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It's been a while since we had some honest homemade foodz! We visited multiple supermarkets, finding fault with every single one, but eventually we had enough ingredients to at least make this simple pasta.



Also, we have housemates now. Pictured above is the sweet one: Neo.



The red cat is Weezer. He is a bit of a dick.

Here is the start of Anke's email to our landlords today:

Subject: an update from Neo, Weezer, Frans and Anke

Hi Bill and Linda,

We hope you had a good trip to Rome, and that you are having a great time!

Neo: I miss you very much, but the new humans are working out well. I
spend my time eating, sleeping, pooping, and being adorable and getting
lots of attention. So I am not much different from my usual self! The
new humans also made me play with a mouse on a piece of string, but that
was not really my thing. Bye now, I am off to have a wash!

Weezer: Unlike traitor Neo, I have bravely tried to defend the house
against these two intruders. At first, I thought they would surely leave
in a couple of hours, like they did last time. But no, they even had the
audacity to go up to your bedroom. You will be proud to learn that I
confronted them head on, and sunk my teeth into their legs.
Unfortunately, they still did not leave. Whenever I try to attack now,
they talk to me in a deep and loud voice. I have no idea what they are
saying, but I don't like it, so I now keep a low profile. They try to
curry favors with me, by playing with me, or giving me cat treats (oh, I
love those!), but I do my best to stay true to you, and keep my grumpy
demeanor.

Anke & Frans: [...]

[...]

You guys get the picture, we are having a blast!

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Quiche

Now in full color!

Pasta a la Mama

Even though Lies never made this before, we have christened this dish "Pasta a la Mama". She even went to the shop twice to get ripe avocados!

Veggies on Puff Pastry

Easy does it.

Improv Pasta

We wanted to use our balcony grown basil, so we improvised this pasta with tomatoes, blue cheese and hazelnuts. Yum.

Tofu on Rice

Simple and delicious.

Veggies, Puff Pastry and Yarn

We made this recipe once more, since we can get such beautiful puff pastry in the French supermarket. We also found a beautiful and tasty heirloom tomato:



Finally a picture especially for Emmanuel:



To be continued.

Random things we did today

This morning on the way to the market, our favorite street vendor was there in front of our gate. Yay! He is almost never there, and when he is, his food sells out quickly. It is that good.
All he has are simple pita-like sandwiches, which he lovingly stuffs with meat, fresh green chillies and cilantro.



We took our pitas to a nearby canal. We are thinking of buying a bicycle cart, barbecue and beach chairs and pretending this spot is our backyard:



This afternoon, Anke went to a flower and plant market that Amanda found and where she said we could buy mint, basil and rosemary.




(by the way, our progressive neighbors are working on the next floor, as you can see through our cleaned-just-two-months-ago-yet-quite-dirty-already window).

Before and after...

... the killing of small defenseless animals. In our defense, they were really small, not like a cow or something. Also, they were boiled in wine, which doesn't seem the worst way to go (I think cows usually get an iron stick up their arse, and get electrocuted --- we seem civilized in comparison, I would dare say).

Recyclin'

Somehow, the smoked turkey didn't really work in our pasta with grilled zucchini, lime and basil. Oh well, can't win 'm all.