Celtic Whiskey Apples Recipe

Based on a very old recipe for Golden Apples, this sweet treat is like having only the best parts of apple pie.



You'll need:

1 Apple

1 Rolled, refrigerated pie crust

1/2 cup Jim Beam whiskey

1 cup Sugar

1/4 t Cinnamon

1/4 t Dried Orange Peel

A dash of Ground Clove



- Start by coring an apple and cutting into 16 even wedges

- Set aside the apple pieces for later use

- Unroll the pie crust and cut into circles using a drinking glass

- Roll out each circle a little before placing a wedge of apple along one side

- Fold the pie crust circle over the wedge of apple and smooth over using your fingers to encase the apple wedge

- Repeat this for each apple wedge

- Arrange the wrapped apple wedges onto the bottom of an ungreased 9X9 casserole dish



- In a sauce pan, dissolve 1 cup sugar into 1/2 cup of Jim Beam whiskey on low-medium heat

- When the sugar has dissolved, stir in your spices

- Pour the warm whiskey syrup over the wrapped apple wedges

- Bake at 400F for 20 minutes

- Allow to cool a bit and serve warm

Lavender Honey Sweet Rolls

A favorite from a few months ago I thought I would share.
Here it is at last.

Combine the following:

2c Whole wheat flour
1c All purpose flour
2 packets of Dry active yeast
2t Salt
1/2t Baking soda

*Heat the following in a saucepan over low heat:
1 1/2c Plain Yogurt
1/2c Water
3T Butter
1/2c Lavender infused honey

(Heat to about 125 F)

*Pour the mix from the saucepan over the dry ingredients

*Mix well (use a mixer if needed)

On a floured surface, knead in the following:
1c Whole Wheat flour

*Once kneaded, place the dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until it
has about doubled in size.

*Punch the dough down and push out into a rectangle

*Using a pizza cutter, divide the dough into 1 inch by 6 inch sections

*Take one section and curl it over two of your fingers. The dough is fairly
stretchy so it should curl up nicely.

*Slide the roll off of your finger and onto a greased baking sheet.

*Reapeat that process with each section of dough until all of your rolls are
complete.

*Cover the rolls and allow them to rise for a 1/2 hour

*Bake on the middle or upper rack at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Keep a close eye on
these because the bottoms love to burn.

*Spray the top of each roll with cooking spray and set onto a wire rack to cool.

*Serve the rolls with lavender honey butter or rose petal jam.


In case you don't know how to infuse honey...
Heat a cup or two of honey on low until it is easy to stir. Add in a few sprigs
of fresh lavender or a tablespoon or two of dry lavender. Maintain a low heat
for a few minutes until the smell of the flowers is strong. Strain the lavender
out and jar the honey for later use.

Making a Set of Celtic Ogham Staves

Today I felt inspired to make a set of Ogham staves. I did some research about these over the past few days and wanted to try to make a set on my own. I created my set from the natural shed of four great trees nearby. It took a while to find appropriately sized pieces and to trim them to vaguely similar lengths. I'm happy that the trees were able to share some fine pieces.


From there I used a knife to carve open areas in which to inscribe each Ogham letter. While I did this, my cat explored around me and acted nasty when I finally decided she must go inside. Once back indoors I used a pencil to place the a letter on each stave with a dot at the bottom to indicate which side goes down. Finally, I went over my pencil inscriptions with a wood burning tool. They ended up looking pretty sexy.

Some handsome staves indeed!

Tonight I will do something special to get them ready for use. In order to get some practice with these, I have offered free Ogham readings on Etsy. Actually, I will post some of the basic information from that listing on here just for educational reasons. Here it is:

What is the Ogham?

The Ogham refers to the ancient Celtic Druidic alphabet. Each letter stave corresponds with one of the 20 sacred trees. Here, the Ogham is used to seek wisdom concerning a certain topic.

How does it work?

The questioner holds in their mind a question that they are seeking guidance about while the reader calls upon the wisdom of the Divine, the Land and the Ancestors. The reader then casts the staves. The placement of the staves and their symbols indicate a message for the questioner.

p.s. I swear I will wrap up my Djembe repair posts soon. They have been pretty popular lately.