The Adventure of the Chocolate Cake

Step one: Get chocolate cake and chocolate frosting mix from your garage where it has sat in a plastic bag for who knows long (and hope that your mother wasn't saving it for something... Not that you can ask her, because she is over 1,000 miles away visiting your grandparents).

Step two: Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Step three: Crack two eggs into a bowl.

Step four: Add some coconut oil (after deciding that the recipe didn't mean olive oil or car oil, and desperately hoping that it will work the same as cooking oil, which you are out of) and water and whisk it all together.

Step five: Add the cake mix and continue whisking.

Step six: Pour into buttered pan.

Step six-and-a-half: Lick utensils (this is very important).

Step seven: Bake cake for twenty-five minutes. While the cake bakes, make frosting. Wait an immeasurable amount of time for cake to cool before applying frosting.

Step eight: JUST EAT IT (*epic Michael Jackson guitar riff*).

Dutch FOOD!

I love food, and Dutch food is especially good. I suppose if it were to be summed up in two words, it would be: comfort food. Lots of breads, lots of casserole-type dishes... and, of course, cheese!

On our first day in Holland, we drove around a bit before going to a little cafe. Thankfully, my grandma could translate items on the menu for us; the people were very nice too. My favorite Dutch food (other than Gouda) is Krokets.

(Picture not by me)

Mmmmmmmm... It's meat (and gravy) wrapped in a breaded crust. Delicious. It was the perfect thing to eat on our first night, after several hours in an airport and airplane.

I don't know if this is a Dutch thing or just something everyone does... but wherever we went, there was always plenty of food. Here's an example from the day we went to the farm.
Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and then went to church. After church we went to my dad's cousin's house (not the one with the farm) for lunch. But before lunch, coffee (the Dutch love their coffee time!) and cookies.
About an hour later, lunch. Bread, yogurt, these strange Dutch sprinkle things that go on bread, krokets (MMMMM!!!), cheese, meat, and I don't know what else. There was enough to feed an army! Well, a small army.
After lunch, to the farm!
At the farm, we were treated to more food... M&Ms (which tasted better than American M&Ms) and nuts, and more tea and coffee.
It was like that everywhere we went. I definitely came home a few pounds heavier.

One thing we ate a lot of was bread and cheese. This is something I'm fairly used to, as we always eat bread and cheese (or ham buns) on road trips. I think it's a Dutch thing. My dad grew up on bread and cheese sandwiches for lunch and when we go up to visit grandma, that's usually what we have there too.
My mom said, "Take a picture, so we can know what we ate in the car every day for lunch!"

And now, a word on Dutch pancakes.
Most people, when thinking about pancakes, conjure up this image:

After many a year of eating pancakes with my cousin at Grama's house, however, I have learned to think of pancakes like this:

Mmmmmmm... Pannenkoeken... Where's the whipped cream?
They are more like crepes than something you would find at IHOP, but, oh, so infinitely better.
My grandma took us to a pannenkoeken huis while we were in Holland, to experience real, Dutch pancakes, like she had growing up on the farm.
These pancakes filled up the whole plate (and they weren't small plates either - they were bigger than any dinner plate I've ever eaten off of) and, if you so chose, had other things baked onto them such as...
Apples:

Or bacon:

Or, apples and bacon! There were a multitude of other choices as well... like with onion, or with cheese... I chose the one with apple.
My grandma, great-aunt, and mom all chose the one called "speck of bacon" which had one piece of bacon right in the middle.
And this wasn't regular old bacon (don't let the above picture fool you). This was all fat bacon. Very crispy and very, very good.
My grandma and her siblings would have this "speck of bacon" pancake for breakfast on the farm.
They were very, very delicious.

The other night we went out to IHOP with church friends and the pancakes just weren't the same... They were too light, too fluffy (and also, too cold!). I guess I've just been spoiled by pannenkoeken!

I bet you've had Dutch food, whether you knew it at the time or not... whether it be Gouda, oliebollen, krokets, pannenkoeken, poffertjes, or dropjes. Tell me about it!

Live long and prosper.

"I marmalayed my toast." - Bertie Wooster

There were two major reasons we picked St. Davids as our hotel. One, it was right around the corner from Paddington Station, and therefore, my grandma wouldn't have to walk a tremendous amount to get to the public transit. She doesn't do too well walking long distances or standing for long period of time.
The other reason we chose St. Davids is that they served breakfast in the morning (who wants to go larking about London at 7:00 in the morning to try find breakfast after a rocky night of sleep? Not me, thank you very much). And on their menu? A Full English Breakfast. Or, if you are too westernized for your own good, they have plain 'ole eggs and cereal (including cocoa puffs).
The breakfast wasn't like a normal continental breakfast, where you come into the dining room, grab a paper plate, grab a muffin or a bagel and maybe an egg or some bacon if your lucky, and pour yourself some cereal in a bendy styrofoam bowl. No, this breakfast was like a restaurant. You get seated, they pour you some orange juice, and take your breakfast order. Then they bring you toast. Then your breakfast comes, cooked right in the kitchen next door. With breakfast you get your choice of English tea (which is absolutely delicious) or coffee. They each come in their own little pot, so if you want more, you don't have to flag down a waitress!
Now on to the actual breakfast... Boy, what a breakfast.
This is the Full English Breakfast:

Four pieces of toast (not pictured), two eggs, two slices of bacon, one sausage, beans, tomato, mushrooms... on a sesame seed bun. Okay, no bun, but that old McDonalds commercial is what it made me think of.
It was DELICIOUS! The beans were, I admit, a little strange, and I couldn't eat them all. The bacon too, was a little strange, because our bacon looks way different, but it was really good. Everything was really good. THIS is the type of breakfast that will get you through until lunchtime, even if you are running around London and expounding energy. Mmmmm I miss this food so much. If ever you chance to go to England, make sure you get a Full English Breakfast sometime on your trip.

 Toast with marmalade, which I don't think I ever had before this trip. It was better than I expected!

Another food I tried was Fish n' Chips.

Chips = french fries. They were really delicious! The fish was all right. I'm not a huge fan of fish, and especially not this much fish (something wonderfully amazing about London is that when you order food they give you too much, not too little, like they do in the States) but I figured I had to at least try the Fish and Chips! As a side they gave you mashed peas/beans, which was... interesting. I didn't eat much of it.

And now onto the best meal: bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes in some sort of onion gravy).

Oooooohhhh... This was the best meal I had in London. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
We didn't know exactly what "bangers" were when we ordered the meal, but found out when the plate arrived. They are delicious sort-of spicy sausages that are absolutely wonderful. They come with mashed potatoes which are equally amazing, and everything is drowned in delicious gravy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Have you ever had any of the above foods? If you haven't, have I made you ravenous to try them?

Live long and prosper!

Singing in the night.

"Someone is practicing a flute." Daddy says as he walks in the door.
"What? Where?" I ask.
"In the back." He gestures.
I go near the open window. Sure enough, I can hear music floating in, although it is hard to hear over the fans and Mom. So I go outside. Rats, it stopped! Soon enough it starts again. But that isn't a flute! It's a violin! Or a fiddle. I walk silently over the grass until I'm at the back fence. I peek through a knothole. The neighbors are sitting around their table, playing music and singing. Candles light the table. One or two have a lighted cigarette in their hand (the neighbor previously used to put his spent cigarettes in a pop can. I don't know what he did with them afterwards....). A deep voice from a somewhat heavyset man starts the singing. It doesn't last long. It is as if he is just learning the music. The fiddler plays on. They stop. Someone makes a joke. They all laugh. Then I notice something... They aren't speaking English! I can't reconize the language, although I am guessing it is not Spanish, German, or Dutch. Perhaps Russian?
The music starts up again and I am reminded of The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald.

Tintin: "I'm just going for a stroll with Snowy: I need some air. I shan't be long."
Captain Haddock: "Right you are. Enjoy yourself. I'll hold the fort."
Snowy: "Wooah wooah!"
Tintin: "What a perfect night!"
Music reaches Tintin ears as he walks through the grounds.
Tintin: "That sounds like.... yes, it's a guitar.... It must be the gipsies. What haunting music it is!"

The neighbors start a haunting song. Slow, melodic verses... With a one word chorus, "ai ai ai ai" or something. The man with the low voice echoes. I listen, peering through the knothole. Suddenly the verse gets energetic.... Back to the slow chorus... The violin plays softly. The song ends. It leaves me chilled. I try to get to a better knothole but the dry leaves crackle under my feet. Someone sings the chorus but adds a joke. They all laugh. Under the cover of darkness I flee back to the house, bare feet barely touching the grass. But the music calls me back. I sit in the doorway of the house. The dog next door barks. I run into the house. Even from inside I can still hear mentions of the music on the wind. Suddenly loud laughter breaks out. Then, all is quiet.

True story. It just happened.

I made another smoothie today. Watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, and banana. It was good. Especially after a walk! Mom and I walked to the orthodentist office near our house to surprise a friend of mine who was getting her braces off today. She was supposed to have them off before me.... My mom made her wear her rubberbands. And now she has a beautiful smile!

I also got a good 1000 or 2000 words written in my rewrite today.... I'm really on a descriptive high right now, which is good.

I started "The Secret Garden" today. It is good thus far! I am only on chapter 3. So far the main cahracter is bleak, spoiled, annoying, and alone (her parents who never cared about her just died from cholera). She is being sent to live with an uncle who has those same characteristics. So far it looks very sad and depressing for the main character, 9 year old Mary.
If I read three chapters a day I will have this book done in 9 days - next Tuesday. Yes!

Have a wonderful week!

P.S. Anyone know of a good thing to say at the end of posts? I want to say something clever... A quote from something or another. Miss Jack does, "Allons-y" which is from Doctor Who if I am not mistaken. Someone other blogger whose name I can not remember right now does, "Sink me!" which is from The Scarlet Pimpernel (which looks like a great book. Sadly, it is book 29 in the Vancouver Sun series... I have to wait awhile to get to it). Jake from Teenage Writer just does, "Jake." Any clever ideas for quotes to put at the end of each blog post?
P.P.S. I finally returned the Netflix!
P.P.P.S. Check out the "Meet the Dolls!" and "Books" sections of my blog for I have re-done/finished them both as of last night and this morning!

Smoothies

I don't know about the rest of the world.... But the heat has finally hit my part of the US of A and BOY is it awful. I hate the heat. I've been trying to keep myself cool so after church today I drank a large glass of chilled juice.
Then I broke out our new smoothie maker and after briefly glancing over the instructions... I washed it out (as told) and made myself and my family smoothies!
The recipe is as follows:

1 cup of grapes
1 orange
1 banana ("I like bananas, bananas are good.")
1 cup of strawberries
1 cup of ice cubes.

Then mix it all up and eat it! Makes three largish medium smoothies - perfect to cool you off on a hot day.... Until you run out of smoothie.

To go along with my smoothie, I pulled out Doctor Who which I really should have sent back to Netflix a few weeks ago.... But I just can't! It's all "The Doctor Dances" fault! It's my favorite episode so far and I've seen it 4 times I think....
Anyway, I was watching the four episodes on the disk (which were "The Long Game" which has Simon Pegg in it! He plays Thompson and Reepicheep and Scotty!! As in, Star Trek Scotty! In the new movies. Other episodes include, "Father's Day" another favorite episode of mine.... "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" <---- Has some of the best quotes ever).

"Don't drop the banana!"
"Why?"
"It's a good source of potassium!"

I've taken a break now, even though I'm only half through "The Empty Child." I've taken a break to finish watching 1995 Pride and Prejudice which we started before we went camping and never finished.... I love it.
"Oh Mr. Bennet! Are we to be murdered in our beds?!?!?!?!?!!" You gotta love Mrs. Bennet.

Anyway, this Sunday really has been a day of rest. Yesterday I went swimming in my friend's pool and since I haven't been swimming for a looooong time I was exhausted today. The 90 degree weather also makes it easier to sit back and relax..... Hateful, isn't it?

I was also looking through the Vancouver Sun books and found out that I have to read 28 books before I get to the one I really want to read!! Sigh.... Oh well. I might skip Anne of Green Gables since I read it recently. It's no. 4 in the list....
Gaaahhhh.... I need to find a fan to lie in front of.
So long farewell! I hope you are cooler than I am.

Yellowstone!

Yesterday we went to Yellowstone National Park! I would have blogged about it last night but I had a bad migraine.

The entrance to the park:

Tintin by the GPS ("Turn right in 400 meters.... turn right.... TURN RIGHT!")

 

The landscape:

Tintin by the Beehive Geyser:

We saw Old Faithful erupt as well but we were on the wrong side and only saw steam. It wasn't very high. Beehive was cooler.

Buffalo:

"Hahahaha." My cousin said that the above buffalo looks like he would laugh like Santa Claus.

The highlight of Yellowstone was the waterfall/mini-grand canyon.

The waterfall started over here:

And wound around over here:

Another picture of Tintin (he's having a good time! Although he wishes Captain Haddock and Snowy could have come along....)

There were lots of things like this next video... bubbling and gurgling. I thought my cousin in Canada would think it was funny! =D

This hill was rising up out of Yellowstone:

I just HAD to take a picture of it because of Lord of the Rings. I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now and as we're driving across the country my thoughts are bouncing between, "Man, God did a good job with that mountain!" and "Wow! That looks like the scene I just read in Lord of the Rings!"

From The Fellowship (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are in The Old Forest):

A heavy weight was settling steadily on Frodo's heart, and he regretted now with every step forward that he had ever thought of challenging the menace of the trees. He was, indeed, just about to stop and propose going back (if that was still possible), when things took a new turn. The path stopped climbing, and became for a while nearly level. The dark trees drew aside, and ahead they could see the path going almost straight forward. Before the,, but some distance off, there stood a green hill-top, treeless, rising like a bald head out of the encircling wood. The path seemed to be making directly for it.

The last stop in Yellowstone was the "Mud Volcano's." They weren't too impressive (perhaps because the steam coming from them made it hard to see), but the parking lot was! There were 4 buffalo in the parking lot examining the cars!

You can see frightened people hiding in the bathrooms. It was quite comical.

Today we passed through the city of Wall; home to Wall Drug.

I always like to see all the different signs leading up to the actual place. However, we didn't actually go into Wall Drug. We just stopped at Subway to eat lunch.

Now we are in Nebraska for my cousin's wedding!
We went out to eat with family tonight at Pizza Hut. Tintin came along.

Tomorrow Tintin and I are going to explore the lobby of the hotel.
Until then, goodnight!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! It's my friends birthday today and I just wanted to let her know that I'm thinking about her! =D

Day 15: Someone you admire

Before I tell you whom I admire, I want to show you what I ate for lunch:


I had a VERY orange lunch. Ham and cheese (with Doritos) on a bun, Doritos on the side, a Carmel-only Milky Way mini-candy bar, peach yogurt, carrots with ranch dressing, juice, and a mandarin orange. We also have some beautiful daffodils sitting on our counter that added to the mood. A pretty healthy lunch, and yummy to! Not to mention colorful. Lunch is my favorite meal of the day.
Don't the daffodils look like they are praising the Lord? =)


Now onto the person I admire.


John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
More simply known as J.R.R. Tolkien.


Tolkien is most well known for the Lord of the Rings series and it's prequel, The Hobbit.


I picked up my family's copy of The Hobbit the other day because I wanted to re-read it before the movie comes out on December 14. I thought it would take a long time to read The Hobbit because Tolkien's style can be a bit confusing and descriptive at times, but I read to first two chapters in a day and I think I might have to re-re-read it sometime in the fall again before the movie comes out!
I had forgotten how wonderful The Hobbit is. I've only read it once, and technically, I wasn't reading it then. My dad read the book to me about four years ago.


(Cover picture is of Bilbo riding in a barrel. Drawing is by Tolkien.)

As I was telling a friend, reading Tolkien is like diving into a pool filled with rich chocolate. He describes things in such detail and so well; it's as if you were actually there.


I admire Tolkien (shown above - doesn't he look like a Hobbit with his pipe and smile? That's my absolute favorite picture of Tolkien) because he was able to create an entire world with a complete history and with complete languages. To create different worlds to send readers into is a dream that all authors have and Tolkien has done it beautifully.
I find it hard to believe that The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy were written less than a hundred years ago. So much stuff that has been written in recent years is so horrible.... Although I think already mentioned that in another post.
His writing style, complicated plots (which I absolutely love), loveable - not to mention believable and incredibly developed - characters, and creativity are not the only things I admire about J.R.R. Tolkien.
I absolutely LOVE it that he wrote books for his children.
Many people do not know about the books he wrote for his four children.
One of such books, Roverandom, was written for his son who lost a toy dog. The story is baed on the toy's adventures away from his master. Another book, Mr. Bliss, is a fun, not to mention colorful, book about a man and his adventures with his new car.
Something else I admire about Tolkien is that he drew as well as wrote and illustrated many scenes from the Lord of the Rings.
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Tolkien is that he was a devout Catholic.

J.R.R. Tolkien was born in 1892 and served in World War 1 where he got trench fever and was invalided home.
Later in life he became a professor at Oxford college where he taught language and literature, among other things.
He was a part of the informal literary group called Inklings. The Inklings was a group of men who met together and discussed fiction, fantasy, and each others works. C.S. Lewis (author of Adventures in Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, Screwtape Letters and other good books) was also a part of Inklings and he and Tolkien were good friends.

J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorites authors and I strive to be like him in my writing.
I greatly admire him not only as an author, but as a person.