LOL My son has the worst smelling feet. Thanks for sharing this. I love learning different cultures. You are good on the computer. Can you come over and teach me how to do all the neat things you do.....Barb

Happy Nikolaus Day to you Lucy! What a nice pic...thank you. :)
Have a great day everyone.....I am off to work...gggrrr! (:))
gg

Happy Nikolaus Day!! My maternal grandfather was from Saxony Germany. My youngest son's name is Nicholas :) I try to make this day special for him.

Lucy,
Come to think of it, I have this old german cookie recipe from my great great grandmother in the late 1800's that I am still wondering about. I have never got a straight answer from my family as why they would put sod in a recipe? It actually has sod labeled as an ingredient lol! Its not like they were poor back then or anything...they all owned stores. Do you know?

Happy Nikolaus Day Lucy and Lenette! Hurry up and answer Lenette's question about sod Lucy, I am curious, LOL!

A blessed weekend to all.

Happy Nikolaus Day everyone!And a HO HO HO
Sod??? something I have never heard of.
Post if ya'll fine out.
Merry Christmas
Dorothy

Eloise me too roflmao.
I would have to SEE the recipe. evil grin lol

or sneaky grin is a better expression I believe lol. Since I try not to be evil lol

gg sorry you got to go out there and work. Man it is COLD today! brrrrrrrrrrrrrr Hurry back home.

Barb when our son was living with us last x mas and he is 27, I let him use some of MY boots roflmao

Back to my little Maddy. Just had to check in and hope Kristy gets to come online. If not I just have to call her later. Now it is to early.

Till later and you can always mail me the recipe lol

Lucy

Lucy
Thank you for posting that wonderful picture, I really needed a good pic, it's snowing out & it is sticking.
it's early but it's December after all. you have a great
day, got your grandbaby there? that's great, they are what
makes life great
Elizabeth

Lucy,

Beautiful picture and thank you for sharing a bit of German culture with us. I am full German and used to be able to speak if fluently. My grandmother could not speak English very well, so she taught us kids all german so she did not have to use English. ha ha. Since she passed away, I've not had anyone to speak german with and have forgotten most of it. :(

It is a gorgeous day here today, I'm eventually going to get my bum outside and get a few gardening projects completed.

Thanks for sharing Lucy...You are THE best.

~Tj~

Lucy,
A great pic. of the day. Enjoyed the story about Nikolaus Day and so glad that your grand-daughter is there. I know she was a bundle of happiness this morning. Hope you have
a Happy Nikolaus Day.

Lenette, A Happy Nikolaus Day to you too :o) Ok sod???? I don't think I've ever had a sod cookie, I wonder if that's the same ingredient found in Mud Pie? Must be a well guarded secret if your family never told you and Lucy has a sheepish grin, she knows but not telling. LMBO
What I think is really super cool is that you have the recipe as it was written in the 1800's.

Hope everyone has a beautiful day. :0)

Happy Nicolaus Day to you too Lucy!!!

Karen

Lucy, Happy Nicholas Day to you ! and thanks so much for sharing ...I love to teach my kids about other traditions..although Ill tell them tomorro w, so I dont have to fill their shoes..LOL

BTW what do you do if they own 30 pair ?? LOL

Always

Kym

When my daughters were in kindergarten their teacher would have them put their shoes in the hallway on Nikolas day and put candy in them.

Mary

Hi! Lucy, I remeber as a child , we were stationed
in Germany putting my boots in the stair well, next
morning full of candy and goodies. I haven't thought
about it in years. I miss all the baked goods we got
there, the chocolate, wish I could go back some day
to visite! I was last there in 79-80 Heilbronn!
Susan :)
P.S. I thought sod was a type of dirt on the roofs?

The name of the cookie is Pfeffernusse, if that helps any lol. My grandmaother said she made them for my grandfather but doesn't use the sod. I can't imagine why it would be in there but it has been passed down through my family that way for centuries apparently lol. I was just wondering if there was some German superstitious reason for it or something?

Lenette form the top of my head I would say it could...and I mean I am really guessing haha ...I will call my mom and ask. IF she remembers that is. She does do well with long term memory thou. Ok I never made them. But lots of german cookies take a long time to get soft. You bake them EARLY , put them in tin cans and by x mas they are soft. I believe Pfeffernuesse is one of those kinds. So maybe the SOD was not put IN the cookie? Just put in the container? I sure wish I could see that recipe rofl. I promise I will not share hahaha

Susan I miss all the things too. I used to bake like crazy for all my co workers for x mas while there. But a lot of the ingredients for the real good cookie recipes I used to make, you can not get here.

Kym hahahahaha Usually you put out ONE pair...regardless on how many you got hahahaa You must be thinking about your shoes in the closet hahahahahaha

I am glad I could share this tradition with you. Just love to know so much about other cultures. My granddaughter was so excited about Nikolaus. That when I took her to Burgerking for lunch, she told the other kids there about her Nikolaus day. ha ha haha you should have seen their facial expression. Like is that girl crazy or what. haahaha

It was a wonderful day.

Thanks everybody

Lucy

Pfeffernuesse and Sod
Well this is not letting me go and do my work hahahaha So I did a little search on the Web. Could not find anything to SOD really. But what the recipe does call for is potash. It is actually interresting to read how they made cookies way back then.

Man the mistery is killing me lol

Lucy

Hey Lucy,
were where you from in Germany?
Susan

Ok, I pooped out much too quickly and wasn't getting anything done and the sod cookie mystery got me so here is what I think happened. They didn't have self rising flour back then so could it be soda and they forgot to write the a ? I found this recipe but doubt its the same as yours but the only one that had anything like sod in it, lol. It does say on most they can be made up to a month early and are better with age as Lucy said. I ate nearly my whole bag of candy and the orange last night, lol. Thanks again. Here is the recipe I found. Sounds yummy.

8 ounces candied citron
4 ounces candied orange peel
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon
ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon aniseeds
5 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Additional confectioners sugar

Coarsely grind citron and orange peel with grinder fitted with coarse blade; set aside. Sift flour with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and pepper. sprinkle anise seeds over flour mixture. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat egg yolks with butter and lemon peel until smooth. Reduce speed to low and beat in granulated sugar. Set aside.

Beat egg whites in clean mixer bowl with electric mixer or by hand until stiff peaks form. On low speed of electric mixer, gently fold reserved egg yolk mixture into beaten egg whites. Blend in reserved flour mixture, using your hands. Blend in reserved coarsely ground candied citron and orange peel. Shape dough into balls the size of a small walnut; place balls, 1 inch apart, on ungreased baking sheets. Let stand, uncovered, 8 hours, or overnight.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until double in size and lightly browned. Remove from baking sheets and let cool to room temperature.

Mix confectioners' sugar with enough milk to form thin glaze; drizzle glaze over cookies. If desired, after glaze has hardened, shake cookies gently in paper bag containing additional confectioners sugar.

Kristy I found the same thing when I did the research on google. The refer to SODA as SOD a LOT.

I will call mom tomorrow. Was hoping for the sod recipe hahahahahha

Lucy

Lucy, My family also celebrated St. Nicholas day. My mom said that on St Nicholas Day Dec. 6th, they got all their toys.Dec 25th was a holy day. I had the best of both worlds, I got to celebrate on both days. Like you, its full of great memeories. Barbra,

Barbra my grandchildren love it also. We are teaching them the german culture.
That is news to me about the 6th getting all the toys. We only really got candy and fruit and nuts. Germans Celebrate Christmas on the 24th in the Evening. We used to not decorate the x mas tree until that evening. We all had to go on a walk or in another room. Only my Dad was allowed to decorate the tree. Mom put out the presents. Then a bell would ring and that meant the Crist Kind was there. We all stormed in and WOW. The 25th & 26th are holidays .
YES Barb WONDERFUL memories!!

Susan my hometown is Bamberg ..sorry lol

Lucy