A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....12-10-02

Flyer, yes, I at least do view you as officially entered.

For anyone who is interested:

A little about the history of gingerbread houses stolen from the web

In Medieval England gingerbread meant simply "preserved ginger" and was a corruption of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle and flavored with ginger.

Ginger was also discovered to have a preservative effect when added to pastries and bread, and this probably led to the development of recipes for ginger cakes, cookies, Australian gingernuts and flavored breads.

The manufacture of gingerbread appears to have spread throughout Western Europe at the end of the eleventh century, possibly introduced by crusaders returning from wars in the Eastern Mediterranean. From its very beginning gingerbread has been a fairground delicacy. Many fairs became known as "gingerbread fairs" and gingerbread items took on the alternative name in England of "fairings" which had the generic meaning of a gift given at, or brought from, a fair. Certain shapes were associated with different seasons: buttons and flowers were found at Easter fairs, and animals and birds were a feature in Autumn. There is also more than one village tradition in England requiring unmarried women to eat gingerbread "husbands" at the fair if they are to stand a good chance of meeting a real husband.

If you lived in London in 1614, your family would have gone to the Bartholomew Fair on August 24. Of the special cakes prepared for holidays and feasts in England, many were gingerbread. If a fair honored a town's patron saint, e.g., St. Bartholomew, the saint's image might have been stamped (and even gilded) into the gingerbread you would buy. If the fair were on a special market day, the cakes would probably be decorated with an edible icing to look like men, animals, valentine hearts or flowers. Sometimes the dough was simply cut into round "snaps."

Gingerbread-making was eventually recognized as a profession in itself. In the seventeenth century, gingerbread bakers had the exclusive right to make it, except at Christmas and Easter. Their street cries could be heard well into the nineteenth century, but in 1951, writer Henry Mayhew sadly recorded that "there are only two men in London who make their own gingerbread nuts for sale in the streets."Of all the countries in Europe, Germany is the one with the longest and strongest tradition of flat, shaped gingerbreads. At every autumn fair in Germany, and in the surrounding lands where the Germanic influence is strong, there are rows of stalls filled with hundreds of gingerbread hearts, decorated with white and colored icing and tied with ribbons.

If you lived in Nuremberg in 1614, your family would have gone to the Christkindlmarkt in December. You would have bought carved Christmas decorations, special sausages, and the famous Nuremberg Lebkuchen flavored with ginger, which you probably would have thought was the best in the world. Nuremberg gingerbread was not baked in the home, but was the preserve of an exclusive Guild of master bakers, the Lebkuchler.

Nuremberg became known as the "gingerbread capital" of the world and as with any major trading center, many fine craftsmen were attracted to the town. Sculptors, painters, woodcarvers and goldsmiths all contributed to the most beautiful gingerbread cakes in Europe. Gifted craftsmen carved intricate wooden molds, artists assisted with decoration in frosting or gold paint. Incredibly fancy hearts, angels, wreaths and other festive shapes were sold at fairs, carnivals and markets.

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was both modernized and romanticized. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by destitute parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies.

By the end of the century the composer Englebert Humperdink wrote an opera about the boy and the girl and the gingerbread house.At Christmas, gingerbread makes its most impressive appearance. The German practice of making lebkuchen houses never caught on in Britain in the same way as it did in North America, and it is here still that the most extraordinary creations are found. Elaborate Victorian houses, heavy with candies and sugar icicles, vie in competition with the Hansel and Gretel houses, more richly decorated and ornamented than most children could imagine in their wildest dreams.

Gingerbread making in North America has its origins in the traditions of the many settlers from all parts of Northern Europe who brought with them family recipes and customs. By the nineteenth century, America had been baking gingerbread for decades.American recipes usually called for fewer spices than their European counterparts, but often made use of ingredients that were only available regionally. Maple syrup gingerbreads were made in New England, and in the South sorghum molasses was used.

Nowhere in the world is there a greater repertoire of gingerbread recipes than in America —there are so many variations in taste, form and presentation. With the rich choice of ingredients, baking aids and decorative items the imaginative cook can create the most spectacular gingerbread houses and centerpieces ever.

God Bless you Pippin!

a kind of cake made with treacle and flavored with ginger.

Oh. . .oh. . .oh. . . my other Golden was named Ginger.

Any points for that? Ginger

ROFL!!! POINTS!! Mudboy, he thinks we use a "point" system. LOL, isn't this rich.

Ah, Flyer, our system is much much more complicated than a point system. It is simply too mysterious and complicated for us judges to divulge at this time.

too mysterious and complicated

Hmmm. . . that eliminates bribery because that's rather simple.

Well, if all else fails, Carlo3b will be at our Chapter meeting Saturday and he is bringing some of his cookbooks and I guess I could BUY one. [but that's less money I have to spend on your present]

That is why I posted it. Couldn't beat a lovely Gingerbread House with our beloved Flag out front.

Here's another bear for Mama Bear

Mudboy Slim: I'm giving you 3 posts with hyperlinks. I'll post the contestants separately, in 3 sets for the 100, 300, and 300 series of posts. I give you my comments on each and tag about half in each of the 3 sets as finalists.

In the 100 series I select 4 finalists for the following silly reasons:
35 (Aquamarine), 44 (xJones), 99 (Sweetliberty), and Flyer's threads throughout:

Post 35 Aquamarine set the bar high. I love the music on the link, too. What do you think? This is a lovely, colorful, prosaic house. I think this is a finalist. Note at post 47 she claims to have written the song, also. :)

Post 41 Lodwick's montage. A whole village. With a lovely Santa saying "ho, ho, ho" too. There's a commercial imprint graphic atop the picture and the fact that there's so many houses means, necessarily, we don't get a good view of any one. It's really lovely though. Hmm, I dunno, but the commercial imprint makes me certain this one's not gonna win. It was a great contribution, but can't tap it for finalist.

Post 44 xJones has Santa on the chimney, a ladder on the tree, and a pretzel fence all about the yard. A lovely bay window and of course a porch with the missuz waiting for the man in the yard. I think this is a finalist too. Especially after referring to us in post 50 as wise and benevolent for giving "points" for spelling errors. (1) I didn't notice any spelling errors, they're giving us way too much credit! (2) this post probably was the beginning of the thread-long misconception that you or I were clever enough to use a point system! :D

Post 65Kayak's embroidered Christmas picture, with Old English bright red lettering of "Merry Christmas" thoughtfully added. Gingerbread people in the yard. Now I'm a crafter, I'm a quilter, I just LOVE this one. It *has* to be a finalist, I'm thinking, but then I realize that's just the crafter in me. It's not very edible-looking, and it doesn't have other features to redeem the fairly poor picture quality. So, wow, even the non finalists are so good, but I guess I'd say this is a non-finalist. (Which kills me 'cause Kayak I love your posts on Free Republic -- you're always so right!)

Post 78 Deadhead's drawing of a gingerbread house. The perspective for the painting is that of a gingerbread person approaching the house. It's artful, edible, and has a lovely yellow gumdrop walkway. Major points for art appreciation here. We don't get to see the whole house, though, and it doesn't make me hungry. It would be a finalist in a pure art competition.

Post 99 Sweetliberty's *real* house that she did last year. With a barn and silo, it looks like, and a lot of landscaping with gingerbread stones. All the different buildings. And look! In the first of the 2 photos you can see the American flag flying on the house. She made this for her niece and nephew. Mudboy, this is a patriotic one! I really like it. "Well, it doesn't look as pretty as some of the pictures off the web, but I DID make it." This is what the holidays are about. This one says "love" to me. I even like the clumsy background effort to spruce it up with a tree and a snowflake!

An entry that spans the thread and has to be a finalist too:

Flyer's schtick. Here I document the highlights of the missing gingerbread schtick through the 100 series: 17 (dog ate his homework),
46 ("My icicles were twice as big and I had twice as many. You'll have to take my word on that"),
51 (insisting it's all the truth, and "You shoulda seen it. . . it must have been at least 30 feet tall."),
56 (asserting, in response to Pippin's suggesting that the "snow" is "getting deep:" "My Gingerbread House also had a train going around it and little animated people walking along the sidewalk. Really."),
83 ("It was about 30 feet tall, train running around it, animated figures on the sidewalk, artificial snow falling, a tiny computer logged on to FR. . . man, it was beautiful."),

I just thought I'd post this now, in case I get too busy later on and forget to post it.

Oh ok, thansk. I wish you a Merry Christmas now too : )

Wow, that's an amazing story. Looked like you handled the police well, though. Wow.

Wow! FTH deserves a prize, too, for this judging effort.

(I would offer my gingerbread house, but we know the story on that)

Did I miss the contest?

Mudboy Slim: Here's my second of 3 posts listing our entrants, with hyperlinks. I posted the 100 series finalists in post 387 above.

In the region 101 - 299 series I select 6 finalists:
136 (DaisyScarlett), 180 (Kayak), 206 etc. (Flyer's schtick), 216 (Diver Dave's mudhut!?? HUH??), 221 (Lodwick), 252 (GailA)

Before I analyze the entries, I provide a little catch-up on some interesting sagas in the section:

Post 115 -- jwfiv tries to bribe the judges with chump change!! This should be a TOTAL disqualification!! In post 118, you note the slim pickings so far: "Thanks fer the battered quarter...it's the biggest bribe I've received so far." Did these guys think we were JOKING about bribes? Sigh. At 142, Billie helpfully suggests to jwfiv that to go with his bribe, he might want to add a house! With this motivation at hand, during the rest of the thread we see jwfiv learn to post pictures! See, e.g., Post 279. See Mud, it's easy!!

Then in 128 lodwick tries to give you a SUV. That's *not* gonna work -- where's MY SUV!! That's a real problem for me. At 160 Billie notes that "loddy has the hang of this bribing." Uh-uh, not if Loddy didn't bribe me. I hate to seem petty about it, but, well, I am! :D Jokingly, of course.

At Post 163, xJones issues an expert and very good bribe -- how she'll fly us all to Texas and give us beanie-babies. As a bribe, this has several virtues. It's generous. It's fanciful and humorous. Her post indicates that she has read the intro, is mindful that you are drunk and have only half a brain, and so her bribe is calibrated accordingly. A+ for the bribing here.

Beginning at post 169, and continuing at __, __, and __, Aquamarine and Flyer engage in a humorous colloquy about just want it is that its out in front of Aquamarine's gingerbread house -- Flyer's golden retriever? Something the dog left? I think this humorous discussion reflects well on both of them, if humor counts.

At 173, you post your link to Christmas lyrics. THANKS!!

At 177, kayak gives us 2 cookies. Hmm. Just 2. Good cookies. But just 2. Hmm. Nope, not a big enough bribe to convert her prior entry to finalist status.

Also, at 141, you note xJones' pretzels aren't chocolate-covered. I kinda liked the au natural look for the pretzels at the xJones house at Post 44. ::shrugging:: Well, on to the analysis of entries.

Post 136 Daisy Scarlett gives us a whole town, including a church. Hmm, I'm thinking I just can't tell what that thing is in the lower right corner, and wouldn't that stop this from being a finalist, but then she adds the lovely disappearing gingerbreadman cookie at the end. That's a bribe. It's a good bribe. It's dutifully delivered to both judges. It was delicious. I say it worked. Finalist.

Post 180 Kayak's White House gingerbread, parlaying on the excellent work of our nation's greatest pastry chef. This is a keeper! Now we remember with fondness of the plate of 2 cookies in post 177. Finalist status, pending investigation as to whether this house is a Clinton-era or a Bush-era house. If it's a Clinton-era house, automatic disqualification.

Post 206 Flyer's lovely red-and-green photograph -- showing the golden retriever with the crumbs, all with a big red circle around the green grass. How seasonal this choice of colors!! "The crumbs are indeed proof that it did exist" is the claim. LOL. I keep thinking: given how good all the entries are, wouldn't it be right to annoy *everyone* equally and pick Flyer? This stuff is funny . . . . At Post 213, Mud, you say: "That looks like "Oodles of Noodles," not gingerbread, my FRiend. If we don't see a notarized deposition from yer dog attesting that yer alleged RamenNoodleHouse looks as you have described, I'm tempted to disqualify yer entry." 1:13 PM EST. Flyer responds without delay at
Post 211 Lodwick's drawing of a real gingerbread house, circa 1869. Plus: the American flag, the reality of it all. Drawback: the reality of it all.

Post 215 Diver Dave's mudhut. Replete with a written description of all that went wrong in trying to do a better house. Now, this is funny. And Mud, it's close whether it's not in the holiday spirit sufficiently to be a finalist ("we've got a new entry on the leaderboard"), but I've already seen your emphatic praise of it. And it does have a good conservative political message. So finalist. And as Diver Dave points out, there's nothing left in his account for a bribe, so we can't hold that against him. As Flyer notes in post 232, "we need to FReep someone! Gingerbread regulation is out of control!"

Post 221 Lodwick's the third time's the charm! How can we not include this beautiful gingerbread Eiffel tower in the contest? It's a finalist. Although before it's gonna be a winner, someone's going to have to get over my Issues with the French not being sufficiently behind us on the war on terrorism. Note post 230 -- same house from a different view, noting the suds and adding that this lady "needs to quit messing with the gingerbread and quickly go check on the washing machine." LOL.

Post 247 GailA's church is simply breathtaking. Finalist. Definitely. Claims to have waited and searched the web hard for the right one. Can't doubt it. But GailA I like your 252 EVEN MORE -- so that one I put on the finalist list. But alone this would ahve made it too.

Post 251 Another entry by GailA. Kinda dimly lit -- makes it sort of depressing. Also, that blue color on the house is not a color I'm used to seeing on gingerbread houses. I don't like it as much as the church. The Christmas wreaths on the hosues are really cute -- hard to tell from the photo what kind of candy they are. I must also confess that I'm aware of the inventory of houses from gingerbreadlane.com, and that the Eiffel tower entry beat you to this website. Ok, lol, I'll stop. This house actually I don't like for whatever reason.

Post 252 Mudboy, this is one I am REALLY excited about too. It's a beautiful house with an American flag, a well, landscaping, a porch, kids in the hard, lovely lovel ygreen trees. And in the backdrop in this clear photo you can see the real Christmas tree decorated. Look at the details! The lovely evergreen garland on the porch. This is the American gingerbread house entry. I think it's a finalist. If you had to force me to choose between GailA's entries alone, this one would beat out GailA's 247 because this one speaks of home, family, and home for the holidays. That's more "gingerbready" to my lights.

Post 253 Mixer's "real" house with a link to the story. This is a great house, and thanks and we all love you. But it's not a lot about gingerbread except in name. But it's a great story and I enjoyed the link!

Post 291 Jwfix, this is your first posting of a graphic image, is it not! Congratulations! I hope that will be enough praise for this lovely photo, because as I hope you suspect, it's not a finalist pretty much for the reasons that you noted on your post -- it's not really about gingerbread. It's "not so magically delicious as some of the other goodies on this thread, but I always think of Hansel and Gretel when I see a gingerbread house." LOL -- nice tie-in. Points for trying, but no cigar! :)

Sorry, the flyer entry got cut off in the above. That paragraph ended: Flyer responds Flyer responds without delay at post 231 at 1:34 PM EST. but not before Flyer shows real competitive spirit by trying to disqualify Aquamarine's house in post 217 ("clean up on aisle three").

By no means! You have until midnight PST (3 a.m. EST) to post!

(I'm just trying to organize and create hyperlink judges threads for some of our entries to date, since we have so many good ones. Hoping to get a set of a dozen or so finalists for Mudboy Slim and me to mull over. Even that's a Herculean task!)

Entry #1

Gingerbread Barn

Entry #2

Granny's Candy Store

Did I miss the contest?

As FreeTheHostages noted, you still have several hours. If you or even any of your neighbors have a dog be very, very careful. My story was a sad one here today after my dog ate my entry. The rules explicitly state:

Your entry can be a picture stolen from the web, something you drew yourself on Paintshop Pro, a verbal description of a gingerbread house, blueprints for a gingerbread house, or something just generally gingerbread-housey.

I have had a very difficult time getting my description accepted as an entry. I think my flaw was that I gave a written description, not verbal.

Good luck!

---

Flyer

Mudboy Slim: Here's my third posting listing our entrants to date, which should be current as of the time of this post (11 p.m. EST -- 4 hours until closing).

In the 300-400 (what we have so far), I have selected 2 more finalists (for a dozen so far, Mudboy):
339 (Balata's pathetic post-Rollex house), 374 (Flyer already nominated, schtick continues), 397 ('WVVan's granny's candy store)

Post 301 DaisyScarlett: you're already a finalist with post 136, which is I think better than this one. (LOL -- which is the nicest thing I can say about this one!)

Post 318 Aquamarine's second entry. Very nice!! Music again!! I like the house and the music for the first entry better, though -- both cozier. So I keep you as finalist on your earlier entry -- which, BTW, Flyer is *not* permitted to unilaterally "clean up on aisle three." That's a judges perogative! :)

Post 335 Black and white gingerbread house -- probably not a finalist. But good work practicing posting graphics! Today's thread, jwfiv, was the right place to be practicing that!

Post 339 Balata's pathetic shredded wheat "all my exes are wearing rollexes" house. Hmm, can you plead your way into final-dom? Probably, if you do it humorously. Finalist. The trees are really pretty and I confess a weird partiallity to shredded wheat roofs. (There -- there's something completely arbitrary for everyone to hang their hat on if they loose to prove the undeniably whimsical nature of the judging (hey, we warned ya!). You can say, "Sheesh, I WISH she'd told us that from the get-go!") In post 348, Flyer contends that if Balata gets pity points Flyer should too -- thus sustaining the myth that we're using a point system. Mudboy, weren't we planning on just spinning the wheel?

Post 360 Flyer's absolutely shameless repost of his claim that his dog at the house!

Post 362I can't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason I FreeTheHostages love Humblegunners' "Free the Gingermen" post. With those angry gingerbread men. Still, I think there's be too much of a riot of it won, so despite my personal fondness for it, it's more in the gingerbread men category than gingerbread house category. Perhaps the men are angry because they don't have a house?

Post 374 Flyer reposts humblegunner's gingerbread men and asks us to look in the first row of the men, to note that one of them has their head bitten off, and then Flyer says that Gilligan (the golden retriever) has been there. Mudboy, this is good stuff. One might not call it scientific *proof* that Gilligan likes to eat gingerbread, but I must say the evidence is becoming quite substantial. (Flyer asks in post 383 if we give him "points" for the fact that Flyer had a dog named "ginger" once. Points?? We gots no stinkin' points!) Flyer earns the judge's total respect in post 398 when Flyer notes the rules permit an entry to be a "verbal description" and then adds "I have had a very difficult time getting my description accepted as an entry. I think my flaw was that I gave a written description, not verbal." This kind of fault-finding with the judges' writing, and general disrespect for the judges throughout this thread, is frankly the kind of healthy suspicion of authority that one would hope for in any good conservative. Sure, on one level, it's disturbing that we haven't received any bribes from Flyer. But surely these successful forays into the world of humor count for something?

Post 396WVNan's entry is all-American. Someone did this gingerbread barn obviously with "help" from a child. Complete with silo and landscaping. Very sweet. Many points for Americana. It's not a finalist because we actually like better the next entry:

Post 397WVNan's Granny's Candy Store is closer to a "house" than her "barn," and it's clearly more than just a store. With the warm lights inside, we know that this is a place where the grandchildren feel perfectly at home! Note the artful use of candy canes! Definitely a finalist.

Phew! I'll do a sum-up of the rest tomorrow morning by 10 a.m. EST. But here are 12 for us to look at hard. Of course, if there's more you want to add to the finalist list, please alert me. But let's do it by Freepmail or something starting tomorrow -- 'cause I don't want to distract from tomorrow's Freeper's Finest thread and have the party continue here, ya know?