Sweden
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities.
Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
Netherlands
The Netherlands, informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country.
Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life.
The Netherlands ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, changed over time tremendously
Parkin (cake)
Parkin or Perkin is a gingerbread cake traditionally made with oatmeal and black treacle, which originated in northern England. Often associated with Yorkshire, particularly the Leeds area, it is widespread and popular elsewhere. Parkin is baked to a hard cake but with resting becomes moist, in Hull and East Yorkshire, it has a drier, more biscuit-like texture than in other areas. Parkin is traditionally eaten on Guy Fawkes Night,5 November and it is baked commercially throughout Yorkshire, but is mainly a domestic product in other areas. The origin of the word parkin is unknown, the first published dated reference to parkin was collected from 1728 from the West Yorkshire Quarter Sessions when Anne Whittaker was accused of stealing oatmeal to make parkin. The Lancashire weaver Tim Bobbin describes tharf cake in 1740- and this is recognisable as a parkin, the tharf cake is of ancient Teutonic origin, as tharf or theorf meant unleavened, un-fermented, solid tough or sodden in Old English. John Wycliffe in his translation of the Bible in 1389 calls unleavened bread a tharf loove Parkin is virtually unknown south of the Humber and it is eaten in an area where oats rather than wheat was the staple grain for the poor.
It is closely related to tharf cakes - an unsweeted cake cooked on a rather than baked. The traditional time of the year for tharf cakes to be made was directly after the oat harvest in the first week in November, for festive occasions, the cake would be sweetened with honey. In the seventeenth century sugar started to be imported from Barbados-, molasses was first used by apothecaries, to make a medicine theriaca, from which name the word treacle is derived. As molasses became plentiful, or treacle as it called at that time. In Northern Europe honey was used as a medicine, for cakes and making mead. Honey cakes had a special festive significance and they were baked to be hard, but after storage for a couple of weeks they regained their moisture becoming soft and even sticky. German Lebkuchen and Pfefferkuchen were other examples of hygroscopic holiday ginger-breads and they too were baked hard in summer and allowed to moisten for consumption at Christmas. Though parkin and tharf cake appear to be synonymous- generally all parkins were sweet tharf cakes and tharf cake were used interchangeably in Lancashire and South Yorkshire until 1900.
Over the 500 years the recipe and taste of these cakes have changed considerably and it was the food of the poor. Ovens were rare in the houses of the poor, and they generally had no access to public bakers before the 1820s, the best parkin was made with fresh oatmeal, which fixes the date around the first week in November. In southern Lancashire, and West Yorkshire parkin is inextricably linked to the Guy Fawkes Night celebration, Jennifer Stead, in her study Prodigal Frugality, identifies the link between Guy Fawkes and parkin as the bonfire
Cookie
A cookie is a baked or cooked good that is small and sweet, usually containing flour and some type of oil or fat. It may include ingredients such as raisins, chocolate chips or nuts. In most English-speaking countries except for the US and Canada, crisp cookies are called biscuits, chewier biscuits are sometimes called cookies even in the UK. Some cookies may be named by their shape, such as squares or bars. Cookies or biscuits may be mass-produced in factories, made in bakeries or home-made. Cookies are often served with such as milk, coffee or tea. Factory-made cookies are sold in stores, convenience stores and vending machines. Fresh-baked cookies are sold at bakeries and coffeehouses, with the latter ranging from small business-sized establishments to multinational corporations such as Starbucks, in most English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for a crisp cookie is biscuit. The term cookie is used to describe chewier ones. However, in many regions both terms are used, in Scotland the term cookie is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.
Cookies that are baked as a layer on a sheet pan and cut. According to the Scottish National Dictionary, its Scottish name derives from the form of the word cook, giving the Middle Scots cookie. It gives an etymology, from the Dutch word koekje, the diminutive of koek. There was much trade and cultural contact across the North Sea between the Low Countries and Scotland during the Middle Ages, which can be seen in the history of curling and, golf. Cookies are most commonly baked until crisp or just long enough that they remain soft, Cookies are made in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, chocolate, peanut butter, nuts, or dried fruits. The softness of the cookie may depend on how long it is baked, a general theory of cookies may be formulated this way. Despite its descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion. Water in cakes serves to make the base as thin as possible, in the cookie, the agent of cohesion has become some form of oil
Pithiviers
Pithiviers is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire and its attractions include a cinema, a theatre and a preserved steam railway. During World War II, Pithiviers was the location of the infamous Pithiviers internment camp, the pithivier, a kind of pie, is said to originate here. Steve Marlet footballer with CM Aubervilliers and he was born here in 1974. Marie Ndiaye novelist and playwright who was here in 1967. Siméon Poisson mathematician born here in 1781 and died in 1840, louis Lebègue Duportail French military leader during the American Revolutionary War, born here in 1743. Communes of the Loiret department Ary Bitter
Lebkuchen
Lebkuchen, or Pfefferkuchen, is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling gingerbread. The etymology of Leb- in the term Lebkuchen is uncertain, proposed derivations include, from the Latin libum, from the Germanic word Laib, and from the Germanic word lebbe. Another likely possibility is that comes from the old term Leb-Honig, the rather solid crystallized honey taken from the hive, folk etymology often associates the name with Leben, Leib, or Leibspeise. The forerunner of todays Lebkuchen was called the honey cake, and its history can be traced back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, and they believed that honey, the only sweetener widely available to them, was a gift of the deities and had magical and healing powers. Honey cakes were worn as a talisman in battle or as protection against evil spirits, Lebkuchen was invented by monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. Lebkuchen bakers were recorded as early as 1296 in Ulm, and 1395 in Nürnberg, the latter is the most famous exporter today of the product known as Nürnberger Lebkuchen.
Historically, and due to differences in the ingredients, Lebkuchen is known as honey cake or pepper cake, the cookies are usually quite large and may be 11.5 cm in diameter if round, and larger if rectangular. Since 1808, a variety of Nürnberg Lebkuchen made without flour has been called Elisenlebkuchen and it is uncertain whether Elise was the daughter of a gingerbread baker or the wife of a margrave. Her name is associated with some of the Lebkuchen produced by members of the guild, since 1996, Nürnberger Lebkuchen is a protected designation of origin, meaning that it must be produced within the boundaries of the city. Lebkuchen range in taste from spicy to sweet and come in a variety of shapes with round being the most common. The ingredients usually include honey, spices such as aniseed, cloves, ginger and allspice, nuts including almonds, hazelnuts, in Germany, types of Lebkuchen are distinguished by the kind of nuts used and their proportions. Salt of Hartshorn and potash are used for raising the dough.
Lebkuchen dough is placed on a thin wafer base called Oblate. This was an idea of the monks, who used unleavened communion wafer ingredients to prevent the dough from sticking, they are glazed or covered with very dark chocolate, but some are left uncoated. Lebkuchen is usually soft, but a type of Lebkuchen is used to produce Lebkuchenherzen, usually inscribed with icing. They are sold as souvenirs at the Oktoberfest and are inscribed with affectionate, another form is the witchs house, made popular because of the fairy tales about Hansel and Gretel. The closest German equivalent of the man is the Honigkuchenpferd. The Nuremberg type of Lebkuchen is known as Elisenlebkuchen and must contain no less than 25 percent nuts, the finest artisanal lebkuchen bakeries in Nuremberg boast close to 40% nut content
Sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes.
The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा.
Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
Ontbijtkoek
An ontbijtkoek or peperkoek is a Dutch spiced cake. Rye is its most important ingredient, coloring the cake in light brown and it is often spiced with cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Several parts of the Netherlands have their own recipe, of which the most famous is Oudewijvenkoek which is mostly eaten in the northern regions. Ontbijtkoek is traditionally served at breakfast with a layer of butter on top. However, due to its taste it is served as a snack. Originally called peperkoek it was made from breadcrumbs and other left over bakery products stored in an attic and these ingredients were periodically collected and pressed to create the peperkoek which was augmented with black pepper to conceal the age of the resulting thick bread, hence its name. Pepper being historically one of the most valuable Dutch East India Company trading products, it was used in many Dutch food products
Ginger
Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine. It is a perennial which grows annual stems about a meter tall bearing narrow green leaves. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, to belong turmeric, cardamom. Ginger originated in the tropical rainforest in Southern Asia, although ginger no longer grows wild, it is thought to have originated on the Indian subcontinent because the ginger plants grown in India show the largest amount of genetic variation. Ginger was exported to Europe via India in the first century AD as a result of the spice trade and was used extensively by the Romans. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste. But this may be Sanskrit folk etymology, and the word may be from an ancient Dravidian name that produced the Tamil and Malayalam name for the spice, inchi-ver. The word probably was readopted in Middle English from Old French gingibre, ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers.
Because of its appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates. It is a perennial plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter tall. Traditionally, the rhizome is gathered when the stalk withers, it is scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it. The fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or cooked as an ingredient in many dishes and they can be steeped in boiling water to make ginger tisane, to which honey is often added, sliced orange or lemon fruit may be added. Ginger can be made into candy, or ginger wine, which has been made commercially since 1740, mature ginger rhizomes are fibrous and nearly dry. Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger at a ratio of six to one, although the flavors of fresh, powdered dry ginger root is typically used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer.
Candied ginger, or crystallized ginger, is the root cooked in sugar until soft, fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be placed in a plastic bag, in Indian cuisine, ginger is a key ingredient, especially in thicker gravies, as well as in many other dishes, both vegetarian and meat-based
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah, literally day shouting/blasting and it is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days specified by Leviticus 23, 23–32, which usually occur in the early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah is a celebration, which begins on the first day of Tishrei. Tishrei is the first month of the Jewish civil year, according to one secular opinion its origin is in the beginning of the economic year in the ancient Near East, marking the start of the agricultural cycle. Rosh is the Hebrew word for head, ha is the definite article, thus Rosh HaShanah means head the year, referring to the Jewish day of new year. The term Rosh Hashanah in its current meaning does not appear in the Torah and these same words are commonly used in the Psalms to refer to the anointed days. In the Siddur and Machzor Jewish prayer-books Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Hazikaron, the Hebrew Rosh HaShanah is etymologically related to the Arabic Ras as-Sanah, the name chosen by Muslim lawmakers for the Islamic New Year.
Rosh Hashanah marks the start of a new year in the Hebrew calendar and it is the new year for people and legal contracts. The Mishnah sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years, Jews are confident that Rosh Hashanah represents either figuratively or literally Gods creation ex nihilo. However, according to Rabbi Eleazar ben Shammua, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man, the earliest origins of the Hebrew New Year are connected to the beginning of the economic year in the agricultural societies of the ancient Near East. The New Year was the beginning of the cycle of sowing and harvest, the Mishnah contains the second known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the day of judgment. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, the intermediate class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to reflect and become righteous, the wicked are blotted out of the book of the living forever. In Jewish liturgy, Rosh Hashanah leads to Yom Kippur, which is described as the day of judgment, the assumption is that everyone was sealed for life and therefore the next festival is Sukkot that is referred to as the time of our joy.
The shofar is traditionally blown each morning for the month of Elul. The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken the listeners from their slumbers, the shofar is not blown on Shabbat. In the period leading up to the Yamim Noraim, penitential prayers, Rosh Hashanah is the day of Yom Hadin, known as Judgment day. The final judgment is not done from Yom Hadin before the start of Yom Kippur, Karaites believe the adoption of Rosh Hashanah in place of Yom Teruah is the result of pagan Babylonian influence upon the Jewish nation. The first stage in the transformation was the adoption of the Babylonian month names, in the Torah the months are numbered as First Month, Second Month, Third Month, etc
Vadstena Abbey
The Abbey of Our Lady and of St. Bridget, more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order. The abbey started on one of the farms donated to it by the king and it was active from 1346 until 1595. The daughter of Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine, on arriving there in 1374 with the relics of her mother and they chose Catherine as their abbess. She died in 1381, and it was not until 1384 that the abbey was blessed by the Bishop of Linköping, the first recognized Abbess was Ingegerd Knutsdotter, granddaughter of Saint Bridget. The canonization of Saint Bridget in 1391 and the translation of her remains to the Abbey Church in 1394 added greatly to the fame, in 1400 Duke Eric of Pomerania was invested at Vadstena by his great-aunt, Queen Margaret, as King of Denmark and Sweden. The grave of his wife, Queen Philippa, and that of Catherine, bridgetine literature consisted mostly of translations into Swedish of portions of the Bible or of the legends of the saints.
Such writings as are extant have been published for the most part by the Svenska fornskriftsällskapet of Stockholm, the manuscripts are held in the Royal Library, and at the University Libraries of Uppsala, and Lund. The abbey was a monastery, with both a male section of 25 monks and a female section of 60 nuns. The monks were organised under the General Confessor and the nuns under a prioress, while the abbey as a whole was organised under an Abbess, who was elected by both the monks and the nuns. The abbey was greatly favored by the house and nobility. The abbey was known to manage a hospital and retirement home, early on, Vadstena Abbey supported Beghards and Beguines, the latter often aristocratic women, who had a poor reputation among Church authorities. In 1412, the abbey was ordered to them. In 1436, the rebel Jösse Eriksson sought asylum in the abbey and it kept in contact with other monasteries, performed inspections of them and sent both nuns and monks to them when they were lacking in members.
After the introduction of the Reformation in Sweden in 1527, monastic communities in Sweden were effectively ended by the ban against accepting new novices. The existing members were allowed to stay until their death, to be supported by an allowance from the property of the monastery. Vadstena Abbey, was exempted from this ban and allowed to accept novices even after the Reformation and this regulation was directed to Bishop Hans Brask by King Gustav Vasa in 1527 after an elopement by a novice the previous year. The Abbey had a position because of its international fame and because of its strong ties with the Swedish nobility. Many of the monks and nuns were from the nobility, including the Kings own sister and it served as a burial ground for many noble families
