Autumn Equinox Eats!

Yesterday (Sept 22) was the first day of fall! I have mixed feelings about fall. I don't like cold weather, and fall means winter is coming. But I DO like pumpkin-everything, my birthday (October 16!), Halloween/Samhain, soups and stews, and Thanksgiving. So okay, okay. I guess I like fall. I really just hate winter. I need to stop thinking of fall as a prelude to winter and learn to love it for all the good things it offers.

Like squash! Last night, I made a little Mabon/Autumn Equinox feast from Llewellyn's Sabbats Almanac. Most of the recipes in that book are vegetarian and easily veganizable. This Stuffed Sundried Tomato Polenta Acorn Squash recipe was vegetarian, so I only had to sub out the dairy parm for vegan parm. I didn't have any Follow Your Heart shreds on-hand though, so I used nutritional yeast and Parma instead.

The squash is stuffed with a yummy polenta that's got sundried tomato pesto mixed in. For the pesto, you use tomatoes, olive oil, sunflower seeds, and nooch. No basil or anything green. It's a fun twist on pesto! I served this with crusty white bread from the farmers market (Paul picked it up, and I can't remember the bakers' name, but it wasn't LuLu's!) and some sauteed garlic kale.

I did a little ceremony to welcome the new season and blessed some daffodil bulbs that Paul and I will plant this weekend. And then I followed that with cakes and ale! For my ale, I had a Crosstown Brewing Co. Crosstoberfest beer, and I made the Crispy Apple Pie Wraps from the Sabbats Almanac as the "cake."

The wraps were so simple and pretty wholesome. You chop an apple and season with cinnamon and cardamom, plus a little agave. Heat that on the stovetop and then add to a whole wheat tortilla and wrap up burrito-style. Then you brush it with coconut oil and air-fry for 6-8 minutes. I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top to make it feel more decadent. 

Happy Fall, y'all!