December 2015 - Holmstead School

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THE HOLMSTEAD GAZETTE
December 2015
The Holmstead School
Krampus: The Dark side of Christmas by Lloyd
STREGA NONA: WHO IS
THIS CHRISTMAS WITCH?
When it comes to Christmas, we all know that lovable, red, fat ball of commercialism that is Santa Claus. However, Christmas isn’t only wholesome and merry. For every hero, there’s an evil counterpart, the villain. Germany created an
evil counterpart for Santa Claus– named Krampus, a sinister, horned creature
who visits children’s houses on Christmas Eve along with Saint Nick.
According to legend, if children were good on Christmas they’d be showered
with gifts. If they were naughty, the demon-like Krampus would drag them away
in a sack and do things like drown kids in ink, hang them by
their hair, or even eat them. Sometimes, he even brought them
down to hell itself! It may sound cruel but, hey, if you thought
he’d pay you a visit if you were bad on Christmas, would you
misbehave?
Saint Nicolaus: The History of St. Nicholas
by Brenna
The origins of Saint Nicholas come from circa 280. St. Nicholas was a
Christian bishop who helped the needy. After his death, the legend of
his gift giving grew. Saint Nicholas grew into the legendary character
Santa Claus, who brings gifts to children around the world. The early
word for Santa was actually ‘Sinterklaas’(coined by the Dutch) which
as Santa and Christmas traditions do, evolved into ‘Santa Claus’
Sources: Google Images and Biography.com
To find out more, read Tomie de
Paola’s children’s book about the
legend of Strega Nona. She and her
cooking partner , Big Anthony, get
into lots of quandaries! The books
are classics! If you have younger
siblings or nieces or nephews, these
would be good gifts. See pg 8

EDITOR IN CHIEF:

ROWAN

CONTRIBUTORS:

Lloyd

Lindsay

Jared

Brenna

Julia

Frank

Peggy : facilitator
Gingerbread Houses —Julia T.
It's believed that gingerbread was first baked in Europe in the 11 century,
and was later shaped into different forms by monks in Franconia, Germany
in the 13th century. Gingerbread baking was a recognized profession, and
there were even medieval gingerbread guilds. In the 17th century only professional gingerbread bakers were permitted to bake gingerbread except at
Christmas and Easter, when anyone was allowed to bake it. Some of the
best houses were embellished with gold leaf and were also worn as a talisman in battle or as protection against evil spirits. The Grimm brothers also
mentioned a gingerbread house in the classic story, Hansel and Gretel.
Nowadays we don't put as much importance into these tasty cookies but
we still eat them, mostly around Christmas. This year, Michelle, Vicky, Peggy, and the cooking students all helped bake a gingerbread city. These
houses included stained glass windows, working chimneys, doors, and a
candle within, to light up the beautiful house and shine bright colors. A wide
range of candies and icing were laid out on rows of tables for the students
to customize their houses. The most popular candy used seemed to be
M&Ms, since by the end of the period, most were either on the houses or in
the stomachs of the students. After all of the creations were dried and
wrapped by Sandra and Grace, they were most likely eaten by their benefactors. Making gingerbread houses is a Holmstead tradition we hope continues for years. Thank you to everyone who helped make this activity a big
success!
Thank you, Michele, for all your
hours and hours of work. It is a
true labor of love for our students.
Xoxoxo Holmstead’s students
BUCHE DE NÖEL
This fanciful "Yule log" is a classic
French holiday dessert.
Cake:
 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for parchment
and pan
 2/3 cup sifted cake flour (not
self-rising)
 1/3 cup sifted cocoa powder,
plus more for dusting

Pinch of baking soda

6 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
************
Mousse
 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large eggs, separated

Pinch of cream tartar
1/2 cup heavy cream
**************************
Ganache
 9 ounces bittersweet or semi
sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Make the sponge cake: use a jelly roll pan that is layered with buttered and floured parchment paper; set the oven at 350 degrees. Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside:
Over low heat, melt butter; whisk eggs and put into a double boiler pan and add to them
sugar and vanilla. BE careful not to scramble the mixture. Once warmed through, beat until
doubled in size. Add the flour and sift it over the egg mixture making the batter. Pour it
evenly in the prepared jelly roll pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Let it cool: dust with cocoa powder and then invert on a damp dish towel. Peel off parchment paper and gently roll up the
cake in the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for now:
Now make the ganache for part of the filling : place the heavy cream in a double boiler
and warm it through. Slowly add the chocolate and stir until glossy; remove from heat.
Next make the chocolate mousse: melt together the chocolate and butter: stir until smooth:
transfer to a large cool bowl and beat in egg yolks: next whisk in whipped egg whites;
Combine until fluffy and all one color. Refrigerate. This will be your icing and some of the
filling.
Reheat some of the ganache and layer the cake with it: then add some of the
chocolate mousse and spread that evenly on cake to within 1 to 2 inches of one
long end. Reroll cake, starting from other long end, using towel to help roll it. Cover with plastic wrap; chill until firm, about 1 hour.
Place cake, seam side down, on a serving platter; tuck parchment around it to
keep platter clean while decorating. Spread remaining ganache on parchment
paper and chill and then crackle it to make chocolate splinters to put on top of
cake.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder and serve chilled cake when ready to eat.
(Note: if this seems to complicated, there are some revised, easy recipes on line
that you can master. Be brave,. It is a beautiful holiday dessert. )
Traditional English Trifle
Ingredients
CUSTARD LAYER
4 cups whole milk
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon cornstarch
CAKE LAYER
9x9 white or yellow cake, baked and cooled
½ cup cream sherry
3 heaping tablespoons seedless red raspberry jam or preserves
FRUIT LAYER
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon cream sherry
1 tablespoon sugar
WHIPPED CREAM
1½ cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Instructions
For the Custard
Combine the milk, heavy cream and vanilla in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, stirring frequently.
Heat the milk mixture over low-medium heat until it just begins to simmer and steam rises from the
surface.
Meanwhile, mix the sugar and cornstarch together with a fork. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the
egg yolks and the sugar mixture until light and smooth.
HINT: I use my KitchenAid for this, but only as a stand. I hand whisk but use the bowl of the mixer attached to the machine so that I don't have to hold the bowl as well. This allows me to whisk and pour
at the same time, which is needed in the next step.
Remove the warmed milk from the stove and while whisking the egg yolks constantly, dribble a few
drops at a time into the yolks. Adding the hot liquid very, very slowly in the beginning will temper the
eggs, allowing them to warm gradually so that they don't curdle, or worse, scramble! Once you have
dribbled in a good amount you can increase the amount of liquid you add at a time, whisking continuously until all the milk has been added.
5
Pour the contents of the mixer bowl into the saucepan and heat over medium, stirring constantly. Keep
stirring, ensuring that the milk mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan, until thickened, anywhere from 2-6 minutes. Custard will be thick and smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl and cover the
top with plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the surface of the custard. This will prevent a skin
from forming on top. Cool in the refrigerator until chilled.
For the Cake
Cut the cake into large manageable squares. Cut those squares in half horizontally. Open the squares so
that the cut sides are facing up. Brush the cake with the cream sherry. Spread the sherries cake with
the raspberry jam. Cut the cake into cubes.
For the Fruit
In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries, raspberries, sherry and sugar. Stir to coat and allow to macerate. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the trifle.
For the Whipped Cream
Combine the heavy whipping cream and the powdered sugar in a larger mixer bowl. Beat on high for 2
minutes, or until stiff peaks form. Keep chilled in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.
Assemble the Trifle
Place ⅓ of the cake cubes in the bottom of the trifle dish, jam side up. Top the cake cubes with ⅓ of the
fruit, followed by ⅓ of the custard and finally with ⅓ of the whipped cream. Repeat layers two more
times. Decorate the top with fresh fruit. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
http://amandascookin.com/traditional-english-trifle/
MY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS




To handle arguments with less personal attachment.
To voice my concerns with feeling unpleased with people, things, and situations. Instead of keeping quiet to
make people happy.
 To reject conforming to social norms.
 To educate myself on subjects I care about
To get involved in groups and protests that promote social justice and the well-being of humans, animals, and
the world.
 To never stop fighting back.
 To be good to kind people.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and new year!
See you in 2016!
Rowan
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Jewish During Christmas
There is a certain feeling that comes with this time of year. Most of them consist of joy, love, and happiness, but
for all my Jewish homies out there you know what’s up this time of year. For us it’s a time of envy and feeling like
everyone has more than you. Comparing the two holidays based on pros and cons doesn’t help though because
even the story of Chanukah is depressing in comparison to Christmas.
Yet there is still hope my Jewish brethren for we have things that people wish they could have had on Christmas.
We have mothers that no matter how much you tell them that you’re not ready for kids and a wife will ask you why
you haven’t brought home a nice Jewish girl and given her grandkids. We have latkes that contain so much oil you
throw up after you eat 6, because even though they may be deathly unhealthy they taste amazing. We have little
tops that we spin with our cousins that lead to nothing but fights about who gets all the fake gold coins, we call those
dreidels because if it doesn’t have a complicated name it’s not really Jewish. Last but definitely not least we have
loving families who truly want the best for us even if we fight, throw up, give one another sweaters instead of PS4s,
or disappoint our mothers by not having little Yankeys and Yankelas. We still have each other which truly is the
greatest gift of them all.
In all seriousness, I wish the staff and students of Holmstead happy holidays. May you receive what you want and
have a wonderful vacation. By: Frank
The Symbolisms of Chanukah
Chanukah is a very interesting holiday. It’s about the Greeks coming to Israel and taking the land of the Jews, destroying our holy places, and the general destruction of our way of life. They carried this out by invading the land,
raping our women, killing our children, and a bunch of other screwed up things. But the Jews ended persevering like
we always do.
Now onto the point of this article, what the weird stuff we Jews do on Chanukah. The Menorah, this object is the
most iconic and important object for celebrating Chanukah. It represents the last surviving thing in our Great Temple
after the Greeks invaded, a Menorah which we did not have enough oil to light every arm of the Menorah at once.
We did it anyway and had some left over, now you know why people say Jews are good at saving money. Secondly
the Dreidel, this is also an iconic item we use on Chanukah, but this one does not have a pleasant story behind it.
The Dreidel was used by Jewish children as the only object that they could play with, this was due to the fact that
when the Greeks had control they oppressed the Jewish people by taking away all of life’s pleasures. This was a
certain kind of resistance that the Jews would do to give a big old thumbs down (or worse) to the Greeks.
Other than those two big ones the only things left are the Gelt, Sufganiyah, and Latkes. The Gelt, they represent
money that Jewish children received as Chanukah tradition. Secondly we have Sufganiyah, these delicious donuts
were something that Jews used to trade with. These delectable devils were used for Chanukah purely because Jewish people made it and it was delicious. Since we are supposed to rejoice that we pushed back the Greeks they fit in
very well. Now for our last we have Latkes, these are just potato pancakes that are made in a lot of oil to represent
the oil that lasted for eight days instead of one. They were not always made out of potato though, back in the times
before trade was very easy to do internationally they used vegetables, cheeses, legumes, or starches.
This being the best information I have for the paper I bid everyone adieu. May you all have a happy holiday, whichever one you want, may you also receive all the gifts you want.
By: Frank
Christmas Through the Decades
by Brenna
7
1800’s
Christmas was only vaguely celebrated. Santa’s existence was pronounced through a newspaper. Early Dutch settlers considered Saint Nick their patron saint and practiced a yearly ritual of
hanging stockings and receiving presents on ‘Saint Nicholas Eve’. Their name for Santa?
‘Sinterklaas’. It became the english word Santa Claus thanks to New York City printer William
Gilley, who published an anonymous poem referring to ‘Santeclaus’ in a children’s book in
1821
__________________________________________________________________
1900’s
Christmas Trees stood on small tables. This was a joyous and relaxing time for children, who
covered their trees with a variety of decor from small toys, popcorn strings, and candy. Popular
gifts of the 1900’s include
Crayola Crayons
Teddy Bears Glo Worms
Model T Ford
Raggedy Ann Dolls
Sock Monkey
Teddy Ruxpin
Pez Dispenser
Play-Doh
Hula Hoops
Chatty Cathy
The Game of Life
Tonka Dump Truck
Paddington Bear
Playmobil
________________________________________________________________________
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The original Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola
CALDECOTT HONOR
WINNER
an original tale written and illustrated by
Tomie dePaola
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1975
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What is Star Wars?
A global icon, perhaps the greatest film franchise of all time,
it’s a piece of pop culture. But what makes Star Wars so
great? Is it the revolutionary special effects? The brilliant John
Williams score? The lovable characters? No, it’s the genre.
When you first looks at Star Wars, you immediately think of
science fiction. But the truth is, Star Wars is not science fiction.
Star Wars is every single genre in one movie. It’s a western,
with classic elements such as the Cantina scene and Tatooine
as a whole. It’s a romance between Han and Leia. It’s a tragedy about the fall of Darth Vader. It’s a political movie of the
rise and fall of a dictatorship. It’s a war movie, with dogfights
and soldiers fighting in the trenches. It’s a comedy, with C-3P0
and R2-D2 being some of the funniest characters in cinematic
history. It’s a coming-of-age story of Luke Skywalker going
from a simple-farm boy to a Jedi Master, the most powerful being in the galaxy. It’s an epic. Star Wars has invented its own
genre, and that is the magic of Star Wars.
For those interested in the new movie, Star Wars Episode VII:
The Force Awakens, you do not need prior viewing of the previous films to follow. That being said, I highly recommend to
watch the entire saga (in the release order, not chronologic order). I promise you, there is something for everyone in Star
Wars. Happy holidays, and may the force be with you.
——- Jared