Mia's Memories: Season 1 Episode 1

Hello! I'm sorry for the delay in posts, but I do hope this post makes up for it. You see, the main reason for the delay is because my sibling have been working tirelessly on our TV series - Mia's Memories -  so we've all been preoccupied.

This episode, the first one, is by now means a classic. It is full of errors, poor footage, but it is real. The entire movie really happened and we didn't do every thing we did for show. We would have done it anyway, and most of it is by no means acting. I hope you enjoy it, as we all worked so hard on it. We hope to complete the next episode in a week or less.

Pizza!

Hello! For the past few days I've been asking my mom if I could make homemade pizza, but for one reason or another, we couldn't. But today my mom offered the idea and I immediately snatched it up!  I ran into the kitchen and searched for a recipe. After much thought and advice from my mom, I selected a recipe that we've used before and enjoyed.

First, throw together all the dry ingredients.

Then mix 'er up...

Add the water...

Add the oil and honey...

After you mix it... let it rise.

Spred it out...

Bake the crust, throw on some toppings, bake it again and there it is!

Just look at the glory of that pizza! I am passionate about (cheese) pizza, and this pizza was a huge hit for me! My family is happy and full, we finished off our night by watching a couple episodes of Rick Steve's travel shows. What more could one want?

(For the recipe, go to here for a nearly the same recipe, or email me at miasusan@comcast.net for the differences)

Bye!

Hot Cocoa: Then and Now

For my family hot chocolate stands for many things. It stands for Christmas Eve, opening the gifts we all made for each other, it stands for cold winter days, when we're chilled to the bone from playing in the snow, and it stands for fun times shared with our stuffed animals.

Today my mom is making our classic hot cocoa mix, and I'd like to take this opportunity to compare our hot chocolate making process before we knew that we were moving, and right now.

The first time I posted about this was in November....

Oh Yes! I used my delightful Mug! Bless you hot cocoa mug!

Oh man! November CAN be bleak! But June in the Netherlands can be bleak too I guess...

The Second time I posted about hot cocoa was on A Photo Guide to My Day. Yes... but unfortuanately only the first twenty pictures are of making hot cocoa.

The third and last time that I posted about the hot cocoa was on My Day in 20 Minutes.

Today, for snack during homeschool, we had hot cocoa and some delicous rolls with chocolate chips in them. The hot cocoa is still as good as ever, and I'm dying to have another mug full. In the meantime, I have several book reviews to write!

Tot ziens!

(pronounced: tote zeens)

(translation: good bye in Dutch)

Raindrops on Roses

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things"

Perhaps you recognize this verse from the movie, The Sound of Music. I love these beautiful words, but I, like my family, don't really feel afraid of storms. As one of my favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time,  states, "Wild nights are my glory!" and I most certainly agree.

Tonight, I was working on a homework assignment when Sadie, Ella, and Abe came in. You see, my room has become the headquarters for al of the children's meetings, and although I'm proud of it, at the moment I was quizzical and slightly annoyed. Then they pointed out the storm. 

It was a big one, with great gales of wind and water sloshing everywhere. In our genes, there is a love for storms, so we got out our stuffed animals and started making camp for them in the open window sills. 

Next, as a result of the open windows, we got cold so we piled into my wonderful, queen, bed. Sadie and I wrote and Ella and Abe chatted through their stuffed animals.

As I said before, we got cold, and after the blankets did nothing, we went to go get a help that we could trust... hot cocoa! We sipped our hot cocoa, chatted, and basically thought about the Sound of Music, and what we used to do when we drank hot cocoa.

What can I say? I've already said it in this post and in another post: bad weather = need for comfort. Although I love storms, one of the reasons I love them is because of the ways I attempt to get comfort through them. As I said in an earlier post called Comfort Food, sad times call for comfort food- which for us depends on what exactly seems comforting at the moment.

Tonight for dinner we're having 

• Tortellini Soup
•  Good Old American Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• Hot coco!

I know... it's nothing fancy, but for a rainy night... it'll do. 

Altogether, this meal was a hit for our family, and we are all thoroughly comforted and full!

Pannenkoeken Recipe

Hello! This is Mia Susan posting to you live from the Netherlands. The Netherlands has had a great influence on my whole famiy: the way people conserve energy, the way the Dutch  conserve space, and so forth. However, today I must say that food is the main topic.

Firstly, I must state the difference between pancakes and pannenkoeken (pan-uh-koke-uh.) Pancakes are a form of flat cake that are sweet, cakey, and are usually served with butter and syrup. But pannenkoeken are similar to Swedish pancakes and crepes in the way that they are large, flat, and served with stroep. (strope) Stroep is Dutch for syrup in the way that pannenkoeken is Dutch for pancakes, but, as with pannenkoeken, there is a critical difference.

For one thing, stroep is much thicker, sweeter, and a drizzle is more that enough for an extra sweet serving. If an American put the normal  amount of syrup for them in stroep on pannenkoeken, well, after all their teeth decayed, it wouldn't  be pretty.

Recently, my family found the most wonderful pannenkoeken recipe ever, and we like to serve it with Nutella, powdered suger, stroep, and the occasional slagroom (slog-room) or whipped cream.

You will need :

•  A non-stick pan the size of your desired pannenkoek (makes 1 large/ 2 medium/ 4 small)
• 1 cup flour
• salt
• 2 large eggs or 3 medium eggs
• 1 cup milk 
• at least 1/4 cup butter or margarine

Put the flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the middle and add melt the beaten eggs. Mix into a smooth batter. Add the rest of the milk. Melt half the butter in a heavy skillet. Pour the batter into it. Turn the pancakes frequently, each time add some butter. They should become golden brown and crisp at the sides.

Enjoy!

These pannenkoeken have sustained us through some pretty hard times, and I know they'll do the same for you! I like to add a ton of powdered sugar, Nutella, and a drizzle of stroep, and then I like to roll it up, put lots more stroep on the top and cut it up! Now that's my kind of taco :~)

(No credit to me!!!!! All credit must go to our genius cookbook, Dutch Cooking by Helen A. M. Halverhout!)