Porridge Tales from Grandma's Kitchen

Many was the happy hour of my childhood which I spent in my grandmother's kitchen. I was fascinated by the tales of her own childhood which she would share with me as I stirred a pot for her, or watched her making scones. The most fascinating tale of all for me was the one of The Porridge Drawer.

Apparently when my Gran was a little girl her kitchen had a special wooden drawer into which was poured homemade porridge. This idea really caught my imagination. I would visualize gloopy oatmeal being poured into a drawer, which was presumably then closed up, hiding the contents from view. In my experience drawers were for keeping underwear in, which made the tale all the more fascinating! I would ask about this over and over. Each time I was told that the porridge was left to cool. Later it was cut into blocks which were given to family members to pack with them for lunch. Frugality was the order of the day; I've no idea whether there was anything other than porridge available at those meals, but I suspect not.

Nowadays I'm not a true Scot. I eat my porridge with dried fruit or with honey, and not just with salt. I'm totally spoiled and always have milk available to make it creamy. I even, more often than not, resort to the microwave to make my oatmeal. I've not forgotten my Scottish roots though and I own a real wooden porridge spurtle, which was passed down to me from an older generation. When the mood is right, I enjoy stirring my oats while they bubble and gloop. With a touch of patience my porridge turns creamy and smooth ready to "stick to my ribs" and keep my appetite satisfied until lunchtime.

Here are some porridge and oat related learning links for you to explore:

• Scottish porridge tradition and trivia and The World Porridge Making Championships where the winner gets the Golden Spurtle!
• Porridge has it's place in history. Read about porridge then learn about Scots history with an Edinburgh experimental archaeology group.
• Here's a little insight on peas porridge and cooking in medieval times.
• A musical lesson on Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow.
• Recipes at Quaker Oats - they have a whole section of kid pleasing recipes.
• A very comprehensive lesson plan that explains all about the different kinds of oats and the benefits of having them in your diet (suitable for elementary ages).

Grain mills and oats at Amazon.com. Usborne books which contain oat recipes: Starting Cooking contains muesli and oatmeal bar recipes; Children's Book of Baking contains apple squares and cherry crumble cake; Healthy Cookbook contains granola and peachy crumble.

The Christmas Season

Whether you celebrate Christmas as a secular or religious festival, or focus on some other holiday at this time of year, there is much to be said for the joy of sharing a winter festival with family and friends. Today is the Winter Solstice, which was always a very welcome day to me when I lived in Scotland.

If you've never been to Scotland, or looked at it on the globe, it's actually pretty far north. The winter dark can be depressing. Just the intellectual understanding that days lengthen after the solstice can be a boost to getting through the cold, dreary days of winter. For a Scottish solstice sunrise take a look at LindaB's Occasional Scotland.

Yesterday I was awarded a Christmas Spirit Award by Kailana at The Written World. I'd like to thank Kailana and participate by listing 5 things I love about the Christmas season.

1. Christmas carols - the tradition associated with them brings me joy. Music moves me.
   
2. Decorations - the brightness of them has always brought cheer to the cold, darker days of winter for me.
3. Family and the pleasure of sharing. My favorite part of that is the joy on children's faces as they experience the season.
4. Food - I am thankful for the plenty I have in my life. There is nothing more loving to me than preparing a meal to share with others.
5. Receiving cards and letters from those I can't visit with because of geographical distance. It is lovely to catch up with what has been happening in their lives.

My hope for you this Christmas season is that you have loving people to share the joy with. Of course I can't leave the topic without passing you a few learning links.

• An explanation of the solstice with details of how ancient architecture marked it. A purely astronomical explanation.
• I am in awe of Wendy who celebrates the solstice by staying in the dark for a day. I think that is beautiful - so in tune with nature. If you've thought of celebrating the winter solstice and need more ideas, you can find more ideas on celebrating the solstice.
• A winter solstice poem by a blogging author who loves the Middle Ages.
• Medieval Christmas portrayed by another blogging author.
  
• The history of Christmas carols.
  

Holiday mp3 in association with Amazon.com, home of the Kindle.
Sign up for Kindle alerts at the WiiAlerts site. This site has been used by people I know and I recommend it because it works!

Good King Wenceslas

Wenceslas picture book at Amazon.com

I have to admit I'm getting a little Christmas sick. You know how you feel when you've had too much cake and get sugar sick? After reading around the blogosphere today I came away not sugar sick, but Christmas sick :-( I mean, I love Christmas, but I guess you can have too much of a good thing. Reading about everyone's traditions and seeing endless recipes, gift ideas, discussions of movies, give aways, etc etc has left me wanting to run away and curl up with a good book.

While I was reading blogs I did find a bunch of neat stuff I wanted to share, but then I changed my mind and decided I'd rather appreciate winter, snow, the cold, Winter Solstice, Yuletide, or anything other than Christmas. That's when I remembered King Wenceslas and the Feast of Stephen and I got curious. By the way I've never read the Wenceslas book pictured up there on the left, but I LOVE the illustration on the cover. Since I'm not writing a gift guide today, don't put it on your list! Maybe you could check your local library for a copy though and read it to your kids.

Herewith some learning links, information and activities related to King Wenceslas/Wenceslaus and St Stephen:

• The words to Good King Wenceslas and sheet music dating from 1871 at Hymns and Carols.
• I found several good sites with biographical information on the history and true story of King Wenceslas. Take a look at Gospel.com, Wenceslas.co.uk, Suite 101, and Orthodox America.
• A Czech Republic blogger on King W and a Squidoo site on King W.
• St Stephen's Day is usually celebrated on December 26th. Get more information on St Stephen's Day at Wikipedia, or read about how it is celebrated in Ireland.

I thought maybe I could find you some saintly stained glass coloring pages to download or something, but alas, no. Let me know if you've seen these around. I'm not sure why I love Good King Wenceslas, maybe it's the words "deep and crisp and even" or just because he was nice!

Brought to you by EberJeeber.com - with adorable duck items for little ones.