Tropical Zone Gardening: It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without..., 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
I agree to you both. I think fire was the best thing to have before electricity was invented. Winter nights were obviously the longest (and coldest, in our hemisphere) in a year, and our ancestors surely noticed that, even scared them, maybe? So there would be increase in fire use. Add the mystic (hope it's the right word here) to the story - end of year was a time for the souls to travel...

Dave, sure it counts! On the 20th, I'll tell you the story of "the day of Ignat", it's a very busy day and it involves meat and fire...

But tonight I'll introduce to you two very precious things: walnuts and honey.

Walnuts. In the popular belief, this fruit was one of the few that could store well over winter. Maybe there are legends about it that I do not know. But for every important day of the year, these nuts play an important role for the deserts. Be they baptisms, weddings, funerals, Easter or Christmas, they are mandatory.
Come Christmas time, in the rural area, apart for a good glass of wine (boiled or not), the carolers receive walnuts wrapped in golden foil. As treats for the carolers, there are also apples. And some bakery products: they may be simple bread, sweet bread, or gingerbread, but they are usually modeled in anthropomorphic shapes (the simplest is an 8 shape) or in a circle or pretzel shape.

Honey: what is sweeter than honey? It existed long before sugar, and it was hard work to gather it from the busy bees. Honey is not gifted as is, but being highly regarded, naturally in the holiday times it is used as ingredient for, you guessed? gingerbread.

I call it gingerbread for the lack of a proper term, and for some similarities with what I see here named gingerbread. The recipe (at least the one I have) does not involve ginger. Probably it wasn't heard of at that time? This is one of the few foods I don't make too often. My husband loves soft cookies, soft pastry, soft cakes, you get it, sweet soft deserts, and gingerbread doesn't exactly qualify. However, he likes it with a cup of milk (dunks it in, makes it softer...)

The beauty about gingerbread is that it brings together the two: walnuts and honey. The secret for the gingerbread is that it gets better with age, so it's made at least 1 week in advance. With time, it softens and the flavor gets richer. Even better, you can have it as an edible ornament in your Christmas tree.

(The image for this post is a googled one. I didn't take pics of my gingerbreads. I should make some...)

Edited to correct the date for the Ignat. It's 20th, so it will be tomorrow!

This message was edited Dec 19, 2008 10:59 PM