A Yoga Retreat and Fun with Chives!

Enlightened figs basking in the glory of their existence

Reincarnated fire finding inner peace in the form of these magnificent leaves
with outstretched fingers embracing the light 

For Mother's Day weekend I got to go on a yoga retreat. (Retreat: a quiet or secluded place in which one can rest and relax.) Well, the wake up gong sounded at 6AM so.......  But no, all the many activities available to you from 6:30AM till 9PM were optional, so it was as intensive or relaxing as you chose.

For example, at one point the friend that I went on the retreat with decided to participate in a two hour meditation class (she didn't know it was going to last 2 hours) while I decided to do a 5 mile exploratory walk on my own. It was on this walk that I took the two photos above along with many others. I returned sweaty but relaxed and rejuvenated just in time to see her staggering out of one of the buildings. "Where are you headed? What are you doing?" I asked. "The class just finished! I am exhausted. I need to lie down," she moaned. I knew then that I had taken the easier path even if it was 5 miles longer.

But if you are serious about connecting with God or the cosmic vibrations of the universe sometimes you need to work for it. One of the residents of the spiritual village who we ate a couple of our meals with, had made a vow of Total Renunciation! "Wow, what is total renunciation?" I wanted to know. There were different levels of renunciation with "total", of course, being the most extreme. It was, she explained, renunciation of the ego itself. (That is in addition to no sex, no marriage, no alcohol, and Shiva knows what else.) She told us that she spends 24 hours each week sitting in silent meditation.

We did yoga postures, we chanted, we meditated. We picked and chose the nuggets of spirituality that resonated with us and left the rest to the more devout.

The food they offered was vegetarian and delicious. When I told the staff upon arrival that I ate a gluten-free diet they didn't bat an eye. They cook almost completely gluten-free and always present gluten-free options. It is their standard operating procedure. So that was easy.

The grounds were bursting with flowers and buzzing with bees and song birds. I do believe I left with a more energized spine and an open heart.

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Back at home the chives are doing their mad-chive thing. I had just been saying how you can only use so many chives...... But then, yesterday I made chive pesto and now I am not sure if I have enough chives! Why didn't I think of doing that sooner? All these years I've been under utilizing them although I sure do enjoy their blossoms in the garden.

Last summer I posted a recipe for arugula pesto which we enjoyed all through the winter as I froze quite a bit. The following chive pesto recipe follows a similar formula. Herb, nut, cheese, oil, basically. Once you know how to make pesto, you can make it with many things in many variations.

Chive Pesto

4 cups of roughly chopped chive greens

1/2 cup raw cashew nuts

1 clove of garlic

1 to 2 oz. of dry cheese cut in chunks (I used an aged manchego)

1/4 to 1/2 cup of olive oil (depending on the consistency you like)

salt to taste

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Place garlic, cashews, and cheese in a food processor and process until crumbly. Add the chives and the oil and process again until it looks like pesto. Open the lid and scrape down the sides with a flexible spatula and sprinkle in some salt. Blend again. Adjust salt and oil to your preference. Done! Try it on fish. We had it on oysters last night. So good.

I also filled a jar with chive blossoms and covered them with white wine vinegar to infuse in the sun. Oh what fun!

Enjoy!!! Namaste.

Solar Cherry Crisp....Bear-ly

Ahhh...July is upon us. Did I already mention that summer is my favorite season here at the 40th parallel north? Well, it so is. Fifteen hours of light a day, warm temps, and the fruits of summer all contribute to my exuberance this time of year. I've been busy, busy but in an indulgent, uni-tasking kind of a way. 

I've been creating a lot of stuff in the kitchen but not writing anything down. I've realized that I'm not the best food blogger. I occasionally use a recipe but far more often I am adding a little of this and a little of that and in the end I am hard-pressed to come up with a complete ingredient list, much less accurate quantities. Most things simply come out a little differently every time I make them which keeps things interesting. I expect that is the way most cooks cook but it can make it difficult to share an actual recipe here on the blog. 

I mentioned our neighbor's amazing Bing cherry tree in one of my earlier posts over the winter. This is because I was still surfing the wave of utter summer bliss that the tree (and our neighbors) bestowed upon us. In the past there has been competition for the cherries between birds, and bears, and people. Last year the tree was laden with cherries but for some reason the bear did not come to the tree and the birds left it almost alone. So last year the lucky people were swimming in cherries. Each one was like a jewel and cherished as such. The photos below will give you an idea of what the tree looked like last summer:

Me on ladder with grin

This year was a different story. The tree was again laden with cherries but before they could fully ripen a bear began to visit the tree. She or he would come at night, climb up into the tree, and gorge on the cherries. Then I imagine her back up in the woods during the day sleeping and dreaming about the juicy sweetness of her nighttime exploits. She returned night after night until every last cherry was gone and the tree stood pathetically mangled and broken. I was too sad when I saw it to think of photographing it. Rude bear. No manners whatsoever. The neighbors tried banging pots and pans and telling it in no uncertain terms to skedaddle but the cherries proved too big of an allure. One day my neighbor called to say if I wanted any cherries I better come and get some, so I did. At that point there were still thousands of cherries. I filled a large colander with almost ripe cherries. A few days later the tree was devastated. 

I made a gluten-free nectarine cherry solar crisp with a cardamom cashew custard. Mostly though, we just eat one each time we walk by them. We have a little bit more restraint than the ill-mannered bear. 

I love my Sun Oven! More about it later.

Cherry/Nectarine Almond Crisp
A gross approximation of a recipe:
Cut up about 4 cups of white nectarines and cherries and place them in a baking pan or dish. Melt about a quarter cup of butter or butter alternative (I've been using Earth Balance) in a bowl. Add 3/4 cup of almond flour and 2 T. each of white rice and tapioca flour. Add 1/4 cup of muscavado or other brown sugar. Stir well to combine. Lastly add 1 t. vanilla, 1/4 t. almond extract, and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle over fruit and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. The topping crisps up nicely and tastes like marzipan. Great on its own or topped with vanilla ice cream or you can try the dairy-free custard below.
Cashew Cardamom Custard
From Whole Living Magazine, July 2012 issue
Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 cups, plus 1 Tbsp plain rice milk
Pinch coarse salt
1 Tbsp maple syrup
5 cardamom pods, crushed
1 1/2 tsp arrowroot or cornstarch
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
In a blender, process cashews, 2 cups milk, salt, and syrup for 1 minute. Transfer mixture to a saucepan, add cardamom, and bring to a boil, whisking. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk remaining Tbsp milk and the arrowroot until smooth. Add to saucepan and thicken mixture over medium heat, whisking, 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Strain custard into a bowl and let cool slightly, then transfer to refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Enjoy the summer!

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger

It is getting cold here on the shady side of the iceberg. Living in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in the wintertime requires a certain fortitude, and attitude, for that matter, that I sometimes wonder if I possess. The morning temps have been hovering between 20 and 28. Snow is on the way this weekend. And this is just the Fall. Winter sometimes lingers here until early June. It is a long haul, especially here on the shady side of the iceberg.


But on the bright side (and the warm side) there is cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Without even thinking about it I instinctually begin cooking and baking with these spices as the weather cools. How wonderful that these spices go so well with the season's produce and have the ability to warm you up on a chilly Fall day. Let me share a few of the things I've been making in the past week or two that incorporate these spices.

Carrot Gratin

Courtesy Eric Skokan, Black Cat Farm Table, Boulder, CO.

1 1/2 lb. carrots peeled and thinly sliced

1 medium potato peeled and thinly sliced

1  medium onion peeled and thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves peeled and minced

1 cup half and half

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (or not freshly grated)

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 sprigs of thyme

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Combine carrots, potato, onion, garlic, half-and-half, cream, nutmeg and salt in a large mixing bowl. Toss well to combine. Transfer to a an ovenproof baking dish. Lay thyme sprigs over the top. Cover with a tight fitting lid or foil.

3. Bake about 1 hour. Remove lid and continue baking for 10 minutes to allow the gratin to brown. Let sit for 10 to 30 minutes and remove thyme sprigs before serving. Serves 6.

We grew several types (and colors!)
of carrots this year

Looks like an eye right?
And carrots enhance eye function!

The gratin straight from the oven

Butternut Squash Soup

I forgot to take pictures of this when I made it last week.  I am still getting used to this food blogging thing.  There are, of course, many variations of this simple blended style of soup.  I like this one with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, AND one of my all-time-favorite spices, cumin.

1 medium onion chopped

1 T. butter

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of butternut squash peeled and cubed

1 potato peeled and cubed

1 (or 2 if small) apples peeled and cubed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 cup apple juice

1 cup milk or half-and-half

salt and pepper

Saute onion in butter until soft then add butternut squash, potato, and apple.  Saute for a few more minutes. Add 1 to 2 cups of water and all of the spices and let simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes and butternut are tender.  Let cool a bit and then blend in food processor or blender until smooth. Return to soup pot and add apple juice and milk or half-and-half and heat through. Season to taste with salt and a little pepper. Serves 6

Chewy Ginger Raisin Cookies

I never make these in the Spring or Summer but they are a staple cookie in our house this time of year.

Combine and beat together:

2 c. dark brown sugar

1 ½ c. canola oil

2 eggs

½ c. dark molasses

Stir together:

4 c. flour

4 t. baking soda

2 t. cinnamon

2 t. ground ginger

1 t. ground cloves

½ t. salt

Optional: 1 ½ cups of raisins added to dough last

Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet one in the mixer (I highly recommend using a mixer if you have one.)  Dough should be quite stiff.  Roll into small balls with the palms of your hands and then roll the balls in granulated sugar or a courser raw sugar if you have it and place on greased cookie sheet or parchment paper.

Bake at 375 degrees.

8 or 9 minutes for chews (this is the way I do them)

10 or 11 minutes for snaps

Makes a lot (4 to 7 dozen depending on size).  I often halve this recipe if it is just for our family.

*A note about my recipes.  If there is no credit given it is either because I made it up or, it is one of the scores of recipes in my "recipe drawer" (the subject of a future post) that are hand-scrawled on anything from a napkin to an envelope and the source has been long forgotten. Like, for example, the ginger cookie recipe above comes from a photocopy of a handwritten recipe that I believe may have come from a co-worker of my father's, 20 or so years ago, when she sent cookies home with him and I requested the recipe. The tattered page now has my notes and changes on it along with vegetable oil stains. : )

Is it another food blog?!

Since I clearly put the cart before the horse (as I am wont to do when I get excited about something) when creating this blog, its mission statement is still under construction. Without a doubt there will be a focus on food. This is because I am passionate about food. I love to grow it, harvest it, process it, cook it, bake it, smell it, touch it, savor it, look at it, photograph it, indulge in it, share it, and in all these ways, and more, am nourished by it.


So yes, I guess at least for starters, it is yet another food blog. But I'm guessing it will be one of those "all over the map" types with joyous food related bits scattered throughout. And who is my audience? Perhaps there will be none. In a way it is an extremely personal project, a journal of sorts, that I'm hoping will help clarify my life's future direction for me. In the beginning there will be a lot of dusting off my brain as I haven't had occasion to write much in the last ~6 years. I am brand new to blogging and have much to learn: how to write a good post, post good photos, design a pleasing site.....etc. Off now to make honey ice cream with my son. Had roasted caulifower for lunch. Will try posting photos.

Roasted until they began to carmalize

If you haven't had cauliflower like this
you are in for a treat!

Method: Place cauliflower in a single layer on oiled baking sheet, slather with your favorite oil, sprinkle with your favorite salt and pepper and roast at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes till nicely browned. Of course, all kinds of veggies are delectable this way. A nice discovery this year was roasting fresh garden radishes in this same way, including the radish greens which became crunchy and munchable. Our family are not huge raw radish fans. My son, 5, grows them mostly to supply a favorite non-gardening, radish-loving neighbor. But roasted they were completely transformed and devoured happily.