autumn interior update

Saturday 5th of October

After nine years we discovered that this is the perfect place for the vintage carpet, that I found at the carpet auction at Abdelkarim's in the in Marrakech in 2015.

rode linzensoep - eenvoudig recept

Zaterdag 13 april 2024

Henk was een dag met zijn broertjes naar Eindhoven, dus moest ik vandaag zelf koken en aangezien ik geen zin had om boodschappen te doen, trok ik de keukenlade open om de mogelijkheden te inventariseren.

Rode linzen en een pot geroosterde puntpaprika's als basis ingrediënten...

Hier het super eenvoudige basis recept van de linzensoep die ik heb gemaakt met 'wat er nog in huis is'.

Ingrediënten:
350 gram rode linzen
olijfolie
2 uien
teentje knoflook
een pot geroosterde puntpaprika's
tl komijn
tl kaneel
tl kurkuma
tl bladselderij kruiden
1,3 liter water
1 blokje groente bouillon

Fijngesneden uien en knoflook aanfruiten in olijfolie.
Puntpaprika in reepjes snijden en toevoegen en kort roerbakken.
Kruiden toevoegen en de rode linzen er doorheen roeren.
Giet daarna het water in de pan en als laatste het bouillonblokje erbij.

Breng de soep al roerend aan de kook en daarna ongeveer 30 minuten zachtjes laten koken.

Als finishing touch nog een flinke schep crème fraîche erbij, want die had ik nog in de koelkast staan.

Bon appétit!

(dit recept is voor zeker 4 flinke borden soep)

vase d'octobre

Vase d'octobre, or in other words a vase d'avril with dahlias.

The ever spectacular bonus of the flower season!

bloemonday

BLOEMonday 16th of January 2023

spring has sprung

Sunday 6th of March.

The days are getting longer and warmer, bulbs and trees are blossoming.
The time of new beginnings.
After two 'weird' spring seasons, we are all so ready to enjoy spring and freedom.
Now all we need is peace!

lemon on canvas - lilac on blue & white checks

Lemon on canvas.

Acrylic paint on cotton canvas, size 80 x 60 cm.

Lilac lemon on blue & white checks.

For more information you can send an email to info@woodwoolstool.com or DM on instagram @woodwoolstool.

lundi lunch

Lundi lunch.

Find magic in the little things.

Brewing coffee with an old-fashioned percolator for instance.

winter vegetables

We like to eat seasonally.

Tonight on the menu; roasted winter vegetables.

Super simple, healthy, tasty and easy to make with everything from the vegetable drawer.

Chioccia- and yellow beets, chicory, red onions and a mini cauliflower.

A colorful composition of sliced vegetables, before they go into the oven. Feast for the eyes.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Place the various vegetables in the oven dish. Mix some olive oil with garlic, pepper, salt and herbs and drizzle the oil mixture over the vegetables.

Place the dish in the middle of the oven and roast the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes.

A delicious basic dish that you can actually combine with anything.

la cucina

Latest addition to the kitchen:
A 'Casalino' chair by Alexander Begge for Casala, from the 1970s

Sometimes all it takes to add interest to the kitchen, is some unique shapes.

The round table and shapely chairs make the kitchen less kitchen and more dining room.

Since we got a round tulip table in the kitchen, we have been sitting here more often than before, and we already spent a lot of time in la cucina.

b l o e m

Remember the massive neon sign b l o e m , written in italics with beautiful loops?

Bloem is the dutch word for flower, a word that suits me well.

My dear and very handy colleague Sjaak came to fix it on the wall this morning.

And look how cool it turned out!

I climbed on the kitchen counter to take this photo, with lousy November light, because I wanted to share the end result today, nonetheless.

A grand wall flower between the houseplants, Urban Jungle at the kitchen table!

annual golden ginkgo glee

Annual golden ginkgo glee in the front yard.

November always brings the golden yellow ginkgo confetti delight.

Looking through the kitchen window and having a morning coffee in the front yard on sunny days like this...

Enjoy the little things in life!

odd objects

Do you recognize this? Being pleasantly surprised by an unexpected shop window.

We spotted a very cool collection of odd objects in a shop window in the Voorstraat of our hometown.

An enormous gathering of animal wall vases, not only the usual cigale, but also swallows, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles... and many other curious stuff and odd objects.

Pooh, it was difficult to choose between all those beautiful and cute wall vases and we allowed ourselves to choose 3 ceramic pieces.

Well we have found a nice spot on the wall for all three of them;

a brightly colored beautiful butterfly in the kitchen
a extraordinary swallow in the bedroom
and another ceramic cigale to join our collection in the living room

white beechwood chairs

The canteen table in our kitchen has been replaced by a round tulip table.

We are very happy with it. We have more space and Henk often works at home these days, so the table also serves as desk.

The canteen table found a new home at my colleague, who is very happy with it and fits perfectly in her beautiful home. We even had a cup of coffee at our old canteen table last weekend!

We also replaced the wooden chairs by 4 vintage chairs we already had in the house (and garden).

The white beechwood chairs are stored upstairs in my studio. The children both have kitchen chairs and do not need them. I don't use the chairs and they don't bother me either, but it would be nice if someone else could use them.

Therefore i have offered them for sale on MARKTPLAATS.
The 6 chairs white beachwood chairs are used (of course) but in good condition.

home-grown aubergine recipe

For dinner we had home-grown aubergine from the oven with curry, walnuts and honey.

A very simple vegetarian recipe for a quick surprise dinner. It looks exotic and oriental and has a very special taste.

Combine an aubergine with curry, walnuts and honey to get a real taste explosion. It takes only 10 minutes to prepare and the oven does the rest of the work. Serve it as a starter, side dish or lunch.

Ingredients for 2 people:

- 2 aubergines
- walnuts
- 2 cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- honey
- lemon juice
- curry
- salt
- black pepper

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Oven time: 1 hour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Wash the aubergines, pat them dry and cut them lengthwise into thin slices and put them in a greased baking dish.

Brush the aubergines with olive oil and drizzle the honey and lemon juice over the top. Cut the garlic cloves into slices and divide them over the tops.

Finally, walnuts, curry, pepper and salt over the aubergines and put the baking tin in the oven. Bake the aubergines for about 1 hour. Keep a close eye on the aubergines during that time. If they get too brown on top, cover them with aluminum foil.

Meanwhile set the table attractively, because with a nicely set table, everything tastes even better!

PS: Last week I made a Moroccan Zaalouk salad with the first harvested aubergines.

change of scenery

Change of scenery in our kitchen.

A tulip dining table and houseplant wall. We 'replaced' our long table and bench with Moroccan bread baskets.

Since the children both moved to their own homes, we sometimes felt a bit lost at our super long canteen table, which can accommodate 10 people. After three days breakfast and dinner at the round table in our apartment at Baixa House in Lisbon, we agreed we should have a round table in our kitchen.

I've always enjoyed dining at a cozy round table, but I did not want to say goodbye to the vintage Belgian canteen table and because of it's size (2.40 X 0.80m), it was not an option to store it elsewhere in the house. The xxl table has found a good destination at my colleague, who is now very happy with it.

I found a splendid round tulip table with a diameter of 1.20 meter, which also still fits 6 chairs if necessary.

We exchanged the white wooden chairs for two vintage garden chairs from the front garden, an old steel patio chair, we once found at a Spanish flea market and our Bertoia chair.

The new table brings a completely different atmosphere and the kitchen is much more spacious this way.

The plates on the serving cart are re-organized and the Moroccan (bread)basket collection is now displayed on another table in the kitchen.

And we found a second-hand Dutch design cross light lamp by Melis & Oostrom above the dining table.

On the table a Bordallo Pinheiro fish vase from our Portugal road trip 2017 with garden flowers.

Because there is still space for another plant on the plant bench, we adopted a chain cactus.

Usually the interior at some points have to become completely different after our vacation, because we always get so much inspiration abroad.

All in all a huge difference with minimal resources.

Change of scenery brings new energy.