Imbolg 2016

Imbolg was last Tuesday (2nd February) and like other years I celebrated by making pancakes (an idea in The Real Witches' Kitchen book). This year I made English pancakes. They came out really nice this year, other times I'm disappointed with them! lol.

I put sugar and lemon on the pancakes and had them with Tesco Cloudy Lemonade. Here's a picture:

White Chocolate Fudge

As I mentioned in my Yule 2015 post, this year I made white chocolate fudge for Christmas. In 2014 I made both a chocolate Yule log for Yule and a Red Velvet Buche de Noel (another type of Yule log) for Christmas but this year (or last year now, lol) I wanted to make something different, so decided on the fudge.

I'd had the recipe on my Pinterest Recipes To Make board for ages, so it was good to have an excuse to make it! lol. The recipe is from this site: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/white-chocolate-fudge

I made it without the pecans because I wasn't that keen on having them in it. It was quite nice, bit of a different texture to the average fudge but nice once you get used to it. The only downside was that it didn't seem to last that long. I made it on Christmas Eve and it tasted good on Christmas Day but when I had some more on Boxing Day (day after Christmas) it seemed to have gone off slightly. I kept it in the fridge because it's got cream cheese in it and that can go off quite quickly. It was covered in foil but maybe it wasn't covered enough. Anyway, it's worth making for a change. :)

Here's a picture.

Yule 2015

Last Tuesday was Yule (22nd December this year) and I had a chocolate Yule log again. In previous years I've bought one from Sainsbury's. Last year I decided to make my own. It was fun but this year I decided to buy one again, lol. Since some years the Sainsbury's log has been nicer than others, I tried Tesco's Belgian chocolate log this time. I liked it but the cake was a bit dry. Here's a picture:

                              

Hallowe'en/Samhain 2015

For Hallowe'en/Samhain last weekend (Saturday 31st October) I made my usual fave drink Demon's Blood. I also made some potato salad using a recipe from the book The Kitchen Witch by Soraya. The recipe was for rosemary and garlic but rosemary has a strong taste, so I decided to make chives and garlic instead. It came out nice. I had it with some buffet type food, crisps and dip, onion rings and chicken satays etc.

In my Madron post I wrote that I wasn't sure whether to make gingerbread or not. In the end I made gingerbread skeletons using a recipe from Closer magazine. You just make gingerbread men and then use icing to draw on them. I didn't have writing icing so mine weren't as neat, lol. I made 3 gingerbread skeletons and 4 round gingerbread biscuits. They were quite nice as well. I usually use the recipe from the Tesco Light Brown Soft Sugar packet when I make gingerbread for Madron or Lammas  but it made a change to use a different recipe.

Here are a couple of pictures of the food:

Potato salad

Madron 2015

Sorry I'm late posting this; I had computer problems and had to get a new computer. :)

For Madron/the Autumn Equinox on 23rd September I made a gingerbread cake. It was similar to the one I made last year which you can see here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/09/madron.html

I got the recipe from the website Will Cook For Smiles: https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/11/gingerbread-cake.html

The topping was cream cheese, whipped topping like Cool Whip, mild molasses (treacle) and brown sugar but I don't think we have Cool Whip here and I couldn't seem to find a good equivalent, so I used Betty Crocker's cream cheese icing again, like I did for last year's cake. It's easier as well! lol. I have made a cream cheese frosting before when I made James Martin's Frosted white chocolate cake for Easter 2013. The frosting was made with Philadelphia cream cheese, butter and icing sugar. It was quite nice once you got used to it, I think it was quite a strong taste. Here's the recipe if you want to check it out: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/frosted-white-chocolate-easter-cake *


Anyway here are a couple of pictures of my gingerbread cake:

As the icing was being spread on.

Beach Photos

Last Friday I went to Worthing Beach. We've had a lot of rain here lately but it was sunny for a bit that day and since I've hardly been to the beach this summer and summer is almost over, I decided to go. I took some pictures and thought it would be nice to share a few here. :)

Hope you like the pics and that you had a good summer. :)

Lammas 2015

Last weekend it was Lammas (Saturday 1st August). Last year I made a Cornish pasty for lunch and gingerbread later. This year I just decided to go with the gingerbread. Maybe I'll make a Cornish pasty  again next year or a loaf (a traditional way of celebrating). To see last year's Cornish pasty (or Cornish style pasty technically!) and gingerbread click on the Lammas link. :)

Here is a picture of the gingerbread. I put icing and sprinkles on the top and the icing got a bit messy around the edges! lol. I made traditional gingerbread men and also two round circles with what was left of the dough. It was too dry and kept crumbling, so I lost some of it but never mind!

 Hope that everyone had a good Lammas and that you're enjoying the rest of summer. :)