Guus Bosman

The paprika plant that was a mystery for a while, is getting fruit!

There were two flowers next to each other, and one of them is now growing a beautiful green pepper.

Today we baked a dessert, French profiteroles. It was a wonderful success.

Interestingly, it turns out that the recipe for profiteroles is very similar to my favorite Dutch gebakje: the moorkop. The difference is the filling; instead of ice cream a moorkop is filled with whipped cream.

We tried both versions -- the French profiteroles with vanilla ice cream, and a small moorkop. The bakery in Middenmeer serves moorkoppen with a piece of pineapple on top.

It's a neat idea that we can bake our own pastries, even a good old moorkop.

Yesterday was a perfect start of the three day Memorial weekend. In the afternoon we went to Wilmington, where we enjoyed the board walk at the river. A real summer feeling with live music outside and lots of people on the streets downtown. The weather was gorgeous.

We had dinner in Caprice Bistro, which was excellent. Great French food, with a Belgian touch. The pate was a highlight. Wilmington is about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Durham, so we were home around midnight.

I got nostalgic for a dish that I haven't had for a long time, a slavink.

A slavink is a meat patty wrapped in a thin layer of bacon, based on a Dutch recipe. We used to eat them frequently in Holland. The are sold pre-made in most butcher stores and supermarkets, and I had never made them by hand before but I found a good recipe online.

The author of that (great) recipe presumably lived in the US for a long time, since he writes: "We eat them here with vegetables and potatoes but they are also good cooked on the BBQ and served on buns with ketcup and mustard."

The patty is made of a mixture of ground pork and group beef, with seasonings. I'm pretty sure that the (breakfast) bacon that I used is a bit different than the ontbijtspek you'd use in the Netherlands, but I found a brand that wasn't smoke flavored so the end result was pretty authentic. We had a great meal, with some rice and a green salad, and I made some extra that I'm keeping in the freezer for busy days.