{Snow Day!}

Well, remember last week when I said "Hopefully I won’t have anymore snow photos to share with you anytime soon"... I clearly spoke to soon because Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of fresh white powder! But seeing as it was Sunday and I didn't have anywhere to be (more specifically, a train to be on headed towards the office...) I was giddy with excitement. I practically jumped out of bed, threw on 17 layers of clothes and took off for a snowy morning walk with my boys. It was early enough that most of the city was still sleeping, so we had the fresh snow all to ourselves. I loved every minute of it! Now that it's back to work for the week I am back to hoping it doesn't snow again... At least until the weekend :)

 

 {Photos © Liz Denfeld Photography}

{Saturday Breakfast: Baked Eggs}

A couple months back I tried baked eggs - or eggs en cocotte  as they are often called - for the first time.

They were so delicious. Simple, tasty and comforting.

I figured they couldn't be too hard to make, I was just missing the right bake ware (I didn't own one ramekin). 

After picking up a large shallow ramekin a couple weeks back I finally got around to making baked eggs for breakfast this morning.

And folks, they were so good and so easy to make I just had to share the recipe with you all!

The first thing to know is you can add anything you want into this dish - make it your own! A lot of the recipes I read called for bacon, but I don't eat pork, so I substituted some sliced smoked chicken breast instead. It tasted incredible! Many recipes also called for parsley, but I'm not a fan, so I used basil instead -- fantastic choice if I do say so myself. 

Below you'll find a recipe for my version of baked eggs - but you can modify it however you'd like.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 large leaf of kale, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

2 large leaves of fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup grated gruyere + a little more for topping

2 slices deli roasted chicken breast - diced into squares

6 eggs (we have quite a large "ramekin")

A dash of half and half

salt + pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Butter your ramekin(s)

2. Add chicken to each

3. Crack eggs into ramekins, being careful not to break the yolks

3. Mix together your chopped kale, green onions, basil and grated gruyere

4. Top the eggs with the mixture

5. Add a dash of half and half into the ramekin

6. Top with salt and pepper

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes (you'll know it's done when the center is still a little jiggly {pick it up and jiggle it}, and the outside is firm)

8. Top with a little extra gruyere 

9. Eat up with a piece of buttered whole grain toast - YUMMY!

Happy Saturday everyone!!

{Happy Weekend!}

Happy Friday, everyone! As usual, I am glad the weekend has arrived!

After two weekends of travel in a row – London, then, Madrid – I

couldn’t be happier to spend a relaxing weekend at home in Amsterdam.

We don’t have much on the agenda and that’s just the way I like it!

I wanted to thank you so much for all your comments on yesterday’s

post! It’s great to see that I’m not the only one totally impressed

by my awesome Mom :) A lot of you asked if she has an online shop, or

where you can buy her creations. At the moment she just makes custom

clothing for private clients in Portland, OR. If that were to ever change – you all would be the first to know! Thanks again for all the kind words!

Lastly, I’d love you to all meet Explore.Dream.Discover’s newest sponsor – Casey, from True Colours! I’m thinking if you like reading my blog, you’ll love hers. She’s a traveling girl currently based in Portland, OR (our old home sweet home!). She has a super interesting life story and gives tons of great travel advice – read on below to learn more about her, and hop on over to her blog to check her out!

------

I'm Casey from True Colours and like Liz, call myself a Portlander.  Although Portland is my base now, I grew up as an expat kid in Saudi Arabia and fell in love with the traveling lifestyle.  Since then, I've lived all over, including a brief stint in Hawaii. I've always loved the inspiration of other cultures and the draw of a plane headed somewhere far away. I count Paris as my favorite place in the world, love cupcakes and have a soft spot in my heart for anything Arab.  My blog is a journal of my adventures around the world with as much traveling as my husband and I can possibly do!  My blog follows our travels and my thoughts all over this lovely planet.  Come check out where we're headed next!
 

If you're interest in sponsoring Explore.Dream.Discover shoot me an email at exploredreamdiscoverblog {at} gmail.com

{Made by Mama}

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably already know that my Mom is a talented designer. I'm lucky that her favorite clients happen to be my sisters and me. She has designed and made me countless things throughout my life - including almost every single one of my high school dance dresses and the most important dress of all, my wedding dress! I've never taken the time to showcase the things she's made me in one place before, but today while reminiscing on some photos I felt compelled to do just that. This is a tiny fraction of the things she's crafted for me. I look at these photos and feel so much pride for my talented Mama. She is so creative, inspiring and gracious. I miss her so much every day and getting to wear her creations certainly makes me feel closer to her when I'm so far from home!

I hope you enjoy this peek at a few of the beautiful clothes she's made me in recent years!

{My Wedding Dress!!!}

{My Other Wedding Dress - yeah, she made me two - LUCKY!}

{Leather Jacket}

{Dress}

{Striped Skirt}

 {Color Block Dress}

 {Polka Dot Dress}

{Yellow Bridesmaid Dress}

{Jacket/Blazer}

{Maxi Skirt}

I LOVE MY MAMA! 

{P.S. She made her entire outfit except her scarf in the photo below :) }

{Winter Weather}

Yesterday I finished reading Luisa Weiss’s “My BerlinKitchen”. I loved the book for so many reasons – for inspiring me to cook more, for making me long for a trip to Paris, New York, Berlin and Italy, but most of all for how much I could relate to her writing. One passage in the entire book really stuck with me, as I happen to be in the middle of one of these merciless winters she writes of – just not in Berlin, but in Amsterdam instead.

It's not that it’s particularly cold here – although for me it is! – but it’s more that the sun rarely shines. The darkness feels never-ending, waking up in pitch black, leaving the office in pitch-black. And don’t even get me started on how one single snowflake sends the Dutch train system into a tizzy. There will barely be a dusting on the ground and trains get canceled left and right, leaving us stranded in the cold. Winters in Amsterdam are bleak and I feel like I’m on the verge of a meltdown – I need some sun, stat!

Truth be told – Holland is stunning in the snow. And even though I am already tired of it and hoping it doesn’t make any more appearances this winter, I am trying to focus on that beauty instead of the annoyance it causes. Here are a few iPhone photos from this winter in Amsterdam so far. Hopefully I won’t have anymore snow photos to share with you anytime soon ;)

{Three Things}

Happy, happy Friday! 

I've got three things for you today...

First... Hop on over to Aspiring Kennedy to see the maternity photos I took for Lauren and her hubby, Tyler! She is seriously glowing and they were so much fun to take pictures of.

Second.. We're off to Madrid for the weekend to hang out with Nicole, drink sangria and check out the city! I'm losing count of how many cities Nicole and I have met up in... San Francisco, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Seville...Now we're adding Madrid - it's going to be a great weekend! I'll be Instagraming my little heart out - so follow me there if you'd like to see what we're up to :)

Lastly.. I have spots for sponsorship opening up. Shoot me an email if you're interested, I'd love to have you! exploredreamdiscoverblog {at} gmail.com

Have a great weekend!

{Montreux, Switzerland}

Before our trip to Switzerland, I’d honestly never heard of the city of Montreux. We passed through it by train on our way from Geneva to Val d’illiez and noted how beautiful it looked perched on the edge of Lake Geneva, the Alps appearing to plunge right down into its waters right before your eyes.  We were so captivated that we decided we’d day trip back to check it out. Unfortunately, had we done our research ahead of time we would’ve realized that Montreux is home to one of Switzerland’s best Christmas Markets. We were a day late, and walked through the market as all the vendors were closing up shop for the year. We were bummed we missed it, but happy we chose the day we did to visit because it was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and it glimmered so brilliantly off the water that it really did blind you (in the best way possible). We were so enjoying the sun and our perfect walk along the Lakeside Promenade that we ended up abandoning our original plan to visit the Chateau de Chillon. I’m a little sad we didn’t make it there, but happy we spent time basking in the sun instead! The entire time we walked along the water’s edge I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing Montreux must be in the summertime. I decided right then and there we had to come back someday – hopefully when the weather was warmer!

 {Photos © Liz Denfeld Photography}