Dedication, dedication

Hi there,
After a busy, busy week at the farm it is time for a nice relaxing weekend with of course a good snack to go with it. But that's the thing here... the groceries are done once a week and you can add your preferences, but your never quite sure if they will make it. So basically it is always a surprise what you're gonna get. And then you have to share these goodies with 8 other people. Luckily there are no fights...yet. And then there's only one tiny tiny kitchen to cook in. So yeah sometimes it's quite challenging, but that's what they say. "A good cook can cook anywhere"  So I'm trying. :-)
For today my French toast with homemade yoghurt cherry ice cream. For 2-3 persons
what do you need?
5 pieces of white bread
2 eggs
4 table spoons milk
1 table spoon of sugar
Maple syrup

For the ice cream
20 cherries fresh or from a pot
150 ml of full fat Greek yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon

To make the ice cream, I used potted cherries cause that's what there was. Put these in a bowl and add 50 ml of the cherries juice in the bowl. Add the yoghurt and the lemon juice, mix these all together. The color should be really pink. If not, add a little more cherry juice. Cover the bowl and put this in the freezer. I made this the night before. But you can also make this the same morning leave it in the freezer for 2 hours and you have a nice semi fredo. (Sort of frozen). Before you make the toast, get the ice cream out of the freezer, so that it can get soft.
On to the French toast. Cut the pieces of bread diagonal in half. Put the eggs, milk and sugar in a bowl give it a good whisk, put a stir fry on medium high heat add a good piece of butter in the pan. Wait until the butter is melted and getting just a little brown. Get the piece of bread and slip it through the mixture. Make sure every piece of bread is covered and get it in the pan. Bake till both side are golden brown. Repeat till all the pieces are baked. Get a big spoon and make scoops of the ice cream and put these on the plate. Add the french toast and drizzle a little bit of maple syrup over it. And you're good to go.
Enjoy,

Love,
the kitchenprincess

Sunday's treat

Today is sunday which means at the farm that you have a day of. Time to sleep in, do laundry and for me it means time to bake. And this takes a while cause we're with 10 people in one house and you're not just gonna bake for yourself! So the recipe I have for you today is for 16 cookies but if you've got a big family or friends coming over just multiply by 2. Like I did.
What do you need?
115 grams of soft butter
3 table spoons of smooth peanut butter
150 grams of brown sugar
50 grams of white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 grams of macadamia nuts
50 grams of white chocolat
50 grams of chocolate m&m's
A little pinch of salt
125 grams of flour
A mixer
A griddle
Grease proof paper
A kitchen scale
A tea spoon of secret ingredient

As a start pre heat the oven at 175 degrees.
Put all the ingredients together in a bowl except for the nuts, the chocolate and m&m's and the flour. Get the mixer and mix everything together till it's smooth. Now add the flower and mix this together as well. Now add the secret ingredient to the mix. For me it's a teaspoon of all spice for a little extra kick. The mixture is ready. Time for  you to divide the mixture into 2 batches. Get another bowl and put one batch in. Now get a board and chop the macademians into small pieces and mix them into one of the mixtures. Get the griddle and put the grease proof paper on the griddle. Divide these into 8 or 6, with 6 you'll get bigger cookies, and put them in the griddle. I always to this with my hands. Make them a little bit flatter by gently pushing on them. Make sure that the griddle is big enough, for they will get bigger because of the heat. Let these bake for 13 minutes. For the second batch we're using the m&m's. Get another grease proof paper and put it on the bench. Divide the mixture into 6 or 8 pieces give them a little push and then gently push in the m&m's. When the first one is ready, get them out which the grease proof paper. Make sure not to touch the griddle. And put the other one which the paper in the griddle. The cookies are soft now. They will get a little bit harder. I like them chewy so that's why I put them in for 13 minutes. If you like them more crunchy put them in for 15-16 minutes. We still have the chocolate. Melt the chocolate. I always do this au bain Marie. When the chocolate is melted, get a spoon and drizzle the white chocolate over the cookies. You can all kinds of figures. Let this rest again. When it's time get out the second batch and let these cool off. Give it 10 minutes and it's time to eat your delicious homemade cookies and maybe share :-) !

Love,

The kitchenprincess

Perks of the job

Hi there,

As you all know we found ourselves a job here. It's not what you would've guessed if you know us but actually we really like it. We work at a organic, biological,dynamic veggie farm. That has all sort of vegetables. We learn how to weed, plant, grow and pack them. There's more everyday after work (you work from 8 till 5 with one hour lunch break), you go to the gardens and pick whatever you like. So everything is superfresh and literary handpicked. How cool is that?  Every night I try to make something nice with these amazing vegetables. Yesterday it was spicy broccoli soup.
What do you need?
2 broccoli's
1/2  onion
1/2 red pepper
1 toe of garlic
3 big stripes of bacon
2 tablespoons of cream
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 bunch of coriander
A double of dried herbs that you like. I used fennel, nutmeg and oregano.
pepper & salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
1,5 liter of water

First get a big pan on the stove, big enough to add water. Chop the onion and garlic in really small pieces. Put the olive oil in the pan. Add the onion and garlic in the pan. Make sure the gas is at medium/high heat.Now chop the broccoli in pieces also the cut the bottom. Mix these in the pan with the onion and garlic. Give it a stir. Let this heat up. Now chop the parsley and coriander,mix this with the rest in the pan. Add all the water (1,5) into to the pan. Also add pepper and salt. I used boiling water so I put the gas down to low/medium heat. Let this warm for 10 minutes keep stirring every now and then. After you did this put all the herbs in as well. Use how much you like and what you like. This way you make your own broth. That's much nicer then the premade ones. Let all the flavors get together in the pan. Let this rest for 10 minutes. Taste the broth, if it needs anything, just add it to the soup.
Now cut the chili into small rings and leave the on the board. Get the bacon and cut these in to strings of 3 centimeter. Put the bacon in a stir fry and let this get brown and crispy. You don't need oil or butter. The bacon itself has enough fat. Turn the gas of the soup to the lowest position and get the mixer. Mix it all the way you like. I like it with pieces of the vegetable still in but, you can also make it smooth. After this stir it again. Taste again, perhaps add some pepper and salt. After your approval the soup is ready. The bacon should be crispy enough by now so turn that of as well. Get 2 bowls. Pour the soup in get the cream and drizzle that over the soup. Put the bacon on top and finish of with the chilli. Ready to go.

Enjoy your delicious fresh meal!

Love ,

The kitchenprincess

Ps. Wanna know more? Follow me at Instagram @j_thekitchenprincess or tell me what you think!:-)

Farm Veggies

Hi there,

We have been in Perth for almost a week now, and yesterday it was time to experience one of the most popular things in this area: Farmers market. Just an half hour ride with the train and you're there. Amazing. I love markets, I don't know what is it, maybe the sight of all this different shapes and colours, I can spend hours there, just looking and tasting. So we did. And we bought some good stuff. Feta straight from the farm, freshly picked basil, delicious. I wanted to make something where all this flavours would come alive even more. And this the result. Yet again very easy. For 2 persons.
what do you need?
400 gram of lentils drained 240 gram
1/2 eggplant
50 gram of almonds
100 gram of feta cheese
1/2 bunch of basil
one orange
extra virgine olive oil
salt and pepper

Start by draining the lentils through a strainer. Put them in a pan add boiling water, a little bit of salt and a little bit of olive oil. Let this be for the next 15 minutes and then stir gently. It takes a while to cook the lentils about 40 minutes, so now there is time to prep everything. Cut the eggplant in thin slices. And peel the orange, make sure you peel as much white of as you can. Then cut the orange in to slices above a bowl, don't throw the juice away. Cut the basil into small pieces, save some leaves as a garnish later. Put a stir fry on the stove, add a table spoon of oil, wait until the pan is hot then add the eggplant with a little bit of salt. Stir the lentils gently again. Get a big plate and put in somewhere handy, next to you. After 5 minutes or so when the eggplant has coloured a bit, flip them over. when the other is coloured as well put them on the big plate. Then get the almonds and roast them in the pan. It is time to drain the lentils. after you drained them put them back in the pan and mix half of the cut basil through the lentils. and add these on top of the eggplants. Get the feta out of the fridge and break these with you're hands over the lentils. The almonds are done when you start smelling them and they browned even more. Time to turn of the stove. Leave the almonds in the pan. Grap the orange and add them to the dish. Carefully pour the orange juice over the dish at well. Do the same with a table spoon of extra virgine olive oil. Make sure it's divided. Now divide the almonds over the plate to. For a last finishing touch put some whole basil leaves on top.
You're ready to go! Enjoy

Love,

The kitchenprincess

PS. if you wanna know more check instagram @j_thekitchenprincess

Philly cheese steak in Australia

So here we are. We just arrived in Perth, Australia and we need some getting used to. It's colder about 18 degrees and so different then Asia. At the moment we're in a hostel and figuring out our next steps. We're looking for a job, got an Australian number and we're getting a bank account. So much to figure out so time for simple food. But nevertheless I still wanted to make something Yammie. So Philly cheese steak it was but then with a little Spanish twist. What do you need? For 2 persons who are hungry:
300 gram of good quality steak
1 tomato
150 grams of cherrytomato
1/5 zukini
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
Cheese, how much, what type? Whatever you prefer
4 whole wheat buns
4 table spoon of good quality extra virgin olive oil

To begin: get the steak out of the fridge we're not gonna do anything with it just getting it to room temperature. Slice the zukini in very thin slices and sprankle olive oil and a little pepper and salt over them. Then put them one by one in stir fry on medium heat. Let the zukinis bake. In the meanwhile slice up the cherry tomatoes in four. Put these in a bowl. Check on the zukinis are they coloring? Flip them over. Get another stir fry on the gas and put a table spoon of olive oil in the pan. Sprankle the steak with pepper and salt only one side. You when the oil is hot enough when it gives of a little damp. Put the thesteaks in the pan. I like mine rare so I flipped the steaks over after one minute. Put if you like more medium then wait a little longer. When you flipped them over put cheese on the steaks. It's time to get the zukinis of of the stove and on a plate. Now this is the moment where you put them in an preheated oven of 180 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes till the cheese is melted. I didn't have an oven so I did it in the pan. (Apparently nobody bakes in hostel such a shame :-)). The cheese didn't melt entirely but that's ok. When you put the steaks, it's time to build you're sandwich. Cut all the buns in half. Remember the tomato? Cut it in four and rub it on side of the buns. Sprinkle some olive oil over the buns as well and some pepper and salt. Put the zukini slices on the same side as the tomato rub and at the cherry tomatoes. Now cut the meat carefully in slices how big you like, and lay them on the bun to. Sprankle the chilli powder over the cheese. And enjoy you're meal!

Love,

The kitchenprincess

The pancake brunch

Today is our last day in Asia. At the moment we're staying with relatives here in Sigapore. Being in their apartment I realized that I haven't cooked for four months. Time to change that. Since they are of to work and Frank (my husband) was packing our suitcases. I thought to myself : time to cook. What shall I make? That was easy, it's something we both really missed during traveling: Pancakes! I love pancakes, this typical Dutch dish that everybody from Holland just loves. Everybody that I know back home has a his/hers own way of making it. My father in law uses buttermilk, one of my friend swears by a beer batter. My mama uses low fat milk. For me,
 I am my mother's daughter so I also use low fat milk. Back home I made them with crispy bacon and Apple syrup for dinner. But since they don't have that here (Apple syrup) I decided to make them with fruit, and for breakfast. I believe a lot of people find it strange that we eat pancakes for dinner, but hey if you'recipe Dutch that's what you do! There is another matter that is really important when it comes to pancakes, the thickness, some like American style others fluffy and others like the crepes. I also a huge fan of as thin was possible. So here's my recipe for delicious thin brunch pancakes with fruit.
250 gram of flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
600 ml of milk
Butter for baking
this is enough for let's say 10-12 pancakes depending on how thick you want them.
Put the flower and the salt through a strainer in a bowl. Add the milk start stirring with a whisk. When everything is mixed and the batter looks smooth add the eggs and stir again till the batter looks smooth. Put a frying pan on the stove and turn the heat on. Put a little butter in the pan, when the butter is melted get a spoon poor the batter in to pan. They always say that the first one will fail, but I don't agree, if you put the stove on medium heat. Your pancake will be fine. Flip when the psncske looks golden brown, and then out of the pan on the plate. I always put another plate on top so that the food doesn't get cold. Repeat till there's no more batter. Cut some strawberries, put them on the stack of pancakes, do the same with passion fruit. Cut the fruit open and scoop out the seeds and put those on the pancakes as well. Drizzle with some honey and stack one is ready. If you want to spice things up a bit. For the second batch I used banana and walnut in the batter. Everything is exactly the same make the batter,then add a thin slices banana and some chopped walnuts ( for the size one walnut in two) and put these through the batter,strir carefully. Put some fresh banana and walnuts on top of the stack,with also a little bit of honey and brunch is ready. Ooh before I forget for the water : take a bottle of sparkling water poor this is a water jug,squeeze out half agrapefruit. Slice up some ginger and the other half of the grapefruit. Add this to the water jug. Your refreshing drink is ready. Enjoy,

Love,
the thekitchenprincess

My first post

 Let me start by saying that I'm so excited! This my dream come true. My own blog about all the food that I like. With recipes and of course photo's. I will write about everything baking, cooking healthy food and budget food especially since we're going to Australia where everything is quite expensive. So I don't think that these delicious cupcakes will be in our budget but I do have a great recipe that I will share with you guys soon. So this was the introduction to what I'm all about so stay tuned.