DWZI - Paint Job

It is pretty amazing what a new lick of paint can do to a room.

A children's room turned into the new study / guest room as if by magic.

Well let's be honest. 

My husband worked very hard.

And he is my hero.

Now all I need to do is find something nice to put up on the wall!

Have a great weekend everyone!

You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Deze week zag ik is iedere vrijdag een blik op de afgelopen week.

Rhubarb Muffins

In my surprise crate from the Streekmolen I received two stems of rhubarb amongst a lot of vegetables.

You know it.

The first thing that came into my head was to make muffins.

The last time I made rhubarb muffins I used dark brown sugar. It worked well but I felt like trying a different recipe and in my search found this one posted by the Telegraph.

It is very easy and I had only had to make one tiny adjustment for the crumble since I did not have any demerara sugar in the house. Plain sugar works perfectly well.

They turned out beautifully.

Sadly I am on a diet and had to remove some of the temptation. Lets face it, in a family of 4 you don't really need 16 muffins. Heidi and I knocked on two of our neighbours doors with a few freshly baked muffins. The surprise and the smiles on their faces was definitely worth it.

Here is a copy of the recipe:

Rhubarb crumble muffin recipe, makes 12 to 16

Ingredients:
For the crumble topping:
50g cold butter, diced
50g plain flour
25g porridge oats
50g demerara sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the muffins:
375g self-raising flour
125g soft light brown sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
250ml milk
100g butter, melted and cooled
200g rhubarb, sliced lengthways and chopped
50g caster sugar

Instructions:
* Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
* To make the crumble, rub the diced butter into the plain flour and oats until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
* Add the sugar and cinnamon, mix again and set aside.
* For the muffins, sift the flour into a bowl, add the soft brown sugar and mix.
* Whisk together the egg, milk and cooled, melted butter.
* In another bowl mix the chopped rhubarb with the caster sugar and 2tbsp of cold water.
* Add the egg, milk and butter to the flour and sugar. Add the rhubarb mixture and stir to combine. Do not over mix.
* Divide this mixture between the muffin cases and then sprinkle over the crumble mix, pressing it gently into place.
* Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool.

Avignon

You have to go to Avignon.

You simply have to go.

We only spent an afternoon in Avignon and it was not enough time.

And then there was the dessert from heaven.

I still dream of it...

Streekmolen Crate Contents

Every two weeks my crate full of locally produced products arrive from the Streekmolen.

I really look forward to it since it is a big surprise.

Plus I like supporting local produce.

It's like a mystery box from Masterchef ;-)

Only the contents make way more than one dish.

DWZI - Stella in the Kitchen

Any week with a public holiday on a weekday is bound to be a good week, don't you agree?

I decided to bake some rhubarb muffins and Stella insisted on helping me.

She was very sweet and very funny.

Until she knocked over my crumble mix and it became not so funny.

In the end the muffins turned out well and Stella kept on smiling.

I'm on a diet so I had to resist the muffin temptation and it was incredibly hard for me to do. But the good times with my parents and our holiday in France certainly added to my weight so I'm determined to be healthy.

Here's wishing you a lovely weekend with lots of healthy treats!

You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Deze week zag ik is iedere vrijdag een blik op de afgelopen week.

Pont du Gard

I am a sucker for Roman ruins.
Guess what.
Provence has a lot of Roman ruins and that my friends makes me very happy.

We stopped a the Pont du Gard to admire a spectacular aqueduct bridge built in the 1st century AD.
How awesome is that?!

There are quite a few walks you can do while visiting the bridge but two small kids don't really make it easy to walk 5km's or climb a whole lot of steps. Especially when one of them (I'll give you a hint - Stella) decides to just be difficult the whole time we were there. We still managed to enjoy the views and admire the handy work of some very skilled labourers and engineers.

Rice Cracker Treats

The last time Heidi had to bring something for the theekransje at school I baked the most beautiful butterfly cookies. However, this time round I thought I'd make my life a little easier.

I bought a lot of rice crackers and got the kids to break them into pieces.
Then I melted candy melts (pink and white ones), which I had left over from my cake pop stash.
The next step is to drizzle the melted chocolate over the rice crackers and to work it in well with your hands - this is messy!!

Prepare a large square or rectangular dish by lining it with baking paper and then simply pour in the mixture. Push it down so that it sticks together.

Place in the fridge for an hour or so and you are ready to cut some squares.

Heidi came home beaming - apparently the treat was a great succes!