Friends, we’ve got to celebrate all the ways we can. We see the holdaze as a time to revel in the ginger and spice, to balance all the things that aren’t so nice. The flavors of the winter seasons are warming, stimulating, reminders of our sensual capacity.

We can show up to the holiday meal resourced with herb infused cranberry sauce, richly medicinal after dinner schnapps, date and spice filled bites....

Um, yes please.

Below you'll find a few of the recipes we will be throwing down this holiday season.

We are always looking to stack herbs into our meals, and this veggie mushroom bake makes it real easy to eat your medicine. Nettle tea is fine and all, but as a food, nettle offers a nice deep greens flavor and nutrition to knock your socks off.

Ingredients:
6-8 portobello mushrooms
1 large onion, sliced¼ cup olive oil
1-2 cups (or so) almonds*
A few sprigs of rosemary and or sage and or thyme
¼ cup dried nettle
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic (more or less to taste)
Tamari sauce to taste
½ cup, or so, water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Wash and destem mushrooms and lay them out in a pan. Slice onion and add to pan. Cover with olive oil.
In a blender, add all other ingredients, using tamari at the end to achieve the desired saltiness and the water to thin the mixture to a thick sauce. Pour sauce over the mushroom and onion mix, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Take off cover and bake for an additional 10 minutes until mushrooms are done and the top is slightly browned. Serve when hot.

Cranberry Sauce is a condiment just begging to have the herbal volume turned up. This recipe incorporates herbs that boost flavor, digestibility and your immune system!

Ingredients:
1lb Cranberries
Rind & juice of whole mandarins, and or orange and or lemon
Thumb size (or more fresh ginger)
Chili/jalepeno to taste (we love a little kick in our cranberry sauce)
1 1/2 cup decoction* of: Dried Rose hips/Hawthorn berries/Elderberries/Kudzu starch or agar agar for thickeningHoney (or sweetener of choice)

Other herb ideas:
Cardamom
Cinnamon
Sage leaves
Coriander
Turmeric
Take this dish chutney style with onions, garlic and apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Wash cranberries and citrus. Rind and juice the citrus. Finely chop ginger and chilis. *For the herbal decoction, add 3 heaping tablespoons of each herb into 2 cups water, and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain.Add cranberries, ginger, chili, citrus and herbal tea to a pot and add enough water to almost cover the mixture. Cook covered at a simmer for at least 20 minutes, mashing the cranberries along the way. Add powdered herbs like cinnamon or cardamom to taste. If you want to thicken the sauce, you can mix 1-2 tablespoons kudzu with water in a separate bowl, then add to your sauce while it’s still cooking. Add agar agar for a more nostalgic jelly texture.Once the mixture has achieved saucy, take it off the heat. Keep it chunky, or blend with a stick blender. Add your sweetener to taste.

The most yummy freakin recipe from Heifa, of Fufu’s kitchen! These blondies take fall spices in a new direction, and are a great alternative to the infamous fruit cake.​​

Ingredients:
1 stick Butter, unsalted, melted equivalent to 1/2 a cup
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Flavoring
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Cardamom
1 cup Medjool Dates, pitted, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup Pecans, toasted, chopped
You can do 1/2 a cup of either pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup Walnuts, toasted, chopped

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prep an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper. First, toast the nuts in a pan for 2-4 minutes until fragrant and browned then chop. Set to the side.
Mix the melted butter with brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla to this and stir. To this wet mixture, add flour, cardamom, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.
Fold in the chopped dates and nuts.
Pour into the 8x8 baking pan and bake for 23-25 minutes on the top rack.
Cool the blondies to room temperature before removing from the baking dish and cut into 9 large pieces or 16 smaller ones.

Sip, sip, sip and be merry. Rachel’s favorite prezzie potion. Ginger spice makes digestion nice, while cacao enlivens cerebral circulation. The slight bitterness of the orange peel gets bile secretions rolling and rounds out the flavor perfectly.

Ingredients:
A good handful of fresh ginger root
½ cup cacao Nibs
1 orange, chopped with peel on
Vodka, or spirit of choice to fill jar
1 Quart Jar

Directions:
Chop enough ginger to fill the quart jar ⅓ full, add orange and nibs, cover with vodka. Let steep out of sun and high heat for at least one week. Strain, and add honey or sugar to taste. Bottle up and tie up with a bow. Serve (pre or) post heavy meal to ignite the digestive fire.

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