Sint Maaten's Cocktail Nacht!

This week cocktail night fell on an important day. It wasn't just 11-11-11... it was also Sint Maarten's in the Netherlands.  Although it is not a general celebration and is not celebrated in all parts of the Netherlands, it is celebrated in Amsterdam, and it is one of the many Dutch customs that we like to make kind of a big deal of. (the fact that it's anti-climactic is just a side detail).

The evening before Arjen carved a lantern out of this knolselderij (it's a gourd). It has wonderfully gruesome-looking roots atop it and makes a great traditional lantern. He carved the moon and stars on one side and our initials on the other. very festive! Lanterns are a big part of the celebration-- usually with strings attached. In the east of the Netherlands it was the custom that the father made the lantern-- hollowed it out and carved out a scene and initials. He would them string in on a stick for a child. The child with the most beautiful lantern would walk in front of the St. Maarten's procession of children--- going from house to house singing and  begging for treats. As a side note, it was also customary to leave the lantern gourd under the family clock until it was shrunken. We hoped with our lantern in the window to attract children, but sadly, we did not.

Arjen with our lantern--- in my mind a huge success whether the children come or not.

I sang the traditional (irritating and nonsensical) St. Maarten's song-- something about cow's tails and girls in skirts (a song that everyone tried to convince me was metaphorical and dirty) and in doing so, earned my St. Maarten's gift... a great new card game with a Lovecraft theme! Lunchy is helping me open it just in case it's laced with catnip.

Astrid baked an amazingly tasty cake -- gevulde speculaas--- with almonds on top and a filling that reminded me of marzipan. REALLY delicious and even better knowing it was home-made. 

Only one slice left (with my name on it)

Astrid also brought this Sonnema Berenburg-- a bitter that she immediately put in the freezer. It must be served very, very cold. It is a Friesien that you drink it straight. Essentially it's a genever (Dutch gin) with lots of herbs added. While it's not sweet to the taste, it does taste of herbs and it really, very good. Very festive. It is customarily drunk after ice-skating--- something to help the outdoor enthusiast to warm up quickly. Or have a terrible accident if they return to the ice.

Lunchbox, as always at the party. Incidentally, only Judith and Astrid were with us for Dutch night.

And someone else who doesn't always make an appearance was clearly moved by the Dutch sentiment... Sandwich Lissenberg!

Arjen made a lovely martini called the Sint Maarten. He wanted to combine mandarins (traditionally handed out on Sint Maarten's night to the children) and wine (fortified, meaning port) because according to the legend, Sint Maarten could change 'most' (a fruit juice that's already fermenting) into wine. In other words - he could turn fruit juice into wine-- and therefor he is always welcome in this house. 
Incidentally, I learned in my Dutch class Friday that St. Maarten is not only the patron saint of sailors, but also unmarried women. In the 'olden days' people would throw coins to unmarried women-- coins they could use as a dowry and therefore marry. The throwing of coins in old illustrations looked something like mandarins-- small, round and yellowy in color. So mandarins began to be given out as well.

The Sint Maarten:
- 2 dashes orange bitter in a shaker
- 1ounce brandy
- 2 ounces ruby port
- 2 ounces mandarin juice
- shake and pour

Make sure you don't drink so much that you end up looking like this.

You can garnish with a mandarin slice, so you can keep dipping the fruit into the drink.

Lunchbox posing with the St. Maarten's lantern-- still hopeful that children will ring our bell. All that candy and mandarins stuff will have to be eaten by us now!

Astrid made a drink called the Dutch Sunrise. We liked it a lot more than she did -- in fact Arjen and I LOVED it!


To make the Dutch Sunrise:
- fill a whiskey glass with ice cubes
- add a shot of very pink liquor (alcohol) or lemon syrup (virgin). We used a very flowery liquor called venusolie. Something that apparantly was used 300 years ago to cure people of illness. One could also use passoa for a tropical sweet taste
The fresh juice of half an orange.

 Squeeze the orange on top of the ice cubes so it slowly pours down on top of the pink layer
Fill the glass with white beer of the fresh type. Since you can get white beer in a non-alcoholic version too, its very easy to make this cocktail virgin. Remember to poor the beer slowly, and on top of an ice cube to prevent it from getting very foamy.

Makes you a sunrise cocktail that looks perfectly like a pink Dutch sky in the morning.

Astrid brought over a brochure from A.V. Wees-- a distillery here in Amsterdam with a tremendous selection of genevers, and Dutch liqueurs and bitters. It is certainly on our list of places to go as SOON as Teddy is born and I can REALLY hit it again!
www.de-ooievaar.nl

The babycats enjoy these quieter nights best of all-- they are Dutch cats after all. This must have been a special night for them too.


Next week's theme: Saturday morning cartoons (from growing up). Everyone is welcome/ encouraged to come in their pajamas. I'm planning to make some snacks that I would have eaten on Saturday mornings, growing up.