This is Halloween, Halloween, HALLOWEEN!

And so it comes... my most favoritest of favorite days of the year!

Halloween has always been a magical day for me.  I love the fact that on this one day, everyone I meet has a perfectly valid excuse to be incredibly silly.  Some take advantage of it by reclaiming their childhood love of playing "dress up".  Others indulge their hidden mean-streak with a few practical jokes and scares.  And yet others choose to act out a fantasy, and to become someone who, perhaps, we secretly wish we could really be.

This year, for one night, I am going to be....

Boudica, Celtic warrior queen, enraged woman and mother, freedom-fighter, and ruthless killer.


I shall enter the Philadelphia Experiment Halloween Ball with my head held high. 

I am tribal royalty! 
I am a woman, full of fire and fury, who will fight to the death to avenge the rape of my daughters, the abuse of my body, and the oppression of my people. 
While I breathe, no Roman man, woman, or child who meets my path shall survive. 
Crude we may be, peasants and farmers... but as a people we are strong, and together we will bite back at the cruel hands of the Roman tormentors who seek to silence us. 
Our course of destruction will be as wild as the wind... our warpath guided by the running of a wild hare and the will of our Goddess of Victory. 
London will burn.
The Thames will run red.
I will have my revenge.





Oh hells yeah.

Edit: here are photos of our costumes!

Mushrooms

I wish that I had another lifetime in which to study mycology. The world of fungi is so fascinating and full of mystery! And how much better can it get than to spend your "work day" foraging through the woods? They come in so many different shapes, sizes, and colors... a single colony of fungi can have dozens of different personalities in its fruiting bodies. Take this one, for example:

I spotted this adorable little family growing in Rickett's Glen last July.  See the camera-shy, self-conscious teenager hiding behind little sister on the right-hand side?  The overbearing father in the rear left?  And we can't forget the plump, always-worried mother in front, who has neglected her own health and happiness in her attempts to manage her family.

Not only are they fascinating to look at, but many are nutritious and delicious too (but not the ones pictured above, mind you... they look something like the Amanita "Death Cap" mushroom, but I never fully identified them...)!  I am a firm believer in the idea that many species of edible fungi have amazing medicinal properties.  Let's talk about chaga.  This has to be one of my favorite mushrooms.  It grows on wounds in the trunks of birch trees, looks like a nasty black/brown tumor, but acts as a sort of sterile dressing for the tree's wound.  This reciprocal relationship won my heart over before I'd even tasted chaga... but then I learned that it is quite tasty when the dried fungus is brewed as a "chai" tea, or when mixed in with coffee and brewed in french press, and I truly fell in love.  This species has been shown to have immune-stimulating and cancer-fighting effects.  It has become part of my daily diet.

There are entire volumes out there detailing the medicinal properties of mushrooms, and I could not nearly do them justice here.  Some of the best are "Medicinal Mushroom" by Christopher Hobbs and "Adaptogens" by David Winston.  So read up and decide for yourself if you can fit a little extra fungus in your day... and perhaps this recipe (one of my all-time favorites) that I got from a mycologist named Terry-Anye Hayes will tempt your palette in the meantime...

Mushroom Tempeh

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a deep fry pan.  Slice a package of tempeh into 1/4" strips, and saute until lightly browned.  Set aside. 

Boil a good few handfuls of red skinned potatoes until cooked through (but not mushy!), chop into quarters and set aside.

Select an assortment of tasty fresh mushrooms, like shitake, oyster, or morel (if you have fresh morels, I ENVY YOU).  Saute these in butter over medium-low heat until cooked through, for at least 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, chop a bunch of scallions or one medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic (or more!!), and a leek or fennel bulb if you have some handy.  Saute in olive oil until soft. 

Toss in the potatoes and tempeh, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste, and cook until the potatoes are nicely browned and crisp.  Serve the cooked mushrooms on top, and prepare to writhe with pleasure. 

Post-grad musings on books and motherhood.

This is the first time in my life that I cannot describe myself as a "student". Even during my breif hiatus from nursing school while I switched schools, I studied under Maia Toll at the Apothecary Garden in her Community Herbalist Training (http://www.theapothecarygarden.com/). Now, I find myself in a somewhat disquieting place in which I feel like I am not moving forward. This under-employed purgatory I am trapped in while I wait to take my state boards and find a nursing job is wearing on my self-image. I am a "do-er", I am constantly in motion, I am a list-maker and a goal-setter. I have defined myself by what I do, and what I aim to do. Now I feel rather aimless, and while I impatiently wonder what I'm going to do next, those long-term ambitious goals of mine aren't getting any closer .



In order to remedy this feeling, I am turning to books. I am accepting this place as an opportunity to seek out cerebral stimulation in the areas of life that have been neglected during my years of "official" study. For as long as I can remember, I have been an avid reader. I recall spending many a sleepless night as a child, hunkered down in my bunk bed with a flashlight and a book. My thirst for books has been quenched over the past several years mostly by textbooks as I studied for nursing school. Since I graduated, I have been enjoying the freedom to read for pleasure once again.

I am currently reading:


-"Odd and the Frost Giants", a new children's book by Neil Gaiman. My boyfriend Jeremiah and I have been taking turns reading chapters aloud to one another. It's adorable, and full of the "omgosh, did he really write that? In a KID'S book?" moments that I've come to expect from Neil Gaiman.  Full of Norse mythology, humor and great characters. 


-"Hood" by Stephen Lawhead. So far I'm not terribly impressed. It seems to be the classic story of the spoiled good-for-nothing son of royalty being forced into manhood and leadership by tragedy, and the spiritual gurus he meets along his journey. It's just interesting enough to keep me reading it, but I'm not getting lost in it the way I did the "Albion" books.


My current wishlist of books includes:


-"Botany in a Day" by Thomas J. Elpel. This is the go-to botany book that has been recommended to me by many wildcrafters and herbalists. I have always struggled with keying out plants using field guides, and feel like a good basic understanding of the concepts of botany would help. I plan on reading it over the winter to learn the concepts, then again in the spring while using it in practice.

-"Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall. I heard about this book on NPR when they interviewed the author. It's all about barefoot running in native tribes and in modern times... which is a skill I'd eventually like to learn, as running has always been extremely painful for my joints. After listening to the author's story, I found myself wondering if this pain isn't just a "natural" and unavoidable side effect of running, but rather a result of running shoes that do nothing except force me further away from the natural form of movement my body should be taking when I run.

-"Too Close for Comfort?: Questioning the Intimacy of Today's New Mother-Daughter Relationship" by Susan Shaffer and Linda Gordon. An investigation into the dynamics of the relationships between mothers and daughters nowadays... profiling the different modern archetypes of mothers and how their behaviors shape women's lives.
This book interests me right now not only because of a desire to heal and strengthen my relationship with my own mother. This past summer, my 22 year old cousin died in her sleep. Recently, my family received a letter from her mother (my cousin) with thanks for attending the memorial service. I found it curious that a large focus of the letter was on the "friendship" between mother and daughter, and how they used to go out drinking at bars together and be "mistaken for sisters". This concept of being more of a "friend" than a mother disturbs me, and raises questions about how my generation is going to "mother" their daughters when they lacked a "mother" role model in their own childhoods.

To Warm the Cockles of Your Heart...

I just got news that snow is falling just a few hours west of me in Central Pennsylvania.  We are getting saturated with a miserable, cold, grey rain in my neck of the woods, and my poor chickens are shaking the water from their feathers and hiding beneath their coop.  Today is the perfect kind of day to stay home, read a book, and cook up something for dinner that will warm you down to your toes.

It has only been in recent years that I've developed a taste for "hot" or "spicy" foods.  Having grown up in a house with a father from Texas, the only "spice" I knew was Frank's Red Hot Sauce on tacos.  Since making the choice to eat a pescatarian diet, however, my palette has expanded exponentially, and I've come to enjoy foods that make me break out into a sweat.  This colorful vegan dish will clear out your sinuses and fill your home with a most delicious fragrance.

Spicy Squash Coconut Curry

Heat 3 tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large saute pan.  Add 1tbsp of minced fresh ginger, 1tbsp of minced fresh garlic (or more, to your taste), 1tbsp (or more!) of hot pepper paste, 2tbsp of good curry powder, 1tsp of cinnamon, and a bit of salt and black pepper.  Cook until the garlic and ginger soften, about 5 minutes.  Add 1.5lbs of cubed butternut squash, toss to coat with the spice mixture.  Add 1c of coconut milk and 1/4c of vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally.  Raise the heat to medium, and cook uncovered until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency.  Serve over basmati and wild rice.

If you want to keep the theme of spicy sweetness through dessert, try making some hot cocoa with a bit of cayenne pepper.  The best I've tried is Hershey's Cacao Reserve Mayan style hot chocolate, made with whole cow's milk.  Yum!!!