Food in NYC

Cologne through my lens

Well, actually it's more of a 'Cologne Christmas markets through my lens'. Aah Christmas... you can imagine how long these pictures have been lingering on my desktop. I could say that I was waiting for snow to make this post but then I would be lying. Honesty above all. 

A while back, when animals still talked I believe, the fearsome foursome headed over to Cologne for some well deserved glühwein. Sabrina, Dorien, Debra and I stayed in an amazing loft, discovered new foods, and soaked up enough Christmas spirit to last 'till next year. 

Now, let me take you back to December. Enjoy!

Friday Food | Christmas Brunch

Freakin' merry Christmas!

Friday Food | Christmas Sangria

Friday Food | Good family food

The Hague through my lens

Friday Food | Pear & Goat Cheese

The Big You IV

This was already the second time we were invited for The Big You and now at least one of us was in the country, we be jet-setting all the time. So while Sabrina was living it up in Venice, I was finally enjoying everything that UPR had to offer. I'm sure you can expect some belle immagini coming your way in the near future. 

The event. We were welcomed in the beautiful loft were it all started for UPR back in 2001. I definitely wouldn't mind placing my desk down there. It was very nice to finally meet the faces behind the weekly press releases ☺.

In Bruges

Birthdays & anniversaries call for celebration and citytripping in your own country is always a recommendation! Since my boy likes old stories and history, Bruges was the perfect place to go. We stayed at Dukes' Palace, visited the Historium, climbed the Belfry and enjoyed the beautiful historical buildings. 

All I can say: Visit Bruges if you haven't already ;)!

P.S.: Sorry Dukes' Palace I raided your L' Occitane toiletries, I just couldn't resist..

Cheers!

Naomi, x.

Scotland the Brave.

I'll take the high road and you'll take the low road,

and I'll be in Scotland before you.

For me and my true love will never meet again

on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

In total I've spent about 11 weeks in Scotland the past year and I must say that it really left an impression on me. The best way to describe my experiences: rich culture, heartwarming people, and delightful panoramas. Since I was there to work on my thesis, outfit pictures weren't a priority, and my limited clothing options didn't help either (20kg, seriously?). But then one weekend my mum and a friend came to visit, losgeheeen! We shopped till we dropped and visited the Scottish Highlands and Glenturret whisky brewery. They can talk about the vanilla, fudge, soft.. flavours all they want, I'm never going to like that intoxicating stuff. 

Delicious granola at Leo's Beanery

Forth Road Bridge & Forth bridge

Jamie's Italian (book ahead!)

Wearing: Primark cat sweater / The Gap shirt & top / Levi's jeans / Van Haren boots / Urban Outfitters shoulder bag

Cheers!

Naomi, x.

Comme un Dieu en France

Wearing: Dress - Macys / Cardigan - Newlook / Sandals - River Island / Sunglasses - Zalando (c/o Oona) / Watch - Michael Kors / Bag - Marc by Marc Jacobs

 

Oh yes, I'm still alive ;-). After my finals I decided to be impulsive and make a trip to La Douce France with one of my best friends. In dire need of a break and it was wonderful. 

We have a getaway in the Burgundy region and it's only a 6 hour drive. If you're in need of a (long) weekend or a week with lots of delicious wines, winetasting, food and feeling comme un Dieu en France, this is the place to be ;-). It's our Chateau de la Grange which you can rent whenever you want and the price depends on the number of people and the length of your stay. Each stay will be arranged personally with my mom so that your stay will be your ultimate desired holiday.

Our trip was really fantastic with temperatures around 32° and combining markets, shopping, going out and lying in the sun. IT.WAS.HEAVEN.

I'm looking up several holiday destinations for September. If you have any recommendations, do tell :-)! My results were awesome and from tuesday my focus will be dissertation, dissertation, dissertation that has to be handed in by August 22. So after that I will be in dire need of another perfect sunny holiday! 

Until next time ;-)!
Sabrina, x.

Enjoy the little things.

Yes, I'm still alive but not so much kicking as exams are taking all of my energy. Naomi is currently being my blogger life-saver, lucky girl having no exams but then again a thesis... Quite sure the both of us are going to jump up and down in september if it's all overrrr.

 

An outfit post is out of the question ladies and gents unless you want to see me appearing on the blog for the upcoming weeks in joggings, 2 different socks (yes, somehow I always lose one of my pairs) and a plain t-shirt?! Not so fashionable at all if I may say. My hair is mostly wrapped up in a bun these days and doing so I like to add once and a while something extra.

 

It made me think that during this awful period I'm always super excited when it's lunch-, dinner-, shower- and bedtime. Pathetic, you think?! I see it as enjoying the little things that make your day so much better :-). With the nice weather arriving finally, enjoying my lunches and dinners outside is even better. Studying outside is totally out of the question because my discipline and concentration gets lost for sure. 

 

My lunches are mostly light and salads are the ideal solution for it. This time I opt for a tomato/mozarella/cucumber salad with fresh basil, chili pepper, pepper/salt, olive oil and a fresh apple juice on the side. YUM. As a snack I do like them cherries.  

 

For those who can go wild in the sun and do crazy, exciting stuff, enjoy!!

Cheers,
Sabrina, x.

This would be my Easter Brunch

Happy Easter everyone! 

favim.com

Hope you will receive lots of chocolate eggs and other sweets with an additional lovely brunch or dinner. It's a way-back tradition that my mom makes a huge brunch or dinner for the family after the Easter hunt in our garden. And with huge I just mean ginormous ;-). My closest and oldest friends know how the kitchen rolls at la casa Dewitte; that are endless dishes with - in my opinion - yummy food! 

I'm hoping that in the future I can treat my mom and others to a lovely brunch as well, but maybe less big... Ok, hold on. What am I saying?!! I caught that overload cooking virus already.   

Anywhooo... I was thinking about lots of different salads and other stuff I would make and looked up some pictures from Pinterest just to give you an idea. The "recipes" next to the pictures are my own :-). Besides tasty dishes the typical pistolets and koffiekoeken have to be part of a great brunch with different cheeses, ham, salami, marmalade to make your sandwiches complete. And to be honest, you can have the following dishes for any kind of brunch or family/friends get together!

Have a look and tell me what you would like to have as an option on the buffet table ;-)!

Greek salad

This one is a MUST on my brunch and although I like the authentic salad paysanne I'm going with a twist: 

- lettuce (I prefer a soft mixed variation)
- different kinds of tomatoes (colors and size)
- cucumber 
- red onion
- scrumbled feta cheese 
- crunched bacon bits
- olive oil
- pepper and salt 
- balsamico vinegar
- fresh mint leaves

Bake some stripes of bacon until they're dark brown (but not burned!). Let them dry on a  piece of paper towel. As a finishing touch you crunch the bacon in your hands and sprinkle it on your salad. 

While the oil of your bacon is still hot in the pan, add the balsamico vinegar (be careful). Just make sure not to use all of the oil of course, we don't want a lot of greaseness, just a little will do! And sprinkle this also on your big bowl of salad. Finish off with a some olive oil, pepper and salt.

Grilled Zucchini Roll-ups

- zucchini (as much as your table needs) 
- peppers you get in a jar (that are soaked in oil) 
- chilli pepper 
- garlic
- olive oil
- oregano 
- pepper and salt 
- goat cheese

For the marinade: chop the chilli peppers as small as you can and the same goes for the garlic. Add them to a bowl with olive oil, pepper, salt, oregano and other dried herbs of your choice! Slice the zucchini in thin long slices and marinade them. 

Grill them and let them cool off for a little while. Then add the goat cheese and pieces of pepper and roll them up!

You can also put some basil in the rolls (found that on Pinterest). I would personally also add some pepper and other herbs to the goat cheese and mix it up well before adding it to the rolls. 

Pancake galore

A brunch means in Sabrina terms a mix of sweet and salty stuff on the table, so here you go :-). 

- everything you need to make pancakes (favorably little ones)
- strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pineapple
- sugar (white/brown), maple syrup
- whipped cream

Go crazy with this if you want. Make tons of little pancakes. Slice all of the fruits you would like to have in different pieces. Present them all in different bowls next to the whipped cream, maple syrup and sugar. Nothing more to say to that I think ;-). Everyone has choice of different supplements = happy people!

An alternative is to make your pancakes salty and then you can serve it with feta cheese, tomatoes, smoked salmon, chives, goat cheese, ...

And if you're a waffle-lover, no need to hesitate then ;-)

Fruit salad

My ultimate favorite fruits are melons and watermelon and these are in my opinion also super nice to add to a big bowl of fruit salad!

- watermelon
- different melons 
- pomegranate 
- grape fruit
- oranges 
- strawberries
- bananas
- apples 
- lime juice 
- mint leaves

Most simple thing anyone can make, right? Just slice everything in different pieces. 

Once I tried to make it very pretty like the picture here (for the melon, watermelon and grape fruit) but that took a lot of my time I didn't actually had... If it's for a small group, you can have a go at it ;-).

As finishing touch I would add a little lime juice and a bunch of mint leaves, gives it a fresh taste!

Pasta salad

I'm a huge pasta-lover so a pasta salad seems appropriate for a brunch/late lunch, no? 

I would opt for several cold pasta dishes (for veggies, meatlovers, etc...).

- pesto genovese
- allumettes de bacon/prosciutto
- cherry tomatoes
- garlic
- olive oil/pepper/salt/chilli pepper powder/...

- black olives/feta cheese/red onion/pepper
- cherry tomatoes/cucumber 
- olive oil/pepper/salt/dried herbs/...

- tuna
- red onion
- corn 
- red beans
- mayo/lime juice/pepper/salt/chilli pepper/...



Ok, I seriously can go on with other ideas such as fruit-granola parfaits, grilled asparagus sprinkled with goat cheese and walnuts, frittata, quiche, muffins and sooooo much more...

Have a lovely sunday and enjoy it to the fullest!

Love,
Sabrina, x.

Rihanna for River Island | VIP shopping night

Last week I received an invitation from Belmodo to attend the launch of the Rihanna for River Island collection on Monday. Big thank you once again! While an extravagant Rihanna bus was taking us to our destination, Oona spoiled us with gallons of Tao and a delicious Exki lunch box. Best sandwiches of my life (Pauly D style)!

Sandwiches already in my tummy - Exki

We arrived in Amsterdam - fashionably late -  and were welcomed by fresh cocktails and fun beats. Too bad they didn't have an after-party in the store, I was so in for it! Luckily we had our after-party karaoke in the bus on our way back home ;-).
 
On to some snapshots of the collection: my favourites were the striped top and leather cap.

Thugs 4 life - me & Ines

What do you think of the collection? For me personally, the items were a tad overpriced and since nothing blew me away, I went home empty-handed. Although, I loved the clothes on other girls!

My partners in crime - Anouschka, Eline & Astrid

What's a VIP night without VIPs? Joy & Charlotte

The cool guys

Wearing: Top - H&M / Sweater - River Island / Necklace - Didi / Pants - WE / Flats - Forever21 / Bag - Primark

I definitely had a great night! Under my umbrella on repeat.

Cheers to the freakin' weekend!

Naomi, x.