Halloween is best known as a time to dress up in funny fanciful costumes, trick or treat, and carve a pumpkin or two. But for Cloverfields Farm & Kitchen's Janine Washle it's a time to get creative. It is interesting to learn that Halloween is steeped in history with ancient roots in Druid and Celtic rituals primarily Samhain or "Summers' Ending", the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Pagan Celts believed the walls between here and the other side came down for an evening and the souls of the dead walked among the living. On All Souls Day, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them cookies called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" is believed to have given way to the modern "trick or treating".
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween followed European and Celtic roots and traditions. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the Earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. Many believed if they disguised themselves with masks and capes, they would be spared the pranks of roaming spirits. Families carved out turnips and lit them with candles to ward off witches.
When Scottish and Irish immigrants came to the States, they brought these traditions with them. The turnip was traded for the pumpkin. Candy became the treat instead of soul cakes. The feast of Pomona was around the same time as Samhaim and a traditional game was apple bobbing. This game also came over to the States including a variation called Apple Snapping; an apple suspended on a stick by a string while a child tries to snap at it.
History shows that Halloween isn't just a single night of mischief and merrymaking, but a series of celebrations that came together to form the modern day Halloween.
Bagna Cauda
Ingredients:
3/4 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 anchovy fillets
6 large garlic cloves, chopped
Assorted fresh vegetables, cut into bite-size pieces
1 1-pound loaf crusty Italian or French bread, cut into 2-inch sections
Preparation:
Blend oil, butter, anchovies and garlic in processor until smooth. Transfer oil mixture to heavy medium saucepan. Cook over low heat 15 minutes, stirring, occasionally. (Sauce will separate.) Season with salt and pepper.
Pour sauce into fondue pot or other flameproof casserole. Set pot over alcohol burner or gas table burner to keep warm. Serve with vegetables and bread.
Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
(Gourmet, 1967)
Ingredients:
1 (4-lb) chicken
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 scant cup olive oil
2 fresh parsley sprigs
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 fresh thyme sprig
1 fresh sage sprig
1 bay leaf
1 celery rib
40 garlic cloves, peeled (from 3 to 4 heads of garlic)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Rinse chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle inside and out with salt and pepper. Tie legs together with kitchen string and fold wings under chicken.
Heat oil in a 6- to 8-quart wide heavy ovenproof pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken, turning it carefully, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate.
Tie herbs and celery together with string and add to pot along with garlic cloves. Put chicken, breast side up, on top of cloves and bake, covered tightly, in middle of oven, basting twice, until cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into fleshy part of a thigh (avoid bone) registers 170°F, 30 to 40 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a cutting board, reserving pan juices, and let stand 10 minutes. Cut chicken into serving pieces and spread roasted garlic on toasts.
Serve chicken drizzled with some of reserved pan juices.
FREE RECIPE BOOKLET!
Cloverfields Farm and Kitchen also has a special Halloween Recipe Booklet available by email. To ask for a complimentary copy, just email Janine Washle at cloverfields.farm.ky@gmail.com
To find Cloverfields Farm & Kitchen on Facebook: click here.
CloverFields Farm & Kitchen
www.cloverfields-ky.com
3720 Mt. Olive Rd.
Hardin Springs Area
Big Clifty, KY 42712
270-862-3762
info@cloverfields-ky.com
Janine Washle and her family live at the Cloverfields Farm and Kitchen in Big Clifty, Kentucky in Hardin County. CloverFields Farm & Kitchen, part of a century old farmstead, is our home and business. The McGuffin house, the original farmhouse, is a registered state landmark. CloverFields Farm has a prosperous farming history. They are continuing this rural story in their own unique way by the addition of CloverFields Kitchen a place to explore the past through food and merge it with our modern lifestyles.
CloverFields Farm is dedicated to the preservation of southern, especially Kentucky, food traditions. The kitchen is commercially-outfitted compliant with Health Department standards. In this kitchen I develop new recipes based on original ideas, inspirations from my culinary research, and most often according to what is in season.
On the farm, they make many gifts and specialty items. She is currently working on her first cookbook, but she also has a long resume developing recipes for several companies. She has also won several contests and cook-offs with her original recipes.
