Hallowe'en/Samhain 2023

Last Tuesday (31st October) it was Hallowe'en and Samhain. I celebrated by carving a pumpkin and having some food and drink. I baked gingerbread skeletons and made some potato salad based on a recipe from the book The Kitchen Witch by Soraya. It requires rosemary and garlic, but I used chives and spring onion instead of rosemary because I prefer them.

I also made my favourite Demon's Blood drink (ginger beer mixed with apple juice and orange juice), which is a recipe from Kate West's book The Real Witches' Kitchen. I had the potato salad and drink with some buffet type food from the supermarket.

Here's a picture of the pumpkin: 

 

Summer-Autumn Update (2023) + Happy Samhain/Hallowe'en!

It's now October, so time for my summer-autumn update! You can see my previous quarterly updates for this year at the links below: 

Winter-Spring (2023): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/04/winter-spring-update-2023-happy-beltane.html

Spring-Summer (2023):  https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/07/spring-summer-update-2023.html

 

I went shopping in Hove at the beginning of July and to Caffe Nero as well. I also went to Wendy's during July. We first got one in the Brighton area last year and I like the food but had only been a couple of times since it opened, most recently last autumn.

At the beginning of August I celebrated Lammas. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/08/lammas-2023.html

Later that month I went on a walk with my local mental health resource centre. We walked along the River Adur and went to Shoreham Beach. It was almost a year since I last went on a walk with them because the last one was a bit too long for me! But this was a mindful walk and I enjoyed it more. :) 

Here's a photo I took on the walk:

The River Adur and Shoreham view.

Madron 2023

Last weekend (Saturday 23rd September) it was Madron, also known as Mabon and the Autumn Equinox. My main celebration for this sabbat is baking and I usually make something ginger themed. This year I baked these frosted gingerbread muffins: https://simplytaralynn.com/2021/12/02/frosted-gingerbread-muffins-so-easy-to-make/

The recipe is from Simply Taralynn. I've previously made her pumpkin spice bars for Madron last year and her gingerbread cookie bars in January.

The muffins were quite nice. The recipe requires molasses but I used treacle, which I tend to use as a substitution because it's easier to get in the UK and is similar. Sometimes the treacle can be a bit strong but these were fine. I last made gingerbread muffins for Madron 2021 and those were kind of like ones I made in 2019, since both have banana in. I used applesace for those though, because I don't like banana!

These muffins don't have any banana in, so I didn't make any other substitutions apart from using mixed spice instead of allspice. They aren't the same but mixed spice seems to be more common over here, so I usually use it in ginger recipes. It already has nutmeg and cloves in it, so it's good if you don't have those individual spices (which I didn't). Mixed spice is similar to pumpkin spice though and I used it for the pumpkin spice bars I baked last year.

If you're looking for a substitute that is similar to allspice, here is a useful post: https://thekitchencommunity.org/substitute-for-allspice/

And if you want to make your own mixed spice, visit this post: https://fromthelarder.co.uk/mixed-spice/

The gingerbread muffin recipe has a frosting recipe made with powdered sugar (icing sugar), vanilla and milk but I decided to use my favourite cream cheese frosting from the James Martin white chocolate Easter cake I like to make. It goes well with ginger things. 

Here's a direct link to the cake and frosting recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/frosted-white-chocolate-easter-cake

So, although the muffins would taste a bit different to the original recipe, I still liked them. Here's a picture:  

 

TSL's 10th (Belated) Birthday + Fave Posts

At the end of July, The Seasonal Life celebrated its 10th birthday! I thought it was in August but then realised it was July, so that's why this post is late, lol. 

I wrote my first and second posts on 25th July 2013, an intro post and another one sharing my favourite things about summer. You can read them here:

 

https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/07/welcome-to-seasonal-life.html 

 

 https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/07/favourite-things-about-summer.html

 

TSL was the 3rd blog I started, the others being Star Sparkle Blog in April 2011 and Falling Petals in February 2013.  The other two are entertainment and spiritual/self-help blogs and I thought it would be good to have one about seasonal events and living.  

I started out writing about summer related things and posting recipes. In October and November 2013, I did my first post about a seasonal event (Hallowe'en drinks and then about my Hallowe'en). Then that December I did my first post about a sabbat (Yule).

As well as sharing recipes (seasonal and just ones I like), I started posting more about my sabbat celebrations. And later on, I did a series of posts sharing ideas for celebrating the sabbats. I really enjoyed that but decided to stop doing them earlier this year because I felt I had covered them all. They each have multiple posts and I didn't want to repeat myself.

I still post about my celebrations though and may do more inspiration posts in future if I feel inspired. :) I did share a few links with ideas for celebrating Beltane at the end of my winter-spring update post.

 

Lammas 2023

Last Tuesday (1st August) it was Lammas, my favourite sabbat apart from Samhain! Some people may celebrate on 31st July or 2nd August though. My main celebration for this festival is baking (usually gingerbread) and this year I made Cornish style pasties as well. (You're not supposed to call it a Cornish pasty unless you're from Cornwall!)

Although I made a pasty the first time I celebrated Lammas, I don't make them that often. The last time was in 2020. The recipe is from Kate West's book The Real Witches' Kitchen. I can't post it online but I did link to a couple of similar recipes in my first Lammas post on the blog: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/08/lammas.html

I used Jus Roll pastry which makes it a bit easier, lol. The pasties (I made one for myself and one for my mum) ended up being a bit hard and the carrots could have been cooked more, but apart from that they were ok, lol. Here's a picture of one of them: 

Spring-Summer Update (2023)

We're already more than halfway through the year, so it's time for my spring-summer update! You can see my first update of the year (winter-spring) here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/04/winter-spring-update-2023-happy-beltane.html

Easter Sunday was 8th April this year. I baked the frosted white Easter chocolate cake (James Martin recipe) that I've made quite a few times. I also had a meal at home and got a couple of chocolate eggs, lol. 

At the beginning of May I celebrated Beltane. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/05/beltane-2023.html

In mid-June I went to Nando's for a (very) belated birthday meal! (I wasn't able to go around my birthday in March due to various circumstances.) I had my usual chicken butterfly (plain-ish) and chips (fries). I had peri-salted chips for a change. Also some garlic bread. I normally have coleslaw but they didn't have any. And I had strawberry frozen yoghurt for pudding (dessert).

The food was nice. Here's a picture: 

Litha 2023

The Wednesday before last was Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice. I celebrated by making a tomato and onion salad and lemonade (my main celebrations for sabbats are making food and drink). 

The salad recipe is from Soraya's book The Kitchen Witch, although I used both red and white onion for a change. I was going to have some avocado as well to make it similar to the kachumbari (Kenyan tomato and onion salad) that I sometimes make for Beltane), but there wasn't any at the supermarket.

I had the salad for my lunch with ciabatta bread, chicken, cheese and pickle, gherkins, Doritos and dip. The lemonade is "Hello Kitty lemonade (the recipe is from a Hello Kitty book).

The food was quite nice. Here's a picture: