At 132 Front Street, Greenport, NY 11944, Greenport Wines and Spirits is the most complete and knowledgeable source for fine wines for every budget. Mon-Thurs 10am-7pm, Fri-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun Noon-6pm.
Open later during the holidays.
Phone 631.477.6701 We deliver.
We have an idea. It goes past putting on that happy face for the season, but goes to doing something good "first". For the next little bit, be the first to say hello on the street, to open a door for someone else (m or f), to offer a compliment, to smile, etc.
That's right. Just do it first. How can it hurt?
We are very serious about this. These nice things shouldn't be just at this time of year but why not start now? Please, thank you, thanks a lot for that, you look great, what a nice day, how are you....get the hint.
Try it for a day or two. See if the shoe fits better.
There is one Christmas Carol that seems odd compared to the Joy to the World types. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? One idea is that someone wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning:the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember. * The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. * Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments * Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. * The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. * The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. * The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. * Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit - Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy. * The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. * Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit-Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. * The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. * The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. * The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
Well there you have it. OR NOT. Who knows. Nice story though. Merry Christmas
No fooling. We kept trying to figure out what is so valuable about a goose that lays an egg other than gold and our 12 days of Christmas has 6 of them - not golden..but that would keep up with the five golden rings of yesterday. We do, however think there might be more a connection similar to the golden rings and the pheasants. (you might want to look at the last post).
Greyleg Goose
There is a goose/gander in England called the Greyleg - for obvious reasons. They are pretty nifty looking and perhaps, just perhaps, they little verse changed over time and for ease of singing.
I.e. Six geese a grey(leg) to greying to laying because some folks had no idea what a Greyleg was or is.
Makes sense to us. But then a lot of things make sense that don't.
Lack of knowledge is the mother of all stuff made up.
We are stumped here. In the poem/song the music stops and Five Golden Rings...comes out slowly and clearly. We looked everywhere for what it meant, from the biblical to the "five marks on the door" and nothing seemed to fit that made any sense.
The one we like best is probably the germ of it...5 ringed neck pheasants...it fits the bird stuff in the rest of it...
We crawled through the tall grass of trivia regarding day 4 of the 12 days....
The line four calling birds is an Americanization of the traditional English wording four colly birds (did you know that????), and in some places, such as Australia, the variation calling is supplanting the original. Colly is a dialect word meaning black and refers to the European blackbird Turdus merula.
The line four calling birds in some versions is four coiled birds. Religiously, The 'four calling birds' are the Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; or their Gospels.
We don't know much about doves so we looked around for info. All we knew was one of our customers came in the other day and said "if he and his wife were doves, he would get a hunting license". Not being very nice but it is just an expression.
Turtle doves are often found in pairs as they form strong bonds, mostly monogamous for life. As such, they are often used as a literary symbol of love. Nowadays, the turtle dove population has apparently dropped about 62% due to a lack of favourite wildflowers caused by a change in European farming practices. Plus on their annual migration they have to dodge a lot of bullets as they fly through the Mediterranean regions where they are hunted as game birds. That, seems to me, would make for a pretty light snack. Doves are actually the same thing as pigeons. They are all in the same bird family, columbidae. It’s odd to think that the white dove, an international symbol of peace, is one step away from the “flying rats” known as city pigeons. (a descendant of the rock dove) They are the most prevalent birds in the entire world, but some species have gone extinct including the famous dodo bird. One thing totally unique to the dove family is how they drink. Unlike every other bird that takes a small sip of water, then tilts its head back, a pigeon or dove will drop its beak into the water and suck the water up like a straw.
Our village is lucky enough to have some creative types who have themed Christmas shopping into the 12 days of Christmas poem. We are up to the "three french hens" so we picked through some trivia to find out what that was all about....and will do so each day..just to get into spirit of things.
La Fleche, Crèvecoeur and Houdans. Poultry historians, yes they exist, trace these breeds way back. Morbier is a wonderful cheese from Franche-Comte with a layer of ash that gives it a distinctive stripe. Normande, Charolais and Limousin are cows which I do not believe were on the gift list. Morilles, Pleurote and les Cèpes are all mushrooms. The Crevecoeur gets its name from a village in Normandy as does the Houdan chicken. La Fleche is a handsome black chicken, the Houdan often has black and white speckles with a top knot and the Crevecoeur is black with a crest. So, all the answers to this question are French names for things to eat but only three names are for chicken.
From The Birds by Respighi, Movement IV, "The Hen"
One of our fav contributors to our Facebook pages is Alex Farrone. She is a photographer extraordinaire to say the least and is getting a lot of recognition for her skill and keen eye. She deserves it.
One of her fortes is arial photography - we assume for real estate folks and their efforts to sell sell sell. We have mental images of Alex, hanging out plane doors, clinging for dear life and clicking like crazy.
Anyway, her abilities are grand and her work brightens our day.
A friend dropped in the other day with his Advent wreath, all a fuss about not starting it up on time; missing a week. He told us about growing up in the middle west and how on the first Sunday morning of advent his church's women's groups sold the wreaths and candles after the service and they always made just enough for everyone, planning ahead to give ones away to those who couldn't afford it. We liked that story, particularly about the ones who couldn't afford it.
Just to fill us in some, Advent wreaths are four candles, one for each Sunday before Christmas and then one extra for Christmas evening. Christians and Jews certainly have the countdown in candles in common this time of year and we like that plenty; this countdown thing.
Fact is, we like the anticipation that countdowns bring. In talking about it in the shop, we concluded that with each candle lit brought us a little closer to somehow being a better person. The church women making extra wreaths to give to those would were in need was somehow the center of our thoughts.
Good thoughts. Countdown is on. Clock's ticking. Do something nice for someone before they ask for it. Surprise 'em.
This is one of our fav. posts. Cold day. Time to revisit it.
Right now it is 42 degrees and drizzling with a promise of a cold wind this afternoon. We were trying to think of something Tuscan, in keeping with our tasting on Saturday - 3-6pm 132 Front Street in Greenport (write it down) - and also something that quite frankly would take the chill off. On the way in this morning we stopped at the market and ran into a friend who was all loaded up with chicken broth and cannellini beans (in cans no less) and and we asked if he was making soup and he replied yes, white bean soup, all creamy and rich, and we could see, in our mind's eye, the steam rising from the pot as we spoke. Perfect. Our grandmother used to make this and we can still see the kitchen stove in the late afternoon light, red enamel pot, gentle steam, that ancient wooden stirring spoon and a wondrous smell of garlic and oil, crusty bread crunching, real butter - my oh my.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 sage leaf
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 slices ciabatta bread
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Directions
Place a medium, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the butter, olive oil, and shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sage and beans and stir to combine. Add the stock and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the garlic and simmer until the garlic is softened, about 10 minutes. Pour the soup into a large bowl. Carefully ladle 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup into a blender and puree until smooth. Be careful to hold the top of the blender tightly, as hot liquids expand when they are blended. Pour the blended soup back into the soup pan. Puree the remaining soup. Once all the soup is blended and back in the soup pan, add the cream and the pepper Keep warm, covered, over very low heat.
Place a grill pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle the slices of ciabatta bread with extra-virgin olive oil. Grill the bread until warm and golden grill marks appear, about 3 minutes a side. Serve the soup in bowls with the grilled bread alongside. (Recipe courtesy of our good friends at Food Network)
We did. We forgot. We got busy. Big wind coming in. Stormy weather and we just lost track of the swans.
One of our fav contributors to our Facebook pages is Alex Farrone. She is a photographer extraordinaire to say the least and is getting a lot of recognition for her skill and keen eye. She deserves it.
This is one of our fav. posts. Cold day. Time to revisit it.