It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without...

I thought we might get a few good memories, and even laughs or a nostalgic tear rolling down the cheek, while learning about the unusual things that complete our holiday dreams. Share with me, if you wish, things that make your holidays unique, or tell about local traditions, lesser known than the Macy's parade...

So, I'll start!

For me it's Christmas. And there's no Christmas without... oranges, tangerines, even grapefruits. This has nothing to do with the traditional fruit given to carolers; those are apples and walnuts (in the times before refrigerators and forced crops and imports, these were about the only fruit that would store well). Let's say, this is my family tradition, since we were little (my sister and I). There is a wonderful combination, the smell of the tree and the scent of a freshly peeled citrus fruit!

I will try, until New Year, to write a bit every day. Different countries, and even different zones in a country, have different ways of preparing for the holidays. I'll tell you about Saint Nicholas (which, to the Romanian kids, is somebody else than Santa Claus), about Santa Claus and the Christmas tree, the foods (and drinks) and the cookies, the carolers and their gifts, well, all the nice things that make the winter the favorite season for the ageless child.

I hope you'll get to know me better! Happy Holidays!
Alexandra

I'll go back a few days... On December 6th, the Church celebrates St. Nicholas. While he may be an important saint, I will not talk about this. Kids around the country don't know it... They only know that, if they were good, in the eve of that day (somewhere during the night of 5th to 6th of December), they will find presents in their shoes. They are brought by "Old Man Nicholas" (and "Old Man" is talked about fondly!).

The preparations and waiting for him start even earlier. A letter is written for him some time in advance (about a week is good), either by the kid, or by the parents if the child doesn't know how to write yet... Usually the letter tells the good Saint Nicholas that the kid was good, well-behaved, and then a wish list follows. The letter is not sent by post, but it is placed in the window. Kids believe that during the winter days, Old Man Nicholas looks through the window, and sees if they were true in the letter. One evening, the letter disappears, as it is taken by him...

The evening of December 5th, before going to bed, kids clean and polish their shoes, as that's the cue for Saint Nicholas to drop his presents, and place them either by the door of their room, or even inside (hoping for a chance to catch the Old Man in action!). The morning of December 6th feels like vacation, or like a Sunday, no matter what day of the week it falls. The little presents are there (in, or more frequently next to the shoes), and happy children excitedly spread them on the floors, laughing.

Let me tell you, we were some extraordinary good kids, my sister and I, and maybe that's why the Old Man Nicholas kept coming every year until we went for University studies (even if we stopped writing him letters when I was about 8 years old...). But we never caught him in action!!!

Nobody knows how Old Saint Nicholas looks, as he only delivers the presents while you're asleep. While you may see some similarities with Santa Claus, when time comes, I'll introduce the Romanian Santa Claus (called Old Man Christmas), and you'll see they are two different persons.

Winter time is a good time for us to remember the good old days of our childhood. That's why... it cannot be winter and the Holiday season without... children stories (fairy tales)!

(holiday time in Naples, FL)

Let me give it some thought, sweetheart. After all, I have more than one tradition as the decades roll on.

Christi aka Mimi

Goofybulb - are you in Naples now? I was walking there yesterday... :-)

Oh - and I fondly remember my (Dutch) Saint Nicholas days. All gifts had to be accompanied by a rhyme; this was often hilarious.

The only tradition that we have had until this year was my brothers came over on Christmas Eve (they used to live with their mom) and we would open most of our presents that night. My parents and I would save a few for Christmas Day but most were opened with my brothers. This year they are coming over on Christmas morning so we will have a Christmas breakfast instead of dinner.

Mimi, Take your time, but please do join me! I am thinking of tonight's post, and I'll be back! We have traditions "at the country level and at the family level". I also adopted some of my husband's (one of them is cute, but it's too early for it now!)

Dutchlady, unfortunately I am not... that is a picture from last year, we went to Naples with my father, to watch the sun set at the pier, and just have a nice walk. But I want to have a little eye-candy for each post, and if possible, "season-related"... I suspect your Saint Nicholas is closely related to our Old Man Nicholas.
But please do tell us about the rhymes, we don't have that?

Pepper, did you ever see Santa coming with the presents? ;o)

Nope. I've tried a few times but always fell asleep. lol

Good old Saint Nick for us too, also Father Christmas, not Santa....my, that's a long time ago!

A gap in presents comes for the kids. Until Christmas Eve, there's not much to do for them... well, if you don't count enjoying their new toys from Old Man Nicholas, and the playing in the snow (weather allowing) - snow fights, sleigh rides, snowman building...

But for the adults, a very busy season starts. There's lots of food to be prepared for all the Season's celebrations, and the Romanian dishes are quite time-consuming, some things can be prepared a little in advance, but for the rest one has to be sure there's no missing ingredients. Than there's the house cleaning. Some Santa shopping happens too. Carolers gather secretly to rehearse (they will really start caroling maybe on 22nd-23rd, but definitely on Christmas eve!

Oh, so much to do, in so little time! So how do they cope with it? Well, there's always boiled wine!

Let's get it straight: while I was in Romania, I only read about alcohol-dehydrogenase deficiency! Romanians appear to have nothing wrong with their ability to drink...I don't encourage anybody to binge on alcohol. But winter time and a glass of wine - a mug, for the boiled one - go together well!

Nostalgic immigrants, our friends and us, we would gather at least once in the "cold" Miami December Nights, have some boiled wine and just chat away - being in the US limits the types of food that we can prepare ourselves (can you imagine, almost my whole life, I've had home-made sausages, smoked or not? and I'm a born and raised city-girl)

Boiled wine:
I believe any Romanian will make you some. Slight variations in the making among our cheery little group. It starts always with red wine (I only once drank white boiled wine). It can be a sweet variety (not port wine), but dry will work too, because there's some sugar involved in the recipe. So, depending on the number of people, one can start with half a mug or a bottle, or more... that is placed on the stove, min-to-med strength heating.
The sugar is added to taste, keeping in mind that this is after a tiresome day and a dinner meal... because afterward, a good sleep will follow. Stir until the sugar melts, than it's not really necessary. Do not be tempted to increase the heat, while it would bring the wine to boil faster, it is not necessary. This is a relaxation therapy, not a requirement, so take your time, and while one prepares, the others stay around and the chat lights up.
Two main spices are mandatory: cinnamon and cloves. I like the whole cloves, and usually drop one or two into the wine. Cinnamon, depending on the volume, can range from a knife-tip to a teaspoon. When the wine just barely starts to simmer, turn off the stove and bring the mugs. Share it with your chatty friends. And carefully try to remove them from the kitchen, because sometimes the change in rooms leads to a change in conversation.
This is how I remember my father preparing it for us, it is my first alcoholic memory!!! And this is how I also prepare it.

My friend Luca also drops in a diced fruit (apple is his favorite for the boiled wine). It is very tasty, with the apples still crisp and wine-flavored just right.

The best thing about boiled wine is the coziness and friendship. But there are other effects as well: it warms you up almost instantly, even if you spent all day long in the freezing Boston winter. And, even better, it helps fight the common cold and un-stuffs the nose... (better not mix it with medication though)

Cheers!
Alexandra

(a mug picture would have been better, but I don't have one. somehow, we always focused on just enjoying it)

Fascinating reading. I will throw my 2 cents worth probably tonight when we return from dinner. Tonight is pizza night at a local pizzeria because this bear has been on the run all week and no cooking will take place here.

That will give me time to think of something specific to our french canadian family at Christmas. Please be patient for that.

In the mean time, here is a Christmas tradition I started in 2001. We were spending our first Christmas at our newly purchased Florida condo. We were quite excited.

The only Christmas decoration the Home Owner's Association would tolerate is a wreath on the door. Nothing hanging in the windows, whreath and that's it. The condo comandos were quite active there. They still are.

So, I went out and saw wreaths that started at $80 and went up in price. No way was I going to pay that for a wreath. I returned home and found a large coat hanger such as those as you use for fur coats. I went to the dollar store and bought 3 packages of plastic pine wreath, a few decorations and a roll of twist ties. I brought all that home and started to make a circle out of the fur coat hanger. Gail asked me what I was doing and I answered a wreath. She thought I had gone crazy but she let me at my crafting.

In about an hour, I had a gorgeous wreath to hang at my door. Every year afterwards, I have purchased something to add to the wreath, always from the dollar store. One year, I added lights. This year's addition consisted of 20 little gold drum ornaments that cost me, you guessed it: $1.00.

Who knows what will be added next year or where I will find place to hang it on the wreath. Everything is wired to the wreath using twist ties so it doesn't come apart when it is stored.

I'll see you all a bit later.
Sylvain.

Edited because I can't make a complete sentence or type to save my life. Sorry about that.



This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 5:42 PM

Oh I love bargains!!!

Another talent from our Polar Bear. I love it.

Christi

Gorgeous wreath!! Our wreaths are throughout the house and are grapevine wreaths that my grandma makes. We used to hang them on the door but we are constantly in and out and have had a few accidents with the wreaths before. lol. We don't hang them there anymore. lol

Thank you for your kind words. I love bargains too. Although the dollar stores are often scoffed at, I consider them as an almost inexhaustible source of fun stuff.

I am not talented, I just have visions once in a while.

I have caught a neighbor trying to remove the wreath from our door late one night a few years ago. Gail was sleeping. The lights were dimmed. The TV was off. I was on my way to the bathroom while I saw someone stop in front of our front door. The jingle bells started clinking. I yelled "What's going on out there?" as I opened the door brusquely, wearing nothing but underwear. Caught red-handed, the neighbor told me a long-winded story about wanting to see how it held onto the door. I had wired it to prevent theft, that's how.

And now for that french-canadian Christmas tradition I promised you earlier:

I was born in 1955 and we were raised in a strict Roman Catholic home. December 24th at midnight, the whole family was found at church for the 3 successive midnight masses. I was an altar boy between the ages of 7 and 12. My family took great care in that. Around 2AM, the 3 masses were over and all our guests headed to our place for the Réveillon (RAY-ve-yon), a big hot meal featuring mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, cranberries, roast pork, ham, glazed carrots, pastries, cakes, cookies, donuts, homemade candy and so much more.

My grandmother, who couldn't really walk any more, stayed behind and got the house ready for the guests that would arrive soon after mass was over. The turkey was in the oven. The table had been set at the end of the evening, before going to church. Wine was chilled, beer was set outside to keep it cold (sometimes it froze; it didn't matter). The house smelled like Christmas. Candles were lit all over the house.

Inevitably, Santa had visited while we were away and presents were under the tree. Inevitably, my grandmother always swore that she hadn't seen him enter our home. My sister and I ate a bit but we had our eyes on the presents. Then, my dad gave us permission to go get our presents under the tree. Conveniently, Santa Claus always put them in a great cardboard box decorated with wrapping paper that had a brick, mortar and snow to it.

We would bring them into the dining room and open them while the adults kept on eating, drinking, laughing, telling horrible stories and risqué material while my grandma growled "Hey, the kids are still up!". The adults would sing, some would dance and marvel at the great presents we had received. We were allowed to play with our presents for about 30 minutes. Then, my mom saw us to bed and the party continued until the sun rose.

When we got up on Christmas morning, there were uncles, aunts and friends sleeping all over the sofas, in chairs, in the bathtub, on the floor, in sleeping bags, on roll-away cots: on any horizontal surface that would support their weight. My sister and I played with our new toys until the adults rose. Then, we would would all have a huge breakfast.

Before lunch time, my grandmother sent everyone home, the house was cleaned and a new gang joined us for dinner. I remind you that all this was in the days without food processors, microwaves, dishwashers or anything like that. My grandmother, my mom and my 3 aunts worked their fingers to the bone preparing these feasts.

I can remember that my mom and grandmother baked and cooked for about 1 week before Christmas. Food was wrapped in aluminium foil and sent into the wood shed for storage until Christmas. We didn't have enough space in the refrigerator and we had no freezer. Nothing ever spoiled because it was so cold out there. We was poor but we found ways.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Forest household celebrated Christmas in Châteauguay, Québec, Canada (USDA Zone 5) in the early 60s.

Take care, all.
Sylvain.

Thank you for sharing your Christmas memories, this is such fun!

Sylvain, I am so glad to hear that you are adding to your wreath again this year, no wonder your neighbor was out to steal it, it really is pretty!

All the stories make me feel warm and fuzzy all over!

Our family traditional Christmas was pretty 'Leave it to Beaver'ish - typical and I really remember little from them growing up. My father was Navy so we were never in one place very long to develope a tradition . With family in(and a first husband from)Mexico there are Mexican traditions in our family, as well as New Mexican and Spanish.and East Coast and West Coast and now Hawaii. I adore aspects of them all: walking from bonfire to bonfire singing carols on a snowcovered street in Santa Fe, NM in the freezing weather - the fragrance of incense juniper burning - but warm from the friendship shared; eating fresh sweet tamales (honey and raisins) with hot chocolate as we opened presents on Christmas Morning in Mexico City. When I think of Christmas it's warmth and feeling full of food and friendship. I think of faces lit by candles and fireplaces, the excitement in the children and the anticipation of wondering if you really picked the right gift for everyone. I remember sitting in the oldest catholic church in the US, on hard benches listening to a young pianist from Poland play Chopin with a passion that brought nearly all of us to weep. The only lights were candles. I guess I remember sounds and light and emotions and smells (fragrances, whatever) of a marmelade of experiences. I envied those who had the long days of family traditions, tablecloths that had been used every Christmas for generations etc....I thought it was SO cool. Our family treasures somehow got lost or broken or sent to Paris, France when they should have gone to Paris, California... It was Christmas Eve 18 years ago that I fell in love with my (now) husband - now he is a gift to beat all!

Alexandra...you write SO well and you sound so happy and joyful. It's a pleasure reading you!!! Looking forward to reading about other traditions and favorite Christmases.

Carol Noel (yes...and my sister's name IS Joyeux Noel)!

I agree with Sylvain, beautiful things don't need to be costly. I'm happy that you have visions, I like your Christmas vision very much.

We also have the word Revelion (it's probably adopted from French, slightly modified - phonetic too, you hear the L). But for Romanians it represents the party that is given to send off the Old Year and welcome the New Year. Also a feast involved, and probably the only night when the young children are allowed out of bed at midnight. But they have to have a late afternoon nap (oh, how I hated them then, how I wish I would have them now!...)

Wonderful tradition! Polar Bear, do you still find your family members all over your house? I bet they changed location and they come to spend the Christmas with you. I will tell you the Santa Claus story closer to the Christmas Eve. All I can tell you now is that our Santa is still different!

Carol, the Christmas memories are bright and cheery! The two of us don't have any of the pass-along-thru-generations Christmas decor either... everything is back home. Sometimes I wish I took at least one of the old tree globes. But our first Christmas here we bought some ceramic decorations, and glass globes, that we painted ourselves. The Noel sisters have beautiful names!

Today I'll tell you why saint Nicholas and Saint Christmas (the Romanian Santa Claus) are Old.

This has to do with the pre-christian beliefs that existed in the Carpathian area. It was the time when people believed in many gods. The thought of life after death and Heavens didn't exist yet. One such god, celebrated in different cultures, was the Sun. The life of the Sun was reflected in the Day, but also in the Year. Birth and death at midnight. In the meantime, the Year/Sun god would grow, like a human, but, of course, much faster, within a year, with 4 seasons (ages). Probably the change between years was celebrated at the Winter solstice, which was observed already, but it got shifted with that confusing Calendar change long, long time ago...

Once the Christianity spread, the local churches (probably in all countries) tried to adopt or convert the local/pagan celebrations. The commemoration of the saints within a year seems to illustrate "the aging of the pagan Year". Thus, in popular culture Saint Basil (Jan 1st) is a teenager, eager for partying, drinking and love... the equivalent of Saint Valentine (Feb 24th) was portrayed as a very young man, the patron of ...well... love.
As the year progresses, the saints get... older! Come the end of November, they start to be presented as old, wise man. And they are even called that way: Old Man Andrew, Nicholas... we even have Old Man Eve (Christmas Eve, not the apple-and-snake-Eve!), and of course, Old Man Christmas.

(There is another Old Man that kids don't want to hear about: he is the grumpy brother of Christmas, the personification of the harsh winter winds, and comes and takes the tree away!)

In the countryside, calling an old man, old man is not considered impolite. In some regions that's how grandkids call their grandfathers. While in the big cities, it is a bad thing, in the rural areas it still means a respectful, knowledgeable elder.

It's a week before Christmas. If not done already, kids and adults alike are spending the evening writing. The kids send their letter to Santa Claus (in the window, like for Saint Nocholas. The Easter Bunny also has his mail delivered thru the window). Parents write greetings and letters. It may be that Internet exists for fast communication, but we still try each year to send Greeting cards back home. Ideally, "tradition says", the cards should arrive as close to Christmas as possible, but you never can know, one year our card arrived at the end of January...

(The night after Thanksgiving in Santa Fe, NM. Luminaries/farolitos, a firetruck full of lights - to remember about the bonfires, and lots of people gathering for the raising of the Christmas tree in the Plaza)

My father's 7 brothers and sisters with their spouses and children spent Christmas with us EVERY year. We lived in the country and they lived in the city. My mom's brother and 2 sisters came with their spouses and their kids but they all lived a few streets away from us. That side of the family went home after the festivities. Roughly counted,that's 12 adults plus the children. I lose count.

The dining room table sat 16 people. The kitchen table sat 8 people. My father made a table out of 2 sawhourses and a sheet of plywood reinforced by 2x4s. That was installed in the living room. My aunts on both sides of the family were pressed into service as waitresses and bus-girls while the men sat there, told stories and enjoyed themselves.

As time passed, both my grandmothers passed away within a few years. The mortar that held the family together started to crumble. One uncle admitted he was gay and moved to Seattle. We never heard from him again. Another was disowned by the family after he was found guilty of embezzling money at work. He served his time in jail but we never saw them again. I don't know if my uncles and aunts on my father's side are still alive or not. After all this time, I frankly don't care one way or another.

My dad is now 76 years old. The family members gradually scattered like dust in the wind. My mother's side of the family have all passed on; as did my mom and my only sister. My dad spends his winters here in Fort Lauderdale. We see them often and we still get together for Christmas and New Year. At Christmas, we invite friends to join us and we recreate an approximation of the Christmas dinners of old.

Traditionally in french canadian society, Christmas was spent with family only. New Year's was set aside for friends. At our house, everyone piled in at Christmas and New Year. My mom used to say that my aunts were allergic to entertaining. The worst thing is that she was right.

But I bored you enough with my family stuff. Later, I will tell you about the Christmas tree tradition.

Take care,all.
Sylvain.

Isn't it amazing how far-away places can have similar beliefs?

Romanians also consider Christmas a family time (Easter as well, but that's far away and "out of topic"), while New Year is a party with friends! We actually have a "division" for the days of Christmas: there's Christmas Eve and first day - that you spend with close family. If children grew up and moved to their own home, the first day they go to the parents. Than, the second day of Christmas (the 26th) you go visit the godparents. One can have two pairs of godparents, one that married the couple and one that baptized the kids (sometimes even more than two pairs... but that's another story), so that might be that one day isn't enough, and you go on with the third day (the 27th).

We lived with our grandparents from my mother's side, until they passed away. My grandparent's name was Stefan (Steven in English). The Orthodox calendar celebrates St. Steven on the 27th of December, a big saint day. If you have a Steven in your family, you're bound to have guests coming over. Until grandpa (Bubu, as we called him) passed away we always had a huge gathering (family and friends) on his day. He never celebrated his birthday (mid-November), but always his name-day. Those big, cheerful parties were a Christmas bonus!

Grandma (Buitza we called her) was a great hostess, very entertaining and kind, and a great cook too. She wouldn't miss a chance in the world to have guests. Her name-saint, St. Elisabeth (Elisabeta in Romanian) was a "small" saint according to the calendar (big saints written in red, one should treat their day as a Sunday, smaller ones written in plain black had ordinary days). She always celebrated her name day.

Growing up with them us changed a bit: I too celebrate my name day (Alexandra is a little saint...), and my husband adopted this tradition (but that's in the fall). When I grew up, in the communist years, it was a bad thing to have a religious belief. While my grandparents were good Christians, they did not impose all those required customs on us. They taught us how to pray, took us to church sometimes (always before Easter and for the Easter mass when we grew up), let us know about the saint days and that's about it! We celebrated the two big holidays, easter and Christmas, while other kids (my schoolmates, atheists or frightened christians) celebrated Old Man Gerila (non-translatable, it means something like Brr - "ger" means extreme cold) on December 31st. Religion in the open was not viewed with tolerance or kindness. Things are different now.

Another similarity is the bounty of the Christmas meals! No matter how poor (we weren't rich, and some basic food groups were quite hard to find...), the Christmas meals were plenty. Romanians don't do potluck. The hostess puts all on the table.

Grandma was a great cook and she loved to do it), as I said before, and the preparations lasted at least a week (yeah, for us too!). Mom learned to cook from her (but she didn't like it that much, less free time made it look like something she had to do; plus all those struggles to raise the two kids with little...), and she did a good job too. I was lucky to grow up with these two wonderful women, and I learned a lot by watching, and latter cooking deserts...

But I never knew how much I learned from them until we came to US. Love to cook or not, we wanted home-made food! And every year I cooked and put on the table almost all the traditional Romanian dishes! And I hope I'll always do that.

There are some things that I stopped making (either because I don't find all the ingredients, or because my husband doesn't like them).

We are blessed that you found your way to our country and especially to have you share with us on DG. So many things we take for granted when one has only experienced freedom all their lives.

Hey, Mimi! We grew up in difficult times. Both my grandmothers lived to see better times. But Christmas was always a time for forgetting all the bad things around.
I'm happy to be here, I am lucky to have met you too! Each year I miss our little Christmas things, and my family more than any time in the year.

Something Carol said made me realize this: it's amazing how every winter celebration (even the non-winter ones, actually), in any belief, involves fire! Any culture in this wide world uses fire in their celebrations. It's also logical, maybe? since it was one of the greatest discoveries?

In some rural areas in Romania is still a custom to light fires on the hills, at the Winter Solstice.

I'll come back later on, with a recipe, I think!

Hugs,
Alexandra

(holiday time in Miami Beach, FL)

I think all the fires and candles etc. at Christmas have more to do with the fact the days are so short and therefore there is so much darkness? That is the way I always thought of it, anyway.

Maybe fire (light, warmth, converting raw to cooked, "magic") is something all peoples use to connect with the magical and the mysterious (religion)...symbolizing stars, light, safety (protection) etc. as well as tremendous power (as it burning forests). I used to have a hound dog (Black and Tan ) who, when we built a fire in the fire place, would almost try to get in the fireplace and would stand and stare at the fire for hours: reckoning to a genetic connection with earlier men at earlier fires? To me fire represents beauty, power, hope, renewal - lots of things...whether in a candle or .....

GB...i love hearing your Romanian stories.... my son's Grandmother (father's Mother) 's family were Romanian... Many reasons to dislike Franco (was a dictator of Spain) but many escaped Nazi Germany's rath when he declared that all Sephardic Jews were originally Spanish and were elegible to receive Spanish passports.

More stories!!!!

Nice to hear all the family history. I feel it is very important to know where we come from.

My ancestors ended up in the USA (Pennsylvania and New Jersey) via Ireland and Germany. They showed up to avoid religious persecution and slavery in England, as early as 1685 (German side).
As members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) they did not agree with King James 2nds authority over them and took part in the "Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion". They lost, and in court were told they would be set free if they confessed their sins. Those who confessed were quickly hung!
This caused a mass immigration to America; including my family who wished not to be set free!

The holidays have always been about family getting together and being thankful that we are still here! Healthy and Happy!

Does a backyard cookout (wood fire) count for a celebration of fire?

Aloha and Happy Holidays, Dave!

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

I just sent my thesis for corrections to my mentor (Hurray!), so I thought I'd come back and give you the recipe for gingerbread. I might start a batch tomorrow. But tomorrow I'll tell you all about the Day of Ignat, because it is that day when Romanians... neh, you'll find out tomorrow!

So, Gingerbread:
there are slight variations for the gingerbread. In fact, there are two kinds of gingerbread: one kind is the "soft gingerbread", that has a cake consistency. But the one I'll tell you about is always welcome on Christmas (and Easter), as you can have it cut in figurines.

The recipe I have makes a lot, because usually half of it goes away to carolers... I hope it will not be too confusing, but we use grams to measure.

Ingredients:
500g honey
500g sugar (probably before time, this was also honey, but maybe less than 500g...)
200g walnuts
100g aged rum (can be replaced with 3 tbsp rum essence + water to add to volume)
1 tsp bicarbonate
4 eggs
1 kg flour (unsalted!!! I made the mistake the first time I baked something in US - bought the rising flour, has LOADS of salt! So use all purpose, please!)
1 knife-tip black pepper, ground (yeah, many recipes go with these subjective units, but this is an easy one, believe me!)
1 knife-tip salt
2 teaspoons nutmeg, cloves
3 teaspoons cinnamon
50g butter (unsalted - for greasing the pans)

Preparation:
Pour the honey in a clean pot, add the sugar, salt and the spices, and place the pot on the stove, medium-heat. Stir to mix the ingredients. When the sugar dissolved and the mix is hot-hot, pour it into a second pot, where you already placed half of the flour. Stir again (you need a sturdy thing for it, and a little muscle... You can use probably a kitchen robot, I'll try the kitchenaid robot, it should save time and effort) until all flour in the pot is well incorporated, and everything looks like a paste.
Place in a cool place until next day (or at least for a couple of hours).

Next day (or a couple of hours later):
Take the mix to the stove and warm it up a little. In the meantime, add the bicarbonate to the rum to dissolve it a bit. When you can stir again the mix (during cold storage it really hardens!), start adding the rum (+bicarbonate), the eggs one by one (my Mom used to quickly separate the whites and beat them up to foam before adding them, said it made the gingerbread fluffier). Mix to incorporate everything. This should soften the consistency of the mix, to let you add the rest of the flour and the ground nuts. Mix again very well, to incorporate the flour and the walnuts..

Dust a board and a rolling pin, take portions of the mix and roll them so you get half-inch thickness. Cut them in your favorite shapes.Place your shaped gingerbreads on a greased and flower-dusted pan (probably one can replace the grease and dusted with non-stick pans). bake them at 325-350 until browned.

Bon apetit! They get better and soften after a few days, and store very well in tight-lid containers.

Edited to put the nuts back in the preparation.

This message was edited Dec 20, 2008 9:44 AM

Well, maybe I was hungry last night, maybe I was so tired that the lines were dancing in my eyes... I edited the recipe, because I forgot to add the walnuts in the preparation... I need coffee, and I'll be back

LOL!! Well you were up in the wee hours of the morning so I'm not suprised

Today I'm going to talk about Romanian's favorite (cooking) animal: the pig. I'm not planning to offend anybody, either vegetarian or non-pork eater. But as a nation, Romanians have two meats that are linked with the big holidays: lamb in spring and pork in winter. And the majority stick to that, against all the medical issues of cholesterol...

There's no Christmas without pork, in all kinds of preparations. Geographically speaking, we have winter, serious winter. My favorite cookbook writer (it's not just a cookbook, since it's written more like a story, with some history and traditions presented, as is a collection of traditional dishes) says that we were forced to eat the pork by our harsh winters. probably the fat meat helps in getting the energy.

Sayings from the popular wisdom also talk about pork:
"The pork gets you through the winter"
" the one that has luck with (growing) pigs, is lucky in everything"
"pork (meat) is the bounty of the household"
and my all time favorite: "there's no bird like the pig"

Today is pork day. It is the day the animal is sacrificed for the Christmas holidays. I'm not going to say much about this. I love the meat, but I don't wanna know how it gets on my plate. We (as kids) never went to Grandma (in the village) before the Christmas Eve! But it appears that the rituals for this event have deep roots, in the times when gods were pleased by the worshipers by life sacrifices, initially human (Brrrr!), than, when Christianism expanded, were replaced by animal sacrifices. In some cultures, the pig (hog) was a sacred animal.
Reminiscences of these rituals are found still in the rural areas. And it is always some fire involved (IGNAT comes from the Latin "ignis" which means fire), but, not surprisingly (because of the amount of work involved) they start with fire early in the morning.

Myths and legends and oral folk literature say that the bones of the pork sacrificed on Ignat Day should be buried, and from them a Lilac will sprout. Why lilac? Don't know, really. I've read many legends, but Lilac is not frequently met.

When I grew up, it was very difficult to find meat. You either would not find it in store, or you would, but had to wait in long, long lines (over 500 people!). My grandparents were old enough and ill enough not to cope with this. Mom and Dad didn't have the time, and the two of us would have been trampled...
But in wintertime, my father would go to my other grandma (Bunica, his Mom) and would come back with the meat. Sadly, he would always go by train, even if less convenient than by car (cold, longer time of travel, crowded), and would bring the meat with his back, in the rucksack. There was a reason for that. Communists knew that this is the day to get the meat. Policemen would put "filters" on the roads, stopping cars, searching and confiscating any meat they would see. The reason: "you didn't buy it from the store, so it might be contaminated". On the other hand, the peasants that grew pigs were obligated to have the pig/pork inspected, so it didn't really fit...
To us, it was really true that the pork got us thru winter. That was almost the only meat in our house.

Anyway, the pork meat would arrive in our house on Ignat day. While in the villages, the peasants would celebrate this day by cooking pork in all possible ways and eating it and having a party, in the cities the day meant only work, for the preparations.

There is a real pork (culinary) culture in Romania. It isn't only roast or grilled pork. there are sausages ("carnati"), liver sausages ("caltabos" and "sangerete"), ham ("sunca"), cheese head ("toba"), pork aspic ("piftie"), a kind of meatloaf ("drob"), meatballs ("chiftele"), either fresh, or smoked or salt cured, or boiled, even baked, in the oven, on the stove... a thousand ways of preparing it. You name it , we do it! There are, again, regional variations. My Grandparents from my mother's side came from the Northeastern part (the Moldavia region). My dad (and Grandma) came from Transylvania (central). And while there were differences, there was a perfect harmony surrounding the cooks. My belief is that, while Moldavians are the greatest at deserts, the Transylvanians are the best at meats!

So today, almost any Romanian prepares the meats. In my house, it was always the day for: home-made sausages (that would be split in two parts- one to be eaten fresh, another to be smoked), smoked ham, roast pork, liver sausages and piftie. Some in the house didn't like the cheese head (toba), so it was either a very small one, or none at all.

Then, ground meat would go as an ingredient for sarmale (one kind of this food you probably know as "stuffed cabbages"), sausages and meatballs.

Are you wondering what am I cooking? To my shame, the tradition of preparing sausages will stop at my Dad. I never prepared them, and I don't have all the necessary things here either.
Oh, well, I buy them... I will roast meat in the oven. I'm preparing "sarmale" (I grind the meat myself), and we'll also have ham and meatballs (but for us these are as aperitifs, not a main course...). Another goodie that I'm going to make is "tochitura": it is made from bits of pork meat, fresh and smoked sausages, smoked ham and bacon, that are cooked on the stove together, first fried than smothered with wine and spices, yummy!
I will also cook "piftie", "drob" and liver pate, but they are made with chicken or turkey (need a high ratio of bone and cartilage to meat to have a good aspic! and I like the chicken liver better than any other liver)

And this is just part of the dishes that will be on our table. The sweets are yet to follow, and there are a few more appetizers, but not "porky".
When Romanians celebrate, they do it big style! this kind of events, you eat (and drink) from noon till midnight...

(I don't find any pics with food, mainly because it always upset me that professional photographers, at weddings, would always take pics of the tables (and you would be charged for them, even if you don't want them...), and of the people eating - I don't like to be immortalized eating, LOL... so here's a snowman)

When I was very young my parents didn't put up the tree until the children were all asleep on Christmas Eve. We'd awake to a vision of a tree surrounded with presents. We'd get to open one apiece before church. I don't know how they managed to hide so many presents from us. By the time I'd reached 12 years of age they started to put the tree up a week or so before Christmas. There were more children by then and they probably couldn't do it all in one night anymore. (I have 8 siblings) I enjoyed decorating the tree, although my Dad was a bit picky and we had to put each piece of tinsel on separately. As a child I wanted to throw big bunches of it on at once. Patience wasn't my thing back then.

These days many of the siblings are scattered over 4 States, and I'm the only one on the West Coast. My husband and I go to Christmas Eve at some dear Friend's house, where we usually enjoy a prime rib dinner, and then I cook a big dinner on Christmas day. About 7-8 years ago I started making wreaths for my place of employment and my husbands. At the company Christmas parties a name is drawn from a hat and that person wins the wreath. I usually make wreaths with Disney or Looney Tunes characters on it. I've also donated them to different fund raisers, such as a Hospice Foundation. I shop all year for ornaments to go on the following year's wreaths, so the celebration is on my mind all year.

Mary...that wreath is beautiful!!!

With a last name like mine...NOEL...(yes Sylvain, French Canadian...before that Normandy, Fr), our decorations always had NOEL...Christmas Cards, house decorations...whatever had NOEL on it. It can get confusing when I tell someone my name: Carol No 'L'....folks get confused about the spelling...how can you spell Carol with no 'L'?

I do remember the food at Christmas...my favorite was the plate of crudites (celery, olives, radishes) and I often bring my own to a Christmas dinner to remind me. This year we are having Lamb on Christmas Day...

Beautiful wreath, Mary! Your Christmas tradition (the early childhood) is getting a bit closer to our... but I'm not telling yet!

Carol, That's funny, funny, funny!
We mostly have pickled veggies in wintertime.

You all have such great stories. And that wreath is WONDERFUL! Your co-workers are lucky.

Yeah, and isn't it nice the cartoon character idea? It goes so well with the cheery Christmas!

Edited because I have a big problem today with spelling...

This message was edited Dec 20, 2008 6:45 PM

Today it's the winter solstice. Sometimes, people don't even realize that they are celebrating it!

As I told you earlier, in the villages, they still light up fires on the hills this night. And it's interesting that many religions have holidays around this time. I believe that as those beliefs developed, the previous (usually multi-god) traditions got assimilated. Almost any corner of this world celebrated at some point the Sun god. And maybe the fires were to hush spirits, to please the Sun so the daytime would grow again...

I learned that today the Hanuka starts. And I learned that there's also fire lighting (candles) for several days. Happy Hanuka celebrations for any of you who observe this holiday!

For us, and many other Romanian families, today is a cleaning day. Dave, I think, said somewhere about swiping your house today, as it brings luck? Well, than we should be lucky! It's very close to Christmas, and the house has to be spottless! Than, the New Year comes, and it is said that, the way New Year finds you, that's how it's going to be for that year...

It's a massive cleaning. Not just the usual "put things back to their place", not just swiping and dusting. Romanians have the habit of "beating their carpets". It is now forbidden by law in the cities, as it creates more dust, and noise, and doesn't look good. But let me tell you, for those carpets, it was a really good cleaning! They would catch the smell of fresh, of snow, of clean!

Also, in our house, this was about time to start listening to foreign carols/Christmas songs. I grew up listening Mahalia Jackson on vinyls, and Nat King Cole on magnetic bands (do you remember those? The predecessors of the cassettes? There was also a vinyl with German traditional carols, sang by kids! We used to listen it in the living room (the only room to have a pick-up and a magnetic-band player), or, if we had to be in a different room, the whole house would be filled with music, as we turned the volume up. I still listen to Mahalia (made a cassette and found a CD too...) and to the little German kids (I think they are all grown up by now, as I am too, but their voices will remain forever young). Nat King Cole was my mom's favorite Christmastime, but I still have to find him on a CD.

Apart from the cleaning, this year I decided to start a new family tradition! I received some plants and cuttings a couple of days ago, and I bought so many seeds! So, today is the beginning of our new tradition: gardening at solstice! Initially I was going to make it just "sowing seeds at solstice", but those plants made me change my mind.
I'll probably post pics of them tomorrow.

(The carpet beating is usually the man's job, and many of them do not enjoy the task... searched hard for a pic on Google)

I LOVE the Solstice....it's when the plant world starts to wake up...

Good you are starting your own traditions, GB... What did you plant?

Hey, Carol!

I'm happy you enjoy the Solstice! After tonight, we're gonna get more and more light!

I've got two very generous boxes, and I planted everything from them:
One was full of Orchid Cactus cuttings (do they qualify for tropical). You know my 5-shelved rack? They almost filled one shelf by themselves!
The other had one goldfish plant, a St. Joseph lily, a Lily of the Nile, two small salmon-colored amaryllis bulbs and a few Gloriosa lily bulbs.

The seeds:
bay leaf, allspice and pepper (Piper nigrum) - all these I don't know if they'll like my house temps, it's about 75-85F what they wish for. In some parts of the house I have 77-80, but where the good light (and all the plants) is, I think it's less... gets warmer during the day, as the sun shines into the room for 4-5 hours.

basil, dill, lovage, savory,
freesias, rainlilies, amaryllis

I'm also in the process of ordering some African Violet leaves... I'm probably nuts! I have other things in mind too, but I need warmer weather for them.

My sister also started her tradition with her son. Actually, when we were little, we were making a few paper decorations for the tree... They made some ornaments (she'll be sending a few for us, with my Dad - he'll be coming to visit/stay with us for about a month and a half, he arrives on 29th!)