A Little Nostalgia

We were invited to take place in an "International Fair" through our homeschool group, where each child or family could choose a country then present a report on it. I asked Peter if he wanted to do a report, and he surprisingly said yes, and asked if he could choose Belgium.  So we signed up! Sadly, we ended up not being able to make it to the event, but we had a wonderful time learning about Belgium over the last 2 weeks.
My side of the family is from Belgium. My dad is the first generation to be born in America. As I was growing up my dad, being a single dad, relied a lot on help from my great grandma. So she was pretty influential as I was growing up. I grew up hearing about her perspective on WW2, which she lived through as a young mother in Belgium. I grew up eating wonderful foods, that I was reminded up while working on this research project. Tunrs out a lot of my favorite foods that she made, were not just recipes she found, but are considered "national foods" in Belgium!  And this week  I learned that a lot of habits she had,  were very cultural, not just personal preferences. My boys were blessed to know her as well, she died while I was pregnant with Abigail, so while we were learning there were lots of memories shared  too.

I even made her waffles, which I had been afraid to make before now. I had copied the recipe from her while she was still living, but I had to translate it and wasn’t sure if I had done it correctly. But sure enough I did and they turned out perfectly! Real Belgian waffles are NOTHING like the ones you find here in America. They are a dessert, not a breakfast. Belgians would never think of putting syrup on them, in face my great grandma used to get so offended if someone mentioned it! We eat them with just butter, and I personally love them cold.
She always had these Le Petit Ecolier cookies in the house, so while they are technically from France, I bought some anyways!  And of course I served them on her dishes!

And for the last 5 years or so I’ve been looking online to try and get some Cote d’Or Belgian chocolate. My great grandma used to get a box of them every year from her brother who lived in Belgium, and there is seriously no chocolate on earth that even comes close! Those little elephants are one of the highlights of my childhood! About 8 years back, my husband found them in Australia during a deployment and bought the entire stock the store had. They are seriously THAT good!  But I’ve had no luck  
UPDATE: Christmas 2010 an AMAZING friend found them online and surprised me with a box. It totally made my year!

Recipe for Bobone’s  Belgian Waffles:  
2 lbs flour
2 eggs
4 tablespoons softened butter
8 teaspoons yeast
1 lb sugar
In a bowl dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water. Combine with  flour,butter,  eggs and sugar. Add more water and sugar (1/4-1/2 cup more) until batter is between pancake batter and bread dough.  Cook on a waffle iron.