Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown 21 .... St Nicholas' Eve Feast

from : http://baking-jds.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/spectacular-spicy-speculaas.html


Today's and tomorrow's Christmas food countdown are both about the celebration of St Nicholas' Day (6 December) - mostly celebrated in Europe - the Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland...  For example, in the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door), chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint's horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts. Simple gift-giving in early Advent  helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child. ( information from http://www.stnicholascenter.org/) 


St Nicholas Eve (5th December) is a time for family feasts. The foods include:
    • Boiled chestnuts served with salt and butter;
    • Hot punch;
    • Milk chocolate letter of your first initial;
    • Spicy ginger cookies called "speculaas koekjes" made in the shape of a windmill or of St Nicholas.
While our family have not had a tradition of celebrating St Nicholas Day, the special food has not been part of our Christmas menu, but speculaas cookies have often  been a favourite in our family and I must admit this is how we know them ... straight from the shelves of the supermarket.... 
However, if you would like to try these spicy treats yourself today for tonight's St Nicholas" Eve feast, here is the link to a recipe by Martha Stewart.  Although, St Nicholas' speculaas cookies are usually the shape of windmills,, Dutch children or St Nicholas himself, you don't have to have a fancy mould to make them, but  make sure you have the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves  and cardamon .... 
from http://thewellseasonedcook.blogspot.com.au/2007/09/curiouser-and-curiouser-speculaas.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Christmas Countdown 25... Christmas Tree #1

Background : It has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for me to write an Advent blog - a series of posts leading into Christmas from 1 December . In the past,  I have featured Christmas characters by the alphabet, all you ever needed to know about Christmas cakes, Christmas Firsts  and  Christmas traditions.  I usually find myself on 30 November, thinking what  to do this year?  However, I've had  the idea of "crazy " Christmas trees in the back of my mind since last year.  So this year, it's about non- traditional, unusual, crazy, weird  Christmas trees.   There will also be a "handmade" element to my posts, so there may even be some links to tutorials or other ideas....  So here we go. Christmas Countdown 25 - 1 December.  Source : https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/455285843573622091 This is the image which started this line of thought....  a yarn bombed, crochet granny square Christmas tree.  I though...

From my workshop page....

  Current Workshops  Offerings  Thinking of a workshop for your group in  2022?    Art Doll Workshops : -  Garden Thread Dolls  (one day workshop   -  WoW -(Woman of Wisdom)    - embellished stump doll with either cloth head or clay head.  This is an a rt doll workshop .... either offered as a series of workshops or  2 full days  days!   -  Message/Story  Stick doll  - doll made with found objects and upcycled cloth.  ( one day)    -  Elemental totems  - stick doll variation , with sculpture  ( one or two days, depending on surface decoration of fabric)  TEXTILE AND MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOPS    Temari - embroidered wrapped balls in traditional style.    - Dipping Into Tea  - tea and embroidery on canvas with photo transfer on fabric.  ( two days)  work by Judith Bee, workshop participant.  - Tea Bag sculpture : ...