It is high tea time at school ! After helping with balloons and decorations with flags, I am curious how everything is going to be. Last year, in order to celebrate the summer arrival the kids performed in a musical. I didn't help because I don't like/cannot sew. This year I have prepared many sandwiches.
Well, the opening: two grannies were playing popular songs to welcome the guests...
And the parents started to arrive and enjoyed the music while waiting for the kids. Big expectations.
There they come bringing to the long table some extra cookies, sandwiches and cakes, helped by their teachers.
Some waiters were wearing self decorated aprons...
...while the chefs were wearing appropriate self made hats.
The grandparents didn''t have to do a thing, just enjoyed the good weather while having a chat and were pampered by the cutest and helpful waiters.
For the grand finale there was a chocolate fountain. (=lots of little dirty hands giving their family members sweet hugs)
The Dutch educational system also demands more participation from the parents and family than as usual in other countries - at least that's what I have deduced from bombarding foreign parents with questions my conversations with other foreign parents from America, France and Italy. These same parents also mentioned that the Dutch have a very strong sense of community/doing things together and putting the kids in the center of their lives.
This educational system for the small ones is not boring at all. The lessons are very playful, and demand creative solutions/response from the kids. I have noticed that with all the preparation for the high tea event some kids retained some of the English words they have learned (such as: tea, cake, hat, pie) even days laters. Some retained more difficult/longer words such as biscuits, sandwich (es), cucomber and chef cook. (Hmmm, I bet you think it an easy thing, don't you ? Hey, we are talking about 4 and 5 year old kiddos !)
This caramel spread is called in French la crème caramel au beurre salé and it seems to me to be one of the food items that French people miss the most when living abroad. It is so simple to prepare and probably you have already the ingredients right now at your home: butter, sugar and cream. Because I am not going to spend vacations in France this year (and I do not want to bother my in laws asking them to buy some delicacy items for me) I decided to investigate on the net a recipe for salted caramel spread. Here it goes:
300g sugar
50g water
240g butter
5g salt
200g cream
Place the sugar and water in a pan and cook on low heat until you get a golden brown caramel. Do not overmix or your sugar will crystallize.
Cut the butter in samll pieces and add it little by little while gently stirring with a wooden spoon. Be careful, the misture is very hot, it sizzles and might spit.
Add the salt (if you are not employing salted butter) and cook for two minutes. Take the pan off the heat and add the prewarmed cream. Mix until well combined.
Pour into jars and let cool. Close them well.
(Do not worry if the final result is a bit too liquidy. When in the refrigerator, it will solidify a bit - believe me. With this recipe I could fill three - previously sterilized - pots. Keep it in the fridge so that your confiture has a beautiful, spreadable consistency.)
Above, the last pot. Cake and caramel spread, anyone ?
It was Father's Day (at least in the Netherlands, not so sure about other parts of the world) it was gray and there a new Pathé theater in town. Oh, and there is this film for kids in 3-D with the action going on in Brazil, that happens to be mommy's land of birth. And being a good Dutch man, daddy discovers that the 11am session is cheaper than the afternoon ones. Ha ! Let's dress up and go quick to RIO !
In Holland, Jamai is the voice of Blu.
Did I like it ? Definitely, yes ! After all the cold colours of Ice Age and the slow animals marching all the time it was quite a contrast watching a film with such frantic colours, lots of aerial views and non stop music. Even the sunlight during the sun rising and during the end of the afternoon were perfect. Light and shadows in the tropics are definitely very impacting and different from the Dutch light. Still, I think it is a movie for American audiences basically - with all the clichés Northern Americans expect to find in a location called "Rio" (by te way, the Earth globe was displayed a couple of times during the film so that everyone could be aware where Brazil is).
Braziliandirector Carlos Saldanha told a Rio de Janeiro newspaper the film’s animated beachscapes had to undergo at least one change for American consumption: bigger bikini bottoms.
The replicas of buildings located downtwon in Rio were perfect: the Petrobrás building and the round cathedral, the aquaduct, the historical buildings in Santa Teresa and Lapa.... My husband liked a lot the fact that he could recognize some locations downtown and had a good time (he is a very light guy, never searching things to be criticized). But the birds could cover huge distances around the city in a couple of minutes, which I think made the movie a bit too unrealistic.
I have noticed many errors. Some of them were also pointed out in the Brazilian press. When confronted about it by the Brazilian journalists, director Carlos Saldanha justified the changes as "creative liberties" and that he had made a cartoon, "not a documentary". He also added that after living for more than 20 years in the US he doesn't consider himself a "Brazilian director with a Brazilian view of things" but a director who will make any type of movie he wants, in order to please any audience he wants to. He explains it further on the videos below:
Anyway, some of the so called errors that I can remember are (yes, I am totally a nerd like that):
1) Linda and Túlio arrive in Brazil from the US and land in the domestic airport Santos Dummont, not the international Galeão airport. Huge error;
2) The two toucans that appear during the movie are of two different specimens, thus they can not really mate;
3) Jewel and Blue are two blue macaws from Rio. But actually this type of blue macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) is native of Bahia.
4) They have only three claws instead for four. They look like chickens, with three claws;
5) The toucans have 7 kids. Toucans can only have two, up to four kids exceptionally;
6) The thieves leave Rio from a clandestine airport, with asphalt and all. A clandestine airport in Rio ? Really ? If it was at least in the middle of the Amazon...
7) Cockatoos are Australian. Ok, in the film they do not make references to sadist and cruel cockatoo Nigel being Brazilian. But he eats a chicken leg - as much as I know cockatoos are vegetarian;
8) The streets in Santa Teresa completely empty during Carnival ? I don't think it's possible !
On the way back home while I was mentioning to my husband about the erros in the film, my son interrupted us and looked puzzled at me: "Er... mom ! It is a cartoon, birds talk and all, haha! A cartoon. What do you want ?"
The crew in Rio, during the première in Brazilian ground.
Above: the Russian poster. Below, I couldn't identify in which language this one was.
(Texto originalmente publicado no blog Brasil com Z).
Eu sentiria muito, mas muito mais falta de coisas holandesas se eu tivesse que voltar ao Brasil do que sinto falta de coisas brasileiras agora. Se eu morasse no Brasil eu sentiria falta:
- Da imensa variedade de pães, iogurtes e queijos a ótimo preço;
- Das estufas e lojas com potes, plantas e flores lindíssimas e baratas;
- Da ausência de baratas, lacraias, pernilongos e outros bichos escrotos;
- Das estradas perfeitas e bem sinalizadas;
- Das aves aquáticas: patos, cisnes, gansos e cegonhas em profusão;
- Do ar limpinho;
- Da segurança.
Leite condensado dá para se encontrar facinho, facinho na Holanda.
Do que sinto falta do Brasil (não vou mencionar que o que sinto mais falta é: pai, mãe e amigas) :
1) Salgadinhos (de botequim). Entre eles bolinho de bacalhau é hors concours. Peraí, e todo o bacalhau que se encontra na Holanda? Você me pergunta. “Ei, dona preguiça, vai comprar bacalhau e batata e fritar bolinho!” “Perái” respondo eu! Sim, aqui há bacalhau pra todo lado, frito em quiosques, e pronto no supermercado pra ser esquentado em casa no microondas. Mas não há o bacalhau salgado e seco. Os holandeses geralmente riem quando digo que é uma gostosura brasileira, o tal do bolinho de bacalhau frito. Eles sacaneam que o bacalhau vem da Noruega e que a receita é portuguesa…
Aqui empadinha não dá para fazer em casa, pois não há gordura hidrogenada. E farinha pra quibe eu nunca vi na Finalmente Brasil, a loja de produtos brasileiros em Amsterdam. Felizmente aqui encontro farinha de mandioca, doce de leite, leite de coco e feijão preto.
2) Comida a quilo pro almoço.
3) Eu ainda sinto falta de um sol a pino durante o meio-dia. Aqui o sol fica só no horizonte e esquenta tanto quanto lâmpada e escritório.
4) Sinto falta de uma animação na rua. Tipo um domingo de sol, durante as férias de verão. E eu nem sou de muvuca, de massa, ugh ! Mas sinto falta de ver e saber que uma animação anda rolando. Animação de rua só acontece em mega dose durante o Queen’s Day e o Reveillon. E olhe lá.
5) Sinto falta de interesse das pessoas sobre o que é o Brasil. Na imprensa holandesa se aparece alguma coisa é só desgraça, minha nossa senhora... Barco que caiu no lago Paranoá, prédio que desabou inteirinho em alguma capital. Ou coisas sem pé nem cabeça, como alguma nova tribo na Amazônia, cujos índios atiravam flechas para o helicóptero que os filmava.
6) Serviço bom bonito e barato de depilação. A falta desse serviço me irrita total. Se bobear, eu acabo virando "Conga, a mulher gorila" de parque de diversões de quinta.
My first post about Dutch cuties was a success ! I decided to introduce here some more - but no fair skin this time. And... three of them !
Cutie #1 is John Williams (Paramaribo, Suriname, 1969), a presenter and actor. John has worked in several shows on TV. I specially love seeing him on house make-up programmes, such as "Help, my man is a DIY'er" and "Help, my man has a hobby". The formula is basically the following: John and his crew come to give some help to desperate women whose husbands made a mess during the renovations. You know how everything ends: women that had completely lost their hopes in having a decent renovated home find after John's help a dream home/palace/castle. Then they cry and squeeze hug (maybe a bit too much) John Williams on the end of the show. I bet everyone knows this kind of stuff I am talking about.
Below, John plays with the fantasies of a woman in a commercial for MONA. The product is a chocolate mousse and the title of the commercial is ChocoDreams. You don't have to understand any Dutch to understand the commercial.
John Williams became the second best during the finale of show Let's Dance, with the number Single Ladies. Yes, he played Beyoncé, with beard and all (and no, he is not gay - just an irreverent actor).
Cutie #2 on this blog post is Ramon Beuk (Paramaribo, Suriname, 1972). Ramon Beuk concluded in 1992, after working in several restaurants, his cooking studies. He also took a diploma in Pedagogics. After extra marketing studies, he started working at department store HEMA as responsible for the present culinary department image of this company. After that, he started working for Unilever where he gave several workshops to large groups about the usage of new products developed by the company. His qualities as an enthousiastic presentater reached the TV companies in Hilversum. He started to have small participations in some programmes on TV and later on started his own program: Born2Cook. Ramon owns his own Events company CuliPro, cooking school Kooktempel and a party salon De Glazen, in de city of Maarsen.
So far, Ramon Beuk has written four books: "Thais","Finger Food",“Ramon Beuk Born2Cook” and “De Echte Beuk”. John is married and thas two daughters.
Below, in a commercial for supermaket LIDL, Ramon prepares a grilled potato, topped by entrecote accompanied by a beet sauce. Mini pieces of an apple give the final touch. So easy, I cannot imagine something Dutchier than that. Ramon's tip: when frying a piece of entrecote, use oil AND butter. Oil gets very hot - ideal for frying meat. The butter gives a nice taste and colour. Enjoy !
And last but not least: Humberto Tan (Suriname, 1965). Tan is a Dutch radio and TV anchor man, writer, DJ and fashion designer. He is married and has three kids. He is also a lawyer - but never worked as such. You can recognize him as one of the presentators of RTL-Boulevard on RTL-4 channel.
On the film below, Humberto Tan plays himself in a comercial for Unox. Coming from work, at first his own dog doesn't recognize him. Humberto wonders why. "Unox: at home you can be yourself".
John Williams, Ramon Beuk and Humberto Tan. All the three guys are super nice, super enthousiastic and very talented - and of course super succesful. I wish there were more, many more succesful anchor men and actors in Brazil. More visibility of the blacks in the show bizz - and not only as soccer players or singers. I have heard that lately a black actor was the main character in a Brazilian soap opera. Well, there is hope.
Clients are getting wilder / Tips from experienced colleagues / Good intentions / I wanna go study / horoscope
That the Dutch have a very practical and innovative approach towards paid sex and the eroticism is worldy well known. The last news is the lauching of magazine S-Work - the "S" stands for "sexworkers"- a glossy made by prostitutes and ex-workers, men and women. Yes, they have followed a photo course and learned wrtiting techniques, all finaced by De Rode Draad which is a center for sex workers. (It exists for more than 25 years and the team is formed by ex-workers who know all the pitfalls of the métier). The glossy is free for sex workers. Readers interested in the world of prostitution pay €4,50 for a copy. The first edition has 20.000 units. I am not so sure whether one can find it on the shelves of a supermarket, together with cartoons for kids and near home interior mags. But you never know - hey, it is Holland !
By the way, it goes so bad with the Red Light in Amsterdam lately that the sex workers are going to receive food packages this month. They will be distributed by the charitative foudation BloodnFire. According to Frits Rouvout from BloodnFire, there are women "who spend the whole day in bed and have to sleep in the street in the evening". There is so much control from the government on the activities in the Red Light, that many workers are searching alternatives in (illegal) salons and clubs. Also operating independently via sites on internet (such as FB, Twitter and others) so that they do not have to be registered as a (legal) sexworker and therefore can escape from paying taxes. Go figure how complex all this situation is...
Today, inspired by fellow blogger Rachel, I am inaugurating a series of new posts: Dutch cuties and hotties.
We start with the category "cuties". According to Rachel, they are the ones "you find attractive but actually listen to what they have to say as opposed to just ripping off their clothes at first meeting."
My choice for the men is: actress and presentater Jessica Mendel, from TV program Camping Life, on RTL4 channel. Very accessible, polite and with the most perfect teeth, Jessica is just the girl next door. Or as the Dutch say: "the ideal daughter in law" (de ideale schoondochter) - whatever that means....
And for the women (and to whomever it pleases - it is a wide world out there): cutie Sander Janson. Aaah, life is always sunny for Sander. I cannot imagine that he actually has a life out of the south of Italy - or the Provence. Or Greece.
They are both super charismatic, sportive, flexible, extrovert, funny and helpful.
Nope - they are not a couple.
Grown ups love them, children love them, babies love them, pets love them. Aren't them... cute ?
Yesterday was a perfect day for sailing with our new boat.
The best of it, isthat we can peek into the backyard of many houses is that you do it completely following your rythmn and mood. No schedules to be followed, no pre stablished routes.
Now, look at this Dutch man. While sailing he will have some beers... then he is completely satisfied and in his natural element. He has spent some hours sailing on a daily basis (of course weather permitting it) since he was a kid. Maybe since 8 or 9 years old ?
Every house with a backyard giving into water seems to have a boat...
Recreation are Het Twiske. Windmills !
Lots of aquatic birds.
And cows and sheeps...
Some (many) houses around the Twiske area are just magnificent !
I have already talked many times before about the wonders of the recreation are located between Amsterdam, Zaandam and Purmered. If you wish to rent a boat to sail in Het Twiske click HERE for more info. A sailing boat with a motor for maximum 5 people costs around 11euros/hour. You can also rent a canoe and pul out the adventurer and explorer for a couple of hours. Not to worry - there are no crocs in the Netherlands. Otherwise I would never, ever, live here.
Florida (USA). Is this a joke ?
Also in Florida.Ding-dong ! - Dear, I think someone is at the door.
