Trivia Advent Calendar

[Eva Elisabeth]

Eva, I think my favorites were the Girl Scout Cookies, and most especially the Thin Mints. I think Abe would have loved 'em! I don't have any stories other than I cannot control myself when the Thin Mints are in the house. My wife doesn't understand the addiction.

Thanks for sharing, Roger and Gene! I guess "Thin Mints" are and taste similar to what's sold as "After Eight" here (and in the UK)?:
   
...and I like them, too. (Anything chocolate - actually I favor baking, precisely creating and inventing, rather than eating cookies & co!). My first idea as for what "Girl Scout Cookies" could be was this:
   
...since you can also get Lincoln cookie cutters (and the cookies look neat):
   
http://www.cheapcookiecutters.com/produc...kie-cutter
...but obviously it's the brand name?! Allow me to add my favorite of the some million Xmas goodies offered for sale - Dominosteine (a praline with a sponge-cake-like gingerbread base, a layer of apple jelly and a layer of marzipan, covered with a thin icing of chocolate):
   

[L Verge]

I'm with you on the thin mints Roger. We put a box in the freezer and try to save them for a month or two.
I have found a decent substitute. They are pretty good.
http://www.dollargeneral.com/product/ind...d=43435816
Get free shipping with an order of $40 or more. Your wife will love that. The more you order, the more you save!

OMG, Gene, I wish you hadn't alerted me to those Thin Mints. I'm like Roger - bet you can't eat just one...

Eva - Another one of our historic house museums in our county has done a gingerbread house/store/garden scene/etc. contest for about ten years now. Some really fantastic creations.

As for gingerbread, put me in the same category with Abe. I love regular gingerbread (cakes) and have an old family recipe for what is termed "Soft Gingerbread." The note in my grandmother's cookbook says that the recipe came from Mrs. Minnie Naylor of Washington, D.C. ca. 1880. Mr. Naylor was the Presiding Elder of the Methodist Church in D.C. and later became Bishop. When you serve this with either a lemon sauce or applesauce on top, you'll think that Mrs. Naylor had divine guidance in making this.

I also have an old recipe for Molasses Gingersnaps that is excellent. Even my mother-in-law wanted the recipe for that one! I made one slight change, however, because I don't necessarily like "snappy" cookies. In order to have them a little lighter and softer, I used to pack them away while they were still ever so slightly warm. I'll never forgive my mother-in-law (God rest her soul) because she gave the recipe to the next wife of my former. We're on good terms, but do you have any idea the amount of gall it induces to eat your recipe baked by "the other woman?"

Up until about five years ago, Surratt House did three nights of candlelight tours and served punch and homemade cookies in the family dining room. Our volunteers made some scrumptious cookies, but there was one lady who made the most wonderful Lemon Squares imaginable. No one has come close to duplicating them.

Finally, another fond memory of Christmas fare is the fruitcake. I'm one of those idiots who loves fruitcake - as long as they take out the currants and the citron. I never could convince my grandmother to eliminate them from her recipe. Every year while I was growing up, we made at least two big fruitcakes around Thanksgiving time so that they could sit and get drunk for at least a month before consumption.

During the Christmas season, slices were enjoyed with family and friends in the living room accompanied with a glass of homemade locust blossom wine or store-bought Christian Brothers or Mogen David wine. Even my abstaining grandmother had wine at Christmas.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Lemon Squares - being a fruit lover, these sound interesting to me! As for the wine - I simply can't swallow spirits, too sour and bitter at once. Little amounts of sparkling wine I could, and Estonian pear cider (that I indeed like), but each would knock me down with headaches for at least 24hrs. Instead (of the obligatory mulled wine), on the Xmas market I would turn to hot spiced elder juice. (But my #1 "spirit" is coffee...)

[L Verge]

Estonian pear cider sounds interesting! I married into part of a family that were original Croatians, and they made something with plums, sugar, and vodka that they called Plum Dum.

P.S. I can't stand dry wines, which sounds like what you have been trying to drink. But there are some wonderful sparkling wines and fruity wines out there. Add a touch of gingerale to a fruity wine and it becomes a sparkling wine also. As for the hard stuff - can't stand gin or Scotch.

And there you have the sommolier's (? sp) report for the evening....

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good morning - what do you guess is behind #4?
   
(PS: Laurie, I think I'll never become a "sommelier" although I can help out with the sp...)

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint #1: Please note the two different sorts of bricks. This is a result of the CW (as I've mentioned before).

[L Verge]

My first instinct was the wall at the Arsenal, but your last hint throws that up in the air.

[Dave Taylor]

Fort Jefferson, perhaps?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Nevertheless a good guess, Laurie, but kudos to Dave - you nailed it again!

As for the bricks - the light colored bricks came from Pensacola, Florida 500-miles north of the Dry Tortugas. When the Civil War broke out Pensacola stopped supplying bricks. Then the dark red bricks were shipped from New York 1,400 miles away. All in all, ca.16-million bricks were used to construct it.
   
Actually this is where I'd like to be right now to hibernate...(ok, somewhere on the mainland to be honest!)

[RJNorton]

Actually this is where I'd like to be right now to hibernate...

Eva, I cannot transport you there, but the least I can do is post the link to all your wonderful Ft. Jefferson photos so you can better imagine...

[Eva Elisabeth]

...so you can better imagine...

Thank you, Roger! To serve the same purpose I have this gorgeous FL wallpaper on my phone:
   
...and as you can see it's already Dec.5 now, time to open a new window (in hope the night owls and those in the very west will "make use" of this):
   
So - your guesses?

[Dave Taylor]

My guess would be Lincoln's casket or catafalque but I'm not very confident about this one.

[STS Lincolnite]

...so you can better imagine...

Thank you, Roger! To serve the same purpose I have this gorgeous FL wallpaper on my phone:

...and as you can see it's already Dec.5 now, time to open a new window (in hope the night owls and those in the very west will "make use" of this):

So - your guesses?

Maybe the decoration around one of Lincoln's funeral biers?

[Gene C]

Lincoln's funeral bier?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very good guesses! Scott's wording is the closest as it is a "decoration around...Lincoln's funeral"...