cherishing me

is the hardest thing to do sometimes. It's much easier to direct this word "cherish" at my family members, and at time in general. Cherish the moments. Cherish my children. Cherish my husband.

But I want to start the year with cherishing me. Which sounds really selfish to my ears, but oh well. This expression exactly fits what goes on at our house: when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So I know I have to cherish myself, look after myself, or I'm no good to anybody else. But I often forget.

a cherished Christmas gift: a friend made me this wheat bag with my word for 2012 sewn on.
Amazing, eh?

My birthday happened to come along this week, so I always get to kick-start the new year with New Year's goals and with reflecting on a new age. They go hand in hand.

So here are some ways I cherished me on my birthday:

* bought and ate a pain au chocolat. Mmmm. Memories of France.

how do I love thee...

* bought Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, a book I've wanted to read for over a year.
* read for 1/2 hour.
* made myself a chocolate hazelnut torte for my birthday. Ate some of it.
* bought 5 canoli to eat at supper. Ate one.
* saw my sister, niece, and a good friend.
* had 2 lovely hours to myself. Enjoyed.
* phoned my husband to ask him to buy me a chai latte.
* drank my chai latte as I watched my daughters swim and felt so proud.
* roasted a chicken, stuffed with orange slices, garlic, parsley, butter, and onions. Ate some.

* laughed a lot with my family during the meal.

* had Shegofa make henna designs all over my left hand.

* got a great romantic comedy ("Something Borrowed") from the library. Watched it and laughed.

So from this list, this is what "cherishing me" meant yesterday: eating mostly chocolate themed foods; buying and reading a book; having some solo time; having someone lavish my hand with henna; spending time with people I love; having some downtime to watch a movie.

How do you cherish you?

P.S. Here's my absolute favourite cake recipe. It's easy and light and delicious and chocolate.

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

Place these ingredients in the blender:

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
Then add 1 cup hazelnuts and blend well.
Add 2 T flour and 2.5 tsp baking powder. Mix well.

Divide batter between two greased 8 inch round cake pans (about 350ml of batter in each pan). Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.

While you're waiting, place these ingredients in the blender:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp instant coffee
1.5 cups whipping cream
Blend until thickened. Cut each cake layer in half horizontally (it's a bit difficult - use a serrated knife - but it's well worth the effort when you have 4 layers of chocolatey goodness). Spread the cream mixture between each layer and ice the whole cake. (I've sometimes had to make a bit more cream icing to cover the entire cake).

Enjoy!

the purge before Christmas (and jam-jams!)

Today I went around my house, throwing out sugar. It feels like the day before Lent instead of the days before Christmas. I recall feeling this way every year around this time - even before the big day (25th) rolls around, I'm all sugared-out. I declared a free-for-all on the gingerbread house, just because I'm sick of looking at it every day. I can feel the cavities growing in my teeth by the minute. Visions of fruit and vegetables and plain old water are dancing in my head.

I was out looking for a candy cane - to fulfill my daughter's wish. Do you know how hard it was to find a plain old candy cane? I couldn't believe it. I finally found one - but not just one, a whole box of cherry flavoured ones. They'll have to do.

But there are many sweets I look forward to. And none of them have raisins or dried fruit of any kind or marishino cherries in them. That's just how picky I am.

My favourite cookie that my Grandma Horst used to make every year are Jam-Jams. I made these last night with my daughter. Just the smell and taste of the dough brings back memories - so much that I had tears in my eyes, missing my grandma. I love traditional foods like this that link us to people and the past. Here's a plate of goodies that represents our household right now: some jam-jams (from my Swiss Mennonite background), some pfeffernusse (from Derek's Russian Mennonite background), and some Afghan baklava (from Shegofa's Afghan background). There we are - right on a dinner plate. And our young daughters get to share them all.

I'm going to share my jam-jam recipe with you - I'm sure you have nothing else to do today except make some more Christmas cookies - you probably don't have enough sugar in the house right now either. I'm sharing it because I don't know how many years in a row I've had to call my mom for this recipe. I seem to misplace it after every Christmas. If I record it here, I'll know where it is for next year (hopefully).

Jam Jams

1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature (or, if you dare, substitute that shortening and butter with a cup of lard)
1 cup brown sugar
6 T molasses
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
raspberry jam or apple butter

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Blend butter, shortening, and sugars. Add molasses, vanilla and eggs and blend well.
3. Add flours sifted with baking soda and mix.
4. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes. (my favourite shape is the sun-type one) Use a thimble to make holes in half of the cookies (those will be the tops of the cookie sandwiches).
5. Bake on greased baking sheet for about 6 minutes. Keep an eye on them - they can overbake very easily!
6. While they're warm, sandwich them together with jam or apple butter. They are soft and keep well.

[adapted from Edna Staebler's Food that Really Schmecks]

What are your favourite treats this time of year? 


Do you have traditional foods that you look forward to? 

Friday fondue

We have created a little tradition at our house over the past few years: to have a "first week fondue" to celebrate the end of the first week of school. But really, any Friday is cause for celebration. And cause for fun,  French-inspired foods.

We have a cheese fondue, followed by a chocolate one. Chocolate is the favourite, hands down.

Our fondue recipes are embarrassingly simple (and might just make a few frenchmen/women squirm). 

Cheese fondue: buy a pre-made fondue package from the cheese deli (we like the Presidents' Choice one  at Zehr's - we also bought these often in France). There are lots of great recipes from scratch, I'm sure, but we like the taste of this kind. Melt it down. Eat with cubes of cut up baguette and pickles on the side. Some sliced meat, pickled onions, and olives too if you're really feeling fancy. 

Chocolate fondue: Get a humongous chocolate bar (we like the Presidents' Choice one at Zehr's - 300 g bar). I use a whole milk chocolate bar and half of an extra dark one. Break it in chunks and melt it on low in a pot on the stove. When it's all melted down, it's not creamy enough for me, so I just add some milk - maybe 1/4 cup - maybe more, but add a little at first and then add more if you need to. The chocolate kind of curdles or something at this step, but just use a whisk and keep stirring it, and adding a little more milk if needed and it should come out nice and smooth. Then dip whatever fruits you like! We like to dip pretzels too.

Happy weekend to you! First on my list this weekend: rest.

I'm a snob

There are certain things I'm realizing I can be very snobby about (my husband helps me come to these realizations, bless his heart).

1. maple syrup. I can not, for the life of me, understand why anyone would want to buy anything other than REAL maple syrup. This comes from growing up with a maple bush in our back 40 and having my parents boil the sap each spring to make our own syrup. My husband Derek: he'd be fine with Aunt Jemima's any day.

2. pickles. I can not, for the life of me, understand why anyone would want to buy pickles. Aren't these something that you make, like with your grandmother's recipe? I made small sweet dill pickles yesterday. Derek informed me that they're not his favourite. His favourite? Store-bought huge dill pickles - the very sour kind.

Sweet Dill Gerkins

Pickling syrup:

¾ cup water

1 cup vinegar

¾ cup sugar

1 t pickling spice

¼ t turmeric

In each jar:

dill sprigs

garlic cloves (one per jar)

alum

If you have a ½ bushel of cucumbers, multiply the above syrup recipe by 6.

Wash cucumbers well and clip of the ends. Place them in a bowl, covered in water, and sprinkle several tablespoons of pickling salt on top. Salt cucumbers overnight.

Heat syrup ingredients until boiling. Turn down heat to medium; heat cucumbers in syrup ‘til colour changes. Take out the pickles with a slotted spoon so that you can keep using the syrup to heat more cucumbers.

Put one clove of garlic and a sprig of dill in each sterilized jar. Add pickles. Pack tight to fit as many as you can in the jar. Add hot pickling syrup to jars until ¼” from top of jar. Sprinkle a bit of alum on the top to keep pickles crisp. Put lids on top. Process in canner for 10 minutes.

My 1/2 bushel of cucumbers made 20 jars of pickles - enough for one year.

3. jam/jelly. Do people really buy this in a store, and not just make it themselves from their backyard berries? Yes. Derek included.

4. pencil cases. An American friend informed me that they don't use pencil cases south of the border - can you imagine? Most of my pencil cases growing up were handmade - sewn by my mom. And I loved them. So I sewed a pencil case for my daughter last year - she picked the fabric. It turned out a bit small. Note to self: measure it against some long unsharpened pencil crayons (called "colored pencils" in the USA) before cutting and sewing. Apparently, through the course of the year, some friends and her art teacher commented that it was a small pencil case, so we're in the market for a new one before school starts. I found a plastic BOUGHT one that I'm not using much, and offered it to her because I wasn't sure about taking on a sewing project this week, even a tiny one like a pencil case. She was quite excited. But it pains me just a tiny bit to think of this impersonal case going to school. Homemade signifies loving care to me - to open and close something every day at school and remember home... what could be better?

last year's homemade case beside this year's plastic one

There are probably more things I'm snobby about, and maybe when Derek reads this about 2 months from now he can add to this list.

lunch box ideas

Well, in exactly one week from this moment, I'll be busy packing lunches and urging kids on so that we're not late for the first day of school.

I started thinking about school lunches about a week ago. It's not my favourite thing to do - make lunches - but I always start September with a good attitude and some new ideas. So I'm trolling for lunch box treasures - tried and true, and new and inspiring.

Here's my list of tried and true lunchbox ideas (for daughter #1; we'll see what daughter #2 includes on her tried and true list this year):

* hummus and pita
* pasta with pesto in a thermos
* pancake, cut up, in a thermos with a side of maple syrup (in a container that's sealed in a ziploc bag just in case)
* salmon, tuna, or soy butter sandwiches
* hard-boiled eggs
* olives
* pickles
* fruit, sometimes cut up, or berries
* cut up veggies and dip
* granola bars
* banana bread
* leftover chicken noodle soup in a thermos with baguette to dip
* hot chocolate in a thermos (so good on a cold day :)
* mini muffins
* tortilla wraps - lots of options (banana/soy butter; chicken; salmon)
* nachos, sour cream, and salsa
* Baby Bel cheese
* yogurt

Here are some I want to try:

* French toast strips
* granola + yogurt + fruit (all in separate mini containers)
* grilled chicken strips with dipping sauce (honey-mustard or bbq)

With my kids, it's all about packing a bunch of little things. That's why I love these Bento lunch box ideas, inspired by the Japanese tradition. They look super cute, but I'm not sure how many mornings I'll have the patience to make their lunch boxes look like artistic masterpieces.

This is the closest I got one day last year, with this sad-looking mangled kiwi monkey and beat-up pear dog.

I drew inspiration from these books: One Lonely Seahorse, How Are You Peeling?, and Food For Thought, all by Saxton Freymann. Brilliant.

I'd love to hear your lunch ideas. What has worked for you?

free food

Is there anything better than free food? Or food that you've foraged from your parents' gardens?

Here are my free fun food escapades for the week:

1. Raspberry Rosemary Red Currant Jelly

I used this recipe and added some raspberries and rosemary. Free, except for the white sugar and pectin.

raspberries

red currants

picking red currants

raspberry red currant juice

done!

2. Applesauce    Apples + water = pretty much free

currant bushes, corn fields and apple trees

mashing up the cooked apples into applesauce

What free foods do you forage for?

rain down lemons

When life gives me lemons, I look to my kids for inspiration. For the wisdom to dance in the rain.

catching raindrops on her tongue
 - the rain has FINALLY come!

The above photo was taken in Cinque Terre, Italy, in the spring of 2010. Our hopes of hiking from charming seaside village to village were dashed with relentless rain that lasted most of the day. We were sopping wet, waiting at the train station to go back to our house. And the adults in the bunch were more than a little disappointed. But Eden found such joy, even while soaked, in catching the raindrops in her mouth and dancing around. She knew the secret of dancing in the rain.

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. . . 
it is about learning to dance in the rain."  

~ Author unknown

Speaking of lemons, here's a great lemonade recipe:

Sun Tea (part 1)

3 black tea bags

1 mint tea bag

large glass bowl or jar

8-10 cups of water

1. Pour water into glass bowl/jar.

2. Drop in tea bags.

3. Cover.

4. Place in the sun for at least 3 hours until golden reddish-brown in colour.

Lemonade (part 2)

2 lemons, sliced

1 orange, sliced

3/4 cup sugar

1. Slice lemons and orange.

2. Place in large juice pitcher.

3. Scoop out sugar and pour over fruit.

4. Mash together until syrupy.

5. Add ice cubes.

6. Fill jug with water.

7. Refrigerate until sun tea is ready.

Refreshment time (part 3)

1. Add 1/4 cup sugar to sun tea. Stir until dissolved.

2. Pour equal parts sun tea and lemonade into a glass.

3. Add a few ice cubes and fresh mint. Enjoy!

One of my favourite songs right now is "Storm Comin'" by The Wailin' Jennys. There is no interesting video to watch here, just the music to listen to:

storm coming across Lake Nipissing

Happy weekend! We're off to camp (where my husband and I met and worked as counselors) for a long weekend. I'll be back here on Wednesday, August (!) 3rd, all going well. May you embrace the storms (and sun) that come your way.

treasuring summer

One way that I treasure summer is by eating it. I love the heat of summer (especially when I'm near water), but I'm not a big fan of a hot house. So I'm looking for cool cooking ideas. If you have any to share in the comment space below, I'm all ears.

Here's a little recipe I devised the other week in order to eat some ripe mangoes and not heat up the kitchen. For this recipe, you don't need to heat anything except the water to make the couscous. Boil a cup of water and put it in a bowl with the 1 cup of couscous; cover with a plate for 5 minutes. Cut up the rest of the stuff while you're waiting. Uncover the couscous and toss it with a fork to let it cool off a bit before adding the other ingredients and tossing it with the dressing.

Mango Couscous Salad

1 cup couscous, raw (or use 2 cups cooked rice or quinoa)
2 cups chicken chunks, already cooked (sub in tofu)
1 tomato, chopped
2 mangoes, chopped (sub in peaches or apricots)
chopped up mint, green onion, cilantro to taste
feta or bocconcini cheese - top with this (optional)

Dressing:
1 1/2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. maple syrup (optional but really yummy)
1/2 t. sesame seed oil

1 T. canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

Fresh Spring Rolls

We brought these camping last year because they were so easy and good. We just put a bit of warm water on a plate, let the rice wrap sit in the water for maybe a minute or so until softened, then move it to another place to stuff it with your choice of fillings, then wrap up the sides and ends, dip, and eat!

Rice paper wraps (we can get them at our grocery store with about 50 in a pack)
Warm water on a plate

Filling ideas:

• vermicelli noodles, cooked
• shredded lettuce
• carrots, thinly sliced
• tofu or chicken or beef or pork slices or shrimp
• hoisin sauce mixed with sugar (for dipping)
• sprouts
• fresh basil, cilantro, and mint
• cucumber, thinly sliced
• mango, thinly sliced

Hoisin dipping sauce:

1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 T. peanut butter
peanuts, chopped

And speaking of ideas, I'm looking for ways that our little family can have a small summer solstice fiesta, nothing big, nothing fancy - just some simple ways to celebrate things summery. I like to treasure and welcome each season. The summer solstice was officially June 21 (yesterday) this year, but I'm sure summer won't mind if we wait a few days before properly celebrating. Here's what I have so far: something that involves sun + water + fire.

Happy summer to you!

rhubarb bubble tea and other spring flings

We made this rhubarb soda recipe with a little twist: we added tapioca, took away some of the sugar, and added a bit of maple syrup. Bubble tea with tapioca is a treat for all members of our family. We love how the tapioca comes shooting up the huge straws.

So this was a perfect spring time beverage. Sugar + spring + tapioca. Genius, eh?

I've never declared a season to be my favourite, but this year I'll have to say that I'm just LOVING spring. And it may just be my favourite season. I'm noticing all of the little changes - through photos and through my daughters. And I'm grateful.

But like my daughters' growth, I want to freeze spring - the baby bunnies, the just-new plants, the fragrant blossoms on trees, the first flowers. But it's all just tumbling out now, racing into summer.

Each day I'm trying to do something to slow spring down. To eat outside (when it's not raining). To walk. To notice the swirly snail-trails on the sidewalk. To watch a bird carry a worm to its nest. To hold wriggling worms in garden gloves. To take a photo. To touch the feathery flower petals. To close my eyes and inhale lily-of-the-valley or lilac or apple blossoms again and again and again. 

gathering dandelions

trilliums

sweet magnolias

robin after the rain

a nest of baby bunnies in my sister's backyard
could anything be cuter?

sugar + spring

What do you get when you blend sugar + spring? Yummy goodness!

foraging along sidewalks

One day after school, we hunted along the sidewalk paths for violets and dandelions. We wanted to make spring flower jam and jelly and we decided on 2 recipes: violet jam and dandelion jelly. 

Violet Jam

I adapted this recipe to suit my low-maintenance purposes. Here's what I did:

3/4 cup to 1 cup loosely packed violet blossoms
1 cup water
3 T lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 package liquid pectin

Blend violets, 1/2 cup water, and lemon juice. Heat 1/2 cup water, cinnamon, honey, and sugar in a saucepan. When warm, add pectin and stir until mixed well. Add violet mixture, then bring to a boil. Stir constantly for about two minutes. Pour into prepared jars to set. Don't have to bother canning - just eat, refrigerate, or freeze. Eat with soft goat cheese or cream cheese on good crackers, like these ones. Makes  3-4 125 ml jars of jam.

Dandelion Jelly

4 cups whole dandelion flowers (not stems)
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sugar
3 oz / 85 ml liquid pectin
yellow food colouring (optional)

Pick open, yellow flowers, snipping off the stems. Collect about 4 cups whole dandelion flowers. Snip off the yellow parts into a bowl (you'll get a bit of green - that's ok). Pour 2 cups boiling water over the yellow snips and let it steep for 1 hour or overnight. Strain through a fine sieve or coffee filter, reserving the dandelion infusion. Pour the infusion into a large pot, then stir in lemon juice and sugar. Cook on high; bring to a full rolling boil. Add liquid pectin and continue to boil for 2 minutes. Skim any foam that rises to the surface. Add food colouring to make it look more yellow. I used 15 drops because 15 seemed like a nice number. Ladle quickly into prepared hot jars. Place warm lids and bands on before filling the next jar. Screw band on tightly, then flip jar upside down for 5 to 10 minutes to seal. If any jars don't seal, process them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, eat right away, or put in fridge or freezer. Makes 9 small 125 ml jars of goodness. Yummy on bagels.

Happy spring to you!

couscous and fiddleheads (embarrassing school lunches)

The other day I packed couscous  and fiddleheads in my daughter's lunch. I thought, "Perfect! Leftovers! She loved this last night at supper, so I'll just warm it up and put it in her thermos for lunch."

the offending lunch

Couscous and fiddleheads in a school lunch bag? How stupid could I be?

She sheepishly told me in the evening that she hadn't eaten it. She had opened the thermos at school, and a friend leaned over and said, "Yuck! Don't eat that!" and so she didn't.

So we talked about peer pressure (actually it was more like a lecture) and not letting others decide what we're going to say or do with our lives, and blah, blah, blah. And how you need energy for your school day, and the fiddleheads are rich in anti-oxidants and are special and only in season right now... Give me a break. As IF I would have eaten couscous and fiddleheads in my lunch when I was 7. There's no way.

How could I forget how school lunches - their contents and how they're packaged - can contribute to some sort of school social hierarchy? Egg salad sandwiches - always guaranteed some "yucks" in the room. Anything packaged and disposable - cool, unless it's the rice crackers that smell like shrimp that your mom bought at the Asian supermarket last week (sorry again, my dear daughter).

It's hard when you have weird parents. And I think that my parents are OK with me calling them "weird" because I've paid them the highest compliment - I've become a weird parent myself!

But as a kid - sometimes it's hard when you have weird parents.

As a kid, I wanted:

• a Strawberry Shortcake doll
• Barbie dolls
• Jos. Louis and Flaky snacks in my lunch
• sugar cereals
• leather Cougar boots
• a Ouija board
• Roots clothing
• earrings
• a swimming pool (outdoor or indoor, I didn't care)
• a tennis court
• parachute pants
• windbreakers
• stone-washed jeans
• to go to a Corey Hart concert when I was in Grade 8

I got:

• a Strawberry Shortcake doll
• a Cindy doll who was less voluptuous than Barbie
• the Sunshine family dolls (including Grandma, Grandpa, and baby)
• healthy snacks in my lunch like celery cars with carrot wheels (and peanut butter for the seats, and raisins for the people)
• Jos. Louis, Flakies, and sugared cereals only when Dad did the shopping
• look-alike Cougar boots
• lots of books
• clothes handmade by Mom
• earrings eventually but not soon enough
• a swimming hole back in the gravel pit when the water level was high enough every 7 years
• a moderate disdain for trendy things
• a good dose of the Protestant work ethic
• a belief that less is more
• a belief that I should waste not and want not
• the knowledge that my parents loved me, despite my lack of cool possessions.

So... I'm passing on what I know. Becoming a weird parent so that my kids can one day aspire to be the same. And I'm pretty sure a little writer will one day write about the horror of couscous and fiddleheads in her school lunch. At least I'm prepared.

Any memories of school lunches YOU'd like to share?

gathered 'round the food

Some of my favourite meals are ones that take place AROUND something. Like a campfire. Everyone prepares and cooks their own hotdogs, marshmallows, or tin foil dinners. Nothing like fire-cooked food on a warm summer day to make you feel content and ready for a long night of sleeping on the ground.

Other fun family foods have been fondue, raclette, crepes, and hot pot. Meals where we are sharing and preparing a meal around the table. We love how participatory they are, and how the meal can last for hours. Everyone gets their hands in there, and chooses items that they want to eat. We've enjoyed our raclette grill ever since receiving it as a wedding gift - yummy stinky cheese melted and scraped over boiled potatoes and grilled vegetables.

And I love its history - that cow herders would go up into the Swiss mountains with a block of cheese and a sack of potatoes. They would boil their potatoes over a fire, and scrape melted cheese on top. Yum.

Here's one of our favourite raclette recipes to try on a raclette grill (it's a mix of Mexico and Switzerland):

1 avocado, diced
1 tsp garlic, crushed
2 T lime juice
2 T fresh coriander, chopped
1/2 lb (250 g) cooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined
raclette cheese, thinly sliced


Toss first 4 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Grill shrimp in raclette trays. Top with avocado mixture and cheese. Broil until cheese has melted and shrimp are warm (about 5 minutes). Eat!

The idea of crepes as a social-type meal was a new one to us - at a friend's house in France, we made our own mini-crepes on a grill that had 6 little circular sections. We could add our own meat and cheese to make a savoury version, or just have sweet ones with jam, sugar, and Nutella.

Here is a shot from our Christmas hot pot experience at a restaurant in Markham:

around a Christmas hot pot

We were at a friend's birthday party the other night where her Spanish husband cooked up paella for the crowd. So yummy, and interesting to see how it was cooked up on a specially made paella gas burner outside. And I love the history of it: that it was traditionally made by workers in the fields, using whatever ingredients were available. The "bomba" rice is put into the pan in the shape of a cross, even by those who wouldn't consider themselves religious. It's a real social affair - right from the cooking to the eating.

These are my comfort foods - the meals that last forever, with the talking, laughing, and sharing that happens. And my kids? These are the meals they beg for - the special ones where guests are at the table, creating a meal and experience together.

In France, we started a fun tradition called "first week fondue" - a fondue to celebrate the end of the first week of school. We partake in both cheese and chocolate and are fully stuffed by the end. We roll up the stairs to bed, which is a hard thing to do.

around a cheese fondue

Here's our favourite chocolate fondue recipe:

1 really large quality Swiss chocolate bar (dark or milk chocolate)
a bit of milk

For some extra kick, try:

• a pinch of cayenne pepper
• a tsp ground allspice
• a tsp cinnamon
• 2-3 T dark rum or Grand Marnier
• whipping cream instead of milk

Break up the chocolate bar into smaller chunks. Slowly melt (on low) in a pot on the stove or in the microwave. Add a bit of milk (2 Tablespoons). Whisk it into the melted chocolate. Add a bit more milk if you want to thin out the chocolate a bit more. Eat with: strawberries, bananas, apples, kiwi, mangoes, star fruit, lychees, pineapples, blackberries, chunks of pound cake, pretzels, etc.

family rituals: seder supper

Last Thursday we celebrated a Seder supper with friends. Children and adults, joined around the table to hear stories of slavery and freedom and hope for the future.

And one of the youngest ones asks in Hebrew, "How is this night different from all other nights?"

It's a shared storytelling, with children asking questions and adults trying their best to answer. And the foods - symbolic tastes of hardship in the form of bitter horseradish, salty water like tears, and flat matza bread given no time to rise.

This is our 5th year celebrating this meal, and each year has been different and meaningful in its own way. Last year we celebrated a bilingual Seder in France. This is a tradition that has been held and encouraged by our children. After experiencing it once, our oldest daughter asked the next year, "Who will we celebrate the Seder with this year?"

We celebrate layers of story. Each year there are different freedoms on our minds. Each year people who are oppressed, not yet free. Each year the same story, but different. Remembering deliverance from oppression, remembering this meal that Jesus shared with his close friends, and remembering our hope for a new day when all will be free.

family rituals: egg cheese

My grandma taught me how to make egg cheese. I've made it almost every Easter since she died. It's one of my little silent promises to her that I'll keep some of her recipes alive, and pass them on to my own children.

The recipe is from my Swiss Mennonite tradition and it's made from 8 cups whole milk, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 tsp salt, and 6 eggs. Rich. I say a little prayer each time I make this recipe, hoping it will turn out and I will not burn the milk by stepping away and becoming distracted. I plant my feet in front of the stove and vow not to move. I'd rather not make a late-night grocery run for more whole milk.

It's a slow recipe. Lots of watching and waiting and slowly stirring from one side of the pot to the other. Then waiting some more. When the curds finally separate from the whey, I always count it a small miracle.

I can't resist trying just a small bowl with fresh maple syrup.

It's wrapped in cheesecloth and left to drip in the fridge overnight. On Easter morning, I peel back these white cloths and it reminds me of other white cloths empty of a body lying in an open tomb. A miracle.

Making these Easter foods over the past days has made me mindful of small miracles.

The miracle of:

• curds separating from whey,
• yeast rising into sweet bread,
• clear sap transformed to sweet golden syrup,
• white eggs becoming a rainbow,
• the sky with its setting sun its own dyed-egg-beauty.

If I can believe in these small miracles, could my mind be open to bigger ones?

Seed to plant
acorn to oak
all of these are small miracles
slow miracles
that take time,
inspire wonder
as I slow myself
to watch them unfold
and behold!!!

fast food: 5 minute mug of chocolate cake

We mostly try to do the slow food thing around here, but there are times when fast works really well. Like these 5 minute mugs of chocolate cake. What could be better?

Here's the recipe:

4 T all purpose flour

4 T sugar

2 T cocoa

1 egg

3 T milk

3 T oil

3 T chocolate chips 

a small splash of vanilla extract

1 large, microwave-safe mug

Add the first three ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (optional) and vanilla extract. Mix again. 

Place your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug. Cool the cake a little bit, then tip it out onto a plate. Share with a friend!

If you're feeling really adventurous, top with whipped cream or ice cream.

So easy, and so satisfying, and so fast. Yum!