Last week we went to a fruit exhibition at “Olde Ras”, a conservation orchard and a museum of old varieties in Doesburg, about an hour drive from where we live. Sebastiaan took some convincing because unlike me he thinks…
There is a quince tree in the middle of our street. It is there because I wanted to grow quince really badly, yet had no room left in our garden. So when one of the big raised beds in our…
Do you like apples? Do you like pancakes? Whiskey? Do you like playing with fire? Then you’re in the right place. Meet our current favourite Sunday breakfast. A breakfast we’ve had five Sundays in row. Except one of them was…
We have this game we play with the kids to keep them occupied when we have to wait somewhere. It goes like this: someone asks a question like “If you only could read one book (watch one movie/ eat one…
I baked a wedding cake. Well, no, not the wedding cake which was an amazing two story chocolate-raspberry affair, thankfully without fondant (you can’t go wrong with chocolate and raspberries!) and of which I certainly ate my share. Rather, I…
A couple of weeks ago Sebastiaan started high school. New school, new teachers, new kids, new rules and about ten times as much homework. A big change for him (though he does not seem to worry about anything – not…
In terms of money, fruit trees are an awesome investment. The very first tree I ever planted was a plum, more specifically “Mirabelle de Nancy” . The half-standard tree from a local organic nursery cost 12 Euro then (ten years…
Last Monday I celebrated my 39th birthday. Remco teasingly reassured me: “You don’t look a day over 38, honey” but I’m sure I have changed in many small ways since last year and that is exactly as it should be.…
At my parents’ house, when I was growing up, everybody had their task in the kitchen, one that was playing to their strength. My mom would make the soup because she can make a soup out of anything and it…
From the time Esther and Sebastiaan were quite little, as a way of playfully teaching them about food and taste, we used to organize little family tastings. If we grew three different varieties of strawberries, we would have a tasting…
It may not be fair but cute always wins. A case in point: these berry tarts. I made them for our tea party on Sunday, but there was lots of other delicious stuff too. There were 32 of these tarts…
You know how many people feel an inexplicable attraction towards a certain country and its language? I know someone who spends every vacation in Ireland, a woman who learns Spanish for no particular reason and I even heard of a…
Yes, that’s right, there’s rhubarb and beer in the title of this recipe. I think this jam would be worth making just for the fun of pouring beer over rhubarb or the looks you get when you serve it to…
We were not planning to travel anywhere this month even though the kids have a two week vacation. But then one evening about ten days ago we were sitting on the couch and “we’re not going away but if we…
If you’ve been around since last year, you might have read my post about the abdication of queen Beatrix and her son Willem Alexander succeeding to the throne. The post also includes a picture of our whole family (my parents…