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!