Herbs for Cooking & Healing

Herbs are one of my favorite foods and of course the only medicine I choose to use for myself and my family. I grow most of my own medicinal as well as kitchen herbs here in my garden in West Cork. Thankfully they are very hardy (basically weeds!) and can take the rain and lack of sunshine better then then the rest of us. 

If you are not yet using an abundance of herbs for your cooking, you don't know what you are missing, they are perhaps the most valuable source of vitamins and minerals from the earth. Herbs contain some of the highest amounts of vitamin C (rose hips), iron (parsley, sea vegetables, raspberry leaf etc) and most other nutrients that we need on a daily basis. There is always a good reason to include herbs in your cooking, tea and salads.

Growing herbs for your food and cooking is also quite easy, especially the more common ones such as thyme, rosemary, basil, sage, coriander, parsley and many others. If you don't have a garden, no problem, they will grow in pots in a sheltered location - ready for use, for a good few months of the year.

This time of year (harvest or Lughnasadh in Ireland) is when I start to gather my herbs and dry them for teas and use in the coming winter months. They are easily dried hanging in small bunches or even spread out on newspaper near a dry warm fire. Often I do both - mostly because it is so wet these days - I hang the herbs to dry for 24 hours and then spread them out to finish drying near the fire or other source of heat.

Herbs drying on a rack

Once dry (make sure they are thoroughly dried) they can be crumbled or placed into jars and paper bags to keep for later use. I have a good few that I would use for colds, coughs and general winter bugs throughout the year to keep us all healthy. However, many of these herbs are also fabulous in the kitchen meals...

Using herbs in cooking, salads and as part of larger meals is something that many of us have forgotten and moved away from, to our own detriment. Herbs adjust, heal, uplift, re-balance and otherwise work with the body intelligence as the best doctor humans will ever know and still manage to taste great!

When adding herbs to your cooking more is often better, the taste and added flavour is outstanding. While there is a herb or two for nearly every dish we tend to skimp when using them fresh from the garden.

The best practice is to use far more then just a taste - for example, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley is nice, however try adding 1 or 2 cups of this herb right from the garden to any pot of soup or stew - the transformation is magical! The flavours mix and mingle with the other foods leaving you with a meal that is refreshing and alive with sensation.

One of my favorite salads is something that is made up from the garden - fresh picked herbs such as basil, parsley, spring onion, mint, rocket, cress, chives - chopped up into a green salad, tossed with oil and balsamic vinegar then sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese. Imagine the flavour and the goodness in that bowl!!

I will have to get a picture the next time I make it (perhaps tomorrow for the harvest festival)

Back soon,

April

Borage tea and drying borage from the garden - flowers can be used in salads fresh, or leaves in tea for heart health and courage! 

Back on the jam...

Yesterday was an interesting day - we had sunshine, so that was new and very nice for us all. I also got out into the garden and between planting, harvesting herbs, weeding as well as all the other little things, got very little time to make anything new.

I did get to make some jams late last night, mostly because the fruit was not going to last, it had to be cooked into jams or else! Once I got started with the chopping and setting up for the canning process, I realized a few important things.

First of all, the apple pectin I had made two days before which had sat in a bowl, had thickened up and looked like liquid pectin. This was promising as it was not made with the best type of apple, giving me hope that once I do find the perfect apples, the pectin will turn out even better.

Another thing about jam, cooking at home and making our own foods that I have to constantly remind myself of is that the final results will not taste, look or necessarily resemble something that comes from a shop. Homemade crackers are not the perfectly uniform shapes and thickness that you will find in a packet nor is home baked spelt bread neat and tidy in perfect little loaves. 

Of course, the best thing about all of this cooking and creating at home - is the fact that last night after my jam was made and I was waiting for the jars in the boiling water bath, I found myself eating spoonfuls of warm jam from the jar. 

Pot for boiling water bath

Never in my life do I remember eating spoonfuls of jam, but this was so fragrant and inviting for a nice piece of buttered spelt bread...

This first for me was all the proof that I needed, once again to show me that homemade is always the best way to go. Of course the jam looks, tastes and smells different from the shop bought kind - it is different, we have been reconditioned into thinking that food should 'look' a certain way and that simply is not the case. Food produced at home does not look as if it has been processed by a machine.

Jars of jams made last night

Finally, when you start talking with people about jams, cooking, food and the various ways that we all go about creating our home made goods, everyone has a different take on it and their own methods. People's preferences for their own foods are important and not in any way uniform or able to be re-created inside the walls of a factory. 

This alone gives us all hope!

April

Bean Burgers

Yesterday was what we refer to in our house as a 'big eating day' or a day with a big meal of several courses and dessert. This is as opposed to a fast day, cleanse day, small eating day or festival! All of which are very different from each other and have their own significant meanings, rituals and celebrations.

For our big eating day, which usually follows our 10 day Master Cleanses - by way of a little celebration - we decided to have a mung bean burger feast with sheeps' cheese, roasted root vegetables, jasmine rice stir-fry with fresh greens/herbs from the garden and peach ice cream for dessert. 

Those of you who have my 1st recipe book The Way to Heal - Body, Mind & Soul, would be familiar with this recipe that has been loved by my family for a few years now. These are the absolute best bean burgers that you can possibly make and are preferred here over lamb burgers.

To make the bean burgers the main ingredient (mung beans) must first be sprouted over 2 or more days, I find them ideal after about 48 hours or so. Then once the beans are ready these are ground together with fresh greens such as spinach or yesterday I used baby rocket leaves from my garden and garlic.

Soaking Mung Beans

We then add grated carrot, chopped onion, leeks and broccoli to this burger base mixing it thoroughly and then frying it in hot sunflower oil. (And no, they do not fall apart) These are lovely with a piece of mature goat's cheese, homemade mayo and fresh naan bread right out of the oven. 

Needless to say, yesterday was a lovely meal for us - the culmination of days and weeks spent cleansing, cleaning and detoxing. I can only imagine how lovely next week will be with the harvest feast (Lughnasdh) just around the corner! 

Mung Bean Mixture - with rocket and garlic

Voila - bean burgers! 

Have a lovely day,

April

Thick, thick, thick..

The words thick, thick, thick have been going around in my head over the past 24 hours or so as I try to figure out how to get my jams to be a little thicker. I am trying all the usual means - well, you know, that means that I am attempting to make pectin myself!

Strain the cooked apples into a bowl

Last night I followed all the directions carefully on a website that was explaining how to make your own pectin for jams and jellies. Of course, I probably did not have the exact right kind of apple, however, all apples are supposed to contain some pectin - I did manage to produce a thickish syrup from the apples, which seemed to slightly thicken the jam I was making. However, I would have liked it a little bit more jammy.

Today, it is back to the drawing board - I asked around at the market in Skibbereen this morning as well, looking for unripe tart apples. No luck so far. So, I will try my hand at this again tonight with another batch of jams that I want to make this time using a different kind of apple.

Yesterday I used up the last of my raspberries to make raspberry kiwi jam - for something that has no sweetener whatsoever, it does taste really good. I am just not that happy with the consistency of it, but the rest of the family loved it (they ate it without complaint!).

So, that was yesterday, more jam (the cupboards are filling up) and today we are home again from the market with more fruit ready to be made into jams and preserves. However, this time I am going to do some experimenting with carrageenan, agar flakes and the homemade pectin to see what I can come up with.

I keep telling myself that as long as it is homemade (no recipe found yet for agar flakes) and wholesome, our bodies will appreciate the effort being made to remove any kind of processed foods from our diets.

And eventually, I will be more adept at all of this with my own recipes down to a T!

Well, today there is sun, so I am harvesting and drying some herbs from my garden, the entire house smells divine - pictures tomorrow.

April

Raspberries, Kiwi and Apple ready to cook into jam 

Refining Our Tastes...

Yesterday was the second day off the Master Cleanse for us, so we are still getting back to eating regular meals and filling up on good food. When I came into the kitchen to get lunch ready there was a already a plan in place as the children were asking for sushi. 

This is one of our favorite  meals or snacks that takes little time to prepare and is very versatile, it also travels fairly well for small kids. Of course, we don't make this with raw fish - but nearly anything else goes when it comes to sushi in our house.

Usually we make sushi rolls with guacamole, tuna, cucumber and grated carrot. However, yesterday everyone was in the mood for other flavours, so I rooted around to see what we had on hand. I found local crab meat and locally hot smoked tuna -- when mixed together this was a very nice combination.

For the meal I made a vegetable stir-fry and then realized that -- with virtually no processed foods remaining in the house, we did not have a mayonnaise or sauce for dipping. This brought me back to the drawing board and cooking/creating something from scratch.

I have tried my hand at making mayonnaise several times, with some success. However, for small children, I did not necessarily want to use raw duck eggs as part of a recipe. Thus, the sauce needed to be cooked so this was moving into new territory for me.

In the end, I separated the egg yolk and cooked it together with some water, spelt flour and butter. Then added in mustard and spices, vinegar and kept stirring until it was thickening up. After taking it off the stove I pureed it and slowly added some oil. 

To be honest, I thought that it was lovely and smelled nice, but it looked more like hollandaise sauce then mayo, at least not the white stuff you will find in the shops. The one thing I was certain of was that the children would not eat it - but they were the ones who surprised me. Everyone loved it and I don't think there was much left over!

Now, I just want to play around with the recipe a bit more to get it where I really like it and then find a way to preserve it for a couple weeks at a time or perhaps even longer. I mean, we can buy something off of a shelf and it has a date indicating that it can last for quite awhile - how do they do that with such highly perishable food items?

The only method is to use chemical additives, stabilizers or preservatives and so forth. When not using these, perhaps the best way to enjoy mayonnaise sauce is freshly made. The wonderful thing here is it was very quick to put together with just making it up as I went from a vague idea of what should be found in a white sauce that I wanted to become a mayonnaise. 

Perhaps, this is the simplicity of all cooking and preparing meals - they can be tasty, wholesome and easy to assemble and we have somehow been stupified into thinking otherwise. Clever marketing, yes?

Have a great day,

April

Sushi roller, sheet of nori seaweed and lunch! 

Love Food

Yesterday was fairly productive for me in terms of coming off of a 10 day Master Cleanse and getting back to cooking and eating. The difference between the fasting state and the food state is profound in terms of creativity, focus and clarity. It is a transition that I have not really enjoyed mainly because I am afraid (there's that word again) of not being as focused or feeling as good as I do when fasting. 

However, they are just two different states of being and here I am on to the next phase of what I would call day on/day off food and fasting. Although yesterday was mainly a juice day, I did do some baking and made a small batch of jam with the fruit that I had on hand. 

So, the jam story thus far has taken me around the world to find ideas about combinations for the fruit that I had available - something that would taste good and be an interesting flavour at the same time. I am determined to use organic and local as much as possible even if it only forms the base of the final product. 

I had a small amount of local strawberries but not enough to make a batch of jam on it's own, so I needed to put something with it. I found mention of strawberry kiwi jam - but it called for sugar and lots of pectin. I reasoned if I used some kiwi, a couple of tart apples, apple concentrate and perhaps a thickener like agar flakes, then I could make some kind of jam from this and it should taste ok. 

Late last night I chopped up all that I had on hand - strawberries, kiwi and 2 tart apples, these went into the pot with the other ingredients and 1/2 an hour later out came the jam. It was not as thick as I would have liked, but it did thicken, once blended it looked and smelled really nice too. It was not overly sweet but not tart or tangy, just pleasant tasting.

It nearly filled 3 full jars - which by the way I am getting to be very proficient at, as they all sealed right up within a minute or so after coming from the boiling water bath. It is so interesting how canning my own foods was something that I had talked about doing for years, kept putting it off because I thought it would be so complicated and tedious. And it is none of these. 

The other adventures yesterday were the normal ones for me of baking breads. When not fasting, I bake 2 small loaves of organic whole grain spelt bread each day - this will usually be sweet bread with sultanas, cinnamon and seeds, herbed bread with rosemary and thyme, honey oat bread with our own honey, or naan bread with sesame seeds. Or some combination thereof. 

Yesterday I made honey oat muffins (which were gone so fast I couldn't even get a photo of them all!) and sweet bread. I have been making my own bread for awhile and made bread each week as a young girl growing up. It is something of a comfort food for us here and so easy to make. 

I am baffled by those who buy anything that comes from a shop in terms of bread - this is the one food which should be your link as a family. Bake the bread together, eat and enjoy it - this food conveys your love and care for each other always reminding us of home. 

Honey oat and sweet spelt breads

Feeding ourselves well is what this is all about, this is not work, this is love.

April

I Think, I Am Going To Like This...

Yesterday I was doing some research on using the apricots that I had on hand and making some sort of preserve with them and came across several mentions of apricot fig preserve or jam. From several recipes and descriptions online I was able to come up with my own version of this lovely jam.

One thing that I love is the taste of figs and of course any fresh fruit is also nice, however, making this jam yesterday was not the only thing that got me thinking and so excited. It was actually a deep realization about the foods that I have been eating and of course complaining about.

I have long known that we eat the foods that are put on store shelves and part of us must fade away - the creative soul - because there really is little imagination into tastes, textures and flavors anymore. Well, we get strawberry jam or apricot jam or perhaps some company is a little daring and makes something a little different. But for the most part, the food is all alike and fairly generic, either way, it is someone else's idea of what 'we' would be likely to purchase. (There's my food management and supply degree talking)

Yesterday opened my eyes a little further into my creative soul because it hit home that now I was in charge of the jam and I could make it anyway that I wanted. My apricot fig preserves then ended up with some of the flavors that I love, such as cloves, cinnamon, walnut and orange. I did not follow a recipe or even an idea, just an intuitive sense of what would taste nice on roasted duck at Christmas or as an accompaniment to homemade crackers and goat's cheese. I wanted something tasty and versatile.

When you make your own foods completely from scratch and allow yourself to unleash the foodie in you, who knows what will result. I have a feeling that it would be something fabulous and great every time. This is really the only way to go, when it comes to food.

The tiny bit of preserves that were left over were sitting in a bowl on the countertop - waiting for me to taste today, because my fast is now over and I am getting back to solid foods. I had a little spoon of it and it is lovely, just as I imagined it would be, slightly spicy, very thick and rich, yet it has the freshness of homemade food. 

And as there are only 3 jars of this (which all sealed perfectly I might add!) we won't be sick of it, it will be treasured and reserved for feast days to be used on special dishes and meals. Just as wonderful food is meant to be. Not too much, no endless supply of any one item, just something precious to be enjoyed and used thoughtfully.

What a great approach to eating, mindfulness at it's best,

April

This is one of the many pots of baby salad leaves that grow outside my door and in my cold frames. Greatest way to get greens fresh for a good long season. 

Love Summer Fruits

Yesterday was another interesting day with still being on this fast, and wanting to create and cook - I ended up making ice cream and apple sauce in small batches to just keep myself occupied really. I find that I relax, am happy in myself and can think or process through things when I am busy working with food. 

First of all ice cream is something that I have been making for awhile and we have a small ice cream maker. The main reason we got this was because we had been all going without any ice cream for several years due to the fact that we don't eat cows milk, sugar or want the added chemicals of commercial ice cream.

There are companies out there who make ice cream from goat's milk however, it would have other ingredients that we did not like or need. Therefore, being resourceful, I started to make my own for our special occasions (such as summer!) and feast days. There is a feast day coming up soon at the beginning of August, and now the ice cream is ready for this celebration. 

When I first started out making ice cream I just researched what other people were doing and then improvised to fit our own needs - and it turns out very well. I make goat's milk ice cream using bananas, milk, jam and little else.

Yesterday I used 4 bananas, about 2.5 cups of goat's milk, 1//2 cup fresh peach jam and a tiny bit of raw agave syrup - mostly because I could not taste it to see how sweet it was. Otherwise I would not use the agave, but the jams I am making are mainly only fruit, some lemon juice and 1/2 cup of apple concentrate per batch of jam. They will not be overly sweet.

Then I decided to try my hand at making my applesauce recipe and canning it into the last remaining jars because I had apples that were not being eaten. I never liked applesauce as a child or at any other time - until I started making it myself. I think for me it has to do with the texture - if it's too much like baby food, I don't want it.

I also like applesauce that is warm and spicy with lots of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger or allspices in it. So this is what I did - 8 cups of chopped apples, teaspoons of spices, tiny bit of lemon juice and cooked the apples into a sauce. They bottled up perfectly as well, in the jars that would not seal the day before, go figure! 

Now, when I open the cupboard there are a dozen jars lined up filled with jams and sauces - ready for the coming winter and changing seasons. It is a warm and fuzzy feeling for me and I truly feel right now these few remaining items that have been creeping into our diets will be eliminated once and for all.

Soon, I want to try my hand at making some chutneys and perhaps pickles as I get more adventurous  with my canning abilities. Last night Max came home with over 30 more jars, so I guess that was my green light to keep going with this. 

Keeping it real here in West Cork,

April

This is my ice cream maker - very simple little thing!

Here is a deep mixing bowl filled with the 4 ingredients of my ice cream

Cooking while fasting....

To be honest with you, I get asked this all the time - don't you find it hard to cook and be around food when you are fasting? All I can say right now is that perhaps I am so used to it that it no longer bothers me, however I am not sure that it ever did.

Of course I can smell the food, I can see it and I would love to have some. However, once I start a cleanse, I am single minded enough to follow it through no matter what is happening on the outside. It's as if my body goes into the 'detox mode' that I talk about in my book The Pagan Diet© and until this is finished, nothing deters me from my goal. I find that I am especially creative and want to cook and research recipes during my cleanses.

Yesterday was a productive day in many ways, I made lots of muesli for our post cleanse meals - I have been making my own muesli for years (my recipe is in The Way to Heal Body Mind & Soul) and if you have not tried making this yet, please do. You will not ever go back to buying anything from a shop - I like the fact that I can put anything into it that I want and I am the only one who handles it.

When I make it, I try to make enough to last about a month - it is not something that we would eat every day, but usually on the weekends or when my son comes home for sailing absolutely famished, it is an easy ready snack.

Muesli is packed with concentrated energy, which is a fantastic way to start a food day or even to end it as a final meal. I like toasted muesli that is not too sweet, with a variety of dried fruits, nuts, seeds and anything else in the cupboard!

Then late last night, because I had more fruit to be used up (local organic strawberries) I made some more jam, but not with the same results that I had the night before. My strawberry/apple jam turned out wonderfully and the jars sealed. Then I made some ginger/peach jam in a bigger batch - and 2 of the jars did not seal.

I was doing some trouble shooting when looking at the lids, they had been used previously for storing fruit, so this might be the problem with the lids, or it was just too late at night and I was tired. However, the other jars did seal and they were poured later... I did find that I preferred to make smaller batches at one time as this was easier to handle, at least right now when I don't have all of the equipment that I would like to have. 

But, all is not lost because I simply put the jam from the unsealed jars into the freezer to be used as freezer jam. Fruit is fruit and nothing need be wasted here - it will all be eaten. I am figuring that for  a family of 4 who loves jam ( and use it in everything) we would most likely go through about 1 big jar each week. That means I have to make at least 50 jars to last until next summer.

I still have work to do here! (smile) Now, I want to find more creative and tasty combinations for these fruits and will do some apple sauce as well. So, back to my research on fruit, jam and canning.

Have a homemade day everyone!

April

Muesli - raw in first bowl, then finished in middle bowl and ready to be toasted in oven tray. Finally in the jars once cool.

Love In The Making...

If I were to be completely honest about the true way that I want to live - the way that I have always dreamed of living, it would be to create, source, grow, make, cook and provide all of my own food. And of course, through doing this as a family we would be even healthier, stronger in body and spirit without much energy coming in from outside sources. 

Most people would look at us and think that already we are pretty well free from food and lifestyle of the majority - and we are. I do not eat the same foods as others, I always cook our own meals, which are mainly vegetarian unless it is a feast day or festival. However, we got to a point that we were feeling stuck in our souls - unable to move forward any further towards our goals, and I feel that this remaining 'food' that was coming into our diets from outside sources, was the sticking point. 

Even though I have been doing this for a little while now, there are still areas for improvement and you would probably not be surprised how easily processed foods creep back in to our food chain when we get busy. There is a lot I want to say about eating this food - the first thing is that it is devoid of love. Machines, people just doing a job, government regulations, corporate rules, bottom lines and business plans - do not place a lot of 'love energy' into the final product. 

Why is this a real problem for those of us wanting to walk the talk and follow a spiritual path you might be asking? It is because, when food is empty of love, it fills up with something else - and this is fear. When an energy is removed (during processing) something else comes in to fill the void, like a vacuum.  So, we have been consuming fear, it doesn't feel good and I am doing something about it. 

I started with jams because this is something that we would eat a lot of - sugar free jam is also relatively easy to make as well. Over the years I would have considered we were buying some of the best quality jams and I have enjoyed them. They are tasty and full of fruit - however, they are still made in a factory which is processed food and contains the negative qualities that I no longer want in my body.

Last night, I decided to start out on the right foot, I researched how to use my glass jars for the jams and followed all the instructions to the letter - at the end of the evening I was sitting down, listening as each jar lid popped and sealed. Exactly as it was supposed to do.

So, I was pleased with the good start. We now have 8 jars of peach and nectarine ginger jam! And I am delighted with it. Of course, it is fruit season right now, so I want to carry on with making quite a few more jams for the winter - you might be hearing a lot about jam making in the coming days. (smile)

I also realized how much more equipment I need to get, as well as to source more jars. I can see that I am going to be busy with this - and of course, there is nothing I would love more.

Have a great day,

April

Some remaining jars waiting for labels - the half filled one, will be enjoyed as soon as we are finished our Master Cleanse! 

Well, this will be a challenge!

I love a challenge and I also love to cook, eat, create new recipes, shop for food, grow vegetables in my garden and even the washing up after a meal. Anything to do with food and eating is a passion for me - however, I have come to appreciate good food, real meals made with fresh, whole, organic ingredients.

My goal here is simple - I want to find a way to replace the remaining foods that creep into our diets with homemade versions. This means that I have to source the raw ingredients, find or create recipes and then experiment with making these foods as well as storing them.

There are a few things that I have in mind and will write about them in the coming days and weeks. However, if you follow my other blogs or know me - (please check out The Pagan Diet© blog) - then you also know that I fast and do Master Cleanses regularly.

I have hesitated because I was thinking this is going to be a challenge - can I cook and create these foods when I cannot taste test them? Or do I only experiment with some new recipes on my food days? LOL Believe it or not, this was my biggest obstacle to starting another blog. 

Of course now I realize that I will carry on as I usually do - during my cleanses and fasting days I do the research and planning for my recipe experiments. Then on my food and feasting days - I get to play around in the kitchen and enjoy my creations. 

Hang around and visit often -- this is going to get interesting!

April