Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1531980
44 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | FEBRUARY 2025 | Happy Cookers Our club has a great start to a new year. With the help of so many interested residents, we have built up again after memberships losses during covid. Thank you all! Your current Board is committed to bringing FUN back to every Happy Cookers gathering. We will have food gatherings about every other month, with informational talks or excursions in between. Our club really enjoys getting together. February is a fun month – most would say "chocolate" to their one-word response to the month. Let's look at a couple of other national or international "food days" this month. Feb. 28 is national pancake day. In the U.S., the first mention of pancakes as a recipe occurred in e Virginia Housewife cookbook of 1824. One of the earliest references in ancient times is a Greek word for this batter bread based on the word for frying pan. Poets Craginus and Magnes referenced this food in two plays in the fifth century BC. Europe in the 1800s showed interest in preserving the folklore. One story mentioned in at least two compilations is of "The Pancake Man" who leaps away from the kitchen, with an old man and woman running after him. He disappears into the woods and encounters a hare, a wolf, and a bear, singing a repetitive song each time he escapes. A foxy fox outwits him and eats him. Feb. 17 is "Real Bread Day," celebrating artisanal breadmaking. Sourdough is really the oldest leavened bread: only the natural yeasts in the air interacting with grains would show man that this miracle could be harnessed for sustenance. In Germany, brewers skimmed the foam off the brewing beer and were able to make a lighter style bread than usual. In winemaking areas, a paste of fresh grape juice and f lour served the same purpose. The early and hardiest of the gold-stampeders to the Klondike were called "sourdoughs" because the most valued starter helped keep them alive in adverse conditions. In 1917 Russia, the Bolsheviks slogan against Tsarist rule was, "Peace, land, and bread." Happy Cookers meets in the South Clubhouse on the fourth Friday of the month at 11 am. We hope to see you there!