Father Christmas Cookies….

Vanilla & Butter Cookies (Father Christmas Cookies)

Christmas to me has become all about the so many things I can do with my children (and should be doing more of)…because I am often rushing around and not taking as much time as I could do at other times. 

I have a singular point of view when it comes to my kids as well – I want them to grow up knowing things….how to do things, make things, create the life, food, home and work they would most like to do.

How to follow their dreams and listen to their hearts as they walk through a better world we have worked so hard to create on their behalf. Because, well, I have long felt as if I was misinformed (or uninformed) and certainly ill prepared with life as I have come to know it.

With this in mind (nothing small around here!!! LOL), I wanted to bake some treats together with them this week for our Solstice and Christmas celebrations (I know, it’s a big cookie to bite off!).

We decided on some sort of butter cookie….well, it had butter in it (lol) and flour, almonds and then the greatest flavour of the season – homemade vanilla extract. I make mine in a large bottle of bourbon – using 8 or 10 vanilla bean pods as well as some scraped out vanilla beans.

These sit for several weeks and then months until you can’t walk by the bottle without smelling wafts of vanilla perfuming the air (available in the market stall on occasion)….lovely!

So, these are butter and vanilla cookies, right? 

Back to the story or recipe….which is really a tale of how to create something magical from ingredients that seem rather ordinary on their own.

To make these cookies we used:

500 g flour (whole wheat/strong white ½ and ½)

250 g raw cane sugar

380 g butter (soft)

125 g ground almonds

 2 – 3 tablespoons  Bourbon vanilla

¼ teaspoon sea salt

dark chocolate (melted in double boiler)

imagination!

Blend the butter and then slowly add the sugar, almonds, flour, salt and finally vanilla – keep mixing until soft and crumbly. Add extra vanilla if this seems too dry. You should be able to squeeze the mixture together into a soft dough.

Onto a floured board or baking paper, knead some of the dough  and then roll it flat…let the children take over with cookie cutters, shapes and fingers to make the cookies into whatever shape they need to create.

At this time of the year we all like stars, ginger bread men, hearts and trees. Once you have enough shapes to cover a large baking sheet – place them onto parchment paper and into an oven set at 180C or so for 10 to 12 minutes.

Watch them closely because they will brown quickly. 

Once done and out of the oven, cool slightly then remove with a palette knife onto a cooking rack. When completely cool, dip in the melted chocolate and decorate with some coloured bits from the organic shop….

They taste as good as they look! We like to make different sized star shapes and stick them together using dark chocolate in the centre….we refer to these as Father Christmas cookies here, because these are the ones we leave out for him on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

April

Father Christmas Cookies

West Cork - the centre of the Food Universe

A few of my favourite things….

I remember not so very long ago when I spent nearly a decade sugar, wheat, dairy, wheat, meat and fish free. My how times have changed since I started the fasting, raising my own food and healing my gut properly.

Now, everything we can raise, make, cook, create, grow and catch ourselves is on the menu and since I love this time of the year so much there are so many goodies to choose from….LOL

This year I wanted to share a few of my favourite things with you, of course, it just goes to show, they all happen to be food! But, good foods are often simple things that become decadent once a little bit of this and a little dash of that, is added.

It’s kind of like magic – kitchen alchemy. Especially this time of year, there are so many wonderful tastes, food memories and seasonal offerings to be had. Perhaps we are quite spoilt living here in West Cork too, because this is kind of like the centre of the food Universe!

So now, where was I? Oh yes, my 3 treats of the season so far this year would have to be – Fig & Port Chutney, Brandy & Vanilla Butter and my Gourmet Seaweed Sea Salt blend (each of these are available at my Rebel Foods market stall in very limited quantities). 

Funny how two of those include a little bit of alcohol, but never mind it’s a seasonal thing!

For the Fig & Port Chutney, I slow cooked (food should be handled very gently) figs, apples, red onions, spices and demerara sugar, then added port at the last hour of cooking. This ensures that richness of flavour – can’t wait to try it on our Christmas goose (and turkey, duck, sandwiches, Gubbeen cheese….LOL).

Next my favourite seasonal delight has to be Brandy and Vanilla Butter. This is really a little bit (ok, a lot) my own take on an ancient Victorian recipe. Of course, I am using my own organic vanilla infused Jim Beam that has been aging, just waiting for this season….

Brandy butter is something special, often reserved for Christmas day pudding, it can be heated and poured over the warm pud like a sauce or better yet, a steaming hot pudding and cold brandy butter melting over top can’t be compared to anything else. 

We also love it with a cheese selection and with smoked salmon or other smoked fish. Come to think of it, smoked cheese sandwiches with brandy butter has a nice sound too….hmmm.

Lastly, I have changed my Seaweed & Sea Salt recipe for the holiday season – adding sesame seeds to this unique medley of gorgeous sea salts from around the world. I love salt, it’s healing properties and ability to turn ordinary food into an art form.

My Gourmet Seaweed Sea Salt blend has West Cork sea salt along with French, Himalayan and other Atlantic sea salts. When combined with the seaweeds and infused with thyme – the flavour is exquisite. 

So much to look forward to this holiday season – it’s all in the food! 

April

Magic of Christmas….comes in a jar! 

April Danann's Mung Bean Burger Recipe

As promised.....here is my recipe for Mung Bean burgers....I posted this sometime last year, but have updated it and here it is again. These are the absolute best bean burgers ever (yes, I know it's my own recipe! LOL) and is something I have made for my family for years....now available at my market stall in Skibbereen on Saturday's. 

Oh, and these are best served with homemade mayo or honey mustard for dipping....

Mung Bean Burgers

1-2 cups of dried mung beans (or more if you want more burgers!)

3 cloves garlic

2 cups or more of chopped vegetables (onions, broccoli, scallions, leeks, etc.)

1 cup of cooked or raw chopped  fresh herbs or spinach

½ cup of grated carrot

Spices and Sea Salt

Olive oil

Sunflower oil for frying or baking

o Soak the mung beans for 48 hours (or until sprouted) in lots of water. Drain, rinse the beans and discard the soaking liquid. Put all the mung beans, raw or cooked herbs or spinach, spices (coriander, cumin, black pepper) and raw garlic in a blender or food processor with a little olive oil. Blend or process until you have a smooth and light batter. Transfer the batter into a deep bowl.

o Stir in chopped vegetables - scallions, onions, leeks, grated carrot, chopped cooked spinach, herbs to taste and cilantro if desired. Use the vegetables you have on hand- sometimes I use grated pumpkin or squash, and cooked green lentils.

o Using a frying pan, cook as you would a pancake- spoon some of the mixture onto the pan and flatten with the spatula, fry until crispy on each side then place onto newspaper to soak up oil – sprinkle with salt.

o   Or the mixture can be placed into an oiled pan and placed in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. I spread artichoke pate over the top when I bake it, to give it an added taste.

o   These burgers change as the vegetables you have on hand change and also you can vary the amount of vegetables you add in- we like it chunky with lots of onions and the spinach makes it moist. These are great served with a rice stir-fry and onion rings made with spelt/gram flour batter on a Saturday night in with the movies!

These can be frozen and will keep for a couple of days in the fridge....they taste great re-heated under the grill for a few minutes to crisp them up. We also make cheese bean burgers with lovely local smoked cheese.....(sigh).

Enjoy (and come visit me at my market stall)

April

Gut Health - Restored After A Parasite Cleanse

I am back to cooking, baking and eating – Yayyy!! And we are all just sitting around like fools grinning at each other – the food, everything, tastes so very good – but after even half a meal I am stuffed, so it’s slow going right now.

Today I have been going back over in my mind the types and tastes of foods I most missed during my cleanse (am I the only one who does this?LOL) And checking down my mental list for some that I wanted to try out…..

With this in mind I actually made a yeasted bread. Can you imagine!!! I have not eaten yeasted bread in nearly a decade – and made any in longer than that. At one time in my life I would have made this type of bread every week.

Then everything fell apart with my health, my gut and my life (well, sort of) and there was a long stretch of no bread at all. Then about 3 years ago we brought back in some spelt soda bread – and have enjoyed every bite I would add.

But, things have so obviously changed as a result of me doing these detoxes and cleanses and my gut is a completely different place now. I knew I was ready for something quite different and my body told me it was time to break out a little....

And that something was homemade yeasted bread. I did choose a whole meal organic flour and of course mixed it with a little spelt – but not much. Then worked away with some organic yeast and made a lovely loaf of fresh bread.

It was that easy and not a problem at all for any of us…just pure enjoyment. However, I would not recommend it to anyone who has taken any form of antibiotic or has issues with candida in their guts. Until you have these issues sorted out and your gut is functional then, keep it restricted. 

It has taken me so long to overcome these issues – I only recently felt like my body was balanced in terms of healthy bacteria colonies after all the fasting, cleanses and detoxes. But I have achieved my goal!

Another food I was craving was fennel – only not the way I usually have it (in soups and stews) but some sliced and gently stir-fried with other vegetables (onion, leek, garlic, broccoli) in a little oil and very little else.

I seasoned it lightly with salt, pepper and fresh dill and then tossed with basmati rice….heaven!

April

Home made Yeasted Whole Meal/Spelt Bread 

Spicy Dahl with Vegetables

I had a need to cook something yesterday – I have been slacking off on cooking this week as I had some meals prepared for those who are eating while the rest of us are doing this cleanse.

When I am thinking something over, I always like to cook, bake or be in the kitchen in some way – just to create. In the end I decided to make a sort of dahl dish for my daughter…

Of course there is no real recipe that I follow for this meal – I just sort of add things together until I get the result I am looking for. And with any dahl, it is so easy to make – and tasty too!

I started with a few vegetables – onion, leek, garlic – and stir-fried these in olive oil until well done and fragrant in the sauce pan. Then I added about 1 cup of soaked red lentils and some water and let all of this come to a low boil.

In the meantime I chopped a few carrots, a large sweet potato and a little seaweed and placed them into the pot. Next it was time for some seasonings…so I just put in whatever I could find.

Turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, salt and pepper – all went into the stew as it bubbled away until there was a nice dahl like smell filling the kitchen. Of course this type of dish cooks fairly quickly – so nearing the end of cooking I added a dollop of butter and another large tablespoon of coconut butter.

After about ½ hour this was nicely thickened and ready to sit for awhile – which is when I added a little sprinkle of chopped parsley before I blended it a tiny bit just to make it a little more like a dahl.

Once it was cool some chopped garlic chives were tossed over the top – and it smelled lovely – great with some of that olive bread I had ready with very garlicky guacamole. 

April

Spicy Dahl with Vegetables

No Time To Cook

'It’s too much trouble or I have no time to make a meal when I get home'…I have mentioned this topic quite a few times on here and it never gets old – because I still keep hearing it! LOL This is quite an interesting saying actually and surely must have been inserted into the brains of modern thinking fairly recently.

But the sad fact of this situation is that there is always time – you have to take the time, make the time, it’s for your health. Besides, how many people have times themselves – driving to the shop, selecting some ‘food’ (I say this loosely these days) waiting in line to pay and then driving home to – heat it up, cook it, or whatever?

I wonder if it might take far less time to go home – cook some brown Basmati rice, while that cooks – chop a stir fry of onion, leek, garlic, grated carrot (add turmeric, cumin if desired) – sauté in a little olive oil. In the meantime, place ½ cup of lentils to cook….

Once everything is cooked – add them all together in a large deep bowl and gently toss for a minute. You can add a little more olive oil here and season with some salt and pepper.

All of this should take less then 20 minutes or so. If you make extra, you can take some for lunch the next day or for the next day’s dinner. If you want a little more protein or a different taste add some olives at the end of cooking, a tin of tuna or salmon or anything else. If you like something a little more exotic, add a couple tablespoons of coconut cream or coconut milk.

Really the combinations are endless – and each time you will have a different tasting meal. Change the lentils to red, brown, green, Puy – try one of the many kinds of rice (white, red, black, wild, aged, Jasmine, sushi rice), and there are endless vegetables to put into a stir-fry.

The bottom line here – is this is so easy. Eating well, making your own meals (for far cheaper) and staying on a healthy track is doable – perhaps you just have to believe it. 

April

Fritters - Yellow Split Peas

So, remember all those yellow split peas we all have sitting in our cupboards? Well, I have the recipe for at least some of them...these look, smell and apparently taste very good - if the children eating them all in one go is any indication! 

They were also very easy to make (and quick) which is also a bonus. The only thing is I would recommend you soak the peas at least overnight because anything soaked for awhile is more digestible and we all want to go easy on our hard working guts.

I soaked a bowl full of peas overnight in cold water - adding more water as it was soaked up by the peas. Then today I took about 2 cups of the peas and ground them in the food processor even though these are often made with dry peas.

Once ground, I put the pea mixture into a separate bowl and added finely chopped onion, garlic and fresh parsley. Next I added a generous teaspoon (or a bit more) of ground cumin, a little salt and pepper and some coconut flakes (in place of oil).

This was all mixed thoroughly - but here is where I did something a little different. Instead of frying them in hot oil I dropped tablespoonfuls onto a parchment covered baking pan and placed them into a hot oven (about 180C).

Once they were in the oven for about 10 minutes I lightly brushed some olive oil over top of each fritter and put them back in for another 10 minutes or so, until starting to brown on top and very fragrant. Then out they came....

I don't think they even had a chance to cool down - they were gone! 

April

Yellow Split Pea Fritters

Same Old, Same Old in Our Cooking

Do you have things - boxes, packets, jars of foodie stuff in your cupboards that you never get around to using up? Do you find yourself stuck in a rut making the same things again and again using the same ingredients?

What's with that? I mean, we are interested in these foods, we even like them - yet there they sit, day after day and we somehow pass them by for the same old, same old. I mention to people all the time - our diets must have variety in order to be balanced.

Yet - when we take in a narrow range of foods or even a wide range of the same types of foods - day after day, we tend to limit our digestive and absorptive capabilities in our guts. I have seen instances where entire pathways shutdown from lack of use.

With this in mind (and because I am detoxing, therefore looking for things to keep me busy!) I have been going through some of these foods that we enjoy but do not use often enough. One of these is the yellow split pea.

Years ago this was a more common staple in my diet - coming from Canada's east coast, it was used to make pea soups, peas puddings etc. I also used to make a lovely dal with them when I was vegan - but alas, time has flown by and I have let this lovely pea slip from my diet except very occasionally.

So this week I am going through each cupboard to see exactly what it is I have - and have not been using enough of. There are so many interesting things to be making - cooking - trying out with the ingredients I have on hand....

So why not! Hopefully some more adventurous dishes, recipes and cooking will arrive on these pages in the coming days....

April

Our full moon on 24 February

Creative Cooking 101 - Fish Dish

Yesterday was a cooking day - I just wanted to make things - perhaps I had something on my mind or whatever - either way I ended up cooking several dishes for the children to try and then put the rest in the freezer for when my detox is over.

One of the foods I had on hand was some fish - we have eaten a lot of fish over these last 2 years since we went back on meat sources of protein - and sometimes we get a little tired of it. So with that in mind I did some thinking about the hake I had and what to do with it.

Fish is so simple and easy to work with - it's also very versatile. I like that I can add a lot of other flavours to it as well - such as herbs, citrus, onion and a few more. But I also like it when the dish tastes fresh and is full of interesting tastes...

I finally decided to stew the hake in lemon juice, sautéd onions, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and water (with a little pepper, salt and dried dill from my garden). This all went well and was very savoury smelling - it looked great.

When it was fairly well cooked I poured off a half cup of the fishy liquid and put it aside. Then I let the fish sit for a few minutes in the juices. In another pot I melted some butter added 1 tablespoon of spelt flour and made a little sauce - I poured the fish juice into this.

Once it was heated up again, it thickened and this was spooned over the fish in the other saucepan with more pepper and a little sea salt. My children loved it - however, I have yet to taste it, so the verdict is still out.

It does smell very nice however....

April

Hake cooking in the sauce pan...