Dutch Treats
By Belinda
Today was spent preparing for what our six grandchildren call, "Dutch Christmas.
We celebrate on the weekend in December that is closest to the feast of St. Nicholas, or "Sinterklaas."
I love keeping traditions and celebrating our heritage, both English and Dutch.
Our celebration will be tomorrow after church. It always includes baking sugar cookies. I make a double batch of the same recipe I made when Peter and Brenda were little and divide it into six ziploc bags that go into the fridge to chill until needed. Then each child gets their own bag of dough to roll out. They cut out the cookies with my 35 year old cookie cutters, the ones their parents used when small, and decorate the cookies wildly and lavishly with coloured sugar and sprinkles. Sugar will cover the floor, their fingers and lips, but that's all part of the fun.
We have to have chocolate letters (the initial of each person.) Today I paid a visit to Dutch Treats in Bradford to pick them up. I am still holding on to my title as the reigning Queen of Chocolate Letters in Bradford.
The store is a wonderland of Dutch, Indonesian and Asian specialities and also some English, too. For our party tomorrow I bought some Fry's Turkish delight as well as some Dutch cookies.
Louise and Cors Den Bleker are the owners of the store, and here Cors is replenishing the supply of letters!
Happy Sinterklaas, every body!
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