Antiques Market

The chestnuts are steadily growing on the trees at the playground, so that means it is time for the annual antiques market in town. This Sunday it was time to spend all that carefully saved pocket money (BIG grin!!!)!

And people, let the baking season begin! I found a whole bunch of lovely kitchen utensils.
I guess soon it will be meringue time. With those whisks that will become peanuts. It has a lovely little nut wood handle that charmed me away.
I also found a nice cooling rack, so now there will be plenty of room for cooling fresh baked cookies.
And my personal topper, the one I was hunting for: The Madeleine baking moulds. I needed some that would fit my too small oven. I'm not only a little city mama, but a little kitchen mama as well I must confess.
That leaves us with the lovely art deco glass bowl I found. It is a Val Saint Lambert bowl and it is such a deep and rich yellow... it was love at first site. Strange for me, because normally I don't have an eye for glass. I'm more into pottery and glazes.
The bowl proudly adorns our dinner table. Now what to do with it... fruit bowl...salad bowl...desert bowl?

The weather is just fine.

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.

Weekending

Just a sheet over the table would do fine I thought...

But before I knew, my beloved took over and Miss E. had a 3-room villa with a covered terrace as a tent. Porch light present!

Have a happy weekend!