Netflix in 3 months

I bet this is true for a lot of people - the corona lockdown made you watch more shows in a span of three months than you ever have in all the years of your life combined! Well, for me at least, this was the case! I found it very interesting because generally, I was never a fan of series/shows.  I never had a Netflix account (and still don't - but Nuri does!) I always found myself impatient to sit through many episodes, or to wait for the next season. And then one day, Nuri told me about a show he used to watch called The 100. He had watched until Season 5 a while back, and instead of just picking up with Season 6 on his own, he asked if I wanted to watch from the beginning, and he very patiently went through the whole show with me from the start! It took a long time for us to get through it, but that's how I got into Netflix. And after that show, I watched many others.  I thought I'd share with you some of the shows I watched over the last three months.  I'll try my best not to give any spoilers!

1. The 100

Only 4 seasons are up on Netflix, so we downloaded the other 3. When Nuri first described what the show was about, I wasn't eager to watch it. I generally do  not like science fiction or all these post-apocalyptic action shows. But he insisted I give it a try, and surprisingly I liked it! The beginning reminded me so much of one of my favourite novels - Lord of the Flies. I was reading too much into the series: every now and then I would pause the show and tell Nuri what I thought! I kept reading into the two main characters Clarke and Bellamy and their leadership style and decisions. Throughout the series you see the characters torn between making ethical decisions or submitting to animalistic desires in order to survive. It's filled with drama; it felt like each episode had not just one but two story climaxes! I was very invested in this show that I had dreams about it.  Sometimes it was scary, but that's just because we would watch several episodes in one go and when you're not used to watching shows... I don't know (it could be just me) but it really got into my system.  Anyways, since I enjoyed this, I was eager to watch more shows after we concluded the 6th season.


2. Lucifer

Of everything that I've watched so far, if I had to rank them, Lucificer is number 1. Again, when Nuri recommended this show, I doubted because I'm also not a big fan of criminal investigation/cop shows. But this one... this one is so good! I realized that I keep saying I'm not a fan of this or that genre, but it's because I was really never into watching series, and there's only one type of movie that I like (you'll learn about it later).  I also found it very interesting how before recommending The 100 and Lucifer, Nuri - after knowing me for almost a year - was confident that I would like both!
Back to Lucifer - every single episode has a deep message. It's philosophical...it makes us think about our beliefs (God, afterlife, wrong/right choices, heaven/hell...) But it's not all serious; it's a comedy-drama. Lucifer is a witty character, he talks a lot and doesn't realize how funny he is. Well, what makes it even more funny is that no one laughs (I always wonder how these actors don't LOL when there's something really funny).  Lucifer is "The Devil", and we see him learning, questioning, re-defining a lot of misconceptions we have about good and evil. There are many moments of "blaming God", and reflection on what is destiny, what is free-will.  For example, there was some meaningful conversation between Lucifer and his brother when he lost his wings and when he got them back (keep a look out for that part!) It was a very refreshing show; easy to watch - I simply enjoyed it!


3. You

How we got here was pretty funny.  One day I saw "You" on the list of shows, and I told Nuri "Let's watch this, because someone said it's bad!" Yes, many months ago I overheard two people talk about a show called "You" which is very gruesome and disturbing because it's about a stalker who dismembers people.  And it's funny how hearing that made me even more curious! I guess it's human nature - we like what we're told to avoid hehe.  So yes, YOU is about someone who becomes obsessed with someone he loves.  It is a psychological thriller and currently two seasons are out and we watched both.  It was a captivating show; we definitely looked forward to the next episode.  One big take-away I had was about being mindful of our online presence; how much about us is out there that we don't know, and how much we put out there and we don't know how people use it. A lot of us know things about each other before we even meet each other. Of course, this obsessive stalker looks a little bit extreme, but I couldn't help but wonder if there are indeed people like this out there. Scary.


4. The Good Place

We stumbled across this show by luck! One evening when we finished all our shows, we scrolled through Netflix and said wherever our finger lands, let's watch it! And it landed on The Good Place and we loved it! The episodes are very short; so this was new.  We were able to watch 5-6 episodes in one sitting because the show is fast-paced.  Compared to the first three shows we watched, this was definitely a lot happier, lighter, fun and funny, and more colourful.  We loved it! It's basically about the afterlife.  I won't go into too much details but it's heavy on philosophy.  There's a nerd on the show who will teach you everything academic to know about ethics/moral philosophy.  We get to learn about different points of view, different theories...but it's not all talk and theory. We see everything played out and experimented. All the main characters are very unique; they each have a very distinct personality, so it's really fun watching them all together. We watched all three seasons of the show.


5. Hollywood

I watched this show by myself.  As you know (or can tell from a few blog posts ago), I am a BIG fan of Golden Age Hollywood (black and white 1950s movies!) so I was keen to watch this show.  It only has one season.  It was just alright.  The cinematography, the acting was very good - but it was just very slow-paced for me. All the other shows I had watched until now were heavy on the drama. So with this one, it felt like very little happened in each episode and I didn't find myself excited to watch the next episode.  I was very interested in who the characters were about though! I did a lot of googl-ing in between the episodes, to know if this or that person is based on a real-life character, and most of them were! So I read about the real people, and that was very educative.  But apart from that, I didn't find the show exciting.


6. The Politician

While reading about the previous show 'Hollywood', I learnt that its two directors had also worked together on an earlier show called the Politician. Ryan Murphy is one of the directors (he also directed Glee, which I used to watch back in the day). I also learnt that one of the main characters in Hollywood also played a role in this show, so I was curious and wanted to watch another of Ryan Murphy's so I gave this show a try.  Similar to Hollywood - the cinematography was amazing; I loved the colors, the style - everything is so pretty, it has this 1970s vibe even though it's set in modern age. However, the storyline did not move me. In fact, the story line did not seem unique. I felt like I had seen too many stories like this - eg. House of Cards!


7. Dynasty

I watched the first season of Dynasty a few years ago, and decided to watch the next two seasons for the sake of continuing, and I watched them by myself.  Dynasty - as the name implies, is about a very wealthy family.  There's a lot of drama - lying to each other, murder or attempted murder, a lot of secrets, revenge... now that I think about it, it's really sad to imagine that a wealthy family would go through all this.  But it's not heavy drama - it's pretty light. I didn't find myself at the edge of my seat like "omg, they're going to get caught!" "omg, that's horrible"... but at some point, the drama was just dragging on and I found myself wondering how am I still watching this? And it's because this show has really good cliff hangers! It always ends at a point that keeps you wanting to know what really happens next, in the juicy kind of way (not the intense way!) There's always a party in each episode, and the main female characters are always dressed very well, which no surprise I love (one of the reasons I love Classical Hollywood films!).  The fashion, the creativity, and thought put into many little details in each episode is just pleasing to the eyes.


8. Friends

At one point, I wanted something a little lighter and shorter so I gave the first season of Friends a try, but I couldn't make it past Episode 5. In the past, I've watched a few episodes of Friends here and there, but I've never followed the story line from the beginning.  I hate to admit this, but I didn't find it exciting.  I didn't laugh like I thought I would! Everyone knows Friends, and I wanted to be part of that conversation.  I told some friends about this, and they said that it gets better...just be patient through the first season, but I couldn't make it! So yes, I left it at the fifth episode, but maybe some day I'll try and pick it up again...


9. Dead to me

As you can tell, I ended up watching a lot of shows by myself because Nuri returned to the office, and we ended up spending our evenings doing other things instead. But eventually we decided to pick another show to watch together, and we randomly came across Dead to Me. It's a good show.  The characters, the acting, the story-line... it's very real. I honestly enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed the dynamics between the two main characters - one is a very hot-tempered, strict, tough, independent, strong lady, and the other is very very kind, gentle, sweet, forgiving, easily-pushed around, and again, very  forgiving lady.  I like how attention was given to the character development of the first lady's children - how her behaviour affected them.  It's a serious show, but also has a light, easy-going side to it because the main characters are pretty relatable. The characters don't do very unexpected things, but when they do, you see them freak out, over-react, try to undo things, and you hear their thought process and it's just very real and relatable and I liked that.


10. 13 Reasons Why 

This is the most recent show we've been watching.  We are still in the early part of Season 4 (the last). I have so many opinions about this series. First, I can't believe I'm already in Season 4; I wanted to give up after season 1. This show is very popular among teenagers especially because it captures a lot of their typical experiences. The show even has a website to assist people who might be going through any of the things talked about.  The first season is about a high school girl who committed suicide, but before she did, she recorded tapes narrating stories about the different people who hurt her.  Pretty much 13 reasons why she killed herself.  But this season made me angry! I just strongly disagreed with many of the reasons she put out, and I felt really angry with the consequences of the tapes (for one, it made those she blamed feel guilty, feel sad, and because secrets were told, it led to more bullying). Ok, I'll stop with the details.  Anyways, in Season 2, the parents of the dead girl sue the school for allowing bullying happen, and we hear from the kids who were blamed and we learn that there's different sides to every story.  So at this point, I continue to not pity the girl and my anger is still growing angry haha!

But maybe that's what the show intended - to get people talking! To start conversations about these topics! I can't count the number of times I paused the show just to give Nuri a piece of my mind about a scene hehe. The show touches on many issues such as bullying, homosexuality, drugs, fear of the popular/rich kids, mean girls, cyberbullying, stalking, peer pressure, parties when your parents are out of town, rape.  It's quite packed.

The actors were very good. Every highschool student, even their sets of parents, all had very different personalities, so we see different responses. It made for good drama. Speaking of drama, we got to a particular scene towards the end of Season 2 where I just burst crying! I was crying so hard from the bottom of my heart; it was a very painful and visual scene (I couldn't believe it!) I know this show reflects a lot of young people's realities (I, for instance, cannot relate to anything at all in this show - the school I grew up in Nigeria was very simple, peaceful and we all just focused on our studies), but it's still helpful to be aware of these issues (they do happen) in many parts of the world. In case you've watched the show, I would love to have a conversation with you about it!

Ik schrijf in Nederlands!

Here's a little break from recipes to share something else I've been learning over the last few weeks - Dutch! I started this June. I log into a website and go through lessons day by day. I also made a tracker on excel to remind and motivate myself to do a lesson (or more) as often as I can! I've also given myself a deadline (a couple of months) to really learn the language. So far, it's been extremely fun! Before starting, I looked on google to see what other people's experiences were, and it turns out that a lot of people found Dutch pretty easy, and that you can master it by studying for about 500 hours! Knowing this motivated me to really go for it. The first few lessons taught me basics - colors, numbers, common words, and gradually I started to learn how to put them together in sentences and have simple conversations. The lessons in the website I use are amazing - you get to hear how words are pronounced, and there are truth/false and fill-in-the-blank questions to check your understanding. I've been writing notes just so I can practice/recap the next day, and this has also helped me with spelling.  Almost everyday when Nuri comes home, I talk to him in the little Dutch that I learnt that day, and he is always extremely happy with the progress and my enthusiasm!

So I've decided to write a little blog post using words/sentences I've learnt from the 25 lessons I've done so far (probably not all, but just a little something). I wrote this by myself, and got Nuri to read it before publishing, so that he could correct some grammar. Ben je er klaar voor?!

Introduction 
Hallo! Ik heet Farzaneh. Ik weet...mijn naam is moeilijk! Ik ben zevenentwentig jaar. Ik kom uit Filipijnen. Ik heb kort zwart haar. Ik woon in ISR met mijn man, Nuri.  Ik woon op de vijfde verdieping van een apartement. In onze apartement, er is een slaapkamer. Ik heb een kantoor baan. Nuri werkt ook op kantoor. Wij werken zes dagen per week.  Tussen de middag hebben wij vrij van twalf uur tot een uur.  Deze dagen, blijf ik thuis. Soms gaan wij wandelen. Op zaterdagen, hebben wij vrij. Ik hou van het strand. Ik ga vaak naar het strand. Jij ook? Laten we samen gaan! 


Random conversations I've had with Nuri around the house:
Nuri comes home: 

• Dit is mijn huis. Wil je het zien? Kom maar binnen. Welkom! (Yes, I jokingly said this to him once!)
• Wat is in de tas? (excited for groceries!) 
• Is het druk op kantoor vandaag?
• Waarom lach je? Is mijn Nederlands grappig? Ik ben blij dat je blij bent!

Kitchen

• Ik ga eten maken. 
• Pas op met dat mes! het mes is scherp!
• Wat is er met je hand? Doet je hand pijn? Okay, ik help jouw wel. 
• De kip is lekker!
• Wil je een kop thee of koffee? De koffee staat op tafel. 

When we go outside

• Wij gaan naar buiten. Doe je schoenen aan en maak je riem vast!
• Het weer is heerlijk vandaag. 
• Wat mooi al die bloemen! Die bloemen zijn rood en oranje, de bladeren zijn groen. 
• Het is zomer. Vandaag is het warm, ik blijf binnen. Binnen is het gezellig. 
• Ik wil de chocolade wel kopen. Hoeveel kost het? Ik vind dat wel veel. 

Sometimes, I learn specific sentences, and I use google translate to change the sentence to suit my reality, but most times, I stick to what's being taught, because most of it is relevant. But there was one time something funny happened. I told Nuri "Ik zoek een huis met een tuin in Amsterdam voor mij en mijn zoon. Ik heb een zoon van 10 jaar. Wil je mij helpen? Bel me!" hahaha!

EXTRA!

Wij hebben een kleine kat! Zijn naam is Hatzi. Zijn kleur is wit en zwart. Hij is drie maanden oud. Hatzi is heel stout! Hij houd van spelen met onze voeten! Hatzi slaapt graag op een stoel. 
Nuri! Leg de kat neer!

Recipe: Cinnamon Loaf Cake

One day I came across a recipe for a cinnamon loaf cake and I thought it was genius! I've always loved cinnamon rolls, but never attempted to make them as I thought (and still think) it's complex to make and knead dough (I'm not patient enough to try this yet, but maybe someday!) It was really exciting to know that I could make something close enough, so I gave it a try and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out! This recipe is so simple and easy to put together, and it will leave your home smelling yumm!

Here's how:

1. Bowl on the left (let's call it the Brown mixture) contains:

• Half a cup of softened butter
• Half a cup of brown sugar
• One spoon of cinnamon powder
• One spoon of flour
• A pinch of salt
• Mix all together with a spoon and set aside

2. Bowl on the right (the batter) contains:

• One and a half cup of sieved flour
• Half a cup of white sugar
• Two teaspoons of baking powder
• Mix with a hand whisk then add:
• A quarter cup of oil 
• Three quarter cup of milk 
• One beaten egg
• Mix with a hand whisk until you get a runny batter

3. Pour half of the batter into a loaf tin

 4. Use a spoon and get scoops of the brown mixture and add it on top

 5. With a chopstick or toothpick, loosen the lumps of brown mixture by making swirls, so that it spreads around thinly

 6. Pour in the rest of the batter and repeat

7. Put the cake into the oven pre-heated at 175°C. Bake for an hour

8. Just before the hour is up, you can start to prepare the frosting (optional). The one I made contains: 

• 110g softened butter
• 60g cream cheese
• 2 spoons of milk 
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• Mix with a spoon until smooth, then spread half of this on top of the cake while it's still warm. Keep the other half of the frosting for the future (sometimes you might want to add a little extra to your slice)

9. After about an hour, I took the cake out of the pan. The frosting hadn't yet completely set. I had a little slice of the warm cake, and kept the rest in the fridge. 

It was so heavenly having it warm! It smelt so good, the cake was soft and the runny frosting was just divine!!

10. After about an hour in the fridge (by then the frosting had hardened a bit), I brought it out to have another slice.

 I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! The cake wasn't too sweet, which is exactly how I love my cakes. It was moist and the brown mixture had just the right amount of sweetness and flavour. I really loved the cream cheese in the frosting. I felt happy to be able to make something that I often enjoy eating out (it's very empowering when you figure out how to make in your own kitchen something that you only used to get once in a while outside). These new skills definitely come in handy these days, given that our movements are still restricted (because of the pandemic).

The cake tasted like one of my most favourite sweets - namoura (a Lebanese semolina cake soaked in sugar syrup - probably the sweetest thing I can manage). The cinnamon loaf wasn't as sweet as namoura of course, but I guess the moisture inside it, and the denseness gave that namoura feel.  For the third time, the creamcheese frosting is absolutely AMAZING!

Recipe: Lemon Loaf Cake

If there's one thing I must always have in the kitchen - it's got to be lemon! I LOVE most sour things - especially in desserts (eg. candies, sorbets, cakes with berries). Certain meals I have are always drenched in lemon juice (corned beef, baked salmon, adobo, stir fry...) When Nuri and I were planning our wedding, the plan was to only serve desserts (pastries and baked goodies with tea and coffee at 4pm). We reached out to our friends on the guest list to bake something, but there was one particular item that I insisted on having, and wanted it so bad. Lemon bars! None of my friends could make it, but one friend said he makes great lemon cheesecake and I was so excited for that! Believe me, I was looking forward to it so much that I let Nuri decide completely on the wedding cake (he wanted a super-duper-chocolatey-chocolate cake, which I wasn't crazy about but I didn't mind, as long as I could have something lemon-y to devour!) I didn't get to have that lemon cheesecake because the party didn't happen, but when we went on lockdown and I decided to give baking a try, the very first recipe I looked for and tried was a lemon cake! I first made it two months ago and I absolutely loved it, and yesterday (my second time making it), I decided to take photos photos so that I could share the recipe with you! 

1. You'll need the following ingredients in one mixing bowl:

• 1/2 cup (113g) softened butter (Since I don't have a microwave, I simply just took the butter out of the fridge and left it on the table for about two hours to soften)
• 1 cup of sugar
• Whisk together for around 10 minutes, until fluffy

•  Pour in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• The zest of 3 large lemons
• Whisk away 

• Three eggs. Add them in one by one (pour one, then whisk, then add another one and whisk...) 

2. Set that mixture aside, then get another bowl and add:

• 1.5 cup of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• Half a teaspon of salt 
• Mix all together with a spoon 

3. Then pour in half of the flour mixture into the other bowl (with the liquid mixture). 

• Fold in the flour with a spatula

• Add half a cup of Greek yoghurt

• And 2 spoons of lemon juice 

 3. Whisk, then add in the other half of the flour, fold in and whisk until everything is mixed well.

4. Pour into a loaf tin, and bake for one hour at 160°C

5. Just before the hour is up, you can start preparing the lemon syrup:

• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 2 spoons of lemon juice
• melt over low fire

6. Take out the lemon cake loaf, and while it is still hot, poke some holes at the top. You can use a toothpick, or a fork.

7. After you've made the little holes, pour in the lemon syrup and watch it sink into the cake!! Don't worry about the messy holes, because you can cover it up with lemon frosting!

8.  When the cake has cooled (in around 2-3 hours), you can start preparing the lemon frosting:

• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 3-4 spoons of lemon juice
• Mix in a bowl until it becomes smooth 
• Take the cake out of the pan, and unto a plate and pour the frosting over the top!

9. Optional - decorate the top of the cake with some lemon zest, or candy spinkles

 10. Be patient! Wait another hour for the frosting to set then it's ready to be enjoyed!

Perfect for the summer with some cold coffee!

Recipe: Mac-less Mac & Cheese!

Before I discovered the bread-less keto burgers I made the other week (using cabbage as a bun), my favourite keto food was the keto mac & cheese Nuri has been making it for us for many months now! It's very simple and I always enjoy it. You basically chop some cauliflower into small pieces, boil it, and drain it. That's your macaroni. While that's happening, we'd normally put some bacon in the oven and cook until it's a little crispy, then we take it out and chop into small bits. Then we toss the bacon into the pot of cauliflower, and pour a small pack of mozzarella cheese and mix everything together. If you cover the pot, the cheese just melts into the mixture and everything becomes creamy. It's absolutely yummy!

Today, we made the mac and cheese, but a little fancier (we went just a little extra on the meat). Here's the recipe in photos:

1. First, I prepared the meat. I sauted some onions with garlic and black pepper, then added some chicken breast strips. When it was slightly brown, I added some chopped bacon. I fried it all together until crispy to my liking. I added some hot paprika, and in the last 5 minutes I added some chopped mushrooms. You can be creative with this; sometimes add hotdog to the bacon. You can add bell peppers if you like.

2. While the meat was frying, we chopped half a cauliflower (including the stem and leaves). Wash, then put in a large bowl and pourboiling water into the pot (just enough to submerge the cauliflower). This part doesn't take long because the water is already hot. You could boil the cauliflower for maybe just 10 minutes. When it's done, take the water out/drain it. 

3. Mix the meat with the cauliflower.

4. Add in the cheese! We normally just go with mozzarella. Today we added a little bit of cream cheese as well. You do this while the fire is off. The cheese will quickly melt with the steam of the hot food. Mix and mix and that's it!

5. Here's my plate, topped with some parmesan cheese.

Often, there's sauce at the bottom of the pot (remaining water from the cauliflower) which mixes with the cheese, and has the flavours of the meat. It's a very heart-warming dish which we enjoy together every single time. Mac and cheese without the carbs! 

Post-keto reflections

I stopped the keto diet after 21 days. I could have gone longer, honestly, but one evening I just... did...not...feel like doing it anymore. It was a strange feeling; if you look at my first two weeks keto diary, I was genuinely loving it! I could say I was tired of the restrictions, but we had a lot of fun experimenting with carb-substitutes. I felt healthy and energetic, but preparing (and even thinking of what to prepare) was a bit of work. Anyways, at least I got one thing I really wanted to gain out of the experience - a love for salad. The night I ended the diet, I had a few pieces of mini-stroopwafels to go with my tea, and that was it.

How did I feel over the next few days?

1. The very next morning, and every morning after that, I woke up with a grumbling stomach. I was hungry! During keto, that never happened; I'd be able to not eat anything at all until after 1pm. I guess that's the truth about sugar/carbs - they keep you full only for a short period of time.

2. I felt a little bad; I felt like I failed especially because I said I'd go for a month, and gave up one week before the end. Nuri kept reminding me that keto is not meant for everyone. I cheered myself up by reminding myself that I didn't give it up because I couldn't resist carbs. In fact, I thought that the carbs I'd miss the most would be pasta and potatoes, but it turned out to be bread! One of the first things I had after the keto was a plain baguette! I didn't attack the chocolates (oh because I've learnt to appreciate 80%+ dark chocolate!).  So it wasn't that something tempted me out of it. 


When it comes to food, I'm not addicted to anything. There's only a certain amount of sweets I can have per day before my head hurts, and as much as I love pasta I cannot eat it everyday.  Could I say keto made me feel like I had to be addicted to healthy, and I just didn't like that feeling of being addicted to something? Perhaps a little part of me just didn't like the box. I've never tried being a vegetarian or vegan, and I've never tried to remove something completely out of my diet before, so this was very new. Although I got used to it, I guess knowing that I can eat healthy made me feel that it was okay to go back to normal, trusting that I would continue to make healthy choices every now and then.

3. Nuri is still on his keto diet. Like I mentioned in the first week's diary - he has done this many times, so it's very easy for him. It doesn't mean we now eat completely separate meals. I've learned to love salad, so I'm still content joining him in eating only salad on days he opts for that.  Most times we have the same main dish (eg. once we both had baked salmon, another day we had pork stew), and I ate it with jasmine rice, while he made himself his cauliflower rice! It worked!

I remember many months ago when Nuri was on keto, I used to be very stubborn about it. For example one time we went out for a barbecue and I made a really delicious potato salad for the potluck. I insisted that he tried it, even just a spoon, but he refused and remained streadfast, and I might have gotten a little upset! Now that I've tried and understood how the diet works, I've learnt that you can't just have a small spoon or sugar/carbs in the middle of the diet because it will affect the ketosis. So these days I no longer insist; I understand his diet a lot better now! Going on keto is a commitment, and I've gained a lot of respect for it now and Nuri's healthy choices of eating.

4. Just because I'm off keto, it doesn't mean I only opt for carbs. While on keto, I learnt a great deal about nutrients.  Checking the nutritional facts on food packages is indeed something new that I've learnt, and I'm very grateful for that.