Lammas and Mabon 2019

When I was younger, I identified as wiccan. That sort of religious belief is no longer with me, however I still definitely feel a pull of the seasons (what little seasons we have here in Brisbane), of the moon, of the world around me. Recently I heard the term secular witchcraft, thanks to Sayward of Bonzai Aphrodite, and that really seems to fit with my world view. I have gotten very bad at being in tune with anything over the last couple of years, mostly thanks to be exhausted by work. But this year I wanted to at least mark each of the sabbats of the wheel of the year by making some sort of appropriate food. Celebrating with food is very much my style. As I am in the southern hemisphere, I celebrate the sabbats in the opposite from those in the norther hemisphere. If you are curious about the traditions and origins of each of the sabbats, there is lots on Google, including what sorts of foods are associated with each. I meant to post about them as they happened, but I didn't, so here is a bit of catch up. I still have two more to share, in another post.

Lammas (1st February, 2019)

I kept things pretty simple for this one, and just threw an easy lunch together. I had corn on the cob (corn is important in Lammas) with a grilled mushroom, avocado toast, and some sliced cucumber. Then I follower it up with some natural yoghurt, blackberries, and apple crumble granola.





Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (21st March, 2019)

Sure it may have been autumn, but the weather here was still warm. Part of living in Brisbane is taking inspiration from the foods, but also eating in a seasonally appropriate way. Cue salad and a chilled cheesecake!

Roasted Kabocha Salad with Barley and Lemon Miso Vinaigrette from Power Plates by Gena Hamshaw: This salad was a great way to incorporate pumpkin which keeping things light and cool. Overall, this salad needed a bit more seasoning. The barley (which I cooked in the rice cooker after soaking overnight), would have benefited from being cooked in stock rather than water, and a bit more salt could have been added overall. The roasted kabocha and red onions were nice. I used baby spinach as the leaves in the salad, rather than rocket or kale, and I couldn't find any radicchio so I just used more spinach. I also left out the chili flakes in the dressing, and used a mix of water and guar gum in place of the oil because oily dressings make me a bit queasy. I got three serves out of this.
Rating: :|



Roasted Apple Cheesecake from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky: This is a lovely dessert. Roasted apples and blended into a yummy cream cheese mixture, then poured onto a gingerbread base before being topped by more roasted apples and also some candied pecans. The base was a tad dry, it probably needed a bit more melted margarine to get it to stick a bit better. I needed to bake the cheesecake for an extra 20 minutes in my oven, but then it set up perfectly in the fridge. I only made half a recipe of the pecans to top it with, which was plenty. The real star is the beautiful apple cream cheese filling, so good!
Rating: :)





I'll be sharing my Samhain and Yule eats in an upcoming post.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This is the finished portrait of Gizmo, based on the photo I shared in my last post. The artist is Eileen Doodles. I have followed her on Instagram for quite a while, I love her sweet cat portraits. I always knew that if I was going to get her to do a piece for me, that her style was perfect for my sweet Gizmo. And I was right! I love this portrait so much. She changed it a little from the original photo to include Gizmo's little white tail tip. Next time I'll show you where I've put it.