TIME OUT!

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone for your comments and notes about my last post. It was my first really personal post and I was feeling a little shy about it. The immediate outpouring of positive responses was so encouraging and much appreciated. Please keep letting me know what you enjoy reading about!

So I had this long and nuanced post planned for this week about how stress correlates to illness and about how to seek balance in our lives and about seasonality and a few other things. Finally I realized I had written an overly verbose version of something quite simple that I want to say.

Here it is: I AM CALLING A TIME OUT.

I'm calling it for me and I'm calling it for you because chances are, you aren't calling it for yourself. It's a time out from To-Do Lists, from emails, from chores, and most importantly, from anything that involves the phrase "I should". We spend so much time running around trying to maximize our efficiency, and no matter how productive we are there is still this mounting pressure to do more, do better, and do it faster. Well not right now.

Right now it's tea time. 

Pull out your favorite mug, sit down and put your feet up. Maybe read a book, or better yet, do nothing more than admire your wool-clad toes and let the tea and the time do their work. You deserve it. I know you do.

Masala Chai

I won't bother to write a recipe here because I barely adapted it at all from one of my favorite blogs, Yummy Supper. I used almond milk, upped the amount of cardamom because I love it, and decided not to sweeten the tea but to add a little rose water which I find particularly calming when I am out of sorts.

I chose Masala Chai because when I traveled in India with my friend Rachel it was this sweet, milky, hot beverage that got us through each day. It revived us after 36 hour train rides, unnerving interactions on the street, the confusion of Indian bureaucracy and the general nerve-fraying experiences of traveling in a country that big, that crowded, and that stimulating (and thus draining).

Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper and star anise all have a mild stimulant effect which is at once comforting and rejuvenating. These spices warm the body, aid digestion, and help restore sharpness and focus to a fatigued mind.

End of Summer Lasagna (no noodles): Zucchini Trilogy Part 3

Apologies for the delayed post. For whatever reason, this post about the medium sized zucchini was the hardest for me to decide on. I flipped through every cookbook I have and went into the archives of several blogs looking for inspiration. I considered making this inventive cobbler which I am still going to try, and I also considered some iteration of this but I have yet to buy a spiral slicer (next on my "to buy" list for the kitchen). I settled on pasta-less lasagna. The mornings and evenings have turned cold here and I find myself less drawn to chilled soups and salads for dinner. I want hot food but I still don't want the heavier pastas and stews of winter. This lasagna, using slabs of zucchini and eggplant in place of the noodles is a nice middle ground--hot, comforting, gooey with cheese but light and fresh and full of the summer garden harvest. I didn't include a recipe for the pesto here because I never really measure when I make it. Basically I throw salt, a clove or two of garlic, a raw nut of my choosing (walnuts this time) and big handfuls of herbs (basil & lemon balm in equal measure) into the food processor, hit "on", and pour good olive oil into the feed tube until I get the texture I want. From there I salt, pepper, and re-herb as needed. It requires, as most cooking does, the happy job of multiple taste tests.

Noodle-less Zucchini & Eggplant Lasagna

2 medium sized zucchini

1 medium eggplant

10-15oz whole milk ricotta

1 egg

zest of one lemon

parsley, thyme, oregano, mint or any other fresh herb you have on hand

red pepper flakes

pesto

olive oil

mozzarella and/or parmesan to top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the zucchini & eggplant lengthwise into 1/8-inch thick slices. Arrange in a single layer on your counter, cutting board or a sheet tray and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt.

In a bowl mix ricotta, lemon zest, egg, and chopped parsley, mint, oregano & thyme (or other herbs), and red pepper flakes until well combined. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly oil a lasagna pan and cover with a single layer of zucchini. Top the zucchini with a generous layer of the ricotta mixture.

Cover  the ricotta with a single layer of eggplant. Top the eggplant with a generous layer of pesto. Repeat the layering steps alternating zucchini, ricotta, eggplant, pesto until you reach just below the lip of the pan.

Sprinkle grated mozzarella and/or parmesan over the top and cover the pan with foil making sure the foil is not resting directly on top of the cheese.

Bake covered for 25-30 minutes. Uncover the lasagna and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and brown. Zucchini and eggplant should be fully cooked but, in my opinion, still a bit firm.

Let rest uncovered for 10 minutes, slice, share, enjoy.

Health benefits of lemon balm & basil

Lemon Balm
Lemon balm is antibacterial and has been used topically to dress and heal wounds for centuries. When ingested it is said to help with digestion, relieve nausea, and help with troubles of the liver, spleen, kidneys and bladder.

Basil
Basil is a member of the mint family. It helps stimulate appetite and digestion and it is a tonic for frazzled nerves. It is a natural breath freshener and can help counteract flatulence, constipation, nausea, and stomach cramps. It is a mild antibacterial and anti fungal so the leaves can be used topically to alleviate itching skin and insect bites.

Bonus: They are both delicious!!!

Rosemary Tea, Beating the Summer Blues

I wrote off Rosemary long ago. As a culinary herb I always thought of it as overpowering and old fashioned. I associated it with mediocre restaurant potatoes in all their forms: gluey, under-salted and mashed; dry, under-salted and roasted; boiled, under-salted and swimming in a floury, rosemary-flecked "au jus". Even in its fresh form in neat, rail straight, supermarket bundles it never appealed.

Then I moved from Maine to northern California and so began my romance with rosemary. The bush grows everywhere here, in gnarled unkempt hedges, weaving under and around whatever else dares to plant roots near by, and in thick orderly rows in front yards and back yards. I have fallen in love with the plant and its intoxicating scent, its purple blooms in the late winter, and its hardiness, its persistence and presence in all of the "seasons" we experience here.

I was delighted, then, to discover while reading the amazing book Whole Foods Companion, that rosemary is one of the most powerful medicinal herbs you can find. Most notably, it is said to alleviate depression, generally improve mood, and eliminate negativity of all kinds. I mean, who can't use a little negativity elimination from time to time? I love summer. But as the heat cranks up in wine country, so do the crowds of tourists, so do the social demands, and so do the work hours. So while it may seem counterintuitive to get seasonal blues when the sun is out and the tan is on, I have been finding myself in need of a little extra pick me up, a little positivity, and something to cool and to bolster.

                        

Rosemary plants for sale outside of the Green String Farmstand

Rosemary tea is easy to make. Put a few sprigs in a covered glass jar and leave it out in the sun all day, or throw the herb into a pot of just boiled water, let it steep, and drink up. Lately, as the temperature creeps up above 100 degrees here, I have been brewing it strong, storing it in large bottles in the fridge, and drinking it over ice with some fresh mint muddled in the bottom.

Other Benefits of Rosemary
-Stimulates memory, helps overcome mental fatigue & opens the conscious mind
-Improves liver & gall function
-Improves circulation
-Strengthens & tones the stomach muscles
-Can be used topically to help with skin conditions or in a bath to speed recovery of slow healing wounds
-The tea can be used as a hair wash to stimulate growth, detangle, and treat dandruff

Iced Rosemary Tea (stove brew) 

makes 4 servings (you can drink this all day long for ongoing benefits) 

3 or 4 good size sprigs of fresh rosemary, rinsed

4 cups of water

fresh mint (optional)

honey or light agave to sweeten (optional)

Bring 4 cups of water to boil. Turn water off, add rosemary sprigs, cover and let steep at least 10 minutes. The longer you steep, the greater the medicinal value as more essential oil transfers from the leaves into the tea. * Drink hot or chill in a glass or metal bottle in the fridge. Bruise, tear or muddle the mint leaves and drop in the bottom of glass. Add ice and sweetener if desired, pour chilled tea into glass and drink up!

*note: the stronger the tea gets, the pinker it becomes. It will take on a more medicinal taste as it gets stronger but it can always be diluted with cold or hot water, lemon juice, soda water, or another herbal tea.

Source for claims on medicinal uses and benefits of rosemary:
Onstad, Dianne. Whole Foods Companion. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004. Originally printed in 1992.