Author Archives: Mark Winn

Food – Switzerland

Original script/version:

The swiss potato pancake is called a roesti(or replace “oe” with o and the two dots above it).

“Swiss potato cake: a roesti is just as common in Switzerland as frenchfries.  You can’t get them at McDonald’s or anything, but a very common meal is Bratwurst, roesti, and these tasty tasty caramelized onions.  I first had a roesti at my grandparents house, and the wonderfully amazing thing about them is that they are about 12 inches in diameter and maybe 1.5 inches thick.  In order to flip one, you literally have to throw it in the air.  It’s almost a rite of passage in our family to flip a roest; my grandfather taught my father(his son-in-law, so there’s a bit of switch in culture there), and then my dad taught both my brothers.  I have yet to successfully flip a roesti; I’ve dropped one entirely and also had one smush back into the pan because it didn’t have enough rotation.  One day I’ll get it…” – Kate

From what Kate said, it sounds as though the cake is not only a common traditional food, but also acts as a rite of passage. It is hard to tell who in the family is typically in charge of making the dish. It could be that because it is such a common food, that at some point everyone learns to make it.

Tradition

Original script/version:

Chris said, “Since the first Christmas I can remember, my family has always had this special way of delivering stockings and organizing Christmas mornings. It starts with Santa delivering the stockings in the middle of the night and putting them on the end of everyone’s bed. That way, in the morning, we could wake up and our stockings would be right there. We then had a rule that we could not leave our rooms until my parents said so. We usually decided on Christmas Eve what time we could go to the living room.”

My dad said because he had six other siblings, this tradition might have been passed between large families as a simple method of crowd control. He is pretty sure his parents did not start it. Instead of having seven little kids running around and screaming on Christmas morning, this was a way of keeping all the children occupied and quiet until the adults were ready to start the morning festivities.

This tradition was carried out by my own parents, and I like. It is not the traditional: hang-the-stockings-over-the-fireplace, but it is still our tradition. Me and my sister would always wake up at like 5:30 and meet in one of our rooms to look in our stockings. I am not aware of any other families that use this same method of delivering stockings, but my father said that in Europe, there is more variety in how people handle stockings on Christmas.

Recipe – Latvian

Original script/version:

“Latvians make these intense gingerbread cookies called Piparkuks for Christmas.  They are very thin and are not chewy at all like regular gingerbread.

Gingerbread cookies: Piparkuks are just as common in Latvian tradition as whatever Christmas cookie you can think of for Americans.  It is an incredibly time consuming process and involves a lot of detail and patience.  The Latvian Church in Willimantic used to make them by the thousands at Christmastime(this is no exaggeration; the cookies are very small and the dough very thin so a little goes a long way).  Here’s the recipe:”

3 sticks butter

½ cup oil

1 ¼ cup molasses

¾ cup honey

1 1/3 cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

9 ½ cups flour

2 eggs

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

4 t. cinnamon

4 t. ginger

1 ½ t. pepper

2 t. cloves

2 t. nutmeg

3 t. cardamom

5 t. coriander

3 t. lemon peel

3 t. orange peel

Mix butter, oil and sugars.  Heat to boil, add spices and cool.  When cool add eggs one at a time.  Mix baking powder, soda, and flour.  Add to wet ingredients, mix well.  The dough can be kept for weeks in the refrigerator.  Roll very thin and cut with small cookie cutters.  If the dough gets sticky, chill again.  Brush with beaten egg yolk and decorate with bits of almonds, if desired.  Bake 350-375 degrees for 10 minutes or less.

“They are very dense and VERY spiced.  I have very vivid memories of sitting in the kitchen in the basement of the Latvian church and watching like 15 old Latvian ladies chat away in Latvian as they are rolling this dough and making these delicate cookies.  Usually they are topped with an almond sliver, but for the kids they used to add on those tiny little colored sprinkle/balls.  (You know, not the jimmies, but the tiny little dots.)” -Kate

Song

Song:

One Tin Solid

Listen Children, to a story, that was written, long ago

About a kingdom, on a mountain, and the valley far below
on the mountain was a treasure, buried deep beneath the stone,

And the valley people swore they’d have if for their very own

Chorus

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,

Go ahead and cheat a friend

Do it in the name of heaven,

You can justify it in the end

There wont be any trumpets blowing,

Come the judgment day

On the bloody morning after,

One tin soldier rides away

Then the people of the valley,

Sent a message up the hill

Asking for the buried treasure,

Tons of gold for which they’d kill

Came an answer from the mountain

With our brothers, we will share

All the secrets of our kingdom,

All the riches buried there

Chorus

So the valley shook with anger,

(Mount your horses, draw your swords)

And they killed the mountain people,

So they won their just reward

Now they stand beside the treasure

On the mountain dark and red

Turn the stone and look beneath it,

Peace on earth was all it said

chorus

My sister heard this song at a Girl Scout camp in 5th grade. It was taught and sung around a campfire environment. She said she remembered it more that other camp songs because she agreed with the message that it conveyed. She continued to sing the song for several years as she continued to attend Girl Scout camp.

I heard my sister singing this song after she learned it at camp. I like this song because of how it ties religious ideas with everyday characteristics. You have the valley people that are greedy and want the treasure from the mountain. The mountain people don’t actually have treasure, but they are willing to share their way of life with them. The valley people then take war to the mountain, killing everyone on the mountain. When they look for the treasure, all the mountain people had was peace.

I had believed this song was pure folklore – a camp song that was song mainly in that environment. After some research, I discovered that the song was written by two men, Dennis Lambert and  Brian Potter, and recorded in 1969 by the band Original Caste. I know my sister did not know that when she learned the song and am sure that most, if not all, of the camp counselors teaching the song did not know there is an official, recorded version of the song. This is an example of some that went from being a published material and sort of de-evolved into a folk song.

Recipe

Original script/version:

Family Chocolate Pie Chocolate Pie

Filling:

¼ lb butter

¾ C sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 sq melted unsweetened chocolate

Cream butter and sugar.  Bear in one egg, vanilla and chocolate.  Beat for 5 minutes.  Add second egg and beat 5 more minutes.

Make a pie shell of prepare a frozen pie shell per package directions.  Let shell cool.  Pour filling into cooled pie shell and refrigerate for several hours.

Whip Cream:

Beat whipping cream.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla to taste while whipping.

Spread over pie.  Garnish with grated semi-sweet chocolate.

I have grown up eating the same chocolate pie for every imaginable occasion. Whether it be casual dinners with friends, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter, there would be chocolate pie. It is a recipe was passed into my father’s family long ago, and now every one of my father’s siblings makes the pie for their families as well.

My dad told me he got the recipe from his mom about the time he graduated from college. He said my grandmother had received it from her parents. Although the recipe is not complicated and my mother is a very good cook, it is always my father that makes the pie.

He says, “As you know, every pie comes out a little differently. I have been slightly changing the recipe every time I make it and its fun to see how each pie comes out. About two years ago, my sister Robbin and I came up with the secret to consistently make a good pie. The trick is to let the butter warm up to room temperature before mixing in into the other ingredients.”

It is typical to make several extra pies when going to a friends house so there is one or two to each for dessert, and then we can leave another with our friends. When going to a potluck, our family is always in charge of bringing desert because people like the chocolate pie so much. The receipt has continued to spread as it is now being made by my sister in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.