Cucumber Salads may be found throughout the Scandinavian countries.
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon chopped chives
3 small cucumbers, thinly sliced
Combine the sour cream, parsley, vinegar, sugar, and chives.
Gently fold in cucumbers.
Cover and chill.
CRESCENT COOKIES
Submitted by Dana
1 cup butter
1 cup nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1.Cream butter and add flour, nuts, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
2. Shape dough into crescents.
3. Bake in 250 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 1 hour.
4. Roll in powdered sugar while still hot.
Makes 2 dozen
Baklava
From Cookie Recipe.com
This Near Eastern pastry is made of many layers of paper-thin dough
with a filling usually of honey and ground nuts. If you like honey, you'll
probably like Baklava.
Ingredients:
2 cups unsalted butter
1/2 pound of phyllo dough
2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 tablespoons cloves, whole
3 cups water
1/3 cup white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup honey
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Melt the butter over low heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of the butter into
the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Layer 3 sheets of the phyllo
dough in the pan. Trim dough to fit.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of pecans over the phyllo dough.
Layer 3 more sheets of dough and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of pecans.
Continue dough - pecan layers until pan is 3/4 full.
With a sharp knife, score phyllo dough to form diamonds. Press a clove
at each end of the diamonds. Pour remaining butter over the dough.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until dough is golden brown.
While dough is baking, combine the sugar, water and cinammon stick in
medium saucepan and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for 10
minutes.
Add the honey and simmer for 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and
discard cinnamon stick.
Pour honey mixture over hot baklava. Let cool on wire racks. Cut into
diamonds. Makes 2 dozen.
Midsummer Night's Dream (drink)
1 bottle Mossel
1 bottle Red Wine
750ml (1� pints) Lemonade
50ml (2 floz) Contreau Orange-flavoured liqueur
1 Dessert apple, cored and sliced
2 tbsp Sugar, or to taste
Melon pieces
Orange slices
Strawberries
Crushed ice
Pour the wines, and liqueur over the fruit and ice in a bowl.
Chill.
Add lemonade and add sugar to taste.
Serve ice-cold.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (desert)
1 Fresh pineapple; pare, cube
2 c Seedless green grapes
2 lg Grapefruits; peel, section
3 lg Oranges; peel, section
3 lg Bananas; cut in 1/2" slices
1 pt Fresh strawberries; hulled
1/2 c Cointreau
8 oz 7-up
2 tb Powdered sugar
Drain fruits; arrange in layers in glass trifle bowl. Combine
cointreau, 7-up and powdered sugar; pour over fruit. Chill at least 6 hours
before serving..
Solstice Dream Pillow
Materials needed: 1-4 oz (30-120 gms) each of the following five herbs:
dried chamomile
mugwort
catnip
hops
lavender
whole oranges & lemons, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, (optional)
myrrh or frankincense resin lumps. Scraps of lightweight cloth (4-7
inches/100-175 mm, two for each bag) optional bits of ribbon, embroidery
floss, scraps of lace or a few small beads.
For those who are sitting up all night on the Solstice, this is a
special dream pillow you can make for prophetic dreams when you go to sleep
the next night or throughout the year.
Take the first five dried herbs and mix them in whatever proportions
you desire/have on hand. More Mugwort will lead some folks to more
psychic dreaming, more hops will lead to a sounder sleep for some others,
more catnip may encourage feline pillow sharing.
As the night passes, eat the oranges, and use the lemons (minus their
peels) in teas/punches/hot drinks. As you use them try to remove the
peels in large chunks or in easy to work with sections. Using a spoon,
carefully scrape out as much of the white inner rind as you can without
damaging the zesty outer peel. Scatter the remaining outer peels on a
cookie sheet and dry them on low heat in the oven (200F or less). Watch
them to make sure they are drying but not scorching. Remove them from the
oven, and let them cool.
If you have a fire or incense burner, burn some of the incense resins,
saving most to use in the pillows.
Crumble the dried peels up into smaller bits, break up the cinnamon
sticks up into smaller pieces, and add the spices, resins and peels to the
herb mixture. Mix well. Gather up the scraps of material, and sew up
small bags: 3-6 inches/75-150mm should be fine. Leave one side open:
small openings will make it more difficult to fill the bags later. If you
want to use the ribbons and floss to embroider protective or other
magical symbols or representative designs, it will be easier to do before
you stitch the sides together. Work on this to keep you awake, thinking
of the season and what it means to you as you do it. If these are
intended as gifts, think kindly and lovingly of the folks you will be giving
these to.
Fill each of the bags with the herb/spice mixture, but not so full that
it is hard: people will want to smell them, but they need to be soft
enough to sleep on. Fold the last side inward, and stitch closed. If you
want, a small loop of ribbon may be added at this point at the top.
After the sun rises, and you have finished your celebrations, set these
aside, and finish them when you have/make time during the day if they
aren't done. When you go to bed, slip one or more of these into you
pillow case, and inhale deeply as you relax before sleeping. Watch for
special dreams as you sleep.
~Prosperity Pentacles
� 4 tbsp. ground Cloves
� 4 tbsp. ground Cinnamon
� 4 tbsp. ground Nutmeg
� 4 tbsp. ground Ginger
� 3 drops Cinnamon oil
� 3 drops Clove oil
� 3 drops Nutmeg oil
� 2 tbsp. Gum Arcabic
� 4 tbsp. Water
Gather all of the spices above and mix them well together. Add the gum
arcabic to the water and mix the two thoroughly. Once that is done, let
that mixture stand until all of it is absorbed by the water. Add the
spices to the mixture and blend well with your fingers. This will make a
firm dough mixture. If this mixture is too wet add a few more bits of
the ground spices. Once it is all mixed and ready, take you hands and
form this mixture into flat one inch circular shapes. With a knife or the
end of a brush trace along the inside of the circle and pentagram onto
each of the circles. When this is done, set these in a warm, dry place
to harden. When they are dry, you can carry this in your purse or
pocket to promote prosperity. You can also place these on your altars with
the appropriate incenses and green or gold candles. After about a month
or so, refresh your prosperity by either burying it in the earth or
wrapping it up and storing it in a safe place. Enjoy!
Build Your Own Stonehenge
Dennis Randall
Building Directions
Age: 8 and up
Time: 1 to 2 hours
Type of Activity: Science
Materials needed:
Center stake for reference point.
50 feet of rope.
20 to 30 marker stones or small stakes.
A compass.
Here's a unique way to celebrate the solstice: Build your own
Stonehenge. As you might know, Stonehenge is one of the oldest (4,000+ years)
and best known astronomical calendar sites in the world. You can
recreate it without going through the bother of lugging 25 to 50 ton slabs of
rock around the neighborhood. All you'll need is a bit of ambition, and
a location offering an unobstructed view of the eastern or western
horizon. Locations offering a 360� horizon view are ideal (and rare).
What to do
The first thing you'll need to do is create a viewing circle. Anchor a
reference stake at the center point of the circle and place your
compass on top of it. Find due north and place a marker at 50 feet north of
the center. Repeat the process for east, west and south. (The rope is
used as a guide to insure that all markers are equidistant from the
center stake.) Again, using the rope as a guide, place a small marker stone
every few feet around the perimeter of your circle. The center of the
circle now becomes your fixed reference point and the westward facing
perimeter is where you'll be placing the sunset markers.
The calendar can be started at any time, but the solstice sunsets are
the most fun. Mark the point of sunset with a pole, stake or other (not
easily moved) marker. Tag the marker with the date of sunset.
Repeat the process every seven days or so. Over the weeks and months
you'll note that the sun appears to "walk" faster at some times of the
year than others. When you've finished (in a year's time) you'll have a
working astronomical calendar and an excuse to invite friends and
classmates over to the house to check the date ;-)
Sun Pinata
from "Circle Round" by Starhawk, Diane Baker and Anne Hill
What You'll need:
balloon, at least 16 inches across and spherical when blown up (alt.
plastic ball same size)
Liquid laundry starch
newspaper
2 wide, shallow kitchen bowls
cone-shaped coffee filters, size 0 or 00
scissors
hole punch
sun-colored poster paint
glitter
string
Instructions
Although a little messy to make, the finished pinata is delightfully
festive. Depending on the weather, plan to include up to two days' drying
time. In a hot, dry climate, the pinata can dry in three hours, the
paint in another hour.
Take 12 single sheets of newspaper, tear them into 1 - to 1 1/2 - inch
- wide strips, then in half for shorter strips. Spread more newspaper
sheets over work area. Pour laundry starch into one bowl, and place
blown-up baloon in the other bowl, keeping the baloon's knotted neck down.
Drag a paper strip through the laundry starch, then through 2 fingers,
held scissors style, to remove excess starch. Cover the balloon with
the strips. Leave a small section around the knot uncovered; this is
where the pinata stuffing will go in. repeat for a second layer. Be gentle
so you don't break the balloon.
The coffee filter cones make the sun-ray spikes. Turn them inside out
so the seam is inside, then stuff them with crumpled newspaper. Place a
spike on the sun. If it's too big and out of proportion to the sun, cut
off a little at the bottom. To attach the spike to the sun, use small
newspaper strips soaked in laundry starch. Lay a strip lengthwise along
the sun and u the stuffed cone, smoothing the paper at the join. Use as
many strips as needed to firmly attach spike. Repeat with other spikes,
attaching them at regular intervals for a nice effect.
Let the sun dry, rotating it in the bowl. If you're drying it outside,
don't forget to bring it in at night, since it will wilt in the dew.
The balloon will lose air as the pinata dries. If not, undo the knot and
let the air out slowly or prick the balloon - but only after making
sure the pinata is thoroughtly dry and stiff.
Paint he pinata bright yellow and sprinkle glitter onto the wet paint.
Let dry. With the hole punch, make three holes well below the opening
and attach string. Fill with stuffing. If you want, you can close the
opening with more papier-mache.
Stuff the pinata with whatever toys, party favors or candy that is
favored in your household. Try coming up with ideas for ways to make all
the fillings look like bright sunny objects, with tissue paper or
glitter.
