this is a photo I took of myself while styling and photographing the front cover.

The book has received such an incredible response! It’s very exciting. I will tell you more about what’s been happening soon but in the meantime I’ve been inundated with inquiries about it’s availability in Europe and Australia and I thought it best to let you know what I know thus far…

The book should be available here in Europe and in Australia in the next week or so.

But that’s all I know!

My publisher will keep me informed of when and where, and as soon as I find out I will let you all know in a special post.

So, for those of you in England, France, The Netherlands, and Australia – please keep an eye out at your local bookstore but know that I will tell you as soon as the books land in your country. Inquiring and ordering a copy from your local bookstore will help ensure the books are sold in your area.

I can’t wait to see the book in an actual bookstore. Last week when I received the list of independent booksellers in the US and Canada, I was overjoyed. But then, as I started to try to list them on the book’s webpage (the list is too long to do so as you can see I only made it through a couple of dozen, but if you live in a particular city and let me know I will put it on the page as requests come in) and looked up their addresses on the internet, I was overwhelmed to find that the quaintest, most beautiful bookstores dotted all over the continent were stocking my book. I shed a private tear… is this really happening?

I now have a little folder on my desktop filled with beautiful stories shot by Petrina Tinslay, with thanks to our numerous requests for more when Petrina shared her dubai story of images here in the (bloghouse) a month ago (thank you dear readers, and thank you dear Petrina!).

So today I thought I’d share one with you since it seems I’m on a food-lovin’ frenzy this week (oh spring, you do excite my tastebuds). Petrina shot this gorgeous story for Food & Wine magazine, which featured in the August 2008 issue. I love everything about it…

photographs by Riley Salyards.

My dear friend Yvette is in da (blog)house kitchen this evening, cooking – and drawing – up a storm with rhubarb and a traditional Dutch dish called hangop. Now shock horror: I have never tasted hangop! I know, embarrassing. But Yvette just told me about it the other day and I was secretly wanting her to give me her secret recipe so I could make it. And she has! For you too! She is a sweetheart. Please welcome fabulous food stylist Yvette Van Boven back in the kitchen (click here to read her full post with photo and recipe).

encore merci ma chère Yvette!

xx

Hi dear bloghouse readers,

Welcome in Pia’s kitchen: where I promised you last week I’d prepare another Rhubarb dish for you. I haven’t taken a picture of the rhubarb in our garden yet, but I made you a drawing instead…

And a recipe, of course, for a rhubarb compote: so yummy! Serve it chilled with hot custard; serve it hot with cinnamon ice cream; or at room-temperature with chilled HANGOP. This is a dutch desert that everyone should have eaten once in his life – I think – so I’ll give you the recipe for that too. ‘Hangop’ means ‘to hang up’, and thats exactly what you have to do with it. Anyway, I suggest strongly to try it out!
( psst: Pia and I are secretly working on a project where this would fit in perfectly, so now you know: still keep it as a surprise for the others…)

I just did a story about ‘local food in season’ for Elle Eten (Elle’s Dutch food magazine) and of course I included these recipes. They are my favorite food! Saskia van Osnabrugge took the picture and Annemiek Paarlberg did the styling, I did the food, but I guess you knew that already.

Good luck!

love,
Yvette

Rhubarb compote with Verrry Dutch: Hangop
for 8, preparation: 35 min (plus 1 night)

The sweet and sour compote works really well in combination with the fresh and creamy taste of hangop.

For the rhubarb compote:

1 ½ kg rhubarb, well cleaned and cut in pieces of about 1 cm
750 g sugar, or more to taste
2 cinnamon sticks
8 cardamom pods
2 vanilla sticks, halved and seeds scraped out
3 clementines or 2 oranges

For the hangop:

1 liter yoghurt
1 liter cream
the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
the grated peel of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar
(30 min plus 1 night period)

FOR THE COMPOTE:
Fill a large baking tin with the rhubarb, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla pods and seeds, mix well. Half the clementines, squeeze them over the rhubarb and tuck the peel in too. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for about 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 ° C. Turn the rhubarbmix over so now and then. When cooked, take out of the oven and leave to cool completely overnight. This also marinates your compote, but you can eat it right away if you cant wait.

FOR THE HANGOP:
Meanwhile, spread a clean tea-towel out over a sieve. Put the sieve on top of a bucket or big bowl. Pour the yogurt in it and cover with a sheet of plastic film. Put the whole thing away in the basement or in another cool place in your house for a night or even longer.
The following day: beat the cream with the vanilla, the lemon-zest and sugar. Mix the yoghurt from your sieve (it will be stiff, like fresh cheese!) carefully with the whipped cream.

TO SERVE:
Remove the spices from the compote. Fill eight glasses halfway with the compote and spoon a big dollop of hangop on top. Serve immediately: you will be thrilled!