It’s Tuesday afternoon, the sun is appearing from out behind wispy clouds, and I’m sitting at my dining table with a cup of tea, flicking through Yvette’s new and incredibly inspiring cookbook Homemade, remembering the fun of Thursday night’s private book launch at Foam. Oh what a night! And oh, what a book. It now takes pride of place in my home…

Would you like to take a little peak inside Homemade with me? I’ll pour you a cup of tea while you peruse it’s pages…

that little vessel on the left page is a gift I brought back with me from Australia at the beginning of this year for Yvette – it’s a sam robinson piece, and I’m thrilled to see yvette has used it as a prop in homemade! super leuk.

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I don’t know what I love more – the paper cut out chapter openers, the how-to sections, the personal stories and funny anecdotes peppered throughout the book, the photography (which will knock your socks off), the menu suggestions and “don’t forget the dog” section toward the end of the book, Yvette’s own handmade font, the unique and incredibly delicious recipes, the drawings,… the list goes on.  Yvette has created a seriously unique cook- & DIY book, with over 200 recipes and ideas for home cooking, and I have no doubt it is going to be a great success, it’s truly beautiful…

here is friend Floris who makes the best patés and terrines ever, he has his own shop here in Amsterdam, I’ll take you there one day soon!

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As far as the recipes go, what should I try first?  The lentil, apple & coriander salad (sounds like the perfect lunch to me!), oven baked rissotto with sausage and paprika, zucchini cakes with basil cream, camembert & apricot jam toasted sandwiches, hang op… just to name a few,  it’s all so gooood.  The book is only in Dutch at this stage,  but I’m hoping it will be translated into English soon, I’ll keep you posted about that.

Now, let me tell you about the book launch party last Thursday night! Foam Café was filled to the brim with press, publishers, Yvette’s close friends and family, and the very lovely and very famous French chef, Stéphane Reynaud.  Yvette presented the first copy of her book to Stéphane as he has been a great inspiration to her. I was terribly nervous for her when she was standing up there in front of all those people, I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest and into my wine glass. But she was amazing, and didn’t look one bit nervous while she addressed everyone and asked Stéphane to sign her book.  I was able to snap some fun photos of the presentation, would you like to see?

Yvette’s publisher Fontaine Uitgevers is also the publisher of the Dutch version of Stéphane’s new book 365 , which the first copy was presented to him along with Yvette’s book. And I was also pleased to find out from Stéphane that my publisher (that be Murdoch books) is publishing the English version of 365, and it will launch in Australia this coming month, yeah! I had a great long chat with Stéphane, it was the first time I’d met him, he’s super nice. We had lots to talk about, he is really looking forward to visiting Australia this coming month – he loves the place, and loves the food! I was thrilled to hear and see his enthusiasm for Australian fare.

here is yvette at the signing table, signing away like a champ!

So there you go, that was last week’s fun. Ah but wait, there’s more! We had a very special house guest this weekend, perhaps you recall her pretty face from here, here, here and here…

Yes, it’s marie! Yvette had a huge catering job to attend to over the weekend and asked if we’d babysit, of course we said yes. Marie was so well-behaved and completely charming. We did lots of things together – we had afternoon naps together on the couch, we went for walks, and on Sunday morning when she heard Romain get out of bed she jumped off the couch, ran into the bedroom with tail wagging furiously and right up into the bed to say good morning, giving us both lots of kisses and cuddles. On Sunday it was raining all day and we soon realised she had no intention of getting out there in the rain, instead she spent the entire day on the couch, and I spent the day looking over at her, snapping photos of her various couch surfing positions, check her out…

Classic! I miss her already. And did someone just say she can’t get any cuter? Umm, well, take a look at this…

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To find out more about Yvette van Boven’s new cookbook Homemade, click here.

All photography in Homemade by Oof Verschuren.

PS marie sat on that cushion while Yvette styled the biscuits all around her, and then posed for the camera! I remember Yvette & Oof showing me the pic when they took it, she is the ultimate photo-friendly pup, gotta love her.

I’m a very proud friend – Yvette’s book called homemade will be officially launched tonight at a private book party at Foam, I cannot wait. It will be fabulous to see the book in the flesh for the first time – this has been such a labour of love and passion for both yvette and her husband oof who has been busy taking all the photographs of all the delicious recipes over this past year. Above is a photo of Yvette looking over the book pages at the printers in Spain just a few weeks ago.

For my Dutch readers, if you’d like to be the first in line to buy a copy of Yvette’s book homemade, it is now available from de vries boeken.  I will definitely give more details about the book’s whereabouts once I have them.

For now though, I’d like to just make this post an opportunity for us all to shout out in unison a big CONGRATULATIONS to Yvette for the launch of her book tonight. Will you join me in this toast?

xx

Oh yes, I’m a very proud friend. I just wrote a post about it in the (blog)house kitchen, go and take a wander in there to learn more about this gorgeous book in the making!

For the last week here in Amsterdam, our canal has had a layer of glorious snow over the top of its frozen, icey surface. It has been reflecting a beautiful blue-white light into the boat that I have never seen before. Every morning I have been eagerly pulling up the blinds to let in as much of the light as possible, and I have been so inspired to use this new white light – imagining up all sorts of new still life tabletop scenes and interior settings. This morning I was a little sad to see that all the snow had melted on the canal.

But I didn’t come here to give you a weather report. Instead, I want to let you know that food stylist Yvette van Boven is here in da (blog)house again! After I saw the latest post on her blog called Dutch Fare, I asked if she could translate one of the recipes and being the wonderful friend that she is, she said yes. She shouldn’t be indulging us though, because she too is very busy working on a huge book and she needs no distractions. Meanwhile, she has runaway to Paris to try to get some work done on her book without being distracted by the likes of well… me. I understand.

So, go take a look in the (blog)house kitchen (click here) to see which recipe Yvette kindly translated and wrote about for us. It’s the perfect winter treat. Enjoy!

xx

Do you remember English lass Rachel Khoo? She’s one of the young and talented food stylists I’ve featured here in the (blog)house kitchen many moons ago. I met Rachel in Paris in 2008 when she was studying at Le Cordon Bleu. Back then she was flitting around Paris as a food stylist for the likes of Elle à table and Galeries Lafayette,  creating fun workshops in the gorgeous little bookstore La Cocotte, and regularly cooking up a storm of new recipes.

Today, I am very happy to hear she’s coming to Sydney this March to host one of her  fabulous “underground” culinary evenings with her food + design writing friend Frankie…

From penal colony to gold rush eldorado, to sun and surf mecca, British gals Rachel and Frankie interpret the tastes and influences of past and present Australia over a six course dining experience.  Rachel has been hosting a few of these underground dinners in London and Berlin over the past year with great success, and she’s super excited to be coming to Australia.

The edible immigration tales will be told for 3 nights only (Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th March) in a secret Eastern Suburbs Sydney location. It will be 6 courses paired with wine and a recommended donation of $75 pp will be very appreciated. Seats are limited.  In order to book you can email Rachel and Frankie directly or click here for more details.

In more R.Khooks news (geez I love to hear about my (blog)house guests incredible achievements!), her first and super gorgeous book has just been released today. It’s called muesli et granola maison -which translates as “homemade muesli and granola” – and is published by marabout, with photography by akiko ida and beautiful prop styling by elodie rambaud. Here is a rather exclusive sneak peek inside…

miam, non? I love muesli and making anything muesli related, especially muesli bars. And with that perfect touch of french style, who can resist.

Congratulations Rachel! Have a fab time in Sydney (and try not to get too many colours like I have done, it’s really not so pleasant).

xx

As most of you already know, House of Orange is the styling agency that represents me as a stylist. Today I’m excited to tell you that they have just launched a new website, and there are heaps of new images from all the stylists and photographers.  I love the way they’ve created a collage/moodboard which changes each time you click on one of the links.  There are some new images in my portfolio too, if you like you can check them out by clicking here.

It’s 10pm. I just poured myself a glass of milk and peeled opened the gold wrap of a green & blacks milk chocolate bar, and now I find I have a moment or two to {frolic!}. Perhaps you care to join me…

If you haven’t checked out chelsea (aka ms blog-stylist-florist-extraordinaire of {frolic!})’s flickr set lately then i suggest you pour yourself a glass of milk, peel open a fresh bar of milk chocolate, and head on over. Along with a smattering of incredibly gorgeous new polaroids like you see above, there is also a fab collection of images of chelsea’s brothers beautiful barn which he is building by hand. And then there is this haunting photograph…

…which was taken by a mysterious (guest)ghost – click here to read the description of how this photograph came to be.

Thank you for being a continual source of inspiration Chelsea.

xx

PS This song by Sophie Hunger is penetrating my surrounding airwaves, with many thanks to dear (blog)house reader and friend, itsasne, who is a secret source of inspiration unto herself.

PPS the birds are singing in the trees. at 10pm! it is so beautiful, i wish you could all hear them.