Food can be prepared in simple ways yet the dish can be amazingly yummy! What we need when preparing them or in cooking is only a bit of spices and patience.:) Yes, I just have that experience with this braised-grilled dinner. It's a simple combination of beef slices and potatoes but they are a great mix. The preparation was not that complicated. After all, the beef are already sliced when purchased while the potatoes, I had to peel of course.

The beef, while seasoning (salt,pepper,etcetera), I also made pocket-like slices and inserted some minced coriander into it. It's to enhance/regulate the smell. I use coriander for this purpose, especially with grilled or fried chicken (mostly drumsticks).


What I did with the beef, to make it more tasty, is to braise it first. Adding a bit of water if needed to reach the desired level of tenderness. While doing it, I make sure that it does not lose its taste, adjusting the salt and spice level as necessary.

Once tender and all liquid are gone (or semi-dry of its own juices and/or water), I added olive oil in it. It will make it into abit of fry, then I transferred it to the grill for the final touch.

The potatoes are semi-boiled and similarly, spiced,seasoned and with olive oil. I put them together andput them in grill. The final result is a juicy, delicious, tender beef mixed with equally tasty potatoes! Great dinner with a glass ofred wine! Buon appetito!

What I like about this food? Obviously it's healthy as it is with fish and vegetable. It is also incredibly delicious. And this was only an accidental discovery. The dish is supposed to be of turnip tips with salted canned anchovies and pasta but we could not find this vegetable here in Netherlands so we had to think of a substitute. To make the story short, we thought of broccoli! And hooray! We never expected that it would come out this yummy. You want to learn the good stuff of broccoli.

I used to like this dish more, pasta with ham and mushroom and cream, but now I prefer the one with broccoli.

The dish is very quick to prepare as well.

1. Boil broccoli (put minimal amount of water to not take the taste of broccoli). You may mix with salt to flavor or pepper or chili depending on your palate. In the meantime, boil your pasta of choice.

2. Drain the boiled broccoli. Place oil, then add garlic (optional) and onion in separate pan and then when ready, add conserved anchovies. After, mix the broccoli with it. Adjust seasoning to suit your palate and also the level of "crookedness".


3. When the pasta is at al dente, drain it and mix with the broccoli and anchovies. What you’ll get is a tasty mix of deliciousp asta.See images..

Have you tried Hertog Pistache Pracht? Or maybe it is named something else in another place. Pistache Prach is a Dutch label andmaybe in Italy it is called Pistacchio con Cioccolato or Chocolate Pistachio in English. Those are maybes though. I amonly sure of one thing: it's been years that we buy this flavor of ice cream and with pistachio nuts mixed with chocolate, it is simply delicious. Try sometimes, it's really reccommendable.

I just have a few cups of this flavor since yesterday so I became curious and tried to search about it. What I got? I got a bit of story (in Dutch) how the ice cream flavor came to existence but most importantly, I was able toview the nutritional fact of this ice cream without having to examine the cold box/container full of yummy ice cream.

Now that I am back in Netherlands I miss the great food in Italy. Yes, the last time I was there was during my 2-week Christmas holiday and of course the food trip was at the maximum level. One of them that I cannot really forget and I want to learn to do alone is the "Pasticcio di Carne". It was really yummy and I also like the way it was presented and the way it was prepared. I want to do my own pasticcio di carne soon, but naturally, the preparation takes alot of time, especially that I don't even know yet how to make a dough!



The prepation consists of the following:

1. Preparing/cutting the desired meat (beef)cuts/slices

2. Peeling and slicing the potatoes

3. Preparing the spices: garlic, onion, celery, etc.

4. Preparing the dough (a real challenge for me)

5. Mixing ready ingredients in numbers 1,2 & 3 above (before starting number 4 is better): meat cuts, potato cuts, spices

6. Add salt or seasoning and of course, olive oil to the mix and letting them aside until the dough is ready