When we make body care formulations, we choose specific oils and butters based on our final goals: consistency, absorption rate, skin type, etc. The same is true for cooking. Fats, like those in culinary oils, are integral to our dishes, not just to keep food from sticking to a pan, but also to affect the final flavor, consistency, texture, and more. Every cooking oil has a unique chemical composition that makes it better at some things than others. This is why one oil might be amazing in a salad dressing or for a lightly sautéed protein, but is a poor choice for grilling or deep-frying. To achieve your cooking goals, it’s important to understand culinary oils and fats. And an important element of that understanding is the smoke point.

It is mighty cliché to start a health and wellness blog with a Hippocrates quote, but I am willing to sacrifice originality for truth. The old adage “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” is still worthy of repeating some 2,400 years after it was first uttered and despite centuries of medical and health advances, it is still relevant today. In this modern age, especially in America, many of us are living with nutritional deficiencies and are at a higher risk of experiencing food-related illnesses.

JUMP TO RECIPE!

Many of us who are cast iron cooks have read reams of advice about the proper way to season our cast iron pots and pans. To use soap or not when washing, which oils to choose, using a burner vs. the oven, whether or not to add salt—this is one of those topics that people have strong feelings about. I get it, because two of my cast iron skillets were handed down to me from my grandmother, who received them as a wedding gift in 1917. She spent decades perfecting their seasoning. Those skillets came to me in mint condition and they arrived with the stipulation that I maintain their perfection for all the years of my life and teach the next generation how to continue on in the same vein. No pressure or anything!

Becoming a new parent comes with immense joy and, let’s face it, some pretty stressful stuff too. After nine months of pregnancy—and for some of us, it’s closer to ten months—you get to greet the newest addition to your family, and the journey begins. There is so much that goes into caring for a little human, and motherhood has its unique challenges. Feeding your babe so they thrive is right up there with concerns about postpartum healing, mood swings, sleep deprivation, and what to put on that soft baby skin. For me, breastfeeding was a priority. It was also sort of scary and intimidating.

Whenever I am cooking, I am always thinking of ways to add more plants and nutrition. I like to challenge myself to have at least ten different plants represented in every meal. It’s a challenge I learned from Rosalee de la Foret. It is actually trickier than expected. However, in all of our lineages, somewhere we have ancestors who lived more directly with the land. These relatives consumed many more phytonutrients than what we are accustomed to—I am sure many more than ten per meal—so it can be done. Adding nettles to tortillas is a delicious new way to add one more plant to your meals.

This vegan poke bowl recipe is healthy, filling, and makes the perfect addition to your weekly meal plan. It takes a bit of planning, but sure does pay off. Cook the rice and tempeh, make the sauce, and chop the veggies ahead of time in preparation for the work week. Then, simply combine the ingredients for protein-rich lunches or dinners sprinkled with organic nori flakes and organic sesame seeds. You can also assemble these bowls in individual containers and have premade delicious meals throughout the week. In my house, high-vitamin, protein-packed, easy-to-digest poke bowls are a perfect vegetarian option for meatless Mondays.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What herbs and spices would I bring to a desert island?” It’s a fun exercise to think about what you can’t live without. Salt, nettles, and ginger root top my list! Ginger root’s warm, spicy flavor makes the perfect addition to Thai and Indian dishes. It also uplifts healthful tea and drink recipes, like this Turmeric Ginger Tea. Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) supports healthy digestion and helps relieve occasional upset stomach and nausea.* Making a simple ginger root tea when I was pregnant really helped me stay grounded. I think of ginger as this wonderous plant ally, but it wasn’t until recently that I researched the history and cultivation of it. Now I have a renewed love of ginger!

A slightly different version of this delicious chai spice oatmeal cookie recipe has been floating around Mountain Rose Herbs since at least 2012 when someone adapted it from a white chocolate oatmeal cookie recipe they found online. The first time I made these chai-inspired gems, I loved the spice mix and oat combination, and the amount of sugar was just right, but the texture was seriously off by my standards. Cookie texture is of course a matter of preference; by my taste, the cookies were dense instead of tender and they were too dry. I wanted the flavor of the chai spices, but also a moist, chewy cookie with great mouthfeel. I was trying to decide how I wanted to alter the recipe—cut back on flour, add more moisture maybe. There were a couple different ways to address this, but I wanted to stay as true to the original as I could, so I started to track the recipe history to find the right fix. Recipe detective work is one of my food-nerd joys.

“Forgotten cookies” are an American classic and a perfect vehicle for America’s “forgotten” tea. If you’ve been reading along with my blogs here at Mountain Rose Herbs, you know I got seriously into yaupon tea this year. As a bonafide history nerd, I first became fascinated with the story of America's only native tea plant and then, of course, I had to try it. I’ll spare you the history lesson, but yaupon is an excellent caffeinated tea choice for me because it isn’t bitter, it can be re-steeped more than once without a change in flavor, and it provides a gentle caffeine boost and increased focus without the jitteriness I sometimes get from coffee or Camellia sinensis based teas. It’s also loaded with theophylline, theobromine, and a plethora of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. I’ve been experimenting with multiple ways to bring it into my diet to replace other caffeine. This summer I brewed it with cooling hibiscus, sweetened it with a little honey, and kept it in the refrigerator to have delicious hibiscus-yaupon iced tea on hand. And then, one evening when I was in a cookie baking mood and perusing some of my favorite recipes, I thought of forgotten cookies and had the quintessential lightbulb moment: forgotten cookies + forgotten tea = pure joy.

Before you beat me to it, I know dessert hummus is not “real hummus.” Traditional Middle Eastern hummus is a savory dish made with a specific set of ingredients. So why call this sweet treat hummus at all? Well, its base is mashed garbanzo beans, and it is a type of dip, so the masses started calling it chocolate hummus or dessert hummus. For the sake of helping people find this recipe, I stuck with that name, but know you can call it vegan chocolate mousse, and it will still be as delicious.

It’s the season of fresh and vibrant produce, and as my garden bounty gets close to being harvested, the anticipation of pickling season has me dreaming of all the food preservation projects I will be undertaking. I look forward to donning my kitchen apron and preserving the fruits (and vegetables) of my labor. While I whole-heartedly love canning, sometimes it’s nice to knock a little time off the process. I can’t tell you how many all-nighters I have pulled in the name of saving all the produce, but as I get a bit older, I don’t bounce back from those long nights quite as fast as I used to. One of my tricks for saving a considerable amount of time is quick pickling!