Joyful thanksgiving, so far from being escapist or sentimental, is on the contrary entirely realistic—but with the realism of one who sees the world in God, as the divine creation.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware | The Orthodox Way
Christ is Risen !!
My girls call this chili soup! So easy to make you almost don’t need a recipe. Leave a comment and let me know how you like it!!
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“Love Christ and put nothing before His Love. He is joy, He is life, He is light. Christ is Everything. He is the ultimate desire, He is everything. Everything beautiful is in Christ.”
Saint Porphyrios : Wounded By Love
These super easy cookies are a tangy delicious treat, and a great addition to the kids lunch. Gluten-free and and naturally sweetened, they are a cinch to make and can be enjoyed baked or raw. The basic cookie dough is a riff off of my lemon zest cookies.
Ingredients
Preparation
Mix all ingredients in food processor and blend until a paste forms. Scoop out dough and shape into balls about one inch in diameter. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake in 250F oven for twenty minutes. Take cookies out and let cool about 20 minutes. Place chocolate chips in a double boiler and melt. Drizzle over cookies. Makes about 30 little cookies.
Everyone as he is able, should try to heal (with kindness) anyone who has something against him.
Saint Basil the Great
The Fathers Speak (p. 55)
It is a cherished tradition bearing the leaven of hope toward the coming year and the further redemption of our time here, in Christ, that Orthodox Christians bake this sweet bread of orange and lemon to ring in the new year.
The bread is called vasilopita which means the sweet bread of basil. It’s namesake is a humble holy bishop Saint Basil the Great whose heart compelled him during a time of famine to help the poor. It was a time of merciless and unfair taxation. The Bishop confronted the emperor who had levied the tax, calling him to repentance for the harsh burden he placed upon the people.
Amazingly, the emperor did repent and he returned the gold and jewelry that had been taken from the townspeople. Basil and the villagers offered thanksgiving prayers after which the Holy Bishop commissioned women to bake and place the gold coins into a sweet bread which were then distributed. Miraculously each family found in their bread, their own valuables which had been collected as part of the taxation.
Today, the vasilopita is baked in memory of that miracle forged by God and Saint Basil’s faith, love and shepherding of his people. Each year on January 1st– the date on which St. Basil reposed in the Lord , Orthodox Christians observe the tradition of the Vasilopita. The recipient of the coin is considered especially blessed.
This is the first year our family has ever made the vasilopita. There are many regional variations to the bread, yet a taster will find that all of the recipes are sweet and authentic!
This particular recipe is adapted from my “go to” Greek Cookbook by Aglaia Kremezi The Foods of the Greek Islands. She gives a rich history of her recipes and I appreciate her anecdote that butter and eggs were luxuries in Greece during times past. What I love about the old way of Greek cooking is that by using the brandy the texture of the flour totally changes into a nice bread texture. There is no yeast in this bread, instead the brandy adds to the leaven quality of the dough.
Ingredients
Recipe
Preheat oven to 375F.
Grease a 10 – 12 inch springform pan
In a large bowl beat egg yolks, zest and sugar (this releases the essential oils from the zest) for about three minutes.
Add butter and beat for an additional minute
Add orange juice and brandy, beat until it is incorporated.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. This makes sure that you will not have any clumps of the baking powder and baking soda but that it will be totally distributed.
Add to the liquid mixture and stir until incorporated.
In separate bowl (I actually use a mason jar with a hand held electric stick mixer so that it does not splatter everywhere) whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour batter into the greased springform pan.
Place clean coin (my daughter found a euro coin for one and a dime for another)
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour until gold brown.
Decorate with almonds and/ or powdered sugar.
May we all be especially blessed in the coming New Year!
What do children have that we adults are missing? First of all, they have a capacity for wonder and innocent joy, which in adults is tainted by cynicism and sinfulness. Secondly, they are capable of complete trust, which ends up being choked by the thorns of adulthood. And thirdly, they possess absolute humility. These childlike characteristics— wonder, joy, faith, humility— should be our response to the Nativity.
Vassilios Papavassiliou
Meditations for Advent; Preparing for Christ’s Birth
This icon of “Let the Children Come To Me” was given to me from my mom (in law) just the other day… .
Several years ago – maybe in 2014 – our homeschool group met the iconographer who was writing this very icon (this is a replica). At the time it was a huge canvas work in progress hanging on the wall of a building at our local monastery.
The iconographer gave our kids a great talk about iconography and this particular icon.
I’ll never forget when my youngest daughter who was 8 or 9 years old at the time – raised her hand and said “I don’t have a question – it’s just that I noticed that the people in icons never smile with their mouths – but they always smile with their eyes.”
This icon brought with it a wonderful memory and a good word back to me and I am truly grateful for the God timing of it all.
A few years prior I had two encounters with homeless people, who touched me very deeply, not only with their merciful words of abundant blessing, but with also the depth of their eyes – overwhelming me with the presence of the Love of God. At the time I had wanted to stay with them, Ernie and Mariam, for longer than I did.
That Love, which is the thread of Christ binding all humanity can only save the world if we cultivate it in our hearts.
If not now, then when? Why not tend it this season of preparation for the Nativity?
With prayer and fasting in the Lenten spring, the Christian clears the self’s soil of stony sin and makes rooms within for the birth within of the pierced heart and bleeding flesh of Jesus. “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26) Our love and labor along with God’s grace can make even the poorest stony soil grow round red beets, sweet hearts of flesh. Vigen Guroian – Inheriting Paradise : Meditations on Gardening
Healing foods : tonight I am making my family an Indian dish called Kitchari – pronounced kitch-r-ree. It is fast friendly, and aside from that it is an alkalizing nutrient rich meal which is so easy to digest and brings balance to the body. It is very good for anyone suffering intestinal discomfort. It is traditionally vegetarian, but one can use chicken or bone broth instead of vegetable broth.
KITCHARI
1 cup basmati rice – rinsed
1 cup mung bean dal (split yellow) 6 cups fresh organic spinach
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 inch piece fresh peeled minced ginger
4-6 cups water, vegetable broth or homemade bone broth
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil
1 can coconut milk
Preparation
Soak Mung Dal overnight. This makes them easier to digest. .
Place ghee and seeds in large skillet over medium heat. Once seeds start to pop and are fragrant add remaining spices and ginger.
Add rice and beans stirring to coat. Do this quickly to avoid burning. .
Add liquid (bone broth, veggie stock and/or water)
Bring to a boil and lower heat. Co we with lid and cook for 45-60 minutes. .
Add spinach and coconut milk. .
Stir to wilt spinach. Add salt and stir. .
This recipe makes 4-6 servings.
The lentil and rice combination makes for a complete protein. It stabilizes blood sugar and helps the body detoxify. It is so easy to digest that it soothes the intestinal wall.
To no longer live exclusively for myself, but for God, also means that I now live for my neighbor, loving him as myself. + Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
My kids often want a sweet during Great Lent. But I also try to keep sugar to a minimum.
Did you know that sugar is actually a toxin to the body,and robs you of minerals (1 molecule of sugar takes over 50 molecules of magnesium to digest!). But most relevant to us about sugar, with two in the house recovering from Chronic Lyme, is that sugar is an immune suppressant. Not only does sugar compete with vitamin C for valuable space within your white blood cells. It has been shown that 1 tablespoon of sugar reduces immunity for hours after consumption.
We have modified our fasting for Great Lent – due to the Lyme and some threats from the doctor. My doctor said that I am so aenimic due to one of the coinfections of the Lyme that she threatened me with IV iron. (I have resorted to my least favorite food – liver – but just a few bites a day. It’s all I can bear. The iron pills were not raising my numbers sufficiently and despite the taste, I feel better after eating the liver. Just more proof – and in no way strange – that God made always nourishes better than man made.)
Other than that we are mostly adhering to a very vegetarian Paleo diet.
We tried this Super moist orange laden chocolate cake yesterday, which you can find at Strictly Delicious. It is definitely “strictly delicious” and beyond yummy. I have to share on their behalf.
Normally I cut back the sugar in every recipe but found it wasn’t necessary to reduce it one bit in this cake.
This dessert is fasting and family friendly. We will be making it again!
He became man and lived in this world. He ate and drank, and this means that the world of which he partook, the very food of our world became His body, His life. But His life was totally, absolutely eucharistic—all of it was transformed into communion with God and all of it ascended into heaven. And now He shares this glorified life with us. “What I have done alone—I give it now to you: take, eat.…”
~
Alexander Schmemann
If one intends to raise chickens, it’s a great thing to love eggs! This spring our family acquired eight hens and as of now, we harvest six eggs a day, on average. That’s 42 eggs a week. So we are now gladly sourcing recipes with eggs!
This potato gallette is a really easy weeknight meal. It’s savory with a hint of herbs from the garden. Our egg yolks are so absolutely vibrantly orange (like the old fashioned red orange crayola color) it’s abundantly clear they are packed with choline, folate, vitamin A, vitamin E, tons of beta-carotene and plenty of omega-3 fats from the flax we feed them and the free range forage they enjoy. If your interested in how the life and diet of a hen reflect in the nutrient content of her eggs, check out these results from Mother Earth News.
Before we begin, a note on the potatoes. If you are using fresh potatoes, that have not hint of green on them (like right under the peel) then do not peel the potatoes… lots of good nutrition there. If however, your potatoes where not stored well and they have that green you can either peel the parts with the green or peel the entire potato. My grandmother, who grew up in Germany during a time of root cellars, world wars and no refrigeration always told me that the green on the potatoes is poisonous. You can read more about it here in this short article in the New York times. Storing potatoes properly is very important. They will begin to sprout depending on light and temperature. GrowAGoodLife has a great article on potato storage.
Ingredients:
Preparation
Using a mandolin, slice potatoes about 1/8 of an inch. Place in a very large bowl, sprinkle with salt, pepper and about three tablespoons of olive oil. This coats them so they will not stick on pan.
Drizzle olive oil to cover the bottom of a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Place potatoes in pan and cook them in batches. You should not hear a searing sizzle, we are just par-cooking them. They should not be turning color, and should not be soft so that they break when you remove them. After each batch place potatoes in another large bowl.
While these are cooking, you want to crack your eggs and beat them in a small bowl. Add herbs and a little more salt.
Once all potatoes are done, add the onions and garlic to the pan. Saute till softened and fragrant, but not browned. Rinse the skillet. Add egg mixture to potatoes and toss well to coat.
Coat bottom of skillet with oil again and place over medium high heat. Add in potato mixture. Do NOT stir or move the mixture.
Let it cook for about ten to fifteen minutes. The sides will start to pull away from the pan. Again we are not going for a high heat because we want them to cook evenly and thoroughly – as well as get a nice brown on the potatoes.
Okay, now for the fancy flip.
After about ten minutes you can start to tease the side of the galette away from the pan, if it is not starting to do so. At this point you will want to get a plate so you can flip the galette. The plate needs to be bigger than your pan.
Take the skillet off of the burner. Carefully, place the plate a top of the skillet. With your hand on top of the plate turn the skillet upside down so that the potato galette falls out of the skillet and onto the plate. Now you can slide the galette back into the skillet to brown on the other side.
Let this cook another five to ten minutes until browned. Remove from skillet and place on serving dish. Garnish with more fresh herbs if desired.
Serve and enjoy. This makes a great leftover meal as the flavors continue to melt together as time goes on!
Do not say “this happened by chance, while this came to be of itself.” In all that exists there is nothing disorderly, nothing, indefinite, nothing without purpose, nothing by chance…. How many hairs are on your head? God will not forget one of them. Do you see how nothing, even the smallest thing, escapes the gaze of God? ~Saint Basil the Great
During the summer, we crave salads. They are a nice cool addition to any meal, or can be served as a meal on their own. You simply can not “beet” the simplicity of a garden beet salad. These particular beets are gems straight from our garden, but any from the store or farmer’s market will do. We planted these in early spring.
I actually hadn’t planned to harvest them, but I accidentally pulled one out while weeding… it looked so good, that we harvested the rest from that bed! Beets have a sweet earthy flavor, and are a mineral rich nutritional powerhouse. They have more iron than spinach, and are an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, and phosphorous. They’re also packed with choline, folic acid, iodine, manganese, organic sodium, potassium, fiber and carbohydrates (in the form of natural easily digestible sugars). Quite simply, they are superfood.
One great benefit of the beet is that is alkalizing to the body and that’s great news in a nation with a standard diet that is acid forming. Beets are a stimulator of liver health. They also have many cardiovascular benefits. They can be helpful in reducing cholesterol and their rich potassium content benefits blood pressure. Fermented drinks like beet kvass have been known throughout history as a blood tonic. And the list goes on. Some studies have also shown that beets are preventative for skin, lung and colon cancer, they support the structure of our capillaries, and can also aid in the slowing or prevention of macular degeneration.
Beets, they do a body good!
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350F and place beets on a cookie sheet. Top loosely with foil and place oven for about an hour. They should be tender.
Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool, using the edge of a knife or a vegetable peeler, peel of the outer skin of the beet. Your hands will get very red!
Next, cut the beets into bite sized pieces. Place all ingredients into your favorite salad bowl and toss lightly to incorporate.
Delicious!
Additional Resources
“Water falls from heaven as rain, and while it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so on, throughout the whole of creation. It does not descend, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same, it adapts to the needs of every creature that receives it. In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions grace to each person as He wills. Like a dry tree which puts forth shoots when watered, the soul brings forth the fruit of holiness when repentance makes it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, the effects of His action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvelous.” Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
It’s “bean” a while since writing on the blog. This past year beckoned reprioritizing – faith, family, homeschool and also really to focus on completing my Master’s Degree. No, I am not done, but almost! Yay!
We’ve also been battling Lyme disease in this home and I tell you, it is formidable – and affects everyone different! Lord have mercy. It really turned our lives upside down. However, all signs are that my loved one is almost done with treatment and that is a tremendous blessing.
In many ways, the year of Lyme Disease has been a blessing too… just in it’s very own way.
That aside, it’s also “bean” a long time since I have made a bean salad, but since the farmer’s market this week was so plentiful with green beans – I brought home a whole bunch!
This salad is a riff on that old picnic favorite the “three bean salad”. What I like so much about this is that the beans are green and crunchy, unlike the one I remember from my youth with watery faded green canned beans. You could easily make this with wax beans or a combination of string beans too.
Ingredients:
For the preparation, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the trimmed and cut green beans. You only need to cook them for 3-5 minutes or less. Test them to make sure they are still crunchy and retain that bright green color. Once done, immediately place them into a bowl of cold water. This will stop the cooking process.
Drain the beans in a collander and put them into your salad bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and toss well. Salt and pepper to taste.
You can make this the day before, the flavors just get better and better over night! Great for a picnic and for any summertime meal!
“The kingdom of heaven is not a reward for works, but a gift of grace prepared by the Master for His faithful servants.
Saint Mark the Ascetic
This simple to prepare clam chowder is a favorite during the cold months of winter. It’s a quick meal that warms and nourishes through and through. It is a great choice for Cheesefare Week – which is just around the corner! Since it is not a thick clam chowder, so there is no need to go through the trouble of a rue. The clam juice in the can is enough for the broth. For the clams, we get the two pack of the really giant can of clams from Costco. It makes a big batch of soup, and the leftovers store well for about three days in the fridge, but I will often freeze the leftovers and bring them out for supper the following week.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
In large pot, saute onions in olive oil or ghee, over medium heat, until translucent – about five minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Add potatoes and cook for ten minutes. Add thyme and stir well. Continue cooking until thyme is fragrant -about five more minutes.
Add clam broth and clams. Bring to a simmer. Add milk & cream and cook on very low for another five minutes.
Top with parsley and bacon (if using).
No duty is more urgent, than that of returning thanks.
Saint Ambrose
gladsomelife.com 
