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What’s not to like about fritters? Small cakes of dough fried up in butter or oil, hmmm. Fritters can be savoury or sweet. You may wish to at least dream about one of the recipes below today.
St Bibiana, aka Saint Viviana, is the Patron Saint of Drunks. History Notes Bibiana’s family were Christians in Rome during the persecutions of the Emperor Julian. She was martyred sometime around 361 to 363. In fact, the only thing we know for sure about her life that is a basilica was consecrated in Rome to...
Lord knows at times who picks these days. Our traditional concept of Gazpacho involves tomatoes, and tomatoes certainly aren’t at their best or cheapest at this time of the year anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Plus, with the sleet, cold rain or snow starting to come in sideways, you’d probably be more tempted by a...
St Nicholas, aka Sinterklaas, is the protector of children. As Sinterklaas, he brings gifts for them in the Netherlands. He jumps from housetop to housetop on a white horse (that children leave hay and carrots for.) He leaves in their shoes gifts such as coins which they find on the morning of the 6th. Now...
Brownies are relatively easy to make and as such, they are a good way to get those old grey cells limbered up for the serious baking that lays ahead in the next few weeks.
In Sweden, today is called “Luciadagen.” It marks the start of Christmas celebrations in Sweden, and the start of a festival of lights. St Lucy celebrations got mingled with old pagan winter solstice customs. A young woman would dress up in white and go from house to house with a torch bringing baked goods, often...
Saturnalia in Rome was a week-long winter celebration, during which the Winter Solstice occurred. It was celebrated for over 500 years. It was a time of fun and gift giving. People would give each other candles as gifts, as well as sprigs of holly. Small dolls made of porcelain or clay were given to children....
Bake Cookies Day is a good time to get the last of your Christmas baking done, if you're so inclined.
Forefather’s Day is celebrated in the New England area of America to commemorate when the pilgrims landed on 21 December 1620. It’s particularly marked in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with ceremonies jointly led by the Old Colony Club and the Mayflower Society. A meal served includes a version of succotash that has large pieces of meat in...
Tom Bawcock’s Eve is celebrated in the village of Mousehole (pronounced “Mowzel”) in Cornwall, near Penzance, England. A fishing village of winding, narrow streets, Mousehole is the place most closely associated with Stargazey Pie on account of the “Mousehole Cat” story. The village was near starvation one winter on the 23rd of December, as continued...
Nobody really needs a reminder to have Egg Nog at this time of year, but perhaps it's a reminder to get your fill while you still can.
The early Church in Jerusalem celebrated Christ's birth on the Epiphany (6th January.) In the final quarter of the 4th century , the Jerusalem Church switched to the practice of the Church in Rome of celebrating it on the 25th December
The 26th of December, the day after Christmas, is an official holiday in the Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
The 26th of December has been dubbed Candy Cane Day, though no one seems to know quite by whom. Perhaps it was some mother, starting to panic over how many candy canes from this year would be left over.
Kwanzaa is a week-long festival that starts 26 December and goes until 1 January. It is an American-invented holiday now being promoted as a world-wide holiday (some wags joke that it was invented by Boxing Day deprived Americans.) The colours of the festival are red, black and green, and the terminology used is all Swahili....
The plainer name for Bicarbonate of Soda Day is really just "baking soda day", but though sadly that doesn't have the same cachet, does it? To mark the day, you could bake something that uses baking soda.
Hogmanay, New Year’s Eve in Scotland, is arguably a bigger date in the Scottish calendar than Christmas — so big, that people even have the 1st and the 2nd of January off of work in Scotland. Any household chores that have been started have to be finished by Hogmanay; it is considered bad luck to...