recipe time

The fact that I haven't been talking much about baking doesn't automatically mean I haven't been doing a lot of baking. In fact, you could very safely state that the less I talk about baking, the more I am doing it, leaving me less time to talk about doing it. But I have been doing it, oh yes, I certainly have. And I have come across some absolutely fabulous recipes that I simply can't keep to myself.

1. Peanut Butter, Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm a major fan of both peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies. I don't understand why I've never come across a recipe that combines the three before, it makes perfect sense! These cookies are everything I could ever possibly need in a cookie. I may have accidentally eaten the entire batch (it was half a batch, and the kids helped!) before I remembered to take pictures...

- Combine:

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

- In your stand mixer cream together (medium/high setting):

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

- Add the flour mixture until just combined (slow setting) and then stir in:

1 cup rolled oats

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Bake at 175 C or 350 F for 10 mins, and presto: cookie heaven awaits.

2. Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Glaze

I made these for a babyshower recently and they were gone in a minute flat. It helped that I put them in the oven at the shower and they were served warm. If you're not a glaze girl (like I never used to be) then don't worry: these are so moist, so full of flavour that you absolutely do not need the glaze. HOWEVER. The glaze is soooo good with it - not too sweet and just sticky enough. This coming from the girl who never wanted glazes or frosting on ANYthing.

Dough
- Combine and set aside:
1/4-ounce/7gr package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
- In stand mixer with paddle attachment mix:
1/2 cup hot milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 cups flour (plus up to 2 cups more)

- Add yeast mixture and (switching to dough hook attachment if you have it - if not, knead by hand when it becomes too much to handle for your mixer) knead in 1 1/2 - 2 cups more flour until dough is easy to handle.
Knead for 5-10 minutes and place dough in a well greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size.
- Punch dough down, and roll out on a clean, floured surface into a large rectangle (about 15x9 inches, or 38 x 22 cms).

Filling
1/2 cup melted butter, plus more for pan
- Mix:
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for pan
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

- cover rolled out dough royally in melted butter and sprinkle sugar mixture evenly on top.

- roll up the dough, starting at the longer side (tip: roll toward you!), pinch edge, and cut your roll of dough into equal slices (about 14).
- grease a pan with melted butter and sprinkle sugar on top. Place slices close together in the pan and let rise for another 30-45 minutes.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes at 170 C or 325 F, or until golden brown.

Glaze

- Mix:
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add water 1 tbsp at a time until glaze is your desired consistancy (should be somewhat runny). Spread/drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls and devour.

on meatloaf , gold carriages and pensioners

I have been MIA from this place with no good reason, and every good reason all at the same time. Chalk it up to all that insanity, just like pretty much everything else I don't have a better explanation for. The important thing being: I am here now! Now is all that matters. 

Let us play a little game of catch up.

1. I taught Lindsey how to make meatloaf. This is funny for two reasons. First: I only learned how to make meatloaf myself about a year ago. Second: I got to watch Lindsey knead raw meat and eggs. It was hilarious. I have pictures to prove it, and you can read the first person account of Lindsey's meaty misfortune right here.

 

2. Prinsjesdag (Prince's Day) came around and marked the annual reading of our country's financial plan by none other than our queen, Queen Beatrix. She reads this plan whilst sitting on a throne in the Ridderzaal (Knight's Hall) in our city of The Hague. She gets to the Ridderzaal by exiting her working palace Paleis Noordeinde and getting into her (no joke) gold carriage which her noble steeds then ride over to the Binnenhof. This procession takes place right here in our city and is one of the bigger national events that takes place annually, and so, Lindsey and I figured it would be nice to go see in person. Lindsey for the first time, and the rest of us quite possibly for the last time. 

We got to see her alright, in her mighty shiny carriage, with her immovable hair and ever present hat and everything. It was fun to see the whole parade, but some of the fun was killed by the mainly 55+ people standing around me who did not appreciate the fact that I had brought Elliot. Elliot was not having fun you see, and I expected no less. This whole thing happened in the middle of his normal nap hours, and consisted mainly of waiting - something 15 month olds are just not very good at. I had anticipated some crying... and cry he did. Though he didn't nearly cry and moan as much as the people around me, who, instead of using their precious energy to maybe help me, loudly complained to each other about my stupidity for bringing a baby to such an event. 

I wondered to myself  'Do you really lose all memories of what it was like to be young when you pass the age of 55? Do you honestly lose all sense of compassion and good manners, and become a judgmental, agist, cranky sourpuss?'* This  is a range of qualities that especially the Dutch seem to excell at. 

At one point I turned around to the particularly nasty couple behind me (who were also commenting on how happy they were that they weren't one of those 'brown' people the police would be watching so closely to prevent acts of terrorism), looked them straight in the eye (not difficult to do since we were packed together like sardines) and stood up for myself. I said: 'You do realise I can actually hear you, right?', to which they glanced around uncomfortably and mumbled something intelligable. I waited another couple of seconds to see if they had anything to say for themselves. Then I became worried they might soil themselves -they truly looked uncomfortable and you know, they were kind of old- , and I turned back around. 

The moment I had repositioned myself the man, again loudly, said to the woman: 'Maybe this will teach her not to take small children along to such events, ::sigh:: youth today...'. Yep, they pretty much embodied every single cliche there is of narrow-minded pensioners. I turned around again, looked him in the eye once more, and said: 'Maybe this will teach you to in the future watch these events from the comfort and quiet of your living room where you don't have to worry about brown people being a threat to you ,or young, hard working mothers trying to teach her children about our country!'. OK so, maybe I didn't actually say that. And I'd like to pretend the reason I said nothing was that I was taking the high road, not deeming them worth another thought or word. The real reason of course was that, between frantically trying to keep the kids happy and having to listen to their whining for forever, I was worried I might have a fit if I turned around again. The only place that would have landed me is in a jail cell, charged with several counts of geriatricide.

There he is behind me, looks friendly doesn't he? Sorry, no pictures of the actual gold carriage and our Queen - I had my hands full most of the time.

* Of course I realise I just got unlucky here and that most of you lovely over-fifty-fivers are loverly people - my own parents being excellent examples!

3. We got to go to the beach last week. The beach! In October! It was hot and incredible and fabulous and wonderful and we all got sunburns. I can't tell you how happy this made me - one last Den Haag beach experience. We ate grapes, TUCs with cream cheese, melkbroodjes with chocolate chips, potato chips and plums. We lazied around in the hot sand while the kids played in the water until they could play no more. It made me so happy.

4. We have a date for our final visa interviews! On November 10th we will find out if the US will have us or not. If they do then we are currently thinking of December 8th as a good day to fly out

5. This past weekend was our church's semi-annual General Conference, when our church leaders come together to speak to all the members (and everyone else interested) and remind us of how we should live our lives. That's not all they do though. They inspire, strengthen, encourage and exhude pure love. I came out of this conference feeling changed for the better and invite you all to read my favourite talk of them all over here. Feel free to browse the other talks that were given. Hardly anything will give you as good of an insight as to what I believe and how this church operates like listening to these men and women.

6. I am on a diet. Sander, Lindsey and I are on a diet, actually. We have vowed together that October would be our month of health and that together we would stick to some gruelling rules. One of those rules means that I have to stop typing right now and start exercising. Ugh. Halloween is our day of freedom... come celebrate and eat yourself into a stupor with us!

lemon cake, anyone?

Lately I have been suffering from a lot of headaches, and I have to cancel appointments on several occasions because of them. I know (at least I'm pretty sure) why I'm getting them and it's just something I have to wait out for a bit, so I've been refraining from complaining, thus containing my disdain. Oooh, I'm adding that to the rap song I'm writing. Ok maybe I'm not really writing a rap song, but that sentence proves that I could if I wanted to.

Back to the headaches. Yesterday I couldn't go to church because the thought alone of opening my eyes made my head explode into ten quatrillion tiny pieces, and everybody knows you need to keep your eyes open in church. As the morning drew to a close my headache started melting away, and suddenly I had all this energy that needed to be used, and so I did the only logical thing: I baked a cake. To be more precise, I baked Martha Stewart's Lemon cake with Whipped Lemon Frosting.



This cake has it all if you're a lemon enthusiast like me. Lemon juice and zest in the batter, more lemon juice the frosting AND even more lovely fresh lemon juice in the syrup made to drizzle on the cakes before assembling and frosting.

The recipe even calls for cooked and sweetened sliches of lemon to garnish the cake with. They made the thing look picture perfect, but I hate to say they tasted just awful, so I don't think I'll be going through the trouble next time unless I'm baking for the Queen or something.

It turned out so delicious. The whipped frosting (egg whites, sugar, salt and water, with lemon juice stirred in after the whipping) was light and fresh and a beautiful glossy white, complimenting the yellow and moist cake really well. Definitely a keeper. I can't wait to serve it with a pitcher of fresh lemonade after a sunny rooftop barbecue when the weather gets warmer. Find the recipe here and be sure to invite me over when you make it!



The Fruity Fishface...

... starring Elliot Koot.



all is well, all is well.

I know I've been a little MIA but I promise all is still well around the Koot house. Here's a little overview of what has been happening around these parts in the past 2 weeks:

- We had an awesome Halloween! We celebrated most of it on Saturday. Liz came over and we baked and decorated sugar cookies, built a fort to keep safe from ghosts and ghouls, did weird makeup and stayed up waaaay past our bedtime watching movies. Paranormal Activity 2 isn't half as scary as the first one (which is a very good thing since the first one had me sleeping with the lights on for weeks) but Sander managed to get spooked anyway and heard weird noises all night.

 - St. Maarten was commemorated at school last week. The children all walked around the neighbourhood with their homemade lantarns singing and singing songs. Traditionally you put a candle out by the window when you want the children to knock on your door and sing you a song, which you reward them for with a piece of candy. At the Wonnebald they take the children by 'stations' where someone has been dressed up and is waiting for them to pass to give them a piece of fruit and listen to their songs. 

- Last Saturday Sinterklaas arrived in Holland and we were at the very front of the line to welcome him back. The kids were dressed as little Sinterklaas's, and waved enthusiastically at the steamboat as it glided past us and into the harbour. After seeing him come in on the boat we went to find a good spot to watch the parade go by with all the Zwarte Pieten and Sinterklaas on his horse. Of course the kids set their shoes by the back door that night with a carrot for Amerigo, tangerines for Piet, and drawings for Sinterklaas. They were rewarded with toys and treats. Everyone loves Sinterklaas!

- Pictures of Sinterklaas will have to follow in another post because another bit of news it how absolutely awful our internet connection has been lately. I don't know if it's our provider, our router, my computer or what, but it's driving me nuts! It keeps cutting out right when I'm about to upload something, or need to check my e-mails. I seem to remember being married to an IT-specialist though so hopefully my problem should be solved relatively quickly.

- I can't stop reading books, aarrrrrgh! Expect a tip-list soon.

- I got stalked. Does this mean I'm finally famous?

- We had a lovely dinner at TexMex with Liz and she and I went to the movies afterwards. A lady with scary red makeup tried to steal our m&m's. 

- I'm learning to play Eva Cassidy's version of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore'.

Also: I CANNOT WAIT FOR MY FAMILY TO GET HERE IN DECEMBER!

And finally a little song for you to make you feel happier when the winter darkness is getting to you ;)

we had a Birthday Boy...

... who wanted THREE cakes! How silly is that? The sillier thing is that I said 'sure!'. Luckily I had help.

You can tell from Julia's hand and face what her job was.

We wished papa Sander a happy 31st by bringing him cake in bed whilst singing Birthday songs. 

I hope you all had a great Halloween, because we sure did! Expect a spooky post soon...

Yes, yes, yes....

... I know it's been all about the kids lately but that only accurately reflects my life. These two keep me busy:

This one keeps cutting her hair:

Then I found the perfect recipe for cake frosting:

And baked a bunch of apple pies after a visit to an orchard:

And I still managed to lose 12 pounds/6kg. I'll probably lose some more tonight as I'm being taken out on my first ever Sushi experience.... wish me luck.

help me, I can't stop...

... cooking and baking! 

I thought everything was fine and that I needn't worry about a thing, until last Friday when I somehow decided that I needed to bake a plum tart that required a home-made plum jam, a frangipane, and a made-from-scratch pie crust.

I spent a full 3 hours in the kitchen completing each task and suffered only one minor disaster when, after having frozen the pie crust for an hour and attempting to pre-bake it for 10 mins, it drooped down the insides of the lovely earthenware dish and didn't appear very capable of actually holding all of the other ingredients together. I tried to push it back up a bit with my fingers (forgetting it came straight out of the oven on the first go - ouch) but it slumped right back down and I got a little nervous. 

 I decided to go ahead and throw in the jam, then the frangipane and then the fresh, quartered plums macerated in icing sugar, and finally to carefully sprinkle some almond slivers on top - as if their weight was the one thing that was going to make this thing collapse upon removal from its baking container. When you've put 3 hours of work into something, you kind of want to be able to enjoy the end result, you know?

It all looked terribly soupy once assembled and my nerves were getting a little out of control, something that was worsened by my crazy idea that I could stick the tart in the oven, leave home to pick the girls up from school on The Beast, ask Lara's teacher a few quick questions and hurry on back home in time to take the darn thing out of the oven.

Of course I hadn't considered Lara falling down the stairs at school and needing care before we could head back. Once we determined she was in one piece and she was able to stop sobbing I tried to pedal that Beast back home as quickly as my legs could handle (which sadly was so slow that I got overtaken by an old lady, twice!). The recipe said that the tart would need about an hour in the oven and by the time I got home it had been in there for at least 75 minutes, but a quick check revealed a still sort of soggy looking mess so I left it in there, set the timer to an additional 15 minutes, and prayed. At the end of those 15 minutes I noticed bits were starting to go a bit blackish so it had to come out. Much to my relief it didn't look too bad! It looked like it might actually hold together and taste kind of good!

 And, well, it did. It tasted VERY good, much to my surprise. So good some people had seconds (and thirds). Jamie Oliver sure knows his way around plums and almonds. I love how the colours in this piece of sweet yet tart yumminess perfectly go with autumn.

happy happy birthday...

... Julia Marianne!

I can't believe Julia is 5! She is the most endearing child I have ever met. Her greatest care in the world is whether or not she's supposed to say 'shoot'. Her invisible friend 'Kleintje' keeps sneaking ice creams out of the freezer. Her love of horses, Lightning McQueen and her bicycle. Her sneezing and her clumsiness. I love it all.

Here are some pictures of the cake I made for her. My first ever fondant cake, so much fun to make. I don't think I'm quite as talented as my 'little' brother Mike, but still, not too shabby eh?

And here's the party girl herself.

let them eat...

...steak! I apologise in advance to any readers who are vegetarians or perhaps even vegans... but when this lady is in her final months of pregnancy (now 34 weeks to be exact) she craves meat. Any who know me well know that this is really out of the ordinary for me. I've never been big on meat, especially red meat like steak. I had a bit of a vegetarian spell during High School but it didn't last long.. I enjoy chicken a bit too much. These days we do take a bit of pride in not being a big meat consuming family. Typically we'll have meat with our dinner 3-4 times a week and for the same amount of days the kids enjoy some lunch meat on their sandwiches. That's it, I promise! Chicken is still my absolute favourite and thus consumed most often, and ground beef runs a close second because it works well in a couple of my standard italian and mexican recipes. I'm not a big fan of pork at ALL... except bacon (yummm). And steak, well, a big ol' slab of bleeding meat on my plate reheheheaally just doesn't do it for me. Don't even get me started on game and organ meat. Ew. 

But today folks, today is different. Today I have hormones surging through my huge body that require animal sacrifice! We've had steak in the freezer twice this week already, and I know that tonight's is going to be the best because I've had a bit of practice by now. My mouth waters at the thought. I shall have fried up onions, mushrooms and bell peppers with it, and broccoli and of course the Dutch national vegetable: taters. I shall enjoy it... especially after having blogged about it which has seriously increased the rather intimidating appetite I already had before sitting down at the computer. 

I'm going to have to be patient a little while longer though, so I'll kill some time by adding some cute pictures of the kids at the playground yesterday and the Zuiderpark today:

It's a bit weird ending this post with a picture of cute, fuzzy baby ducks.... and a huge craving for meat.
I better go cook.

on food and happiness....

Excuse me while I take a minute to boast. 

Yesterday I made a curry... from scratch... without a recipe....

it was scrumptious. 

The kids licked their plates clean even though I had been a bit worried in advance that I might have made it too spicy for them to manage. After, while Sander was putting Max in bed and the girls were playing a videogame I overheard them talking to each other.

Lara: Dinner was yummy wasn't it?
Julia: Yeeeeaaaahhhh!
Lara: It was my favourite, ever.
Julia: Mine too.

There was a little puddle of happy Karina on the floor where I was standing... they had no idea I could hear them and it was probably the most heart warming thing you can overhear your kids saying to one another.
So I promised them I would make lemon cupcakes with them this afternoon.

I posted pics last time but I couldn't keep these cute videos from you. First up is a performance the kids did for me (though I don't think Max quite realised he was performing). I have no idea how they came up with the 'Michaëla' thing. At one point I had to move the camera away quickly because Sander was about to wander into the shot in his underwear... if you watch closely you can still catch a glimpse of him. If that doesn't entice you I don't know what will!

The second one I took at the petting zoo that one day the sun was shining out and I had the marvelous idea of loading them all into The Beast and paddling them there myself. The sun was deceptive that day, and I nearly froze solid halfway there... but they had fun.



Have a lovely St. Patrick's Day folks!