Reminiscing the Old and Planning the New

I am a planner. I like to plan things out, lay it out in manageable stages of logic of where I’ve started and how it will end. Starting things and ending things have always been a relatively easy task for me. The middle part on the other hand… not so much.

December passed by in a blur of anxiety, accomplishment, illness, sorrow, and people. There was a week following my final papers that consisted of a 101°F fever, coughing and sneezing and fairly vulnerable. All the plans I had for December, all those recipes, climbing problems, and yoga practices, didn’t happen. And for once, my plans to have everything done on time, precise and accurate, were tossed to the wind to make way of a much-needed break from it all. I slept. I wept. I ate. I loved.

I feel so grateful for this “shift or be shifted” year, with months of “aha” moments and triumphs and changes:

January was all about trying new ways to be physically active and making the perfect cornbread recipe.

February was a month of adventure, learning about various eating lifestyles, and the start to taking photography seriously as an art form/science.

 
March was the month of honoring my progression and loving myself, regardless of the bumps along the way.

April celebrated my one-year blogversary with what I learned and what I planned to learn before April 2013 rolled around.

May was the start of understanding how diet and exercise helped in healing a hypothyroid condition. Oh, and let’s not forget Graduation, which inspired me to continue my academic career in the graduate program in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

June was an honest month, and finally realizing how important taking care of myself really is.

July was the start of experimenting with pareve bento box snapshots, heartbreak on multiple levels, becoming adamant in weekend farmers markets, and supporting local food sources with a social justice twist.

August brought with it a movement of fermentation and homemade nut butters, personal growth and graduate school classes.

September gave me my first product review and coming face-to-face with hidden depths of life's grievances and growing pains.

October brought series of hard lessons, new priorities, a deeper relationship to family that will always be there no matter what, and loving all things simple.

 
November was my month of experimenting with Primal Blueprint eating, playing with gluten free beer, and twenty-three things I learned by my twenty-third birthday.

 
And December finished the year on a sweeter note than I could have ever hoped for.

With the last day before the New Year, I thought to share a recipe I was quite proud of. Even with many of December’s plans (there’s that word again) left undone, I have had plenty of time to get ready with January’s plans, more so intentions than they are resolutions. 

Happy New Year, everyone. Have fun and be safe!

 

Winter Gingerbread Cut-out Cookies (inspired by this recipe)

150 g Garbanzo bean flour
75 g Flaxseed meal
75 g Coconut flour
50 g Mesquite powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. Ground ginger
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder is fine)
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Cracked pepper
125 g Unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
175 g Honey
1 Large egg

Measure out the flours, baking soda, and spices and pour into the bowl of the food processor to mix (a few pulses should do for mixing just fine).
Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs, and then add the honey and egg until a sticky ball of dough forms.
Remove the dough from the food processor and mold into a thick disk to wrap in with parchment paper or saran wrap.
Place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.
Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Roll the dough out to a 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface (I used additional garbanzo bean flour).
Using your choice of cutters (I used my Ikea animal shapes, plus a few people, hearts, trees, and moons), cut out the shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
Bake for 12-15 minutes (my oven’s baking time was between 13 and 14 minutes), or until lightly golden-brown.
Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Continue cutting out the dough and baking until all of it has been used.*
When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations of your choice, but they are delicious as is and perfect for dunking into hot drinks.

Makes (roughly) three dozen cookies.

*Be sure the baking trays have cooled down completely before adding another batch!

Have Yourself a Merry Little December

I’m one of those people who start the holidays right when I wake up to the December 1st morning. Pandora is devoted to secular holiday music with songs sung by The Rat Pack, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and many others. The Christmas lights are shining brightly around our doorway, inviting good cheer to everyone who enters our home. This week is devoted to getting into the Yuletide spirit, putting the tree up and decorating, preparing for finals, and cooking up a plethora of winter based recipes.

Last Year's Tree

In the last month of the year 2012, I have been looking at past blog posts and life decisions fervently, awed by how much has changed and inspired by how far I’ve come. I’ve found my passions in food have surpassed my expectations and evolved into something leaning towards sustainable development, urban agriculture, the local and organic movements, gardening, and “know your farmer”. My fitness regimen in the form of rock climbing and yoga, although sometimes appearing lack in progress at times, has conditioned my body (and spirit) in ways I couldn’t have imagined when I first started.

And in December of last year, I couldn’t imagine being a successful graduate student, let alone being accepted to the graduate school program. My acceptance letter came last week, and already plans for the spring semester are being laid out to balance all the loves in my life. I’m currently working on time management week by week, only because the semester is almost over. But goodness, I’m an official S/CAR graduate student… Me. Accepted.

Holy cow.

So while I hum to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, I figured to honor my acceptance by making socca, a food I’d fallen in love with over a year ago but haven’t made another recipe since my "Happy Herbivore Tendencies" post. That’s way too long a break in between without socca, I say, and started thinking of a recipe to share. I wanted to use up the remaining pumpkin puree in the fridge, but I was also hankering for an old school peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Let’s just say my craving was more than satisfied, and that pumpkin works beautifully with peanut butter and banana.

Pumpkin Socca

120 g Garbanzo bean flour

180 ml Filtered water

5 ml Whey (optional)*

240 g Pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. Sea salt

30 g Butter (for a dairy free and vegan version, you could use coconut/olive oil)

In a small mixing bowl, stir the flour, water, and whey until thoroughly combined and let it sit overnight on the counter.

Add the pumpkin and sea salt while melting the butter on medium heat in a cast iron skillet; once beginning to brown, drizzle the excess fat into the batter.

Pour the batter into the skillet and treat it like you would a pancake, either flipping over or using the broiler to cook the other side.

Turn off the heat and transfer it onto a plate to cool slightly (the inside is delicious custard when hot and solidifies as it cools). 

Cut into quarters, bars, or squares to enjoy as you like and serve warm.

Makes 2 servings.

Socca is a great bread substitute to make sandwiches. For two peanut butter and banana soccawiches, slice the socca in half, smear 2 tbsp. peanut butter (or any nut butter of your choice) and slice one ripe banana thinly on one side of the socca. Fold the other side on top and cut the socca again so you have two – four sandwiches on a plate. Enjoy with a glass of milk (dairy free or otherwise). 

Happy Holidays!

Every year I say it was the best Christmas ever, and every year I mean it. The morning is a quiet one, with “A Christmas Story” playing in the background while people have brunch and drink coffee. The family tradition is lox on a bagel with various odds and ends, but I made gluten free biscuits (much more successful than the last time, I think, but not perfect) as my “bagel”. Along with Mama Dazz, Burt-man, IB, and myself, we also had our good friend TD stay over from our Christmas Eve dinner. Uncle R came over in time for brunch and our day of board games, and his girlfriend AS came later.

Ahhh! It's the Lox Ness Monster!

The people in my life know me so well. Mama Dazz bought me a kindle, the same kind she bought Grandpa B when we visited them earlier this week. I was rendered speechless, and already I have quite a collection of free kindle books, many of them fairytales from all over the world, and some of them are classics I denied myself reading in my youth. (Sherlock Holmes is a great example.) I was also given books, and I was overjoyed to see my favorite cartoon artist Nick Galifianakis’ book If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute, Alton Brown’s Good Eats 3: The Later Years, and Potter’s Cooking For Geeks. The boyfriend went with me to purchase ski clothes for our week at Timberline in WV, and as one of my gifts he bought my ski pants for me.

Gift opening during brunch

In the afternoon I went over to Daddy-O and his wife A's lovely house for the Sands Family Christmas. All the cousins were there, including my cousin Amy, who is teaching English in China for a year to little kids (if you are interested, here is her blog). After dinner was eaten (I was still full from brunch and Christmas Eve’s duck dinner), we circled around the large Christmas tree where a huge pile of presents were sparkling under the Christmas lights. “Thank you” and “Oh, wow!” were heard from all over the room, and it was quite a sight. At my feet, there were Pink Floyd CDs, a rather stylish carrier bag, Gluten Free on a Shoestring, tangle-free and retractable headphones, a scarf, a slushy making mug, and much-needed funds. I was blown away by Uncle K and Aunt L’s graduation gift, and it is really going to help get my post-college life together (Thank you thank you thank you!).

Although the gifts I received were beyond amazing, it was such a humbling Christmas to have after my Christmas in Sweden. I was surrounded by loved ones, good food, and found my heart had grown three sizes in twenty-four hours. There was no Scrooge or Grinch to be found.

He and I are spending this week at Timberline Ski Resort in Davis, WV with his family and friends until the New Year. Russian is the language of choice, and it is so beautiful to hear. It is raining at the moment, and he is a tad under the weather, but I do aim to either ski or run while I’m here. Most of the food, as I anticipated, is not Morri-friendly, but I did bring provisions to keep my tummy happy.   

I end this post with a Merry Christmas, God Jul, Happy Boxing Day, and Happy New Year. Also, what does your traditional Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) look like in regards to food?   

Two Winter Veggie Dishes, Two Different Ways

As mentioned in my “God Jul” post, there were a plethora of vegetable dishes. The two I made were the “Marinated Ruby Red Salad” and the “Dairy Free Creamed Spinach.” The boyfriend was my inspiration for the former, as Eastern Europe is very big on pickled and marinated veggies. The latter was something I replicated from my first ever Julbord when we were in Sweden, only I wanted to have an edge on the dish. Both are wonderful winter side dishes to have when you’re in that veggie rut. Where one is refreshing, the other is comforting. Where one is light, the other is rich and filling. 

Marinated Ruby Red Salad

16 oz./454 g/12 -14 Baby beets, steamed and peeled
1 Medium-sized White onion, finely diced
6 oz. (171 g) English cucumber, gutted and finely diced
20 g or 9 small radishes, coarsely chopped
45 g (1/4 c.) Red wine vinegar
1 Ruby red grapefruit, sectioned and juiced

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and let marinated at least four hours.
Refrigerate to serve later or serve immediately.

Serves 6 – 8.

Dairy Free Creamed Spinach

16 oz. (464 g) Frozen spinach
13.5 oz. (383 g) Canned coconut milk
1 tbsp. Dried minced onion
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Penzeys Spices Balti seasoning, optional
Cracked pepper, to taste
20 g Garbanzo bean flour

Place the spinach and coconut milk in a medium saucepan on medium heat until the mixture is hot, about ten minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients, drop the heat to a medium-low, and it should thicken after three minutes.
Serve hot.

Serves 6 – 8.

God Jul & the Solstice Julbord

God Jul, my merry readers! I felt that this Swedish saying was rather appropriate for this post, because Sweden has truly inspired my household this holiday season. On the twenty-first, family and friends sat around the dining room table for a three-course feast similar to the one I had last year with Sofia’s family. It was my first Christmas away from home, though her family kept homesickness at bay. We played games and sang songs in between bites. We walked on the frozen lake and watched Donald Duck in various cartoons. The boyfriend and I were given presents of tomte sculptures and Swedish Jul music. 

This family showed us the true Swedish Christmas spirit, and I was determined to do the same in the United States.

After our Ikea outing a few weeks back, Mama Dazz and I came home with edible goodies, including pickled herring, fish paste, seaweed “caviar”, non-alcoholic glögg, cookies, and lingonberry nectar. From there we came up with a menu for our very own Julbord.

Now, for those who do not know about Scandinavian culture, the Julbord is a buffet-style meal with various courses served at the table. The Julbord is a form of the Smörgåsbord, Swedish for open-faced sandwich (smörgås) and table (bord). There are hot and cold dishes, and the meal usually starts with bread, butter, cheese (and lots of it), and pickled seafood. The second course is then served, with deli meats, cold veggies, and crisp breads with more cheese. The third course would be the warm dishes, with meatballs, sausages, carbohydrate-laden casseroles and cooked veggies. Depending on the family, there may or may not be dessert, but an after dinner fika is expected.

We had an amazing menu, and the people around the table were stuffed to the gills. So what did we have, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you.

Drinks
Spiced wine*
Moscow Mule* (a mixed drink made with potato vodka, ginger beer, and lime)
Water
Hot tea
Coffee

First course
Pumpernickel bread
Cracker assortment
Cheese: Havarti with Dill, Holland sharp cheddar
Garlic-stuffed Olives
Pickles
Deli meat: Sliced pancetta, capiola
Pickled herring
Applegate beef hotdogs with Dijon mustard
Deviled eggs with real caviar
Yuletide sugarplums

 

Second course
Dairy free creamed spinach
Marinated ruby red salad
Sautéed Brussel sprout mash
Jansson’s temptation (eller Janssons frestelse), without the bread on top
Swedish meatballs (recipe in post)

Third Course
Coffee
Tea
Fresh berries, biscotti, and whipped cream

It was an amazing meal, with amazing people to share it with. I hope I did you proud, Sweden.

God Jul to all, and have a safe holiday (whichever one(s) you may celebrate).

Swedish Meatballs (adapted from The Joy of Cooking cookbook)

64 g (> 2.25 oz.) CGF rolled oats
100 g Whole milk
12 oz. (340 g) Ground beef
12 oz. (340 g) Ground pork
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tbsp. (14 g) Butter, melted
1/4 c. (30 g) Minced dried onion
3 tbsp. Dried parsley
1 scant tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Paprika, Spanish smoked
1/2 tsp. Grated lemon rind
1 tsp. Lemon juice
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/8 tsp. Allspice
2 c. (16 oz./ 454 g) Chicken stock, for pan gravy

Coarsely grind the rolled oats through the food processor, and in a small mixing bowl, soak in the milk throughout the other prep processes on the counter, about thirty to fort-five minutes.
In a larger mixing bowl, mix together the ground meats with the eggs.
While both bowls are setting, sauté the minced onions in the olive oil until golden and allow cooling.
Add the onion in with the meat, as well as the remaining spices and the rolled oats, and mix (either by hand or a wooden spoon) until the ingredients are fully integrated.
In a large pot, put the chicken stock on medium heat.
Shape into balls (I was rather anal about this: the mixture equals 992 g, so to make 18 I measured each to be around 55 g), about 2 inches.
Drop into the bowling stock and cook until done, about fifteen minutes, and then proceed to make pan gravy.

Makes 18 meatballs. Serves 6 – 9 people.

Pan Gravy

2 c. (16 oz/ 454 g) boiling cooking liquid (in this case, the chicken stock)
2 tbsp. (20 g) Garbanzo bean flour
1/2 c. (90 g) Heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp. Grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp. Dill

In a small bowl, mix the garbanzo bean flour in with a ladle of the hot liquid and stir until a thick slurry is formed.
Pour the slurry into the cooking liquid (with the meatballs still in the pot), and lower the heat to a steady simmer for five minutes.
Add in the lemon rind and nutmeg.
Turn the heat to the lowest setting, and slowly add the cream to cook for another minute or so.
Serve immediately.

*Alcoholic drinks: I want to remind my readers to please please please drink responsibly. Everyone at the Julbord was over the age of 21 (the legal drinking age of the United States), and waited a good number of hours before driving. I encourage the use of designated drivers, staying hydrated with water, and eating a ton of food when alcohol is present. I want you to have fun, and I want you to be safe.

Yuletide Sugarplums

I feel as if my life is at a standstill. There are no more exams, essays, or projects. There are no more car battles for the closest parking space on campus, running from class to class, or studying. I am no longer an undergraduate.

As of Monday, I am officially an Alumnus.

After turning in my paper and portfolio for Conflict Integration on Thursday, I joined my friends while they ate lunch. I was the only one who was completely finished, but there was talk that I could take another semester’s worth of classes, maybe a minor of fifteen credits or less. Joking or not, I was done with the student aspect of my life for a while, but what I am going to do to fill the new void where school was a part of me for more than sixteen years?

(On a positive note, fall graduates like myself are actually supposed to be part of the cap and gown walk in May, even though we get our diplomas in January.)

The word of the week is Obligation, as I have obligations with family, new and old, friends, my significant other, my work at the community center, and yes, definitely myself. My life isn’t at a standstill, per se, but I feel like my pants have been yanked from the back to keep me in place even though Life keeps on going. I have Obligations to others to go a certain way, but at the same time I have Obligations to go a certain way that may not be compatible. So I do what I can, but as the boyfriend explained it, Life is like an apple pie. You have enough ingredients to make two pies, which will satisfy sixteen people. But say there’s eighteen people; what will you do then? If you cut the pie pieces to accommodate the other two, the pieces won’t nearly be as satisfying for everyone involved, including the baker.

After he told me that, I knew he was right. I’ve been trying to satisfy too many people and as a result, I feel I have only done what had to done at minimum. On my end, it hasn’t been as fulfilling and believe me, I aim to fix this error… especially where stress management is concerned.

I have so much to be thankful for, and they are things that have made this Yuletide a glorious one. I am extremely lucky to have a family that has pushed me to succeed and had paid my way through college. I am humbled by the love I have for the people in my life and the love that is reflected right back.  

(source)

So here I am, an Alumnus with or without a plan for the upcoming year ahead of me. Will I attend Grad school in the fall?  Will I move into my own place by February? Will I have a job pertaining to what I want to use my discipline in conflict resolution in the spring? Will I travel on my own accord, make a garden to feed the people I love, run a 5k (or 10k), or start the art project I’ve been thinking about the last two months? Will I finally have the apple pie distributed in the manner that suits my liking?

True, I’ve been thinking about these questions. But at the moment, the only thing I’m thinking about is the holidays and the recipes it may bring.

This month has become the designated cookie month for many who have children, love baking for the holidays, and well, love cookies. At the same time I’ve been looking for something different for a Yuletide dessert, although I assure you cookies are definitely in the making. Alton Brown from Good Eats did a particularly festive episode titled “Twas the Night Before Good Eats,” and inspired me to have the Holiday Spirit in recipes other than in cookie form. Cassie from the amazing blog Back to Her Roots also inspired me with her sugar plums recipe, whose ratio I’ve used as the base for my creation.  

And wouldn’t you know it? The recipe happens to be gluten free without any help at all.

The history of sugarplums varies depending on the type. There is the literal sugarplum, which are plums oven-dried and then rolled in sugar, a delicacy during the Tudor period. Plum also denoted any kind of dried fruit, so it wasn’t always made with a plum. But then there is the archaic version, made with more than that. The recipe has changed throughout the eras, the Victorians even going to far as to hang them on the Christmas tree as an edible treat (similarly the same concept that I’ve done with putting candy canes on mine in the past).

From Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker to Moore’s "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to Field’s “The Sugar Plum Tree,” this delectable treat is, by far, a healthier indulgence than what can be expected in the remaining weeks of 2011. I used coconut flour in place of the powdered sugar as coating, but each piece is still two bites of heaven.

Yuletide Sugarplums

1 c. (112 g) Raw almonds
1 c. (120 g) Raw pistachios
1/4 c. (63 g) Creamed honey (regular if you don’t have it or maple syrup/agave nectar for a vegan friendly recipe)
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Allspice
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
3/4 c. (85 g) Dried apricots
3/4 c. (114 g) Prunes
15 Medjool dates, pitted
Zest of 1 Tangerine
Coconut flour, for dusting

Put the almonds and pistachios through the food processor until they are chopped into fine pieces.
Add the spices, dried fruits, and the tangerine zest, and pulse until the mixture is chopped and beginning to clump (I pulsed mine past what Alton Brown had done, but they turned out just fine).
To form the sugarplums, use the larger end of a melon baller (a tablespoon works also) to scoop the mixture and roll it into a ball with your hands.
Roll the balls into the coconut flour (or powdered sugar if you prefer) and shake off the excess before stacking them in a jar or on a plate.

Makes 44 sugarplums.