The 8th Dutch Open House was a HUGE success!

We had about 150 people throughout the day, maybe more. As usual this is my favorite day of the year! I get a store full of happy people eating great food, everyone said I cooked like am Indonesian! what a magnificent compliment! I love this day :)

My friends Marian, Robin and Bill helped me so much by making fresh ollibollen (a doughnut with a slightly chewy skin) bitterbollen (fried meat croquettes with squishy filling) Apple tarts and so much more.

I forgot to take photos so I have nothing to post but I will NOT forget next year!

Our 9th Dutch Open house will be on Sunday November 16th, 2008.

Marzipan, Marzipan where for art thou my Marzipan?

It is on it's way! I should be getting a big variety of baking marzipan this week including rolls of marzipan sheets.
Why marzipan sheets? Well they are used to make life much simpler when making cakes like Simnel Cake
or Battenberg Cake. (I am getting mini Battenberg cakes in about 2 weeks)

Another marzipan cake is the Kransekake which for a marzipan lover like me is the bomb! The entire cake is baked marzipan rings- delish! In my neck of the woods we don't put those big things on the cake though we use Daim ( the mini ones) and Norwegian flag toothpicks.



Until next time-Andrea

First blog post!

Well we are almost done with our year long remodel of the store-yea! The biggest part that we have left and are in the last stretch of finishing is the website. We decided to put all of the items we stock in the store onto the website- that's about 15,000- so it is unimaginable detail. We will have pictures of all the products and yes finally a shopping cart! We are hoping to relaunch the site within the next week or so. And of course my two big yearly events are on November 11th and November 17th.



My 8th Annual Dutch Open House is on November 11th from 1-3pm at the store, directions are on the website http://www.marinamarket.com/ I have been happily planning the menu for the rice table and am anticipating having a really good time as usual!

Then the following week is the 2nd Foodbank Auction and wine tasting that Myself and 2 other board members organize. This year we are celebration the 40th anniversary of the foodbank and will have celebrity pourers like the mayor.

So I have a busy couple of weeks -plus all of the Holiday items that I will be getting in - 2 huge pallets this week alone! And it's all really cool stuff!

I will be posting picture in the infamous "Licorice Shrine" and will be sharing the joys of the nearly 300 kinds of black licorice and the nearly 400 kinds of chocolate bars we carry very soon
Until next time- Andrea