Thursday, May 1, 2008

Happy May Day!

Bruce,

I think it's definitely a good idea for us to start celebrating all the festivals on the Wheel of the Year. The wheel of the year is a series of 8 festivals, or "sabbats," spaced throughout the year. 4 of the festivals correspond with the equinoxes or solstices, and the other 4 fall somewhere around the halfway point between seasons:
Today happens to be May Day, or Beltane! Happy Beltane everyone! I don't know too much about it, but I know that celebrating May Day involves lots of flowers and bonfires. It is basically a big ol' fertility celebration. On May Day it is traditional to decorate your house or your neighbor's door with flowers, and that's the tradition the Maypole came from. People would also set up big huge bonfires after dark, and everyone would take home a little bit to light their hearth.
Being in separate cities, it's difficult to celebrate festivals that are centered around planting and harvests, of course. But next year you can bet we'll be lighting a bonfire! Of course, I'm reasonably certain that we will be able to celebrate the next festival, the summer solstice, together! We should start planning that feast now.
Last night, I was feeling kind of lazy on the dinner front, and bemoaning the fact that I didn't have ANY food in the house. Then, I checked the freezer again and realized I had a whole Quorn Roast!!! I was going to eat it at Christmas, but ended up being lazy and not making it. SOooo, I decided to make a delicious May Day Eve feast!
I cut up a bunch of potatoes and threw them in the ol' Dutch Oven (ha!) with olive oil, onions, and garlic cloves, and seasoned them with...I don't know, some seasonings. Then, I plopped that quorn roast right in there and baked the whole shebang for about 35 minutes at 400 degrees. (The roast calls for a higher temp and 5 more minutes. I didn't want my potatoes to overcook, so I half-assedly "thawed" the quorn roast by boiling it in the plastic for a few minutes. Things worked out just fine.)
Mmmmmm!!! Sadly, the only green vegetable I had lying around the house was a can of green beans. I Really need to buy groceries. But it still made for a pretty good feast.
LYLAS,
Brax

3 comments:

Libby said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm feaster!

Cabbage said...

isn't solstice around comfest? :)

Unknown said...

I love some dutch oven cookin!