From the garden

Before the holidays our garden got a major overhaul, including the second round of Summer planting. When we got back we returned to find radishes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, lettuce, beans and herbs waiting to be used up, not to mention a stack of edible weeds.

Check out this haul:

Things from the garden

I was so excited to see my garden when I got home that the first thing I did was pull things out of it, which inevitably lead to a big cook-up.

I settled on a sort of antipasti theme, and made a plate for our neighbor, who had been looking after things while we were away. I made nettle and basil pesto, roast potatoes with sage, zucchini and baby tomatoes, dry-fried beans, spicy chickpeas, roast beetroot and carrot with agave, and sauteed radishes. I was super-chuffed that the only things that didn’t come from the garden were potatoes and chickpeas.

Zucchini and baby tomatoes

Roast beetroot and carrot

Dry-fried beans

Everything was tasty, and for the first time the carrots were edible (previous attempts at growing carrots having resulted in nasty, bitter roots.)

Sauteed Radishes

However the star of the show ended up being the radishes. I got the idea to fry them from the seed packet, and gave it a go to make them more appealing, frying them in a little olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. They were so good that this is my new favourite vegetable dish.

What Christmas Looked Like

The vegan, gluten free, (relatively) soy free Christmas was a hit! That’s enough words though, this post is just for pictures.

Snacks

more snacks

 

The dips: Pesto (no cheese), roasted capsicum and semi-dried tomato, and hommus.

The mostly vegan table: Rice noddle salad, rice paper rolls, boiled potatoes, rocket salad, roast veg salad, felafel, onion tart and spanakopita.

 

more photos!

Strawberry vegan cheesecake

It turns out I didn’t manage to get a photo of the vegan, gluten free, soy freeish trifle, but it was there, and it was tasty!

 

The ghost of menus past

I’ve covered around 25 cuisines on this blog now, and one of the best things that has come of it is that the food we eat on a regular basis has changed (and gotten much better!).

Despite incidences of my cooking becoming increasingly rare since I started working again and Mr stopped, there are particular foods that I just keep coming back to when I do get around to cooking. Lately these constants have been Georgian, Turkish and Italian. Pizza, kidney beans, walnuts and tahini replacing the dahl and stir fry dinners of yesteryear.

All this revisiting means I’ve had the chance to perfect some recipes which didn’t work out that well on the first go, so I decided it was time to repost them.

Turkish Brekky

Ok, so this isn’t exactly a cooked meal, but it was fun. While we were in Turkey breakfast was usually offered as a buffet featuring cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, olives and bread, along with simit and tahini with grape molasses (which tastes like caramel). I mocked up a vegan version using agave instead of grape molasses, and using a bit of cheezly. Tasty, healthy brekky!

Next up is the Georgian feast we prepared for some friends who visited recently-ish. It was a little while ago, when our garden was still overflowing with winter crop, so we pulled out all of this:

Garden haul 1#: silverbeet, beetroot, parsnip, cauliflower, cabbage, snow peas, spring onion and kale.

and turned it into this:

Pkhali and eggplant with walnut

… as well as kidney bean salad (lobio), ajap sandal (eggplant and tomato dish), pilaf with cabbage, and fried potatoes, and mini spanakopita which I took to work for Veggie Club.

The pkhali and the eggplant with walnuts were both really yummy and so much better than my first disastrous attempt at imitating Georgian walnut paste. I’ve been using this recipe from Georgian Taste, however I have included a few cashews to make it even creamier, I have left out some of the garlic in deference to Mr, and I used beetroot this time instead of spinach.

For the eggplant and walnut paste I followed the recipe for pkhali, but left out the spinach altogether. I then fried some strips of eggplant and wrapped them around tablespoonfuls of the walnut paste. Yum.

I also made my first attempt at creating a vegan khachapuri, which is a totally delicious looking, totally un-vegan Georgian cheese bread. It turned out brilliantly, and though it is time consuming to make, I think it will have to go on the “again, again!” list.

I scoured the web for recipes and ended up using a mix of this recipe at food.com and this recipe at Nami Nami, but of course it needed tweaking to veganise.

Slice of vegan imureli khachapuri

Vegan Khachapuri

Makes 2 loaves

For the dough:

• 250ml soy milk
• 3tbs margarine, melted
• 14g instant yeast
• a pinch of salt
• pinch baking soda
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 3 1/4 cups plain flour

For the cheese filling:

• 2 cups cheezly, mozzarella flavour, mashed with a fork
• 1/2 cup Vegusto vegan cheese, strong flavour, grated
• 100g silken boxed tofu, mashed with a fork
• 1 tbs rice flour, whisked with 1/4 cup  soy milk
• 1 Tbs plain flour
• 2 Tbs vegan margarine
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• pinch of nutmeg (just because I ave this thing about nutmeg and cheese – you could leave it out)

Follow the directions as per the Food.com recipe, although only warm the soy milk, don’t scald it.

 

I have no new Italian recipes to share, but I didn’t want to post yet another picture f yet another haul from our garden that made it into a meal – because I’m so amazed at how well this whole growing-our-own-food business is going

Garden haul #2: spring onions, herbs snow peas, lettuce and broad beans.

Dinner from the garden: garden salad, pizza (herbs from the garden and mushrooms from our mushroom box), and broad beans with vegan facon.

 

 

 

 

Salad Days

I used the recipes in A Season in Moroccofor everything I made this time, so I wont post a recipe. If you like what you see, head to your library

Salads

 

Tomato and onion salad

Delicious Lentil Salad

Perfect Potato Salad

Jerusalem Artichokes and Walnuts

White Zucchini Salad

 

Carrot salad

Steaming Tea and some Ghriba biccies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ouch! Recipes for stinging nettle and other things from my garden

I love gardening, and the place we’re renting at the moment is perfect for it. The owner has spent 40 years developing the soil, and its beautiful. Sadly though, we moved in a little late in the season, and some of my veggies are coming a long a bit slowly because of the cold.

The same can’t be said for the weeds. Stinging nettle has found its way its the veggie beds, and has taken over fast. I was going to rip it all out, but further consideration has lead me to realise that a) it stops the slugs and caterpillars from walking straight from one plant to the next, and b) its edible.

And nettle isn’t the only thing going great guns at our place – the lemon tree is continuing to be prolific, and my mushroom container (bought at the Flemington farmer’s market, but also available at CERES and other garden shops) finally grew me some fungi!

My home grown stuff, and my boots. (and gloves and string – not sure where I was going with that).

So I’ve been playing with ways to use our bounty, and here’s the best hits so far.

Nettle and Spelt Pasta

I made this a few weeks ago, and didn’t get a picture, so you’ll just have to imagine the grey-green coloured, hand made noodles.

I used my all purpose pasta recipe, with just the one tweak. I blanched and pureed around two and a half cups of chopped nettle, resulting in about 1 cup of nettle mush. I then added the nettle mush to the flour to make a crumbly dough, before adding enough water to fill it out. Of course the measurements elude me, but you get the idea.

I served it up with a tomato sauce because I was playing host to some kidlets, but I think it would be great tossed with some salt, nooch, garlic and olive oil.

 

Nettle Risotto

Next up was a nettle risotto, with lemon and pumpkin.

Nettle Risotto

I wasn’t going to post a recipe, because I make risotto all the time and was sure I had posted a few here by now. But when I looked for a recipe to link to – gasp! I’ve never actually posted one. So here is my risotto recipe this time with nettle, but use whatever veg you like (I’m a big fan of plain onion risotto).

Risotto with Nettle

Serves 3-4

• 2 cups raw nettle, washed and stems removed (use gloves and be very careful, they hurt)
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 1/5 cups aborio rice
• 1 cup pumpkin, small dice
• 6 cups stock of your choice I used veggie
• zest of two lemons
• 3 Tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
• salt and pepper to taste

1. First deal with the nettle. Wearing gloves remove the stems and any dead leaves. Put the nettle in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain.
2. Puree half the nettle, and chop the other half, and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan heat the oil and fry the onion until soft and beginning to brown.
4. Add the garlic and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring.
5. Add the rice and wine, and stir over high heat until the rice begins to turn more opaque.
6. Add 2 cups of stock, the nettle and the pumpkin. Bring to the boil, then return to simmer until the stock is nearly absorbed. Repeat, stirring frequently, until the stock is all used up and the rice is cooked.
7. Stir the lemon juice and zest through, taste, and add salt, pepper or herbs you want – i used tarrgon with the nettle.
8. Serve up hot.

Nettle Pesto

So my nettle use has had a bit of an Italian bent. This time I went with pesto to top some plain pasta. This is easy peasy, but as before, be very careful when handling the nettle.

Nettle Pesto on Pasta

• 2 cups of washed nettle, stems removed.
• 1/3 cup of pine nuts
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbs nutritional yeast
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup vegan cheese, crumbled

1. First deal with the nettle. Wearing gloves remove the stems and any dead leaves. Put the nettle in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain and set aside.
2. In a dry, non-stick pan, toast the pine nuts until they brown. Be watchful – they take a while but once they begin to brown they burn quickly. Reserve half of the pine nuts for garnish.
3. Toss all ingredients together and blend. I use a stick blender, but a food processor or big blender will work too.
4. serve on pasta, topped with the vegan cheese and left over toasted pine nuts.

Lemon and Hazelnut Cheesecake and Vegan Lemon Butter

My sister suggested I turn my mound of lemons into lemon butter, and I actually found a vegan recipe very quickly. I used this one, and created my own jar of the stuff. Its sweet and sour, and while it is tasty, it isn’t really matching up to the memory of buttery, creamy, eggy lemon butter of my pre-vegan days. I might give it another go with more coconut milk though.

Lemon butter in an old peanut butter jar.

I did, however, turn it into the topping for a delicious cheesecake. I need to work on it again though, because the lemon tang completely overwhelmed everything else, and not in a good way.

Ugly lemon cheesecakes

Fabulous Plain Old Fried Mushrooms

Last, we come to the mushrooms. In my first crop I only had enough mushrooms for one meal and the pressure was on to find the most perfect thing to do with them. In the end I decided I wanted to know what they tasted like alone, and how they compared with other mushies, so I fried ‘em up home style with some margarine, salt, pepper and garlic powder. They were stupendously good, and I can’t wait for more mushroom babies to spring up!

Terrible photo of delicious mushrooms

Happy Birthday Mumma!

Today is my Mum’s 50th Birthday (Happy Birthday Mum!), and earlier in the week we had a High Tea birthday party to celebrate.

Its no secret that one of my favourite things is to make little food and sweets, which is good, because one of my mum’s favourite things to do is eat little food and sweets So my sister Katie, Mr, and my brother Jay all got in on the action and we cooked up a feast so pretty I figured I’d better share.

First things first, Katie was  charge of decorations, and she did such a great job. She op-shopped for cake stands and plates, and made everything totally gorgeous.

Katie's handiwork

The spread

The entirely vegan and almost entirely gluten free menu included:
•    Arancini
•    ”Meat” balls (some gluten)
•    Samosas (some gluten)
•    Rice paper rolls
•    Warm mushroom dip
•    Sushi
•    Hommus in cucumber cups (curtesy of Toby and K, who got it from Wind Attack)
•    Cupcakes
•    Chocolate crackles
•    Caramel and white chocolate slice

Cucumber cups and ugly sushi

Samosas and Arancini

Rum balls and Chocolate Crackles

White chocolate caramel slice (well, pink chocolate in this case, and slightly oozing)

Recipes-wise there isn’t much to share. Katie made the rice rolls, the cupcakes came from a packet mix, I’ve covered arancini before, everyone can make chocolate crackles, same goes for sushi, and the samosas came in a box from the Indian grocer on Beaumont St. The caramel slice recipe is mine, but it was a less successful version of a top secret from my book (that I’m still trying to get published – we’ll see). I can share my “meat balls” recipe and the warm dip recipe though.

vegan meat balls

Meat balls
1 cup frys chicken style strips, thawed
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup almonds
1 tsp vegan chicken stock powder
1 tsp mixed herbs of your choosing (I use oregano, sage and thyme)
1 tbs soy sauce
pepper to taste
1 tsp cornflour in 2 Tbs of water, to make a paste

1.    Put strips, rice, almonds, stock and herbs into a food processes and process until crumbed.
2.    Place mixture into a bowl and stir the cornstarch paste and soy sauce through.
3.    Mix to form a dough. Taste, add pepper if desired.
4.    Form balls.
5.    Fry balls in a little oil in a non-stick pan until browned on a few sides.
6.    Serve with some dipping sauce such as tomato, BBQ, or sweet soy.

Vegies and dip

Warm Mushroom Dip

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium brown onion, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I like portobellas and/or oysters)
1 tsp vegan stock powder or appropriate amount of preferred salt
1 cup vegan sour cream
pepper
two tablespoons chopped chives

1.    In a large saucepan, fry the onion in olive oil until soft.
2.    Add mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring, until cooked through.
3.    Remove from heat, add salt and sour cream and blend with a stick blender.
4.    Stir pepper and chives through and serve warm.

I usually serve this in the middle of a cob loaf, but finding a gluten free loaf was a no-go, so we stuck it in a bowl near a platter of veggies instead.

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes
I’m no guru of gluten free baking. Most of my attempts have turned into weird, squishy, wafer-like substances, or rocks. But we had success with the cupcakes. Mr did the making, I contribute technical advice, and we totally cheated and used the Basco cupcake packet-mix. To make sure they rose without using egg, we used teensy-tiny cupcake pans instead of a muffin tray, and we replaced the eggs with three spoons of silken tofu. They turned out totally gorgeous, and all credit for their gorgeousness goes to Mr.

These are a few of my favourite things

For the past two months I have spent nearly all my time looking through job ads, cruising employment websites, reading selection criteria and writing applications, in my search for a new job post-travel. I’m even dreaming about job applications.

It isn’t going well.

While I think I’m maintaining a fairly positive attitude, I have to admit that the enormous pile of “no” I’m getting is getting me pretty down. And, like many people, when I’m down, I turn to food. But rather than turning just to chocolate and wine, these days I try to fill my cupboard (and my belly) with all my favourite foods. It cheers me up to eat my favourite things, and to make pretty, tasty food for others.

My favourites list is pretty long, and like a true list-maker, I can break it down into an infinite number of lists, such as favourite comfort food, favourite summer food, favourite sweets, favourite food when someone else makes it, favourite food to make on sunday arvo, etc. I even have favourite food formats (bite sized things on a tray, then things you dip in other things, then on and on until bringing up the rear are things that require a knife).

Luckily many of my favourite things are ordinary, cheap ingredients like potatoes or marmite, however some are seasonal, expensive or harder to find. Recently I was reading something somewhere about eating more vegetables, and a wise sage suggested that people should make a list of their ten have veg and fruit and then just stock up on those rather than forcing themselves to eat food they hate. Works for me.

So, these next few days Im focusing on eating all the favourite things I can be bothered making or can get my hands on

Here’s the ingredients/meals/formats on the list:

• tea
• nut butter
• watermelon
• pineapple in savoury food
• coconut
• broccoli
• corriander
• basil
• garlic
• onions
• brussle sprouts
• stir-fried pumpkin
• fake chicken
• good bread
• proper pasta
• quinoa
• cous cous
• cashews
• almonds
• macadamias
• ice cream
• pancakes
• potatoes
• fruit toast/hot cross buns
• marmite
• vegan cheese
• pomegranate molasses
• home made salsa
• cumin
• pizza
• olive oil

It should be fun!

What are your favourite foods or ingredients? Do you use them regularly or save them up for special occasions?

Sweet Baby Jesus, KFC and 13 Desserts

I’ve been remiss in my continued Christmas posting, but I have three new Christmas food traditions to tell you about so I can make up for it.

 

Cougnou, Belgium

You know that nursery rhyme about blackbirds being baked in a pie? I always though that was a bit gross (notwithstanding the fact that at the time I ate chicken pie very happily).

For some reason that’s the first thing I thought of when I came across this Christmas tradition from Belgium. Yup, bread shaped like baby Jesus. I suppose it makes perfect sense, really- break this bread, its my body and all that – but I just keep balking at the idea of eating a baby. Personally, I don’t really see the resemblance, so if I came across a vegan version I just might tuck in.

13 Dessert, Provence

I was pretty darn thrilled when I heard that there was a legitimate Christmas tradition of eating 13 desserts. Of course, this fabulous food tradition is from France.

The desserts include dried and fresh fruit, nuts, bread, cake, biscuits and nougat.  Some desserts have specific reasons for their inclusion. Light and dark nougats represent good and evil, dates are included to represent the journey from the middle east, dried fruits and nuts represent four monastic orders, a bread to break (not to be cut), and a famous Provencial dessert, Calissons d’Aix.

I am considering doing something like this, because, hello, 13 desserts! If I could do it in Australia I would have:

1. Dates stuffed with marzipan
2. Almonds
3. Raisins
4. Figs
5. Hazelnuts
6. Vegan Christmas log (a log made out of rum ball mixture, instead of yule log, because I’m just not a fan of sponge)
7. Sweet Olive Oil Bread (already vegan)
8. Mango (the French use oranges, but I don’t like them much)
9. Cherries (because why use winter apples when there are cherries in season?)
10. Chocolate fudge (non-traditional, my addition)
11. Mini vegan cheesecake (non traditional, my addition)
12. Gingerbread (not traditional, my addition)
13. Vegan Calissons, because they look fantastic.

If I do it here in Tbilisi, I will have to come up with something to sub for the cheesecake, hazelnuts and Calissons, and I would use the traditional winter fruits (apples, pears, citrus). I wouldn’t be using light and dark nougat to symbolise good and evil, because food is never evil and neither are dark colours.

 

Fried chicken with your honey, Japan

It turns out the Christmas is becoming a widely celebrated event in Japan. The celebrations are generally secular (most Japanese not being Christian), and is generally celebrated on Christmas eve, with a partner or lover. They have a special Christmas cake, a white sponge with cream an strawberries, and like to eat KFC fried chicken for Christmas eve dinner. Yup, you read right.

Apparently KFC may have become popular as a Christmas meal due to an ad some decades ago. It seems to have worked, as people are known to place their order weeks in advance, and line up around the block to pick up their bucket.

If I had anything here that was worth battering and frying I would totally get into this tradition, because I love the “Southern Fried” flavour. Sadly, I am without any tofu, tempeh, seitan, or any other mock, so I think I will make do with nut roast.

(I can see this Christmas food traditions research could turn our meal into a truly decadent event – 13 desserts, deep fried something, bread-babies – its all sounding pretty good.)

A little shout out to the lonely Christmas vegan

Hi there,

I noticed you found my blog, at least three times now, by googling “vegan alone at Christmas” and “vegan–xmas alone”.

I don’t know how you feel about being alone at Christmas, but I guess you’re searching for recipes for one, or things to do? If you want to be less lonely, leave me a comment, and we’ll totally skype you from our own, semi-lonely, Christmas for two.

Well, in case you are looking for inspiration, here’s what I would do, if I were alone this Christmas:

Presents: I would get myself a present, even if it were something free, like a book I already have but haven’t read, or cheap, like a once-off face mask or bubble bath or food I liked. If you save it up, you have something to look forward to.

Contact: If you’re in contact with family, or have friends, I would try to call or Skype them at some point during Christmas day. Just be sure to have something fun planned for afterwards, because sometimes contact people at a party when you’re alone can leave you a little bummed afterwards. If you’re working, why not take something special to work, to share with whoever you meet? If you’re not working, you might also be able to volunteer somewhere at Christmas, and get your social contact that way.

Food: If it was just me for Christmas, I would still focus on good food. If I were in a cold climate, with access to fake bacon, I would make myself some creamy, facon-y pasta, some green beans and brocoli with oil and garlic, and a hot chocolate or mulled wine, and I would buy a Christmas pudding from the shops and microwave it, to have with vegan ice cream. If I didn’t have access to vegan stuff (like here in Tbilisi), I’d chop one carrot, one potato and roast them with herbs and garlic, and make myself a mini stuffing. There are some good recipes here. I’d still have the hot chocolate, and I might dip some chocolate into my hot chocolate, for good measure.

If I was in a warm climate (hello, down there!), I would make myself some panzanella. Its easy and yummy – fry some chopped bread in oil, and set aside. Chop a tomato, a bit of parsely, a clove of garlic, and any salad veg you like. Toss together in a bowl with some chickpeas and walnuts, olive oil, add the bread, add some salt, pepper and herbs and you’re all set. Awesome. I’d also have some cherries or mango, and some favourite ice cream. Instead of hot chocolate, I’d have some sweet, sparkly wine or some apple cider.

Entertainment: I would have a bath, then set myself up on the couch with a good book (maybe a christmas present book), some hand cream (for self-given foot rubs), a blanket (in cold weather), liquids (preferably hot chocolate), and some cherries or strawberries, and a nice, big pile of movies.

When I’m alone, I love me some romantic comedies – a little weepy, but happy in the end- a buddy movie, or something no one will watch with me. Some Christmas favourites of mine are The Holiday, Love Actually, and the Family Stone. TV shows are good, too. I don’t know about you, but the other thing I do when I’m alone is sing along to everything and anything I can find in my music collection.

Tips at Random

My totally subjective tips for being alone on special occasions (and I’ve had some practice with many a birthday or Easter spent on my own):

• Act like it was a choice – whether or not it is, acting like you want to be alone, and focusing on doing what you like, totally helps.
• Celebrate – for me, at least, ignoring it doesn’t work. Bring on the Christmas music and a little tinsel.
• Pick a few things you love, and do them.
• Do stuff your friends/family/partner don’t like doing. This could be eating food you love but they hate, watching something they wouldn’t sit through, going out to to something that bores them, what have you. It helps make it special.
• Cake, but not alcohol. I have found that some “special” food like a really nicely decorated cake, or boxed chocolates, or what have you, makes it feel like a celebration. A little wine also feels celebratory, but a bottle of wine leads you to drunkenly calling everyone you ever liked and sobbing about your aloneness.
• Ditto on the staying up late. If you’re not usually a night owl, go to bed on time. Watching movies at 3am seems to have a similar affect as the whole bottle of wine.
• Light some candles. If you’re like me, and live somewhere with shitty fluro lighting, this helps. Its means you don’t have to choose between being in the dark and being in the harash, glaring light of up-too-late-watching-bad-movies.

Good luck, Vegan Alone At Christmas, and don’t forget to leave me a comment if you want a solidarity skype session.

xoxo

Merry Bloggy Christmas!

Merry Bloggy Christmas!

Roast meats, ham, potatoes, roasted vegetables, gravy, cake and pudding – we all know what the North Americans and the British eat at Christmas. But what about everyone else?

Because I have time now, and because I keep getting search terms like “What do they eat in Australia for Christmas” on my stats, I’ve decided to set my own little 9 days of Vegan Christmas Blog Theme going (not 12, because I am too late, and I won’t have reliable internet after the 26th).

To have it in keeping with this blog’s theme, I intend to look at some interesting (to me) traditional Christmas foods from a round the world. I clearly don’t have time to cover everyone, but maybe if I miss your country (or a tradition that interests you) I’ll get to it another year.

To start off with, let’s test your Christmas traditions knowledge.

Which country would you hail from if you:

1)    Hide Brooms on Christmas Eve
2)    Have small figurines of people defecating in your nativity scene.
3)    Watch a roaring fire on TV (for 24 hours) instead of having a real one.
4)    Have a witch delivering the presents instead of/as well as an old dude (albeit not at Christmas).
5)    Made a wish when it was your turn to stir the Christmas pudding.
6)    Hang a (plastic) spider web on the Christmas tree.
7)    Join a big march made up mostly of children wearing white on Christmas day.
8)    Carry a horse’s skull on a pole around your town.

I’ll pop the answers up tomorrow, but leave yours in the comments if you want.

Sadly there is no reward for right answers unless you count self satisfaction

So, what are your Christmas traditions? If you’re not religious, do you celebrate Christmas at all?

I recognise that the majority of people in the world do not celebrate Christmas, and that groups celebrate other things at this time of year, such as Hanukha, Kwanzaa, and the New Year, and if you do, I’d love to hear about it.  My focus is on Christmas mainly because its what I know, and I’m interested in the different ways it is celebrated, especially as many people celebrate it even though they have no Christian beliefs.

My little family (Mr and I) are devout atheists, and in my big family there is a little more atheism, a lot of agnosticism, spiritualism and such, but only a little actual Christianity, and yet we still do presents and food and family. Some habits die hard, especially habits involving delicious cake.