Happy New Year!

I blinked and another year has gone by.

I was fortunate to be able to spend my year with family and friends through the good times and the bad and hope everyone else was as fortunate and will be in the coming year!

I love New Years as it really gives me a time to sit down and think about what I want to accomplish in the coming year and this year that means more posts and more reading books. I spent most of 2015 reading magazines and stuff on the internet but want to change that in the coming year. Books are better for the brain.

I urge everyone to try and pick up this New Year's resolution as there are tons of benefits to reading actual books in our media over-saturated world where thousands of things vie for your attention every minute. Reading books relieves stress, help with depression and anxiety, and can make you happier in general. Although, I'll never give up reading blogs, I have to get more books in this year. :)  

I'm going to keep this post short but, as always, I am thankful for my friends and readers and all the joy that blogging has brought me in the last year and can't wait to see what it will bring us in the new year. If you have a resolution this year, I'd love to hear it in the comments!


Some past New Year's Posts:

Why do we watch a giant ball drop on New Year's Eve?

1850s Shortbread Recipe for New Years.

The Civil War Era, Crazy Christmas Game of Plum Pudding

The holiday season is upon us, even if it doesn't feel like it outside but that means holiday cheer and merriment. What better way to celebrate than with some Christmas cheer of old? The Game of Plum Pudding is a fun way to add some mid 19th century fun to your modern holidays.   

The game is played with two teams. Each person is assigned a name that has a military title and an item that is part of a holiday meal, such as "General Goose." Players take turns spinning a wooden disk, referred to as the plum pudding, while telling a story from the perspective of the object in their name. Players get penalized if they drop the wooden disk, if they say something not in character, refer to someone by the wrong assigned name or forget to mention the "plum pudding" in their story.

The penalties are crazy. In one case a player may be required to kiss every lady in the room and have each lady slap them in return. In another a player must select a person to kiss and other players try to prevent the kiss from happening and in the worst penalty, every person in the room has to say something unfavorable about the player.      

The game was invented by Charles H. Bennett, a famous illustrator of the time known for his work in Punch Magazine.  The rules first appeared in 1857 and have been since published all the way up to the 1880s under the names of the "Field of the Cloth of Damask" or the "Game of Plum Pudding." In William Wallace Fyfe's Christmas, its Customs and its Carols published in 1860, the game is used as an example of Christmas "fun and frolic" of the day.  

This game likely requires a fair amount of eggnog or punch. You can almost picture the young gentleman who gets the chance to kiss a special favorite or  the moment when a popular belle looks around at a room of hopeful bachelors only to bestow her kiss on her grandfather. Those cheeky Victorians. 

If anyone plays, let me know how it goes!

References:

Arnold, George. The Sociable, Or, One Thousand and One Home Amusements Containing Acting Proverbs, Dramatic Charades, or Drawing-room Pantomimes, Musical Burlesques, Tableaux Vivants, Parlor Games ... New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1858. 186-187.

Frikell, Wiljalba. Fireside Games for Winter Evening Amusement. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1859. 14-18.

Fyfe, William Wallace. Christmas; Its Customs and Carols. With Compressed Vocal Score of Select Choral Illustrations. London: J. Blackwood, 1860. 47-50.

Soldier's Christmas at Graeme Park and Needlebooks from Fanciful Utility

 Last weekend I went to the timeline Soldier's Christmas event at Graeme Park in Horsham, PA with the Dixie Marauders. The event had reenactors representing the Christmas holiday in the 1770s, 1860s, 1914s, and 1940s.   We put together an 1860s Christmas display. The display included things that ladies on the homefront would send soldiers, such as sheet music, food and games.

This event gave me a chance to make the Scotch Short-cake recipe and to make some needlebooks based on the information found in Fanciful Utility, which I highly recommend if you are interested in small projects. Needlebooks were the perfect thing to make as small gifts for this event. They came together quickly and each contained, pins, needles, thread and a few spare buttons.      

Closeup of the Needlebooks.

Our display which included sheet music, sugar plumbs, scotch short-cake, coffee, rice, farina, games, packing advice, and more.

The event was packed, even with the threat of and eventual rain. The site was collecting donations to send to the troops oversees and a lot of veterans came out to show support. The husband and wife pictured above were my favorite. The wife was blind but her husband made sure she got to see everything. 

For those of you interested in Fanciful Utility, I highly recommend it. The book has 68 projects including templates and instructions for various needlebooks and sewing cases. It also shows various decorative stitches and techniques and gives advice for period fabric choices and colors.     

We ended up making our own very basic needlebook pattern based on the the advice in the book as suited to our needs but they're nothing compared to the awesome recreations from the book as seen in the video at the bottom.  

Click to see the video!

1850 Scotch Short-Cake Recipe perfect for "Thanksgiving-Day, Christmas or New Years."

I made this recipe as part of a Civil War Christmas display that will be part of a holiday timeline event going on this weekend at Graeme Park in Horsham, PA.  Our display will consist of a package from the home front for the soldiers. I chose this recipe for its seasonality being good for "Thanksgiving-Day, Christmas or New Years," and its ability to travel "in cold weather it keeps well and packed in a tin or wooden box may be sent many hundred miles..."

Not all foods held up the same in transit and people at home were advised not to send perishables to the soldiers. The United States Christian Commission bulletin in 1861 and 1864 advised that those wishing to help the troops send "eggs, sausages, bread or cakes,... jars of jellies and jams" packaged separately from the other goods sent. The bulletin also stated that soda biscuits, fresh and dried fruits, corn-starch, oatmeal, canned meats, white sugar and lemons were always welcomed items. This Short-cake recipe is perfect for mailing. It's flaky, spiced, and the zante currants, raisins made from champagne grapes, give it a holiday flavor. These would be perfect with cider or tea.  

Scotch Short-Cake

Ingredients:

- 1/2 Pound Raisins or Zante Currants
- 3 Cups Flour
- 1/2 Pound Butter
- 1 3/4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- Sprinkle of Mace
- Citron (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter on the stove top or in the microwave being careful not to burn it, put aside. In a large mixing bowl mix flour, powdered sugar and spices. Add butter a little at a time. Once a dough is formed, mix in zante currants. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut into shape with cookie cutters. Butter a cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden at the edges.  


Oatmeal Scotch Short-Cake

Ingredients:

- 1/2 Pound Raisins or Zante Currants
- 2 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1 Cup Oatmeal, ground
- 1/2 Pound Butter
- 1 3/4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- Sprinkle of Mace
- Citron (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter on the stove top or in the microwave being careful not to burn it, put aside. In a large mixing bowl mix flour, oatmeal, powdered sugar and spices. Add butter a little at a time. Once a dough is formed, mix in zante currants. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut into shape with cookie cutters. Butter a cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden at the edges.

Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party Post

Hello! October and November have been busy! I can't believe it's already November. There has been

a lot of excitement these last few weeks but now I am looking forward to a relaxed winter. There's a lot that's been going on that just didn't make it to the blog but i'm excited to share them now.         

I always wonder what it will be like to get older. Will I still be able to do the things I love? Will I still have people to share things with? Then I see these sisters at the Chester Historical Preservation Committee Chester Days event who found an intimate spot to drink hot cocoa, help preserve historical structures, and giggle like teenagers.

The first frost like gemstones on the tips of everything.

Had my first try at plowing with oxen. Glad the oxen knew what they were doing, they didn't even need me. 

We have been seeing some crazy murmurations lately. A few days ago we had a group that was so massive and loud it was hard to talk to people only feet away.

Ghost tour of Fort Delaware, a Civil War prisoner of war camp. We didn't see or experience anything at all and were actually just interested in seeing the fort at night. Weren't disappointed. It's still one of my favorite sites.

The 1700s archaeological dig at Newlin Grist Mill has moved from the Trimble pit to the mill house. 

Here the covered mill race is being exposed for the first time since it was covered. 

I did not take a lot of fall leaves photos this year. Went to Jim Thorpe, PA to see the change but after hiking up the mountain we ended up getting snowed on.

Got caught in the rather early first snow of the year.

Weird weather. It was warm and yet snowing. Everything was covered in fog.

You might not have heard but I died of Yellow Fever 7 times during the Halloween event at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation. I got better. 

My favorite from a Civil War era photo shoot. The dog knows how to pose, right?