St. Nicholas Day

From the Christian world, St. Nicholas was a bishop from Myra in the early 4th century. He has been a patron of children, sick people, bakers, marines and fishermen.

Sinterklaas is a mythical figure similar to Santa Claus, who comes on a white horse with “Zwarte Pieten”(little black helpers) on a boat. The Zwarte Pieten gift children with Pepernoten, a kind of Dutch “Speculaas” gingerbread cookies. The Sinterklaas Day is traditionally celebrated in the Netherlands on the 5th of December. People gift each other with small presents or sweet treats that are accompanied with rhyme poems. Therefore, here is mine for all my readers.

Sinterklaas

My dear Culinary Talks visitor,
The celebration of St. Nicholas is not everywhere the same,
In the Netherlands he gained mainly with the little ones his fame.
The old man with his long white beard, red cape and his white horse.
Accompanied by his blackface painted candy throwing force.
They bring presents through the chimney in a shoe,
Just like Santa but without the shouting of ho ho ho.
Commonly, before opening a present a poem is there,
Just like this one, on Culinary Talks, written here.
A poem giving hints to what the present might be,
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Culinary greetings,
Your St. Nicholas

The Advent

St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas, the 5th or the 6th, the importance lies in the period of Advent. The beauty of this spiritual period, which gives us hope, expectation and joy.

In Central Europe, especially, there is a huge tradition of baking, lots of baking, lots of kind of cookies. I bake twice, before St. Nicholas and Christmas. I do not like any kind of stress, therefore, planning in the Holiday Season is the most important. Planning, timing and good spirit. Bake with me and enjoy this period of the year!
I present you My New St. Nicholas Specials: Speculaas, Gevulde Speculaas, Pepernoten, Lebkuchen and, of course, My Lovely Gingerbread. Check them out and have a blast!