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FReeper Canteen ~ Favorite Christmas Treats ~ 23 DEC 2008
Serving The Best Troops And Veterans In The World | The Canteen Crew

Posted on 12/22/2008 6:00:28 PM PST by laurenmarlowe

 
 

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~

Favorite Christmas Treats

11082007gingerbread

Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries. In some places, it was a soft, delicately spiced cake; in others, a crisp, flat cookie, and in others, warm, thick, steamy-dark squares of "bread," sometimes served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. It was sometimes light, sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but it was almost always cut into shapes such as men, women, stars or animals, and colorfully decorated or stamped with a mold and dusted with white sugar to make the impression visible.

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was both modernized and romanticized. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by destitute parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies. By the end of the century the composer Englebert Humperdink wrote an opera about the boy and the girl and the gingerbread house.

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pict6

Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. By the 14th century, they were common in all levels of society, throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors.

With global travel becoming widespread at that time, cookies made a natural travel companion, a modernized equivalent of the travel cakes used throughout history. One of the most popular early cookies, which travelled especially well and became known on every continent by similar names, was the jumble, a relatively hard cookie made largely from nuts, sweetener, and water.

Cookies came to America in the very first century of English settlement (the 1600s), although the name "koekje" arrived slightly later, with the Dutch. This became Anglicized to "cookie". Among the popular early American cookies were the macaroon, gingerbread cookies, and of course jumbles of various types.

The most common modern cookie, given its style by the creaming of butter and sugar, was not common until the 18th century.

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The earliest Fruitcake recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash.

In the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added and the name "fruitcake" was first used, from a combination of the words "fruit" (Latin: fructus, Old French: frui), and "cake" (Old Norse: kaka, Middle English: kechel).

Fruitcakes soon proliferated all over Europe, however recipes varied greatly in different countries and throughout the ages, depending on the available ingredients as well as in some instances on church regulations of the use of butter, regarding the observance of fast (e.g. "Butterbrief" or butter letter by Pope Innocent VIII). Pope Innocent VIII, (1432 – 1492), the Holy Father softened his attitude and in 1490, he sent a permision known as the “Butter Letter” to Saxony, stating that milk and butter could be used in the North German Stollen fruitcakes.

Starting in the 16th century, sugar from the American Colonies, and the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits, created an excess of candied fruit, thus making fruitcakes more affordable and popular.

In the 18th century in some areas in Europe, fruitcakes were made using nuts from the harvest for good luck in the following year. The cake was then saved and eaten before the harvest of the next year.

What is your favorite Christmas Treat?

Merry Christmas!

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FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT~Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. 

Please remember: The Canteen is a place to honor and entertain our troops. The Canteen is family friendly. Let's have fun!

We pray for your continued strength, to be strong in the face of adversity.

We pray for your safety, that you will return to your families and friends soon.

We pray that your hope, courage, and dignity remain unbroken, so that you may show others the way.

God Bless You All ~ Today, Tomorrow and Always

 

 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Free Republic
KEYWORDS: canteen; troopsupport
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To: MS.BEHAVIN; mylife; LUV W

Good job!

Aren’t y’all happy we have global warming? My furnace ain’t!


241 posted on 12/22/2008 9:00:17 PM PST by NYTexan
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To: MS.BEHAVIN

I already have he beachfront property, now if California would only slide into the ocean. LOL


242 posted on 12/22/2008 9:00:37 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: NYTexan

I take it that place isnt insulated to good?


243 posted on 12/22/2008 9:01:13 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: NYTexan

that’ GORE-BULL warming


244 posted on 12/22/2008 9:01:36 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Jet Jaguar; BIGLOOK

Now how cool is that!

Looks like Santa ‘smoked’ the jet though!;-}

Merry Christmas fella’s! *Hugs*


245 posted on 12/22/2008 9:03:03 PM PST by AZamericonnie
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To: SandRat

You’re a good scout!


246 posted on 12/22/2008 9:03:12 PM PST by luvie (Now....on to 2012........Palin/Jindal)
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To: mylife

Your take on that is correct!

Gonna be an expensive electric bill fer sure!


247 posted on 12/22/2008 9:03:50 PM PST by NYTexan
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To: SandRat

I wonder if this winter will finally shut those A-holes up!?


248 posted on 12/22/2008 9:05:25 PM PST by NYTexan
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To: NYTexan

It will warm up soon.


249 posted on 12/22/2008 9:06:01 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

250


250 posted on 12/22/2008 9:06:57 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: LUV W

Cute Santa pic Luvie! *Hugs*


251 posted on 12/22/2008 9:07:10 PM PST by AZamericonnie
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To: LUV W

I try to be.


252 posted on 12/22/2008 9:07:28 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: mylife; LUV W

And I was told winter lasted two weeks in Texas...HAH!


253 posted on 12/22/2008 9:07:36 PM PST by NYTexan
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To: SandRat

Dang it!


254 posted on 12/22/2008 9:07:47 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

LOL
I had a nap this afternoon.
I’m gonna soak in the tub before bed, that’ll be nice!


255 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:06 PM PST by MS.BEHAVIN (Women who behave rarely make history)
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To: laurenmarlowe

Evening Lauren, Hugs.

Fruit cake makes a great door stop.


256 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:24 PM PST by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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To: NYTexan

This is unusual but who ever said that lied


257 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:34 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: NYTexan

Nope! They’re claiming the Snow and Extreme Cold is due to GORE-BULL warming.


258 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:41 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

Looks like alot of great donations at the fire dept Sandy!

Thanks for all the great pics! *Hugs*


259 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:46 PM PST by AZamericonnie
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To: SandRat

LOL
There ya go!


260 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:48 PM PST by MS.BEHAVIN (Women who behave rarely make history)
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