Celebrating Litha + Summer

It's Litha, also known as Midsummer/the Summer Solstice this upcoming week (Thursday 21st June) and so I'm doing a new post on celebration ideas.  I first did one last year which you can read here (also a baking post): http://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/06/baking-no-yeast-dinner-rolls-and.html

Like I did with my Celebrating Oestara + Spring post back in March. I'm combining ideas for Litha and celebrating summer in general. :)

Note: For those in the Southern Hemisphere winter is starting and Yule aka Midwinter/the Winter Solstice is coming up. You might enjoy this post: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/yule-celebration-ideas.html

At the beginning of the month I wrote a post on getting ready for summer which you can see here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/getting-ready-for-summer_3.html

As I mentioned there, the Summer Solstice is the official start of summer (around 20th June) but the meteorological start is 1st June. It definitely feels like summer has already started, since we've had some nice, hotter weather. (Although not so much today!).

Getting Ready for Summer

Following on from my previous posts on getting ready for winter and spring, here's one on preparing for summer. :) 

Note: If winter is starting for you check out the winter themed post: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/getting-ready-for-winter.html

As with the other seasons, there are two official starts to summer- meteorological and astronomical. The beginning of meteorological summer is 1st June and the start of astronomical summer is the Summer Solstice (also known as Midsummer and Litha) around 21st June. The date varies year by year and is sometimes the 20th, but this year it's the 21st. For more info read this post: https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/968023/summer-2018-when-is-1st-day-meteorological-astronomical-weather-longest-day

Baking- Cheese Scones + Brownies

I've been doing some baking recently, so it's time for another baking post. :)


Cheese Scones

First of all I made cheese scones a couple of weekends ago. They were for my mum's birthday because she likes them. :) I personally prefer sweet scones but cheese are nice too.

The recipe is from Sam Stern's Cheese Scone Tea in his Student Cookbook.

Cheese Scone tea

Ingredients

225g/8oz plain white flour
4 level tsps baking powder
Good pinch salt
Pinch dry mustard and/or cayenne pepper
50g/20z finely grated Cheddar (I used half Red Leicester, half Canadian cheddar)
50g/2oz butter
1 large egg, beaten
4 tbsps cold water

Note: I've only copied the ingredients out because I believe that's all I'm allowed to do legally. The recipe isn't on Sam's website but you can find a similar one from All Recipes here: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/36349/rich-cheese-scones.aspx

 There is one online for Sam's sweet scones in a Yorkshire Cream Tea: http://www.samstern.co.uk/recipe/yorkshire-cream-tea/


And here's another one from BBC Food: https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/cheesescones_1287

The BBC Food one uses self raising flour rather than plain white flour and baking powder, which are in the Sam recipe.

Paul Hollywood also has a recipe for wholemeal cheese scones that uses plain flour and baking powder: https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/wholemeal_cheese_scones_12017


The recipe I made has Cheddar cheese in but I used half Red Leicester and half Canadian Cheddar. They came out quite nice. Here's a picture:

Foil got a bit burnt but never mind!

Beltane 2018

Last Tuesday was Beltane and since I like to celebrate the sabbats by making food and drink, I made guacamole and had it with toasted ciabatta bread and chicken salad for lunch. As I mentioned in my Celebrating Beltane/May Day post, the recipe is from Soraya's The Kitchen Witch book and I've made it for the past 3 years.

There's a ciabatta bread recipe in The Kitchen Witch but I bought some from Tesco instead, lol. The salad is a ready made one from Tesco as well. It all went nicely together. Here's a pic:

Celebrating Beltane/May Day

It's almost time for Beltane again! This year it's on a Tuesday (1st May), although some celebrate it on 30th April, so in that case it's tomorrow. :)  I believe that some people consider sabbats to last from sundown to sundown. So Beltane would start at sunset on 30th April and finish at sunset on 1st May. It's also called May Eve.

Note: If you're in the Northern Hemipshere it's time for Samhain! Check out my Samhain Celebration posts here:

http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/halloweensamhain-celebration-ideas.html

http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/more-halloweensamhain-celebration-ideas.html



Last year I did a post on Beltane celebration ideas which you can read here: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/beltane-celebration-ideas.html

This year here are more ideas for celebrating and I thought I'd also include some ideas for May Day, the modern counterpart which is still celebrated in  many places, including the UK. The first Monday in May in the spring Bank Holiday here; this year it's 7th May.

Spring Photos

Spring is finally here! Actually with the hot weather it feels more like early summer, lol. Winter seemed long this year, so I was pleased when we started getting better weather. Today I'm sharing some recent pictures I took in the park and at the beach. :)

Apple blossom (I think) trees in Hove Park

Easter 2018

This year for Easter I baked the frosted white chocolate Easter cake that I made last year, and a few years before that as well. It has white chocolate in the sponge and cream cheese icing. For more on the cake and the recipe visit this post: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/frosted-white-chocolate-easter-cake.html

Here is a picture of this year's cake: