Drink Your Greens!

In the summer, I lose my desire to cook yet I have a stronger yen to eat healthy. Go figure.
This is my latest concoction and everyone, kids included, are drinking it with breakfast. You can produce any number of variations on this by substituting whatever greens or fruits you have hanging around, but this is a good starting point. My directions are murky so adjust to your liking.

In a blender, put.....

The leafy part of 5 or 8 stems of kale...get rid of those tough stems.

Several cups of water. Enough to go halfway up the blender or more.

Whir these till you have lots of lovely green water. Whir some more.

Add 2 frozen bananas and a handful of frozen mango, or more. Whir till totally whirled.

Now drink and feel totally good about yourself for the rest of the day.

Confession:
I did not take the above picture of the green drink. It's pirated. :0! My drink is much more beautiful and is a brighter green and I always drink it out of a large mason jar because that's what my friend Tracy does and she is the picture of perfect health. Forgive me!

drum roll please

(for this post to make sense please read previous post)



I did it. I baked a near perfect loaf of whole wheat spelt bread. When the timer went off signaling it done, I LEAPED from the sofa and nearly turned an ankle skidding into the kitchen. I pulled my grandmother's dutch oven out of the oven with my two favorite hot mats and set it on the counter. I lifted the lid and there it sat. Beautiful. Perfectly round with a golden brown crust. I had, as usual, modified the recipe to suit myself and my one concern was that it was going to stick to the pan because I had failed to line it with parchment paper. It popped right out. It tasted as good as it looked. Oh my goodness.

Things are a changin' at the Patton house.

We need the outfits. Size 4 and 7.

Thankfully, I've had the pottery for years. Get yours here.

And it DOES feel more wholesome and definately tastes better.

Why did it take me 20 something years to bake this loaf of bread?

Plain and Simple, because of that damn book. One hundred and fifty seven pages of detailed mumbo jumbo on baking a damn loaf of bread. It says things like this....

"Preheating the bowl allows the baby bread dough to feel at home and warmly held."

I have little tolerance for that type of language.

The book is up for grabs to the first person who says that they want it in the comment section. FREE. Please!

My bread was so simple. No flowery language, no ambient temperature taking, no 'warm holding'. My friend Tracy gave it to me and she got it from our friend Carla who used to own the Absolut Bakery. It takes about 1o minutes plus rising and is said to be 'no fail'.

In a bowl mix 2T yeast with 2T honey and 1t salt. Add 2 cups water, stir and let yeast activate...about 10 min. Add 5 cups flour of choice and mix together. Knead on floured surface then put back in bowl and let rise for several hours. punch down pretty good and let rise again for an hour or so and bake in a dutch oven that has been preheated. 450 for 30 minutes. And voila! That's it!

Thank you Carla! Thank you Tracy!

therapy?

Long ago, before marriage and children, maybe just out of college, I'm not sure, I bought this book. As you can see, it's the bible for bread baking. The highest authority on the subject. It's not bright yellow as the picture above portrays. It's a ruddy, earthy tone of mustard. It reeks of hippie and I feel very earnest just looking at it. If you know me well, you know that travel and movement has been a big part of my life. I like to purge and travel light. I don't hang onto superfluous things. Somehow or another this book has remained in my cookbook collection despite the fact that I have never, not once, used it. Why do I still have it then? Why didn't I let it go at the yard sale in Athens or Port Townsend or Las Vegas or Jackson Hole or Bainbridge Island or Ann Arbor or Chicago or Mancos or Thomasville or....

Let me tell you.

Somewhere along the way, not sure where (or why) I put 'bread baking' on my list of IMPORTANT LIFE PRACTICES. Do you have that same list? You should. It makes an average, normal life a little more neurotic and exciting. I envisioned a certain completeness, a wholeness, if you will, to accompany my bread baking. If I were baking bread for my children we would be warmer, sturdier, our cheeks ruddier. With a hearty slice of warm bread on a pottery plate, slathered in fresh butter from a local dairy my children would be more apt to recite simple, but endearing poetry about birds in their woven nests or regale each other with tales anchored in ancient celtic lore. As we ate our crusty loaves at our hand hewn table we would be dressed simply but with classic flair. Lewis would wear this.
I would have to trim his mullet.

Della would wear this and we would all die of cuteness.

Max could wear anything because he has always looked like we just picked him up from a day of croquet on an expansive green lawn by a stone house on the craggy and windswept coast of Scotland.

See what I mean.

So has bread change our life, you ask? (and thanks for asking)

I wouldn't know.
I've never baked any.
Not a single rustic loaf.
Nada.
Nil.
Zilch.
28 (long) years of carrying the dream and the subsequent guilt associated with NOT BAKING BREAD....

But hold onto your hats. Because as I type. At this very moment. In southwest Colorado.
Downstairs in MY kitchen. Something is rising. It has a dough-like quality and a yeasty aroma.

Will you stay tuned for the final results?

Please do. I have so much vested in this.

sick child

Max, day before yesterday, when he was well, modeling a hat that he wants with all his heart!

Vacation was quite nice and I will post about it, I promise, but today everything takes a back seat to a sick child. Max is sick and has been since yesterday and he is fairly dramatic about it. When Lew is sick he becomes a quiet recluse...you have to really poke and prod him to get him to disclose his maladies, and generally, a ginger ale makes everything bearable. Not so with Max. He's a moaner. And God help us all when he's in pain. He keeps us posted on each and every ache and its level of tolerability. (my word, I believe) As in, "Mom, my head hurts so bad that I'm going to die." He tears up with every declaration. It rips my heart out and that's just what he's after.

But he is pretty darn sick. A fever of 103, upset stomach, and the afore mentioned headaches. He has no appetite and that's unusual. So out come the big guns. Movies,
ginger ale, butler trays, and my magical cure-all...ginger lemon soup. I'm posting the recipe for all the world to see, for the greater good of sick folks everywhere. It is healing and yummy and healthy and hearty all at once. It's the only thing mine eat when they are sick, and I am pompous enough to believe that it's what cures them. So here is the recipe, pioneer woman style, except without her beautiful photography and witty prose.


Here are the ingredients. Quite simple. The only thing missing is the basil, fresh or dried, take your pick. There are chili flakes in that little container. They are optional. I always opt for heat.

Now for the how-to. And truthfully, this is not my strong suit as I am not a recipe follower. I'm a dump and taste and guess kinda gal. So take from this what you will.

Get out your favorite pot and put it on the stove. Pour in one box of chicken stock, add a can of coconut milk, (NOT creme of coconut, that's for pina coladas when all are well and sitting on the beach in Maui) the juice of a lemon, about 2 inches of finely chopped fresh ginger, a cup or two of brown rice, some chili flakes, sea salt, and a handful of chopped fresh basil.

Heat and cook until rice is soft and serve.

The ginger is lovely for the tummy and it's creamy without containing dairy. It's tangy and flavorful yet easy to digest and the rice adds just the right heft. For more heft, add chicken and vegetables. This is the PERFECT soup for a woman who has just had her 3rd C-section, but that's another story.
Get well soon, baby!