OMG, I totally forgot it is Tuesday!!!  It must be holiday crazy brain.  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, get great bargains over the weekend (if you’re into that–I am much too lazy to leave my house after eating so much turkey and pie!), and check back here next Tuesday for a proper post….

I am definitely thankful for all our Risky readers!

Congratulations, Lori and Renee. Thanks everyone who participated!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

First–winners!  The winner of a free download of A Very Tudor Christmas is Lesley A!  Email me at amccabe7551 AT yahoo and I will get your copy out to you…

I hope you all have your Thanksgiving plans for next week (my family is going out, because 1-no one wants to get up in the middle of the night to cook the turkey and 2-no one wants to clean up after!), and that you haven’t yet turned on your Christmas lights, as my across-the-street neighbor has (seriously, dude!!  It is not even near December yet!).  In the meantime, I am working on a fun new project with a group of writer friends I have “martini night” with every Friday.  (though weirdly, none of us drink straight-up martinis).  It’s a series of 4 connected novellas set in a 1920s speakeasy, based on the bar where we meet (which is a very old building, but I think it was actually a doughnut shop in the 1920s…).  I will have many more details later, but in the meantime I was wondering what a Regency gentleman or lady might enjoy for a holiday time libation.

So I Googled “18th century punch”….

Here is a great article from Saveur.com about the history of punch (check out the “Regent’s Punch” with over 10 ingredients!!)

Here is a recipe that would, as my grandfather used to say when he took a particularly hearty shot of some kind of bourbon, “put hair on your chest,” and one called Fish House Punch, after a tavern in Philadelphia…

½ pint light-bodied West Indies Rum (a.k.a. light Puerto Rican or Cuban)
½ pint peach brandy
½ pint lemon juice
5 tablespoons bitters (Angostura is about the only kind left and this recipe uses about half a bottle)
4 tabelspoons brown sugar

Stir thoroughly. Pour over a large block of ice. Add 2-3 pints effervescent mineral water

 

• Peels of 8 lemons
• 2.5 cups Demerara sugar
• 16 oz Boiling water
• 16 oz Fresh lemon juice
• 1 (750-mL) bottle Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum (or other strong, pungent Jamaican rum)
• 12 oz VSOP cognac
• 12 oz Real peach brandy*
• 3 qt (96 oz) Cold water
• Garnish: Grated nutmeg
• Glass: Punch

PREPARATION:
At least a day ahead, fill a 2-quart bowl with water and freeze until completely solid. In a large punch bowl, muddle the lemon peels and sugar. Let the mixture stand for at least 3 hours. Add the boiling water, stirring until as much as possible of the sugar has dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. To serve, add the ice block and garnish liberally with freshly grated nutmeg. This recipe serves 25.

What are you planning to drink for your holiday???

Happy Guy Fawkes Day, everyone!  We don’t really celebrate Bonfire Night here in the US (though we really, really should!  Just because it’s fun to go around chanting “Remember, remember the 5th of November…” if nothing else.)  I think I can probably find some leftover 4th of July sparklers tonight, though, and raise a glass to the Guy.

Guy Fawkes, of course, commemorates a failed Catholic uprising in 1605, where Fawkes, a small-time country gentryman, and 12 co-conspirators decided to blow up Parliament by storing gunpowder in tunnels under the palace and sending James I, his court and counselors sky-high.  It fizzled (ha!), and people lit celebratory bonfires around the city.  The day became an official holiday, often the focus of anti-Catholic bigotry and fervor, but now I guess it’s mostly an excuse to drink and light bonfires.  Sounds fun, though!

According to the History Timeline site:

After the plot was revealed, Londoners began lighting celebratory bonfires, and in January 1606 an act of Parliament designated November 5 as a day of thanksgiving. Guy Fawkes Day festivities soon spread as far as the American colonies, where they became known as Pope Day. In keeping with the anti-Catholic sentiment of the time, British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic would burn an effigy of the pope. That tradition completely died out in the United States by the 19th century, whereas in Britain Guy Fawkes Day became a time to get together with friends and family, set off fireworks, light bonfires, attend parades and burn effigies of Fawkes. Children traditionally wheeled around their effigies demanding a “penny for the Guy” (a similar custom to Halloween trick-or-treating) and imploring crowds to “remember, remember the fifth of November.”

Guy Fawkes himself, meanwhile, has undergone something of a makeover. Once known as a notorious traitor, he is now portrayed in some circles as a revolutionary hero, largely due to the influence of the 1980s graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and the 2005 movie of the same name, which depicted a protagonist who wore a Guy Fawkes mask while battling a future fascist government in Britain. Guy Fawkes masks even cropped up at Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City and elsewhere. “Every generation reinvents Guy Fawkes to suit their needs,” explained historian William B. Robison of Southeastern Louisiana University. “But Fawkes was just one of the flunkies. It really should be Robert Catesby Day.

Since it’s raining here today, thus not helpful for lighting fires, I guess I will settle in to working on the WIP and re-watching last night’s episode of Sleepy Hollow!  It’s good to be back at the Riskies and getting back onto a semi-normal routine…

What are you doing for Bonfire Night???

Last week on Twitter I found out that Kim, blogger at Aloha on My Mind and one of the delightful people who stopped by our table, had posted this pic of Diane and me at the NJRW booksigning. Kim kindly gave permission to share here.

Now I’m wishing we’d gotten our act together and gotten a group shot of the Riskies who were there. Maybe next year!

Elena