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Or... Koekje erbij? (jaaa, inkoppertje, ik weet het).

The ultimate dutch cookiebookie. And I will tell you what this book is about when I return from ..... Vienna!

Untill then...have a cup of coffee (and wait a while for the cookies...)

Dentists of the world...unite!

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" Really? There is a healthy apple underneath all this sticky red goodness. So the doctor must be happy.
Mamma has had her day of fun. Mom happy.
Kids got their treats. Kids happy.
Check-up at the dentist is approaching rapidly. Dentist very happy!

Giving Thanks

10 years ago I was pushing the twin-stroller on my way to my grandmothers house, a 2-yr old by my side, making slow progress. I watched two ladies coming my way, one a (Surinam, I guess you would say African-American) nurse from a nearby home and an elderly lady shuffling next to her.
The younger of the two looked at the babies, took one hard look at me, posed herself with her hands on her hips, wiggled one finger in front of my nose and said:
"Hey girl, are ya taking good care of yourself? Because when the mama ain't happy, the babies aren't happy either. You have to look after yourself ya hear?" She looked at me again, patted me on the shoulder, winked and on she went, coaxing the elderly lady away.

Ever since, I advocate that sentence to every mother in distress I come across, knowing in my heart she was so right. But what was that saying again? Practice what you preach? Or rather, do as I say not as I do?

I think I am an example of the "in-between" generation. Too old to lead my own life, incorporating the children as I go ("they will become completer persons when they have to fend for themselves, the sooner the better"), too young to completely efface myself without a doubt.... So I struggle along, trying to invent my own mix-version.

Why this story now? Because December is knocking at our door, I'm having a "me-day" tomorrow, and I find myself fussing over the children, how are they going to get to school on time, how will I know they arrive there safely, are they going to be fine after school, their older brother has to pick them up from school, won't he forget to do so? And, when they are home, just the three of them, won't they argue and fight all the time? They can reach me -and their father- by phone but I will be miles and miles away.... Hmm, this is not about them, this is about me, I am a guilt ridden control-freak trying to convince herself this day tomorrow is goooooood! They will be doing fine, and I know in my heart there is a village full of safety net. Thankfully.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, (and for us here in the Netherlands Sinterklaas) please, take care of yourself, don't forget to enjoy your family and friends and don't feel quilty when you haven't found the time to prepare a 7-course dinner all by yourself, looking like Linda Evangelista when you serve it to your family and have your house sparkle and decorated like you were Martha Stewart all at the same time!

Note to self: Read this over and over again in the coming days untill Christmas!
And..set your watch at the right date, you're a day late!

Shoelaces!?

Photo courtesy of Floris, he can tie his own shoes now... and what work of art he has made! He reminds me a bit of the boy in a shop in San Francisco Chinatown, who was so proud while showing his co-worker his shoes: "Look, new shoes; Leebok!" It is more than 15 years ago and we were walking by the shop at the time, this was the only bit of the conversation we heard but it still is part of our family speak.

However, I am really pulling all shoelaces I can find, have to get myself prepared and ready...'cause I'm leaving in little more than a week!! But there are so many things to do before I can get on to that plane. Plane to where? I'll tell you, but not right now!

At the moment I am washing curtains, making them shorter (why, why, why now? Because my mom will be staying here....can't have unwashed, unfinished curtains can we? tsssk). Clearing out the attic (why, why, why now? Because ...). I feel I have to "do" the basement as well, which doubles as pantry and is as my mom casually mentioned: quite messy. (why why why now? Well, eh Mam?). Have an appointment at the dentist this week, desperately need to go to the hairdresser and I am trying to finish some other really "need to" things as well.
Do I really need to? No, of course not! I am just nuts!

Please remind me that I have to get my car to the mechanic! And the parent-teacher meeting tonight, and Wessel's best friend staying over on Wednesday (oops they have a birthday party to go to on Wednesday, all three of them). And the gifts for Sinterklaas have to be ready this weekend. And the bedlinen changed. The bathroom cleaned. Meals prepared (no, I don't have to do that, my mam can cook pretty decent meal, grocery shopping then?). Gosh, I am going to get away! Wow!

But first I am leaving for a day of funshopping in Germany with Larein on Friday. Yippee! (Have to get the children enrolled in lunchclass).

And then, then....I'll be leaving for Vienna next wednesday! Tadaaaa! Will be staying in Vienna for four whole days! Meeting Angelika! I am soo looking forward to that! Can you imagine the emails flying hin und her? We enjoyed ourselves so much in anticipation. Almost, almost there Angelika!

Wow, writing all this down really helps. A lot! Thank you for reading.. as you will understand we had pizza on Saturday (and fries on Sunday, shhh don't tell anyone). See production line and helping hands here. And a very proud Timo:


Update: this was written on Tuesday, we are here now:
parent-teacher meeting: done (all happy faces!)
birthday party: done
sleep over: done (happy but tired faces)
curtains: three done, three to go
lunchclass: kids arranged to lunch with friends (happy faces)
presents for Angelika and Gino: almost done (happy faces?)
pants: done
hair: done (happy face)
blog: done
groceries: done
sinterklaas shopping: almost done
dentist: this afternoon
car: oops!

I'm in love!

Once in a while, often when you least expect it, you fall in love, this could be the one that has it all:

1. looks
2. the idea that maybe, just maybe this one could make you happy
3. it doesn't cost you the world
4. your kids will love it
5. with a little ingenuity you can use it for a lot of things
6. it doesn't take up much space
7. it doesn't scream for attention
8. after use, just a quick shower will do
9. low maintenance
10. and if doesn't perform, just get rid of it, no tears, no heartache

Qualities you would love to see in like, say, a husband? But alas, my girls, fear not/don't get your hopes up (tick the box), I am talking kitchen gadgets here.
This modest green beauty is designed to core and slice your apples and that is exactly what it does, to perfection. (No, it doesn't give a decent backrub or warm your cold feet on winternights). This time I used it to slice my cooking pears and made "stoofpeertjes" (red stewed pears).

You'll need:
1 kg cooking pears (peeled, cored, sliced)
just enough water (and some red wine or berry liquor) to let them tread water but not drown
1 cinnamon bark (stick)
sugar to taste (I used dark brown muscovado)
1/2 peel of an orange
patience and looooow heat

And after an hour or two, you'll get ruby red pears like these. The suggestions made for other flavours in the comment section: substituting the berry wine for whiskey or cognac, adding apple pie spices, or vanilla, or ginger (preferrably fresh), star anise, sereh.

Sewicidal post

Okay, make it quick, just the skirt please!


The jacket too? Feeling awkward



Getting there, almost posing....

Ohhhh, how I hate to get photographed... Just wanted to show you where my time went.

Updates on bread, time, stuff and things

Here we are, a week later and I'd like to share what I have been up to the last couple of days, obviously ;) I was not in the kitchen cooking, nor blogging...

Garbage has been collected, the people from the "gemeente" were there right on time (8.15), and the garbage truck happily munched away almost a truckload of rubbish. I paid € 65,--! Since the fee for driving here was € 10,-- and price per kg was 0,20 you can imagine the weight and bulk we had to get rid of. There were pieces of plywood hanging about (and even were moved from our old home to here!) for almost 15 years! Are we crazy or what? Hold on to it, you never know what it can be usefull for... Not anymore!
I finished two vests, a burgundy velvet and a dark blue felted wool one, managed to almost finish a pair of trousers (just needs a button), finished a tweed skirt, and already there is some other fabric waiting for me. Speaking of momentum and taking advantage, quickly before it fades away again!

The past week we got news from very dear friends, mostly sad but luckily there was one happy message too. Needed some balance.

And of course, the NYT No Knead bread! Boy did that make some waves around the world! Another batch is in the making right now, made according to the directions in grams Rose Levy Beranbaum gives on her site. Where the first batch was imitating a biga (so much so I was thinking of treating it as such), this time it was a lot firmer and behaved like it should. I innocently asked for bakers to send me their pictures and promised to do a round-up, but underestimated the powers of the Internet and the extent it took. I won't try to be complete, but here is a small list of fellow bloggers/bakers who made this bread and have pictures to share.

Slashfood (just because I was mentioned Yay!)
Kitchen apartment therapy
Flickr group (yes, there is a flickr group!)
e Gullet (pages and pages of pictures and discussion)
Chili und Ciabatta (check this out, Petra used sourdough and other types of flour and included recipes!)
Notities van Lien (who posted in English this time!)
and Hammie, I'd like to include you but can't reach you...

Bread for dummies? Bread around the world

This post -and the bread that is star of the show- is a result of the powers of the Internet. Yesterday night I had the most fun baking and mail exchanging at the same time, and as Angelika mentioned in her comment at My Kitchen in Half Cups the pc is demanding a place among modern days kitchen gadgets. (I really do need a laptop folks!).

It all started late Friday night with reading Lindy's post over at Toast in which she mentioned an article in the NY Times (There is a video to watch too). Finished reading and prior to jump into the kitchen to start this bread, I switched to Bakkerswereld forum and there a new post was up with the header: bread for dummies. Featuring? The exact same recipe for this bread. The next thing I knew there was mail waiting for me in which Tanna asked to read this post at Lindy's and included a link to the article ánd a copy from the original recipe..... All this in a matter of what? 15 minutes? How could I resist?

Composed a quick mail to Tanna and Sue to do a "round the world real time baking game" and blog about it. Turns out we started the dough 5 minutes apart from each other! Yesterdaynight we had an exchange of fun emails in which weiners, gourmet and grilled salmon played a part (I recall there was some name calling involved but I'm not so clear on that....hehe) but the leading role was the bread in it's continuing form.

Observant readers can guess the timezone in which this took place (a 7hrs difference) had me in the kitchen at midnight watching my empty Romertopf getting heated in the oven. Observant Dutch readers know what this is about: my in-ability to count, or rather count back, from a recipe which repeatedly has midnight kitchen sessions as a result..... (and more or less desperate cries for help to fellow bakers: when do I start this biga?) Yes you may giggle, she's done it again!

I digress.... But before I get back to business on hand, did I tell you about the polar circumstances this bread -and me- had to work? We did an instant out of the blue gourmet evening yesterday and to get rid of the eeeh.. let's say odour, all available windows ánd the backdoor were open wide, and boy, it was cold in here!

Anyways...a few observations: the dough itself was quite wet (as was said in the article) I used 3 cups of breadflour and slightly more than 1.1/2 cups of water and I think using dutch breadflour you'll need to hold back on the water more (or add a little flour). Look at Tanna's results and compare our doughs. In the first twelve hours (dough mixed at 10.00 pm) first picture at 10.00 am, alive and bubbly, smells definitely yeasty and fresh.

Just before dumping (literally dumping) the mass on my floured workspace, the bubbles are larger and the smell is very nice. And then...
using my scraper I incorporated lots of flour (and here is maybe where I went wrong in handling the dough too much from fear of having an unmanageable mass) fold it unto itself and let it rest covered with plastic foil.
It didn't rise....

Trying to get a ball-like form, handled it a bit more still using the scraper and put it to rise, covered with a teatowel.
It didn't rise...

Instead it spread out a bit on the underlying teatowel and -quelle horreur!- developed a crust! meaning the top is drying out, prohibiting the dough to rise on the surface so it had to go sideways and that's what it did!

Finally I tipped it over in the heated Romertopf (close to midnight!) and instantly it stuck to the sides (visions of having to use non-kitchen utensils to pry it out in baked state came to mind, yes I do have experience and yes fellow bakers at Bakkerswereld again you may laugh out loud). You may assume I was praying for a lot of ovenspring!
When you take the time to watch the video at NY Times site, you'll notice that the texture of the initial dough is far more firm than mine was. And what I saw is that this baker uses 1.1/2 cups of water and not 1.5/8 and scoops his flour, and I think there are heaped cups of flour there....

I removed the lid a bit early because I was very anxious to know what it was doing in it's sheltered dome and to my surprise it didn't look too bad!
Not bad at all (mind, this must be a very forgiving dough!). This morning I came into the kitchen to find my bread half sliced...and gobbled up and the rest of the family happily munching away.. Have to confess here that I slept somewhat longer this morning....

So...does this thing work? Yes it does! Will I try it again? Yes I will. Is it good enough for you to try? Yes it sure is. It's easy, it's forgiving, it sings when it comes out of the oven and even with my mistreating it looks good. Take a look at the pictures from Tanna and Lindy and Life begins at sixty-five and in Dutch with already some pictures Bakkerswereld, I bet there are more of you out there.. You'll know what it looks like in kitchens around the world.

May I invite any Dutch bakers to contact me and maybe send some pictures of your finished loaf so I can do a round-up here and show the results (and credit you of course)? You can reach me at bakemyday at gmail dot com. I just sampled my first slice and it tastes great, albeit that the crust was a little too thick to my taste and the holes could be bigger. Again I think this is due to my mistreating the dough, next time I will make sure the dough is firmer to start with.

Update: You could watch the NYT video (which I did áfter I made the bread) in which the instant famous baker tells the ever enthousiastic journalist to use 3 cups of flour (while scooping enormous cups, not leveled) and to use 1.1/2 cups of water (and we see him pouring a scant cup in.. so to be on the safe side: less water, more flour (ratio: 1.1/2 cup to approx 450 grams I think)

There's a hole in the bucket.... To fix or not to fix....

You know this song? There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza..

It's cold outside, it's Holland, so it's mostly grey and wet... my camera is stalling so I need to get it fixed. Soon.

Went to the dentist this afternoon, got a tooth fixed...temporarily!

Switched on the ceiling light upstairs and there was a flicker and darkness..needs fixing.

Tried to finish a pair of trousers I'm sewing and the machine is stuttering, eh...needs a thorough cleaning and eh fixing?

The moment I use the hot water tap our heating system stops (and only resumes action after manually switching a tiny stubborn knob which is clearly not meant to be switched manually) so this needs fixing too.

The conversation with the local authorities concerning collecting garbage went surprisingly well, I was able to make an appointment this week (!) and they will come to collect the stuff that's too bulky/heavy. Reasonably priced too! But... I knew there had to be a cinch: someone (duh) needs to be present at our house from 7.30 in the morning till 16.00 hrs. That'll be me I guess... And all this junk has to be ready out on the street in the morning at 7.30! Not the evening before...

Well fix it, dear Karen, dear Karen fix it!

To cut a long story short, it's alcoholtime! Cheers!

Graham flour, Pumpernickel, confused!

The things you do for blogging! Line up saucers with various kinds of flour just to show the difference...ah well. Nuts but harmless. Yep that's me! Here we go:

There seems to be something called Graham flour. It's mentioned in quite a few bread baking books I own, and is not to be found anywhere in Holland. At this point any slightly (hah) addicted baker thinks something along the following lines: Must.Have.Graham.Flour.

Can you imagine my delight when I saw a small box of Graham Something while on vacation in Sweden? I grabbed the box (small voice in the back of my head: it's rather small, is this what they are talking about?) Turns out it wasn't. To this day I still don't know what Graham Gryn is....I think it is a kind of oatmeal groats thing. (On the back of the package there are instructions for baking cookies and making porridge, haven't tried the porridge (brrr) nor the cookies yet. I did use it soaked in hot water as an addition to a whole wheat bread.)
However, the next visit to a Swedish supermarket revealed 2 kg bags of Graham flour! Yippee! Bought that as well. Mystery solved. Was it? I still don't know. Upon reading the above Sweden vacation post Tanna expressed her surprise: "No whole wheat flour in Holland, that I would never have thought." Whole wheat = Graham flour? And the other day I read Ivonnes post on her bread baking class and Clivia, one of her readers, commented that in Sweden wholewheat flour is called graham flour. Graham flour = whole wheat flour?

Beth Hensperger writes the following in one of her books:

"While Graham flour is technically a whole wheat flour, it gives a very different flavor to bread -extra grain-sweet and nutty- because it is produced through a different milling process."

For now I settle on the explanation found here which explains why it can be substituted with whole wheat flour and with the addition of coarsely ground wheat germ and wheat bran gives a similar texture to your bread. So, mystery solved at last.

And then another mystery guest. Pumpernickel! The confusion of pumpernickel as a name for a specific kind of bread and as a name for a specific kind of flour or flour mix. Again Wikipedia comes to the rescue: the explanation is very clear on the subject. The picture shown is of the bread we in Holland refer to as "Frisian roggebrood" a very dark, very dense type of bread, traditionally eaten with a generous layer of butter and sugar or cheese or as a side with our Erwtensoep, with "katenspek". This is not exactly a type of bread you can easily recreate at home, due to slow cooking times and low oven temperatures.
I think the confusion exists here in Holland too; we speak of Rye bread meaning bread made with rye flour/meal and Rye bread meaning the above mentioned dark slices... Beth says the following:

"Pumpernickel flour, also known as rye meal, is the coarsest grind, (-of rye flour-) with the most bran and germ left in."

Let's just bake bread shall we?

Tagged!

Iska from ISKAndals has tagged me for this meme. At first sight it looks like fun, but you'll soon find out it is hard work! So thank you Iska...(just kidding). The thing was started by Dan at The Butterfly Effect and I think he explains it better than I can so:

Dan says: "My thought in this meme is food items or events that changed your foodie life. (--) A moment you can look back at and say “that was a defining moment”. (--) They don’t have to be big splashy things - sometimes it’s something very small and simple that changes the way we view the world (--). So, to those who want to participate, copy this and pass it on (and, if you’re so inclined, do a trackback to the originating post)".
Here are your categories:
1. An ingredient
2. A dish, a recipe
3. A meal (in a restaurant, a home, or elsewhere)
4. A cookbook or other written work
5. A food “personality” (chef, writer, etc.)
6. Another person in your life

An ingredient:
Fresh ginger root, it makes a dish sparkle.

A dish, a recipe:
This one is difficult because I tend to remember company, setting, conversation, atmosphere...and the food of course, but as a means not a goal. Come to think of it, I feel I enjoy cooking very very much but even more so I enjoy gathering people around my dining table to eat the food I cooked, look at them and feel lucky listening to high spirited conversations and the sound of clinking wine glasses. If that is what food does, I'm happy.


A meal:
White wine (in this case a very good Alsatian pinot blanc), ripe pears and green grapes. And yes, there's a little story behind. There were three of us, new-born mama's on a well-deserved break in a hotel in the eastern part of the Netherlands. We met on the pregnancy course almost every woman in Holland attends and continued to see each other after our babies had been born. Our babies left in the care of our husbands we spent a wonderful day together, chatting, relaxing, enjoying the beauty treatments in the hotel. In our room we had a complimentary tray of fresh fruit, and with the bottle of wine I had in my bags we toasted to our one and a half day of freedom. I know this is not exactly a meal, but this was the first time a combination of flavours made me think and when I really try I still remember how the flavours blended together beautifully.

A cookbook or other written work:
Farmgirl! Not a cookbook, not a "written work" in the true sense but hey it is written albeit not on paper! On a lazy Sunday afternoon in search of bread recipes I stumbled upon her blog and was captured. Reading her blog made me start one of my own.

A food personality:
Delia Smith. Although not as trendy, or as off-handly written as many chefs do nowadays, her recipes are spot on. She guides you along and stops here and there to assure you when you wonder you're still doing the right thing. She describes how things should look like during the recipe. So, not for the stylish recipes but for the way she writes it's Delia for me. (Lindy from Toast appreciates Ms. Dorie Greenspan for exact the same things, you can read her story here).

Another person in your life:
What can I say? I've said it before and I will say it here again: Oma, for obvious reasons.

I'm not really tagging anyone here but if you are up to the challenge, please be my guest! (Lien, Arden, Ashleigh and Sue? I think all of you have stories to share with us.