“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

This blog entry is about how not only food itself can be healing, but the act or meditation of making it. I feel blessed to have access to such amazing foods here in Seattle, as well as the physical and mental ability, and heart, to make amazing food. Heck, I even have the pleasure of assisting some amazing chefs during their cooking classes, taking classes for free…..dang, I feel good about that. What a life!

Some days are better than others, full of experiences and possibilities, neither good nor bad, but certainly some are fabulous and others seem just miserable. Today could have been a horrible day all day, but after a short stew in my misery, I used will power to push through and create my own better experience.

After this super busy week, I thought I’d drag my butt out of bed for some yoga to free up my aching bones. Ugh, cold winter. I pulled the blinds, saw a little peek of sun; that was all the motivation I needed to get ready and zip off to class. I welcomed the day after class, feeling refreshed and open to my day full of possibilities. I grabbed a few things I needed at the Farmers Market, then headed home to cook for a bit before running off to a breath workshop. Everyone needs to breathe, and well!

Alas, that’s when the day grabbed me by the hair and yanked me into a different reality. One full of negative, reactive energy. Well, I’m not really into that, and most certainly not dwelling on it, I knew I had been too busy to relax this week and that often makes my fuse a tad shorter. I decided I must cook it out of my system, or at least off my mind. I had a few plans for the night, kept one commitment, and to my own surprise, I decided self-care was far more important than going and seeing anyone this evening. But what kind of self-care? A bath? A nice cup of tea? Phone call with a friend? Soothing music? Whatever I chose, I knew I needed something to soothe my soul, to feed my spirit.

So what did I choose? I chose an evening in the kitchen with myself. COOKING!!! Wow. It was the best thing I could have done for my psyche, my soul, and my body. I really really really got into it. And, as weird as it may seem, I set an intention with my ingredients before I began. I knew that my energy was off and I didn’t want to infuse my cooking with it; I intentionally made a little pact with my food: that I was cooking to heal and any energy I put out should be transformed into love and healing.

Now I don’t know about all that so-called woo-woo energy stuff and how it all works, but I do know that I felt like Jesus or something from the Bible story where he turns something into Mana and it just keeps increasing. I used the same amount of grains as I have before for my dishes, but this time I have more than double the amount of Risotto as I did before, even the mushrooms just seemed to expand (no jokes here people, it wasn’t like Alice in Wonderland, hehehe). Not only that, but I spent so much time and energy making the dishes – stirring, combining, adding, stirring, stuffing, sprinkling, grating, and chopping, I completely forgot I’d had that teeny little hiccup earlier in my day! And I gained clarity about it all at the same time.

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All the time I cooked and photographed my food, I thought of all of my friends who have shared their enjoyment of it in the past, I imagined delivering little surprise goody bags to them (too bad they need to be refrigerated or I would have been Santa tonight). I thought of my family, I wrote little thank you posts in my head to all the people that helped me in the kitchen:

• I thanked my mother for teaching me via homemade macaroni and cheese how to make a dish on the stove top and then crisp it in the oven after (I did this tonight with both my Polenta and my millet)
• I thanked my last boyfriend for showing me during a traditional family dinner preparation how to thinly slice garlic and stuff it into a roast along with rosemary (tonight I did this with shallots and garlic in my Polenta prior to baking it)
• I thanked all of those teachers that teach PCC Cooks classes that influenced my dishes tonight (I adapted recipes from Omid Roustaei and Siona Sammartino)
• I thanked my sister Leanne who played a part in changing my mood just by showing up
• I thanked my cats for making it more fun as they hovered and sniffed with curiosity. Oh, and I did that too.

The best part, I feel grateful and my dishes taste even more fabulous than I could have hoped. My generosity of sharing food blows me away tonight – I just want everyone to feel this good. The act of cooking tonight has been healing, clearing and clarifying, meditative, calming, exciting, creative, and offered my soul something to nourish it, both through the creative process and the eating process. This is true soul food. My body and soul are basking in the glow of hearty, seasonal, organic, local, fresh, whole foods prepared with love, tenderness (to myself and the ingredients), and gratitude.

Shall we all strive to experience food like this as often as possible….SOULfully.

I’ve really enjoyed making quick amazing tapas-style foods this year. And I was inspired again tonight after a recent discovery that I *can* eat pork, I just need the organic uncured kind, and small portions. I don’t want everything wrapped in or infused with bacon, but some things, really blow my mind and my tastebuds away. Bacon Wrapped Dates anyone?

After many many years of pork product cut off due to the horrible digestive problems I had when I ate it and a nasty PETA video I saw a decade ago, I have been tippy toeing back into the world of pork in ma belly. Of course, I started with bacon; wouldn’t you?

Tonight, I had a date with bacon, and am stuffed. Rather, the date was wrapped in bacon after being stuffed with herbed goat cheese. I’ve been to an event or restaurant here and there over the past year or so and had one of these little wonders. Sometimes stuffed with blue cheese, sometimes chevre (goat cheese), and once even stuffed with rabbit! I’m certain I had multiple mouthgasms per date, complete with after quakes of delight. That combination of soft cheese, sweet date, and oh so unique and lovely, sinful bacon…..it’s an experience like no other. Each time I had to close my eyes and savor, and wipe the drool off my mouth. Literally. These babies made me salivate. Who needs a Valentine with a date like this at home?!

I zipped over to the Ballard Farmer’s Market, grabbed some uncured bacon, no one had goat cheese, so I grabbed that from PCC, and filled those big ol’ medjool dates I had in my fridge. It seemed relatively clear what one would have to do to create these at home:

1. Open and pit dates
2. Prep cheese with herbs and any other ingredients desired for flavoring
3. Stuff dates with cheese
4. Wrap stuffed date with bacon
5. Secure with stick-like-thing (toothpick works for me)
6. Cook

Just to be sure, I looked up a few recipes on the interwebs – absolutely correctamundo for the above, just preheat oven to 500 degrees with the shelf at the top third portion of the oven. So EASY! So dang good. I think my roommate is very happy I like experimenting with such delicacies and “forcing” her to try them. Poor thing.

First: I know you want to be tempted to make these yourself with a mouth-watering close up of these beauties. So here you are:

If you prefer not to wing it in the kitchen, there are tons of recipes out there, but this is how I made mine:

Serving size: 2 per person
Serves 8
16      large  Medjool dates
8        slices uncured bacon – cut in half
4 oz   goat cheese – softened (I had a tad left over)
1/2    teaspoon fresh parsley – minced
1/2    teaspoon dried oregano
1/8    teaspoon pepper
1/2    teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1         clove  garlic – minced
1/2    teaspoon olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees with rack at the top portion of the oven
2. Mix herbs and softened goat cheese together thoroughly with a fork
3. Slice dates half way to remove pit (make sure they stay whole, it should not break in two)
4. Stuff date with just enough of the cheese mixture to fill the date, while being able to close it most of the way – you’ll see the creamy cheese filling peaking out the slit
5. Wrap each date fully with a 1/2 slice of bacon (no need for overlapping edges) and secure bacon to date with a toothpick (or two in some cases)
6. Place dates on a baking pan (juices will flow, make sure it has edges to catch it so you don’t burn your oven up!)
7. Cook for about 5-6 minutes each side, flipping with tongs half way through. Make sure you stay in the kitchen and listen to the sounds in the oven and smell the bacon cooking to know when it is time to turn them over and to remove them. Bacon should be crisp, but not dry.
8. Let cool for a few minutes and serve!

Disclaimer:  Be prepared to receive very loving and grateful looks (or hugs or proposals) from everyone after they’ve finished their divine treat. This treat *could* compete with Cupid’s arrow – beware!

Welcome to my first cooking blog!

I am so excited to start this. It inspires me to connect with others who are in the same boat with dietary restrictions of some sort. Thanks so much for reading.

Yep, I’m gluten free and I do NOT go without. I also cut out most dairy products, aside from butter and goat’s milk/cheese. Really, I feel like every day in my kitchen is a journey into amazing new creations and flavors, makes me feel like I have a hot secret. As a matter of fact, I’d say I eat better than most people who aren’t, because I was pushed out of my eating and cooking/baking comfort zone when I removed gluten from my life. I eat a huge variety of grains, whole grains, vegetables and a ton of other stuff. I’ve become an amazing cook and know way more about flour varieties than I ever thought possible, and I’m just getting started. Join me in my journey.

Today I’ve set aside most of the day to experiment. I’ve been reading some cookbooks, blogs, and Shauna James Ahern’s Gluten Free Girl. The more I read about all of us gluten free adventurers, the more connected I feel and wonder why it is we don’t all get together and cook/potluck/feast instead of keeping it to ourselves. Well, that’s why I’ve started Seattle Gluten Free Foodies (aka Seattle Foodies), a website, and community organization where we do just that. We get together in person, share our stories and dishes and feast together. It takes a lot to motivate people to get together and all on the same date and at the same time, and for each person to put the time and care into cooking a dish, not just grabbing something at the store already prepared.

Today I’ll be cooking mushroom risotto, garlic and shallot infused creamy polenta, cilantro lemon chicken soup, yellow chicken curry, and amaranth cakes. This house is going to smell amazing! A few of my friends have asked me if I can cook for them while I cook for me and sell them portions since they want to eat better but lack the time to cook and experiment right now. I’m giving it a shot. Let’s see how it goes.

I’ve been to the grocery store twice, spent almost $200 on mainly fresh, local, and organic ingredients, recipe practice and creation took several days over a month or so. And today it’s on! While all of that is happening, I think I’ll roast some squash so I’ll actually have something available for lunch!

I’ll be taking notes on prep time, accuracy of recipes and portions, nuances, and anything else I can think of to share with you in the meantime. Look out for the next blog detailing how it all turned out!