A sweet taste of Holland

This morning S and I went for a very healthy swim. S liked the idea of going swimming every morning but I decided we’d ease ourselves into it with once a week. We were up at the crack of dawn and down at the pool before we knew what was going on. Our main motivation is that our hot water heater is currently out of action so we’d do anything to have hot shower – including early morning exercise.

We had just arrived back from our swim feeling all virtuous and healthy when I noticed a package hidden behind our bin. When we lived in an apartment the postman would put a card through the letter box telling us there was a package for us to pick up at the postoffice. Now that we have moved to a house with a small front garden the postman has great fun hiding parcels for us to find at our leisure.

I was so excited because I knew this would be my Blogging by Mail parcel. It had come all the way from Julia of Tasting Life in the Netherlands. The nice people at quarantine had already had a snoop around in the parcel but I think everything made it through in one piece. It was so exciting opening it. I love presents and especially ones that have come from around the world.

Julia, you did an excellent job with your parcel. I am going to treat myself an awful lot in the next few days. She very kindly sent me all sorts of sweet goodies to enjoy with my cups of tea. She sent me some sugar bread which looks absolutely divine. Julia has recommended I have it for breakfast smeared with butter which is exactly what I am going to do tomorrow. She also sent some lovely little kruidnoten which appearently everyone should try before they die.

There are some lovely looking treacle wafers called mini-stroopwafel – I think they might go very nicely with some ice-cream. There was also a container of liquorice that I couldn't resist this morning. I popped open the tinfoil seal and had a little sample. Julia wasn’t sure if we have liquorice here so I’ll let you know they do and if you’re ever here Darrell Lea do a mean mango liquorice. The dutch licquorice tasted yummy. There were black and brown varieties in the container. I preferred the brown varity.

Just in case I have a sugar overload Julia has also included some tasty looking almense mustard. J was very impressed with this as he is a big fan of mustard.

Thank you so much Julia for all these lovely treats. I know I’m going to really enjoy your ‘Little Holland’ sample.



Again, a big thank you to Stephanie of The Happy Sorceress for dispensing happiness by organising this.