Happy birthday little Belgium!!!

Happy 178th birthday Belgium! You are a great country to live in. Of course, there are certain governmental issues, but other than that, I have to admit... I love you.

For those of you who want to learn more about Belgium, here is a great video explaining everything...

Unfortunately I had forgotten that grocery stores are closed on public holidays, and I hadn't been to the store yesterday. Thus I was caught without food. Or so I thought. It is situations like today that I am very happy about my method of shopping. It is similar to my mentality about clothes. If you always buy clothes that match, then you always have a cute outfit, even when you're just too lazy to care about fashion. Translated to food: If you always buy ingredients that taste yummy together, you will always have a nice meal waiting to be discovered in the back of the fridge! So tonight I made pasta (a staple ingredient in every household) with marinated artichoke hearts (which I had left over from the previous post's meal), mushrooms, garlic, white wine, cream, Gouda, and fresh Parmesan. It was simple and quick and most importantly, delicious! As Mitch Hedburg would say, "Mac and cheese  for adults". 

In case you were wondering how I made it, I'll tell you. I sliced up the mushrooms, fried them in olive oil, added one clove of garlic, and after it was cooked, added a bit of white wine. Once the alcohol had burned out, I added cream, Gouda, Parmesan and diced the artichoke hearts. Stir, stir, stir and you have a fabulous, easy pasta sauce. 


Not exactly a Belgian dish, but still one worthy of a celebratory meal. Now if only the clouds would go away so I could watch the fireworks...