Projects For Giving: Prep for Gourmet Mustard, Rosemary Salt, Ginger Honey Tea

Some of you have asked that I tell you what I'm doing for my holiday giving because you'd like to make along with us some of the things we'll be making.  So here's a brief summary of what we're doing.
I'm doing gourmet gift bags, filled with gourmet mustards, rosemary salt, Korean ginger honey tea, a recipe booklet, and other goodies to be determined... We'll be making around 50 of each item. Leftovers can be used by us, or given to people at other occasions such as a hostess gift when invited for dinner, or for no occasion at all, just to say "I love you!"
So we bought things in bulk.  Spices came from the Monterey Bay Spice Company.
We got our honey in 1 gallon containers from Miller's Honey.
You'll need jars.  I purchased my jars from the Specialty Bottle Co.  I used 8 oz jars for the mustard, 12 oz jars for the ginger honey tea, and I used 8 oz rectangular tins with clear hinged lids for the rosemary salt.

Then there's the packaging.  We've stopped using that cheesy, ink-laden holiday paper you can find in every drug store during this season, and opted for more eco friendly Andreas and I will make labels and tags for our items.  Some will be printed, some handwritten, on cardstock and attached with ribbon.  Other packaging will be recycled paper brown kraft wrapping paper, and recycled paper raffia ribbon that we got at Nashville Wraps.  This company carries a vast assortment of eco-friendly packaging and gift products.  I also get my reuseable green grocery bags here, 10 bags for about $6, and that's what i use instead of traditional gift bags. 

Everything you'll need (except for any fresh produce ingredients) can also be purchased in my Amazon Store.  Look for the section in my store that's titled Edible Giving.  I've set that up so that you can do one-stop shopping for everything you'll need.












Gourmet Mustard

Basically what we're doing is soaking mustard seeds for a day or so, then adding mustard paste made with the mustard powder (mustard flour) You'll get further instructions for this next week.  For now just collect your ingredients.
You will need to get some yellow or brown (depending on your preference) organic bulk mustard seeds and organic bulk mustard powder (mustard flour).
You'll also need to purchase whatever spices you want to add to it, and the day before you prepare this mustard, purchase whatever fresh herbs, horseradish, etc.  you'd like to mix in. 
If you want to make champagne mustard, you'll need to get some champagne vinegar.  Otherwise you'll need either cider vinegar, wine vinegar, or plain white vinegar.  About 1/4 cup for every cup of mustard you intend to have as end result.   If you want your mustard to be a brighter yellow you'll need a bit of turmeric as well.

Korean Ginger Honey Tea
You only need three things for this.  You need jars for however many you want to make, enough honey for however many jars you want to make, and the day before you're ready to make these, you'll need a generous amount of whole fresh ginger root.  Pretty darn simple.













Lemon Rosemary Salt

... if you thought things couldn't get any simpler, you'll need two things for this.   Lots of fresh organic rosemary, and sea salt.  You'll need both coarse and fine grain sea salts. 















That's pretty much it!!!
Check back in a few days when I've got all my ingredients ready and I'll have photos and instructions for how to make these gifts!

I Gave Up Disposable Dining

About a decade ago, I started to collect depression glass during my phase when I was a new mother, and building my "nest".  There's something about functional nostalgia that I am drawn to.  Perhaps it's because I can remember my grandmother at some point having some of these dishes and I long to connect with her grace and hospitality.  Maybe it's kinda strange for this rock n' roll mom to be so into this stuff, but I decided a long time ago to just be who I am.  Back then I was a huge Martha Stewart fan and Martha had a thing for green depression glass.  I started to look for it at flea markets and on ebay in the beginning of 2000, and have been collecting green, lemon yellow and gold depression glass ever since.  My auntie Anita had a collection as well.  She had some green glass, but mostly milk glass and ruby red.  These dishes are very heavy and fair quite well for parties.  I pull them out whenever we have a lot of people over and my everyday dishes just won't do.  You can bid on pieces individually on ebay anywhere from pennies to a couple of dollars per item.  Sometimes they are sold in sets, sometimes by serving set, and sometimes you'll find a replacement piece such as a lid or a saucer... I don't think I've spent in total more than a couple hundred dollars on my collection.  I have enough to use for parties where I entertain up to a hundred or more people.  You might ask yourself, why I would use these for parties.  As I've said, they are pretty durable, I've only had a couple of them broken over the years. More importantly, to me at least, is the fact that I don't want to use paper or styrofoam plates.   I try to avoid the use of disposable paper and styrofoam whenever I can.  It's unhealthy for our bodies and for our earth and it's definitely more expensive in the long term.   Even for everyday dining, we don't use paper napkins.  Instead I've invested in cloth napkins and collected enough of them over the years to use them for every meal and toss them in with the laundry at the end of the day, to be washed each week with our laundry.  It is, I admit a way of living that takes getting used to.  It means dishes to wash.  But even for parties with a hundred people, we can get away with about 3 loads in the dishwasher, and/or recruiting friends to help wash and dry at the end of the night.  It's not that big of a deal, seriously.  And people appreciate the elegance and sturdiness of real dishes.  I enjoy taking people back to a time when hostesses were more graceful, actually cooked, and made an effort to show their guests that they care enough invest some time in their comfort.  I don't have the patience to be particular about pattern or brand, so long as they are good quality and in the colors that I like, I collect them.  Some people will prefer a uniform set.  But for me mix and match is the way.  I should be said the other kind of collecting takes a lot more time, patience, and willingness to pay higher prices. Antique and vintage dealers know that if you're looking for a particular brand or pattern to match what you're collecting, you'll pay more.  So I just look for certain colors, pattern, and quality of craftsmanship.   It adds a bit of funkiness to an otherwise fancy spread, to use mix match dishes in lovely jewel tone colors.  Perhaps that is the rock n' roll in me that thinks funky belongs with fancy.  Each year I choose a dish type to focus on.  In the last few years I focused on pitchers.  So now I have 6 depression glass pitchers that get used quite a bit for holidays at our house.  I also collect old silver as well.  I keep it stored in vintage flatware chests I found at the flea market, and polish it up for use on holidays when family and friends come through. 

I keep my much vintage dishes in an old pie safe (see below right), the rest in high cabinets, and only take them out when we have company. 

Some of the favorite things in my collection of dinnerware and glassware is my set of hand-painted artist signed blue clayware dishes from Tonalo, Mexico.    I found the set in a flea market many years ago and paid about $80 for something like 100 pieces, including place service for eight (dinner plate, salad plate, tumbler, tea cup/saucer, cocoa mug, soup bowl, small bowl), soup tureen, salad bowl, platter, coffee server, and more.   This is not about pretentiousness.  It's more about grace.  Every time I take them out to serve guests people get this pleased look on their faces like they are getting the royal treatment. Even the guys are flattered. They have no idea I paid less for the entire set of Mexican dishes than I would have paid for the same amount of not-as-impressive dishes purchased in the local Target.  I wouldn't trade them for anything in  a high end department store either.  I mix and match this set with my green depression glass and, as you can see in this picture,  1950's and 60's ceramic pitchers. 

If you love to entertain, investing in vintage will pay for itself.  Over the years the money I've saved on disposable ware alone has more than paid for what I've collected, and who knows how many trees I've saved. 

The Holidays In Our House

The menu's being planned and the potluck organized. We've pulled down the ornaments from the rafters in the garage, and we've begun to "deck the halls".   For us,  it is a time to celebrate family and friends, and to reflect on the blessings of the soon to be ended year.  We have several traditions in our house.

We kick off the season by getting our tree usually around the week after Thanksgiving.  We're a week late, but who's counting, right?  The tree comes from a family who sells in our neighborhood every year.  For every tree they sell, they plant one in a nature reserve near their farm.  The tree goes up the same day.   The Austrian spends about an hour getting it into our big stand, and trying to get it level.  (not so level this year but who's gonna say anything about that, huh?)

Usually our friends the Bennetts come over and help us decorate it.  Sort of... This year they were sick and stayed home and we didn't get started until late because of another task that had to be completed first on the other side of town.  Miss Spacklepudget is with us this year, so we had built-in help and she invited a friend over to help as well.  We make an evening of it.  I taught myself how to make hot buttered rum then created my own version with mulled apple cider added to the cup instead of hot water.  We had organic tomato basil soup.  We made grilled cheese sammiches... but not your mother's grilled cheese.   Emmentaler on French bread, Gruyer Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Olive Tapenade on German-style whole 7 grain bread, and Irish White Cheddar and Spanish Piquillo peppers on Roasted Garlic Sourdough bread.  You've not had grilled cheese until you've had MY grilled cheese!  (recipes coming this week!)

We always use the occasion to light up the fireplace for the first time in the season.  It's cold enough here in this part of L.A. to actually use our fireplace.  You can imagine how good our house smelled on Saturday with all this going on!  The tree gets decorated that night, and the rest of the house too over the following days.  When the tree's done I always sit and enjoy it until I can't keep my eyes open any more, in the darkened room with nothing but the light from the tree and the fireplace.  It's such a lovely ambient feeling. 

One of my mom's choirs always has a wonderful concert to attend, so we get gussied up, pile in the car,  and trek across town to enjoy one or the other soulful gospel arrangement of all the songs of the season.   Sometimes it's even the gospel version of Handel's Messiah done live with full band and choral arrangment.


Another tradition is that the week before, I bake a truckload of cookies and at our family gathering, and provide goody bags for people to fill and take some home.  But this is a modest description of that tradition.  You'll see, I'll be posting the recipes.  I usually make at least 3 or 4 basic cookie doughs with anywhere from 10-12 variations in extra ingredients.  In the end, we're talking HUNDREDS of cookies.

The teenagers in the family come over and help with the baking.  It's the best!  I make the doughs a day ahead, and the next day, Max will have the iPod playing in the kitchen, nice and loud, with his favorite rock bands... everything from Nine Inch Nails to Death Cab For Cutie, and he and his cousins and friends will be in charge of the baking.  Someone puts the dough on the cookie sheets, someone washes the cookie sheets when they're emptied, someone dries, someone watches them bake (puts them in/takes them out).   At some point, I get sick of the rock n' roll and put on my huge collection of holiday music.  The kids sing along just like they did when it was Cobain or RATM playing.  Gotta love 'em!   I make butter cookies as part of this endeavor, cut in shapes, and after they're cooked I decorate them with shimmery food grade metallic/pearlescent dust.  We make cooked that have candy centers that look like stained glass.  We do old fashioned chocolate chip.  We do oatmeal persimmon.  By Christmas Eve there's a huge shepherd's basket of cookies like nothing you've ever seen. 

The newest, and most time consuming of our traditions is to give things made with our own hands.  You can see what we did last year here.  This year I'm going to be making homemade gourmet mustards, marinated olives, and a mini recipe book with recipes created, tested, and written by yours truly, and graphic design by the Austrian.  Max will be making rosemary sea salt which can be used for cooking or in nice hot bath.  We'll also be making whole wheat pancake mix, candied almonds, and a Korean style ginger honey tea.  (basically fresh ginger is stored in a jar of honey for at least two weeks then used by the tablespoon full with hot water to make a delicious and very healthy tea.) Instructions for these are coming...

The recipes in the mini book will integrate some of the items we make, like the rosemary salt used on roasted chicken or steak, or the mustard used as a glaze.   I'm just getting started with ordering the spices and other ingredients online in bulk from spice merchants and bee farmers and the such.  The Austrian will start working on the design for the book and the packaging labels for the items we're making. 

I am still determining what our traditional act of kindness will be this year, but that's another thing that's important to me.   We choose someone who needs a friend and we do something kind that will help them in some substantial way.   It's not something we talk about much.  We just do it and keep it to ourselves.

We don't spend a load of money during this time, we don't focus on material things, and I make it a point to not go into any mall or major department store from Thanksgiving til after New Years.   I watch the madness on the news and shake my head as the world outside our home is full of crazies who start riots to get into a Walmart store at 4 o'clock in the morning to buy tv's on sale that they can't even really afford to buy at the sale price.  We stay home and enjoy each other's company, invite others to join us.

On Christmas Eve we gather with our loved ones for good food, games, and the ever-so-famous Feltus Family Talent Hour.  Now THAT you should be a fly on the wall for!  Ha!
For me, it's important to create a time of peaceful renewal, and reconnecting with family.  I hope that wherever you are that you and yours have a warm, happy, peaceful, soul revival during this season!

Much Ado About Nothing

I've been doing real good with the "new posts daily" thing... I've only missed a few days in the month I've been blogging.  It hasn't been difficult to find something to share. When I've missed it's been because I couldn't spare the 3 hours it takes to write, edit, and post a blog article. 
Today was different.  I don't know what it was... Perhaps that I was a bit preoccupied with planning the projects we are going to do in my house for christmas giving. We give handmade items for the holidays instead of participating in all that shopping foolishness.    Perhaps I was preoccupied with the show I have coming up in a few weeks... one of only two shows I've done in the last year and a half.

I sat for about an hour trying to start a blog.  But everything I started bored me silly, so I know it would have bored you sillier!  So this is it.

NOt much to tell.

I'm doing a show on December 30th... Reflections at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, CA.   I will keep you posted as to what time I'm scheduled to go on.  It should be a good show.  There are two other fantastic artists lined up as well, so I hope to see all of you who are in L. A. out that night for a pre-new years eve warm up!   The band is excited.  We've got a phenomenal guest bassist sitting in for Dave Henning, and the rest of Chrysalis Child is fully intact!   Expect to see guitarist/actor Donn Swaby, P-Funk Allstars drummer Karoly Kiss, and Jennifer "Spags" Spingola on electric Viper violin, all rockin' out with me on stage.   I'm making my way back on my own terms now, and I hope you'll all be there to be a part of that new energy!

On December 13th, my good friend, jazz/soul artist  Nailah has a holiday concert and toy drive and probably a couple of other things going on.  Check her calendar for details here!  Any effort you make to get out to see this woman perform will be for sure justified.  She is a force of nature!

On December 17th, my good friend, the soul songstress Jimetta Rose will be celebrating the release of her debut album "The Barber's Daughter".  9 pm at Stereo Love at the Little Temple 4519 Santa Monica Blvd.

I'm sure there's more going on!  If you've got an event you want to share, post it here as a comment.

Alright.  It's now officially the next day and I've missed my "new posts daily deadline"...

But better late than never, right?

To sleep I go...

Black Girls, Can We Talk? A rant about hair.

I've had it.  I've had it up to here.  Yes, here.  Can you see where I'm marking the air with my hand? High above the ends of my big crazy fro?  That's how over the whole discussion of hair, I am.  There are some things that just should be done with and exited as resolved, but we cling to the fake controversy as if controversy is our one true treasure left to hold on to.  Why do we discuss this as if we don't know better?

Did you see the movie Good Hair?    Let me say first, I am not anti-straight hair, and that I enjoyed the movie.  I did laugh.  Up until a certain point.  You see, at some point it is not at all funny to hear a woman (of any color) say that they feel they must spend exorbitant amounts of money (often money they cannot afford, sometimes money that would be better spent in other ways... perhaps on getting some ethnicity related therapy of some sort...) to use dangerous chemicals to straighten their hair, or attach someone else's hair (usually much longer and of a genetically incompatible texture) to their heads, because they think it will make people feel more comfortable around them.... in other words, naturally kinky, nappy, curly, frizzy hair is somehow socially discomforting to the general public.  I don't find it at all entertaining to hear women talk about how they are willing to burn holes in their scalp for the quest for straight hair because straight hair is accepted by the general public as more beautiful.


I have a 27 year old friend who wears wigs... that make her look like she's got some serious issues.  She hates her real hair, thinks it's ugly,  because she does not know what to do with her hair and hasn't taken the time to figure it out.  27 years old... wearing wigs.

Listen, I'm an artist.  I love variety.  I love self-expression and creativity... and I have been known to use my hair to exercise both of these.  I have a wig that I adore.  It's a Betty Page style wig.  I don't sport it often.   You may never even see me in it.  It's just for fun.  It's not an image corrector.  You get what I mean?  Everybody knows I spend half the year in braids down to my buttocks and that those purple, green, blue, red, yellow, and fuschia braids, dreds, and twists are not my natural hair.   But I'm sure you also know darn well, that I'm not doing that to make ANYBODY more comfortable with my appearance.   I'm not concerned about whether or not anyone finds my hair to be unfamiliar, strange, unruly, wild, anti-conservative.  I think my hair makes that perfectly clear.   But this kind of self expression is a whole other subject that perhaps I'll touch on at another time.

I want to state my position regarding self mutilation, economic self-oppression, and the act of surrendering to a centuries old degradation of who I am as a woman, and further as a black woman, and I have several points that I want to make in that vein.

1.  I am not my hair, as the lovely India Arie so eloquently put it.  How I wear my hair is MY business.  It is just as personal as whether or not I polish my nails, or use lotion on my skin.  It is just as personal as whether or not I like lipstick or prefer lipgloss instead.   NO ONE has the authority, expertise, nor ordinance... WAIT.  I DO NOT GIVE ANYONE  the authority, expertise, nor ordinance to decide how I will wear my hair.   I will not risk my financial health, my physical health, nor my emotional health to change how I wear it in the quest to lure a man, to impress a woman, and CERTAINLY NOT to thwart someone's racial, sexual, or classist prejudices against me.   The history behind this kind of prejudice is so deeply seeded that we don't even acknowledge anymore that it has anything to do with our choices.  But the truth is, the programming was established centuries ago, long before we of African decent even knew it was happening.  Back when people spoke of us in their faraway lands as if we were exotic, but nevertheless inferior animals, with strange and wild behavior, and physical appearances to match.   This image created in the land of barbarians and inquisitors... the land of slave trading and paganism...  When did we decide to adopt this as our own self-imposed image, that we might pursue, as one of our most invested endeavors, to change what we look like to change the minds of those who created that image?  

The irony amongst us is so thick you could not get through it if you tried.   Look at how we scoffed at Michael Jackson for the changes he made to himself physically.  We scoffed, as we looked at pictures in our favorite gossip magazines, while sitting our asses in the beauty salon chair for half a day, getting the hair of some poor girl in India sewn into our heads, or while our favorite hairstylist slapped that sodium hydroxide onto our hair to literally break down the molecular structure of the hair's strand, dissolve the interior bonds, and replace it with new, artificial ones, wincing as it sizzled on our scalps, spending our last dime... scoffing at Michael Jackson for trying to look white (which I can personally attest, because I was there, was not what was really going on with him...).  Same thing with how we scowl at women who get boob jobs, botox, facelifts and other forms of body mutilation for false vanity.  We talk all that mess probably the most whilst sitting in the salon chair mutilating our hair.  The hypocrisy astounds me!!!! 

2. NEWSFLASH:  Black girls with nappy hair have jobs.  High ranking executive type jobs.  Jobs as scientists, astronauts, doctors, lawyers, Ivy League university professors, philosophers, politicians.   Some of the most influential black women in the history of the world were black women with nappy hair!  Those of you worried about catching a man, black girls with nappy hair have romance, marriage, companionship, and I'm here to tell you we enjoy phenomenal sexual experiences just like our straight haired sisters... and in the cases of those who are still oppressed, I argue perhaps better because there's one less thing to be self conscious about when we're in that naked, vulnerable state! Our lovers can put their fingers in our hair, massage our scalps, grab a fist full in the throws of passion... You get the idea...   Black girls with nappy hair have friends of all colors, races, cultures, and creeds.  We are not all angry (though just like anyone else, we can be angered...), we are not all militant, and whatever we are, whoever we are, you canNOT assertain based on the texture of our hair.    (As you read this you might think I'm talking to white people here.  I might be talking to some, but I'm more talking to those of my sisters who are inflicting this oppression upon themselves by defending against this false stigma.)

3.  My mother started taking me to the hair salon when I was around 12 years old and I got my first permanent relaxer treatment.   Before that my hair was pressed into submission with hot combing so that it was easier to control and "looked good".   My mother spent hours to do this... once or twice a month.  Both me and my sister!!! Eventually she cut my hair off so that it would be easier to control.  The irony is, my mother is about 3/4 Native American Indian, and my hair is what they called "good hair" back in those days.  Compared to most, my hair was easy.  I just had a lot of it and it was easier for her to deal with if it was straightened, and that's just what people did  back in the day.  You only went natural if you were either trying to join the black panthers or you were a muslim or something.  Everybody else was straightening their hair.
In 1992 I cut off all my hair when I began training at the world renowned Vidal Sassoon Academy as a haircutter and stylist.... a UK based company with 4 academies at the time, worldwide... the most respected place to train in the profession.   They were not your average beauty school.  They had philosophies and standards above and beyond state safety and hygiene regulations and basic skill acquisition.  They had doctrine about what beauty was.   Beauty was a combination of inner qualities and the synergy between all of your outer traits.  In other words, each of us is made up of an architecture of physical traits that work together to make us beautiful in our own unique and natural balance.   They believed that if you had curly hair the ideal look for you would incorporate those curls, not torture them into mutation.   They believed that beauty was a matter of authenticity therefore if you're Chinese, don't try to look like an African, and if you're an African don't try to look like you're Chinese.  

4.  WOMEN!!  ALL WOMEN!!!  When will we wake up and stop this foolishness, starving ourselves, cutting ourselves, torturing ourselves, all in the name of so-called beauty.  This culture of beauty is perverse, shallow, and it is extremely unhealthy!!!   It is a LIE that we tell ourselves when we bend over backwards and obsess over vanity in the name of being attractive so that we might be more desirable to men.   I am hear to tell you today that if we stop this madness we will STILL have the same chances of finding a good man, and perhaps a BETTER chance because the boneheads will be eliminated from the pool of potential suitors.   
This is not about men.  This is about how we feel about ourselves.  It is about a loss of rejoicing in the God-given beauty and magnificence that is WOMANKIND!  Your beauty and desirability is NOT about those things you can change about your outside.  I know it sounds cliche, but it's the truth.

I am living proof.  I found the love of my life at a time in my life where I wear little or no makeup unless I'm putting on the rock star, I don't dress up unless I have to, I'm thick and not particularly worried about it outside of for health purposes, and yes, I have been sporting my naturally curly/kinky, frizzy hair since 1992!!!   It's like having an anvil removed from around my neck after years of being a slave to the hot pressing comb and a junkie for the creamy crack (permanent relaxer).    That's not to say that I will never straighten my hair again.  It's to say what people think of me, how my hair makes them feel about me is of absolutely no consequence at all.  I am free.  100% free when it comes to my hair.   We should all be free like this!  Hell! Save the money for something extravagant like say.... organic groceries, an eco-friendly vehicle, and hey!  Perhaps some THERAPY!  I'm telling you, our priorities are way out of whack!

To me this should all go without having to be said, ergo my frustrated tone.  This is a new age we are dawning upon.  We have to let go of those shackles.  They are barely even hanging on anymore.  And we've got keys, ladies!!!  But listen, this is not about me.  Please don't stop there, and make this about my tone or attitude and choose to be offended.  This is not about what I think of you.  This is about how you feel about yourself!!!
If you have searched your soul, and you're sick of being in those straightening comb, $1000+ weave, ammonium thioglycollate shackles, and you feel trapped into something that's costing you in more ways than you want it to,  but you don't know what to do with your natural hair, there are fantastic resources out there now.  God Bless the Internet!   Here are some of the sites I find useful for my own hair:
http://maneandchic.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
http://www.blackhairinformation.com
http://bglhonline.com/
http://ghettointellect.com/nappykitchen/
http://www.kynk.ca/
http://www.curls.biz/
http://missjessies.com/
http://zurique.webs.com/
http://search.fotki.com/?q=kinky
http://search.fotki.com/?q=dreadlockshttp://www.naturalhairstylesblog.com/
http://www.nappturality.com/

Epiphanies

This just in:

When I am wide open, and practicing full disclosure, I quickly get what I need.

Green Tea and Vanilla Honey Bee ice creams with chunks of Kiwi fruit  is absolutely delectable!!!

I married a man who is capable of causing me to fall in love with him repeatedly anew.  This has many beneficial applications worth considering.

I need more mentors.

Portuguese Chicken and Linguica

The Austrian's Most Sincere Form of Endorsement.

 

The fragrance of smoked sweet Spanish paprika permeates every room of our house this evening.  It is all that is left to remind us of a most delicious meal.  About 14 years ago I visited the beautiful seaside town of Lisboa where the people are like something out of a charming old world fisherman's tale.   The food is to die for, and the ocean breezes most lovely.

Although this dish is not truly a traditional Portuguese meal, its ingredients pay homage to the flavors I still hold dear in my memories of that place.   Salty olives, roasted peppers, smoked sweet pimiento (paprika), sea salt, and madeira wine.  

I cooked this in a cast iron dutch oven, because I really like the heat conduction it provides.  The ingredients in my pot were at a full boil even with the fire turned down to its lowest setting.  It was my first time using the dutch oven.  It was a wedding present.  (Thanks Tambela) If you don't have a cast iron dutch oven such as this one, you can use any heavy pot large enough to hold about a gallon of liquid, with a tight fitting lid.  You can also make this in a slow cooker if you first brown your chicken, sausage, and onions in a saute pan before adding to the slow cooker. 

I cook this with chicken thighs because they stay moist.  You can use other parts if you like.  I prefer to cook this with the chicken on the bone, to maintain the moisture.  You can use boneless chicken if you like.  You can also remove the skin from the chicken before cooking it for reduced fat content.  Another thing you will be glad to hear, this is a very adaptable recipe.  You may, if you like, add some fresh unpeeled shrimp, scallops, clams, or mussels (or all of the above!!) to the pot about 12 minutes prior to serving.   I cannot eat seafood (much to the boys chagrin) so I didn't add it to ours. 

THE PLAYERS: (your grocery list)

 Chicken Thighs (you know my song... for this recipe, you'll need 6 thighs... organic, free range, vegetarian fed, hormone free please... )  Portuguese Linguica Sausages (these usually come 2 in a pack.  you'll cut them up into 1 inch diagonal pieces.  they are easily found in your grocery store, in the section where the pepperoni, salami, and other dry sausages are found... near the high end cheeses...) Onion (you'll need 1 onion, cut into large pieces... eighths perhaps)  Carrots (you'll need 2 carrots cut into large diagonal chunks... about 1 inch thick) Celery (You'll need 4 stalks cut into 1 inch chunks) Tomatoes (4 roma tomatoes cut into eighths) Garlic (4 cloves coarsely chopped) Red and Yellow Bell Pepper (1 of each cut into 1 inch chunks) Crushed Peeled Tomatoes (in the can... 16 oz)  Broth (2 cups of chicken broth) Piquillo Peppers  ( 1 jar. These roasted Spanish peppers are used widely in Spanish cooking.  I threw them in for a little extra flavor. Find them in most larger groceries with international products, or purchase them online from the link below. ) Manzanilla Olives  (Spanish green olives can be found in the section where the pickles are.  Don't get the ones with the pimentos in the middle. Get whole ones with the pits in. You'll need about 1/2 cup of olives) Pimenton Dulce (This smoked SWEET Spanish paprika is an essential part of this dish.)  You can find it at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other stores that carry a wide variety of spices from around the world.  You can also order it online below) Madeira  (pretty much any wine department will carry this.)

PREPARATIONS:

Heat 4 tablespoons of Olive Oil in a dutch oven, or large heavy pot.

Season chicken with sea salt and pepper and when oil is hot add to pot, skin side down.  

Cook over medium heat until chicken is brown on one side.  Turn over. 

Cook until golden brown on other side. 

Add onions, carrots, celery, Linguica, 4 tablespoons of pimenton, chopped garlic, bell peppers.  

Cook until onions are transparent. 

Add tomatoes, piquillo peppers, olives, crushed tomatoes, 1 cup of Madeira, and 1 cup of broth.

Mix everything together, and put a lid on.

Simmer for 40 minutes with the lid on... until chicken is tender and pulls easily from the bone. 

Meanwhile steam up a nice pot of rice to go with your chicken and sausages.  

Serve chicken, sausage, and vegetables over rice, with a glass of  red wine to accompany it! 

How To Make A Crudite!

I made this for the Pyrate's 1st birthday party... there were more grownups than children, obviously.

 I love the idea of food as art.  It brings great pleasure to the eye to have food presented in such a way.  In most situations you will find that I opt for the more rustic, more primitive presentations.   Over-grooming, does nothing for me.  There is much to be said for a beautifully done crudite'.   (the link will give you some creative ideas for displays) It's an art form with many shifting variables that you can mix and match to suit the theme, mood, and occasion of your party.

This fabulous three dimensional display of edible goodies is easy, easy, easy and makes an accessible spread for pre-dinner snacking for your guests at a party or holiday function.   Just grab up what's in season at your local farmers market.  You can make vegetable, fruit, or a combination of both.  Some items should be trimmed or peeled.  Others should be cut into finger size pieces such as the bellpeppers and broccoli in the photo.  Other items, such as cherry tomatoes, bananas, strawberries, mushrooms, and most fruits should be left whole. You should 3 minute blanch items such as asparagus, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and green beans, in rapidly boiling water so they are more tender to the bite.  Then fill gourds, cabbage, squashes with dips, vinaigrettes, mustards, etc.   Display as a centerpiece on your dining table, or as I did here, use an entire surface of a sideboard or buffet.  I used all kinds of hidden items to create height, depth, and dimension to this display.  For a smaller crudite you can start out with a platter and have the items spill over onto the surface of whatever space you will display it on, or you can make it a bit more conservative by keeping it more neat and displayed on platters.   Use fancy garnish techniques on some items to make your crudite more interesting.   Radishes, carrots, celery, can be manipulated to fan, curl, and other kooky but cool looking effects, when creatively cut and shocked in an ice bath.  Also some items can be placed there whole just for decoration.  You can use them later after the party for some sort of recipe, but they will simply serve to make your display more plentiful and extravagant. 

A large crudite such as mine in the picture is enough for a casual afternoon party, with perhaps the addition of a cheese board and some wine and juices.

Oh, yeah.

Did I mention this is a healthy alternative to chips, candies, and other typical party junk food?  If your veggies are farm fresh, and high quality, and your dips and sauces are flavorful, and your wine is tasty, your guests will not even miss that traditional casual party fare and they'll be amazed at this display that will remind them of master paintings in a museum.  

Gnocchi with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

Dishes like this are very typical, very traditional Italian staples.  We eat it as a meal, however, in Italy this would be one of the first courses, before a main entree with meat and vegetables.   I wanted to make something quick, easy, and satisfying enough for my boys to not look at me like I'm trying to starve them.  Pasta sounded good, but kinda boring so I decided to get some gnocchi, which are little dumpling like balls of potato pasta dough that get boiled just like pasta, until they are the perfect consistency. 

I wanted to make a meatless meal tonight as well, so I figured a good tomato sauce would be nice, and since I was at Trader Joes, I could have gotten a pretty decent sauce in a jar from their shelves and everyone would have been happy, however, I decided to make my own sauce with two baskets of mini heirloom tomatoes I got on Sunday at the farmer's market.  Oh!  I also had a huge bunch of fresh basil that was gonna go bad in another day or so if I didn't use it, so homemade sauce it was!!!

 The gnocchi I used were found in my local Trader Joes in the pasta section of the store.  Most grocery stores will now carry gnocchi.  If you can't find it easily, ask, perhaps you're looking in the wrong place.  Sometimes they'll have it in a refrigerated section with fresh pastas. 


Believe it or not that's pretty much it, you'll need a large pot of boiling water, some garlic, and some cheese for the top, and that's it.  Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce in under an hour!

THE PLAYERS: (your grocery list)

Gnocchi (two packages of gnocchi will make enough to feed four to five people.  find it in your grocery's pasta section.) Tomatoes (I used mini heirloom tomatoes, cut in half, which provided a very nice variety of color in the sauce. You can also use regular size heirlooms, or organic tomatoes on the vine.  You'll need a total of 4 cups of cut up tomato.)  Fresh Basil (in your produce section.  You'll need about 1/2 cup cut in a chiffonade.) Garlic (you'll need 4 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed.)Red Wine (I used a bordeaux.  You can use any good quality  dark red wine.)











PREPARATION:

Chop your tomatoes into 1 inch chunks.  If you're using mini ones like we did, cut them in half, leaving the very small ones whole.
Add about 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a large Saute pan and heat on high until oil is sizzling. 
Add tomatoes.  

The tomatoes will go through a couple of stages while they cook.  First the juices will escape into the pan, then the water in the tomato juice will cook off, and the tomatoes will begin to fall apart.  Then the tomatoes will begin to reduce into a thick consistency.  

Add crushed garlic to the tomato mixture. 
Put on a large pot of water over high heat, cover with a lid. 

To chiffonnade your basil, stack the leaves, roll them like a cigar, and then cut thin slices to make a shred. 
Add 1/2 of the bottle of red wine to the tomatoes and stir in the basil.

The wine will re-liquefy your tomatoes, so now you'll put a lid on it and turn the fire down to simmer this for 20 minutes.  

 When your pot of water starts to boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and your gnocchi. 
The gnocchi will sink to the bottom.  
Bring back to a boil. 
When the gnocchi float to the surface of the boiling water, allow it to cook for 2 minutes more.  
Then drain immediately. 
Check your tomato basil sauce, it should be slightly thicker.  Turn the fire off.  
Add gnocchi to your saute pan and toss with the tomato basil sauce to coat the gnocchi. 
Serve with thin slivers of parmesano reggiano cheese, perhaps a bit of fresh ground pepper, and hot, crusty bread. 

Yum.

 

Giving a Tinker's Dam

 It's that time again.  The holidays are upon us and even though we should probably think about giving more frequently than just this once a year, it's a time to forgive yourself, revive the practice enthusiastically. 

If we go back to 1877, in the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, Edward Knight puts forward this definition:

"Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."

This is a blog about worth and value in giving, but let me preface by saying that all of you out there who were planning on sending me an extravagant check in the mail as a holiday gift, I won't turn up my nose to it!  Don't you fret!!!  Just carry on with what you have planned!!! :)

In our house, over the last few months, I have quietly instituted a lifestyle evolution towards living a little cleaner, greener, and with more inner substance.  You won't find me doing any sort of massive conversion to some new extreme.  I am not interested in that.  There's something about extremes that just doesn't sit well with me.  I think if more people thought in terms of balance at the center of things,  instead of trying to right the boat by running frantically to the other end of the deck, the human race might even find a way to stay afloat.

So we've begun a whole slew of things... the Austrian is taking our master bath toilet apart this weekend because the water pressure in it hasn't been right in over a year, and we're wasting water with double flushes. (go ahead and breeze on by that mental image...) Long before the city ordained the new twice a week sprinkler allowance, we'd already cut back the watering of our garden and front lawn.   Last year, I stopped buying regular lightbulbs and started buying slightly more expensive, but longer lasting energy efficient bulbs.   We stopped using our air conditioning and heater except in cases where it was absolutely necessary...instead using ceiling fans, and alternately, extra blankets on the bed.   We stopped eating out so much, and the Austrian and I started visiting our local farmer's market every weekend.  I started reading labels on packaged foods, paying close attention to the ingredient hierarchy, and the ratio of the serving size to amounts of certain things like sugars, sodium, and saturated fats.  I've eliminated much of the prepared foods we were eating and replaced them with fresh foods prepared at home.  I don't even know why we were doing anything differently.  I am a hobby gourmet, and we were paying manufacturers to do things I can easily do at home, cheaper, tastier, and without a dramatic investment of time.  I eliminated the enormous amount of leftovers we were throwing in the trash due to our busy lifestyle, by purchasing disposable oven-safe, microwavable single serving containers and packing and freezing leftovers for the Austrian to take to work for his lunches.  The containers are made of recycled materials, and they are manufactured in a certified green factory and can be found in every Smart & Final store and most of those large outlets such as  Sam's Club and Costco.  I've had two yard sales this year, and gave away about 200 pounds of clothing to Goodwill.  We overhauled a small area in our home that was completely disfunctional and largely useless and turned it into a craft supply storage area... reducing the amount of clutter in my life by about 40%!
 

One of the greatest successes in the last year, (beside our eco-friendly self-produced wedding), was our christmas gift project.  I am being VERY generous when I use the word "our".   The boys were not really fully on board until the last weekend of production.

It might have been asking a bit much to get the Austrian, who I suspect to have borderline OCD, and the Pyrate who is probably sick of me and my big ideas, no matter how much he patronizes them.

But this stuff was not going to make itself!  We were on a tight budget, with wedding and trip to Mexico coming up in a few months, so we needed to use our creative resources and give in a very different way.

Once the guys got into it, they were very helpful and we were all very proud of what we'd done.  I spent 3 full weekends basically doing nothing but making the components of our christmas presents. We made several different things.The idea was to give things made with our own hands which had to be in some way useful.   We did some really cool stuff!
We made glass magnets decoupaged with art.

We decoupaged glass vases, framed mirrors, decorative platters, lazy susans, cigar boxes, and more.  I decoupaged wooden blocks and made block puzzles from images out of art magazines.  Grown-ups like to have them on the coffee table to fiddle with, and kids... well they love that there's 6 different images to puzzle together.


I made a beautiful jerk seasoning mix and layered the ingredients in the jar like a sand sculpture.  We made a seaweed mint footscrub, an oatmeal lavender milk bath, and little cones of individual cocoa mix and marshmallows.   Andreas designed customized labels for everything so that our gifts had a nice theme.

I purchased reusable grocery bags  and kraft paper (brown paper bag paper) for wrapping, from Nashville Wraps, an online company that sells gift packaging, including a huge and varied assortment of eco-friendly, recycled, re-useable products. 

We made our gifts, wrapped them in brown kraft paper, packed them in brown unbleached tissue paper, in reuseable grocery bags, and I can't remember the last time any gift I've given received such a response of gratefulness. 

NEWSFLASH:
People really like it when you do something thoughtful and actually give more than a tinker's dam instead of just going through the motions.  People actually get it when you've reached inside yourself and used your inner gifts for benevolence.

At a time when we probably should all be thinking more about how we spend our money... a time when we should be more conscious about how we consume... a time when we should be practicing less waste and more sustainable ways of living... getting creative in the way you give to others is the obvious move.  Not only is the gift more meaningful to the recipient, it is also profoundly good for your own mental, emotional, and yes, even physical health, to create and give.

So if you're a fantastic writer, write a short story and find self publisher online to print it, and give it as a gift.  If you're an artist, paint something and have copies printed, frame it and wrap it up in a bow.  You might think you're not very handy, or that you don't have the time, but those are excuses.  Giving is not giving if you don't get up off of something and give it.  Everybody has a talent for something.  If you're a handy household do-it-yourself-er, print up your favorite home improvement advice and anecdotes on nice paper, bound in a creative way and give it to all the homeowners in your life.  

If you write poetry, tell good jokes, bake great cakes, or even have great taste in music, there's super ways you can capitalize on your talent and use it for giving.   Frame a beautiful poem printed on parchment,  in an old frame and sign and number it.   Write a mini joke book.  Make a cake mix with all the dry ingredients for your most loved cake recipe and pack it up in a cellophane bag with instructions for what wet ingredients to add and how to bake it.   Make a list of must-have music and print it on card stock decorated with holiday regalia, add a personal note with holiday wishes and give it as a greeting card.
There are all kinds of great books out there if you want to try your hands at crafts.  You should, keep an open mind, don't start out too ambitious, don't get in over your head with something that will take months to finish.  And if you have many gifts to plan, don't choose something that you can't create in multiple fairly quickly.   

This year, we're going to step it up a notch with the edible goods, since I'm writing about food in my blogs.  I'm not completely committed yet to what all the goods will be, but there will be some sort of recipe booklet type inclusion, that, perhaps, I'll make available for sale after the holidays are over.

If you really feel that you just cannot create something, but you have a generous heart, that in itself is a talent!  Gather up some of  your friends and loved ones and plan a trip to your local rescue mission to serve a meal or deliver some cheer to children's ward at your local hospital.  Take books to read them, and boardgames to play.  This will be appreciated greatly by the staff and the patients alike!

You can find some really great books on crafting in my bookshelf in the right margin of the blog page.  All the books there are ones I have in my library and recommend!  So have fun, and remember to give from the heart!!!

All photos in this blog are taken by me, of items made by me, using recycled and re-purposed materials and cost very little money to make, but 3 weekends of my time, and a lot of love!