~ wellness, wonder, words ~
We made it back to our cabin in the woods for the first time in two years.
It sits atop a forested hill overlooking a quiet, clean lake. We bought the original fishing cabin about 12 years ago with its bumps and bruises and have since fixed it up, little by little, turning it into something slightly more livable for our family. The functionality has improved but the simplicity remains the same. …
The best part about the limited variety of produce found at my neighborhood Safeway is that it requires me to make the occasional trip to Whole Foods. (I say occasional because no matter how narrow a mission I set out on, my grocery bill is anything but lean by the time I walk out the door).
On this particular visit, the first display that caught my attention was a stunning pyramid of blood oranges. California grown and still very much in season, their soft orange skin streaked with red blush appeared like little globes of sunlight beckoning me to take them home. Some neighboring golden beets, freshly pulled from the spring soil, decided to hitch a ride and jumped into my basket too. …
There’s a scene in the Hollywood remake City of Angels that’s indelibly etched in my memory.
The heroine is making a breakfast fruit salad for her lover, which sounds simple enough, but there’s nothing ordinary about this moment. She sinks her soul into the process and brings the viewer with her. We are meticulously drawn in to the color, texture and taste of her experience. The most memorable moment comes when she hand squeezes fresh orange segments all over the bowl, the explosive juices unbound and running glory over the fruit….
As I write this entry, sunlight is streaming in through my morning kitchen and I’m noticing a myriad of lush green feijoa, otherwise known as pineapple guava, nestled in the grass under our evergreen tree.
With today’s generous harvest decorating the landscape, you would hardly know that I just collected two full bags of the fragrant egg-shaped fruit yesterday afternoon.
My only wish is that I could ship a bucket full to each and every one of you as it’s simply not possible to keep up with our harvest. We’ve been donating generously….
I have a serious affection for fresh parsley. And I’m not talking about the kind relegated to garnish!
Well-loved (and possibly overrated) in its dry form and woefully underappreciated in its natural form, fresh parsley will take you places the dried herb simply can’t go. Full-bodied, bright and grassy, this vibrant green contains natural cleansing properties that make it especially refreshing and welcoming in the summer.
Playing a starring role in this garden fresh tabbouleh, fresh parsley draws out the best in sweet summer tomato, crunchy cucumber and tangy lemon.
Tabbouleh is a vegetarian dish, most often referred to as a salad, of Levantine origin. The traditional Mediterranean version of tabbouleh showcases fresh parsley as the principal ingredient (the dish is mostly green) together with chopped mint, tomato, olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Bulgar, a wheat derivative, is sometimes added but it plays a minor role in the classic preparation.
Today’s recipe offers a little riff on the traditional preparation with the substitution of quinoa for bulgar as well as the addition of cucumber and other seasoning choices.
This lovely Mediterranean salad will store well in the fridge for up to three days and would make a beautiful addition to any meal, picnic or potluck. The flavors are truly delicious and refreshing and the contents wonderfully nourishing.
It’s not every day I make a plea to get intimate with your greens.
I mean, who in their right mind massages their greens anyway?
When I first encountered the term ‘massaged kale’ I found it not only pretentious but kind of silly too. Had kale been elevated to such a precious status that it now required massaging? I couldn’t just eat the stuff, I needed to pet it too?
And was there any point to this ritual or was it merely to establish the depth of my reverence for this culinary darling?
Being the curious soul that I am, I wanted to investigate further. So I took a step back, depersonalized the whole thing and decided to give this otherwise innocent green a fair shot.
And yes, a couple years ago, I too started massaging my kale. And here’s what I discovered:
To summarize, if you can get past the massage thing, you may find it well worth the two minute practice of rubbing a little olive oil into your kale leaves. The taste, texture and appearance are incomparable in my view.
You may even find that the consumption of this powerhouse green becomes less about should and more about want, which is the only way to build sustainable eating habits.
Be sure to check out my Nutrition & Cooking Notes for more information and do let me know if you get close up and personal with your kale!
Massaged Kale Salad with fresh Apricot & Spicy Skillet Chickpeas
For the Chickpea Spice
Serves 4
Nutrition & Cooking Notes:
Directions:
Our master bedroom has always been off-limits to our dog.
We established these parameters right from the get-go and in the four years that we’ve been together, she has only tested these boundaries twice. Her most recent transgression happened when we were preparing our home for sale in Ottawa. There were at least 6 workmen tirelessly combing the main floor – Stella’s floor – shuffling to and fro, painting, refinishing, repairing. A constant bustle of movement and noise.
One afternoon in the middle of the chaos, I couldn’t find our girl anywhere. I looked in all the usual places and even ran to the neighbor’s to see if she had somehow managed to escape. Not a trace. Seven minutes later (read: an eternity), I found her curled up in a little ball in the corner of our bedroom, her face tucked under her paw. She looked so small and helpless. My heart sank. I scooped her up off the floor and lay her on my tummy as I sat on the hard wood floor sobbing. Neither one of us wanted to leave.
Fast forward nine months and we have re-established the same boundaries here in CA and our four-legged lovely has respectfully kept her distance from our master bedroom. At least, that is, until Sunday, May 11th. I was sound asleep when a wet-nosed golden girl snuck into our bedroom and proceeded to give me a full face wash at 6:00 am. It was a deluge of doggie kisses! And although I’ve always been one to prize my sleep-in days when I can snag them, I could not have been any happier to receive this very genuine and most unexpected wake-up call.
The boys dismiss the whole thing as coincidence. But I say, there’s no such thing. My girl was coming in to wish me a happy mother’s day, and that’s that.
The second gift I received on mother’s day was a fabulously functional shredding tool — the Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler to be exact (thank you boys!) that allowed me to make short work of this Thai Green Papaya Salad.
Salty, Sweet, Sour and Spicy, you will fall in love with this refreshing and delicious summer gem and quickly understand why it is consistently ranked among Thailand’s most popular dishes. I’m talkin’ lip smacking, pucker-inducing, good.
I describe this salad as Thai inspired because in traditional Thai cooking, measuring devices are not used and nor are handy-dandy shredding tools that make the job easier. ‘Tum’ literally translates into “pound” and most/or all of the ingredients in this salad are traditionally pounded in a giant sized mortar with pestle. But since most of us do not own head-sized mortars and pestles the length of our forearms, I’ve introduced some options that are more likely to accommodate what the average person has on hand.
Be sure to check out the Nutrition & Cooking Notes for nutrition information, cautions and options.
Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum)
– Einstein
everything visible is preceded by the invisible
You will note from the nutrition facts that we have met our daily requirement of vitamin A and exceeded our vitamin C requirement by 300% from one serving of this simple, delicious salad. Of course, not measured are the potent antioxidant/phytochemicals as well as a host of other vits/mins in this dish (vitamin E, vitamin K, folate, magnesium, manganese, lutein).
Full-Spectrum Energizing Salad with a Honey-Lemon Tarragon Vinaigrette
For the Salad:
Serves 2
Nutrition & Cooking Notes:
Directions:
Everyone moves from time to time and in terms of life injuries, well, it’s just not that significant.
But when you’re preparing to leave the city where you’ve raised your children from infants to teenagers and every corner of every street flashes a memory, the task takes on a different weight.
Sure, there are plenty of good reasons to be attached to this city. Consistently ranked among the best communities to live in Canada and one of the cleanest and highest quality living cities in the world, there’s no doubt, Ottawa is a gem.
But that’s not what I’ll miss most about home.
No. My heart is breaking leaving this city because there isn’t a corner of this well-traveled neighborhood that doesn’t remind me of the fifteen years we’ve spent living it. From the crawling stage to the dirt eating stage to the mound of grass where our youngest found his first four-leaf clover, to the epic meltdown on Bank street that saw a certain three year old boy strip down to his bare skin one painstaking item of clothing at a time until he stood there planted in his resolve, his thirty pound frame shivering in the wind, casting a look back at me that let me know, we had just begun.
And the funniest things are occurring to me too. The thought that our phone number will never ring to us again; the idea that we are deserting the ash tree we planted in our backyard when it was only three inches tall — how long will it live and will I ever see it again? The fact that I won’t get to say goodbye to everyone including all the so-called strangers I run into every single day (is it weird that I am now possessed with an urgent need to meet them?) and the stretch of wall in our kitchen (the great wall) where our boys – and every guest, friend and family member – who entered our home measured themselves – a collection of graduated marks and honors, now covered over in builder beige.
Whenever I feel like I’m going to lose it, which happens a fair bit, I find myself holding on to Dr. Seuss:
We are so blessed to have spent fifteen incredible years in this beautiful city with its spirited inhabitants. I am now intimately acquainted with every tree-lined dog walking path, soccer pitch and hockey arena scattered across eastern Ontario (in fact, I can even tell you the mean temperature inside each of those arenas — yup, I’m even going to miss freezing my butt off!).
So we move forward, with open hearts and optimism. And we have so many people to thank for supporting us both while we lived here and during our warp speed transition out of the city. Family, friends and neighbors who have extended their hands and celebrated our final days — thank you for making us feel so well surrounded and loved. That’s what we will remember most.
Serves 4
Nutrition Notes:
Rich in fibre and low in calories, blueberries rank among the highest in antioxidant value by weight in relation to other fruit. These dazzling blue gems obtain their color from a group of phytochemicals called anthocyanins that help guard against cataract, glaucoma, ulcers and even certain types of cancer.
Studies have also shown that blueberries may reduce LDL cholesterol levels and blood pressure. And there’s more. Research suggests that eating blueberries regularly may protect brain cells and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by combating free radical damage, reducing inflammation and increasing the clearance of toxic proteins that accumulate with age.
All this from a brilliant berry that is bursting with flavor – talk about a great deal!
Directions:
Place spinach (or other greens), arugula, cooled asparagus pieces and blueberries together in a large bowl.
In a small dry skillet, sauté pine nuts over lowest heat just until they are gently browned and fragrant (be sure to watch carefully to ensure that you don’t burn the nuts — pine nuts are expensive!).
Add toasted pine nuts to salad bowl.
Meanwhile, in a small container with fitted lid, combine vinaigrette ingredients and shake vigorously before drizzling over salad. Taking care not to mash fruit, mix salad ingredients together until well integrated with vinaigrette.
Divide salad among 4 plates and top each plate with 3 slices (medallions) of chèvre.
I was 7 months pregnant, the tree was only 3 inches tall
moments after arriving home from hospital
(a tough thing to capture in all of its sacredness ;-)
every summer for most of the summer — shhhhh… don’t tell a soul ;-)
Dear friends and faithful supporters of Inspired Edibles, please bear with us as our family settles in to our new home and life in California — we can’t wait to reconnect and share our new adventures with you!
This simple and rather scrumptious lunch idea was inspired by a ballerina.
I was catching up on some on-line news the other day when a video caption flashed across my screen: “curious about the eating habits of Canada’s top ballerinas?” Immediate seduction.
And surprise.
I guess I’ve always feared that the pressure put upon these individuals is so grave that they are required, for their own professional survival, to follow a diet of deprivation. I’ve also come across heartbreaking documentaries on the eating disorders that can run rampant in similar professions. So, when I watched the clip of the talented and beautiful Heather Ogden, I was not only surprised but also delighted to see the quality and expansiveness of her diet as well as the clarity of her views on it. “I like to focus on all the things I can eat to build a healthy body rather than what I should be excluding. Calories are not my focus.”
There’s also something about that six hours of daily exercise thing that has a way of keeping the body slim and trim (!). Among some of Ogden’s favorite foods as showcased in the segment, were the most delicate and seductive looking eggs I’ve seen in a long time. I suspect they may have been poached but no matter, the flash image was enough to launch my vessel. I knew where I was going with this one.
Although I am not new to baked egg cups, there was just something about this presentation with the yolks standing at attention, clear and radiant in the center, that reminded me of sunlight.
Baked Egg Cups over Lime-Tahini Spinach
For the Egg Cups & Spinach Salad:
For the Lime Infused Tahini Dressing
Serves 2
Notes:
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 F
(I always make extra)
A perfect little egg cup emerges from the mold
Et voilà! Sun-kissed Spinach ;o) c’est jolie, non?
