Las Cantigas de Santa Maria 2022

This is the transcript and playlist for my annual radio program called Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a musical biography of King Alfonso X. One place to hear the music and production is on the world wide web. http://www.hppr.org on December 23 at 2:00 p.m. central standard time.

Opens with Cantiga #1 Des Oge Mais Quer’ eu Trobar

Alvaro Sanchez Guillaumet: 4:35

We began this musical journey with The Learned King declaring himself Mary’s Troubadour who will take her teaching to his Kingdom and beyond. We just heard Alvaro Sanchez Guillaumet performing CSM#1 on the Hurdy Gurdy with frame drums and Oud.

The Cantigas de Santa Maria is a collection of poems put to music. The catalog consists of more than 420 poems set to music beginning with what is called a “cantiga de loor” song of love, and every 10 song is a song of love while the others focus on scenarios related to sins and crimes with their accompanying morality story. Let’s hear the Waverly Consort in their English language interpretation of CSM #1 when the Learned King declares himself the Virgin Mary’s Troubadour and asks the “noble lady” to bestow the inheritance of eternal life and grant Alfonso’s kingdom a place in eternity. 2:43

That was the Waverly Consort led by the late Michael Jaffe with the prologue that precedes CSM# 1. You heard an English translation of the King declaring himself the Virgin’s troubadour. The first time I heard the Waverly Consort’s CSM was a live recording from the Cloisters in NYC presented on NPR. Again, of the more than 420 Marian poems written by King Alfonso X and his assistant scribes, every 10^th poem is a song of love for the Virgin.

Ben Sab à Que Pod è Val “Miragre” (Mirage) Musica Iberica de Holanda (Iberian Music of Holland) 6:54

That was Ben Sab a Que Pod e Val by Musica Iberica de Holanda (Iberian Music of Holland) with a story of power and forgiveness.

King Alfonso ruled his Kingdom of Castile-Leon, now Spain, from 1252 until his death. Scholars and Alfonsine devotees continue to celebrate the Learned King’s birthday on November 23 of each year, this being his 801^st year since his birth.

Let’s discuss, for a moment, the language of King Alfonso X.

In a past interview with Alfonsine scholar, Dr. J. K. Knauss, she noted that the great legacy of El Sabio is that he lived up to his name, “the wise” because he was obsessed with writing everything down. Whether it was mathematics, astronomy, the virtue of playing board games and other leisurely activities to balance hard works, laws to govern his subjects, and teaching morality, he not only wrote continually, but he chose not to write in Latin, the language of Kingdoms of the day. What made his legacy so strong is that he wrote in Galician-Portuguese, the embryonic Castilian, the present-day Spanish. The Learned King is considered the “Father of Castilian.” Was he that much of a visionary? It would seem so since Spanish only trails Chinese as the most common language worldwide, flanked by English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Lahnda, aka, “Western Punjabi” according to The World Economic Forum.

In a very short phonics lesson, “Cs” and “Zs” were pronounced with a “TH” sound or a lisp, which I illustrate here in one of many miracles of in the Cantigas de Santa Maria. This is CSM#368 Maria de Cordoba y Santa Cruz de Cadiz: A woman, named Mary, lived in Cordoba next to the Church of Holy Mary the Great [the former great mosque]. She believed that she had a snake in her stomach and she travelled through Extremadura and then to Castile.

The abbot of Silos [Santo Domingo?] appeared to her in a vision and instructed her to go there. He said that the Virgin would show her how to get well.

When she got to Silos, she had another vision. This time, she was instructed to visit Santa Maria do Porto. The next day, the woman set off for that place.

When she arrived, she held a vigil and fell asleep in front of the altar. In a vision, the Virgin instructed her to go to the cathedral at Cádiz at daybreak.

She boarded a ship and they put out to see. When the people on board saw Cádiz and the church they praised the God and the Virgin.

Then the woman coughed up a red snake, like a thick eel. Everyone was amazed and praised the Virgin.

Performed by Eduardo Paniagua, the hurdy gurdy master devoted to recording all existing CSMs.

CSM#368 Maria de Cordoba y Santa Cruz de Cadiz. 6:39

END OF SEGMENT ONE

You’re listening to this holiday special Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the holy canticles of the Virgin Mary and musical biography of Alfonso X, the King of Castile-Leon, now Spain. I’m your host, Debra Bolton.

Alfonso X ruled from 1252 to 1284. To put the world into perspective at the time, the English language continued to change from its Germanic-rooted Olde English of the Beowulf poet (circa 9^th or 10^th century) after the Norman invasion of 1066. In the next century, we hear the English of Geoffrey Chaucer and the Gawain Poet. Europeans now use Arabic numerals in favor of Roman Numerals. In the Mongol Empire, Mongke, officially, marks the worship of his grandfather, Genghis Khan while Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity flourish. The Inca Empire of Peru is thriving. England begins the process of segregation of Jewish peoples, and other countries begin to follow suit. The Mexica people, also known as Aztecs, are building their great city on a lake in what is now Mexico City. King Alfonso X’s bid to be King of the Holy Roman Empire fails in favor of Count Rudolf, bringing prominence to the Habsburg family, Rudolf was considered mediocre as Alfonso was too ambitious and certainly too bright for the Pope of the time.

Let’s begin this segment with Patrizia Bovi Ensemble Micrologus and a song of love for the Virgin Mary 2:32

Cantigos de Santa Maria: Prologue instrumental (Gaita) the Galician Bagpipe: Ensemble Jehan de Channey, Vincent Aliquot, Vincent Barthelemy 1:26

CSM#159: 2:31 Talks about the Pilgrims to Rocamadour whose meat was stolen. Performed by Ensemble Jehan de Channey, Vincent Aliquot, Vincent Barthelemy.

We just heard three pieces: We began with a song of love performed by Patrizia Bovi Ensemble Micrologus and we heard the Prologue performed on the Gaita, the Galician Bagpipe and we heard CSM#159, about the Pilgrim to Rocamadour whose meat was stolen. These stories are presented as miracles that put an end to pain, suffering, and criminal ways after the Virgin intervenes.

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a musical biography of King Alfonso X, El Sabio, the wise. I’m your host, Debra Bolton.

Let us turn now to a song of love for the Virgin Mary as envisioned by King Alfonso X. This is called Eno Mome de Maria, CSM#70 performed by Universalia in Re 5:41

That was Universalia in Re performing a song of love for the Virgin Mary. You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the musical biography of Medieval King of Spain, Alfonso X.

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the holy canticles of the Virgin Mary in music, poetry, and art. My name is Debra Bolton. I am your host for this special music. If you go out to my website you will find examples of some of the art that corresponds with the songs and poetry and this narrative with the songs for today’s musical program. The website is https://wordpress.com/post/peopleandcultures.blog/1728

This is CSM 13, the story of A thief named Elbo always prayed to the Virgin and commended himself to her.

One day he was caught stealing and the magistrate ordered him to be hanged.

As Elbo was hanging on the gallows, the Virgin supported his feet so that he did not choke. He stayed on the gallows for three days.

The magistrate passed by, noticed the thief was still alive, and had the rope adjusted. The Virgin continued to protect Elbo.

The thief spoke to the magistrate and his men, explaining that the Virgin had been keeping him alive. The magistrate praised the Virgin and had him taken down from the gallows. Elbo joined a monastery.

Performed by Robin Rolfhamre 5:34

You just heard the oud in that piece. The oud was the precursor to the guitar, oud being the Arabic word for wood. That was the story of Elbo, who changed his thieving ways and joined a monastery. Robin Rolfhamre is a professor of music and researcher in Sweden who plays lute, oud, and psaltry and who investigates the functions and performance of music in France in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Next, we’ll explore CSM 77-119, performed by Forfaitz. 5:12

77: A woman was almost entirely paralyzed. Her limbs were shriveled and twisted, and no medicine could cure her. On the Virgin’s feast in August, Mary straightened her limbs. Each of her limbs made a loud cracking sound as the shrunken tendons stretched. The bishop and the people who witnessed her healing wept and gave thanks to the Virgin.

78: The Count of Toulouse favored one of his courtiers. The man was devoted to the Virgin and refused to hear any mass but hers. The other courtiers were jealous of the pious man and plotted against him. They lied to the count, slandering him and accusing him of terrible crimes. The count decided to burn the man. He instructed the lime burner to throw into the fire the first man who came his way. He sent his victim on an errand to the lime burner, but, on his way, the man stopped to hear mass recited at a hermitage. The count, thinking the deed had been done, sent another man to the lime burner. This man was the one who had slandered the Count’s favorite. The lime burner seized him and threw him into the flames. When the count saw the good man alive and learned of the slanderer’s death, he realized justice had been served. He wept, praising the Virgin, and promised to have the miracle proclaimed in all her churches.

CSM 77-119, each tell a story of an afflicted person or one who engages in crimes and how each time the afflicted or the criminal cries out to the Virgin with much contrition, and low, the Virgin saves them from their disease or sentencing.

Forfaitz. 5:12

Quen a omagen – Ansambl Triola 3:04

According to Alfonsine scholar, Dr. J.K. Knauss,

King Alfonso employed artists to create two and three-dimensional works of art to correspond to the poems and songs, which would have made the Learned King an early pioneer in multi-media. Now, here we are putting it all in digital form! Some scholars point of the works of art, the songs and the poems as Alfonso’s way to teach morality to the subjects of his kingdom on many levels. While those in his court were, themselves, learned and well-educated people, there were many in his kingdom who, perhaps, could not read or write. Hence the need for the lessons on morality in more than written forms.

Regarding the language:

The poems and songs employ the language of the time, which is Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or as some linguists and historians simply call the language, Romance, the root language of Castilian, the language of Spain and its subsequent colonized countries in the Americas.

When we think about world events of King Alfonso’s time, between the 12 and 14^th centuries, there was a sect of Christians called the Cathare, a

fundamentalists sect who believed there were two gods: A good one who presided over the spiritual world, and an evil one who ruled the physical world. Cathars viewed even sex within marriage and reproduction as evil, and so lived strict lives of abstention. Here I present the spoken text of the Papal Bull legislating torture of those practicing Catharism, called “Ad Exstirpanda.” Papal bulls are edicts issued by the Pope of the Catholic Church. We know the one issued in 1492 before the launching of Columbus, the edict of colonizing so called, “Non-Christian” countries and enslaving Indigenous peoples some 200 years after Alfonso X’s rule.

At odds with the Catholic church, The Cathare believed in female deities and believed that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. The text is presented in Latin, as the Cathar of the time were in France and Italy.

This lament, performed by Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI Veri dulcis in tempore” translated “A true Sweet season” of the time from the CD “The Forgotten Kingdom.

Veri dulcis in tempore: 3:57

That was Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI performing music of the forgotten Kingdom of the Cathare in France and Italy.

After 1492, in addition to colonizing the lands and its people, Spain, also, colonized the languages of the Americas and the Caribbean. Since the so called, “first contact,” we saw Castilian overwhelming, and often erasing, many Native languages of the islands and the continents, thanks to the Doctrine of Discovery establishing a so called, “spiritual, political, and legal” justification for colonization and seizure of land NOT inhabited by visibly Christian (white) People. Again, the Spanish we hear today differs widely from that of the CSM and Alfonso X’s time. However, you don’t need to understand Galician-Portuguese to enjoy this music, known for its complex musical structures and its use of what we now call, ancient instruments.

Coming up in the next hour of Cantigas de Santa Maria, we will hear more songs and tunes about miracles of the Virgin Mary as we continue this musical biography of King Alfonso X, the wise, of 13^th Century Spain

Go to an instrumental played by the Waverly Consort, Cut #15, to play to the end. 6:43

Hour Two

Hello, I’m Debra Bolton. Welcome to the second hour of Las Cantigas de Santa Maria (The Holy Canticles of St. Mary), songs and poems in praise of Holy Mary – and the poetic/musical biography of Alfonso, “the wise”, The Kind of Castile-Leon, now Spain, and who lived from 1221 to 1284. I appreciate your joining me today.

As we continue in this exploration of this very small part of King Alfonso X’s tribute to the Virgin Mary, my references come from the writings of Dr. J.K. Knauss. In addition, I refer to the writing of Professor Joseph F. O’Callahan, Mr. Andrew Casson, Maestro Jordi Savall, Maestro Eduardo Paniagua, John Esten Keller, Robert I. Burn, Editor of “The Emperor of Culture” and from Oxford Univesity’s CSM database.

From Burn’s edited book, The Emperor of Culture, Ellen Kosmer and James Powers write: The period witnessed a dramatic rise in the growth of European towns. As urban economies prospered, so too did craftsmen [see a] dramatic increase in the thirteenth century. The book trade went from a monastic to a lay enterprise, which mirrored the changing society. Thus, Alfonso’s commission of this literary works, written in a vernacular, the Galician dialect, with its lavish illustrations [and 3-D art]puts him in the company of other great 13^th Century royal patrons, like Louis IX (9^th) of France, the southern courts of Italy, and in English with Henry III and Edward I. The CSM is distinguished from other royal works for its length, depth, and wide range of topics.

Prologue: Ensemble Scandicus : 4:36

SM Strela do dia Apollo’s Fire: 4:22

You’re listening to a musical biography of Spain’s Medieval King, Alfonso X. I’m your host Debra Bolton. We just listened to two pieces: The Prologue was performed by Ensemble Scandicus, a multicultural European group focused on early music.

Also, we heard Apollo’s Fire with Santa Maria do dia. Apollo’s Fire is a Cleveland Ohio-based early music ensemble as part of the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra.

Author J. K. Knauss describes the importance of the Cantigas de Santa Maria saying, “The most appropriate single adjective for the corpus of cultural work produced under Alfonso X is ‘encyclopedic.’” He wrote books of history, astronomy/astrology, law, poetry, board games, and music. Even his written leisure activities continue to survive the vagaries of time, bearing the King’s name as patron or author.”

Here’s the New London Consort with Quen a Virgen Ben Servira. 8:24

That was CSM#103: The Monk who listened to a Bird’s Song for Three Hundred Years, Performed by the New London Consort.

Let’s take a moment to talk about some of the instruments that you’re hearing on this musical journey of 13^th Century Spain, then called, Castile-Leon.

Shawm – 12^th c conical bored double reed instrument of Middle Eastern origin, a precursor of the oboe. Like the oboe, it is conically bored; but its bore, bell, and finger holes are wider, and it has a wooden disk (called a pirouette, on European shawms) that supports the lips

Recorder – Yes. That woodwind instrument that many of us learned in grade school. We hear this in the CSM, usually, on a wider variety of wood recorders.

Organetto – a small portable organ, which you heard performed by Esther Lamandier

Oud – Literally, wood in Arabic, short-necked, pear-shaped with 11 – 13 strings grouped in 5, 6, or 7 courses. A few of the oud players that stand oud are Driss El Maloumi, a group called 3MA and Haik Egitim Merkezi Yalova, both Maloumi and Yalova perform with Jordi Savall’s Hesperion groups. The Oud is considered the most important instrument in Middle Eastern Music.

Qanun (a.k.a., kanun, ganoun, kanoon) an Arabic stringed instrument, introduced to Europe in the 12^th Century. It’s played on the lap with picks that surround both index fingers, and the player can change the pitch of the strings with brass levers.

Hurdy Gurdy, a.k.a. Viola de Rueda, and the Zanfona. Here we hear this instrument in Musica Antigua.

Vielle – the Medieval fiddle with five strings and six tied frets.

Rebec – A three-string “fiddle” often held between the legs as it’s played.

Viola de Gamba – (a.k.a., Viol or gamba), a six-stringed instrument, said to be a precursor of the four-stringed cello. The Gamba, usually, is much larger and has frets, like a guitar.

Gaita – Galician bag pipe, also common in Portugal.

Duduk – Double reed Armenian flute, featuring those mournful, lamenting tones.

You’re listening to a musical journey of 13^th Century Spain’s King Alfonso the X and his devotion to the Virgin Mary, on this public radio station. I’m your host, Debra Bolton, and I appreciate that you’re here with me today. You can see this transcript and photos of the instruments if you go to my blog: https://wordpress.com/post/peopleandcultures.blog/1728

The language of the time, Galician-Portuguese, finds scholars today who argue that Galician and Portuguese are dialects of the same language. It tends to remind one more of Portuguese than of Castilian, the root language of modern-day Spanish. Portugal situated directly south of Galicia, the home of the (K)Celts and the Sephardim of the Iberian Peninsula. Stay with us…

Quarta Espanpie by Ferdinando de Martino Ensemble Comtessa Carmina Gemina: 2:43

End of Hour 2, Segment 1

2:00 minute break.

We continue with Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the musical biography of Medieval King of Castile-Leon, Alfonso X, the wise and learned. I’m your host, Debra Bolton.

For more perspective of the time, King Henry III ruled England about the same time Alfonso X ruled Castile-Leon, the greater part of what is now known as Spain. While El Sabio ruled his lands with Christians, Muslims, and Jewish peoples living and studying side-by-side with some appreciation and great tolerance, it would not be until 208 years later that Isabella and Ferdinand would expel all non-Christians and the time Christopher Columbus would set sail for Asia but landed in the Americas, which changed extensively the lives that he touched. Before that, well-civilized Indigenous tribes had not yet had contact with European colonialists. The surnames that most people connect with Latin American countries were the surnames of their Spanish conquerors. During and after the inquisition, many non-Christians, Jewish and Muslim people, added the suffixes of –ez, -es, or -os to their surnames. For example, the Muslim man, Alvar, became Alvarez. The Jewish man, Martin became Martinez. Consistent with most surnames, there remained a connection to the family trade or place of origins. The Herrera were Jewish iron-smiths. Those hailing from Galicia, or Galego, were the Galegos. In the present day, an extra “L” was added to make it “Gallegos.”

Santa Maria by Irfan 4:45

CSM #156 by Rocio de Trutos 2:37

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria on this public radio station. I’m your host, Debra Bolton, and I appreciate that you’re here with me today.

We just heard two pieces, Santa Maria by Irfan, a Bulgarian group focused on electro-acoustic music from a variety of genres and musical centuries. Also, we heard Soprano Rocio de Trutos known best for her Bach Cantatas. You’ve been listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the holy canticles of the Virgin Mary and the musical biography of Medieval King Alfonso X of Spain in music, poetry, and art. I’m the producer and your host, Debra Bolton.

El Sabio, King Alfonso the X ascended the throne of Castile-Leon, now Spain, in 1252 and immediately devoted himself to the creation of new laws, the Siete Partidas (seven parts) and the Fuero Real (Royal Municipal Code), both of which continue to be in effect here in the 21^st Century.

Scholars posit that the CSM continue to be a testament by which the king wished to be remembered after his death. That means that we, also, are part of the intended audience. Knauss continues that the learned king, likely, did not fathom this kind of dissemination, now in this digital age. She says, “With these technologies, it grants scholars who study the CSM a place in his highly exclusive circle of apprentices.”

I began exploring the history of the CSM, because I found the tunes, songs, poems, and art pieces so wonderfully extraordinary with their passion and multimedia approaches. I hope you’ve found this music and its stories interesting. For more information, please visit my blog: https://wordpress.com/post/peopleandcultures.blog/1728

And, if you’d like to hear the show, encourage your local public radio station to run it, and it can be found at the Public Radio Exchange, PRX.

Rosas das Rosas – The New York Consort for Poetry and Music 3:24

CSM #383 Jordi Savall and Hesperion XX 8:14

Rose of Rose CSM Waverly Consort 3:27

Thank you for listening to Cantigas de Santa Maria, I’m Debra Bolton.

Thank you for reading my blog.

The Musical Biography of King Alfonso X, 13th Century Spain

The Following is a transcript of an annual program that I produce for public radio stations who will “purchase” it. At this writing, I do know that High Plains Public Radio, of the Central High Plains will run it on Christmas Day, usually at 9:00 a.m. Central Time. I will update this site as I learn of any station running it.

Hello. I’m Debra Bolton. Welcome to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria (The Holy Canticles of St. Mary), Songs and poems in praise of Holy Mary – and the poetic/musical biography of Alfonso, “the wise”, The King of Castile-Leon, now Spain, and who lived from 1221 to 1284, and for whom we celebrate his 800^th birthday this year. I appreciate your joining me today. We begin this musical journey with The Learned King declaring himself Mary’s Troubadour who will take her teaching to his Kingdom and beyond. Let’s hear…Counter Tenor, Russell Oberlin performing the prologue. Please note, that at the time, the use of counter tenors aka “castrados” would have been the norm, since females were not allowed to perform in a king’s court. :

Prologue: Russell Oberlin, CSM #60 2:37

Camerata Mediterranea CSM52 and instrumental Prelude – 4:05

That was Counter tenor, Russell Oberlin, taking the part of the Learned King as he declares himself the Virgin Mary’s Troubadour and asks the “noble lady” to bestow the inheritance of eternal life and grant Alfonso’s kingdom a place in eternity.

Also, you heard Camarata Mediterranea with an instrumental to highlight El Sabio’s wise welcome to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish musicians in his court, which blended European and Arabic performance and music techniques.

Interesting to note, of the 420 Marian poems written by King Alfonso X and his assistant scribes, about every 10^th poem is a song of love for the Virgin, and since this is not an “official” prologue, since the prologue has the even number #60, it would also be considered a “cantiga de loor” song of love for Mary.

King Alfonso ruled his Kingdom of Castile-Leon, now Spain, from 1252 until his death. Scholars and Alfonsine devotees celebrate the Learned King’s 800^th birthday this past November 23. Alfonsine scholar, Dr. J.K. Knauss, who has written widely on the Learned King, spoke to me about the celebrations across Spain in honor of the King’s birth. Knauss recently released her fourth book about the King. In Our Lady’s Troubadour, Knauss took the poems and corresponding works of art, and put them into narrative stories. Here, Knauss introduces CSM#42 before we hear the piece performed by an early music ensemble called, Sonus.

Insert Knauss’ introduction:

CSM#42 – A Virgen mut groriosa, Sonus 2:38

That was Sonus with CSM#42, the story of Mary as a jealous queen that rebukes those she loves if they refuse her.

Now we turn to the interpretation of CSM#116: A merchant went to Salamanca to trade at the fair. It was his custom to serve the Virgin faithfully and to fast rigorously. On the eve of her feasts, he would not even eat vegetables or fish.

He always used to offer candles at churches dedicated to the Virgin. In Salamanca, he had his servant fetch two large candles that he had brought from Toledo. He had them lit and guarded so that they would not go out. The Virgin let them go out, but then caused them to burn once again.

We hear this performed by Eduardo Paniagua and his Musica Antigua. Paniagua, a musicologist and an early music instrumentalist, devotes much of his time to researching, performing, and recording the vast catalogue of Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, poems and songs in praise of Holy Mary.

That was CSM#116, “The Candles that Miraculously Came Alight” from Musica Antigua on their album, Cantigas de Toledo, where King Alfonso was born these 800 years ago. 6:20

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a musical biography of Spain’s King Alfonso X and his praise to the Virgin Mary. I’m your host, Debra Bolton

END OF SEGMENT ONE

(Excerpt of The Prologue from Joseph O’Callaghan’s)

Throughout the life of King Alfonso X, he devoted himself to learning and being surrounded by the learned. He believed a learned King and court with great knowledge of the natural world, mathematics, architecture, human behavior, and great discernment could only benefit the people of his kingdom. Being a pluralist, he employed Christian, Jewish, and Muslim in his court to advance learning.

In a recent interview with Alfonsine scholar, Dr. J. K. Knauss, she noted that the great legacy of El Sabio is that he lived up to his name, “the wise” because he was obsessed with writing everything down. Whether is was about mathematics, astronomy, the virtue of playing board games and other leisurely activities to balance hard works, laws to govern his subjects, and teaching morality, he not only wrote continually, but he chose not to write in Latin, the language of Kingdoms of the day. What made his legacy so strong is that he wrote in Castilian, the present-day Spanish. King Alfonso X is considered the “Father of Castilian.” Was he that much of a visionary? It would seem so since Spanish only trails Chinese as the most common language worldwide, flanked by English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Lahnda, aka, “Western Punjabi” according to The World Economic Forum.

Let’s turn to the marvelous miracles of Mary found in CSM#11, the Drowned Sacristan. Every night a sinful monk left his monastery to take his pleasure with his mistress. Before he left he would say the Ave Maria.

One night he fell into a river and drowned. Devils and angels argued over his soul. The devils’ case was more convincing, and the angels were about to give in when the Virgin made them recover the monk’s soul. They returned the soul to his body and revived him. The other monks found him alive in the cold water.

We hear CSM#11 interpreted by Ensemble Alcatraz, a San Francisco, CA group dedicated to the research and performance, throughout the world, of the music of Spain, Portugal, and France. This is from their CD Cantigas de Amigo, CSM#11 8:35

That was Ensemble Alcatraz performing Cantigas de Santa Maria #11,

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the holy canticles of the Virgin Mary in music, poetry, and art. My name is Debra Bolton. I am your host for this special music. If you go out to my website https://peopleandcultures.blog/2020/10/11/cantigas-de-santa-maria-a-musical-exploration-of-medieval-king-alfonso-x-of-spain/, you will find examples of some of the art that corresponds with the songs and poetry.

When we think about world events of King Alfonso’s time, between the 12 and 14^th centuries, there was a sect of Christians called the Cathar, a

fundamentalists sect who believed there were two gods: A good one who presided over the spiritual world, and an evil one who ruled the physical world. Cathars viewed even sex within marriage and reproduction as evil, and so lived strict lives of abstention. Here I present the spoken text of the Papal Bull legislating torture of those practicing Catharism, called “Ad Exstirpanda.” As a side note, that papal bull also supported colonizing so called, “Non-Christian” countries and enslaving Indigenous peoples, which carried over to the Doctrine of Discovery launching Columbus to the Americas 200 years later.

At odds with the Catholic church, The Cathar believed in female deities and believed that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. The text is presented in Latin, as the Cathar of the time were in France and Italy.

Ad exstirpanda” performed by Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI followed by what sounds like a lament, Veri dulcis in tempore” translated “A true Sweet season” of the time from the CD “The Forgotten Kingdom.

Recitation: 3:14

Veri dulcis in tempore: 3:57

That was Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI performing music of the forgotten Kingdom of the Cathar in France and Italy.

After 1492, in addition to colonizing the lands and its people, Spain, also, colonized the languages of the Americas and the Caribbean. Since the so called, “first contact,” we saw Castilian overwhelming, and often erasing, many Native languages of the islands and the continents, thanks to the Doctrine of Discovery establishing a so called, “spiritual, political, and legal” justification for colonization and seizure of land NOT inhabited by Christians. Again, the Spanish we hear today differs widely from that of the CSM and Alfonso X’s time. However, you don’t need to understand Galician-Portuguese to enjoy this music, known for its complex musical structures and its use of what we now call, ancient instruments.

Go to an instrumental played by the Waverly Consort, Cut #15, to play to the end. 6:43

Hour Two

Hello, I’m Debra Bolton. Welcome to the second hour of Las Cantigas de Santa Maria (The Holy Canticles of St. Mary), Songs and poems in praise of Holy Mary – and the poetic/musical biography of Alfonso, “the wise”, The Kind of Castile-Leon, now Spain, and who lived from 1221 to 1284, and for whom we celebrate his 800^th birthday this year. I appreciate your joining me today.

Let’s begin this hour with two miracles performed by the Virgin, as written by King Alfonso X.

“The Girl Who Ate Spiders, CSM #201:

A beautiful noble woman promised to guard her virginity.

The devil tempted her to take a lover, and she lived with her godfather and became pregnant by him. When the baby was born she killed it. She became pregnant a second time and killed her newborn baby yet again. Then she did this a third time. Overcome with despair, and hating herself, she tried to commit suicide. She stabbed herself in the breast, but the knife missed its mark.

Then she swallowed a spider, but it was not big or poisonous enough to kill her. She ate another bigger spider and her body swelled so much she was near death. As she lay dying, she repented and asked the Virgin to forgive her sins.

The Virgin appeared to her and stroked her body, making her more beautiful and fit than she had ever been. The woman entered an order and lived virtuously from that time forth.

Performed by the Martin Best Ensemble (Cut#7) 2:58

You’re listening to this holiday special, Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a musical biography of 13^th Century King of Spain, Alfonso, the wise. I am Debra Bolton, your host.

As we continue in this exploration of this very small part of King Alfonso X’s tribute to the Virgin Mary, my references come from the writings of Dr. J.K. Knauss, whose books continue to inspire me. On November 18, 2021, Dr. Knauss released a book which put the Cantigas de Santa Maria in narrative form. We did hear Dr. Knauss introduce CSM#42 in the previous hour, from her book, Our Lady’s Troubadour. I now will explore Dr. Knauss’ book, Violence in the Cantigas de Santa Maria. In addition, I refer to the writing of Professor Joseph F. O’Callahan, Mr. Andrew Casson, Maestro Jordi Savall, Maestro Eduardo Paniagua, John Esten Keller, Robert I. Burn, Editor of “The Emperor of Culture” and from Oxford Univesity’s CSM database.

From the book, Violence in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Dr. Knauss establishes an important beginning that does not have violence to set a calm tone. That would be CSM#97 about a slandered man who was exonerated. However, we move into the violence rather quickly in CSM#233. Knauss mentions this cantiga in her book about violence and in her recent book, Our Lady’s Troubadour, where she writes a wonderfully accessible narrative called, “No-Man’s-Land, ” which regales the story of the good knight, Jacinto (Ha-theen-toe), who while traveling with his men, encounter with Moors, who were so impressed with Jacinto’s faith to the Virgin Mary. The Moors spoke, “We see that you are not of this world, but we don’t think your intensions are evil.” “We honor you because you have been sent by Mary, mother of Jesus. Jacinto held his hand out to the Moorish leader, and they embraced as they forgave one another for their conflicts with one another.

Here we have CSM#233 performed by Elizabeth Pinard. I had a difficult time finding this piece, so I turned to YouTube, and found this incredible interpretation by Ms. Pinard, a Brazilian singer with the most incredible vocal range. Listen for her low notes, and when the choir comes in, Ms. Pinard vocalizes in ethereal high ranges. Go to Youtube and enter “Elizabeth Pinard – Cantiga de Santa Maria 233”

9:11

Let’s take a moment to talk about some of the instruments that you’re hearing on this musical journey of 13^th Century Spain, then called, Castile-Leon.

Recorder – Yes. That woodwind instrument that many of us learned in grade school. We hear this in the CSM, usually, on a wider variety of wood recorders.

Organetto – a small portable organ, which you heard performed by Esther Lamandier

Hurdy Gurdy, a.k.a. Viola de Rueda, and the Zanfona. Here we hear this instrument in Musica Antigua and by a group called, BIDAIA, featuring Caroline Phillips.

Vielle – the Medieval fiddle with five strings and six tied frets.

Rebec – A three-string “fiddle” often held between the legs as it’s played.

Viola de Gamba – (a.k.a., Viol or gamba), a six-stringed instrument, said to be a precursor of the four-stringed cello. The Gamba, usually, is much larger and has frets, like a guitar.

Gaita – Galician bag pipe, also common in Portugal. We’ll hear the Gaita in the next hour of this musical journey.

Duduk – Double reed Armenian flute, featuring those mournful, lamenting tones.

The language of the time, Galician-Portuguese, finds scholars today who argue that Galician and Portuguese are dialects of the same language. It tends to remind one more of Portuguese than of Castilian, the root language of modern-day Spanish. Portugal situated directly south of Galicia, was home to the Celts and the Sephardim of the Iberian Peninsula. Stay with us…

Segment Two Hour Two

Begin with Prologue by Waverly Consort, Cuts 1 and 2: (3:45)

We continue with Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the musical biography of Medieval King of Castile-Leon, Alfonso X, the wise and learned. I’m your host, Debra Bolton.

We just heard an English interpretation of the prologue, where the wise King announces himself in the role as the Virgin Mary’s troubadourn. The Waverly Consort, founded by Kay and the late Michael Jaffe performed that piece.

J. K. Knauss describes the importance of the Cantigas de Santa Maria saying, “The most appropriate single adjective for the corpus of cultural work produced under Alfonso X is ‘encyclopedic.’” He wrote books of history, astronomy/astrology, law, poetry, board games, and music. Even his written leisure activities continue to survive the vagaries of time, bearing the King’s name as patron or author.”

The next piece takes us to Italy, of the time, with a song, in Latin, praising the Virgin Mary. This piece, Verbum Caro Factum Est, “Word was made flesh” is performed by the Waverly Consort. I offer this to illustrate that there were other parts of Medieval, Romance Europe also praising the Virgin Mary. Again, not in the tradition of Alfonso X, who wrote about people’s interior and exterior lives, from every social class from Spain to other parts of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East and their relationships to the Virgin in everyday life, according to Knauss.

Verbum Caro Factum Est Waverly Consort ( 4:40) (Verbum Caro Factum Est)

CSM #41/119 Capella Ministeres (4:22)

That was Capella Ministrers, CSM 41/119. CSM#41, the story of a money changer named, Garin. The devil scared him. Garin went mad, and then the Virgen not only restored his senses, she gave him paradise. The story of CSM#119, tells the story of a judge who lived a life of ease. He ate well and collected generous supports, though he did not fulfill his duties and only arrested those who were destitute. The Virgin came to the judge’s rescue when a band of brigands kidnapped him. In the process of killing the judge, Mary intervened. She made the judge confess every one of his sins. He died the next day and angels carried away his soul.

Performed here by Capella Ministrers, CSM 41/119. 4:22

That was Capella Ministrers performing CSM 41 and 119 here on Cantigas de Santa Maria, the musical biography of Spain’s 13^th Century Monarch.

You’re listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a musical biography of King Alfonso X, I’m your host, Debra Bolton.

Cantigas de Santa Maria: Songs and Images

Alfonsine scholar, Dr. J. K. Knauss describes the importance of the Cantigas de Santa Maria saying, “The most appropriate single adjective for the corpus of cultural work produced under Alfonso X is ‘encyclopedic.’” He wrote books of history, astronomy/astrology, law, poetry and music. Even his written leisure activities continue to survive the vagaries of time, bearing the King’s name as patron or author.”

Now, I’d like to turn to interpretations of the CSM that have a more contemporary feel. Andre Bocelli, a mostly self-taught tenor, provides this wonderful rendition of CSM #57. I think the addition of Spanish guitar and a children’s choir give this interpretation a light and jovial feeling to the subject, “The Robbed Pilgrims to Montserrat.” From Bocelli’s album, “Believe” recorded last year. It features duets with Allison Krauss and opera singer, Cecilia Bartoli, on the Decca label.

Mui Grandes Noit’ e Dia (CSM #57) (4:06)

#CSM 422 Robin Rolfhamre (5:48)

That was Swedish Lutenist, Robin Rolfhamre with CSM 422, The Litany of the Day of Judgement. Mostly, Dr. Rolfhamre focuses on the early music of the 15^th century. His interpretations here features the lute.

You’ve been listening to Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, the holy canticles of the Virgin Mary and the musical biography of Medieval King Alfonso X of Spain in music, poetry, and art. I’m the producer and your host, Debra Bolton. I began exploring the history of the CSM, because I found the tunes, songs, poems, and art pieces so wonderfully extraordinary with their passion and multimedia approaches. I hope you’ve found this music and its stories interesting. For more information, please visit my blog: https://peopleandcultures.blog/?p=1369

And, if you’d like to hear the show, encourage your local public radio station to run it, and it can be found at https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/396349

To take us out, here’s an ensemble called, Calliope with CSM medley. Thank you for listening to Cantigas de Santa Maria, I’m Debra Bolton. (5:51)

What Matters to Me and Why

I work at a university with a leadership studies college. The school invites varying faculty, staff, and administration to talk about personal priorities and interests. As I always say, the more we know about one another, the more that the lines of separation fade. I love this notion of inviting people to talk about themselves. It becomes the living libraries favored by many communities. Here is one of my stories.

My father used to tell me, “Know something about everything and everything about something, and you will always be able to find common ground with another person.” I have a penchant for music, literature, geography, history, art, language, biology, architecture, travel, navigation in air travel, and people. Curiosity was the most important thing to my father. He taught me to be curious, always! Actually, I think my varied interests greatly inform my work in intercultural development, or helping humans find common ground with one another. It’s what I live. It’s what I love. I like to begin my classes, workshops, and presentations with a land acknowledgment:

My homeland is the Uncompahgre Valley in Western Colorado, from where colonial settlers displaced my father’s people (Ute).

In Kansas, I live and work on the ancestral territory of many Indigenous Nations, including the Kaw, the Osage, and the Pawnee. Kansas is currently home to the Prairie Band Potawatomi, the Kickapoo, the Iowa, and the Sac and Fox Nations.

I am grateful to these Nations.

Please remember these truths.

It can be quite enlightening to research and discover what Indigenous Nation occupied the land on which you live, work, and play. We can think about:

Who granted the land?

Who held the land previously?

What was the U.S. Homestead Act of May 1862? Who was given land, and who was removed from said land?

So, I begin all my teaching with this acknowledgment. I am honored and obligated to my ancestors to do it.

Next in my processes of teaching, I acknowledge myself and my identities. Here are a few of the things with which I identify:

•Native (Ohkay Owingeh/Diné/ Uncompahgré) •Human Ecologist/Geographer •National Geographic Society Explorer •Social Researcher •Banjo player •Mother, daughter, friend, spouse, aunt, grandmother, motorcycle rider, writer… •King Alfonso X enthusiast, the original pluralist! •Blogger •Craftsperson •Nature enthusiast.

I could also say, I’m a mother, daughter, friend, spouse, aunt, grandmother, motorcycle rider, and writer.

Embedded in each of these identities that I share with you denotes aspects of my of my culture. However, the most challenging part of working to educate students, especially those from a dominant identity (Anglo-European descent) about culture is that they possess a culture. Many of my students tell me, “I don’t really have a culture. I’m just an American.” That just tells me that they have not thought about their identities.

Each of us, if we think about it, has several identifying factors that contributes to our cultural identity. You have the same sets of identities – each with sets of verbiage, practices, and thought processes that are part of your culture.

Certainly, our environments influence our patterns of behavior, our ways of knowing, our ways of living. I grew up in a mountain environment, as pictured here. We learn certain behaviors to thrive in mountain valleys, which can be different than the tallgrass prairie where I live now. In humans’ cultural practices, we learn, adapt, and adopt, often maintaining our foundational family and community systems.

Prairie or mountains: both are beautiful, and we adapt and adopt the cultural aspects of each geography.

Speaking of geography, I grew up in a household where National Geographic magazine was honored as much as the family bible. My father read them from cover to cover. My brothers saw them as anatomy lessons. I vowed to visit all the places imaginable. My work with National Geographic Society, as an explorer, put me in company with the likes of Maria Mitchell, noted astronomer in the 19^th Century, Munazza Alam, 21^st century astrophysicist searching for Earth’s twin, Harriet Chalmers Adams, journalists in the French trenches of World War 1, and notably, traveled to Africa to see Haile Selassie’s coronation as emperor of Ethiopia. Of course, everyone knows the names of Edmund Hillary, Jacques Couteau, and Alexander Graham Bell as NGS explorers, but I encourage you to seek out the females who made great strides in the name of discovery. Being a NGS explorer is the greatest way I can honor my father’s love of knowledge.

Two of the great products of my NGS funding was developing introductory course in geography for females of color, now in its fifth year, also thanks to our Center for Engagement and Community Development’s incentive grants, I was able to study the women in the African diaspora in rural SW Kansas, which became a chapter in a book recently published. Here’s a picture of the book. My chapter covers the women of the African Diaspora now settled in Southwest Kansas. It tells of the brave women, displaced from their countries by war, worked in the beef packing plants while raising families and navigating health care, educational, and faith systems.

If you have read previous blog entries of mine, you would know that I greatly esteem George Washington Carver, the great genius in botany, invention, music, art, and philosophy.

Carver had a small homestead in Beeler, Kansas. As a child, his slave owners near Diamond, Missouri actually saw his genius in plant pathology. He came to Kansas, finished high school, and applied and was accepted into Highland college until he showed up. Carver was denied a college education in Kansas, because of teh color of his skin.

He found his academic home, first at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. Only being allowed to study the fine arts, his art teacher took great interest in his botanical illustration. She connected Carver to her biologist husband who was teaching at what is now Iowa State University. Carver received is Master’s degree there where his brilliance was duly noted by Henry Ford, who had invited him to work since Carver had created rubber out of golden rod. Thomas Edison tried to recruit him as an inventor since Carver was noted as a great inventor, having patents on wood stains made from peanuts and sweet potatoes. Alas, he went to work at Tuskegee “Normal” Institute at the invitation of Booker T. Washington, because it was there that he’d “do the most good.” Carver taught chemistry, botany, and other biology at Tuskegee until his death. I found this picture on the internet with Carver’s rules to live by: “Education is the key to unlock the golden doors of freedom.”

Once a year, I pay homage to King Alfonso X, who ruled Castile-Leon (now Spain) in the 13th Century. Here are a few facts about the “Learned King.”

He ruled from1252 – 1284 13^th C. Medieval – Father of Castilian language, which we now call Spanish. During his time, his language was Galician-Portuguese, also called “Romance”

420 songs, poems, and commissioned 3 dimensional pieces as a way to teach morality to his subjects.

He had just missed being crowned the Holy Roman Emperor because he was “too learned!” according to the Pope of the Catholic Church at the time. I wrote a blog better examining the King last November. No doubt, I will write another about the king in the coming fall.

I like learning about different species in the animal world. I was a volunteer teacher at a zoo in Southwest Kansas. If you want to learn more about a subject, teach it! I was able to handle lots of cool animals. Here I am with a goshawk.

Finally, exploring my Indigenous roots remains an important part of my identity. I still practice the food, the songs, and the rituals of my grandmothers. The fire featured as my main image illustrates one of those practices of cleansing with smoke. I am born for the Ohkay Owingeh and the Dine and born to the Uncompahgre Ute. I have DNA ties to the Athabascan, Alaskan Native. My people, called the San Juan Pueblo by Spanish colonizers of what is now New Mexico. Spaniard plopped right on the Village at the confluence of the Chama and the Rio Grande Rivers. Our villages straddled the rivers, so there was much struggle to keep our culture, our food ways, and our identities as The People of the Strong Land. You can see a stature of our great leader, Popay, in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Despite the push toward erasure, we are still here!

My family remains the most important, my children, grandchildren, spouse, parents, siblings, and extended family, natural and adopted, as I call my dear friends. Find what makes you happy, and develop curiosity about an array of subjects. For me, I can only think knowledge is the best brain food.

Thank you for reading.

Gorilla, My Love: A Commentary

My featured image was painted by one of my best friends and favorite artists, Carole Geier. Her Ribbon Dancer comes later in the narrative, too. I’ve featured her art previously on my blog. It relates to this blog entry as it features a contemplative woman, which may describe me and the main character in the short story of which I will review.

Before I was a geographer and human scientist, I was an English major. It seemed a likely choice given my interest in literature. My love for music also drove my work in public radio. Like comparative analyses that we do in literature, I like to do the same with music.

Toni Cade Bambara, who was active in the 1960s and 1970s as a writer, film-maker, social activist, and college professor, wrote some fabulous short stories. I like that her writing used great rhythms in the narratives. Gorilla, My Love stands out for me, so I share this review that I wrote for Bambara’s narrative about Harlem through the eyes of the young “Hazel.” The story addresses many experiences of the young African American female, including her views of social injustices. This short story brilliantly illustrates a gifted young female, who, for many reasons, does not get her due respect from society.

My commentary is rather dense, so I will break it up with photos that may or may not connect to my narrative.

Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara

Critics writing about Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “Gorilla, My Love” agree that her use of language promotes positive images about black urban life, and teaches important lessons without becoming preachy. Ruth Burks, Elliott Butler-Evans, Klaus Ensslen and Madhu Dubey point to no weaknesses in Bambara’s story. Rather the weaknesses lie in their criticism because of detachment from Bambara’s characters’ culture, misuse of words, and faulty interpretation of the text. The critics, rightly, cite Bambara’s use of a young female as a brilliant tool to give the story the ability to address social injustices without heavy-handed didacticism (Dubey 19), but they show disconnectedness with the writer’s culture, for example, by not recognizing the difference between street-wise and precocious when describing Bambara’s main character, Hazel. Each espouses strong opinions about a culture that perhaps none truly understands. The four critics each agree that Bambara’s language received heavy influence from the music of black Americans. They don’t; however, appear to know what elements in the music Bambara imitates when she writes. For instance, they use terms interchangeably, like jazz and Negro spiritual, when explaining the rhythm of Bambara’s story. The faulty criticism, however, does not lessen the strength of Bambara’s tale because the overall tone of the critics’ ideas stayed supportive.

Burks, Butler-Evans, Ensslen and Dubey each cite Bambara’s use of Black urban vernacular as a successful way to give readers a realistic picture of a black child’s life in her neighborhood and community. Elliott Butler-Evans describes Hazel’s speech patterns and delivery as a “restricted linguistic code of Black urban life” (94). His narrow vision doesn’t consider that some of Hazel’s verbal expressions come from immature language development and have nothing to do with her ethnicity. For instance, she uses the term “scary” for scared. She contracts the demand, “let me” to “lemme.” She calls Big Brood’s Spaulding basketball or baseball glove a “Spaudeen” (Prescott 676). She uses incorrect placement of a possessive in, “And I’m flingin’ the kid in front of me’s popcorn” (Prescott 677). While many might point to Hazel’s dialect as “the language of lazy or under-educated Americans,” that illustrates the dominant dialect in the United States. For example, she uses contractions of words heard in everyday speech: cause for because, musta for must have, and most noticeable, she leaves the –ing sound off many words like grabbing, flinging, something and throwing. African-American vernacular does not claim exclusivity to these terms. Bambara mixes the black vernacular with the immature child’s linguistic skills to address social issues through the eyes of innocence.

None of the critics’ main points appear to be original since they mostly agreed that Bambara’s strengths lie in her use of language. No opinions strongly oppose each other. The critics strayed when they stated their opinions without support from the text, cultural insights, or background. Klaus Ensslen attributes to Hazel, supposedly between the ages of eight and 12, the power of profound insight. For instance, Ensslen notes that Hazel’s term for Brandy’s friend, Thunderbuns, refers to “the borrowed or relegated thunder of her authority” (48). This shows detachment to the culture of youth and to the mind of a precocious girl. Hazel attributes to Brandy and Thunderbuns slothful, animal features to show inferiority to her own energetic, intelligent self. Hazel likes to pop empty potato chip bags so that “the matron come trottin down the aisle with her chunky self” (Prescott 676). Later Hazel reminds the reader that Thunderbuns “do not play and do not smile” (Prescott 677). Hazel does not possess the idea that the name, Thunderbuns, comes from the thunder of borrowed authority. In her youth, she attacks physical elements of the two adults with less-than-authoritative airs by condescending to them and by using names that describe their physical appearances. This instance illustrates Hazel’s youthful intelligence.

As if to say that a young, black girl could only get her intelligence from the streets, Dubey and Burks refer to Hazel as “streetwise.” The term streetwise usually refers to one with enhanced survival skills from living in the streets, which does not appear to be Bambara’s intention for her young character. Hazel does not come from the streets. She lives surrounded by a close-knit, loving family, which does not usually describe a child with street smarts. Hazel reads maps, asserts herself to protect her loved-ones, shows self-confidence in her knowledge, and asks intelligent questions. By reading maps, not a usual skill of a pre-pubescent child, she directs the pecan-gathering trip. She protects Big Brood in the park and protects the money from bullies by putting it in her shoe (Prescott 676). She asks for ticket reimbursement from the theater manager claiming false advertisement, which is good insight for a preteen. Her questions, apparently, threaten teachers since she often hears that they are out of line. Hazel expresses confidence in her consummate knowledge of things by proclaiming, “When in reality I am the smartest kid P.S. 186 ever had in its whole lifetime and you can ax anybody” (Prescott 678). Burks and Dubey wrongly assume that Hazel gains her intelligence from the streets, which further shows a misunderstanding of her youth and the culture.

The four critics of record hit the mark with their highlighting Bambara’s strengths in language use. Each takes a different approach, however. Burks sees the story as having more anger, sadness and negative points. Her notion of “incongruity of language” (50) sheds a dark light on Hunca Bubba’s not waiting for Hazel to grow up to marry him. The conflict of the story does not lie in Hazel’s misunderstanding with her uncle’s false marriage proposal. It lay in her friction with the theater manager and the school. Hazel’s experiencing disappointment with a family who loves her does not need to be ranked with the injustices of false advertising to children and teachers who ignore a precocious child because she’s black. The family offers support to a disappointed child, but the schools and theater are less likely to show empathy. Perhaps Klaus Ensslen meant to say the same thing when he noted that Bambara used “family and friends as a social backdrop” (44). Incongruity of Language describes the conflict with those outside the family, and that language shows differences from the dominant culture, as Butler-Evans charges. It seems more likely that Bambara wanted to emphasize conflict of blacks with the dominant culture rather than conflict within the family, which would be a less positive approach.

Ensslen, Dubey and Butler-Evans look at Bambara’s short story with optimism toward Bambara’s linguistic genius. Butler-Evans and Dubey agree that Hazel’s vernacular paints her as a cultural insider and note that her speech is accessible even to those outside the culture. It has reach outside the culture. How else would Bambara make her political statements? Hazel’s voice lends credibility to the story with her view on social injustices. Told by an older person, the same views would be construed as observations made by an under-educated, embittered and angry adult: “…grownups playin’ change-up and turnin’ you round every which way so bad. And don’t even say they sorry” (Prescott 680). This supports Dubey’s claim that, “Hazel’s voice functions as the sharpest linguistic weapon allowing Bambara to attack social issues without heavy-handed didacticism”(19). Ensslen called Bambara’s “didactic impulse” usable lessons in a committed life(41). This strength and the multi-layered use of language in Bambara’s short story stand out as the hallmark of “Gorilla, My Love,” according to Burks, Butler-Evans, Dubey and Ensslen, but the points missed with Hazel’s linguistic voice parallel the critics’ misunderstanding of the elements that make Bambara’s writing emulate jazz.

Burks and Ensslen refer to the music of Black Americans when describing Bambara’s written cadences, but they appear to be unsure of the elements that make it jazz. In referring to the rhythm and musicality of Bambara’s story, Ensslen notes that her improvisational use of oral forms of expression owes much to the black music especially to the bebop of the postwar decades, as she herself acknowledged” (42). He alludes to an interview in which she credits bebop jazz musicians Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for her literary voice. Ensslen merely alludes to one of the strongest elements of Bambara’s story, perhaps, because he doesn’t fully understand how “Gorilla, My Love” truly parallels an improvisational jazz piece. Consider Parker and Gillespie’s tune, “Night in Tunisia.” The tune, played by their jazz quartet, begins with the string bass introducing the theme, which is then joined by Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet, which takes the lead while being accompanied by Parker’s alto saxophone, the bass and drums (recording). The introduction in “Tunisia” parallels Hazel’s opening “That was the year Hunca Bubba changed his name.” Both introduce a theme. The quartet broadens its theme within several bars and measures, so does Hazel name the characters to set the story’s stage. Staying in the same musical key, Charlie Parker departs from the main theme to improvise his musical self-expression the same way Hazel uses an image in the photograph, one of many sub-themes, as a springboard to relay her story about an experience at the Washington Theater. In the jazz piece, Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet overtakes a slight nod to the theme with a second improvisation. Gillespie’s improvisation parallels Hazel’s story within her story, Big Brood up on the cross, because it represents additional expression influenced by the original theme. At the end of Gillespie’s ad-libbing, the remainder of the quartet rejoins him with the original theme like Hazel who brings her two stories, the theater and crucifixion, to an end with her yelling, “Shut is off.” If Ensslen understood jazz improvisation, he may have been more successful in connecting Bambara’s strong sense of rhythm and pace with jazz improvisation.

Ruth Burks makes a similar mistake by lumping all black music into one category to describe Bambara’s cadence. Burks likens the tempo of Bambara’s story to Negro Spirituals, which is incorrect. Burks declares that the plaintive voice of spirituals permeated “Gorilla, My Love.” Consider the spiritual, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The song opens with a slow-moving theme followed by a sorrowful response, “Comin’ for to carry me home.” The song continues with call and response, short statement with repetitious reply, through to the end (Quick 184). Unlike jazz, no one leaves the theme to improvise another musical interlude or uses the theme as a launching pad to tell a story within the story. Bambara’s “Gorilla, My Love” possesses very little elements of the Negro Spiritual. In contrast to the spiritual, Gorilla moves quickly as several vignettes unfold within the story. The energy is high since it’s told from a young, precocious girl’s point of view. Quick beat and high energy hardly describe Negro spirituals with their slow cadences and, often, melancholy themes. Burks’ allusion to, “constant repetition” (49), connotes jazz improvisation, but she describes Bambara’s pace as Negro spiritual because of unfamiliarity with jazz and with Bambara’s influences. The mistakes still don’t detract from the over all positive tone of the criticism, however.

The four critics, Burks, Butler-Evans, Dubey and Ensslen, all in all, like Bambara’s writing. They agree that her use of language promotes positive images about black urban life while teaching life’s important lessons without proselytizing. They find no weaknesses, but their own lack of knowledge, regarding black culture, weakens their interpretation of the story through misuse of words. The critics’ own stereotyping of the black culture becomes evident when they don’t recognize the difference between street-wise and precocious when describing Bambara’s main character, Hazel. Butler-Evans confuses black linguistic patterns with the speech skills of a preteen. Ensslen gives Hazel’s coping mechanism of name calling an adult’s scrutiny by charging her with deeper thought than one her age may practice. Dubey and Burks miss the mark by equating Hazel’s intelligence to the survival skills of a child from the streets. Finally, the four critics each agree that Bambara’s language received heavy influences from the music of black Americans. They don’t, however, appear to know what elements in the music Bambara imitates when she writes. The intent of the critics appears supportive of Bambara’s message, but faulty interpretation of the text lessens their credibility.

So, find the short story by Bambera. then find Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia,” or one of Charlie Parker’s upbeat Jazz pieces, and experience the rhythms for yourself. I find it most pleasurable.

Thank you for reading.

Foods: Dickens’ Great Expectations

My featured image surly points to my curiosity in many subjects. I agree with Horace Mann, “Every addition to knowledge is an addition to human power!” I took this picture of the limestone etching on the front of a building. I think the drive to add to our knowledge begins with curiosity. So, while my blog posts may appear random, they do reflect my curiosity. Today is one of those random interests of mine.

The Foods in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectation

As an English and Geography major, I tend toward the writings of Dickens, Steinbeck, Mark Twain, and Chaim Potok, when I’m reading great writers. For some reason, the foods in their books intrigued me. Once I invited a friend to dine with us. She replied, “I don’t know. What are you reading?” She remembered that I like to cook the foods in the books I read. For this entry, I offer something I wrote about foods in Dickens’ Great Expectations.

Charles Dickens describes the meal scenes in Great Expectations in sensual and appealing ways. Whether Pip and Joe Gargery sit down to light meal, called tea, consisting of bread, butter and a mug of tea or relatives gather around Mrs. Joe’s Christmas table to consume a spread of meats, sweet and savory pies, each food stuff carries with it custom and innovation. Food served in Pip’s’ era, 1860s Britain, possessed different qualities specific to each region of England. The story takes place in Kent, London, and Rochester and near the tributaries of the Thames River (Hunt vii), and each meal or food scene invites the reader into Pip’s world with regional flavors and traditional presentations.

The first meal encountered in Great Expectations finds the main character, Pip, and his gentle brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, in the kitchen watching Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, preparing their afternoon tea (Dickens 9). According to Roz Denny, afternoon tea, “a very British meal,” started as a fashion begun by the Duchess of Bedford in 1840. Since the Duchess became hungry between lunch, served at midday, and dinner, served around 8:00 p.m., she demanded a small meal around 4:00 p.m. Tea for the rich usually consisted of brewed tea, plates of sliced bread and butter; cucumber, egg or tomato sandwiches; buttered scones with jam; and pieces of sponge cake or fruitcake (31). Similar to Denny’s description, but more like the afternoon tea of the poor, Pip and Joe enjoy only bread and butter with their brewed tea. The description of the bread served in the Gargery household carries tradition of its own as well.

Pip observes Mrs. Joe, known for her foul temper, serving his and Joe’s afternoon tea. He notes that her trenchant way of cutting his and Joe’s bread-and-butter never varies:

First, with her left hand she jammed the loaf hard and fast against her impregnable bib. Then she took some butter (not too much) on a knife and spread it on the loaf, in an apothecary kind of way, as if she were making a plaster, using both sides of the knife with a slapping dexterity. (Dickens 9)

Visualizing Mrs. Joe’s use of her bib to steady the bread while she cuts it, as opposed to using a cutting board, calls to mind images of a rather large loaf. In his book, The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson explains many varieties of bread loaf shapes of the nineteenth century. Mrs. Gargery’s sounds like the Coburg or the cob. Davidson describes the cob as a popular English crusty loaf made from plain white dough. Round in shape, since bakers or “housewives” did not bake bread in a pan, the cob has a plain, uncut (no slashes like French or sourdough loaves) crust. Cob loaves were formerly small and round and baked with coarse flour. The name Coburg had just come into use during Mrs. Joe’s time possibly introduced by a German baker who settled in London. The loaves became larger and more substantial when baked by women in the country. A loaf of bread served by a country housewife, like Mrs. Joe Gargery, measured about 12 to 14 inches in diameter and four to six inches in height (Davidson 98). Hence Mrs. Joe’s ability, or necessity, of jamming the loaf into her bib, and, Pip says, “sawing a very thick round off the loaf: which she finally, before separating from the loaf, hewed into two halves, of which Joe got one, and I the other” (Dickens 9). In Dickens’ day, more professional bread makers worked to provide bread to those living in the city. Country women baked their own bread. Bread’s importance lay in its energy value for food to hard working lower and middle class people because it provided protein, iron, nicotinic acid and vitamin B1 (Toussaint-Samat 237). It consisted of baked dough made of wheat flour, water, and yeast. After combining the three components, the baker mixes then kneads the dough to incorporate air into the dough. The flour ferments producing bubbles of carbonic gas, which raise the dough. In the heat of the oven, the bread increases in volume, and forms a firm crust once the evaporation of the water in the dough stops (Toussaint-Samat 239).

Partaking of bread-and-butter appears in a few other scenes of Great Expectations. The best scene involving bread and butter shows Pip, well after settling in London, at the home of John Wemmick. Wemmick’s fiancée, Miss Skiffins, engages in a Sunday ritual with the Aged Parent to prepare tea. Pip states that the “Aged P” prepared a haystack of buttered toast, which left them “warm and greasy after it” (Dickens 327). The scene represents Pip in a happy time, but skipping back before the move to London, shortly after Pip learns of his call to visit the wealthy recluse, Miss Havisham, he first heads to Uncle Pumblechook’s living quarters in the High Street of the market town. The next morning, before going to Miss Havisham’s, Pip wakes up to a breakfast consisting of a mug of tea (with watered-down milk) and haunch of bread-and-butter, which he refers to as a penitent’s meal because of the butter’s scarcity in relation to the amount of bread presented. Soon after breakfast, Pip meets Miss Havisham and her ward, Estella, who soon becomes his life-long love. After playing cards with Estella and being the victim of her many insults centered on his coarseness, Pip’s day at Satis House ends with his receiving a small meal of bread, cold meat (meat’s first appearance) and a mug of beer, which he eats while he sits alone in the yard like a “dog in disgrace” (Dickens 66). Having meat during the week proves Miss Havisham’s wealth (Tannahill 207). On the last Saturday before embarking to London and beginning his journey of becoming a “gentleman,” one of Pip’s final suppers at Joe Gargery’s forge consists of bread-and-cheese and beer (Dickens 159). Beer, a cereal beverage, contains protein, and people with limited incomes favored it as a drink in Dickens’ era because of its low cost and nutritious value (Tannahill 330). Cheese also served the same purpose in terms of being healthful and relatively inexpensive (Tannahill 208).

In the thirteenth-century, Britons relied on sheep to supply their dairy products. Three hundred years later, cows became the main source for what the English called, white meats, claiming cow’s milk to be more versatile than sheep’s (Tannahill 208). In the nineteenth-century, Britain’s cheeses continued to come from cow’s milk. Professional cheese makers or country housewives, like Mrs. Joe, produced hard cheeses made in large cylinder shapes, called truckles, from which triangular wedges were cut (Denny 27). The cheese ripening process requires bacteria, yeasts, and molds. The rind of the cheese holds much of the bacteria necessary for aging. Unlike modern consumers of cheese, the British of Pip’s time ate the whole cheese, rind and all (Davidson 160). Recall Pip’s stealing the rind of cheese for the shackled convict out on the marshes near the churchyard (Dickens 12). Abel Magwitch ate the cheese rind just as the rotund Uncle Pumblechook greedily ate his Christmas dinner at Gargery’s home, only more thankfully (Dickens 13).

The grandest meal in Great Expectations certainly must be the Christmas dinner early in Pip’s story. Pip illustrates Mrs. Joe’s preparation of the house for Christmas dinner:

Mrs. Joe put clean white curtains up, and tacked a new flowered-flounce across the wide chimney to replace the old one, and uncovered the little state parlor across the passage, which was never uncovered at any other time, but passes the rest of the year in a cool haze of silver paper, which even extended to the four little white crockery poodles in the mantelshelf. (Dickens 220)

In a chapter entitled, “A Victorian Christmas,” the editors of The Pageantry of Christmas recall Christmas in England during the reign of Queen Victoria as a “time stirred up by a great hustle and bustle for ordinary folks preparing a bountiful holiday” (74). The serious eating began about 1:00 p.m. with an elaborate tea at 5 o’clock (Fillmore 76). The meal laid out on the table by Mrs. Joe differs little from that described in Pageantry only Pip’s sister adds a bit more: “leg of pickled pork with greens, a pair of roast stuffed fowls, a handsome mince pie, a beautiful, round, compact pork pie, and the pudding”. Mrs. Joe put the pudding on to boil the day before, and Pip had to stir it on Christmas Eve “with a copper-stick, from seven to eight by the Dutch clock” (Dickens 12). Mrs. Joe presents each course with a touch of pomp and circumstance beginning with the leg of pickled pork and the greens (Dickens 22).

Mrs. Joe’s leg of pickled pork comes from a long tradition of preserving meat, an essential process because of a lack of refrigeration to keep it bacteria free. Preservation by salt and/or brine curing (pickling) yields the best results (Tannahill 210). TheWorld Atlas of Food notes that the British had not acquired an art of resourceful pork cooking, so pickling seemed to work best in the nineteenth century (Hale 82). Pip’s sister displays her wealth and motivation with a no-expenses-spared dinner for her honored guests because pickling meat requires extra money and time. A scarcity of salt and spices increases the meat’s cost. Spices such as peppercorns and cloves add extra expense to the already expensive meat, so wives have to be mindful not to waste precious salt and spices on poor cuts of meat such as tough, stringy mutton, hence the saying, “That sheep’s not worth his salt” (Tannahill 212). The extra time involved in pickling meat includes pounding and smashing the large, lumpy salt, (Tannahill 210) and days of planning, because the curing process in pickling takes two to five days, and the spiced brine must be changed daily to prevent spoilage (Kerr 25). Mrs. Joe serves the pickled pork and greens as the first course along with the roast stuffed fowl (Dickens 22).

In the Literary Gourmet, Linda Wolfe names roast goose as the favorite fowl served on the Victorian Christmas table (151). The eating of goose on ritual occasions or seasonal feast days comes to Western Europe directly from the Celts and Germanic peoples (Toussaint-Samat 337). Mrs. Joe, likely, offers her family and guests a goose that she first rubbed with butter, flour and salt then browned in hot grease to seal the juices in before roasting (Wolfe 152). Recall Pip and Joe warming themselves at the chimney corner in the kitchen (Dickens 7). The chimney in a wooden country house, like the Gargery’s, rose above the roof from the kitchen where women of the era cooked their meals. Families gathered in the kitchen for its warmth as well. Mrs. Joe probably roasted her Christmas fowl before a brisk fire without the use a pan, but rather something like a large skewer, and she had to baste the bird often before its own juices began to flow (Wolfe 152). Like other women in her region of southeast England, around Kent, Mrs. Joe roasted the fowl with stuffing inside made of the goose’s liver, breadcrumbs, onions, sage, butter, egg yolk, salt and pepper (Wolfe 153). After Mrs. Joe’s meat courses, her diners still have more than half of the whole meal left to consume, and next comes the mince pie.

Pip stole mincemeat from a jar in the pantry (Dickens 15). Mrs. Joe had already made the “handsome mince pie”, so she did not notice any missing (Dickens 22). Mincemeat has its origins in thirteenth century England when the aristocracy kept large amounts of dried fruits in their larders because varying climate made the storage of fresh fruit impossible. In addition to the variety it added, dried fruits served to disguise meat past its prime. Mrs. Joe likely served it because of tradition, and almost everybody in England continues to eat mince pies at Christmas, presently (Hale 86). The World Atlas of Food cites “Mrs. Beeton’s Household Management of 1856-1861” as having the original mincemeat recipe, which bakers continue to use today. It includes raisins, currants, lean rump steak, beef suet, sugar, candied citron peel, lemon peel, orange peel, nutmeg, apples and brandy all mixed and stored in glass jars to mature for about two weeks (87). The Kerr Home Canning and Freezing book written more than a century later offers the same basic recipe as well (25). However, Kerr promotes the use of a pressure canner, 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. I have found this much too long as the juices tend to flow out of the jars, so I have opted to freezing my annual mince made from my Native American Grandmother’s recipe. Mincemeat’s function, besides serving as a sweet treat, lay in its relatively long shelf life, essential in not having adequate refrigeration (Davidson 507). At Pip’s Christmas dinner, the mince pie came just before the “savory pork pie”.

Minced meat continues to be one of my all time favorite luxuries. Take a look at one of my blog entries two years ago with history and a recipe found here: https://peopleandcultures.blog/2018/08/09/history-of-mince-pie-and-a-recipe/

Before Mrs. Joe serves her next to the last item on the menu, she coyly teases her guests, Mr. Wopsle and the Hubbles, with the portly Uncle Pumblechook’s gift of a pork pie. Lucky for Pip, the teasing delays his sister’s discovery of the missing pie. Just as Mrs. Joe is about to discover the missing pie, soldiers, looking for the blacksmith to construct leg irons, interrupt the grand dinner. Thankful at the interruption, Pip thinks of the convict out on the marshes hungrily consuming the pie (Dickens 30). The British pork pie originates from a medieval tradition, but the practice has changed little in modern times. Fresh pork seasoned with salt, pepper and lots of sage goes into a hot watercrust pastry case made with boiling salted water, flour and lard heavily kneaded for strength. The pie, baked in a three-pint basin, measures about eight inches in diameter and four inches high. When the pie finishes baking, the baker pours rich stock from the trimmings through a hole with a funnel. The stock congeals when the pie cools. Pip’s convict enjoys the pork pie cold just as anyone in Britain would eat it (Davidson 624). Magwitch does exonerate Pip’s thievery, as he is being led to the prison ship, by claiming to have stolen the “wittles” himself. Magwitch offers this gesture to honor Pip for his generosity. Sadly, for Mrs. Joe, the soldiers’ interruption did overshadow her presentation of the final item on the feast menu: the pudding.

The Pageantry of Christmas illustrates a scene of “Plump Molly Dumpling,” as the epitome of a chubby Victorian housewife plunging her Christmas pudding, cradled in a large white bag, into boiling water (75). Like Molly Dumpling, Mrs. Joe uses a pudding cloth to hold the pudding while it cooks in a boiling liquor bath. Her predecessors had to use the stomach or entrails of a sheep or pig to hold the pudding while it cooked, similar to Scottish Haggis, which is not sweet. The guts were only available at the time of the animal’s slaughter, which did not necessarily coincide with Christmas (Wilson 283). The Christmas pudding recipe dates back hundreds of years before Mrs. Joe put hers on the table. The recipe varies from region to region with base ingredients that do not change: breadcrumbs, sugar, rich dried fruits, nuts, spices and suet (Hale 87). Pudding sounds similar to mincemeat without the meat but with flour. Roz Denny notes that most cooks begin their puddings six weeks before Christmas for thorough mingling of the ingredients’ flavors (34). Mrs. Joe may have rushed her pudding only beginning it the day before (Dickens 12), but Dickens relates the scene with lively beauty.

The author describes the meals in Great Expectations in ways that conjure visions of happiness and grief, and they invite questions about their origins. Pip and Joe’s humble teas, served by the bitter Mrs. Joe, date back twenty years before their time as a remedy to quell hunger between the long hours of lunch and dinner. Menu items of the teas reflect the household incomes and range from only tea-and-bread to elaborate menus including sweet cakes, scones, butter, jam, and sandwiches. Pip’s teas mostly consist of bread-and-butter with a mug of tea, but when he has tea at Miss Havisham’s, he receives cold meat, a sign of the recluse’s wealth. The shape of Mrs. Joe’s bread loaf, the Coburg, hints at her place of regional residence, a southeast England countryside, and cheese and dairy products provide vital protein, as a white meat, to Pip’s diet even though he must consume his milk watered-down. The scene with the most tradition, pomp and circumstance shows Mrs. Joe presenting a Christmas meal to friends and family. The meal demonstrates a bountiful household graced with a clever and hardworking mistress.

Necessity-becomes-tradition describes each item on the Christmas menu. Pickling pork gives it a longer shelf life at the same time imparting flavor to an otherwise mild meat. Sweet dried fruits disguise spoiling meat while providing tastes to satisfy the sweet tooth, and the fruity mass of the Christmas pudding gives everyone at the table something to anticipate. Pip’s world can be beautiful at times thanks to the delicious meal scenes.

Next time you read a book, if it features food, try creating the recipe. It may be fun. Also, I have a works cited list if you’re curious. Thank you for reading.

The Joys of Jam!

I love color. I like to fill my house with color! I think my favorite color in a window is cobalt blue. Oscar Wilde, my favorite 19th Century Irish playwright and aesthete once said, “I fear I will never live up to my cobalt dishes.” I think it was actually decorative urns to which Wilde referred. I would have to agree with the great intellect. Cobalt does delight the senses. The featured image is my kitchen window. It looks to be a setting sun outside, which gave the blues an extra boost of color.

Speaking of color, I like color in my foods. Jams are a good example of a colorful food. While jams, that wonderful concoction of sugar and whole fruit, may not appear to be useful beyond peanut butter and jam, bread and jam, jam glaze, etc., for some, I think they can be used every day in a myriad of recipes. I like to create jams. I am less inclined toward jellies, made of fruit juices and sugar, though they make wonderful sweetener for, say, tea! This week, I created a new jam. I give my jams weird names. Actually the names derive from the acronym that comes from the main ingredients, like “CAOS,” pronounced, chaos, is my cranberry-apple-orange-spice jam that I make in November when cranberries come to the grocery. My CAOS graces the holiday table, and goes splendidly with turkey and its trimmings.

“FAJ” and “FOJ,” pronounced fahje and foeje, are my fig-apple jam and fig-orange jam. They pair nicely with brie and other buttery cheeses. I think I’ve written about these previously.

To assure that I measure fruits, sugar, and other ingredients going into the jam, I look at other recipes. My latest is called, APOS, and now I’m sorry I didn’t arrange those letters differently, because some use a similar acronym derogatorily. Going forward…APOS is apricot-pineapple-orange-saffron jam. I followed a recipe for apricot jam. First, you should know that my freezer is full of apricot pulp. My mother has a prolific apricot tree. She picks and cleans the apricots. She adds a “produce protector” with dextrose, ascorbic acid, and citric acid, so that the fruit keeps its brilliant orange, and she adds some lemon juice and freezes in jars.

I thaw the jar and mix my “jam.” For APOS, I used this quart (453.59g) of crushed apricots, and chopped up enough fresh pineapple and two whole oranges to make eight ounces (226.80g) of additional fruit. To which I added four cups (860g) sugar, and two ounces (56.70g) of lemon juice and four good pinches of saffron (about 20 threads for stigma). Saffron is a rare and fragrant spice. Each flower of the crocus produces three stigma and must be harvested by hand. I visited Spain 15 years ago, and I still hang on to the saffron I purchased there. Luckily, my mother’s friend, who lived in the Middle East gifted some. I am using that now. Here it is cooking down to a thickened state. Notice the saffron threads imparting their brilliant color to the already colorful blend of apricot, pineapple, and naval oranges.

While the jam thickens, jars must be cleaned and sterilized. The rings must be clean, and the lids must be covered with hot water to soften the rubber seal. Pour the boiling jam into the prepared jars, and the lid-ring must be adjusted to fit properly. Lower each jar into a boiling water bath canner where the water covers the jars by two or more inches (5.08 cm). Place the lid on the canner, and begin the count (15 minutes) once the water comes back to a boil. Consult your canning guide for best results.

I tested the jam with silky goat cheese, and it did not disappoint. It went well on a freshly baked slice of sourdough, too. I think it’s a keeper.

Jams are a must when you present a meat and cheese board. We like a meat and cheese board when we’re watching a movie on the television.

On this particular board, I used whole figs in place of the jam (What was I thinking?). My husband loves kippered snacks (herring), which is great with cream cheese and crackers. Eat this kind of meal slowly so that you know when you’re full. Otherwise, it’s easy to stuff yourself, because everything is fresh and flavorful.

I’m off to visit my mother for her 90th birthday. My sisters and I are preparing a great feast. Perhaps I’ll share. Thank you for reading.

Good Times with Friends and Food

In my undergrad years, I was a literature major. One of my favorite things to do was to bake or cook the foods in my favorite books. I like to cook. I like to read. I like to entertain. One time I had invited a friend to my house for dinner. She said, “I don’t know. What are you reading?” At the time, I was reading Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and I had been baking buttermilk biscuits, ham, greens, and red-eye gravy.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with recreating dishes from cooking magazines. Last week, I prepared a wonderful curry, which included garbanzo beans and fried Halloumi cheese. I had invited colleagues to enjoy the meal, and it was a hit! I did not remember, however, to take pictures, so perhaps another time.

Well, I take inspiration from interesting films as well. Netflix has a wonderful Japanese serial called, Midnight Diner. The series, with English subtitles, centers on “Master” who opens his diner at midnight for people rushing home at the end of their days. “Master” prepares for his customers whatever they choose, as long as he has the ingredients. Each episode has a story that plays out at the diner as the focused character requests a specific food of his/her/their past. And, we, the viewers, get to watch while he prepares. In the opening credits, “Master” prepares Tan-men. I have not prepared this dish in a satisfactory way at this point.

Recently, we began viewing the second season of “Midnight Diner.” The title, “Chicken Rice” is a story of an adult being reunited with his mother after 37 years. He heard about the Master’s diner where customers order their heart’s desire. When the Master was preparing the “chicken rice,” the addition of the red sauce intrigued me. I looked it up, and there is a website that offers the recipes for the “Midnight Diner” series. Here’s the recipe for chicken rice. I made it for breakfast, and it tasted quite delicious. Take note, the surprise ingredient is ketchup! Actually, the next time I prepare this dish, dinner is the better time of day for it. In the series, most things are consumed with beer – not my sort of breakfast beverage.

Here’s the recipe for chicken rice, as I had prepared it this morning:

Prepare rice (White or brown) in your usual method
De-bone and cube two chicken thighs (for three servings). Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper.
Dice a quarter of an onion and, approximately six mushrooms
While the chicken absorbs the seasoning, prepare the sauce
The sauce requires
1. 3 tablespoons (45g) ketchup (I used a siracha-infused ketchup)
2. 3 tablespoons (45g) tomato paste
3. 2 tablespoons (30g) water
Mix all and set aside
Cook the chicken until it looses its pink color. Add onions and mushrooms. Cook until chicken is well-cooked and some browning has occurred.
Add three to four tablespoons (30 to 45 g) of the tomato mixture until well mixed.
Add 2.5 cups (about 400g) cooked rice, and combine thoroughly with 3 tbs. (45g) frozen peas.
The recipe says put the mixture in an “omurice” form, which looks a bit like an American football. I put mine in a bowl as the form before inverting it on the dish.

The recipe suggested that five or six peas be arranged on top, and that you eat it with a spoon larger than a teaspoon – a soup spoon.

Now, I thought ketchup mixed in rice would be a curious flavor, but it works greatly! Here is the chicken rice in the pan.

Two weeks ago, we traveled to see our friends, Phil and Paula, who live about two hours away. We spent a wonderful weekend enjoying an opening art exhibit of Preston Singletary, a glass artist who is Alaskan Native (Tlingit). We had wonderful food at the special dinner for museum members, and we perused through the exhibition of his extraordinary glass works. Look it up on the internet. You will see. I did not take pictures, because I felt it inappropriate. This is the poster.

That weekend also included food prepared by Paula, Phil, and I made my apple cabbage slaw. Phil made chicken. Paula made deviled eggs. We made a cheeseboard. Here are our dishes.

We watched a football game (Superbowl), and our team won! It was a good evening – not because of the ball game, but because we were with friends that we love.

Thank you for reading my blog.

History of Mince Pie and a Recipe

I was an English major as an undergrad and for graduate school. It was later that I worked in Human Ecology for a second grad school. I must say that I fell in love with the food in so many British and American classics such as Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and the books by Jewish author, Chaim Potok. One thing these books had in common was superb descriptions around food preparation. Oh, I forgot to mention that Patrick O’Brien’s books about the British fleet on the high seas during the Napoleonic Wars were full of great description of the foods on board a ship.

One of the things that peaked my interest in Dicken’s Great Expectations was the traditions around the food. Especially those served during holidays. In case you have not read Great Expectations, there’s this great scene where the story’s main character, “Pip” stole mincemeat from a jar in the pantry to feed an escaped convict, named, Abel Magwitch. This was an act that endeared Pip to Mr. Magwitch forever. Earlier in the story, before the theft, Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe, had already made the “handsome mince pie” for the holiday gathering, so she did not notice any missing (Dickens 22) shortly after Pip had stolen it to feed his convict.

I love mincemeat! I continue to be intrigued that my Native American grandmother, born in the New Mexico, made mincemeat much the same way that the Brits made it.

Mincemeat has its origins in thirteenth century England when the aristocracy kept large amounts of dried fruits in their larders because varying climate made the storage of fresh fruit impossible. In addition to the variety it added, dried fruits served to disguise meat past its prime. Mrs. Joe likely served it because of tradition, and almost everybody in England continues to eat mince pies at Christmas, presently (Hale 86). The World Atlas of Food cites “Mrs. Beeton’s Household Management of 1856-1861” as having the original mincemeat recipe, which bakers continue to use today. It includes raisins, currants, lean rump steak (my grandma used beef tongue), beef suet, sugar, candied citron peel, lemon peel, orange peel, nutmeg, apples and brandy all mixed and stored in glass jars to mature for about two weeks (87). The Kerr Home Canning and Freezing book written more than a century later offers the same basic recipe as well (25). However, Kerr promotes the use of a pressure canner, 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. Mincemeat’s function, besides serving as a sweet treat, lay in its relatively long shelf life, essential in not having adequate refrigeration (Davidson 507). At Pip’s Christmas dinner, the mince pie came just before the “savory pork pie”. Here’s a notes about pie crusts:

Quick Pie from Scratch

After finishing a lovely meal on a cozy winter evening, one of our friends said, “I wish we had a pie!” Luckily, our dear friend, Mary Lake, was at table, too. She’s one of the best pie-makers in the world! Mary and I bet, those around the table, that we could produce a pie from scratch in 30 minutes. The race was on! The stop watch began. Mary got busy making her famous oil crust, and I set to getting the apples ready. Fortunately, I had several quart jars of canned apples from the previous summer’s windfall of crispy, sweet apples. I dumped a quart of apples in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of quick tapioca, cinnamon, 3 tablespoons sugar, and a pat of butter. Here’s Mary’s crust recipe:

2 cups of all-purpose flour

Dash of salt mixed in flour – put flour/salt mixture in a bowl.

½ cup of vegetable oil (Mary likes corn oil for its nutty flavor)

5 tablespoons buttermilk (Make some with milk and vinegar if you have no buttermilk on hand)

1 glass pie plate. It must be a clear, oven-proof pie plate.

With a fork, emulsify the oil and buttermilk until well blended.

Add to flour mixture

Stir with a fork until all flour is well-moistened

Divide, and put half of the dough on a square sheet of parchment paper. Shape into a round, flat disc without handling the dough too much. Place another square sheet of parchment, and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Once the dough is the size of your glass pie place. Shape to the pie plate. Repeat for the top crust. Once the top crust is rolled out, place the fruit in the pie plate with the bottom crust. Settle the fruit in to the crust, and then place the top crust. Shape the edges of the pie crust, cut air vents with scissors, and sprinkle crust with cinnamon sugar.

Place your pie in the microwave oven for 12 to13 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat your conventional oven to 400°. After the time sounds for the microwave, remove the pie from the microwave, and place it into your conventional oven for 12-13 minutes, or until the crust is browned.

Mary and I put our apple pie on the table in 35 minutes. The microwave oven gets the fruit cooking and thickened. This shortens the time in the conventional oven, and prevents burned edges. Starting the pie in the microwave only works for fruit pies. Do not try with custard pies.

The featured picture is the mincemeat pie with the oil crust. You can see that the crust is tender and flaky. I did not add the cinnamon sugar mixture here, but it gives the crust a beautiful glow.

Mmmmm…I’m hungry! Thank you for reading.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: