Day of Orange! - Carrot cake recipe

It is Kingsday in the Netherlands!

Which basically means everything and everyone is orange for one whole day. This is one if the occasions where us Dutchies suddenly get immensely patriotic for some reason, the other one is anything involving our national soccer team or Dutchies rocking things abroad - I name a Carice van Houten, Michiel Huisman, Rutger Hauer.

But it was also my birthday last Saturday! I turned 23.. my god, it's getting serious.
So in honor of our King, Queen and me aging here my signature recipe:

the Carrouk Cake.

One needs:

• 2 eggs
• 175 grams of shredded carrot
• 212 grams of buckwheat flour
• 250 grams of palm sugar
• 112 ml of sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp of baking soda
• 1 tbsp of baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Cinnamon, nutmeg and ground clove to taste

Preheat the over to 175°C

• First mix together your wet ingredients for 2 minutes
• Mix your dry ingredients
• Combine your wet and dry mixture
• Put your mixture in a greased cake tin (add a baking sheet to easily remove the cake after baking)
• Bake for 45 minutes
• Check if it's baked, if not bake for additional 5 minutes until fully set

Et voila! Cake :D

I actually did something I said to do many times before - I made a video!! It is my first one ever with more editing done than ever before, so I hope it's doable. I will share it anyways.

Have a nice Kingsday if in the Netherlands! Maybe the sun will join us on this day of festivities. 

Love,
Anouk

And the video:

Movie premiere #1

I had a premiere. A movie premiere.

Somewhere in my posts of June of 2014 I mentioned that I was starring in a movie. The movie has been made.

Now bare with me, this was a very first project of a friend of mine who thought it would be fun to make his own movie. The fucker did, somehow, and although the result is not the result of a professional team, he did make it with all the tinsels and bits that are needed to make a movie. Soundtrack, different camera angles, production team, premiere in a movie theater - and all of that with no budget.

The story tells of 5 friends heading into adulthood, having to make one last assignment before the real life begins. They have to finish it over the weekend, and decide to make that last weekend about doing the things they always wanted to do before growing up.
Finding the perfect girl, having a perfect night out, enjoying life in general or simply finishing a collection of charms on the bracelet a beloved father gave before passing away.

The message: Don't be afraid to live your dreams!

How very accurate since the name of the movie is 'Dreamers'

It was rather weird and fun seeing my face and hearing my voice on the big screen! There is a first for everything, let's hope it's not the last!

But last monday - April the 20th - was the date of the actual premiere. We all got together one last time to celebrate our journey together and end it in style!

See for yourself

With my on-screen besties! ♥

And my real life besties! ♥

Beautiful people :)

- TRAILER -

- MUSIC VIDEO -

But how do I get above the weather?

I've been a little under the weather lately. Which is very easily explained because due to a crappy, warm winter (global warming and such) all the viruses have survived and are now getting to us one at a time. Even my parents, who are never ill, joined me in my war of the sniffles.

It sucks. I want soup.

There are actually some things you can do to help boost your immune system! Thru food! Which is of course my favorite way to cure anything.

First, let get something out of the way, you can't cure the cold you have by eating anything from pills to oranges - you are ill. Sleep it out.
But you CAN however help your body recover more quickly by just following these simple steps:

1. Sip on anything broth based. 

Yes, granny was right. Her chicken soup WILL get you better! Now any broth based soup will help you prevent dehydration and keep your throat and nose from going soar - meaning it keeps every airway nicely moist. But I also learned that chicken contains an amino acid called cysteine which apparently thins all that lovely mucus in your lungs. Aside from an 'EW' for the word mucus, thank you Ms. Hen and cysteine.

Fun fact - Sheep use cysteine to grow wool. So if it wasn't for cysteine we'd be shivering and sniffing all winter long. The things one learns when browsing the web. Magical.

2. Get it steaming, hot stuff

Not sexy steamy - although it couldn't hurt - but boiling water steamy!
Tea. Tea is the answer to everything in my humble opinion. Add some honey to cure your sore throat and you are sure to be hydrated with your soothing cup of heaven.

The bucketlist

Don't we all have one?

Well as of today I can cross one thing off - performing my own songs!!

The venue might have been small, the town might have been small but they were there and so was I, accompanied by the guitarist who agreed to go along for this particular ride.
AND WE DID IT!

I cannot tell you how surreal this is, I never really share what I made myself this publicly. Of course this blog is all about sharing my own things because if I wouldn't share IT wouldn't exist. But I can't see who is on the other end of the screen and by performing in front of an audience, well.. they're right in front of you.
But they seemed to enjoy it!

So, without further redo, I will finally share what I had promised so many times before.

My own songs.

In Person

I Won't Ask You To

Follow My Road

Burn Bright

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Love,

Anouk

Ice cream for breakfast

Little recipe from the breakfast monster!

"Ice cream" breakfast smoothie, because why wait? It is actually sugar free due to my obsession with stevia extract so do indulge :D

Needed:

A handful of the following (organic if preferred)

- Frozen strawberries
- Frozen bananas
- Frozen raspberries (color!)
- Blueberries, frozen or fresh

- Stevia extract
- Vanilla extract
- Organic full fat yogurt
- Handful of mulberries

- A food processor

How to:

It is basically a 'toss in and blend' recipe, depending on the size and strength of your food processor. I need to cut up my strawberries first because mine can only handle small chunks.

First put in your fruits and blend them a little to make room for the additional ingredients. The yogurt, stevia and vanilla extract can be added to taste. I quite like a fruity taste, so I tend to hold back on the yogurt. Only add enough so the mixture blends well.

When all is added and blended put it in a bowl, top it off with your blueberries and mulberries and maybe some other deliciousness you prefer in your breakfast bowl!
I like to add some cranberries, pumpkin seeds, dried fig and date and sunflower seeds.

Easy as can be!

I made the white swirl by just adding some extra yogurt. Which again I enriched with some stevia because I have an obsession. :)

Love,
Anouk

Excuse the shitty quality of the first three

Le result!

New adventures

I had my very first jam session ever.

I never had the opportunity to create song and sound from nothing but inspiration by other musicians. Also a crazy cross over of styles - a jazz trumpeter and composer, a flamenco guitarist, a rapper, synthesizer (synthesizerist?) and myself brought together to make music.

I went in there with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. We just started to create :)

An amazing experience which shows that it's totally ok not to know what is going to happen. Just turn off any self judgement and create from what comes naturally.
It can be very liberating to be far from your comfort zone, it's somewhere you've never been so there are no rules. As long as you allow yourself to be in the moment beautiful things can happen, just be ok with making mistakes and being flawed.

It's what makes life interesting.

A little impression of what the yesterday looked like!

I'll be back tomorrow with my signature recipe for a gluten free carrot cake - all in honor of the Easter brunch. 

Love,
Anouk

Cinderella and the everyday struggle of life

We have mice.

I can hear them at night, running around above me. I let them since I'm not aloud to have a pet. How very kind yet rebellious of me..

If Disney movies taught me one thing it is that any animal can be a perfect side kick, no matter how small or big they might be! So I feel like a proper Cinderella. Without the stepmother and evil stepsisters. And these mice don't sing. And I'm not really the imprisoned orphan, in fact I have to loving parents who are still happily married. I have high hopes for my prince and fairy godmother, they must be somewhere out there right? True love always happens when you least expect it.
I am quite old though, for a Disney love affair. I'm about to turn 23 at the end of the month! Any proper princess would be pregnant by now!
And all my former love interests/flirts have proven them selfs not suitable. Either they were not in it for lasting love, rather a.. single night of something that might resemble love with some effort and wishful thinking! Or I was the one bailing after finding out this wasn't my fit. Or they simply pushed me aside when something better happend to stroll along.

I've been there and done that for the last 2 years (I was a bit behind on the whole dating thing) but my trust and believe in true love is as strong as ever. I'm somewhat of a hopeless romantic I guess.

Fairytales do happen. I'll stubbornly hold on to that idea for as long as I possibly can.
Dreams do come true and true love does exist! We only have to put in a little more effort than two lousy days or a week tops to get our happy ending.

All for the better if you ask me, because what to do when you've found it all? The journey is the adventure. Or maybe just part of the adventure, time will tell.

Back to the mice, as long as they don't nibble on my current dresses nor make me new one from scratch (which would without a doubt be both admirable and terrifying to say the least) I'm good.

Peter and timmy are welcome guests in my home! As long as they remain out of sight, otherwise I might side with lucifer..
Random stories Wednesday, hope you liked it.

Love,
Cinderella