Zomerpret Summerfun

I'm going to continue my blog mainly in Dutch. I will post a short translation in English.Sorry for all my foreign readers.
Our little granddaughter is now 14 months old. When the sun is shining she needs little more then a tub of water and some sand to be a happy little bunny. Is'nt she adorable?

Dit warme weer is alleen maar fijn als je net als mijn kleindochter niets anders te doen hebt als te spelen en te slapen en te eten.Is ze niet geweldig hoe ze hier geniet in haar teiltje water met haar beestjes en potjes en pannetjes??Het plezier kon niet op. Alles moest in het water en werd er dan vakkundig uitgegooid en dan moest het allemaal weer in het water en zo ging een uur voorbij voor ik het wist.
Als de waterpret gedaan is is er nog altijd de zandbak om in te spelen. Veel handigheid heeft ze nog niet met haar schepjes en potjes maar ze steekt het toch niet in haar mond en dat is al veel waard. Vanaf vandaag zal ze elke maandag hier zijn terwijl haar mama en papa gaan werken. Ik verheug me er op want ik heb haar het voorbije jaar veel te weinig gezien.Inmiddels is ze al 14 maanden oud. Wat is het voorbije jaar voorbij gevlogen.

Long overdue and new quilts

It has been such a long time since I have been blogging but I never was aware of the fact that it was more then 5 months.
It has been a busy time and since blogging is so time consuming I did'nt have the time for it.
Now I want to show you 3 quilt tops that I have been making in the last 6 weeks.

I have for ever been a very big Kaffe Fasset, Philip Jacobs and Martha Negley fan. Their fabrics inspire me again and again.
Then there was the new book of Jane Brocket, a very big Kaffe fassett fan like me.
The fabrics and het book together, inspired me to make a quilt from a packet of fabrics that I had collected since a few years.

These are almost all Philip Jacobs fabrics for the exeption of 1 very old Kaffe Fassett print.I love what this simple pattern of squares put on the point do with the fabrics.I'm totally in love with this quilt. It's size is suitible for a single bed.

This second top is even more simple. It is a very cool palet of whites and blue prints. It needs one more stripe on the right and then it is big enough to be a lap quilt. Kaffe Fassett quilt can be very cool and understated. The third top is quit the opposite.

The top I made with a combination of Kaffe Fassett, Martha Negley and some Philip Jacobs fabrics and a few other ones. I was inspired in a class of a local teacher and knew immediatly how and what I wanted to do with the pattern I was given. I'm still in doubt if I will put a border on. The quilt top is now 180 cm wide and high.

So, I know what to do in the next months. If only I could quilt them in 6 weeks. That would be a real result! But I like to make my quilts all by hand and so the quilting will take 6 years if I know myself!!!

See you next time!

Foody Friday Festive Cod

My New Year's dinner for the inlaws was a big hit. I was surprised that they where so enthousiastic.
We had some different appetizers and pink champagne.
Then we had filet of cod wrapped in taggliatelli with tomato salsa.
Jerusalem artichock soup with smoked salmon
Filet of hare with cranberry jus and pumpkin pancakes
For dessert I had vanilla icecream and fresh baked vanilla spiced pineapple.

It was especially the cod that was a big hit and it is such an easy recipie.
So here it is for you foody fans.

Best piece of cod. About 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick
Fresh tagliatelli
Fresh tomatoes
Semi dryed or fresh abricots
Some spring onions
Salt/ pepper
Acacia honey, olive oil and white balsamic vinegair.


Prepare in advance.
Cook the fresh pasta until it is almost done.
Spice the cod with pepper and salt.
Wrap the cod in the taggliatelli.A tricky job. The picture is of my plate and of course I had the last remaining piece so it is not the best of my parcels.
Put this in the fridge ready for use.
Made a salsa of thin slices of peeled and seeded tomatoes, thin slices of apricots and spring onions. Make a dressing of the balsamic vinegair,olive oil and a bit of runny honey, salt and pepper.
Dress the salsa just before serving.
Bake the wrapped cod in a combination of butter and olive oil.
Serve with the salsa.

Three or more of L'Heure Bleue

A few years agoo I was looking trough a french dictionary to find some beautiful names for my kittens and I found the expression : l' Heure Bleue witch means as much as 'the blue hour'.
I never heard from this expression but found it so poetic that I kept in in my kitten name list together with some other french expressions.
Last year in March we had 1 solid blue Maine Coon kitten and that was for me the upportunity to use that name.

He is now a strapping lad of 9 months old and still caries the name Bleue. But a Bleu Hour I had never seen....

On sunday morning I was up and about fairly early since I had to prepare a New Year dinner party for 10 people and there it was....'l Heure Bleue in all its glory.

Fresh snow on the ground and that incredible blue light over the entire would.
It was as poetic as the French expression. The Blue Hour.

For those who still not know what it means. Well the French use that expression for the hour when the night changes in the day. And that was exactly when it happened. It was around 8am when I saw this incredible sight!

I wish you all a very nice day.

Happy New Year!!!

First and formost I wish you all a very Happy New Year. I wish you health, happiness and peace.
A lot of festive days have past since the last time I blogged.
In Belgium we started on the 6th of December with St Nicolas day. The day that all good children get presents and candy.For the first time in years we celebrated this again. With our new granddaughter Anne-Fleur it was the ideal year to do so. She is of course only 7 months old and thus not get the spirit of the day. Chewing presents was the big joy of her day! The typical candy, chocolate, fruit and of course the speculaas went to her mom and dad who accepted it gratefully. I think next year she will have her say about that!For the adults there was of course cake.A very simple chocolate cake adorned with the typical Saint Nicolas candy. Golden coins (with chocolate inside), nic nac's ( the small sugared cookies ) on the side and on top and some lovely little chocolate Saint Nicolas plaques I found at the bakery shop.It was years agoo that we had so much snow. I began snowing the first friday of december. So at Saint Nicolas day we took these pictures of Anne-Fleur. She sits on the sled of her dad and auntie that I kept for more than 30 years. She was a bit afraid. It was bitterly cold and her mom did not take her in to the snow before since she had been in hospital ,two weeks before. But I thought we could not pass up this opportunity to get pictures of her in the first snow of her life.She did not enjoy it that much.I think she was even a bit scared of it.

In each case the snow lasted just until Christmas and we had the first white Christmas since 1986 I believe. The next day it started raining and it was all gone.
In the mean time our little kittens grew up to be little white and blue fluff ball's. You can't contain them in a small area anymore! They want to play! Polar Bear is kissing the Steiff snowman. He has found a good home in Holland.

Sadly we have one handicapt kitten in the litter .You see him at the far left in the picture below.

All four bones in his front legs are bent. He will always be handicaped. But the good news is that if he has a good chance to live a painfree and happy life, he will have a loving home with the parents of our Brandaen of with my daughter.
Aren't they sweet?

Trying to snap a group picture is not that easy as you can see!

Shortly after Saint Nicolas day I set up the Christmas tree.
I try to make a different tree every year. That you can see if you look for the post ' Christmas in July'.
This year I used fresh green, covered with transparent plastic pearls, glass baubles, porcelain balls with flowers. Some metal and glass danglely things, some mirrored snowflakes and the collection of Snowbabie ornaments I started for Anne-Fleur. And of course my favorite ornaments of all could not be left in the cellar. My white glass birds are almost every year in my Christmas tree.
Lily our youngest Maine Coon is facinated with the tree .She had never seen one before. She took out one of my green glass balls in the first days. After that she became a good little girl and only sleeps beneeth the tree on the white fleece blanket that is covering the base.

I did not do a lot of other Christmas decorations this year.I only made place to put my Snowbabies out since this year I bought the nativity set of it.

Even the Christmas dinner table was simple but classy. Floral tablecloth in blue and cream with a simple flower decoration and some candles.
This is it for today. Tomorrow I start preparing the New Year dinner I do for my inlaws. They will come on sunday to celebrate the New Year. Today, the first of january will be a day to start preparing, like ironing the table cloth and preparing the cakes.
Have a happy day and until the next time.

Foody friday 's Saint Nicolas Speculoos

Sunday the children of Belgium and Holland celebrate Saint Nicolas. He is the patron saint of the Children. Children put their shoe out with a carrot for the horse of Saint Nicolas and hope that in the morning the carrot will be gone and there will be presents instead.
One of the presents we got every year was a plate full of candy.
The staples where, speculoos, oranges of clementines, golden chocolate coins, nicnac's ( a very small cokie in the shape of letters) and guimove( a sort of sweet) and of corse some chocolade figurines.
My hometown is famous for its very special speculoos.
What is it exactly. Well it is a big cookie, a bit soft and the main ingrediances are, real butter, cinnamon and almonds.On the picture above you see two different kind. The small cookies are the commercially made one. These are very sweet and hard and thin and you can get them in every shape.
The big ones are the ones where my hometown of Hasselt is famous for.
These ones contain almons (the commercial ones don't have that) and are thick and a bit soft.
The Dutch also have a sort of filled speculoos.

Here is the recipie that I got from my great grandmother, Anneke.
Cream 2,5 cups or 500 grams of sweet real butter.
Please do not subsitute the butter for crisco of margerine or something.I is a very big part of the flavour.

Then add 3 1/4 cups or 650 grams of dark brown sugar

Work in 4 XL or 5 L eggs

Then add 2 heaped theaspoons of cinnamon

Then it is time to add 6 cups or 1 kilo of plain four and the right amount of baking powder

Another vital part of speculoos of Hasselt and unique to that is 1 cup or 100 grams of almond powder and 1cup or 100 grams of slivered almond. This time my shop had no slivered almonds so I used all almond powder.

You need to work the dow by hand by now since it is a very heavy dow.

Don't work it to long. Just enough to combine everything. Then put it in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight. Cover it with clingfilm.

Next day you preheat your oven at 325°F or 175 °C.
Take a piece of the dow and make a roll out of it about 2,5 inch or 6 to 7cm diameter

Slice fingerthick slices and put on a baking tray.

The baking tray should be coverded with some baking paper. Just flatten the slices ever so slightly. Leave room between the slices since they will spread.

Bake for 15 minutes.
The cookies should have only a lightly brown rim on the outside. The will be hard after cooling down but when you store them in a tin they should get softer.

You could keep them for weeks but I bet they won't have the time to get bad!
I know they are heavy on the calories but I only bake them for Saint Nicolas and for Christmas.
These cookies are for Belgium and Holland what Shortbread is for Scotland and Chocolade chip cookies are for the USA. Please try them, I know you will love them.

These days speculoos is so popular in Belgium that in the last two years they intruduced a speculoos paste that you can put on bread. It was the winning thing in a tv contest to invent something new and it is a huge succes.
Since this years there is also chocolate with pieces of crisp speculoos in it and there is even Speculoos ice cream.

I also use the paste to mix with buttercream and spread that on apple cupcakes. Yummy!

Tree or more....kittens

I'm sorry I did get of track and left you all waiting for news and a new entry for "Three or more".
But know I have news. This is the best Three or more....We have new Maine Coon kittens.
Let me present them to your.
This is our " Arctic Litter"

This is little "Beluga Whale of the White Witch".

This is fat little " Polar Bear of the White Witch"

Brother number tree is chubby little " Arctic Fox of the White Witch".

And this is brother number 4, the odd one out with his blue coat. He is called:

"Spotted Seal of the White Witch"

All boys and OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH so sweet.

How lovely Christmus will be with all these little chaps running around our feet!!!

A happy mum with her four sons. Still a bit looking a bit ragged but such a good mum.