Yule 2012

I love Yule. It was the first Sabbat I ever celebrated, and it has always been my favourite. This year though was really something special.
My Pagan friends arrived early so that we could have a ritual, and a gift exchange. I wrote the ritual this year. It's only about the second time I've written one, but this came out quite well. The gifts were in lieu of Christmas presents. Giving Christmas presents to Pagans has always felt weird, and while this doesn't actually reduce our costs, it does redistribute them to a different part of the year. I received Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon, and some gorgeous oils and sugars and things for the kitchen.
Our other guests arrived once night had started to fall, bringing with them an incredible set of dishes to share. Our menu:
Nibbles: Kabana, Camembert and crackers
Entrée: Pea and ham soup, beetroot and feta salad
Main: Lamb massaman curry, chicken and mango curry, vegetarian chilli with corn chips, coconut rice
Dessert: Pear cake, berry muffins, chocolate tart, chocolate mousse (above), home made vanilla ice cream, pure cream.
Mulled wine
The mousse was Andrew's contribution, though as he was trying to make both the dark and white mousses at once, I gave him a hand with some beating and folding and layering. I only made the ice cream!
The company was the real highlight though. Along with all the regulars, there were a few people who haven't been in a while, and one new guest. Everyone fitted together so well, and there were times I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. I can't wait until next year!

Preparations for Yule

Yule has come and gone for another year, and sadly, I forgot to take any photos of a wonderful night. I did, however, manage to take photos of the invitations. I love to send out formal invitations to events as I think it's more exciting to receive something in your letter box than your email. Sadly, this year, some took the long way through our postal system. Hopefully, next year will be better.

Samhain

May 1 was Samhain (actually, April 30 was, but that was a Thursday) - Pagan New Year, and a time when the veil between the worlds is thin and we can communicate with and remember lost loved ones. I had some friends over for a dinner in front of the fireplace. Only a couple were able to come, and one of those was quite late, so we didn't bother with the planned ritual, and just had a lovely social night instead. Andrew roasted some chestnuts for a pre-dinner snack, I provided baked spuds with garlic butter, cheese and free range bacon. Dessert was provided by my friends - gingerbread skeletons, and pumpkin pie. Yum!

Spring has Sprung!

I celebrated Ostara, the Spring Equinox, with some friends on the weekend. It was a nice enough night, but not as good as I'd hoped - one friend took on more responsibility than she could handle, resulting in her being 2 hours late. She has a history of this, though she's been great lately, so we simply started dinner without her. Though the weather had dumped us back into Winter, we went ahead with barbequing our meat. Thankfully Andrew, Dad, and one of the girl's husbands (actually the only husband in the group) did the man thing, and took over that, allowing the girls to stay warm! Unfortunately, one of the other girls was unable to deal with the late one (she has a lot of other things going on in her life right now, and her emotions are a bit raw) and ended up leaving early, which was disappointing because I'd been looking forward to seeing her. We'd also intended to do a ritual, but since that was the responsibility of the Late One, it didn't end up happening. We did, however, do the chocolate ritual which is a laugh, although we all discovered that homebrand chocolate topping makes our skin red!
Yesterday, Andrew and I went to the Royal Melbourne Show. I have always loved the Show, but I was disappointed. Between entrance tickets and train tickets, it cost $74 for the two of us to get in, and we were done by 1:30! The whole thing is smaller than it used to be, fewer animals, and the whole Grand Arena is gone, which is a big loss. There's also a whole lot more stalls selling trash...
Jade loved her dress.

Late Night Cookies and Imbolc

I finally made the Late Night Cookies I've been talking about, and I'm disappointed. They're tasty enough, but the mix was far too dry, and thus, they're chunky rather than flat as the picture in the book shows.

Saturday was Imbolc, another of the sabbats (holy days, festivals) that I celebrate...when I remember (I have the sneaking suspicion that I am the world's worst witch...). This one marks the change between Winter and Spring.
I didn't have a party for this one, but I made sure it was my turn to cook dinner, and I themed it accordingly. We had an entrée of halloumi, a kind of cheese from Cyprus, that you fry until it goes crispy and good. It was a new brand that we are trying, and it went a little too gooey, but still good. Main course was asparagus risotto with lamb chops.This was quite nice, but I totally neglected the fact that neither Andrew nor I actually eats asparagus, and the lamb chops almost fell by the wayside, because Dad forgot to buy them! Thankfully, he popped up the street to grab some for me. Dessert was a divine sponge cake, filled with raspberry jam and cream, and topped with lemon icing. I love a good sponge.

Oh, and Alice loves her skirts.

Yule Weekend

Well, I had a lovely weekend. The house was cleaned and set up in plenty of time, as was I. I had a slight issue with the icecream - I decided to make white chocolate (as well as dark chocolate) but Andrew brought home 'white cooking compound'! I wasn't game to use it, but fortunately Dad was out at the time, so I got him to pick up a block of real white chocolate. This did, however, mean that it got made a little later than I would have liked.
The food was gorgeous, and it was wonderful to see my friends - several of whom I had not seen in almost a year! I also love seeing all my friends get on so well. We had soup and mini quiches for entree, and a massive main of lasagne, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, gluten free pasta bake, roast veggies, potato bake, chili con carne, and corn on the cob. Unfortunately, the lasagne wasn't ready when everything else was, so very little got eaten. Dessert consisted of a gorgeous chocolate ripple Yule log, sticky date pudding, sponge cake (gluten free), and my icecreams. Yum!
Four of my friends stayed overnight. I love being able to allow them to do this. I had taken photos of how beautiful one of the beds looked, but my father appears to have deleted it for reasons which are unknown to me since they were the only shots on the card.
Sunday morning, I was up at 8:30am (not my choice after going to bed at 3am, but I couldn't breathe well enough to sleep) well before anyone else, but this meant I was able to potter around and clean up at my own pace. Sad to say it, but it was really nice to not have Mum there to hassle me (she spent the night with a friend on Phillip Island) about cleaning up as she usually does.
Once I had cleaned up, showered and eaten breakfast, it was time to get ready for the afternoon's UnderCoverWear party. This meant baking. I made a batch of my chocolate chip cookies - I'm known for these amongst my friends - as well as two batches of scones. One of the batches was an experiment in gluten free for my friend, Jacq, who has an intolerance. They weren't perfect because I got impatient, but certainly edible, and Jacq was thrilled to be able to eat scones again.
The party started at 2:30. My best friend, Jill, returned (and her fiance, Jim, came to play with Andrew) and Andrew's Mum came up, bringing our beautiful 2.5 year old niece, Alice. Our lovely consultant, Chris, was wonderful as always. I must confess that my ideals of putting dips in nice bowls, and crackers on plates fell by the wayside, and the nibblies I had in the freezer stayed there, but no one seemed to mind.
The day ended with a dinner of leftover lasagne with Jill and Jimmy, and Lettisia (Tish) and her lovely new guy, Jason. A lovely way to end a lovely weekend and I went to bed tired, but happy.


The fireplace filled with candles. We couldn't have a real fire, because the hearth is being redone, which was disappointing, but this was pretty. I was impressed with how well they burned too, since I paid $16 for the lot at Target!

Us all sitting down for our entrees

Mini quiches, with and without gluten, candles and sword (I don't know what it's doing there either, though it is mine, but it looks good though, doesn't it?)

The chocolate ripple Yule log. Such a simple idea, but so effective and so tasty