by Krista | Aug 2, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
As much as I love sunrise on our farm, late afternoon might be my most favorite time of all.
It’s when the bustling part of the day is done. When I can get away from my computer, away from tinkering in the kitchen, away from photo shoots and other projects, and can stroll through the farm finishing off the chores and enjoying the luscious warmth and rich gold light.
It’s my time to collect the eggs and cheer on the chooks when they have some for me even in winter.
As soon as I make an appearance in the yard all the animals converge from their various grazing spots, bleating, honking, quacking, barking, and clucking in chorus for hay, pellets or grain. It’s quite the cacophonous greeting committee and makes me grin.
My dog Luna accompanies me as I pitch hay over fences, give hearty scratches and nuzzles to the other dogs, and attempt to divide over thirty birds into four separate pens.
It’s amazing the silence that falls over the farm as the animals all tuck into their dinner then settle down for a snooze in the late afternoon sunshine.
Once they’re all taken care of, Luna and I can go gallivanting. Yesterday we headed straight for the dam yard where sunlight sparkled and glistened on the pond.
It was gorgeous with light reflecting everywhere, bathing trees and grass and us in washes of silvery brilliance.
Luna ran around like mad, gleefully soaking herself and pelting me with mud and water.
Normally I like to stretch my legs, feeling my muscles as I trek up one hill and down another, climbing through fences and clambering over logs, but today I just wanted to stand there and soak it in. To close my eyes and feel warmth seep into my bones, throw my head back and let the cold wind toss my hair and cool my face, and feel so very, very grateful to live here with my Love and our animals, safe and free and happy.
As I got back to the house Bear drove up and we sat down for a cuppa – my new favorite healthy drink: Maple Cream Soda.
I’ve loved Italian cream sodas for years, and this is a decadent yet totally healthy version that we both love. Just mix real maple syrup and a few dashes of maple extract with a Tbsp of coconut cream then top it up with chilled soda water. It foams up beautifully and tastes so refreshing and cold and like you’re getting away with something naughty. Mmm.
What is your favorite cold drink after time in the sun?
Healthy Maple Cream Soda
serves two
Ingredients:
2 tsp real maple syrup
1/2 tsp maple extract
2 Tbsp coconut milk
2 cups chilled soda water
Directions:
- Divide first three ingredients between two glasses.
- Pour in soda water slowly (it will foam up) and leave about 1/2 space at the top to allow for foam.
- Serve immediately.
by Krista | Jul 30, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence.
Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”
Leonora Carrington
Sometimes mornings on our Australian goat farm are so beautiful I can hardly bear it.
My carefully fenced in gardens become luminous blocks of light, mundane things like sun shades and plastic sheeting turned into glittering panels that seem to dance and shimmer as the sun edges ever higher over the fields beyond.
I love the diaphanous mist hovering above the waving stalks of grass, glowing brightly and softening every harsh angle and stark outline.
I can’t get enough of the jeweled spider webs hanging tremulously like diamond necklaces.
The softness of the light is gentle, quiet, soothing. If I carry over anxieties from one day to the next, a few moments gazing at this early morning world quickly dissolves them.
On mornings like this the light seems to infuse me as well. No matter how dark or stormy the day becomes, I can close my eyes and be transported back to those quiet, luminous moments when all is quiet and all is well.
When the close-your-eyes moments come, it’s lovely to open them up again to a treat like raw dark chocolate truffles. I love these little beauties for they are filled with nutritious goodness yet taste like something decadent and naughty.
Dates are filled with calcium, sulfur, iron, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, copper and magnesium and fight intestinal disorders and abdominal cancer.
Cocoa is a powerful antioxidant and fights heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and cancer.
Walnuts are not only good antioxidants, they’re also anti-inflammatory and high in vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, help protect against breast cancer, diabetes, depression, and the harmful effects of stress.
These truffles may taste like dessert, but they’re also wonderfully healing.
They’re also fun to experiment with. Try different nuts and dried fruits, a cold-pressed nut oil instead of coconut, and roll them in a variety of toppings such as desiccated coconut, toasted ground nuts or seeds.
What is your favorite healthy treat?
Raw Dark Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients:
1 cup raw walnuts
8-10 dates, pitted
1/4 cup cocoa
1-3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp maple syrup
pinch of salt
optional – cocoa powder, desiccated coconut, ground walnuts for rolling
Directions:
- Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor and process until mixture is smooth and holds together like dough.
- Taste to see if it needs more of anything since the mixture will vary based on sweetness of dates used. If it needs more sweetness, add more dates, for more chocolate flavor add more cocoa. If it’s too soft, add more walnuts, if it’s too dense, add more coconut oil.
- Roll teaspoons of mixture between your hands to form small balls and place in single layer in sealable container.
- When all balls are formed, cover container and refrigerate.
- You can eat them as is or roll in cocoa powder, desiccated coconut or ground walnuts.
by Krista | Jul 29, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
I loved this weekend. Loved the brilliantly warm and sunny Saturday, loved the cold, rainy Sunday that felt so cozy and wonderful.
It was so good to stay close to home doing companionable things with Bear, walks in the field, movies at night, foraging for treasures at a local junk place that we can now use to make shelving, a bench, and even a table, all for $2. We were like little kids let loose in a candy store, grinning like Cheshires at our finds.
I was able to take time to experiment with the rather limited ingredients I’m allowed to eat during this first intense phase of detoxing. I admit it was a bit overwhelming at first, but as I focused on the things I CAN eat and started thinking of delicious ways to use them, it got downright exciting.
Yesterday I made raw dark chocolate truffles made of ground walnuts, dates, coconut oil, cocoa, and real maple syrup. Oh my. They’re so lovely I don’t feel deprived AT ALL. 🙂
When things got rather chilly, we snugged in with steaming cups of cocoa swirled with coconut milk and sweetened with a drizzle of real maple syrup. A marvelous thing to sip whilst watching the final season of Spooks.
As much as I love finding delicious ways to stay within the parameters I need to for my health, the best part is seeing all my efforts pay off in feeling better and better each day. I know it will be a long process, but I’m so thrilled and thankful for the symptoms that are disappearing one by one. After over ten years of being sick, it’s a huge shot of hope to my admittedly weary heart.
One of my favorite meals is savory kidney beans topped with shredded roast venison (any other shredded roast would work just dandy) and a big scoop of fresh tomato salad with garlic and parsley. The tang of the dressing goes brilliantly with the beans and meat, and the fresh tomatoes bring a delectable brightness to what could otherwise be a heavy meal. With good protein, good fiber, and lots of good garlic, onion, and olive oil, it’s healthy as can be.
What is your favorite healthy meal these days?
Savory Kidney Beans with Tomato Salad
Serves two
Ingredients:
2 cups dried kidney beans
1 yellow onion, diced
6 garlic cloves
salt
1 cup shredded venison (beef or pork work just fine too)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp malt vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
salt
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
Directions:
- Place kidney beans in soup pot, add onion and garlic, cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer for one hour. Add salt and top up with water to make sure beans are covered by one-inch. Simmer for another 2 hours, checking regularly to make sure water level does not sink below beans.
- While beans are cooking, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic, parsley, and salt. Add tomatoes and stir gently to coat tomatoes.
- Ladle beans into bowl. Top with shredded venison and tomato salad. Serve immediately.
by Krista | Jul 26, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
It was a gorgeously sunny morning as I ambled leisurely through Warwick, QLD checking out the outrageously cheerful tree jumpers made for the annual Jumpers and Jazz Festival.
You really can’t help but smile as you see all the fanciful decorations and admire the incredible work that went into each tree.
The whole town feels happy and bright even as winter winds toss the branches and send stuffed chickens and handmade dolls bobbing and twirling.
Nearly everywhere you walk you’re serenaded by live jazz music performed my local musicians and bands that have traveled here from far and wide. It’s absolutely fantastic and makes even the most mundane of errands feel downright festive.
I can’t begin to fathom all the hours that have gone into knitting these tree jumpers (aka sweaters), but I’m so glad for all those clever folks who knuckled down and made them. They’re gorgeous.
When a live band started playing near the city park, I found an empty bench warmed beautifully by the sun and sat down to a scrumptious (and medical diet appropriate!) lunch: venison burger, green beans with lemon pepper, and potatoes with roasted garlic. I leaned back and closed my eyes feeling the glorious sun on my face as the music played and the wind sent the palm fronds dancing.
If you’re in Warwick this weekend, be sure to take in as many jazz performances as possible while you check out the lively markets in the park.
Do you have an annual festival that you like to go to?
by Krista | Jul 24, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“Into the woods–you have to grope,
But that’s the way you learn to cope.
Into the woods to find there’s hope
Of getting through the journey.”
Stephen Sondheim
This week has been a difficult one. A week of pain and illness and uncertainty and another visit to another specialist with the merest flicker of hope that perhaps this time this person would be able to help me.
It makes me smile to think of that moment now. Working up my courage to try “just one more time”, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe this would be the one to figure things out. Two hours and numerous tests later, I walked out with teary eyes and a glowing smile clutching answers and treatment and supplements and understanding and clear direction and, most treasured of all, hope. The cherry on top is that she’s an absolute luv, an expat like me, all the way from South Africa, jolly, kind, tender, and wise. I’m so grateful.
It’s going to be an interesting month as we start implementing this new treatment. I’ll be on a super strict diet for a while (kill me now! ;-)), an anti-inflammatory, no-gluten, no-dairy, no-refined sugar, anti-viral, no-allergen, anti-acid diet. Ayiyi. But it will be worth it. I know it will. At first my mind was a total blank – what on earth could I eat?! But I’m determined to make it as delicious and satisfying as possible, and now my creative juices are flowing.
On a week such as this, there is nothing better than calling for an obliging dog and heading across the fields to the woods.
It was a dark and stormy day as Luna and I tramped through marshy paddocks and fields that stretched brown, brown, brown into the distance. You wouldn’t have thought there was a smidgen of color or life to be found…but there was.
Puddles of water and little streams nourished lush swathes of green grass and clover that clambered over and into lovely old logs.
The woods were silent and still, the high canopy protecting us from gentle rains that fell softly. Here and there I spotted bright red leaves, a reminder of the golden days of Autumn not long ago.
Now and then I’d feel something watching me only to see a kangaroo a few yards away peering curiously at us before bounding away into the neighbors woods.
The forest floor was covered with tiny bits of gorgeousness: sturdy mushrooms with ruffled caps, the ever present purple blooms I can never remember the name of, and something I’d never seen before, fuchsia berries practically glowing underfoot. Aren’t they the cheeriest ground cover?
Luna and I made it all the way to the back pond, stopping a moment to look off to the mountains before turning back towards home.
It was just the sort of day for baking in a warm kitchen, so when I got home I made a Lemon Cream Tart with Nutty Crust. Tart, velvety smooth, with a slightly chewy crust of ground almonds, linseed, and flaxseed, it was marvelous with a cup of tea when the night turned dark and cold. Turns out it was my last “real” dessert for a while, and it was definitely a delicious way to bid farewell to such things for a time.
Where is your favorite place to go when life feels a bit too much? xo
Lemon Cream Tart with Nutty Crust
Needed: 1 9-10 inch tart pan with removable bottom.
Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla or coconut extract
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup ground almonds, flaxseed, and linseed
Filling:
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/2-3/4 cup sugar (choose based on how sweet you want it)
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 6 lemons
3/4 cup coconut cream
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
- Combine all pie crust ingredients in bowl and mix until it holds together.
- Press into tart pan and par-bake for 10 minutes.
- While it is baking, whisk together eggs and yolks. Add remaining ingredients one at a time whisking constantly.
- When tart crust is par-baked, open oven door and carefully pour in filling, letting it come to about 1/4 inch from top of tart crust. If you have extra filling, just bake it separately in a ramekin and eat as a lemon pudding.
- Bake tart for 30 minutes until top is caramelized around edges and filling doesn’t shake when jiggled.
- Let cool 10-20 minutes before serving or serve cold.
by Krista | Jul 18, 2013 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected;
I have always considered the rain to be healing — a blanket — the comfort of a friend.”
Douglas Coupland
It has felt like Spring here the last few days with gorgeous rain that lulls me to sleep and leaves the whole farm smelling earthy and green. I absolutely love it.
Yesterday before the rains came I got to spend a few hours in my gardens pulling weeds, transplanting seedlings, and eating asparagus straight from the plant.
It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine, basking in the unusual winter warmth, tossing weeds over the fence to the goats who eagerly munched them up.
I love seeing the random plants growing from seeds planted by birds and wind. I’ve got tomatoes growing in the strangest places, strawberries leafing beautifully, and fennel thriving again after the goats got into it a month or two ago. The chicory has come back too, emerging lush and beautiful in all sorts of wondrous shades of green and purple. I can’t wait to use them in green smoothies and one of my favorite pasta dishes I first had in Bologna, Italy: penne with chicory and Italian sausage tossed with olive oil. Mmm. Good rainy day food for sure.
It isn’t Spring yet but it is absolutely wonderful to have glimpses of it, to remember what it’s like to spend each day in a sundress and flip-flops.
“When spring came, even the false spring,
there were no problems except where to be happiest.”
Ernest Hemingway
I love that. 🙂
I have had some wonderfully happy days this week – cozy, comfy days at home puttering away at all sorts of projects while the rain falls. Today I’ve spent in the kitchen making coffee liqueur and cherry brandy for an upcoming article and trying my hand at sauerkraut that tastes so good I can hardly bear to let it sit uneaten for another week or two while it ferments. Carrot Dill soup is on the stove and corned beef is simmering deliciously in the crock pot. It makes me smile to have so many good smells swirling together.
This afternoon I’ll be sorting through seed packets, seeing what I have on hand to plant and working on my new seed list for Spring. I’ll be focusing mostly on all sorts of herbs so I can use them in the medicines and toiletries I make for home use and share in my medieval medicine talks. It feels so good to make things from scratch and learn all sorts of new skills and information.
Now I’m off to brew a cuppa to go with my daily nip of dark chocolate, and cozy in for some reading.
What’s your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
