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Bleh, I have a bad cold and a fever.
Right now I'm trying this medicine (and some Ibuprofen):
It is hot water with ginger, a clove and cardamom pods. I hope it will soften my throat.
Damaris is also looking pretty bad, but that is because she is in a school play today. She is the Wolwa in a play about the Edda, the old Norse mythology.
Of course I will go to the play tonight. Never mind that cold.
We wish everybody :
Happy Easter
(this little card was made by Damaris especially for the blog)
Yesterday for me, was full of cycling and making bread. Full of cycling because my kids had to be taken to school, fetched from school, fetched from play dates, taken to street dance class. Luckily I got a new bike on my birthday! While I was cycling around, at home the bread I had started was quietly proving and waiting for me.
This is how I started:
I took the recipe from the rye flour (roggemeel) packet:
250 grams of whole wheat flour (volkorenmeel)
175 grams of rye flour
7 grams of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of molasses (stroop)
1 tablespoon of oil
250 ml of tepid water (probably less is better)
Mix together the two types of flour with the salt and the dry yeast. On the photo it's hard to see, but the whole wheat flour is light brown, while the rye flour looks gray. Interesting (I think).
Before the next step I cycled to and back from school.
Add the molasses, oil and water. Mix together and knead to a dough. (I added white flour at this point because the dough was super sticky; less water next time I think).
Let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour, in a bowl under a moist tea towel.
You can do some cycling at this point as well.
When you come back, punch down the dough. Knead some more. Make a nice bread shape and make little holes with a fork in the top.
Again the bread has to rest for 1 hour in a warm place. I have an oven that can be set at 35 degrees Celsius for this.
I had to do a lot of cycling here, so my bread rested for much more than an hour. It was no problem. I think it got even bigger because of this extra time.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Paint some water on the bread and then it is ready to go into the oven.
Leave it in there for 50 minutes (a little less is probably also fine).
Don't do any cycling while the oven is on at such a high temperature, is what I think. So have your husband (or someone else) pick up your daughter (or someone else) from street dance class (or something else). That way you also have time to make flavored butter to go with the bread and make the rest of dinner.
I flavored our butter with lemon zest, chives, garlic, salt and pepper.
At the table it looked like this (and it tasted great!):
Last post I was trying to convince myself, now I'm convinced: life is still alright.
It was good to get together with our friends to remember their baby. We talked about everything that had happened and felt really, really sad. We also talked a little bit about what the future might hold. I was very glad we could say goodbye to the little girl.
Now it feels okay to enjoy the sun that is out today. But I will never forget the great grief of our friends.
Okay, easter is coming... Time to decorate the house with flowers and color!
Damaris and Emil have already worked on colorful decorations.
Some easter ideas for myself (and you, lovely reader):
Egg cozies from a pattern on Yvestown
Stuffed fabric eggs on Olive Juice and co
Easter bread (I usually make a bread with raisins and cardamom, but this WHO bread on Soulemama might also be a good idea)
Last year I embroidered napkins with easter drawing by the kids More on Flickr
Looking at that photo of last year's Easter Breakfast Table (with capitals) makes me happy. It gives me the feeling that we will be able to cheer up in time before easter if we surround ourselves with color and flowers.
We have felt very sad this week because the little daughter of friends died after only 17 weeks of life. This weekend we'll say goodbye to her.
Doesn't every blog need a post about the blogger's cat?! Here it is!
This is Mauries posing with the Soft Turtle Buddy I already talked about.
Mauries is not called Maurice because that would have been to classy for someone born in a cardboard box. He is very beautiful though. He looks like some kind of pedigree, but he is just a lucky genetic coincidence (his parents are siblings, oops).
He's handsome, but he's a real cat. He follows his own mind and didn't pose for long. That turtle is more patient... 
Lots of work in progress this week! I'll show the results in later posts.
First of all, I was tidying up my work room. 
I was looking for the right button to finish a machine embroidered Artsy Clutch (from the Bend-The-Rules Sewing book).
A top secret project for two people who are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary today (!) Update: Revelation on Flickr
A Soft Turtle Buddy from Bend-The-Rules. I did this to participate in a little Simul-Sew project with a photo group on Flickr.
Then today I went to my ceramics class, and found a whole new set of works in progress had just come out of the kiln.
More photos of everything (except for that top secret project) can be found on my Flickr.
