Yule 2014

Yesterday I celebrated Yule by making a chocolate Yule log. It's celebrated around 21st December; I thought it was the 21st this year because that was the date on my personal and family calendars but some people celebrated it today. It doesn't really matter though if you celebrate actually on the day or around it. :)

A Yule log is traditional and while the last few years I've bought one from Sainsbury's, this time I decided to make my own. I used a recipe from last year's Co-op magazine. You can see the Sainsbury's one in last year's post: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/12/yule.html

It's quite tricky making a Yule log, (although I have done something similar last year when I made the Christmas vanilla roll cake for Christmas) rolling it up and that. I lost quite a bit of cake and ended up with too much buttercream but it tasted nice anyway! I think next year I might buy one though, lol.

Here's a picture of the Yule log before I put the buttercream on:

And with the buttercream:

Bonfire Night

Last Wednesday it was Bonfire Night and I went to a fireworks display on Lancing Beach Green. Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Night) is a mostly British event  (it is also celebrated in some other countries) where we have fireworks and bonfires. It takes place on or around 5th November. Other countries have similar Bonfire Night celebrations but in the UK ours is known as Guy Fawkes because it originated from Guy Fawkes being stopped from blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November 1605. It was known as the Gunpowder Plot and came about because a group of Catholics were unhappy about the persecution of them by the Protestant king of England James I and planned to assassinate him. The plot was foiled when Guy Fawkes was caught and killed.

In the past people would burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire and kids would go round asking for a "Penny for the Guy". Nowadays Bonfire Night tends to be about having or attending firework displays and celebrating with friends and family but in some places it's still more political, such as the celebrations in Lewes. They have a big event and it would be fun to see but it can be difficult to attend because it's so busy, they shut the roads off for the processions and there are no parking facilities. I always thought they seem to be trying to put you off going and this year they asked non Lewes residents not to attend. I think that is unfair but I see what they mean about the town not being able to handle large crowds. 

 
For more info on Bonfire Night visit this link: http://www.bonfirenight.net/index.php

The Lancing event was good. It's usually on a Wednesday and this year it was on Bonfire Night itself. There was a fair there and they provided the fireworks. Here are a few pictures I took:

Hallowe'en/Samhain 2014

Last Friday was Hallowe'en, which is one of my favourite festivals. 31st October is also the Wiccan/Pagan sabbat Samhain and Hallowe'en originated from that.

Samhain (pronunciations include "Sow-in" or "Sow-ain") is the witches' New Year and is the most important of the Major Sabbats. It is the last of the harvest festivals. There are 3 altogether, the others are Lammas and Madron. Samhain means "Summer's End" and it marks the proper onset of winter. While the days have been getting steadily shorter since Madron/the Autumn Equinox in September, we're now really entering into the darkest half of the year. The days will continue to get shorter and the nights longer until Yule (Midwinter/the Winter Solstice) in December. The Sun God "dies" during this time of year but will be reborn at Yule. Samhain is also the time when the veil between this world and the next are at their thinnest (similar to Beltane) and the dead are thought to come back to visit their loved ones.

31st October is New Year's Eve and 1st November is New Year's Day, so the festival is often celebrated on both days. The old traditions have evolved into modern day Hallowe'en. The practice of lighting a pumpkin is thought to have originated from the pagan ritual of lighting a candle to honour and welcome your ancestors, and keep unwanted spirits away.

The colours of Samhain are dark red, purple, black, green and orange. Popular activities include divination and honouring your ancestors by lighting a white candle and setting a place for them at the table. Hallowe'en is very commercial nowadays (more so than when I was child in the 90s even), which is good because it means there are lots of things available in the shops and ideas of things to do. If you are a Wiccan or a pagan (or interested in both those beliefs), you can combine Wiccan/pagan and mainstream traditions but of course you don't have to be one to enjoy Hallowe'en because it's celebrated by lots of different people. :) Trick or treating is a popular activity that many non pagans take part in and people often have parties. I never went trick or treating when I was young because my mum didn't believe in it. (She didn't agree with the idea of knocking on strangers' doors!). If I have children in the future I would like to take them trick or treating.

This year I had some food (buffet type stuff) and drink to celebrate. I like to make a drink called Demon's Blood (I got the recipe from the book The Real Witches' Kitchen by Kate West). You can read more about Demon's Blood in this post: Hallowe'en drinks.

Last year I wasn't able to use green food colouring, so I used red instead. Visit last year's Hallowe'en post to see what it looked like: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/11/halloweensamhain.html

I bought some new green food colouring in plenty of time this year. I think it looks much better green, lol. Here's a picture of it along with the pumpkin giant cupcake I bought from Asda:

Energy Bites

The other week I wanted to make a healthier snack and I had a couple of No-Bake Energy Bites recipes pinned on Pintrest recipes board, so I looked at them. I didn't have some of the ingredients they needed in the house at the time though, so I had a look for some similar recipes and found one that only needed 4 ingredients (peanut butter, oatmeal, vanilla and honey). I added some golden syrup because I don't like honey that much and I couldn't use vanilla extract because mine had gone mouldy! lol. So I used peanut butter, oatmeal, honey and golden syrup.

 Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2014/04/peanut-butter-and-oatmeal-energy-bites.html?m=1

They came out quite nice. I don't have a food processor so I just mixed them by hand. I'd like to make them again in the future with the vanilla this time! lol.

 I would recommend energy bites as a good snack because they don't take long to make and are healthier than other things. These are good in particular because they don't require hard to find ingredients. I'm planning to try more recipes in the future. :)

Madron

It was Madron last Tuesday (23rd September) and I celebrated by making a gingerbread cake. Madron (also known as Mabon) is the Autumn Equinox and one of the Wiccan/pagan sabbats.

The date of Madron varies but it's celebrated around 21st September. Like Oestara/the Spring Equinox, at this time of year day and night are of equal length. Since Litha (Midsummer/the Summer Solstice) the days have been getting gradually shorter and the nights longer (although not as noticeably as in autumn and winter). At this point they are equal and from now on the days continue to get shorter and the nights longer until Yule (Midwinter/the Winter Solstice) in December. (In the southern hemisphere this is all reversed, so they have their Spring Equinox around this time). From this point on the difference will be more noticeable. My favourite time of year is summer and I also like autumn, but I don't enjoy it when it gets dark at 4pm in the winter! lol.

Like Lammas, Madron is a harvest festival. It's a time of balance, healing and letting go, a time to look back on what has gone before, forgive yourself for any mistakes you might have made and think about your future plans. Other themes are justice and releasing prisoners.

The past couple of years I've celebrated by making gingerbread (like I do for Lammas) but this year I wanted to do something slightly different, so I made a gingerbread cake. I found the recipe on Pinterest. The original recipe has a Creamy Gingerbread Frosting but since I wasn't sure if we had some of the ingredients for it in the UK (like vanilla instant pudding mix and frozen whipped topping), I decided to use Betty Crocker cream cheese icing instead.

Chocolate Drinks

Last month I made a couple of chocolate drinks using recipes from Sam Stern's Student Cookbook. I made a chocolate milkshake and hot chocolate. I thought now was a good time to post about them both, since the weather has still been warm but it's getting colder at night, so you might feel like both kinds of drinks. :)

I made the chocolate milkshake first but I was disappointed with it, so I decided to make the hot chocolate a few days later, lol. I'll still include both on here though.


First here is the chocolate milkshake:

Chocolate Milk Shake (Power Drink for 1)


Ingredients

A few chunks good dark chocolate
250ml/9fl oz cold milk
2 scoops best chocolate ice cream or 1 choc and 1 vanilla


I don't have the recipe to link to but here's a similar recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143456/chocolate-chocolate-milkshake/ (Updated link as of Sept '25)

And another one with melted chocolate in: https://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/09/askinosie-chocolate-malt-milkshake.html

The problem with this was that because you're just putting hot melted chocolate straight into milk, it goes hard straight away. So I ended up with hard bits of chocolate instead of it blending in properly! (That's a bit of chocolate on the top in the picture). I don't know if I was doing it wrong or what, lol. (My mum didn't know how to stop it doing that either). Maybe it works better if you have an actual blender but I don't, so I just mixed it in a bowl. Maybe it was because I didn't mix it in quick enough by hand? Never mind! You also can do this with drinking chocolate and I expect that works much better.

I used Tesco Plain Chocolate and I think both chocolate and vanilla ice cream.



And here's the hot chocolate:

Hot Chocolate Treat for 2


Ingredients

110g/4oz 70% cocoa solids chocolate
425ml/15fl oz any milk


This recipe isn't online here but here's a link to a similar one that involves melting chocolate: https://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/308/Hot-Chocolate


The hot chocolate came out a lot better because it was melted chocolate going into hot milk. I used some chocolate I had left.


Hope you enjoy them if you make them and that if you make the milkshake it comes out better for you! :)

Beach Pics

I went to the beach the other day and took some pictures as part of the Facets of Joy I Believe in Magic Summer Sampler. I thought I'd share a couple here. :) They were taken at Lancing Beach.