Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Advent Activity: Santa Lucia Day

Yesterday we learned a little about Santa Lucia Day, or Saint Lucy's Day, a holiday observed mainly in Scandinavian countries on December 13.  Traditionally, the eldest girl in the family dresses in a white gown dons a wreath of greenery and lit white candles and serves her family coffee and Saint Lucy buns in the morning.  Some towns also have processions.  Bud was very hung up on the fact that it was the eldest girl, sensing, I think, that he was excluded (though,  now I understand boys are more involved in the rituals).  Sis was curious about the candles, which gruesomely refer to the failed attempt to burn Saint Lucy.  And so, when we got home from NYC with our bottle of Kinder Punsch non-alcoholic Gluwhein (similar to the Glögg we knew from living in Andersonville, the Swedish and lesbian neighborhood where we lived in Chicago), we made a toast to the holiday season.

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Virgin Glögg
a recipe from the Swedish Museum's Jamarkand in Chicago


Glögg spices (cinnamon, raisins, almonds, cardamom)
2-12 oz. cans frozen cranberry juice concentrate
12 oz. can frozen purple grape juice concentrate
12 oz. can frozen apple juice concentrate
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Thaw and mix juice concentrates together with vinegar and keep refrigerated.

Simmer 1 package glogg spices in 1 cup water in tightly covered pot for one hour. Add boiled spices and water to glogg liquid. Bring to a simmer and turn off heat. Let cool and leave in room temperature for one day. Strain and pour back into bottles. Save the drunken raisins to serve with the glogg.

Heat with water in a 2:1 ratio and serve



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