Scottish Country Dance of the Day

The word "walnut" comes from the old English “walh-hnuts,” meaning foreign nut. Today this species is generally referred to as the English walnut. The black walnut, native to North America, does not have as pleasant a taste when eaten raw and is more bitter; however, it does retains more of its flavor when cooked. Early English settlers in the American Colonies had to depend on the native black walnut because imported English walnut trees did not adapt easily. On the west coast of the US, however, the Franciscan fathers also brought walnut trees to California in the early 1700s from Mexico. Through their efforts, walnut trees were planted in the courtyards of the California missions, where they flourished. The Grizzly Bear pie, a walnut pie variation made with with walnuts and honey, is a delicious nod to California's historic roots. Recipes included! 🥧 🐻 🍯 🌰

The fluffy chiffon cake is a classic mid-century modern cake style credited to a California insurance salesman turned caterer, who sold his fluffy cake secret to General Mills who then released recipes to the public in a Betty Crocker pamphlet in 1948. Chiffon cakes are made by substituting oil for butterfat and aerating the cake by whipping egg whites separately from the yolks and then folding this into the batter to produce a delicate light texture. Of course, if life gives you lemons, you can always make a whisky sour too :-) Recipe included! 🍋🍰

It's Bear Season and a fine day to host a Teddy Bears' Picnic for the young and young-at-heart in your acquaintance, inviting all well-behaved Teddy Bears or other stuffed animals. This simple jig contains lots of chases clockwise and anti-clockwise and circles and is easy for picnicking teddy bars to learn. In real life, however, it's wise to take all due care to prevent frolicking and hungry bears from crashing your own picnic party or camping trip. Real bears will go to great lengths to sample food left accessible by humans both indoors and outdoors and and can even rip open cars and break into houses if a snack beckons. Sometimes, though, all they want is a cool beverage. In 2012, a family of bears ransacked a cabin in northern Norway and guzzled 100 cans of beer! And in a similar event in 2004, a bear drank 36 cans of Rainier, but completely ignored the Busch beer. After sleeping off his hangover, the bear was captured in a trap baited with doughnuts, honey, and two more cans of his favorite lager! 🍩 🐻 🧸 🍯 🍉 🍺

Lemon flavored custards, puddings and pies have been enjoyed since Medieval times. Meringue was perfected in the 17th century, and lemon meringue pie, as it is known today, is a 19th-century product, first recorded by Alexander Frehse, a Swiss baker from Romandie. Or if the perfect meringue eludes you and you're looking for a more practical use of your sour lemons, with nothing but a lemon, copper clips, zinc nails, wire, and some steel wool, you can start a survival campfire in the wilderness through the magic electrochemistry! 🍋 🥧

Ladies, who knew? Lord Byron's opinions notwithstanding, lobster, while today considered an expensive delicacy, was once considered a poor man's food, fit only for animals, prisoners, and indentured servants! But in the 19th century, the tables turned, and lobster dishes like Lobster Thermidor and Lobster Newberg became all the rage among the elite. So, whether you’re sharing a meal with a lobster or enjoying it as one, this lively jig, often danced in a circle by children, can also be performed in a four-couple set. And don’t forget the four spring points to mimic snapping lobster claws! Snap, snap! 🍾🥂🦞 🦞 🦞

Meyer lemons are not impossible to eat, they are quite delightful! A former decorative houseplant and backyard ornamental, the Meyer lemon, is a sweeter and juicier cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. These lemons only became popular after being featured by chef Martha Stewart in her 1980s recipes: lemon-pine nut tart, whole-wheat spaghetti with Meyer lemon, arugula and pistachios, coffee cake with thinly sliced Meyer lemons in the batter. Prior to that, these lemons had not been popular with growers because their thin skin made them difficult to ship long distances. Recipe included: Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Shortbread Wreaths with Rosemary 🍋🍋🍋

Time to bake those bannocks, even a basketful! And while you're at it, time to make a fortune-telling bannock! Shrove Tuesday (also referred to as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday) is known in Scotland as Bannock Night, a moveable feast day preceding Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), and often celebrated by consuming pancakes, griddle cakes, and bannocks! Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast, The Scots version of Lenten bannocks is made with oatmeal, eggs, milk or beef stock and cooked on a girdle (griddle). Milk-brose or gruel was often served to eat with the bannocks, leading to other names for this day such as Brose Day (Brosie), or Milk-Gruel Night! For fortune-telling fun, family members would participate in making a special "sooty bannock". Ritual batter pouring involved one person to pour the batter onto the griddle, another to turn the pancake, and a third to remove it when it was cooked, handing them round the assembled company. When the bowl of batter was almost empty, a small quantity of soot was aded to the mixture to make a large dark bannock, also known as the "dreaming bannock." The sooty bannock would fill the whole girdle and symbolic charms could be dropped into it: a button (bachelor); a ring (married); thimble (old maid); farthing (widow); scrap of material (tailor); straw (farmer). Once turned and cooked through, the sooty bannock was cut into bits and put into the baker's apron for everyone to draw a piece to learn their fortune! At the end of the evening, a piece of the sooty bannock could be put inside a sock and placed under pillows where the dreamer hoped to dream of their future partner! This tasty jig contains plenty of turns and circles reminiscent of batter mixing and sizziling girdles! 🥞 🥞 🥞

A classic takeaway food, fish and chips first gained popularity in England in the 1860s and quickly became a stable food in English-speaking and Commonwealth countries. Regional variations differ mostly in the fish used and the accompaniments (malt vinegar, brown sauce, mushy peas, pickles, tartar sauce, or even baked beans or curry sauce). In Australia and New Zealand, the words "fish and chips" are often used as a shibboleth to highlight the difference in each country's short-i vowel sound. Australian English has a higher forward sound close to the ee in see (but shorter), while New Zealand English has a lower backward sound akin to the a in Rosa's (but not as in Rosa). Thus, New Zealanders hear Australians say "feesh and cheeps," while Australians hear New Zealanders say "fush and chups." 🐟 🍟 🥔

Fancy a muffin and too far from Drury Lane? There is sure to be a fabulous muffin baker in your dancing acquaintanceship, similar to the generous lady who inspired this reel by supplying her dancing class with delicious muffins. Inspire your own sets by including this dance on a food-based program. Interestingly, the first documented version of the well-known nursery rhyme from 1820 has the titular baker living on ‘Blueberry Lane’, rather than 'Drury Lane'. And there is also an actual Blueberry Lane just outside of London though muffin status here is unknown. In the United States muffins are similar to cupcakes and are available in sweet and savoury varieties, while in the UK, a muffin (referred to as an English muffin elsewhere) is a type of yeast-leavened bread and is cooked on a griddle and flipped, resulting in its distinctive flattened shape. Other muffin-like variations are crumpets (griddle cooked on one side from a simple batter but with no yeast) are equally delicious. So beloved are these tea-time treats, they figure prominently as terms of endearment or even cheeky admiration! Pass the butter! 🍰 🫐 👨‍🍳 👩‍🍳 🧈

Dream catchers can be traced back to the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribes who inhabited the regions of southern Canada and the northern Midwestern United States. In the Ojibwe culture, dreamcatchers were "spider web charms", hoops with woven string or sinew meant to replicate a spider's web, used as a protective charm for infants. According to Ojibwe legend, the protective charms originate with the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children, so the mothers and grandmothers wove webs for the children, which had a protective purpose and were not originally connected with dreams.

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Tchaikovsky's famous Christmas-themed ballet, "The Nutcracker" debuted on Dec. 18, 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Initially unsuccessful, it has now become a global Christmas tradition and an annual opportunity at ballet studios for aspiring ballerinas all over the world. Many highland dance studios and even traditional ballet companies also celebrate the season with their own Scottish Dance themed Nutcracker performances or with a kilt or two appearing in one or more scenes! One of the most anticipated dances of the ballet, the " Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" occurs in the third movement, set in the Land of Sweets, and is distinguished for its memorable use of the celesta, a piano-like instrument that sounds like the tinkling of bells! 🌰 🎄 🎁 🩰

The canon of Scottish Country Dances contain an amazing number of "dainty dish" dances, such as this classic British pie. During the medieval period, a type of pie known as a "coffyn" featured a sturdy crust with sides and a lid, which was sometimes designed to be removed. This allowed the pie to be filled with a variety of ingredients, providing simple sustenance for the common people and serving as a vessel for more elaborate and surprising contents for the aristocracy. Tales from this era suggest that pies were occasionally baked with live entertainment inside, such as birds that would burst forth upon opening, or even rabbits, frogs, and dogs. More whimsically, it's recounted that dwarves might emerge from these pies to recite poetry, or a complete musical ensemble could be concealed within to play for the guests. In a nod to this tradition of hidden surprises, the classic British dish Steak and Kidney Pie has been playfully dubbed in rhyming slang as "Kate and Sidney pie." Although this dance was named for a Mr. Pye who often delighted his friends with a steak and kidney pie of his own making, the original recipe has been lost. However, this energetic reel comes with a link to a classic recipe, should you want to revisit this classic dish! 🥧 👑

You never know who might show up at your picnic ceilidh! It might be just a few hungry ants, and then again, it might be Bigfoot! The origins of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, can be traced back to Native American folklore and traditions, where tales of large, hairy, human-like creatures have been a part of the cultural narrative for centuries. Different tribes have their own names and stories for these creatures. For instance, the Salish people of the Pacific Northwest called them "Sasq'ets," which translates to "wild man" or "hairy man." So if an extra guest shows up while you and your picnic guests are having fun dancing al fresco in this fun 5 couple (or 3 couple variation) jig with the "arandel", a form of rights and lefts for three couples in 8 bars, be sure have an extra sandwich and the dance cribs ready. Sharp-eyed viewers who follow the link, might just spot something in the demonstration video! 🤪 👣 🍉 🧺

Huckleberry dancing friends, will you collect bilberries on Bilberry Sunday? Bilberry Sunday is a day traditionally set aside during the festival of Lughnasadh (to mark the beginning of the harvest season) to gather bilberries. Related to the blueberry, this fruit is known by a spectacularly long list of names: wimberry, whinberry, winberry, windberry, bilberry, fraughan, hurtleberry, whortleberry, blaeberry, black-heart (famously mentioned in Thomas Hardy's novel, "The Return of the Native") and myrtle berry! Generally speaking, the Welsh call them wimberries, the Irish call them fraughans, the English say bilberries, and the Scots use the word blaeberry, although there are many derivations of the word and regional differences. In the USA, for example, they can be known as huckleberries, a derivation of the word hurtleberry, used by English settlers in the 17th century. Interested in a post-dance recipe for a "Huckleberry Hurtleberry Whortleberry Bilberry" cobbler made with almond flour? Grab your bilberry bucket! 🫐🪣

Unlike apple pie (the first recipe of which hails from Chaucer-era England) , Key Lime Pie is a uniquely American dessert. This pie is considered the official pie of the Florida Key (although ironically, the majority of Key Lime trees introduced by the Spanish in the 1500s were wiped out during the hurricane of 1926 and replaced by Persian Limes)! At any rate, recipes for Key Lime Pie were not recorded until the 1930s. At this time, fresh milk, refrigeration, and ice where not available in the Keys until the arrival of tank trucks with the opening of the Overseas Highway in 1930. Because of this lack of milk, local cooks relied on canned sweetened condensed milk, a key ingredient which makes this pie so smooth and delicious. Recipe included: Key Lime Bars!

Really? Well then, how about a sandwich made up of 2 reels sandwiching a strathspey for 5 individual dancers? Times have certainly changed since 1762, when the sandwich as we know it was first popularized in England by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. The Earl, deeply immersed in his card games, once requested a meal he could eat without leaving the table, and thus, the modern sandwich was born. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the sandwich was widely enjoyed in England, yet it didn’t make its American cookbook debut until 1815.Since then, the sandwich’s social standing has risen and fallen—from a refined option for ladies’ luncheons in the 1890s to the hearty staple of a worker’s lunchbox by the 1920s. And if the type of bread isn’t already a matter of debate, the food industry’s “sandwich wars” add more complexity. While the dictionary defines a sandwich as “an item of food consisting of two pieces of bread with meat, cheese, or other filling between them,” this definition isn’t so simple across states and tax codes. In California, a hot dog is indeed a sandwich, yet in Massachusetts, a burrito is “sandwich-like” but absolutely not a sandwich. New York even taxes some sandwiches but not others. Too confusing? Then simply just sandwich your strathspey, and don't forget to feed those hungry dancers! 😜 🥪 🥬 🧀 🍅

Originally referring to a confit or sweetmeats shaped as plums, the term "sugar plum" acquired new meaning past the 1600s. If your mouth was "full of sugar plums," it meant that you spoke sweet (but possibly deceitful) words. If you "stuffed another's mouth with sugar plums," that referred to a sop or bribe that would shut someone up. Nowadays, the term plum is still used to refer to an especially desirable thing, such as a prize, or a choice job or appointment.