Hi everyone. I’m joining In My Kitchen once again. I wasn’t too active in the kitchen this past month, but would love to share the things I did regardless. I keep hoping the next month will be better. I may’ve finally convinced the behavior specialist that I need a more activity-based day schedule, so that I can do a cooking or baking activity more regularly.
First, let me share the one dinner I cooked for myself and my fellow residents this month, cooked on November 17. It was a curry with chicken, broccoli, onions, rice and topped with cashews. I loved it.
I had planned to cook another rice and chicken dish with the same staff last Monday, but she’s on sick leave. I found out a few days in advance, so planned to cook the dish with another staff, but she ended up calling in sick too and I didn’t find out until half an hour before her shift was supposed to start. She was supposed to bring the groceries, so it wasn’t like I could cook the meal with the staff who ended up doing my activity. This is one more reason for set activities: that way I can order or buy the needed groceries on time.
I did, thankfully, do a few baking activities. First, on November 1, I made Bastogne brulée. This is like crème brulée but with crumbled Bastogne biscuits mixed in. The recipe didn’t call for a brulée burner, instead instructing me to put the dessert under the grill of the oven for a few minutes. I think the dessert wasn’t a total fail and it looked similar to the photos in the recipe, but I wouldn’t make it again. At least not like this.
I ran the photos I post here through my screen reader’s image description component to make sure I have them posted correctly and guess what? It claims the dessert looks moldy. Yuck!
On November 16, my staff spontaneously offered to help me bake a sponge cake. We did use a store-bought mixture. When my wife saw it, she wondered what made it look green. She looked it up and it was simply blue and yellow food colorant. Not green food colorant, which made me wonder whether green colorants are even food-safe. At least, when I still made my own lip balms, I knew that all colors of mica that I could buy at the soaping supplies site were safe except for the green ones.
Unfortunately, the staff baking the sponge cake with me, did break my hand mixer by inserting the wrong tools into it. She said she’s going to buy me a new one.
Those were the main cooking and baking activities I did in November. I also created overnight oats a few times. Last Thursday, I also decided to whip up a vegetable smoothie. This was the first time for me creating a smoothie that mainly includes vegetables rather than fruits. I used broccoli, spinach, carrots and lime. The recipe called for a green pepper, but I misread it and got a green bell pepper. Since those are rather bitter and the recipe was supposed to be blazing, I decided to add some chili flakes. And blazing it was! I’m not sure what I think of the smoothie. I did give some to my fellow residents too. I did feel obligated to explain to one of them, who is quite a picky eater but loves smoothies, that this one is a little different. Thankfully, he liked it though.
We had our annual St. Nicholas celebration at the home last week. I hadn’t asked for a gift from the staff (since you actually pay for it yourself), but my sister sent me some gifts. She sent me cookie cutters and several cookie mixes too.
Today, my wife and I were at Hema in Apeldoorn and I got myself a potato peeler (since somehow the last one I had got lost) and a wooden rolling pin for the cookies. The rolling pin has a Nijntje pattern engraved into it. I hope that doesn’t make the rolling pin hard to clean. I took this picture myself just yet, so apologies if it’s misaligned or unclear.
Looking back over this post, I see that, even though I cooked dinner only once, I did engage in various foodie activities over the past month.
A Multitude of Musings 
Your food looks yummy.
I love the bunny rolling pin.
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Thank you. The bunny is called Nijntje, which is a Dutch picture book character.
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I love the rolling pin, and i enjoy overnight oats too. Must make some again. Glad to hear you got to make one meal at least; must be frustrating when plans fall apart for you. I hope you have a lovely festive season. Take care and ‘see’ you in the new year.
all the best for 2026
cheers
sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/
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Thanks so very much. Overnight oats are delicious indeed once I’d mastered the right oat/milk ratio. Have a happy December!
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That rolling pin is so cute and your bundt cake looks perfect. It must be frustrating when your plans have to change but you got to enjoy some spontaneous baking too. Also how good are overnight oats?! 🙂
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Thank you so much. It’s indeed frustrating when my plans change. Thanks for the compliment on my bundt cake. Just wondering, does “bundt” refer to the shape or the spongeyness or the color?
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Doing more activities sounds like a good thing! The curry looks so good and the Bastogne brulée too! How lovely of your sister to send you some gifts. I love that rolling pin, I recognised the character as Miffy, I didn’t realise it was a Dutch creation.
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Thanks for your kind comment. I’d never heard of Miffy, so maybe Dick Bruna (the Nijntje picture books’ author) actually didn’t invent the character at all.
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It looks like November brought more kitchen moments than you first thought! Sorry about the mixer though. #MMBC
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Thank you. You’re right indeed.
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that miffy rolling pin is so cute, I hope you can make something with it! the mind boggles for why blue + yellow food colouring as opposed to adding just green.. thanks for sharing this month and have a wonderful holiday season
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Thank you for stopping by. I never cared to look up whether there’s green food coloring, honestly.
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I am really puzzled why they would put the food coloring in the sponge cake? I mean I know it doesn’t change the taste any but was it a special mix for a holiday or something? I love that rolling pin! Glad you had a nice month of food prep!
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Thanks for your kind comment. The mixture was for Pandan cake, which when made from scratch is actually made with Pandan paste, giving it a natural green color and a distinct flavor. I guess the colorants are therefore a marketing trick.
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You’re welcome. Now I see why it was green. Did it have the flavor of Pandan cake too or just the color?
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I have no idea what pandan cake is supposed to taste like, honestly, so I don’t know.
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I hear more satisfaction in your writings regarding cooking, which is a very good thing. When we don’t enjoy the process it tends to remove the joy. Your curry dish does sound delicious, and I am not the biggest curry fan. Have a great week ahead.
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Thanks so much for your encouraging comment. I’m not the biggest curry fan either, but this one was certainly very tasty.
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I’m trying to post on your blog again, hopefully WordPress will let me this time. Loved hearing about all the food you enjoyed and making creme brulee is a real accomplishment. This comment is briefer than the last one in case I have trouble again.
Cheers, Pauline (Happy Retirees Kitchen)
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Oh, too bad your last comment didn’t go through. Maybe it was wrongly flagged as spam. Thanks so much for your kind comment. I loved making the crème brulée.
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Oh yum! I could happily eat all of this, but your curry looks incredible.
I’m so glad to see you enjoying cooking again. I can’t wait to see what you make next.
Have a lovely week, Astrid! 🙂
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Thanks so much for your kind comment. I loved the curry indeed. Hope to cook more soon.
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