HOMEMADE CHAI
Oh but it's a cold one these days in southern Alberta. But in true Fall fashion in these here parts, these snowy windy times are but making a brief appearance before Ma Nature ushers back in those glorious warm winds that make this my most favourite season in the foothills, a warm, colourful and most pleasant place to be with the bluest of blue skies you've ever seen.
Oh but it's a cold one these days in southern Alberta. But in true Fall fashion in these here parts, these snowy windy times are but making a brief appearance before Ma Nature ushers back in those glorious warm winds that make this my most favourite season in the foothills, a warm, colourful and most pleasant place to be with the bluest of blue skies you've ever seen.
In the meantime, my kiddo has made her way out to the prairies along with her Girl Guide group to finish one of their four-season-camping challenge they've thrown themselves this year. In the midst of that wild wind I thought was certainly uprooting trees in my neighbourhood, I wondered what kind of parent am I, to leave my girlie in this kind of storm, imagining she was shivering in her bed soaked with rain, snow and tears wondering why she was left to her own devices. (Don't we always imagine the worst?) This morning when I woke up, I thought how invincible those girls must feel, having made it through the night. Sure they may be wet and cold when we go to pick them up this evening, but they may also feel like they've gone through something together that really called them to come together and support one another, and I imagine they'll be giggling and laughing when we do make it to that little spot on the Bow River to bring them back home.
In order to help kickstart the defrost in a most delicious (and nourishing!) way, you can bet I'm making a batch of our favourite homemade Chai to take in a thermos for when we greet them. Just to make sure.
HOMEMADE CHAI TEA
In a big enough pot, add:
2 cups filtered water
2 cups milk of your choice (dairy, goat, coconut, almond, half cream half milk, etc)
2 bags of organic black tea (or orange pekoe)
1/4 tsp ground ginger powder
1/2 tsp ground vanilla powder or vanilla extract
4 cardamom pods (split open, as the flavour is in the seeds inside the pods)
2 tsp local honey
Bring it to a simmer. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour through a strainer. Enjoy.
And feel your insides start to warm from the toes up.
*Want to learn about the superpowers of spices, specifically cardamom? Follow this link, and then go make yourself a cuppa.
SKYPE AND FACETIME APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE!
Oh hello my food-loving friend! I have some news to share with you, I am very happy to announce that I am now set up to do Skype appointments (video-conferencing if you will) for folks who are outside of Calgary, or find themselves unable to come to the clinic during my regular Thursday hours. To start with, one Monday night a month, I am booking appointments through Renewal Homeopathy & Wellness for those who would like to book a nutritional consult with me. I will look to add more as my practice grows; for now, we start small.
Photo by Ondrej Supitar
Oh hello my food-loving friend! I have some news to share with you, I am very happy to announce that I am now set up to do Skype appointments (video-conferencing if you will) for folks who are outside of Calgary, or find themselves unable to come to the clinic during my regular Thursday hours. To start with, one Monday night a month, I am booking appointments through Renewal Homeopathy & Wellness for those who would like to book a nutritional consult with me. I will look to add more as my practice grows; for now, we start small.
I am also adding one Saturday a month at the clinic if you are in town and prefer to meet on the weekends. Those days can also accommodate Skype appointments, just be sure to mention this to the receptionist when you contact the clinic to make your rendezvous. We are at 403.202.8507.
How would you benefit from a tête-à-tête with a Holistic Nutritionist? For one, I look at the body through ten different systems, and how they interrelate keeping in mind that every person is biochemically unique. I take your main health concerns, and couple them with the top ranking systems out of balance, and do the detective work to figure out what are your nutrient deficiencies, and uncover the why/how of your current ills or complaints.
Holistic Nutrition is for those who have chronic pain, joint pain, arthritis, headaches, migraines, digestive ills like excess gas and difficulty digesting certain foods, chronic constipation, excessive loose stools; I can help with imbalanced or low moods, give nutritional support to someone with behavioural things on the go; foods and their nutritive powers can be an important part of navigating a new health crisis or diagnosis; I can support someone keen on keeping degenerative diseases at bay like dementia and MS; nutritional support is for the person with organ-specific issues affecting say, the gallbladder, connective tissues or the liver, and hormonal imbalances affecting the thyroid, reproductive organs, the tired mama, healthy growth in children. Holistic Nutrition is also crucial for the mama-to-be, in setting up the stage for baby's best health. It can also be of tremendous support to the growing teen, assisting in keeping a glowing, blemish-free skin. Really, if you have a digestive system and are aiming for good health, Holistic Nutrition can be your best cheerleader.
Contact the clinic today to make your appointment! My office hours:
Every Thursday, 10 - 2 One Saturday/month, 11-3 One Monday night/month, 6.30 - 9
Either in-person or via Skype or FaceTime
I look forward to meeting with you, dear one.
HOMEMADE JELLO - A yummy lunch time treat!
I don't know about you, but sometimes the task of putting together a lunch box for my kiddo to take to school with her seems like a daunting task, if not only for the fact that it's a daily task. Poor kid, she has a nutritionist for a mom. DOUBLE WHAMMO. We have come up with some pretty yummy lunches over the years she and I (oh yes, she is an integral part of the lunch time planning. Meal planning and gathering is one of those important things we impart to our children as they grow, from the early days of imitation and modelling to these current days of co-planning she and I do on a weekly basis.) Regardless. I still sometimes come up (near) empty when it comes to food things that pass my ok for her lunch box. Enter, the fun dessert: JELLO.
Quick and easy homemade jello treats.
I don't know about you, but sometimes the task of putting together a lunch box for my kiddo to take to school with her seems like a daunting task, if not only for the fact that it's a daily task. Poor kid, she has a nutritionist for a mom. DOUBLE WHAMMO. We have come up with some pretty yummy lunches over the years she and I (oh yes, she is an integral part of the lunch time planning. Meal planning and gathering is one of those important things we impart to our children as they grow, from the early days of imitation and modelling to these current days of co-planning she and I do on a weekly basis.) Regardless. I still sometimes come up (near) empty when it comes to food things that pass my ok for her lunch box or so it seems at the end of a long day. Enter, the fun insta-dessert: JELLO.
Sure, she has the fresh fruit, and the fruit-buried-in-yogurt dessert. There is the occasional baking too, but most of the time it's just fresh fruit. But then I thought up today's concoction, and voila, easy-peasy-lemon-squeezie homemade jello cubes. I don't think they'll last past two days in our fridge, they're pretty stinking delicious.
THE PLAYERS:
2 cups raspberries (you can use whatever fruit/berry you like here, fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup local honey
3 tbsp grass-fed beef gelatin (I use this one; you can find at The Light Cellar or online)
1 cup water kefir or kombucha or water
juice of 1 lemon
THE HOW-TO:
-In a small pan, meld the berries and honey together until warm. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl, use an immersion blender or a strong arm to whip together the gelatin and water kefir or kombucha, along with the lemon juice. Add the raspberry/honey mixture to the mix, and thoroughly mix or blend. Pour into molds, ice cube trays or a glass dish.
- Tuck the dish in the refrigerator for a few hours. Cut into cubes and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Try not to eat them all at once.
WHY I LOVE THIS:
- it's so easy. and takes NO TIME. (Would I lie to you?)
- I left the whole berries in there, didn't strain to just use the juice. So the fibre is still there. (Fibre is so good for you, helps elimination, binds to spent hormones so they don't re-circulate in your system, and helps sweep your innards clean.)
- Not to mention lots of vitamin C from the berries. Yes please!
- And honey is of fabulous support to your immune system and has been shown to contribute to the reduction of allergy symptoms.
- I added the probiotic beverage there in order to help inoculate our gut with the good guys, helping keep our immune system in good running order and reducing inflammation everywhere.
- The gelatin! So good for the cells of your intestinal lining, good for your skin, for strong nails and hair, amazing for bone health too. Gelatin is of great benefit to help support healthy connective tissue, so is of benefit to those suffering from arthritis, joint pain and inflammation. I mean the list goes on and on!
Bon appetit, les petits et petites! Make sure to leave some for the lunches, my friends. Remember the lunches.
A MONTH OF PUTTING UP THE HARVEST - A Compendium
Here, for you my harvest-loving friend, is a compendium of how I managed to stash the summer treats for winter eats. May you eat like a queen or king all fall and winter long, what with this bounty within arms reach here in Alberta. And continue on with your Putting Up the Harvest Efforts! The season has only just begun. Go deal hunting at your favourite local farmers market; pick up a few bags of locally grown produce while out at the grocery store; by supporting local and stashing for the winter months, you are contributing to the local economy, packing in the local bounty, vitamins and minerals, and supporting a smaller scale producer and inadvertently upping the nutritional ante of your meals, nutrients-wise. Bon appetit! And share this page with ones you think may need some harvesting-kick-in-the-pants. Now, GO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!
Here, for you my harvest-loving friend, is a compendium of how I managed to stash the summer treats for winter eats. May you eat like a queen or king all fall and winter long, what with this bounty within arms reach here in Alberta. And continue on with your Putting Up the Harvest Efforts! The season has only just begun. Go deal hunting at your favourite local farmers market; pick up a few bags of locally grown produce while out at the grocery store; by supporting local and stashing for the winter months, you are contributing to the local economy, packing in the local bounty, vitamins and minerals, and supporting a smaller scale producer and inadvertently upping the nutritional ante of your meals, nutrients-wise. Bon appetit! And share this page with ones you think may need some harvesting-kick-in-the-pants. Now, GO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!
- Luka
FREEZING:
Day 7: Pesto (Arugula Basil Chipotle)
Day 17: Storing Herbs in Salt (Making Bouillon Salt)
EASY ONE-OFFS A BIT OFF THE BEATEN PATH:
Day 9: Smoky Corn Pickle Ferment
Day 15: Fermented Zucchini Relish
BIT MORE LABOUR INTENSIVE MEANS TO KEEP THE HARVEST:
A MONTH OF PUTTING UP THE HARVEST - Day 21
Today is the last instalment of putting up the harvest for 2015. I have enjoyed this challenge of coming up with new ways to keep the freshness going into the winter months, tried new things, revisited old favourites, and so I thought to end this stretch of food-prep that I would go back to one of the first things I ever did as a homesteader-wannabe: canning. I haven't talked about canning this month at all because truth be told, I don't do it much anymore. I find it is quite a bit of extra work, my stove top is not the best one rated for water bath canning; it isn't as forgiving an art as say, fermenting. But it is a practical way to be able to put up a big amount of one thing like zucchini into relish, or peaches into canned jewels, or tomatoes into salsa. And crab apples into crab apple butter.
My sister and her crabapple loot. #harvest2015
Today is the last instalment of putting up the harvest for 2015. I have enjoyed this challenge of coming up with new ways to keep the freshness going into the winter months, tried new things, revisited old favourites, and so I thought to end this stretch of food-prep that I would go back to one of the first things I ever did as a homesteader-wannabe: canning. I haven't talked about canning this month at all because truth be told, I don't do it much anymore. I find it is quite a bit of extra work, my stove top is not the best one rated for water bath canning; it isn't as forgiving an art as say, fermenting. But it is a practical way to be able to put up a big amount of one thing like zucchini into relish, or peaches into canned jewels, or tomatoes into salsa. And crab apples into crab apple butter.
How this story begins: my sister is in town, visiting from her home base in northern BC for a little bit. She brought with her that big blue bin in the background about 1/3 full of crabapples from her tree in her yard, evidently not putting a big dent at all in the load on the tree. A neighbour advised her that she may want to harvest the apples from the tree before the local black bear comes to eat them all, as it happens to be his favourite tree in the 'hood. See, he eats and climbs and in the process, breaks branches. (My sister has been in this house for the last year or so. This was news to her.) So pick, she did. And she brought them, along with a big bundle of rhubarb with the hopes of getting to work on keeping up the goods. So we made a batch of the apple/rhubarb BBQ sauce from earlier this month, and her request was to can some crabapple butter with the remaining amount. So that's what we did!
Crabapples ready to become buttery goodness. #harvest2015
We used the recipe up at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. As it isn't an original recipe, I will send you to their site in order to get the ingredients and measurements if you feel so inclined. But we prepped the apples and cooked them down as they indicate in the recipe, and my sister passed the cooked mush through a food mill in order to get rid of all of the skin and seeds. Those little things are MAGIC I tell you when it comes to making this job a little easier.
The instructions say to cook the apples initially, then we passed through the food mill, returned the mush to the pot along with the sugar and spices (we swapped out the white sugar for cane sugar and cut a cup out) and let it simmer for 2 hours. Adding the sugar, while I'm not a big fan of sugar, is the method by which you are dehydrating any of the bacteria that could form in the making and canning of this food, essentially rendering it food-safe (not sure about botulism and sugar, but the water bath component would take care of anything like that). Swapping it to a cane sugar means less processing of the sugar, and more minerals and nutrients are left remaining in the sugar. But sugar is sugar, so we consider this kind of thing a treat at our house.
But look how it really cooked down, and how thick it got! The spoon was standing straight up and wouldn't budge! That's how thick you want it to be, that's the consistency of a fruit butter you are looking for.
After that two hour simmer, this hot pot of sweet goodness was ready for canning. So canning we did. We prepped our water bath, sterilized the jars, and my sister got busy filling those jars up.
Filling jars with crabapple butter #harvest2015
Truly, this kind of task is quite laborious, and time-consuming. But the effort is well worth it. This is the kind of task that for me, signalled that fall was upon us when I was wee; it also meant my grandmother was coming over to help my mom put up her pickles and relishes, peaches and apples for the winter months. It is a sensory experience that lends itself to meditation, but also to doubling up with someone for the sheer time and effort commitment, making it a joint effort and getting in some good visiting time with a good friend or sister. One of my favourite things about this time of year, to be sure.
Once the jars were filled and lidded, my sister popped them back in the water bath, we cranked the heat again, and counted 20 minutes from the rolling boil. A fruit butter recipe is typically a 10 minute boil in the water bath, but seeing that here in Calgary we are at such high elevations, we had to add an extra 10 minutes to ensure food safety. Once the timer was up, we took the lid off, waited 10 minutes, and lifted the rack to the top of the canner and let the whole lot cool until morning.
Oh yes, when you are planning to do a canning bee, ensure plenty of time and don't start this recipe at 4pm, because by the time all was said and done, we were finally able to go to bed at 2am. Mind you, there was a big dinner and a big family walk and dishes in the middle of that, but know that it is indeed a time monger of a task. But so so so worth it. Thanks to my little sister for supplying the goods, and the inspiration and for joining me in this canning good times!
My sister's crabapple butter, summer in a jar. #harvest2015
Thanks to YOU for checking out this month of putting up the harvest, I hope you have tried some new things and been inspired to pick up some local goodies to keep for the winter months. I have been meaning to mention that my most favourite way to put up the harvest is to EAT GOOD FOOD, LOCAL FOOD, RIGHT NOW. Your body and the energy stores you are building are probably the BEST way to keep up the harvest my friend.
Now go play with your food. Please and thank you.