KissKus

A funk

These past days I found myself at a bit of a standstill, I'm indecisive about a lot of things and I can't seem to get motivated to get going with just about anything. I don't know whether it's just the end of winter that's bringing me down, I do know that the start of spring -with hopefully lots of sun- will be very wellcome.

Creatively, I'm stuck as well. There are plenty of vague ideas going through my mind, but it's hard to find the energy to really dig into a project. And some of the things that I have tried lately didn't work out the way I wanted.

The only thing that just keeps going is my baking. It's a new obsession, as I've had so many before this. But a good one, that brings me pleasure and comfort and that feeds me and my family well.

A few of the things that came out of the oven last week:

Muesli bread. Excellent in one go. Already made another.

Cheese & onion rolls. Very good with homemade soup, great hit with the kids.

Amber's delicious chocolate cake which we devoured this weekend. Seems the baking bug is contagious!

Weekend cookies

Plenty of baking done today. These walnut cookies are good!
And now it's time to enjoy the weekend. We have a trip to the museum and my sister's birthday party scheduled. Looking forward to it!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Still improving

Happy to report that I'm still improving my bread making skills. However, I think they now are about as good as they get (which is good ;)). I've started adding nuts and seeds to them. But not for the kids, since they do not always appreciate the finer things of food (silly kids!).

I'm baking 6 loaves per week now in two batches. It's barely enough for a week, so sometimes I have to bake extra. I don't ever buy supermarket bread anymore. Home baking gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction. My own bread is healthier, cheaper and tastes better :)

Winter in Holland

It's been winter here in Holland for a few weeks now. It has snowed, there is ice and it's COLD.

Of course, the children love it. Me not so much, although I do enjoy the clear, bright skies.

Today we went to the windmill in Weesp to buy wholemeal in bulk. Yes, I'm serious about my bread making! And how cool to get my ingredients from the mill.

While we were there the children wanted to have some fun on the ice. I don't believe I've ever seen that river completely frozen over. It really was quite special.

Back home to warm up with tea and Michel's freshly baked sticky walnut tart, yum!

Vegetarian

I've never been a very big fan of meat, although do appreciate it in certain dishes. So I'm not planning to become a vegetarian at all. However, I've been gradually using more vegetarian alternatives in our dinners. In Dutch supermarkets there is a large choice in vegetarian subsitutes and we like most of them. But lately I've been prefering more and more homemade alternatives over ready made food.

And it turned out that tasty veggie burgers are just so easy to make!

I made these from chickpeas, grated cheese, hazelnuts, parsley, garlic, egg and breadcrumbs. The variations are endless though. Just mix it all together and bake them. They were a huge hit... even with the kids!

Cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread

Today was such a lovely day at home. We all worked in the garden (the weather is still unbelievably mild), which was so nice.

And I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.

This cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread was just so good. Recipe from here. Will definitely be making it again.

After that I made two normal loaves of bread... the best ones so far ;)

For dinner I made this broccoli (the kids didn't like it) and I improvised some couscous veggie burgers (success!).

Recharged, well fed and ready to tackle a new week...

Our daily bread

I've started making my own bread. The plan was easy enough, but the reality is rather more complicated. I'm having fun though! Even if my loaves do not turn out quite perfect yet, I do really enjoy experimenting. There is so much to the art of bread making. I will just keep going until I know exactly what to do.

Making bread is such a pure and wholesome tradition. I know I've only just started, but already I will almost go as far as to say that it helps me restore my disturbed relationship with food. Kneading heals, folks ;)

And the great thing is, is that my bread is well received by the rest of the family... they like it! What more could I wish for?

 

No nonsense chocolate mousse

Today I'm sharing with you the EASIEST dessert that you've ever seen.

I will assure that this will be a hit with anyone that you wish to share this with (Christmas guests?)

What you need:

0,5 litre cream

200 gram dark chocolate

What you do:

Melt the chocolate (au bain marie).

Add 4 spoons of sugar to the cream and whip it until it's thick (lick cream of beaters!)

Add melted chocolate to whipped cream.

Gently mix it together.

Spoon into bowls and put in the fridge to stiffen.

Decorate if you wish, but let's be honest... it's cream & chocolate... just enjoy it!

Recharged

We got quite a bit done this weekend, almost without noticing it... I like that!

I even managed to catch up on some sleep, so I truly feel recharged and ready to tackle another week now.

I spent quite some time in the kitchen, making soup (for Tuesday), cake (approved by everyone in the family) and hummous (not in love) among things. There was no rush, which was lovely.

And we not only got a Christmas tree, but decorated it as well. On the 11th of December! A very rare happening. I will post photos tomorrow, it looks a bit like a carnival -in the drunken hours of the night :)

Fridays

As part of the Calendar series there was a little interview with me published on Whip Up: welcome anyone who hasn't been here before!

I truly love my new Friday routine. Friday is now the day that I do our weekly shopping (I wrote about it here). Today I spent quite a long time planning our meals for next week. It was very relaxing and fun.

I simply start by taking a white sheet of paper and writing down the days of the week. Saturday and Wednesday are easy to fill in, because they are always the same. On Saturday we have our traditional pancakes (made by Michel). On Wednesday it's spaghetti (also made by Michel, because I'm at work). Tuesday is a bit of a hectic day where we cannot all eat together, so we usually have soup or something like that.

To fill in the rest of the days I first check what I still have in stock that I can use. Today I found asparagus, chickpeas and pumpkin. I googled recipes until I found some that I liked to try. I'm starting to really enjoy this kind of puzzling!

When I have a complete week menu planned I make my shopping list. I write down everything that I need for the meals and I check off my basic list that I keep in my pantry. Lastly, I checked the offers of my supermarket, so that I don't miss out on any good deals.

This afternoon I added two new things to my schedule. They are small things, but important nonetheless. The first thing is that before I go shopping I clean my fridge. By the end of the week it's become pretty empty which makes it easier. It really is a light task, but not one that was part of my routine yet.

Another thing that I started doing as of today is to take the empty glass bottles with me to the recycling bin. It's something that I hate to do and tend to leave for far too long. However, if I just do it every week then there will never be a lot of glass, will there? I felt really pleased about myself ;)

For the groceries I set myself a budget of 100 euros per week. Until now I've managed to stick to my budget, although it was a close call today. I'm curious to know how much other families spend on their weekly shopping, I haven't really been able to find that out on the internet. I don't think 100 euros is a particularly tight budget and in coming weeks I think I will lower it slightly.

With all these changes cooking has become such a pleasure for me again. There is no more stress involved: I have a plan and I simply stick to that. It's obvious that the rest of the family benefits from it as well.

My new calendar is waiting to be used... just a few more weeks and I can go overboard with more organisation!!

Have a good weekend, everyone!