Tea Party Food

The tea party for our sweet baby's first birthday was really fun.  I tried to design the setup and food for the birthday girl and the other babies to be comfortable and enjoy themselves. And I think they did.

Birthday Princess

We had three little tables, one for the babes, one for the big girls, and one for the mamas.  They all had variations on the same food. 

The Mama's Table

The Mother's Table had herbal tea, banana cupcakes, cucumber sandwiches and oranges.

Cucumber Sandwiches
Mix softened cream cheese with dill-weed, a little lemon juice and a bit of Tabasco, salt and white pepper. Peel and slice cucumbers thinly, let sit in salty ice water for up to an hour or more in the refrigerator. Drain and pat dry with clean dish towel or between paper towels. Assemble on good quality sliced bread, and use cookie cutters to cut them into cute shapes :)

The Big Girl Table

The Big Girl Table had apple juice, mini banana cupcakes, and jam and cream cheese sandwich

The Baby Table

The Baby Table had water, cheerios, bread stars, and tiny cupcakes (in ketchup cups).  It was all in plastic, and baby-proof, and they were very happy to wander around a table their height and browse the food at will.

The banana cake is a sugar-free recipe I have (that works equally well as a muffin or banana bread). 

BANANA SPICE CAKE

Beat together in a bowl:
3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
¼ cup natural peanut butter (I use chunky)

Stir together in another bowl:
2 cups whole grain flour (I use oat)
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger (do not use fresh ginger root, use the powdered ginger)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients.  Pour into greased pans.  For a 8" square cake pan, bake at 350 for about half an hour, until a knife comes out clean.

For frosting, I beat equal parts Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cream Cheese and Butter until fluffy, and then added a sweetener of choice until desired consistency. 

Knowing Our Food

My husband and I --- city-dwellers --- own a cow.  

Okay, these are Irish cows we met in July.  But aren't they pretty?

Because the sale of raw milk is illegal in Virginia, we bought a share in a local farmer's herd.  We pay for boarding and milking (instead of for the milk itself which is ours by right of owning the cow), along with other families who own herd shares.  This week we learned that our cow, Buttercream, was being a little fussy.  Our farmer's supplier of organic alfalfa (which they give the cow during milking) had changed the packaging a little, making the alfalfa pellets harder than usual.  In protest, Buttercream stubbornly decided to hold back her milk in one quarter.

Look at the cream content in last week's milk!  (Hint: look at the very bottom of the jar.)  This is a half gallon.

 Poor girl, she developed mastitis in that quarter!  This meant our farmer had to slow milk production to treat her for a weekend.

Now I've had mastitis before, and believe me I feel for Buttercream --- even if she did bring it on herself.  So we have been praying for her to recover quickly in our family prayers.  We also want her to recover because we need her raw milk (and yoghurt and butter)!  Without it, we have learned from experience, we are much more susceptible to whatever is "going around."

My boy helping himself (and his bib) to some creamy raw milk.

This experience has been revealing to me!  Knowing Buttercream, knowing her caretakers, has placed us in a position where we can:

• Be in touch with where our food is coming from --- personally in touch
• Help out where we can (in this case through prayer)
• Experience vulnerability when our food source is threatened, the way almost all of our ancestors have throughout time, and the way many others throughout the world do today.  This is a natural part of the human experience.

Buttercream

 We started drinking raw milk and seeking out other local, truly natural foods for health and environmental reasons.  But I didn't foresee many of the other benefits!  I'll list a few here:

• As I said above, we know exactly what is going on in the production of our food.  I know the details of how Buttercream is being treated for her mastitis, and how her caretakers treat her in general.  She is well-loved, and that makes me feel good about paying for her (dreamy creamy) milk.  I mean...er...paying for the labor of boarding and milking her.
• We know the farmers who raise our meat and eggs as well.  Those whose farms I haven't visited, I will visit soon.  Knowing these farmers, and having met many of these animals, I feel more thankful for the meat placed on our table.  When we bless meals containing meat, I thank the Lord for the animal who gave its life, and feel genuine gratitude in my heart.  Our food is now personal.
• We also are learning many new things by getting local, humanely raised food.  I am learning when certain fruits and vegetables are in season --- things I didn't always know growing up because we can always get anything year round from the supermarket.
• I am also learning that things naturally taste different in different seasons.  For instance, Buttercream's milk was sweeter in August than it is now, since she is eating fall grass which has a more bitter taste.  (Cam has a hard time getting this autumn milk down, because of the bitterness).  Did you know milk and its derivatives will likely taste different depending on the season?  Real orange juice too.

Last week's farmers' market yield, all organic: mixed greens, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, white turnips, pastured eggs, grass-fed beef and liver

I love what I am learning as I understand, and as I am personally acquainted with, the sources of our food.  I love the feeling of solidarity with the farmers who work so hard to produce healthy foods sustainably and with integrity.  I love our new connection to the earth's cycles.  Good health and happiness are the promises of full, rich nutrition.  But knowledge, gratitude, and perhaps a little wisdom, come with it as well.

Tea Party

My little baby, Evelyn, is turning one!  I can hardly believe it.  In honor of the occassion, she is throwing herself a tea party.  Here are the invitations, as she dictated them to me.

In case you can't read them (they were very small because they were for babies), they read:

Dear Colette,

The pleasure of your company is requested at

 A Morning Tea

In honor of my first birthday

Saturday the 28^th of September

At ten o’clock

1234 Anywhere St

Silver Spring, Maryland

You may bring your mother and sister.

Evelyn Bea Marshall

Please arrive promptly, as my attention span for social gatherings is limited.

RSVP regrets to my assistant at: .........@gmail.com

The envelopes I made out of thick brown paper I had.  I did mine free-hand, but you can just carefully take apart an envelope you like and trace it on any paper to create your own custom (cheap) envelope of whatever you have on hand.

For party favors, I'm giving out these little headbands.  The small flowers are for the babies, the bigger ones are for their sisters.  The elastics were from the dollar store, and the fabric was out of some IKEA fabric I found for super cheap in the as-is section.

If the spread proves presentable, I will post a few recipes next week.

Preserving Basil

Last year I waited too long to harvest my basil to save for the winter, so this year I wanted to nip it in the bud (as it were) and get a head start.

A good time to harvest basil is when the bottom leaves start turning yellowish (as shown in the picture).  When that happens, it won't be long until the basil stops producing leaves, followed by the leaves falling off (and they're not very good).

If you have lots of time and not lots of basil, you can just harvest all the big leaves, and leave the little leaves and starts to keep growing.  I just cut off most of it to the ground, leaving only what I thought I would eat the rest of the season.

Picking off the buds of the basil when it's growing will help it produce leaves longer.  If there are flowers left on your basil that you have harvested, you might want to consider leaving them out.  The buds are edible, but the longer they have flowered, the more bitter they are.

Take the leaves off the woody stalk, but don't worry about the tender top of the stalk, it all tastes like basil!

Blend it with some olive oil.  You want it to feel like a slightly damp sponge.  Does that make sense?  

Freeze in an ice cube tray, and enjoy it throughout the winter!