Wednesday 10 July 2019

Samhain and Yule 2019

Following on from my post last week, here are my food celebrations for the other two sabbats that have already been and gone this year. If you missed the last post, have a quick read to see what they are all about and what they mean to me.

Samhain (April 30th, 2019)

Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere is October the 31st, which everyone knows as Halloween (which has its origins in Samhain). Samhain is considered the new year of the wheel of the year. You can have a lot of fun with food for this, there are traditional foods but you can also go the fun Halloween route if that is your thing. Though given that it is not Halloween here for another 6 months I generally just go with something more traditional.

Punk-Kin Pasta from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer: I got the idea to make this from Bianca's blog, she always posts about her sabbat feasts and I often search on her blog for some witchy food inspiration. This is a simple but tasty little dish, with a very easy sauce made from a tin of pumpkin puree. I did thin it out a little but adding some pasta water, a splash of oat milk, and a sprinkle of stock powder. The sauce also has sauteed chunks of sausage in it, and I used Field Roast Apple Sage. An excellent combination. Sprinkled with a bit of FYH Parmesan. I used 250g of pasta, which was enough for 3 serves.
Rating: :)

Punk-Kin Pasta


Jen's Raisin Soda Bread from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer: I had planned on making some sort of cute fancy dessert, but ended up going for something simple with a quick soda bread recipe. This is quite dense and doesn't rise as much as some other soda breads that I have made. I had planned on using currants instead, as I am not the biggest fan of raisins (I just find them very sweet), but then I discovered that I was out of currants and only had raisins. This also has caraway seeds in it, though I misread and only added 1/2 tsp instead of 1/2 tbs. This was good with a bit of butter, and as the recipe said was even better the next day.
Rating: :| but only because of the raisins, otherwise would be :) if it had currants (or even sultanas)

Jen's Raisin Soda Bread


Yule aka Winter Solstice (22nd June, 2019)

Normally Yule is the sabbat where I make the biggest effort food wise. I love making either Christmas or winter menus from my cookbooks, and I had planned to do something similar this year. But then I was working late on the actual day,and I then I was super sick. So I went for very simple, and even then it had to wait a week. Oh well!

Portobello Pepper Steak Stew and Caulipots from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I am a huge fan of the caulipots recipe with AFR, which is mashed potato and cauliflower. Not because of any caloric concerns, but just because it is tasty and a fun way to get some cauliflower into your life. The book has several flavour variations, and while I had made all of them I hadn't actually ever made the original one. But now I have! And I topped it with this lovely warming stew, that has slices of seitan and portobello mushroom. It is meant to have red and green capsicum, but I used carrot and celery instead. And I left out the chili flakes. This had a lovely, savoury flavour. Really it was only three serves with the caulipots. I have saved a bit of the leftover stew to make a wrap out of at a later time (it is currently in my freezer), which Isa suggests and a fun way to enjoy it as well. This was a great combination, served over some baby spinach.
Rating: Stew :), Caulipots :)

Portobello Pepper Steak Stew; Caulipots


Baked Apples from The Joy Of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau: This is a very simple recipe. I halved it to make two apples as I was only serving two people, and I used granny smith apples. Apples are cored (but still leaving some flesh at the bottom) and half-peeled, filled with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, ad baked. After baking the apples were lovely and soft, and the filling was very runny! I served it with some So Delicious Snickerdoodle Cashew Ice Cream (my favourite ice cream).
Rating: :)

Baked Apples


Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Dim Sim


Speaking of witchcraft and Samhain and Halloween, have a black cat! She is pretty magical! Did you know that even to this day, black cats are the hardest to adopt out because people some people still think they are bad luck? I have met several people who say that black cats make them nervous. Obviously this is ludicrous! So give a black cat a home, or at least a pat if they want it. Black cats are awesome!

12 comments:

  1. Yum!

    Black cats are clearly the best cats. Why wouldn't you want a mini panther around?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely! Mini panthers are amazing.

      Delete
  2. OMG YUUUUUMMM!!! It all looks so good! The soda bread sounds awesome, I love caraway seeds. Your Yule meal looks incredible from start to finish. I could definitely use some of that in my life (when it gets cooler, ha! Aww I love black cats!! It makes me sad when certain animals don't get adopted (black cats, pitbulls, senior dogs for example) just because of reputation or because they are "puppies" or "kittens."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. are not" puppies or kittens.

      Delete
    2. I am making the most of the very short amount of time of cool weather we have!

      And yes, some people have such narrow minds when it comes to adopting an animal. It is sad and frustrating to see wonderful animals overlooked.

      Delete
  3. The pepper stew looks so incredible!! I still have never tried adding cauliflower to my mashed potatoes, but I definitely need to try that.
    You know Etta my black cat is the absolute sweetest, most gentle cat I've ever met. I really don't get the big deal. It's 2019!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Black cats are amazing!
      Cauliflower in potatoes is really fun. I like the flavour it adds. Perhaps a new way for you to enjoy cauliflower? Now that you are a cauliflower fan. ;)

      Delete
  4. I've enjoyed all the pumpkin pasta recipes I've tried so far, and the one you made sounds great, especially with the Field Roast sausage in it! And yay, baked apples are so fun!
    Black cats deserve all the love in the world!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Black cats do indeed!

      I hardly ever remember about baking apples, but they really are such an easy winter dessert. I need to make more!

      Delete
  5. I've never tried pumpkin as pasta sauce, but yours looks so good! I need to try that--in general I want to eat more pumpkin, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really like pumpkin sauces, they are a nice alternative to the more usual type of pasta sauce.

      Delete
  6. I love that Punk-in Pasta recipe. It use to be a go to recipe, but I haven't had that much extra pumpkin lately.

    ReplyDelete