Excerpt & Recipes

Creating your Kitchen Shrine

Plenty of delicious meals can be made from just a few ingredients. These are the basics of a healthy diet, and while they are delicious when cooked up in various combinations that are also refreshing and satisfying served on their own. When purchasing ingredients for recipes and spells, always keep in mind your connection to the things you are bringing into your life, and very likely your body. When you buy a banana, you are connecting yourself to the grocery store that stocked that banana, the truck and the driver that delivered the banana to the store, the plane or ship that carried that banana to the truck, another truck and driver in the land that grew that banana, the farm where the banana came from, the farmer the cared for the banana as it grew, and the family that farmers supports with his wage. Wow! What a banana, huh?

The other part of creating your kitchen shrine is the aesthetic of your kitchen. Keeping your kitchen clean and functional is part of that aesthetic. But more than that, it’s how you decorate and design your kitchen. Do you store your pots hanging from a rack, or in a cabinet? It all makes a difference in your personal kitchen shrine. Hang up a beautiful decorative tile, or display your fruit in a handmade bowl. Once in a while, buy your kitchen some flowers! She deserves it, and you want to keep her happy.


Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup

This is a great way to use up the small bits of tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag! This soup is a well-rounded meal unto itself. The pumpkin seeds provide protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Leftover chicken or turkey (think Thanksgiving leftovers!) goes great in this soup (add small pieces when you add the vegetables).

1 clove garlic
1 handful (or more) hulled raw pumpkin seeds
Olive oil

Chili powder and/or chili flakes
Cumin seeds or powder
Black pepper
Bouillon or broth or water
Tortilla chips

Summer:
1 large pepper (bell or other pepper, but too spicy)
2-3 zucchini or yellow summer squash, or 6-12 of the cute little bite-sized ones
1 ear fresh corn
1 large fresh tomato or several small fresh tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro

Winter:
dried peppers
1 medium or large winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc), peeled and cut into cubes
1 can of corn or about a cup of frozen corn from summer
1 can tomato paste or diced or crushed tomatoes
severable spoonfuls dried cilantro

To prepare:
Dice or cube vegetables.
Grind or crush chili flakes and cumin seeds, if using.

Heat some oil in large, heavy pot. When hot, throw in pumpkin seeds, chili powder/flakes, cumin, garlic clove, and black pepper. The pumpkin seeds will pop, and you should stir frequently. When most of them have popped, or when they begin to turn brown, add the fresh or dried pepper and squash. Stir every few minutes for about ten minutes. Add the fresh corn kernels or the whole can of corn (including liquid). Then add water or broth or water and bullion until the vegetables are just covered. Bring to a boil.

Dice tomatoes and cilantro while the water boils. Add cilantro, stir, and remove from heat. Serve hot with diced tomato, fresh cilantro, and crushed tortilla chips on top.

Tip: Don’t add salt while cooking the soup; the tortilla chips often make this soup quite salty (especially if you use the end of the bag). You can always add more salt later, but you can’t take it out! Also, watch out the for the garlic clove; if it’s a romantic dinner no one should eat it; if you’re sick, you should seek it out.


Versatile Oatmeal Cookies

This cookie recipe is incredibly versatile, yielding a pretty much infinite combination of cookie flavors by following the basic steps. Since it uses nut butter, you can alter the nut butter alone for variety of cookies: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Almond Oatmeal Cookies, Cashew Oatmeal Cookies, Sesame Oatmeal Cookies, etc. But when you get to the mixings, you can really have a hey-day! Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Raisin Almond Oatmeal Cookies, Cranberry Cashew Oatmeal Cookies, and so forth. (Chocolate Chip Raisin Peanut Butter Cookies… it’s endless!)

Mix together in a small bowl:
1/3 cup nut butter (peanut, cashew, almond, etc)
2 tablespoonfuls canola oil
1 cup sugar or other sweetener (if using liquid sweetener, use a little less milk)
1/3 cup milk or milk alternative (soy, almond, oat, etc)
Vanilla or almond extract, if desired

Sift or mix well in a large bowl:
1 cup flour (white or whole wheat or combination)
½ teaspoon baking soda (can substitute baking powder)
pinch of salt

Pour the liquid from the small bowl into the large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Mix in with a spoon:
1 cup oats (whole or rolled, not instant)

Finally mix in ½ to 1 cup (total) of any of the following, if desired (I’d stick to one or two):
Chocolate chips
Nuts (walnuts, sliced almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts, etc)
Raisins
Dried cranberries
Diced dried fruit

Spoon onto an oiled baking sheet, making approximately two dozen cookies. Bake for 8 minutes; do NOT overcook! Take them out after 8 minutes as the tops begin to crack, even if they don’t look quite done. Otherwise, they get very hard.

Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to wire rack or a plate.