December 27

Halina Reijn's Birthday
 

Halina Reijn in Paul Verhoeven's The Black Room ( 2007)
 

Halina Reijn is a versatile Dutch actress and writer and a native of Amsterdam. While still a student, she was asked to join the ensemble at the Theatercompagnie where she had leading roles in plays such as Hamlet (as Ophelia), Lulu , and Shopping & Fucking for which she received the prestigious Dutch theatre prize, the Colombina, as “Best Supporting Actress” in 1998. In the 2006/2007 season, she is performed  in  four plays: The Taming of the Shrew; Hedda Gabler. Oresteia, and Mourning Becomes Electra, for which she was nominated for a Theo d’Or as “Best Female Actress.”

She moved into television in the early 1990s, and entered film around the end of that decade; early features that starred Reijn were predominantly Dutch outings with exposure confined to western Europe. However, she scored a major international success as the second female lead in Paul Verhoeven's World War II thriller The Black Room
(2007) - (the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards as Best Foreign Language Film).  In 2008, she  joined Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh and others as Margarethe van Oven in the Hitler assassination drama Valkyrie. Although Valkyrie proved to be box-office disappointment, critics raved about Halina's performance.

What could be more appropriate way to celebrate the classy Halina's birthday than with the classic Dutch Baby for breakfast and later in the day watching The Black Room?
 

Dutch Baby

6 eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
5 TB butter
2 large. Granny Smith apples, pealed and thinly sliced
grated zest from 1 lemon
confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Melt butter in skillet, tilting the pan to melt the butter and coat the skillet. . Add apples. Cook, stirring until apples are translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. In mixing bowl whisk eggs. Add flour to eggs a little at a time, whisking after each addition just until batter is smooth. Add milk in two additions, beating lightly after each addition.
4. Add milk, flour ,sugar, cinnamon.  and vanilla; beat for 5 minutes more. The batter will be thin, but very smooth and creamy.
5. Pour batter evenly over apples in the skillet Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered
6. Bake approximately 15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown and  the pancake puffs up around the edges - it may puff irregularly in the center).
7. Remove from oven . Dust the top with powdered sugar and serve immediately.  Once out of the oven, the pancake will begin to deflate.