A Soulful Solstice With Holiday Treats

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Greeting New Light

The solstices always seem a bit off to me; though late June is in fact the year’s midpoint, it feels more like early summer than high summer, which I associate with the sweltering month of August. Similarly, though this day definitely marks midwinter and the turning of the year, it feels instead like the gateway to deep winter, with snow and ice and wild winds yet to come. The days draw in so early now and the heavy, overcast skies are dark even at midday. Though this is indeed the longest night of the year, by tomorrow, the light will linger just a little longer at both ends of the day.

A few years ago, I discovered a delightful series of pictures taken by a Japanese photographer who recorded the daily life of her grandmother and her odd-eyed cat (one’s blue, one’s green). One of my favorite images is the granny in her winter solstice tub, her curious cat at her side. Her tub is full of yuzu fruit, a citrus that looks a bit like a lumpy grapefruit. Yuzu gives ponzu its characteristic citrusy flavor and yuzu rind is also used in herbal teas, though formerly cutting edge yuzu foam is so ten years ago among proponents of haut cuisine.

A Healing Solstice Bath

In Japan, people bath with yuzu at the winter solstice to bring good health and good fortune for the coming year. I love the idea, but yuzu is pretty hard to come by around here, so I toss a handful of satsumas, limes, and lemons in my tub. My cat is enchanted by this and bats happily at the fruit, watching it bob and float buoyantly back up to the surface.

I rarely use my huge tub, which usually houses the cat box. By the time I had it cleaned out last night, it seemed like a great idea to take a practice bath. I had almost forgotten how comforting it can be to take a long, hot bath by candlelight. Soaking peacefully, it seems simple to let go of everything that binds me to the problematic past. It was utterly relaxing, right up until the moment when the cat landed in the tub with me…but that doesn’t always happen and the candle was no worse for the wetting once the wick was dry. I’ll try again tonight, perhaps without the cat.

Here’s the link to those marvelous images:

http://www.demilked.com/grandma-and-odd-eyed-cat-miyoko-ihara/

Holiday Treats And Gifts

When my kids were small, we always baked holiday treats together, including cut out cookies, which they then decorated happily, making a blissful mess. Now my grandson is of an age to enjoy holiday decorating and cookie making, we’ve been making many marvelous messes together. I don’t suppose I’ll ever get the glitter out of the rustic slate floor tiles, but what’s life without a little sparkle?

His favorite activity so far is making little paper chains for our tiny tree. We’ve used paper strips of several kinds but he is most taken with the ones we make using twist ties dug up from the bottom of the kitchen junk drawer. He happily pulls apart the little wire-filled strips with great seriousness and hands them to me so I can bend them into circles and then we link them together. I just love watching kids find pleasure in such unprepossessing materials, turning junk into busy delight.

Make Your Own Organic Food Coloring

A few years ago, my home-share family came up with an ingenious way to make chemical-free colorful icing for holiday treats. After some experimenting, Stephi combined raspberry juice and beet juice to make a rosy, soft red icing that tastes fabulous.  She then pureed fresh mint (recipes below) with flavorless rice oil to make a gentle green that toned perfectly with the red. We’ve since made yellow with pureed golden beets and orange with carrots…you get the idea. Here are the base recipes:

Butter Cream Frosting

1/3 cup organic butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons cream

Cream butter and sugar, then stir in vanilla adding cream to desired consistency. If coloring will be added, make base mixture a bit stiffer than usual, take some out to color, then thin the remainder with cream until spreadable. Makes about 1-3/4 cups.

Organic Red Food Coloring

1 cup raspberries (frozen works fine)
1 small red beet, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons rice oil

In a blender or food processor, puree raspberries and beet with rice oil. Put pulp in a fine mesh strainer and press gently to release juices. Let drain completely, then add liquid to icing base to desired tint. Save pulp for use in another recipe (see below).

Organic Green Food Coloring

1-1/2 cups fresh mint leaves
1 organic lime, zest finely grated
2 tablespoons rice oil

In a blender or food processor, puree mint and lime zest with rice oil. Put pulp in a fine mesh strainer and press gently to release juices. Let drain completely, then add liquid to icing base to desired tint. Save pulp for use in another recipe.

Organic Orange Food Coloring

1 large carrot, finely grated
1 organic satsuma, zest finely grated
2 tablespoons rice oil

In a blender or food processor, puree carrot and satsuma zest with rice oil. Put pulp in a fine mesh strainer and press gently to release juices. Let drain completely, then add liquid to icing base to desired tint. Save pulp for use in another recipe (see below).

Crispy Cabbage Salad With Raspberry Beet Dressing

2 cups Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
2 cups red cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 organic grapefruit, peeled and chopped
1 pureed carrot (from recipe above)
1 tablespoon pomegranate vinegar
1 cup Raspberry Beet Dressing (see below)
2 tablespoons fresh basil, shredded

Combine first 5 ingredients and toss. Let stand 20 minutes, add dressing, toss and serve, garnished with basil. Serves 4.

For The Dressing

Use the pulp from making food colorings or make the dressing fresh this way.

Raspberry Beet Dressing

Left over pulp from food coloring OR:
1 cup raspberries (frozen works fine)
1 small red beet, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 organic lime, juiced, zest finely grated
1/4 cup virgin olive oil

In a blender or food processor, puree raspberries, beet, mint, salt, and lime peel with 1 tablespoon lime juice and the olive oil. Makes about 1 cup. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

If you need a fun project that results in fragrant and useful gifts, give this simple recipe a try!

Floral Bath Salts

2 cups coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon dried rose petals
1 tablespoon dried lavender
1 tablespoon dried lemon thyme
1 tablespoon dried orange peel
2-3 drops pure rose OR orange oil

In a blender, combine 1/4 cup salt with next 3 ingredients and grind to a fine meal. Blend with remaining salt, add rose or orange oil and store in a tightly sealed glass jar. Makes about 2 cups. To use, add 1/4 cup to hot bath water and bliss out.

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Celebrating Seasonal Swings

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Learning Wisdom From Contrast

Winter holidays are often tinged with sorrow, since the dwindling year so often carries away the ill and elderly. This weekend, my family gathered to celebrate my mom’s passing with music and memories. She had carefully chosen the hymns she wanted, the anthem the choir should sing, and who would read the scriptures, so the event had a strong sense of Mom’s presence. Even in the short span of the service, I’d guess that all present experienced sadness and leaping joy, laughter and loss, tenderness and resolution. Afterward, the most common comment was that the service felt very ‘real’, offering as it did a portrait of our mother’s complex and often contradictory character. Contrast is a great teacher, and her offspring all called it out in our speaking and singing and reading and recollections.

I’ve always relished the high contrast winter holidays, balancing cold and warmth, austerity and abundance, white and colorful, matte and sparkling. If the wind is chill, the fire feels cozy. If the garden is bare, the house is full of fragrant greens. When snow blankets the earth, vivid decorations brighten our homes. In nature, fading foliage is lank and dull, but indoors is alight with brilliant ornaments. Though the sun rises ever later and slides ever sooner through the Western trees, the earth senses the turning of the year. New life emerges everywhere, brave green shoots poking through tangled heaps of decaying leaves. The longest night is coming, yes, but each subsequent day is just a little longer at both ends.

Piquant and Pleasing Contrast

Perhaps because of this teasing seasonal back-and-forth of opposites, I enjoy concocting holiday tidbits based on strong contrasts. To create an intriguing balance, blend the bland with the potent or pair soft and sticky with tart crunch. Make tiny batches during the experimental phase, since seemingly plausible combinations are not always successful. The good, though, are very good indeed!

Lightening Up Sticky Dates

Dates are a common holiday gift, and unless you adore their dense, sticky texture and rather cloying sweetness, it can be challenging to find just the right use for them. Here are a few of my current favorite treatments, all of which balance that intensity with lighter, fresher flavors and un-gooey textures. The result in each case is both pleasing and surprising and definitely more-ish.

Pomegranate Stuffed Dates  

12 plump dates
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
3 tablespoons soft goat cheese

Gently slip the pits from the dates and replace them with pomegranate seeds, plugging each end of the dates with a bit of goat cheese.

Satsuma Stuffed Dates

12 plump dates
2 satsumas, sectioned and peeled
24 toasted hazelnuts, skins rubbed off

Gently slip the pits from the dates and replace them with satsuma sections, plugging each end of the dates with a hazelnut.

Pickled Ginger Stuffed Dates

12 plump dates
3 tablespoons pickled sushi ginger
24 toasted walnut halves

Gently slip the pits from the dates and replace them with a teaspoon of pickled ginger, plugging each end of the dates with a walnut half.

Preserved Lemon Stuffed Dates

12 plump dates
12 slices preserved lemon
1/3 cup lightly toasted sesame seeds

Gently slip the pits from the dates and replace them with preserved lemon slices, then dip each end of the dates into the sesame seeds.

Zippier Roasted Winter Vegetables

Roasting brings out the best in pretty much all vegetables, and if you slice them thinly, the result can be caramelized or almost candied. To balance this effect, add a handful of raw cranberries for the last 20 minutes, or toss the veg with a brisk horseradish-infused dressing.

Roasted Roots With Horseradish Dressing

3 medium golden beets, thinly sliced
3 medium red beets, thinly sliced
2 cups cubed sweet potato (1-inch)
1 tablespoon avocado or any high-temp oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine vegetables in a rimmed baking sheet and gently toss with oil to coat. Spread in a single layer, sprinkle with sea salt and roast at 350 until well caramelized (50-60 minutes). Serve warm, drizzled generously with Horseradish Dressing (see below). Serves 4-6.

Horseradish, Anyone?

This lively dressing is fabulous with roasted carrots or Brussels sprouts, or on baked potatoes. It’s also good with grilled or baked fish or poultry, among many other things. Try it as a sandwich spread in place of mayo, or drizzle some over sliced avocados or…

Horseradish Dressing

1 cup plain yogurt
2-3 tablespoons horseradish
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all ingredients and adjust seasonings to taste. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days. Makes about 1 cup.

Vegan Horseradish Dressing

1/2 cup avocado or safflower oil
2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2-3 tablespoons horseradish
1-2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all ingredients and adjust seasonings to taste. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days. Makes about 1 cup.

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Where The Wild Things Are

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Sour Dough Starters From Home

Something about winter calls out the baker in many of us. When my kids were little, we spent many rainy winter days making and baking, not just sweet treats but bagels, soft pretzels, and all kinds of bread. In these low-carb, gluten-free days, bread divides us into very different dietary camps but I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love the enticing scent of baking bread.

After several years of developing recipes that my long-suffering son could eat without repercussion, we’ve been set blissfully free by his rebounding health and well being (for which I am enormously grateful). I’ve also rediscovered my own deep delight in making bread, a tactile, visual and olfactory experience that culminates in marvelous medleys of taste and texture. Even in childhood, when asked what one food I’d take to a desert island, I’d always choose bread (and a book, since we clearly don’t live by bread alone).

Celebrating Resilience

Sourdoughs rank among the most forgiving of bread recipes, easily mastered by beginners and needing only minor weekly tending to stay alive. Back in the day, Western gold miners slept with their sour dough starters to keep them from freezing in deep winter, since they relied on lively starters for everything from flap jacks and doughnuts to hot rolls as well as their daily bread. We no longer need to take our starters to bed: Unless night temperatures in your home plunge into the freezing range, sourdough starter can live happily on the counter if you use it daily, or in the fridge if you only use it once or twice a week.

There’s also no need to buy packaged starter, since even the very cleanest home in the world hosts plenty of wild yeasts. To invite these wild things to come to work with you, simply mix a cup of water and a cup of flour, cover the bowl with cheesecloth to keep our fruit flies, dust and etc., and let nature happen. Within a day or so, your mixture will be light and bubbly and ready to use. You can always beg a little starter off a friend, but any starter you import will quickly be taken over by your own local strain of yeasts. Similarly, if you get impatient, you can stir in a little baker’s yeast to gets things going. Either way, within 24 hours, your starter will be your very own.

As Local As It Comes

That local strain will vary in flavor and quality, so in some regions, that initial capture may take a day or two longer. For whatever reason, it seems most effective to make your capture starter with unbleached white flour. After you get your first batch to work, you can keep it going by feeding with whole wheat flour or whatever you want. I’ve made wonderful all-rye starters as well but they usually require several days (and a small onion) to build up enough yeasts to make them workable.

It is possible to fail with sourdough, as with anything else. The main reason for failure is neglect: To keep a starter healthy, the old use-it-or-lose-it rule definitely applies. Starter used daily or several times a week can live on the counter and be refreshed with small frequent feedings through each day. Starter that lives in the fridge needs to come out, be poured into a bowl and brought up to room temperature, be fed and aerated, then allowed at least an hour of freedom in which to work before some is removed for use and the rest poured back into a jar and returned to Siberia. That process takes a while but active work time is under five minutes.

Why Bother?

Requiring only a modest amount of care, sourdough isn’t finicky to work with and the end product can be outstanding even if you aren’t a passionate or persistent kneader. Sourdough adds a delightful tartness to waffles and pancakes and can become crusty, rustic rounds or sliceable sandwich loaves as well as light-as-air dinner rolls. Sourdough toast is crisp of crust and a little chewy, with the slight give that’s a hallmark of great artisan breads. Perhaps best of all, sourdough breads are slow to stale, a bonus for small households where an ordinary loaf can outlast its goodness.

Here are a few of my current favorite recipes to start you off on your own sourdough adventures. I hope they bring you much pleasure, both in the baking and in the eating!

Sourdough Starter

1 cup tap water
1 cup unbleached white flour
Fine cheesecloth

In a bowl, blend flour and water, incorporating as much air as possible, Cover bowl with cheesecloth and let stand for 12-24 hours, stirring vigorously every few hours or when you think of it. When ready to use, add more flour and water in equal amounts and let work for an hour before removing some for use and storing at least a cupful in a sealed glass jar (lid only lightly screwed down) in the refrigerator for up to a week. Refresh as outlined above, feeding with 1 cup each of flour and water each time.

Basic Sourdough Recipes

Once you make a few successful loaves, you will probably want to branch out and try some variations: Orange peel bread? Walnut and dried tart cherry bread? Garlic and hazelnut bread? Caramelized onion rolls (like savory cinnamon rolls)… I do suggest that you start by using bread flour as suggested, since it gives the dough a lot of structure and reduces the need for kneading. If you are a robust kneader, use whatever flours you want and knead each loaf for 5-6 minutes before the second rise.

My hands and wrists have never really been the same after a pair of hand surgeries some years back so I am a huge fan of a gentle kneading technique called ‘stretch and fold’, which is pretty much what it sounds like. With this technique, you stir the ingredients together and let them sit in a warm place (I use the oven with the light on) for 45-60 minutes, then do the stretching and folding until the dough firms up (usually a couple of minutes). Repeat the relaxing and folding routine 1-2 times or until the dough feels bouncy and elastic. When it does, butter your bread pan, shape your loaf, let it rise until almost double (30-45 minutes or more). When the loaf is barely cresting the top of the pan, take it out of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Bake the bread to an interior temperature of 180 degrees F. (40-45 minutes, usually). Put the pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then remove bread from pan and cover with a cloth. For the best results, let bread cool on the rack before slicing if you can stand to wait.

Sourdough Sandwich Loaf

1-1/2 cups sourdough starter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups bread flour plus a little more for shaping
1 teaspoon butter or oil for baking pan

In a large mixing bowl, combine starter, water, salt and 2 cups flour, cover bowl and place in a warm spot to rise. See above paragraph for details…

Sourdough Cinnamon Bread

as above plus:
2-3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in 1 tbsp boiling water (optional)

As above until final shaping: roll dough into a 12 x 14 inch rectangle. Blend butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and spread over bread, leaving a 1-inch border all around. Sprinkle with raisins (is using) and roll up into a loaf, pinching ends and bottom gently to seal. Bake as above.

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Healing Winter Soups

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Eating Well When Unwell

After years of caring for my mother and having her in my bedroom for the past few months, I am feeling a great rush of relief and relaxation since her gentle death last week. Indeed, the relaxation part is involuntary; it’s as if some inner spring has unwound or my energy supply has softly, slowly deflated. I am finding myself unable to push and strive as I’ve simply had to do for so long. It’s quite common for caregivers to wear themselves into illness and I’m grateful that all I’m suffering is a mild cold, coupled with an all-but-irresistible lethargy.

Despite the laziness, I am enjoying some mild puttering in my new garden, which still holds a few scrappy remnants of glory; Cotinus Grace with its last, lingering leaves gorgeous and glowing like medallions of copper and bronze and red gold; some Orange Rocket barberries that are still alight; fragrant, lemon yellow floral spears of Mahonia x media Underway; an incredible six foot high hedge of golden pineapple sage that’s still blooming and still alive with hungry hummingbirds despite several deep frosts.

When In Doubt, Make Soup

Years ago, a very successful author told me that when she got stumped, she had her current character make soup. I too find soup making both useful and comforting, especially on chilly days when the wind cuts like a knife and it’s hard to get warm.

In general, a key to great soup is to make it ahead and reheat it. Another is to cook soup slowly, for long, patient hours. Happily, some soups taste great the minute you make them. Even better are soups that take very little energy to assemble yet deliver fully satisfying flavor and fragrance. Best of all are simple yet wholesome soups that nourish the wholeness in us, comforting, warming, and healing as we listlessly sip. Like what? So glad you asked…

All Hail The Onion Family

Winter colds and flu are disheartening so it’s lovely to have some easy recipes that put the heart back into our aching bodies. The noble onion family is especially good at helping those who suffer from stuffy noses and sore throats. Indeed, when researchers learned that chicken soup actually does help help a cold, the benefit turned out to be largely due to the soothing combination of steam and onions. The entire onion family contains compounds that boost the immune system and help fight infection naturally even as they add savor and warmth to almost anything.

Even without chicken, this silky, rich-tasting Italian soup tastes fabulous, is a snap to make, and is lively with garlic and onions, both famous cold and flu chasers. The last minute addition of raw garlic oil makes this soup especially zippy but you can leave it out if it’s too intense.

Italian Onion & Garlic Soup

3 large onions, halved and sliced (1/4 inch thick)
2 medium potatoes, halved and sliced (1/4 inch thick)
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
2 whole heads garlic, cloves peeled and lightly crushed
1 bunch spinach (about 8 ounces), stemmed
1 cup flat Italian parsley, stemmed
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

In a soup pot, combine onions, carrot, salt, hot pepper flakes, and all but 2 cloves of garlic with water to cover (4-6 cups) and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Add spinach and cook until barely limp (2-3 minutes). With an immersion blender, puree parsley, olive oil and remaining raw garlic, set aside, but don’t wash the immersion blender, use it to puree the hot soup. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with a little garlic oil drizzled on each portion. Serves 4.

A Curry of Seasonal Greens

A seasonal assortment of winter greens, whether Black Tuscan kale, Swiss chard, collard greens or spinach, gives this simple, flavorful soup pleasingly fresh flavors and splendid nutritional value.

Curry Soup With Winter Greens

1 tablespoon avocado or safflower oil
1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2-3 teaspoons curry powder (mild or hot)
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 tablespoons jasmine or basmati rice
1/4 cup flaked nutritional yeast
6 cups greens (kale, chard, and spinach), chopped
1/4 cup stemmed cilantro

In a soup pot, combine oil, onion, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt over medium high heat and cook to the fragrance point (1-2 minutes). Add celery, potatoes, and sweet potato with 6 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer until vegetables are barely soft (12-15 minutes). Add curry powder and remaining salt to taste, then add raisins and rice. Return to a simmer and cook, covered, until rice is tender (18-20 minutes). Stir in nutritional yeast and greens, cover pan and cook until wilted (3-5 minutes). Adjust seasoning to taste and serve, garnished with cilantro. Serves four.

To our health!

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