Happy Samhain!

Happy Samhain, or Happy Beltane! Whatever you're celebrating today, may it be full of love and blessings.

Happy (almost) Halloween!

The photo quality is a bit shit, but this is more or less what my face looks like:









This was my inspiration. It's a work by Angelique Houtkamp, a Dutch artist and tattoo artist.

Lugosi's Revenge - Homemade Blackberry Cordial

This post comes from my friend, Miriam, a fellow West Virginian and Mountaineer. She's a fantastically creative, intelligent, beautiful mother, daughter, and domestic goddess.


We had an abundant berry harvest this summer which I took full advantage of, freezing about fifteen pounds of black raspberries and about fifty of blackberries. So, after we'd made multiple cobblers and a few batches of jam I started pondering what else I could do with this abundance of frozen fruit. Doing something involving booze just seemed to be the natural course to take!

This a recipe of my own that I partly invented and partly snagged from other sources aka random stuff on the internet. My first batch was primarily a learning experience and this is the result. This can also be done with store-bought berries and no-one will judge you for it.

I call it Lugosi's Revenge in honour of my favourite old horror star. :)

You will need:

Ingredients:
1 750-ml bottle of decent quality unflavoured vodka
1 pint of mid-grade brandy
5-6 cups of fresh or frozen blackberries (you can replace part or all of that with black raspberries)
Two cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4'' strip of lemon zest about an inch long

Equipment:
Large glass bowl
Medium saucepan
A glass jar or bottle large enough to hold about three quarts with a tight-fitting lid
Two wire mesh strainers, one coarse, one fine
A couple yards of multilayer cheesecloth
Funnel
Bottles to hold the finished product (I keep the empty vodka and brandy bottles for putting the cordial in)

Put the berries in a large microwave-safe bowl and add about a cup of the sugar. Heat the berries in microwave until steaming, stirring in the berries and crushing them to release the juice. (This can also be done in a saucepan as long as you're careful not to let the berries burn at all.) Strain the resulting pulpy mess and pour the syrupy juice into a medium sauce pan. Be sure to squeeze as much juice as possible from the seedy pulp that will be left behind as every bit of it will intensify the flavour of your cordial.

Put the pot of juice on very low heat, gently bring it to the lowest simmer and stir occasionally for an hour and half or however long it takes to reduce the sweetened juice to a syrup. It will black, thick, very sweet and intensely flavoured. Let it cool in the pot (it will congeal and become fairly jelly-like; good luck resisting the urge to taste it less than three times and daydream about ladling it over ice cream).

Add the vodka and brandy, stirring it about in the pot to collect all the berry flavour. Pour it all into the large jar or bottle and add the vanilla and lemon zest. Close or cover tightly and put it away in a dark, cool spot for anywhere from two to four weeks. About once a week or so swirl the contents of the bottle and put it back.

After two to four weeks you can start the straining process. You can strain the cordial as much or as little as you like. (I prefer it clearer and more filtered, my boyfriend prefers it more murky and less filtered; it's all a matter of individual taste.)

I like to pour it through the fine mesh strainer (and you will have to stop and rinse your strainer from time to time as it clogs with residual berry pulp) at least twice before starting with the cheesecloth. I've found that starting with one layer of cheesecloth and then increasing it each time you pour the cordial through results in a nice clarity. This will consume a fair bit of cheesecloth as it also will get clogged fairly quickly. However, by the time you're done, you'll have a glorious little beverage to sip on cold winter nights.

Also, it's great when added to Sprite, ginger ale, or champagne for a sweet fizzy drink with a nice berry kick to it.

Guest Post by Sachiel: Mead

Mead is one of the oldest fermented beverages produced by man. It was made by ancient peoples all over the world, from South America, to Asia, Africa, and Europe. Mead is a fermented mixture of honey, water, and yeast. It can be that simple, or it can be complex. Mead can be super sweet, it can be dry, it can be flavored with berries, or fruit, or spices, flowers, or even herbs. The variety of meads are only limited by imagination.

Why is mead so prevalent in ancient times? Easy. Honey is antibacterial, antiseptic, and antifungal. Mother Nature's selection process has evolved particular yeasts that can survive and thrive in honey/water solutions. Finding and using these yeasts to turn honey into an alcoholic drink was easier than turning fruits, grapes, or grains into drinks. And the yield is much more likely to produce a quality beverage.

Modern mead making is assisted by our knowledge of sanitation practices and their importance in killing all unwanted bacteria and yeasts. Assuring that all surfaces and instruments that will touch the honey water solution are sterilized will assure that the mead turns out just as expected.

My first experience with mead was at a Beltane fest in 2011. It was wonderful, and delicious, and amazing. I had never tasted anything like it ever in my life. It was sweet, very sweet, with the smell and taste of the flowers of the high New Mexico desert. I sipped on my glass for an hour or more. I wanted the taste to last. It was the last bottle of that batch of mead, never to be duplicated again.

I have done a bit of research into mead and it's making, and all the wonderful flavors and varieties available or even possible. I did six months of looking into mead, trying out local made meads, finding what kinds of mead I like and what kinds I don't like. And at the beginning of October 2011, I finally felt confident enough in my knowledge to start my own batch of mead.

I decided to try a version of that first mead I ever had. I did not want to duplicate it, because that would not be possible. I would start out simple. I bought a 5 gallon glass carboy, a vapor lock, and a stopper and the yeast from my local wine making supply store in September. The honey I found was full of Rocky Mountain wildflower goodness – the best honey I have tasted. The water comes from my own well. The yeast was “Sweet Mead” from Vintner's Choice.

Ingredients: 20 pounds of honey
1 pack of Sweet Mead yeast by Vintner's Choice
2 organic vanilla beans, whole
water to fill

I started by sanitizing the carboy, funnel, spoon, deep enameled pot, the stopper, the vapor lock, and a one gallon plastic bottle. I used EZ Clense, and rinsed everything thoroughly.
I placed the honey in the sink, and filled it to ¾ of the way up the honey bottles with hot water. This makes the honey flow freely.

I then decided to start the yeast activation, as the directions on the pack say it will take 15 minutes.

Then in the deep enameled pot, I heated 1 gallon of water, and added all the heated honey. I let this heat up for a while longer ( I did not measure the temperature), but I did not let it boil.

As I stirred the honey and water, I spooned off the foam that rose to the surface and deposited it into a cup. The sink was too far to not make a mess. After about ten minutes of heating and stirring, I took the pot with the honey water and placed it in a sink full of cold water. This helps bring the temperature down rapidly, and makes it safer to pour the honey through the funnel and into the glass carboy.

If you get splashed by hot sticky honey syrup, it will stick and the burn produced will be more intense than if it were hot water alone.

After I poured all the honey water solution into the carboy, I added the yeast, and gave it a sloshing, and then filled with water to a few inches below where the neck starts – allowing for foam formation.

Then I added two organic vanilla beans, whole pods, no scraping, into the solution, capped with the stopper, and then inserted the vapor lock filled with rum.

I moved the carboy and contents to a closet where the sun will never enter, and once a week I stir up the solution slowly.

I do not remove the air lock, and I do not want to force the rum out of the air lock. When I am done with the stir, I add a tiny bit more rum to make sure the air lock does not go dry.

I stirred it for the second time yesterday, and am very pleased with the color progression. It has gone from the dark color that the honey originally was to a nice golden opaque color that will continue to lighted and clear over time. By Yule, I should be bottling the 5 gallons and beginning the long 2 year aging process. It will be ready for the harvest fests in 2014.

In the mean time, I will occupy myself by starting another mead – maybe 15 pounds of honey, with 5 cloves, two orange rinds, and a stick of cinnamon, to be ready for Yule, 2014. And maybe a mead with raspberries and raisins....

Moroccan-Spiced Honey Roast Chicken

This was one of the courses served at my Walking Dead premiere party last week, and it was a big hit. I wish I'd had a chance to snap a picture of the chicken. You get crispy skin, plus a deep golden color from the honey. The Ras-El-Hanout also lends a warm sweetness to this recipe.

Moroccan-Spiced Honey Roast Chicken

1 3 ½ -lb chicken, giblets removed, washed and patted dry
3-4 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
1-2 tablespoons Ras el Hanout (recipe given in an earlier post)
1 lemon
4 tablepoons honey, heated
1 cup water
Salt and pepper

Combine 2 tablespoons of the oil and butter with the Ras El hanout . Loosen the skin of the chicken and put this paste between the meat and the skin. Cut the lemon in half and place it in the cavity. Rub the other 1-2 tablespoons of oil or butter onto the skin of the chicken and season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 450 F. Place the chicken on the rack of a roasting pan, breast-side down. Pour the water in the bottom of the roasting pan. Roast the chicken at 450 F for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 400 F and continue roastingfor another 35-45 minutes. Flip the chicken and brush with the honey. Return to the oven and roast another 10-15 minutes.

When the chicken is done, the juices should run clear and a meat thermometer placed in the thickest part of the thigh should read 180 F. Discard the lemon. Let the chicken rest 10 minutes before carving.

The Mute Supper

Picture courtesy of www.shelterness.com


Hosting a mute supper for Samhain is practiced by some Pagans and Wiccans of various traditions. I think it’s a lovely tradition and would like to have a group with which to hold one. My plan would go as such:

Set the table with a black cloth, black plates, and black utensils. Place a white candle at the head of the table. Place black votive candles at the place(s) of the ancestors. Your guests may wish to place candles for those they are honoring. The chairs should be shrouded. You could use anything from fake cobwebs to a black trash bag. Use whatever you have on hand. If you have some black sheets, those would work nicely.

Before the guests arrive, the host or hostess should cast a circle, light the white candle, and invite the divine (however you see it) into the space. After this point, no talking is permitted.

Standing at the head of the table, the host/ess should light the first black votive candle to the left from the spirit candle. The guests should light each other’s candles in a clockwise motion.

The host/ess should serve the plates of the dead first, and then the guests from oldest to youngest. Since no one may speak during the supper, food may then continue to be passed family-style around the table. Before guests begin to eat, they should join hands and silently welcome their ancestors to the meal, and to ask for blessings upon the food and the ritual, if desired.

After the meal is over, guests should leave the table silently. They may take their ancestor candles with them, or leave them on the table. The host/ess should then silently close the circle in his/her usual manner. Leave the spirit candle to burn.
Everyone may then go on to practice divination, or hold a separate ritual.

Mute Supper Menu
Persephone’s Salad
Butternut squash cannelloni
Rosemary remembrance cookies
Chai-spiced Cider

Persephone’s Salad
8 cups mixed salad greens (whatever is in season and looks good)
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
½ red onion, thinly sliced
2/3 cup candied walnut pieces (recipe follows)
Seeds of 1 pomegranate (about ½ cup)

For the dressing, combine:
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup olive oil
Mix first three ingredients together. Whisk in olive oil slowly. Season with salt and pepper.
Toss the dressing with the greens, onion, apple, and nuts. Toss well to combine. Top salad with pomegranate seeds and serve.

Candied Walnuts
2 cups walnut halves or pieces
2 egg whites
½ cup brown sugar

In a bowl, lightly whisk the egg whites. Toss the walnuts to coat. Sprinkle on the brown sugar. Mix well with your hands until the nuts are all evenly coated. Spread the nuts onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a 300-degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.


Butternut Squash Cannelloni**

1 butternut squash, roasted, scooped out and mashed (instructions follow)
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
3 small shallots, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Salt, white pepper
12 lasagna noodles, cooked until almost al dente (flexible)

5 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups whole milk
Salt, white pepper
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the shallots on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, and sage and cook 2-3 more minutes.
Scoop out the halves of butternut squash and mash in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the shallots, garlic, sage, thyme, and ricotta cheese. Season with salt and white pepper.
Take one of the drained noodles and lay flat on an oiled baking sheet. Spread some of the butternut squash filling on the noodle, leaving some space at both ends. Roll the pasta and place seam side down into an oiled 9 x 13 dish. Repeat.
In a saucepan, melt the butter for the béchamel. When the butter is melted, stir in the flour. Cook 4-5 minutes. Whisk in the milk. Simmer the sauce until thickened, 8-10 minutes. Season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg.
Pour the béchamel over the rolled pasta. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes, until sauce is bubbly and cheese is brown.

To roast a butternut squash, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Heat the oven to 400 F. Brush a tablespoon of oil over each half. Roast, flesh side down, until tender, 40-45 minutes. Cool, scoop out the flesh, and transfer to mixing bowl. You can mash the squash with a potato masher or a fork.

Rosemary Remembrance Cookies
1 ½ cups softened butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vaniila
5 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vaniila. Mix in the rosemary. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill the dough for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface ¼ inch thick. Cut into shapes with seasonal cookie cutters, or use gingerbread men and women-shaped cutters so the cookies resemble people. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Chai-Spiced Apple Cider
This warming libation is full of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. This makes a good love blend and is a perfect match when combined with a food of love – the apple.
1 gallon apple cider
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup brown sugar
In a cheese cloth or piece of muslin, combine:
7 cardamom pods, lightly crushed (or you can use ½ teaspoon ground cardamom)*
1-2 star anise
4-5 peppercorns
9 whole cloves
2-3 cinnamon sticks (or use 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon)


Pour the cider into a large pot and begin heating on medium heat. Dissolve the ground ginger and sugar into the cider. Tie the other ingredients in a piece of muslin or cheese cloth. Tie closed, whack lightly with a rolling pin to crack some of the pods, and pop into the pot. Simmer the cider and spices together for 10-15 minutes. Remove the bundle of spices with a slotted spoon and discard. Serve hot.
• If you’re using ground spices instead of whole, simply add them when you add the sugar and ground ginger.


All recipes are from the autumn cookbook I am currently working on. They may not be reproduced without permission. All that copyright hoopla that's over here ---> applies.

** You can just layer the lasagna noodles and make butternut squash lasagna if you don't feel like rolling up each noodle. They're slippery with oil and usually pretty hot!