A Recipe for the Holidays...or Any Time

Papanasi

Of all the dessert recipes I’ve made and consumed over the years, many stand out for their deliciousness and for the many requests over holidays, gatherings, and birthdays. But these days, since a large number of my "boomer" friends and family need to watch what they eat (and not just from plate to fork), I’ve had to find ways to adapt them for a variety of dietary concerns. My father, for instance, was diabetic; my brother-in-law doesn’t eat dairy; another has developed allergies to a gazillion foods; and I have cholesterol issues and need to avoid salt for my blood pressure. While almost anything in moderation can't be too bad, sometimes it’s not possible or even desirable to avoid the urge to splurge.

Take the Romanian delicacy, papanasi (pronounced pop-a-nosh). I tasted it for the first (second and third) time while visiting Romania in 2000. From Bucharest, my friend and I traveled to scenic Transylvania to the mountain resort of Sinaia and to the medieval city of Brasov, where I had the equivalent of gastric euphoria after sampling what my kids (and many others) have come to refer to as Romanian jelly donuts. They used rose petal jam in the restaurant, which was heavenly. My friend and I split a serving, consisting of two of those darlings.

Because they are fried in oil, papanasi is perfect for Hanukkah, along with latkes (yum), and other artery-choking, heart-stopping delights. Papanasi are lighter in texture than donuts and distinctive due to the soft cheese that is an integral ingredient in the dough.

I wish to thank my dear friend (and moose enthusiast), Professor Liliana Popescu, for sending me this recipe back in July 2001, which I have used on more than one occasion for our Festival of Lights celebration feast.

By the way, papanasi, or dumpling, can be prepared and cooked in a number of ways for a number of purposes (think of shrimp a la "Bubba" Buford from “Forest Gump”). The following recipe is as close to the papanasi I remember from my trip. Most of the online recipes nowadays feature an actual donut shape, topped with a munchkin. (The comments in parentheses are mine.)

Papanasi cu branza de vaci

(Fried dumplings with “Cow Cheese”)

makes four large “donuts” or eight small ones

Ingredients:

400 g. soft cheese such as farmer cheese (make sure it’s Breakstone), cottage cheese, ricotta

500 g. flour

250 g. sugar (use your judgement; sugar probably is not necessary)

3 eggs

Zest of one lemon

½ tsp. rum extract

Oil for frying

1 Tbs. confectioners sugar

Jam or preserves

Sour cream or crème fraiche

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients (except the oil, jam, powdered sugar) until the batter is the consistency of a sticky dough.
2. Mould the papanasi into balls (the ones in the Brasov restaurant must have been nearly tennis ball-size)
3. Fry in hot oil until golden (best done submersed until they rise, or turned frequently).
4. Dry on paper towels
5. While still warm use a spoon to pierce the papanisi to create an opening for the jam or preserves
6. Fill with your choice of jam or preserves
7. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and top with sour cream or crème fraiche

Enjoy!

 ~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, "The Serpent’s Tooth" trilogy: Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her BWL Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from a host of online and brick and mortar retailers. Look for Where the River Narrows (wriiten with BWL author Ron Crouch), the 12^th and final novel in BWL’s Canadian Historical Brides series, coming in July 2018.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Ghostly and Supernatural Tales from Quebec Province, by Kathy Fischer-Brown

photo © Janice Lang

Our assignment for the month of October on BWL’s “Canadian Historical Brides” blog is ghost stories, tales of haunted places, and other supernatural phenomena related to our books’ settings.

Ask anyone who knows me. I do not enjoy scary books, ghost tales, or frightening movies. Maybe it’s the creepy music in the flick added to augment the buildup to a blood-curdling moment that sends my heart thumping to near lethal levels and my blood pressure rising. My husband and daughter love them. Even coming through a closed door, that sinister music has its desired effect on me.

Not to say I don’t believe in the unexplainable. Two days after our beloved springer spaniel Casey crossed over the Rainbow Bridge at the age of 14, I was watching TV. Something in the periphery of my vision caused me turn away from the Yankees game. Not trusting what I thought I saw, I did a double-take. To my astonishment, there was Casey standing in the open doorway, her head hanging, ears forward, attention focused on me—a familiar posture in life when she wanted something. We made eye contact for a long moment. And then she dissipated like smoke in the wind. Some have told me that Casey probably just wanted to say goodbye.

Years ago, when I was still living in my parents’ home during summer breaks from college, I was having trouble falling asleep one night. Maybe I was suspended on that fragile boundary between dreams and consciousness when something tangible brushed my cheek and rustled the hair falling over my ear. And then a woman’s whispered voice announced (to whom or what?), “She’s asleep now.” Shortly after, a deep, sonorous baritone from beyond my open window began intoning what sounded like “Pil…grim’s…Pri-i-ide.” If I wasn’t 20-something at the time, I probably would have high-tailed it into my parent’s room and begged to let me sleep with them.

OK. This is supposed to be about ghosts, ghoulies, and other bump-in-the-night stuff from Quebec Province. As a Connecticut Yankee, no one deserves a mention here more than Mark Twain. This is from a piece by Mark Abley in the Montreal Gazette (October 17, 2014)

In December 1881, one of the most celebrated writers in North America came to

Mark Twain

Montreal on a lecture tour. Mark Twain … was then near the height of his fame. …

“That afternoon, a reception had been held for him in a long drawing room of the Windsor Hotel on Peel — recently built, and at the time the most palatial hotel in Canada. There, Twain noticed a woman whom he had known more than 20 years earlier, in Carson City, Nevada. She had been a friend, but they had fallen out of touch. … She seemed to be approaching him at the reception, and he had ‘a full front view of her face’ but they didn’t meet.

 “Before he gave his evening speech in a lecture hall, Twain noticed Mrs. R. again, wearing the same dress as in the afternoon. This time they were able to speak, and he told her that he’d seen her earlier in the day. She was astonished. ‘I was not at the reception,’ she told him. ‘I have just arrived from Quebec, and have not been in town an hour.’”

All right. I agree. This is kind of “woo-woo,” but hardly the stuff that inspires goose bumps. But both Quebec and Montreal, with their long and illustrious histories, are rife with tales of the mysterious and macabre. There are so many such stories that I’ll limit them both by time and necessity. As a writer of historical fiction, I’m drawn to some of these older stories. For example, McGill University is Montreal’s oldest (founded in 1821) and also one of the most haunted in a city of multiple haunted places. Its Faculty Club was once the opulent mansion of the German-born sugar magnate, Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten.

Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten

At the turn of the 19^th century, the Baumgarten house was a center of social activity, so much so that it became the favorite stopping place of Canada’s governor-general when in Montreal. The start of World War I ended all that when anti-German hysteria forced him to sell off his assets and lose his standing in society. He died in 1919, a broken man. In 1926, McGill University bought the mansion to house the school’s high chancellor, General Sir Arthur Currie. After Currie’s death in 1933, the building was repurposed for use as a faculty club.

From the beginning, faculty and staff at the club reported feelings of unease when in the building, while others experienced some truly strange happenings. A piano in the basement began playing itself and no manner of trying to stop it succeeded. Doors opened and closed of their own accord. Elevators ran between floors with no one inside to operate them. In the billiard room, balls moved on the table and into the pockets as if a game were being played, and portraits on the walls appeared to follow people with their eyes as they walked past them down the halls. Even its phones had a life of their own, calling college offices late at night when no one was in the building. And then there’s the fireplace, closed off for decades, still emitting the smell of ash and smoke. There are tales of murder, particularly that of a young servant girl whose untimely death had been covered up and whose spirit has been seen wandering aimlessly, apparently seeking justice. Some postulate that many of ghostly happenings are the work of Baumgarten himself, whose restless soul attempts to regain what had been lost.

On the Plains of Abraham in Quebec on September 13, 1759, the battle between France and England for supremacy in the New World ended with the death of the charismatic British General James Wolfe and took his opponent, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who died of his injuries the following day. Here some 258 years later, ghosts of the dead from both sides can be seen drifting across the battlefield, particularly one lone soldier at the entrance to Tunnel 1, accompanied by the acrid smell of sulfur smoke and the sound of cannons.

From Montmorency Falls in Quebec comes a sad story and one that seems to have many similarities to other tales of such nature. That of a beautiful young woman whose fiancé was called off to war and died in 1759 during the French and Indian War. Legend has it that the grief stricken maiden donned her wedding dress and went out in the evenings calling his name in hopes that he would return. The Lady in White has often been seen in the mist of the falls, tumbling to her death.

Of course there are more such stories, many more, but for now that’s all folks.

Wishing you all a ghoulishly Happy Halloween...but please keep the music down.

 

 ~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, "The Serpent’s Tooth" trilogy: Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from a host of online and brick and mortar retailers. Look for Where the River Narrows, the 12^th and final novel in BWL’s Canadian Historical Brides series, coming in July 2018.

Who would play my characters in a movie?

photo © Janice Lang

This month at the Canadian Historical Brides blog, we are faced with the question, Who would play our characters in a movie version of our books? Not to jump the gun, ’cuz Where the Rivers Narrows is barely half-finished. But this is a fun exercise, so here goes.

My first impulse is to say that, if I were lucky enough to have a production company interested in making a film or a mini-series, I would be ecstatic (to say the least) but the last person to have a say in who would be cast. I would, however, supply the producers with a list of ualities—physical and emotional—to assist the casting director in choosing the right actors for the roles. So, if anyone has ideas as to whmo would be a good match for these characters, I’d love to hear your suggestions. I’m totally at a loss :-(

Elisabeth Van Alen (Beth)—A young women, 19-years old, slender but sturdy from hard work. Although she is from a well-to-do family, the Van Alens have fallen on hard times and she’s taken to the running of the house when her mother abdicates her responsibilities. Her dark hair and gray eyes set her apart from other members of the family, who are fair with blue or gray eyes. She will age five years over the course of the story. Beth is not physically beautiful, but has an inner beauty.

Geritt Bosch—From his Mohawk grandmother he’s inherited black hair; from his Dutch grandfather sapphire blue eyes. He’s tall with an athletic build, and is knock-em dead handsome. At the start of the story, he’s 24.

Samuel Van Alen (Sam)—Elisabeth’s 21-year old brother  is fair and of a stout build and prone to being over-weight if he were to let himself go. He’s a charmer with a magnetic smile and a propensity for imbibing secretly of gin.

Esther Freeman (Essie)—Around 38-years old, she’s a long-time family servant and freed slave. Tall and willowy with a regal posture and down-to-earth view on life, she’s loyal to a fault.

Abel Freeman—Essie’s husband. A jack-of-all-trades, and manager of the Van Alen lands and tenants. Of average height, close-cropped graying hair and fine hands.

Cornelis Van Alen—He’s what Sam would become in middle age, of a stout build with some heft around the middle, graying hair and kind blue eyes.

Catherine Van Alen—A withered woman worn down by personal hardship and tragedy, she seeks escape and relief through laudanum. Once beautiful, she’s let herself fall prey to her inner sadness.

Willem Van Alen (Will)—Elisabeth’s twelve-year old tow-headed brother is in many ways a miniature version of his brother Sam. By the end of the book, he will be seventeen.

Sarah Van Alen—Five-year old sister and youngest of the Van Alen children. Fair, blue eyes.

Tobias Freeman—Thirteen-year old son of Essie and Abel, constant companion of Will, with a studious look from the spectacles he wears. Tall and rangy, he resembles his mother.

~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, her latest release, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon, Kobo, and other online retailers.