Dorothy says......

Take care of luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
Dorothy Parker

Happy Pancake Day!

Yes! There really is a Pancake Day!
Exciting, isn't it?!
In honor of this day, which falls on Tuesday February 24th in 2009, I have collected bits of information on the history of Pancake Day and lots of links and a few fun pancake poems.
(Oh!and checkout my Pancake folktale and Recipe at StorytellingCookingAndKids.blogspot.com )

Pancake Day is celebrated on Shrove Tuesday which is the day before Lent. Lent is a Christian holiday that was established in the 4th century as 40 days and is generally a period of fasting or other forms of self-denial. People generally eat a lot and have fun the day before Lent begins. Shrove Tuesday is often referred to as Pancake Day because fats, which were generally prohibited during Lent, had to be used up. People would take all the eggs and dairy products that they had left in their kitchens and use them to make delicious pancakes.

In the United Kingdom of Great Britian, Northern Ireland and several other countries around the world, Pancake Day is celebrated with fun, games, and of course a lot of eating. However, the most well known activity on this day is the Pancake Day race at Olney in Buckinghamshire, England which has been held since 1445. It all began when a woman was cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday to use up all of her perishables before Lent. While she was still cooking she heard the chiming of the bells summoning her to church. Not wanting to be late, the woman ran to church with her apron on and the frying pan still in her hand. Little did she know that this would start a tradition that would be around for over 500 years!

Only women are allowed to participate in this race. They must run a designated path with a frying pan and end up at the church. They must have a hot pancake in the frying pan which they must flip at least three times before they complete the race. The first woman to complete the race and arrive at church with the pancake is declared the winner. She then serves the pancake to the bellringer and is rewarded with a kiss from the bellringer called the “Kiss of peace”. This race still occurs in England and in several other cities.
Info found here

Here are a few poems about pancakes:

The Pancake Collector
by Jack Prelutsky

Come visit my pancake collection
It’s unique in the civilized world
I have pancakes in every description,
Pancakes flaky and fluffy and curled

I have pancakes of various sizes
Pancakes regular, heavy and light
Underdone pancakes and overdone pancakes
And pancakes so perfectly right

I have pancakes locked up in the closets
have pancakes on hangers and hooks
There are bags in boxes and bureaus
And pressed in the pages of books

There are pretty ones sewn to the cushions
And tastefully pinned to the drapes.
The ceilings are coated with pancakes
And pressed in the pages with crepes.

I have pancakes in most of my pockets
And concealed in the lining of suites
There are tiny ones stuffed in my mittens
And large one packed in my boots

I have extra of most of my pancakes,
I maintain them in rows on these shelves
And if you say nice things about them
You may take a few home for yourself

I see that you’ve got to be going
Won’t you let yourselves out by the door?
It is time that I pour out he batter
And bake up a few hundred more

Pancake Song
by Christina Rossetti

Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan.
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake,
Catch it if you can.

Pancake Poem
by Shel Silverstein

Who wants a pancake,
Sweet and piping hot?
Good little Grace looks up and says,
"I'll take the one on top."
Who else wants a pancake,
Fresh off the griddle?
Terrible Teresa smiles and says,
"I'll take the one in the middle."

Of course, I found a vid on Youtube! This one is odd but kinda fun. Enjoy!!


....and FYI, here's some information on the Different Types of Pancakes

BAO BING, PO-PING: The thin Mandarin pancakes served with Peking duck and moo shu pork. The cakes are made of fine wheat flour and boiling water, rolled thin and cooked two at a time.

BIN-JA TUK: Korean pancakes made from soaked mung beans. While the pancakes cook, strips of pork and kimchi are placed on top, then the cake is flipped.

BLINI: The savory, ultra-light pancake of Russia made traditionally with buckwheat flour and cooked in a small cast-iron pan. Blini are eaten hot with butter, herring, smoked salmon, chopped egg or caviar and sour cream. They date back to the Middle Ages

BLINTZ: The traditional pancake of Jewish cuisine is fried and rolled with sweet or savory fillings, such as lox or cinnamon and sugar and sour cream.

CREIER DE RITEL PANE: A Romanian dish of pancakes filled with mashed calves brains, onion, parsley and eggs. Once filled, the pancake is dipped in eggs and breadcrumbs and deep fried.

CREPE: The French pancake is, of course, the thinnest of them all. Sweet or savory, crepes can be street food or served in a five-star restaurant. Crepes Suzette, once the epitome of luxury desserts, is doused with liqueur and set afire.

DADAR GUTUNG: This Indonesian pancake is wrapped around coconut meat cooked in water with brown sugar and flavored with lemon juice and cinnamon, with a little salt.

EIERKUCKAS: A rich pancake from the Alsace Lorraine region of Northeastern France. The batter is mixed with red currant jelly and cream.

FLENSJES: A thick Dutch pancake served for dessert with sugar, ginger, jam or marmalade.

FLAESKPANNKAKA: This Swedish pancake is cooked until nearly set, then pork or bacon is laid on top and cooked until completed.

INJERA: This spongy, yeasted pancake-like bread made from millet flour doubles as food and utensil in Ethiopia. One or two injera are placed on a large tray and then covered with various stews. Diners scoop the stew with torn pieces of extra injera. Lastly, the injera bread that lines the tray, soaked through with stew juices, is eaten.

LATKE: In Jewish cuisines, the crisp potato pancake is eaten with sour cream or applesauce.

PALASCINTA: A thin Hungarian pancake similar to and used like a French crepe. Also popular in Austria.

PANNEKOEKE: The basic Dutch pancake might be small, filled with custard and served as dessert, or large with bacon cooked into it and dressed with molasses as an entree.

PIKELETS: A yeasted pancake with a holey surface in England. In New Zealand and Australia, the term refers to tiny pancakes that are served cold with preserves, whipped cream or lemon butter.

PLOYES: French Canadian sweet or savory buckwheat pancakes cooked on one side only.

POH PIA: In Singapore, these pancakes are served with a variety of filling, such as chicken or fried garlic, and sauces for diners to choose from.

QATA-EF: In Egypt and Syria, these pancakes are cooked on one side, folded over a sweetened cheese or nut filling, then deep fried. Medieval Arabic cookbooks mention this dish.

TORTILLA: A thin pancake-like flatbread made of cornmeal or flour and water that dates back thousands of years in Mexico and Latin American cooking.

Finally, in case you need/want more information, here are a few good links:

www.pancakeday.net

The Pancake, an Appreciation

Holidays_Pancake Day

IHopPancakeDay.com

StorytellingCookingAndKids.blogspot.com

Odetta

Odetta Holmes, mostly known simply as "Odetta", was born December 31, 1930 and died December 2, 2008.
Odetta was often called the "Voice of the Civil Rights Movement".
She studied music at Los Angeles City College and had operatic training from the age of 13.
For more info on Odetta check out Wiki






Odetta singing "Carry it back to Rosie" at the Newport Festival

Love is in the Air!!! Happy Valentine's Day!!!

In honor of the day...or just 'cause I want to...I thought I would share this poem.
This has been one of my favorite love poems since I read it in grade school....


"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints,
I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!

And, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!


The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Groundhog Day!!

Today was/is Groundhog Day....I totally forgot...duh!!!
But I heard that 2 different groundhogs saw 2 different things.
The "Official" groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, says:




While "Staten Island Chuck" had to be lured and eventually unwillingly hauled out by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But it was said that Chuck didn't see his shadow.



Of course, given that Chuck didn't want to come out it's possible that he knows something that we don't.

Well, I suppose, we will see.

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Don't Ask!

I loved this dumb show! Unfortunately this is just the intro...



The rest of these are just "classic" chase songs....with music, of course!

January is Hot Tea Month!!

I can not beleive that I am just learning this!!
As much as I love tea, you would think that I would know this.
I think I may have known this on an intuitive level 'cause I've been drinking lots of hot tea in the last week or so.
(I hear you saying to your selves "Riiiiiight, and the cold has nothing to do with it.)

Anyhoo, I have decided to give you a few tea poems, rhymes, whatever and a tea recipe. I'd rather give you all a cup of my favorite tea (I have lots of favorites) but that would not be practical. Sigh!!


I had a little tea party, this afternoon at three
T'was very small, three guests in all, I, Myself, and Me
Myself ate up the sandwiches, while I drank up the tea
T'was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me!




I cannot sit and chat with you,
the way I'd like to do.
So brew yourself a cup of tea,
I'll think of you, you think of me.




Chai Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup milk
2 black tea bags
2 chai tea bags
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper baking cups.

Heat the milk in a saucepan until almost boiling. Remove from the heat and add the black tea and chai tea bags. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Wring out the tea bags into the milk and discard bags. In a medium bowl, whisk together the tea-milk, yogurt, sugar, oil and vanilla. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and pepper. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter.





A "Reasonably Simple" SCONE Recipe
(in other words it shouldn't drive you too crazy)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
1/2 cup raisins (or dried currants)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg

DIRECTIONS
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in raisins.
In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth.

Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)

Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp. of sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.



And
(recipes found at allrecipes.com)

Wow! A very cold, joyous, historical,unforgettable day....

Although I happen to be in Washington, DC today, I watched the inauguration on TV just as the majority of the US and the world watched it.
Basically for two reasons....A) because everyone and their extended family is in DC to participate in this historic moment. And so many streets and such are closed or one way, that I doubt if even a native Washingtonian would find it easy to get around.
And B) cause it is waaaaay cold out there...the temp is around 18degrees with the wind chill and I figured I'd enjoy it more from home.





Obama at the Lincoln Memorial Inaugural Celebration

I just watched....

Just finished watching Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? AGAIN!!!
I'm not sure how many times I have seen this movie but I always love it.
It has 3 of my fave actors in it Katherine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy.

This is about 30 or 40 minutes into the movie.
I especially like the scene with the Poitier and Tracy (it starts about 4min38seconds into the vid. The vid is 10min and 48 seconds long.



In The Heat of the Night
I love this one too. This is one of my fave scenes.

Light

MySpace Graphics

Joy

Happy 2009!!!

New Year's Traditions Trivia

The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Although the early Christians denounced the practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to reevaluate its position. The Church finally allowed its members to celebrate the new year with a baby, which was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.

The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.

Times Square Celebrations
The first Ball Lowering celebration atop One Times Square was held on December 31, 1907 and is now a worldwide symbol of the turn of the New Year, seen via satellite by more than one billion people each year. The original New Year's Eve Ball weighed 700 pounds and was 5 feet in diameter. It was made of iron and wood and was decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs.

How New Year is said around the world

Arabic: Kul 'aam u antum salimoun
Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo means "Good Parties and Happy New Year"
Chinese: Chu Shen Tan
Czechoslavakia: Scastny Novy Rok
Dutch: Gullukkig Niuw Jaar
Finnish: Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
French: Bonne Annee
German: Prosit Neujahr
Greek: Eftecheezmaenos o Kaenooryos hronos
Hebrew: L'Shannah Tovah Tikatevu
Hindi: Niya Saa Moobaarak
Irish (Gaelic): Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit
Italian: Buon Capodanno
Khmer: Sua Sdei tfnam tmei
Laotian: Sabai dee pee mai
Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
Portuguese: Feliz Ano Novo
Russian: S Novim Godom
Serbo-Croatian: Scecna nova godina
Spanish: Feliz Ano Neuvo
Prospero Ano Nuevo
Turkish: Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Vietnamese: Cung-Chuc Tan-Xuan

Carrying a Suitcase
In Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico, those with hopes of traveling in the New Year carry a suitcase around the house at midnight. Some even carry it around the block to ensure traveling at greater distances.
Getting out my suitcase now!!)






It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year.
It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.
My family has always said the first person across the threshold on New Year's Day should be a man. No one mentioned height or hair color.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle.
This is why the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.

Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by eating black-eyed peas (Yum! One of my fave traditions!!).
The beans are typically accompanied by either hog jowls, ham hocks or ham.
Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures.

The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity.

Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day.
Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency.

In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day.

More food trivia:
Eating noodles at midnight is a tradition at Buddhist temples in Japan.

A Pennsylvania Dutch/German new year's tradition is to eat pork and sauerkraut for good luck.

Eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight is traditional in Spain.

In the southern United States, eating greens (cabbage, collard, mustard, kale or spinach) is traditional. The greens represent money/prosperity.

Also some southerners believe eating cornbread at new years brings wealth.

In Denmark, boiled cod is a must at a new years celebration.

Hogmanay
The New Year in Scotland is called Hogmanay.
The people in Scotland have a unique ritual.
Barrels of tar are set afire and gradually rolled down the streets in the villages of Scotland.
This ritual symbolizes that the old year is burned up and New Year is going to begin.


Some of my Information was found:
here

Same Old Lang Syne

Love this Song!!! Sing along!

Booker T and the MGs Christmas

I LOVE this Song!! Booker T's version of Jingle Bells


Winter Wonderland


White Christmas