St. Lucia Day

[pegkerr]

Knowing that St. Lucia's Day was coming up, and armed with mrissa's recipe for traditional lussekatter (see her post about making it, here), I sallied forth to Lunds and purchased some saffron. Man, saffron is expensive. I gave it to Fiona, along with the recipe, and said, "well, if you'd like to try making it, here you go." I wasn't sure she would. The kitchen isn't ordinarily a place of great delight for Fiona, unlike Delia. When we came home from the theater last night, they told me that Delia'd been making truffles, but I neither saw nor smelled any sign that they'd been making lussekatter. "Sorry the kitchen doesn't smell very good," Delia said. "I'm afraid we burned a bag of popcorn."

Crafty girls. They burned the popcorn on purpose, to cover up the smell of the lussekatter, and then they hid it in the photo cabinet when it was out of the oven.

At 6:30 this morning, they appeared at our bedside, Fiona a vision of the saint in white chemise belted with the red sash, and with a crown of candles, holding the tray of lussekatter, and Delia carrying the cocoa. "Happy St. Lucia Day!"

So we had a sleepy and happy breakfast together. "Did you enjoy making the lussekatter?"

"Oh, it was SO much fun, especially the kneading part." The results were well worth it. The lussekatter was delicious (even if Fiona skipped the traditional raisins because she hates them).

Yes. The Christmas season has begun. Light is there, even in the darkest days.

St. Lucia Day December 13, 2008

Fiona's Kirsten doll with homemade lussekatter

You can click on the "st. lucia day" tag to see my posts and pictures from previous years.

Comments

[ckd]

That's wonderful. Crafty girls, indeed!

[naomikritzer]

I LOVE that they burned popcorn to keep the secret, that is awesome.

[musicbearmn.livejournal.com]

Your girls rock.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Beautiful shapes, and beautiful girls. And doll!

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Your girls are AWESOME!!!

[airemay.livejournal.com]

That is so crafty!! I must try that next time I try to mask the smell of something. Those buns look delicious!

Your yearly posts about this make me want to celebrate St. Lucia's day too!

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

And, off on a tangent, glad to see the electrified candles on the headdress. Those live flames always made me twitch . . .

(Particularly with modern hair spray.)

(When we found the Christmas-tree candle holders in Mom's basement, cleaning out the place, we heaved them in the trash post-haste.)

[sternel.livejournal.com]

We actually have a bunch of antique candle holders that we use with candles on our tree -- we just never light them. They are so pretty on their own there's no need to burn them.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The ones we threw out were just shiny pressed tin, not anything I'd call artistic.

[pameladean]

Raising kids -- ur doin it rite.

P.

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

Excellent, excellent girls!

[eal.livejournal.com]

They are very sneaky. I'm not sure this will always be a good thing.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Um, you asked the other day what you're doing right.....

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am so glad to have contributed unwittingly to this awesome thing!

Does she like blueberries? We use dried blueberries because timprov doesn't like raisins, and because the rest of us actually like blueberries better with the saffron dough.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I can suggest trying the blueberries for next time!

[aome.livejournal.com]

You wanted to know what you do right? You inspire your girls to do fabulous stuff like THIS. There's about twelve levels of "right" that you've done so that they were inspired, capable, cooperative, sneaky, and happy, all in the name of giving you some surprise holiday joy. Also, I love that her Kirsten doll has her own candle crown. :D

[cesario.livejournal.com]

OMG! Everything I know about St Lucia's Day I know from reading the Kirsten books as a little girl, so it's doubly poignant to see Delia's doll in the picture.

I really kind of envy your girls their family sometimes. :-)

[cesario.livejournal.com]

oh, and you know what? My mom got me some saffron for my birthday last year. I think I just found a use for it. *looks up recipe*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

(Another use is Spanish rice. I don't mean to be the person who encourages the use of really expensive foodstuffs, but as long as you have it....)

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

Fun! You can get really inexpensive saffron threads at Trader Joe's. I think it's only $4 there. I have no idea why, since the amount in the jar would probably be $12 anywhere else. TJ's is also the least expensive place to get vanilla beans.