The one with the Brussels sprouts salad

After all of the holiday hustle and bustle (which involved quite a bit of food and some last minute orders from my shop), I am craving something that doesn't involve too much trouble to make and that's somewhat healthy as well. I've made this recipe a couple of times now, the original recipe can be found here. As a kid, even hearing the words 'Brussels sprouts' made me cringe. It amazes me how much I've come to like sprouts over the years.

What you'll need (lunch for 4):

• 500 grams of brussels sprouts, washed, halved and the outside leaves removed
• 100 grams of blue cheese
• 1 cup of walnuts
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

What you'll need to do:

Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the halved sprouts once the butter has melted and bake them for a couple of minutes. Test of they're ready, they still need a bit of a bite. Add the walnuts and honey and stir this all together quickly, until the sprouts have caramelized a bit. Take the pan of the heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the cranberries and season with salt and pepper. Crumble and toss in the blue cheese. Drizzle with the olive oil and you're ready! I like this salad most when it's still a bit warm.

This time I used walnuts, but you can also use pecans. The salad goes well with fresh, warm bread. A while ago, I posted another recipe with sprouts over here.

The one with the things I liked this week (part 47)

A rocket in the streets

 Receiving these from a friend

Taken from the library, the one with the palmtree is already finished.

It brought me to tears a couple of times. The English title is 

'the last brother' and I can highly recommend it!

If someone makes me soup, I'm a happy camper 

 Seeing this one during a walk

A stained glass window at the museum

The one with all the nativity scenes

Last saturday I visited an exhibition with my mom at the nearby museum Orientalis. It's mostly an open air museum, that focuses on religion. The current exhibition is all about nativity scenes. The museum is only 5 minutes away by car from our work, and we thought it might be a fun break on a busy day. The last time I've been there was when I was a teenager. Which is, well, quite a while ago. As a kid I used to enjoy our afternoons there, because there's a lot to do and see, and it's outdoors. One of the things I liked most where the wooden figures, where you could stick your head through and make a photo. I got all excited that they were still there! I'm also a big fan of sheep, goats and donkey's and seeing a whole bunch of fluffy black sheep, made my day.

Burkina Faso - iron and paint

Denmark - ceramics

 Germany - cardboard and paint

El Salvador - wood and paint

France - seashells and paper

Kenia - banana leaves

Peru - wood and paint

Spain - terracotta

Sri Lanka - wood and paint

The one with the things I liked the week before Christmas

I thought it might be fun to do a 'things I liked' post with a Christmas theme. Since vacuuming is not my hobby, and my apartment is on the small side, I choose not to have a real tree, but a washi-one. It's decorated with Holy Mary's, old cards, a tree made of fabric, a dried flower another Postcrosser sent me, a feather and the paper ornaments I blogged about earlier this week. I did enjoy a real, more traditional tree over at my aunt's.

The one with more links I like

source

26 of the most thought provoking photographs of all time

Cleverly folded money portraits

A $114 million mansion

Which Friends character are you?
(I am Tag)

The Oral History of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Nerd Villains

I'd love a piece of this pie

The one with the paper ornaments

Earlier this month, my blog bud Mia from MossyJojo asked me to join in on a DIY party. I love parties, and I love making things. So, yes please! For this DIY post I made paper ornaments.

The theme: Christmas
The challenge: up to 4 materials only

What you'll need:

• paper strips, I used strips of semi transparant paper, that are 30 x 2,5 cm (around 12 x 1 inch)
• twine
• needle
• thread

What you'll need to do:

These are super easy to make, I think the pictures don't need any explanation.

I think they needles doesn't count as one of the four materials, so I guess I was allowed to make these too. Before cutting the paper up in strips, I made lines with a ruler, added some neon washi tape, and wrote some titles of Christmas songs on the paper. I also experimented a bit with different sizes.

Don't forget to have a look at the other Christmas Challenge DIY's

• Mia from MossyJojo
• Samantha from Elah Tree

Have you been doing holiday crafting this year? If you blogged about it, feel free to leave a link in the comments, I would love to see your creations!

The one with the things I liked this week (part 46)

Another door knocker to add to my collection

Wondering what they are talking about

Window shopping

Sunday breakfast

Now that's my kind of problem solving

The one with the bridge

I posted a photograph last friday in my weekly things I liked post of the new bridge in my hometown Nijmegen. More photos (the first one is the view from the bridge) were made and I thought I might dedicate a whole post to it. Some facts about the bridge:

• the name of the bridge is 'de oversteek' (the crossing), in honour of the crossing of the river Waal, which was part of operation Market Garden, during World War II.
• the number of lightposts is 48, the same number of soldiers who died during the crossing
• in honour of them, these lightposts switch on in pairs, at the speed of a slow march
• It took 2100 people, from 22 countries, to built the bridge
• the costs were 260 million euro's
• building the bridge took around 2,5 years
• it's total length is 1400 metres
• the openings ceremony, in less than a minute