It is Giveaway Time !

On February 13th Greetings From Holland will be completing 2 years ! My sincere "thank you" to all followers and those bringing their "two cents" !

With my blog I have met virtually and/or personally many bubbling personalities and discovered many interesting blogs made by creative, enthusiastic, critic, passionate and very opinionated people around the world. I have done a lot of research and learned even more interesting things about the Dutch culture and myself...

In order to celebrate the two years of G.F.H. I will be giving away two books. The title is "Dutch Cooking Today" and has easy-to-prepare, modern interpretation of traditional Dutch recipes. Thus no granny food - although one can label Dutch food as "comfy food". The book is in ENGLISH. I have gotten one as a present many years ago and prepared so far many yummy recipes. So I bought two units and decided to give them as presents this month.

Above, zebras. It is a starter made of rye bread and a mixture paste consisting of cream cheese, dill and salm. No frying, no cooking - and you can prepare it with a certain advance in time. If you do not like to use salm you can use a white fish of cooked chicken instead - it is goingto look even whiter and become more "zebra-ish" !

Above: chicken and salm soup. Very low fat, very surprising ! Please explore my blog clicking on the labels "restaurants", "recipes", "food"  on the right side of this page if you are not familiar with Dutch foods/meals/delicacies/street food.

Above: pear stewed in red wine, cloves and cinnamon. I prefer curd with prunes - also found in the book !

"Poffertjes": tiny pancakes. Found in all Dutch supermarkets and also during fairs and quermesses around the country, during the whole year. Serve them topped with butter and sugar. Notice the recipe has three paragraphs. I told you: the Dutch recipes are simple AND the Dutch cuisine is so much more than just mashed dishes and pea soup ! The brilliant thing about this book concept is that there are NO Indonesian foods (it is a very strong ethnic cuisine in Holland), NO Belgian foods (which is very lovely cuisine from a neighbouring country and uses liqueurs and beers) or from other countries  at all - and these days Italian and French have lots of influence on Dutch cooking styles. The book is all about pure ingredients and honest flavors in a 1-2-3 step.

Book contents: classic basic sauces, breakfast/brunch/lunch, cakes with tea or coffee, appetizers and snacks, soups, one-pan dishes, main courses, vegetables and side dishes, desserts. All recipes come with a photo. There are also art photos in the book with Dutch themes / landscapes / sceneries.

And the lucky winners get also one plastified bookmarker with magnets, so that you can place it on your chosen recipe page. You can also write some notes inside the bookmarker.  Everyone, living in any part on planet Earth can participate on it. Here are the simple rules to participate in this draw, step-by-step:

1) Become a follower of Greetings from Holland right now if you are not one;

2) Place a quick comment in English (on this post only) up to 16th February, not forgetting to mention your name, city and country. Example:
Hi there Anita ! I just discovered your blog, and I already love it !  I also would love to win one of the books. I am really interested in preparing some Dutch food. My fingers are crossed ! Good luck with your blog. Nigella, London, UK;

3) You can also write about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Orkut page or Tweeter. After that you can come here and publish the link (do not forget to mention your name, city and country). Like that you can participate as many times as you wish !

4) When I publish on the lucky winners' names on the 16th February they have two days to react, placing a thank you comment. In case one or both winners do not react then I will make another draw. The presents will be sent via mail as soon as I get the winners addresses.

This is so exciting ! Good luck to all participants !