Recipes from our Equinox feasting...

Warm and Spicy Indonesian Peanut Dip
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1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 inch cube of peeled fresh ginger
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and deveined (or chile pepper of your choice)
1/2c coconut milk
1/4 c water
1Tbs tamari
1c natural unsweetened peanut butter (preferably chunky, but smooth works, too)
juice of half a lime (or lemon)
handful of chopped cilantro 
1/4 c of desicated coconut (optional)
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Place garlic, ginger, jalepeno, coconut milk, water, and tamari in a blender and blend until all is pulverized.
Add peanut butter and lime juice and quickly pulse just until peanut butter is incorporated.
Turn mixture into a small saucepan and warm on the stove over medium heat just until it begins to bubble.
Stir in cilantro and dessicated coconut (if using) and serve immediately with raw veggies.
(We used thick slices of cucumbers, carrot sticks, red pepper strips, and sugarsnap peas)
Makes almost 2 cups of dip...leftovers blended with additional coconut milk  to thin make an AWESOME pasta sauce .



Lemon-Spinach Orzo Soup
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3/4c orzo
1 onion - chopped (can substitute 3 leeks , especially in springtime!)
1 bell pepper - chopped (preferably a yellow, orange, or red one)
3-5 cloves garlic - chopped
olive oil for sauteing the above
6 c broth (veggie or chicken)
4c chopped fresh raw spinach
1/2 c chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
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Cook orzo until al dente , drain, rinse well in cold water, and set aside.
In a soup pot, saute onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.
Add broth and bring up to a simmer...simmer for 10 minutes.
Add fresh spinach, parsley, cooked orzo, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Serve immediately...serves 6



Spanish Potato Torta  (Sodie's specialty)
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1lb. red potatoes - peeled and sliced thinly - 1/8th  inch if possible
1 large yellow onion - sliced into thin rings
3Tbs olive oil
5 eggs - beaten
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream blended with chopped parsley (or other herbs) to serve
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*In a 12" well-seasoned pan (or nonstick omelet pan) heat olive oil and gently cook potatoes and onions over medium heat for about 12 minutes, or until potatoes soften.
*Season the beaten eggs with salt and pepper (potatoes can take a good dose of salt!) and pour into the pan over the onion/potato mixture.
*Quickly stir it all around just enough to make sure the eggs have coated all the potatoes.
*Cook gently over medium-low heat until eggs begin to set.
*To flip the torta over and cook the other side, place a large dinner plate over the top and holding the plate with one hand and the pan handle with the other, flip the torta upside-down onto the plate. Then slide it back into the pan with the golden-brown cooked side facing up.
*Let  the bottom set and slide onto a serving dish. Serve with sour cream if desired
*Serves 12 as an appetizer, 6 as a side dish, or 4 as a main dish
*May be served hot, but is traditionally served at room temperature.

more Spring Equinox.....

fresh eggs

hoping that the big ones on the right are double-yolk eggs

yes! one egg, two yolks!

daffodils in the fields

bringing some Spring indoors

I captured Mado capturing some Spring shots

plum buds...I can't wait to see this in bloom!

purple deadnettle is carpeting our lawn...it is open season on fairy bouquets

some of the yummy things from our feast: lemon/spinach/orzo soup, spicy ginger-coconut peanut dip with veggies, a wedge of a Spanish potato torta with herbed sour cream...yum. I didn't get a photo of the mushroom salad, pasta primavera, gorgeous enchiladas, or berries with cream.

the traditional Spring Equinox dessert for our family...a simple cake covered in whipped cream and topped with violas

Welcome Spring! I've been looking forward to your visit!

Spring Equinox

Look who showed up just in time to celebrate the first day of Spring!

 

 (Twin goat kids born yesterday at my mom and dad's farm)

Teenagers and Margheritas

Mado's boyfriend came over to hang out with us today. He's a strapping, tough lad with an array of piercings and a streetwise attitude. He also happens to love to cook. He brought a cookbook with him. "Let's make pizzas", he said. Awesome.

Toucie ("Hi, I'm four and five fifths years old!") naturally placed herself in the center of the action. And that is how I came to have two 16 year olds and one kindergartener messing around with Margheritas this afternoon in my kitchen.

(prep work)

(that basil smelled so good...)
Look at Toucie's "doughn-izza"...pizza crust with a big hole in the middle - doughnut style.

YES!!! (this is why I had children)


Our adaptation of Williams Sonoma's Pizza Margherita:

Use your favorite pizza dough recipe (we made enough dough for four 12 inch pizzas).
Assemble the following toppings:
-12 roma tomatoes -diced (remove seeds, just use the firm flesh)
-1 lb. mozzerella -grated
-1 cup (or more!!) of fresh basil leaves-torn
- olive oil to drizzle
-salt and freshly ground pepper
Shape your dough into 12 inch rounds - as thin as you can make it - and place on pizza pans
Cover with toppings in this order:
-cheese
-tomatoes
-basil
-salt and pepper
-generous drizzle of olive oil
Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 and continue baking for 10 more minutes
Hug and kiss the children that made you the pizza and enjoy it together.
(Thanks Mado, C, and Toucie !)

Too much Spring Cleaning!

Today dawned warm and full of sunshine...mild enough for breakfast outdoors. We are all ready for this warmth. Ready for the sun on our faces. Ready to exchange days spent in the house (with a few trips out for fresh air) for days spent outside (with a few trips indoors for sustenance and supplies).

We are still in the throes of Spring Cleaning, but we thought we could work and enjoy the sunshine at the same time. Toucie decided her babydoll laundry needed attention:

"Mama" is washing while Moke (Toucie's doll) looks on.

Wow...this is going great...she is so absorbed in her work "This is totally ideal", I think to myself.
I move away to tend to work of my own, fondly glancing over to check on Toucie every once in a while.
Lots of good work getting done...maybe I am pretty good at this mothering thing after all!

Um...Touce, what's behind your back?

Oh no....Moke was not due for a bath. Cloth doll- 100% wool insides - 100% cotton outsides - completely soaked in grubby water. Too much cleaning, Toucie!

"But Mama, she loved it! Look, she is still smiling!"

For the record, if this should ever happen to a Waldorf doll at your house (whether by accident or design), just make sure to press out as much water as possible with dry towels, and hang up to dry where there is lots of air circulation. The dryer is not a good idea since water + heat + agitation + wool = felt...this could result in a lumpy mess. Also, I recommend hanging dolls with feet pointing down so water can drain away from the head. The head is the most dense part and you really want it to get dry all the way to the core. Moke came through her adventure just fine and now joins the ranks of other non-washable dolls in our family that have been washed. (I should make them all some dolly-sized T-shirts..."I survived Toucie's childhood")

Happy St. Pat's!

What a full day...spring is certainly in the air!


We made our Bairin Breac this morning.

While I was working on the bread, I heard this in the next room:

Sodie is a wonderful harpist...she dug up sheet music for a few Irish tunes and suddenly our St. Patty's Day had a soundtrack!

Prepping our dinner of corned beef and colcannon came next. Toucie needed to settle in with a contribution of her own, so:

Potato stamp hearts make shamrock window decorations! 

Its not just little kids who imitate big kids around here....look who made off with the potato and the paint:

(Naya and Sodie stamping their windows with shamrock hearts!)



I walked by Sodie's harp again and saw this:

Contagious.

Back to work:

Our version of Colcannon is very simple:


Colcannon

1 head cabbage - chopped
8 potatoes - peeled and diced
salt, pepper and butter to taste

Place potatoes in a stockpot and add enough water (or broth for extra flavor) to barely cover them.
Bring potatoes to a boil and add cabbage .
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook cabbage and potatoes until potatoes are mashable.
Drain away excess liquid and mash the cabbage and potatoes.
Add salt, pepper, and butter to season. (We also add a bit of cream and a dash of caraway).


This is another of those dishes, like the Bairin Breac,  that is surrounded by controversy. Some say use cabbage, some say kale (we like both, by the way...cabbage in the spring and kale in the autumn!), so do look around the interwebs if you want to explore other methods of putting together this simple dish.

By the time I was finished assembling the evening meal for later cooking, I found this in the next room:

Awesome...who needs a radio?


We checked to see if anyone (a leprechaun perhaps?) had taken up residence in our most recent fairy house endeavor:

Mado and Toucie collaborated on this one...it was pretty grand when finished. Ahhh, the Waldorf grad handing down skills to the Waldorf novice :)


Our big project for the day was to make and hide a letterbox. We made this one with an Irish theme and called it "Celtic Not", since we are not Irish but still nuts about many Celtic things (especially music!).

I'll explain a bit more about our letterboxing in another post, but in a nutshell, its where we go out into natural areas and follow clues to find boxes that other people have hidden.

So, off into the woods. We've hunted for many letterboxes...this is the first letterbox that we have hidden for others to find.

Later we enjoyed our St. Patrick's Day feast .

And ended our celebration with some goofing off (as always seems to be the case!). Daddy played his bodhran along with some favorite Irish dance music and we coaxed Sodie and Naya into stepdancing a wee bit for us. Toucie upstaged everyone and had the energy to go on and on long after the rest of us had collapsed into our chairs (as again, always seems to be the case!).

Oh, Toucie wants to make sure everyone knows that her nails are green...rare and exotic treat.

Happy St. Patty's everyone...I hope yours brings bright blessings to you this season!

Irish recipes for St. Patrick's Day

 (this beautiful image is from The English Tea Store - click to see their version of the recipe)

 Here is a recipe that we will be using this year for our soda bread. While ours is a traditional Irish bread leavened with soda instead of yeast, it is not the traditional "Irish Soda Bread" that most people think of. It is often served at Samhain (that's Halloween to some of us!), but we like it for St. Patty's Day. There are two things that I especially love about this bread. The first, of course, is eating it. The second is the name.


BAIRIN BREAC ("Speckled Bread")
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On the day before you want to serve the bread prepare these ingredients:

-2 cups of dried fruit chopped fine (traditionally sultanas and raisins are used, but we like a mix of many different dried fruits all thrown in together)
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-1 cup black tea

Mix the above ingredients together, cover, and let rest overnight.

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The next day, prepare these ingredients:

-1 egg, beaten
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 tsp baking powder

-1/2 cup melted butter
-1 tsp cinnamon
-big pinch of nutmeg

Add egg to moistened fruit and blend well.
Sift dry ingredients together in a big bowl, then blend the wet ingredients into the dry.
Turn the batter/dough (it is hard to put a name on the soft consistency you will have) into the 8" round pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
(It's done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).
Allow the bread to cool before you try to slice it.

While my family  follows a whole foods, mostly traditional foods style of eating, we often jump right off the wagon when it comes time to celebrate. This recipe is not too naughty, and we don't eat it every day, so we don't feel too guilty about indulging. Our favorite way to enjoy this bread is toasted and buttered, alongside cups of hot Irish tea. Its nice for breakfast, snack, or tea-time.


(There is all kinds of controversy about how to spell the name, whether or not to hide trinkets in the bread (to bring good luck to the finders), and if so, what trinkets should go in, whether it should be made with soda or yeast, etc, etc. Here is a funny bit about all that mess. We just smile and eat.)