Another beautiful Sunday has come to an end, and it has been so special that I want to tell you all about it. I could not have imagined a better way to celebrate the arrival of September, and the wrapping up of such a glorious hot Summer than the one we are about to say goodbye to this year.

In my hometown, Lucca, every early September is held a Flower festival called Murabilia, the event takes place on the medieval city walls that surrounds the city center. Farmers, growers of all kinds, pottery artists, expose, and sell their creations. Here you can find the most amazing variety of flowers, plants, trees, and bushes; the most uncommon fruits, salves, unguents, and shamanic remedies, decorative flowers, as well as curative ones, hand-made candles, soaps, handcrafted cheese, enormous pumpkins of all shapes and colors, and the hardest to find spices.

Spices are essential for the preparation of most dishes, and they characterize the flavor and taste of any cuisine, they add spice, tangyness, depth to any food or drink. Spices are very important also for their health benefits, they not only improve the taste but they also make any food better for you. In these last few years, spices like turmeric and ginger, have been rediscovered and they are used heavily by health conscious people. When I think of ginger and turmeric I cannot help it but think of Golden Milk, an ancient Ayurvedic beverage with incredible health benefits.

Golden Milk 

Golden milk is a wonderful beverage to have in the evening and the benefits are extraordinary. The main ingredient in this exceptional milk recipe is turmeric, with its long list of health benefits, some of them include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties, but the list goes on an on. This miraculous beverage is helpful for weight management, liver detoxifier, and to heal various skin conditions, among the many other things.

Step 1: Turmeric Paste

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of turmeric powder

1/2 tsp of ground pepper

1/2 cup of filtered water

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in a small pan and mix well. Turn the heat to medium high and stir constantly until the mixture is a thick paste. Make sure the paste does not stick to the bottom of the pan, pay close attention, since it does not tak long. Let this mixture cool and then keep it in a small jar in the fridge.

Step 2: Golden Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk

1 tsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1/4 tsp (more or less) of turmeric paste

Honey to taste

Directions: 

Combine all the ingredients, except honey in a saucepan. Turn the heat to medium. While heating stir constantly and do not allow the mixture to boil. Add honey to taste, do not heat the honey.

Walking among all these beauty, good smells, amazing colors and abundance of all sorts, fills you with joy. Wherever you look there are stunning images that capture your eyes, like this braided garlic I posted above. Garlic is another food with infinite healing powers and health benefits. It is, for instance, a rich source of phytochemicals, this plant chemicals are thought to ward off disease and help boost the immune system, lower the risk of many health conditions, including heart disease and certain kinds of cancer.

Roasted Garlic

Garlic is a favorite of many, its strong round flavor adds  deliciousness to any dish.

Garlic was known and abundantly used by ancient civilizations. The Egyptians would give generous portions of it to the workmen engaged in the building of the pyramids for strength and protection against diseases. Garlic is known to help with colds and to clear bronchitis.

Garlic, cayenne and ginger cooked in chicken broth is a wonderful food to prepare for someone who has a cold.

To prepare roasted garlic you’ll need a garlic roaster, which is a small terracotta container made up of a dish and a dome that goes over it. This is an article easy to find in kitchen stores, but in case you prefer, a small cast iron pan with a lid will also work.    

Roasted garlic is  easy to prepare, good for you, and exquisite!

1 Garlic head

olive oil         

Preheat the oven at 425. Take the garlic head and cut off the pointy top just a bit in order to cut the top of the cloves off. Set the garlic in the cooker and pour some olive oil over it, making sure that some oil dribbles amongst the cloves. Set the dome or lid over the garlic and bake for 20-25 minutes. Periodically check the garlic. It can be considered ready when garlic is soft, you can check poking one of the cloves with a knife.  Serve as a spread on some freshly baked bread sprinkled with smoked black pepper and  salt or with raw vegetables, or in any other way that might tickle your fancy! Add some hot if you wish for hot thrills!

Here are just a few ideas that I  have been inspired by during  my visit to Mirabilandia. This is just the beginning of a great week together full of great recipes to try out and to connect to our innate creative self! Enjoy!.

Today I woke up weary with thoughts, and for once, food is not the only thing on my mind. I decided to sit down and start writing as this always helps me sort out questions, bring back the sunshine and put me back in alignment with the Universe. As I previously mentioned in one of my blogs, I usually connect with my best inspiration when I am creating something with my hands and let my mind rest, then I feel the light of inspiration and creativity come through me like a shiver along my spine.

One day as I was mixing my sourdough bread I started thinking about the introduction for the book I am planning on writing: what is this book going to be about, what is it  going to be its message, how can I convey at best, and how can I put into words this burning fire, that I feel right here in the middle of my chest? In the last few years most best-selling books have been by women, mostly in their thirties, who go through a crisis, and change their life to go towards a life that validates them, a life that makes them feel closer to their Goddess within. Do we really have to leave what traditionally has been associated with “womaness” to affirm ourselves? What does it mean to be a woman today? Why is it that so often marriage becomes a cage and a trap for women, in which it becomes so hard to preserve our sensual femininity and individuality. How are the needs and life of women, as providers of the sacred home, changed since the feminist revolution? How are men and women going to face and change to become fulfilled, inspired individuals and therefore better partners for each other in order to convert “the cage” into a “heavenly garden” from which to share and savor the fruits together?

“Heavenly garden” is a beautiful metaphor that helps us look at our homes as the place where we rest, nourish ourselves and  our loved ones, physically and spiritually. View the home as the family’s sanctuary and the woman as the queen, the fulfilled mother and the sensual partner for her king. Can this Man and Woman create the best possible environment in which children will grow up to be wonderful, loving human beings?

“Nothing less than strength, boldness, a sense of adventure, insight, courage, and leadership joined with gentleness, sensitivity, caring, kindness, and understanding will see us into the future”. According to Don and Jeanne Elium’s words in their book called “Raising a Son”, these should be the requisites of the future individual, the one that will be apt to prosper and bloom in the future society. I could keep talking about all this for hours, about the transformation that all of us shall undergo in order to evolve with the time we live in, from a female point of view how we shall sublimate our role as mothers, wifeves, daughters and how this would affect the currently terribly suffering modern family. But time is precious and my loaf of sourdough bread is ready to come out of the oven for today’s dinner. Along with it, and with some fresh tomato pasta, I’ll serve for my family some yummy home-made and home-grown French fries with home-grown garlic and sage. Enjoy the recipe below!

Savory Sage French Fries

I learned this recipe from my grandmother Liliana. Her fries were always very crunchy and delicious! My mother has been preparing this dish for years , with her own touch. Her potatoes are cut in bigger pieces, and while the outside is crunchy the inside is soft and velvety…mine are somewhere in between!

Ingredients:

5 big or 6 small potatoes   

20 leaves of fresh sage

5 cloves garlic

3/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Pour the olive oil in a cast iron skillet, let the oil warm up before you throw the potatoes in, in this way the potatoes will not soak up too much oil before they actually start to cook.

Let them cook on medium high flame. Let them be for 5 to ten minutes, trying not to stir at first, if too hot lower the heat. Once the fries are browned on the edge of one side, you can delicately stir them a few times until tender. After you stir the first time you may turn the flame down to medium. When they are a few minutes from being done, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

If you are a fan of fancy salts, like pink Himalayan salts or black volcanic salt this recipe gives you a good chance to use them!