Here we come, a-wassailing ♪♫♪♪♫

Being an American I was aware of wassail, but had never tasted the brew. Had I been born British, I probably would have been more aware of what wassail actually was.

For the record, wassail is a greeting that rich folks gave other rich folks around the holidays. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase waes hael, a term often used as a toast meaning, be hale or good health.

People would walk around their community, knocking on other people's doors, and sing "Waes Hael!". The people answering the door, feeling a bit lonely, and a little concerned for the mental health of these door to door well-wishers. So, they offered them heated alcohol.

The drink could really consist of nearly anything, as long as it had ale, sherry, port wine or brandy as a base, simmered with apples or cider and mulling spices. Some people recommend mixing the wassail with eggs but these folks should be patted on the head, sent to the store to pick up some fresh eggs... and then mocked while absent from you.

Incidentally, after you pour yourself a mug you must remove the wassail from heat or else you'll end up forgetting about it and then having a nice sticky saucepan full of wassail syrup.

Not that I'm speaking from first hand experience *cough cough*.

The taste of this drink is quite good. Deep, rich and spicy. It's no wonder why this drink was handed out to those who went out caroling.

• 2 pints and 1/4 cup brown ale (winter ale or Scottish ale will also suffice)
• 3-4 cinnamon sticks
• 12 whole cloves
• Zest from 1/2 lemon
• 4 apples
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup cream sherry or port wine
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large sauce pan, pour in 2 pints of ale. Add the cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and cloves and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Take an apple, and score it with a knife around the circumference of the apple. Place in a baking dish. Repeat this step for all of the apples. Cover with one cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of ale and all of the sherry or port. Cover baking dish and place in oven, cooking for 30 minutes.

While apples are baking, place remaining sugar and spices into the sauce pan, ensuring it's well mixed.

When the apples are done baking, place the entire contents of baking dish into sauce pan. Gently simmer over a low heat for another 30-40 minutes. Do not boil.

Serve hot, one or two ladles into your favorite mug and slake your winter thirst like our forefathers did.

Serves 6-8; less if you can hold your liquor ~ wink-wink

Stock Market Shenanigans

THE unholy trinity of margin loans, short selling and stock lending have combined to cause severe difficulties for certain stocks - and individuals - in recent weeks, and arguably have contributed to a more volatile and less informed market.

Each is a simple concept.

Margin borrowing is taking out a loan to buy more stock than you can afford; or borrowing against shares you own.

Short selling is the reverse of normal share market practice: it is selling a stock first, and buying it later. If the price falls after you sell you profit, as your selling price is more than your buying price.

Stock lending is where the owners of shares lend them out, for a fee, to borrowers who are free to use them in any way they like - although the shares remain owned by the lender, who can recall them from loan at any time.

Right now there are huge foreign/domestic hedge funds, as well as sovereign wealth funds shorting the hell out of companies, especially the commercial finance-based ones. (WaMu, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Bros.)

Once the share price falls low enough the company gets it's credit rating downgraded, which in turn leads to increased margin requirements and a liquidity crisis. Can we say forced bankruptcy anyone?

Chris Cox and the SEC haven't done a damned thing about it. Either they are complicit in causing this crisis or they are truly a dumb bunch. I suspect the latter to be true.

My Baked Macaroni & Cheese Recipe

* 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (one 16 oz. box is 2 cups)

* 1/2 cup butter (one stick) divided into 2 equal amounts
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
* 1/4 cup flour
* 1-3/4 cups whole milk
* 10 oz. block of Vermont sharp cheddar cheese
* 1/4 cup bread crumbs
* 1/4 cup corn flake crumbs (found in the same aisle as bread crumbs)


You won't find a better recipe for this classic dish. I got this
recipe from someone who used to serve it many years ago at a famous
restaurant chain. (think orange roof)

This recipe relies on milkfat for it's delicious flavor.
DON'T substitute margarine for butter, 1-2% milk for whole
(red cap) milk or any other type of cheddar for Vermont sharp.

PREPARATION:

Coarsely shred the cheese on a sheet of waxed paper. Set aside.

Boil elbow macaroni until done. Drain well and spread evenly
in 9 X 13 buttered glass baking dish.

Melt 1/4 cup of the butter in frying pan over medium heat.
Stir in salt, pepper and onion powder. Add flour and cook
over low heat, stirring constantly, until it is smooth and
very light brown in color. Remove the frying pan from the
stove IMMEDIATELY (this mixture is called a roux and once
it starts to brown it can burn very easily) and stir the
milk in slowly with a wire whisk.

Return the frying pan to the burner and gradually increase
heat as you stir constantly. When mixture boils, continue
to stir for 30 seconds, then remove from heat. Stir in the
shredded cheddar cheese and mix until cheese is melted and
mixture is smooth.

In a small frying pan, melt the other 1/4 cup of butter and
add the bread crumbs and corn flake crumbs. Stir over medium
heat until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. This is your
toasted crumb topping.

Add the cheese sauce mix to the macaroni and stir in
thoroughly, then sprinkle the toasted crumb topping evenly
over it.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let sit for
5 minutes before cutting into servings.

Friends No More

Victor Alonzo Friend was a well-known Boston-area businessman whose company produced Friend's® Brick Oven Baked Beans.

Victor was born in the small coastal town of Brooklin, Maine to Robert Alonzo and Alona Blanche (Mirick) Friend. His father, a storekeeper, also owned boats for fishing and transporting lumber. By the time Victor went to public school the family had relocated to Fitchburg, Massachusetts. After High School he attended Bates College, then transferred to the Portland Maine Business College. He graduated in 1892.

Friend worked for several months for a wholesale grocery concern in Portland, saving his money. Then, with his brother Leslie, he moved to the Boston suburb, Melrose, Massachusetts, where they established a bakery. They baked beans and delivered them to their customers by a horse-drawn wagon. Using what they considered an "authentic New England recipe" allegedly based on a fellowship recipe of Pilgrim (and ancestor) Hester Friend, they founded their business on the longstanding Puritan tradition of preparing baked beans in advance to be eaten on the Sabbath, a day when worked was prohibited. They also began experimenting with canning.

Victor's other brother, Robert, entered the business and the brothers were later joined by Robert and Leslie's sons as well. Eventually they were able to can their beans without sacrificing flavor, which revolutionized the baked bean industry. In 1921 the firm was organized as Friend Brothers, bakers and canners, and in 1928 it was incorporated as Friend Brothers, Inc. They became one of the largest canners in the United States. They had factories in Melrose, Malden, Lynn, and Lowell and ran Friendly Food Shops in forty Greater Boston communities. The "brothers" also processed other New England specialties: cranberries and brown bread. Through the 1950s they nearly monopolized the New England market for their product. Victor was president until his death.

In 1973, his heirs sold the business to the William Underwood. Co (of canned deviled ham fame) and they shut down the Malden cannery in 1974, consolidating operations with their B&M® bean cannery in Portland, ME. After changing hands several times, in 1999 the Friend's brand was sold to B&G Foods, in an acquisition from Pillsbury that also included the B&M® brand.

It appears that B&G Foods has since abandoned the Friend's brand in favor of the B&M® brand, which they consider to be the more well-known/popular of the two.

B&M Baked Beans: not what they used to be

Although not considered a glamorous, high society food, baked beans are nutritious, hearty and filling, feeding both body and spirit. My grandfather used to make baked bean sandwiches to take on fishing trips and I have fond memories of washing them down with a cup of his light and sweet hot tea from a Thermos bottle while angling on Fisher's Pond.

B&G Foods acquired the B&M® (Burnham & Morrill) brand of baked beans on March 15, 1999 from The Pillsbury Company. They've since "re-staged the brand with a re-styled label and a re-formulated recipe" that umm... sucks. It's no wonder they've lost much of their original market share. Sure, they still make them in Portland, Maine at the original factory, but they should have left well enough alone and not screwed around with the recipe.

The words mealy and bland immediately come to mind. Reading the label, I noticed that they're also using high fructose corn syrup in place of brown sugar and modified food starch to thicken the sauce. The piece of salt pork that they add to each can has also shrunk to the size of a sugar cube. Baked beans are inexpensive to make at home and I'm certain even less expensive to make in large commercial quantities for canning. Was it really necessary to cut costs by substituting cheaper ingredients for the original recipe? We're talking about saving mere pennies per can, folks.

B&G Foods, shame on you.