Escape the cold and learn some Portuguese culinary favorites from Homestead National Monument of America/NPS file

One of the more unusual holiday events from the National Park System comes Sunday, when Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska offers cooking lessons...from Portugal. That's right. And the lessons will be live. Virtually live, that is.

Chef Ana from Tables Less Traveled will teach the holiday cooking lesson from her cooking academy in Portugal as part of Homestead National Monument of America’s virtual Winter Festival Presentation Series.

The event will take place live on the park's Facebook page on Sunday at 2 p.m. Chef Ana will be teaching guests how to make sonhos, a traditional Portuguese holiday pastry, while blending the lesson with the history of the pastry. 

This culinary tradition was established before Portuguese immigrants came to the United States on the promise of the Homestead Act.   

Sonhos are a Portuguese holiday donut that are lighter and fluffier than regular doughnuts. Sohnos means “dreams” in Portuguese, and that’s exactly what these small balls of dough are, dreamy. Typically served around Christmas time, these sweet treats are characterized by a crispy outside rolled in cinnamon and sugar and an airy inside.

Chef Ana serves hers with a festive, homemade orange syrup. Sonhos utilizes simple ingredients, each with fascinating historical ties that highlight Portuguese history and its ties to rest of the world. 

The Table Less Traveled (TTLT) was founded in 2015 as a boutique travel company. Founder Annie Cheng led small groups of travelers on culinary-focused tours around the world to Italy, Peru, Malaysia, and Japan to dine in local homes and learn to cook the local cuisine. Now, instead of bringing travelers to Italy to cook alongside a chef in a Tuscan villa, or to Japan to knead udon noodles in the back of a small shop in Osaka, TTLT virtually brings chefs from around the world straight into your kitchen to share authentic recipes and stories from their countries.  

A few years ago, Chef Ana quit her corporate job to open her dream cooking school, Lisbon Cooking Academy. There, she teaches cooking classes and team-building cooking classes to travelers and large groups, combining her passions for cooking, teaching, and Portuguese culinary history. After COVID-19 caused her to close her school doors, she switched to online classes sharing traditional Portuguese recipes with The Table Less Traveled audience from her home in Lisbon. 

“The homesteading patents and case files give us a window into what countries and traditions were brought to the Great Plains through the promise of the Homestead Act. Chef Ana will help bring to life a Portuguese tradition that would have been familiar to homesteaders from Portugal," said Mark Engler, superintendent at Homestead National Monument of America. 

The park's Winter Festival Presentation Series continues on December 13 when author Rebecca E. Bender presents Traditions and Legacy of Jewish Homesteaders. Learn about the more than 400 Russian and Romanian Jewish homesteaders who settled on about 85 farms in McIntosh County, North Dakota, beginning in 1905. Learn about the traditions and cultural practices of these homesteaders from an author who is descended from a family who participated in the movement. This program will be a LIVE broadcast on our Facebook Page starting at 2 p.m. December 13. 

The Winter Festival of Prairie Cultures is possible due to the generous support of Humanities Nebraska and the Friends of Homestead.