Lisbon from Castelo de São Jorge

Monumento dos Descobrimentos

Mosteiro dos Jerónimus

The place of birth for the beloved cream tarts, Patels de Belem

Belem area of Lisbon

Torre De Belem

This brindge in Lisbon looks disturbingly like the Golden Gate.

Bag of salad as described in the post “one of my finer moments”

I decided that I wanted to make the Sweet Potato Soup with Buttered Pecans. Unfortunately, at the store there were no sweet potatoes to be found, or squash which would have been the next best thing. So, I decided, why not stick it to the man and make up my own recipie. It was inspired by some of my various previously mentioned soup choices.
The recipie:

Sautee one chopped onion and 6-8 cloves garlic in olive oil or butter, maybe 1 tbsp.
Add 3 large or 5 medium chopped carrots and continue to sautee for 3-5 min.
Add a bunch of water (in this case, I couldn’t find chicken broth. i still don’t read dutch.) or chiken broth. I added enough water so that it came up about 3 or 4 inches past the veggies.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the carrots are soft. Add salt and black pepper to taste alone with 1/2 cup dry cooking wine. Let simmer 5 more minutes and turn off.
In a skillet, cook the ham. I used “bacon” (so called here but is what we refer to as canadian bacon) You could use bacon, canadian bacon or some sliced ham. I think I probably used 1/4 pound, but that is open to interpretation as well. After the ham is cooked, remove it from the skillet and if there isn’t enough oil from the meat add 1 tbsp. oilve oil or butter, and 3/4 cup chopped pecans. Cook the pecans in the oil until they begin to brown a bit and then add several tbsp. maple syrup, a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp. cayenne (less if it’s the good spicier kind). Stir it around and let the maple syrup caramalize and the turn off the skillet to let the pecans cool.
In the meantime, puree the soup and taste and salt more if neede (but remember that the ham is salty so don’t go overboard.)
Chop the ham, and stir it into the soup. Put the soup in bowls and garnish with the pecans and creme fraiche (this is optional. Creme fraiche is kind of like sour cream but less sour.)
Guten Appetite!

Today ended up being very grey. The clouds are thick and low and is the heavy sort of overcast day that feels perpetually like the sun is about to rise or set, but never does. I went to dance class this morning. Fun, very small amont of material done in depth.
The apartment is becoming my den of tea, soup and naps. I have had a lingering sickness since Budapest and it has turned into a nasty sinus infection on one side. So, I have been doing as any good sister of an herbalist/daughter of a loving hippie mom does and making tea and soup for myself.
I have acquired an impressive assortment fo teas over the past two weeks. I have the usual anti-bacterial/anti-viral/ anti-sick things such as lavendar, thyme, nettles, dandelion, etc. and have added some fenugreek seeds to my current tea mix because I thought a bitter sounded good and it is VERY bitter. I picked up some fabulous Earl Green tea in Berlin which i drink endlessly these days. In Rohrau Germany (which is actually where Tom and Antje live, very near Stuttgart) I got some amazing Rooibos (red) teas. One has bourbon-vanilla, one has pineapple, jasmine and some kind of pollen (blutenpollen), one has rosehips and an array of other lovlies. They are beautifully flavored, not offensively like lots of teas that contain whimisical ingridients like bourbon-vanilla, ananas, and the like. So my cups of tea parade before me throughout the day.
Today I had a nice two-hour nap after reading and writing a bunch. I woke up feeling disoriented and a bit out of my body, which tends to happen to me when I nap…which is why I usually don’t nap. But I think it was good. I am still attempting to recover my wits. maybe it’s godd to be witless sometimes though.
In addition to the soup I made last night, I shall be making endless pots of soup while I am in Amsterdam. There is no oven, only a gas stove and what better thing to do at the end of winter, with a head cold and lots of time, than to make lots of soup? I think that this is going to become a website of soup recipies soon because I love to write about the food I make and eat. Right now i am deciding what kind to make tonight…Healing Garlic Soup, Kabocha Squash and Chestnut soup with Chipotle Creme Fraiche, Sweet potato Soup with Buttered Pecans, Butternut Soup with Cumin, or Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup with Serrano Cream. Tough choices. I also found a recipie that I want to make but will wait until there’s cheap watermelon, which might not be until the states. It is called Thai-spiced Watermelon Soup with Crabmeat. It sounds so good i may just have to procure some watermelon soon anyway that I can.

I am reading “the Robber Bride” and have been meaning to post this for awhile.

“From upstairs she can hear a rhythmical thumping, punctuated by what sounds like a mixed chorus of mating hyenas, cows being hit with sledgehammers, and tropical birds in pain.”

I am in Amsterdam and have not written yet because I have been revelling in my lovely apartment. Michael’s brother Lou, has a dancer friend here who found this place for me and let me in. It was a great day yesterday just spreading myself out in this big apartment. There is a huge main room, big windows, a couple balconies on the canal and isn’t far from Hillary’s (lou’s friend) so I got to hang out at her house and have tea and chat.
There is all the internet I could possibly desire here so ostensibly I will be writing more. Maybe I can write some of those pesky little random thoughts that I haven’t had time or money to get onto here lately.
The bed here is very comfy and the decor is funky, cozy, and artistic. The cat, Kulfi, who i am here for, is a bit of an attention monger and very rambunctious but sweet. I am definitely much more of a dog person and this cat underlines that. He’s unpredictable and sneaky as hell. For the time being it is just amusing rather than annoying but i would have to throw the cat intot he canal if it was mine. No, not really that’s mean, I’m just feeling a little punchy I guess.
So this fabulous apartment also has a washing machine which is very helpful when you are dancing lots and only have with you one pair of sweat pants and about 4 shirts. Another cool thing is that the dance studio is just a 5 minute walk away. i haven’t gone to calss yet, but will go tomorrow.
Amsterdam seems to smell faintly like a barnyard. I can’t explain it exactly but when i stepped off the train I thought I was at a farm. It’s not overly pungent or offensive but there is the slightest undertone of wet hay, horses, goats sheep etc. Very odd I must say and even more strange to smell when you go by a coffee shop and the smell of pot smoke wafts out and mixes with the barnyard. I can’t quite describe that.
I like it here and the weather is warmer than Berlin, not snowing (which I acctually was quite liking) and it was blue sky all day today. I went for a nice little explore for several hours today and managed to find myslef a nice food store. Which brings me to soup.
I sauteed an onion and 8 cloves of garlic in some olive oil. Then I added two medium sized carrots and 5 or 6 small yellow-finn potatoes and sauteed that around for another 5 min or so. I added a bunch of water and simmered that for however long it took the potatoes to get soft. At some point in there I added some kind of red chili paste, but couldn’t really tell you what it is; I don’t read dutch. But it’s nice and spicy. After the potatoes wre sufficiently delectible, i added one zucchini chopped in little half-moons, and 150 grams of chopped up salmon filet. Along with that I put 1/2 cup or so of coconut milk and some salt. Simmered it just enough to get the salmon tender but not over cooked, garnished it with parsley and am now on my second bowl.
Oh yeah, as an aside, you all should check out Taylor’s Stinging Nettles post from 3.13.06 One Word: wrath. There link to Taylor’s site on the left hand side of this site, for anyone who hasn’t looked yet (you really should, she’s wonderful). Anyways, the post is great because it’s dedicated to me and I found it uproariously funny, nearly died laughing.

I am staying Stuttgart with a Clemen family (somehow realted to my father’s family). They are wonderful, as Taylor had told me. She has visited them several times. Tom and Antje, the mom and Dad are warm and welcoming and wonderful to talk to. Kiersten is 15 and quite good at speaking english, fun to talk with about horses, movies and her family. Martin is 13 and I haven’t talked with him much yet but he is a cool boy. Nele is 10 or 11 and soooooo sweet. We made lists of words in German on one side and English on the other, so we were both learning something! Timmy is 6 and very smiley and silly. The baby, Lia, will be two next month and is incomprehensibly adorable! She is such an energetic baby, talking constantly, never running out of steam and always exploring. She was an expert at saying my name with the first 10 min. of my arrival and is teaching me more German than anyone because she is constantly babbling at me,telling me to play trains with her, that she wants to jump on the bed, how to type things, how to weigh things. etc. The cutest part of all of it is she has a fabulous sense of humor and when she things something is funny she tells you (in Deutsch of course) “that was funny!” It happens all the timeand she has a pair of dimples and never ceases smiling and Laughing. All of the children are amazing and being with this family feels very comfortable. It is like going home and traveling back in time because it feels just like my house and family growing up.
Germany is beautiful all around.It is my favorite place out of all on the trip. Berlin was charmand invigorationg and I love the landscape of the countryside and villages. It is very snowy everywhere and there are many trees. Alll german people I have encountered are very friendly, helpful and gentle which also makes it a wonderful place. They seem to have a very wholesome and relaxed sense of well-being and there seem to be many artist among them. I am sad that I will be leaving Germany tomorrow, I feel like I could spend at least another month traveling here and spending time with lovlies like the Clemen family.
Also, in German “nett” means “nice”. Nett is my nickname for those of you who don’t know. Oh yeah, Since this is netneynee.com at some point I shall write up the story of that name.

I am in Berlin hanging out with the lovely Jessy from Mills. Berlin has been amazing and quite snowy and lovely. I am heading off to Stuttgart tonight to visit family and then will be in Amsterdam on tuesday at my very own flat with a balcony overlooking the canal for 2 weeks!!!!! Then I will have time to construct more through updates with details of Berlin etc…..so much to say but no time to say it just now.

I have a new collection…strange band names that ammuse me. So far I have two:
1) Atomic Bitchwax (this one especially made me think of my wifey)
2) A pony named Olga

I will collect others and post them, but feel free to send me any that ammuse you.

Berlin is an absolutely adorable city! I still haven’t gone to see the “tourist” sights,but have just danced and wandered. Berlin is a gentle and timid city. Very quiet but at the same time lively. It has been beautiful with little snow falls daily,so a bit cold, but still not a rough city. It feels like Berlin will sweetly take you in and softly fuel daydreams of greatness.
Dance class is really fun. I took class yesterday from a girl who is from Durham NC, and is just here for 6 months. it was a fun class and we got to talk about north Carolina (if anyone reading doesn’t know Durham is where my Dad lives and I used to live).
I feel like I am getting more bruises and floor burns than I used to. I broke off half a toenail today. I have ankle burns, elbow burns and a VERY bruised left glute. It isn’t the most comfortable thing, but I’m not always about the comfort either. I realized today that I think part of the excessive bruising and burning is from taking more risks (ah, how cliché. Dance teachers love to tell you to take more ricks. Yup, I am a class A dork). But really, I feel like I am able to let my body go farther. I used to marvel that I didn’t get more banged up, doing the things I do, and right now I feel like I have let go of some of the fear and tension that was keeping me “safe”. So I end taking my body into unusual places. Dies ist sher gut!

Well, it turned out that I got quite sick, which is why its been awhile since my last post. I ended up in Salzberg, Austria for a night and a day. I loved Salzberg and it was snowing lots. My waterproof boots had been giving me blisters and so I stupidly wore my tennis shoes out in the snow and proceeded to walk around Salzberg for 4 hours straight, seeing amazing things. I saw the best Catherdarl yet, an amazing market, the palace, mozert’s birthplace and Sound of Music sights. I also had thebest dense peasant bread, fresh out of the oven from a very old bakery. By the time I had to go catch my train to Berlin, my feet were soaking and I felt feverish (silly me getting all wet and cold to see beauty). The train ride of 8 hours to Berlin involved lots of chills, swimming-looking snow-covered austrain and german hills, swooning, and burning fever eyes. I slept a bit but had delerium nightmares. I reached berlin and crashed for 15 hours, thankfully!
I am staying in a very lovely little flat with a roomate, Miriam, a very nice person who even collected me from the train station. Lucky for me because I could have ended up in poland in my state. I have my own room (something quite strangely wonderful to have at this stage of the game) and have had the best couple of days here!
Yesterday I spent getting better and Miriam cooked me fish, rice and veggies for dinner. Today I got up and went to a wonderful dance class, 30 min walk from here and the dance teacher knows Michael’s brother’s friend in Amsterdam who i will visit next. I was worried that I might be weak as a kitten from not dancing for 2 months, but I felt great. I have many lovely battle wounds from tusseling with the floors. In addition to the run-of-the-mill floor burns and brusies my feet have gotten soft from wearing shoes all the time, so on my feet I have excessive burns, bruises and generally creamed toes. But of course i love it. I fell like I bathed in my essence today because after dance class I had a walk home in the falling snow and found the best organic market I’ve found since the states. I bought all manner of lovlies in the store and had a good time just trying to read the german labels. That’s the kinda stuff I really dig. just walking around a market and looking at stuff. I walked back home from the market, still snowing, and made some sick-tea (ginger, lemon, honey, nettle, thyme, lavendar, hibiscus and dandelion) that I brought from home and sang along to my Ipod really loud cause the roomate wasn’t home. Then I made dinner. I baked some sweet potatoes and marinated some tofu in a pineapple yellow curry to which i added copious amounts of ginger and garlic. Later, i fried the well-marinated tofu with onions, carrots, fennel, brown mushrooms, and spinach. I served it with the sweet potatoes and wild rice. it was soooooooo good. I love berlin so far even though I haven’t seen much of it. it is a city that feels small and a little timid. It is lively but at the same time quiet. I am glad that I will be here until saturday. I am going back to more dance class tomorrow and then a sauna with my roomate.