Thanksgiving Connections

I'm going to be upfront. I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving since I last visited my family in 2003. Living in England, it's just another day. I do try my hardest to remember to call my mom, but this year it's fingers crossed that she's around between the time that I wander in after collecting the Imp from nursery and when I go to bed.

One of the things that I've been contemplating today, after speaking with one of my course mates and an instructor about Thanksgiving, is how much world history we Americans aren't taught when we were growing up.  Since moving to England, and especially since moving to Lincolnshire in 2005, I have learned so much more about the 'back stories' to historical events in the United States, and it all finally makes sense in my head. I still couldn't remember most dates if my life depended on it, but I now feel like my knowledge of history has been greatly enhanced, and I'm now understanding the reasons behind some of the major historical events that I grew up with.

Take Thanksgiving for example. What do you remember? I remember being taught that the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower, landed on Plymouth Rock, and after a hard time the Indians shared their bounty. Yep. That's it...that's all I remember from school. I never thought to question where and why the Pilgrims actually left England. I was under the assumption that the were all from the same town...Plymouth, in Devonshire, on the southern coast of England. Moving up to Lincolnshire was quite an enlightenment. I have since found out that the Pilgrims were of a branch of Quakers called Separatists, who didn't get along well with the majority of the public, who were Church of England. Laws were being established demanding that everybody attend the national church. The original Separatist church was in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, which just outside of Doncaster. After several years of problems, the Pilgrim Fathers (as they're referred to over here) decided that it was time to leave. They couldn't get the paperwork that would allow them to leave the country, so they tried to sneak out by hiring a boat out of Boston, Lincolnshire (east coast). They were caught and arrested as they tried to board the boat. A year later, another attempt was made and successful, when they hired a Dutch merchant to take them from Immingham (just outside of Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire) to Leiden, Holland, which was successful, and they stayed there for twelve years. They then decided that they wanted to create their own colony in the Americas, bought a small ship called the Speedwell, and travelled to England to meet up with the Mayflower in Southampton. Leaving in August 1620, the Speedwell wasn't up to the journey, so they returned to Plymouth, piled all 102 people onto the Mayflower, and left again in September. After the rough journey, losing two people and gaining a baby, the Pilgrims finally dropped anchor in November. An advance party went ashore, but the majority of the colonists remained on the ship until December 23rd, when they departed the Mayflower to build Plymouth colony.

Here comes the reason for Thanksgiving. Because they had landed in December, the winter was difficult because they had not stored away crops. Forty people were lost. On 16 March 1621, an Indian leader approached them, greeting them in English that had been taught to him by English fishermen that wintered in the area. After signing a treaty with Samoset and another leader, Squanto, the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to farm the land. That autumn, the Indians were invited for a feast from the bounty of the harvests.

It really makes you think about the reasons behind some holidays. Yes, I still see Thanksgiving as a time to be thankful for what we have, and to spend time with family. But now I also see it as a time to celebrate religious freedom, through observing the trials and tribulations that the Pilgrims went through to arrive to America. Many of us of different faiths have continued to fight for what we believe, to find the place that is right for us. For the Pilgrim Fathers, that was the east coast America. Have you found your place?

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to all of my family and friends in the United States.
Mel

References:
http://stufffromthelab.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/why-did-the-pilgrims-come-to-the-new-world/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_(Plymouth_Colony)
http://www.mayflowermaid.com/

A bit of a shameless appeal for sponsorship...

I'm still quite busy, at the moment, but a bit of a shameless ask, the Imp will be doing a sponsored Sing-a-Long at nursery for this year's BBC Children in Need. I have set up a Just Giving page for if you have a bit spare that you'd be able to give to this worthy cause. Sophie has been working really hard on practising at home, and any little bit helps.


Thank you so much,
Mel

 

Recipe: Peanut Butter Squares (Originally Posted on Alternating Kitchen Witch on 13/02/09)

I don't normally have this recipe around until December, but seeing as though I've been in the mood for Yule and Christmas since, maybe, July, and I've had a special request for it, I think that now is the perfect time for me to repost it from my old blog to this one.

This recipe came to me from my mom, and it was passed to her by a friend. From the first year that she made it, it has become a necessity for the holiday season because everybody wants them. I've since introduced them to my friends here in the UK, and I get Witchy Kitty batting her eyes at me to beg to make it. I have altered it a little bit to accommodate for some of the ingredients being American, and one of the original ingredients not being gluten-intolerance friendly. As for the imported, that's only the butterscotch chips. (I think I have one bag remaining in my horde...hint hint to my mother :P). We can't get Karo Syrup over here, but I found that golden syrup works perfectly well.

And, enough of my waffle, here's the recipe that I've copied and pasted from my old cooking blog:


Heat:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of golden syrup (Karo Syrup is what the original recipe calls for)

Do not bring to a boil. Heat only until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from the heat and stir in:

• 2 cups of crunchy peanut butter
• 4 cups of Oataflake cereal, or Whole Earth Organic Corn Flakes (the original recipe calls for Special K, but, it's not wheat free-friendly.

Spread into roasting tray and allow to cool.

Melt 6 ounces each of:

• Coop Dark Chocolate (the original recipe calls for semi sweet chocolate bits...chocolate chips. I used a bar and a bit, so, get two bars).
• Butterscotch morsels (this is an American thing. You can buy them as an import here, in the UK, or maybe experiment with another type of chocolate...maybe white chocolate, melt it separately from the dark chocolate and swirl them when you do the top.)

Spread over the cooled mixture. After the topping cools, slice into 1 to 1 1/2 inch squares. (makes for perfect party table treats. My family normally has them for Christmas).

These are extremely moreish :D It's a recipe that I've gotten from my mother, who received it from a friend.

Witchy Kitty swears she hates peanut butter, but she adores these.

Brightest Blessings,
Mel

Epic Posting Fail

I am extremely guilt-ridden at the moment. I've been so busy with college that I've not had the mental capacity to post here on my blog. My goal was to post at least once or twice a week, and I've just looked, and I've not posted in a month. I truly, truly apologise. I've had a bit more work in college this year than the course was last year because I am taking Higher GCSE Maths as an extra class (I currently dream in numbers because I've been doing so much of it. Good thing I like Math) and the curriculum is a touch different. It is definitely time for a catch up, and hopefully things will be settling down into a better routine after this half term break for me to get back to my regular posting schedule.

I am really looking forward to Samhein. We will be celebrating a few days early, with friends coming to eat, drink and be merry here at home. We've not gotten together since the summer, so I'm stupidly excited. On the 31st itself, a couple friends will join me for jack o'lantern carving (I do the stencils on them). I have one or two pumpkins from the back garden that are big enough for me to carve, and I'll buy a bigger one from town tomorrow. Pumpkin carving for me is also harvesting my seeds to plant next year, and collecting the flesh that will be part of our pumpkin pies for the year. I will hold a private ritual before bed, honouring my family, ancestors and friends that have passed on this year.

I've witnessed some spectacular natural events over the past week. The skies over Lincoln have been clear enough at night to spot a few shooting stars from the Orionid Meteor Shower, and it's been a wrench when I've gone to sort the quails out at 11pm to go inside. Today was another spectacular scene as the Imp and I stood in the rain waiting for a bus with The Witchy Kitty and her family. There was a huge double rainbow over the city, with the end of one of the rainbows hitting the cathedral. Absolutely stunning, and I couldn't help but attempt to take some photos (Witchy Kitty and I decided to race to see who would post first, and she will also be cross posting me)

Just down the road, you should be able to spot Lincoln Cathedral

Shooting stars and rainbows actually hold a lot of meaning to me. Memories of high school marching band...serenading the band directors in the early hours of one morning during the week before State Marching Finals and the Leonid Meteor Shower being extremely active at 4am as we shivered and played through the entire program. And, when I was most stressed with the preparations, feeling the presence of my grandmother and spotting a rainbow around the sun, every year of the morning of State. The memories of my grandmother are the strongest, and still there whenever I spot a rainbow, or get the scent of gardenia when there are none around. I see her in the Imp, and have since I fell pregnant with her.

Well, this is the time for memories and renewal for me, and I feel utterly renewed with finally getting the chance for a clear mind that has allowed me to blog a new post. Here's to fingers crossed that it continues.

Mel

P.S.
Good luck to the Greenwood Marching Woodmen on your trip to Saturday's 2011 ISSMA State Finals.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie (Gluten Free)

Not many of the English have ever tried a proper, American-style pumpkin pie. Just like with my Apple Butter, it takes some getting your head around it. I know that I've got a couple of friends that should try it again, because they had it straight out of the oven, which isn't as nice as after it's cooled down.

Growing up, pumpkin pie was only served on Thanksgiving, and it was either shop-bought, or the pumpkin came out of the tin. Having my own place, I now grow a few pumpkins in my back garden. If I need bigger ones for carving, once I clean the gross stuff out, I scrape the flesh so it's quite thin (it makes it easier for carving, especially when you use stencils), and save it. I tend to put it in 2 to 2 1/2 cup amounts into a zipper bag, and just toss it into the freezer until I want it.

And, I don't just make pumpkin pie in the autumn. Since I'm no longer in the States, I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving since I last visited my family in 2003. I make it whenever I fancy it. We always have it for Yule and Christmas, in my house, and the Imp's Grumpy gets a pumpkin pie for his birthday in June.  I miss having "Cool Whip" on top, but I get by with squirty cream.

The recipe that I use is from Michelle Jones, of BetterBudgeting.com . I use my own gluten free basic pastry recipe, but I'm needing to experiment with how to get it to not glue itself to my metal pie plate in the baking process...I'm thinking either greasing the pan, rolling the pastry instead of pressing it in like I normally do (since I'm getting better at rolling it out without it disintegrating), and/or layering baking paper underneath.

But, here's the recipe that Ms. Jones posted, along with the alterations that I make:

Ingredients:

1 unbaked pie crust (deep dish, if you are getting store bought) 
2 c. fresh pumpkin purée (or canned pumpkin) (I steam my pumpkin flesh before puréeing it, but you can also roast it)
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (I use the Carnation condensed Milk, and one tin will do, whether it be the normal or Light)
2 large eggs (in the lifetime that my quails start laying, I'm waiting to try using their eggs...it will take approximately 10)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I have a thing for cinnamon, so I do the 'this looks about right' method, and use quite a bit)
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
(If you like the spicier pies, add 1/2 tsp. cloves, I do not use them.)(I do put the cloves in, it's Ms. Jones that doesn't)

Directions:

Combine filling ingredients with mixer and pour into pastry shell.  Place a folded piece of foil around the crust to prevent over-baking.  Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees (220C/Gas Mark 7) then reduce heat to 350 degrees (180C/Gas Mark 4) and continue to bake for 35-40 minutes longer (or until knife inserted 1-inch from the edge comes out clean and not gooey).  

Remove pie from oven and cool on wire rack for about an hour or so.  Serve pie slices with a dollop of whipped cream.  Refrigerate leftovers; if there are any!

For the future, I do cross a lot between American and English recipes. If I forget to write out what I've converted (such as the original of this recipe only had the temperatures in Fahrenheit), my favourite site for conversions is this one: onlineconversion.com/cooking.htm

Joy Pockets (260911)

Yet another busy one for us, but we've had some lovely times in between the exhausting ones.

• Finding out that I will be able to do the higher GCSE in Maths as a blended, independent learning class alongside the foundation class that is part of my Access course. I'm extremely happy with this, as it will give me one of my first English educational certificates.
• The Saturday morning kiddy show at the cinema. According to the Imp, we were watching 'blue quails', and she really liked them (we went to see "Rio", which is about a blue macaw). We followed it with a bit of retail therapy and lunch, and with all the rush around me being in college and her in nursery, it was nice spending time outside of being home.
• I now have all of the bits that I need for our planned homemade Yule and Christmas gifts.
• Being told by the Imp that biscuits make her tummy feel all better. She was a bit poorly yesterday, and didn't eat more than a slice of toast and a couple of prawn crackers. I figured that she actually was feeling better this morning, but she was afraid to eat, so her stomach didn't appreciate it. I phoned a friend to bring her some digestive biscuits, and she's now back to being all smiles and chattering away. We don't have them in the house, because I can't have them, but they seem to be doing a better job than my poor attempt at making her toast yesterday (we don't own a toaster, because we don't need one).

So, what are your Joy Pockets for the week?

Happy Autumn!

Well, I had started a post on Ancestry and Pathways, but I wasn't happy with the direction that it was taking, so it's now been deleted. I am honestly trying to get back into the swing of my regular posting regime, but the thoughts aren't flowing without sounding pompous, confused, and/or ignorant. Oh, well...we all have days like these.

The equinox has recently come and gone, and I completely missed that specific day out of busyness and complete exhaustion. Oops. Well, not really.  Outside of the Samhein, I find it quite difficult to pinpoint a specific day for my personal celebrations. Yule gets rather close, but it gets celebrated on the best day that I can get all of my friends organised and here on the same day, sort of close to when everybody else actually observes it. I'm pretty sure, though, that if I were regularly observing with a group, we might get close to some of the other Sabbats I have seen other Pagans and Heathens that get into an absolute flit over trying to make sure that they can observe a Sabbat on a very specific day.

One thing that we have to remember is that our ancestral tribes didn't have paper or electronic calendars to worship, oops, I mean Observe, such as we do. They'd have a few people that kept track of the moon and the stars. And the weather...we can't forget the weather. You couldn't throw that first or second harvest festival until those harvest actually started to come in, and that depended on what the weather was doing. You'd count your own age by how many moons or seasons had passed. The Chinese have named their years by a rotation of twelve animals. The Celts calculated by thirteen lunar months named after trees that were common during those months (I will be researching both of these calendars, soon, for future posts).

I regularly get teased by Witchy Kitty because of the obvious lack of clocks in my house. There is one in the kitchen, that came with the house. The only calendar in the house was bought by somebody else, and regularly doesn't get changed until we're one or two, sometimes three, weeks into a month. I don't wear a watch, but I do set multiple alarms on my mobile, and I'm making a conscious attempt to add specific dates to my Google Calendar, which will send an alarm (or three, depending on how many I've set) to my mobile. I'm early for most things, or I'll have a panic attack. But, for the most part, I run on what's jokingly referred to as 'Pagan Standard Time'. If I don't have to be there at a specific time, I will get there when I do. It's been a few hours into daylight...I'm starting to get hungry, so maybe I'll go eat something. It's a couple of hours past sunset...I'm kind of tired, it's probably time for bed.

Today feels like a good day to do my seasonal clean-up of the house, and I feel the desire to do some baking tomorrow. So, I may seem a bit late to some of you, but because the day is just right for me, Happy Autumn Solstice!