We are used to trying to hunt down tricky ingredients, but this was the first time we decided to invest in a special pan, because we have eaten poffertjes before, and love them. Our batter wasn't as runny as we thought it should be, so we added an egg to the recipe - the poffertjes were delicious!
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This recipe came from Nancy in Pennsylvania - we had lots of fun chopping up all the vegetables. It tasted yummy, and very healthy, too!
We found out about ube (purple yam) when we researched the Philippines, and Toby was desperate to try and make ube ice cream. We did a lot of research, and in the end, used the packet information for rehydration together with about 10-12 ice cream recipes to come up with our own version. It was a bit grainy, but it tastes yummy, and it made a lot of ice cream!!
The lovely Paarnaq from Greenland sent us a recipe for "Greenlander's Cake" - Kalaallit Kaaqiat. It's essentially a yeast loaf with dried fruit - we got the amount of water wrong in our first attempt and had to start again. For our second attempt, we had run out of raisins, so we used chopped apricots instead, which worked really well, too!
On Saturday, the postman brought post from Spain. Toby had asked Inés, Miguel and Javier for a recipe, and they sent a recipe for a Spanish tortilla that was so simple that Toby cooked it nearly all by himself - after harvesting our tiny potatoes! The recipe is in the picture, and we decided to include some pictures of the cooking and harvesting, too.
Through Toby's project, we feel like we have made friends all over the world. This means that, whenever anything happens - anywhere at all! - we feel that somebody we know is in danger or trouble. This isn't always easy to explain to a young child, especially if we have no real way to communicate with Toby's writing partners in other countries - other than post, which of course often gets disrupted. Sometimes, though, we get lucky. Like a few days ago. We first learnt Kamal's name when a friend mentioned she might have a contact for us in Nepal...this was early on in Toby's project, back in August 2013. We were given Kamal's Facebook name, and I contacted him with a message, which went unseen for a long time (as Facebook messages from people who are not "Friends" tend to be). We didn't hear anything back...until May this year, when people took to Facebook to ensure friends and families were safe. Kamal came across our message, and responded. To be thought of by somebody else when their own life has been turned upside down is truly humbling. We do not often mention Toby's fundraising, but Toby chose ShelterBox because they go wherever needed, providing emergency care - and right now, they are very busy in Nepal. If you do have a £, a $, a Euro, Yen or anything to spare, you might consider donating it here: https://www.justgiving.com/writingtotheworld/ . Dear world, we are celebrating THE RETURN OF THE MAP!!! Those of you who were with us from the beginning may remember that we used to have a map where we noted down every country written to, every response received, and every "in progress" contact. Then, after six months, our map provider website disappeared, without warning. We were devastated, and always felt Toby's website wasn't quite the same. Now, however, we have finally discovered an alternative. It is not quite as easy to use, and we have to grab the picture and upload it manually, but that's a small price to pay. We have re-entered all the data, and the key is simple: GREEN means Toby has written to this country *and* received a response, PURPLE means Toby has written to this country and *not* had a response. We have been doing this project for nearly two years now, and it would be lovely if Year No. 3 could be the year where we can turn some more of the purple countries green, so if you happen to know anybody in a purple country, please do ask them to get in touch via http://www.writingtotheworld.com/contact.html (we do, of course, love to hear from all of you!) We did run out of energy, but we promise that a future edition of THE MAP will include States, Territories etc. This is quite a big thing for us, and in the process, we have looked through many of the letters on the website, with very, very fond memories. Thank you, as always, for being a part of our journey! This is it, we have found a writing partner for Toby in nearly every single US State. Today, we found Delaware, via Molly and her parents. This means that South Dakota is officially the only US State missing. We enjoy the thrill as lists dwindle down to just a few names, when Toby tried to cover every country, the last two countries to find were Gabon and San Marino...and when we found Gabon, we pulled out all the stops to find a writing partner for Toby in San Marino. I remember emailing hotels, conference centres, restaurants, and anything and anybody else who had an email address. Where will the South Dakota contact come from, we wonder? We found out about bannock while we researched the Northwest Territories for Toby's letter to Kaylie-Ann. It's a kind of bread, and although we didn't cook ours over the open fire, it was still very yummy. Apparently, you can take the dry ingredients with you, all mixed up, when you go camping, and then you just add water until you have a stiff bread dough, wrap it round a stick and cook it over the open fire.......we are *so* going to try that. Here's the recipe we used: 1 cup flour 1 tbsp sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 pinch of salt Mix dry ingredients and add enough water to make a stiff dough, then shape into thick scone-style pancakes and fry in a little oil until they are done. Ours took about 8 minutes or so......but the stick method sounds way more exciting!!! Toby spent a summer holiday...not writing letters, but exploring the world in other ways. One of these was a one-week summer school, where he is beginning to learn Mandarin. It also included dancing, singing, watching eating, and lots and lots of crafting. As part of the week, he made me this lovely card! After the week's summer school, he declared that he absolutely had to carry on learning Mandarin, so from now on, he will join a group of other children every Saturday at "Chinese School". Toby thinks this will help him greatly with his goal to learn more about the world, and to talk to people once he grows up and gets to explore the world for real, so fingers crossed he'll learn lots and lots and lots! |
AuthorThis blog is mainly a way to keep track of our recipes - for day to day updates, please check out Toby's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/writingtotheworld Archives
May 2018
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