Make a dressing of the balsamic vinegair,olive oil and a bit of runny honey, salt and pepper.
Dress the salsa just before serving.
Bake the wrapped cod in a combination of butter and olive oil.
Serve with the salsa.

Three or more of L'Heure Bleue

A few years agoo I was looking trough a french dictionary to find some beautiful names for my kittens and I found the expression : l' Heure Bleue witch means as much as 'the blue hour'.
I never heard from this expression but found it so poetic that I kept in in my kitten name list together with some other french expressions.
Last year in March we had 1 solid blue Maine Coon kitten and that was for me the upportunity to use that name.

He is now a strapping lad of 9 months old and still caries the name Bleue. But a Bleu Hour I had never seen....

On sunday morning I was up and about fairly early since I had to prepare a New Year dinner party for 10 people and there it was....'l Heure Bleue in all its glory.

Fresh snow on the ground and that incredible blue light over the entire would.
It was as poetic as the French expression. The Blue Hour.

For those who still not know what it means. Well the French use that expression for the hour when the night changes in the day. And that was exactly when it happened. It was around 8am when I saw this incredible sight!

I wish you all a very nice day.

Happy New Year!!!

First and formost I wish you all a very Happy New Year. I wish you health, happiness and peace.
A lot of festive days have past since the last time I blogged.
In Belgium we started on the 6th of December with St Nicolas day. The day that all good children get presents and candy.For the first time in years we celebrated this again. With our new granddaughter Anne-Fleur it was the ideal year to do so. She is of course only 7 months old and thus not get the spirit of the day. Chewing presents was the big joy of her day! The typical candy, chocolate, fruit and of course the speculaas went to her mom and dad who accepted it gratefully. I think next year she will have her say about that!For the adults there was of course cake.A very simple chocolate cake adorned with the typical Saint Nicolas candy. Golden coins (with chocolate inside), nic nac's ( the small sugared cookies ) on the side and on top and some lovely little chocolate Saint Nicolas plaques I found at the bakery shop.It was years agoo that we had so much snow. I began snowing the first friday of december. So at Saint Nicolas day we took these pictures of Anne-Fleur. She sits on the sled of her dad and auntie that I kept for more than 30 years. She was a bit afraid. It was bitterly cold and her mom did not take her in to the snow before since she had been in hospital ,two weeks before. But I thought we could not pass up this opportunity to get pictures of her in the first snow of her life.She did not enjoy it that much.I think she was even a bit scared of it.

In each case the snow lasted just until Christmas and we had the first white Christmas since 1986 I believe. The next day it started raining and it was all gone.
In the mean time our little kittens grew up to be little white and blue fluff ball's. You can't contain them in a small area anymore! They want to play! Polar Bear is kissing the Steiff snowman. He has found a good home in Holland.

Sadly we have one handicapt kitten in the litter .You see him at the far left in the picture below.

All four bones in his front legs are bent. He will always be handicaped. But the good news is that if he has a good chance to live a painfree and happy life, he will have a loving home with the parents of our Brandaen of with my daughter.
Aren't they sweet?

Trying to snap a group picture is not that easy as you can see!

Shortly after Saint Nicolas day I set up the Christmas tree.
I try to make a different tree every year. That you can see if you look for the post ' Christmas in July'.
This year I used fresh green, covered with transparent plastic pearls, glass baubles, porcelain balls with flowers. Some metal and glass danglely things, some mirrored snowflakes and the collection of Snowbabie ornaments I started for Anne-Fleur. And of course my favorite ornaments of all could not be left in the cellar. My white glass birds are almost every year in my Christmas tree.
Lily our youngest Maine Coon is facinated with the tree .She had never seen one before. She took out one of my green glass balls in the first days. After that she became a good little girl and only sleeps beneeth the tree on the white fleece blanket that is covering the base.

I did not do a lot of other Christmas decorations this year.I only made place to put my Snowbabies out since this year I bought the nativity set of it.

Even the Christmas dinner table was simple but classy. Floral tablecloth in blue and cream with a simple flower decoration and some candles.
This is it for today. Tomorrow I start preparing the New Year dinner I do for my inlaws. They will come on sunday to celebrate the New Year. Today, the first of january will be a day to start preparing, like ironing the table cloth and preparing the cakes.
Have a happy day and until the next time.