Happy Birthday Lucy!

Today is Lucy, Reg and Ricci's first birthday and we all celebrated with cake!
Tunacake for Lucy and Pippa as above, we blew out the candle for her, but she kept a close eye as you can see.

Very good at standing on her hind legs is our Lucy! She can just reach the edge of the dining tabl e and kitchen worktops... Also still very keen on ''visiting'' us on a Sunday morning when still in bed. And also continues to be nervous of going back down by herself, still.

Birthday kisses mwah mwah mwah.

Oh stretchy mirrors. ''OK , then I'm halfway down, now what? It's too steep those last 3 steps....?''

Calico dachshunds seen on Regent st on Thursday 25 February.

SEE? I thought they were cute, except the tail is a bit on the short side?

Yes OK there were other dogs also, but the dachsies were the cutest!

A few recent photos of Lucy to celebrate how MUCH she's grown since the post here and here.

How she LOVES the snow!

Once there was one and now there are two: Lucy's head is larger than her mum Pippa's.

Muddy river water is always yummier than fresh tap water at home.

'' Hi there, aren't I cute? What do you mean I'm supposed to be on the LOWER cushions of the sofa? Preferable the OTHER- doggy special- sofa???? Mummy's doing it too- oo.''


CHEERS LUCY THANKS FOR A FABULOUS YEAR and here's a toast to very many MORE of the same.

You are energetic and fun and cheerful and charming, friendly to all dogs and humans and outstandingly loyal, faithful and sociable. You have the waggiest tail/ bottom and the longest wettest, roughest tongue. You always come find us when we are sad to comfort and cheer us and you ask to play just when we need a break the most.

We don't really mind the chewed seatbelts, the wiring or the very many cushions ( >10)you have now chewed the corners off and have disembowelled, the ankle chasing or the handbag- any bag!- searching and nibbling, the stolen bread or the raiding of the log basket...

JJ luckily was not too fond of the wool tartan picnic rug which is now a lacy structure with a pile of perfect frayed wool squares right besdie it...

You have the best nose for food or drink for you come running when we open a cupboard and your brown eyes and pleading expression are so hard to resist!

I simply adore it when I talk to you and you tilt your head to one side as in concentration of my possible meaning?

And you KNOW simply KNOW the meaning of many words but one learned in just a day is: TUNACAKE!

Thank you also for being the first of our Sluijter family dachshunds to have perfect RECALL.

I call and you come FLYING along from wherever you are and gladden my heart at such devoted obedience. Ears a- flapping and long body stretched with front and back paws kicked out at full power : you get to my side as fast as you can: good girl!!!!

We all adore you totally: man's best friend and all we could ever wish for:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!!!!

Ps and this comes at a very very difficult time for us when the comfort of Lucy has been very needed and extremely welcome to both JJ and myself. ( as well as the girls).

Dutch applecake or APPELTAART # 1.

Dear diary: do you remember when you wrote things like that? When I was about 6 I wrote in my journal every day and always started in time- honoured tradition: Dear Diary:....

I feel a bit like that now so here it goes: Dear Diary : yesterday started inauspiciously but worked out a really GOOOOOD day for the family.

At about 9 am I opened my washing machine to find my blues wash( lots of jeans) more dirty than when it went in!!!

This is despite it being a BOSCH and a lovely machine but being 5 years old or more it has these hissy fits every 8-10 washes or so only this time it was only 5 washes ago...
Yes I've cleaned the filter and no I didn't put it on ''reduced time'' but it seems to be able to ''find'' all sorts of dirt and griity stones to deposit ONTO my wash! Luckily halving the load and re-washing always ( fingers crossed!!!) sorts the problem.

So that was the ''bad ''bit over and no I didn't get the rewashed jeans into the sunshine because by then it was raining AGAIN.

We went to KUMON by car as we were running late ( girls had lovely lie-ins) and while they did their maths I managed 3 personal bests on the braintraining so I was well chuffed as I believe the expression is?!! I mean triangle maths in 18 seconds can't be bad for the old brain now can it? Still can't quite beat Izzles on the X20 though but I do on the X100: no stamina these young ones...

Sun being out we all cycled back into town for purchasing yummy fruit and veg on the market and back again to have a late lunch.

Then the dogs being desperate we walked them at the Long Crendon playground and chose books at the library for our imminent holiday in the Yorkshire Dales.
Izzles' lunch before going off to cylce with friends as baking was way too boring for a primary school graduate...
Then a photo of Lucy but she turned too fast and Pippa was pleading for attentiontoo- isn't she lovely?
So here is our Lucy at 5 months old exactly!!!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!

And onto the BAKING!!! Today we are trying to make a dish that was a favourite as I grew up in Holland: my mother always made it from a ''kit'' a premixed packet and I must confess so did I : when I could get it from the Netherlands....

It was Koopmans or Dr Oetker I think and is called ( in Dutch) APPELTAART.

Now this is NOT a tart of any kind as there is no pastry it is Dutch for cake: but it's filled with apple pieces.

I googled the word and found a fabulous site in the NL region of the web run by a lovely 23 year old Dutch lady who has been collecting all sorts of recipes for this all together: there are dozens of variations - and I mean DOZENS OR MORE!!!- and I though we'd simply try the first one - the most popular- and then work our way down until we found the one most like my childhood favourite....

Please note I'll translate the recipe at the end?!!!

Here's my assistant chef with hair tied back- her insistence I was sooo impressed!- apron on, hands washed and ready to goooooo. She will be making the dough.

It uses LOTS of creamy unsalted butter and it needs to start off cold so you can chop it small as above. Then we had the flour and sugar and cinnamon and vanilla ready to rub in the butter.... OOOOOOH It smelled so good: delicious!!!

Rub until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs: didn't she do well?!!! And it wasn't easy it was so very sticky and buttery!

Mum was in charge of the apples: peeling and chopping and adding some sugar and lemon juice and yet more cinnamon.

Adding 3/4 of a beaten egg to the ''breadcrumbs'' turned it into dough: TA DAH!!!

This then went into the fridge for an hour or so while we had a break: chocolate frozen yoghurt icecream and part of a kid's movie.

Then we rolled it all out and adding some flour cut a circle for the base, strips of 6cm by 23 cm for the sides and then lots more 2cm strips for the top.

We had added- almost forgot but not quite!- the raisins to the apple mixture and after adding the apples into the cake tin we laid the thinner strips in a lattice pattern over the top, brush with left over beaten egg and pop into pre-heated oven ( 175 degrees Centigrade) for 78 minutes....
TAH DAAAAH!!! Except I took this out after 58 minutes as the fan hadn't switched off when I thought it would and it looked so ready....
The recipe says and I quote: Leave the taart in the fridge for 2 days for best flavour and it can be kept up to one week from baking day..... 2 DAYS????!!!Does anyone EVER wait THAT long???? Mine cam out of the oven after 7 pm and by 10 pm well.......

And we all had some scrummy yummy applecake...!!!!I don't think it will last even one day let alone 2 days.....

It's great but not quite the same so the quest continues...... Could be it needs more dough round the sides and less long to cook? Or try some more of those recipes!!!!

Here is the RECIPE

For the Dough:

300g Self-raising flour

200g cold butter

160g castor sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

dash of salt

1 egg: mixed with a fork

The Apple Filling:
1kg of chopped apples- I suggest Bramleys or Granny Smiths

15 ml or more of lemon juice

cinnamon to personal taste( we like loads!)

15 g castor sugar or to taste.

60g raisins( but I may have used about 50% MORE..)

For the apples I used 5 medium Bramleys and 3 Braeburns.

Instructions:

1. Cut up the butter and mix into the flour and sugar mixture with the vanilla and the cinnamon.Rub until it looks like breadcrumbs.

2.

Add the egg slowly and form a dough. Do not use all of the egg and add a bit more four if too sticky or not forming a dough. Put dough in fridge in clingfilm for at least 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile: preheat oven to 175 Centigrade and peel and chop the apples.

Mix the lemon juice and cinnamon to coat the apples and add sugar to taste and the raisins.

4. Roll out the dough and fit it to the base of a 9'' or 23 cm greased springform. Then fit strips around the sides too: about 6cm high. After lining the base I had 430 g dough left and used 230 g for the sides leaving 200g for the strips of the lattice.

I think I could have used more for the sides and less for the lattice.

5. When you have a base and sides: fill with the apple mixture and cover the top with the lattice strips.

6. Brush the lattice with the leftover beaten egg.

7. Bake in the centre of the oven for up to 78 minutes but check at 40 and 50 minutes as mine seemed a little overcooked...and I did 58 minutes in a partially fanned oven...

GOOD LUCK and EET SMAKELIJK!!!

The latter is ''enjoy this tasty food'' in Dutch.

AND thank you- DANK JE WEL to Saskia in Holland who is the 23 year old fabuolus lady who put this recipe on the internet!!!

At least 40 variations to date....

At http://www.appletaarten.web-log.nl/