Valentines Day Mini Pies

Brussels Valentines Day made for an excuse to finally figure out how to bake over here.

Nothing fancy. I can still hardly make it through the French/Dutch grocery store let alone figure out what the symbols on the oven mean and by the time I plug all of the measurement conversions into my app, the food is burning. These mini Valentines Day Pies seemed a perfect tester and they turned out great. I didn't even use a recipe and it was store bought pie crust so I promise, you can do it too!

First I cut a heart out of a piece of paper/cardboard from the package the pie crust came in and I traced it with a knife as a stencil for the hearts. 

Spread a little cream cheese on each piece than added some fruit filling.

Fruit filling: diced strawberries, raspberry jam, and a little bit of sugar. Next I enclosed each heart making a little pie and pressed the edges closed with a fork. 

They cooked for 25 minutes (that is what the dough called for) at God only knows what oven setting or heat (Europe problems), but the end result: a perfectly delicious and instagram-worthy mini-pie.  

Happy Valentines Day!!

Carnival in Belgium

Thanks to this day I can now say I have visited Binche, Belgium. 

{which I am not so sure many people can say}

The biggest Carnival celebration in Belgium is said to be in Binche. 

If I must choose one word for these festivities: strange.

In a nutshell - people come out of their homes, wasted drunk, waiting in the cold for hours and hours, for this parade of very bizzare outfitted men moving at the slowest snail-pace you have ever seen, who suddenly start pelting - I mean PELTING - the crowd with oranges ... 

Yes. Seriously.

This will certainly go toward my life goal of saying I have seen it all. 

Happy Carnival everyone!!

Brugge in Winter Snow

Another beautiful shot of Brugges in the winter.

If I ever make a fairy tale film, I don't really know what it would be about 

but I can tell you it will be set in Brugges.