Upscale Gifts circa 1561-1562: New Year's Gifts for the Queen

These make for a fascinating read. Just the tip of the iceberg. Good records were kept. Note the recording of the value of the gifts. Sorry about the formatting.

Happy New Year!

Neweeyeur's Gyftes gevon to the Quene her Majestie by those Parsons whose Names hereafter ensue, the first of January, the Yere above wrytten.
£. s. d.
By the Lady Margaret Strainge, a little round mounte of golde to conteyne a pomaunder in it.
With the Qene her Majestie.
Duke, Marquisses, and Earles.
By the Duke of Norfolke, in a purse of purple silke and golde knit, in sundry coynes of golde 20 0 0
By the Marquis of Winchester, High Threasourer of Englande, in a purse of crymsen satten, in angells 20 0 0
By the Marquis of Northampton, in a purse of crymsen silke and gold knit, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Earle of Arundell, Lord Steward, in a paper, in angels, 30 0 0
By the Earle of Shrewesburye, in a red silke purse, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Earle of Darbye, in a purse of crymsen satten, embraudered with golde, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Earle of Pembroke, in a purse of black silk and silver knit, in new angells 30 0 0
By the Earle of Bedforde, in a purse of black silk and golde knytt, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Earle of Rutlande, in a purse of red silk and golde knytt, in dimy soveraigns and angells 20 0 0
By the Earle of Huntingdon, in a red silk purse, in angells 15 0 0
By the Earle of Westmerlande, in a red silk purse, in dimy soveraigns 10 0 0
By the Earle of Oxforde, in a red silk purse, in dimy soveraigns 10 0 0
By the Earle of Northumberlande, in a purse of black silke and silver knytt, in angells 10 0 0
With the Quene her Highness.
By the Earle of Warwike, a smocke wrought with black silk, a peire of slevis, and a partelett wrought with gold, silver, and black silke.
Delivered to the Lady Cobham.
By the Viscounte Mountague, in a purse of cloth of golde, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
With her said Majestie.
Busshopps.
By the Archbusshop of Caunterbury, in a red silk purse, in dimy soveraigns 40 0 0
By the Archbusshop of York, in soveraigns 30 0 0
By the Busshop of Duresme, in a purse of crymson silk and gold knytt, in angells 30 0 0
By the Busshop of Ely, in a red vellat purse, in angells 30 0 0
By the Busshop of Wynchester, in a purse of crymsen silk and gold knytt and set with pearles, in angells 20 0 0
By the Busshop of London, in a red satten purse, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Busshop of Salisbury, in a red satten purse, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Busshop of Worcester, in a black vellat purse, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Busshop of Lyncoln, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 20 0 0
By the Busshop of Chychester, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Norwich, in a blew silk purse 13 6 8
By the Busshop of Hereforde, in a green silk purse, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Lychfield and Coventry, in a red satten purse, in angells 13 0 0
By the Busshop of Rochester, in a red purse, in gold 13 6 8
By the Busshop of Saint Davies, in a red silk purse, in angells 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Bathe, in a purse of red silk, in angells 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Exetour, in a blew silk purse, in angells 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Peterborowe, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Busshop of Chester, in a red purse, in angells and soveraignes 10 0 0
With her said Majestie.
Duchesses and Countesses.
By the Duchess of Norfolke, in a prse of crymsen silk and gold knyt, in angells 20 0 0
By the Duchess of Somerset, in a purse of silver and black silk, in royalls and ducketts 14 0 0
By the Countess of Surrey, in a purse of tawny silk and gold, in dimy soveraignes 5 0 0
By the Countess of Pembroke, in a cherry bag of crymsen satten, in new angells 15 0 0
By the Countess of Bedford, in a purse of crymsen silk and silver knytt, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Countess of Darby, in a purse of crymson sattin embrodred with gold, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Countess of Oxford, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 5 0 0
By the Countess of Shrewisbury, Dowager, in a purse of black silk knytt, in dimy soveraignes 12 0 0
By the Countess of Shrewisbury, in a red silk purse knytt, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Countess of Huntingdon, Dowager, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 10 0 0
By the Countess of Huntingdon, in a red purse, in angells 10 0 0
By the Countess of Northumberland, in a purse of black silk and silver knytt, in angells 10 0 0
By the Countess of Rutland, in a red purse, in dimy soveraignes 13 6 8

Long-Cooked Broccoli: It's Divine and Versatile

I've always been a broccoli lover, but I find most cooking methods fussy. Woe to the LAZY COOK. Then I discovered this broccoli, which is perfect for the lazy cook.

The first version I made came from a book by Evan Kleiman and Viana LaPlace. I can't remember which book; all are good and worthy of your perusal.

Then I found an even easier method from, to my surprise, Alice Waters. Will I go to h-e-l-l if I admit that I find Waters' public persona rather annoying? Who cares (she certainly doesn't)?

AW's broccoli couldn't be simpler: Chop a bunch of broccoli, trimming woody stems. Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a pot; add 6 garlic cloves and some red pepper flakes. Stir and add the broccoli and some salt. Add a cup of water and cover. Keep it at a simmer and stir now and then. After an hour or so, it will be a mush. Add a squirt of lemon if you have any around.

This method is so opposed to the health-food broccoli method drummed into us. I love it for that alone.

What to do with it? Stir it into pasta as a sauce. Serve it on bread as a bruschetta topping. The famous restaurateur Nancy Silverton proposes a sandwich: bread, broc, feta, scrambled egg. This is divine too.

So, to give credit to AW.

Not sure where the sandwich is from. Maybe this one?

Let me know if you try this. Take the leap!

Snowball Savings with the Tightwad Gazette

Everyone talks about the Debt Snowball, a term invented (?) or at least popularized by Dave Ramsey of Get-Out-Of-Debt-with-Total-Money-Makeover fame. Many of the get-out-of-debt bloggers attribute their success to Ramsey's methods. Like most things involving numbers, the snowball can work in reverse: once you are out of debt, you can begin a savings snowball.

An amusing essay on the Savings Snowball is provided by Amy Dacyczyn in the first of her Tightwad Gazette tomes. I read her books from time to time not so much for inspiration as for comfort. I love the timeless principles of frugality. And I love that with frugality, you can start small.

Amy D. thinks so too. For her snowball essay, she contrasts two families: the profligate Smucksters and the frugal Albrights. Each family has $100 left at the end of the year. The Smucksters go out to dinner, buy a Nintendo, whatever. So they have nothing.

The Albrights put their money into savings or into purchases that yield future savings. First year: $50 to savings, $50 to cloth diapers. Then they start bulk purchasing grocery items on sale. And so on.

As they go, they are buying CDs, more fuel-efficient cars, sewing machine, chain saw, etc. Some of their savings are a little bogus, like using the sewing machine to make handcrafted items that you can sell for $900. Good luck with that idea! Still, the point is a good one.

At the end of year 5, the Smucksters remain at Square One, while the Albrights have amassed $11,000.

I know that everyone urges saving on the big stuff these days (or increasing your income), but I am a believer in the power of little choices. So I guess Amy D. remains my role model. Plus, she's a very good writer.

Amy would tell you to check her book out of the library, by the way. You can also check out Dave Ramsey (but watch out for his assumption that your investments will earn, on average, 12%/year).

Todd Henderson, Larry David, and Tax Cuts for Top Earners

Remember Todd Henderson? He's the U of Chicago law professor (with doctor spouse) who wrote a notorious blog post detailing the miseries of those of his income. He darkly prophesied greater miseries to come if the Bush tax cuts for the $250,000 earners (that's after all deductions, btw) were not extended. So much scorn was heaped upon him that he pulled the post.

Read about it here.

A WSJ columnist offered some advice on how to make ends meet for those in the $250,000plus brackets.

I had pretty much put Todd out of my mind until I read the New York Times piece by Larry David titled "Thanks for the Tax Cut!"

Should I laugh or cry?

At least we don't have to worry about Mr. Henderson's holiday.

Will Frugality Be on the Wane in the New Year?

Not wanting to influence your spending one way of the other (who knows what effect THAT would have on the world economy!!!), I saved this post for the post-holiday period of reflection.

As I write (December 23), I have just learned that, according to the Wall Street Journal, people are spending. Other indicators that I read here and there suggest that the economy will improve in 2011. Something--as Hamlet said--"devoutly to be wished."

I wonder: will frugality fly out the window too? The easiest time to be frugal is when you don't have to be. To inoculate myself against the temptations of spending, I looked at a video done by New England Public Television in 2009. The video features Amy Dacyczyn, someone who practices a far more pathological mode of frugality than I do. You can see the clip on Boston Gal's Open Wallet, which is where I first saw it.

If you don't want to take the time to watch Amy, let me paraphrase some of her words of wisdom. The reporter asked her for ONE PIECE of ADVICE. Amy said she would urge people to practice frugality during the good times, so that when the bad times came, they wouldn't be so bad.

if you want more Amy--for philosophy as much as for tips--see the book. Take it out of the library. Interestingly, if you look at Amazon, you will see that the book retained its value better than most of its genre and vintage.

Do you think the lessons of the financial meltdown will stay with people as we--hopefully--move to better times?

Supper of the Lamb: Day 3

Day 1 was the lamb with couscous and greens. In retrospect, this was the least interesting so far.

Day 2 was lamb with Diana Kennedy's Syrian yogurt sauce, far more sublime than the chicken version we've had (still good, of course). One of Frugal Son's high school friends (a picky eater from way back) showed up at dinner time. He deigned to eat some and pronounced it good.

Day 3 was lamb in Thai curry sauce. Even more sublime.

This is a totally flexible recipe as long as you have Thai curry paste and a can of coconut milk. The nice thing about Thai curries is that you can make it a sort of stew. You don't need to worry about overcooking as you do with stir-frying. You can use any combo of veggies you want (or even no veggies). In a pinch, even frozen vegetables would be pretty good.

We are STILL trying to use things up, so we sauteed scallions, cauliflower, pepper, and greens--all from our garden. (Cauliflower was an experiment and it got those little mold spots, which we had to cut off, shrinking the vegetable considerably.) When all was done, we stirred in about 3 TBS red curry paste (though yellow or green would be good too) and a can of coconut milk. Then we stirred in chunks of lamb and some of the broth that remained in the roasting pan.

Of course, we cooked our rice in a rice cooker.

It's this kind of meal that makes me reluctant to spend big bucks at restaurants. It was so easy and so good and so cheap. The conversation was excellent.

I should have taken a picture. We ate it all up. Luckily, Frugal Son eats a lot and fast and is still growing. Coconut milk is verrrrry high in fat.

Christmas Poems by Robert Southwell and John Milton

If Christmas is part of your tradition, you might like to read this poem, by Catholic martyr Robert Southwell. Even if it's not part of your tradition, this is a great poem. Ben Jonson said that he would forfeit many of his own poems to have written "The Burning Babe."


FROM St. Peter's Complaint, 1595
THE BURNING BABE.
By Robert Southwell

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow ;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear ;
Who, scorchëd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
Alas, quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I !
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns ;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defilëd souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I callëd unto mind that it was Christmas day.


Another beautiful Christmas poem is "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" by John Milton. This is a long poem, so I'll just provide a link for you.