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