A Crown and Braided Bread for St. Lucia Day

For a digital download of this cute Lucia crown, go here

Tomorrow is St. Lucia day, so I wanted to share a link for a paper Lucia candle crown you can download and make (go here) and some pictures my daughter sent of their Lucia bread baking day...

Celebrate by reading a book! Go here to my past post for Saint Lucia book recommendations.

Baked with Love

My maternal grandmother, "Grandma", fell asleep in the Lord on this day 20 years ago!  An accomplished musician and music lover, she was the church organist at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN for many years.  She was also a piano teacher.

Three generations: my Grandma, my Mom,
and me.

But that didn't mean much to us, her six grandchildren.  What mattered to us was her love, given freely in hugs, a listening ear and thankful heart, and her homemade chocolate chip cookies!  The best I've ever had...probably because they were baked with so much love!

I treasure my copy of her recipe, carefully written in her own handwriting.  It makes me feel all warm and safe inside to see her precise lettering - I'm a little girl again, at her side in her retro kitchen.

And tonight in my kitchen, it was almost as if she was here with me as I leveled off the flour in the measuring cup with the back of a butter knife, just like she taught me.  But in reality I was creating new memories, as I let my grandson help stir the chocolate chips into the batter and lick the spoon.

Every year I try to make up a batch of her cookies on the anniversary of her death or on her birthday. But they never taste quite as good as hers did!

Tomorrow, my grandson and I will have the cookies with some milk.
And we'll look at old photos of Great-Great Grandma, whom he never met.
And we'll probably read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. 
And laugh and laugh.
My Grandma would love it!
And she'll laugh too, as she watches from Heaven.

Giveaway Part Two: A Saint Nicholas Tale

I'm adding a book to my St. Nicholas Day Springerle Cookie Giveaway! UPDATED 12/6: GIVEAWAY OVER

The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale, was written by Aaron Shepard, and sumptuously illustrated by Wendy Edelson.

If you saw my last post, you know I'm really excited about my "sweet" Cookie Giveaway from Springerle Bakery (go HERE for details).

Did you know that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of bakers?

Saint Nicholas
Patron Saint of Bakers

Copyright © 2002-2011 St. Nicholas Center

I know your kids will love The Baker's Dozen - it's a story about a baker from "the Dutch colonial town later known as Albany, New York."  His name is Van Amsterdam, and he is well known for his honesty as well as for his fine Saint Nicholas cookies. 

He always gives his customers exactly what they paid for -- not more and not less. So, he was not about to give in when a mysterious old woman came to him on Saint Nicholas Day and insisted that a dozen was thirteen!

The woman's curse puts an end to the baker's business, and he believes it would take Saint Nicholas to help him. But if he receives that help, will it be exactly what he expects? 

You'll have to read this story to find out the surprising ending.  It teaches a good lesson about the joy of giving.  And you can make your own St. Nicholas cookies! Aaron has included the recipe at the end of the book (it's also on his website, HERE).

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
(The Springerle Bakery can only ship to addresses in the U.S., so to be eligible for this giveaway, you must live in the U.S.)
How to enter -
1- Leave a comment here between now and December 5 at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on this post and any others I post through December 5, 2013, to enter this giveaway.
2- Leave a comment on Facebook ("likes" don't count, must be a comment) when I link to any blog posts between now and 11:59 p.m. (PST) on December 5, 2013, to enter this giveaway.
3- Enter as many times as you like between now and 12/5/13.
Giveaway winner announced -
Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on December 5, 2013. The winner of this giveaway will be chosen using List Randomizer and announced on St. Nicholas Day - Friday December 6, 2013, at 7:00 a.m. (PST).
Shipping -
1- The winner needs to contact me via e-mail (wendyb[spam]1963@[spam]sbcglobal[dot]net) with their mailing address by 11:59 p.m. (PST) on Saturday, December 7, 2013.  If not, a new winner will be chosen.  
2- The winner's mailing address will also be given to The Springerle Bakery so that the cookies can be shipped on December 10, 2013.

The Litany of Laundry (and other ordinary things)

 Etsy

Housework or "home-making" can seem tedious: the daily ritual of chores that once completed, only needs to be done again and again.  For parents, "making a home" is the never-ending work of meeting the needs of others.

Laundry.
Cooking.
Dishes.
Making beds.
Dusting.
Cleaning bathrooms.

"When considered in terms of their enormous life-giving importance, the feeding and clothing of a family and maintaining of a household can be undertaken in the contemplative spirit. They become, like prayer and worship, acts of love that transform us and, in turn, the larger world around us."

-Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries

Just as the sun comes up every morning and sets every evening, housework, too, is repetitious and has to be done over and over, but it certainly does not need to necessarily equate monotonous or futile drudgery.

Mother and Daughter Wash Day, 1870 [source]

No matter how busy our schedules are, many of these daily tasks, "quotidian mysteries", can be enjoyable and fulfilling.  Haven't we all experienced the satisfying feeling of walking into an orderly room, with the bed made and clothes put away? And who doesn't look forward to the aroma of freshly baked bread? Or the crisp feel of clean sheets, just brought in from the clothesline (okay, maybe towels, warm and soft - straight from the dryer - are more your style)?

Housekeeping may seem mundane, but it's not simple!  Industrialization did not eliminate or reduce "women's work", it vastly increased the productivity of women working at home. Doing the important things (providing healthy meals and a clean - not immaculate - home, reading aloud to your children), and not being constantly led to the point of distraction by the urgent things (telephone calls, emails, unplanned interruptions, etc.) can be challenging.  Sometimes the important and urgent intersect.  We need to take time management seriously and set priorities for the different seasons of our family life.

Another challenge with keeping house can be one's expectations.  Pinterest is fun and helpful (I even have a practical "Quotidian: Daily Care of Home and Family" Board), but this current fad can also be a source of distraction and unrealistic expectations - which can lead to procrastination.  Margaret Kim Peterson, in her book Keeping House, notes:

"There has surely always been a gap between the way people keep their houses and the way they would like ideally to keep them.  But many of us, I suspect, are demoralized by the task of keeping house in part because we know that our houses, no matter how well kept, will never look like the palaces in the dream house publications.  And so we give up, preferring unattainable ideals to less than perfect realities."

Realistic?  No - Architectural Digest Home Library [source].

Her answer to avoiding this temptation?  Humility and gratitude for what we have, and willingness to create in our homes and habits "enough order and tidiness to promote convenience and peace and hospitality."

What's got me thinking about all this?  My soon-to-be-born grandchild and a new, old-fashioned restaurant...

I've enjoyed watching my daughter, Mary, wash and meticulously fold all the newborn baby boy clothes her sister-in-law recently passed down her.  I could hardly wait to present Mary with my baby-smell-in-a-box-secret:  Ivory Snow.  She's been gleefully doing laundry ever since, busily nesting while she awaits the arrival of her little one.

Speaking of waiting, after eight weeks of being on bed rest to avoid pre-term labor, my daughter is up and around now (and due in two weeks)!  Yesterday we went out (we made our beds first, of course) for a visit to her hospital and an enjoyable late morning breakfast at a new restaurant/bakery I've been excited to take her to: Le Pain Quotidien (literally "Daily Bread").

Le Pain Quotidien, Newport Beach

Amazing, right?  We had a frittata and fruit, too.

Mommy Mary and Baby Peter are doing great!

Kids can learn a lot about the joys of hospitality and home-making from books: Laura and Mary were constantly helping Ma and Pa with chores and cooking in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And I love this picnic scene from The Wind in the Willows --

“... he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.” ― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Books about Housekeeping and Laundry:
The Quotidian Mysteries, by Kathleen Norris (for Moms)

The Tale of Miss Tiggy-Winkle, by Beatrix Potter (for kids)

We Help Mommy, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin (Little Golden Book)

Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems (lost bunny at a laundromat!)


Books about Baking Bread:
Sun Bread, by Elisa Kleven. Winter's gray chill has set in and everyone misses the sun-especially the baker. So she decides to bring some warmth to the town by making sun bread. And as the bread bakes, rising hot and delicious, everyone comes out to share in its goodness. Everyone, including the sun itself. With a lilting, rhyming text, colorful illustrations, and a recipe for baking your own sun bread
 
The Woman and the Wheat, by Jane Meyer.  An excellent choice for teaching children about the mystery of the bread that becomes food from heaven, in Holy Communion.  And Jane has an excellent blog about baking - see my past post about her books and website/blog, here.


You might also enjoy my past post about cooking/food/books:  The Secret Ingredient: Learning (& Fun!)

BELGIAN COOKIES FOR ST. NICHOLAS DAY

On December 5th, the evening before St. Nicholas Day, children in Belgium put their shoes (or small baskets) on the hearth - along with hay, water, carrots, and a sugar lump for the saint's horse, with a glass of wine for the saint. The children may also include a picture they've drawn (or a list) showing what they would like. They believe St. Nicholas rides on horseback over the rooftops, dropping his gifts down their chimneys. What do they find in their shoes the next day?  Chocolate, oranges, marzipan, small toys, and ...speculoos cookies!

Originating in Belgium and the Netherlands, speculoos cookies were first traditionally baked to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. The name may derive from the Latin speculum, "mirror", in reference to the bas-relief image of Saint Nick stamped into the cookies. These cookies (some very large) are still displayed every year on December 6 in the windows of Dandoy, in Brussels.

Alternatively, the name of these thin, crunchy cookies could have been derived from specerij, the Dutch word for "spices". The cookies are flavored with holiday spices—cardamom, cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg—plus white pepper. Less spicy and sweeter than gingerbread, speculoos cookies make a perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of coffee or cocoa.

Biscoff (as in "BIScuits for COFFee") is the most readily available brand of speculoos cookies. An all-natural (nut-free) spread is made of the ground spéculoos cookies.  And it's lucious! It was created in 2007 on a Belgian reality TV show contest seeking the year's best new invention. The spéculoos spread made by contestant Els Scheppers was a top finalist.

My daughter discovered this spread when she and her husband were living in France. As of about two months ago, and to our extreme delight, it's finally available in the U.S.  You have to try it on apple slices!

By the way, did you know that St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of bakers?

Saint Nicholas
Patron Saint of Bakers

Copyright © 2002-2011 St. Nicholas Center

What does all this have to do with children's books?  I found two wonderful picture books about baking to share with you today. (Even St. Nicholas would have liked them!)

The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale, by Aaron Shepard, gorgeously illustrated by Wendy Edelson (Make your own St. Nicholas cookies!  Aaron has included the recipe here, on his website).

Van Amsterdam the baker was well known for his honesty as well as for his fine Saint Nicholas cookies. He always gave his customers exactly what they paid for -- not more and not less. So, he was not about to give in when a mysterious old woman comes to him on Saint Nicholas Day and insists that a dozen is thirteen! The woman's curse puts an end to the baker's business, and he believes it would take Saint Nicholas to help him. But if he receives that help, will it be exactly what he imagined? This is a great way to teach young children about the the joy of giving, and about the life of St. Nicholas.

Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, with cute illustrations by Jane Dyer.

Similar to Rosenthal and Dyer’s previous book, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons (2006), this adorable picture book offers a variety of terms defined in child-friendly ways, while relating to the theme of Christmas cookies: FRUSTRATED means, "I can’t believe we burned them again" / PERSEVERANCE means, "We tried and tried and tried, and finally we made the perfect non-burned batch,”/ and HOPE means, "I’m filled with good feelings about what will be.”

A variety of cutely dressed children and animals are depicted throughout the book with a little carryover of characters from one picture to the next. A sugar-cookie recipe is included in this "sweet" and wholesome Christmas story. Ages 3-6.

Happy St. Nicholas Day tomorrow, and Happy Reading!