New blog

Hey, long time no see!

I decided to make myself a brand new blogpage to start all over. If you are interested in reading my new blogpost, you can now find them on: greetingsfromsea.blogspot.com 
Xxx Nerissa

Macro and win!

If you follow me on instagram , you might have noticed: Recently I made A LOT of macro photo’s. Why? Because I bought four twist-on macro lenses (those things (+1/+2/+4/+10) are wayyy cheaper than a regular macro lens). You can buy those online in a set or by one, just be aware of the size of the lens you want to attach them to. To get used to the way they ‘work’ you really need to experiment for a while. And after usage this last summer holidays I absolutely love them.

I won’t share all of my photo’s in this post, just because they are too many, but if you want to, you can take a look at my flickr-account: Nerissa Smit

Now for the win: Pakk.co.uk is a site which entirely focusses on photography and everything you need for photography. This month, they give away a camera-gear-set (á  £1100). It works like this: you klick the link beneath and enter the competition. They’ll ask you to share the competition to get as many entries as possible. For every friend you refer, you get 3 more entries. In other words: the more friends you get to attend to the competition, the more chance you get yourself. And since the bundle is awesome, you have absolutely no reason not to take part. So what are you waiting for?!?!

https://pakk.co.uk/giveaways/camera-gear-give

Das Blumenmädchen

About a week ago, we arrived at a camping in Austria we had already visited in 2012. A lovely campsite with large campingspots and a -as it’s called- ‘nature-pool’, with which I mean a pool divided in two parts, a part in which lillies grow, and a part meant for swimming. And the best part? The small salamanders swimming around with you.

Since we had been to this place before -Reisach, Karinth- we didn’t quite have tp explore the environment but could start hiking straight away. And so we did. As we drove off for some local touristinformation, we found ourselves reading a pamphlet for a herb-hikingtour. We immediately were interested and eventually ended up booking a herb tour with Erika.

One day later, we found the hiking part of the tour was pretty disappointing. However, the herb part was really fun. While Erika pointed out several herbs on the way and, in German, told us everything about the healing characteristics those had,  we gathered those herbs and their flowers and stuffing them into our backpacks, which made Yara look like a flower girl. 

1,8 km futher, well, actually back at the point of department, we spread out our flowers and began forming a circle of long, thin willow branches (those things really are extremely bendable!). Having formed the skeleton of our garland-to-be, we started making little bouquets and attached those to the branches with thin metal wire again and again until the whole circle was filled with colorful flowers. If you do this yourself, make sure you use flowers that dry nicely, because after forming the flowercrown, you can lay it down on its back and let it dry before hanging it to your wall or door, or whereever you want to hang it.

Now there is only one challenge left; which is bringing our creations home without crushing them in a really full car on a 1200 km drive…
Here are some extra photo’s of the flowers we used to make the flowercrowns, just because I love the way they turned out ;p

-Nerissa 

Parksessies #1

Every year in juli, there’s an event in Haarlem,the Netherlands. Four parcsessions, which means people gathering, eating, listening to music, watching short theatershows and art. Last wednesday I first attended to this awesome event in ‘de Haarlemmerhout’. Me and my friends decided to prep a picknick and go, which resulted in a super fun but really cold evening. There’s my first point of attention: bring enough warm clothing! Second: it was awesome to have our own food with us and we probably saved ourselves quite some money, but the food offered there is just really attractive. My advice, bring some of your own foodies but save some place for the festivalfoods.

Dinner

nope, they’re not a couple, but they’re cute

tasted good 🙂

In the parc, there’s a large field on which you can lay down your plaid, relax and listen to the music present. Also, on this field, there’s placed some art and it’s surrounded by several stages and smaller events (programme available by the entry, where you can also pay a voluntary 3 euros entry).

On-field entertainment

One of my friends taking a look at the booktree; free books from the local library!

One of the performances we saw was a dance called ‘enfant’ by Sarah Ann, a wonderful American dancer. Enfant -child- is choreographed by Joeri Dubbe, klick here to see part of the performance 🙂

the beautiful Sarah Ann on stage

As I mentioned before, there are also several theatershows on the event. One of which was ‘Zazi’, a quite absurbt show built up around magic (you wouldn’t say so, but those three women fit in that box in a way you can still look through it) and performed by actors from de Toneelschuur.

A theatershow made by ‘De Toneelschuur’ (The Theaterbarn) called ‘Zazi

As you might expect, I highly recommend visiting parcsessions once!

-Nerissa

Red velvet brownies

After six years of grammar school, yesterday I finally received my diploma. And so my parents invited some family to celebrate. Since quite some family members have food allergies -mostly gluten- and lactose intolerance- I had to come up with something both gluten- and diary free. Then I remembered a tv programme in which I had seen a recipe for red velvet brownies, based on one particular ingredient; beetroot. At first I couldn’t believe this would be a nice thing to add to brownies, but once made, I changed my mind. Also, it is a great way to make people (children for instance) eat beetroot. Even my aunt, who absolutely hates beetroot, loved the brownies. I’d love to share this weird but delicious recipe with you, so here it is:

Ingredients:

• 150 g pure chocolate(70% cacao)
• 400 g cooked beetroots
  
• 1 tl vanilla extract
  
• 3  eggs (for a vegan version, you could replace those with 3 tbs chia seeds soaked in 12 tbs of water, I haven’t tried this egg replacement with this particular recipe, but it turned out to work great in an other chocolaty baked goodies)
• a bit of salt
• 250 g sugar
• 85 g almond flour (the original recipe uses 35 g flour and 50 g shredded almonds)
• 70 g cacao powder
• 2 tl baking soda

 

How to create this holy deliciousness:

Pre-heat the oven at 160 °C. Cover a oven dish (eg.21x21cm) with baking paper. Melt the chocolate au bain-marie (for the ones that aren’t familiar with this technique: you melt the chocolate in a bowl above(!) just boiling water). Remove the skin of the beetroots and mash them (try to get them as fine as possible). Add the vanilla extract to the beetroot and mix. Beat the eggs with the salt, add the sugar bit by bit and keep mixing until the eggs are light-yellow and fluffy. Carefully mix the beetroot puree and the chocolate to the eggs. Add the almond flour, baking soda and cacao powder to the mixture. Pour the mixture into the oven dish and bake for approximately 40 minutes (the original recipe says 35 minutes, but my brownies weren’t done yet by 40). Let the brownies cool down in its form for at least 30 minutes. You can now cut the brownies and top them with some cacao powder.

Buon appetit!

I noticed that the brownies taste best after a couple of hours in the fridge. They are less soft by then and easier to eat.

This recipe is originally created by Harry Eastwood, a British cook and cookbook writer (and the presentor of ‘Baking Bood, Baking Bad’).

-Nerissa

When in Wanneperveen

When you are in a place as remote as Wanneperveen, you MUST relax and be active at the same time, how? Read on!

Despite of the rain that bound us at home the first day, we got our bikes out again and drove off to Giethoorn. This time it was even more deserted than the day before, good for us 🙂 As you might have noticed in my previous blog post, I’m quite enthusiastic about Giethoorn. Why? because it is such a cute little village. The small pathways along the water are regularly interrupted by even smaller bridges. The other things that make Giethoorn so attractive are her houses, they are built in such an other style than the ‘common’ houses in the Netherlands. And last but not least, the tourists… A while ago, Giethoorn was described in a popular Japanese travel guide as one of the most representative cities of the Netherlands. This was taken over by other travel guides resulting in Giethoorn becoming one of the most popular cities in the eyes of the Asian travellers. However it’s funny to see all those tourists wandering around Giethoorn, you’ll have the constant feeling you’re being photographed. Smile!

After visiting Giethoorn once more, we cycled on through the cornfields (man, they have A LOT of corn over there) to Meppel and without notice, we crossed the ‘border’ to Drenthe, leaving Overijssel (that sounds a lot cooler than it is). Meppel definitely is worth it visiting. It isn’t very impressive and it’s not much different than every other village in Drenthe, but as soon as you enter you notice something’s different. We smelled some kind of tomato soup/cheese bread smell which our Meppel-knower told us was typical for Meppel. And the atmosphere seemed to be different, cosy. A little recommendation, well, actually two: you should definitely visit the local bakery, just because they serve simple but delicious lunches. Also, you should visit the ice cream shop (across the corner), it’s called ‘IJsmakers’ (‘ice cream producers’). They don’t offer a whole lot of choices, but whoa, the tastes they offer are soooo good and creamy! (try tony chocoloney-salted caramel)

All right, that’s it. So… relax, cycle, shop, go canoeing and eat ice cream!

-Nerissa

 

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Wanneperveen

It’s 11.47 pm., we’re sitting on the cold kitchen floor looking at a boardgame, not actually playing a boardgame. Several hours before, we arrived at the holliday shed of one of us four. We all graduated and my best friends and I decided this would be the perfect time to go on a little vacation.

Wanneperveen it would be. We already decided we would go canoeing, so this place was the right place to go since there isn’t a lack of water in this little town. Having arived to the house, we were quite hungry -duh- and found out we had a little problem. There wasn’t a oven, as we though there would be. BUT as one of my friends accidentally pressed a button on the microwave, ‘pizza’ appeared on the small display, our back-up plans were not needed. And so we eventually landed on the kitchen floor, trying to answer quiestions about the world -‘the great topography game’-.
As you might expect, we got to bed quite late and got out of bed quite late too. It turned out to be raining pretty much all day. So after we picked up our bikes and got to the grocery store in Giethoorn, it was time for another set of games. And… lucky us, it got dry after dinner, so we were able to get onto the water and canoe for a while.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but when you are in need of a relaxing holiday, you should definitely go to Wanneperveen or its surroudings some time. And don’t forget the ‘famous’ town of Giethoorn (if you don’t mind a lot, and I mean A LOT of tourists)

-Nerissa

Coconut macaroons

My grandma makes the best coconut cookies, and a while ago, I got her recipe 🙂

Lucky extra: these macaroons are gluten- and diary free and if you want even sugarfree

So…. Here is how it should be done:

Mix 300 gr flaked coconut with 275 gr sugar. Whisk 4 egg whites in another bowl until white and fluffy. Then add the egg yolks and whisk a little longer. Mix the dry ingredients with the eggs but make sure the mixture stays a bit fluffy. Plate a griddle with either baking paper or edible paper (Dutchies probably know this as ‘ouwel’ or ‘eetpapier’ :D) and use two spoons to form macaroons on the paper. Shove the griddle into the oven and wait for 15 minutes, the macaroons should now be golden brown and just right (the inside will be a bit sticky and chewy, but I love that). Let them cool down for a bit and enjoy. If you made the macaroons on edible paper, you can break the paper in pieces and leave the paper around as it is or take it away (and eat it all alone before anyone comes in to enjoy the cookies).

Tip: if you want your cookies to be sugar free, you can replace the sugar with coconut blossom sugar, just make sure you adjust the amount, since coconut blossom sugar is sweeter than normal sugar (I made them with coconut blossom sugar because of the sugar allergy a friend has, that’s why the macaroons in the photographs look a bit darker)

They also taste very good with some rhubarb lemonade ;p

 

PS: I connected our blog to bloglovin, so you can now…

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 

-Nerissa

Rhubarb

I absolutely love rhubarb in so many ways. And since today is the longest day, I take my chance and make some last-minute rhubarb foodies and drinks. What? Last-minute?

Yes! What only few people know is that after the longest day the sap stream changes direction. The leaves contain a high level of oxidic acid (that’s why you should never ever eat the rhubarb leaves) which will be transferred into the stalks. A little explanation; oxidic acid causes you to not being able to bind enough calcium. By adding chalk (calciumcarbonate) to your recipe including rhubarb, you can take care of the problem. Or you could just prevent eating too much rhubarb after the longest day, which will also help the plant to preserve enough reserve to survive until the next harvesting season. Be aware, I’m not stating you shouldn’t eat rhubarb after today at all!

 

All right, having said this, here are some awesome and delicious recipes 🙂

Rhubarb crumble

Heat the oven at 180 °C. Clean a couple of rhubarb stalks and cut them in one cm long pieces. Also cut some strawberries in quarters. Mix those ingredients and fill the bottom of a medium/large oven dish. Scatter some sugar and vanilla seeds on top of the mixture (just as much as you like). In a bowl, mix 75 gr sugar, 75 gr oatmeal, 75 gr almond flour and 60 gr butter. Once mixed, spread evenly over the rhubarb and strawberries. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes (until the crumble is golden brown). Bon appetit!

PS: you can also divide the ingredients over several smaller dishes or mugs, also this is really good with some vanilla icecream!

 

Rhubarb syrup

Clean and cut approximately 910 gr (2 lbs) of rhubarb and put the pieces in a medium cooking pot. Fill the pot with water so that all of rhubarb is just under water. Cook for 20 minutes and skim any foam that rises to the top (keep doing this all the way to the end). Strain the rhubarb liquid through a fine mesh strainer into another pot. Add 350 gr sugar and put the pot on high heat until the liquid boils. Let boil for about 5 minutes. The syrup is now thickened and perfect for mixing into beverages or with water for lemonade. You can also let the syrup boil a bit longer for other uses. Let it cool down and then poor it into a bottle for keeping it cool in the fridge. It’ll last for several weeks, at least, if you don’t empty the bottle before 🙂

-Nerissa

Not so happy ducklings

We finally got to honour our blog name. While cycling to my dancing class I saw a duck lying on the road, her nine ducklings running around her wanting their mom to get up and to the other side of the road. I got off my bicycle as fast as possible and hurried to the scene as cars were waiting. Picking up the duck I knew it wouldn’t take long for her to give up fighting for her life and eventually die. So now we had to focus on the ducklings who just lost their mom. In the mean time someone else pulled over and called veterinary services. I called Yara for some help and a basket to keep the ducklings in in case we would be able to catch some of them. The three of us followed the ducklings, who had made it to the small pond/river and swam around peeping loud, to make sure they wouldn’t go anywhere. As soon as the men of the animal rescue arrived nets were taken out of the car and they attended to get out the little ducklings. Soon it became clear we would have to find another tactic. So one of the men got high rainboots & pants in one and entered the water. As Yara and I realised he wasn’t able to get the ducklings out, we took off our shoes and got into the water ourselves, our bare feet and not too great weight cousing us not to sink in the bottom as far as the man did. Eventually after at least one hour the tree of us managed to get out all nine ducklings (I left after finding 8/9 because then I could attend my final dancin class for about 10 minutes). The nine ducklings who lost their mom are now being taken care of in the birdhospital and we got invited to come and visit some time soon to see how the ducklings are now.
Sooo… pictures will probably follow!

-Nerissa