Category: Food

In a bit, I’m headed off to a training in something known as IMM. I’ve had this same adventure before. Now – at this moment – it feels even more relevant.

It has to do with letting go of beliefs that hold us back from the things that matter most. With getting free, if you will, of lots of old stuff that more or less got installed in us like computer bugs in our bodies at times when we didn’t know we could choose our beliefs.

If you’ve been reading along for a bit, you may have noticed that I like having choices.

So, my choice for this moment…

It’s about to be the holiday weekend known in the USA as Thanksgiving. (Also as the excuse for Black Friday buying mania.)

Many, many of us are choosing what to do with the culturally growing realization that the fairy tale version of the first Thanksgiving we learned in school was, to say the least, a rather limited viewpoint.

And, if you’re like me, that feels like a call for some more learning.

And, if you’re like me, you have people you love.

One of those people in my world is the Legendary Husband who LOVES turkey!

So, we’re doing the thankful part and the bird part of the holiday.

Here comes the heresy part…

We’re not doing it the way we’ve always done it!

In fact, we’re starting with a whole different question. (Yep… you can probably guess!)

What are we trying to accomplish?

The answer, at our house, is some time to hang out together. A really good bird. Bones for broth. And – this one is important around here – not messing with Bill’s blood sugar!

All while keeping up with other things that matter and looking forward to what I am now calling the likelihood of Christmas with our kids.

So… my heretical recipe for dry brining the bird. And my confidence that my Grandmother is NOT going to disown me, especially not at this point in her adventure, for doing it differently. Dry brined turkey is really, really good and she’d probably have done it this way if she’d known. Wink! Wink!

And, for what it’s worth, a virtual bit of red ink for you. A reminder that all the stories we’ve learned – many, many of them before we reached the age of abstract thought – have been edited through the years and it’s more than okay if we edit for ourselves.

So celebrate if you choose. Or remember. And, maybe, ask some new questions…

In addition to What are we thankful for? how about What might we do to share our thanks and blessings with others? And, What other stories need telling?

And, yes, we want to stay age appropriate for the littles. No good comes of terrifying them!

Just making space for more stories. And the wonder of a world full of stories to learn!

Now for the bird…

Ingredient Notes: Buy the best you can get. It takes some hunting. Local farmers. Whole Foods. Dean & DeLuca, Zingermans, White Oak Pastures. This year, ours is a Heritage breed bird, pasture raised by my local, sustainable farmer friends at Carlton Farms. I like turkeys in the 18-20 pound range because they fit in my oven and I want lots of bones and leftover meat for soup. I can actually feed 75-100 people from one turkey by making bone broth and using it well! (You can, too!) Thaw bird, if needed, in a fridge. It may take up to 72 hours to thaw a turkey this size. Or, scale down, if desired!

Brining: This is optional but I highly recommend it. I’ve tried both wet and dry brines and I like dry the best. It’s easier, often cheaper, a lot less messy, and ultimately, more effective. And it has no sugar! The purpose is to season the bird, while holding juices in the muscle for a moist, tender turkey, with gorgeous, crispy, perfectly seasoned skin. Wash your hands a lot during the process! You’ll need:

Coarse grey Celtic sea salt

Freshly ground pepper (black or mixed colors)

Dried thyme (or other herbs as desired)

A pan large enough to hold the turkey loosely. (ie Eco-foil from your local supermarket. Nobody’s perfect!)

Mix together in a small bowl: 4 Tbsp. coarse sea salt with 2 Tbsp. ground pepper and 1 1/2 Tbsp crushed, dried thyme, etc., if desired. (You can also do this with just salt, in which case you may need an extra Tbsp. for coverage.) Don’t use regular table or fine grind salt! It leaves a bitter taste and you have to reduce the amount significantly so it’s hard to cover the whole bird without making it too salty.

For an 18-20 pound, thawed turkey, remove any neck and innards. Reserve them for other uses as needed. I freeze the neck, heart, and gizzard for soup stock or feed them to the dogs, if that’s the sort of thing yours are used to. The liver is great for dirty rice and may be frozen, separately. (Or added to the dog feast!) Pat bird dry, inside and out, with paper towels and place bird in pan. (If using foil pan, place that on top of a sheet tray or similar pan for stability.)

Working in the pan, season the dried inside and outside of the bird well with salt mix. Get down around the wings and legs and thighs. Pat and rub. Leave uncovered or cover loosely with parchment paper. Place in fridge, preferably the old one in the basement, and just leave it alone for up to 3 days. I like 18-24 hours. It will be fine. What you’re aiming for with the timing is that miraculous moment when the skin is crispy, the meat is juicy and tender, and the bird is perfectly salted.

You’re well on the way to the best Thanksgiving feast ever!

On Sunday I’ll be back here with roasting directions for Gorgeous, Juicy (Easy) Turkey.

ps… the dry-brining thing also works really well for a nice, farm raised chicken, should you be looking for something less huge. Just scale everything, including time, down accordingly. This is art, not science!

pps… the art is my Forest of Grandmothers work-in-progress. The particular bit in the photo is where I’ve pasted images of my teachers in the heart wood of the tree. Squint… you may see some folks you know!

We’ll start with the miracles. Pie is for dessert!

In a few hours, the Intentional Creativity® adventure known as Vivid will begin. (Well, technically, we began last night with our opening circle and lots of new Sisters!)

This year’s version is called Tapestry, after the miraculous weaving that happens when we gather together and create.

I’m ready! Not just emotionally. Like, actually… in the real world. There’s even a photo! And, yes, this feels like a miracle! (Thanks, Bill!)

You see, there’s been a lot going on. A big part of that is an adventure known as the Get It Done Lab, the brain child of my friend, Sam Bennett and her amazing team. The structure of this adventure – and community – is helping me to, well, get things done!

Here’s what I posted in the group yesterday…

This is, indeed, another miracle! Not simply a free horizontal space – which is amazing enough – but the fact that all the things which were piled on the table have new intentional spaces to be. Spaces where I could, you know, find and use them!

There’s no photo for the next miracle, but there is a story…

An old friend and dear paint peep asked me a question. (You know how I love questions!) And, with some help from the Muse, and very little sleep, I found an answer to that question living deep inside me in the place that’s not quite conscious.

Some paper and markers later, I had a whole lot more conscious awareness AND a visual model of that answer that I could actually share.

And it helped! (Both of us!)

So, why apple pie?

Well, because many of us are planning for Thanksgiving and I come from a family just non-traditional enough to have finally realized we all liked apple better than pumpkin and we got to choose!

So do you! Thus, Mom’s version of apple pie, just in case you’re exploring new choices. It’s really, really good! And, it’s my gift to you.

My Mom’s Apple Pie

This was Dave’s favorite growing up. Great for summer holidays, but also for Thanksgiving, when you can often get superb local apples. Really good fruit pies crack and run a bit when you cut them. This is really good pie!

            MAKES 1 PIE, ABOUT 8 SERVINGS

            [Note on Ingredients: Since pie crust is a very personal thing, I’m going to leave it up to you. You’ll need enough for a 2 crust pie. Organic Granny Smith apples are great, or try local, seasonal, organic apples. You want something crisp and a bit tart.]

            Arrange oven racks so that pie will bake in center of oven.

            Preheat oven to 425 F.

            Prepare pie crust as above or remove purchased crust from fridge to warm.

            Wash, peel, quarter, and core:

                        6-7 organic apples, as above.

            Into large bowl, slice apples into ¼ inch thick slices, so they’ll retain their shape and some texture when cooked. No applesauce, here!

           In separate bowl, mix together:

                        2/3 c. sugar, more or less, depending on sweetness of apples.

                        1 Tbsp. sprouted grain or all purpose flour.

                        1 tsp. ground cinnamon.

            Add dry ingredients to apples and toss to coat.

           Add apple mix to pie pan with bottom crust.

           Dot with small pieces of butter, about 2 Tbsp. total.

           Cover with top crust. Roll and crimp edges to seal.

            With sharp knife, cut 6 slits, about 1 inch long, into top crust to let steam escape. Place pie on a sheet tray to catch any drips. Place in oven and bake 50-60 min. Check after 45 min. or so to see if edges of crust are browning too much. If so, fold strips of foil, about 3 inches wide and curve to arrange over edges. Top should be nicely browned, with bubbles of juice visible at edges of crust and slits in top when done.

            Cool on rack. Serve warm-ish or at room temperature, garnished to taste with:

                      Good vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.

                        Freshly whipped heavy cream.

                        A slice of sharp cheddar cheese.

            Enjoy!

ps… Giving you the gift of Mom’s apple pie also allowed me to Get [this blog] Done a day early so I could be fully present for the gift of Tapestry. I’m so thankful for that. And for you!

pps… The recipe comes from my book, We Gather Together… holiday feasts with the family you have, which has a recipe for pie crust if you need one. OR you could email me and I’ll send you my very best one, from Granny and Mom and me! suesvoice@gmail.com

It began with an email I received a couple of days ago.

“I think of food when I think of you,” it began. “Do you counsel, too?”

My emailed response was simple. “Yes!” (Well, not quite that simple, but you get the drift…)

My internal response was rather more complex.

You see, I’ve been thinking about that very thing a lot, lately.

Specifically, labels for what I do. And how those labels are the same as and different from the tools I use to do what I do.

As you may have noticed, I have a thing for words!

So, fundamentally, I am a Guide. A Coach. A Counselor. Even, according to a quiz I took recently, an Oracle. (Gulp!)

And I have LOTS of tools in my Medicine Basket:

Words. Images. Intentional Creativity®. Flashy stuff like NLP and Enneagram types and Hypnotherapy. Developing Capable People.

And Food. Which is, as I’ve realized in my pondering, one of the most accessible, universal tools in my basket.

Food is an issue for everybody. A different issue, granted, depending on issues like location and culture and degree of privilege.

For today, we’re going with food in families dealing with holiday traditions… not because it’s the only thing, but because it’s often the most emotional thing and a great place for growth.

Awhile back, I wrote a book about this. We Gather Together… holiday feasts with the family you have!

I’ll give you the punchline in a moment. First, a brief story…

The first time I had dinner with Bill’s family, his mom opened a can of green beans and poured them, unheated, into a crystal bowl. She added a silver spoon and set them, with a flourish, on the dining room table.

If I had known, back then, about the ways we filter all the input of our world, I would have been able to explain why it freaked me out so much. At the time, I just began to comprehend Bill’s extreme disinterest in vegetables!

So, tomorrow is the first of October. Food Network is already well into the holiday season. And it’s time, for many of us, to begin to ponder plans for feeding those we love the most in a world that’s gotten a whole lot different since we were kids.

At our house, we start with the food challenges/choices of those who will gather. For us that means two omnivores with strong tendencies toward local, sustainable choices (Dave and me), three pescatarians… fish, yes  – meat, no (Kelly and the girls), and an insulin dependent diabetic (Bill). Plus the varying challenges of gluten and dairy and allergies. And the fact that pretty much everybody wants to help!

All of which should explain why step 2 is so important. It is, as so many of my favorite tools are, a question!

What are we trying to accomplish?

(Here’s where the Guide part starts!)

Using Grandma’s china? Lots of time to play games? Trying something new? (Fill in your answer, here!)

Your real answer! No judgement. It just helps a lot for it to be conscious!

My answer, and my favorite thing about food, is that it’s about belonging and building a sense of capability and significance, especially in the littles.

Hence, the photo of Kenzie, thrilled to be “in charge” of a cheese platter for family game night during a recent holiday visit. She was so proud!

And, yes, my inner Grammy-Guide cried!

There’s an old joke in my family about the Thanksgiving dinner at my folks’ house, with cousins from both sides of the family gathered around the table. We were about 20 minutes into a lovely meal when my Mom suddenly blurted, “I forgot the effing corn! The Pilgrims always had corn!”

Maybe, just maybe, with all due respect, that’s an old story that isn’t quite what we’re trying to accomplish in this moment.

I’m just sayin’…

ps… the book has recipes, too!

You know how you wander around searching for answers, rather like puzzle pieces, and then all of a sudden they start to appear?

This has been one of those weeks!

It feels rather like a good pot of soup. Bits of this. Peels of that. Some leaves of this. Bones of something else.

None of them seem like much on their own.

When you collect them, though, with vision, and put them into a magical cauldron and add a bit of tending and a lot of time, you wind up with something wonder-full that did not exist before!

In this particular pot of metaphorical soup, there are quotes. Here’s one:

Successful people start before they’re ready. (Source unknown)

Just between us, I don’t feel entirely ready for the journey starting to appear before me. And I’m still debating the definition of successful in this particular context.

What I do know is that my archetypal quiz for Grandmothers is about to become real.

I know that kids all over need lots and lots of hope and courage and support in this moment.

And I know that Grandparents, many, many of us, are in particularly good places to offer those things.

(This is where I should say that I love and believe in Grandfathers, too. And Aunts. And Elders of many sorts. It’s just that I know lots more about being a Grandmother! But, please, if you’re reading, know that you’re welcome!)

I also know this:

In order to empower our littles, we need to empower ourselves! (Boardman)

Just like oxygen masks on an airplane!

So, there’s a new book hatching. One that will need some research help. (Stay tuned!)

And some inspiring mugs. Think tea time with your littles.

And some accessible art posters.

And a new riff on a paint adventure, filled with tools for the journey.

For today, though, a question…

What do YOU need to help empower yourself and your family and your community?

Yep, you.

Now.

Because, when it comes right down to it, NOW is what there is and there is work to be done.

Today, we choose to matter in the world. It may be hard, but we are in charge of Hope! (Boardman, Grandmothers’ Manifesta)

ps… new things coming to FierceArtWithHeart in time for Grandparents Day. For now, BIG PROMOTION! The elves will hook you up… 25% off purchases over $100!

pps… so hoping you’ll leave me a comment or email me with your notion of what would be empowering! suesvoice@gmail.com