So it's the day before Samhain eve and I'll bet all my witchy and Celtic Pagan friends are as busy as I've been getting everything ready for our big celebration.
My agenda today included grocery shopping (recipes to come below), candle-making, finishing protection pouches, cleaning, decorating, etc...
When I say candle making, what we do here is save our candle wax all year long (from rituals, spellwork where appropriate, etc..) and then melt it down along with some new wax for special Samhain candles... a blending of the work of the year gone by (harvest) and a blessing of the new.
I'm also almost finished with protection pouches for each person in the family. I make the outer pouch, then on Samhain, each person takes a pouch and personalizes it with decorations for the outside, and then they each get to choose from a selection of herbs, oils, feathers, stones, etc... we'll then bless them as part of our ritual tomorrow evening. These will be ours for the coming year.
Want to know what's for dinner? Here's our menu:
Mom's Pumpkin soup (my own concotion made IN the pumpkin)
Colcannon (we do ours a bit differently by adding corned beef to it)
Bairin Brack (barnbrack) - an Irish tea bread (I have the dried fruits soaking in tea now)
Dinner rolls with honey butter
Mead, Apple Cider, Coffee for drinks
For dessert, I'll be making apple dumplings
For those interested in a couple of recipes, here they are:
Sorry, my pumpkin soup is a family recipe and I promised my kids I wouldn't publish it.. believe me, many have tried to coax it out of me, but my word is my bond :)
Bairin Brack:
Bairin brack is essentially a yeasted bread (bairin is another name for fermented yeast). Recipes that call for self-rising flour will be quicker, but not at all better.
Bairinbrack is usually baked in a round cake tin. I use a bundt pan, but the recipe works just as well with a rectangular loaf tin. The quantities given here will make one large loaf.
Ingredients
• 2 tea bags, or 3 tsp. loose tea (a strong black blend or 3 tea bags,Earl Grey)
• 3½ cups (12 oz) mixed dried fruit I use cherries, pineapple, currants, and candied orange peel)
• 1 cup (8 fl oz) milk
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. dried active yeast (not instant yeast)
• 4 cups strong bread flour (I usually use white flour but you can also use a mixture of white and wheat meal)
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 tsp. mixed spice*
Method
Oven: Pre-heat to 350F.
Start by making two cups of strong tea. Remove the tea bags, or strain the tea to remove the leaves. Soak the dried fruit in the tea. Ideally, the fruit should soak for several hours or even overnight.
Warm the milk until it is hand-hot. Stir in the teaspoon of sugar and the yeast, and leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes or until it becomes frothy.
Mix the flour, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl. Rub in the butter. Add the frothy yeast, the beaten egg and the spice. Drain any remaining liquid from the fruit, then add the fruit to the mixture. Mix well to make a smooth dough (add extra flour if the mixture is too wet).
(See tradition before going forward)
Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead it thoroughly. Place it in your oiled baking pan, cover with a cloth, and leave in a warm place to rise for 45 - 60 minutes; the dough should have doubled in size.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan, turn it upside down and put it back in the pan or directly on the oven shelf. Bake for another 20 minutes or so. The loaf will be ready when it sounds hollow when you tap on each of the sides. Cool the loaf on a wire rack before serving.
It is traditional to insert various items (wrapped in parchment or wax paper) into the bairimbrack for the purposes of divination. These include a ring, a thimble, a button, a silver coin, or a stick of wood. The slice of the cake you are given foretells your future. A ring meant marriage, the thimble spinsterhood, the button bachelorhood; the coin indicated wealth, while finding the stick meant you will travel far in your life. Now, you can create your own items and meanings and personalize this for your family as well.
*mixed spice is something that's easily found on the shelves in Britain and Ireland. Here in the U.S., you can mix up a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, coriander and any other spices that suit your fancy ;)
Colcannon
The following colcannon recipe is what I've used and modified (just add 2lbs of corned beef to the recipe before baking)
Ingredients:
2-2 1/2 lbs of floury potatoes
1 small head of green cabbage
1 cup milk
2 or more tablespoons chopped green onions
1/2 stick butter
Salt and pepper to taste Method:
1. Scrub potatoes and leave skins on. Place in cold water with a generous pinch of salt, cover and bring to a boil.
2. When the potatoes are about half done, (about 15 minutes), strain off two thirds of the water. Replace lid and place on a gentle heat and allow potatoes to steam until they are cooked.
3. Discard the dark outer leaves of the cabbage. Wash the rest and cut into quarters; remove the core and cut finely across the grain. Cook in a little boiling salted water until soft. Drain, then season with salt and pepper and a little of the butter.
4. When the potatoes are cooked, put the milk into saucepan with the green onions and bring to the boil. Pull the skins off the potatoes, mash quickly and beat in enough of the hot milk to make a fluffy purée.
5. Stir in the cooked cabbage and taste for seasoning.
6. Serve in a heated dish; make a well in the center and add the remaining butter.
Note:
Today, many an Irish mother persuades her children to eat their colcannon by wrapping coins in heat-proof paper and hiding them in the dish; in the old days, the rural folk often placed a wedding ring in the colcannon; the first single person to get the ring would marry within the year. It was also customary, before going to bed on Halloween, to put out a plateful of colcannon with a lump of butter in the center for the Gentry and the spirits.
