Midsummer
Celebrating the solstice
Happy Summer Solstice!
The summer solstice kicks off my favorite half of the wheel of the year. We’re at peak solar energy with the longest day and a gradual decline toward the winter solstice.
Summer~ the season of whimsy, harvest, delighting in what feels like endless energy and abundance from the skies and earth below.
This summer I’ve started a little patio garden complete with basil, rosemary, arugula, spinach, and jack o’ lanterns. I also have a single sunflower I’ve been growing since March and it’s finally blossomed just in time for the solstice, which seems quite fitting since they’re a symbol of the sun.
Quotes
The Sun, as common, went abroad. The flowers, accustomed, blew, as if no soul the solstice passed that maketh all things new. ~ Emily Dickinson
June is the pearl of summer, shining with warmth and joy. ~ LM Montgomery
Then followed that beautiful season… Summer~ filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay as if new created in all then freshness of childhood.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To see the summer sky is poetry, though never in a book it lie - true poems flee.
~Emily Dickinson
A Solstice Recipe
The solstice is a great time for honey recipes, a popular one being honey cakes. I made these salted honey cinnamon cookies and they’re so good. The honey makes them taste kind of like browned butter or caramel cookies and also makes them nice and soft. They’re very easy to make and I highly recommend! They go great with a cup of tea.
Salted Honey Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
sea salt to garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350f (175c).
Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
In a mixing bowl cream together softened butter, honey, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined.
Use a spoon to create golf ball sized balls to the baking sheet.
Sprinkle each ball with sea salt. (it’s ok of salt is concentrated, cookies spread and so will the salt)
Bake for 11-12 minutes until edges are golden.
Allow cookies to cool on sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to completely cool.
Makes approximately 12-15 cookies.
Note: Because of the low flour to sugar/honey ratio, these spread. Don’t make the dough balls too big or they’ll all turn into one cookie. I also think parchment paper is best for the baking sheet over a silicone mat to avoid massive spread.
A poem
Midsummer from my poetry collection, Iris.
A haiku from Iris.
An album
This week I’ve been listening to the album Magic of the Summer Solstice by Celestial Aeon Project. It’s been lovely magical background music to my days and I recommend if you’re looking for a wee bit of fairy tunes. :)
I hope you have a wonderful summer season. Let me know if you make the cookies!
x,
Courtney
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