Happy Solstice!

--ml

Gut Jul 2011

As King John said:

To All & Sundry 

F. Christmas in particular!

And may none be denied light enough to see by.

--ml

A Sweet New Year!

Just out of the oven for Rosh Hasanah.
--ml

Samhain Approaches

Once again the season compels notice of Samhain and the pinnacle of autumn. Here at Dum Luks we like to remember a tale of a haunted house, or retell a second hand story of Bela Lugosi, the fine actor whose talents were most richly rewarded by a bit of romantic tosh called Dracula, a tale, I admit, beloved by all but the most querulous and peevish killjoys. Yet hardly much of a stretch to one of Lugosi's towering abilities.

A click on Samhain among the tag cloud at right will present for your reading pleasure the entirety -- so far -- of Dum Luk's meditations on the season.
As always: for your enjoyment ...
Sweet crabs dance in your cider.
--ml

Coming February 7...

To a calendar near you!--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Chinese New Year

Oliebollen

Little oily balls.

Direct translation. Not so appetizing in the midst of our current anti-fat bigotry.

Fruit doughnut? Only a little better.

Apple Fritter, suggests the MacGear.

And I accept it as descriptive and inviting. For a translation.

But Oliebollen is the name as this is the progenitor of all doughnuts: A yeast raised sweet dough, filled with fruit, and deep fried, traditionally eaten in the Netherlands at New Years since the late sixteenth century. Approximately guessed.

For certain it attracted the notice of that famed historian Diedrich Knickerbocker who describes a a high tea among the Dutch settlers in the Hudson valley as including:

Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks—a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families.

-- Washington Irving, Hist of New York,
Chapter III

Thus Oliebollen are as native to this country as the Dutch farmers and merchants who built Wall street.

The Congressional Club Cookbook of 1927 is the earliest recipe I have. My transcription (possibly not verbatim)

13 oz flour	7oz currants
1/2 pint milk	4 oz raisins
3 eggs	1 1/2 oz citron chopped fine
1 1/2 oz yeast	1-2 sour apples chopped fine
2 oz butter

Mix above in bowl. Stir well. Let stand 30 minutes. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Cook slowly until brown.

-- Mrs. Jacob Steketer

But, as with any traditional dish there are many variants' only one of which will be acceptable to the one who grew up with a particular recipe. The rest may pick and choose and use the result as a springboard to their own version.

For your browsing pleasure we offer a round half dozen out of the myriad your search engine will find:

Oliebollen

Oliebollen (Dutch Doughnuts)

Oliebollen

International Recipes: Oliebollen

Oliebollen -- New Year's Eve Doughnuts

Recipe for Cooking Olie Bollen

Although essentially the same in the main ingredients, variation appears in the fruit used, how it is incorporated with the dough and the consistency of the dough which may be a batter or a soft, but moldable dough, or any likely point between. In some recipes the dough wraps around the filling rather like Bao. This requires dough to work. If the fruit is mixed in with the flour and liquid, then a batter consistency is good, though the dough still works.

Dum Luk's, but of course, does it other.

Dum Luk's Oliebollen

1 cup starter (or yeast)	3 eggs
1 cup cream	2 tbl Butter, melted
1 cup Flour	nutmeg
1 tart apple grated	1/2 cup filberts,chop fine
sugar

Mix all of the above, except sugar, in a bowl. Adjust flour until you have a good batter. Deep fry in your Christmas goose schmaltz, or lard, at 350^of (180^oc) until brown. Turn halfway through. Drain and cool slightly. Then roll the oliebollen in sugar. Powdered or granular as you wish.

Goed Niewe Jaar!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays. New Years, oliebollen, Dutch doughnuts

Dum Luk Nogs Eggs

One of my favored youthful seasonal indulgences was the local dairy's eggnog which showed up maybe December 5th and was gone by the 31st.

Nowadays it seems to appear before Halloween and stick around until after Valentine's. Like xmas tree lights it is stretched to serve every occasion of the dark, cold, time of year.

The Kid^tm enjoys the stuff as I did. So every year I get to sample the local brews, which are mostly not remarkably different from my memory. Well, except for one very small local organic dairy who make an excellent, in all respects, eggnog.

except...

They put cinnamon in it.

To them, I suspect, this is an old family recipe that they have served time out of mind and adore. I have even less doubt that they have a loyal following who approve of this practice, for each year they bally forth's the same treasured product.

So, what I say here has nothing to do with their hard earned success in all they do -- including their eggnog. But... I find the addition a specious adulteration which no sane, or opinionated, asshole, such as my self, will tolerate. There.

I know, he perorates, how to nog an egg properly. Attendez, mes enfants, so:

Separate a dozen eggs.
Beat the whites stiff.
With the same beaters, without cleaning, beat the yolks until thick and light. Add a cup or more of granulated sugar a little at a time. Less is best but this measure is entirely to your own taste. Add a tablespoon of vanilla and a teaspoon (or more) of freshly ground nutmeg. Now add a quart of heavy whipping cream. When mixed pour into a suitable bowl.
Fold in the beaten whites.
If not serving immediately, cover and refrigerate.
Else: Ladle into mugs, cups, glasses, steins, dancing slippers or what you like.
At this point you have a sort of ecumenical, or Unitarian Universalist, nog which can be offered to everyone able to stand. For those who like to blunt their wits with something of the maker's art, elevating their soul to commune with the higher spirits, add a wee, or not so wee, dram of what you fancy.

"Pairsonally," said the auld git, "Ai prayfer the malt on t'side."

And a very happy New Year to us all!!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, New Year's, eggnog

On Ways to Stuffing a Goose

n.b.: Cooking fowl at proper temperatures to insure succulence and tenderness creates an excellent environment to grow bacteria in stuffing inside the goose (Turkey, duck et al.) Better to use discardable aromatics in the cavity and make the dressing in a casserole.

An Evolution of Dressing

When I commenced to start to begin to learn (as Del would say) how to cook a goose, I followed the recipe in the Horizon Cookbook, and used this for stuffing:

Persian Cracked Wheat and Apricot Stuffing

½ lb dried apricots, pitted	1 tsp dried sage
1 cup tawny port wine	salt and pepper
2 cups cracked wheat bulghur)	½ lb dried prunes, pitted and halved
¼ cup butter	2 med onions chopped
1 /3 cup pine nuts	1 cup beef broth

Soak the apricots in the port overnight. Reserve port to baste bird.Soak the cracked wheat in 4 cups of water for two hours. Drain well.Melt the butter and fry the onion and celery, add the well-drained cracked wheat, and sauté for five minutes. Season with sage, and salt and pepper to taste.Mix in prunes, pine nuts, drained apricots, and broth and simmer for 30 minutes. Makes about 6 cups, enough to stuff body cavity and neck of a 10-pound bird

-- Horizon Cookbook, 1968

This is very good.

But, always one to paint a gilt lily, I became so full of myself as to make this:

FOESTAG
(Full of enough shit to stuff a goose)

By Martin Langeland
C 2001

This is my evolution of the Horizon Cookbook's Persian Cracked Wheat Stuffing.

A day or so before use fill a quart jar half full of dried apricots. Fill the remainder with your selection of dried fruits such as Prunes, dried cranberries, dried sweet or tart cherries and so on. Chop if you like, I leave them whole. Add a cup of tawny port, cover and turn end for end several times each day until used.

On the day, sauté a medium onion and the top of a bunch of celery — the more leaves the better thinks I — in butter or butter and olive oil until the onion softens. Add garlic, celery seed and a bit of cayenne.

Take a half cup each of cracked wheat, pearl barley, white and brown rice and add to the vegetables. Substitute grain of your choice for some or all of the above. I found this a very pleasant combination, though I am not certain anybody else who tried it agreed. Sauté the grain (two cups in all) for about five minutes. Add a quart of chicken stock. You may need to add more if the grain absorbs it. Cook about twenty minutes until the grain is cooked. Past crunchy is better than at crunchy. Add the dried fruit and port mixture.

Fill a casserole or mold with the result and bring on the goose.

Reheats just fine. Those who like consider it a fine winter breakfast without any toppings.

My problem with both came about when I discovered that dried fruits were too much sugar for me. So this year I made the following:

Dum Luk's Cherry-Hazel Nut Stuffing

Soak a cup of bulghur in 12 oz. water for one hour. Meantime sauté a finely diced sweet onion in a quarter cup of butter until translucent. Add a tablespoon or so of garlic. Salt and pepper and celery seed to taste. Add two ribs of celery finely diced. Then add the bulghur with its water and a can of chicken stock. simmer 20 minutes or so until the bulghur is cooked. Add a cup of dry roasted hazel nuts, a cup of sour pie cherries. Fill a casserole. Pour on a miniature of Frangelica, or a couple of tablespoons of tawny port, or what you will. cover and refrigerate until needed. Heat about 30 minutes or more at 350^of.

Go, thou, and vary according to your taste, your cupboard and the company you keep!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas menu, Christmas goose, stuffing, dressing

My Foolish Feast

I have long believed, without evidence beyond my laughable wit, that the Twelve days of Christmas were twelve days in duration.
Elaine informs me otherwise:

My source (Matthews, J. 1998. The Winter Solstice) says that

Christmas Day is just Christmas Day and thus = Day # 0
Day #1 = St. Stephen's Day a.k.a. Boxing Day
Day #2 = St. John's Day a.k.a. Mother Night
Day #3 = Holy Innocent's Day or Childremass
Day #4 = The Feast of Fools
Day #5 = Bringing in the Boar
Day #6 = New Year's Eve a.k.a. Hogmanay
Day #7 = New Year's Day, a.k.a. The Kalends of January
Day #8 = Snow Day
Day #9 = Evergreen Day
Day #10 = St. Distaff''s Day
Day #11 = Eve of Epiphany, a.k.a. Festival of the Three Kings
Day #12 = Epiphany, a.k.a. Twelfth Night

also note that Matthews considers the Winter Solstice to last two days, 12/21-22

So, happy fourth day all even though five days have elapsed since Christmas.
I have no problem adding twelve to zero to produce twelve, the math works. But I think there may be some objections in making Christmas a nothing day.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Twelve Days of Christmas

How Cooks My Goose

Goose do require a modest amount of fuss in prep. After that they are no more challenging than turkey. Thinks I.

First item: Have two roasting pans and a rack that allows for easy transfer of the goose from one to the other.

Fetch your goose, between 8 and 12 pounds, early enough to be completely thawed by the time you mean to prepare it for cooking. Wear expendables: grubbies or a working apron. Roll your sleeves up. You will get intimate with this goose which always means a bit of mess.

Preheat oven to 350^of. Unveil the goose from out of its packaging and rinse it. If the innards are in the cavity, remove them and reserve. Inside one end will be two great wads of fat. These pull away easily. Do so and reserve them to render later for deep frying oil. Slide your fingers or a rubber spatula (I end up using both) between the skin and the meat. Try not to break the skin. Do this all over the trunk of the goose. Prick the goose with a fork all over through the skin BUT NOT INTO the meat. Spoon as much garlic as you like between the skin and the meat. Salt and pepper ad libidum inside and out. Collect a bouquet garni of sage, thyme, rosemary and what-have-you-else. Add the leafy end of a celery rib or two and a halved onion with its dried outer layers and ends still attached. Shove all of this into the cavity and place the bird breast side down on the rack in the first roaster. Cover with a tent of aluminum foil, shiny side in to reflect the heat. Convey the goose into the oven.

That is most of the fuss.

Let the bird render for one to one and a half hours, until you have at least an inch of fat in the roasting pan. Set the innards to simmer in a pot of water, with a bay leaf crumbled in, covered, for about an hour. Meanwhile finely dice a small onion, a rib or two of celery, and a carrot. Place this in the second roasting pan with some garlic, sage, thyme, etc. When the hour expires remove the first roaster from the oven carefully to not spill any of the quart or so of hot fat you now have. Place it in an out of the way spot where you can leave it 'til the next day. Transfer the goose to the other roaster. Turn it breast side up. With its foil tent tucked in put the bird back in the oven for another hour to two hours depending on the size of the goose. You can tell it is done by how freely you can move a wing or a leg in its socket. Remove the foil tent and rub the bird with a stick of butter (or brush melted butter over the skin). Return to the oven for fifteen minutes, or so, until the skin browns and crisps to your preference. Remove from oven and transfer the bird to a carving platter and let it rest for twenty minutes or so, before carving.

Whereas the first roaster was filled with mostly fat, the second roaster should contain a nicely browned collection of vege, juice and fat. Pour this into a blender or food mill and whiz it into a puree. Add a tablespoon or so (depending on thickness desired) of flour while it whirls. Deglaze the pan with a half cup or so of tawny port. Add to the liquefied vege/drippings mixture in a frying pan or sauce pan, and heat. Stir frequently as it nears the boil. As it thickens add buttermilk (about two cups) and, or, the water the innards simmered in (about one cup), to the gravy. You can add the heart and liver to the blender, or not. Or feed them to the cats or dogs.

--ml

tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas goose, Christmas menu

Boxing Day Morn

The ghost of Gluttony Past conjoins with the remains of Gluttony Present:1. Sourdough Kaiser Rolls; 2. Mince Pie; 3. Pumpkin Pie; 4. Anise cookies; 5. remnants of peppernotten and pfefferneuse; 6. Chocolate Pepper Cookies; 7. Fruit Cake.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas afters, Christmas menu

Cooking is Science

Science is experiment.

Experiments do fail.

Saa-a-a-a...

My post, Another Fruit Cake, contains a recipe for Tropical Fruit Cake which came out of Dorothy's recipe file. It is a light, as in color, fruit cake featuring Brazil nuts, dates and maraschino cherries. I vaguely remember Dorothy making this, though I preferred her darker Royal King Fruit Cake.

Ann remembers it, too.

So, for the first time, I tried to follow the recipe on Dorothy's card. Uncharacteristically I stuck pretty close to the directions and measures on the card.

The result was not good.

It made eight small loaves. It over baked, slightly, in an hour, rather than an hour and a half to two hours, in a cooler oven than called for (because my oven usually runs about 25^o hotter than set). Each is an Andean diorama of Brazil nuts, cherries and dates barely connected at the bottom of deep crevasses with a rubbery sponge. There was not enough batter to cover the nuts and fruit, which is how I remember this cake. Separating the batter ingredients from the filler shows the recipe to be a basic sponge: Roughly equal parts of sugar, flour and eggs. (I think three eggs would be about three-quarters of a cup.)

So the problem would appear to be a mismatch in the quantities of fruits to cake. I would recommend cutting the fruit and nuts in half, or doubling the batter parts. Except. I double checked the recipe I used with the original card. They are the same. Here's an almost identical version of Dorothy's recipe that I found through Google.

Now I have about a pound of beautifully roasted Brazil nuts agglomerated to a scant pound of too dried out dates by a thin plastic sponge.

Maybe I could add more batter and steam it to rejuvinate the dates. Maybe I could break it up and start over with just the batter?

Maybe I could just start over?

Maybe I could forget it?

hmmm.....

--ml

Update: Steaming makes the dates soft and the sponge less rubbery which saves the cakes. Moral: Watch the oven to prevent over baking. Still don't like the proportions.
tags: Feast of Holidays, fruit cake, Christmas cake, solstice

Order of Battle For the Cook's Christmas Day

Rather than consult a host of cookery books, or, infinitely worse, trust my memory, I like to print out a sheaf of recipes for the day and one or two preceding which I meditate upon during those clusters of moments when my frazzled ego screams at my dazed id: Fer gawds sake what comes next? Here is a sketch of one such. I will add to it to make it more complete:

Shopping List
Xmas 2006

Quantity	Unit	Item
10-12	lb	goose
1	lb	almonds
1	tsp	allspice
1/3	cup	bleu cheese
2	each	apples
1	qt	cream
2	lbs	bulgar
1	lb	filberts
1	lb	carrots
1	each	garlic
1/2	tsp	cloves
		olive oil
1	tsp	fennel seed
1/2	lb	pecans
1	bunch	Italian parsley
6	oz	shallot
1/2	tsp	nutmeg
1	cup	shitake
1	cup	oatmeal
1	bunch	broccoli
1	tsp	paprika
2	cups	buttermilk
6	slices	red onion
1	rib	celery
1 1/2	tsp	sage, thyme etc
1		curly endive
1		squash
12		eggs
1/2	cup	wild rice
13	cup	flour
1	lbs	brown sugar
1/2	tsp	ginger root
1 1/2	lbs	chicken breast
1		orange
42	oz	chicken stock
1 1/2	tbl	vegetable oil
1/4	cup	cider vinegar
1	cup	watercress
12	oz	cranberries
1		red pepper
6	cup	lard
12		red potatoes
1	tbl	molasses
6	med	onions
2	cup	sugar

Breakfast:
Popovers
Yield: 6 Servings

3 Eggs	1 Cup Cake Flour
1 Cup Milk	2 Tbl Butter

Preheat oven and popover pan (muffin tins) to 375°f. Beat eggs light in electric mixer or with whisk. Slowly add milk and flour until a consistency of heavy cream is reached. Add a dash of salt. Divide the butter into each cup. Fill with Pop over batter. Bake for 35 minutes.

Buttered Eggs With Sausage

1/2 Lb Ground Chicken	Salt & Pepper
1 Cup Matzo Meal	1 Tbl Olive Oil
2 Garlic Cloves. Smashed	6 Eggs
1 Tsp Sage	2 Tbl Heavy Cream
1 Tsp Thyme	4 Tbl Butter
1/2 Tsp Rosemary,Crushed	1/4 Cup Italian parsley
1/8 Tsp Cayenne

Mix Chicken, Matzo meal and herbs. Refrigerate overnight.
Make patties and saute in olive oil or schmaltz until done. Place on a serving dish to stay warm. Add a bit of oil or butter if needed. Crack the eggs into the pan. When the whites begin to set, add the cream and salt & pepper. Stir gently. When almost done, add parsely and butter.

Lunch
Crecy Soup
Yield: 6 Servings
Great British Cooking

1 tbl butter	20 oz water
1 lb carrots	1 tsp sugar
1 orange, juiced	3 medium onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped	1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup all purpose flour	salt & pepper
20 oz chicken stock	1 cup watercress, chopped

Cut carrots in 2" pieces. Melt butter in stock pot. Add carrots, onions and garlic. Saute for about five minutes. Add flour. Stir well and gradually add the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the sugar and simmer 10 minutes more. Remove from the stove and puree in a blender. Return soup to stock pot. Add orange juice and cream. Season. Reheat it very gently. Do not boil! Garnish with Watercress. OR, to serve cold: Transfer to a clean bowl and chill for at least three hours.

Christmas Goose

10 lb goose	1 tsp celery seed
1/2 lb apricots, dried	1/2 tsp cayenne
1 miniature Frangelico	1 cup hazel nuts, chopped
2 tbl olive oil	1 cup tart apples, diced
2 cups wild rice	1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped fine
2 cups bulgar	20 oz chicken stock
6 cups water	1/4 cup flour
1/4 lb butter	1 qt buttermilk
1/2 cup onion, diced	2 cups peaches
1 tbl caraway seed	2 tbl butter

If frozen, thaw goose completely. Soak apricots overnight in Frangelico. Preheat oven to 350°f. Reserve innards. Remove fat (Save to render) Slide finger or rubber spatula between meat and fat layer under skin. Carefully prick skin to fat, but not into meat. Brush with olive oil. Cover loosely with foil. Put 2 cups water in pan. Place bird, breast down, on rack over pan. Roast 1 hour. Pour rendered fat and water out of pan. Reserve. Turn bird breast up. Simmer innards on top of stove. Return to oven. Raise temp. to 400°f. Roast 1½ hour more. Cook wild rice and bulgar in water. Add 6 tbl. butter at finish. Chop onion, apples, nuts and parsley. Saute onion in 2 tbl butter until translucent. Crush caraway and celery seed in a mortar and add with cayenne. Add apples, nuts, parsley and stock. Simmer 10 minutes. Mix into rice and bulgar. Fill casserole dish. Cover. Bake 30 minutes at 350°f.When bird is done, set out of the way for 20 minutes. Then move bird to platter. Pour off fat. Save for later use. Deglaze pan with water from innards. Reserve drippings.Make a roux of 6 tbl goose fat and ¼ cup flour. Cook. Add pan drippings and cook til thick. Add buttermilk. Saute peach halves in butter until brown to garish platter and plate.

Turnip Yer Nose
Yield: 6 Servings
-ml- 1999

3 lbs turnips	1 tbl sesame oil
3 tbl cilantro, chopped	1 tbl sugar
3 garlic cloves	1 tbl sesame seeds
3 tbl rice vinegar	2 tbl Canadian bacon, chopped fine.

Peel and cube turnips. Boil til just cooked. Drain. Mix remaining ingredients. Add to turnips and toss to coat.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, solstice, Christmas goose, Christmas menu

Another Fruit Cake

UPDATE! Read before baking!

Ann reminds me that Dorothy made another fruit cake less molassesy dark, but also rich and moist and loaded with dates. Ann says she has encountered the recipe now and again in odd places. Once she saw it in Vogue magazine. It is called Tropical Fruit Cake and features red and green maraschino cherries and whole Brazil nuts. The last item is lacking in the Royal King Fruit Cake recipe as Dorothy made it which leads me to wonder if I have conflated the two recipes in making my own version. Hmm. frailty. Mumble...mumble.

Tropical Fruit Cake

Categories: Cakes
Yields: 6

3 cups Brazil Nuts
1 pound Dates Pitted
1 cup Maraschino Cherries Red & Green Mixed
0.75 cup Flour All Purpose
0.75 cup sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Dump nuts & fruit into a large bowl. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to fruits & Nuts. Mix with hands until well covered (The nuts and fruit, not your hands, silly.) Beat eggs in a small bowl until foamy. Add vanilla. Pour over fruits & nuts. Mix well. Bake in greased, papered loaf pan in a 300⁰f. oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, fruit cake, Christmas cake, solstice

Sinterklaas Dag

So yesterday the Kid^tm informed me that it had been years since I had made a Peppermint Roll. There was no arguing with this. It is true.

Too late for the Dutch observance of Saint Nick's day, and all but too late for the day itself when much of the rest of the world celebrates the grand bishop of Turkey, patron of children, who mostly made it a practice to rescue young girls, whose families could not dower them, with sufficient of the ready to find a proper husband and avoid a life of desolation as either a spinster or prostitute. To this humble foundation the World and his Wife have added substance and structure over many centuries and in much of the planet. Many cultures remember his generosity by giving him vast scope to gift all the children of the world with ephemera of far greater worth (to toy makers and retailers and multifarious and nefarious bankers) then dozens of dowries. Some have changed his name: Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Pere Noel, Nikolaus, Sinterklaas, or more colloquially: De Sint. The time of his appearance has been moved about to suit the convenience of whatever establishment there may be. Even his costume changes along with his avoirdupois.

The Dutch call him Sinterklaus and welcome the jolly gent on his arrival from Spain a day or two before the fifth of December as he saunters in his red and white Bishop's rig, complete with miter and crozier, from the docks into town on his white horse, Amerigo (or maybe Schimmel). Gamboling at his side is his faithful servant, Zwarte Piet. Black Peter is a moor. Thus the whole set up ties in with a 16th century milieu as the product relaunch for this version of Saint Nicolas. Piet's function is to toss handfuls of Peppernotten indiscriminately at all and sundry, and to hand out the gifts after Sinterklaas has pronounced judgment on the behavior of the household's children. Sometimes these character assessments are delivered in verse. Whether doggerel or poetry depends on the ability and taste of the writer (usually der Pa or der Ma). Willful miscreants were suitably treated to Morally edifying gifts such as a bit of coal, in mindfulness of their current destinalion, or a wisp of nutritious straw. The ones who sweet talked their way past the parental sense of duty to cuddle in the indulgence spot got more various things, useful or otherwise.

But, today, Piet makes some uncomfortable. Is he a racist stereotype? Depends. While folk argue that one, some turn Piet blue or orange, which possibly will offend any old punk rocker in the neighborhood. Perhaps the most true position is to concentrate on his role as helper, rather than his appearance which is true to the historical context, but not germane to the modern role.

Here then are this year's Peppernotten and the Peppermint Roll, which is a chocolate meringue rolled around whipped cream and crushed peppermint sticks.

Peppermint Roll

Categories: Dessert
Yields: 10

3 tablespoon Droste's (Dutch processed) Cocoa
0.5 cup powdered sugar
5 Eggs separated
0.75 cup heavy cream
0.5 cup peppermint sticks

Preheat oven to 350f. Line a jelly roll pan with wax (parchment) paper and butter and flour it. Sift together cocoa, powdered sugar and a dash of salt. Separate eggs. Beat whites stiff. Beat yolks light. Add dry ingredients. Fold in whites. Pour into jelly roll pan. Bake 20 - 25 minutes. Turn onto a cloth sprinkled with powdered sugar. Cool slightly. Beat cream stiff. Spread over meringue. Crush peppermint sticks between two sheets of wax paper. Sprinkle on cream. Roll. Wrap in wax paper and chill.

Adjust the time and temp to suit your stove.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, solstice, St Nicholas, Sinterklaas, De Sint

Holiday Noises Off

Of the early signs that Christmas would come, Dorothy's making of Fruit Cake was near the first. Dark, rich, moist, more fruit and nuts than cake, its complex flavors delight the palette and signify the joyous munificence that is supposed to be the hallmark of the season.

Dorothy's was all of that with a hint of spirits -- a cheap California brandy -- to preserve. Well, when I reached an age to be interested in such, I swore she used the same small flask of brandy year after year with the tide line barely budging. As a senior in High School I judged it time she got a new bottle. So, over a week or two, I and a pal or two diluted our orange juice with a dab that might have served Beau Brummel as cologne, but took some doing to finally evaporate the contents. What rips we thought ourselves! But I digress.

October, or early November. the aromatic loaves lay on the counter when I returned home from. Small, mahogany cakes, glistening with the baptismal alcohol, awaited their foil wrapping. Once wrapped they disappeared into a high closet shelf to mellow and age several weeks before taking the center of many a holiday sweet tray. Frequently it was arrayed in a white frosting that the unsuspecting might be forgiven for thinking was some sort of crême or fondant. One bite and the sweet tang of well brandied hard sauce disabused the unfortunate youngster who sampled a generous fingerful.

To judge by its name, I think Dorothy's recipe came from a woman's magazine of the thirties or forties. It has the sound of a publicist's best insinuation: Royal King Fruit Cake.

It's most salient feature was a modest admixture of black walnuts. These get harder to find as time regresses ever-relentless forwards providing us with more and more of less and less.

But the essence of fruit cake is the glacé fruit. This is a lengthy process of preserving fruit by replacing the moisture in fruit or peel with a sugar syrup. Traditionally this is strictly cane sugar and water transfused slowly over several days to preserve the texture of the original fruit. In US manufacture the process is sped by the admixture of corn syrup, dye, and the rest of the food chemist's bag of tricks. For more on the process see here. Dorothy's recipe calls for two pounds of glacéd fruit, plus a pound and a half, each, of currants and raisins. This, with a pound of coconut and a pound or two of nuts, is divided among eleven loaves and a modest round pudding basin.

It makes for wonderful seasonal gifts ... always assuming that you are the sort who likes mostly people with a fondness for fruit cake. If they blench on opening, you have encountered one of the majority with no stomach for the crittur. Curiously there is no middle ground. No one can "take it or leave it alone" like Mr Thurber's bear. Growing up with the stuff, I belong in the minority who have a notion of what is good. At least I do when it comes to fruit cake.

After I left home, whenever I thought there might be access to an oven, I would pester Dorothy for the recipe. She obliged every time. Once, at one odd juncture, I managed to organize, briefly, my recipes. All told I found a dozen copies in Dorothy's fist, either by pen or typewriter. It was among the very first recipes I digitized. A random sampling of copies from my current files:

Royal King Fruit Cake
11 Loaves
Dorothy made this every fall. So do I.

1/2 Lb Citron Peel	1/2 Lb Lemon Peel
1/2 Lb Orange Peel	1/2 Lb Fruit Mix, Your choice
1/2 Lb Coconut, Cut Fine	24 Oz Currants
24 Oz Raisins, Seeded Muscats	2 Cups Sugar, Brown
1/2 Lb Butter	4 Eggs
1 Cup Molasses	1/2 Cup Milk
4 Cups Flour, Bread	1 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Cream Of Tartar	1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Nutmeg, Or Mace	1/2 Tsp Cloves
1 Cup Walnuts, Black

Cream brown sugar and butter. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add Molasses, milk. Sift dry ingredients together, add. Add nuts and fruit. Pack in small loaf tins or molds. Butter and paper the pans, first. Bake in 300⁰ oven for 2 hours. Place a pie pan of water in lower part of oven to keep cakes moist. Splash with dark rum or brandy as it cools.

Cream of tartar and baking soda make a leaven similar to Baking powder. With the arrival of modern commercial baking powders,that are more controlled and therefore predictable in their effects than home brewed, cream of tartar has become hard to find. Substitute 3 Tsp baking powder.

Oh.

Hard sauce?

Brandy Sauce

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 Tbl cornstarch	mix all three in saucepan
1/8 Tsp salt
1 cup hot water	add slowly stir constantly to keep sauce smooth
1 Tbl butter	add both
2 Tbl brandy	cook until clear

Serve over pudding, mince pie, or fruit cake

My annual visit to this has changed the ingredients some.
I add:

• A half pound of filberts
• A half pound of Brazils
• A half pound of Australian ginger root. That's the kind in cubes. I cut those in half or quarters to match the raisin and fruit pieces
• Or a half pound dried cranberries or dried cherries or neither
• The fruit and nuts are mixed together with a wineglass or generous tot of a dark flavorful rum(more recently that has changed to a darkish malt) in a large bowl the night before I mix the cake batter
• As the cakes come out of the oven they get a generous baptism of the rum or malt.
• Do watch the time. My smallish pans bake the cakes unless than two hours. Check yours early and often as they say about voting.
  

I've been tempted to try dried blueberries but haven't done so yet. I have used smashed ginger root in place of the dried ginger powder.

Here's this year's crop:
These get vacuum sealed and labeled.

One year I gave a cake to my mentor Doc Shaffer. He took it to a gathering in Seattle. Norm Rice, then Seattle's Mayor, was among the guests and liked the cake. "It's the nuts!" Norm Rice said as Doc reported to me.

But my most treasured reaction came one year from my Father-in-law: "Anybody who puts whole Brazil nuts in fruit cake can't be all bad!"

--ml

Update: Several folk have made remarks about the "dense" fruit cakes of their youth. This puzzles me. My fruit cake is basically a bunch of fruit and nuts held -- sometimes quite tenuously -- together with the cake. (All by itself the cake batter makes an excellent spice cake.) Perhaps people mean dry and brick like when they say dense. This cake remains soft if not over baked. A generous hand with the malt or rum helps to keep every article (and person) in suspension.
2nd Update, 7 December: Ann prompts me to what I have not brought to mind in many, many years. In the forties we lived in a brick "square deal" bungalow in a failed development near Chicago. Only a half dozen or so houses had been completed before the builder's 1929 bust. Another was occupied by a family named Reinerts who had children of similar ages to Dorothy's and so all became friends. Mary Reinerts made a wonderful fruit cake. Dorothy requested the recipe, please. Mary allowed friendship to overcome her reluctance. But, she explained, the recipe was one that must be guarded. Her family had been cooks to the Royal Family of Austria when they developed this recipe for them. Dorothy promised. Yet all her children are furnished with their copies and who knows where else the recipe has traveled. Nay-the-less, it appears I have acquired yet another karmic debt by publishing it here. Saa-a-a.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, fruit cake, Christmas cake, hard sauce

We Didn't Get Ours This Year

A Chicago Tribune Tradition Since The Turn of the Last Century.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Halloween, Injun Summer

Goblins'll Getcha

Orange-red sunset sky streaked with grey-black wisps from burning maple and oak leaves lower over the elms surrounding the large white house on the corner of South and Main streets in a small Midwestern town on a crisp October day about 1953. Rising some feet above street level the lawn levels at the sidewalk before continuing on to the evergreen shrubs around the porch that wraps around two sides of the house facing the street. A lumber yard owner built the house as a wedding present for his daughter at the turn of the twentieth century. From the roof of the porch it rises one story for the bedroom level before sloping up the the gabled third story of the attic, except for the one turreted tower which surveys the South and West over the tops of the elms. Broad steps in a short flight ascend from the yard to the porch. To the left is a screened enclosure for summer use, now vacant, the screens stored under the decking. A large plate glass window and large varnished door face the steps. The window shows the living room which runs almost the length of the house. The door leads into a vestibule which echoes voices and foot steps.
On most nights the house is well lit as it is now occupied by a family of six, who find it neither commodious nor snug, but just a pleasant fit. Or normal in that special way that everything one is used to is accepted as normal, no matter what other's may think. Tonight the house is dark and soon will loom over the street, its tower picked out by the moon or suddenly lost as the cumulus scud by.
"Damn, I wish the tower had a window," says Henry. "that's where the lantern should hang."
Instead, he and Leonard hung the lamp below the tower in Earle and Dorothy's bedroom window. That and the porch light by the door were the only illumination to greet the costumed youngsters now passing up and down the town.
They began planing a week ago and who knows how much earlier they had thought about it. Henry at sixteen was not so excited by simple Halloween canvassing. Leonard, at fourteen, was open to new horizons. Only I, at 9, still counted the swag as the important part of the festival. So they put their heads together with their friends to plot and concoct.
Down to the basement for wood and hammers to make noise making contraptions. up to the attic to find this or that. The house in an uproar. Dorothy called the friends hoodlum companions with that disapproving pride that parents reserve for their teenage children, especially the boisterous ones with healthy imaginations and good social nous.
They talked Dorothy into wearing her long black cape to greet the trick-or-treaters. She carried a lit candle and invited the hopefuls in. Beyond the vestibule was a hall with a double door to the living room, a single door to the dining room, more doors to a couple of closets and a staircase that climbed to a landing lit by a window onto the porch then up to a second landing and a final short run to the hall above. Though there were adequate electric lights, tonight all was dark save for Dorothy's candle and a lantern held aloft by Leonard in grease paint to turn his skin a sickly green. He affected a twisted frame and began a patter in a high creaky voice of nonsense about how happy he was to see them and weren't they nice and round, he did so like fat little birds to his dinner, and similar nonsense as he led them upstairs to tour the old place. Arrived in the square hall upstairs the intrepid faced five doors and a narrow hallway leading past more doors to a narrow dark corkscrew backstair to the kitchen. Behind each door was one or more of the hoodlum companions equipped with various noisemakers: duck calls, ratchets, creaking boards, and props such as dismasted heads, skeletal hands, and rattle-able sabers.
And they whispered.
They giggled.
They cackled.
They moaned.
They wailed.
They reached out a skeletal hand to a young shoulder. From behind. In the dark. "A bit for the poor, Sonny?"
And Leonard, patter at max, led them down the raucous, cacophonous, but most of all dark, hall through cobwebs made of fine yarn or thread, by the half mannequin floating at the end of a tiny hall, past the drip of water reminiscent of Europe's finer dungeons. Behind them doors opened and closed. Screams floated after any stragglers. Odd thumps that might have been headsman's axes sounded.
At last the group reached the back stair where Leonard, oh so sincerely, warned them to mind their step.
Arrived at the bottom, a dark door barred the way forward. On the other side of this was the kitchen with a vat of mulled cider on the hob and dozens of doughnuts from our quite good local bakeshop.
There was also a well lit door at the top of a short flight of steps to the back door and the street.
Most of the trick-or-treaters accepted that the trick was on them and fled, crying into the night. The hardiest recruited themselves heartily. But most of the treats survived.
That was Henry's plan: Lot's of doughnuts and cider for Leonard, Henry, and the hoodlum haints of the haunted house.

Perhaps this sounds a bit hokey today. But this was before Shock Theater's host, Marvin, taught all us fifties teens to shudder to Karloff, Chaney and Lugosi as TV ran and re-ran the great horror flics of the thirties. And those were all done without bluescreen, let alone computer graphics.

More about Lugosi here.

Happy Samhain, all
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Bela Lugosi, Halloween, haunted house

Crabs Forestall Crabbiness

Some years ago we lived in a small house tucked under a headland with a deep channel on one side and a harbor bay on the other. The bluff on that side was too steep to build on so it was turned into a nicely wooded waterside park. Among the trees were two or three old crab apples which I visited every fall to start preparations for the holidays. This year I came across a nice display of crabs in the local grocery store.

Pickled Crabs

Wash a dozen or so crabs and remove the blossom end. Leave the stems on.
mix a sweet sour pickle of 1 cup of vinegar (cider or wine is best, thinks I.) with a cup to two cups (dependent on taste) of mixed brown and white sugar. Add a cinnamon stick, some whole cloves and a star anise.
Bring to a boil. After two minutes, slowly add the crabs so the syrup keeps boiling.
When the crabs are cooked (about five minutes) remove from heat and pack into jars. Seal if you mean to keep them longer than a week on the shelf. Else refrigerate until gone. Not long.

This is also time to look for the fresh glace fruits and this year's nuts to start your fruit cake. That post is coming soon.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays. crab apples

A Safer Fourth?

Firecrackers don't always require gunpowder.

The history of fireworks goes back thousands of years to China during the Han dynasty (~200 B.C.), even long before gunpowder was invented.It is believed that the first "firecrackers" were likely chunks of green bamboo, which someone may have thrown onto a fire when dry fuel ran short. The rods sizzled and blackened, and after a while, unexpectedly exploded. Bamboo grows so fast that pockets of air and sap get trapped inside of the plant's segments. When heated, the air inside of the hollow reeds expands, and eventually bursts through the side with a long bam!

The strange sound, which had never been heard before, frightened people and animals terribly. The Chinese figured that if it scared living creatures so much, it would probably scare away spirits - particularly an evil spirit called Nian,who they believed to eat crops and people. After that, it became customary for them to throw green bamboo onto a fire during the Lunar New Year in order to scare Nian and other spirits far way, thus ensuring happiness and prosperity to their people for the remainder of the year. Soon, the Chinese were using bursting bamboo for other special occasions, such as weddings, coronations, and births. The "bursting bamboo", or pao chuk as the Chinese called it, continued to be used for the next thousand or so years.

-- History of Fireworks

Before I was allowed to mess with lady fingers, ash cans, or cherry bombs, (and before I had the pocket change to buy my own) Henry took pity on my innocence and offered the following sweet corruption which he called a "Chinese fire cracker". I doubt that makes sense any more. Lest it offend, let's call it a toothpick fire cracker.

Step 1.: take three flat toothpicks. Form and 'X" and place the third upright in the middle. Hold the junction carefully with two fingers.

Step 2.: Take a fourth toothpick and weave it through one end so that two opposite ends are on one side of the toothpick while the central pick is opposite.

Step 3.: Weave a fifth toothpick through the other ends the opposite way.

Light one corner and wait for the surprise.

It is important to use flat toothpicks. Round ones aren't supple enough to make the tension structure.

Matches are required. So "safe" is a matter of individual care. Do, please, be careful.
And enjoy a glorious, undamaging. Fourth.

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, toothpick firework