Week 3: Netherlands

My middle little chose the country for this week.  His sole basis for choosing Netherlands:  the color jersey of their national soccer team - orange, his favorite color. 

The book that we've been using as our reference guide for the meals said that the national food was risjstafel.  So I started to look up recipes, only to discover that risjstafel is actually an Indonesian feast of many (one site said that it could be up to 40) side dishes accompanied by different rice dishes.  I felt like a banquet feast was a bit over the top for our little project.  So I talked to a friend of mine who actually grew up in the Netherlands and she steered me in a different direction.  She told me of a popular dish that she grew up eating.  I looked it up and found it here, where I also learned that traditional dutch food consists of a lot of potatoes. 

I opted for a very traditional dutch meal of soup, a stamppot, and a sweet dessert.  

Dinner:  Boerenkool Stamppot and Zaanse Mosterdsoep
Dessert:  Vla

Our starter, zaanse mosterdsoep, was a uniquely dutch soup.  I decided to make it even though I knew that the elder little wouldn't like it... she can't even stand the smell of mustard.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a "uniquely dutch soup" though.  And I'm so glad that I did, it was delicious!  And the elder little even tried it, which surprised me, though as expected didn't like it.

Dutch Mustard Soup

A stamppot is a typical dutch dinner of mashed potatoes mixed with other mashed vegetables.  Boerenkool stamppot was a kale hash.  I wasn't sure how the littles would like the kale, but all three cleaned their plates.

Boerenkoot Stamppot

Dinner is served.

Vla is a vanilla custard.

Interesting Facts:
-  Another name for the Netherlands is Holland.
-  Netherland's national soccer team came in 2nd in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
-  It's landscape is dotted with windmills.
-  Orange is the national color of the Netherlands and is why their national soccer team wears an orange jersey.
-  Netherlands borders Germany and Belgium.
-  Dutch people like to eat pancakes.
-  The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy, ruled by Queen Beatrix.
-  Netherlands gained independence in 1579 from Spain.
-  The capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam.
-  Languages spoken in the Netherlands are Dutch and Frisian.
-  16,491,461 people live in the Netherlands.
-  Netherland's currency is the euro.
-  The area of the Netherlands is 16,033 sq. mi., which is slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey.