Celebrating Leap Day

A story for children of all ages, by Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875

Once upon a time, the days of the week wanted to cut loose, get together, and have a party. Every day was so busy that throughout the year they never had any free time left over; they needed a whole day. And  then they realized they had one every four years: Leap Day, which is added to February every leap year to keep order in the calendar.

So they decided to get together on February 29 for the party, and since February is also the month of Mardi Gras and Carnival, they decided to show up in carnival costumes of their own choice and inclination. They would eat well, drink well, make speeches, and tell each other the good and the bad in open friendship. In the old days, the Vikings tossed gnawed bones at each others’ heads during a banquet; the days of the week, on the other hand, would pelt each other with puns and sharp satire, all in the innocent spirit of carnival fun.

Leap day came, and so did the days of the week.

Sunday, the chairman of the days, showed up in black silk. Pious people might think that he was dressed as a minister going to church, but the worldly saw that he was dressed in festive garb to go out on the town, and that the red carnation he had in his button hole was a symbol of the little red light that they turn on at the theater ticket box to indicate that a performance has no empty seats: “All sold out! Now be sure to have a good time, everyone!”

Monday, a young person and a relative of Sunday, and very fun-loving, followed behind. He left work, he said, at the changing of the guard. “I must go out to hear the music of Offenbach,” he said. “It doesn’t go to my head or to my heart; it tickles my leg muscles, and then I must dance, have some drinks, get a black eye, sleep it off, and then go back to work the next day. I am the youngster in the week.”

Tuesday is the day of the bull, the day of strength. “Yes, that’s me,” said Tuesday. “I do my work with a firm hand. I put Mercury’s wings on the shopkeepers’ boots, see that the factory wheels are well-oiled and turning, make sure that the tailor is sitting at his bench and the street repairmen are repairing the streets. Everyone does his job! I oversee everything, and that is why I am dressed in a police uniform and call myself Polituesday. If that is a bad pun, you try to find one that is better!”

“Now  it’s my turn,” said Wednesday. “I stand in the middle of the week. The Germans call me Herr Mittwoch (Mr. Midweek).  I stand as the floorwalker in the shop, like a flower in between the other honorable days of the week. When we all march together I have three days in front of me and three days behind me; it’s like an honor guard. I just have to believe that I am the most esteemed day in the week.”

Thursday came dressed as a copper smith with a hammer and copper kettle, the symbols of his noble descent. “I am of the highest birth. Pagan and divine.  In the northern European countries I am named for Thor, and in the southern countries for Jupiter. They both knew how to thunder and lighten, and this remains in the family!” Then he banged on his copper kettle to show his great nobility.

Friday was dressed as a young girl and called herself Freya, and also sometimes Venus (it depends on which language was used in whatever country she happened to be in). She was usually quiet and mild, she said, but today she was smart and lively. After all it was leap day, and that frees women. So she can dare, according to the old custom, to take the initiative to propose and not wait to be proposed to.

Saturday turned up as an old housekeeper with broom and cleaning supplies. Her favorite dish was beer and bread porridge, but she didn’t insist, at this festive occasion, that it be set on the table for everyone, just for her. And she got it.

Then the days of the week took their places at the table.

Now all seven have been presented for a family tableau. We give them here simply as a jest in February, the only month that has an extra day.

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Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a prolific Danish author in many genres, but is known today mostly for his tales told to children. This is one of the lesser-known of the 212 eventyrer. “Ugedagene” was published in 1872; the first mentions of the story in Andersen’s diary are in March of 1868, a leap year. Translated from the Danish by Susanne Bjørner with reference to an English translation by Jean Hersholt (1886-1956).

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Sunday Dinner, South African Style

We entertained today with a special dinner benefiting St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church. I had been thinking about offering this dinner to their annual fund-raiser auction since we visited Cape Town last August. I bought a cookbook there, the West Coast Cookbook, which is a cultural treasure. From this volume, I learned more about South African fish than I could ever put into practice, sad to say.

I read through the fall and winter months and soon realized that I had made a small error. All those great fish recipes were wonderful, but they required fish that I had never heard of! I should have realized that the fish off the west coast of South African were nothing like the ones I knew from New England, the seas around Denmark, or even from the Mediterranean coast of Spain. There were detailed descriptions of angelfish, galjoen, kingclip, and snoek, but the only one I recognized was hake, which this said was commonly called stockfish.  The first fish recipe I tried was "St. Helena Bay fish pie," a deep-dish baked fish casserole with mashed potato topping. It called only for "white fish fillets," and I found fillet of flounder. The best part of this effort was the mashed potato topping! The West Coast Cookbook makes large recipes--most for eight people--and I served this pie twice for our dinner, gave away one helping, and threw the rest in the trash! I think the problem was that I used frozen founder, and both the freezing and the lack of body in the flat flounder contributed to little taste. Looking at the recipe now, I can see how I might tackle it again differently,

In the meantime, however, I found "Fish Soup in a Potjie,"and since a potjie pot is one of the utensils that is unique to South Africa, and since I had brought a spice mix called potjiekos back with me, I next tried that. Learning from experience, I made half a recipe to start with. This recipe requires "1 kg whole Hottentot or any line fish," and I wondered what "line fish" is (one that is caught on a fishing line as opposed to gathered up in a net? No matter, I decided on cod, nice full-bodied fresh cod, possibly frozen before it reached the fish counter in my market, but at least showing no signs of a frozen state when it came to my eyes. The recipe also called for cooking the soup with the head of the fish in it, and removing the head before serving. Well, I never even saw the head and I don't think anyone is any the worse for it. This soup turned out to be a winner--my favorite brother-in-law told me today it was the highlight of the dinner--but not without some alteration on my part, including a boost with Knorr seafood bouillon that I found in Portugal, and the addition of a generous two teaspoons of that potjiekos spice (with no package indication of its ingredients, but it certainly includes pepper) I had brought back from South Africa.

My highlight of the dinner however, was the bobotjie, which had been my first meal in Cape Town, and one of the best. I didn't find a meat bobotjie recipe in this west coast cookbook, but I found several on the Internet; I tried this recipe out twice ahead of time and made only one small change in the method. So with the fish soup and bobotjie, I had my first and main courses set, but I continued to read from the cookbook for accompaniments. As I read through the various recipes, I noted several that said "often served on Sunday." It seemed only natural, then, to make this gift dinner a Sunday dinner experience. We did, with guests arriving shortly after their morning gatherings, and we had a very pleasant afternoon of different food and interesting conversation. The topics touched on several countries in the southern hemisphere, teaching from kindergarten to college level, astronomy, physics, time travel, mushrooms, hallucinogens, church, and Jesus, plus several more when I was in the kitchen. Here is the final menu of what we ate and drank:

Sunday Dinner,  South African Style

Welcome

Wine: The Royal Chenin Blanc

Valley Vineyards, South Africa

First Course

Fish Soup in a Potjie

Yellow Pumpkin Bread

Wine: Goats do Roam, 2014

Fair Vineyards, South Africa

Main Course

Bobotjie

Spiced minced beef pie with egg topping

Yellow Rice with Raisins

Green Bean Salad

Beetroot and Onion Salad

 Wine: The Royal Pinotage Shiraz, 2013

Valley Vineyards, South Africa

Dessert

Melktert

A custard tart with more milk than egg

South Africans celebrate National Milk Tart Day on February 27 each year.

Crème de Menthe Liqueur

"The Last of the 60s!"

 

The Sisters in the '60s

   


Yesterday was the last day that the four "Nicklet girls" could all honestly say that their age was sixty-something. We were four daughters who grew up together in a small town in Ohio and then all went our very separate ways for the next 40-some years. One by one we have now reassembled in Cincinnati and live close to, but not with, each other. So on this last day that we could all claim to be in our sixties, we celebrated with a "Last of the 60s" party.

The Sisters in Their 60s

If you've done the math, or if you are from our era, you know that we all spent some of our youth during the 1960s. Our menu, therefore, was based on '60s food favorites and products that were introduced during the decade. You may be surprised to know how many products were launched in the '60s and are still going strong (as we are, of course!).

Appetizers

Lipton French onion soup and sour cream dip

Ruffles potato chips (1964)

Pringles (Proctor & Gamble, 1969)

Bugles (General Mills, 1964)

Easy Cheese (Nabisco, 1966)

Carrots, celery and radishes (the only fresh vegetables we ate regularly)

Stuffed eggs

Main Course

Tuna casserole with frozen peas (introduced by Green Giant in 1961), Mikesells (local brand) potato chips, and of course, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup

Heart-shaped Jello fruit molded salad on lettuce leaf

Crescent rolls and refrigerator biscuits (Pillsbury, 1959)

Dessert

Apple crumb pie (Pet-Ritz Frozen Pie Crust, 1962) with Granny Smith apples (introduced in the USA in 1960) and topped with Cool Whip (launched by General Foods in 1965)

Beverages

Ocean Spray Cran-Apple Fruit Juice (1965)

Diet Pepsi (1965) and Sprite (1961)

(both in tab-opening aluminum cans, first sold in 1962)

Tang (General Foods, 1964)

Taster's Choice freeze-dried coffee (Nestle, 1966)

Cremora (from Borden in 1963)

I tried very hard to find 3.2 beer, which was the only beer that we would have drunk in the '60s if we drank anything alcoholic at all, which we didn't. Research told me, however, that 3.2 beer disappeared from Ohio in 1982.  Fortunately, one of us had a "leftover" bottle of champagne, and that was enjoyed by all.

This party was  made even more fun by reference to The Food Timeline, http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#60snewproducts.

We appreciate the good cheer and support shared by our husbands and brothers-in-law, Phil Henry and Johannes Bjorner.

Portugal Holiday

We returned this past Friday from a two-week holiday in Portugal. Although we lived in Spain for ten years, we had never made it to Portugal, Spain's western neighbor on the Iberian peninsula. From our time in Spain, we knew we were not going to a tropical paradise--I wrote too often about how cold the winters were in Spain. But we expected sun and light and somewhat warmer temperatures than those that had recently begun to creep into Cincinnati. We were right for most of the time.

Our first two nights were in Lisbon, where we had a beautiful and comfortable hotel within walking distance of the port and the Bairro Alto (the upper neighborhood), where we enjoyed the views, good fish, and fado music. We thought Cincinnati was hilly, but the Cincinnati hills have nothing on those in Lisbon. We walked up and we walked down. I felt it in my legs the next day when I woke up. In fact, my calves did not get back to normal for an entire week. When we moved to Porto on the third day of our holiday, we discovered hills there, too. Lots of them.

In Porto we had a fantastic apartment with cooking facilities and an open kitchen and living room, in addition to the bedroom and bath.  We liked it so much that we immediately extended our planned three-day visit to six. We were conveniently located in the Cathedral area, a stone's throw from the São Bento train station. It served as a great  central point for our walks down to the port area (and then back up), two excursions on the yellow hop-on, hop-off city bus tour, a day trip to Guimarães, the birthplace of the Portuguese nation, a metro ride to the Casa de Música for a Carnaval concert the Sunday night before Ash Wednesday, and daily trips to the nearby grocery store for provisions for breakfast and our evening meals.

Surprisingly, we started to get little drizzles of rain the last day we were in Porto, and the cloudy weather continued after we returned to Lisbon for three more nights.  Our apartment near the Santa Apolónia station wasn't quite as nice as the one we had in Porto, but it was adequate, and we had two days there to see a different part of the city. The last day we took a local train out to Gare do Oriente to be close to the airport for an early flight the following morning. This is a modern and bustling new part of the city, and we enjoyed the shopping mall and seeing the outside of the convention center.

It was a relaxing trip, one we needed after the intense preceding month, and we find that with this vacation we no longer race around trying to see as much as we can see. One planned sightseeing or cultural event a day, a meal out, shopping for and preparing a meal in, keeping up with emails and Facebook (Johannes posted most about our sightseeing), some reading, writing, TV, or iPad games is about the right speed.

We came home refreshed and pretty much relaxed.