PAGAN RECIPES Here is a collection of recipes designed to complement various Pagan celebrations and rituals, mostly Sabbats but with a few for multiple purposes. Many Pagans like to celebrate the Sabbats with feasting, friends and food. As the Wheel of the Year turns, it can help bring us more in tune with the seasons if we incorporate our spirituality into our meal planning and menus. Heres a collection of recipe ideas for all eight of the modern Pagan Sabbat celebrations, as well as some tips on how to be an effective kitchen witch! If you celebrate any Pagan or nature-oriented festivals, or just want to try some recipes that are aligned with the symbolism of the seasons, choose a few of these and make them yourself or find a willing helper to experiment with. Most of these are simple and use natural ingredients; the kitchens got its own magic. Imbolc - February 2 From the myths, the idea is to help the Sun on its journey, banishing winter Prepare yellow and orange foods such as carrots and squash to symbolize the Sun, and anything hot and spicy Pagan Recipes for Imbolc Candlemas February 2 Northern Hemisphere / August 1 Southern Hemisphere In many Pagan traditions, the Imbolc Sabbat is a time to honor new life, and the warmth of the hearthfire. Celebrate your Sabbat with seasonal recipes such as baked custard, bacon and leeks, braided bread, curried lamb, and Irish cream truffles. Pagan Recipes for Ostara March 20 - 23 Northern Hemisphere / September 20 - 23 Southern Hemisphere Ostara, the spring equinox, is a time full of new life and new beginnings. Plan your Sabbat menu accordingly, to reflect the themes of the season. Try simple, earthy recipes like spinach quiche, Ostara oil, broccoli, devilled eggs, spring sprout salad, and mint chutney. Also, try our marshmallow peep ambrosia, for a great way to get rid of some of that leftover Easter candy! Pagan Recipes for Beltane April 30 (Mayday is celebrated on the first of May) Northern Hemisphere / October 31 (Mayday is celebrated on the first day of November) Southern Hemisphere. Beltane, or May Day, is a Sabbat that honors the fertility of the earth and the greening of the land. Its a time to celebrate fire and lustiness, so incorporate these themes into your Sabbat celebrations menu. Try our honey cakes, elder flower fritters, fiery green beans, candied flower petals, Scottish bannocks, fertility bread and Green Man cake! Pagan Recipes for Litha June 20 - 23 Northern Hemisphere / December 20 - 23 Southern Hemisphere. Litha, the summer solstice, is the longest day of the year, and its a time to delve into our gardens and reap the benefits of the midsummer bounty! Take advantage of the sunny evenings, and put together a table of soft mead, solstice herb bread, fiery grilled salmon, delicious vegetables, fresh fruit fennel salad, and a nice cold pitcher of lemon balm tea! Pagan Recipes for Lammas Lughnassadh August 1 Northern Hemisphere / February 1 Southern Hemisphere Lammas or Lughnasadh is the celebration of the early harvest, and its a time to honor the spirit of the grain fields. Why not incorporate some seasonal themes into your Sabbat menu? Put together dishes that celebrate the harvest - try some corn bread, stuffed mushrooms, basil pesto fresh from the garden, blackberry cobbler, Lammas bread, and roasted garlic corn! Pagan Recipes for Mabon September 20 - 23 Northern Hemisphere / March 20 - 23 Southern Hemisphere. Mabon, or the autumn equinox, is a time to celebrate the abundance of the harvest and the bounty of the earth. Bring those themes to you Sabbat dinner table, and try some of these seasonal dishes: stuffed acorn squash, wild rice, crockpot apple butter with Dark Mother bread, a Ren-Faire style turkey leg, and delicious stuffed grape leaves. Pagan Recipes for Samhain October 31 Northern Hemisphere / May 1 Southern Hemisphere Samhain is a season to honor the dead, celebrate our ancestors, and get in touch with the spirit world as the earth grows colder and dies once more. Put together some of these tasty seasonal ideas for your Samhain celebration, pumpkin muffins, orange carrot jell-o, sugar skulls, banshee mulled wine, and butternut squash casserole! Its all about comfort food this time of year. Pagan Recipes for Yule Winter Solstice - December 20 - 23 Northern Hemisphere / June 20 - 23 Southern Hemisphere Are you ready to mix up some kitchen magic for Yule, the Winter Solstice? Celebrate the longest night of the year and the midwinter chilliness, with fun seasonal recipes like plum pudding, cocoa snowballs, wassail, hot buttered rum, peppermint fudge, and a rich chocolate Yule Log cake. Italian Love Cake From Herbs for Weddings and Other Celebrations by Bertha Reppert (© 1993 by Bertha Reppert; published by Storey Publishing). 1 angel food cake 1/2 cup amaretto 1 pint pistachio ice cream 1 pint strawberry ice cream 2 cups heavy cream (1 pint) 1 6-ounce package semisweet chocolate morsels Using a sawing motion with a sharp serrated knife, cut the cake into three layers. Sprinkle each layer with 2 tablespoons of amaretto. Place one layer on a serving platter. 2. Cut ice cream into slices and place pistachio ice cream on bottom layer. Top with second cake layer and a layer of strawberry ice cream. Top with third cake layer. Place in freezer. 3. In a bowl, mix heavy cream and remaining amaretto, and beat until very thick. Frost the sides and top of the cake, and replace in freezer. 4. Melt chocolate on very low heat until smooth. Spread chocolate in a 1/4 inch thick layer on aluminum foil, and chill until chocolate hardens. 5. With a small cookie cutter, cut hearts out of chocolate, and place on top of cake. Freeze cake until ready to serve. Makes one 9-inch cake, or 10 to 12 servingse Calendula Custard 1 pint of milk 1 cup of calendula petals 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons of sugar Small piece of vanilla bean 3 egg yolks 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon of allspice 1/2 teaspoon of rose water Pound the calendula petals in a mortar, or crush them with a spoon, and scald them with the milk and vanilla bean. Remove the vanilla bean, and add slightly beaten yolks of eggs, salt, and sugar mixed with the spice. Cook until the mixture coats the spoon. Add rose water and cool. This makes a good sauce for blanc mange. It may be poured into a dish without cooking, and then baked like a custard. Serve with beaten cream, and garnish with calendula blossoms. Orange Calendula Drop Cookies 6 to 8 fresh calendula blossoms 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup sugar Zest of 2 oranges 2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 2 cups flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 8 ounces almond halves Rinse calendulas and pull off petals. Cream butter, sugar and orange zest until fluffy. Add concentrate and vanilla. Add eggs and mix until blended. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Blend calendula petals into dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Mix well. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Press an almond half into each cookie. Bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden. Honey & Lemon Balm Tea Biscuits 1 cup butter 1 cup honey 3 eggs 3 cups flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 tbs milk 2 tsp lemon juice (preferably fresh) 4 sprigs fresh lemon balm, chopped Thoroughly cream the butter and honey. Add eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients, then milk, juice and lemon balm. Drop by spoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 8-10 min. at 375. Substitutions: if using lemon grass, process a 1/2 inch peeled piece in blender or food processor until it mushes. No stringy bits, no chewy bits. Lavender Honey 1 cup dried lavender flowers 1 quart mild flavored honey Combine the two in an airtight jar and sit on a windowsill in the sunlight for 2 to 3 weeks turning every couple of days. Once brewed warm honey in a double boiler untill honey is runny but not too hot. Using a piece of cheesecloth and funnel pour honey through and squeeze remainder of honey out of lavender through the cloth. Lavender Cookies 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms, finely chopped 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Preheat oven to 375F. In a med. bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and lavender: mix well. Combine the flour and baking powder and add to the lavender mixture. Stir until will blended. Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake eight to 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Let cookies cool. Rose Petal, Chamomile, and Lavender Jelly 1 cup tightly pressed rose petals 1/8 cup crushed chamomile 1/4 cup crushed lavender 1 pack dry pectin 3 1/2 cups water 4 cups sugar Hothouse roses are fine for this jelly, but home grown or wild roses are best. I found a wild primrose bush with lovely pink and white petals, growing next to honeysuckle. If you do find wild roses, be aware of whats growing around it...poison ivy isnt the best added flavor. Thoroughly clean the petals, making sure all of the little bugs arent in your mixture. Mix them with the chamomile and lavender, then add the boiling water, to cover all of the ingredients. Cover the pot, let it stand for one hour. Strain the floral matter from the liquid twice with a cheese cloth, making sure all that you have is pure liquid. The petals, chamomile, and lavender make an excellent facial poultice for tired eyes and oily skin. Add the pectin to the liquid and bring to a boil, then add all of the sugar at once, stirring carefully but quickly. Bring to a rolling boil for one minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Remove as much foam as you can from the top, otherwise, you have funky white clouds in you jelly. Stir for a few minutes, until the mixture starts to cool, then pour into hot, clean jars for canning. Old jelly jars with their lids work wonderfully for this. Be careful pouring! I missed the jar and slopped near-boiling sugar and pectin all over my thumb, its *quite* painful! Let your jelly stand for one hour in the jars, then put them in the fridge to hasten their setting. Depending on the size of your jars, you should have edible jelly one hour after putting them in the fridge. The color of you rose petals determines the color of your jelly. With my pink and white primroses, I got a lovely reddish-golden color, and a delicate taste. This jelly complements jasmine tea, as well as lavendear and chamomile, even plain old Lipton. Enjoy! Evergreen Monkey Bread 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts 1 tablespoon cinnamon 3 cans buttermilk biscuits Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare a Bundt pan by coating the inside with cooking spray or butter and set aside. Melt 1/2 cup of butter or margarine in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the sugar, brown sugar nuts and cinnamon. Pour into a zip lock bag. Open one can of biscuits and separate. Cut each biscuit into four sections and drop into bag with sugars, nuts and cinnamon, shake to coat and drop into Bundt pan. After finishing the first can of biscuits, drizzle 1/3 of the melted butter evenly over the top of this first layer. Repeat these steps for the next two cans of biscuits. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the top and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. When done, remove from the oven and let cool for a minute or two, then turn onto a plate and carefully remove the pan. If you leave it in the Bundt pan much longer, it will stick and is hard to remove!
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:39:54 +0000