Scoor Ze Allemaal

You may have noticed that grocery shopping is a persistent theme here.  Maybe it's the only theme.  

Some days, I feel like I'm measuring my progress in the world with my collection of Voetbal Plaatjes, which are the soccer player stickers one gets in the checkout line at Albert Heijn.  

These silver packets — one gets five stickers for every 10 Euros spent — are a nice reward for a job well done, even if the job was limited to saying in Dutch that no, you do not have an Albert Heijn Bonus Card. 

Plus there's a Willy Wonka-like air of mystery to each packet: 

Will I get a shiny team sticker?  

Will my players have alarmingly Dutch names, like Jelle ten Rouwelaar or Koen van de Laak or Piet Velthuizen? 

Will I get a grumpy coach sticker? Which is, for purposes of the Albert Heijn stickers, the sign of a really good day.  

  

Speaking of Albert Heijn, I nearly cried with happiness (if only I were joking) last week when I was able to secure postage stamps and a Bonus Card, all in Dutch, at the service desk. 

It could have been that the woman at the service desk was ultra-friendly and didn't make me fill out a form to get my bonus card once I squeaked out my question.  

It could have been that I was very nervous about asking the check-out person about stamps and bonus cards when there were 19 Dutch people behind me in line.  

It could have been that it was 50 degrees outside and sunny and the only thing on my to-do list was to buy groceries and stamps. 

It could have been that I got THREE grumpy coach stickers. 

Or maybe it was just the Bonus Card. 

Nothing Says Friday Night Like Chicken Stock

Thank God for the Discovery Channel, which has recently brought us up to speed on the Netherlands' long and storied history of engineering genius.  This newfound knowledge should come in handy the next time we're at a Dutch cocktail party.

Oddly, the Discovery Channel didn't highlight a Dutch invention just as revolutionary as the windmill or the sea wall: de ijsblok zakje.  Instead, we were left to discover it on our own at our neighborhood mega-mart, Albert Heijn XL.

Last week, we had a very nesty moment  in which we used our luxury hotplate to make a pot of chicken stock.  Our plan was to freeze the stock in ice cube trays, just like we do at home, and then use it a cube or two at a time in later cooking.  

But, as we discovered after making a giant pot of stock, ice cube trays are a rare commodity in the Netherlands.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is related to the fact that our freezer is roughly the same size as our Dutch-English dictionary. 

After a fruitless search for trays, John wandered into the saran wrap section of Albert Heijn and stumbled upon the ijsblok zakje.  As it turns out, one pours water (or in our case, chicken stock) into a long, segmented plastic baggie, ties it at the top, and lays it flat in the freezer. 

Four hours later? Lekker ijsbloks.

Peanut Cheese?

On our first day in Nijmegen, we were delighted and horrified to learn that the literal translation of the Dutch word for peanut butter — pindakaas — is peanut cheese.  In this Monday morning blog, I'll share similar highlights from our adventures in the Netherlands.