Hufflepuff and Blondies

The other morning I drifted out of the depths of sleep vocalizing, “HUFFLEPUFF! HUFFLEPUFF! HUFFLEPUFF!” Without the usual need to wrestle with the detritus of my dreams, I instantly knew that the repetitive sounding of the onomatopoetic word served to inflate me with a good lashing of affectionate merriment which has been in woeful short supply around here. In other words, my corset has been bound a wee bit too tight. It is hopeful that with these HP inspired morning mumblings, perhaps the spell or at least my laces have been broken.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, virtuous as well as very adult; to give my sugar intake a rest for awhile. I plunged forth fortified with a whole arsenal of information on the ill effects of sugar on body and mind. But rather aggressively, similar to the manner in which one clears out an overstuffed closet, I wholesale dumped other foods out of my diet as well. Kind of wondering what all the fuss was about gluten, I tossed out wheat and then gave dairy the boot since it too is a common allergen. A few weeks in- I hit the slightly erratic point of the clean out process. I decided to curb my enthusiasm for cussing, rid myself of the phrase “you guys” in my daily speech, and really if all of that weren’t enough, I thought the world would be a better place if we stopped complaining so much—so I tossed that habit upon my growing list of insanity. I can say with certitude, this little investigation hit deep, though not at first.

The provocateur in me baited for some reaction when I calmly waltzed through the first three weeks. I kept thinking that I would feel radically different; that my eyes would sparkle and my skin would glow or on the other spectrum that I might become completely unhinged. Nothing so obvious occurred; the biggest difference was that I consistently felt hungry. The kind of hunger that had me obsessing about drippy fully loaded cheeseburgers especially at night. It became apparent that the many innocent snatches of treat that I was used to: lovely nibbles and forbidden morsels translated to something more substantial over a week’s span. And without—oh drear, my diet haikued to foods straight out of a 70’s dietician handbook. Bland limp green beans, boiled kale, rough hewn tomatoes and cukes, and leathery chicken, over and over with little variation again. Along with the abstention of a few ingredients, also went the ability to cook and enjoy foods. Strange but true, but the flourishes of attention that make a meal fabulous simply walked out my door.

In sugar’s absence I was finally able to see its value a little more clearly. I set about this project from a health stand point assuming that the physical body would function optimally without sugar, a not so nice vice right? It became clear that I plunged forth without a clear understanding of what I was actually letting go of. I certainly didn’t think that anything needed to be added in as fair exchange and as a result -well I became quite lop sided. Roughly life without sugar translated into less emphasis around food and pleasure, which freed me up to work that much harder* thereby spending more time in my head and consequently sleeping less. As the weeks accrued, I observed this growing imbalance and became more aware of how food dissolves and occupies the soul, a sort of energetic signature. Generally acquainted with the macrobiotic principle of balancing expansive and contractive forces in cooking, this idea especially became clear. Sweets have an open, uplifting quality. As do simple carbohydrates, joy, and laughter. With the brute attack on my diet and eventually other ways of being, I settled into a seriously contracted place. Every rule and should-not added atop every indulgence departed, allowed the pattern of school marm consternation and rigidity to ripple through me, leaving me small, colorless and pinched. While it may be misleading to say that sugar is the lynch pin that makes my life run well, I’ll just conclude that bright open skies make good companion to the dark terrain below.

* Here is a link to my new ETSY shop named Wonder Room. The images that I create for this blog have really inspired me to continue creating more art. Thanks to all of you who come by to read and share!

HUFFLEPUFF BLONDIES- adapted from White Bean Blondies at Healthy and Green Living: Eating the words in my dream was the first step. These blondies were the second. Blondies have sentimental value. I love the contrast between vanilla with a hint of butterscotch, against the chocolate. Moist, almost fudgy, but still utterly winsome. I thought these were interesting and wholesome in a balanced even slightly virtuous way. The right amount of expansion with contraction!

Ingredients:
1 stick butter melted
1 ½ C pinto beans (basically a can drained and rinsed)
¼ C brown sugar
¼ C maple syrup
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. carob/coffee substitute (optional, I didn’t try this but suspect it would be great)
½ tsp. salt
¾ C oat flour (pulverize almost a cup of oats in a blender)
1 C millet flour (can substitute another flour)
1 C chocolate chips
½ C toasted walnuts

Directions: Deplorably easy. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a pan and cool slightly. Toast walnuts and chop half the chips to give them a more unstandardized look, after all some “work” is needed. Then throw melted butter, beans, sweeteners, eggs, vanilla, and salt into the blender and whirl into a smooth consistency. In a medium bowl, place your dry ingredients. Gently mix the wet into the dry until just mixed. Grease up an equivalent to a 9inch round. I would have preferred this in a square pan, since I don’t care much for wedges but use what you have. Place in oven and bake until it comes out clean in the center when poked. I forgot the time, perhaps 35 minutes? Mine was in a little too long and I don’t think it suffered as much as typical brownies would, as the bean puree gives this definite moistitude. Cool and cut. I think the flavor develops better by the next day. Remember, one can embellish with the enthusiastic exclamation, ”HUFFLEPUFF! HUFFLEPUFF! HUFFLEPUFF!” Loosen girdle appropriately.

Cloisons Etanches

It isn’t often that I wave the white flag and hang my head in submission to an overwhelmed system brought down by surfeit. It was the beans- circus colored pectin pumped sugar coated chews in vibrant flavors of a tropical fruit bowl. Had I stepped away from the jellies like good sense counseled, I would have been brought to a completely different turn in the road and I might now be discussing the virtues of oat bran. But with caution and reason thrown to the wind, I am now buried in the sugary residue of Easter past: glittery Peeps, Cadbury Cream Eggs, speckled mini eggs, foiled chocolates, jellybeans and bunny pops- a glut of goodies all crammed into my ever widening maw these past ten days. Trying to regain composure whilst ignoring the mounting jeers from the confectionary rabbits who have escaped a rapacious demise, I am working towards absolution. If the body is a temple, mine is a sugar shack.

Noticing the ebb and flow of appetite has been my way to stay in close contact with my animal self. While I trust my appetite to point me towards that which nourishes me, this information can occasionally still send me off kilter. For example this Easter with my basket aflutter with merriment, I completely gave in to the bright mirth filled colors and sweet innocence of the season. Over and over I was delighted by the gritty crunch of sugar against teeth as I bit into more jellybeans that I thought possible to eat. But the mounting jittery peak and crash of sugar levels, the high expectations and dashed hopes of mediocre meals, and various other trials and tribulations culinary and otherwise finally had me searching for my reboot button. Filled with crapulous insult and energetic fatigue from over stimulation brought on by mindless consumption, I found myself wanting to dissolve into the quiet of things and settle back into myself.

“We are entering a new era. The old categories are dead and gone, for we have passed over into a different world- a world in which I suggest we sensitize ourselves to what Levi-Strauss calls ‘entropology’ (as opposed to anthropology)- the notion of a people recognizing and exploring its own disorientation, its own disintegration, its own running down, and then finally, perhaps, its own possibilities.” T.C. McLuhan from The Way of the Earth

In spite of my internally frenzied state I was able to ferret out a thin appetite for something bland, smooth and voluminously nourishing. Jook, congee or rice porridge is a food which has grounded, nurtured and restored me in times of imbalance. Valued in Chinese medicine as being a simple healing food, the recipe can be tailored to suit the individual’s needs. Essentially rice and water are cooked for hours until most of the grain’s structural integrity dissolves into a starchy puddle. The nurture and nutrition of rice warms and fills the empty places within. With the help of a Chinese herbalist or mother, the medicinal value can be fortified with the addition of varied ingredients such as dried scallops, ginger, scallion, astragalus root, and jujube dates. For me, this expert was my acupuncturist who first helped orient me inward with the heightened awareness of a tracker. Slowly I began to pay attention to my body, discover the continuum and play of balance and even locate my own sources of nourishment and healing. Jook was one of those fundamental recipes ever bubbling within my pressure cooker in those early years. Today thankfully I can recognize this barren land of depletion and finally let go of the candy bowl, chocolate bunnies aside. It is time to re-establish connections neglected and lost- which includes the memory of this old recipe. The making and eating of jook is a ritual for me, a time honored intention to listen and participate with the quiet-loud world within.

Just Jook makes about 7 servings: This is a time to leave the MSG bouillons aside. We are including only the “cleanest” ingredients for this soothing porridge. The long cooking time makes for a food which when eaten allows the nutrition to be absorbed easily without requiring the body to work hard to digest it. I read on Rebecca Wood’s website that a minimum of three hours is needed to balance out the yin and yang energies of the ingredients. Consult a Chinese herbalist (I found this site to have interesting information about jook) if more information about the body’s energetic system is needed.

Ingredients:
Turkey carcass
Cold water
1 ½ C long grain brown rice
2 dried Shitake Mushroom
4 slices of ginger root
5 dried shrimp
3 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1 large daikon radish grated
Salt
3 scallions finely chopped
Toasted sesame oil
Braggs Liquid Amino/ tamari
A grate of ginger root
Pickled turnip

Directions: Place turkey carcass/ bones and cover over with cold water. Cook over medium-high heat to get a soft rolling boil and lower the temperature to medium-low. Skim off scum and cook for at least an hour (depending on time constraints and/or richness desired). Strain bones and impurities out and put the stock back into an ample sized heavy stock pot. The stock should equal at least 9 cups. Rinse the rice in cold water and pick through for stones and floating grains. Add the rice, mushrooms, ginger, shrimp, garlic, daikon, and salt in the stockpot and cook over low heat covered for at least 3 hours, but as long as 6-8. Alternately one can use a pressure cooker for about an hour. Add water as needed to maintain a medium thin gruel consistency. In this case, forget that gruel can be cruel. Pull out mushroom caps, remove and discard stems (they can be reserved for a future stock) and slice thin. When the grain is practically dissolved, serve in bowls with the garnishes as desired: reserved scallions, toasted sesame oil, Braggs/tamari, a grate of ginger root, pickled turnip. It is easy to go overboard by adding more condiments to pump up the flavor, but for me this is one time to hold back and allow the interior to reset. Good appetite.