A Toast To Ukrainian Christmas: Wild Winter Berry Uzvar

I shared this lovely healthy Uzvar recipe with my Gather patrons last year, but I’m sharing it tonight in honor of Ukrainian Christmas and my beloved mother-in-law Rosie who passed away late November 2021.  For the many, many years I’ve been married, I loved hearing her remembrances of this holiday, how the house was full […]

Read More

Mother Holle Cloud Tart w/ Cranberry & Hawthorn Berry Curd

Happy Winter Solstice! I’m sharing this recipe from the Gather Victoria Winter Magic ECookbook because it encapsulates the archetypal drama of the season – the rebirth of the light. And that meant plenty of cakes, cookies, and confections for the old winter witches like Frau Holle! Their symbols are very much alive in our holiday […]

Read More

Holiday Snake Cake: An Ancient Offering

Moroccan inspired M’hencha with spiced chestnut, chocolate and candied clementine filling. This year I decided to try my hand at a Holiday Snake Cake. The question was which one? Many versions of snake cakes are baked across countries from Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Morocco and Algeria, some are sweet and some are savoury and many […]

Read More

Baba Yaga’s Wild Spiced Honey Cookies

Ever since I called upon that beloved old witch of Slavic, Baltic and Russian folklore to be my winter baking muse – I’ve had nothing but trouble.  Which should have been no surprise, Baba Yaga is renowned for testing your mettle with endless impossible tasks which determine whether she will help you- or hinder you […]

Read More

La Befana Cake: Honouring The Old Witch of Winter

Inspired by the many Italian cakes baked on Epiphany Eve as offerings to “La Befana”, this fruity golden cake (with a dash of spirit) is a Witches Cake. According to legend, Befana is an old witch who flies through the night of January 5th on her broom delivering presents to children. And as they lie […]

Read More

Doe, A Deer, A Female Reindeer: The Spirit of Winter Solstice

Long before Santa charioted his flying steeds across our mythical skies, it was the female reindeer who drew the sleigh of the sun goddess at Winter Solstice. It was when we “Christianized” the pagan traditions of winter, that the white-bearded man i.e. “Father Christmas” was born. Today it is her beloved image that adorns Christmas […]

Read More

Citrusy Spruce Glazed Shortbread: Flavour Of The Forest

This recipe was inspired by an incredibly lovely and vigorous Sitka Spruce tree that lives in a woodland area near my neighbourhood. Standing out amongst the other conifers, her bluish-white branches positively sparkle on dreary rainy days. At first, I was sure she was a Blue or White Spruce, but on closer look, I now […]

Read More

Aromatic & Spicy Juniper Berry Sugar Stars

Juniper Berry is simply divine. For those who have never encountered the juniper berry, imagine the spicy exotic notes of eastern spices like nutmeg and allspice, and the scent of fresh-cut evergreen branches combined. Aromatic and perfumey, it is just the perfect spice for a buttery cookie. But how to best capture their flavour? Baked […]

Read More

Grand Fir Dark Nougat: Winter Solstice Sweets

I found the recipe for this “extraordinary and irresistible traditional Christmas candy” in a treasured old cookbook “The Auberge of The Flowering Hearth”. Created with only three ingredients, pine honey, toasted almonds and a pinch of thyme, it was caramelized down into a dark, delectable, chewy brittle known as Black Nougat. Well, I was enchanted. Not […]

Read More

Winter Woodland Medicine: Delicious & Warming Tonic Syrups

When dark, winter days challenge our bodies as well as our spirits, nothing makes a better remedy than old-fashioned tonic syrups. Time-tested & true, these potent preventatives and remedial healers call on the nourishing, medicinal powers of conifers, wild berries, tonic plants and adaptogenic herbs, honey and warming spices. And not only will they help […]

Read More

Beautiful Venus Vinegar: Autumn Medicine & Magic

This magical Venus Vinegar is composed of the most vitalizing wild foods, herbs, and medicines offered by Mother Nature this season. It is no ordinary herbal vinegar, but a nutrient-rich, beautifying, fortifying tonic that is fruity, tangy, spicy, and earthy all in one. By balancing the fruits, shoots, and seeds that embody the energetic principles […]

Read More

A Russian Celebration w/ Rowan Berry Jelly

I bet you didn’t know that today is the birthday of the Rowan Tree or Mountain Ash. In Russia, Ryabinnik, September 23rd was the day the rowan berries were considered sweet enough for harvest, and harvest they did. Baskets of rowan berries were cooked into jam, jelly, confiture, kissel, wine, kvass, bread, pies, and candy […]

Read More

The Glorious Rose Hip: Celebrating Old Word Culinary Tradition 

One of the most abundant, nutrient-dense, healing, and beautiful foods of autumn, is the wild rosehip. Why is why over at Gather Victoria Patreon I’ve devoted an entire mini cookbook to the ruby red fruit of the family “pomme’.  Once a staple in cuisines around the world, I find many people today aren’t quite sure […]

Read More

Summer Solstice “Black Balsam”: A Divinely Feminine Libation

It’s the time of the year when the sun’s powers are at their height and plants are brimming with life-force energy. This is why I’m sharing this very special libation from the Gather Victoria ECookbook, Black Balsam. Inspired by my Latvian ancestry, Black Balsam is hailed “true taste of a Baltic Summer” and is the […]

Read More

Strawberry Rose Cake: Ushering In Summer

Round and golden as the sun, filled with lush plump strawberries and perfumed with rose petals, this cake is inspired by Goddess Cuisine. I created it last year for Gather Victoria Patreon in honor of the Green Holyday (known today as Trinity Sunday). Its motifs mirror the sacred embroidered textiles known in Russia and Ukraine […]

Read More

The Magical Deviled Eggs of Spring

Ah, deviled eggs. For me, the snow white beds filled with mounds of rich whipped golden yolks are not only a thing of voluptuous beauty –but possibly a perfect mouthful. So imagine my delight last year when I discovered Chef Jacques Pepin’s technique of browning them to caramelize and crisp their fillings. Pure culinary genius. […]

Read More

Ancestral Spring Greens: “Viva La Italia”!

I am passionate about ancestral foods and none are more ancient than the wild greens known today as weeds. So in honor of International Women’s Day, I’ve decided to share these spring recipes from Gather Victoria Patreon, Wild Green “Erbazzone” Pies, and Wild Green Pancotto Soup. What, you may ask,  do wild weedy greens such […]

Read More

MARCH MAGIC: BABA’S RED & WHITE SPIRAL COOKIES

“Spring has arrived, we will survive!”  Old Romanian Saying Banish winter, bless the coming of spring, and ensure your face remains beautiful all year with these Rosehip & Raspberry Jam Spirals! They are my edible cookie version of the red and white magical talismans woven by Babas (old women or grandmothers) each March in Eastern […]

Read More

The Cailleach’s Red Ale Cake: An Imbolc Tale of the Darkness & the Light

I’ve been celebrating Imbolc for over a decade and each year I discover more layers to its mythology and food lore. Last year over at Gather Victoria Patreon, I created a Cailleach Ale Cake (the oldest spirit in the world) in honor of the dark counterpart of Brigid,  the Gaelic Cailleach, one of the oldest […]

Read More

Uncanny Fruits, Autumn Foraging & Chocolate Bundt Cake

From quince, medlar to barberry, I love to forage for the odd fruits which abound this time of year. The following recipe for this intensely moist almost pudding-like bundt, however,  is filled with two fruits I’ve not cooked much with before. It’s adapted from the Chocolate Cherry Samhain Bundt I just posted on Gather Patreon […]

Read More

Black Madonna of Montserrat: Chocolate Rose Crown Cake

I thought I’d share this recipe from Gather Victoria Patreon for two reasons. May is the sacred month of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in Roman Catholic tradition, roses are the emblematic flower of the Blessed Virgin Mary – and roses will be blooming shortly!  On May 31st  a “crown cake”  is typically baked “affirming […]

Read More