Two

The hardest part was waiting for the birthday girl to arrive! What a blessed day it was. A lovely party underneath the play ground tree. A lovely company of friends new and old. Thank you for this beautiful day, thank you sharing this beautiful life we live.

Happy birthday my sweetheart!

Salvation

You know how big gardening warehouses sell little dried out Christmas Star plants (Poinsettia / Euphorbia pulcherrima) at Christmas? They all stand there in lines in crates and most of 'em look kind of o.k. and the grabby crowd throws them in their carts anyway because it is Christmas. And then there are three or so standing there... Nobody wants them 'cause they are just to ugly by neglect, maltreatment and grabby customer hands that have hold them and put them away a thousand or so times....??????

You know? 

I am that person who will always adopt the most ugly of the bunch. 

I like to salvage things that have been neglected and give them a new home. 

And so I came to be the proud owner of my favorite wooden bowl, which has the destination of dough kneading bowl, dusty and covered in paint spots it was, and my latest foundling: my mezza luna. She was covered in a thick layer of rust and paint daubs here and there. 

After some tough love, which included the handling of various grind supplements, she has started her new life in our kitchen. 

Now I already praised pasta pesto in a previous post. But that will be what we are eating tonight. Finely chopped with our new "Mezza".

To the mill

Last weekend there were the Molendagen (Mill- days) when you can visit some of the most beautiful monumental mills in the Netherlands. We were touring and just stumbled upon this beautiful mill on the outskirts of our town. In which the little city I live in is great: we have at least three working mills in and around this city. 

The one that lies mid-town, grinds biological grown spelt that grows in a city nearby. So this is a very honest local product. And I just love the taste of spelt. 

The view of the surrounding hills was spectacular. We visited this mill and got a beautiful tour.

And then back home there were brown spelt-buns to be made of course!

Ingredients:
250 gr whole grain spelt flour
250 gr all purpose flour
8-10 gr dry yeast
20 gr butter
10 gr salt
275 ml milk

I just love the view of those two different kinds of flour in that bowl!

I let the yeast soak in a bit of the milk for 10 minutes, then I made a starter with the yeast and warm milk by mixing it in with most of the flour, I let it rise for 30 minutes, then mixed the rest of the flour, salt and softened butter and kneaded again. I let it rise till it doubled in proportion. Punched it flat, made buns and let them rise till they got 1 1/2 to 2 times bigger. Then I baked the buns in the oven at 230 C for about 30 minutes.

Bon appetite! Hope you had a lovely weekend as well!

Weekending

It was a very busy and extra long weekend for us, so there was a lot of serious Weekending to be done.

Yesterday it was Queens Day or Koninginnedag in celebration of our queen and a national Holiday.

Every where in the Netherlands there were flea markets, mainly occupied by mothers and their children, selling the toys and kids stuff they have out grown, including the contents of cellars and attics. 

When I was four I stood on a flea market selling my toys with my big nephew and when she is old enough it will be miss E's turn and I will be one of the moms overseeing the spectacle. 

This year we went into the hunt with one special item on our wish list: a nice seat for Miss E. and scored within the first hour to our content. We are two vintage school-seats richer and one mom somewhere is celebrating the space in her home with two seats less.

There were picnics to be had: scones with Mascarpone and jam, quiche with grapes and cucumber and cherry tomatoes. So there were also a few late night baking sessions.

The day before it was Spring Festival on the mountain. The shepherd brought his flock and lambs that were born that same morning to see and touch. There were all kind of ecological market stalls. 

And now this busy mama is going to close her eyes and count some sheep herself. It was a wonderful weekend; I hope it was the same for you too.