Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Hello Friends!

And a Happy Autumn to you all!! I have been enjoying myself so much these past weeks, reveling in the growing crispness of the air, the incredible glowy light, the magic of so many multicolored leaves blowing through the air. Each afternoon after Rhiannon and I take a chilly dip in the river we stand and watch the leaves and the light on the cliffs and exclaim to each other about how amazingly lovely everything is! Yesterday it was mostly cloudy when we went for our dip, and I was so impressed that she was still brave enough to get in the water with me! I had gotten a fire going up at the kitchen and supper was warming up on top of the woodstove, and with warm robes to put on, it made it a much easier to think about getting a little cold! We had a very special supper, using fresh pomegranate (a sweet gift!) a chicken I’d roasted that morning, a very delicious squash (another gift, from our friend Marc’s garden), some wild mustard I’d harvested from a parking lot in town, Chardonnay and pine nuts from Resolute, farmer’s market apples mailed to us from dear Steve and Val, homemade elderberry wine Kiva made from elderberries the same friends harvested themselves, freshly made kefir cream, also made by Kiva,  and some incredible apricots and goat cheese, yet more gifts, from our recent quester Rebecca! What thankful hearts we all had, sitting down after a day of much work, to this feast of so much gathered love and caring, and harvestime abundance!

Harvesttime Celebration Chicken

roasted chicken, free-range organic if possible!
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
1 butternut (or similar) squash
1/2 cup Chardonnay
5-6 cloves fresh garlic, minced
5-6 leaves fresh sage, minced
a bunch of fresh mustard or other flavorful greens, wild or domestic, rinsed and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
about 12 unsulphered turkish apricots, chopped coarsely
2-3 golden delicious or similar apples, cored and medium diced (about 1-2” pieces)
some fresh plain kefir, or sheep’s milk feta, to garnish (optional)

Strip the chicken and chop or break into bite size pieces about 2-3 cups of meat. I save the rest for making soup the next day. Peel the squash using a vegetable peeler, and remove the seeds (and save for roasting!) and chop into medium dice. Saute the sliced onions in a large skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until they turn translucent. Add the garlic as you’re stirring, with a tiny bit more olive oil. Push the onions to one side of the pan, add the squash and a little bit of water to the pan, reduce the heat a bit, and cook covered for a few minutes, or until the squash begins to soften. Stir everything together and cook uncovered until everything begins to get golden-brown. Add the chicken pieces and the wine, sage, apricots, salt and pepper. Let everything come to a simmer, then taste, and adjust things as you like.

This is fantastic on its own, especially with the kefir or feta garnish, and even more fun to serve with whatever accompaniments you like! Perhaps some fresh sourdough bread, some special cheese, more fresh greens, special olives or some Preserved Lemons (have I given you the recipe before?), buttered wild rice or quinoa, and if you really want to make it feel like a feast, try making the Green Olive Pomegranate Relish! If you could imagine a Mediterranean cranberry sauce, without the cranberries, this is it!

Green Olive & Almond Pomegranate Relish
This relish is an Enchanted Pantry twist on one of the more unusual Mediterranean recipes.  You can eat it right away, but it gets even better overnight.  It’s great mixed with some goat cheese or feta and eaten with pita or other fresh bread, with maybe a little hummus alongside.  Carnivores will especially enjoy it served with any wood grilled cuts, wild meats, a pork roast or chicken, or even atop a perfectly seasoned meatloaf. Feel free to experiment will the ingredients, and the amounts of things– it’s a very flexible, fun recipe! Just don’t leave out the pomegranate seeds or the olives!

1/2-1 cup good quality green olives, pitted and chopped (kalamata olives will work too)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup minced toasted walnuts
1/4 cup chopped parsley or watercress
1/2 -3/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup finely chopped crisp-tart apple
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses (available at Mediterranean stores), or 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp. allspice

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. Return to room temperature before serving. Enjoy the magic! I highly suggest taking the pomegranate out into the sunshine to sit and enjoy its jewellike beauty as you fill your bowl with seeds. I sat on my kitchen stoop as I filled mine, and was really glad I was wearing an apron (a red one!), getting pomegranate juice all over me! A special autumnal pleasure to celebrate!

Hope you’ll try these, and let me know how they turn out! And don’t worry, those of you who are awaiting the Green Chile recipes I promised, I haven’t forgotten, they’re still coming!!  Feel free to share this recipe as always.

With Lots of love and happy autumn hugs to you all!,

Loba (www.animacenter.org)

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Our beloved apprentice and supporter Resolute has been with us this past week, what a joyful thing! Yesterday we all went on an adventure up to the high country in search of elderberries, rose hips and more. Kiva drove the jeep up the steep mountains for miles, while we searched the mountainsides for Oregon Grape, which she found in a few places, and dug up some of the bigger plants’ roots. It’s always amazing to get up into the higher altitudes, where the spruce trees laden with usnea and the miles of aspen trees feel like a fairytale forest. Once we reached the top, we unloaded our hefty picnic cooler, our gathering baskets and such and began the search for plants. We were able to harvest a bunch of perfectly ripe rose hips, but unfortunately the birds had already beaten us to the elderberries. With the lack of our normal monsoon rains, some things were looking a bit dry. There was lots and lots of yarrow, however, which we were really excited about! Resolute and I had a lot of fun picking the dear little yarrow leaves that were covering the trail to the spring, while Kiva and Rhiannon explored the steep slopes, and Kiva returned with happy hands full of treasures.

Our picnic was incredible! Rhiannon was so excited, she had made lovely invitations with special calligraphy that she learned and practiced especially for the event. And at each guest’s place on the picnic blanket there was a beautiful hand-lettered invite.  We were celebrating not only the joy of being all together, but Resolute’s birthday! She had brought us a bunch of rock cornish hens from the city, which I had stuffed with green chiles and onions, and roasted over a fire the day before, along with some peppers and onions. I’d also made a lovely cheese dip with goat milk and a variety of cheeses, blended with red wine, chiles, garlic, and toasted pecans. We brought preserved grape leaves, fresh green beans, crisp apples, cucumbers, red onion, olives and more! What wondrous combinations we made for ourselves as we mixed and matched ingredients in our grape leaves and in our bowls. But of course we had to leave room for the grand finale, Kiva’s Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie! Covered with real whipping cream, it was totally irresistable! We also enjoyed some wonderful mulberry tarts that Rhiannon had made, and some Prickly Pear/Grape Cordial that Kiva had made. And we sang Happy Birthday to Resolute, who got all teary eyed at one point cause she was so happy to be in such a beautiful spot where she could see all the mountains below.  It made her feel very wonderfully owl-like, so we decided to name the spot Owl Mountain.

Grilled Stuffed Cornish Hens with Green Chiles
Saute 10 medium-large mild green chiles (I used Anaheim )in olive oil until browned and tender, mix with diced raw onion, and stuff inside the cavities of 5 Cornish Hens. Grill about 5 inches away from a bed of wood coals until cooked all the way through, about 30-45 minutes (depending on how hot, and how many coals you have!)

Goat Cheese Dip with toasted Pecans and Red Wine
1/2 cup Merlot
1/2 cup goat milk
2/3 cup soft goat cheese
2/3 cup semisoft cheese, extra sharp cheddar or goat cheddar
1/3 cup toasted pecans
1-3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 or 2 roasted chiles (optional)
Put all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy with roasted veggies, meats, etc.

Hope some of you may be inspired to have a picnic of your own, to celebrate the harvest, someone’s birthday, or simply the beauty of the day!
love, Loba

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Dear Friends,
Okay, after lots of prodding from you readers, here’s another taste from The Enchanted Pantry — the first recipe that appears in the  “Summertime in the Canyon” section of my long-time-upcoming cookbook!  Enjoy your tomatoes, and your what’s left of your yummy Summer!!! Love, Loba

The Tomatoes and Basil Meals

by Loba

www.animacenter.org

   This one’s not so much a recipe as a way of eating that to me is the very epitome of Summertime. It was after a huge monsoon flood that we landed the epic tomato bonanza that had us eating this way every night for weeks. Our friends up the river with the gigantic garden had let it be known that their tomatoes were out of hand. It had been raining and raining every day for over two months, what joy! The only problem was, how to get the tomatoes from the first river crossing to our homestead, just past the seventh river crossing– two miles down the river, with no chance of getting a truck through. Kiva and I had already hauled multiple seventy pound backpacks full of monster squashes and onions down the steep mountain trail, but we anticipated instant salsa should we attempt to haul in the tomatoes that way. Wolf had the brilliant idea to carefully pack them in boxes, and float them down the river in our inflatable kayak. Of course there would be no room for us in the boat, but that really wasn’t a problem. It was a blissfully sunny day, with enough clouds to make us want for more sun. Kiva and I swam alongside the boat, which was full of about 200 pounds of tomatoes and huge bunches of multicolored basil that dear Jane had thrown in for good measure. We each held one end of a rope, controlling the boat as it eased down the river, and miraculously, didn’t topple over! When we made it to the seventh crossing, we howled for Rhiannon and Wolf to come help us bring the bounty the last several hundred yards up the rocky hill, which seemed particularly vertical that day for sure! When we finally made it back up to the kitchen, we were so hungry we ate some version of this meal, mostly standing over the counter, ecstatically dripping tomato juice everywhere as we tore into the bag of basil, and ripped open a package of our best cheese. I remember us grinning at each other between slurpy bites and at some point one or both of us said, “you know, it just doesn’t get any better than this.…”

Essential Elements:

Garden fresh tomatoes
Some really good cheese, especially local goat cheese if possible
Fresh Basil or Rosemary
The freshest, stickiest garlic you can find, or some roasted garlic
A handful of fresh, peppery greens (like arugula and/or watercress)
Sourdough bread, preferably homemade & with unsalted butter and/OR some softly scrambled or boiled farm-fresh eggs
3 (or more) olives apiece, (preferably kalamata or oil cured black olives)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Negotiable embellishments

A juicy garden bell pepper
A little mound of hummus and/or babaganoush
Some toasted pine nuts
A little mound of grilled or roasted meat
Extra virgin olive oil

To Assemble:
Cut the tomatoes into large wedges and put a huge pile of them in the center of each plate. Arrange the rest of the accompaniments around the tomatoes in any way that shows them all off, contrasts their colors, and makes you feel good just looking at it! Sprinkle with salt and grind a bunch of freshly ground pepper over everything, or let everyone do their own. Offer a cruet of your best olive oil as well.

To Enjoy:
First dig in to the tomatoes, and revel in their glory. Then try combining the tomatoes with the other treats, in every conceivable way, and enjoy little nibbles of things on their own. Smear the juice of a cut garlic clove on a tomato and top with a leaf of basil and a glob or sliver of cheese. Wrap an olive with some tomato flesh in a piece of arugula. The possibilities are endless, and I wouldn’t dare spoil all the potential surprises! This is truly my favorite way to eat on a warm night. It’s like getting to play with your food the whole meal through!

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What an incredible week of beauty it’s been! The mulberry tree is sprouting leaves and tiny green berries, currant and sumac berries are coming out, and it seems like all the little critters are running around with extra excitement! We’ve spotted many playful young squirrels and rabbits, chipmunks and even some precious little baby rats scrambling around near the river and in the woods. What a delight it’s been to go to the river several times a day and enjoy the welcome warmth of the sand on our bare feet, as well as the shade of the many trees that are fully leafed out. The wind has been absolutely delicious, rising and falling in lovely patterns all day. We love to dance with our sarongs out in the wind! And I love to lie down near the river, close my eyes and just listen to the song of the water mingle with the rustle of the cottonwood leaves. The riversides are covered with pockets of nettles and clover, watercress and mustard– a forager’s dream! Rhiannon and I went for a swim up the beaver dam just before sundown today to check for recent tree damage (which was thankfully minimal), and we were amazed that the deep water was such a pleasant temperature for swimming! We’re looking forward to teaching her some new swimming strokes this summer, and climbing the lookout rock together, and having our annual Yucca Flower Festival very, very soon!

Yesterday, our friend Marc was here and I was so excited for him to get to see the new lodge improvements, and to feed him and give him hugs and so much gratitude for all the amazing help he’s been lately!  And today, we celebrated the happiness of a non-native seasonal plant whose presence I’ve been very eagerly awaiting in my kitchen for quite a while. Kiva brought home the most incredible pile of RHUBARB I’ve seen in a LONG time (actually I’ve never had this much in my kitchen at once!) We were babysitting our friend Steven’s adorable 1 1 /2 year old boy while he cut wood for us and worked on shelves for the kitchen, and so it seemed like a perfect day to make pie, while the kids slid around the kitchen floor on pillows being ridiculously cute. Kiva took a break from her student work and emails at just the perfect time, coming over just as I was getting the fruit mixture just right, to give it her official thumbs-up. We liked the pie filling so much, even uncooked, that I made a little extra so we can use it for a topping for yogurt or whatever… or maybe just eat more of it straight from the jar! Highly recommended!

I don’t make these kind of double crust pies that often anymore, but once in a great while, if there’s some crazy amount of peaches or pears or blackberries or rhubarb or something around, the urge to put our beloved rolling pin to use becomes pretty irrepressible. Whatever you do, don’t buy those pre-made poor-excuses-for crust you can buy at the store. Making a good homemade crust is an art, but it’s a very simple art. Not to mention how it ends up looking- and tasting- when mingled with bubbling fruity juices that, in this case, turn into the most joyful pinky-red-rose color imaginable! What could be better? I made a lattice top for the pie, painted it with beaten egg, and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar before baking it in the woodstove oven. I have to say, eating a warm piece later in the day with real whipping cream, enjoying the incredible color of the fruit on my plate, and the sweet-tart wowie-zowie flavor that seemed to sink into my soul, I felt as close to nirvana as any human could ever be.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Filling:
3 cups sliced strawberries
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut fairly small
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour

Extra-Flaky Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter or coconut oil, or a combination
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup water

Make the filling, tasting carefully. You may want to add a little sugar if the strawberries are not very tasty. This amount of sugar works very well for strawberries that are flavorful. But feel free to vary it as you like, substitute honey or whatever. Add the lemon juice slowly, tasting and making sure it seems just right. For me, when it becomes very hard to stop eating the filling, I know it’s done!

For mixing the crust, combine the salt and sugar into the flour, cut the butter or oil into the flour with a pastry cutter or a fork, add the vanilla and water, and gently toss the mixture first with the fork or cutter, then with your floured hands. (if you live in a humid climate, start with 1/4 cup of water, and add more slowly if the dough seems crumbly) Form the dough into a ball and gently roll out, then cut into fourths, pile the pieces on top of each other and roll out again. Repeat a few times if you enjoy that sort of thing, and then divide the dough and roll it out as usual. Or you can just form the dough into two balls and roll out once if you prefer, it will still turn our lovely! Pre-bake the bottom crust for about 10 minutes at about 375 degrees. (Until it’s just shy of being entirely done) This prevents a soggy bottom crust– very important! Then add the filling and top with the second crust, latticing the top crust if you like and/or adding little decorations with bits of dough scraps. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with 3-4 tablespoons of sugar mixed with a slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Bake till the filling has bubbled for at least ten minutes and the crust is golden brown and perfectly irresistable-looking!

Enjoy! And tell me how your pies turn out!
Love, Loba

(Feel free to share this and all posts.  Photos (c) 2009 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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 We’ve been wildly busy this week, and Kiva sends her apologies for delayed email responses.  Besides hosting valued student guests, we have doing the final layout of the kid’s book “I’m a Medicine Woman, Too!”, adding additional resources and art, getting it ready for release in one month!  A big welcome to our latest Correspondence Course students, and love to everyone from all of us!

Wild Nettle Season:

Savory Buckwheat Cakes with Nettle Yogurt Dip

by Loba

(www.animacenter.org)

Despite their somewhat scary reputation, Stinging Nettles are beautiful and healthful plants. Packed with Protein (more so than even beans!), Iron, Calcium, Magnesium and vitamins A and C, these glowing native plants are one of the most nutritious and tasty greens available anywhere. Native Americans knew about the bounty of the Nettles and used them for fiber as well as food.  Each Springtime, Rhiannon, Kiva and I can all be found excitedly watching the young Stinging Nettles come up beneath the oaks and willows. The moment they’re big enough we pick a bagful for this delicate and flavorful dip! We’re always sure to pick the young Nettle shoots with sturdy gloves on so as not to be stung by the formic acid (the same substance that fire ants contain) that is released by the tiny hairs that cover Nettles. Don’t worry, the sting in Nettles disappears completely when they’re boiled. We love Nettle Yogurt Dip on homemade challah toast with cheese and toasted almonds, whether for dinner for breakfast… but also try it on a hot baked potato, topped with a poached egg.

It’s truly been a wonderful year for nettles!!!  We’ve been harvesting and eating them like crazy! What an incredible joy it is to spend the afternoon crouching under the juniper and oaks, soaking in Spring’s sweet sunshine and the glorious green magic of the nettle plants, who seem to be growing taller with every moment that passes by! As soon as we get enough for a giant potful, we go for a splash and a dunk in the crisp cold river, and then plan the evening meal all refreshed! We’ve been cooking up the nettles over the fire, sometimes outdoors, or inside on the wood cookstove when it’s too windy. Some of the cooked nettles get bagged up to go to Ryan’s freezer, and many others get eaten!

Right now, here in the canyon, it’s the ultimate time to harvest. The plants are incredibly abundant and about 6-8 inches tall. At this height, the stalks are still tender enough to enjoy as well as the beautiful leaves, and can even be used in the following very tasty dip. I’ve been using a hand blender to make sure the stalks are thoroughly ground up. Here’s the recipe for you, from that eternally-in-progress cookbook of mine!

Nettle (or Spinach) Yogurt Dip
(Serves 2 or more)

1 cup of steamed nettles (or cooked spinach)
3/4-1 cup yogurt (or goat milk yogurt, or a mixture of yogurt and cream cheese, or sour cream and soft goat cheese!)
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced
Lemon juice, fresh, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Steam the nettles or spinach leaves until they’re tender, usually about  15-20 minutes. Place the nettles with the yogurt in a bowl and blend well with a fork, or mash in a mortar with a pestle. It’s hard to get spinach soft enough to blend with a fork, so you might want to use a blender or a food mill. Cook the garlic over low heat in a buttered skillet until barely golden. Add the garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. After working everything together, taste and adjust salt, pepper, and lemon juice to your taste.

This morning we had the most delicious breakfast! I had made a double batch of nettle dip some days ago, and remembered a wonderful-looking recipe in Sandoor Katz’s incredible book Wild Fermentation. He uses homemade kefir in making these great savory pancakes called Drawoe Kura, from Tibet. I thought, how great these would be made with nettle dip instead of kefir! We ate them this morning with some extra nettle dip and melted butter, a bit of warmed-up leftover red wine-braised chicken, with a mug of today’s freshly boiled nettles in their cooking water served on the side. Homemade chutney and some kalamata olives were very nice with all of that, too, but entirely optional! Rhiannon was enjoying her breakfast so much she said wistfully, “I wish I could eat this forever”.

Savory Buckwheat Cakes with Nettle Dip:

1 cup Nettle Dip (or yogurt or kefir)
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup water
olive oil, for cooking

With a whisk or a fork, combine all ingredients. Heat a large skillet to medium-high, and pour about a tablespoon of oil in the pan. (I used some homemade Rosemary Oil). Ladle a small amount of batter in three or four places in the pan, for small pancakes. Let brown on one side before flipping and browing on the next. Serve with butter and more Nettle Dip, some fresh ground pepper, and whatever else you might fancy.  Enjoy!

P.S.

If you think you don’t have a nearby Stinging Nettle patch look again, they’re more common than you probably think! Try searching for them in shady spots near a river or where there’s moisture. In the event that there really isn’t any in your area spinach makes a good substitute.

-Love, Loba

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Enthusiasm

by Jesse Wolf Hardin
www.animacenter.org

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
-Harriet Van Horne

“To the rind!  If you’re gonna do anything at all, do it to the rind!”
-Taj Majal  (in a tee-shirt picturing a watermelon, chewed “clean to the green”)

Enthusiasm an often undervalued element of effective magic, in cooking as in life.  It is the enthusiasm of the flames that cook our meals, and the vibrant will that powers the slicing knife and propels the dipping spoon.  Without it the finest ingredients in the world would remain separate and inert, the pretty bowls feeling abandoned and lonely, the kitchen all too clean.  Without it the disenchanted diner has no positive recourse beyond raw fruits and vegetables, while the more penitent of the lot may opt for the self denial of microwavable dinners and self-flagellation fast-food restaurants.

It is this dearth of enthusiasm, not any shortening of the hours in the day, that accounts for the shift from aesthetics to convenience, from an affair of pleasure to a simple matter of utility.  In its absence there can be no such thing as “home cooking,” even if the food be prepared at home, and no benefit to eating beyond the base maintenance of the human machine.

Loba will have none of that nonsense.  Dance from stove to sink, and no meal will be without the rhythm of your pulse.  Smile, then praise the ingredients so that they will smile too.  Sing while you stir the batter, and for days the bread will sing back to you.  Laugh into your big ceramic bowl, and your guests may hear the chuckling echoes as you spoon its contents onto their plates.   She knows that no matter how unimportant we might think we are, how truly fallible or imperfect, we deserve finer treatment than our sour haste provides.  As living, breathing creatures we deserve to dwell in a state of excitement… to be fully enthused, and to reap the benefits of that enthusiasm.

And as she’ll tell you, the food also merits better than that, each product of life deserving our most conscious treatment, ardor and zeal.  Each is to be honored by the respectful handling, the fervor and ceremony in its preparation, the royal pairing with other worthy ingredients, the intention and success of the recipe.  The cabbage warrants acknowledgment and the doves, affection.  The dessert likes its horn blown.  For their sake as well as our own, we should remain as enthused in the eating as we were in the cooking.  Loba holds the celery out before her for a moment of recognition, even adulation, before placing it in her mouth.  She embraces the muffin, tickles underneath the chins of the asparagus, and kisses the apple before she bites.

Surely this is one of the great lessons of the Enchanted Kitchen: if one is to proceed (whether to cook, or to undertake a lesson or any other task), we’d best proceed without pretense or restraint, with the gusto that makes it both pleasurable and worthwhile.  With the zest and relish that enlivens our world.  With the enthusiasm that makes our disappointments seem negligible, and our triumphs complete.

(This piece is excerpted from Loba’s upcoming Animá cookbook The Enchanted Pantry.  Photo of Loba (c) 2008 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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Hi!  I wanted to share with you a yummy side dish recipe in time for your Thanksgiving celebration, but we didn’t have enough sun to send off!  Luckily, a dish like this helps makes every day something to be thankful for!!  I’ve been making roasted veggies like crazy these days, to celebrate the cold coming on. To me, there’s nothing cozier on a cloudy or stormy day than tending my woodstove fire, with something as nourishing as this taste sensation in the oven, filling the air with its intoxicating scent! Enjoy!

Loba’s Seductive Beets
This, to me, is beets at their most luscious and seductive. When I first made them this way, I was amazed. They were so sweet, so succulent, almost too mouthwatering for words! As the beets cook longer and longer, they’re drinking in the orange juice-walnut oil and getting sweeter and sweeter all the time. The beets may be tender enough to enjoy after only 1 hour, but they won’t be nearly as sweet (caramelized ) as they would be if you gave them more time, and feed them more juice. Serve as a glorious side dish with your Thanksgiving roast! Or do as I often do, and enjoy a bowl of these beets over some buttery brown rice and call it dinner, with garlic toast and salad purely optional!

5 or 6 good-sized beets (at least half the size of your fist)
2-3 onions, peeled and sliced into thick half-moons
2 oranges
2 or 3 tablespoons walnut oil
6 or more cloves of garlic
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

First, I get a good fire going and get my oven nice and hot (set your stove for about 375°) while I prepare the beets…. trimming the root end, peeling the skin off with my antique potato peeler, rinsing, and slicing each half into quarter-inch wedges. After the beets are readied and placed in my oiled cobalt glass baking pan, I add the sliced onions. Then, I peel the orange zest off both oranges, chop it finely, and set it aside for when the beets are ready to be served. Then I roll each orange on the counter before I slice them in half and juice them in my old time swap-meet juicer (though any juicer will do!). I get about a cup of juice if they’re the good heavy ones that you can usually get inexpensively in Winter. Then I chop the garlic. In the glass I juiced into, I pour the oil, sprinkle in some salt and pepper, mix it around a bit and pour about a quarter of the mixture over the beets, then tossing them to make sure they’re all well coated. Then in the oven they go!
The baking time can vary a bit with my wood-fired oven, but with the consistent heat of a modern oven the total baking time should be somewhere between 1 and 2 hours, depending on the moisture content and freshness of the beets. Check them about every 15 or 20 minutes, adding up to a quarter cup of the orange juice mixture each time. Make sure the juice in the pan never completely dries up. This is very important, as if it’s a glass pan it may break, and regardless, the beets may burn. Add the minced garlic once they’re already nice and tender, about 15 minutes prior to taking them out for the last time. Toss with some of the orange zest and some Caramelized Onions before serving…. as a side dish with meat or fish, or as the main event on top of some short-grain brown rice, with a garnish of freshly toasted nuts.

Variations:

•Rainbow Root Veggies: Use the same method, only using two beets, two big carrots, the onions and two turnips. The carrots and turnips turn such pretty colors! Once a guest asked if the turnips were plums! Shows you how sweet they can turn out!

*Roasted Beets and Greens: Add a large bunch of chard or kale near the end of the cooking time. Rinse the greens, bunch them together on the chopping board, and chop in 1-2” sections. Toss with the beets, coating with the pan juices and roast till everything is done to your liking. Don’t cook the greens too long or they’ll shrivel into nothing! This is great tossed with freshly cooked pasta, too! Maybe with some lightly toasted pine nuts, and a touch of sheep’s milk feta–yum!
Share this recipe as you like, by clicking on the button below.

-Love, Loba

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Loba’s Canyon Acorn Recipes

It’s amazing how fast it happens– how the acorns grow and ripen, and fall in the canyon every time the wind blows, raining down on us as we gather. We become like squirrels, or bears, or more like the primal humans we once were.  For once upon a time, our kind watched the trees carefully and made use of the season’s gifts. Our hands moved instinctively, quickly through the fallen leaves, finding the choicest nuts, as they do now, at this special time of abundance. Harvesting and cooking with acorns makes me feel connected, in my body, and makes my spirit sing. It feels almost like sitting up around a fire, watching the stars move across the sky, breathing smoke. It’s food for the deepest reaches of my soul. And that’s even before getting to eat them!

On Harvesting and Processing Acorns:
Get to know your oak trees, and try the acorns from all the different species that you’re able to harvest from, as some will be far sweeter than others. After you’ve harvested your acorns, try roasting some in a 300 degree oven till the nut becomes light to medium brown and is still slightly soft, and taste.  If they taste good, the nuts can be used just like regular nuts in any recipe if you use them right away. For longer storage, roast them a little longer, till they get hard and dark brown, and grind them to use in any recipe that has ground nuts. You can store ROASTED acorns in their shells for a long period of time if you put them in plastic jugs with a bunch of holes poked into the top of the containers. This will keep them from getting moldy.  If they taste unpleasantly astringent or bitter, boil them for two hours, “changing the water every time it becomes tea-colored” (from Euell Gibbons’ Stalking the Wild Asparagus). If you decide to boil them, roast them AFTER they’re boiled, then grind.  The traditional way to “leach” acorns (processing out the astringency) was to put them in a cloth sack in a river and leave them there for a day or so with a weight on the sack.  So if you have a river handy, you might want to try that! To grind them into meal, use a coffee or a grain grinder, or a metate! I haven’t tried a food processor, that might work too.
I like to use acorns in any bread recipe where its flavor will stand out. It works very well with cornmeal, in cornbread or tortillas. I love to mix it with wheat, barley, or spelt flour in breads and muffins, cakes and cookies. I also like to put it in stews and soups, like onion soup, and in any creamy chowder. But I have to confess, at least a third of our yearly acorn supply goes to making chocolatey acorn things! We chop up fresh roasted (still half-way soft) acorns and roll fudge brownies in them, we put them in homemade chocolate truffles, and we make this heavenly little cake, most of all!
Chocolate Acorn Cake

1 cup mashed bananas, or applesauce
2 eggs
1/3 cup pure maple syrup or honey
1/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup acorn meal
1/3 cup dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine all the wet ingredients with a whisk or a fork. Sift together all the dry ingredients except the acorn meal. Stir everything together, them add the acorn meal and stir. Pour into a greased 8” cake pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes. Start checking it at about 20 minutes to see how it’s doing. Remove from the oven when the middle of the cake has just begun to firm up, but is a little less than solid. Try not to overcook it. If you do, douse it with a little Kahlua, or top it with the following ganache, and all will be well.

Acorn Ganache
This is so fantastic, with the preceeding cake, or on any regular chocolate cake or banana cake. It’s also very delicious on its own, or served with fresh pears, coconut, or baked apples, fresh dates, or what have you. Feel free to play with it and make your own variations!

6 tablespoons acorn meal
3-4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons pure cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup water

Stir all ingredients together in a small pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until well thickened. Be careful not to burn it! Enjoy!
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Love, Loba
(photos (c) 2008 by Kiva Rose Hardin)

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The wonderful renovation of my dear kitchen has brought to light my lifetime of fearing change and trying to keep things largely the same.  I was very attached to the way things were in my lovable, huggable niche, attached to the way I’m able to nestle into its lovely curvy counters as I drink a cup of tea, and to the rhythm of my ever-spiraling  movements in its little 8 by 10 foot space. I even had a funny attachment to the spot in the floor where the breath of the ground came through and I thought of it as my sipapu – like the hole that the ancient peoples always made in their kivas, an avenue for Spirit to enter. But over the years, the little split in the linoleum grew and grew, until I often tripped on it and it became hard to keep clean. And so for the past year or so we had been discussing possible ways of fixing it, whether we should patch it up or do something more drastic.

I never doubted the practicality of it, mind you. Kiva and I were finding it hard to cook at the same time without constantly bumping into each other, with me coming close to injuring her on numerous occasions with my tendency to gesture excitedly with hot spatulas and pans! Plus, with all the blessings of her incredible online shopping skills, the pantry had outgrown itself. More and more, we were both feeling the need to make room for the pounds of dried shitake mushrooms, bulk teas and spices, sea vegetables, whole grains for sprouting and grinding, and quality decaf coffee. And as part of her medicine woman magic, Kiva had created so many herbal vinegars, oils, honeys, salves, tinctures, herbs for Wolf’s infusions and fermented drinks that every available shelf and cranny was overflowing.
As hard as it was to accept the role or trust my abilities, I had by then accepted the blessing of being an excellent cook. Even though everything I had valued when I was growing up had one way or another been stripped from me, after arriving in the canyon I was somehow able to accept and believe in the reality of a kitchen of my own, in a home that no one would ever take away. I’d taken in the blessings of love, and all the gifts and skills I’d been working so hard to develop. What I continued to have trouble with was the shift in self image that came with my engagement with the real world beyond hope and imagination, with any alteration in what I knew and believed, with the onset of my first white hairs and the uninvited lines on my face.  What I had the hardest time accepting, I realize, was the gift of change.

When I sat down with Resolute to first envision the possibilities, I was as excited as a little kid!  At a deeper level, change still felt like a threat to the integrity and form of all that I cherished.  It seemed like the waves of the ocean trying to pull me from the rock solid world I cling to. Loving this dear wilderness sanctuary, change could mean a fire that would burn down the forest we live in and the native species we’d restored. Finding true love, change could mean getting less of that love if not losing it altogether. Aging seemed like a change from life in the direction of death. On the other hand, my teaching of Animá has meant seeing not only the value of change, but the necessity. Changing the way genders relate, and mothers teach their children. Changing the way we treat ourselves as well as the earth. Changing society from a fear and war based paradigm to a community of cooperation and caring. Growth is change, as is wising up, and growing stronger. Improving is change as much as loss or damage, and accepting change was for me an important improvement.

From the time I gave my blessing to the project, it wasn’t long before Wolf cut out the section of the wall separating what had been the dining room. With every layer of old carpet and linoleum I helped pull up, I felt us getting closer to our vision of what the kitchen could be: an oasis of beauty and inspiration, nourishment and satisfaction. As I write this, we’re still waiting for help with counters and cabinets… but with the newly laid tile, it already feels so beautiful I just want to light candles, burn sage, drink tea on the floor and admire it. I want to polish the silver trim on the old cookstove, cover the plastic water jugs with pretty Indian tapestry material, replace the old trash cans, and start using a more attractive compost bucket that Wolf got. I intend to find pretty gallon jars to fill with my many treasures of grains, beans and pickled wonders and clean out all the existing cabinets. I’ll go through the pantry and sort out anything that doesn’t belong, and make (and then keep!) everything as nice as this rose-tinted tile floor.

In this profound evolution of the kitchen I see a mirror of my own personal shifts. I give myself credit for overcoming my resistance and embracing the changes that were happening in my life and home. For letting go of attachment to the way things were. For accepting the help of so many loving people in this concerted effort, when some part of me wishes I could do it all on my own and not trouble anyone. For finally getting to a place in my life where I feel worthy of such blessings, and for being committed to maintaining, treasuring and honoring this kitchen for the temple that it has always been but is now so much more, now. For being able to deeply appreciate the changes and for being as thrilled as always about those things that remain the same: the view out the windows, the wind that flows through, the dancing fire in the hundred year old cookstove, the food in the pantry, the curvy counters, antique cookware, drying canyon herbs, precious canyon stones, handmade lace and knickknacks…and for the unchanging love I feel every time I cook a meal.
Next I will learn to welcome other alterations of my daily existence and maybe even the appearance of the beautiful white hairs that once gave me fits… accepting the ways in which change can be a progression, a healing and a gift.

-By Loba (www.animacenter.org)

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All over the canyon, the grape vines are loaded with the most beautiful leaves. Picking them is my my favorite activity after I’ve gone for a float in the river. I love to arrange them in a perfect pile as I pick a stack big enough to have with our supper, with some extra to add to the quart jar on the counter. I’ll try to fill a few gallon jars of these precious leaves before the summer is over, most likely with the help of many guests and students.

It’s hard to imagine the special quality grape leaves can impart without experimenting with them yourself! And for me, it’s hard to imagine life without grape leaves! We take out a little stack of leaves and rinse them off to use as wrappers for a huge variety of dishes– from Asian-style stir-fry to Mediterranean influenced polenta and rice dishes, to Mexican-Native American style chile and beans. We chop them up and put them in chile, in potato salad, in posole, in panfuls of stir-fried yams, tomato sauce, or with chicken and onions. And perhaps my favorite thing to do with them is to make a skillet full of Pan-Fried Grape Leaves, or a pot of Steamed Grape Leaves. They’re “oh-my-goodness-YUM”!

Harvesting, Preserving, Shopping for and Stuffing Grape Leaves

If you have a grapevine to pick from, make sure it hasn’t been sprayed, and harvest the biggest leaves you can get. Ideally they’ll be about big as your hand. It’s fine to use smaller leaves, they’ll just be a bit harder to stuff. When I harvest I often put the smaller leaves in a separate jar, and use these for chopping up, and save the big ones for stuffing. To preserve the leaves, put them in a quart or gallon jar, cover with water and add salt. If you’re planning on using the leaves up in the next month or two, you can use 4 tablespoons of salt per quart. If you’d like to store them for the winter, double the amount. Weight the leaves down beneath the water with a clean stone that fits easily inside the jar. Keep a lid on the jar. You can add more leaves as you are able to make time for picking them.

When using fresh picked leaves for stuffing, you can soften the leaves by soaking them in boiling water for a few minutes to make them easier to handle.

If you don’t have a grapevine, there are jarred grapeleaves available in Mediterranean stores, I’ve heard that the quality of them is not consistent, so keep trying till you find a brand that you like. If you’re using preserved grape leaves for a recipe, either home-preserved or store bought, be sure to rinse them off before using them, as the salt can be a bit intense.
To stuff the leaves, open a leaf and spread it on the kitchen counter with the smooth side of the leaf down, the rougher veined underside of the leaf up. If the stem is still attached, pinch or cut it off. Put a spoonful of stuffing at the base of the leaf, where the stem was attached, close to the edge. Fold the bottom edge up around the stuffing, then fold in each side, right and left. Carefully roll the leaf toward the point, keeping everything as tucked in as you can.

Pan-Fried Grape Leaves

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
3 cups cooked rice, brown or white basmati, or sushi rice
1 cup minced fresh tomatoes
1 cup cabbage, chopped rather finely
1/2 lemon, or 2 tablespoons minced preserved lemon
1 chipotle chile, minced very finely (omit if you’re very sensitive to hot things)
3-4 oz. sharp cheddar, jarlsberg, or mozzarella cheese, chopped in small pieces (about 3/4 cup cheese cubes)
5 tablespoons Butter Toasted Pine Nuts, or chopped Butter Toasted cashews, walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup cooked ground lamb or pork sausage, crumbled (optional)
Salsa and Sour Cream, for serving

Saute the onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil till it just begins to soften (a few minutes), then add the chopped cabbage. Cook until the cabbage softens, a few more minutes. If using fresh lemon, cut into thin slices, remove the seeds and mince as finely as you can. Add the lemon (fresh or preserved), the pine nuts and the minced chipotle chile to the pan with the rice and a few more tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well in the pan and heat until everything is well incorporated. Turn off the heat and let cool for a minute or two before you add the cubed cheese. After adding the cheese, follow the instructions for stuffing the grape leaves. When done, heat a large skillet and pour in four tablespoons of oil. As soon as the oil’s hot, place the little stuffed leaves in the oil, folded side down, and tilt the pan a bit to spread the oil around somewhat. Cook the stuffed leaves on both sides until they’re deeply browned and crispy around the edges. Expect some of the cheese to leak out and form “cheese crispies” at either end of the little packets, and expect some of the leaves to fall apart– don’t worry, just continue to cook them and they’ll be just as delicious!

Serve with slices of fresh lemon for squeezing (to balance out the oil), or salsa mixed with sour cream. I also love to mix a little minced chipotle en adobo and minced whole lemon!

Steamed Grape Leaves

You can use the recipe above for the filling, but instead of pan-frying the stuffed leaves, carefully stack them in a steaming rack set inside a large pot. Steam them for about 20 minutes, and serve with melted butter or olive oil with several teaspoons of lightly sauteed minced garlic stirred in. Minced fresh rosemary in the garlic oil or butter is even more amazing!

Enjoy! And let me know how your experiments go!
Love, Loba

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