Howling at the Moon

 Of all the things I made this year, Crocheted Scrunchie s were the biggest hit. My daughter wears them all the time, in her hair and/or on her arm, so I thought Christmas Scrunchies would be nice, too.  I'm happy to say my duaghter thinks this Christmas variety 'is just as great as the regular, no mom, even better'!  My daughter is thirteen now, so I'm wondering if it will last very much longer, that enthusiasm over mom made things, but I hope it does, because I really enjoy making things for my daughters.   How I made them: Round 1: 40 dc around a regular hair elastic, close with a slip stitch in the first sc (40) Change color Round 2: chain 2 (counts as the first dc), 2 dc in the same stitch, 3 dc in every sc of the previous round, close with a slip stitch in the chain stitch (120) Change color Round 3: chain 2 (counts as the first dc), 1 dc in the same stitch, 2 dc in every dc of the previous round,close with a slip stitch in the chain stitch (240) Chang...

Maybe you've noticed that I'm a couple of weeks behind with my Made It posts. Happens every time I announce to make the Spanish Omelette. I've tried to make one at least six times, I don't exaggarate, but it just didn't end up well. The omelette sticked to the pan every single time and I had to scrape it off.  So, here's my question to you: what am I doing wrong?!! I really hope you can help me out here, because the fact is: I LOVE Spanish omelette!!  For now: no picture to show you.  ~*~ For next week I would like to make this delicious sounding Maple Syrup/Brown Sugar/Pecan Pound Cake ! Hope this will turn out better!

This week I made the Pumpkin Bread not once, but twice. The first time I found the bread so delicious that I only wanted more. The second time however, the bread didn't come off as well as the first time. Also delicious, but less delicious. A bit dry or something. Maybe not enough mashed pumpkin in it.   ~*~ It's time for something hearty after all the sweetness of the last weeks, so I want to make a Spanish omelette . I tried this lots and lots of time, but the omelette never came out of the skillet in one piece. But I'm stubborn and will try again this week!  

Fall = Apple Pie, that's a fact since my youth. In two months my whole family had their birthday and every time my mother baked an apple pie. When I was young I didn't particularly like them very much, because my mother put raisins in it and that spoiled the whole pie, in my young opinion. Now that I'm an adult I still don't like raisins in apple pie, but the good thing is that I can decided to leave them out now.  The Classic Dutch Apple Pie Recipe below is perfect! And because I like the crust the most, I made extra dough for a thick crust that covers the whole cake. ~*~ Next week I would like to make a Pumpkin Bread , so my daughters can take some to school. They're not allowed to eat sweets and cookies at school. but when we name it bread, we can play dumb.

This week I tried the Date Nut Bread . It was good, delicious even, but not the sort of thing that I will make as a regular snack to take to school. Too sweet. More something I would serve with coffee.  ~*~ Fall is coming and although I like cooking and baking in general, Fall recipes are my favorite. In Fall I spend many hours in the kitchen. This week I found a recipe for Classic Dutch Apple Cake . You can eat apple cake the whole year through, of course, but when I was young the apples from the orchard around our house were gathered around this time and we ate lots of dishes, cakes, desserts with apples in it. In my mind Apple Cake will forever be associated with Fall. 

Now that holidays are over and everything is back to normal, I'm ready to keep up with Made It and post weekly, mostly on Fridays.  This week I had planned to make the Thai Green Curry Noodle Soup , also called Ramen. My husband and I are big fans of Thai food, but my children aren't, because of the spicyness, or prickly food as they call it. But every once in a while I make what my husband and I like and my daughters have rolls with peanut butter. Before we finished our bowl, we decided that this dish definitely had to be transferred to the 'Recipes to Keep-list'! ~*~ My daughters eat lunch at school everyday. Most of the time my husband packs lunch for them, because I leave much earlier for work than he does, but on the days that I'm off I make their lunch box and I always try to put something different in it. Cookies, Italian Ciabatta, French Croissants, muffins, you name it. This week I want to make a Date Nut Bread . Delicious, I hope, b...

For my daughter's birthday my parents came over to celebrate with her, because on the big day itself she will be on summer camp. To make the day a bit more festive I baked a Lemon Olive Oil Cake . The taste was good, but the cake was a bit dry though. Luckily I made whipped cream/mascarpone cream for the cake and added a bunch of blueberries on top and that made the whole a bit more moist. ~*~ For next week I will make a Thai Green Curry Soup . Don't you love all the rich flavours from the Thai cuisine? And it doesn't take a lot of time to make. Perfect!

Making these Earl Grey Cookies was something I was really looking forward to, because I love the smell and taste of black tea (the fruity teas are something that I don't like at all, though). Best thing about these cookies, is that they're really simple to make. Just a normal cookies recipe, but with mixed in tea from tea bags. Love it!   ~*~ What I want to make for next week is a Lemon Olive Oil Cake . Because my daughter is on summer camp while she has her birthday, some family is coming over to celebrate the big day earlier, and I think that's a good moment to serve the cake.    

Finally I didn't forget to take a picture of the Pasta Pesto . I made this dish each week the last three weeks, but only this week I remembered to click so I could show you the result.  Instead of pinenuts I used pecans, but that's the only thing I altered. The best thing about this recipe is that it's ready in only ten minutes!     ~*~ My favorite tea flavour is Earl Grey, I really don't like fruit flavours and such in my tea. Maybe a bit of lemon, but that's it. Earl Grey Cookies sound like the best company for a cup of Earl Grey Tea, so that's what I'm going to try this week! After three months of sunshine every day without one drop of rain, there's rain in the forecast and that asks for tea and cookies.  

I've been looking for fresh rhubarb for a couple of weeks now to make the Rhubarb Upside Down Cake recipe , but I gave up.  I only found it once this year and that was it. For some reason, maybe too expensive, maybe nobody else but me buys rhubarb nowadays, but no supermarket in this town sells it. So  in the end I made you an alternative recipe that I used on my other  blog a couple of weeks ago. Instead of fresh rhubarb I used rhubarb compote from a jar. The compote doesn't give the beautiful pink color like the fresh rhubarb does, but the taste was excellent! * * * Next week I would like to make Pesto Pasta . Seems like a rather simple and really  fast prepared meal.

One of my favorite summer vegetables (or is it a fruit?) is rhubarb, so I was really looking forward to making this Rhubarb Strawberry Smoothie ! It's even better than I thought! ~*~ Next: Rhubarb Upside Down Cake , because I have plenty of rhubarb left to make more rhubarb recipes!

The Mango/Coconut/Lime Pops that I made this week were a big hit. To be honest: I didn't expect something else. Ice Pops are among the very favorite foods of my two daughters.  The win for me in this case, is that the pops are completely made of fresh fruits. ~*~ While ice pops are one of the favorite foods of my daughers, a favorite of mine is rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of many that my beloved grandmother grew in her vegetable garden and when I think of rhubarb, my grandmother pops into my head immediately. I'm a vegetarian and am always on the lookout for renewing recipes. I follow a Dutch blog, called De Hippe Vegetarier (meaning The Trendy Vegetarian) and that's where I found this delicious recipe for Rhubarb Raspberry Smoothie . 

Last week I couldn't post the intended recipe of the Stir Fried Thai Style Tofu , because of a flash visit to Menora, so you I owed you this one.  I made the dish exactly as was told in the recipe and although I love Thai food because of all the different flavours, this curry was just bland. Didn't make it to the to keep-list.  ~*~ A couple of weeks ago I bought molds for ice pops and now that it's hot most of the days here in The Netherlands, I'm on the search for ice pop recipes. I think ice pops are a great way to make my daughters eat fruit, so let's start with those Mango/Coconut/Lime Pops . 

The Baklava I made was a great success. But although the whole family liked it, I ate most of it myself. Sorry, just couldn't stop myself!  I always thought making baklava was a lot of work, but it didn't take that much time, actually. And look at that beautiful plate that I bought a couple of years ago, when I was in Istanbul. Finally in use.  ~*~ Next week I want to make something healthy! I found a great looking recipe with Tofu and Thai Red Curry. Sounds great to the vegetarian in me!  

Although it's almost June already, I still have the Coffee Frappe review for you. We went for a Spring Break Vacation and came back this week, which is the reason for the delay. I only used the vanilla ice cream, the chilled coffee and the milk in the original recipe. I don't really like overly sweet things, so I skipped the syrup. And because I want the Frappe something that can be made really fast and that I can drink in between chores, standing at the kitchen counter, I didn't use whipped cream with cocoa either. Just these three ingredients in the blender for a couple of minutes and ready. ~*~ For next week I want to make a Baklava . In our neighborhood sits a Turkish bakery where I usually get my fresh Baklava, but I always wanted to try to make my own once. 

Every now and then we have a family movie night in our house and this time I made the Hazelnut Orange Carrot Cupcakes to go with the coffee and tea. We all loved them, so I guess I will be making them again some day.  ~*~ We've have some hot days here in april, and I mean really hot for april, as in 28 degrees Celsius hot,  and what I really wanted then was Coffee Frappe, but it was only this week that I came across a recipe. Could have actively searched for it of course, but before I had thought about that, I found a recipe by coincidence. So..., Coffee Frappe for next week!

And here's a picture of one of the many, many Chai Teas that I made this week! Such a great recipe this is! An absolute recommend!   ~*~ My muffin tin was rusty and old (not that strange after twenty years of frequent use), so I bought a new one a couple of days ago. That means that I was on the look out for nice cupcake recipes this week and I found this one with hazelnuts, orange, carrots and cream cheese. Sounds like a great combi! You can find the recipe for this Hazelnut Carrot Orange Cupcakes here . 

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~   This week I took the difficult task on me to make Lemon Macarons . I've made macarons before, just one time, and although those looked like macarons, I found it a bit of an effort to get the right result.  The ones I showed you last week, the Lemon Macarons, looked so delicious and I so love the taste of lemons, that I wanted to give it another try.  Well, what shall I say... The taste was great and everything I expected, but the way they looked, well, I don't know...  The one below is the one that looked the best:   ~*~ After coffee with a lot of milk (aka Latte Macchiato) my favorite drink is tea with a lot of milk, especially spiced tea, so I was delighted when I found this recipe for Chai Latte ! Can't wait to make it!...

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~   Look at this beautiful flower cup that I inherited from my grandmother! The Sesame Cookies that I made this week look so nice on the saucer, don't you think? Inside the cup is written 'August' in gold, because that's the month she was born in. I gave it to her when I was a child and when she died, also in August, a week before she would turn 84 actually, I got it back. I never use it, too afraid to break it, just this time to show you the cookies.  Oh, by the way: the cookies were great, too! ~*~ I saw this great looking Lemon Macarons and you all know I love lemons, so although it takes a lot of time and effort to make macarons, I will give it a try the upcoming week.

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~  One of the best recipes of this year, I already know now, is this Snack Mix. In the Netherlands people are totally not known with the phenomenon 'Snack Mix', so this was the first time I ate it, but I'm hooked and this will definitely be a regular feature of the Movie Nights my family has every once in a while. I made mine with a mix of salt cookies, mini pretzels, crackers that I broke in smaller pieces and different nuts. In a little sauce pan I melted salted butter and mixed it with garlic. The melted butter I mixed with the little snacks and the snacks I spread out on a baking tin. I baked the mix for about half an hour on 180 degrees Celsius. Not much work at all, so you see, but the best movie snack ever! ~*~ Since I've two boxes of sesame seeds,...