Tagged with traditional food ways

Exploring Acorns, Starch Noodles

Some of you may remember my post on making pinole energy cakes with acorn flour. This fall, with the arrival of acorn harvesting season, I decided to finally try making the acorn starch noodles I had learned about in a foraging group on Facebook. Pictured above is the outcome of my SECOND attempt at making … Continue reading

Mallow Mallow and more Mallow Soup

Really, though. What has taken me so long to learn about molokhia (mulukhiyyeh) soup??? It’s a soup-like dish made in Egypt, Lebanon, etc… A recent post in a foraging group led me on an adventure with our local, invasive cheesewheel mallow plant (Malva parviflora or Malva neglecta). Although the mallow used in molokhia soup is … Continue reading

Pumpkin Spice Marrow Custard

It is that time of year. Imbolc. The mid-point between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox of the Old Celtic Wheel of the Year. It’s at this time that eggs are starting to be laid. Eggs of all kinds. Wombs are full. Nature is preparing for birth. Years ago, in Mississippi, I cooked and prepared … Continue reading

Rootin-tootin Fermented Radishes

Our favorite veggie ferment used to be sauerkraut.  THEN then THEN we discovered fermented radishes.  Everything changed. They are easy to chew.  Sour.  They have a subtle spice to them.  Well.  And, they are pink. My three year old LOVES them. The only thing is…they smell like baby diapers.  I know.  Strange. This ferment smells … Continue reading

Pinole Energy Cakes

A wee bit of kitchen witchery happened tonight.  Thought I’d share. So, what is pinole? As I understand it, the word pinole arrived in California with the early Spanish colonizers who had been in Central America before arriving here. They called the local toasted seed foods they experienced with First Peoples of North America, pinole…as … Continue reading

Super Seed Bars

Cooking and kitchen witchery, to me, are an endless, unraveling narrative…of places I have been…people I have known…and flavors I have explored.  Take this recipe as an example… A friend of mine, from my San Francisco days, gave me this recipe to try.  I was on my way to the desert to camp and needed … Continue reading

When I Fell in Love with Dosa and Idli

In 2006 I traveled to Tamil Nadu, a region in South India, to visit the long-time social experiment, Auroville.  Back in the 50s a French woman named, the Mother, and Pondicherry native, Sri Aurobindo, created a formula for harmonious living…they launched that vision in the real time with an intentional community. When I visited Auroville, … Continue reading

Donna’s Beets with Walnut Chutney

A little taste of some of my pandemic cooking (hope you all are well). Not survival food, but food for the soul. Very nostalgic making this one. Beets with walnut chutney. This was one of my favorite dishes that they chef (Donna) would make at Southern Dharma Retreat Center when I worked there as Retreat … Continue reading

ReSTOCKing the Freezer: Bone Broth

I started off this week by reSTOCKing the freezer with bone broth (you see that little pun nestled in there?  Aw yeah). Chicken back, two chicken feet, some old turkey bones, kombu seaweed.  All of these meats/bones are from a local, traditional farmer. I then add a splash of apple cider vinegar.  Some sea salt.  … Continue reading