Easter special – Easter Monday and Tuesday.

Hello everyone!

My last post in this year’s “Easter special” .. Don’t be sad! This is just the beginning of the new category “Holidays”.

Back to Easter. Today is the third day of Easter, Easter Tuesday and yesterday was Easter Monday. Maybe it sounds weird, but yes: We celebrate Easter for three days. The first two days, Easter itself and Easter Monday, are really busy and tough while the third day, Easter Tuesday, is more relaxed. And it was. I’ll give you a quick update on yesterday and today.

Easter Monday

Yesterday was pretty busy. I got up early because I wanted to clean up the house a bit, like I do every Monday. So I started early in the morning, but in the meantime we got some visit so I had to stop those activities for a while. When they left, I continued with my house jobs. When I finished that, I realized I had to go to town to get some grocery’s and my hair was screaming for some shampoo. My mother-in-law came by and some people from another village I don’t know *awkward*. After they left, I quickly washed my hair and we went away.

After going grocery shopping, we went to the godparents of my husband to visit them for Easter because that’s a tradition in their family for years. After that, we went to our close friends/wedding witness because we borrowed their car to go everywhere and hey: It’s Easter! So we knew we had to go over there.
It was a very tough and busy day, but I really enjoyed it. Aaaaand: The weather was terrific, the sun was shining so that made this day complete.

Easter Monday – OOTN (Outfit Of The Night)

Of course, when we went to visit my husband’s godparents and our wedding witnesses, I had to get ready. And “Time to live” wouldn’t be “Time to live” if I didn’t share my outfit with you guys! Wanna see?

My outfit with and sans blazer. The one with the blazer I posted already on my Instagram but I had to share it once again 🙂 The blazer is from New Look, T-shirt from Bershka and my alltime favorite famous boyfriendjeans from New Yorker. It was the first time I wore this blazer and T-shirt and in my mind they made an awesome duo. So I tried it on and I immediately loved it! It was the perfect outfit for yesterday. I wore my blue All Stars as always when it’s dry outside. I forgot to take a pic of my bag, sorry guys 😦 Next time I won’t forget it!

I had to share this picture with you guys. Not because I totally look fabulous *oh god..* but because of my fancy ear cuff from Claire’s! In my “Good Friday” post I mentioned that I also had a silver pair of these babies besides the black one I wore on Good Friday. So I decided to wear these on Easter and they matched my outfit perfectly because I didn’t wore any other accessories. What can I say? I’m in love with this pair and I’ll tell you a cute detail: My hubby loves this pair!

Easter Tuesday

Easter Tuesday started with a little bummer .. I woke up at 5AM with terrible back pain. I didn’t know what was going on, I only knew I couldn’t sleep. I took a pain killer and went back to bed and slept until 6.30AM, when the pain came back and I didn’t know what to do anymore. When I warmed up my back a little bit, the pain went away and I went back to bed to get a little bit of sleep.

So, as you can guess: I was tired as f*** the whole day. But that didn’t prevent me of going outside! It was cold and cloudy outside and I first hesitated to go outside, but when I saw that I probably would sleep the whole afternoon, I thought it was a better idea to go outside and save that sleepy feeling for the evening. So I went to my close friend and wedding witness.

A little picture to let you see that the weather was sh*tty the whole day .. She lives on the other side of the river, so I had to cross it. Don’t worry, there is a bridge, but I didn’t catch it on this picture.

When the weather is like that, what are your essentials? Boots and an umbrella! I’ve posted this picture also on my Instagram (click on the picture). I didn’t used the umbrella after all, but when the weather is so cloudy, it’s better to be prepared for everything.

My hubby took me home with his tractor (yes he did!) and we went for a little walk outside. I came back home, rested a while and went to train on my cross-trainer.

And now I’m writing this post 🙂 So today was relaxed and less busy than the last two days. And I was happy about that because I’m really tired. So now it’s time to get some sleep! 🙂

As I mentioned at the beginning, this is the last post of this year’s “Easter special”. But your opinion counts!

Did you like this special? Why well or not? And do you have any tips/critics? Let me know in the comment section!

Until the next post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone!

First of all: Happy Easter to all the people who celebrated this weekend!

Second: Sorry for the late update! I’ve promised you guys in a previous post I would keep you up to date everyday of this Easter, but I was sooo busy and didn’t had the time to even check my e-mails on my phone!

But I’m making it up to you guys and I’ll give you a quick update of the last two days that I’ve been absent on “Time to live”.

As I promised in my first post of this “Easter special”, I’ll show you our own dyed and decorated eggs ..

TADAA! Aren’t they cute? I’m really proud of the result. In my “Good Friday” post you can read about how we decorated and colored these eggs. And they are delicious! The chocolate bunnies and chickens are from Belgium, my mommy send those to me a while ago and I preserved them for Easter. Note: We ate the bunnies, the chickens are still alive.

How did we spend our day

Easter is all about going to family or neighbors to get together, chit chat and eating eggs and other delicious food.
On Easter day, my hubby and I decided to sleep a little bit longer than we used to. And I can tell you: I enjoyed it! I wake up early every morning to finish all my jobs at house so I can spend the rest of the day on myself, but on Easter the whole day was ours, without any rush or obligations. My mother-in-law invited us for breakfast and after I hesitated a while, I went with my hubby. Why I hesitated? To make a long story short: Me and my mother-in-law aren’t at good terms. Says enough.

After breakfast at my mother-in-law, we went for a walk to his sister’s house. The weather was good, it wasn’t cold and even though the sun wasn’t shining so bright, it was pleasant outside. On our way to her, a neighbor of us saw us and asked us to stop by, which we did. Wanna see?

As you see, nothing special, but we’ve enjoyed the company. With some eggs and homemade juice we sat outside, talked and laughed. It was nice, but we moved on to my sister-in-law where we ate, besides eggs, also some delicious chicken! 🙂 It was nice, but we had to head home because it was Sunday and I hadn’t spoke to my mommy yet.

While I was talking with my mom on Skype, our close friends with their little boy came by. These friends (husband and wife) were also our witness on our civil wedding in October 2014 and the husband of this couple went to primary and high school with my hubby! We ate dinner together and after a long night of talking, laughing and joking we went satisfied to out bed.

As you see, I wasn’t home a lot so I couldn’t keep you updated the same day. But I hope I made it up to you guys with this quick update.

Tonight I will post a quick update about how we’ve spend second and third Easter day, with again some pictures and a OOTN (Outfit Of The Night).

Keep an eye open!

Until the next post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

Easter special – Recept: Raffaello.

Hello everyone!

Hier zijn we er met het tweede receptje van mijn Paasspecial. Om jullie alle extra info te besparen in deze post, verwijs ik jullie naar mijn post “Easter special – Making some desserts”, zodat we niet onnodig liggen te herhalen 🙂

Recept numero due zijn de alom bekende “Raffaello” bonbons. Iedereen kent ze wel: de lekkere witte bonbons met een hazelnootje in het midden, gewikkeld in kokosschilfers. Weet je echt niet over welke ik het heb? Ik help je even.

Mijn echtgenoot is hieraan verslaafd geraakt tijdens zijn bezoekje aan België 3 jaar geleden. Toen hij later nog eens ontdekte dat je ze ook hier kon kopen, was het hek van de dam.
En nu wordt het allemaal nog wat erger want: hij heeft het recept om ze zelf klaar te maken gevonden op het net. Ze lijken enorm op hen, alleen zijn ze niet zo krokant omdat ze geen koekje hebben van binnen en hebben ze een iets geeler kleurtje.

Het recept leek mij wel gemakkelijk en je hebt er echt niet veel voor nodig, dus heb ik besloten om dit als Paasdessert nummer twee klaar te maken!

Wat heb je allemaal nodig?

• 400 gr melk in poedervorm
• 250 gr vetstof
• Een kopje water
• 300 g kokosschilfers
• 2 zakjes vanille suiker
• Hazelnoten

Hoe maak je dit klaar?

Stap 1

Je giet in een kookpot het kopje water en laat deze aan de kook brengen.

Stap 2

Wanneer het water kookt, voeg je de vetstof toe en laat deze smelten.

Stap 3

Wanneer de vetstof gesmolten is en de massa aan de kook gaat, haal je deze van het vuur af, voeg je de melkpoeder toe en mix je continu tot je een gladde massa krijgt.

Stap 4

Je voegt aan deze massa 200 gram kokosschilfers en de twee zakjes vanille suiker toe en mixt verder tot alles een geheel wordt.

Stap 5

Je laat deze massa 2 uur lang afkoelen in de koelkast.

Stap 6

Van de afgekoelde massa neem je met een koffielepeltje een klein hoopje en duw je in het midden van dit hoopje een hazelnoot. Je rolt van dit hoopje een bolletje en rolt dit bolletje door kokosschilfertjes.

HET EINDRESULTAAT

Enkele tips/opmerkingen

• Je neemt best een grotere kookpot want wanneer je de melkpoeder toevoegt, kan het al wel eens beginnen spatsen en verlies je zo aan massa.
• Je kan de hazelnoot vervangen door andere noten zoals walnoten of amandelen.
• Je kan de bolletjes in kleine papieren mandjes leggen, om ze de uitstraling van een echte Raffaello bonbon te geven.

Zoals je ziet is dit receptje verre van ingewikkeld en in een mum van tijd is het klaar. En vooral: je hebt een superlekker dessertje klaargemaakt! Ik heb er al eentje geproefd (als een ware chef) en ik moet zeggen: er is niet zo’n bijster groot verschil tussen de zelfgemaakte en gekochte. Ik heb een nieuw dessertje geleerd en dit is zeker voor herhaling vatbaar 🙂

Het eerste recept, “Kinder Pingui”, staat tevens ook online. Klik hier voor het recept (+ foto’s)!

For my English readers: Converter

Wat vinden jullie van dit dessertje?

Tot de volgende post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

Easter special – Recept: Kinder Pingui.

Hello everyone!

En dan nu, een kleine uitzondering op de regel! Zoals ik al had gemeld in mijn vorige post, zou mijn “Easter special” geheel in het Engels gaan. Tot mijn Engelse skills er genoeg van hadden ..

Zoals je in de vorige post kon lezen, heb ik mij vandaag beziggehouden met desserts klaarmaken voor Pasen. Ik heb twee soorten gemaakt, waarvan ik beide online ga zetten (+ foto’s) in het Nederlands. Pourquoi? Omdat het voor mij gemakkelijker is. Ik vertaal deze recepten al vanuit het Servisch naar het Nederlands en mijn brein kan het niet aan om ze nog eens te vertalen. Dus iedereen die Nederlands spreekt: You’re lucky today 😉

Recept numero uno is zelfgemaakte “Kinder Pingui”. Misschien klinkt deze benaming jullie bekend in de oren, aangezien deze lekkere dessert ook te verkrijgen is in de winkel. Voor degene die niet echt mee zijn, zo ziet hij eruit:

Ik ben dol op deze dessert, net zoals mijn mama. Gevolg? Deze dessert overleefde het geen halve dag in de koelkast.

Onlangs vond mijn lieve echtgenoot het recept om dit zelf thuis klaar te maken. Nadat ik het eens had doorgelezen, zag ik dat het wel gemakkelijk was ook al leek het echt teveel. En ik kan je zeggen: het was gemakkelijk klaar te maken en superlekker! Dus besloot ik om dit klaar te maken als één van mijn twee Paasdesserts.

Wat heb je allemaal nodig?

• Voor de koek
  * 6 eetlepels bloem
  * 6 eetlepels suiker
  * 6 eieren
  * 6 eetlepels warm water
  * 1 zakje bakpoeder
  * 3 eetlepels cacaopoeder
• Witte crème
  * 210 gr platte kaas
  * 5 eetlepels poedersuiker
  * 500 ml zoete room
  * 1 zakje gelatine in poedervorm
• Chocoladelaag (komt tussen twee lagen witte crème)
  * 100 g chocolade voor keukengebruik
  * 50 g vetstof
  * 1 eetlepel olie
  * 50 ml water
• Glazuur
  * 100 g chocolade voor keukengebruik
  * 50 g vetstof
  * 1 eetlepel cacaopoeder

Hoe maak je dit klaar?

DE KOEK

Stap 1

Je scheidt het eiwit van het eigeel in 2 aparte bolkommen.

Stap 2

Je voegt aan het eigeel de suiker en warm water toe en mixt deze ingrediënten tot de massa dik en een crème textuur krijgt.

Stap 3

In een apart kommetje meng je het bakpoeder, de cacaopoeder en bloem.

Stap 4

Het mengsel uit stap 3 voeg je lepel per lepel toe bij het eigeelmassa. Je blijft continu mixen terwijl je dit erbij voegt.

Stap 5

Het eiwit klop je op tot vaste sneeuw met een snuifje zout.

Stap 6

Het eiwitsneeuw voeg je toe aan het eigeelmengsel en schept het onder mekaar. Je doet dit best met een spatel zodat de sneeuw niet kapot gaat en zijn effect niet verliest.

Stap 7

Het deeg giet je in een ingevette of met bakpapier bedekte bakplaat. Je bakt dit ongeveer 40 minuten op 175 graden (elektrische oven). Wanneer weet je of het klaar is? Prik er in met een vork. Wanneer er niets kleeft aan je vork is het klaar.

Stap 8

Wanneer de koek gebakken is, laat je deze afkoelen zodat ze steviger wordt. Wanneer deze is afgekoeld, snij je hem in twee gelijke helften.

WITTE CRÈME

Stap 1

De gelatine in poedervorm maak je klaar zoals er op de verpakking wordt vermeld. Degene die ik hier gebruik is vrij simpel: je giet over de poeder 5 eetlepels koud water en wacht 5-10 minuten tot dat deze hard wordt. Daarna smelt je de gelatine op een laag vuurtje tot dat deze lopend wordt.

Stap 2

De platte kaas en poedersuiker giet je in een bolkom en mix je voortdurend terwijl je de zoete room bijvoegt. Je blijft mixen tot je een gladde en stevige massa krijgt. Deze massa kun je het beste vergelijken met slagroom. Op de foto had ik nog geen zoete room toegevoegd, je krijgt een heel luchtige massa die hoog opkomt.

Stap 3

De gesmolten gelatine voeg je al roerend toe in het mengsel tot deze volledig is ingetrokken.

CHOCOLADELAAG

Stap 1

Breek de chocolade in kleine stukjes.

Stap 2

In een kookpotje verwarm je de vetstof, olie en water.

Stap 3

Wanneer de vetstof is gesmolten en het aan de kook geraakt, haal je dit van het vuur en voeg je de chocolade al roerend toe tot deze gesmolten is.

GLAZUUR

Stap 1

Breek de chocolade in kleine stukjes.

Stap 2

In een kookpotje verwarm je de vetstof en cacaopoeder. Hier raad ik je aan om voortdurend te mengen zodat je geen klonters krijgt.

Stap 3

Wanneer de ingrediënten een gladde massa vormen, haal je dit van het vuur en voeg je de chocolade al roerend toe tot dat deze gesmolten is.

STAPELEN – DE VOLGORDE

Stap 1

Één van de twee koekhelften leg je op een plat bord/plank. Op deze koekhelft smeer je de helft van de witte crème en verdeelt deze gelijk over deze koekhelft.

Stap 2

Op de witte crèmelaag die je net hebt gesmeerd breng je de chocoladelaag aan (niet het glazuur!) en verdeel deze gelijk over de hele helft. Het is niet erg als er een beetje aan de zijkant uitstroomt, dat zorgt voor een mooi effectje.

Stap 3

Deze stapel leg je in de koelkast en laat je afkoelen. Hier hangt het van koelkast tot koelkast af, bij mij is deze laag hard na 20-30 minuten.

Stap 4

Nadat de chocoladelaag hard is geworden, haal je deze stapel opnieuw uit de koelkast en smeer je de andere helft witte crème erover.

Stap 5

Je maakt deze stapel af door de andere koekhelft erop te leggen. Je mag gerust een beetje duwen vanboven zodat alles tegen elkaar plakt.

Stap 6

Om het plaatje af te werken overgiet je deze stapel met de warme glazuur en laat je dit dessert een avondje in de koelkast afkoelen voor een mooi, krokant glazuurlaagje.

HET EINDRESULTAAT ..

Enkele tips/opmerkingen

• Zoete room wordt hier gebruikt om slagroom ervan te maken. Ik weet niet of dit in België/Nederland te verkrijgen is. Zo niet, dan kan je best een alternief gebruiken hiervoor of gewoon zelf slagroom maken en de platte kaas en poedersuiker gewoon toevoegen.
• De glazuur maak je best klaar op het einde, wanneer je alles opeen hebt gestapeld. De glazuur moet je er warm overgieten zodat deze mooi egaal en glad wordt. Ik heb dit niet gedaan omdat ik er anders echt een zooitje van maak (lees: meer ernaast dan erop).

Mijn keukenkunsten zijn niet op topniveau, maar ik ben trots op het resultaat en ik weet zeker dat we hiervan lekker zullen smullen de komende dagen 🙂

Het tweede recept, “Raffaello”, staat tevens ook online. Klik hier voor het recept (+ foto’s)!

For my English readers: Converter

Wat vinden jullie van dit dessertje?

Tot de volgende post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

Easter special – Making some desserts.

Hello everyone!

Part two of this Easter special on “Time to live”. Today I’m showing you my skills in the kitchen, to be specific: I’m making some desserts.

I’m not an expert in this. Every time my husband served me another recipe he found on the Internet (and yes, he does that all the time!), I got panic attacks. I had cooking lessons at high school and I will express this gentle: I was a total lost case. After 5 years of cooking lessons every week, I got better but not a masterchef.

And then I got married and we went to live on our own. And my hubby loves desserts. And TADAA problems! After 2,5 years there is much more progression. I’m a little bit calmer when I get another recipe from my husband and I actually take the time to read them. If they look difficult, I don’t try them. It’s as simple as that. But in the last few months, we’ve found some easy ones that are truly delicious. And of course, I’ve tried to make them and guess what? I succeeded!

Enough about my bumpy road in the kitchen, back to business. Easter is tomorrow and as a I posted yesterday an update about how we decorated and dyed our eggs on Good Friday, today I was home alone and in the kitchen making some delicious desserts. I’ve made two of them, one I already made and a new one (!) to get a little bit risky.

Because I made a lot of photos when I was preparing and as kind as I am (taps herself on the shoulder), I decided to make two separated posts of this desserts plus pictures and translated recipe! HURRAAY!

For my English readers, I’ve got some bad news .. The recipes will be translated in Dutch because of my not so strong English language skills. I’m already translating them from Serbian into Dutch and if I have to translate them once again, I will have a mental breakdown. But no worries! You can put this recipe in Google Translate (or any other translation site) and at the end of every recipe I will put a link to a converter site for the weight measurements. Isn’t that sweet of me? 🙂

The first recipe’s name is “Kinder Pinguïn”, like the famous chocolate snack you can buy in the store.
Click here to see the recipe + pictures.
The second recipe’s name is “Raffaello”, like the famous white cocos bonbons you can find in every market.
Click here to see the recipe + pictures.

Make sure to click the links and check out this awesome, delicious desserts because believe me, they truly are! 🙂

A quick update of my day

Of course, I spend most of my time today in the kitchen, but there was also some time to relax. The weather was beautiful today, with a lot of sunshine and a breeze. But that didn’t prevent me from chilling outside. So I ate lunch outside and worked on this post until the sun went down 🙂 Check out my Instagram for the picture!

After all, I’m tired but happy that I survived this episode of “Getting cray cray” in the kitchen.

Tomorrow is Easter! I hope the weather will be the same as today and that I’ll have a nice and relaxed Easter day. Of course, tomorrow night you’ll get an update on how I spend Easter, with pictures of my fancy eggs! 🙂

A quick question: Do you like this Easter special or not? And why? Your feedback means a lot to me!

Until the next post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

Easter special – Good Friday.

Hello everyone!

It’s been awhile, but here I am, back again in English!

I’m in a celebration mood because this weekend we’re celebrating Easter! Huh, now? Yes, my darlings. I live in Montenegro (as you may know or not know) and here we celebrate Easter according to the Gregorian calendar. So the dates of holidays like Easter and Christmas are different from the Catholic calendar. There are years when we celebrate Easter on the same date as Catholics, but that’s not this year.

So I thought it would be a fun idea to tell you guys how we celebrate Easter here and give you an update on every day of this Easter weekend. So this is the first update on my Easter celebration.

Decorating & dyeing eggs

Today’s Good Friday (or Holy Friday,Easter Friday) and today is all about decorating and dyeing eggs.

We decorate and dye our eggs a little bit different. We decorate them with wax, grass and some panties and dyeing them in onions. I know you’re thinking now “Wait, what?” but I’ll explain it to you.

Our decoration material looks a little bit different than the majority uses. You can see that we use panties, a candle, a nail and a sack. You have two ways to decorate. The first way is using grass and panties. How does this work? You take an egg and choose a flower, grass or anything else you can find in a field and hold it against the eggshell. You have to be careful here because those are raw eggs, so you can’t press too much. Then you make a sack of an old piece of panties and put that egg inside. This is a little bit tricky because the flower/grass you hold against your egg may move a little bit, but you can put it at the right place when you put the egg in the sack. When you finish that, you tie your mini-sack with a thin cord so your egg won’t roll out of it.
The second way is a little bit easier. How does this work? You need a item that has a sharp point (we used a nail) and near the tip you wrap some thin cord so you get a sort of base which you use to melt wax. Then you light up a candle, scratch some wax of it, melt it in the flame and paint on your egg. You can work precisely (which is very difficult, you need a really sharp point so you can do that) or get artsy and just get wax all over the egg 🙂 This is a fun way to do and the results are amazing. When you finish them, you just put them in the sack with the other eggs (no pantie sack needed).

Now that we’ve decorated them, we put them all together in a sack and tie this sack up so they can’t fall out. And now it’s time to dye!

It looks a little bit messy (and it truly is) but the result is amazing. We’ve putted onions and peels that we’ve already had of those onions in a big cooking pot and putted our eggs that we’ve decorated and packed in a sack in this little messy soup. And then it’s easy as that: you let those eggs inside to cook, when it boils you wait 5-10 minutes and then you take it off your stove and let it in that hot water for another 5 minutes. After that, you put them in cold water and unpack them. And here are your eggs!

Of course, I didn’t put a photo of the end result. That’s a little surprise for Easter day 🙂 But as you can see they have a really nice orange/red color. It’s really a fun way to do, healthier than those paintings you can buy and let’s be honest: this is more creative than those stickers you can buy, isn’t it?

Shopping

Another task of today’s list was shopping. I had to get some snacks and ingredients for my desserts. I’m going to make two desserts tomorrow. But don’t worry, I will tell you more about that in a new update 🙂

OOTD

Of course, if I’m going somewhere, I have to get ready *innerdiva is waking up* The sun FINALLY appeared today, so it was a beautiful day. It still was a little bit chilly outside, but that didn’t prevent me of getting in the springy mood. So, it was time to get that jeans jacket out of the closet!

My outfit with and sans jacket. I’ve posted also a picture of it on my Instagram, but I had to share it once again with you. I’m just in love with this short sweater from H&M. And the yellow color gives you an instant Summer feeling 🙂 Those jeans are from New Yorker, and since I’ve bought them, I wear it all the time. They are a little bit big now for me (I’ve lost some weight since I bought them in December) but they are a boyfriend jeans model, so that doesn’t mind.

I admit: I have a new lover in life. Wanna see who? Check it out.

And no, not myself, but my new ear cuffs from Claire’s! My mommy bought these and another silver pair a while ago in Claire’s and since then, I’m madly in love with those babies! I wear them everywhere! It had to get used to them because I never had ear cuffs, but now I want more of these. This pair has 3 ear cuffs, but I wear only two of them on this picture. I asked my mom if she can find some more, so hopefully I’ll expand my collection 🙂

The rest of this day and evening were very relaxed as usual. After shopping, we went to drink some coffee, chilled outside on the terrace at my brother-in-law’s house, ate dinner and watched some TV. It was a busy day, but thanks to the beautiful weather, I’m not tired at all.

There will be a new update tomorrow about my skills in the kitchen as I make some desserts, including pictures and recipes. So keep an eye open!

Until the next post,

See you soon!

Natasa.

PS. Did you notice the colors in my post? I finally decided to use them, to cheer this place up! 😉