I love quick refrigerator pickles. It is a great way to make a little bit of something. It doesn't take much time or effort and you get pretty immediate results. I can pop out a few pints in between kids and garden and sunshine. And you never cook the vegetables/fruit in a water bath or pressure canner, so you always end up with such fresh and crisp flavors. I like having small batches too. So I can make new batches with the season, and not get tired of any one thing. These quick radish pickles are great on their own (I should know, I ate them non-stop as I took the photos. Ahem.), on top of a salad, as a side for just about anything, or with a cheese and meat board. SO delicious. And they are not too weird or strong for kids either. The bright pink color helps. Pink Pickled Radishes (Umeboshi)Print |{wholly rooted}The perfectly pink ume plum quick pickle. The perfect combination of sweet, tangy, and crispy. Great on their own, or over a salad, on a cheese & meat board, or replacing anything that would be perfect with a pickle. {ingredients}
Slice radishes into thin rounds. Place in a colander and toss with a teaspoon or so of sea salt. Let it sit and exude liquid while you do the rest of the prep. This recipe calls for ume plum vinegar. It comes from umeboshi plums. You can use all apple cider vinegar, but the ume plum vinegar adds such a great flavor and color. This vinegar adds a bit of depth so this pickle is sweet and sour and twangy and mild all at the same time. It is a good match for the peppery bite of radishes. If you don't have pickling spice you can crush 7 or 8 peppercorns and use that. I always keep pickling spice around (and it is easy to make your own!). I like one that blends clove, bay, allspice, peppercorns, juniper, coriander, mustard, dried chili, and other aromatic herbs. I make a lot of quick pickles and find that I am using it all throughout the season! I am ridiculously excited to get into the season of dirt on my hands, planting, and harvesting from my garden. What we eat from May to November is directly related to what is fresh in our garden, and when CSA season begins, what is in our weekly share. Spring radishes always signal the beginning of gardening season to me. It is ON!
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Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen. A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. * * * * * Top to bottom: Smoothies, hydroponic lettuces ready to cut, steeping tea, flax crackers on dehydrator sheet, hot amaranth with peaches, blueberries, maple syrup, and toasted coconut flakes, and GF/DF/NF lemon loaf with a lemon glaze.
Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty that Moves to see who is participating this week and get a peek into more kitchens! I have a 9 year old with eczema. Over the years we have tweaked his diet and have gotten him to a point where he doesn't often have the huge flare-ups he used to have (dairy and cane sugar are his triggers). His asthma has been under control too, which often goes hand in hand with the skin for him. That said, our success seems to be in part to his diet, and also our skin care and bathing regime. We have worked with his allergist and a dermatologist for a few pesky painful bits, but generally, we try to keep his skin pampered so we don't have to resort to the steroidal ointments. We have a cream and body oil we use after bath every night, but we also make a salve for spot treatment. This salve can be used by all of us for various skin applications, but I most often use it for rough patches. This base oil is made from an herbal infusion. I like using the oven method because it is gentle and easy. The process is just simply pre-heating the oven to a low 250ºF temp, and then placing your oven safe bowl of herb/oil in the oven, turning it OFF, and leaving the herbs to infuse in the oil for several hours. I find it convenient this time of year to just do it at night and leave the bowl in the oven overnight. If I am already using my oven for dinner, I just cool it down to temp and make sure it is OFF before putting the herbs in there. This method gently heats the oil, and allows me to do other things besides monitoring the temperature constantly as I do more with the stovetop or crockpot methods. Once summer arrives I usually prefer the solar method since I don't want my oven on, but the oven is so simple and perfect for most of the year. This salve I like to make uses calendula and lavender. I often vary the type of base oil I infuse depending on the time of year (each oil has different properties, absorption, etc.). Use whatever oil is safe for you and your household. This batch I used avocado oil, but I often use (organic) olive oil, grapeseed oil, or even coconut oil. {Calendula~Lavender Infused Oil} For this oil, I use 1 cup of oil to 1 cup of packed dry herbs (calendula flowers). Most often by weight is best, but I know with calendula it is a light petal based herb, and this ratio works for this infusion. I filled the cup first tightly with calendula, and added a few tablespoons of dried lavender buds. The lavender is optional, but I love it, and I dry my own each summer to use in my herbal concoctions. Place your dry herbs in an oven safe bowl. Pour over your oil. It is going to look like you don't have much oil and it at first won't even cover all the herbs. That is OK. Stir it up to get it all coated. Place in your preheated 250ºF oven, turn off the oven, close the door, and leave it for a few hours. I usually just leave it overnight. To strain just run it through a few layers of cheesecloth. Squeeze it. I like taking the ball of cheesecloth and herbs and squeezing it with my lemon squeezer. It gets out more oil than my carpal tunnel hands ever could. This is your base oil. To make the salve, you can use the low temp oven method again to melt things, or do a low temp/gentle double boiler by heating water on the stove in a saucepan, and placing your oven safe bowl over the top. {Calendula~Lavender Salve} Into your oven safe bowl or double boiler :: 3 ounces of your freshly made aromatic calendula-lavender oil (you will have some left over for other good stuff) 1/2 ounce of mango butter 1/2 ounce (up to 1 ounce) of grated beeswax You may ask if the mango butter is optional - sure. You can use coconut oil for that portion (it is a room temperature solid oil, which is a nice substitute) or skip it and use just the infused oil and beeswax. Cocoa butter would work too, although the arguably wonderful scent will overpower any oils you add. Shea butter should work too, although I haven't used it since we have an allergy in the house. I have found my son likes the texture when it is a little thicker and not as oily, and the mango butter works great for us. This has a good skin feel for him. I say use a half to a full ounce of beeswax because ~ it will vary depending on how you like it. Or your climate. I use less this time of year because it is still cool and I don't want it hard as a rock and impossible to use. In the summer I use the higher quantity of beeswax because I want it to set even in moderate heat - such as in my travel bag or hiking tote. To test if you like the consistency, the trick is to melt it all together, take it off the heat/out of the oven, and let it cool right there in the bowl. After it fully cools stick your finger in there and rub some on. See how you like it. From there re-melt and tweak it if you need to. Remove it from the heat, and now add your essential oils. I used 12 drops of organic lavender essential oil. Work quickly so it doesn't all harden in your bowl. Now, just pour it into your tins. For this batch I used a single 4 ounce tin. Sometimes I use smaller tins so I can have one at home and one in my purse. I like using a lip balm tube for a small portable version that is great in a travel bag, first aid kit, or backpack. If you use a tube, be sure to label clearly it as a salve so you don't apply it to your lips! For all of my tins, I put a detailed label with ingredients, use, and date on it somewhere so I don't forget, as well as a name label on the lid. Now, let it cool. It is ready to use! My son loves it on his dry annoying patches. I love it on my garden knuckles. You know, the red dry cracking knuckles you get after digging, raking, and planting in the garden like a madwoman after a six month break where your previously gloriously hard-earned garden callouses turned into soft supple winter hands without hard use. Ahem. After you make this 4 ounce batch you will have some of that base oil left over to use in bath melts, balm, or another batch of salve! Making your own infused oils and salves is not hard, and both are a great addition to your home kit. *** Note: I use only 12 drops of lavender EO because we have tweaked it to where my son is comfortable with the scent level (and my oil infusion has some scent since I added dried lavender buds to that process). You can add up to 20 - 24 drops total comfortably for 4 ounces of oil! Calendula:
This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen. A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. * * * * * {dehydrator fig bars (recipe soon, I promise), adzuki beans soaking, blending herbal tea, soaking lemon rinds in vinegar for cleaning liquid, cider, roasted chicken over brown rice with tomatoes and bleu cheese, salve making (yes, that recipe coming soon too!), and roasting beets and carrots in the oven}
Be sure to visit Beauty That Moves to see everyone in the blog hop this week!
I like meals that can be put together quickly and go into a pot or oven for a bit while I do other things (like wander back to my hot cup of coffee and snuggly boys). This sweet potato egg bake is a great breakfast or brunch meal - or a breakfast for dinner kind of thing, which seems to always be a hit with the younger set. I love the sweet richness of sweet potatoes. They are a good source of fiber, iron, potassium, and vitamins like C, B6, and A - not to mention they have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes and studies have shown they may even be able to help regulate blood sugar. They are a nice replacement for white potatoes in a breakfast dish, and kids love them.
Sweet Potato Egg BakePrint |{wholly rooted}One pot meal - great for breakfast or brunch - with sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, turmeric, asparagus, eggs, and more. Quick stovetop prep, ready out of the oven! {ingredients}
Start by sautéing 1 diced onion, 1 tsp freshly grated turmeric, and 2 cloves of minced garlic in a drizzle of olive oil in an oven safe pot on your stovetop. I love how the miso tastes with the sweet potatoes, and that musky light flavor that the turmeric adds. It is a nice quick one pot wonder, giving me some extra time to enjoy my morning. In Wisconsin, winters are long. We don't warm up much in between snow storms like some places. We go into deep freeze, and there can be over 5 months between 50-something degree weather. And this winter was colder than most. Last week we finally had some days that were edging up to almost 60! Warmest it has been since last October. When we get a week of mild DRY weather, we have to jump on it. We started playing tennis again, we visited a park a day, we went kite flying, we hiked, we walked, we wandered. We swang on swingsets, our feet touching the sky. We sat in the sun listening to the birds. It feels good to get out and feel sunshine on our faces, breathe deeply, and walk lightly without heavy gear. Spring is a bit later this year, so nothing has been greened - yet - but it is still beautiful in its optimism. The rains came over the weekend, and we are getting some more snow (tomorrow!). But there were days we were outside, and it will tide us over until the rains work their magic and the land is green again and we can feel the grass under our feet, and the sun on our faces. Have you ever seen
anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun, every evening, relaxed and easy, floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the hills, or the rumpled sea, and is gone-- and how it slides again out of the blackness, every morning, on the other side of the world, like a red flower streaming upward on its heavenly oils, say, on a morning in early summer, at its perfect imperial distance-- and have you ever felt for anything such wild love-- do you think there is anywhere, in any language, a word billowing enough for the pleasure that fills you, as the sun reaches out, as it warms you as you stand there, empty-handed-- or have you too turned from this world-- or have you too gone crazy for power, for things? ~The Sun, Mary Oliver This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen. A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. * * * * * {top to bottom: spring salad, my 11 year old basting chicken breasts on the grill, infusing oil with calendula and lavender, seedlings, boys baking GF/DF bunny cakes, bottling coconut water cherry kefir, ingredients for buddha bowls} I took a break from blogging this week - internet issues and warm sunshine kept me mostly outside working in the garden, playing tennis with my boys, kite flying, and park hopping. But I remembered to take photos throughout the week of the small tidbits of kitchen that I don't always photograph. It is nice to get back into the groove this week with some kitchen love. Be sure to visit Beauty That Moves to see everyone in the blog hop this week.
Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen. A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. * * * * * * * * * *
Heather at Beauty That Moves is doing a new weekly blog hop - photos from the week, no words, no recipes, just images from our kitchens. Be sure to visit This Week In My Kitchen to see her lovely images, plus links to others playing along. |
denise cusackI am a certified aromatherapist, clinical herbalist, permaculture designer, organic gardener, plant conservationist, photographer, writer, designer, artist, nature lover, health justice activist, whole foods maker, and mother of two young adults in south central Wisconsin. Categories
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©2007-23 Denise Cusack, all photos and text. Feel free to share my posts on FB or Twitter or online media or pin on Pinterest (thank you!), but please keep the links back to my website intact (meaning please do not take or copy my images off of this website and share them unattributed or without linking back here or use them without permission). Thank you! :)
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