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| Our Opa, Kees (pronounced 'Case') making sate. |
Our family started having family reunions on the anniversary of my Opa's death, as a way to celebrate his life, and his legacy - our family. We're a quirky bunch, and so every year we have a theme - we each have to contribute a few things, often an object and a few words in keeping with the theme, that we make a big silly do of exchanging the night of our get-together. One year (2007, to be exact) we decided that instead of exchanging these objects and guessing who contributed what, we'd each share our favourite recipes, and make a family cookbook out of it. It was a great success, and we each got to take home a bound copy of the book! I can't speak for the whole family, but I know that I use mine all the time, and regularly find myself wanting to check or use those recipes in situations where I don't have our book at hand - and so we've made a digital version that can be referenced from anywhere - this blog!
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| Our Oma, Yvonne, taking part in our great family tradition - eating! |
“Smakelijk Eten” is the Dutch equivalent to “Bon appétit”, literally, “Eat heartily!” It was how our family started every meal when we were growing up. Food has always been a big part of our family. Mum (Oma) loved experimenting with food and cooking, and we grew up eating from cuisines from around the world. We may not all have learned to cook as well as Mum, but we all developed an appreciation for good food from her.