Social
I like to regularly inspire and be inspired by taking part in initiatives that I respect and appreciate, and by also organizing some of my own. I try to step out of my comfort zone to develop my skills and grow as a person.
Wolbodo Jam Avond - 11/01/2024
Wolbodo is no stranger to impromptu jam sessions with all kinds of instruments played by talented and cool musicians from all over the world. My idea here was to implement a jam evening every month where members and the public could come together to do their magic in a slightly more organized setting. This was the first iteration. There's always takers for jam sessions.
It was fun jamming to popular songs and in harmony to a chosen key. By the end of the evening, everyone was singing.
Organizing involves cleaning up the entire hall, transporting some music equipment and setting up all the equipment. The result is a fun jam session thats always worth the effort.
Restaurant "De Bruine Fruitschaal" - 17/02/2024
This idea to make a DIY restaurant happen was the idea of Arend, a friend of mine from Wolbodo. For its second iteration, Arend, Marinus and myself, joined forces to make nice deep fried delicacies, including Dutch snacks for fellow members and the general public alike.
We successfully deep cleaned the deep-fat fryer with some friendly D9 liquid and by boiling water with crystal soda and dishwashing soap, which took only 5 minutes. Just kidding. It took about 8 hours and then some. That's not including the time it took to clean the halls, and kitchen and setting up.
The krokets with fillings and the chicken marinaded in buttermilk were breaded and taste tested before batch frying for service.
Rama helped take orders for the crowd which kept-a-comin for more. Service went well to say the least.
Wolbodo Jam Avond - 21/02/2024
The second iteration of the jam sessions I organize saw few participants but also new ones. Clarinets and saxophones filled the air with sound. Mics were input through the stage inputs and a mixer this time. The later arrival of Koen brought with him renewed energy. Great melodies with well-timed build-ups and breaks on the drums were a result of this jam.
Can't wait for the next one in March with more participants and improvements to the format and organization. I guess we're moving in the right direction.
Cooking For Wolpop - 02/03/2024
Wolpop is a cultural event that is organized almost every month. It was started in 1990. More information about the initiative can be found here. This time, 3 artists called Imbos, Gespuys and BoterBoter were performing. Every iteration of Wolpop is a free event run entirely by volunteers. There is help required with cooking, cleaning, technical support and setup, and working the bar for the evening.
This was my second time helping with cooking. During the first time, I was still new to cooking for such a large gathering by myself, so I cooked a lot of something really simple - one pot curry and rice. 'This time I expanded on that by improvising and improving the previous meal. The meals are always entirely vegan.
First, I bought the groceries and started cutting the vegetables for the curry. There was a vision of making a wrap so I got started on the fillings - rice, curry, minced onion and bell peppers. This time I found myself improvising the meal from the start with what's there and with what I thought could fit well.
So the kidney bean curry was made with a coconut milk base emulsed with soy sauce. A nice variety of spices added to the mix offset the sweetness of the coconut milk beautifully. Adding some corn flour at the end gave it that thicker texture suitable for a wrap.
I learned from this cooking experience that sometimes less is more and also that small mistakes can be transformed into something valuable for the taste buds.
Service went well. All the volunteers and artists managed to get the flat bread with nice fillings. All except Bouke and James had to eat without the flat bread.
Some of the artists got their wrap grilled on the griller which was great.