PUMPKIN FULL MOON + MY BIRTHDAY

Did anyone notice or feel a certain satin-y glow about the moon just now?  There's a creamy dreamy quality that is inviting me to soften and surrender to its seasonal spell. I've been meditating on the theme of change and starting over, in part because I am shifting gears in my work and also because I do this psychic housecleaning every year as my birthday approaches.  The dichotomy of being born at the dying of the year feel extra strong this year for some reason. As everything (at least in the Northern half of the Northern hemisphere) begins to pull inward, darken and contract I can't help feeling that my personality was honed by coming out into life at just this time. It's made me adept at greeting the darkness, welcoming the cloak of mystery and silence. Making me an old hand at summoning uncertainty when the old needs to fall away. That part of the design process where the canvas lies empty, the warp is unstrung, the page is left white. It's the quieting, imagining time. Less outward activity, energy building underground for new things to grow and become. It's familiar and I welcome it.

There will be some changes in the near future. Probably the most tangible is that I am re-posititioning myself from doing demos outside at the farmer's markets and farm stands around the county to an indoor venue where I can go deeper and teach more of what I have to share with  people.  I won't be catering as much. If I do take those jobs, it will be for smaller and shorter events closer to home. I will be gathering together all the recipes and materials I've developed over the past several years as a chef and nutrition educator and forming a culinary program of my own to pass on to my students. And I have mixed emotions about that because although I will still be in the community, there is some sadness at letting go of a role that I can no longer sustain. I'm trying to look at the transition as a "re-alignment" rather than giving up or quitting. I know there will be some people who will be affected by my decision to move on. The friends and colleagues at the markets and the folks who gathered around to taste and learn - I'd like to think I can still serve them in this new capacity. The people who have been working for me or training with me - I hope they will continue to learn and follow me into the classroom - in person as well as online.

Last year about this time, I had barely moved into my new home, when it turned out I had to move my father into assisted living. Most of the Fall and the holidays got eclipsed by that process. I was fortunate to begin the new year with my market gigs so I was able to trace the whole year season by season by what was being brought to market, creating recipes that highlighted the produce, setting up an outdoor kitchen to prepare the dishes on the spot, give out samples, recipes and nutritional information to inspire the market attendees to gather their ingredients from the vendors and go home and make it for themsleves. So rain, wind or shine the demo booth was there and it is satisfying to know that as this year's end is approaching, people have learned about many once mysterious vegetables, gained kitchen skills and confidence, adopted new cooking methods, been inspired to upgrade their eating habits and even lost weight and addressed health issues from what I demonstrated for them at my booth.

As 2013 winds down, I'm getting ready to take all I've learned from the vegetables, the farmer's, the customers and begin to develop a program that in essence will teach people EVERYTHING I KNOW. It will include everything I learned from my culinary programs, my internships, my catering, my private chef clients, my teaching opportunies, community classes, etc. It will include everything I've learned from my friends and their mothers and grandmothers and a few fathers and grandfathers too. Everything I've learned from traveling and eating around the country and in other lands. Everything I've learned from the cookbooks and magazines and articles and conferences and trade shows. I look forward to breaking it down into teachable units and watching the magic as people get turned on by the sacred space that is THE KITCHEN.

So, more details to come. Be looking out for the schedule and early bird sign up opportunities. You can be part of the drama as it unfolds! For those of you that are local to me, you will be able to come and learn in the live, hands-on classroom. And for those who are farther afield, I will be working on a home study program that you can explore in your own space. In each case, I look forward to being your guide and mentor. Cool, huh? Tell your friends that are looking for ways to discover their Inner Chef and cooking their way to health!

In the meantime, a few recipes..................

CHICKPEA APPLE CURRY            cooked, vegan, gluten free

makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons of coconut oil

1 T. curry powder

      or

1 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. coriander

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. chili

pinch clove

pinch black pepper

2 onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1" ginger, grated

6 large apples, cored and diced to size of chickpeas

2 large tomatoes, cut in quarters, seeds removed, chopped

handful cilantro, chopped

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained

1 cup of water or stock

handful spinach

juice of 1 lime

juice of ½ lemon

Heat coconut oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Add curry spices. Cook until fragrant; about 1 minute.

Add onions, ginger and garlic. Cook until onion starts to soften and is well coated with curry spices; 2 - 3 minutes.

Add apples, tomatoes, chickpeas and cilantro. Simmer using water or stock to keep from sticking and make a sauce. 5 - 10 minutes.

Continue to simmer until sauce is reduced and chickpeas get a little drier. Remove from heat. Stir in spinach, lemon and lime juice.

Butternut Squash with Asian Pear, Apple and Ginger      cooked, vegan, gluten free

makes 8 servings

A comforting pureed soup that is both savory and sweet. Perfect for late summer/early fall, when Asian pears and apples are still in season.

1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced into 1" chunks

1 T. grapeseed oil

1 large yellow onion, peeled, coarsely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 tsp. fresh ginger, minced or grated

¼ tsp. ground allspice

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. sea salt

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp. nutmeg, freshly ground

2 Asian pears, peeled, cored and chopped

2 apples (Rome, Fuji or Macintosh) peeled, cored and chopped

enough water or stock to cover vegetables

salt

lemon juice

olive oil

agave or maple syrup

½ cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Heat oil in heavy bottomed stock pot. Add squash and sauté until getting tender. Add onion and shallot and continue to sauté until onion is getting carmelized. Add ginger and other spices. Stir a few minutes.

Add pears and apples. Sauté until squash is quite soft. Add stock. Cook over medium heat until flavors have blended.

Transfer a couple of cups of soup to blender and blend until velvety smooth. Pour into another container. Continue blending the soup in batches until all is blended. Return all the pureéd soup back to stock pot. You can also leave soup in pot and use an immersion hand blender if you have one. When blended, balance flavors with pinch of salt, a few drops of lemon juice, drizzle of olive oil and drop or two of sweetener if needed.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with pumpkin seeds.

BAKED APPLES                                                 cooked, vegan, gluten free

makes 6 servings

Preheat oven to 350º F.

6 large firm apples, washed thoroughly.

Use an apple corer to remove stems and cores.

Place in a baking pan.

Drizzle over apples:

juice of one lemon

1/4 C. maple syrup

1 T. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

pinch clove

pinch cardamom

pinch anise powder

Optional~

Stuff inside cored apples:

a handful of raisins or other bits of dried fruits

a few chopped nuts, seeds

a few chocolate chips (!), shredded coconut

Put about 1/4" of water in bottom of baking pan and place

in oven uncovered for about 30 minutes or until apples are

soft through (use a fork to test)

When done, remove from oven. Place apples on platter or individual plates

and spoon up all the "sauce" in the pan and drizzle over.

Can be served immediately or left to room temperature.

If making a larger pan of apples, you can store in a covered

dish in the fridge for several days. Nice to chop up over cereal,

add to cookies, breads, soups, grains, etc. Adds juice, sweetening and spice.

FULL MOON + FALL EQUINOX

I've been waiting for this for weeks, now! The moment that feels right for opening this new blog, that is.
Previously I had tried to stick to "the first of the month" or "every Friday", but when I had my big revelation this summer that I wanted to return to my roots of aligning myself with the seasons, the moon cycle and other magical vibrations living here on Earth, I realized that it would be perfect to put it out on the full moon of every month! It will never fall on the same day of the week or month, so it will encourage going outside from time to time and checking in with the real weather and sky. Some of you may already be lined up with that because you grow things and are in touch with what's going on out there. That's good! During the full moon, our feelings and emotions are amplified, so I like to create a space in which to be still, breathe, focus, envision, dream, imagine, manifest and send blessings.

And it's cool that the Full Moon this month is so close to the Fall Equinox which has always had auspicious energy for me. It's that balancing point between the two strong seasons of summer and fall, of growth and decay, of light and darkness. For some reason the polarities feel strongest at this point than any other time of year, even in a place (Northern California) that at first glance doesn't seem to have much seasonal differentiation. Especially to a NE Coast transplant, it can be fairly non-dramatic. But I've come to feel that summer and fall could almost be called the fire and rainy seasons. And even that is changing as the weather patterns are changing almost everywhere.

I once used the Equinox to symbolize the marriage and the mirrors of male and female energy when I chose it as my wedding day (09-23-90) 23 years ago. The night before there was a fire on the hill behind our house and the morning of, it rained. Fire and Rain. Man and Woman. Kind of cosmic. The marriage didn't hold up, but the date is still an anniversary.

I also love it, because it's not snarled up with other Hallmark, religious or patriotic type holidays. It's just thrown in there between Labor Day and Halloween and has some breathing room of its own. That's partly why I think its a good moment to start something or end something or just be present to the wisdom around change. One could call it the dying or the darkening of the year, but the creativity that goes dormant for a while is full of promise and mystery. Even if nothing comes out at this time, something comes out of this time. I can't help but feel that I am planting seeds now that will sprout and come up in a season or two and I will ride on that anticipation throughout the dormant time in between.

So, I'm starting this blog, just to put down my thoughts of the day and the season. I'll probably get around to talking about what I'm doing with food since that's part of the overall theme. And I may report discoveries in the artistic realm as I find it essential to my evolution and overall sense of well being to go into the creative depths and return with the visions, the dreams, the mysteries, images, language and healing. I'll keep this as a log of my journey into wellness where I will attempt to create an intersection of all the means of expression that are available to me now.

It would be marvelous to hear back from the blogosphere if anything resonates or if you want to connect around any of the subjects I share here. Maybe not so much a conversation, but at least a landing place for our inspirations and journeys. We'll see where it goes.

Can I share a recipe?


Last month I was able to get ahold of kohlrabi, a vegetable that looks like a creature from outer space. Kind of full moon-ish, too. I had always shied away from it, I'm not sure why. It's in the cole family along with lots of other familiar edibles like broccoli, cabbage and kale, but I guess no one ever fixed it when I was growing up, even my veggie conscious German grandmother, so it slipped by. Anyway, I try everything now, so when it showed up at the market, I incorporated it in one of my demos and it was a big hit, just sliced up like an apple. And even though its just plain green, even the kids liked it. It was crisp-juicy, slightly sweet, not too "cabbage-y"and I would describe it as tasting like a cross between broccoli stems and apple. Nice! Here's what Yotam Ottolenghi say about it in his sumptuous cookbook, Plenty: "People always ask me what to do with kohlrabi, an often unwanted child in the organic vegetable box. It seems too healthful, too weird, too German!" He includes a recipe for a cabbage and kohlrabi salad, but I will include the recipe I came up with that is more of a slaw. Try it!

HARVEST MOON APPLE AND KOHLRABI SLAW
makes 6 - 8 cups

4 leaves of dino kale, cut into ribbons
4 small crisp apples, grated
1 small bulb fennel, shaved
1 small kohlrabi, peeled and grated
1/2 small green cabbage, cored and grated
1/2 small red cabbage, cored and grated
1 large carrot, grated

Dressing:
makes about 1 cup

1/2 C. unsweetened, unflavored yogurt
1/4 C. olive oil
juice and zest of 1 lemon juice
1 T. honey
1 T. poppy seeds
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Prep and toss vegetables in a large bowl.
Whisk dressing ingredients together in medium bowl until well blended.
Pour dressing over vegetables and mix well. Salad will improve with a little time to marinate.


OK! This was fun! See you back here, soon, I promise.

What's That Smell?!

Once, when asked, "which of the five senses would you keep if you had to live without the other four?" I remember choosing the sense of touch. I could imagine compensating for the others, but touch felt necessary. It was the one that would assure one's shape, one's relationship to space and things in it, provide the feedback as to where one stopped and started, tactile relatedness and, not least, provide the natural pleasures of being alive in a body. This "favorite" sense has led me to choose vocations that depended on digital dexterity and the ability to "know" through the fingertips: handcrafts, haircutting, massage and cooking.

But now, if asked, it seems I have been chosen, be it a gift or a curse, to be the standard bearer for the very specific, the exquisite realm of the olifactory. Linked to memories of a lifetime, I could probably write a whole field guide to the personal history of my stalwart sense of smell. This page is merely the prologue. I could have been one of those people who smell things for a living: a wine taster, perfumier, rose breeder, culinary herbalist, a truffle snuffling pig, a forensic bloodhound. For a human, the nose isn't necessarily the grandest sense since we tend to favor the rational mind. But emotions are intensely rooted in the same region of the brain that houses our sense of smell, our memories and our deepest sense of survival. For better or for worse.

There is such a dynamic tension between attraction and repulsion. A fine line between ripe and spoiled, fruit and rot, wine and vinegar, cheese and mold, compost and garbage, soil and filth. There are smells I will never forget and never tire of: coffee perking, bacon crisping, spaghetti sauce simmering, onions browning. In contrast, there's probably nothing more annoying than not to be able to identify a smell. My last boyfriend's house had an odor that disagreed with me and I'm sorry to admit, came between us. Such an intimate detail! I would have preferred any noxious smell to this! It smelled dangerous, toxic, like a chemical, like decay, maybe a special sore of mildew, dry rot, termites? It permeated everything. It infiltrated us.

The nose knows? If something is safe to eat, if something will taste good, be nourishing, etc. As we might say one can have an "inner sense" about things, or see things in "the mind's eye", we might also have an "inner nose"! The famous writing cook, M.F.K. Fisher calls it her mind's palate - her way of imagining what something will taste like or rememberences of tastes from the past. I know exactly what this is! I can taste things in my mind - ingredient by ingredient or all together in some dish. The inner nose leads in some way to a deeper knowing/seeing/tasting. Cassandra in her madness, was said to have been able to smell both "past and future blood" The olifactory imagination could stem purely from biology or serve simply as a means to eat the right thing, but there is a passing through into madness with each of the senses. This is the question that leads me everywhere, that proceeds me.

It's Thursday so I will hereby wish you a Very Happy Thursday. It's also going to be my Blog Day if I can manage to post a little something on a regular basis. The original idea here was to post recipes for people to try, comment on, add to, trade around, etc. This may or may not be practical. There are a few directions this might take:

1. Reviews of books I'm reading that pertain to: food, nutrition, eating events, regional cooking, etc. Right now I'm delving into M.F.K. Fisher who is providing no end of lore, hilarity and

delight around a life in the kitchen.

2. Reports from the field: what's at the farmer's market, what I'm making for people, what I'm

learning from the whole spectrum of the art and science of cookery, growing food, creating

celebrations with people, etc. Most recently I attended the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco and talked to people from all over the world about their native foods and discovered a common sense of longing amongst attendees to preserve the kitchens, flavors and traditions of their elders and ancestors. Pretty tasty conversations!

3. Sketches from my new writing project that entail a personal history of learning to cook, the places I've lived, the people who inspired me, my particular sensory take on the subject, the mental, physical and emotional palate and how it ties in to memory and identity. I may share in a week or two a piece I'm writing about the sense of SMELL and where it has taken me. Look for it in the weeks to come.

I'll leave you with that teaser and mention that one job I'm looking forward to in the months to come is leading a cooking class for 10-12 year old girls at a special day long event held at the fabulous Stillheart Institute. Last year I made all the food and gave a short talk on improving food choices and answered lots of questions . This year we'll give them the hands on opportunity to make their own meals!

In light of self-care and self-love, do something nurturing for yourself this week......

First posting of 2012! I'm not even going to comment on the fact that my last post was a year ago. Turns out I'm more of a hands-on, face-to-face type, so posting gets de-prioritized when I'm working in the real world. But I want to get started again and I thought I'd start by re-capping some of the highlights of last year in pictures. I'll catch up with recipes as we go........

My birthday at Chez Panisse. Candle in a date. Perfection.

Yes, they come in all these colors....

Chevre, caramelized onions, mushroom chip crostini.

Master melon peeler on Wilshire Blvd.

Roasted beet and tahini hummus

Raw offerings: power truffles and sunflower caraway bread

Fresh herb/ricotta canapes for a spring dinner

Lunch at Juliano's Raw Planet - Santa Monica

20 foot waves on Monterey Bay - driving the kid back to L.A.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO EAT THIS YEAR?

Midwinter Beauty and Bounty

Arugula, Roasted Beet and Pomegranate

Asian Cabbage Slaw on Cucumber

Herbed Nut Cheese, Satsumas in Endive Spears

Edamame Pureé on Watermelon Radish

From my "Backyard" - Sorich Ranch After the Rain

Wild Persimmon - Santa Cruz Farmer's Market (w/ poinsettia)

The appetizers were made for an event held at Stillheart Institute up on Skyline above Woodside, CA. Be sure to visit their beautiful website at Stillheart Institute: Upcoming Events and check out their resort and programs. I'll be catering again on March 6th, a free community event in Celebration of Int'l. Women's Day featuring Tuck and Patty.

I think my favorite dish from the evening was the Asian Cabbage Slaw, so I'll share the recipe with you here. Be sure to make this all winter long for a refreshing, detoxifying, fiber and anti-oxidant-rich super salad!

Asian Cabbage Slaw w/ Orange Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 head green cabbage, cored and grated

1/2 head savoy cabbage, cored and grated

1/2 head red cabbage, cored and grated

1 bunch dino kale, destemmed and sliced fine

pinch sea salt

2 large carrots, grated

4 scallions, trimmed and sliced on diagonal very thin

1 green apple, cored and grated

4 stalks celery, trimmed and sliced diagonally, very thin

1/2" piece of fresh ginger, microplaned

Place cabbages and kale in large bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and massage with hands for several minutes until the vegetables get a little limp. Add the rest of the grated ingredients. Add dressing and toss thoroughly and serve - or allow to marinate for a while, then add a little more dressing and serve.

Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/4 cup unseasoned brown rice vinegar

3 T. fresh lime juice

3 T. tamari

1 T. maple syrup

1 T. light miso

1 tsp. dijon mustard

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

pinch sea salt

grind of black pepper

Mix all ingredients in large bowl and whisk until well blended. Taste and adjust flavors. Pour over salad and toss thoroughly. Serve immediately or allow to marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour or more. Toss again and serve.

This can be a side salad, a filling for a wrap or served on a slice of cucumber for an appetizer.

Dinner in Jenner

Look where I get to work!

This past weekend I catered a dinner for a mosaic retreat in Jenner, California. This was the view from the deck off the kitchen where I was putting the dinner together.

You can find out more about the workshops by going to jennermosaicworkshop.com

One of the courses was a traditional Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.

For dessert , a delightful fresh berry Clafoutis!

...and Gingerbread