The [15] Posts of Christmas: Sinterklaas Feast and Traditionally Dutch Cuisine

Last week, proved to be a lazier week for me.  I am sorry that this post is actually a week late! 

Once Sinterklaas comes (December 5th), the Dutch would celebrate his birthday and arrival with a feast.  This is the Sinterklaas Feast.  This year we had ours on the 6th.  We started this family tradition the year before our Lu was born. 

Christmas dinner is quite the feast in itself, so we opt to have our Sinterklaas feast as a potluck. 

While living in Alberta we would invite our friends, most of which are not Dutch.  (This year we invited our family...those who are Dutch).  We always suggest that our guests try to make something "Dutch" for the feast.

One of our good friends in Alberta, loved having these culturally themed dinners.  (She even had a potluck at her house one year where everyone brought something made with bacon.  It was yummy! And fun to learn about new foods and recipes.)

From Merriam-Webster online the defition of "tradition" is "a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tradition).  Thus making "traditional" slightly subjective to what your family has been doing for many years. 

These are some of the traditional foods that we, as a family, made this year for our Sinterklaas feast, with links to recipes online, where available. 

- Bourrecole:  Yummy mashed potatoes with kale and bacon (grease included, can also use sausage), served with salt and vinegar
- speculaas cookies:http://dutchfood.about.com/od/breadspastriescookies/r/Spicedcookies.htm spice cookies, baked until crispy.
- koek:  Spice loaf, served with or without butter.
-olie bollen: traditionally a new year's doughnut, much like the dutchie, dipped in icing sugar.
- Anything with almond flavouring.  I made almond squares...yummy and light. 
- Dutch meatball soup.  Meatballs and veggies, oh my!

The links weren't working well.  You can find many examples of Dutch dish recipes at the following website:

http://dutchfood.about.com/od/aboutdutchcooking/u/TraditionalDutchFood.htm

Let me know what you have tried.