Beltane 2022

While the 31st of October is known as Halloween throughout the world, it gets its origins from the pagan festival of Samhain. This is a sabbat that is very much seasonal and meant to be celebrated in Autumn. So here in Australia, we are celebrating Beltane!

Beltane (31st October - 1st November, 2022)

Beltane is between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, and is a celebration life and fertility. As often happens, I was working on the night itself. I made my special Beltane dinner the following day.

Red Pesto Risotto with Asparagus from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: This fit the Beltane theme for because it has asparagus. Which... ahem... has certain associations. The pesto itself is incredible, with a mix of sundried and cherry tomatoes, almond, and basil. It doesn't go super red though. It makes more than the recipe calls for to add into the risotto, but I added extra into it and also had some left over to make a great sandwich with later. The asparagus were meant to be blanched, shaved into thin strips, and fried but that was a bit in the too much basket for me and I just roasted them. Served with an extra dollop of pesto on top as well.
Rating: :)



Mixed Berry Cobbler from One Pot Three Ways by Rachel Ama: I stuck with the red theme (representing the element of fire... though green is also a Beltane colour) and made this lovely Mixed Berry Cobbler. First you make the base recipe, which is Stewed Berries. I used a frozen mix from Woolworths called Rube Red Mix (strawberries, cherries, and redcurrents).



One recipe of this made about two cups, and one cup is required for the cobbler. It was unusual in that you mix up a batter, then add that to melted butter in the hot baking pan (butter is also a Beltane food), and finally dollops the stewed berries on top. Normally when I make cobblers you put the topping on top! But when it came out of the oven, the berries were at the bottom! It was really nice, though did have quite a strong butter flavour.
Rating: :)



Mixed Berry Chia Jam from One Pot Three Ways by Rachel Ama: Bonus recipe! As mentioned above, the cobbler used half of the stewed berries. Leaving me the other half to make one of the other two ways to use it in the book. I went with the very easy chia jam, which I had never made before. Just simmer the stewed berries, add a little bit more maple syrup, and then stir in some chia seeds and water, let sit. I was a bit worried when I made it because it just seemed like there were SO MANY chia seeds. But they really did absorb all the flavour wonderfully. Also, it had a good texture, not like chia pudding which is weird. I enjoyed this on crumpets, on top of yoghurt and granola, and I even mixed the last bit of it in to some overnight oats that ended up with a great flavour.
Rating: :)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Here is a fun action shot of Boo with her Jackolantern toy. Getting photos of her was hard, because she often just wanted to smooch and play with it!

Yule 2022

Here we are in winter in Australia, and actually having a period of reasonable chill here in Brisbane! So while my northern hemisphere friends are sweating through what seems like an atrocious summer, we are in our cold times. And June is the time for the sabbat celebration of Yule, the shortest day of the year. You can see my other posts about celebrating different sabbats though food here.

Yule aka Winter Solstice (21st of June, 2022)

You can easily serve a lot of what people would consider Christmas-themed food during Yule, as aspects of it have been co-opted into traditions of Christmas, but I like to celebrate with really good, hearty comfort food.

Winter Stew from One Pot: Three Ways by Rachel Ama: One of my newer books, that you will be hearing more from. But I knew I wanted to make this wonderful winter stew for Yule from the moment I saw it. A stew of carrots, shallots, mushrooms (I used shiitake as I couldn't get oyster mushrooms), tomatoes, and sweet potato with red wine and herbs. A quick prep on the stove, and then a nice long bake in the over!



Mashed Potatoes & Long-Stem Broccoli: The premise of this book is you make the base recipe, and then there are three different ways you can use it. I went with this classic winter comfort combo of serving it with mashed potatoes (made with butter, nutritional yeast, and seasoning), and sauteed broccolini. It was everything wonderful and comforting in a bowl.
Rating: :)



Rich Winter Ragu with Pasta: Slipping this in here, even though I made it a couple of days later. This is simply leftover stew simmered and served with pasta. The recipe calls for pappardelle, I used fettucini. I also added some chopped facon and peas to it. This was such a great way to make a quick meal after leftovers.
Rating: :)



Spiced Cider from Cafe Flora Cookbook: Bringing us back to Yule dinner proper, I made this wonderful warmed cider. Cloudy apple juice is simmered with whole spices, then allowed to sit for several hours for the flavours to meld. After straining, you can serve it hot or cold. I went with hot, given it was a cold night!
Rating: :)



Tamarind Apple Crisp from To Asia With Love by Hetty McKinnon: Apple crumble is a perfect winter dessert, and add in some tamarind? Delightful! I made a half recipe of this for three serves. The apple filling has a hefty dose of tamarind paste added, which brings some lovely sour tang to the rest of the sweet, and it is topped with a lovely oat crisp topping. I served it warm with the very last bit of my So Delicious Cashew Vanilla Ice Cream.
Rating: :)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Boo continues to enjoy the sunroom on these colder days.