Getting Ready for a Feast!

It feels as if I have hardly been in the kitchen at all - yet I have been cooking, baking and making foods (mostly treats) since early this morning. I am trying to fit in something special for everyone, and still have a list to work from! LOL

Today I made more date squares, because they were such a hit and are so tasty with a cup of dandelion or barley coffee. This time around I made them a little differently but putting more spices into both the date mixture as well as with the crust. 

I added into the chopped dates a teaspoon of cinnamon, lemon juice, water and some date syrup - this all cooked up into a paste and was then sandwiched between each layer of the oat butter crust. I also added some allspice into the crust mixture to give it more of a flavour.

It smells lovely with that warm, cozy scent only found from toasted oats! I can't wait to try them tomorrow.

Then I made some Hazelnut honey halva (due to popular demand), this was one of the treats we used to buy and I have not ever attempted to make it myself before now. I found a recipe from an old Middle Eastern book and mostly followed that.

It can be a bit tricky with temperatures and getting the mixtures right - once it is all into the pan to set, it then needs to cool and crystalize for 36 hours. Right now we are at this stage, and I will let you know how this one turns out. 

My real adventure today was toasting the hazelnuts. Of course, the halva recipe mentioned hot roasted nuts as being best, but with the skins off. Apparently the best way to remove skins from hazelnuts is to gently roast them for about 10 minutes then to rub off the skins in a coarse kitchen towel. 

Hazelnuts - removing the skins

It worked! The skins came off the nuts, for the most part and I was able to crush them a little before adding to the halva mixture. Fingers are crossed on this one...

Next I was still feeling adventurous, so I decided to make some flapjacks mainly for the children, but we love them as well. I like a recipe I can add or change ingredients for, and this one is ideal. Today I put seeds (sesame, sunflower) walnuts, sultanas, chopped apricots and coconut into the oat mixture and it turned out ok.

I was aiming for more of a chewy flapjack, however it was a bit crumbly and could have been left in the oven for another few minutes. They are quite tasty though, with the crumbly bit not too bad and no one really even noticed but me!

Near the end of the day, I decided to make something savory (mostly for myself) to offset all of these sweet treats. Of course, one of my favourite snacks is a Rosemary goat's cheese muffin, so now we have a batch of these as well. 

Flapjacks, date squares, goat's cheese muffins - looking forward to the party! 

All in all, today was a busy day gearing up for our feast, tomorrow will bring even more tasty bites for our Blue Moon party, now I have to decide which ones.....

Have a happy Blue Moon!

April

Looks blue to me! 

Warm bread, Pumpkin soup and Date squares...

Today we are slowly getting back to some soft foods after fasting for 10 days during our Master Cleanse - this is always a lovely day for me because right now my senses are still really sharp from the all the detoxing.

I can smell, taste and feel each food more deeply, all the subtle notes and flavours roll around with each bite - it is a great feeling to enjoy good homemade food knowing everything I am eating is good for me and nourishing.

Late last night I had dates on my mind so much, I decided to finally listen to them calling - I ended up making some great smelling date squares, which of course I couldn't eat until just now, I had a small bite of one. It is divine. There is something decadent about dates, combine them with the subtle tastes of toasted oats, butter and spices and this is close to heaven for me! 

Date squares piled on a plate - calling my name! 

I actually hadn't made them in quite a while, but now have my orders to make them far more often. Perhaps I will make another batch this week with a little twist of orange flavours for something different.

Early this morning I also made my bread, this is something I do most days, I even make honey oat spelt bread fairly regularly, however, once again tonight as everyone had a slice of the bread, it was as if it tasted so wonderful. Even better than usual.

It has not got me wondering if perhaps our taste buds have been extra cleaned out or something from this last 10 days, more so than usual for us after a detox. Something is different and this food tastes great! Just as I wrote this I realized the one thing now different! LOL

The last few vestiges of processed foods such as mustard, mayonnaise, jams etc. which were getting into our diets have been gone for some weeks now. Might this be making such a dramatic difference to our palates? Possibly.

For our soft, easily digested dinner tonight, I had soaked azduki beans, added lots of vegetables but mostly pumpkin, spiced it a little as this gently cooked - and then we all really enjoyed a nourishing bowl of pumpkin soup. 

All the food today tasted fabulous - can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Have a healthy day,

April

Pumpkin and azduki bean soup - lovely flavours and tastes