Pancake supper

The Dutch LOVE their pancakes or "pannenkoek" as they call it.  The Dutch pannenkoek is very much like the french crêpes.  It is much thinner than the "North American" pancake.  The Dutch do not eat these for breakfast, however, this is purely a supper meal. Specialty pannenkoek restaurants can be found through out the Netherlands in huge quantities, they really take their pannenkoeken seriously.  As a topping they will often add bacon, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, Turkish meats, apples, strawberries,  or anything else they can think of.  Commonly eaten with "stroop" (syrup), sugar (brown or confectionery), "appel stroop" (a very thick syrup that tastes like apple) or jam.  The desired size?  The bigger the better!  There is a true technique to eating these too...  particularly the plain ones are rolled up and eaten like wrap.  Plain ones can be found pre-made ready to eat in packages in the grocery stores but they are never as good as fresh made ones. 

As a Canadian we try to have (North American styled) pancake breakfast at least once a month with maple syrup (of course).  When ever we have the children's friends sleep over they think we are crazy for eating (what they think is) supper for breakfast but they never seem to complain while they devour the thick pancakes.  We do have Dutch pannenkoeken once in awhile but not enough because they are LEKKER (delicious).

Pannenkoeken


Ingredients:

• 250 grams of Flour 
• 2 Cups of Milk 
• 2 Eggs 
• 3 teaspoons of Sugar 
• Dash of Salt 
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract 
• Oil , to brush your Pan with so they don't stick

Directions:
Mix the flour and milk together until smooth. Add the eggs, sugar, and salt. Mix together until smooth. (optional let the batter rest for 30 minutes for optimal results)
Heat up the largest frying pan you own on medium heat. Brush the oil onto the pan. Pour batter in ensuring a thin round circle covering the whole bottom of pan evenly.  Cook until batter sets and is golden on the bottom, usually about 1-2 minutes. Flip the pancake and cook until golden on the other side, another minute or so. Add any preferred toppings (ie bacon, ham cheese peppers etc) serve with stroop or sugar. 


Eet smakelijk!



Edited to add :

All this pancake talk had my husband craving pancakes (American ones) so I woke up this morning to very tasty pancakes.

Here is the exact recipe he used and trust me they were the best we have ever had!!!


Fluffy pancakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Our Dutch boys are home!

Our Soccer boys played really well but yet were defeated in the last few minutes in over time against Spain making the score 1:0.  With their tails between their legs, the very sorry soccer players arrived back in the Netherlands yesterday.  Today their day was packed with a meet with the Queen, press conference, canal tour and a salute celebrations "de Huldiging".  I am sure after they saw over 500,000 people show up to the celebrations, their confidence were renewed! Our boys may not have come home with the world cup but they certainly put up a fight for it!






Sorry the video is in Dutch - This video was thanks to our media but it was to give you an idea of how much of a hype our boys in orange are. They may not have come home with the world cup but in my eyes they are winners all the way!!

The Biggest Water Falls in Holland!

The weather was piping HOT here this weekend.  It was 30 plus degrees and sticky humid.  So we decided to go to the biggest water falls in Holland to cool off.  The Loenen water falls, 15 km from Apeldoorn.

Now coming from Ontario, Canada and driving distance from Niagara falls, we would visit the falls often and still do on our trips back to Canada.  Canada is full of hills, mountains and drop offs..... and the Netherlands full of .... well flat flowing ground.  Did you really expect them to have a huge water falls?   The actual size of the waterfalls might surprise you.... or not!

The girls enjoyed cooling off their feet while walking to the falls

There are a total of four steps to the waterfalls - the fourth step is closed off to walk beside but it is about half the size of the rest seen in the picture above.  The total hight of the falls is about15 meters tall. 

Hmph not very impressive compared to Niagara falls?  Maybe not but it is a different type of experience.  Niagara falls is completely over run by tourists and will always be that way.  The Loenen waterfalls will (hopefully) always keep it's natural beauty in the middle of the forest where you can take a long walk and enjoy the pure serenity of nothing but the leaves blowing in the wind.  

Even Daisy enjoyed enjoyed the day out and met a few friends a long the way...

The lovely walk we had to the falls was ended by a delicious ice cream cone. How could we not make a perfect ending out of this day? There is an ice cream van in the parking lot to the waterfalls but we decided to go into town where we could sit and enjoy an ice cream (from the same company as the ice cream van). 

Orange you Glad?

The Netherlands soccer team (football) is through to the finals!  They just played a very exciting game against Uruguay and came out winning 3:2. If only you could hear the partying going on in my street right now as I type this (yes I guess I prefer to sit here and type this then to party in the streets). Cars are honking their horns, squealing their tires. Fireworks are being shot off, vuvuzelas are being blown at full force and the out of tone singing of drunken men set the perfect tone for an after game win party!

Now on to the Finals either against Spain or their rivals, the Germans.  The last time the Dutch played the Germans in the finals was in 1974 and unfortunately lost. I have confidence that they can take it ORANGE all the way!!!

Even Daisy was sporting an orange bandanna to support her favorite Dutch team!

Amsterdam canals

If you live in the Netherlands or visit the Netherlands, one thing you MUST do is a boat trip through the canals of Amsterdam.  For our Canada Day celebrations, a friend of mine organized a 3 hour Canadian themed boat trip with 40 Canadians (and associates) through the canals with an all you can eat BBQ incl. side dishes and all you can drink (that's usually where it goes wrong for me but that's another story).  The food was beyond delicious!

Even my dog Daisy was invited, in fact, I don't think I would have been allowed on board with out her.

I was totally surprised by the pure beauty of the canals and what was to be seen.  It was hard to socialize with everybody because there was so much to see along the side of the canals.

The Netherlands is very much known for having very little land space and because of this, many people decide to live on boat houses.  During my 9 and a half years living in the Netherlands, I have seen many boat houses but none as beautiful or modern as these.

The different boats and the different type of people that we came across on the canals is what made the trip spectacular (besides the atmosphere inside of the boat of course).

I even found my future boat ;-) 

I know where I will be next Canada Day!  Yup, celebrating it with my new found friend Mr. Moose!