Dutch apple pie

Time to harvest your apples! 

And now. 

Let's make a real Dutch apple pie. 

1 kg cooking apples

225 grams plain flour

150 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

1 egg

A good handful of raisins

Sugar

Cinnamon

Mix the egg through the flour. 

Add the butter and about a tablespoon of sugar and mix until it's all combined. 

Butter your cake tin and cover the bottom and side with the dough. Make sure it only thin! 

You should keep a little bit of dough to make the topping at the end. 

Core and peel the apples and cut them up. Whatever way you fancy; in slices, in small cubes, whatever. 

Mix them with the raisins and sprinkle with a good bit of sugar and cinnamon. Put the apple mixture in the cake tin and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. 

Roll the left over dough into thin strips and lay them, in a cris-cros pattern, over the apple. Brush with a bit of egg and bake for 35-40 minutes. 

Let it cool a bit before serving. 

Needless to say: cream is a necessity. 

Soldier on

I thought you were suppose to be well rested and rejuvenated when returning from holidays. How wrong was I. 

Where I went wrong? I took Big Brother and Little Brother (and The Husband) with me. Fool. 

No seriously. We had a lovely time. 

Swimming, playgrounds, the beach, picturesque villages, relaxing breakfasts, easy meals and even sunshine! It was lovely. 

But we had two children with us that don't sleep well at the best of times. Put them in a new environment, beds that aren't their own in rooms without blackout blinds and being up only half the night begins to sound appealing. Not one morning did The Husband and I wake up in the same bed. 

We don't do 'crying it out', we don't do schedules, we don't do waking sleeping babies for feeds. But at times like these I start to doubt our choices, our parenting style. As a baby I was left to cry it out and I grew up to be a happy person. So really, how bad can it all be? 

But I can't. We can't. Crying is a baby's only way to communicate. Ignoring it is so wrong. Yes some babies need to cry a bit to shut down, but endless screaming is just not fair. 

And so we soldier on. 

Hoping to sleep for more than 2 hours in a row. 

Soon. 

September to get sane

Remember how I said taking a break from a blog you've only started would be weird? Yeah. Well. 

You see, August was a mental month. With Dutch visitors every weekend, Little Brother's Christening, Big Brother's birthday and loads of gardening. And life, you know, family life. 

What I'm trying to say:

I was busy, entertaining, making endless cups of tea and coffee, cooking for large quantities of people. 

But September is looking a lot calmer. Thank God. 

We're starting with a little break away, just the four of us. 

And after that we can get back into a, yes I'm going to say it, routine again. 

I'm ready.