Samhain and El Dia de los Muertos

Skull of sugar,
Bone of bread,
We offer these gifts
To our beloved dead

I hope everyone had a lovely Samhain. I suppose greetings for the new year are in order. Today is also El Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead. This festival coincides with the Catholic festivals of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, which occur on November 1 and 2, respectively. On this day families in Mexico visit the graves of loved ones. The graves are cleaned and decorated with fresh flowers. Marigolds are traditional.

Altars, or ofrendas, are constructed. These will hold a variety of objects including flowers, candles, figures of the Virgin Mary, pictures of the deceased, and the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased. Candy or small toys might be added for children. Offerings of food are also taken to the graves.

Popular symbols of this day are the calacas – skulls made of pressed sugar that are brightly decorated. This is not a festival of grief and sadness; it is a celebration of life and of the end we must all face. La Catrina is another common symbol. José Guadalupe Posada created a famous print of a figure that he called "La Calavera de la Catrina" ("calavera of the female dandy"), which quickly became a popular figure.

Traditional foods and beverages include atole, tequila or pulque, tamales and Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead). The bread is often decorated with bones made from dough.

Many of you may have remembered your ancestors in ritual last night, while some of you may choose to continue the observances through November 2. Last year I posted a recipe for Pan de Muerto. For those of you who prefer a different approach, I offer the recipe for Rosemary Remembrance cookies.

Rosemary, as many of you know, is an herb used in purification. It is also good for remembrance. Rosemary is also used for healing and love, making it the ideal herb for this time of year and for the remembrance of those who have passed through the veil.

You can make shortbread cookies with rosemary, but this recipe is more of a sugar cookie. Use gingerbread men cookie cutters to give the cookies human form, or use animal shapes if remembering pets/familiars.

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter or margarine (non-hydrogenated), at room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional; use 2 tsp. vanilla if not using almond)
1-2 teaspoons very finely minced rosemary
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and salt until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla/almond extract. Mix well. Add in the flour slowly and mix on low speed (if not mixing by hand) until dough starts to come together. Sprinkle in the rosemary and gently fold in.

Divide the dough into two rounds and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375. Unwrap the dough on a floured table or counter. Work with half the dough at a time. Keep the other half in the fridge to stay cool. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough. Cut out your people and animal shapes, as well as pumpkins, skulls, bats, or any other shapes you desire. Place the cookies onto a nonstick cookie sheet. Give them room to bake by placing them about ½ inch apart.

Bake the cookies 6-8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container if you do not use/eat them all.

Hat!

The hat I won from Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween arrived yesterday. It's so freaking cute! I wore it to my first class. :) Thanks to Irish at www.bratboutique.net for making such an awesome witch hat! I absolutely love it.

Non-food Crafties

As I've stated before, finding anything that could pass as a Halloween decoration isn't easy to do in a country that doesn't know much about Halloween. Sometimes this works out because if you have time and are creative, you can make some pretty groovy things on your own. I, however, am not terribly artistic or skilled, lack patience and definitely lack the time and organization for larger projects. That and I'm just really, really bad at following directions. Some sort of temporary dyslexia takes over, I swear.

Anyway, a site that I really like is The Anti Craft (www.theanticraft.com). Many of the projects on the site involve knitting, which I cannot do, but there are other projects as well. The archives are grouped together by Sabbats. Scrolling through the Samhain archives, I came across a project that takes cheap, mass-produced badly-painted figurines from the dollar store and turns them into creepy works of art.

Example:



Exhibit A is a badly-painted magnet from a cheap store in town. The picture isn't very good but the lighting kind of sucks. The magnet is stuck to the can of black spray paint that I used to cover the peaches-and-cream flesh of this happy couple on their special day.

A little black spray paint and some ceramic or acrylic paint is all it takes to turn that into this:






Isn't that better? Well, the photograph isn't, but the results are. I started repainting nativity scenes while I was home for the summer and plan to finish the next time I get to the U.S.

So here's the plan

A lot of bloggers have been hosting incredible giveaways lately. Mrs. B has kept it up all throughout the month of October and I think she should be commended. She's put a lot of hard work and a lot of thought into this month. Plus, the people who sponsored giveaways have donated some amazing stuff. I won a great hat and will post pictures of myself wearing it as soon as it arrives.

All these giveaways have made me think about getting on the bandwagon. I live in Turkey, as most of you probably already know. That means shipping things costs a good bit and it takes 2-3 weeks for things to arrive. However, I send a box home for the holidays and will be sending out the annual box o' goodies sometime next month. What I do is included addresses and lists of who gets what and my mom is kind enough to send things to their final destinations once the box reaches the United States.

I would like to send a few Turkish goodies to someone. I was thinking of doing this if I reach 100 followers by, oh, mid-November. I'll send the box around the end of the month so it gets to the States on time. I have about 55 followers via Facebook now, I think. I don't know much about the random choosing and such but I can learn about proper giveaway hosting as time goes on. So, what do you all say? Care to spread the word about my silly little blog? I know it's not much, but I really don't know a lot about the world of technology. I just do the best I can and try to include pictures and stuff when I think about it.

I'm still working on my cookbook idea, but now that I've started teaching again, I've been using all my spare time to decompress and not think about classes! Plus, several recipes still need more testing and I can't test all of them where I am, due to lack of proper ingredients.

Y'all think about it while I go attempt to teach reading skills to my chilluns and I'll be back later. Ta!

Quick Question

I have a question for the more computer savvy of you. How does one go about making a blogger button? I have some buttons for the other sites that I visit, but I've no clue as to how or where they were made. How is it done?

Fanx! :)=

Fruits of the Season - Pomegranates

I am so happy that pomegranate season is here! I adore those lovely little seeds surrounded by juicy, garnet flesh. I've been meaning to get to a pomegranate post for a while now, but I first wanted to find a pomegranate seed meditation to share with you all. The one I had in mind is by Cait Johnson and it's in her Witch in the Kitchen book, which I don't have with me. I brought a few of my books back from the U.S. with me this summer, but I didn't have room for them all.

Anyway...pomegranates! In Turkish the word is "nar" and freshly-squeezed, antioxidant-rich juice is available all over the place these days. It's a beautiful deep ruby, deeper than blood.

Pomegranate juice is a symbol of blood, of life. The fruit itself is reminiscent of the womb, while the inside reminds me of an ovary, with the seeds representing the eggs. Seeds and eggs are both potential life forms, waiting for something to allow the life force within to burst forth and grow. It's no wonder the pomegranate is a symbol of fertility.



Pomegranates in Myth and Religion

Many of you know the story of Persephone and how she was abducted and taken to the Underworld. Her mother, Demeter, was distraught. She searched everywhere for Persephone, and in her sadness, refused to allow anything to grow. Zeus, in response to the cries of the hungry, forced the god of the Underworld to return Persephone. However, the Fates dictated that whoever ate or drank while in the underworld would have to remain. Persephone, having been tricked into eating a few pomegranate seeds, had to return to the underworld for part of the year - one month for each seed she consumed.

According to the Qur'an, pomegranates grow in the gardens of paradise.

In Judaism, pomegranate seeds are eaten at Rosh Hashana. The fruit is a symbol of fruitfulness. The symbol of the pomegranate is woven into the hem of the robe worn by the Hebrew High Priest. The pomegranate is also used in Christian religious decoration.

For Samhain

The pomegranate is a great food choice for Samhain. Decorate your altar with whole and cut pomegranates. Use the seeds as part of your ritual and simple feast. The red juice symbolizes the blood of life that continues throughout the coming winter.

The seeds can be consumed for physical or spiritual fertility. As you eat the seeds, think about Persephone and her time spent as Queen of the Underworld. Think about how this dark time of year is a time for reflection, a time to draw inside yourself and think about the goals you wish to realize in the coming year.

Here is a recipe that combines pomegranate seeds and nuts, both traditional foods for Samhain. Make these for your Dia de los Muertos celebration if you observe it.


Chiles en Nogada (Chiles in Walnut Sauce)
*Featured in Como Agua Para Chocolate


Chiles en Nogada (Chilies in Walnut Sauce)




You must start this dish one day ahead by soaking the walnuts for the nogada sauce overnight.
Ingredients

The Picadillo:
2 lbs of boneless pork
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 Tbsp salt, or to taste

6 Tbsp of lard or the fat from the broth
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
The cooked meat (about 3 cups - note if you use more than 3 cups, you will need to increase the amounts of the other ingredients)
A molcajete (mortar and pestle)
8 peppercorns
5 whole cloves
1/2 inch stick cinnamon
3 heaping Tbsp of raisins
2 Tbsp blanched and slivered almonds
2 heaping Tbsp acitron or candied fruit, chopped
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 pear, cored, peeled and chopped
1 peach, pitted, peeled and chopped
Method

1 Cut the meat into large cubes. Put them into the pan with the onion, garlic, and salt and cover with cold water. Bring the meat to a boil, lower the flame and let it simmer until just tender - about 40-45 minutes. Do not over cook. Leave the meat to cool off in the broth.

2 Strain the meat, reserving the broth, then shred or chop it finely and set it aside. Let the broth get completely cold and skim off the fat. Reserve the fat.

3 Melt the lard and cook the onion and garlic, without browning, until they are soft.

4 Add the meat and let it cook until it begins to brown.

5 Crush the spices roughly in the molcajete and add them, with the rest of the ingredients to the meat mixture. (If you don't have a molcajete, you can use the blunt end of a pestle to crush the spices in a bowl.) Cook the mixture a few moments longer.

6 Add chopped peach and pear to the mixture.

The Chilies:
7 Put 6 chiles poblanos (and you MUST use this type of chili) straight into a fairly high flame or under a broiler and let the skin blister and burn. Turn the chiles from time to time so they do not get overcooked or burn right through. (See How to roast chile peppers over a gas flame tutorial using Anaheim chiles.)

8 Wrap the chiles in a damp cloth or plastic bag and leave them for about 20 minutes. The burned skin will then flake off very easily and the flesh will become a little more cooked in the steam. Make a slit in the side of each chili and carefully remove the seeds and veins. Be careful to leave the top of the chili, the part around the base of the stem, intact. (If the chilies are too hot - picante, let them soak in a mild vinegar and water solution for about 30 minutes.) Rinse the chilies and pat them dry.

9 Stuff the chilies with the picadillo until they are well filled out. Set them aside on paper towels.

The Nogada (walnut sauce)
The day before:
20 to 25 fresh walnuts, shelled
cold milk

10 Remove the thin papery skin from the nuts. (Note, these are Diana Kennedy's instructions. I have found it virtually impossible to remove the skins from the fresh walnuts that come from our walnut tree. The above photo shows the sauce which includes the skins. I think it would be creamier without the skins, but what can you do? We found that blanching the walnuts did not help get the skin off. Completely cover the walnuts with cold milk and leave them to soak overnight.

On serving day:
The soaked and drained nuts
1 small piece white bread without crust
1/4 lb queso fresco
1 1/2 cups thick sour creme (or creme fraiche)
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
Large pinch of cinnamon

11 Blend all of the ingredients in a blender until they are smooth.

To Serve
To assemble the dish, cover the chilies in the nogada sauce and sprinkle with fresh parsley leaves and pomegranate seeds.


** Recipe source: www.simplyrecipes.com