We have a stainless steel special utensil for slicing cheese that belonged to my grandmother, who was born in 1875. It has sliced a lot of cheese, never needs sharpening, and is as shiny and new looking as it was in grandmother’s day. The amazing thing is that it slices a lot better than any of the modern cheese slicers I’ve seen. They have plastic or wooden handles that usually break off.
We have a neat Dutch PeDe coffee grinder on a kitchen wall. It hasn’t been used in years. It used to hang in the entrance room and then last winter I took it apart, washed it and painted the wooden base where it’s attached to. It’s old but looks so new. A picture of a windmill adorns the top part. You wouldn’t know that it ground up a huge heap of coffee beans. I know my parents used it daily.
The small Dutch spoons we have are used for stirring coffee and for eating boiled eggs. Sound familiar? You know you’re Dutch when ……..
You open the freezer and are excited to find a container of ice-cream, only to open it and discover it’s full of homemade apple sauce.
When looking in the fridge, you never trust that the yogurt or margarine containers contain what the label says.
You have a pair of wooden shoes in your house.
Your china cabinet is filled with Delft. You have a spoon collection.
You like pickled herring and you’ve eaten oliebollen at New Year’s.
You enjoy chocolate sprinkle (hagelslag) sandwiches.
You have cousins who wear size 14 shoes and are over six feet tall.
You have soup and sandwiches for Sunday lunch.
The most frequent phrase uttered growing up was “Turn off the lights!”
All tables in your house are covered in tablecloths.
You like croquettes. You reuse teabags. You have an afghan knitted by your Oma.
You drink tea with breakfast, coffee at 10 a.m, tea at 3 p.m, and coffee again at 8 p.m. (with cookies or biscuits of course!)
You collect coupons like they’re going out of style.
Your Oma had a calendar with everyone’s birthday and anniversaries spelled out in capital letters (bonus points if it hung in the bathroom!).
You’ve been known to recycle aluminum foil. And ziploc bags.
You own a special utensil that is only used for cutting cheese.
You know that Gouda is the best cheese ever. You love the colour orange.
You have at least five relatives with the same name (and somehow you always know which one is being talked about).
When you hear all the “new ways to save energy” you yawn and say, “I’ve been doing that all my life!”.
You put a little water into the jar of tomato sauce and shake it to make sure you got it all out.
You wipe the last of the butter out of the container with your bun.
All cookies taste like almonds. You eat stroop waffles.
You make the bed in your hotel room.
You like dubbel zout drops, and occasionally tricked a friend into trying one.
You have a front room but nobody sits in it (or it is only for special occasions).
Your favourite mustard comes in jars that can be reused as drinking glasses.
You leave a window open year round to get fresh air.
You have a vegetable garden because there’s no way you’re paying that much for veggies at the grocery store.
Your fridge is always stocked with leftovers. Throw out food? Never!
You have pictures of windmills around your house.
Everything is Do-It-Yourself – it’s cheaper than hiring someone.
You have to explain what ‘om’ and ‘tante’ means when you’re discussing your relatives with non-Dutch people.
You or a family member own tea towels and oven mitts patterned with windmills and dancing women in clogs.
And finally, you know you’re Dutch when you’re laughing along with this list because you can relate to most of it. And I didn’t make this up….it is cute!
