Candlemas/ Imbolc recipes

Homemade Fresh Ricotta Cheese

·          2 cups whole milk

·          1/4 teaspoon table salt

·          2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar or lemon juice

      1.    Line colander with four layers of cheesecloth or 2 layers of food-safe paper towels and set over large bowl. Combine milk, salt, and vinegar or lemon juice in microwave-safe glass 1-quart liquid measure. Microwave on high heat until lightly bubbling around edges, 2 to 4 minutes (milk should register about 165°F on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from microwave, and stir gently for 5 seconds. Milk should separate into solid white curds and translucent liquid whey. If not, microwave for 30 seconds longer. Repeat until fully separated.

2.     2.    Using slotted spoon or wire skimmer, transfer curds to prepared colander, cover exposed top with plastic wrap, and allow to drain until desired texture is reached. Store in covered container in refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Baked Ricotta on Flatbread
recipe here

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
one recipe here

Individual Pot Pies
crust recipe here - filling is just homemade gravy and veggies


Sprouted Crunchy Mix and Salad -didn't manage to photograph it :(
sprouts from here

Chocolate Volcano Cakes (in flowerpots!)
recipe here

Candlemas/Imbolc

crepes for breakfast

...filled with sunny apricot jam

acorns stirring

The sweet potato is stirring, too!

first crocuses

new lambs!

sweet mama and baby

anticipating daffodils

making cheese from our fresh raw milk

an oven full of dinner

sparkling grape juice...cheers!

at Imbolc we always burn our yule tree and greenery

looking forward to the coming warmth

Anticipating Imbolc...

This year our celebrations seem to be  much more focused on what is happening on the land around us at this festival time...and less about the feast of Brigid and the tradition of candle dipping. Some years festivals just seem to have a life of their own! I've learned that its best to go with it :)

What we've been experiencing outdoors is a lot of cold, gray, wet, mossy days intermingled with a happy handful of frosty, sugary, snowy, white days all winter long. But lately we've been sensing something different in the air....we can tell that the land is waking...we call it the "stirring of the seeds" (a perfect phrase gleaned years ago from this book). This, to me, is the essence of Imbolc/Candlemas season.

Anxious to see signs of this "stirring" that we knew must be going on under our very feet, we engineered some visible signs of our own:

planting bean, corn & melon seeds in a bag 

taping it to a sunny window

We learned this trick here

starting some seeds for the garden

broccoli seeds...the tiniest seed babies ever!

sweet potato

"Bottle Acorns"- learned from these great chapter books

Now we watch and wait....

Root children!

 

Do you know this lovely story?

The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers. It is a tale about Mother Nature waking the little root children under the ground at this very time of year, Candlemastime, and setting them to prepare for spring. Each brown and earthy root child gets to work fashioning a colorful frock to wear, brushing the bees, polishing the beetles, and giving the ladybugs a fresh coat of paint. By the time all the work is done it is time for the root children to spring up from under the ground and parade across the land in their fresh new clothes, each representing some type of flora. The story goes on to follow the children through the seasons...all the way back to dormancy again. It is a sweet and powerful story for this season between Winter and Spring and depicts exactly what it is that my family celebrates at Candlemas...that is, the stirring of life . 

We have little collection of root children dolls in progress right now. (Our former set was eaten up by moths..I've since learned to wrap my wool treasures up and store them in the chest freezer!). 

  

We will make a couple more root children over the next few days. As the weeks progress we will add a colorful garment to each doll transforming each into a blossom of some sort. It is great fun and one of my favorite nature table tableaux of the year. Perhaps I will attempt a tutorial tomorrow?

Candlemas II