Happy New Year 2012!

Our sparklers at the balcony.

 We celebrated New Year’s eve by inviting our family over to our penthouse. Our preparations for the evening had started out early as we had planned to make oliebollen which is a traditional Dutch flour pastry. Its texture has similarities with Malaysia’s yu cha kuey (crispy Chinese cruller). The one difference I find is that whilst the latter is normally very oily, the former is not. So we have started the new year healthily enough.

The Dutch normally have oliebollen for new year’s eve and hubby would like to stick to tradition. We had bought an oliebollen pre-mix and all we had to do was to add water and eggs with the mixture. Then we waited half an hour for the mixture to rise.

Hubby did most of the heavy-duty work. Round balls were formed with the mixture and deep-fried in sunflower oil. At the same time, hubby also made appel-flap (apple douhgnuts) and ananas-flap (pineapple doughnuts) with another doughnut pre-mix. We had to add our own apples and pineapples inside the mix.

The pastries were delicious and they gave the whole penthouse the scent of a 24 hour bakery. We opened our windows (one of the rare occasions which hubby is comfortable with windows open during winter) to air our modest accommodation.

We started work at 3.30 pm. Hubby was the chef while I was the assistant chef who on and off checked my laptop for interesting movies to download to watch with our family later.

Hubby’s family arrived at 8.00 pm. We had a relaxing evening with food – the oliebollen and flaps were succulently tasty, chatter and dance. Towards midnight, we got festive and had bubbly champagne.

At the stroke of midnight, a dazzling display of fireworks all around us lighted up with bangs. They were a breath-taking sight from our balcony. The fireworks continued for thirty minutes. We lighted up our own sparklers and played “pop-pop” (the type of fireworks you throw on the ground to produce a spark).

My new year resolution for 2012 is; simply put to be at peace at mind. And also to quote my father-in-law who said that health is everything. If you have health, you can achieve all your resolutions without problem if you have the will-power.

My more tangible goals is to run the Dam Run in Amsterdam sometime September. It is a 16 kilometre run which I have to start training for. I also hope to get a good job to kick-start my career here. Besides that, I want to be an inspiring teacher to my students when I start teaching in February once I return from Malaysia to Holland. It is a voluntary job at the refugee centre which I have undertaken.

Happy New Year to everybody. All for one, and one for all!

Waiting for the oliebollen mix to rise. And rise it did from half a bowl.

 The mixture was pretty sticky and thanks to hubby's skills, he managed to shape the balls.

 Almost done oliebollen - wait for it to turn into golden brown.

 Oliebollen and doughnuts on the table ready for our guests.

 The Chef concentrating on his task. It was quite hot in the kitchen with all the deep-frying till hubby had to tie his hair with my rubber band. See the cute pony-tail behind!

Fireworks on display around the city centre as viewed from our balcony.