By admin , 8 December 2012

Familiedag en Wandeldag

DETAILS KUNNEN NOG VERANDEREN. Een gecombineerde wandel- en familiedag samen met North Shore Hiking. Eén groep loopt een pittige 7.8 miles over een prachtig verhard wandelpad, de andere groep speelt bijvoorbeeld voetbal, frisbee en tikkertje, vliegert, maakt kunst en houdt een "boekenbeurs". Daarna houden we samen een barbecue. De prachtige Busse Woods lenen zich ideaal voor deze activiteiten.

By Guus , 7 December 2012

Friday evening run

I haven't run on a Friday evening in a while. Usually I time it so I run on Tuesday and Thursday. But yesterday was the anniversary of Nadia and Milan and we had a special dinner together.

I was tired tonight but the run went well.

By Guus , 5 December 2012

De Avonden

This is an enjoyable book, even though the subject is a lonely adolescent who has a very cynical outlook on his life. I don't usually care for coming-of-age books -- I hated the Catcher in the Rye -- but Frits Egberts, the main character in De Avonden, is likeable. This is a post-war classic in Dutch literature and while I have read about the book, I never the story itself.

The main character is a clumsy boy, 23 years old, who still lives with his parents. He's not too happy about living with them, and criticizes them in his thoughts. The father is hard-hearing and rather clumsy and detached. Seems like the parents don't have the greatest relationship with each other either ("'Dat is nu een intellectueel', zei zijn moeder.")

The book is well-known for its emphasis on the physical, and the low ambitions of the main characters. This is contrast to the prevailing (pre-war) literature which often was, if not moralizing, then at least hopeful and with characters "fit and of good characters". The World War murdered the illusions of young people, as an award description for this book would say. In De Avonden the conversation is often about bodily functions, hair loss, diseases or even torture. I skipped over the more egregious descriptions of animal cruelty.

Details of life after the World War are interesting. My father was born in 1949, so he could almost be one of the babies figuring in the book. At one point the light in the house goes off, and won't go on until they deposit a guilder coin in a box in the hallway. Coal is expensive and people are careful not to heat the house too warm. At one point, Frits is eating slices of bread with gravy, something pretty similar to the horrible but efficient dinners that Maarten Koning in Het Bureau would make for himself when his wife wasn't home.

The book showcases a lot of traditional Dutch food. At the end of the story, before New Year's Day, Frits mother is making appelbollen. Sure enough has lots of comments on her cooking and he tries to eat one when it's still very hot. Here are some more dinner descriptions in the book:

  • "'s avonds vlees, aardappels en veldsla; pudding van rijstgries, met bessensap, na"
  • "als dessert was er gele vanillepudding met beschuiten jam en chocoladehagelslag in lagen er in verwerkt"
  • "Zijn moeder bracht vijf kleine chocoladepuddingen binnen, elk in een theekopje. Ze kiepte ze een voor een op een schoteltje. 'Gelukt', zei ze."
  • "Hij schepte zich uit de schalen op. Er waren aardappelen, ingemaakte tuinbonen, appelmoes en varkensvlees. 'Ik vind, dat het weer verrukkelijk is, moeder', zei hij, 'vooral de jus.' 'Doe daar niet te gek mee alsjeblieft', zei ze, 'want meer dan in de kom is er niet.'"

I read this in the first week of December, which is kind of appropriate since the storyline starts on December 22nd and has its finale in New Year's Eve, 1946.

By admin , 4 December 2012

Childhood pleasures: Dutch children in the seventeenth century

In the seventeenth century, Dutch merchants and traders conquered the world seas, and the lasting legacy of this period can be found in paintings, writings, and historic cities throughout the Netherlands. This wonderful new book by Donna R. Barnes and Peter G. Rose explores a fun but lesser known aspect of seventeenth-century Holland: what was it like to be a child in the Dutch Golden Age?

The book is structured around 54 paintings, prints and drawings of children's activities. After introductions by the two authors - whose backgrounds as a professor of education and as a food historian complement each other well - the paintings are discussed in eight groups: Infancy; Saint Nicholas; Celebrations and Music; Toys and Games; Animals as Pets and Companions; Inventing Fun, Games, and Mischief; Shopping for Food Treats and Winter Activities: Outdoors. The book concludes with a short biography of the painters and artists whose works were used, and finally includes several recipes. Those are explicitly chosen to be suitable for cooking with children.

We received a review copy of the book, and spoke with Mrs. Rose. She explains: "My colleague Donna Barnes has always been very interested in how children were raised in the Netherlands in the 17th century. It is clear that a lot of attention was given to child rearing. When Donna approached me for this book, I was immediately excited. I greatly enjoyed looking at these paintings and drawings, and figuring out what they were cooking or eating ".

The sheer joy of eating a crunchy, sweet carrot.

This book is full of interesting facts and pieces of history, and the illustrations are beautiful. The authors are well-known in their fields, and their research is impeccable -- so this is a very entertaining book. The joy the authors had in writing it is apparent on every page. Mrs. Rose: "My favorite drawing is that of a young boy at the farmer's market. On his face you can see the sheer joy of eating a crunchy, sweet carrot".

The book has background stories for each of the illustrations. For example, in the Saint Nicholas section there is a short history of the speculaas cookie, which also provides a possible explanation for the name speculaas. For modern-day parents, it is fun to see the baby-walker on wheels (loopwagen) and the play chair (speelstoel), from which the baby had the freedom to "rule" his or her siblings.

The painting The Newborn Baby by Matthijs Naiveu is used to explore childbirth and rituals around it. Dutch readers will see that the contemporary "beschuit with muisjes" tradition traces back to the 17th century, when sugar-covered anise seeds were served after the birth.

The other illustrations in the book explore games and toys such as kites, marbles, dolls and doll houses, as well as outdoor activities such as horseback riding and ice skating. Dutch cooks will love the recipe for the "Doornick Apple Tart", from a 1667 cookbook -- it is very similar to modern Dutch apple pie recipes, and provides a culinary bridge to the feasts of four centuries ago.

About the authors

Donna R. Barnes is professor of education at Hofstra University. She has lectured on Dutch art and daily life at the Amsterdam Museum, the Rembrandt House Museum, and the Center for the Study of the Golden Age at the University of Amsterdam. She has curated seven exhibits of seventeenth-century art in the US and the Netherlands. Food historian Peter G. Rose is the author of The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and New World and six other books. In 2002 Barnes and Rose collaborated Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life.

This book makes an excellent gift for new parents or grandparents, Dutch immigrants, and anyone interested in the ways of the Dutch. The background stories for the illustrations make it a book you'll reach for again and again, and the practical and fun recipes in the back allow for fun parent-and-child cooking adventures. It is a must-have for those interested in Dutch life in the 17th century.

Childhood pleasures: Dutch children in the seventeenth century
Donna R. Barnes and Peter G. Rose
Paperback, 184 pages, $29.95
ISBN 978-0-8156-1002-1

Topic
books