Author: Margaret Metsala

Pumpkin pie

To bake a beautiful pumpkin pie you need to start with the crust. For this I recommend, if you have one, a trusted pastry recipe using, instead of lard or shortening, a lard that you render yourself. The Marktslager (find him on Groningen Vismarkt on a Tuesday, Friday and Saturday) has, starting in October, two choices: a lard they have rendered – or fat that you can render at home. When I first saw unrendered fat, I balked, even though they offered the very best there is – a beautiful slab of fat from around the kidney. Well, 10 minutes later, I was back telling them I’d buy it. It seemed worth a try and, I must say, it was. It made the flakiest, most delicious pie crust. That’s my top recommendation. Alternatively you could use a ready-made pie crust or ready-made pastry (look for ‘taartdeeg’) from the supermarket.

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Eating Herring

The New Herring (Nieuwe Haring) season is coming soon. The herring season starts in May/June, and this year, it kicks off in Scheveningen Harbour on 18 June with a festival called Vlaggetjesdag.

At the opening of the season, there used to be a race to bring in the first shipload of herring. This is no longer done but there will be many activities with a nautical theme. The first barrel of new herring always gets special treatment: it is auctioned off for charity and brings in many thousands of euros.

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Foodblog – www.nildeae.com

Connect International is proud to announce the new blog by our member Adeline Chipaux, who has given several workshops for Culinary Connect to an enthusiastic group eager to learn and taste interesting new recipes. The recipes are in English, French and Dutch.

Adeline, from France, learned the basics of pastry cooking from her mother and took lessons in pastry and regional cuisine in Paris. She has spent much time honing her skills and is happy to share knowledge and fun in her workshops for Connect International.

The official blog opening party was on November 21 when Adeline invited us to her home and introduced us to sample some of the published recipes.

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Connect Sinterklaas Party

On Friday, 4 December, about 50 people of many nationalities joined together to celebrate during a Sinterklaas Party for adults at the Pakhuis in Groningen. While waiting for the arrival of Sinterklaas, we gathered into teams for a very difficult quiz about Sinterklaas and members of the winning team each got a potlikker, a very Dutch kitchen item that is used to get every last bit of good out of a jar of mayonnaise, ketchup, peanut butter, etc. When Sinterklaas arrived with his Pieten, we were all very good and sang a traditional song to welcome him and he gave each of us a present.

The good Sint also read a poem he and his Pieten had crafted, about the lives of internationals in the Netherlands, so that we could also experience this typical Dutch tradition.

The party continued after Sint and Piets’ departure with everyone going home knowing how to celebrate Sinterklaas the next day for real at home with their friends and family!

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Once There Were Mountains

Growing up on the Canadian Shield, my teachers would say we were living on the oldest rocks on the planet. Our glacier scarred hills were once mountains. To the west lay an ancient sea and to the north and east lay a great rift filled by Lake Superior and Lake Nipigon where great lava flows cap a jagged northshore landscape. Beyond this stand great rolling hills that were once in the massive magma chamber of an ancient volcano and are now captured for the world to see in paintings by the Group of Seven.

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Finland – Land of the Midnight Sun

The primary reason to visit Finland was to renew family ties. I do not speak Finnish but, since my last visit in 1972, the younger generation grew up with more English than the generation before. We could communicate and it was wonderful! We met in a group, shook the family skeletons, solved mysteries, and shared stories while reviewing the family tree dating back to 1726. We found new mysteries too.

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Den Haag

Den Haag is an international city, the seat of government, and royalty. The city played a role in the story of how The Netherlands came to be, a part which was touched on in the recent movie, Michiel de Ruyter. If you go see the movie and you’re interested in the history of those days, your trip to Den Haag must include the Gevangenpoort where the brothers deWitt met their end in 1672. The movie will be coming out in English in North America entitled Admiral.

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