Whiteley Creek Homestead

Ooooooooh… this drink made with homemade walnut milk is so very good! Two dainty flowers, plucked from my front porch stepping stone walkway to provide a pop of color, is all it needed. I have been reading Rawsome! by Brigitte Mars and have been hanging out in her recipe section for a while, building my repertoire of raw recipes.

Nut Nog

The bananas produce a thick and luscious consistency and the nutmeg and cinnamon provide a flavor reminiscent of holiday eggnog.

1 quart homemade nut milk (I used walnut, but any nut or seed milk will do.)

¼ cup dates, soaked for 20 minutes

3 bananas

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp turmeric

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend well.

Note: The turmeric, which contains the antioxidant curcumin, has anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antifungal properties. It is an excellent herb for arthritis, asthma, candida infection, eczema, jaundice, and high cholesterol. It stimulates wound healing and works as an anticoagulant. Turmeric gives skin healthy color and texture by purifying the blood. Walnuts are a good source of protein, vitamin E, calcium, potassium, and zinc. The shape and color of foods have a correlation to the food's health benefits. A walnut, for example, is shaped like our brain and is considered brain food. Walnuts are acidifying, as are other nuts, except almonds, so they should not be eaten in large quantities.     

After soaking dried fruit to make yesterday's jam, I needed a use for the sweet soak water, so I decided to use it to sweeten homemade almond milk. 

 
While I was at it, why not make several kinds of nut and seed milks? So, I soaked 1 cup each of walnuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts (aka filberts), raw sunnies, and sesame seeds in water overnight (enough to cover + a little more to allow room for swelling). In the morning, I drained and discarded the soak water (or you can use it to water your plants), then rinsed the nuts and seeds several times.

 
To make almond milk, combine soaked almonds, 1 quart water, and 1 tbsp honey or 2 dates (soaked for 20 minutes) in a blender and liquefy. (I chose instead to sweeten the milk with 1 cup dried fruit soak water leftover from yesterday's jam + 3 cups water.) Strain the liquid through a nut milk bag or sprout bag by setting the bag in a strainer to drain or squeeze the bag with your hands. Save the pulp for other recipes. Store milk and pulp in the refrigerator where it will keep for four to five days. Use these same directions to make other kinds of nut and seed milks. Note: The bag I used (shown in photo above) is a Sproutman sprout bag made of 100% hemp. It allows me to remove virtually all moisture from the pulp. Do an online search for nut milk bags and sprout bags and you will find many different styles. 

 
This is what the pulp looks like. In upcoming posts, I will share some deelish recipes using the nut and seed milks, as well as the pulp.  

I purchase dried fruit in bulk, so when my eyes fell upon a recipe in a book titled Rawsome! by Brigitte Mars, I set about soaking raisins, figs, and apricots…

 
to make a no-fuss dried fruit jam.

Dried Fruit Jam

½ cup raisins

½ cup dried figs

½ cup unsulphured dried apricots

1/8 tsp ground cloves + 1/8 tsp cinnamon (These are my additions… nice flavor.)

Soak fruit overnight in a small amount of water (just enough to cover). Blend the fruit in a blender, adding just enough of the soak water to reach a jamlike consistency. (It requires very little.) Store the jam in the refrigerator, where it will keep for about two weeks. 

This is my grain mill that provides me with freshly ground flour. It's so very simple. Scoop the grain into the hopper on top and set the dial for the desired flour consistency from fine to coarse. The milled flour is sent into the bottom container.

The gallon jars contain (L to R) organic hulled barley for barley flour and oat groats for oat flour. The measuring cups hold (L to R) soft white and hard white wheat berries that I scooped from 25 lb bags. Whole wheat pastry flour is made from soft white wheat berries. Whole wheat flour is made from hard white wheat berries. I also regularly grind rye and spelt berries, hulled white buckwheat groats, and hulled millet. Look at the beautiful flour the grain mill produces!

Why grind your own flour? Isn't it just as good to buy a bag of whole grain flour? It's certainly a better choice than white flour which has all of the fiber, germ, and bran removed and up to 98% of the vitamins and minerals followed by a bleaching and enriching process in a lame, futile attempt to replace the nutrients that were removed. If purchasing whole grain flour, stoneground is a good choice because the heat generated in the standard commercial milling process can destroy many of the vitamins and minerals. So why bother grinding your own? When grain has been broken open in the milling process and exposed to air, the nutritional value declines rapidly. The taste. The freshness. There is no comparison to buying flour that has been sitting on the store's shelf and who knows how long in a warehouse. Did I mention how much fun it is to grind flour in your own kitchen? …and it only takes minutes.   

A couple evenings ago, I went to my friend Connie's home for a Norwex Enviro Products presenation. Considering that the company's focus is "improving quality of life by radically reducing the use of chemicals in personal care and cleaning", Connie appropriately chose to make this healthy granola because clean living includes what we consume, as well. It was so so good, so I made the recipe today. I spied these snow cone cups and holders at Target a couple years ago, so I repurposed them.

Connie’s Granola

In a large bowl, mix together:

2 ½ cups regular oats (not instant)

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup wheat germ

1 cup coconut

¼ cup sesame seeds

½ cup slivered almonds (I was out, so I subbed chopped walnuts.

Spread in an even layer in a jelly roll pan. Bake at 300° for 20 minutes turning halfway through to toast evenly. Heat in a heavy bottom saucepan:

4 tbsp butter

½ cup honey

¼ cup brown sugar (I omitted, since the honey and dried fruit supply perfect sweetness.)

2 tsp vanilla

½- 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins

Stir into dry ingredients. 

Here's a very light, fluffy, tender pancake using a recipe that I got from the Little Falls (Minnesota) Food Co-op years ago. I don't think the co-op exists anymore. I ground my own wheat berries minutes before mixing up the batter, so they tasted especially fresh. I am hooked on pancakes. They really are a very nutritious breakfast if you use whole grains and opt for toppings of fresh fruit and yogurt with a little drizzle of real maple syrup.

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

Beat 1 egg, 2 tbsp oil (I used 1 tbsp), and 1 cup buttermilk. Whisk together  ¾ cup whole wheat flour, ¼ cup wheat germ, 1 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp baking powder. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until combined. Don’t overmix. Heat griddle to 350°. Using ¼ cup measuring cup for each pancake, pour batter onto griddle. Note: If you want to experiment, this recipe can be a jumping off point for substituting a variety of flours in place of the whole wheat.

It's amazing the things one learns no matter what age. Slicing apples is not a difficult task, but to make it even easier and get prettier slices, do this. Use an apple corer to remove the center seed section. With the stem end facing up, cut the apple down the middle into two halves. Place the cut side down on a cutting board. Cut the apple into slices crosswise.

 
I needed apple slices to make Apple-Raisin Kanten, a recipe in The Macrobiotic Way by Michio Kushi. It's such a simple, refreshing jelled dessert with no sweetener other than what the apples, apple juice, and raisins provide. It is thickened with agar-agar, a gelatinous substance derived from a sea vegetable.

Apple-Raisin Kanten

4 unpeeled apples, sliced

1 quart (4 cups) apple juice

pinch sea salt

½ cup raisins

5 tbsp agar-agar flakes

Place all ingredients in a pot and stir until combined. Bring to a boil then reduce flame to low. Simmer for several minutes until apples are soft but still have firmness. Pour into a casserole dish, square glass cake pan, or mold. Refrigerate until jelled, about one hour. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Note: Kanten is a jelled dessert made from agar-agar.