Tradition!

I am a Dutch girl.  Like you, I appreciate the traditional dishes of my family's heritage, although Dutch cooking is often characterized as bland.  With affection, I remember the special ways my mother and grandmothers would cook and serve meals.  For instance, my maternal grandmother fixed the most wonderful pork-sausage and apple stuffing every Thanksgiving.  Now it's standard holiday fare in my home.  My Hubby and Kiddo look forward to our stuffing each November.

My paternal grandmother often served comforting pot roasts.  Black olives and spiced apple rings could always be found on her relish trays.  That's where my core-level fondness for black olives sprang forth!  As an impressionable youngster, I thought they were an exotic food.

Hubby's grandmother lived to be 104 1/2.  Her diet consisted of coffee (in place of water!), red meat, potatoes, chicken soup and homemade pies, featuring flaky crusts made with real lard.  Dutch people are obviously hardy!  Coming to America on a boat before the Great Depression, Grandma made use of everything.  I loved her stories about pickling watermelon rinds.  

On Christmas morning, she would make Olie Bollen, which are Dutch-style donuts wherein a buttermilk-based dough is deep fried, then rolled in sugar.  The torch has now passed to me.  I love blessing my Hubby by keeping this meaningful tradition alive.

My own mother's cooking has certainly influenced me, as you'll see her recipes shared here from time to time.  I loved her porcupine meatballs, pizza casserole, 7-layer salad, skillet chops-n-rice, and chicken ala king.  Her chocolate cakes and Congo bars were legendary!  Now that she has passed into eternity, I acknowledge her memory by cooking her recipes.  I can also hear her voice in my head, instructing me how to grease a pan, or to rinse off the milk cap when it falls on the floor.  

Not sure those are favorable recollections!                                  

In the photo:  My Mom, about a year before she died, holding my Kiddo.

For the holidays, Mom always produced a rather straightforward Dutch cookie called "Jan Hagels." Their pastry-style crust carries a baked almond topping.  "Dutch people LOVE almond," she'd loudly proclaim, repeatedly, until we kids stopped gorging on fudge and sampled an obligatory Jan Hagel.  Sure, Dutch people love almond.  But they love chocolate more!

From my mother, I learned to make colorful meals: i.e....If you're grilling chicken, choose carrots or fresh green beans to accompany the neutrally colored poultry.  

And she passed on to me her gift of hospitality.  I cannot recall a company meal where the food didn't turn out perfectly, served hot and appealing on a beautifully set table.  Of course, she'd get pretty intense during the preparations!  I can relate to that.  For many years, I rode around on my broom, housecleaning and cooking in a procrastination-induced frenzy.  My Hubby learned to stick around his office - for his own protection - until our guests were due to arrive!  I've come a long way, greatly improving my attitude by instituting a strict guideline:  no cleaning and cooking on the day of entertaining.  If I don't get the house picked up and polished the day before guests arrive, oh well!  Now I can enjoy cooking and conversation -- and not quake with adrenaline and exhaustion due to  shot nerves.

Mom used to say they had sent her home from the hospital with the wrong baby.  My penchant for ethnic foods and flavorful seasonings was a mystery to her.  Salt was rarely added to her cooking; pepper, never!  Her spice rack was filled with the same dusty herbs and seasonings she had purchased when she got married.  This is the woman who took three-and-a-half decades to work up the courage to try a plain beef burrito at Taco Bell, without any sauce.  She was shocked to realize she like "Mexican food," if you could call it that!  So she added tacos to our supper rotation: plain, browned ground beef with a little onion - and no taco seasonings at all.  Hilarious!

Once a year or so, my dad makes this dreadful Dutch soup with barley, raisins and grape juice, called Krentje Brei.  It's disgusting!  There's no other way to put it.  Apparently, there is a limit to my ability to embrace family traditions.

I hope you are celebrating the special dishes from your own heritage, and passing them down in love to your offspring. 

What are your favorite traditions?

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Keep scrolling down to find today's recipe for BBQ Chicken Wontons  (which are not at all Dutch!)