Old fashioned Pancakes

I think I am mostly using this blog to save excellent recipes and its useful to have one place to find them all.  I often make these old fashioned pancakes - more like flapjacks.

Old Fashioned Pancakes

11/2 cups flour
31/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
11/4 cups milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp butter melted

mix together and make pancakes!

Enjoy!

Freezing walk and simple xmas decorations

We decided to get out the house today eventhough it was around zero degrees (it had been -4 in the night) and we took the kids walking at Huis Ter Heide, de Moer, Tilburg.  Wow what a beautiful walk it was, with diverse landscapes.  The amazing thing was that the walk was 6,5 km and the kids did it without complaining.  Unheard of!  The kids were fascinated by the frost - see pictures below.

On the walk, I collected various bits and pieces of moss, pinecones and branches for the making of some simple christmas decorations.  We have to keep it simple this year thanks to unemployment.  All of it was free and it was the most wonderful morning.

We came back exhausted, cold and starving and fell on large bowls of lasagne (don't you just love leftovers) and hot chocolate.

In the afternoon we made up some simple decorations...all in all a fabulous day.

The smallest found the largest leaf in the world.

Cutting Snowflakes

Cricket spent the day cutting out snowflakes for the windows.  I wanted small ones but his little hands managed better with large ones ...stuck them on the window and it looks quite festive. 

He was addicted and after cutting all day long, declared the next morning that he was going to spend the day making more snowflakes - for your child to be so busy with something so simple is a wonderful thing.

Lovely Vegetable Soup

This is a recipe from my mom in law, Norma Ros.

Vegetable Soup

olive oil
1 teaspoon curry powder (our curry powder is really weak so it is a heaped spoon)
1 large sweet potato
1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
a few pieces of broccoli
a few pieces of cauliflower
enough chicken stock to cover it all well

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil and add the curry powder - enjoy that gorgeous smell for a while and then bung in the rest.  Simmer for at least half an hour and then blend and serve.

My kids love it and keep asking for it.  One way to get the veggies in.

Rockanje Beach Day

On a rather chilly Sunday we went down to Rockanje to blow away the cobwebs.  It was probably around 17 degrees so too cold for swimming.  We had a nice lunch down there looking out over the sea and the kids had fun running and collecting "Crab Things".  Rockanje is a beach with no waves and shallow water so quite nice for smaller kids to safely play.  I prefer Domburg as it is more beach-like, but Rockanje is a good one to know - it is a bit closer to Tilburg and I really like the restuarants on the beach where you can drink coffee or whatever and the kids can carry on playing down the beach in your line of sight.

This was our haul.  The kids wanted to collect and keep these bits and pieces, but the smell - wow the smell.  

Walking Group

I have started a walking group with my friends on a morning when the kids are at school.  It has been so much fun.  The last two have been hilarious as we firstly had to contend with a steer running towards us down a narrow path with solid trees on either side - cue us diving into undergrowth and climbing under low lying branches to get out it's way.  Secondly we came across a whole herd thundering down the path.  Much hilarity.  I am not scared of these gorgeous highland steers unlike the others and now they have decided it is because I grew up in Africa -funny.

The first photos below are at a walk from Seterse Hoeve in Oosterhout.  Seterse Hoeve is a lovely place to have coffee and lemon cake.  The restuarant is great for lunch or dinner too.

We also walked down to Zeven Geitjes to have coffee there one Thursday...and sat in the autumn sun...just heavenly.

Another day we saw beautiful heather - this walk was in the Loonse en Drunense Duinen.

These walks are so good for the soul and we are also discovering beautiful places never seen before.  I am now regularly seeing friends and it is gezellig as we try choose a place with a coffee place so that we can chat after.

Vegetable Garden

I have wanted an allotment for some time and after finally adding myself to the waiting list, my husband decided to get some vegetable boxes (6 to be exact) so we could try it out in the garden.  It has been fun to do and yielded quite a bit.  Next year though I will plant differently as I now realise there are some crops that need a longer summer and more heat than the Netherlands provides, eg. peppers and aubergines.  My salads however, did really well and through the summer we had fresh picked butter lettuce straight from the garden.  My tomatoes also did well, but only because I started planting inside in about February.  Eventually they were too big to keep indoors and I had to put them out and luckily the cold weather did not kill them.  Other crops that did well was cabbage, potatoes and beans.