Sunshine Weekends

After what felt like months and months of gloomy weather, spring has finally sprung in Amsterdam. There are colorful tulips and crowded parks, late night sunshine and balmy bike rides. This past weekend, B and I went for a sunny stroll, and set ourselves down on a dock in the center of town. We watched the tourists buzz about, and the long canal boats float by, all while soaking up as much sun as humanly possible. 

Everyone else seemed to have the same idea, and the pier was filled with people reading, relaxing, and lapping at the sun.After an hour or two of sun basking, we hit the farmer’s market for some fresh dinner ingredients. When we got home, we opened all the windows, put on some happy tunes, and sipped a bit of bubbly.  To freshen things up a bit, we added a few sprigs of mint to our champagne. Super easy to do and makes for a bright and cheery spring cocktail.

 Warning: these go down all too easy.Throughly bubbly hydrated, it was time to get cooking. For dinner, we called on some seasoning advice from one of my favorite cookbooks, Jerusalem. We had bought a pork tenderloin, and surprise-surprise, there are no pork recipes in Jerusalem. So we improvised and were a bit unorthodox . . . and used a lamb shawarma recipe as a spice rub for the pork lion.
Peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, fennel seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, paprika, lemon juice, coriander – this recipe calls for a million and one spices, but is amazingly good.We topped everything off with a healthy dose of mint. B was an awesome prep chef and peeled / chopped parsnips and red onions. Which we then seasoned mildly, happy to let them roast in the loin’s hot juices. (lol loin’s hot juices) To accompany our meal, we made a light yogurt dip – olive oil, a bit of paprika, black pepper, shaved cucumbers, and mint sprinkled on top of some cool yogurt.
The result was absolutely amazing – I’m a huge fan of buying fresh produce from the farmer’s market and cooking a great meal right there and then. We devoured every last bite, delighted yet again with Jerusalem’s awesome recipes. Now it’s Sunday night and I’m already weekend dreaming again. Here’s to some more sunshine and happy times next weekend! x