6 January: National Shortbread Day

Today is National Shortbread Day. 10 things you didn't know about shortbread.

1. Short, in the context of shortbread, means crumbly. What makes shortbread "short" is the large amount of butter in the recipe.
2. Shortcake is a different thing. Shortcake includes a leavening agent such as baking powder.
3. The first recipe for shortbread was printed in 1736 and was written by a woman named Mrs McLintock.However, shortbread had already been around since the 12th century.
4. Mary Queen of Scots is said to have eaten it in the 16th century. In her time, it was flavoured with caraway seeds. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert liked to serve it to important visitors.
5. It comes in several shapes - fingers, rounds or triangles. The triangles have been cut from a larger round and are known as "petticoat tails" after the petticoats ladies wore in medieval times. Another possible origin for that name is that it was a corruption of the old French "petits gatelles" meaning "little cakes".
6. It's a traditional food in Scotland at New Year, offered to people going "first footing".
7. A large shortbread round evolved from pagan yule cakes, which represented the sun.
8. You might have noticed that round shortbread doesn't have the pinprick holes found in the fingers and petticoat tails. That's because the rounds are thinner and don't need to be pricked to let the steam escape.
9. There's an old tradition in Shetland and Orkney in which a shortbread is broken over a new bride's head as she entered her new home to bring propsperity and good luck.
10. A type of shortbread flavoured with ginger was said to be eaten during sittings of the Scottish Parliament and hence ginger flavoured shortbread was known as "Parliament cake" or "Parlies" up until the 19th century.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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Goodreads Review for Golden Thread:

This is a standalone book rather than one of the "super" series. Excellent characterization, a "keeps you guessing" plot, and some fairly deep philosophical issues ! Would recommend this to anyone, but especially recommended if you would like to see a completely new "take" on the people with powers / alternate futures / general oddness type story lines. Somebody make the film !