Foraging For Food

If you are like me, the idea of foraging your own food brings out the earthy adventurer in you and gets your mouth watering for a taste of true life. I smile at the thought of strolling through the woods to come across a brook lined with tasty little edibles, ones that have grown untainted by today's modern farming methods and are bursting with the integrity of the earth, the sun and the rain. Ones that haven't had their genes altered so that someone could give them a pesticide bath without killing them. Ones that fill me with the roots of who I am and where I came from.

And then I come back down to reality, and remember how I didn't receive a degree in Botany and that nature is full of potent little poisons that mask themselves in very beautiful ways. This is an unfortunate reality. So I consider my options.....do I go on a seemingly endless journey of foraging lessons, or do I bury my nose in a library of encyclopedias? Sounds like an over achievers errand to me. And then Eureka! How about I start my own little corner of the world foraging extravaganza in my very backyard!

Does this sound mystical in some way to you? Do you see unicorns? Well then I have made my point! All the beauty of the Earth as we should know it is right at our finger tips!

Yes I am talking about your very own vegetables and herbs in your very own corner of the globe. It is as simple as a trip to the garden center or any place that sells edible plants.

Take it to whatever level works for you. Start small and work your way up. Planting a garden can be anything you want it to be, however big or small. Grow your favorite herbs in pots or plant them in your flower beds. Most herbs are perennial or biennial (Just google the herb you want and type in perennial or annual and the info. will come up). Many herbs have bright beautiful flowers and would be a wonderful addition to any landscape. So this Spring when you make your trip to the garden center, consider the value you will get from edible herbs and how fun it would be to go out and snip off some fresh sage or rosemary for tonight's dinner.



RECIPES


Fresh Basil Pesto
4 cups of fresh basil leaves, stems removed
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of pine nuts
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except for the olive oil in the food processor, blend until you reach a smooth paste. Slowly add in olive oil through spout while pulsing to combine.

*** Use pesto on grilled fish or chicken. Add to salads for a flavor punch. Substitute other herbs or greens in place of basil such as cilantro or arugula.***



Roasted Garlic and Sage Oil
2 cups of extra virgin olive oil
8 whole garlic cloves , peeled
2 cups of fresh sage leaves, shredded
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 350. In a small glass casserole dish combine the garlic, oil, salt and pepper and cover with aluminum foil, roast for 30-40 minutes or until garlic is starting to brown on all sides. Stir around the garlic every 10 or 15 minutes so it will cook evenly and not burn. Once garlic is fully roasted add the sage and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

** Serve on your favorite ravioli or pasta. Use as a bread dipping oil. Drizzle over some roasted potatoes or butternut squash.***

Mom's Real Food Recipe Carnival

In this month's Find Your Balance newsletter, Michelle suggests to her readers to pay tribute to moms and grandmas and post one of their real food recipes here. Well, although this recipe is no where near healthy, it is a tribute to my mother, who passed away almost 2 years ago, and it comes along with a kind of funny story.

The first Thanksgiving after my mother passed away posed a question among my sisters and I...who is going to make the hollandaise? We all remembered our mother's sauce like it was yesterday, but no one knew the recipe. All we knew was that it bursted with the zing of fresh lemons and that Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without it.

So I was delegated the task. And, as many of you know, this sauce is a little daunting when you have never made it before (even for me with professional cooking experience).

So, I decided to make it on the day of Thanksgiving while we were all together at my sister Debbie's house.

Things were going fine, I was at the oh so crucial double boiler stage, trying not to put scrambled eggs on the menu, when it happened. My brother in-law who was leaning over me watching like a hawk, tipped a glass of white wine (a very nice sauvignon Blanc) right into the sauce! He screamed "oh no, what did I do!" So we sat down, took a deep breath and oh so timidly dipped a spoon in for a taste.............and it was absolutely delicious. So as it turned out, there was only one way mom's sauce could be improved upon...........by adding a half cup of your favorite white wine.

Patricia's Super Lemony Hollandaise

3 Egg Yolks
1 1/2 Sticks of Butter
The juice of 4 lemons
and now...1/2 cup of your favorite Savignon Blanc

1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in medium sauce pan
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl (one that will rest nicely on top of your boiling water pot), whisk in the 3 eggs lightly.
3. Reduce the water to a simmer and place the mixing bowl over the pot.
Continue lightly whisking eggs and slowly add in a cube of butter one at a time until blended.
*** Remove from heat for a moment if the eggs are getting to hot. You don't want scrambled eggs!
4. Once all the butter is blended, add the fresh lemon juice and get your brother in-law to knock in the white wine. Remove from heat and serve room temperature over fresh steamed broccoli and cauliflower!