#summer feast

Honey Oatmeal – 

Just like with Imbolc, honey is a great symbol for the season. Like @mistbetweenworlds said “While I don’t think it’s actually attested anywhere specifically in relation to Manannán, bees and honey have a lot of symbolism tied to cthonic gods, knowledge, the underworld, and the afterlife in Indo-European tradition. Also, honey was a traditional offering to the fae in a lot of places.” (I cant find the post!)

What you need -

Instant or Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

Hot water + pinch of salt (for the sea)

Milk

Butter

1 tsp to 1 TBSP honey (to taste)

Steps:

Make your oatmeal with the hot water and salt.

When ready, add butter to taste, then add your honey to taste. Stir well.

Add a splash of milk to cool down and add creaminess. Stir Well.

Eat and Enjoy!

Offer some to the sea (or body of water nearest to you) or on an altar for the sea for Manannan Mac Lir and to the fae.

Baked Apples with a Honey Whiskey Syrup -

What you need -

4 Baking apples

1 pat butter per apple

¼ cup of honey

½ cup Irish Whiskey

1 muffin tin (to hold the apples upright)

Steps for Syrup:

To a small sauce pan, add ½ cup whiskey.

Heat on low, until just simmering.

Turn off the burner and add the honey. Stir until it dissolves.

Steps for apples:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Scoop out the core from top of the apple, leaving a well. Do not cut all the way through.

Place the butter in the apple. Pour in your honey whiskey ‘syrup’.

Place in muffin tin or shallow baking dish and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until syrup begins to caramelize and apples are tender.

Apple Corn Bread and Buttermilk  - 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/gafm/gafm19.htm 

A take on sour milk and crab apples that Manannan took with him when traveling and playing tricks.

Apple Cornbread -

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

1⁄3 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

1⁄4 cup butter, melted

1 apple, finely diced (I peel ours, but you can leave it unpeeled if you have organic apples)

Steps

Mix dry ingredients; set aside.

In another bowl, combine milk, egg, and shortening (you may want to warm the milk slightly to keep the shortening from clumping back up, but not too much or you'll cook the egg).

Add cornmeal mixture to wet ingredients.

Add apple and stir gently; batter will be very thick.

Pour into greased 9x9" pan and bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

(To make sure it cooks through in the middle, since it is a heavier-than-usual cornbread batter, you may want to check about 20 min-- if the center still seems uncooked, cover with foil to prevent overbrowning and increase cook time as needed).

*Cornbread recipe from http://www.food.com/recipe/apple-cornbread-112543

To Eat -

Place cornbread in a bowl once cooled, and add a cup of buttermilk! Stir and Eat! If you are like me and prefer ‘sweet’ milk, you can use that instead, as a symbol of the ‘sour’ milk.

Honey Ginger Glazed Pork or Salmon -

The pork represents Manannan’s pig that dies every night and comes back to life in the morning, or if you prefer, use a fatty fish such as salmon, that represents the bounty of the sea. Also the salmon could represent the salmon of knowledge.

Glaze Recipe - 

(I never measure so this is a rough estimate)*

What you Need:

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp ground ginger or 1 inch piece fresh grated ginger

2 - 3 green onions (or onion powder to taste)

2 tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Thin the glaze with 1 - 2 TBSP hot water 

*This covers roughly a pound of meat

Steps :

Prepare meat or fish as usual, clean etc.

Pat dry.

On baking pan lined with foil or other dish, drizzle the glaze over one side of the meat, then turn and glaze the other side.

Bake per directions (as usual).

Halfway through baking time add remaining glaze to top of meat.

Let rest after done cooking and enjoy!

These are all the recipes I have made or collected for Midsummer! Here are some suggestions for side dishes and other offerings.

Side Dishes/Other Suggestions

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Fire roasted/grilled bell peppers

Steamed Clams

Honey Lime Shrimp

Beer Braised Mussels

Beer

Honey Milk 

Hot Totties

Apples and honey

Crab Legs

Summer Fruit and Wine Sangria

Fresh Local produce in a salad

Apple Oat Cakes

Baby Back (pork) Ribs in a whiskey bbq sauce

It had been a long, tiresome day. The feast had gone well for the most part, and the noise was finally beginning to die down. Theon had decided to suspend for a moment his duties as king and stand outside to watch the stars. He'd found a peaceful place in the grass outside of the palace but still within the Summer Court to settle down. It was lovely, albeit not as lush as the grass he was used to back in Hodia. However, It seemed the sky was as beautiful as it was where Theon came from. It was interesting, how different and yet the same the stars looked from the Summer Court. They brought him peace all the same, so much so that he nearly forgot the stress of the day. He took a deep breath in, and then let it out in a slow exhale. Breath, he reminded himself, just breath.

Looking up at the stars, everything seemed so peaceful, so right. It was as if the hours of anxiety had just melted away. The longer he stayed there in the grass, looking up at the stars, the better he felt. Maybe it was because there was no one around to remind him of the things that had been making him so anxious. It was just him, just one elf alone in the grass under the stars. He didn't have to worry about the species mixing and mingling, or making good impressions, or Gale starting trouble. He let himself not think about any of that and just relax, the way he rarely did. Maybe it was because he was an elf, but there was something about nature that had always calmed him. He wasn't one with nature like the nymphs, but he had spent so much time in the forests throughout his long life. Even in the most heated of arguments with his son or in the middle of an important decision, all he had to do was come outside, take a few deep breaths, and he was centered again. Composure was important to a king, and nature was where Theon found peace.

Even now, Keenan could recall it: the day -- the day -- their day. When he inhaled, he smelled her perfume, her distaste, her fear of being caged. When he closed his eyes, he glimpsed her unsmiling ones, the downturn of her mouth, her curling toes. Only sporadically did he shun his ability to remember the episodes of his life so damn vividly… and this memory in particular was the root, the source that so fiercely enkindled those hours of unease and utter bewilderment. Outwardly, his fine facial features screamed placidity and the cocksure boldness he called confidence, but ha -- in his head was a war. A war so violent that even he couldn't disguise the disorder in his eyes. Clasping his hands together then setting them on his lap, he waited. He waited for her to spit out her dislike for him when she appeared before him, to call him a beast who hankered after power. That's what she had done that day, was it not? She had humiliated him like no other, the beautiful fae with the deep brown eyes he had begun to admire, and naturally, he was taken aback to the core.

Why had she done such a thing? He was a fae of power, the light of lights in the Summer Court. Thousands of females had clawed at him in the past -- not simply for his power, but for his alluring semblance, had they not? So why -- why, when he acquiesced to the arranged marriage, did she not harmonize with him? Keenan, upon raising his chin to observe that not a soul was with him in the garden, groaned softly and knitted his fingers into his hair, wondering if he'd been dense to send away the last of his guards, just so that he could meet her. "I'll be in the garden -- East side," he'd murmured in her ear at the table; whether she feigned not to catch what he said or not, he did not know. Beyond everything… she was impossible to read.