Happy Valentine's Day!

From Pat: The Wordwenches thought they'd share a few Valentine thoughts with you on this romantic holiday. Although, if you heard the comments backstage, you might think us a curmudgeonly, unromantic bunch, especially when it comes to artificial card-giving holidays! Still, we do truly appreciate real love and romance on a daily basis. So here's our Valentine's gifts to our readers!  

From Nicola:
Here is a recipe for Orange Flower and Pink Champagne Jelly, a special Valentine's Day dessert to complement Andrea/Cara's chocolate cake, perhaps! This was made in 1817 for a banquet for the Prince Regent by his chef Antonin Careme. If you don't fancy the jelly version just have the pink champagne - because you're worth it! A very Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!
 
Orange Flower and Pink Champagne Jelly     
 
12 ounces sugar
Water
Orange Flower Water
Isinglass*
Pink Champagne
 
Cover 12 ounces of sugar with water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add orange flowers. Allow to infuse, then when the liquid is cold, strain it through silk. Add one ounce and two drams of isinglass* and mix this and the strained syrup with a bottle of pink champagne. The juice of a lemon may be added and a drop of cochineal to increase the pink colouring. Tiny drops of pink dye should be added before the jelly sets in order to give a marbled effect. Set in glasses and decorate with orange blossom.

*If re-creating the recipe these days, it would probably be better to use gelatine instead of isinglass which was a dried substance made from the swim bladders of beluga sturgeon!

From Cara:

Call me a curmudgeon, but I'm not a big fan of commercial holidays, where the traditional spirit of things seems to have been lost amid the hollering to buy something to prove our sentiments. As a kid we handmade Valentine's Day cards for our parents and classmates. It was fun and joyous, cutting out colored paper and gluing on fancy lace doilies and other inventive trim. Then there was composing the right message for each person. For me, that's worth  a lot more than all the manufactured stuff.

That said, a heartfelt hug to  all our friends. And in keeping with the spirit of the day, I've designed a special PDF downloadable chocolate cake recipe, inspired by the Vienna setting of my latest release, and posted it on my website as a little treat for everyone. (Note, you have to scroll down a bit to the little picture icon of the recipe. Just click on it and it will download.) I may rail against crass materialism, but chocolate is above criticism!

Traditional Viennese Sacher Torte
 
In researching To Tempt A Rake, I discovered that Vienna has long been a city that loves its pastries. One of the real historical figures who makes an appearance in the story is Prince Metternich, who helped create one of Vienna’s most legendary desserts! Enjoy a little taste of sinful decadence! (photo: backaldrin)

http://www.caraelliott.com/_IMAGES/Kate&Marco%27sChocolateCake.pdf

 

From Mary Jo:

Our current version of Valentine's Day seems designed to make people without dates feel like losers, so I prefer the original celebration, which was a broader kind of love.  The story I read when young was that the imprisoned Bishop Valentine had a lilac bush growing outside the small window of his prison cell.  He plucked off the heart shaped leaves and scratched "I love you" on them, and doves carried the messages to the members of his congregation. 
 
The chances of any of that actually having happened are close to nonexistent--but as a legend, it's lovely.  And I've always adored lilacs.

 

From Anne:

I suspect I'm the Valentine Grinch. When I was growing up I thought it was a quaint custom I read about in old books, and in stories like Anne of Green Gables — I think it mentioned Valentines, didn't it? Nobody I knew gave or received Valentines. It's a relatively recent thing here, and getting bigger every year, and we Grinchly types see it as something wished on us by US TV shows and cynical commercial forces who try to guilt people into spending money...

I don't like obligatory demonstrations of love. I think they should come naturally, spontaneously and unexpectedly, and not according to the calendar. I subscribe to the "Love Actually" theory of love — that it's everywhere at all times, in different forms, and I'll celebrate it whenever I come across it.

Red roses are beautiful, but the red roses that proliferate on Valentine's Day have no scent, and to me, that's symbolic. A rose without scent is worse than no rose at all. Give me a blowsy, tattered, bug-nibbled rose that smells glorious over a pristine, tightly furled perfect scentless rose any day. One is real,  the other is all for show.

That said, some friends of mine got married on Valentine's Day, which I do think is romantic  (ok, so I'm not consistent -- sue me ;) so if I celebrate Valentines Day it's on behalf of Merilyn and Patrick's anniversary

  From Joanna:

 One interesting sort of valentine is the 'sailor's valentine'. 

This wasn't something you'd slip into the nearest post box, and, alas, the sailor's valentine wasn't a  creation of lonely sailors.  It was a sentimental souvenir made in Barbados between about 1830 to 1880 by the women of the islands.  Colored seashells were arranged as hearts, flowers, stars and mottoes and glued into octagonal boxes made of Spanish cedar. 

Sailors brought these folk-art valentines home to their sweethearts in American and England. 
So cool.

 

From Jo: 

It's interesting that the Valentine's Day tradition is old. Obviously people like love rituals and symbols, and that isn't surprising when the human mating dance is so difficult. From The Present State of Great Britain and Ireland, 1716, available from Googlebooks:

 "To speak of the particular Customs of the English Britains, I shall begin with Valentine's Day, Febr. 14. when young Men and Maidens get their several Names writ down upon Scrolls of Paper rolled up, and lay 'em asunder, the Men drawing the Maidens Names, and these the Mens; upon which, the Men salute their
chosen Valentines, and present them with Gloves. This Custom (which sometimes introduces a Match) is grounded upon the Instinct ot Animals, which about this Time of the Year, feeling a new Heat by the Approach of the Sun, begin to couple."

Such a lot of glove-giving in the past. Perhaps they wore out easily and were considered personal but not too intimate.

(for appalling historical Valentine doggerell, check Jo's blog!)

From Susan:

Somehow Valentine's Day evolved from the day an early Christian martyr was dispatched and buried by the Romans to a celebration of love, lovers, and chocolate. Long ago, Valentinus, a priest, performed secret marriages for young lovers, though what got him beheaded was attempting to convert Claudius II. He was buried on February 14, and became associated with lovers, marriage, and epilepsy (apparently he healed his jailer's daughter of an affliction). His iconographic attributes include birds and roses. 

By Chaucer's times, Saint Valentine's Day—following two centuries of courtly love and chivalric devotion to the highest ideals of love—was becoming a time to expres one's love for another. And it was associated with birds (chcolate being not yet available). By Shakespeare's era, February 14 belonged to love and lovers: "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day! all in the morning betime/and I a maid at your window/to be your Valentine." –Shakespeare, Hamlet.

However it evolved, Valentine's Day is a lovely way to express love and appreciation for loves as well as friends. And how great for us that the modern era has added chocolate to the celebration!

Wishing all of you love, roses, and lots of chocolate on Valentine's special day—and every day!

 

Pat again: Creating a day just to show someone special that you love them is marvelous if you have someone special, but all of us remember those lonely holidays when everyone else was loved but us. How about you? Share your good memories and your bad!
 

Comments

[Keziah Hill]

I'm with you Anne. It's my sister's birthday today so that gets more attention than Valentines Day. That said, it is kind of nice to have a day that commemorates love.

[kay]

I think we should celebrate February 15th...when chocolate is half price.

[Patricia Rice]

I like the idea that Valentines Day commemorates love instead of gift giving! And LOL on the chocolates--but if we celebrated the 15th, the candy won't go on sale until the 16th. So let's keep that secret quiet. "G"

[Susan/DC]

A propos of Cara's post about Vienna and chocolate, just last week I finished a book by Frank Tallis called "Death in Vienna" which is a mystery with many references to eating, as the detectives and other characters often meet in coffeehouses. Vienna in 1902 was one of the intellectual centers of Europe, and it was also a city that took its coffee and desserts quite seriously. I learned the names of several pastries I'd never heard of before, and I was often hungry while I read. An interesting, fun book, and I'm off to the library as soon as possible to find the second in the series ("Vienna Blood", I think).

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

It's always fun to see all the Wenchly takes on a subject (great recipe, Nicola! Though I think I will definitely use modern-day gelatin in place of the original.)

Susan/DC, I have heard about the Frank Tallis books and had just added them to my library list. Now will make sure to take a look. Thanks for the recommendation.

And LOL on the half-price chocolate sale. Maybe we should start our own alternative calendar for holidays and save big all year long!

[joanna bourne]

Hi Kay --

Oh LOL.

[Susan]

Fun post, I love all these variations on a theme from my sister Wenches. And thanks for the reminder that boxes of chocolates will be on sale tomorrow! yeah!

Susan

[Jo Beverley]

I hope everyone's having a lovely day, for any reason whatever. We had blue sky and sunshine here for most of the day, so that was enough reason to celebrate. :)

Jo

[Sue]

I grew up in England where Valentine's Day was just for grown up lovers. I got quite a shock when I moved to Canada and discovered the Hallmark version! I still can't get over buying for classmates and friends, it seems to defeat the purpose! However it is also my birthday so I've never really experienced the special part of the day - but at least I wasn't called Valentina!

[maryjoputney]

Yesterday a flock of northbound robins played in front of my house, so spring must be on its way. The ground hog got it right! That's another thing worth celebrating on Valentine's Day. *g*

[Patricia Rice]

Happy Birthday, Sue!

I'm not counting on spring until I see it, but I just had the most decadent white chocolate bread pudding I've ever eaten for my Valentine Day celebration, so I'm happy. And fat.

And why on earth won't Typepad remember me today?

[Cynthia Owens]

As far as good and bad Valentine's Days go, today was the best since I met my hubby way back when I was 18. This year's gift: tickets to see "Lord of the Dance" when it comes here to Montreal in April. This is something I've wanted to do for ages, but whenever the show came here before, we were either away, or had other plans. Since I love everything Irish, this was the perfect V-Day gift for me! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

[LouisaCornell]

My Valentine's Day started out bad (not a single card, message or other from any of my friends) I had to go to work. I had to make lots of cupcakes and heart-shaped cakes for other people to give to THEIR special loved ones. (People get very grouchy if they've waited to the last minute to pick up cupcakes for their child's class party and there are none in the cake case because everyone else beat them to it. I can decorate a dozen Valentine's cupcakes in three minutes now. Did I say people get really grouchy? And impatient!)

Came home tired. Still no Valentine's.

But, as I went into my rescued dogs' dog runs to clean, feed and water the big 80 pound blond idiot dog, Clyde, came over and gave me a big smooch. He made me smile and he made my day.

And today I got a Valentine from my Mom so, hey, my dogs love me and my Mom loves me. And that's good enough for me!

And that Sacher Torte looks SCRUMPTIOUS !!!

Love the Wenches takes on Valentine's Day!

[librarypat]

Cynthia, Enjoy "Lord of the Dance." I have seen it 4 times now I think (we are volunteer ushers at the local civic hall). It is a great show. If you ever get a chance to see the Leahy's live, don't miss it. We buy tickets to a Celtic series in another town and they have been one of the best shows, plus they are Canadian.

We celebrate when we feel like it. We exchanged cards and had an early dinner at home. I had a woman's club meeting last night . We are combining a Jan. birthday, March birthday, and Valentine's Day and celebrating with a trip to New Orleans in March. We have both been looking forward to it.

[Susan/DC]

I always think of things days after the initial post has gone up, but here goes: Thanks for the definition of isinglass. In Rogers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma", didn't the surrey with the fringe on top have "isinglass curtains you can roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather"? Who knew? I for one never made the connection to beluga swim bladders.

[Richard Hammond]

Nice stuff man.

[Cheap Jordans]

So, when the government of France awarded him the Volta Prize for inventing the telephone, he combined this monetary award with the money hye made from selling the patent on another invention to establish the Volta Bureau in Washington, D. C. . Its purpose was to fund research on deafness. Today, it is called the Alexander Graham Bell Association. Its role has been changed to providing the latest information to the deaf of the world on how best to cope with their disability.