Beets and words for 2014

Fresh beets ready to be eaten!

I am absolutely loving the CSA, community supported agriculture, boxes that we have been getting the past 2 weeks. Why wouldn’t this be a great thing? We are getting food directly from the farmer. There is absolutely no middle person. And the best part of it all- it tastes SO GOOD! My friend Caroline and her husband Carlos have an amazing farm just a couple miles from where we live. They have been starting seeds and growing food for us and other members of their CSA since the weather cooled down a bit, even before then in a covered “greenhouse” near their kitchen. I love going to their house- there is always new stuff growing in the garden just outside the door, chickens incubating in a box in the kitchen, and babies babies babies crawling around! They are parents to 3 adventurous toddlers, twins an their older brother, all under the age of 3. They are not only able to create an incredible family, but food for the community as well. Thanks friends!  Check out Caroline’s blog at Rancho Amanecer! I’ve also posted pictures here of the lovely beet dish I made  Monday for lunch just after we got our box of veggies- the beets were as fresh as fresh can be and tasted delicious! I sautéed cubed beets in some olive oil and several cloves of chopped garlic for about 10 minutes, then I chopped up the beet greens and added those and the stems in the pan for another 3 minutes- then we ate! I have to make a note here too that Parula was incredibly energized that afternoon, after having eaten such a power packed lunch. Her gymnastics teacher made a comment that she had the energy of 3 kids that afternoon in class. She was non-stop running around, cartwheeling and climbing the rope at the gym for an hour an a half. The only thing I can attribute that to is the beets- she only ate breakfast (oatmeal) and lunch (the beet dish), so I’m going to attribute her super energy to the super CSA beets!

Sauteed beet greens and beets with olive oil and garlic

Now for a bit of New Year’s talk. I just want to point out what an incredible time this is, especially this year. The new moon synchronized with the new year for 2014, quite an auspicious time. This is the perfect time to be setting intentions, manifestations, goals, hopes, and dreams for this year. Just thinking about the energy you want to bring into your life is going to make it more possible. There is nothing to stand in your way but yourself. Clarify, write it down, align yourself with your intentions. One of the easiest ways for me to see if my energy is in line with my thoughts is by writing it down. I can easily feel if something is moving in the direction I want it to if I write down my thoughts, reread, and notice how I feel in my body when I read it. Do I feel any tension anywhere in my body? Is there anything that needs to be released- any emotions that come up and are preventing me from moving forward? Am I excited when I read what I've written? I may not read what I’ve written immediately. I might forget about it and read it again in a couple of weeks, months, years. When I do end up reading it again I notice- do I still have those feelings, did I accomplish those goals, were the items on my list met, am I still attempting to meet those aspirations and if so, how is it going? I have a couple of different journals for different purposes, and I always love going back and looking to see if I’ve followed through with ideas I've had, if and how they've manifested, and how my energy has changed/shifted. For example- my husband and I started a journal to record our thoughts about our “dream house” that we will someday build. I think lots of people have things like this- they might look a little different- but I'm sure there are many people who dream of living in a house that is made to optimize they way in which they live. There are written descriptions, pictures we’ve drawn, checklists of things to accomplish, and books and websites we have looked at/visited. It is great to review this journal, become re-inspired and see what we have accomplished so far (house sold in Maine- check!) We are constantly adding to it as well, the book isn't full yet! I have another journal where I record things that my kids do and say. This is a great book to look back at over the years and see what craziness comes forth as my children grow. There are many things that I've written down that I surely would have forgotten by now, but so glad I have the reminder to go back and share with them and have a good laugh! 

So these are my words to start the new year. Enjoy the moments, record some of them, reflect and share the love- because-

 YOU    ARE     LOVE!!!!!

Sorrel's Juice

Fresh, local ingredients

My son, Sorrel, just came up with the most delicious combination for juice this week. After a long, dry bout at the beach with his sister and a new (older and more responsible) friend, he fantasized about the wonderful cold drink that would be concocted upon his arrival home. He imagined all the ingredients he knew we had in the house, and viola! I put them all together (with a bit a skepticism) and it turned out to be incredible! Re-hydrating, refreshing, cold, FRESH, LOCAL, and very satisfying! I made it again today, and it wasn't just a one time thing- it's actually good when one is not starving, thirsty beyond belief and lacking energy. We each had a glass and then my kids went to gymnastics, which turned out to be a huge fiesta for christmas. Glad we got the good juice in them before the cake made its way down the hatch! Here is the recipe and pictures. Because we live in the tropics, we have fresh watermelon, strawberries, and oranges right now, as well as raw cocoa powder from Mexico….so I guess its more of a spring/summer drink for those everywhere else….Enjoy!




Sorrel's Juice:
1/2 of a medium sized watermelon
Juice of 2 oranges
2 handfuls of strawberries (you can blend the greens)
1 heaping TBSP of raw cocoa powder
4 ice cubes

Vegan Coconut Chia pudding

My kids have a new favorite. Vegan Coconut Chia Pudding. Thanks to my friend Joella for sharing this recipe- I have tweaked it a bit, of course all recipes should be tweaked according to what ingredients you have available. My kids LOVE this snack- it is full of good fiber (chia seeds) and just the right amount of saturated fats (from the coconut milk), which is great for growing vegan kids!

Recipe for Vegan Coconut Chia Pudding:
1 can of organic coconut milk
1/3 cup chia seeds (whole)
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp maple syrup or other sweetener of choice- (raw honey, raw agave syrup, coconut palm sugar)

Put all ingredients in a container that has a top (I use a canning jar) stir, and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I often make it in the evening and don't tell my family about it until the next day, when it is fair food for all! The chia seeds expand and consistency is just like pudding. If you don't have cardamom try cinnamon, nutmeg, or some other combo. My kids usually eat about 3 tablespoons of the pudding and then decide they are full, so this can last a couple of days depending on the number in your household. This was a great snack while visiting family, as the ingredients are pretty simple, easily purchased (sometimes too many options for coconut milk, bulk spices, and who in the northeast DOESN'T have maple syrup?). Our relatives don't touch it because they have no idea what is white in their fridge that ISN'T milk or mayonnaise- but maybe they will try it someday and realize how great it is….

Enjoy!

Reflections on travel

It has been a few weeks since we've stopped driving driving driving, visiting, driving, visiting, driving. We drove from our home in Todos Santos, pacific coast of southern Baja, and went as far north as Rye, New Hampshire, and back. There were many marathon days of driving, many days of visiting family, friends, and exploring familiar and unfamiliar places. We slid up the garage door of our storage unit and emptied it out, slid it closed one last time and took the lock with us. We drove our "things" with us in a trailer that we towed from Manchester, Connecticut, all the way back to our home in Todos Santos. There wasn't any pleasurable stopping along the way from Manchester, CT to the pacific, unless for diesel or coffee, or sleep (yeah, that's a nice thing to do), until we reached Capitola, California on September 11. It was my goal to reach the pacific again by that date as I began a 2 day gathering with amazing powerful women on September 12.

Let me begin with our early journey. We left TS August 1. After a night stuck in salt flats just outside of Lapaz (gotta begin the adventure somewhere), we managed to find the most beautiful, serene camping on Bahia Conception just south of Mulege. This is the last place where the transpeninsular highway kisses the majestic Gulf of California (a.k.a. Sea of Cortez, named after the persistent Spanish conquerer). The air temp read 100 degreees F outside and 98 inside, with really only a 1 degree change between night and day. There wasn't much sleeping going on in our van that night. We so graciously picked up a colony of ants from the beach here, probably some sort of endemic species.....(oops), and carried them to San Diego, Las Vegas, and then Denver where we poisoned them (thanks for the hospitality friends!) Hope we don't offset some balance somewhere, although humans are doing a pretty good job of screwing things up in the U.S., very systematically, so what are a few ants from down south gonna do?

sunrise. bahia conception. my family admiring the wafting heat in the stillness. must. get. up and out. before the sun!

We spent some much needed time out of the van while catching up and visiting with friends we haven't seen since their wedding 4 years previous. Good times. We drove our final day from Toledo, OH to Glastonbury, CT and we were able to catch James's grandma's family birthday dinner. We discovered that there are indeed some pretty kick ass insects in Connecticut, too. Oh, and while i'm on insects, there are certainly more species of ticks here in the arroyo on the Tropic of Cancer in Baja, then any place i've ever been. These bugs are sucking my poor dogs' blood, biting them, engorging themselves, nesting in cracks right next to the places where they lie. They are some real crazy insects, that is for sure. Did you know ticks have 6 legs in their nymph stage and 8 in adult stage? I've really been loving nerding out on bugs recently.....

beautiful. resting in the damp gravel driveway at French Creek Sheep and Wool in rural pennsylvania. 

So my goal to reflect on traveling is not really turning into what I thought it would. Distractions, unpacking treasures that have been locked up in storage for up to 2 years. I am happy to be home, this place, with amazing prehistoric birds soaring in the sky, Mexicans revving up their engines for many minutes at a time, church bells ringing and happy familiar faces of friends. I saw "Bruce Almighty" recently and would say the word "good" like Bruce does. My favorite thing about traveling is not all of the adventures, mishaps, almosts, and panic that ensues while on the move, but coming home at the end and absolutely loving where you live!

home. playing the sax in the afternoon light on the patio. 

Homemade "Orangina"

I very accidentally just made something that is a wonderful discovery! I juiced several oranges for a dessert I am making for my husband's birthday....Raw Orange and Ginger Glazed Donuts

I am also making Raw Cherry Tarts with Hazelnut Crust, but with strawberries, because I have lots of fresh strawberries, no cherries.  

I think it will be pretty darn good though. I always have my own "available ingredients" alterations on recipes. I haven't gotten to taste much yet, so I will have to get back to you on how that goes. However, in general I am yet to have the raw desserts fail me. Even if they look nothing like the picture that is shown with the recipe (which they always inevitably do the first few times), they do taste darn good! My opinion has shifted to believing that raw desserts actually taste way better, with much more flavor and sweetness than baked goods.

Anyway, back to why I am writing this. I juiced the oranges, but had way more oranges than I needed- already had the citrus juicer out so I juiced the rest. I gave the juice to James (my husband), he drank a sip or two, but I noticed he put it down. I decided to give it a taste. It was pretty tart. It needed something. We have some "agua mineral" (carbonated water) in our house at the moment. I poured half a glass into the o.j., added a few drops of organic agave nectar and BAM! I was back in the mall at age 8, after my mom had her hair cut on the top floor of Bloomingdales at the King of Prussia mall. My treat afterwards was always one of those cool teardrop shaped bottles of "Orangina". This tasted way better today though. I have this childhood attachment to the drink, but after drinking it once last year, I was so disappointed in all the other flavors my mouth was noticing, I vowed never to drink it again. It is full of all other ingredients, including my favorite "natural flavor".  But THIS is really good, tastes so similar, but only has 3 ingredients, all ones I can control where they come from! You should try it if you are an "Orangina" fan but don't want all the other stuff that comes with that flavor (and besides, they don't use those cool bottles anymore either).

HomeMade "Orangina"

1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice (preferably from organic oranges)
1 cup of carbonated water
1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar (or organic sweetener of choice)

Stir and enjoy (preferably in the sun)

Enjoy!

Loyalty

Loyalty.  The spanish word for it is lealtad or fidelidad. Wikipedia defines it as faithfullness or a devotion to a person, group, country or cause. I just had a realization that this day has had a theme showing loyal qualities in people or other living beings that I have been noticing. Perhaps this is a quality that is always present in such form, it is just that today I chose to notice and appreciate.

The presence of loyalty began when talking to my husband about how we have been deceived in the past by someone we believed to be loyal to us- a person we had trusted, had become a good friend to our children, who we had entrusted our safety and well being with. They turned around and ran as fast as they could, stealing money, tools and our loyalty to humans beyond our family. It has taken us some time to get back to a place of feeling a loyalty towards people we meet and take a "friending" to. We just up and moved to another country, leaving behind all those we may have loyalty to, and have had to make our way in a new place, with skepticism towards loyalty lurking around the corner. There has still been no clear verdict in the case, but I have a feeling I know where my loyalty will lay, and I certainly know where it will not ever rest!

This evening the kids and I went to the beach to watch the sunset and have some chips and guacamole and dogs run around, and kids jump, run, tumble, and chase in the sand. We arrived at the spot with just  enough sun left to enjoy food, play a bit, enjoy food, play some more, see the amazing colors of the sky, and still get home with some light left. Upon arriving we pulled up to another van on the beach- our friends Kurtis and Joella, who run the only health food store in town. They are young, hip folks who also have 3 dogs. One is huge- a bull mastiff named Charlie. The other two are little guys- ShooShoo and Yoda- a Bijon and long-haired Chihauha respectively. The little white dogs play a lot with each other. I have always seen Charlie more on his own, not as interactive with the other dogs, more with people. I discovered tonight that Charlie is 100% loyal to Kurtis. While he surfed, Charlie sat on the beach, wearing Kurtis's shirt by the way, watching him swim in the ocean, so intent and focused. When Kurtis would swim to another break, Charlie would follow on shore, further south or north along the beach. He would then lay down and rest his head on his paws, watching very intently. This was such an amazing act! Maybe this is common, but looking around at my 3 dogs- Pia was constantly nudging  a stick (or really a small shred of bark) into my lap, her loyalty to the object very apparent. River and Dali both celebrated this night on the beach- after a week of partying Mexicans in this spot, the beach is completely coated in leftover food, firepits, and poopy toilet paper. We weren't at the beach for these two dogs, we were in heaven! Anyway, my dogs were certainly lacking in the loyalty department compared to the devoted Charlie!

My kids running up the dune. Charlie's silhouette, loyally watching the little figure in the ocean.

My post kids-in-bed routine involves technology details- finding inspirations to post on Facebook, reading articles that seem interesting that I've gotten emailed links to, yadayadayada...my "homework" if you will. In tonight's findings, one Facebook post I found was a picture of a woman looking into the eyes of a dog, who looks very wolf-like, very much like our River dog. On the picture says "When I look into the eyes of an animal I see a living being. I see a friend. I feel a soul." A.D. Williams. I couldn't help but think about Charlie and his loyalty.

Kids attempting the silly face picture- Charlie in the back left, watching intently while wearing Kurtis's shirt. Dali to the right sniffing for more food.

Whey to go!

The puns keep flowing in all aspects of my life- from ecology, to balls, to food. Oi!
My latest project has been fermenting dairy. I never thought I'd get to this place. I don't really know how it happened. But here I am. In a past life (before going to nutrition school, and definitely before meeting James) I ate cheese by the pound. I remember having a "cheese party" with my friends in college, where we celebrated our favorite cheeses- mine has always been brie. We ate smoked gouda, brie, gorgonzola, cheddar, mozzarella, and probably a few more varieties- all in one night, accompanied by lots of alcohol. That did not make for the best feeling the next morning. But it was a great celebration, I do recall. When I was on a backcountry skiing trip in college we ate pounds and pounds of cheese each day to stay warm in the negative temperatures as we traveled up and down mountains on our skiis hauling our packs. Those were glorious days. But then I actually stopped to listen my body after eating cheese- REALLY listened to it, and it told me some not so nice stories. My digestions actually wasn't so happy. I always felt a bit sluggish, tired and bloated after eating cheese. I was never aware of this until I stopped to think about it- satisfied from my "cheese high", why should I have noticed it? I had just eaten some great cheese!

So, to make this long cheesey story shorter, as the primary food buyer for my family, we don't consume any cheese, or dairy for that matter in our house. This is not true. I give yogurt to the dogs. As I've said before, our dogs eat well (and if you are that interested, ask and I can elaborate, but that is not what I'm writing about today). I have recently had this huge urge to ferment vegetables. In the past I have simply gone to the store and bought some lovely small scale produced lacto-fermented kimchi or other lovely vegetable combo. That was when we lived in Maine. People in Maine love to make anything they possibly can, and sell it too. That is not as much the case here in Mexico. I have yet to see one jar of fermented ANYTHING. I am craving it so much, finally getting motivation to make my own. So what does fermenting vegetables have to do with dairy? After doing lots of research (I highly recommend Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and Sandor Ellix Katz's The Art of Fermentation) I discovered that dairy actually has a huge role in fermenting vegetables- at least the way I have been accustomed to eating them. Lacto-fermentation uses the whey that is created as the bi-product of producing many fermented dairy products. Remember "Little Miss Muffet, who sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey"? Whey is the liquid that separates from solids when raw milk, yoghurt, and cream are all given the opportunity to settle.

Yogurt in cheesecloth in strainer over a bowl

Hanging cheesecloth and whey from the first few hours of straining

Cream cheese 36 hours later!

 In my experimentation so far I've made cream cheese. I used 2 quarts of plain yogurt, strained them with a cheese cloth inside of a strainer, over a bowl. The liquid that dripped out of the yogurt is whey, and what was left turned into cream cheese. It was really that easy! And I must say, the cream cheese tastes much different (and exceptionally better) than any cream cheese I've had from the store. I stored the liquid (whey) in mason jars in the fridge that I will use later this week to begin my vegetable lacto-fermentation process. I will write more on that later. For now I am very excited about my new project, and I'm curious to see if anyone in my house actually eats all this cream cheese that I produced, or maybe I will just end up feeding it to the dogs (nothing goes to waste...) Next on my list is lacto fermented veggies. I will update on here when progression occurs!