The Empowered Lifestyle

Crisp, clear and oh so chilly end of Autumn nights are practically the perfect time to go outside during the Full Moon and find out the answer to any problem or concern. All you need to do is stand outside in full view of the moon (conversely, you can park yourself beside any wide window that will give you a clear shot) and stare at the moon for at least thirty seconds or so. Now, quickly, close your eyes and breathe in deeply, through the nose and out the mouth, three times. Fill your belly kind of breathing, blowing a slow wind sort of exhale. As you do this you will “see” the opposite image of the moon. It’s then that you ask for the answer that you are searching for. Don’t know how to tell someone that you love them? Ask the moon. Thinking about your next job and not quite sure what that will be? Ask the moon. Simply cannot cook one more dinner or come up with one more recipe idea? Ask the moon. And then follow that thought with some steamy delicious soup accompanied by some flaky luminous crescents, rolls that is.

This recipe is fairly cheesy though so let’s take a quick look at what holes in our lives can almost magically be filled by eating that dairy product. Cheese has actually been around for over 5000 years as proven by Cuneiform tablets found at both Babylonian and Sumerian architectural sites mention cheese as a food staple of that same time. Greek lore holds that Aristaeus, the son of the mega god Apollo, was the same soul who “gave” cheese to humans as sustenance but also as a magical means of creating personal power from within while also giving the body the ability to make dreams and goals come true.

Gain some personal power of your own while making this moon work for you and, as always, enjoy!

Full Moon Crescents
Serves 2 dozen

Ingredients
6 tablespoons salted butter
1 pint small curd cottage cheese
2 cups flour
½ cup grated romano cheese
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
Sea salt and white pepper to taste

Cream the butter, the cottage cheese and the salt in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and mix until well blended. Divide the dough into four flat balls and refrigerate for an hour and a half or until cold enough to roll. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease three baking sheets with Pam. On a floured sheet of wax paper, roll out one ball of dough at a time until approximately nine inches around in diameter. Sprinkle each round with 1 ½ tablespoons of the grated parmesan and the same amount of the grated romano. Cut each round into eight pie shaped wedges. Beginning with the wide end of each wedge, roll the dough towards the point. Place the wedges point side down on the prepared baking sheets.

Now, slightly shape into crescents. Sprinkle the tops lightly with the remaining grated cheese and dust with sea salt and white pepper. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Try to loosen from the baking sheets as soon as you remove from the oven and, if possible, place them on wire racks to cool.

Happy Birthday to K., same shout out, another day. For those just checking in for the Friday ‘Magically Delicious’ recipe and not following the last few days thread a quick recap: My best friend Kathleen is celebrating a very special birthday on Tuesday of next week. I have been mentioning this same celebratory event inside these posts during last few days and intend for today to be no different.

Now, I could say that the reason I am feting Kathleen is because she is so wonderful and her birthday so important that it’s worth a week long reach. OR I could say that once the mothership descends on her birthday I might have to phone home and then not be able to give the good greeting in case I have to go and pay a visit to dear old Mom. But, the real truth is that even though Kath is my best friend, year after year I get totally confused about what day her birthday is really on. I swear it’s like I have some K birthday block or something. Some years (like this one), I’m not sure if her birthday falls on the 9th and then there are years where I actually get it right on (as mentioned, the 14th.) So, killing two blogs with one post or something like that.

In honor of her gracing the planet, it’s Kath Takes The Cake Day with appropriate recipe to follow! But, first, a little bit about cakes. It seems that sweetened breads and cakes have always been somehow synergized with religion and even folk style magic. Just exploring the history of cakes was like a little trip through the history of the world! Babylonians baked cakes as a supreme offering to their gods and goddesses. Cakes that looked like the gods or the planets or any other symbolic image were common to every culture in the world. The Greek goddess Artemis was the first female to be offered a round cake upon which burning candles were placed in order to garner and gain her attention from the heavens (thereby beginning a tradition that exists to this day!)

In fact, offering a birthday cake to a celebrant started with these religious or traditional offerings as a way to ensure that the birthday boy or girl would have only great fortunes and tremendously good luck all during the next year of their lives. These cakes are said to be directly related to astrology as the circle of the cake symbolizes the Sun, or in what position the Sun was in when the birthday-er was born. In fact, way back when, small candles were placed atop a cake in the configuration of the celebrant’s astrological sign. Created from what are still considered sacred foods (such as eggs and grains) cakes are intricately linked with energies associated with the divine.

Writing on birthday cakes involves allowing the celebrant to eat only positive words that will magically transfer their invocations. Blowing out the candles and making a wish have obvious implications but did you know that the color of the candles is important as well? White candles are used for purification and protection, pink for love, red for sizzle and sex, blue for heavenly peace and purple for healing. Green candles are used for money while yellow are used to represent clarity and orange for uplifting and enthusiastic energies.

Round cakes speak to spirit while square or rectangular ones have a synergy with abundance, money and wealth. If you are actually baking the cake for a loved one, make sure to pour as much of your own love and good wishes into the batter as you do the sugar and the butter. Add to that the following two magical ingredients and the end result is really something saweeeeeet!

(In this case both the almonds and the apricots will magically imbue the cake. Almonds are believed to bring money into your life. They are widely known to speed healing as well as bring on great health and have a little lucky lore attached that says if you eat five almonds before drinking you won’t get a hangover! And apricots, eaten in any form or manner are said to bring both love, of the gooey and delicious kind and peace to any recipe they grace!)

Honoring A Special Birthday Cake
Serves 12

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons dark rum
2/3 cup finely chopped almonds
½ cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
21 whole almonds
¾ cup premade buttercream frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 and then generously grease three 8 inch round cake pans. You might also line the pans with wax paper in order to remove the cake easier and in one piece. Mix together the eggs and the sugar in a double boiler over a low flame. Beat until three times the original size and keep slightly warmed. Remove from heat and mix in the flour, the butter and the vanilla. Divide the batter evenly among the three pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a fork tine comes out clean. Remove the pans and allow to cool.

Mix together the apricot preserves and the rum. Fold the chopped almonds into the whipped cream mixture. Spread one of the cakes with half of the preserves and then spread half of the whipped cream atop the preserves. Cover with another cake. Repeat this process and then ice the top cake with the buttercream frosting. Decorate around the edge of the top cake with the whole almonds and serve.

So, another misogynistic legend regarding the artichoke says that originally this veggie was a stunningly beautiful woman but that some stupid and jealous god was so threatened by her breathtaking beauty that he turned her into an artichoke. Oh those silly men gods!

We do know that the artichoke hails from the Mediterranean and also in the Canary Islands. It was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome whereupon Mario Battali’s ancestors preserved it in vinegar or brine. A delicious delight when breaded and oiled, this plant is considered to be highly protective in nature as well as can be eaten to help efforts at shedding weight. When paired with garlic and bay leaves, this vegetable renders the evil eye powerless over you and keeps you surrounded by a bright and golden angelic light. Take that jealous man gods!

‘Choke Hold
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin (take that jealous man gods!) olive oil
3 large cloves fresh garlic
¼ cup fresh shaved parmesan cheese
2 bay leaves split in half
3 cups Jerusalem artichokes, washed and cut into ½ slices
Sea salt and white pepper to taste

Add olive oil, garlic and bay to a 9 inch square pan or casserole. Toss the chokes in the pan and coat them in the oil. Now add enough water to not only cover the bottom of the pan but to come about ¼ inch up the side. Sprinkle liberally with the Sea salt and the pepper.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and cover and cook the chokes for 15 minutes. Remove the cover and gingerly toss the chokes. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes, tossing every five minutes or so. The last five minutes sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Serve hot and crispy. Simply stunning and beautiful! Take that jealous man gods!

Inside these posts I have sometimes waxed almost a little too poetic about my child-like childhoods spent growing and growing in a splendidly bucolic part of Northern New Jersey called The Caldwells. As I sit here this morning, I tried to think of what sort of special wonders Mother Nature had to offer us as edible treats back then, at end-August, as those waning days of summer when navy blue and white plaid skirted uniforms and nerves were tried on equally before the creeping up fast start of another school year settled in for good. And, once again, I found that I wanted to write about our lovely and good gracious gardening next door neighbor, Jean Sellars, who, in those pre-teen days, always invited me to learn how to grow delicious delights right out of the yard. (Just an FYI..to this day I can’t even cultivate a tiny tomato plant…oh well.)

Anyway, it was in August that Jean would take tongs and basket and head to the way back of her garden, the part that met up with the woods that hugged all of our backyards in those days, the same ones that beckoned us kids to make forts and go sledding on cold winter weekends, and, then, later, to sneak our first kisses and smoke our parent’s cigarettes.
Far back in her abundantly overflowing garden, nestled next to mighty oaks and crawling beneath majestic elms that were both only starting to shed their still green leaves, was her proud patch of rhubarb. Sweet, sometimes sour and always succulent zingy, zesty rhubarb. Even now, whenever I run across a homemade rhubarb pie, a lump forms in my throat just thinking of the simplicity and sugar those summers offered. Days long gone except in my memories.

And as I grew and as I studied I have since come to find that rhubarb is considered a food of love in many cultures of the world. And even though rhubarb is indigenous to China, where it is still used in all sorts of ‘magical’ and medicinal, life-saving herbal medicines, many traditions and cultures recognize rhubarb as the LOVE-ly Venusian vegetable that it is. In fact, we are told that a rhubarb and strawberry pie is considered to be the ULTIMATE aphrodisiac and if prepared with a proper visual (you don’t need to share with the class..unless you want to that is!), then you can even bring an exciting and tasty relationship right to your door.

Now, you would guess that the pie recipe would be the one I would offer here today. Nah. Not only do I get a lump in my throat when I think of that sweet summer pie, but, you can rest assured, there would be plenty of same in my attempts at any kind of crust as well. Trust me. Been there, burned that. And, well, I wouldn’t tell you to do anything I’m not willing to do myself, so, all that said:

Rockin’ Rhubarb Punch

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
½ cup fresh orange juice
1 cup pineapple juice
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 ½ cups sugar
5 sticks of cinnamon
Fresh mint leaves to garnish

Simmer both the rhubarb and the cinnamon stick in 4 cups of water for approximately 10 minutes. After this time, strain and discard the rhubarb and the cinnamon. Add all the juices next, stirring gently. Now, add the sugar and let simmer for another twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over crushed ice and add a fresh cinnamon stick and mint leave as garnish.

Traditionally and historically, lamb is considered a springtime treat, but we can still find fine cuts of it for sale at any reputable butcher or even in your local market. Just be sure that it’s fresh. And speaking of traditions, legend holds that if you spot the first lamb to be born in the fold in the springtime, and it was pointing towards you, that you would have great good luck and much fortune in the year to come. As well, sheep are said to turn towards the East on Christmas Eve showing reverence and respect for the newly born Christ. It is widely told that the sheep not only will turn towards the East but will bow three times as well and are believed to have the gift of speech during this magical time. This legend has held through the years and even been the raison d’être for the association made between these beliefs and the Christian expression, ‘Lamb of God.’

Any way you go, the lamb is believed to possess magical and mystical powers that can be imbibed, and enjoyed, by you!

Summer Vegetable Lamb Shanks

Serves 4

4 Lamb Shanks

1 half stick butter

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves smashed and minced fresh garlic

Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

8 Carrots, peeled and finely chopped

4 White Onions peeled and finely chopped

8 Caps from small button mushrooms

6 Stalks of celery, finely chopped

1 yellow zucchini peeled and chopped

½ cup summer peas

½ fresh cut green beans

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the shanks into a large baking dish and pat the garlic over them. Season liberally with both the sea salt and the pepper. In a large sauté pan, heat the butter and the olive oil together until hot. Add the shanks and sauté until the lamb is browned on all sides, about four minutes a shank. Now pour lamb and drippings back into the baking dish and put in oven to bake for twenty more minutes. Add all vegetables and the tomato sauce. Increase the heat to 375 degrees and bake all ingredients together for 1 hour.

An easy and complete meal that takes advantage of fresh and tasty summer vegetables while also making anyone who is lucky enough to taste this bow towards EWE three times with appreciation and awe!