I am not a winter person.
At all.
Up here in Alberta the weather gets cold. And it is a long winter often starting in October and ending with a final burst of snowfall or frost on the May long weekend. We don't plant gardens until after the May long weekend for that reason, though the weather can be decent for two months before that weekend.
But, I do love the coziness of having Christmas decorations up and all the yummy baking.
Add in cozy blankets, warm drinks, books, and friends and I'm all set.
It is a 'gezellig' time of year!
When I finally decided on how I wanted to sew up the Nancy Raglan from 5 Out Of 4, I decided to add long sleeves to combat the cold.
I color blocked the sleeves to give a bit of a layered look and then tied the black back in with the neckband.
The sleeves are the extra long length so I can warm up my hands as well.
The raglan is sewn up as the tunic length because I love long shirts.
Nancy Raglan from 5 Out Of 4
One of our traditions is to fry Oliebollen for New Years!
It is a Dutch treat that I grew up with--I remember helping my mom fry Oliebollen in the shop every year. Our neighbours would come over and we'd have pails of batter to fry.
They were always the best straight out of the fryer after they cooled enough to bite into.
But, they're delicious for days after with a bit of icing sugar sprinkled over them or a pile to dip them in as you eat it.
You can even freeze them and reheat them in the microwave.
This is the recipe I've started to use--it's not the same as my mom's as she used the boxes from the Dutch store...
I like the ease of that but I don't get out to the Dutch store often enough.
So I searched and searched and finally found a recipe which I've tweaked a little and translated.
Oliebollen
Ingredients:
- 150 gr. Currants
- 200 gr. Raisins
- 200 gr. Apples cut into small chunks
- 6 tbsp lemon juice (or juice from 2 lemons)
- 80 gr. butter, softened
- 1 litre milk, scalded and cooled to luke-warm
- 1 kg flour
- 80 gr. yeast (about 8 tsp)
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- Oil for deep frying
- Icing sugar for dipping!
Directions:
- Soak raisins and currants in hot water for a couple of hours.
- Sprinkle the lemon juice over the apple chunks to keep them from turning brown.
- Place raisins, currants, and apples in a bowl.
- Let the yeast 'soften' in the warm milk.
- Put the flour in a large bowl (it will need to have room to rise!) and make a dip in the middle.
- Add the eggs and the butter. Mix well.
- Add the sugar.
- Now, slowly add the milk/yeast mixture, stirring as you add.
- Make sure there are no clumps in the dough. None.
- Add the raisin/currant/apple mixture.
- Now, add just a dash of lemon juice. Mix.
- Add the salt and mix again.
- Let it rise in a warm place with a tea towel covering it until it is risen 1/3 or so--about 45 minutes.
- Now, comes the fun part! Deep frying them. Heat the oil in your deep fryer and take a scoop (about an ice cream scoop at a time) of the dough and drop it in the oil. Fry and flip halfway through until it is a nice golden brown color.
- Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and place them in a paper towel-lined bowl.
- To serve, serve warm with icing sugar to dip or sprinkled over. Delicious!
(Recipe is modified and translated from this Dutch recipe!)
Giveaway *CLOSED*
For a chance to win a pattern of choice from 5 Out Of 4, leave a comment letting me know your favourite holiday tradition!
**Please leave an email address to contact in case you win!**
***WINNER: CarrieAnn13***
Be sure to stop by the other stops on the tour to see what they sewed up out of 5 Out Of 4 patterns and for more favourite recipes, and giveaways!
Blog Tour Schedule
December 1 - Marvelous Auntie M | ah baby! Custom Design
December 2 - Elli & Nels in Stitches | Sewn at Seams
December 3 - Pattern Revolution
December 4 - My Heart Will Sew On | Fabulous Home Sewn
December 5 - Wonderfully Handmade | Randoms by Rydz
December 6 - Sewing with D | Octaves of Color
December 7 - Turtle Birdies
I love the colour blocking on the Nancy Raglan!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite holiday tradition is my Gran's Christmas cake. She's got to the point where her arthritic hands mean she needs help to stir the cake, but she's still in charge of all the ingredients, and making sure it's cooked for the right length of time. And it's absolutely delicious! Much better than any store-bought cake :D
My favorite holiday tradition is on the first day of December we put the Christmas songs CD and the family is gathered to decorate the Xmas tree 💕 Murielle
ReplyDeleteWe have a family get together the Saturday before Christmas with all my aunts and uncles. I'm hoping to sew up something new in time!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is celebrating Christmas Eve at my uncle’s house
ReplyDeleteOur one tradtion would be to have Gramma’s Hunters puddng for Christmas dessert. We have done this for many years even though she is no longer with us.
ReplyDeleteI love your Nancy raglan! I would need the long sleeves for the cold, too. It's been a new tradition that my mother-in-law and I play the piano together at her church on Christmas Eve. I look forward to it every year!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Christmas stories is from my mom. She was raised in a very Dutch home and Oliebollen was a big thing at Christmas.
ReplyDeleteOne year my grandfather soaked the raisins and currants in brandy instead of water and my mother and aunt found them and ate a few too many. Mom says to this day she can’t eat a raisin. She’s 90 this year and still loves to tell that story.
It seems the only real holiday tradition is "no two years the same" lol one of my favorite years was when we were in the church choir. It was when my daughter was a tween. Christmas eve, she played an angel in the Christmas pagent at 5 pm and I was the director of the pagent. At 8 pm we all sang in the choir. The choir then ate a pic nic dinner, there at the church, and we sang again for the midnight Mass. After the midnight Mass, we went to the choir directors home and opened presents. We had a roaring fire, hot coco, and fellowship. We went home for about 2 hours, and went back to church and sang in the 6 am Mass, then at 9:30, I did American sign language interpretation for the Deaf. We slept through the rest of Christmas lol
ReplyDeleteI’d like to try your recipe, sounds yummy. My mom and sister and i get together and make Christmas candy. It’s a fun tradition.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite holiday tradition is decorating our tree as a family. We collect ornaments when we go places so it it so much fun to talk about so many of our memories as we make new ones each year. caschadler at hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas tradition is handing out the presents! I'm the oldest of the four children in my family, so for a long time there was no competition for the role of present-hander-outer as they were all too young. But even though we're all adults now, they still all want me to hand out the presents...we didn't plan on it, but it seems to have become part of our Christmas tradition!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is setting up all the outdoor Christmas lights and blow-ups. The kids always look forward to this every year. :)
ReplyDeletebcgeates at gmail dot com
Baking cookies with my Grandkids every year is one tradition and getting the entire family together Christmas Eve is another!
ReplyDeleteYour recipe sounds so good!! We get together with extended family for a gift exchange and potluck dinner on Christmas Eve.
ReplyDeleteYour raglan looks so cozy! I love the stripes.
ReplyDeleteEver since I can remember my family and I make Christmas gift baskets for families in our church who don't have relatives in town. On Christmas Eve we drive around and drop them off secretly on their doorsteps. aleana.f@gmail.com
ReplyDelete