Sunday, January 19, 2025

Grilling, Getting the Kids to Cook, Keeping It Simple, Belgian Butchers, Quality Products and Buying Local and in Flanders

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I dropped the ball, already! I was supposed to blog my beef n' beans recipe on the stove pot and I totally forgot to take pictures. I guess that can happen when enjoying an aperitif takes priority. Hehehe...So, I'm throwing this one together and peppering it with all kinds of meals to inspire you and maybe teach you some really important skills with shopping and cooking healthy, affordable meals.

grilling
Pulled Pork Before Pulling

For most of my life, I shopped at the big grocery store and as time passed, I stopped enjoying the experience. Prices were soaring. Quality was plummeting. Choices were growing thin. The overall experience was most unpleasant and I didn't know where my food was coming from or what was in it.

grill like a pro
Lamb Shoulder

As you may know, I have two children, now adults, with Autism and through a lot of research, I found that a pure, healthy diet can help eliminate a lot of Autistic symptoms. My youngest was non verbal for nearly a decade. He had PICA and everything was a challenge. Weeks after we got them started on a pure diet of whole, organic foods things changed quickly. Thank goodness!

yes, you can grill that

So my passion for food was becoming essential. What is more important than our health? Especially, when your physical situation prevents you from performing everyday tasks? We rarely shop our large grocery stores and opt for the little guys in town. They often provide local wares that are much better in quality and sometime superior in quality. They might be a bit more expensive, but I encourage you to shop around and find the ones that suit you best.

choosing quality meat
Meat Ribs Buik Ribben

The hubs and I were not always great cooks. We joke about our first few meals together. Spaghetti sauce from the Aldi. Soup from a can. Progresso was the good stuff! Hehehe... My husband definitely has more passion than I. We make such a super team. I come up with what to cook. I purchase the goodies and more than often, he cooks it. He says he's the sous chef and I'm the chef. Works for me!

a visit to a Belgian butcher
A glimpse of a simple local butcher. Grass fed beef is best!

Above, you see a quick shot of our favorite butcher. He's not all that local to us, but good enough. His prices are insane! He charges nearly half the price as all of the other local butchers. In Belgium, your little local butcher is still very popular, but unfortunately they are closing and no one is taking their place. The same thing for bakeries. I cannot figure out why that is. They seem to make ok money. There are a lot of people still wanting this service. They are by no means cheap. Are we losing our passion for good quality food? Do we not understand the importance of local, healthy food? I don't know. What do ya think?

We started collecting all of our receipts and we are off to check all of the butchers in about a 15 mile radius, here in East Flanders. So far we have a very clear winner. I want to check with these butchers if it is ok that I share the information, but I'm thinking if you don't know who it is, it should be ok. Also, I'm scared to tell the address of my amazingly inexpensive butcher in fear of everyone going there and getting all of the good stuff. Hehehe...

It is so important that you are aware of prices. One butcher might charge 8 Euros for a kilo of hamburger and another 11! That is a huge difference. Also, ask where is the meat from? I just love when I ask where the meat is from and they point through the window at the sheep grazing in the field. My favorite says he does the sheep and his brother the cows and pigs. For us and for the economy and the environment, it's best to buy as close as possible.

I'll be diving more in to detail about that later.


get the kids cooking

If ya want to make things easier on yourself and help your children get them cooking. All summer, I teach them how to make new things and throughout the year, they have to cook them. I have children with Autism and they are pretty great in the kitchen. Don't let any kind of disability get in the way. At least give it a few tries. I do like to keep an eye out on the youngest who needs a little help most of the time. It takes some patience, but it really is important. Kids love feeling independent and I love a break from cooking. So, it's a win win.

Above, Liam is whipping up a huge sheet of nachos. We don't always add meat. We actually prefer them without, but it's fun to change things up at times. Try bacon, hamburger, chicken or chicken burger or even left over pulled pork.

Spread a bit of olive oil on the bottom of the pan with your fingers (then rub it in your skin hehehe...), place your choice of chips on the top. (We stay away from nearly all big brands that are taking over the market. That is a whole other story I can't wait to dig in to. I'll be doing some serious investigation here, because I'm getting a bit freaked out at just how few companies own all of the food.) I buy the store brand tortillas chips if we don't make them ourself and organic when possible. We love Santa Maria Chili Beans, but you can use any kind of beans at all. I'm pretty sure we tried every single kind of beans there are. Cheese is the only other essential, but you can add anything else you like. That's part of the beauty of nachos and the kids absolutely love it. Nachos are great for cleaning out the fridge.

I love spring onions on mine, served with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. I typically make everything from scratch. It's a bit of work, but often I have left over that I can use it for another meal. It might depend on what's growing in the garden. Lately, I've got a fabulous bush of jalapeños. It's January and I still have the bush in my green house, full of peppers. I couldn't be more surprised seeing how much of nothing else is growing in there. Hehehe...

easy eat'n
Pop in to your small, local specialty shop and see what treasure is there.

My husband has lived in Dendermonde his entire life. So, he's got a lot of friends, here. Many have their own business and we try our best to visit these places. One only lives a hop, skip and a jump from ours and boy is his shop full of awesome. It's tiny and unimposing. Inside you can find a lovely array of organic and biodynamic products. How cool is that?! My favorite, wine, bubbles, pasta, olive oils of all kinds, vinegars, honey and some sauces.

Above you can see some smoked olive oil. I needed bacon in a recipe, but forgot to buy it. So, I drizzled some of this over my smokey, cheesy potato concoction. Use it for anything ya want a little smoke flavor in. BBQ, eggs, baked beans...

cold seafood salad

Y'all know I like it hot! I bought some squid salad from our local fish monger and added a generous drizzle of this chili olive oil over it for a hot, flavorful touch. This is served cold. Let it sit for a bit and don't be afraid to add a few more items to fit your needs. I sprinkled some extra garlic powder and chopped green onions really thin in there, too.

support your local shops

Specialty shops are so super fab when it comes to uniqueness. When you want a splash of something different or even exotic, specialty shops like, Belle-Olio are just what ya need. Above, I heated up some left over paella and served it up with a simple salad of field lettuce, radish and fresh herbs than pimped it up with delicious olive oil (which raw, is crazy good for you) and this honey mustard from the gods. This stuff is like crack, people. Take caution when consuming! Hehehe... I'm not a big salad fan, but when I put this stuff on raw veg, I go to town.

My apologies for slacking on the beef n beans. I did get the inspiration from Jamie Oliver and totally changed it up, but ya might want to check his out. Our family loves it. I got'cha linked up. This book they advertise is a must have! It is by far the prettiest, most aesthetically pleasing cook book I've ever seen. I use it a lot. It would make an awesome gift for advanced and new cooks in your life.

Thanks for your visit. Feel free to scroll back for other recipes, cooking tips and more. The side bar and search field is pretty handy. Here's a link with the best Italian season on the planet. This blog has tips on how to get kids to eat veggies. Maybe check out one of our 52 Weekly Menu Planners? This is how ya cook! You can save time, money and a whole lot of waste when you plan your meals. Check out some of ours. They are typically easy, inexpensive and healthy. Our Weekly Menu Planner Board and Food Boards will totally help ya out.

Happy cooking!!




 

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the inspiring chat about food. I love food and minimal waste. What do you do with your jalapenos? I also have a bush that's a prolific fruiter and interested to hear some ways to use and not waste them.

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    1. Oh! I'm such a huge fan of them. I put them in nearly everything. I leave mine on the bush. It is in a green house, though. I cut them as I need them for recipes. It's been freezing for several days and the peppers are still ok. I'm so shocked and thrilled. This is the first time I ever had so many peppers on a plant. If I were to have a bumper crop, I would definitely slice, clean and pickle them. Oooh! Look for a jalapeno salsa. I eat them fresh with my eggs, on salads, deviled eggs (mmmm), in spaghetti, chili...Use them in any meal that needs just a touch of pop. For me, jalapenos aren't really all that spicey so I can use them liberally. Hehehe...

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    2. Ours are in a veggie garden but we have critters and pests so we pick when ready. Not enough at one time to pickle but a small batch salsa might be good. I eat a lot of salads and bit of spicy zing is nice. Agreed they aren't that spicy. Being summer we have lots of eggs - I might make spicy scrambled eggs this week. But jalapeno devilled egg sounds delish.

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    3. Summer?! Lucky you! I'll be sure to add a few ideas for jalapeños on the next blog. Enjoy the warmth and sunshine. I sure do miss it.

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  2. If you like humidity! And that would be fabulous - adding spicy chillies (including Jalapenos to most dishes at the moment) due to abundance in the garden. Just as well we don't mind spicy!

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