Seasonal Kitchen enjoy!! I have to get cracking on August's recipes, this is where the recipe creating really takes off...woohoo!
also including an bonus, I whipped some of this up last night to
toss in with pasta for the wee one and fresh greens for me. yum. Garlic scapes are the curly, flowering tops to garlic, nice punch of
garlic flavor and can be used in place of onions for something
different.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 c. garlic scapes, roughly chopped 1/2 c. olive oil (more as needed) 1/2 c. nuts-walnuts, almonds or pine nuts 1/2 c. parmesan (asiago is strong but would work well as a half and half blend with parmesan)
Whizz all the above ingredients in a food processor until paste-like in
consistency. Add additional olive oil to make it a smooth paste. For
best flavor, store in a sealed container and refrigerate for 2 hours or
overnight.
So many find the wisewoman/man or witch of long ago to be inspirational, fully skilled in herbal medicine and the language of the flora and fauna, living simply yet fully. Many in the Neo-Pagan movement find this "image" unrealistic and an unattainable fantasy. Why? I think a path such as this is fully attainable if the person truly wants it. It is certainly a different time now, we are far more educated in certain ways and yet so woefully undereducated in others. It's that lack of balance that keeps us in a world of chaos. We need to slow our lives down a bit, shut off the televisions, radios, computers, ipods, video games, all those electrical pacifiers that keep us from really listening to the natural hum of life around us. Now I am not suggesting that we all move to rural America and live in powerless cabins complete with an outhouse, though many may find the long sought after inner peace if they did! Shut off all the extraneous noisemakers. Sit and listen to the wind, your heartbeat, and if you are so fortunate the birds singing and squirrels or chipmunks chattering. Breathe deeply and just be.
Take the time to learn a new, yet old, skill or craft. We can live in the present yet learn from the past and bring something positive to the future. I have been very blessed to have finally begun to realize my dream. I live in a rural area where I (usually!) here nothing but the sounds of Nature. I find my body is adapting to the earth cycles, moon phases and seasons and my diet adapts as well. Seasonal eating is probably the best gift we can give out bodies. Eating what is local and in season. whole, natural, unprocessed foods that truly nourish our bodies.
Cooking and baking are a favorite past time of mine, I find it empowering and relaxing as the kitchen is my favorite room in the house. It's a part of the main room, all open concept so it is very family oriented. Beyond this large room is my gardens, another favorite past time, this area is still a work in progress but it is my goal to create a half acre kitchen garden or potager where I can grow the majority of my family's food. Now I know we have many who complain of having black thumbs, to this I say find the local farmer's markets and give them your business. It is as fresh as you can get and you support local businesses and farms.
These farmer's markets, or your gardens offer the best of seasonal eating. Many gardeners can work around cold winter weather with greenhouses or coldframes, growing vegetables that will produce despite the freezing temperatures. Seasonal eating is, if you pay close attention to your body's signals, something that comes naturally. Our bodies follow the cycles of the seasons as do the wild animals outside our homes.
Summer we eat fresh, sun energized fruits and vegetables with abandon along with the eggs, milk, maybe some chicken that are all plentiful. Autumn brings us more abundance but we begin to see the days growing shorter and we turn to somewhat heavier fare, starchier vegetables, nuts, grains, late fruits, meats. Winter we find warming, nourishing comfort foods. Rich soups, casseroles, sweets made of preserved or stewed dried fruits, meats, starchy root vegetables. It is our bodies' natural inclination to ensure it's survival through the harshness of winter by eating these filling, calorie-rich foods. Spring, here a fresh start and new beginnings, our bodies are ready to cleanse and purify so we begin to eat fresh baby greens of the season once again which accompany other cold loving veggies, egg production returns again. Light omelets laced with young spring onions or chives, maybe some baby spinach, kale with a salad of fresh greens.
It may be one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and your body, to eat by the seasons and to eat locally. I'm pro-garden, it's a skill I find will becoming increasingly essential to know and everyone should learn the most basic garden skills. In these uncertain times it would nice to know that you could grow your own food.
Spring kitchens are airy, fresh places where we feel stimulated, energized, alive with possibilities. The first step in making our kitchens places of inspiration is old fashioned spring-cleaning. Even those of us who loathe housecleaning as a tiresome, thankless, repetitious, and endlessly boring chore can learn to enjoy the process of marking our territory with magick.
By the end of winter, the world looks a bit scruffy and neglected. Dead leaves and fallen branches litter the ground, along with remnants of snow pocked with grime. Just as a gardener needs to clear away the winter debris to make room for spring growth and flowering, so it can be a good thing to clear away debris from our kitchens. Make space in your life for fresh, good things to grow. Take some time in early spring to decide on your kitchen essentials: What is truly necessary for you? What could you do without? Give away anything that doesn't serve you. When your kitchen is clean and uncluttered, your spirit can breathe.
Once your kitchen is as clean as you feel like making it, you may want to celebrate the stirring of new life with a few essential springtime decorations. Flowering bulbs and bare tree branches can both be placed in water and allowed to bloom. Teardrops of glass hung in the window catch the light like melting icicles. Dark, earthy, winter colours give way to the lighter, more airy ones of spring--a pastel rag rug for the floor or a woven mat for the table may refresh your spirit. Look for shades of mouth-watering yellow-green, violet, rose, pale blue, silvery dove-gray, and a tender yellow the colour of the emerging sun. These are the colours that will help you to envision, to plan, to be inspired.
Spring is associated with air, and with thoughts, ideas, and words. You could invoke the power of words in your kitchen by writing a few important ones here and there. Use large letters if you want them to be seen (in a border around the ceiling, perhaps), or hide tiny ones in secret places. Get yourself some magnetic poetry for the fridge. What are the words that you need in your life? Is there a special quote that you could frame or incorporate into your kitchen?
By the Spring Equinox, the birds are returning and the world is filled with wings, nests, and the heart-lifting sound of their singing. One traditional and pleasant way to commemorate the birds' return is to include a nest or two in your kitchen. You could buy one (Spanish moss, twig, or wicker nests look very realistic), or you could find a real one (as long as it isn't being lived in anymore), or create your own.
Fill your nests with eggs. Traditionally, eggs have held a place of special veneration as objects of power and magick. Egg-decorating is an ancient way to honour this season. And you may want to tuck in a feather or two, as well--these are especially meaningful if you've found them yourself.
There are egg-shaped soaps available now that would be fun in a nestlike soap dish on the sink (look for nice all-natural herbal egg-soaps in specialty stores or gift catalogues). Or, to make your own, try grating leftover bits of soap into a bowl, mix with a little water, and shape small palmfuls into eggs by hand. If you throw in a few leftover coffee grounds, your soap will have a wild-bird-egg's speckled look and will also be a good deodorizer for oniony hands. Whenever you wash with a bar of egg-soap, let the symbol remind you of the incredible power to create that lies in your hands--and in your heart, your spirit, your mind.
The first tender vegetables of the spring garden make a welcome appearance now. The tiny carrots, cheery radishes, asparagus spears, and the earliest new peas to sprout up in gardens may be found on everything from teapots to vases to dinnerware to teatowels, which let you invite their hopeful message inside as well. Or you could paint or stencil that veggie of your choice somewhere special: inside a cupboard door to cheer you whenever you open it, for instance.
By late spring, the world is strewn with flowers. Make a place on your table for a vase spilling over with blooms, or find an O'Keeffe print to brighten your wall. The sensual beauty of flowers has age-old associations with love, sex, and pleasure, and late spring is certainly the time for those. To invite the power of loving sensuality into your kitchen, choose fabrics and accents in shades of rose to remind you of your own sacred petals. Consider making a rose-patterned pillow for your power place; then, every time you sit there, you will be embowered by these rich symbols of the Goddess.
Since this group, as are many others here at Cspace, so underutilised
I've formed a Yahoo group of the same name to feed my need for recipes
to share and try.
