Prepare your own meals and influence the world!

Simple Spaghetti with capers and olives

12 oz dried spaghetti

1/3 cup virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 TBSP capers, drained and rinsed

12 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 unwaxed lemon

1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

shavings of fresh Parmesan cheese

     Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.  Add a good pinch of salt, then the pasta and cook al dente, according to the time on the package.  When the spaghetti is done, gently heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the garlic and cook one minutes.  Add the capers, olives, and lemon juice and cook for 30 seconds. Drain the pasta and add to the caper mixture in the warm saucepan.  Add the parsley and toss well to coat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with shavings of Parmesan cheese, if using.   My caper and olive-loving children adore this one!

      "The responsible consumer must also be in some way a producer.  Out of his own resources and skills, he must be equal to some of his own needs.  The household that prepares its own meals in its kitchen with some intelligent regard for nutritional value, and thus depends on the grocer only for selected raw materials, exercises an influence on the food industry that reaches from the store all the way back to the seedsman.  The household that produces some or all of its own food will have a proportionately greater influence. " 

-Wendell Berry 

Wash Day

Wash-Day Stew
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 cans white beans
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 quart water
1 tomato, peeled and quartered
1 tsp turmeric
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
8 pita bread pockets

     Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cover.  Cook on high for 6-7 hours.  Lift the beans from the cooker with a strainer spoon and place in the pita bread.


      In lieu of all the endless and useless murders of men, women, and children in the Middle East, I thought I might bring a bit of every day life to you from Iran.  Wash-Day Stew is a stew that many of the women prepare on wash day.  Very early in the morning, they make a fire in a large rock-lined pit outside.  Then they place a large covered kettle, filled with the above ingredients, over the coals and allow to cook slowly all day.  At the end of a day doing laundry by hand, the food is ready!  They eat the stew in pita bread and always use their hands.  In Iran, fresh lamb is placed in the stew. My kids loved this tonight, and ate with gusto.  They loved hearing about the kids in Iran and using their hands to eat.  

Go for a hike

Warm Blueberry and Almond Muffins (Vegetarian)

1& 3/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp apple pie spice
1/2 cup ground almonds
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1&1/4 cups buttermilk
4 TBSP butter, melted
8 oz blueberries (about 2 cups)
2 TBSP chopped almonds

     Stir the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.  Beat the egg, buttermilk and butter together and add all at once to the dry ingredients.  Fold in the blueberries, then spoon the mixture into 12 muffin cups in a muffin pan.  Sprinkle with the chopped almonds and bake in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Serve warm. 

Ella, Ethan, and Laurel during our hike in the woods

     Recently, my family was feeling a bit down from recent injuries, schoolwork loads, and gloomy weather, so we decided to go for a hike in the woods.  In just under two hours, we followed a trail into the newly budding maple tree forest and started to discover the wonders in the undergrowth.  The "ohhhs"  and  "ahhhs"  spilled forth as we admired the trillium and moss covered rocks.  We found toads, salamanders, and millipedes.  The sun's rays brilliantly flooded the forest floor where we walked. We smelled flowers, dirt and left over rainfall.   Everyone in my family was rejuvenated.  I highly suggest that you go for a hike today! 

Slow down

Macedonian Salad
1 large eggplant, peeled and cubed           2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 TBSP olive oil                                       1/2 green peppr, chopped
2 TBSP red wine vinegar                          1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced                               3 campari tomatoes, sliced
2 TBSP freshly chopped basil                   a handful of calamata olives
1 TBSP freshly chopped thyme                 2 TBSP feta cheese
1 TBSP lemon juice

     Roast the cubes of eggplant in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.  During the cooking time, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, herbs and lemon juice.  Add the vegetables, olives and feta.  As soon as the eggplant is removed from the oven, mix in a bowl with the other ingredients.  Chill and serve.  Delicious side dish on a warm, spring day!


Hurry

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store and
the gas station and the green market and

Hurry up honey, I say, hurry, as she runs along two or
three steps behind me her blue jacket unzipped and socks rolled down.

Where do I want her to hurry to?  To her grave?  To mine? 
Where one day she might stand all grown?  Today, when all errand are finally done, I say to her,

Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry-
you walk ahead of me.  You be the mother.

And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking back at me, laughing. 
Hurry up now darling, she says, hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hand. 

                                       - Marie Howe

Change

Herby Potato Roesti

3 large potatoes, peeled

3-4 large sage leaves

a sprig of thyme

1/4 cup olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Grate the potatoes coarsely and dry well with paper towels. Place the grated mixture in a bowl.  

Finely chop the sage and thyme leaves, discarding the wooden stalks.

Add the the herbs to the potato mixture and mix well.  

Using clean hands, shape a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into a ball.  

Heat half the oil in a large skillet and add 3 of the potato balls to the oil. Gently flatten each ball with a spatula and saute until golden brown.  Turn over and saute an additional 5-10 minutes.  

Keep the roesti warm in an oven, then place on a serving plate and serve with salt and pepper.  

"Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, 

but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine."

 - Rainer Maria Rilke

"What you leave behind in not what is engraved in stone monuments, 

but what is woven into the lives of others."

                                                                  - Pericles

Journeys

Dal (Slow cooked lentils from India)


1 pound dried lentils
1 onion, roughly chopped
one 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 TBSP curry powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 dried red chilies or hot red pepper flakes
3 or 4 tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
salt and black pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a large pot, along with water to cover.  Bring to a boil over high heat and adjust he heat so the mixture just simmers.  Cook until the lentils are soft.  Season to taste and serve with rice.  This is delicious, easy and fast!  My kids love this.


"Focus on the journey, not the destination.  Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."
                                                                                              - Greg Anderson

     "Every day you make progress.  Every step may be fruitful.  Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.  You know you will never get to the end of the journey.  But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."
                                                                                               - Winston Churchill

Needs our love

Kale-Spinach Soup

1 TBSP olive oil

1 large white onion, chopped

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

6 cups kale leaves, chopped

6 ounces spinach (6 cups)

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 TBSP tahini

course salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

lemon wedges

     Heat the oil in a pot on low heat and cook the onions slowly until lightly browned, but not quite caramelized.  Add the stock and bring to a boil.  Add the kale and cook for 4 minutes, covered.  Remove from the heat and stir in the spinach, Parmesan, and tahini.  Allow to cool, then puree in a blender until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze on top and crusty french bread.  

"Where is the Life we have lost in living?"

                                   - T.S. Eliot

"Perhaps everything terrible is, in its deepest being, something that needs our love."

                                   - Rainer Maria Rilke