Magical Meals & More!

This past Saturday was Lammas (or Lughnasadh if you're fancy!) in the Northern Hemisphere! This First Harvest holiday is when we celebrate all the Earth's summer bounty, especially grain. The name Lammas is a shortened version of "loaf-mass," so it comes as no surprise that bread plays an important role on this day.

I celebrated on Saturday by baking Beer Bread. But I wanted to make it a little healthier, so I used all whole wheat pastry flour (with no white flour), and of course, it came out super-dense! I knew better, but I couldn't help myself. Still tasted great but no rise. I served my flat, buttered beer bread with Stuffed Zucchini Boats and some Spinach Salad. And wine, of course! It was a holiday!

All of the recipes came from the 2020 Llewelyn's Sabbats Almanac, which has vegan versions of most every recipe. The zucchini boats are stuffed with chopped Beyond Sausage, marinara, and vegan mozz. And the salad has spinach, cherry tomato and cucumber (from the farmer's market), vegan mozz, croutons (from the beer bread), and a homemade Italian dressing with a vegan mayo base.

After dinner, we built a fire in the backyard and burned bits of beer bread for protection and gratitude in the coming season. Then it was time for cakes and ale (or, in my case, muffins and wine). I made some lavender-rose syrup to add to white wine, which I enjoyed with a Zucchini Chocolate Muffin from LuLu's (procured from the farmer's market that morning).

I have a LOT of random food pics in the queue, going back several weeks to the New Moon! On the New Moon (the one at the end of July), I had a nice spaghetti dinner (it was a Macaroni Monday!) with The BE-Hive's Italian crumbles. I picked up several BE-Hive meats on my last trip to Nashville, and I've stashed them in my freezer. The BE-Hive is a Nashville seitan butcher! I had a salad too, hence the salad fork. I'm not really sure how to properly set a table, but I tried!

Here's a lovely snacky dinner! I made Romesco (roasted red pepper walnut spread) from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook and served Treeline cashew cheese, whole wheat crackers, and LuLu's Country Loaf. Maynard really wanted me to share!

Speaking of harvests, there's an abandoned fig tree in my neighborhood (in a vacant apartment lot), and around this time every year, I walk Maynard past the tree daily so I can harvest the nearly ripe ones. They ripen quickly on the counter.

Unfortunately, many other people know about this tree, and at some point every summer, someone wipes the whole thing out! But I got quite a few early on and made some amazing Overnight Oats with Figs, Peanut Butter Granola, and Roasted Pumpkin Seed Butter. I mentioned last week that I'm finally overnight oatted out, but this was before I got tired of them.