They call their burgers ‘bloody delicious’ and we can state for a fact that they are exactly that. The highest quality Aberdeen Angus beef is grilled to perfection and served with a ‘secret signature sauce’ on a home-made semi-brioche bun — if you love burgers, this is as good as it’s going to get! THE BUTCHER has locations in different parts of Amsterdam and offers ‘all-day haute fast food’. With prime ingredients, a great drinks menu with good artisan beers and yummy milkshakes, kids as well as parents will have a great time here.

Besides the beef burgers, on the menu you will also find excellent options for vegetarian burgers. Or there are haute cuisine style fish, chicken or lamb burgers. Yummy salads and snack platters are available, Shakshuka even if you feel like breakfast later in the day.

We love the relaxed atmosphere at the Butcher, especially the Social Club is a firm favourite — such a fun and relaxed place to have a bite and a drink after a trip on the ferry to Amsterdam North. The children love to roam around upstairs and play one of the many games, while we parents flip through the pretty art books which are scattered around.

THE BUTCHER also has locations in the Pijp, the Nine Streets and in the Foodhallen (check out the different locations here). Always fast, always delicious!

xxx Esther

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We all love the baby and toddler shoes of Amy + Ivor (nowadays you can find these under the umbrella brand Hedley Field), but did you know that Alice (who is the owner and creative soul behind the brand), also makes the most beautiful leather accessories?

Alice works with the softest, most beautiful and carefully sourced vegetable tanned eco-leather, and started to make pretty little accessories out of some of the leather she had left over from making her beautiful baby shoes. And voila — this was the start of Hedley Field. Now, Alice offers a collection of gorgeous handbags, pouches, key rings, and card/coin purses. They come in an array of beautiful colours and styles, and can be personalised with a name or monogram.

I have had a little Hedley Field card purse for a few years now and I use it all the time. I rarely carry a handbag. If I go for school pick-ups for example, I just bring my phone, my keys, some lip balm and my Hedley Field card purse and stick it all in my pockets. This little purse is always with me! The leather ages so beautifully, it really only gets better and better over time. My Hedley Field pouch is great too. (Alice send this along as a Christmas present together with some items I ordered from her for Christmas gifts). I have a little notebook in there with a fountain pen as I love the possibility of making notes or sketches whenever I think of something relevant. This way I never have to look for my assets! It’s also a perfect pouch to bring when travelling — to keep passports, tickets, keys etc.

All of my children have a personalised key fob which they love. And it is handy because as you can imagine, we have quite a few keys around for all of those bikes! Again, the leather only gets better over time.

Don’t you agree these leather beauties are gorgeous and also make the most thoughtful little presents?

xxx Esther

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Tad is tiny. She is the smallest almost-a-frog in the whole wide pond! She is even smaller than all of her tad brothers and tad sisters. As they are rushing through the shallow waters together, she has to wiggle her tail twice as hard to keep up.

As the days go by, the tadpoles grow back legs, and then front legs, and one by one they loose their tails. At night, when they’re carefully hiding for the scary and dangerous Big Blub, Tad likes to count all of her brother and sisters.

But suddenly it appears that there are less and less tadpoles to play with… Until Tad is the only one left. Alone in the dark, with Big Blub.

‘Tad‘ by Benji Davies is a very very sweet, and delightfully simple but strong story. It’s about being small, growing up, and being brave. Sometimes tiny hearts have the biggest dreams — and take the biggest leap of all… It’s beautifully illustrated as well! (Available from all good bookstores as well as Amazon.)

xxx Esther

PS All of our favourite picture books!

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One of the most romantic things I can imagine is a sweet little cottage with an orchard behind it, a few children running barefoot in the grass and a swing in one of the apple trees. An old table in the middle of the grass with a colourful table cloth and a jug of fresh lemonade on top of it. Perhaps some homemade apple pie as well?? You get the gist.

I love this idea so much that I was bummed that when we moved into our current house, our backyard did have a tree but not with branches big enough to attach a swing to.  Thankfully I discovered the swing from Weltevree, which can be attached to any vertical structure — lamp posts, poles, and trees without big enough branches!

We gifted the children the swing for Christmas four years ago, so we’ve now had it in our backyard for more than 4 years. It is keeping up super well, and it is played with all of the time. Big kids, small kids, alone or together — our swing is constantly in use.

I know the swing doesn’t come cheap, so I was a bit hesitant to write about it without knowing that the investment would be really worth it, but I feel now it is safe to say that yes — it definitely is.

So if you dream of orchards, barefoot children, fresh lemonade and swings in trees, this Weltevree swing might be your cup of tea as well!

xxx Esther

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Emilie has written about the clever balance game Suspend before (she also gifted our children one set for Christmas a few years ago) so I’m not at all being original here. Suspend, however, is such a firm favourite family game in our house that I thought it would be worth oversharing in this case :).

Suspend consists of a handful of colour-coded frame rods, a wooden base /connector and a coloured dice. Each player takes turns balancing one of the frame rods onto the center structure — being extremely careful not to disturb the fragile balance so the entire structure comes down! As easy as it sounds, there is quite a bit of strategy and skill involved.

Up to 4 players can play, and all ages can participate (although smaller children will need help from a bigger person). I can attest that grandparents also love to play this game! The excitement can really build up and everyone will be on the edge of their seats within no-time.

I love these kinds of games, that are fun and exciting in all of their simplicity. Do you remember Otrio, the other super simple but FUN family game that I recently shared? My friend gave it to her son for his birthday, and when we were camping with them last week, the children played it over and over again. So good!

Suspend is available through Amazon (US and UK).

xxx Esther

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We live in an interesting age. Technology is developing with the speed of light and a life without mobile devices has simply become unthinkable. I find this such a strange phenomenon, especially given the fact that it’s not even that long ago since we didn’t even have wireless communication! (I think my dad, because his work as a vet, was one of the firsts with a car phone in our village — it was in the late 80s and the device was gigantic! Before that, he always carried a beeper with him and whenever there was an emergency, he had to find the nearest landline and call my mum who would then give him all of the details. Which, of course, he would write down in the book he always kept next to him in the car.)

Because (mobile) technology is so new to us, because it’s constantly developing and because most of us only started using it as an adolescent or young adult, we don’t have a precedent of how to raise our children with it. We simply do not have the wisdom of a collective memory, formed over the span of generations, to use when we define the framework into which we allow our children to manoeuvre.
At what age do you give your children a mobile phone? How should they use it? Do we limit the time we give it to them, and if so, how do we do that? So many questions, so little answers.

Social Media is obviously another big beast. It’s the love and the scare of many of us. We feel inspired and empowered by it one moment, only to feel inadequate and frustrated the next. We feel the pull of it, only to feel the aversion at the same time. We feel supported by an online community, only to feel more lonely and insecure as we’ve ever felt. If WE feel these emotions, as adults, how on earth are we supposed to guide our children through the rocky waters of social media?

How do we answer the questions that arise while raising children, teenagers, in this age of mobile communication? How do we define the rules without common experience or precedence?

We try, we test, we mould. We shape and reshape our parenting. When we make a mistake, we adjust and we try again. We talk, we read and we listen to other parents as we figure out what works best for our own family, set in our own culture and community.

And so do Tamar and I. Two of our children now have a mobile phone (Sara has had one for nearly three years now and Pim for about a year), so we had to set our own rules as well. And as we continue to learn and adjust, I thought it would be useful to share the boundaries we have set as a family. Which have worked well for us! Despite having a phone, our children still play, they still read, they still get dirty, they still are children!

But I would love to learn from you as well. Please share your thoughts, experiences and rules too!

At what age do you give your children a mobile phone?

We give our kids a mobile phone after they have turned 11. We don’t make a big deal out of it and we don’t treat it as a present (we do not give it as a present for their birthday, for example). We just give it to them, at an undefined moment, as an indication that now we think they are big enough to start the learning curve of how to deal with the responsibilities that come with owning a mobile phone.

In the Netherlands, children from around the age 11 (and older) commonly cycle to after-school classes by themselves (alone, or with friends or team members). Tamar and I feel that the moment we are trusting our children with the responsibility of finding their own way around town and navigating the busy Amsterdam traffic entirely by themselves, it is a good moment to trust them with a mobile phone as well.

Another reason is the fact that WhatsApp groups are commonly used in the Netherlands for practical communication with teachers and team members in sports, dance and music classes. When children are older than 11, parents are not even a member of these groups anymore! So if, for example, a class is canceled, it is directly communicated to the children using WhatsApp.

When secondary school starts (typically at the age of 12), children are simply assumed to have a mobile phone. Secondary school teachers use online systems to share homework and grades and class mentors share information with their student via class WhatsApp groups.

All in all, the age of 11 seemed like a fitting age for us to start giving our children access to a mobile phone. (By this time, the children are super excited to finally be able to join their class chat group! The biggest chunk of Dutch children get WhatsApp access way before our kids do, so they are usually amongst the last to join the group. Not that we feel that matters — I just want to point out that peer pressure, for us, is not the reason to give our children a mobile phone!)

Initially, we just put a very low prepaid card on the phone and they have no access to broadband. They are not allowed to take their phone out off the house (not to school, not to playdates etc). They can only take it with them when they cycle to classes that take place a bit further from home (horse riding, for example, is a 25 minutes cycle away from our home).

Do you allow your children on Social Media?

We allow a few social apps on their phones. Besides WhatsApp, Sara and Pim have the Pinterest and the Instagram apps on their phones. Sara likes to use Pinterest for inspiration for her bullet journal (she loves hand lettering, creating collages, etc). On Instagram they mostly like to follow their friends, me (and some of my friends) and Babyccino of course! Their accounts are private and they both know that they are only supposed to place content that I approve of. (I don’t approve of stupid selfies or irrelevant, popular content, for example!) They both rarely post anything, and if they do it’s usually a sweet family photos or a cute photo of their baby brother :). I follow both of them (and a lot of their friends, too!) — it’s quite sweet, really. I see or feel no danger here, and trust my instincts.

Which apps are they allowed to use?

Besides the prementioned apps, Sara uses a banking app and a guitar tuning app. They both use Sonos and Spotify to listen to music. Pim has the app Shazam, which he finds amusing, and an app he uses with his GoPro camera. That’s it! When they want a new app, Tamar has to approve it on his phone, so we are very much in charge of this.

What sort of rules do you have in place with regards to mobile phone use?

– No games! Our children do not play Minecraft, Fortnite or Pokemon. They also do not use educational apps (which, to us, are a bit like games in disguise).
– They are not allowed to take their phones upstairs (to their bedrooms). Phones stay downstairs in the living room. (If Sara has to check the school system, she can do so downstairs and write it down for homework etc.) This rule, BTW, also counts for friends that visit. Their phones stay in the living room too! (Of course every rule has its exception, and if Sara has a friend over and they ask if they can bring their phone upstairs for a bit, I don’t mind too much.)
– Absolutely no phones at the table during meal times.
– No extensive periods of time on the phone. In general, I find it ok for them to use their phones briefly for relevant communications and keep in touch with their friends in a respectful way. To listen to music or check their Social Media every now and then. We don’t have time restrictions set in place, but it’s easy to monitor the time they spend on their phones because the phone is always downstairs with us. In general, I don’t see them on their phone too often (and they ask before using it), so I’m pretty relaxed about it.
– If they break or loose their phone (and its accessories) there are consequences. For example, they may have to (help) pay for the repair. They have to learn the value of a mobile phone!
– They have to be respectful in their communications and display correct behaviour. I expect them to be aware of group pressure and recognise negative behaviour — they should raise the red flag if they feel there is something unpleasant going on.

How do you check all of this?

We know their passwords and check their phones! I occasionally check their messages, WhatsApp groups, etc. When I see them on their phones, I ask what they are doing. When I feel they spend too much time on it, I simply take their phones away from them for a few days. I feel it’s important to always keep the parental authority and control — for the time being at least.

What is your general screen policy?

We don’t have iPads, and the children do not use computers unless for (very occasional) school work. We only watch TV (or a film) on Friday night, and we make it FUN! It is the one evening a week where we don’t eat together at the table: we put snacks on the coffee table, the kids can each choose one fizzy drink (cola is popular!), we have popcorn etc. We all LOVE our Friday evenings all cozied up on the sofa. These evening have become so popular that most evenings we have friends joining us! These evenings are really about connection, and it’s great.

OK, this has become a long post and I do apologise for that! As I said before, please do share your thoughts and experiences, so we can learn from each other! I’m really curious what you have to say…

xxx Esther

PS I love this post by Emilie and the comments: The big phone debate

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The first dandelions have turned into seed buds so walks in the park have become even more fun. Blowing those fluffy pompons is so fulfilling — even I can’t resist the contentment of baring a nice, fat and full blowball!

Yesterday we decided to try and create our own dandelions, using simple kitchen utensils like our dish brush and a fork. Fun!

First the children used watercolours to create the background field — green for the gras and blue for the sky. With gouache, they painted the dandelion stem and the leaves (we picked some leaves earlier in the park so we could see what they look like).

Then, we dipped our dishwashing brush in white gouache and created the puffballs. For the flowers we used a fork. So easy but we loved the result!

Casper added some insects which I thought was a nice idea. And voila! Done! Such a simple craft project, but don’t you think the results are so pretty?

xxx Esther

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Pim and I recently visited 15 secondary schools here in Amsterdam. It’s a huge job as every 12-year-old child needs to hand in a shortlist of his 12 favourite schools. Then, he or she is entered into a very complex poll which will determine the school in which your child will spend the next 4 to 6 years of his education. You can imagine that it took us a few weeks to do this! But, I’m happy to report that he’s now been selected for the school of his first choice.

Anyway — of course all of the schools presented themselves by bringing out their best. The craft rooms exhibited some very awesome artwork by their students. In one school, Pim and I were particularly impressed by a collagraph printing project on display, so I asked the craft teacher how they had done it. She gladly explained, and it’s quite simple, in fact!

Here’s how it works.

On a recent rainy weekend day, we sat around the table and started glueing pieces of thick paper, cardboard, bubble wrap, etc on an A4 piece of paper. As a theme, we had chosen ‘underwater world’. (The school we visited had a ‘cityscape’ theme which was also super cool and which we also want to give a try!) There’s really no right or wrong here. The only tip I can give is to use strong glue, and not to use materials which are too delicate or tend to dissolve easily (like egg cartons, as we discovered!). Oh, and if you like to add text, don’t forget to glue the letter on mirrored!

The next step is rolling paint over your collage. The best paint to use is ‘Block print ink’ as it’s nice and thick and doesn’t dry too fast. And a roller is handy, of course. When there’s a nice layer of ink on the collage, just put an empty sheet of paper on it, and rub it with your hands. And then… slowly peel back and admire the pretty result!

You can keep gluing layers and details to you collage and make more prints! You can also use multiple paint colours, and add details by using a paint brush.

We had such a fun afternoon! What I thought was especially great about collagraph printing is that Casper’s results were as fantastic as Sara’s and Pim’s. Look at that proud little face!!

xxx Esther

PS Watercolour sidewalk chalk!

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Many summers ago, when we organised one of our first ShopUps in London, we had the cutest personalised ShopUp cookies made by Bee’s Bakery. Fast forward five years and Bee now has a baby, published two recipe books and specializes in plant-based and allergy friendly bakes! This girl has been busy!

Because we all love biscuits here at Babyccino (I mean, duh), Bee was so kind to share this recipe for Funny Little Face cookies with us from her book ‘Bee’s Brilliant Biscuits‘. The recipe is simple and so fun to make and can be vegan as well as dairy and gluten free. Here goes!

Funny little face cookies

These cookies are perfect for making with little people, who can help with dipping the tops of the cookies into melted chocolate to make the “hair”. Totally personalisable, the base recipe below has dairy and gluten free adaptations, and the dough can be coloured using cocoa powder and spices depending on your taste.

Making the actual face imprint is simple too, you’ll just need kit that you probably already have in your kitchen – a teaspoon, a blunt butter knife and some cocktail sticks or a skewer – to poke shapes into the dough before baking. If you’re not happy with the design, just re-roll the dough and try again!

If you fancy getting really creative, you can try to create faces that look like friends and family members, or design a cookie as a gift for a friend.

Ingredients
(Makes around ten cookies)

For the vanilla cookie dough:

• 280 g white plain flour (for gluten free cookies, sub 50% ground almonds and 50% plain GF flour mix)
• 140 g solid vegan “butter” e.g. Naturli or Stork baking block (cows milk butter works too)
• 140 g caster (or soft brown) sugar
• 1 flax egg (1 heaped tbsp ground flax seeds, mixed with 4 tbsp boiling water and left for a min to thicken) (A chickens egg works too)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Optional extras: 1 tbsp cocoa powder, or 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground cinnamon together

For the cookie “hair”:

• Around 100g melted dark chocolate (check the labelling if dairy free is required)
• Optional extras: milk or white chocolate, sprinkles, or dustings of cocoa powder.

Method

Prepare the flax egg and preheat your oven to 175 celsius / 350 farenheit / Gas mark 4 fan. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, with clean hands, crumble, squish and crunch the fat into the flour, until you have a mixture resembling fine breadcrumbs. Add in the flax / chicken egg, vanilla and sugar. Then, for a lovely spiced cookie dough, add the cinnamon and ginger and mix well. Or for a chocolatey dough, add 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder. Mix again with a wooden spoon or your hands until you have a firm dough.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and cut out rounds using a cookie cutter or the rim of a small plastic beaker. Then place these on your baking tray with a few cm between each one. Make a few different impressions in the dough using your teaspoon / blunt knife etc, to create a range of smiley face shapes.

Get a little bit creative here! Try a cheeky angled smile, or different shapes created with the handle end of a teaspoon for the nose. The ends of chopsticks make great little eyes and the edge of a bigger spoon can depict a hat or fringe!

Squish any dough scraps together, and re-roll until it’s all gone (or wrap and freeze for a month). Bake shapes of similar sizes on the same tray (e.g. small shapes on one tray, big on another), for between 8 – 14 mins depending on size. Allow to cool (5 mins) before decorating.

To decorate

Melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30s on full power. Then stir well in between each additional ten second blast, to ensure it doesn’t burn.

When your cookies are cool and you’re ready to dip, start the sides of the hair first, then the top. Shake off any excess chocolate before laying them down to set on your now cool baking tray.

Try a few different hairstyles, from quirky side partings, to a beard, or a tuft of hair on top. Try curly hair by drizzling in tight circles. Add sprinkles or a scattering of cocoa powder if you like.

Allow the chocolate on your cookies to set before eating and enjoy your funny little face cookies!

Thank you for sharing Bee!

xxx Esther

PS Alfajores! Delicious cookies from Uruguay that Courtney discovered on her travels 4 years ago :).

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Yesterday, Sara and I headed over to a tiny jeweller here in the centre of Amsterdam to get another ear piercing. She already had three — when she was 12, she had one hole in one ear and two holes in the other one pierced. In the meantime, the single hole closed up after she lost her earring while we were on holiday. So for her birthday she wanted that ear re-pierced. And while we were at it, she also wanted to add a third one to the other side. So off we went, with her best friend (and her mama) in tow — who went for her first piercings, one on each side.

I am quite easy with ear piercings. I think they can be quite elegant and stylish, as long as the earrings look innocent and sweet together. (Personally, I wear three small earrings in my left ear (one in the helix) and two in my right one.) Also — I feel that if you ever grow tired of them, you can simply take the earring out. The hole will disappear almost entirely quite quickly.

My own ears were pierced when I was 12 — the ‘magic age’ my mother would finally let me have them and which I use as a benchmark for my own children as well. I feel that at the age of 12, children are generally wise enough to make a personal choice and give their consent to the piercing procedure. Also, this is the age children are looking to define their own identity, and I think that ear piercings can be an innocent part of this process.

I personally am not very fond of the look of earrings (or much other jewellery) on smaller children. And here in the Netherlands, most piercings shops will refuse (or at least they will be very reluctant!) to pierce the ears of younger children. But in some cultures it is very common to pierce the ears of girls when they are still babies! On the other hand, Emilie never had her ears pierced. Her (French) mother didn’t like the idea of it at all! (And she passed away before Emilie could rebel against her and get her ears pierced to spite her.) So the consensus on ear piercings for children is a very individual one and very much influenced by your own cultural standards.

I’m curious to hear: what your feelings are about ear piercings for children. Tell me: yay, or nay? If acceptable, what age do you think it is permissible for children to have them? (And what do you feel about more than one on each side?)

xxx Esther

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We were recently invited for dinner at one of my friends, where we were spoiled with the most delicious and fresh crispy Thai spring rolls. They were made by my friend’s nanny, who is from the Philippines, and I was intrigued! I never thought of making my own crispy spring rolls, but now I saw it being totally possible. And it seemed to be quite easy too!

So we were inspired, and one recent weekend afternoon we decided to try to make our own. I researched some tutorials, put two and two together, and we set to work. With great, GREAT success!! Our crispy Thai spring rolls turned out to be delicious. We also added an old favourite to the meal: cold, Vietnamese style soft spring rolls, with crunchy raw veggies and soft noodles inside. A perfect combination: the soft and fresh Vietnamese spring rolls balance the hot, crispy Thai spring rolls so beautifully! We also added fried shrimp rolls, another old favourite of mine. (In fact, the first time I ever cooked for Tamar (and won his heart), I served these crispy shrimp roles!)

We have since repeated our spring roll fiesta when we had friends over for dinner, and we feel that now we have perfected our recipe and technique. We all participate in the preparation of the meal — chopping, cutting, rolling and frying. Everyone has a task. I love connecting with our kids while we’re cooking!

Initially, the thought of making and deep-frying the spring rolls was daunting, but really — it was much easier than I anticipated. (As most things in life are, haha!) I encourage you to give it a try. Most important is to know is that you can be flexible with the ingredients — a vegetarian option is easily adapted from the below recipe. Just play around with it! Here’s what we did.

Crispy Thai spring rolls

• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• Stems of one bunch of coriander, chopped
• 6 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
• 50g vermicelli rice noodles — use
• 150g grated carrot
• 150 g thinly sliced cabbage
• 200g bean sprouts (taugé or the like)
• (optional: 250g minced meat either chicken, beef or pork. I used 50% pork and 50% beef and it was delicious!)
• 3 tbl spoons of oyster sauce
• 2 tbl spoons of fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• Spring roll pastry
• 1 liter vegetable oil (I use arachide/peanut oil)

Prepare the vermicelli noodles as indicated on the package (the one I use just need to soak 4 minutes in hot water).

In the meantime, gently fry the garlic in some oil. After a minute or so, add the minced meat, if using. When the meat is cooked, add the coriander stalks, the mushrooms, the sprouts, the grated carrot and cabbage. Mix through for a minute and take off the heat. Stir through the oyster sauce, the fish sauce and the sugar. Using scissors, cut the rice noodles in smaller pieces, and stir through the mixture as well.

Now it’s time to create the rolls. Carefully, peel off a sheet of the spring roll pastry. Put it in front of you with the corner down (like a diamond). Scoop about two tablespoons of the filling on the lower half of your pastry sheet and shape it in the form of a large cigar. Fold the lower end over the mixture and start rolling from the bottom up. Halfway, fold over the sides. Using a finger, apply egg yolk on the top end before you close the roll. This is easy! I let my kids take on this job — the bigger kids can roll, the smaller ones can peel off the next sheet and apply the egg yolk.

You can prepare the rolls in advance — just keep them cool and under a moist tea towel so they don’t dry out. To deep fry: heat the oil in a big pot. Test if the oil is hot by sticking in an end of a roll — when the oil starts to sizzle it’s ready. Rotating to both sides, cook spring rolls (you can cook quite a few at the time) for around 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Take our using a slotted spoon and let rest on paper towel while cooking the rest. Make sure the oil doesn’t get too hot — you may have to turn down the heat. When everything is fried, serve immediately!

Soft Vietnamese spring rolls

• rice paper wrappers
• 50g vermicelli rice noodles (soaked)

And, all of these or a selection of:

• cucumber (deseeded and cut in matchsticks)
• carrot, cut in matchsticks
• red pepper, thinly sliced
• spring onions, cut in matchsticks
• bean sprouts (taugé or the like)
• cabbage, shredded
• avocado, thinly sliced
• salad leaves torn in smaller pieces (I like using purple because it looks so pretty!)
• coriander leaves
• mint leaves
• small shrimps
• surimi sticks
• egg omelete
• chicken strips
• roasted peanuts (unsalted)
• toasted sesame seeds

Dip a rice paper wrapper in lukewarm water until they are slightly softened but still firm. (Don’t submerge them too long as they will get too soft and tear! The paper will continue to soften after you’ve taken it out of the water.) Place the wrapper in front of you, preferable on a non-poreus surface such as ceramic, stone or plastic. Now place the ingredients of your choice lengthwise on the lower half of the rice paper wrapper. Tighten up a little and start rolling up from the bottom. Halfway fold over the sides and finish rolling. Place on a dish while you roll the rest — but make sure that the rolls do not touch each other as they will stick together! (Again, children are excellent rollers!) I like to cute the rolls in half when I serve them. It looks so pretty!

By the way, you can also place all of the ingredients on the table and let everyone make their own rolls at the table. Do it yourself dinners — so fun and easy!

Crispy shrimp rolls 

• 450g jumbo shrimps, raw (from freezer) — peel, but leave the tail on!
• Spring roll pastry
• 1 liter vegetable oil (I use the arachide/peanut oil I also use for the Thai rolls!)

Depending on the size of your shrimps, slice your pastry sheet in half or thirds (we always do thirds). Roll the shrimps in the pastry, letting the tails stick out. Deep fry the rolls in the oil you have used for the Thai rolls, until golden brown.

And voila! Your shrimp roll fiesta is nearly ready. You just need some sauces to dip your rolls in! I always serve three sauces with our rolls. The first one is a sweet chili sauce, which I buy ready made. The other two sauces we love are:

Nuoc Cham dipping sauce

• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 small garlic clove, very thinly sliced
• thinly sliced red chili pepper

Combine all ingredients.

Hoisin dipping sauce

• 1 tablespoon chopped peanuts (unsalted) (you can also use peanut butter!)
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• a squeeze of lime juice

Combine all ingredients. Serve with a few peanuts sprinkled on top.

ENJOY! Bon appetite. And do let me know how you roll. Haha!

xxx Esther

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Are your children sushi lovers like ours? Tamar and I always say it’s so funny, to have children who love sushi so much. I mean, I never had sushi as a child — in fact, I can vividly recall the first time I ate sushi. I was 23 and studying in London in the late 90s. A YoSushi conveyer belt sushi restaurant openend in Soho, and then another one on the top floor of Harvey Nichols. I loved it up there! They had the prettiest food and food packaging — a feast for the eyes! It was an immense luxury to sit down at that conveyor belt and treat oneself to a few exotic sushi styles. Carefully keeping track of the colour coded dishes as to not break the bank, of course!

Our children will never remember the first time they had sushi, because I’m sure they all had sushi rice before they even turned one year old. And they all love it! Taking a family of seven out to a nice sushi restaurant, however, is financially not a healthy idea. Thus, to satisfy our sushi cravings, we sometimes roll our own maki. Which is fun but quite an undertaking!

But recently we have discovered the beauty of the poke bowl. Why bother with rolling when you can just pile it all up in a nice looking bowl? Poke bowls (or really, sushi in a bowl) are SO easy to make, and SO good!

I’m probably telling you nothing new, but if you do have little sushi lovers and haven’t been making poke bowls yet, it’s worth a try. Here’s what we do: Prepare the sushi seasoning (a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar and salt). Rinse the sushi rice and cook according to instructions. Transfer to a low dish and sprinkle with the seasoning. It’s best to do this a few hours in advance so the rice can cool down to room temperature. To serve, scoop in bowls and top with toppings (we love salmon sashimi, diced cucumber, diced mango, edamame beans, sliced avocado and thinly sliced radishes). Pour over some soy sauce to taste and sprinkle with (black) sesame seeds, some thinly sliced nori and a few coriander leaves. That’s it! Yum.

You can also put all of the different toppings on the table and let everyone create their own poke bowls. Even easier!

xxx Esther

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Summer has finally arrived here in Amsterdam, and it’s come with a BANG. We had the hottest 25th of June yesterday — at least, since temperatures have first been recorded!

With warm temperatures like these, I’m craving salads and grilled veggies for dinner. Yesterday, I cooked some brown rice and once it was cooled down I mixed it with diced cucumber and tomatoes, toasted sunflower seeds and a selection of chopped herbs. I used coriander, parsley and mint — including the herb stems! #nofoodwaste. A good drizzle of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, some pepper and salt, and voila! These kind of salads are always a big hit in our house, and any leftovers are highly coveted for the lunch box the next day.

I also had some ripe peaches and avocados that really needed to be eaten. They had reached that ‘now, or never!’ point of delicious ripeness. So I made a salad of baby spinach, peaches and avocado over which I drizzled pumpkin seed oil and balsamic cream vinegar. We grilled some slices of haloumi cheese which complemented this salad beautifully! This, together with grilled courgette, aubergine and bell peppers, and a few small chipolata sausages from the BBQ… My favourite sort of summer meal.

Here are some more great summer recipes I’ve share before. All of which are delicious and so, so easy. Because who feels like cooking when it’s hot outside?

• Three seeds bulgur salad. Yum!
• Roasted sweet potatoes with yoghurt-ginger dressing (and a super easy watermelon salad!) Always a favourite!
• An easy and tasty potato salad
• Quiches!! Perfect summer food and great for picnics too
• Tarte à la tomate et à la moutarde so simple and so delicious!
• This tomato salsa is the very very best summer side dish!
• Red beet salad (so good and hey — it’s bright pink!)
• Green lentil salad Very very healthy and very very yummy!
• And for desert (or breakfast, or lunch): the best Dutch pancakes 

What are your favourite summer recipes? I would love to hear about them. Please share your recipes below!

xxx Esther

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Bram is now trotting steadily along, happy with his ability to carry things along with him. (And, consequently,  leaving a mess everywhere!) He’s very cute with his penguin like walk and his determined little face, with those chubby cheeks and golden curls :).
With walking come the first walking shoes, to protect the feet against sharp objects outside. And Poco Nido has the perfect sweet shoes exactly made for this purpose!

The Mighty Shoes come in a size 20 to 26, are made from chrome-free leather with a thin, super flexible sole which protects little baby feet but doesn’t restrict growth and development. There are three styles (a desert boot, a Mary Jane and one with velcro closure) and 4 colours — a plain tan colour and a yellow, blue and red style which are etched with adorable circus, woodland or nautical illustrations!

Bram loves his little shoes, which proves to me that they are comfortable as much as they are practical. Plus, toddler shoes don’t come much cuter than these. Right?

xxx Esther

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This pesky vegan vanilla sponge cake recipe has taken me seven(!) attempts to perfect – I have been searching for the holy grail of ‘free-from’ baking for such a long time! The Victorian sponge cake recipes I’d settled for in the meantime, were temperamental, unreliable and ultimately, stress-inducing, and that’s not good enough.

This vegan vanilla sponge cake recipe is truly a reliable, tried-and-tested, easy-peasy and delicious vanilla sponge cake, that happens to be dairy free, vegan, and easy to make gluten free too. It’s also a one-bowl-wonder, and what could be better than that?

Bee’s easy peasy one-bowl vegan vanilla sponge cake

Makes two layers of 8 inch sponge approx. 1 inch thick.

Ingredients:

Dry:

• 390 g white, self raising flour (gluten free works too, try a blend of flours)
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 2 tsp Xanthan gum (optional, will be crumblier without)
• large pinch of salt

Wet

• 460 ml Good Hemp plant milk (or another of your choice, the paler in colour the better)
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 120 ml groundnut oil (or another oil of your choice)
• 3 tsp Neilsen Massey vanilla bean extract (the thick stuff with speckles in it)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C.

Pour all your dry ingredients into one large bowl. Add in the wet ingredients as they’re ready, then mix everything together thoroughly, using a whisk if you need to break up any lumps. Leave to thicken for a few minutes while you line two round 8 inch baking tins with baking paper.

Pour equal amounts of batter into each tin, bake for around 30 –35 mins, until the tip of a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool before filling with a great DF (dairy free)  buttercream (recipe below!), and some roughly chopped fresh berries.

Vegan buttercream recipe

Makes enough to fill the above cake, with a thin layer for the top.

Ingredients:

• 125 g white solid vegetable baking fat e.g. Crisco or Trex, at room temp
• 125 g solid dairy free baking block e.g., Naturli or Stork, at room temp
• 325 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract

Method:

Using a food mixer or lots of bicep power, mix the two fats together until you have a smooth paste with no lumps. Add in the vanilla, then icing sugar in two goes, beating until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add in a tbsp. at a time of plant milk e.g. Good Hemp.

Enjoy!!

– Bee

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Let me start by saying that I have huge respect for parents with an endless (endless!!) patience; parents who can play silly games with their children and let them win over and over again. But I admit: when I play games with my children, I actually find myself to be quite competitive! I definitely enjoy myself more when I can play a game where I’m challenged a bit as well. Since this rather simple self assessment, I have had more fun playing games with my children!

Of course I do sometimes play the silly games, and I do let my children win at times — it is important to keep them entertained and motivated and I love seeing their cute little faces light up when they believe they have won. But, I admit I let them loose as well. Is that mean? I actually think is not necessarily a bad thing. Isn’t it an important life lesson, to learn how to loose, to be a good sport about it and try again until you win?

The games I like best are those where the child is an equal or even stronger opponent. I love it when there’s a real competition going on, and we both have an equal (fair!) chance in winning or loosing. This gets easier when the child gets older — naturally. But also younger children can win from adults with certain games!

For smaller children, for example, Bingo is nice, because it’s more about luck than strategy. Casper, who is 6, is super good at Memory. He beats me (and everyone else in our family!) all the time! Games like Ludo and Dobble are good ones to play with smaller children too.

With Ava (9), I love playing Set, Otrio and Uno. I like to witness how she’s becoming more strategic in her play. Pim (12), with his entrepreneurial mind, loves to play Monopoly. This is not my favourite game, possibly because I’m not great with money, and I always loose. (So frustrating!) Rummikub is a favourite too, we both like that game very much!

And lastly with Sara (14) I’ve started to play Scrabble. I used to play Scrabble with my mum and have fond memories of that.

Another good game to play with children is Yahtzee. It’s played open so it’s easy to help the little ones with their tactics, and nobody can control the dice, so it’s all about luck!

Tell me, what sort of parent are you? Can you play endlessly without winning, or are you secretly a bit competitive too? If so — what are your favourite games to play with your children?

xxx Esther

PS Seventeen great travel games and this month’s product guide, games on the go! Also: do you remember these games from when we were young?

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A couple of months ago I was asked to become an ambassador for the Dutch agency against food waste (#verspillingsvrij). Which I was happy to accept — food waste, after all, is one of the most serious dangers to the health of our planet. A third of all food is thrown away! A big part of this happens in our kitchen —  something we, as end-consumers, can avoid and work on to improve.

Since the campaign has started I definitely have become more aware of what we throw away. It actually has become a bit of a challenge to throw away as little as possible, and it’s been fun! For example, I found out that a pesto made from carrot or radish greens is delicious! Or that the stems of herbs can be used for cooking: if they are soft (like basil, coriander or parsley stems, or the soft part of mint stems), they can be chopped up finely and used just as you would use the leaves. And that something as blah and seemingly useless as potato skins become a delicious snack if you roast them in the oven with some olive oil and spices!

One of my own everlasting battles in the fight against food waste however is keeping an organised fridge. I can make an effort, but there are 6 other family members in our house! Surely without any bad intentions, jars with leftovers are pushed to the back and out of sight, and consequently forgotten. So that I have to throw the food away after all. Painful!!

I have made it my mission to work on a better fridge organisation. I have tried and tested different things the past months, and even though things are still not perfect, there is definitely much improvement.

Here are a few tips that I have learned along the way — small tips with a big effect, I hope!

Fridge organisation and tips to avoid foodwaste

• Keep your fridge temperature at 4 degrees Celsius.
• Organise your fridge! A well organised fridge is not only important for safe storage, but it will also help to minimise food waste.
• Everything in your fridge should be covered or wrapped!
• Use glass or see-through containers to cover or wrap things so you can see what’s inside. (Advantage of glass is that you can also put them in the oven or freezer as well!)
• Have one or two ‘eat now’ shelves where you keep left-overs as well as fresh food (obviously keeping fresh food separated from prepared food). Make sure your family members know about this and respect your system.
• A fridge needs to be tidied up as well. Do this daily so you can see what’s in there and what the shelf life is. Move products that are reaching the end of their shelf life to the ‘eat now’ department. (Open jars, with for example pesto or tomato sauce, which need to be eaten within a couple of days, also go to the eat-now department.)
• You can keep leftovers for two days. In the morning, have a look at what you have sitting on your ‘eat now’ shelf and determine how you can incorporate that in your meal planning of the day. (I love using left-overs for the children’s lunch boxes: cold pasta, pizza, a piece of sausage, some salad in a wrap… My kids love it!)
• Before you go grocery shopping, check your fridge and see what you have in there and how you can use that in your plans for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
• Once a week, have a left-over lunch or dinner. This can be fun! And easy of course :).
• Once a month, wipe your fridge clean. Go through the collection of condiments, jams, etc. and move to the ‘eat now’ shelves if needed. Once a season, deep clean your fridge!

xxx Esther

PS The best eco earth-saving products!

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A couple of weeks ago Lara sent me an interesting NY Times article: Is the immediate playback of events changing children’s memories? It has definitely made me re-think the way I share photos and videos to my children. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think it’s bad to let them watch videos of past events, but it’s the ‘immediate’ in the title that made me think. Why watch back a performance or any other experience immediately afterwards? What is that even adding?

In fact, according to the article, the change of perspective of watching a video from a ‘third person’ (versus the ‘first person perspective’ of the actual experience) can ‘increase self-presentation’ and ‘dampen emotional aspects of the experience’. Watching yourself perform or even simply ‘be’ in a video gives you an idea how other people see you — adding and even re-shaping the memory.

With upcoming summer travels in mind and the undoubtful incounatable amount of footage we will shoot of our children enjoying their holiday experiences, I thought this would be an interesting read.

xxx Esther

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Recently, an interesting article appeared in the New York Times, and so many of my friends and followers reached out to me about it. Is it true? Do you really do it?

The topic of the article is about a particular ‘game’ we play in the Netherlands which is called ‘dropping’. In a nutshell, children are blindfolded and taken (by car) to an undisclosed location, and the group then has to find their way back home. Yes! It is true, it happens. Yes, I did it, my children have done it, and we loved it!

Funnily enough (as the article states) I never realised this activity is something typically and solely Dutch. Apparently, it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world! (This is the reason I love to travel, read international newspapers and know and listen to people from different backgrounds and from all over the world. The things we take for granted are not always the norm elsewhere!)

So yes, droppings. A few years ago we were having dinner at friends, and the topic of a dropping came up. Before I knew it, two groups were formed and my children plus those of our friends were blindfolded and dropped in the early twilight. The smaller ones (7 to 9 year old) were taken to a street in our neighbourhood, about 4 blocks away (vaguely familiar territory because one of their friends lives there). The group of older children (10 to 12) were taken a bit further, to an adjacent neighbourhood they wouldn’t immediately recognise. Obviously, they were not given any mobile phones!

Within 40 minutes all of them were back, super happy and super disappointed that the dropping had been way too easy! They had LOVED the experience! Obviously, this was not the kind of hardcore dropping the article is talking about. (I don’t think I would like my children to walk around the forest for hours and hours in the middle of the night.) But a ‘miniature’ dropping like this is just so much fun!

I have never been a scout, but I have been dropped as a teenager as well. Again, not as hardcore as the article states — in the twilight and not so far away from home. I remember it as exciting, exhilarating, and SUCH FUN!

Dutch parenting is interesting in this way — we let our children cycle to school and sports by themselves from around the age of 11. They are used to navigate the way by themselves and deal with traffic. Yes, they get lost! But they always find their way back home. With this in mind, perhaps the idea of a dropping is less daunting to us?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

xxx Esther

(Image from the New York Times)

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Both my oldest children are avid readers. Especially Sara is the kind of person who reads everything she can get her hands on: novels, series, educational books, newspapers, magazines, the back of cereal boxes — you name it. So recognisable: I was exactly the same as a child. (I always thought it had to do with the fact I am an only child, and reading a book is obviously easy solo entertainment, but that is apparently not the case!)

Pim is a bit more reluctant to get started in a book, but once he’s in, he’s hooked. He’s especially fond of series: currently he is reading Harry Potter for the 4th time, but he also loves series like Percy Jackson, Spy Kids, The Hunger Games, etc. It’s so fun to see Sara and Pim sharing their excitement over books and series!

Ava and Casper have also caught the reading bug. Casper only learned to read quite recently but he’s so in to it now. I love that moment when children suddenly discover the magical world which only reveals itself to the eye of the reader!

Recently I was asked if I could share my tips and thoughts on encouraging children to read. I have never really thought about it before, but it was an interesting exercise to sit down and write down my ten tips. I hope you find it useful (and as always, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the topic as well!)

Encouraging children to read. Here are ten tips:

1. Read to your children.

Start reading to your children at a young age. Have your baby on your lap and look at board books together. Use an interactive style when reading: point out animals, help your baby turn the page. I find that tactile books are fun to read with babies (in our family, the Usborn series ‘That’s not my dinosaur/baby/hedgehog/etc’ is a huge favourite!). Activity / lift-the-flap surprise books are fun too (like Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell). The attention span of babies and toddlers is obviously very short, but don’t be discouraged. You don’t really have to read the entire story. Just see it as a flexible game, there’s no need to get through the book, or even the page! What counts is that your baby realises early that books are an important and integral part of your life.

When your child is a bit older, you can start reading picture books and short stories together. I like keeping a stack of currently favourite books in the child’s bedroom. Reading to your child before bedtime is a wonderful way to calm down and connect.

From around the age of 4 it can be fun to start reading chapter books. Slowly, the stories can become more complex and exciting. Involve your child in the story: ask questions (‘What do you think happens next?’). Explain new words and concepts. Talk about the way the characters behave, and use different voices for each of them. Let them be carried away with the story! Be not afraid to make things extra exciting — even a little bit scary!

Try to connect the child’s experiences and everyday life to the books you are reading together. When you see something which reminds you of a story, point it out to your child. And vice versa, when something familiar happens in a book, mention that to your child (‘Remember when we did something similar?’ etc).

When your child is starting to read by him/herself, do not stop reading to him! Involve him: follow the text with your finger, so he can see where you are. Let him read some words or sentences to you as well.

Keep reading to your children, all the way through primary school and beyond. Even teenagers love to be read to!

2. Book series. (Harry Potter!) 

When your child is ready, read Harry Potter to him / her. I have read the entire series to Sara and Pim. It took me over two years, but I’m sure this has helped so much in getting them to become avid readers. By the time I finished the final book of the series, they both read the entire series again, by themselves. And after that, they were hungry for more!

I feel series are a great way to keep children motivated to read. Of course, you want to find out what new adventures your favourite characters are up to!

3. Cut back on screens, turn off the television.

We are pretty much a screen free family, which I am sure helps so much. Our children don’t have iPads or a game station to engage themselves with. We don’t even watch television very much (with the exception of wintery Friday evenings, when we don’t cook but eat yummy snacks in front of the television and watch a fun series of a film together).

When our kids are in need of some downtime, when they are tired or bored and when they want to be carried away on adventures in made-up worlds, they curl up in a corner and read. I’m not saying you should take away all screen, but cutting down on your child’s screen time will directly be beneficial to his/her reading, I’m sure of it!

Of course, it is important to realise that reading takes much more patience than the relative ease of being entertained by watching television or playing video games. So some extra encouragement and persistence might be needed!

4. Create a cosy reading corner.

Children generally like to be around their parents. I have given up on the idea of a playroom a long time ago — toys live in our living room, and so do books and magazines. We have a big and cosy corner sofa in our living room with tons of pillows and blankets. It’s a very inviting space to curl up and read, and still be part of the hustle and bustle of family life.

Creating a reading nook is fun. In summer, you can even set up some pillows and books outside. If your kitchen is big enough, it is a great idea to have a reading corner there as well.

5. Let your children choose their reading.

When your child hasn’t yet ‘fallen’ for books yet, do not give up. Keep motivating them to read — magazines, joke books, cookbooks — anything, really! I remember, when I was young, comic books were not considered good reading. But honestly, my children love comics, and if that is what is needed to get them to read — fine! Reading should be fun!

Motivate them to read something new as well. It can help to find reading materials that reflect your child’s passions and piques their interest — be it knights, sports, dinosaurs or princesses. Make sure the book is not too difficult — if it is beyond their reading ability, they will loose interest altogether.

Magazines can be good reading material as well. Our children each have a subscription to a (children’s) magazine. And each week we get a special junior newspaper edition which our kids love!

6. Have easy access to reading material at home

Surround your children with good and attractive books! Visit the library and go to bookshops. Take your time there. Look at books together, sit down on the floor, forget about the time. Being surrounded by books is such magic. Bring home books and be excited!

My children can each pick out a book when they get their final school rapport of the year, and it’s such a highlight for them. (Plus — it keeps them entertained when we’re traveling to our holiday destination!) They love getting book vouchers for their birthdays too.

I think it’s important for children to have easy access to books in different levels and themes. We have books in the children’s rooms and on display in the living room, there are piles of books and magazines next to our bed that we like to read from on weekend mornings… You honestly can’t get around books in our house!

7. NEVER watch the movie before reading the book.

It’s just the rule. (Each time when we finished a Harry Potter book, we watched the movie together. Fun!)

8. Make time for reading.

When schedules are full and lives are busy, make sure to carve out time to relax and read. Make it a priority! (This is not always easy for me, and I admit that the past year has been so busy that our bedtime reading has suffered. Not good!)

9. Talk about books, share your enthusiasm!

Share your own love for reading, and be interested and involved in what your child is reading. Talk about great authors and great illustrators. Discuss classics. Get crafty: create pretty bookmarks and ex-libris together. When your child has a friend over, read to both of them so they can share the enthusiasm!

10. Search help if needed

When you feel you have tried everything and your child is still reluctant to read, you might want to talk to a teacher, paediatrician or an education therapist. Perhaps there is a physical problem (hearing/vision) or your child has a learning disability and therapy can help.

Good luck!

xxx Esther

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