Flower Power

I think Heidi might have a special talent when it comes to flower arranging.

She is constantly picking flowers and bringing them home.

This week she decided to arrange her little collection all by herself.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the results...

The lovely colours and the composition.

She is only 6 years old!!

From now on she'll be responsible for any flower arrangements in this house :-)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Malva Pudding Again

It really is the best South African dessert ever.
No matter what you do you cannot go wrong with it.
Just follow the recipe and leave it to bake in the oven for an hour.
Most importantly you need to make the sugar syrup to pour on top once the pudding comes out of the oven.

Sweet, sugary, calorific Malva pudding heaven.
As long as you serve it with vanilla ice cream, of course.

Here is my mom's recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
0.5 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon apricot jam
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Syrup ingredients:
125 gram butter
1.5 cups milk
1 cup sugar

Serves 4 - 6 (you can keep the portions small because it is a very rich dessert!)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease an oven dish.
Beat the egg and the sugar together until pale.
Add everything except the milk and bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
Then add the milk in which the bicarbonate of soda has been dissolved and mix together.
It is quite a runny batter.
Pour into the greased oven dish and bake for one hour until dark and baked through.
Insert a skewer and if it comes out clean then you know it is done.
In a saucepan, bring the syrup ingredients to the boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove the pudding from the oven and prick some holes into the pudding with the skewer.
Now pour the syrup over the pudding.
It will be absorbed into the pudding within a few minutes...

Serve while warm, either with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Brunch at Tip's Place

I love going to my friend Tip's place for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. Even dropping by for coffee always makes me feel happy.

Her kitchen is a wonderful space with lots of natural light. It makes me want to take photos of everything in the room. Plus she is a great cook!

We had brunch there yesterday and mostly the adults ate and talked while the kids played and systematically destroyed the house... good food and good company is a great way to end the weekend, don't you think?

Have a lovely week everyone!

Friday Again?

I really am worried about the speed time seem to race past me.
How is it possibly Friday again?
It was just Monday.
Wasn't it?

I've been trying to cook healthy and budget friendly meals like stir fries, soups, a bit of pasta. The usual staples which quite frankly does not make me want to whip out my camera. Hopefully that explains my lack of recipes and photos.

In fact one of the things on my mind is working out a flexible monthly menu so that I can save money on our meals. Failure to plan is planning to fail or in my case, spend too much money!

Oh and did I mention all I want to do is sew bags?
What is wrong with me?

At least Heidi loves her new reversible bag and she's using it as her lunch bag for school. And I'm using mine every day now for shopping and stuff. Mostly I just like looking at it too... Must be losing my mind with this selling our house and buying a new house thing.

Have a great, sunny, relaxing weekend!

Stir Fry

I made a pretty good stir fry last week.

Chicken, green beans, pineapple, cabbage, onions and mushrooms with sweet chili sauce of course.

And fluffy basmati rice.

Think I might just repeat it again this week but with tofu instead of chicken!

Spring is in the Air!

I took a walk with the girls yesterday, completely against my will because I actually did not want to leave the house. It was beautiful outside, not quite warm but with blossoms everywhere. It is strange walking around our neighbourhood which will not be 'ours' soon. Lots to do, and lots of things on my mind.

Here are a few photos from yesterday. Hope you have a great week ahead!

Research

I am busy doing research.

The best kind of research because it is for our new house.

If all goes well we will be moving by the end of May.

So please, please, please wish us luck!

Have a happy weekend!

A Bit of Wine

A few weeks ago when we were in Twente we stopped for dinner at a tiny restaurant and I ordered a glass of rosé (very classy, I know...).

Even though it was pretty bad wine I do like the photo that I took that day.

There really is something magical about my SLR camera. So much so that I find it hard to take any photos with my iPhone when once upon a time I was completely addicted to my phone camera! 

Just goes to show that nothing stays the same.

Cronut

I finally decided to try a cronut.
When I found them in the local supermarket I thought I might as well buy one.
Of course my husband never even heard of a cronut and since it was a bit of a food fad recently I enlightened him. It is a croissant mixed with a doughnut. Funny, right?

It is pretty tasty.
The kids loved them.
So much that they keep asking for more and I keep saying no.
No, no, no.

Good as it may taste it certainly doesn't do my weight any favours ;-)

Have a great week everyone!

Poster for Pottery Tree Workshops in Woerden

My good friend Marcelle from Pottery Tree asked me to design a poster and flyer for the workshops she will be holding at OOK in Woerden in March and April.

Sign up for a workshop! It is a lot of fun to paint on crockery and I for one love the teapot which is what I used as inspiration for the poster.

Have a great weekend!!

Painting with Stella

This was my Monday morning.

Stella painting, me dabbling a bit on some old paper I found in a drawer.

Bliss.

Until Stella started experimenting with pouring water on paper.

Then the fun stopped and the cleaning started.

Kids.

Brussels Sprouts with Chicken Pasta

Now you know that I don't like brussels sprouts.
But my husband loves them so as long as they are in season and cheap I will be buying them.

Last week I deviated from my menu plan and made a pretty tasty pasta dish incorporating brussels sprouts. Definitely good for repetition.

It went a little like this:
Take one bag of brussels sprouts, clean them and throw them in a pot with boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the brussels sprouts are cooking, heat up a grill pan and cook three chicken breasts for about 10 minutes (5 minutes per side). Season your chicken breasts as per your liking - I marinated them half an hour before cooking in lemon juice and crushed garlic with a dash of honey.

Let the chicken breasts rest while you get the pasta cooking in a big pot of boiling water - follow the directions on your packaging. I made spaghetti which needed about 9 minutes until nicely cooked.

While the pasta cooks take a big pan and heat up a dash of olive oil. Now add a finely chopped onion and sauté for a couple of minutes. Slice three rashers of bacon and add to the onions. Slice the chicken breasts into strips and add to the pan. Throw in the brussels sprouts too and give it all a nice stir before adding about 50ml of low fat cooking cream (feel free to add more). Mix it well and make sure the heat is turned off so that you don't curdle the cream. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the drained pasta to the pan and mix well.

Serve with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

 Hope you have a great week ahead!