After a very stormy, windy and cold night this morning has been action packed!

Suffering a little due to lack of sleep – no, I wasn’t out dancing last night! My lack of sleep is a result of the storm which lasted all night long. Here when it rains, it really pours at times. Combine that with the tin and tile rooftops it makes for quite a noise. Add in thunder and lightning and strong wind it is very difficult to sleep through. Last night the storm lasted most of the night off and on with about 40 minutes or so sometimes between the thunder & lightning and downpours. At one point there was even hail.

There are many pluses to this weather though. Rain is desperately needed so any downpours are celebrated. And the chilly rainy weather last night was a perfect reason to curl up in my Goldilocks bed and read. No laptop allowed when there is lightening! Thankfully, we did not suffer our fourth power outage of the week as the power stayed on against the odds. See lots to be happy about!

So the morning dawned cold, rainy and grey! Today is Jetske’s birthday and also preparation day! Not for her birthday – we are having a family dinner tomorrow night to celebrate it if the power stays on.

The preparation is for Jetske’s first official reception as the Honorary Consul of the Netherlands. You can view the official invite by clicking on this link:

Uitnodiging

The event is next Saturday and I am happily assisting Jetske prepare traditional food and drink for the event. So this morning started with me delivering Jetske’s birthday present and getting straight into rolling cookie dough into little balls. Following the first batch of cookies, we immediately went into preparing advocaat, a traditional dutch drink that is very similar to eggnog as it is made with eggs, sugar and brandy.

All I can say is that by 8:30 am this morning I was drunk from the fumes of the potent brew that we were making. After making 3 batches it is truly a wonder that I could still stand, let alone continue to function as a cook! Let’s just say that not only were there lots of fumes to inhale but there was a little batch testing to ensure that it was adequate for consumption at the reception next week. We determined that our first batch was not up to the standard of the next two so that simply means that Jetske & I must force ourselves to consume that bottle on our own 🙂

So, as you can see it has been a busy morning including a trip to Game City grocery shopping for the items that I needed to work my birthday dessert magic for tomorrow night. And now, I have to go as there is another double batch of cookie dough chilled ready to rolled into balls. Just pray that we aren’t making any more advocaat…..I will need to sober so that I can go out tonight!