Vesti la Giubba

The great Bjorling sings from Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci", "Vesti la Guibba", possibly in 1953.

Jussi Bjorling (1911-1960) was a Swedish operatic tenor and a highly regarded singer. He was one of the few non-Latin tenors to rival the Italian dominance of the opera world a that time.

Happy New Year - Happy 2011!

As an old Hungarian custom, lencse leves (lentil soup) eaten on New Years Day will bring financial success. But it is delicious on cold ordinary winter days also.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dry lentils
2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cooking oil or lard

2 heaped tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon paprika

4 frankfurters, sliced

1 teaspoon vinegar or 2 tablespoon sour cream

Water

Wash the lentils in cold water and pick them over, discarding any shriveled or black ones. Pleace them in a cooking pot and add 6 cups of water, bay leaves and salt. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover with lid and simmer for 35 minutes. Add in the carrots. Bring back to simmer and continue cooking for about 25-30 more minutes. Take out the bay leaves.

For the roux, heat up the oil or lard in a 3-quart saucepan and saute the onion until it is translutent. Stir in the paprika.

Stir in the flour and cook on low heat for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.

Poor the hot soup into the roux, stirring gently all the while. Add in the frankfurters and cook uncovered on low heat for 10 more minutes. Stir in the vinegar or sour cream right before serving.

Merry Christmas to All!

Virgin and Child in Glory

by Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-82)

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

National Museums Liverpool

Bridgeman Art Library

Advent...

Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec.24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.

The Advent wreath is part of our long-standing Catholic tradition. However, the actual origins are uncertain. There is evidence of pre-Christian Germanic peoples using wreathes with lit candles during the cold and dark December days as a sign of hope in the future warm and extended-sunlight days of Spring. In Scandinavia during Winter, lighted candles were placed around a wheel, and prayers were offered to the god of light to turn "the wheel of the earth" back toward the sun to lengthen the days and restore warmth.

By the Middle Ages, the Christians adapted this tradition and used Advent wreathes as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas.

The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. A tradition is that each week represents one thousand years, to sum to the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve until the birth of the Savior.

Three candles are purple and one is rose. The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and good works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord's first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming to judge the living and the dead.

The light again signifies Christ, the Light of the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you Lord for all the good and beautiful things in our lives.

Good Old Maxine...

Now how she knows how I feel sometimes?

Memento

On the 54-th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution I am paying respect to the martyrs who were executed between 1945 and 1956 in Hungary.