Ruminations-and-Recipes-from-Elk-River

Quotes: 10/12 through 11/09

2009-11-10T10:23:00.002-08:00

October 12, 2009
"There is a light in this world: a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people, who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways."
– Richard Attenborough

October 19, 2009
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
~ Lao Tzu

October 26, 2009
“[O]ur future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.”
– Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States

November 2, 2009
“To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter. We each know where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon us and make our passage through the world more cumbersome and awkward. To live more simply is to unburden ourselves – to live more lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically. It is to establish a more direct, unpretentious, and unencumbered relationship with all aspects of our lives: the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the cosmos, and more. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. It means confronting life clearly, without unnecessary distractions. It means being direct and honest in relationships of all kinds. It means taking life as it is – straight and unadulterated.”
– Duane Elgin

November 9, 2009
“Underlying beliefs are the building blocks of your concept of heaven and your concept of hell. They show exactly how you think you would improve reality if you had your way, and how bad reality could look if your fears came true. To watch it all collapse, to discover that those painful beliefs that we’ve carried around for years are not true for us, that we’ve never needed them at all, is an incredibly freeing experience.”
– Byron Katie

Bread Recipes -- Free for the asking

2009-11-10T09:41:00.002-08:00

I've finished compiling all my bread recipes into one document. Including pizza dough, biscuits, and muffins, there are a total of 20 recipes, plus info on maintaining your sourdough starter (if you acquire one).

If you would like a copy of these recipes, email me at clairejosefine@wildblue.net and I'll email the PDF file to you.

More Inspirational Quotes

2009-10-08T13:32:00.001-07:00

Sept. 14, 2009
As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged on the shingly beach of a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.
– Stephen Graham

Sept. 21, 2009
“Life is as fleeting as a rainbow, a flash of lightning, a star at dawn. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?”
– Jack Kornfield

Sept. 28, 2009
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”
– E.F.Schumacher

October 5, 2009
Were all the year one constant sunshine, we
Should have no flowers,
All would be draught and leanness; not a tree
Would make us bowers;
Beauty consists in colors; and that’s best
Which is not fixed, but flies and flowers.
–Henry Vaughn

Quotes - 08/10 thru 09/07

2009-09-11T19:24:00.002-07:00

Oops, fell behind on posting these here! To receive these regularly, sign up at my web site: www.clairejosefine.com

Issue 39, August 17, 2009
“As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you."
– Mahatma Gandhi

Issue 40, August 24, 2009
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
– Albert Pike

Issue 41, August 31, 2009
"A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and industries mend their ways."
– Wendell Berry

Issue 42, Sept. 7, 2009
"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. … All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness, is a simple, frugal heart."
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba The Greek

Inspirational Quote -- week of August 10, 2009

2009-08-12T14:40:00.001-07:00

"You are not here to judge or know all the answers. You are here to be the creative conduit of heaven and earth, as Chinese Medicine likes to say, and dance with the great mystery of life. When you feel the pure wonder of the inner and outer realms coursing equally through your own veins, and experience your life as a series of joyful learning experiences, you are fully embodying your true nature. You become a cascade of gratitude, a font of appreciation for the majesty of life pouring through you."

-- Terah Kathryn Collins

Inspirational Quote -- week of August 3, 2009

2009-08-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

“The exploration of new ways of living that support new ways of being is a movement that arises from the awakening of compassion – the dawning realization that the fate of the individual is intimately connected with the fate of the whole.” – Ram Dass

Inspirational Quote -- week of July 27, 2009

2009-07-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

"Getting rid of the clutter is not about letting go of things that are meaningful to you. It’s about letting go of the things that no longer contribute to your life so you have the time and the energy and the space for the things that do."

– Elaine St. James

Inspirational Quote -- week of July 20, 2009

2009-07-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

"Grant me the ability to be alone.
May it be my custom to go
outdoors each day
among the trees and grasses,
among all growing things
and there may I be alone,
and enter into prayer
to talk with the one
that I belong to."

– Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav

Inspiration Quote - week of July 13, 2009

2009-07-14T11:44:00.002-07:00

“Our deepest fears are but dragons guarding our deepest treasures.”
– R.M. Rilke

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité -- and Organizing

2009-07-14T11:30:00.003-07:00

Happy Bastille Day!

The storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution is celebrated as a sort-of French 4th of July. Because the Bastille held both ammunition and political prisoners, its storming represents liberation from the oppression of monarchy.

For me, becoming organized is also liberating. Some people think of organizing as a restrictive straight-jacket, a set of rigid rules, too much oppressive order. But I prefer to think of organization as a life jacket, a tool that supports us as we navigate our way down life’s river.

The French motto is Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité – liberty, equality, and brotherhood. In honor of Bastille Day, I thought I’d look at the benefits of organizing from the motto’s perspective.

Liberté
I had a client once who was in charge of her psychologically-disabled sister’s estate. We worked together to organize all the paperwork associated with her sister, and were eventually able to put it all, neatly labeled and filed, in a portable file box. The day we finished, my client pranced gleefully, singing “Betty’s in a box! Betty’s in a box!” Now, when she wanted, she could hand over the responsibility for Betty* to someone else. Whoo-hoo! Freedom!

I have another client for whom we’ll be doing something similar. She currently handles all of the paperwork and finances for her 20-something-year-old son. In the course of organizing her office, one of our goals is to set up a paper-management system – again, self-contained in a portable file box – for all her son’s affairs. Her goal is to teach him how to use it and eventually turn it over to him, empowering him to make his own financial decisions and liberating her from the responsibility.

Egalité
Possibly because they’ve struggled to function as a right-brain creative sort in a left-brain culture, many artists scoff at organization as being dreadfully dull. One of my readers once wrote to me: “I have always detested neat, highly organized people. They are not like me. They made me feel faulty, inadequate, guilty, and so I pronounced them without creativity, spontaneity, or passion.” The rebellious artist rejects organization as antithetical to the creative process. And yet – organization supports art. Creation is easier when the artist can find her toys – her favorite camel-hair brush, the Italian hand painted blue bead, the silver glitter. Being able to find our toys – or really, our tools – put us on an even keel with our fellow craftsmen by enabling us to practice our craft without unnecessary hindrance.

Ditto for attorneys, or teachers, or healers, or carpenters, or chefs. Having our tools readily available allows us to do our job more effectively and helps create a level playing field – equality.

Fraternité
Brotherhood reminds us that we’re all in this together. My last principle – I have 12 Basic Principles of Being Organized, which are the focus of my book – is to Ask for Help. I remind people that we are not alone and we shouldn’t try to do it all ourselves. If those artists, attorneys, teachers, healers, carpenters, and chefs need help organizing, I can help them. The principles are universal across professions. But I can also help people get organized so that they can bring in help. Some people – especially entrepreneurs – need help setting up basic office systems so that a secretary or bookkeeper can come in and take the administrative load off, allowing the entrepreneur to focus on growing her business. Other people need their home decluttered and organized enough to allow a housekeeper to come in and help them with the cleaning. Or they need their kids’ areas organized so that they can start teaching their children how to be organized.

Why We Organize
In my book, The Spiritual Art of Being Organized, I write about why people get organized. Here’s an excerpt from the book:

Why get organized? What are the benefits to you? When I ask my clients this question, they toss back answers:
* so I can find things;
* so I can pay my bills on time;
* so I can have company over without feeling embarrassed;
* to feel happier, more peaceful and serene;
* o reduce stress;
* to save time and effort, make my life easier;
* so I can meet deadlines, improving my work performance and relationships with co-workers;
* to save money (on late fees, duplication of possessions);
* to make money;
* to improve the way my home (or office) looks and feels;
* to have more time to spend with my family and to do what I really want;
* to feel better about myself.

Artists, doctors, mothers, gardeners—I believe that each of us has gifts to offer, and a duty to offer them. Each of us brings something to the whole, to making the world a lovelier, safer, happier place. Being organized helps us share our gifts.

What, then, does it mean to be organized? For me, being organized means being able to access what we want quickly and easily. Organization does not require perfection, only that our systems are easy to use and maintain. Contrary to images of organized homes being the result of constant vigilance, organization is actually about being lazy; about making our lives easier. Rather than seeing organization as a dam that restricts our life’s river, think of it as the raft that supports us, that provides structure and a modicum of safety and control as we float (or ride rapids) downstream.

In fact, Class IV rapids are an excellent reason to become organized. Life happens. We lose our job, our health, a loved one. Or we become deeply involved in a creative project, a long and fabulous vacation, an all-consuming love affair. We have babies, move, return to school, start a business, write a book, change careers. Being organized helps us to survive, even thrive, as we ride through these transitional rapids.

In The Way of Zen, Alan Watts wrote, “If the wind were to stop for one second for us to catch hold of it, it would cease to be wind. The same is true of life. Perpetually things and events are moving and changing…. We can only understand life by keeping pace with it, by a complete affirmation and acceptance of its magic-like transformations and unending changes.” And, I would add, by being organized enough to flow with it.

So why get organized? Because, when all is said and done, being organized makes life easier.

Taking it to the Streets
Consider furthering the cause of liberty, equality, and brotherhood by reaching out to those being held prisoner by their disorganization. Do you know someone who is often running late? Losing things? Being assaulted with late fees? Complaining about being disorganized? Complaining about their spouse being disorganized? I don’t recommend ramming their gates with critical judgment – “Boy are you a mess! You should hire Claire!” – but a quiet coup de grace – mentioning that you know me and that I’ve helped hundreds of people, encouraging them to visit my web site and then call me… that would be one way you could make their lives easier and the world a better place. Together we can make the world a bit more lovely and whole.

*Not her real name

Inspiration Quote - week of July 6, 2009

2009-07-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

“Liberty is not license to do whatever you want to do. It is the freedom* to do what you ought to do.”
– Sylvia Boorstein, quoting a sign she saw somewhere

(*And, I would add, the responsibility to do what you ought. – Claire Josefine)

Inspirational Quotes June 2009

2009-07-09T19:25:00.002-07:00

Issue 28, June 1, 2009
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”
– Pablo Picasso

Issue 29, June 8, 2009
“Why is it that we yearn to be more or other than we are? It so rarely occurs to us that what we are looking for may be – indeed, always is – already within us, simply undiscovered.”
– from Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe

Issue 30, June 15, 2009
“[T]he making of money and the accumulation of things should not smother the purity of the soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of the family, or the good of the society.”
– Duane Elgin (paraphrasing David Shi)

Issue 31, June 22, 2009
“Observation of my life to date shows that the larger the number for whom I work, the more positively effective I become. Thus, it is obvious that if I work always and only for all humanity, I will be optimally effective.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller

Issue 32, June 29, 2009
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
– William James

Inspirational Quotes May 2009

2009-07-09T19:23:00.001-07:00

Issue 24, May 4, 2009
"When you come right down to it, all you have is yourself. The sun is a thousand rays in your belly. All the rest is nothing."
– Pablo Picasso

Issue 25, May 11, 2009
"He who will, Fates lead. He who won’t, they drag."
– Joseph Campbell

Issue 26, May 18, 2009
“Simplicity is the result of stopping the identification with so many desires.”
– Ram Dass

Issue 27, May 25, 2009
"Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."
– Arnold Toynbee

Inspirational Quotes April 2009

2009-07-09T19:19:00.002-07:00

Issue 20, April 8, 2009
"If you should be holding a sapling in your hand when they tell you the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling, then go out and greet him."
— Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakka

Issue 21, April 13, 2009
"Salvation is seeing that the universe is good, and becoming a part of that goodness." — Arthur G. Clutton-Brock

Issue 22, April 20, 2009
"I no longer expect things to make sense. I know there is no safety. But that does not mean there is no magic. It does not mean there is no hope. It simply means that each of us has reason to be wishful and frightened, aspiring and flawed. And it means that, to the degree we are lost, it is on the same ocean, in the same night."
— Elizabeth Kaye

Issue 23, April 27, 2009
"…there is an aesthetics of time that is violated when we live in constant rush, when our lives are a succession of agenda items, when we live like someone racing through the supermarket with a shopping list. To live well means giving things the time they deserve, be it time for the children, one’s spouse and lover, one’s friends, or the garden."
— from Graceful Simplicity by Jerome Segal

Inspirational Quotes March 2009

2009-07-09T19:12:00.002-07:00

Issue 15, March 2, 2009
“[W]hen the health of one part of the food chain is disturbed, it can affect all the other creatures in it. If the soil is sick or in some way deficient, so will be the grasses that grow in that soil and the cattle that eat the grasses and the people who drink the milk from them. … Our personal health cannot be divorced from the health of the entire food web.”
— from In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Issue 16, March 9, 2009
In Tales of the Hasidim, there is a story about Rabbi Baruch, who talked about three ways of bringing money to the zaddik, the head of the temple: “Some say to themselves, ‘I’ll give him something. I am the kind of person who brings gifts to the zaddik.’ Others think, ‘If I give gifts to this devout man, it will profit me hereafter.’ They want heaven to pay them interest. It is a loan. But there are some who know: ‘God has put this money in my hand for the zaddik, and I am his messenger.’ These serve with full and open heart.”
— Ram Dass

Issue 17, March 16, 2009
"Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy."
— Elizabeth Gilbert

Issue 18, March 23, 2009
“A mystery is that special kind of problem which has no solutions because the more we understand it, the more we see that we don’t understand. In mysteries, knowledge and ignorance advance lockstep. As known unknowns become known, unknown unknowns proliferate; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
– Huston Smith

Issue 19, March 30, 2009
Our life is shorter than flowers
Then shall we mourn?
No, we shall dance
Plant gardens
Dress in colors
And teach our children
To make the world more beautiful
Because our life is shorter than flowers.
— Toltec fragment

Inspirational Quotes February 2009

2009-07-09T19:07:00.002-07:00

Issue 11, February 2, 2009
“The free man, the person who refuses to rule himself according to the tutelage of the market, may choose different satisfactions: time instead of things, happiness instead of wealth. If so, the productive capacity of nations will have to be diminished or production will have to be described in a different way, revalued, like something brought out of a long sojourn in darkness and suddenly exposed to light. Wisdom could become more valuable than widgets. Professors and poets would become the wealth of nations.”
— from A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture by Earl Shorris

Issue 12, February 9, 2009
"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."
— Mahatma Gandhi

Issue 13, February 16, 2009
“We are each responsible for the conduct of our lives – and we are each unique. Therefore we are each uniquely responsible for our actions and choices in this pivotal time in human evolution. There is no one who can take our place. We each weave a singular strand in the web of life. No one else can weave that strand for us. What we each contribute is distinct, and what we each withhold is uniquely irreplaceable.

More than anything else, the outcome from this time of planetary transition will depend on the choices that we make as individuals.”
— Duane Elgin

Issue 14, February 23, 2009
“When someone steals a man’s clothes we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has not shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”
— Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, around 365 A.D.

Inspirational Quotes January 2009

2009-07-09T19:01:00.002-07:00

Issue 7, January 5, 2009
"When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly."
— Patrick Overton

Issue 8, January 12, 2009
"I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run."
— Henry David Thoreau

Issue 9, January 19, 2009
"The poor long for riches and the rich for heaven, but the wise long for a state of tranquility."
– Swami Rama

Issue 10, January 26, 2009
"There is no spiritual practice more profound than being kind to one’s family, neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, an unexpected visitor, the person who does the laundry or picks up the garbage, or any other of the usually 'invisible' people whose paths we cross in the course of a normal day."
— from It’s A Meaningful Life – It Just Takes Practice by Bo Lozoff

Inspirational Quotes Nov/Dec. 2008

2009-07-09T18:45:00.002-07:00

In late November of 2008, I began sending a weekly inspirational quote (via email) to over 200 people. The quotes focus on simplicity and spirituality.

I recently realized that I should post those quotes to this blog, too. So here they are, by month (for the most part). Once I've caught up with the past quotes, I will start posting them here each week when I send them out. Meanwhile, if you'd like to receive the weekly email, send a request to ClaireJosefine@wildblue.net. And if you know of anyone else who might appreciate receiving these quotes, please, let them know!

Blessings, and enjoy --

Claire

Issue 1, November 24, 2008
"In truth, it is not the number and diversity of our possessions that are the problems but our attachment to them. When the attachment grows thin and the filament breaks, then we discover that we do not really want so much anymore. What we need to relinquish, therefore, is our attachment to possessions and experiences, not the things themselves. The freedom we are all seeking is freedom from the fear of losing what we believe we own."
– from Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe

Issue 2, December 1, 2008
"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
– George Eliot

Issue 3, December 8, 2008
"[Think of] God playing hide and seek with himself, remembering himself, then dismembering himself into the myriad roles played by sentient beings… All bodies are the clothes of the one and only Self in its innumerable disguises, and the whole universe is a masquerade ball pretending to be a tragedy and then realizing it’s a ball."
– Alan Watts

Issue 4, December 15, 2008
"The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp."
– John Berry

Issue 5, December 22, 2008
"God is more glorified by a man who uses the good things of this life in simplicity and with gratitude than by the nervous asceticism of someone who is agitated about every detail of his self-denial. … His [the latter’s] struggle for perfection becomes a kind of battle of wits with the Creator who made all things good."
– Thomas Merton

Issue 6, December 29, 2008
“It can be said that the Earth is a mask of God which appears in many contradictions – good and evil, refined and coarse, alive and dead, enduring and transitory. But behind this cover of plurality is God’s oneness. The boulder and the soap bubble are identical. Stupidity is only crippled wisdom. The dead aren’t dead, the departed haven’t vanished. God lives, and everything that comes from Him is alive. Darkness is only dimmed light. The wrongs are disguised mercies.

Why did God require this concealment? … God bestowed upon the people of the Earth – which is the lowest and darkest of all the worlds – a gift that no other world could have received: free will, the freedom to choose between good and evil. In the higher spheres, God’s light is too radiant to allow doubt and error.”
– from Reaches of Heaven by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Uber Bread

2009-04-16T13:33:00.001-07:00

I’ve been working on eating a low(er)-glycemic diet. Toward this end, I’ve modified my multi-grain bread recipe into what I call my Uber Bread – the ultimate in healthy, tasty, dense bread.

Soak ½ cup of wheat and/or oat berries overnight. In the morning, drain them, then put them in a pot with fresh water, bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour. Remove from heat and allow to cool to tepid.

Once the berries have cooled, combine and proof
2 teaspoons yeast
2 Tablespoons honey
3 Tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces liquid (I use 1 cup room-temperature milk and ½ cup of the liquid that I cooked the berries in)

Once the yeast has proofed, mix in
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour
½ cup oat bran
½ cut wheat bran
½ cup flax meal
½ cup oats
the cooked berries
1-plus cups white flour (as needed to knead)

Knead until dough is smooth and springy.

Coat with olive oil, cover, and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place. (This might take a couple of hours.)

Once doubled in bulk, punch down and knead again. Divide in half and form two loaves. Sprinkle a pizza stone with coarse cornmeal (I use polenta) and place the loaves on it. Cover and allow to rise a second time. Once risen, place in a 350-degree oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

A Few Passover Recipes

2009-04-13T14:46:00.002-07:00

Feels like I've been cooking all week!

I hosted a seder for nine people last Wednesday for the first night of Pesach, and attended a friend's very abbreviated seder last night.(Mostly it was a dinner party that used Passover as an excuse to gather, although we did tell the Exodus story and eat all the ceremonial foods, so I guess it counts as a seder.)

My charoset (which is chunky, not paste-like) is delicious, and at least one friend says it's the best she's ever had. Also, both the desserts I made were a big hit. So here, in my inimitable style, are the recipes for those three dishes. There's still two more nights of Passover, if you want to give them a try. Or heck, eat them any old time of the year!

Charoset
Finely chop and combine:
2 apples
approx. 1/2 cup raisins
approx. 1/2 cup dates
approx. 1/4 cup dried cherries
1 orange
approx. 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and cloves
moisten with kosher blackberry wine or grape juice. If using grape juice, squeeze in the juice from half a Meyer's lemon, too.
Mix well and let sit, covered and refrigerated, for several hours so the flavors mingle nicely.

Serve as a fruit salad, or as a Hillel sandwich (matzah with horseradish and charoset).

Claire's Passover Sachertorte

Preheat oven to 325

Butter the bottom -- but not the sides -- of a 9 inch spring form pan

Melt 5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Guittard)

Beat 5 egg whites until stiff

Cream
3/4 cup sugar (although I used about 1/2 cup of agave nectar)
3/4 cup butter
either 1 teaspoon orange rind, or a splash of orange liqueur (I used Triple Sec)
3/4 cup finely ground almond meal
5 egg yolks

Beat in the melted chocolate

Gradually fold in the stiff egg whites

Pour into spring form pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

Top with a chocolate glaze:
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
another splash of orange liqueur (or 1 Tablespoon orange rind)

Once cooled, add cherries or raspberries, or a raspberry coulee

Almond/Chocolate Lace Cookies
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt:
1/2 cup (one cube) butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons 1/2 'n 1/2
1 Tablespoon flour

When melted, stir in
3/4 cup finely ground almond meal

Place 5 or 6 teaspoons of batter on a well-greased and floured baking sheet. Give them lots of space, because they'll spread out wide and thin.

Bake for about 8 minutes. Remove, allow to cool for a minute or so, then place face down on a paper towel to finish cooling. Repeat with the rest of the batter. You should wind up with 24 to 30 cookies in all.

Once all the cookies are baked and cooled, drizzle them with chocolate made by melting about 1 ounce of cocoa butter and 4 to 5 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips together.

Place the chocolate-drizzled cookies in the fridge so the chocolate can harden.

Devour.

Pies! Pumpkin, Pecan, and Mince (sort of)

2008-11-27T10:08:00.001-08:00

Here are three Thanksgiving pie recipes that are healthier than the usual versions – and tastier, too!

Pumpkin Pie

(I use fresh pumpkin – cut a small sugar pumpkin open, remove the seeds and gook, then bake, covered, until soft. Scrape the pie meat away from the shell, compost the shell, and use the meat.)

Puree in a blender:
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups half and half
½ to ¾ cup honey
2 Tablespoons molasses (Aunt Patty’s, unsulphured)
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Pour into a single pie crust (basic recipe is 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, and 5 or so Tablespoons cold water or milk – can jazz up with a bit of spices and sugar)

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes or so, until the pumpkin has set and is beginning to crack. Cool before eating.

Pecan Pie (without corn syrup!)

Beat together:
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup agave nectar
5 Tablespoons melted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups pecans (lightly toasted)

Pour into a single pie crust (see above recipe for pumpkin pie) and bake at 350 until done.
Cool before eating.

Also, I tried an experiment that came out pretty good. This is a general guideline, not a recipe as such. I think of it as my Sort-of Mock Mince Pie

Combine:
4 to 5 sliced, peeled apples
About a cup of dried fruit of your choice. I had figs, cranberries, cherries, and raisins on hand, so that’s what I used.
Season with cinnamon and cloves
Splash in some brandy (maybe ¼ cup?)
Throw in some pecan pieces

This one has both a bottom and top crust, decorated as you wish. Bake for 10 minutes at 450, then reduce heat to 350 until golden brown – about 45 or 50 minutes. Cool before eating.

Creamed Spinach, Garlic Kale, White Beans, and Creamy Polenta

2008-11-13T22:09:00.001-08:00

Oy, two months already since I last wrote? Okay, I’m a lousy blogger. But then, I’m not writing to be a blogger; I’m writing to share my thoughts, recipes, and life with whoever’s out there reading. (Hello? Anybody there?)

Garden update: Except for micro-slug damage, the winter veggies are doing well. The garlic has sent up its leaves, and the greens are beginning to show up at the dinner table. I’ve harvested the first round of spinach, plucking the largest leaves from the outer edges of each plant. Made an amazingly delicious creamed spinach by wilting the spinach, then covering it with a bechamel sauce (make a roux from 2 tablespoons each of melted butter and flour, then add about a cup of milk and stir it in until thickened) seasoned with a packet of Simply Organic’s onion soup mix.

I’ve also made one meal from the kale – sautéing it with garlic and serving it with white beans and creamy polenta. To make the white beans, soak 1 cup of them overnight, then:

Sauté one chopped onion
Add the beans
Add sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage
Add whole, peeled garlic (an entire head)
Add just enough water to cover the beans

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, covered, for a couple of hours, or until the beans have softened.

If you’d like, add two Aidel’s chicken apple sausages, sliced into ½ inch pieces, about ½ hour before the beans are done.

Serve the beans with the garlic kale over creamy polenta:

Bring 4 cups of liquid to a boil. I use 3 cups of chicken broth and one cup of milk or cream.
Add 1 cup of polenta
Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly for five minutes, then reduce heat further, to a simmer, and continue stirring regularly for 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is asbsorbed and the polenta has thickened.
Stir in ½ cup of mild grated cheese – I like fontina or jack
Add one small diced red bellpepper
Remove from heat and serve

Reheated polenta for lunch:
A client of mine turned me on to this. She takes a slice of leftover polenta and heats it briefly in the microwave. (Not owning – or wanting – a microwave, I use the toaster oven.) Then she drizzles olive oil on it and sprinkles it with pepper, toasted sunflower seeds, and a bit of grated parmesan cheese. Yum!

Farmer’s market only has two more Saturdays before it closes for the winter. Luckily, the garden is like a mini farmer’s market. Waiting patiently for me to choose them are beets, chard, kale, and spinach. And I saw the beginnings of a broccoli.

Also, the apples are ready to harvest. I’ll probably wind up drying them or making applesauce. They’re Fujis, and don’t taste very good. No doubt some of them will wind up in the Thanksgiving stuffing, and possibly in a pie. I’m thinking about taking some pears a friend canned that are too sweet for my taste and making a pie with them, apples, figs, cranberries, brandy, cinnamon and cloves, and I’m not sure what else.

Veggie Songs

2008-09-11T13:52:00.001-07:00

Peas squeak.

Seriously. When I pick the snow peas from the vine and place them in my hand, they gently rub against each other and produce a squeaking sound. It’s quite charming.

The green beans are quieter, issuing a small percussive snap when I break them free. Although would somebody please remind me next spring that I’m fonder of the idea of yellow wax beans than of the taste? I think there must be something about leaving the beans on the vine long enough to yellow that causes them to get a bit too starchy and tough. The Haricots Verts, however, are delicious: fresh and crunchy.

The sound of dill is softer yet. I picked a paper-lunch-bag full of dill leaves and set them out to dry, the whole time telling the dill how wonderful it smelled and that I was grateful for it; that it would be used well in spanakopita and zucchini latkes, in bread, and maybe even on fish.

And snails make a satisfying (if guilt-ridden) smack as they hit the pavement, having been launched over the fence once discovered hiding among the bean leaves.

This morning was dedicated to harvest. I walked over to the neighbors and picked up two dozen eggs, five of which I gathered directly from the hen house. (The cackling and carrying on of chickens is its own symphony of sorts.) While there, I helped myself (upon my neighbor’s invitation) to zucchini: four little, four medium, and one huge honker (for stuffing). Three small tomatoes made their way home with me, too, destined for tonight’s pizza. Then I wandered into my own garden, from which I harvested ½ pound each of peas and green beans, the bag of dill, and two bouquets worth of flowers (mostly dahlias).

Meanwhile, a loaf of oatmeal bread was baking. And later today I’ll wander over to the cows’ side of the pasture to collect blackberries. I’ve picked and frozen four one-pound bags so far, but would be happier with more. I love blackberries.

But what I love even more is gathering, and eating from my surroundings. I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle right now (I’m in June), and am absolutely loving it. She’s a wonderful writer, and her attitude is refreshing. I wind up comparing her year-long experiment of eating only local food with Judith Levine’s Not Buying It. Where Levine came from a place of deprivation, Kingsolver embraces the challenge with a mindset of abundance and gratitude. And her daughter’s recipes are enticing – I will definitely be trying them. In fact, the book may wind up living on my cookbook shelf once I’m done.

Not that I’m ready to take the localvore pledge, but that’s mostly because of the dearth of local grains where I live. But I eat mostly local food, and of that, probably 90% organic.

In fact, one of the things that amuses me as I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the differences in crop availability. Kingsolver lives in a region that has seasons – snow, even. She also has more heat than we do here on the coast. My god, she’s talking about teasing tomatoes ripe in mid June! Here it is mid September, and my tomatoes are still little green guys. (My neighbor has a warmer garden plot, shielded from the wind, and his tomatoes are up against a wall that adds reflected heat. Hence he has some ripe already.) I can’t even think about growing hot-weather crops: melons, peppers, eggplant… Of course, I’m allergic to them, so for me it doesn’t matter.

Also, everything seems to be late this year. The first of my sunflowers just opened its sunny face today. And most of my dahlias are tight buds. Hopefully this means it’s not too late for me to put in the winter garden. I planted broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, chard, spinach, and onion starts on Sunday.

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My goodness, searching through my posts to provide links to recipes, I realized that I never shared my recipe for spanakopita. I apologize! Here it is:

Wilt one pound of cleaned spinach leaves.

Transfer the spinach to a large bowl and add:

8 ounces crumbled feta
one bunch of scallions, chopped
dill (about 1/2 cup fresh, or two Tablespoons dried)
mint (about1/4 cup fresh, or one Tablespoon dried)
nutmeg (just a light sprinkling)
Pepper (to taste)

You can also add:
toasted pine nuts (about 1/4 cup)
cottage cheese (to give it more bulk, up to 8 ounces)

Melt 4 Tablespoons butter and 4 Tablespoons olive oil together.

Brush the bottom of a square pyrex with the butter/oil.

Now begin the layering/buttering process with the phyllo dough, one sheet at a time, until you have about a dozen buttered sheets in the dish. Place your spinach/feta/herbs mixture on top of the phyllo, then proceed to cover it, one buttered sheet at a time, for another 8 to 12 sheets. Tuck it all in, brush the top with yet more butter, and bake at 350 until golden brown.

Warning: the measurements here are off the top of my head. You may need to tweak them. As always, I'm assuming you know how to cook and am offering the recipe as a guide.

Being Prepared

2008-09-06T22:53:00.003-07:00

September is National Preparedness Month.

Just yesterday, a couple of my fellow organizers and I wrote up an informational press release to help members of our community be prepared, just in case. Ironically, tonight when I came home from dinner out with a friend, I discovered that I had no running water. Apparently the water tank has run very low and, this being a dry (drought) year, the well has been inadequate in its duty of keeping the storage tank topped off. Oy. I’ve put a call in to Puryear water delivery so that Bill Puryear can bring me a load of water to refill the tank, which will set me back about a 100 bucks.

Luckily, I have water stashed here and there, enough to get through until Bill comes to save the day. And once I remembered that I have water stashed, I stopped stressing about the pipes being dry. Once again, I have everything I need for this instant, and can be grateful that all really is okay.

So, for your amusement and benefit, here are the preparedness tips that we wrote up yesterday. Hope they help you.

Prepare a communication plan. This includes important contact information for family and friends, and who will contact whom. Remember, if the power goes out and your phone cell dies, you will be without your phone list. So keep a written hard copy and an old-fashioned non-electric telephone handy.

Agree upon a reunion plan. Where will you meet, and when?

Stock up on the necessities of life. The general rule of thumb is three days and three nights of provisions to get you through 72 hours of living without electricity. (In Humboldt County, you may want to plan for longer outages.) Don’t forget your pets! Necessary provisions include one gallon of water per person per day, basic grains, and ready-to-eat, non-perishable food. Remember to include a manual can opener.

Pretend you’re camping. Have a camp stove, fuel, water purification system, a flashlight, extra batteries, candles, waterproof matches, toiletries, and a first aid kit readily accessible. (You may want to keep another first aid kit in your car, too.)

Don’t forget your medications. Advice varies, but we suggest having a two-week supply of all important prescriptions available. Remember to rotate them each time you refill your prescription so that they don’t expire.

Create a Grab and Go bag. This contains a change of clothes (extra underwear for children), jackets, blankets, basic toiletries, a picture of each family member, high-protein bars, bottled water, and your essential documents file. (For more information on creating a documents file, see below.)

Have a radio with extra batteries. A NOAA weather radio is a good idea, especially if you’re in a tsunami zone. Either way, tune to KHUM at 104.3 or 104.7 FM for excellent live local coverage.

How to Create a Documents File:

What goes in a documents file?

Anything that would be a nuisance to replace. This includes:

A copy of all the cards in your wallet, front and back.

A copy of your driver's license.

Your passport.

Other vital documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, adoption papers, naturalization papers, your social security card.

A copy of your most recent insurance policies.

Photos of your valuable possessions.

Photos of your pets and other family members.

Your vehicles' pink slips.

Any other deeds showing title to property.

A copy of your most recent tax return.

A copy of your "just in case" data -- all that information someone would need to pick up the pieces if anything happened to you. (You can purchase my e-booklet, Organizing Your Estate, which takes you through the steps for compiling this data. Go to www.wintersdaughterpress.com and click on e-books.)

Gleaning Fruit for the People

2008-09-03T12:13:00.003-07:00

Yesterday’s Times-Standard had an article that made me think: Finally!

It’s a simple story about a woman who has the local food bank send in a volunteer gleaner to harvest the abundance of apples on her trees so that the fruit can go to people who need food.

Years ago, when I lived in San Rafael (Marin County, California), I would walk around my extended neighborhood and wonder at the plethora of produce wasting away on people’s unharvested trees. So much food! Apples, plums, figs, pomegranates, lemons, pears … why wasn’t anyone harvesting this? It seemed to me that there must be a way to have the fruit picked and distributed to those who were hungry. But no, I guess people were too concerned about their liability to have anyone come in and pick the trees clean.

Ah, but this is Humboldt County, not Marin. Not only does our local Food for People provide volunteer gleaners, it is part of the national Plant a Row for the Hungry program. As explained in the Times-Standard article, “Gardeners are asked to plant an extra row of food and donate it to Food for People, the food bank for Humboldt County. The purpose of the program is to ensure that everyone has access to the healthiest food choices available.”

Back in those Marin County days, times got tight. There was a period when my partner and I found ourselves needing the help of the local services. The saying “beggars can’t be choosers” was right on; the contents of the grocery bags we received were far from the healthy foods we tried our best to eat. Fresh organic produce? In our dreams. So I’m particularly pleased that programs exist to bring those apples (and whatever else folks plant or can’t keep up with themselves) to people needing help with groceries.

And who knows, with a bit of luck (and a lot more sweat), my garden may start producing enough to share with others! I’m excited – I got a worm bin for my birthday! And, I discovered yesterday, bats have finally moved into the bat house. So we’ve put a tray below their abode to catch their guano. Worm castings and bat guano – exciting shit.