We got to the party around 3 and the Bommelje's party was well under way. They had already made quite a few "oliebollen". These are sweet, raisin-studded, fried dough balls. To make them, a small ice cream scoop of batter/dough is put into the deep fryer then, when they are cooked to a deep golden brown, they are put on paper towels to absorb the extra oil and then sprinkled with powdered sugar while warm. I have never eaten anything so mouth wateringly, sinfully delicious!! After a while, and many oliebollen later, another bowl of batter appeared. These 'balls' were the sale/salty ones. This recipe was devised by our hostess, Hanneke(in the orange scarf). They were studded with bits of ham, sun-dried tomato, herbs and a little cheese. These were also good, but my favorite remained the raisin ones. We all ate, drank the mulled wine and beer and chatted. The guests at the party were Dutch, Norwegian, French and we were the token Americans. It was really interesting to talk about how each country celebrates Christmas and New Year's. Amazing all the different traditions!
Later, a few of us went to the kitchen and helped prepare for the final course-something called 'appel flappen', I think the French have something similar called "pomme beignet". We peeled, cored and then sliced apples into rings and then they were dipped in a new kind of batter and also put in the deep fryer. These were out of this world!! We knew we wouldn't be able to eat for days after this gourmet feast. While we wee standing around, I commented on how delicious everything was and one of the Dutch guests said "You know, if you ain't Dutch.....you ain't much"!!! Well, we're not Dutch but we sure do enjoy our Dutch friends....and their cooking!
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