RAINARAI

This weekend i had dinner at Rainarai. A great place with a warm atmosphere! Rainarai is owned by Laurent Med Khellout, who has written several great cookbooks about the Algerian nomadic kitchen. He showed me one of the books and i learned that for making a good couscous we must take a little time as it should actually be made by hand! (see the front of the cookbook below) He really cooks from the heart and his concept of eating traditional food while listening to the sounds of beautiful Algerian lounge music i can truly recommend..

VINTAGE VERSUS MODERN

The below COCORICO cardboard cooker is a clever modern variation to my childhood kitchen set, designed by Dutch designer couple Romy Boesveldt en Ilya Yashkin =KIDSONROOF.(see model as shown above, ooohps! am i that old?)

Since 2005 they have been creating the most beautiful kids products with an ecological approach to the act of playing in mind. Check out more of the KIDSONROOF products here! 

PET KITCHEN AID

Serenah is a Brisbane-Australia based photographer. Now just watch these quirky pet pictures.. Of course! i was taken personally by these fine looking shots because of my love for cooking, food and dachshunds. Only yesterday my first born had his own 'Mini backseat picnic experience'. Stealing my grilled chicken wings, that i had just bought for the evening, from the shopping bag!It all happened while i hopped out of the car for no longer than 1 second. As a result of this incident, my car has now chicken BBQ flavour!

HANDS IN SOIL

After cycling & shopping through Paris for a few days the vegetable garden needed full attention. Weeds DO grow up to your knee if you're not careful! (i am not showing you the weeds, as they were too many and they need a chapter of their own :-)

So the weekend and the early evening hours were well spent and just see the beautiful result of the late summer harvest..! 

I'm already planning for next spring to start planting again.

bobje & rubber chicken

PARIS

I'll be off to Paris for a few days!

BACK SOON!

SUPERMARKET(ING)

With two simple cuts these eggplants change into well known north pole residents! Very clever!

used in advert by Esselunga supermarket, Italy

SHINE ON

Broad beans are well cared for by mother nature. Just look at how these pastel colored babies are cleverly situated in their soft & cosy beds. Each bean being plugged on to the outershell for nutrition. A nice piece of work! and a real pity to destroy the whole thing (and many more) for tonight's dinner but i picked a beautiful green salad for them to shine on.

SWEETOPIA

Is it not amazing what one can do with sugar? these dashing dachshund cookies are a real piece of art. Marian of Sweetopia shows you how to make them!   

'RAKET' VERSUS 'KARAKTERKIT'

I remember well.. eating loads of 'raket' ice lolly's during my childhood ('raket' is Dutch for rocket). The shape of the ice lolly was inspired by the spaceshuttle during the upcoming astronautics back in 1962. (Joeri Gagarin was the 1st man to make a trip to the moon in 1961). Over 30 million of these fruity ice surprises were produced by Ola. By now every supermarket has it's own variation, but the original 'raket' has proven to be a powerful concept that can handle all sorts of competition. Not just consumed by kids!

The funny faced ice lolly's below have the advantage that kids can put them together themselves. With the aid of The Quick pop ice maker and The Quick pop karakterkit it's just a matter of a few (7) minutes..Find out more on Zokuhome.nl

GRAND FINAL

The grand final! meaning the last picture in the row of Maddie's fabulous traveling shots. I could not resist to place it as tonight is bbq night in Holland.. 27c after a long period of rain.
As far as i can smell my whole neighborhood is spontaneously roasting burgers....
I think Maddie's final picture rocks! ( let's promise ourselves not to eat dog! bbq lid can also serve as rain shelter)

MADDIE ON THINGS (KITCHEN SHELF)

Maddie is traveling through all 50 states of the US. You can follow here pretty pictures taken by Theron Humphrey here

SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE

This morning i had plans to be outside, but it's raining.. So instead of planting my new pink roses (with bottles! for jam later this year) i decided to work on new graphics until the sun decides to comes out.

The smell of coffee and a nice basil-yogurt blackberry shake made me all ready for takeoff!

Beautiful artwork by Elisandra, graphic artist from Berlin

DESIGNHUIS EINDHOVEN - DE ETENDE MENS

Yesterday i went to see the exhibition "DE ETENDE MENS" curated by food designer Marije Vogelzang. This exhibition, in the Designhuis in Eindhoven, cleverly illustrates the complex liaison between people and eating. It sure gives you food for thought! The exibition lasts until the 30th of september, don't miss it!

JULIE GREEN-THE LAST SUPPER

'FISHFINGERS' 

TOMM VELTHUIS-PLAY WITH FOOD

SCHOLTEN EN BAIJINGS-VEGETABLES

VERSTAPPEN EN DRIESSENS-VEGETABLE REJECTS

MARRE MOERELS-FOOD ON THE TABLE

ARTHUR VAN BALEN-PORCELAIN CHICKENS

ARTHUR VAN BALEN-COMPOST SCULPTURE

JULIE GREEN-THE LAST SUPPER, shows a wall filled with last meal requests of condemned prisoners, painted on plates. Every year she makes another 50 until the death penalty will be abolished

FISHFINGERS, are eaten by millions of people....even though they have been chopped in rectangles. No one seems to bother that they come frozen, that they have been covered with a thick layer of breadcrumbs and have lost the shape and taste of fish.... Nature seems to be deliberately made unrecognizable before being served on our plates.

TOMM VELTHUIS-PLAY WITH FOOD, children learning about the current food issues while they play

VERSTAPPEN EN DRIESSENS-VEGETABLE REJECTS, 'ill shaped' food unfortunately does not reach our supermarkets, instead piles of it are being thrown away..let's think about that!

MARRE MOERELS-FOOD ON THE TABLE, serving food on animal inspired porcelain

PORCELAIN CHICKENS, most of the chickens we buy in the supermarket have had a short and horrible life, these porcelain ones demonstrate the opposite, they are well priced and are meant to have a long life.

ARHUR VAN BALEN,with every sushi meal come these poly-ethyleen fish filled with soya sauce. Poly-ethyleen pollutes our oceans. Therefore Arhur developed a de-solving kind of fish shaped bottle.

DESIGNER NORI

These, Japan based Umino seaweed shop's, rolls of nori were given lasercut patterns. There are 5 different ones available. Each of them based on elements of Japanese history or symbology.

This project was commissioned by an international ad agency (I&S BBDO) to re-spark the sale of nori following the tsunami in 2011.

A nice example of investing in design trying to beat the sales crisis!

'kumikkou' (tortoise shell)

'sakura' (cherry blossoms)

'asanoho' (hemp)

'kikkou' (turtle shell)