Another wise man

"Wine makes daily living easier,
less hurried, with fewer tensions and
more tolerance."

Benjamin Franklin

Epiphany

"Three Wise Men"

Byzantine church mosaic
Ravenna, Italy

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’

From, Journey of the Magi
T.S Eliot

Today is Twelfth Night and the end of the 12 days of Christmas. January 5th is also the Epiphany-- a feast day which marks the visitation of the Magi. Epiphany is celebrated across Christian cultures with different rituals, some including gifts. Epiphany is a Greek word, meaning the sudden comprehension or greater meaning of something.

In Puerto Rico, children fill a box with grass and put it under their bed for the wise men's camels. They polish their shoes, and lay them out for the King's gifts as they pass by.

In New Orleans, Epiphany is the start of carnival season and King Cakes are baked. In France, people eat cake of puff pastry and almond cream.

In parts of Ireland, the day is called "Women's Christmas" or "Little Christmas" and men take on household chores while ladies go out together.

In medieval England, a cake containing a bean was eaten and the person who found it would become the "Lord of Misrule." For one night only, everything was topsy-turvy: those who were high lords became peasants, and vice versa. Shakespeare wrote a comedy called Twelfth Night, with many mistaken identities.

And how about a fruitcake throw? In Manitou Springs, Colorado they dress up in funny hats and have a competition for the farthest throw and the most creative projectile device. Just another symbolic leave-taking of the Christmas holidays. Fruitcake is the traditional Christmas bread in English-speaking countries, and of course the source of many bad jokes.


Are your Christmas decorations down? Tradition says it's unlucky to leave them hanging after today.

Dungeness crab

Metacarcinus magister
(Dinner goodicus)

We've had good specials on fresh crab in Seattle this winter-- as low as $3.49 a pound. Of course you pay for the whole thing and then just eat the legs. And you have to work for the treat, since these are nothing like Eastern soft-shell crabs. But practice makes perfect. John is good with the specialized extraction tools and he's a meticulous claw cracker, but I like the "lump meat" because I can pull it apart with my fingers. This is just the larger pieces in the body cavities where the legs attach.

So we're happy ripping apart and devouring a crustacean between us with no serious competition. Not a pretty sight, but after you've been married a long time you tend to work these things out. There's no dainty way to eat a whole crab anyway, which is why they give you a silly bib in restaurants. It's better to eat them at home and make a big mess with flying shell. The crab from the grocery store is already cooked, so I just steam it for a few minutes and melt some butter. The only other way to buy a whole crab is live from a tank, and then do the dirty deed at home. These are more expensive. (A dead crab cannot be cooked later because the digestive juices spoil the meat.) Nasty cooking details aside, Dungeness crab meat is famous for being sweet and succulent. Here's a quote: the fatty meat and rich juices create a very filling and satisfying meal when consumed right out of the shell, and a two pound crab will easily serve two people.

Dungeness crab has always been plentiful along the west coast and was appreciated by the coastal Indians. But it wasn't until the early 20th century that fishermen discovered a market for all those crabs, and this happened at a fishing village called Dungeness on the Olympic Peninsula. In just a few years the prolific crab became the most profitable fishery on the west coast. The touristy Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco started when fishermen sold directly to the public. At one point in the 1930's during the Great Depression "crab wars," they sold for for nickel each. Lets' see, I could have bought 120 crabs for the price of one now. The old Sicilian fisherman cooked up their day's catch in boilers on the wharf, and eventually these rough fish shacks evolved into expensive seafood restaurants like Alioto's.

Fisherman's Wharf 1900
Photo: J.B. Monaco

The sea floor must be teeming with them because Dungeness crab is also sustainable (yea!) and considered one of the best managed fisheries. So get out the plastic tablecloth and dive in.

Sometimes

Mary Burger, age 59
World champion barrel racer
Photo AARP Magazine 12/07

Sometimes

"Sometimes I go about pitying myself,
and all the time
I am being carried
On great winds across the sky."

Anonymous,
Chippewa Indian

Resolutions

Even though yesterday was January 1, it was still a holiday and around here any resolutions don't kick in until this morning. As usual, mine have a familiar ring to them. John doesn't make resolutions at all, believing himself to be close to perfection as is. Or if he does make them, he's smart enough to keep it to himself :-)

Anyway, we had a nice brunch yesterday with our old friends Terri and George. I made some diet-busting pecan sticky buns, and a strata casserole.
This is the sort of recipe people get excited about when they stay at a B&B, but it's simple for the cook. You make the entire dish the night before, so the loaf of bread can soak up the 3 cups of half and half, grated cheese, Italian sausage and the 10 eggs. (I told you diets don't start until today.) The recipe is off the Internet-- let me know if you're interested.

After lunch, serious discussions and deliberations about choice of chocolates:
We'll have another sunny cold day in Seattle. Today I'll be working off some of that strata taking down the Christmas tree and cleaning up the piles of pine needles.

It's one day after Christmas
I'm crabby and I'm broke.
I'm so full of ham and fruitcake
I think I'm gonna croak.
(anonymous)

January

In the Middle Ages, folks usually exchanged gifts on Twelfth Night, not Christmas. The big feast above from the Book of Hours January calendar may have been a Twelfth Night celebration and household gift exchange. The Duc du Berry himself is seated at the table, dressed in a blue peacock feather robe.

If you can click on the image to enlarge, you'll see mysterious details. Notice the tiny dogs on the table right in front of the Duke? Surely lapdogs, but where are the ladies? Outside the banquet hall, see the lines of mounted knights. Departing or returning Crusaders? At the table, richly dressed clergymen on the right hand of the Duke. Their proper place, since the festival marks the coming of the Epiphany. And now, just around the corner-- Lent. The 12 day party is wrapping up.

Happy new year! Today marks a beginning and an end on the blog, because January is now the 12th calendar page I've posted from the Duc du Berry's Book of Hours. It will be hard to find something as beautiful as these miniature paintings to start the new months.