dutch marginal

Heb jij ook al zo vaak geprobeerd om heerlijke Oud-Hollandse pepernoten te maken en worden het altijd meer kruidnoten? Een paar jaar geleden ontdekte ik dit recept en sindsdien lukt het altijd. Inmiddels heb ik het recept een beetje aangepast, maar het gaat vooral om de manier van maken. De smaak kun je variëren met wel of niet wat speculaaskruiden, meer suiker, roggebloem ... Weeg 190 gram volkoren smeltbloem af. Voeg 190 gram gebuild tarwebloem toe (80%). Voeg 75 gram maizena toe. Voeg een zakje bakpoeder toe, of zoveel bakpoeder als nodig is voor 400 gram bloem. Voeg 16 gram gemalen anijs toe. Giet 250 gram honing in een aparte schaal. Voeg daar 50 gram rietsuiker aan toe. Doe dit een minuutje in de magnetron. Meng nu het bloemmengsel met het honingmengsel en kneed het goed. Voeg tijdens het kneden 50 gram water toe. Als het goed gemengd is doe je het deegje in plasticfolie en leg je het een dag in de koelkast. Na 12-24 uur, als de smaken getrokken zijn, brokkel je het deeg en voeg ...

life takes turns, sometimes unforeseen, sometimes planned, sometimes both. challenge is to change with life and keep strong and happy. easy said though. so your life takes a big turn with kids, life is in a stormy unforeseen weather and both parents have to cope but above all have to keep up a relationship. do you take holidays together without kids, do you support each other if you differ in emotions and decisions, or do you flee away in living from day to day and maybe losing what was once yours. what is a relationship? 1. a connection, association, or involvement. 2. connection between persons by blood or marriage; kinship. 3. an emotional or other connection between people. 4. a romantic or sexual involvement. if you take the last choice in live, flee away in everyday life and let yourself flow with the stream, the second definition still keeps up, you are still related, married maybe. definition 1 is also partly still standing, you are connected, but involved? and then de...

a few years ago i never thought i would ever be able to read about cruelties in literature en watch films or news about the horrible wars and illnesses, without getting depressed. but what a surprise. as i grow older and my kids do too, i relearn to appreciate literature, films and news again for what they are. a representation of our real world. this must have been due to my maternal instinct. as long as my kids needed protection from those subjects, i banned them as much as i could from my world too. now that they have to get to know more and more about the truth of the world and not of hogwarts or other fantasy worlds, i reopen. i must say, that is quite a relief for me. i felt restricted, not being able to handle the world to her full extent. but then again. i read a lot of youth literature i now no longer have time for.

from  designmom as a real reuser, recycler and upcycler, i searched before for the reuse of the sad pencils that do not work anymore. at that time i did not find much that i could use, but now you get a treasure chest full of ideas like this one: pencil ideas . i am decided for the following project to fulfill: pencil jewelry .

having a period of real marginality. what really matters in live? maybe the small things you can do for your family? think of mrs jellyby in dickens' bleak house and know that it is not being generous to others and forgetting the close ones. so up and busy with the house, clothes, little crafts, plants and show a good humour and some charity to your beloved ones. and if you have time left or you do not have many around you, start finding others to help. and while being outside for this or that, pick up that bit of trash everyday. it really helps.

i never heard of the post concussion syndrome (pcs), until my son had a (light) concussion for the fourth time and had already twice been at home for three months, with severe pain and headache. you can imagine, we were desperate, the fourth time and luckily, the doctor gave it a new name and i could search the internet for treatment. as rest (the first period of three months) did not work fast, and rest combined with a painkiller scheme (the second period) neither bring much relieve and now i read that exercise and moving could not make it worse (our big fear), we decided to physical therapy (after consulting the doctor for consent). i choose remedial therapy (cesar and mensendieck) as they give pain therapy too. the therapist gave a scheme of rest, exercise and just doing things he liked, but not rest, to relax and strengthen the neck muscles. and how happy we were, that after a few weeks instead of a few months, my son was happy and almost painless again. a theory behind thi...

i was reading a calvin and hobbes book yesterday and recognized a lot now, while before, i just enjoyed it. so beware, before you have children, read calvin and hobbes and remember to enjoy it, realizing that you will recognize it later. do not loose your sense of humor and keep your patience. and if again, your house is a mess remember this funny quote from phyllis diller on children: 'cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.'

if you are super sensitive for motion, you probably already tried a lot of cures. as i do not like to take medicines and would like to enjoy travelling more, i renewed my search for a cure. last week i made candied ginger, as ginger still seems to be the best way to feel as less sick as possible. my son tried out. it is delicious and really diminished the sickness a lot. the only disadvantage was the ginger being really hot. now, after a week, it has become somewhat softer in taste. so try it out yourself. use a more healthy sugar like raw cane sugar or another sweetener if you prefer. the recipe i used: 1 ginger root, peeled and sliced add water (1 cup per 100 mg of ginger) cover and cook for 35 minutes or until tender drain the ginger, keeping the water weigh the ginger and add as much sweetener reheat the ginger, water and sweetener and keep stirring until the sugar (re)crystallizes (20 minutes) transfer to a cooling rack with backing sheet underneath and let dry the res...

did you ever hear of regrowing new vegetables from the scraps? i just came by regrowing carrot tops into new plants and discovered that you can regrow so much. of course we tried out seeds from vegetables and fruits before, even grew our own date palm but from scraps is something new to us. check out the internet if you are interested in doing so too.

i hate spoiling food so i always buy carrots without the greens on though then the greens probably have been thrown away anyway. but now, my daughter brought a big bundle of carrots with the green leafs from her own garden. reason to find out what to do with the green tops. and guess what. a world of recipes opened up, like pasta sauce, pesto, salad ... take a look yourself on the internet. and then to know it is very healthy, full of vitamins and minerals and even proteins. by the way, did you know you can also use the green leaves of cauliflower?

around this time, you wonder why the sweet chestnuts are delicious and the horse chestnuts, that almost look alike, should not be eaten. i promised my daughter to find out, so now i understand that sweet chestnuts come from the castanea family of trees while the horse chestnut comes from a totally different aesculus family. the horse chestnut is very bitter to us humans and even poisonous, while squirrels and deers love them. the horse chestnut tree is beautiful though, while flowering and during autumn. and the chestnuts we can use in crafting, like making a spiderweb, while eating the delicious sweet lookalikes. both chestnuts have medicinal properties. maybe in a next post more on that topic or just google yourself if you are curious.

living is about balance. balance for our body to stay fit. balance in our relations to stay happy, free and loving. balance in our lives to have enough love, beauty and goodness to counterbalance the pain and uglyness of our world. just because nature gives us no longlasting happy end but keeps on going. our challenge, to keep our balance.

doubting about having children or not? don't if: you are very sensitive you can't handle unfair critics you don't like injustice you don't like grumbling you love peace you prefer to be friendly you love to dream away you hate the wrongs in the world

some parents are lucky to have a child that loves doing homework and do it in time. some parents, like me, have a child that loves to dream, play, know every conversation in the house (and in school), cook, invent etc, but does not love to do homework and if he does, not in time. some tips therefore: put on some studying music on you-tube (easy to find) sit besides your child, available for questions or to remind him/her of the work put a kitchen timer at 10 or 15 minutes to create sense of time and what you can do in that time when you work concentrated try to make the work interesting by telling stories that matter, or showing movies at dinner time or in the evening if your child does not comprehend the stuff he or she has to learn, try to consider it from another point of view; for example, math matters can be explained in several ways (visualization, storytelling, or real-life examples). or bring history to life with a book, a piece of art or real life examples (because his...

nothing so relaxing as reading children's books. kameleon, dolfje weerwolfje, harry potter, charlie and the chocolate factory, the wizard of oz. wonderful. compare that to the literature of luigi pirandello, adult stories of roald dahl. fantastic but depressing. what do we do when growing up to deserve these negative reviews of live.

9 years old and angry. he does not want to be like the others but he does not want te be different. life can be quite hard to like. and what can i do about it. stay patient, be creative and be happy. and wait until he finds his own way, knowing that we love him.

while we long for a short schoolday with a long afternoon, the majority (in fact only 1 parent voted with me) of the parents voted for the child care services during lunch and a longer school schedule. too bad for us. the chance of a contiunous school schedule had now disappeared. but well, the school director also prefers the child care services at lunchtime as he thinks that a longer schoolday means more working hours. he is the expert so i should not grieve too much.

i gave him away, just like that. because i let him go, just like that. he was so cheerful. he was so tense. he was so playing. with my love he was one. he was sweet. he was difficult. he was too much. life hurts. he was not mine. and i let him go. life hurts

should we protect our children from the little accidents that lure in all corners? we do not. we teach them the risks and give them responsibility. of course my heart bounces sometimes but to live is a taking a big risk.