2011

was a great year.

i) Got engaged
ii) Passed my internship with flying colours and then almost failing it because my boss felt slighted over my report (the comments were frankly nothing..something like "while I wish the internship could've been more challenging, I do not regret having chosen for this company". School laughed like mad about it and passed me anyway.
iii) Got a new member of the family (the cat)
iv) Dutchman got a new job
v) Parents' visit (last time was 3 years ago)
vi) Got legally married!

2012 will be challeging as I'll have a new job and will be navigating through life as an adult (job, etc.) but it could also be very fulfilling and I know I'll enjoy wedding planning, hunting for our first home and all that stuff;)

All the best for 2012!

Nyonya's Christmas/Sinterklaas Rocky Road

150g 70% dark chocolat, broken into small pieces
250g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces
175g butter, sliced
4tbs golden syrup
150g amaretti, crushed into various sizes
150g pepernoten , crushed into various sizes (I used mine whole as they were pretty small- the ones from the AH bakker)
150g pink & white marshmallows, cut into small pieces or just use mini marshmallows
100g glacé cherries
50g dried cranberries


1) Melt the chocolate and butter (bain marie). Add the syrup.

2) In the meantime, prepare your amaretti and pepernoten (basically just crushing them with a rolling pin). Please make sure that you don't crush it too finely- you want them to be in bits and pieces. Cut your marshmallows with scissors. Chop the cherries into smaller pieces (if preferred. I used mine whole).

3) When chocolate mixture has melted, mix to combine evenly.

4) Add the crushed pepernoten and amaretti into the chocolate and mix.

5) Then, add everything else.

6) Pour mixture into a (I used Pyrex) pan and leave it in the fridge to harden (about 2 hours). Slice with a strong, sharp knife and sprinkle icing sugar before serving.

P/S: I think the quality of the chocolate isn't very important in this case. I used Valrhona which is quite expensive (about 23 euro for this recipe) but couldn't taste the difference!