Theme-parties

Theme-parties are one of my favourite kind of parties, I love how the guests are challenged to find a costume to fit the theme and to surprise them with fun and game in the spirit of whatever theme is chosen. I have hosted a few theme parties in my life and I plan on many more, a classic is the bad-taste party, everyone has some ugly outfit in the closet or can put several items together to clash completely or if none of the options are there, there are always second hand shops filled with items that had their purpose along with a reason why they were discharged. Halloween parties are another of my favourite and as the American holiday makes it's entry to the European marked a lot of new ideas for decoration and games are shared and invented. One has to love the internet for giving us the ability to share such things and ideas with each other, across oceans and continents. If I had the chance I would make all my parties theme parties, every birthday and holiday. I find that when people are pulled out of their normal comfort zone they tend to open up in different ways and enjoy them selves on a whole new level. Not to mention, the pictures taken will bring smiles for years to come.

Brownies

100 gr of butter
100 gr of walnuts (can be replaced by 50 gr of walnuts and 50 gr of chopped chocolate)
75 gr of flour
2 eggs
200 gr of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
½ a teaspoon of baking-powder
2 tablespoons of cocoa-powder

Put the oven on 175 degrees (Celsius) and melt the butter in a pan or microwave and let it cool a bit.
Chop the walnuts sparsely (chunky is good)
Whip egg and sugar until fluffy
Mix all the dry ingredients and stir them into the mix of sugar and eggs gently
The melted butter and chopped walnuts gets stirred in gently
Pour the batter into a square baking pan (20x30 cm) a good idea is to put baking paper in the bottom and bake it at 175 degrees for aprox. 30 minutes
Let the cake cool before cutting it into small squares, normally I get 30 out of that size of pan
They do not decrease in yummi-ness if you put a bit of melted chocolate on it before that :P

My Biscotti

200 gr. brown sugar
2 eggs
½ of the vanilla from one vanilla-pod

Whip the items good until the batter is nice and thick

100 gr of whole pealed almonds

Mix them inand try to avoid them clumping together too much

250 gr flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
½ a teaspoon of salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and add them slowly to the batter while stirring, the batter is rather sticky but with wet hands (use cold water) you can shape them into to long 'loafs'
Bake them for about 30 minutes at 150 degrees (Celsius) before taking them out and slicing them into 1½ cm slices (for looks I slice them diagonally)
Turn the slices to their sides and bake them for another 10 minutes.
If possibly, let them cool off before putting them in the cookie-jar (warning - these are extremely good and especially when warm so keep husband and children out of the kitchen and try to control yourself if they are being baked for a special occasion)

Recycle

I recycle, my mother and father recycles and my nan isn't bothered. In Belgium it's mandatory to recycle and I love it. My mum have always been considerate when it came to the environment and after her and my new dad bought a house, everything got sorted. Paper, plastic, glass and potato-peals for the compost and once every now and then the special truck comes by and picks everything up and puts them in different compartments. I find it clever because recycling saves the environment and reusing glass and paper is rather easy and cost very little energy, a lot less then it costs to produce new items. Now I am not about to join Greenpeace due to the fact that I feel they are wasting the money they collect and get from sponsors and such but I do believe that we have to take care of the world we live in and if you can do something as a single person or household then I think it's a bit silly not to. It doesn't take that much longer to rinse off the marmalade jar and put it in a separate box or take the news papers and advertisements and put them aside in a pile. And then every so often just put them outside the door for someone to come pick it up. In some ways I find it silly that a country like Denmark, who is so concerned with the environment and has some of the highest 'green taxes' in the world to not make sorting and recycling mandatory like it is in Belgium.
(Green taxes: a car fuelled by gasoline costs more annually than a diesel driven car, the bigger the car and the more CO2 it produces, the more expensive it is - clever eh?)
I have informed Steve that once we get a house I want a compost. He thinks it's silly but I have agreed to take care of the garden so a compost would be my job therefore he has nothing to say :P

Things in perspective

We all want to have more money, be thinner, have a straight nose, more sleep and so on and it's a common way of thinking, wishing and wanting more than we have or better things, one could say that it makes us stride to move up and onwards, fight and work for the things we want and need but sometimes I wish people would stop up and think things through. The basic needs, according to Maslow, are the physical needs such as food, water, air and such and most people in our part of the world have those needs covered, true there are millions of people around they world who does not have but I'm not going to get into that now.
When I talk to my different friends and family members it's clear that we are all very different in our point of view on life and for the most I find myself to be with the simple wishes and requirements, I don't care for brands, for going to the hairdresser every 2. week, having my nails done, having a fancy car and so on, I'm hereby not saying that I have shallow and superficial friends, just that we have very different views on what's important in life. I am perfectly happy with the life I have, sure a bit more money would help with less worries over finances but we manage and are not lacking anything, we have internet, cable for the telly, heating and electricity and always food on the table (if I'm bothered too cook :P ) I have a healthy happy son and a fiancée that loves me, sometimes more than other times but never mind that. I have friends who like and love me for who I am and a family that's there for me if I need them. In short I am not rich in material things but I am rich in love and friendships and that for me is more important than anything because as the Beatles sang: "Can't buy me love!"

Second hand

I have to say, I love thrift stores, or second hand stores as the are mostly called. I like to think that everything has a meaning and a purpose here in life and if the item is collecting dust in a drawer and just taking up space it's wasting it's purpose. It might be nothing to you but it could be something special to someone else. I have bought some of my best things in thrift stores or I have gotten it from the closet of some old relative that didn't have a use for it or hadn't used it for years. I have several times, especially just before I moved to Belgium, cleared out in my things and removed those who were: Never used, I like it, I might use it, it doesn't fit yet and so on.... Things I have had for years, months or just weeks, nothing got a chance if I was doubting if I was going to use it. I am not big on Feng Shui but I believe in a cluttered home is a stuffy home. Not here mentioned that a house full of things are messy, my in laws have a lot of things and it's nice and tidy there but it's stuffy, you can feel it when you're there.
So I am big on supporting thrift stores, one (wo)man's trash is another (wo)man's treasure plus mostly thrift stores are run by companies who send the profits to charities so it's a win-win :P

Like mother, like daughter

I called my mother yesterday for a few things I needed sorted along with some items I needed her to send me for the Christmas preparations, a part of the conversation sounded like this:

Me: I need the address for Marianne's boarding school (my sister)
Mum: I've send it to you on facebook already
Me: Good because I want to send her a Christmas card, I've written them today and just need her...
Mum: *giggles*
Me: YES! I've already written the Christmas cards, I want them sent before the first of December because or else I won't get it done, time flies-
Mum: yes, time does go quickly
Me: Right, and in two weeks it's Kate's birthday and after that there is the Christmas afternoon with the Danish group
Mum: When's Kate's birthday?
Me: err...... the 19th....
Mum: So the day before your sister?
Me: Dammit! Forgot, what does she want? Need?

and so on.... My mother is a perfectionist and have everything sorted and in order ages before it's needed. She's known for having finished her Christmas shopping in August and any Christmas card from her arrives the 30th of November, 1st of December she takes the finished batter out of the freezer and makes Christmas cookies (the batter which she made end October or start November) and I find myself planning like she does. She has for ages tried to implement her ideas on me and I have stubbornly fought against it but now I can see the point of it. I beat myself up each year I don't get the Christmas cards sent and I hate the years when I don't even get to hang the Christmas decorations. I have lately (the last couple of years) taken to my mother's kind of planning and timeplan. It works! Because as December closes in there are so many things you have to do and remember and there is always more family visits and small gatherings with work, friends etc. so having the basics sorted helps a lot, enough so that you do not feel overrun by the holidays and that you haven't gotten to do the things you originally wanted. There is nothing worse than starting a new year with regretting all the things you didn't get to do.

Winnie the Pooh

One of my friends wrote on facebook that there was something disturbing about Winnie the Pooh and his friends, Winnie, who apparently seemed to have an over-eating problem, Piglet who have a nervous disorder, Eeyore with a severe depression, Tigger with ADD and Kanga with the clear case of OCD and of course Jacob who believes that his toy animals are alive. It's funny to look deeper into the layers of a children story, what kind of different characters and traits they have, a choice, I believe, the author have made in order for children to see the differenties of others and see beyond first hand impression and appearance. But all these loveable characters have a severe mental disorder, judging by our day, and still each of them are as lovable as the other one so is that a step to prepare the children for what's coming, what kind of world they are growing up and into? Or is it to give each character such a strong individuality that together they all cover the basic fears, problems and other kinda of negativity in our lives. Fear (piglet) in such an extreme case that maybe even the most cautious and skittish child would be able to say: I'm not that bad off. Inward and depressed (Eeyore) that even with the most bleak days, the most rain on your parade and nothing left to look forward to, at least I don't have it as bad as him. Are they scape-goats for our children for them to see that the glass is always half full?
I personally would rather have my children watch Winnie the Pooh and friends than Teletubbies or Barney, there is something scary about figures or animals who are of unnatural colours and way taller than everyone else.No thank you, I'll take the whole aspect of Freud's wicked mind over psychedelic sounds, noises and colours who's goal is to entertain but rather seem to brainwash.