December is Book Review Month

Cookbooks, nutrition books, wellness books, there are so many out there to read. Let’s start out with Ceres Community Projects newly released cookbook, Nourishing Connections, the Healing Power of Food and Community.

More than simply a cookbook, Nourishing Connections tells the inspiring story of a how a community gathered its resources creatively to address a multitude of needs. The Ceres Community Project, provides some 25,000 beautiful, delicious and nourishing free meals each year to families in the community that are living with a life-threatening illness such as cancer. The program’s chefs are hundreds of teens from more than fifteen local schools. The young chefs gain culinary skills, knowledge and the inspiration to make cooking and eating whole foods a part of their life.

Written for those living with illness, Nourishing Connections includes vital information for all of us about the link between what we eat and our health, with simple suggestions about how to improve your own diet and a rich resource section of books, websites and specialty food sources to support your journey.

The book’s more than one hundred recipes represent those most loved by the program’s clients and all have been home tested by people living with serious illness. Each recipe included in Nourishing Connections is delicious, relatively simple to prepare, and most lend themselves to substitution and variation – allowing you to master one recipe and then make it with a variety of different vegetables or grains. For those with limited energy, each recipe comes with suggestions for how to break down the preparation tasks into smaller steps over several days, as well as a wealth of suggestions for how to nourish your self well with almost no cooking.

Here’s one of the yummy nutrient rich recipes from the book:

Pumpkin Curry Soup


½ tablespoon olive oil to sauté
1 cup chopped onion
1 15 ounce can coconut milk
1 15 ounce can pumpkin or winter squash, or 2 cups cooked and mashed yam, winter squash or pumpkin
2 cups water
1 – 1 ½ teaspoons yellow curry paste
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 lime, juiced (about 2 tablespoons juice)
½ - 1 tablespoon maple syrup
¼ cup cilantro, chopped


1. In a medium sized soup pot, sauté the onion in the olive oil until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring every so often.

2. Add the coconut milk, pumpkin, water, curry paste and salt, beginning with the smaller amount of curry paste. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook, slightly covered, for about 15 minutes to blend the flavors. Blend the soup using an immersion blender.

3. Add the maple syrup and lime juice.

4. Now taste the soup. Add more curry paste (if you want more heat), maple syrup (if you want more sweet) or lime juice (if you want more zing).

5. Stir in the cilantro and serve.

Makes 5 ½ - 6 cups.


Do Ahead

• This soup doesn’t have much prep, but you can chop the onions and cilantro a day ahead.

‘Tis the Season… or is it Spring?

While out walking our property to see which trees need to be pruned, I saw the strangest sight. The Fuji Apple tree had blossoms! It is November right? I told my husband about it and he said the pear tree was blossoming too.

Did I miss winter? Is it Spring?
I haven’t even made a batch of Holiday Cookies yet!

Speaking of Holiday Cookies, I am going to share our favorite Gingerbread recipe. We pull out our cookie cutters for this one and decorate the cookies with festive colors.

Hope you enjoy the cookies!



Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies are a tradition in our family. We make our Christmas Gingerbread House out of this recipe on Thanksgiving weekend. To stiffen the dough for the Gingerbread house, add half a cup more flour to the recipe. Also, bake it a bit longer, maybe 5 or 6 minutes more, as you would not want it too soft. We cool the house pieces and then assemble it with Royal Glaze- which is NOT a healthy food to eat! You can find a Royal Glaze recipe on line or in the Joy of Cooking.


Preheat oven to 305 degrees.
Makes 3-4 dozen

2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
2 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or Gluten Free Flour Mix

1/4 cup Organic unsalted butter
1/3 cup Organic Black Strap Molasses
2/3 cup Date Sugar
OR
1 cup Rapidura or Sucanat
1 fresh egg
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger

Mix dry ingredients, flour, sea salt and baking soda. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sweeteners. Add the egg and spices.
Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients so that the dough is thick and smooth.
Drop one teaspoon of dough onto greased cookie sheet and gently press the dough into a circular shape. OR
(Optional) Refrigerate dough for an hour if you are going to use cookie cutters.

Bake for 7-9 minutes at 350 degrees. Let them cool a bit before removing them from the pan.

So Hungry for ....

Hungry? I seem to be looking for food that will satisfy the need to feel fed.

It is different in the Fall than in the summer. In the Summer I enjoy the fresh juicy plums fuzzy peaches, luscious strawberries, fresh salads and light dinners with lots of cool drinks. When Fall comes I pull out the crock pot and cook up stews, hearty soups with beans and more satisfying grain dishes.

It is supposed to be Fall. The nights are cool, 45 degrees or so, but the days feel like Summer. If you went into my garden you would wonder what season it was. Carrots, onions, lettuce, greens, spinach, broccoli peas, gooseberries,raspberries and strawberries (I had the best one of the season last Saturday!) are happily growing in the warm sun.

So yes dinner was a lovely bean soup, freshly baked cornbread, cranberry sauce, Bok Choy with carrot stir fry, steamed beets,and a green salad; but part of me wondered if just the green salad and a vegetable quinoa dish might have been enough.

Mostly though I am hungry for RAIN. Let's all do a little rain dance tonight.


Here's an inspiring recipe for Fall, it is full of flavor, color and health:


Cran-Gojiberry Sauce


¾ cup Apple Juice, White Grape Juice is nice too.
Juice of one orange
½ cup Gojiberries

4 cups, about 14 ounces, Cranberries, washed and sorted
1 medium apple, Gala, or Fuji are nice, peeled and grated
Zest of one orange

¼ cup Honey


Soak the Goji berries in the juices in a sauce pan.

Sort and clean the cranberries.
Place them in the sauce pan with the Goji berries.
Add the grated apples, agave, and orange zest.

Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils.
Stir frequently to prevent the cranberries from burning.
Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat.
Simmer for 6 minutes or until all the cranberries have popped. Remember to use a long handled spoon as when the cranberries pop they sometimes throw off juices that can burn you if you are too close.

Take the sauce off the heat, stir for a few minutes until it is cool enough to place in a blender.
Carefully blend ½ the sauce for a few seconds, you are looking for a smooth consistency, pour into a bowl. Then blend the other half until it is smooth.

Note: I have made this without a blender and left the berries whole. It was equally good.

If you like you may return the Cran-Gojiberry sauce to the saucepan and simmer on a low heat to thicken it, about 2-4 minutes. However it will firm a bit when it cools.

Pour into a glass serving dish, serve warm or cold.

Resounding Connections

I remember when my children were born the midwife suggested I lay them over my heart so that their hearts would resonate with mine. I thought it was a sweet idea. In truth the heart of a newborn will come into resonance with the heart of the mother, helping to regulate their tiny body’s functions. Resonance can be a subtle and powerful reminder of our connection to life. I have found this to be true in many unexpected places.

This morning while walking through my veggie garden I was struck by the silence and the sweet aromas of the garden. I wasn’t stressing or thinking of what I needed to accomplish, just being there with the plants, rain, silence, and sweet smells. In that moment I experienced the peace that was so fully there. Joy overcame me as I felt a part of the garden, a part of Life.

When I work in the garden, watching seedlings become mature plants offering their fruits for our plates, I am humbled. And when I create a meal with the harvest I recall the plant’s life. The meal seems tastier, richer, healthier, and full of vivid memories and appreciation. Sharing the meal with others is the icing on the cake.

Nourishing Blessings!

JoEllen