Tight Parking at the Tiber river, Rome.

Go you cute lil car-ettes, go, go go! This blue one is even smaller than a Smart car.

Smart car in Rome

In response to the overwhelming requests (thanks, Bill) for more pics, I must hold you all at bay with the promise that more will be published as soon as I figure out the watermark thingie on photoshop, so I can protect these lil gems o' mine.

This picture is especially for Bill

Bill and I like Smart cars and we have pictures to prove it. We had fun with ours in Spain, but if you are crazy enough to drive in Rome, than by all means, a Smart car is the largest thing you should be driving. You will be very, very happy the first time you attempt to park.

Crossing the Tiber

As we crossed the Tiber into the center of Rome from Trastevere our first night, February 14 2008.

Arrivaderci, Amsterdam!

One of the most wonderful things about living in Amsterdam is the relative ease and speed with which one can be someplace else. Amsterdam's central location makes London, Germany or Brussels reachable by a train ride of reasonable length. Extend your travel mode to include flying and all of Europe is less than three hours away.

We recently flew from Amsterdam to Rome for a four-day break. The round trip airfare was even less than what I had paid last month to fly roundtrip from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia: about three hundred dollars. Our KLM/Allitalia flight to Rome lasted less than two hours.

I am starting to think that these escapes to sun-filled Spain or Italy are necessary if one it to make it through the Dutch winter with one's smile intact.

Ahh! Sunny Rome. We stayed in the low key Trastevere neighborhood, ate dish after dish of exquisite homeade pasta, saw ruins and famous art and religious artifacts until we dropped. The sun shone, the scooters roared, and it seemed that everyone was in a mild argument. After four nights in a city so dense and immense with history, culture, business, tourism and life, I was reminded yet again of how much I love coming home to gentle, small Amsterdam.

Oost West Thuis Best -
Dutch proverb meaning, East, West, at home is best.

AmsterZanne Cocoa

photo found uncredited on web

The holidays are over. The lights are slowing coming down. Even Mardi Gras has paraded by. Apart from the overcommercialized obligation-wrought Valentine's Day, we're on the downturn, folks. Those no man's land weeks before the weather wheel revolves to spring. Chances are, if you live in the northern hemisphere you still have a dreary cold damp day or two ahead of you.

Well, one thing Amsterdammers are great at is having a good time indoors. The sight of friends gathered and laughing in the candlelight is a commonly held, and practiced, ideal. What a better way to warm your friends than homeade cocoa? The Dutch love their chocolate, and I love their chocolate. I use Blooker cocoa powder, a common one found here, but any will do. Use the best you can find.
*******************************************************************************

AmsterZanne Homeade Cocoa
***************************
unsweetened cocoa powder
whole milk
granulated sugar
a thick bottomed pot
a whisk
a stove
functioning utilities

If cheapie thin aluminum pots are all you have, then use it, but set it over or in another pan of water to temper the heat and keep the chocolate from burning.

Throw equal amounts of sugar and cocoa in the pot and add enough milk, to stir it up for starters. Use a whisk. Just keep tasting and add whichever ingredient you need. I make it super thick and chocolatey, then serve mine, and then add more sugar for my guy.

******************************************
AmsterZanne Cocoa cranked up a notch
do above but also...

warm cups by letting them sit with boiling or very hot tap water in them a minute before pouring in the cocoa (pour the water out of the cups first, duh)

real vanilla extract
powdered cinnamon
canned whipping cream

Pour the cocoa into the warmed cups
add scant tsp of vanilla to each cup
dollop or spritz top of cup with whipping cream
sprinkle with cinnamon

**********************************************************************
AmsterZanne Cocoa cranked up to notches unknown (nods to Emeril)

do all the above steps, but make the whipped cream yourself.
Whipping cream
powdered sugar
vanilla
electric beaters
metal bowl
everything very cold, I even chill the bowl
Whip it. Whip it good.
Then immediately pop it in the fridge till you pour the cocoa.

Back to The Cocoa

Take it off the heat. Stir in teaspoon or so (depending on how much you made) of ONE of the following:
almond extract
Cointreau
Amaretto
orange flavoring
peppermint flavoring

now serve as above, with the homeade whipped cream. You can add a garnish that complements the added ingredient. A peppermint stick, chocolate shavings, an orange spiral, an almond branch. Be creative.

Serve with plain unsugared cookies. Think not-too-flavorful grownup cookies. And ice water. The end.

Really, you can skip all the notched stuff. Just cocoa, milk, sugar. That's all you need. The real end.