Friends came to visit today, and brought wonderful food from their native country, Belgium.
My children also spent time helping in the kitchen today and learning about food from Belgium.

Andy and Annelies and their son Yesajah came to this country a little over a year ago as missionaries to the USA.   They felt the Lord ask them to leave their homeland, and travel across the world to share the gospel.    They accepted the call.   They love the Lord, attend bible college, and pastor a Baptist church right here in North Carolina.  They have a precious heart for serving Jesus and reaching the lost.



Today, they wanted to pamper my family and bring us FOOD!  I am 7 months pregnant, and Annelies said she wanted to give me a special treat by bringing supper.  I am so privileged!



Annelies worked hard all day to prepare special food from her country.  Here are some pictures I took of our time together, and quotes she shared with me about how to make the dishes.

She made chicken and meatball stew with nutmeg called:

“vol-au vent.  Here is the original recipe : http://www.food.com/recipe/belgian-chicken-fricassee-vol-au-vent-187924 .  I make it a little bit different because we do not like mushrooms. My way doesn’t take so much time to prepare”.



A beef stew that tasted just like beef stroganoff.  It is served with mayonnaise at the table. 

Stewed apples with cinnamon.

“The apples are with cinnamon ( I learned this in America) .”



And French fries.    Except for the fries and the desert, she had pre-made the other dishes and reheated them at my house before supper time.   My house smelled so good!

She cooked the fries just before serving the food.

Belgium has a mixture of rich delicious foods, and is heavily influenced by French cuisine.



Here are two plates of food.

One plate served the American way…..



The other served the Belgium way….

The stew has a mound of mayonnaise on top and the fries are used to soak up the stew juices or gravy.



I can’t believe it.  My husband actually got brave enough to have seconds.  We fixed the second plate similar to Andy’s plate shown above, and….. HE LIKED IT!  (the Life cereal commercial from the 80’s is so true, let Mikey try it and he likes it!)  Wow! 

I have cooked for him through-out our 20 year marriage and since dating too, and HE NEVER ATE THIS WAY BEFORE!  His food was not allowed to touch.  But today he really liked it, and went back for more!    And so did I!

After dinner, the kids went out to play and the men left to pick up some vanilla ice cream.  Annelies and I sat on the front porch sipping lemonade for a little while and talked about life.  It was very relaxing.

Then we came inside and she got busy teaching us how to make Belgium crepes, pronounced like “Pannacook” for desert. She was very patient in teaching my kids and me how to make it.



The Belgium pancake or crepe has four ingredients:  milk, sugar, eggs, and flour.  This mixture is whisked together.



Once the pan is hot, it is then buttered with sweet cream butter. 



A scoop of pancake batter is ladled into the hot pan and tipped from side to side to make it spread across the entire bottom.



The crepe or pancake is allowed to cook until lightly golden on one side.



Then it is flipped and allowed to cook a short time on the other side before removing it to a platter.



The kids had so much fun making these pancakes with Annelies.



They made a huge stack of them.



Next, Annelies showed us how to fold them and serve them with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.



The Belgium pancakes / crepes were delicious. 




Here is what she had to say about the Belgium pancakes / crepes.

” And the crepes are called : ‘pannekoek’. 

I can give you my recipe :

You mix : – 17.6  ounce of flour

                  –  3.5  ounce of sugar( depends how sweet you want them)

                  –  1 egg

                  –  a little bit less than 5 cups of milk

This is a very liquid dough.

When my granny made pannekoeken she gave the empty dough bowl to me and my sister and then you could find us on her shinny kitchen flour( she scrubbed it every week. It was like a mirror) licking the bowl clean with our fingers. Mmmmm

You have to make sure that the skillet where you bake it in is hot. Then put some butter in there. A little bit of butter before each pannekoek. Then you use your 2/3 cup and scoop some dough into the skillet. (do not fill up the whole cup.)

Let it bake until it is not liquid on the surface anymore and then turn around. you can try to trow it up. WATCH THE CEILING. Or you can turn it around with a spatula. Then bake the other side for about 30 sec.”

Thank you Annelies for making such a delicious meal and sharing it with us.  We were truly blessed.



This post will be linked up with 
Raising Homemakers
No Time For Flash Cards