Wednesday
'Jimmy Crow'
From Jimmy Crow by Edith Francis Foster, 1902
Grandma lives at Jack's 
. She has a bird, too. Grandma's bird is a green 
. The parrot's name is "Pepper." 
loves 
, but Jack's crow does not love Grandma's parrot. name is "Pepper." loves , but Jack's crow does not love Grandma's parrot. 
epper can talk like a 
, mew like a 
, bark like a 
. She can cry and laugh. When Jimmy says "Caw, caw!" Pepper says "C-a-w, c-a-w!" and then laughs. 
doesn't like to be laughed at. Once he flew at Pepper, and pushed her off her 
. But Pepper scratched him with her 
and pulled out a tail-feather with her 
. Now Jimmy keeps away from her, unless he wants to steal her 
. 
n Christmas Eve 
came to Jack's Tree. Mama had trimmed it with 
and 
, and hung 
everywhere. When she went with a 
to light the candles, they were gone! "Where are the candles?" cried 
. "Somebody has carried them off, and I can't light the 
." Betty, the littlest girl, began to cry—two 
ran down her cheeks. 
sat on her perch cracking a 
. When she heard the outcry, she dropped it and screamed "Jimmy Crow, Jimmy Crow! Oh, oh! Oh, oh!" "Oh, naughty 
!" said Mama. "He has hidden them. Pepper is telling tales. Run, 
, and hunt! We'll play a new game, 'Hunt the 
.'"
ight pairs of 
ran "up stairs, down 
, in my lady's chamber." At last Betty tipped over a 
, and out rolled the 
. The littlest girl had won! So 
held her up, and she lit the Christmas Tree. 
Christmas lebkuchen...
Lebkuchen (or Pfefferkuchen) is a traditional
German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling
gingerbread. Historically, and due to differences in the
ingredients, lebkuchen is also known as honey cake
(Honigkuchen) or pepper cake (Pfefferkuchen). The
ingredients usually include honey, spices such as
aniseed, coriander, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and
allspice, nuts including almonds, hazelnuts, and
walnuts, or candied fruit
'A View in Nuremberg', 1823
Lebkuchen were invented by Medieval monks in
Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. Lebkuchen bakers
were recorded as early as 1296 in Ulm, and 1395 in Nürnberg
(Nuremberg) The latter being the most famous exporter
today, of the product that is known as Nürnberger Lebkuchen
Local history in Nuremberg relates that emperor Friedrich III
held a Reichstag there in 1487 and he invited the children of
the city to a special event where he presented Lebkuchen
bearing his portrait to almost four thousand children
Read about Nuremberg lebkuchen here
Lebkuchen baker, ca. 1520
Manuscript from Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg,
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Traditionally, the cookies are usually quite large
and may be four and a half inches in diameter if
round, and larger if rectangular
sugar coating, of the Elisen type (Elisenlebkuchen).
Since 1808, a variety of Nürnberg Lebkuchen of high
quality (no flour) has been called 'Elisenlebkuchen'. It
is uncertain whether the name Elise refers to the daughter
of a Lebkuchen baker or the wife of a margrave
link
Wicklein Lebkuchen Little Nuernberg Chest
Purchase here
Please go here and see more beautiful
illustrations from the German patisserie book
'Neues illustrirtes Conditoreibuch'
by Carl Krackhart, 1886
Baker deorating a pastry lebkuchen
link
Normally the lebkuchen are soft but a harder type of
lebkuchen is used to produce lebkuchen figures, usually
with icing, which are available at many German fairs
Lebkuchen poster, 1900
link
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