Cooking for a big group of people

Tamar’s birthday was a few weeks ago. Because his birthday is so close after the Christmas and New Year celebrations, we don’t always know if we feel like celebrating with even more food and drinks. So I waited ’til pretty much last minute until deciding I was up for organising a party… but in the end I did decide to invite some friends and family over. I didn’t bother to ask for a RSVP, so I ended up having no idea who exactly would come and who would stay for dinner. Our family all come from other parts of the country (if not from abroad), so if they come, they always stay for dinner. And then most often, our friends stick around as well. I must say I do love our house full of people and the crazy situation that exists when a lot of people have to be accommodated in our living space — finding places to seat everyone, finding plates, cutlery, napkins, glasses. In the end, we had 28 people stay for dinner that evening!

Finding the right menu, flexible enough to be shared with more or with less people, requires a bit of thought and planning beforehand. In summer, things are a easier — when we entertain for bigger groups (for birthdays or just because we feel like it), we just get a bunch of good sausages for on the barbecue, make some tasty salads and serve everything with yummy bread. The children find a place to have a picnic on the lawn while the adults hang out on the terrace. Easy.

Winter is a more tricky time of year for entertaining. You have to sit down properly when you’re eating! A favourite dish I make for these sort of occasions is (my version of) minestrone soup. It’s something I can prepare beforehand, is loved by children as well as adults, and a little can go a long way (adding a bit of water to the soup when more people tend to stay definitely does the trick). We also have served hot dogs on crispy buns before (we made home-made sauerkraut that year, which was a hit!) — an easy one, because it’s food you don’t necessarily have to sit down for.

This year, we tried something different, a more traditional style, wintery dinner. We made a big roasting dish of meat-loaf, an oven tray full of hasselback potatoes, green beans and a salad. It was easy to prepare beforehand, perfect to share with it-doesn’t-matter-how-many-people, and seriously delicious.

Here’s the how-to:

For the meat-loaf, we mixed:

• 2 kilo of ground beef
• 500 grams of ground pork
• 2 large onions, grated
• 8 large cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 chili pepper, grated
• 1 large courgette, grated
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 5 eggs
• 150 g grated cheese
• ½ tin pureed tomatoes
• salt and pepper

We put the mix in a roasting tin in the oven (350°F/175°C) for about half an hour. Then, we let it cool down a bit and poured the cooking juices that had assembled inside the roasting tin into a saucepan, which we mixed to taste with some ketchup, worchestershiresauce and mustard. We set this aside.

For the hasselback potatoes, we used 25 nicely sized firm potatoes. We sliced them thinly but not entirely through, leaving them together at the bottom (we placed two thin pieces of wood on either side of the potato while slicing it to help — wooden spoons work well too). When done, we brushed a mixture of melted butter and olive oil (about 100 g butter and half a cup of olive oil) over the potatoes and into the slices, and sprinkled them with maldon salt. We also pre-baked these for about half an hour on 200°C.

Pim and Ava kindly cleaned the green beans for us — we washed them and set them aside, together with a large chopped onion in a bowl.

We prepared the vinaigrette for the salad (which I made with mâche salad, very thinly sliced red beets, slices of orange and some roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds — I prepared this as well).

When our guests started to arrive, all of this was prepared, so we could focus on handing out tea and coffee and cake — we made carrot cake, pumpkin pie, brownies and sand cookies dipped in chocolate. When we were ready for wine, we served crunchy bread with smoked mackerel paté, homemade cheese biscuits and grissini with a horseradish dip. At the end of the afternoon, to prepare for the dinner, Tamar and I finished the meat loaf and potatoes by putting them back in a hot oven (200°C) for half an hour, finishing each of them under the grill for a few minutes. (Because I like the look of it, I put some bay leaves randomly between the slices of the potatoes, but this is not really necessary. Looks pretty though.)

I sautéed the diced onion in butter, added the green beans with some salt and pepper and a small glass of water and let them simmer for around 10 minutes until they started to soften. We prepared the salad by putting the ingredients together in a bowl.

Meanwhile, our guests set up the spare table and looked for chairs all over the house, and set the tables. We served the meatloaf in slices and with the gravy on the side. The potatoes were halved for the children and big dishes with the beans and the salad were going round the tables – it was delicious, and so fun to serve such a proper meal to such a big group! Quantities ended up being perfect — there were only a few slices of meatloaf and potatoes left.

What are your go-to recipes for entertaining? I would love to hear!

xxx Esther

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The Mama Bundle from Francis & Henry

I have recently been in touch with the lovely Aleksandra, founder and designer behind the new Polish label, Francis & Henry. Aleksandra is the eldest of eight children and a mama of two young boys (named Francis and Henry). Over email, we’ve bonded over our shared position as eldest in a big family and our many similar personality traits, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know this inspiring mama and business woman.

Aleksandra very generously sent me one of her new mama bundles — a beautiful boxed set for pregnant and new mothers — and I have been living in the super soft nursing dress and robe. It is the first thing I want to put on when I come home after a long day out, and it’s comfortable to sleep in as well.

Aleksandra told me that in Poland, where she is from, many women give birth in their husband’s old t-shirts. She said that while she doesn’t think there’s any problem with that (it’s what she wore to give birth to both of her boys), she realised what a big difference it would make when packing your hospital bag if you could put in something extra special and luxuriously comfortable for yourself to wear at such a magical and memorable moment of your life. So she started creating a bundled set of soft, comfy pieces to pack in your hospital bag and to be able to wear in those beautiful, sleepy days after giving birth.

It’s definitely what I plan to be wearing in 5 weeks when the time comes for me…!!!

Courtney x

p.s. Francis & Henry is now offering a 15% discount on all products. Please use discount code BABYCCINO15 at check-out!

This post was sponsored by Francis & Henry, a new member of our shopping portal and a brand we naturally love and support. 

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Local Goods Store

Buying gifts and souvenirs can often feel a little overwelming, particularly in the tourist heart of Amsterdam where there is no shortage of stalls filled to the brim with magnets, wooden tulips and other stereotypical bric-a-bracs. But if you want to find something a little more special and unique then the Local Goods Store in De Hallen is definitely worth a visit. Here you will find a broad selection of gifts and small goods — all made by local and independent Dutch artisans.

What started as a Local Goods Market every weekend in De Hallen (which continues today) evolved into this beautiful, spacious and permanent store. It is a truly inspiring space to peruse with many special items that cater to all tastes — from fashion, design, food and books through to homewares and even some goodies for babies and children.

One of our favourites items here are the cute Rijkswachter wooden robots — which come in a variety of sizes and are made from the actual wooden crates in which the Rijksmuseum collection items were stored during its decade-long reconstruction. Each individual Rijkswachter robot has a code written on it and you can then look up online what Rijksmuseum collection item he housed. They are such a cute way to integrate design and local history – and children love them too.

Once you have enjoyed all that the Local Goods Store has to offer, there are plenty of other things to keep you and the family occupied while you are at De Hallen – including all the wonderful food available at Foodhallen, a library and cafe (with kids play corner),  a film theatre as well as some sweet little independent stores.

Local Goods Store

Hannie Dankbaarpassage 39

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tel: 020 261 7667

Opening Hours: Tues – Sun from 12:00 – 19:00 (open from 11:00 on Saturdays)

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Some thoughts about stretch marks and accepting our ‘imperfections’

Pregnancy-related stretch marks are a genetic reality in my family. My mom, who birthed five babies, has them, as did her mother, and I knew the chances were good that I would get them too.

When I was pregnant with my first baby I remember using all of the creams and oils on the market to keep my belly constantly moisturized. It was all going well into the third trimester but just when I thought I might have dodged the stretchmark gene, they showed up around week 35. Boom! New ones seemed to appear daily and they zigzagged their way across my belly in a few short weeks.

It’s been nearly 12 years since I’ve worn a bikini in public thanks to those marks. I wasn’t overly bothered though. I sort of shrugged off my bikini-wearing days by convincing myself that a one-piece suits my body better and, anyway, now that I was a mum I should probably be a bit more conservative. I also figured I was doing everyone else a favour by covering up my belly scars.

But then… I was talking to a friend the other day as we were sitting on the beach, and I was complaining about how tight my one-piece suits were getting on my pregnant belly. When she suggested I wear a bikini, I told her I hadn’t worn one in 12 years due to my stretch marks… and she looked at me like I had just made the most stupid remark she had ever heard. I could almost see the respect she once held for me evaporate into the balmy summer air. And she said, ‘as the mother of two girls, I would really expect that you would have a healthier body image – even just to set a better example’.

Wow. I had never even really thought about it like that before. Here I was, covering up a part of my body that I felt insecure about. I was hiding a perfectly natural effect of pregnancy rather than accepting my body and sending a better message to my girls (and boys) about loving their bodies and embracing all of their features, even what we perceive as ‘imperfections’.

Of course we all have insecurities in some form or another, and surely we all have parts of our bodies that we would change if we could… but my friend was right: in trying to hide our bodies (or to attempt to ‘fix ‘ them with creams, lasers or injections), what kind of message are we sending to our children? Shouldn’t we be leading by example, showing our kids that every body is a beautiful body? That confidence and gratitude are the feelings we should associate with our bodies, not embarrassment or shame?

Easier said than done, I know. But… I bought myself a bikini last month and have worn it to the beach a few times already. My kids were actually excited by this new attire and even proud to have a pregnant mama in a bikini.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. Do you have stretch marks? Do you see them as a badge of honour for the babies you’ve carried or do you try to keep them hidden away? How do you teach your kids to accept their bodies?

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Easy craft project: Valentine Treasure Boxes

Hello!! The end of last year proved absolutely crazy between work, new hires, a studio move, sick kids, and the usual holiday madness! As I looked back on 2016 however, I realized that most of my favorite memories revolved around eating (ha) or making stuff with the kids. So, as we kick off 2017 — yes, I realize January is almost over! — I’ve resolved to craft more and work less.  : )

Did you ever see the movie Amelie? It’s one of my all time favorites! There’s a scene in the movie where Amelie finds an old lost box filled with treasures from someone’s childhood. She secretly returns the box and watches as its owner is filled with nostalgic memories and sentiment.

Ever since watching that movie, I’ve collected cigar boxes and stuffed them with bits from here and there. I used to dedicate a box to each holiday we’d take, filling it with memorabilia and treasures that I could look back on years later (it was much easier than a scrapbook, and better because you can hold each piece in your hands and discover it all over again!).

There’s just something kind of magical about little boxes – they make an intimate little vessel and turn whatever they hold into a mini treasure of sorts. We had some old mint tins lying around and decided to turn them into little love boxes for Valentine’s Day.

We’ve made these little treasure boxes before and it’s a hit every time: perfect for little fingers, hard to mess up, easy to do with few materials, and a gorgeous little gift or decoration for your shelf. Also, I usually break out some of our special stickers just to maximize the treasure factor…

Materials:
-Empty Mint tins
-Colored tape / washi tape
-Stickers
-Beads / buttons / glitter (optional, but always a good idea)
-Valentine messages (optional)
-Glue (optional)

PROCESS:

1.  Rinse out the mint tins to get rid of all dust. I printed out a bunch of “I love you”s and put them out with the supplies.

2.  Cover the tin with tape. To get the most bang for your buck, encourage the kids to cover the inside and outside, but try to avoid the hinges or you won’t be able to close the box!

3. Sometimes I’ll cut a bunch of washi tape to give the younger kids a head start.

4. Once the tape is down, add stickers to the background. This part is definitely the most fun

5. The great thing about these little boxes is that the the stuff inside can be 3-D! In order to make some of the stickers pop out, make a little loop or make a little accordion fold in some paper and glue or tape the end to the box.

6. Add beads or buttons, and that’s it! If you’re feeling VERY ambitious, you could seal the tape and stickers with a transparent sealant like Mod Podge, or add glitter glue.

Ella has been eyeing these butterflies in my office for weeks, so she was over the moon to use them (she also decided midway through this box that she might keep it for herself, ha).

This project is also mess free – YAY!!

It’s a great thing to do with all ages – even the most simple approach results in something that feels special and lovely…

The older two got cameras for Christmas, and when I went to change the baby’s diaper, I came back to this…they had styled their projects and were shooting them!! Clearly, we can’t miss an opportunity to memorialize a successful project. Apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The sweetest part was when Atticus held Ella’s dress back so it wouldn’t be in her shot

Looks like I’ll have some proper assistants pretty soon!

Have fun with this – and keep in mind it’s a great thing to do yourself (with a few friends and a bottle of wine)!

Maureen xoxo

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Minetta Playground

New York has plenty of destination-worthy playgrounds and public spaces, but I find myself continually thankful for the existence of the smaller neighborhood playgrounds, one or more of which can nearly always be found in areas we like to frequent for meals, shopping and entertainment, making them convenient places to stop and burn off a bit of energy. Minetta Playground is an excellent example, located in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and home to a bright blue and green play structure that’s as appealing for older toddlers as it seems to be for school-age children. Though modest in size, the playground keeps my daughter entertained for a surprisingly long time, and the climbing elements are some of the more unique I’ve seen around the city. She adores scaling the spider web-like net stretching through the middle of the structure and is challenged to gingerly make her way across the wobbly green discs spanning one edge of the space.

The playground equipment is quite new, having been remodeled in 2012, and beyond the main play structure it has two swings for babies and toddlers near the Minetta Street end and a sprinkler that operates in the warmer months along the West 3rd Street side. There aren’t restrooms on site, but if you cross 6th Avenue and the adjacent Father Demo Square, you’ll find a branch of the Italian-based gelato chain Grom, where you can use the restroom and treat yourself to the excellent gelato and sorbetti.

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Tuesday Tips: the toothbrush ABCs

This is a little tip/trick I learned from Courtney when we were still living in London. Easton and Sara were both tiny little toddlers, playing so sweetly together (if they weren’t pulling each other’s hair out). We would meet up for dinner ever so often, feed our babies their purees, give them their baths together and put them down in each other’s houses so we could continue the party. When Courtney was brushing Easton’s teeth on those evenings, I noticed she would always sing the ABC song. She told me this was a habit she copied from her mum, who would sing this song when brushing her teeth and those of her siblings.

I took over her habit of singing the ABCs when brushing, and Tamar did too. And still, we sing when we brush: the Dutch ABCs for the top teeth and the English ABCs for the bottom ones. Sara and Pim, who are now brushing their own teeth, still hum their ABCs when they are brushing! It is a sweet little tradition, which makes brushing always a bit more fun, and has the advantage that my kids have known their ABCs since a young age, and also, that brushing always takes the minimum time of twice the ABC song.

Do you have any teeth brushing traditions in your family?

xxx Esther

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