28 April 2008

Nothin' much hapn here, just a little post for MeMe Monday. I'm looking forward to meeting with a chiropracter in a few hours. And whaddya know, he's an American! So, kinda creaky today and wanted a no fuss no muss do, Barbie ponytail to the rescue. Oh, and I know. The yellow is going. Hair appointment is made.

Brouwersgracht

A view of Westermarkt from the canals 20-April 2008

I'm having a blast discovering this beautiful area where the big canals (Prinsen-, Keiser- Herengracht and Singel) meet Brouwersgracht up on the northwest end of the Centruum near Centraal station. Great for bike riding. Mostly residential but never more than a block away from a cute shop, a brown bar or cafe. The northernmost part of the Singel has a mini-red light district. Hardly a full-blown district, just the occasional window or two down a quiet side street. These ladies seem to serve a quieter clientele, whilst the lager louts tend to find their pleasure in the older (and I think seedier) RLD more toward Gelderskade and Rokin on the east side of the center.

April Buds!

When the trees start to bud like this, I can really believe that spring has arrived.

Tulips

-Sunday, April 20 2008.
This is the first day of the year that I've left the house without my heavy coat, so I figured I'd use this for my Monday MeMe post! Plus, I kind of liked the outfit. Then, I learned to play with my Paint program. Wheeee! Now, I must go look for my bike. It was gorgeous yesterday and in my sun-drenched stupor I forgot where I parked my bike. This is why Amsterdammers decorate their bikes. I have not gotten around to that, and my old silver bike just blends into the scenery. Good news: so far, it's not raining today, so my wanderings will be dry. And heck, I'll take the camera along. May as well make a party out of it.

Introducing super heroine AMSTERZANNE!!!

I was down by Centraal Station and saw this super heroine, come to save the fair citizens of Amsterdam from this dreadfully cold spring. Spring? Is it spring? Like we would know here. AmsterZanne will have this weather problem tackled in a jiffy. She's on your side.

Ha! Well, I will try to keep Second Life out of this blog for the most part, since I have another blog for that, but, since she's AmsterZanne, I couldn't resist. I created her and posed her atop the CS sign in SL Amsterdam.

A New Exciting Feature at AmsterZanne!

Well, because ultimately blogs are all about memememeeeee, I decided to create a new feature here called MeMe Monday. I will post some sort of self portrait every Monday. Here I am with some tulips in front of a mirror. Taken today. Cropped, inverted.

Creative fashion.

I love this girl's fashion sense! So creative! She is actually incorporating a lot of mainstream trends, many of which probably evolved from the street anyway. The leopard print and neon bits are very hot now, as is anythng that dangles like the beads on the back of her jacket and the dangly streamer bits at her thighs. A very, very creative individual, obviously. I'd love to know who she is, what's she's about. I saw her at the Reclaim The Streets protest on Saturday April 11.

Reclaim The Streets Protest 11-April-2008

What luck! I wandered into our neighborhood with the idea of taking some shots to illustrate my surroundings for you and BAM I stumbled upon this protest.
A lot more photo bang for the effort than I ever expected! The politie was right there with them, and I think the march was more obstructed by photogs like me than by law enforcement. Hey, it's Amsterdam, if you want to organize a street blockage on a sunny Saturday, nobody's gonna get too wound up about it. I live about a block from here. It was very shady along a lot of the route, so when they crossed this bridge at Jacob Van Lennekade we all went crazing snapping shots as they came into the sun.

De Katten

Naptime is a treasured event in our household, and it's always better with a cat. Amsterdam is a wonderful place to have cats. It's nice to have something warm and furry to come home to when you've been slogging through the wind and rain all day. But there is a practical reason as well: water runs all under and through the city, and the conditions are perfect for mice. Our fierce twosome have dispatched several, sending them on to the great cheese in the sky. The gorgeous tuxedo calico in the foreground is Dot, who's graced me with her presence for over ten years now. The multicolored calico is Quila, a two-year-old angel devil who adopted us in Spain, and is the apple of my beloved's eye.

Rokin contruction April 2008

Man, are they ever gonna finish this construction in the Centruum on Rokin??

Centruum, April 2008

I went for a wander looking for Tara's Irish Pub on Rokin, since I've seen it mentioned in a few American expat meetup sites. Huge friendly Irish bar, but man, is Rokin ever torn up. I rounded a corner and found a big poster down an alley. Then I played with filters in Photoshop. Funny thing is, after all the heavy filtering, this image actually evokes the real feeling of the place more than the unfiltered photo.

AmsterZanne Flexi-muffins

Muffin image above snagged from flickr. Go here see more images from Chotda's photostream. Very talented food photographer.

Doncha just hate it when you want to cook something and you are missing one dang ingredient? That's why I love these flexible-ingredient muffins. I rarely have no possible way of making these. I went to the farmer's market at Lindengracht last Saturday, and picked up two little boxes of blueberries for three euros. Not super cheap, but since AH wants about 2.99 for one, I grabbed 'em. I decided to put some into muffins, and here's how I did it:

My Own AmsterZanne Flexi-muffins

Ingredients, dry
One cup all-purpose flour
One cup whole wheat flour...or ANY combination of these two ingredients that = two cups
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup ANY dry sugar (confectioner's not tried)
3 teaspoons baking powder..don't skimp
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Ingredients, wet
3/4 cup ANY milk, cream, buttermilk, quark or yogurt
1/3 cup ANY oil OR butter OR applesauce OR fruit puree
One any size egg

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400 degreees F/205 degrees C. Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.
2. Sift together dry ingredients and combine well in a large bowl. (I make these premeasured batches of dry to keep on hand. This way I can quickly and easily whip up muffins when good ingredients come my way, and do so using just one bowl.)
3. In small bowl mix well the wet ingredients. When combined add to the dry mixture and stir together with as few strokes as possible, just enough to moisten the dry stuff. Fill muffin cups, more then 2/3 is ok, they do not rise terribly much. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not underbake. These are dense, very moist muffins and they will be doughy on the inside if they don't get enough baking time. Cool one minute before removng from pan. Serve warm.

I keep making this recipe, it's so much fun to vary and play with. Muffins are best fresh. These hold up for about two days. I always use the half and half flours, and like the combination of earthiness and lightness that gives. These aren't terribly sweet, and I've topped the muffins with a spoon of jam before popping them into the oven, to favorable result. Not so successful was trying to bury the jam in the center of each muffin by covering with dough. This makes the center overly moist, so add the jam to the top and just sort of mash it into the dough a tad just before baking.


AmsterZanne Flexi-muffins cranked up a notch:
Recipe exactly as above plus...
4. cut 1/3 cup of good very chilled butter into the flour mixture and work quickly with pastry cutter or two knives or ten claws until you get crumbly cornmeal texture. Don't work butter to warmth, it needs to be in cold little bits when those muffins go into the oven. Immediately add wet mixture.
5. freeze one cup of blueberries and add the frozen berries when you combine the final ingredients. Freezing them keeps them intact through the mixing process. Toss in a few tablespoons of nuts or oats or seeds at this stage, if you desire.