It’s snowing snow photos! … the final segment for February.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

More snow photo’s…  just  because they didn’t all fit in my last post.

I’ve been having fun whilst the snow falls and snapping photos left and right.

Dutch skaters are disappointed  that it wasn’t colder  or at least colder for longer, so that the canal skating could have continued.

The weather forcaster said the other day that there might still be possibilities of  more sub zero temps before the winter is out, but I’m secretly hoping that any weather predictions of that nature are twarted by balmy breezes from any direction other than the frozen North.

I’m a tomato type of person at heart and prefer the warm… or at least I prefer my snow from the comfort of looking out of the window, cosily bundled up with the heater on full and no appointments  to rush out to. Will you find me hopping around from one cold foot to another on the side of a canal whilst watching people skate? Well, I would for my kids… but I have my limits and I’m thankful that both kids are fairly wimpy like their Mama and Papa when it comes to playing in ice or snow. None of us last long and the first mention of a  nice warm house back home is seized upon with gusto.  Yeah! kids after my own heart …genetics are wonderful sometimes eh?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Winter in the Netherlands, Feburary more or less snow filled!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This Winter in the Netherlands has been one of the coldest for years.

Small canals have frozen and we have seen more snow than has been on offer for a good many years. I only got photos of the “light” stuff, since we were away during the hardest snowstorms.

Those harder snowfalls (18 cm in the Hague) bought public transport to a halt for a few days and make getting around a big hassle. This stuff  in recent weeks isn’t very thick but the danger is that there is often ice under it so it can be nasty for cars to negotiate.

Of course parts of the USA, Canada and other areas of Europe routinely get LOTS more snow, but it’s getting to be a scarce commodity here in the Netherlands, so for that reason alone I am making a record of that fact that this has been one of the coldest February’s for a long long time.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Bird footprints on my balcony…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In this field along-side the motorway, there was less snow cover and literally hundreds of birds on the ground…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Here is the Marliveld, near the centre of Den Haag (The Hague)…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Easy, Idoit-proof Classic Pie Crust with step-by-step photo tutorial.

This pie crust retains the flavor of an all butter crust, but is flakier because of the shortening.

The lemon juice isn’t in the recipe for lemon flavour… trust me you won’t taste it, but rather to work with the flour and prevent the pastry from being tough.

I also find that the dough gives a bigger yield than the 9 inch size stated, I roll mine relatively thin and can get a full top and bottom for a 26 cm (12 inch) shallow pie dish.

I have included 20+ step by step photographs to help you see exactly how this is made  from the first  ingredients to table.

The instructions may look long, but I have  tried to give practical details to that even if this is your first ever pie crust, you will have ALL the information you need for success. Enjoy!

Cooking time will vary depending on how deep your pie dish is,  what the filling is etc. I’ve included some examples below of things I have made to help you calculate your own cooking time for what you are baking.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

1 nine inch pie

Classic Pie Crust Recipe #26205 | 55 min | 15 min prep

In the demonstration photo series I made Australian Meat Pie(RecipeZaar recipe #21726) and there is a precooked filling, so *that* recipe called for the first 15 minutes on 220°C (425°F) and then 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

DO be aware that different fillings require different cooking times and temperatures and adjust accordingly.

Ingredients
11 1/4 ounces all-purpose flour (320g)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 lb cold unsalted butter cut in 1/2 inch pieces (115g)
1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 ounces cold water

Directions

Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor, pulse briefly to combine.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Add the butter and shortening; pulse just until coarse crumbs form, about 30 seconds.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Add the lemon juice and water.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Pulse just until moist crumbs form.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Turn the dough onto a work surface and gently shape it into two equal disks about 4 or 5 inches (10-12 cm) in diameter.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day (can freeze).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Take one of the two disks and roll it out.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Place into a lightly greased (I use cooking spray) pie dish, I also carefully roll the pastry around the rolling pin and then “unroll” it into the dish, it’s less likely to break this way.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I take an egg and separate the yolk from the white — and using a pastry brush, I “paint” the pastry base with some of the egg yolk. (Don’t use it all because you will need some of it to paint the lid of the pie later too.)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This will make a seal and help prevent the bottom of the pie from becoming soggy when the wet filling is added. (Please note: in the photo series one of the small dishes contains the egg white — it’s not used in this recipe as we only need the yoke)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Then add your pie filling — mine in the photo demo is meat, yours could be vegetable or fruit etc .

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now roll out your second disk of dough and carefully place this on top of your pie.(I dampen the top edge of the base with a very small amount of water to help join the two layers before laying on my pastry “lid”) and then I use a fork to push the edges together.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

After trimming the excess pastry from around the edges, I gather up the pastry scraps and roll them out — cutting some “leaves” to decorate the top.I wet the bottom of these decorations with a tiny amount of water and then place them on top of the pie.

Then I add a tablespoon of water to the last of the egg yolk and gently “paint” the whole top of the pie. Lastly, use the fork to poke some holes around the pastry to let the steam out.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Put into the oven and bake according to the instructions for the recipe you are making.
Et Voila ! and so EASY!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

If you would like to read any of the 100+ reviews that I have so far for this recipe or make the recipe and leave a review yourself, then you will find the link for that here:     http://www.recipezaar.com/Means-Classic-Pie-Crust-26205

Often disaster strikes when you least expect it…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Disaster often strikes when you least expect it, at the last hurdle when you thought that things were pretty well done and dusted, all in order, in the bag and certain…

Late on Tuesday evening (Continental European Time) hundreds of thousands if not millions of Dutch citizens sat in front of their TV’s to watch and cheer on one of our national sporting hero’s skating at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics: 23 year old Sven Kramer.

He’s at the top of his form, already has one Gold medal under his belt for the 5,000 meters in the last week and was hot tipped for a hat-trick in all the long distance speed skating events.

The 5,000 meter race draw, saw him unusually skate in one of the middle pairs of the line-up,  instead of as one of the last racers, and many wondered how he would plan his race.

He came onto the ice it was soon abundantly clear: he set such a blistering time that the competitors after him burned themselves out trying to match it.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In the 10,000 meters he was in the last pair to skate. He’s been unbeaten over 10,000 meters for the past 3 years and even his opposition were admitting that this race was his… he deserved it. Sadly no matter how well you prepare and how fast you go, it doesn’t always go as you’d expect.

Speed skating is a very fine art of speed, balance, co-ordination, strength, stamina and concentration.  Competitors compete in pairs, but over-all, all of the competitors are racing the clock. The clock is your Nemesis, the foe that has to be beaten. The other person on the track is just the rabbit to chase, or be chased.

Laps are alternated and skaters take turns at having and “inside” lane and and “outside” lane, but there are always certain parts of the track where both skaters will be in the same lane whilst the cross-over takes place. Especially in longer distances, the job of the coach is to let the skater know which lane he should be in, which lap they are at, lap times etc.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Skater can then concentrate on skating fast, very very fast, aiming in Sven’s case to make a new Olympic Record and hopefully without any high speed spills.

So what happened Tueday evening? well, two-thirds of the way though the race, Sven’s coach made an error, he called Sven into an inside lane when he should have called him into an outside one.

Sven was so concentrated that he didn’t realise that he was in the wrong place, but he knew that the atmosphere inside the stadium had changed. The massive band of fanatical Dutch supporters knew that Sven was disqualified, long before Sven knew it.

Race officials never stop speed skating races mid way, they only flash the dreaded “DS” sign for disqualification onto the board at the end of the race. This is because there are two skaters on the ice and both are racing the clock so to pull one of them and leave the other with no-one to chase would be unfair.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

So imagine how you would feel if you saw that you had made a new Olympic Record time of 12 minutes 54.50 seconds as you crossed the finish line… you’d think you’d won a Gold medal.
Sven thought that. He was wrong.

Korean skater Lee Seung-Hoon took a surprise Gold in 12:58.55, also by Skating an Olympic record, with Sven’s Russian skating companion in the final pair (Ivan Skobrev) taking Silver. Fellow Dutchman Bob de Jong therefore tipped in from what would have been 4th place to win the Bronze.

Imagine the devastation of finding out that a mistake on the part of someone else cost you a Gold medal… even the Russian admitted that Sven surely deserved it better than anyone.  But as in any sport, rules are rules, in speed-skating you cross the line in the wrong place, or are in the wrong lane at the wrong time and it’s all over.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m certain that no-one can feel worse than Sven’s coach, Gerard Kemkers. If you realised how high a profile Speed Skating has in the Netherlands, it would come as no surprise that there was only one real topic on Dutch News today… it’s Headline news with a capital “H” in all the media.

As I type this in my Wednesday lunchtime, I take away from this that even when you’ve worked hard, things seem to be going your way and you really really deserve a reward for all the blood sweat and tears, that Life sometimes derails our train and the good stuff simply doesn’t come to pass.
Is it fair? No. Is that the way Life sometimes just “is“?. Yes.

Your Gold medal is what you strive for, it’s your goal and your dream, your ambition and your hopes. But sometimes Life isn’t fair, sometimes a technicality, or a very trivial mistake can make all the difference in the world.

We get the cards we are dealt, some of them are great and some of them are pretty lousy. I think that often “Character” is the result of dealing with Life when it isn’t fair to you. Your reaction to life’s unfairness can shape you for the following hours, days, years or decades.
Shape you both positively or negatively if you let it. The trick is getting up, seizing the day and going out to the next race.

I took some photos of him on our  TV (yes, fuzzy photos sorry, since it’s still the 17 year old, 30 inch analogue TV that we can’t bear to ditch since it’s still running fine) as Sven was interviewed  today, he was asked how he felt about his Coach and about what happened. He basically said: “you can’t go back… Gerard Kemkers helped me to become world champion three times, so we had a  long private talk and it’s behind us…” Certainly Sven knows that it was nothing malicious,  just one of those unexplained little accidents  in life when a small chain of events simply goes wrong.

Sven still has another race yet to race at this Olympics, Lets see if he can put this behind him and show us what he’s really made of, …both as a skater and on a personal level.

And if he can do that, then maybe he can inspire us all.

One thing is for certain, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Dutch citizens will be cheering him on.

Is there something unwittingly missing from your menu?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I heard the other day on TV that the biggest kid favourite meal at the moment is Spaghetti Bolognese.

If my kids are anything to go by, it might be better said that it’s not their actual favourite meal, but rather just the one that gets thrust under their noses most often at meal times because I know that in spite of their grumbles they will eat it, and Nooooo there is NO possibility in this house of getting  the rubbish that they really want:  chicken nuggets.

I never ever had Spaghetti Bolognese as a kid, or Lasagna, Chili con carne or Pizza.  Ok, Yes I did have Pizza on odd occasion when I was much older,  ….home made efforts with a slightly too thick crust that always was a bit undercooked and  doughy in the middle.  That’s probably why it’s taken me so long to get enthused about Pizza as an adult.

Did my mother have something against Italian cuisine? , well, no, not really, the answer was  plainer and simple than that: she was severely allergic to tomatoes.

Subsequently I grew up only ever expecting to see my tomatoes raw, on the side of salads. I had no clue until I left home that tomato  were something you could cook with, put into sauces and meals with (as opposed  to squirts of the stuff on the side of the newspaper wrapping  of your fish and chips, that you dipped your chips into)

Our family has a history of food allergies and I unhelpfully carry on the tradition by being allergic to mould, fungi and  a few sorts of shellfish.  For me, things like blue cheese, truffles, truffle oil and  mushrooms are strictly off limits  but whilst  I  realise that I can’t eat them myself, I have resolved to prepare them every now and again for Hubby and the kids.

I don’t wish to repeat my childhood experiences  where the rest of the family missed an entire taste possibility simply because  the cook couldn’t eat  it too.

I can clearly understand that  trying to make a Lasagna  without tomatoes is a bit like trying to make hamburgers without the meat…  you can work around some things but in these  type of dishes the omission of tomatoes isn’t really one of them.

My allergies on the other hand are polite and not at all disruptive to the daily cooking routine. The one thing that I have to be extra careful of  are shop-bought veggie soups and packet mixes for sauces or gravy. Even a small amount of ” mushroom powder” is  a no-no.  …as found out  when Hubby tried a new gravy mix on a surprise meal for me years ago…  hmmm  it turned out to be  far more of a surprise than either of us bargained on or wanted.

Since then Yes,  he has cooked surprise meals for me but we have both become expert at reading ingredient labels on packets before we buy them, and at asking in restaurants what’s in the meal so that the surprises stay as nice ones and not the nasty ones.

If you are the cook in the house and you have food allergies, then you too will have to ask yourself if the thing that is restrictive for  you might also be unwittingly restricting the eating habits and experiences of your family… and maybe,  like me you need to make a separate meal every now and again to compensate them for the things you can’t enjoy.

My sister was the lucky one, she managed to be the only one in the family without any food allergy, and my poor  father copped the easiest one to avoid but probably the unluckiest… he’s allergic to strawberries.

Landmarks in The Hague: a View with a Room…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sometimes when I’m moving though the city I spy thing that  really catch my eye.

If I have time and I can grab a photo then I try to not miss the opportunity.

This landmark  in The Hague is a mural on the side of a building…

…Actually on the entire end side of a  block of apartments.  The apartment  building is off the Medlerstraat  which runs at right angles to the Erasmusweg,  and it’s  from the Erasmusweg  where you can see the mural.

The ingenious thing about this piece of artwork,  is that it’s like a view inside the building itself,  like you really might be looking into a room of one of the apartments.

Of course that chances are that it’s not, but actually we will never know, yes it is a typical old fashioned Dutch living room, complete with old fashioned gas heater, but in the end  it’s just left up to our imaginations. We are left with a kind of peeping tom view that is actually a peek that’s OK to take.

Billboard Archive Photos: Laakhaven met links de Fijnjekade

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Den Haag Gemeentearchief (the Hague City Council Archive) celebrated  their 125th year anniversary in 2009  and placed many large billboards around the city.

I was not only intrigued to see the old views of  local places but also rather bemused that the website that the Gemeentearchief set up only showed the archive billboard views but not the present day view to compare it to.

Sadly the  Archief website has since been discontinued,  and what pity because for some of the billboards people wrote in and wrote comments of their recollections of the old views, which I think were of value enough that it should have remained on view. Fortunately before the webside was closed, I did a copy/paste of some of the texts.

I have done what the Gemeente have not… taken present day photos around the billboards and that’s why on  this blog you get to see both the past and the present in each of the featured Archive Billboard posts.

This one depicts ” Laakhaven met links de Fijnjekade.” (Laakhaven = Laak harbour) with Fijnjekade on the left) Photo taken” September 1936  by “Dienst voor de Stadsontwikkeling” (the City Development Service)

(“Marc”) A guest to the archive website added a note to this billboard: “

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

“Boot van mijn opa. Hoi,
De boot die je ziet, de Varekamp 16, was de boot waar mijn opa (Jan van Middelkoop) op voer, die was binnenschipper. Later werdt hij brugwachter van de Laakbrug.”

The English translation for this is:

“My Grandfather’s Boat. Hi, the boat that you can see,  the ” Varekamp 16″  belonged to my Grandfather (Jan van Middelkoop) He was the captain of an  inland waterways ship. Later he became  the bridge operator for the Laakbrug bridge” (opening and closing the bridge to boat traffic)

The present day view is now very different indeed, the  area is no longer a harbour,  the waterway is surrounded by the buildings  and faculty of The Haagse Hogeschool  (The Hague University of Applied Sciences).

The water overlaps  the top of  part of the waterfront building and the round towers on several sides of the waterfront, contain  lifts that take you down to a subterranean  car parking garage.

Sadly none of the former buildings are still standing.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A quick and easy craft project that’s literally Child’s Play…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I try to read other people’s blogs and make a comment when something catches my eye…

Yesterday I was reading Mallory Murray’s blog ” Modern Mind, Vintage Heart-  Handcrafted, Homemade, Heartfelt”  a blog also on WordPress.

On February 17th   Mallory posted an crafty idea that I had never seen before and it took my fancy. It can be found at the link the the bottom of this post.

It’s a little square of fabric that has little loops of ribbon sticking out that babies and play with, feel and suck. What a great idea !

A neighbour just down the street had a baby boy  at Christmas time, so this unusual idea really appealed to me. I resolved to make it some time.

Today my teeth are feeling better and some medication is helping with the cold so after a nap this morning I bought my sewing machine out to the dining room table so that a friend could sew a little project that she had planned, and she had a few scraps of fabric left over, which I duly scrounged err,  I mean recycled quickly into a little gift for our little newest  little neighbour.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Thanks Mallory for the inspiration…. this took no time at all to stitch, if you don’t count the time  it took me to re-pin the ribbons so that the loops were on the inside with the tails sticking out, when the right sides of the fabric were together. (Luckily the penny dropped before I actually started sewing.)

I did take one change and one short-cut. The change was to add two thin pieces of fabric to the inside of the square to make it a bit firmer.  The short-cut was  I found that it easier to leave a little unsewn  piece between the last ribbon and the corner on two sides, this meant that when I turned it though afterwards that I would have had to fashion those two edges back into a corner.

It was more fuss that I was up for with this cold and a simple tuck under on the diagonal was quicker and easier so I  did that instead.

Cool little project and fun to stitch. Thanks!

Here’s the link to Mallory’s page and the original idea.

http://mallorymurray.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/quick-cute-baby-gift-project/

Sometimes “Life” just hits you in the teeth…

Agggh what a week.

Hubby has been taking care of the kids, which chiefly involves being Head Referee in their squabbles and Head Taxi Chauffeur  at most other times…. Oh and  also their Personal Assistant who makes sure that the swimming kit is in the swimming bags, skate gear is in the skate bags, music folders are  in the music bags, that the healthy snacks and their water bottles are in the car for the days when they will be home late due to the above appointments, and that the Diary  updated with various playdates, appointments for  Birthday Parties and …  heck he even knows where they left their shoes.

Me, I just dissapear out the door very early for the  morning commute to work and leave them to it. This week though was a bit different,  on Tuesday afternoon I left work early in the afternoon, and headed to the dentist. Well, more specifically, the Implantologist. I’m getting a mouthful implant work done.      With a severe lung condition it’s not the easiest of  choices but considering the apparent softness of my teeth and the amount of troubles they have caused me over the years,  and the fact that they pretty well took a walk around my face during my two pregnancies, I thought that it was a better route to fix the crooked mess, than to have a multiude root canals, crowns and large fillings that were so much less permanent options.

So for the last year I have have been having bone implanted into my upper and lower  jaw (to make  it thick enough for the  stuff that has to be inserted later), my gums raised, pins put in for implants, teeth pulled to make space, sinus caps and a whole raft of repair work that will change and improve the look of my mouth forever.

Tuesday’s work was 2 hours and 40 minutes in the chair,  and I will spare you the  gory details of what she did,  so I went home and hubby asked how it went ” not so bad actually“   I mumbled though lips that felt like rubber tyres.   I was pretty upbeat.  He asks ” think you’ll be at work tomorrow? “  “Yep” ( well it came out more as  “yeb” but he knew what I meant)

Then the injections wore off .

I crawled into bed and  wanted nothing better than to never ever, ever, ever  move my head  again. Luckily I  had  Codine on hand… just getting it swallowed was the tricky bit. Note to self:  Do try to get more water into your mouth than dribbled down the front of my nightshirt.  How is it possible that I can feel pain  in my mouth but my lips are still rubber tyres?  Agh… eventually,  good got the  pills  down. Now waiting for them  to work…   takes forever.

The Codine wore off sometime in the wee hours of the morning,  I took some more and counted the seconds until it worked. I woke to the alarm blaring,  sat up bolt upwrite, the room spun round, something inside my head cursed and set off explosions of pain. I think that Hubby figured out by the moaning sounds that work wasn’t on the agenda today.

I staggered out to the bathoom and looked in the mirror.. my gums were the darkest red I have ever seen them, and they hurt like crazy. Back to bed. very unproductive day, I did sit up for a bit and eat soup that Hubby kindly bought in, for the rest it’s take the pills and be very grateful  indeed that they make you sleepy.

Thursday: Back at work, just not opening my mouth much and breakfast and lunch are banana and yogurt.  I getting a cold, darn, just what was needed right now. Try blowing your nose without touching your gums. Really not touching your gums. Fortunately I have an office to myself so I hide away and tell collegues that  I’m quaranteening myself in my room ‘cos of the sniffles. 

I get home, and head to bed… dinner? Pass.  Hubby wakes me up when he and the kids are out the door to swimming lessons, I sit on the couch with the laptop and eat some Vla… (a kind of pudding… I’ll do a post on that sometime),  When the kids come home from swimming I do the bedtime routine as Hubby drops them off at the door and heads straight out to Portuguese class. Then collapse back into bed.

It’s Friday lunch-time as I write this…  Codine free like yesterday  ’cos I’m working and driving today… extreme drowsyness won’t go well with either. Just aiming to  get though the day and head to bed when I get home. The mouth is feeling  a lot better but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s comfortable. The cold is settling in making itself comfortable, I’m assulting it with fizzy Vitaim C tablets that disolve in water. Die germs Die…  Phew it’s gonna be a quiet weekend.

I’ve got a few blog posts  prepared and pretty much  ready to post, I’ll sort them so you have something to read but answering comments is a bit beyond me for a few days…  please bear with me. I’m here, just not quite firing on all cylinders.

Thank you dearest Hubby for carrying the extra workload whilst I have bombed out in bed…  You are a keeper, love ya!

I remind myself that this will all be worth it when it’s finished… a nice sparkling, perfect set of gnashers. I might even finially learn to smile with my mouth open.  

The upside is that I can at least scare the the jellybeans out of the kids when it comes to teeth brushing (or letting me do it a bit longer) using the tactic ” if you don’t you’ll  have to have all this work done like Mama… “   That’s working a treat so far. It will be well, well worth it I know,  it’s just that this week I’d like to  fast foreward to the end. The nasty bit is that this all upper jaw stuff, in a few weeks I’m back in the chair for the lower jaw. Oh, Once it’s done it’s done, I will have braved the lot and can look back and quite literally have something to smile about.

I know, I know, I know,  patience is a virtue…       …just one I don’t posess apparently.

Help with Ingredient Search: “Baking Soda”

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Baking Soda,  also known as “Bicarbonate of soda”  or “Sodium bicarbonate”  is a rising agent used in cakes and other baking recipes.

It’s also a natural cleaning product with a multitude of uses.

I have a heap of New Zealand recipes that include Baking Soda as an ingredient, but somehow that is not the case with many Dutch recipes.

Without this article your experience might be just like mine years ago when I first arrived, it went  like this: I looked  in the baking section of any typical Dutch supermarket, where you might expect to see Baking Soda, … with the Flour, Backin (Baking Powder)  etc and I was surprised that  I couldn’t  seem to find it anywhere.

Hmmmm, wrong section in the supermarket perhaps? somewhere odd    …maybe with the cleaning products? No such luck. Now I’m really wondering what’s going on…  the supermarket doesn’t stock Baking Soda?  I ask  one of the staff.

Staff in question is a  fresh out of school type who don’t look like she has ever  baked a cake in her life,  and her response to my question is a blank startled look like a deer caught in the headlights.  Followed by a slow…. uh… “Let me ask someone, ok? ” Yes,  it’s perfectly Ok… it’s wonderful in fact (as you stand there thinking someone is going to come out and say ” Oh that!.. it’s over … here !”).

Several minutes later she  is back with not one colleague in tow, but two…  they ask me to repeat the question please. I do.  Three blank looks in response. Oh dear. My heart is sinking fast. Clearly this isn’t going well. They shake their heads and tell me “very sorry, whatever that is we don’t sell it here”… they are at least nice enough that the first girl adds as I go to leave “ Good luck in finding it though“.  I thank them for trying at least, and know that  this is going to take some hunting and sleuthing.

Luckily for me this turned out to be one of the easier things to find. You just have to look somewhere you probably never really thought to look.

The “drogist”  is a shop, usually called a “drogisterij”  where you can get over the counter medications,  products for personal hygiene, cosmetics and in particular, in The Netherlands, snoep (sweets) and drop (salt liqurice) The biggest drogist chains in the Netherlands are “DA, Kruidvat, Etos, De Tuinen en Trekpleister” but personally I prefer some of the old fashioned little independent drogists who have a wealth of knowledge and a lot of extra products that the mainstream drogists don’t stock, like their own homemade (and carefully guarded secret) mix of spices for traditional speculaas .

What you need to ask for is: “zuiveringszout” , that’s what the Dutch translation is for Baking Soda.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wikipedia tells us:
In 1791, a French chemist, Nicolas Leblanc, produced sodium bicarbonate as we know it today. In 1846 two New York bakers, John Dwight and Austin Church, established the first factory to develop baking soda from sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide.

In baking, Baking Soda reacts with other components to release carbon dioxide, that helps dough “rise”. Sodium bicarbonate can be substituted for baking powder provided sufficient acid reagent is also added to the recipe.

So, what can you use Baking Soda for ? Well, apparently it’s used widely in medical situations such as:  as an  antacid and can be taken to treat acid indigestion and heartburn,  used in the treatment of chronic renal failure, the treatment of aspirin overdose,  the treatment of hyperkalemia,  and mixed into a paste, to relieve insect bites or as in ingredient in some some mouthwash perpetrations.

In personal hygiene it’s used as alternative to commercial non-fluoride toothpastes or deodorant.

It’s also a very effective cleaning agent ( but not recommended for aluminium items )  and removes the tarnish from silver then used in conjunction with aluminium foil. It’s commonly added to the rinse cycle of washing machines  (together with the detergent) as a replacement for softener and also to remove odors and is also effective in removing heavy tea and coffee stains from cups when diluted with warm water.

Another household use is  to extinguish small grease or electrical fires, and is even used bu booksellers to absorb the musty smell in books. Apparent the list goes on… and on, the uses appear to be amazingly diverse.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wow, so many uses for this simple little product. Very handy indeed to have on hand, especially now that you know what to ask for in The Netherlands and  where to find it.

Prices vary depending on where you find your Baking Soda, here’s a quick comparison shop…

Drogist (Dutch)  Gimborn zuiveringszout ,  (125g) Euro 2.00

Kelly’s Expat Shopping (UK Speciality Shop)  Arm & Hammer (454g   box),  Euro 1,70.

Kelly’s Expat Shopping (UK Speciality Shop) Dr Oetker (200g   plastic container),  Euro 1,50.

Thomas Green (UK Specialty Shop) Arm & Hammer (454g box), Euro 2,75.

I’m thinking that the unusual case here where the expat-shops give you a lot more baking soda for less money is simply due to the bulk  usage of it in other anglo-saxen countries and the fact the clearly it’s a specialist product with a very small market here in The Netherlands. Still, if you live here but don’t have an ex-pat shop handy, then  the Dutch one will save you a big postage bill at least.