Foody Friday family barbeque

Two years agoo, my father died of Alzheimer disease just like my father in law did last week...
Since the dead of my father we try to come together with the family around the date that dad was born and have a get together in his memory. We had started having these Birthday BBQ a few years before Dad died and mom tought it would be a good idea to keep doing them and so remembering Dad's birthday by.
This gathering took place last sunday.We where lucky with the weather and
like always we had a good day with lots of food and drinks and with lots of laughs.
Of course I had to make something too and I invented a summer vegetable salad that I named:

Victorine kitchen garden salad.

Victorine is my fathers mother and she was a farmers wife. They had a fabulous kitchen garden of witch I have fond memory's of. See the september topic of red apples from last year.

So in honour of her and her kitchen garden I made this salad.
It contains masses of fresh veg and a rather special dressing.

Combine steamed of parboiled pieces of carrot, green beans, snowpeas, cauliflower, white Belgian Asparagues together with raw pieces of celary, zucchini and tiny tomatoes.
I cook all my vegetables separate because they all need different cooking times. I leave them crunchy as well. You af course can take other vegeatbles also.

Then I created this dressing

Creamy sour cream and lemon dressing

Combine one small tub of sour cream with two heaped TS of good mayo.
Put 4 tablespoons of white wine vinigair in ( mine was flavered with minth), salt, pepper, some dryed salad herbs and the grated rind of a washed and untreaded lemon. It gives you a thick creamy dressing. Make it fairly acid at this time since. The salad needs this.

Toss together an hour before serving. The vegatables wil dilute the saladdressing a bit.

As always my younger brother was the barbeque master.

Here we are still on the appetizersGuacamole and a spicy cold mango soup and spicy meatballs with tzaziki.

After the appetizers there chicken drumsticks, pork tenderloin, small steaks, lam cutlets, sausages and all different kind of salads to go with it. For desert I made my mini cupcakes. Mom said, not to much and to big since I just want a little nibble to go with the coffee. I said of course,Mom and brought 60 tiny cupcakes.....Lemon cupcakes with lemoncurd buttercream and blueberry topping.And the all time favorite chocolade cupcakes with pink buttercream and raspberry topping. Of course there where way to many as there was way to much food anyway but I did not hear complains when they where asked to take the leftovers home. I heard the last cc 's where eaten yesterday and they where as nice as they where on sunday! I am still looking for insets for the cakeboxes for mini cupcakes. Can find them anywhere in Europe and the American shops won't send them because I do not want 1000 or so and posting is so expensive! If anyone can help it would be most apreciated.

It was a very nice family day and the star of the day was of course.....the latest addition to our family, our little granddaughter, Anne-Fleur!

Operation on my eyes Oog operaties

Jack snoozing in the sun

Because I am having two eye operations I am not so much on the internet and blogging is far from my bed. The operations are for my cataract on both eyes and it is a simple procedure. But I have some problems reading and sewing and rather a lot of headache because of it.
Thats why I have not been blogging.

Some things in my life have been changed to accomodate the procedure on my eyes. So the weeks between the operation are busy with doing the things I may not do the week of the operation.
By the end of march/beginning of april I will be a new women, at least my eyes will be!

Caitlin

Tegenwoordig ben ik weinig op het internet en al zeker niet op m'n blog zoals jullie gemerkt hebben. Vrij onverwachts ben ik geopereerd voor cataract/staar aan m'n linkeroog en binnen twee weken volgt dezelfde operatie aan het andere oog. Dat is een lichte operatie waar je snel van hersteld maar door het overwachte zijn een heleboel andere plannen zoals cursussen door elkaar gehusseld en moet ik in de weken dat tussen de operaties liggen veel dingen inhalen. Ook is lezen en naaien nog een groot probleem en heb ik vrij veel hoofdpijn.
Einde maart / begin april hoop ik dit alles achter de rug te hebben en zal ik een nieuw mens zijn, tenminste m'n ogen toch!

See you soon!

A new year a new life Een nieuw jaar een nieuw leven

It has been a while like so often.But I am a bit stressed about some things and I have troubles with my left eye. That and a million other excuses is the reason why I blog so seldom.

On the other hand I have one big reason to start work on lots of fun projects because......
After waiting for a long time I am finally going to be a GRANDMA!!!

In late spring, by the end of april, my son Jeroen and his girlfriend Cindy, are going to give me the greatest gift of all!!

Of course after waiting so long for this moment, my husband and I are very, very happy.
Since the news came, we know since late august, I have bought over 50 yards of childrens fabric.
For boys and for girls. Since they refuse to share with us the sex of the baby I had to buy for both sexes...What a good excuse!!!

Het is weer een hele tijd geleden dat ik geblogd heb maar ik ben een beetje gestressed over bepaalde dingen en anderzijds heb ik last van mijn linkeroog. Daar is staar bij vastgesteld en sinds ik het weet is het behoorlijk erger geworden en het begint me te hinderen.
Dat een een millioen andere redenen houden me van het bloggen.
Ik heb nochthans de beste reden ter wereld om aan de slag te gaan met honderden leuke projecten want na heel lang wachten word ik eindelijk OMA!!

Tegen het midden van de lente, nl eind april schenken m'n zoon Jeroen en zijn vriendin Cindy me het mooiste geschenk ter wereld , een kleinkind!

Mijn man en ik zijn natuurlijk in de wolken.
Sinds we het weten heb ik al meer dan 50 meter kinderstof gekocht en omdat we het geslacht van de baby niet mogen kennen moest ik zowel voor jongens als meisjes kopen.
Het perfecte excuus natuurlijk

Almost 35 years agoo this was my bundle of joy!! I still have a lot of his baby clothes. When we cleared out the attic last summer ,my son let me know that he wanted us to keep these little clothes.

Like this one. The yellow border has been faded by washing but the little yellow rose tells me that this is the baby vest he wears in the picture.

Bijna 35 jaar geleden was dit mijn bundeltje vreugde!! Ik heb nog steeds een hele hoop van z'n babykleertjes. Toen we vorige zomer de zolder opruimde liet hij weten dat hij toch graag had dat die kleertjes bewaard bleven.
De gele boord van dit "barbateuse-ke" zoals wij dat noemden, door het wassen is verbleekt maar ik herken het door het gele roosje dat het het het kledingstuk is van op de foto.

How sweet these old clothes still look.I am so glad I kept them and boy or girl they will come down from the attic and pictures will be taken .

Hoe lief zijn deze oude kleertjes nog steeds. Ik ben blij dat ik ze al die jaren heb bijgehouden. Je kan er zeker van zijn dat de doos van de zolder zal gehaald worden en dat er foto's zullen genomen worden met deze kleertjes.

I have been tagged!!

For the first time ever I have been taged! Thank you Rhondi!!


So now I have to follow the rules and answer the questions

What was I 10 years ago?

I was the same as now. A housewife married and with two grown children. Teaching Patchwork and quilting and tending to the cats.


5 things on my to do list today

First of all I need to care for and feed the sick kitten
Clean up the house a bit because I have a class.
Then I have to teach a patchwork class in my living room.
Try to laugh a bit as a compensation for the tears of yesterday.
Cook dinner

3 snacks I enjoy

I love Doritos sweet chili pepper variety
I also love a good icecream something like a tiramisu ice or a good mango ice
I also love a good piece of fruit tart like my mother bakes them.

4 things I would do if I was a millionaire

Move house! I want a house in the city with a little garden
Buy new houses for my two children
Enclose my garden for the cats
Give some mony to the cat shelters
Take a full time house cleaner!!!

5 places I have lived
I have only 5 places I have ever lived.
My father and mothers house in Hasselt
The new house of my parents in Hasselt
Our first flat as newlyweds in Hasselt
Our first apartment in Leuven
Our first house in Heverlee by Leuven
This is all in 50 km form each other!!
Very adventurous,is'nt it!!!!
What a boring live I have had,hahaha!!





I need to tag 6 other people.
That is a difficult one since I have only be in blogland for a few months.

I tag Madame ZsaZsa for being so much fun
http://madamezsazsa.blogspot.com/

I tag Lili M. for being so kind to me
http://lilimsadventures.blogspot.com/

I tag Hollyhocks for being such a nice person
http://hollyhocks.typepad.com/hollyhocks/

I tag Something White for being so nice to me
http://somethingwhite.blogspot.com/

I tag My everyday things for sharing my love of china and cristal
http://www.myeverydaythings.blogspot.com/

and last but not least I tag Maine Coon -Luna for sharing my love for Maine Coons
http://maine-coon-luna.blogspot.com/

It looks that I don't know exactly how to include a link.
So I am afraid you will have to do it with this.





The rules are:

Answer the questions.

Tag six other people.

List their names .

List the rules

Hallo allemaal... Hello everyone

Ondanks het feit dat ik elders een blogje heb, heb ik besloten hier bij Blogger een nieuwe blog aan te maken en hoop dat er hier meer mensen de weg naar toe vinden.

De thema's die hier aan bod zullen komen zijn oa de katten, waarvan ik er 10 heb, het huis en het inrichten ervan, knutselen allerlei maar quilts in het bijzonder en dan ook koken want dat doe ik erg graag.
Ben van huis uit een creatief mens en dat komt als je en een creatieve moeder hebt en een vader die schilderde en fotografeerde. Sinds mijn trouwen, bijna 35 jaar geleden hebben een enorme hoeveelheid stoffen en andere knutselspullen ons huis overspoelt. Als je dan weet dat ik ook graag met huisinrichting en brocante bezig ben dan kan je begrijpen dat onze kelder van 100 vierkante meter sjokvol staat.
Daar is in de laatste jaren nog de Maine Coon cattery bijgekomen met alle mogelijke benodigdheden daarvoor. Ik kan je vertellen dat tien katten hebben bijna zoveel spullen nodig

als een hele klas met kinderen.

I had a blog somewhere else but decided to create a new blog with Blogger and hope that more people will find there way to this blog.
A lot of the entry's will feature cats, I have ten, quilts, my house and cooking.

Since I got married almost 35 years agoo, our house has been steadely filled with a lot of fabrics and a lot of antiques and since I love decorating the house the 100 quare meter cellar is full to the brim with lots of things. I think I got that creative spirit from my parents since my mother was a seamstress and my father was painting and making pictures.

In the last 3 years I added a Maine Coon cattery to our

house and I can tell you that 10 cats need as much then a whole class of kids.