Spelt Gingerbread Cookies

"Come sit at my table and share with me,

Warm gingerbread cookies and cinnamon tea."

~Unknown 

If one could bottle the scent of Christmas cheer, it might smell something like gingerbread I think.  So delicious, fragrant, and comforting during the cooler months of the year. 

I found this recipe here but couldn't wait until December to start baking these little gems. They are packed with molasses and lots of warming spices. 

I try to use wheat flour as infrequently as possible in my baking, so I substituted the all-purpose flour for spelt instead and it turned out very well! 

(Side note: Since the gingerbread cookies are so dark anyway, it doesn't really matter if you use a non-white flour like spelt...plus you get the added protein, fibre, and other nutrients from this awesome grain!)

• Ingredients
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice or cloves
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups  Unbleached All-Purpose Flour OR Spelt Flour

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 Melt butter in a saucepan, then stir in brown sugar, molasses, salt, and spices. Transfer mixture to medium-sized mixing bowl, let it cool to lukewarm, and beat in egg.

Whisk baking powder and soda into flour, then stir dry ingredients into molasses mixture until dough forms. Divide dough in half, and wrap well. Refrigerate for 1 hour or longer. 

Once dough has chilled, take out one piece at a time, and flour a clean work surface, and the dough. Roll it out as thin or thick as you like (for slightly less crisp cookies, roll it out more thickly). Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer to parchment lined baking sheets

Bake cookies just until slightly brown around edges 8 to 12 minutes, or until they feel firm.  Cool on the baking sheets for several minutes, or until set. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Enjoy!!!

Note: Use flour under and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the table or rolling pin. Alternatively, place the dough on parchment, and put a sheet of plastic wrap over it as you roll, pulling the plastic to eliminate wrinkles as necessary when rolling; this will keep dough from sticking without the need for additional flour. 

Wheat free Chocolate Mint Melties

If you love chocolate, mint, and cookies...look no further.  This is THE recipe.  I have been baking these deliciously minty cookies for a few years and they are still in high demand. Plus they are wheat free!

This scrumptious recipe is from Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink, and be Vegan and you have got to try it.

Chocolate Mint Melties MAKES 11–14
1 bar (3-oz/85-g) mint dark chocolate ( not the creamy filled kind, the solid chocolate kind)
1 1/8 cups spelt flour 
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup unrefined sugar
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp agave nectar OR honey
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp mint extract
¼ cup sunflower oil (a touch generous)

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). 

Break off about 2/ 3 of bar (reserve remaining squares to top cookies) and chop into little pieces.

Transfer to a bowl and combine with dry ingredients, sifting in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda, and stir until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine syrup, agave nectar (OR honey), vanilla and mint extracts, and oil and stir until well mixed. 

Add wet mixture to dry, and stir until just well combined (do not overmix!). 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon batter onto baking sheet, spacing evenly. Roughly chop reserved chocolate and place on top of each cookie, pressing in a little. 

Bake for 11 minutes (no longer, or they will dry out!!!). Remove from oven, and let cool for 1 minute (no longer!!) on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack and eat and eat and eat!

The Road Back to Me

"Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go." 

~ Lousie Driscoll

Before I had my son, I really believed that I would be able to co-parent in perfect harmony with my husband.  I believed that we would read each other's minds. That I would never have to ask for anything I needed because he would anticipate my needs and I would anticipate his.

I also believed that we could manage our little family independently and that I would never ever stoop so low as to ask for help from anyone. After all, it was our decision to start a family, so we should be capable of staying the course we  had charted.Besides, wouldn't I be weak if I asked for help? Aren't millions of other mothers managing just fine on their own? 

 I held vigil to these little delusions for many, many months before I realized my colossal error.  No one can (or should) go it alone. (Also...no man can read your mind :)

I can now admit, much to my dismay,  I am a good mother *.

That little asterisk may be tiny...but BOY is it significant. What it means is, I am a good mother but I am not only a mother.  I am a whole person with myriad needs, desires, goals, and dreams. 

As mothers, we often give and give until we have nothing left, and that is not what our children want from us.  

Yes we must sacrifice certain things for these tiny, dependent, vulnerable beings we have ushered into the world, but, we must also replenish our own little wells so that we can keep up with the demand. That little, secret spot in our hearts must be nourished from time to time.

As a creative individual, I need time and space to create. I don't just need a break to go wash my hair or read for 5 minutes, I need regular time to myself to bring forth my ambitions. I realize now that if I don't make that time, I'm not going to be the mother that I want to be.

I want to be a stay at home mom. I want to raise my children under my loving care until they are ready for their own adventures. I also want to honour the little soul inside me who yearns for a  space of its own. 

Can it be done? I think so. And luckily, so does my husband, my family, and my friends.  I have recently done a crazy thing. I asked for help. And I got it. 

Each week I've asked for a day to myself to do whatever I choose. Write for pleasure, write for pay, read, play the piano, work on my quilting endeavours...whatever I want! Selfish? I hope so. Someone has to start looking out for me!

Maybe you're not like me. Maybe you have an ever-abundant pool of tender care for your family, but I know my limitations, and if you know yours then I urge you to take some time for yourself. Even if you can only take an hour, I believe that all parents need to be protective of their own little flames and keep them burning!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "There was never a child so lovely but his Mother was glad to see him asleep." And he's right! Having a baby is a bit comparable to being a prisoner in love with his jailer :) It's a strange feeling to want to be away just as much as you want to be near. But away we must...sometimes. 

Play!

“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

~ C.S. Lewis

For many years now, my mother has lovingly, rhetorically, asked, "When will Jo stop playing?"  Indeed, I wondered myself. But how could I? Play is FUN! And now that I have a child of my own, and a husband who is an avid tree climber, I have a great excuse to keep doing it!

I can't help but notice that whenever I go to the playground with my son, there are a lot of stiff, bored parents nodding along the perimeter and texting while I am making my way down the slide (again!).

Coupled with the fact that I still look under-age (and once got asked at 24 to show ID to use a computer at the library where you have to be 16), I was almost feeling self-conscious about my easy ability to be so playful. Should I be acting more adult and mature even though I can't help it because I really am of the Fae?

Well, after doing a bit of research, I have discovered that in fact, play is a good thing! Here's what the experts say about play:

A book called, Playful Parenting, speculates that play is actually a very powerful parenting tool, one that can build confidence, close-connections, and even solve some behavioural problems.

Play can help children to sort out daily difficulties by re-enacting  scenarios and adopting a different, authoritative role. For instance, if a child had a negative experience at the doctors office, she may come home and "play" doctor...only this time, she'll be the doctor dishing out the needles while you "playfully" beg for mercy. This kind of role-reversal helps a child reclaim any power that they feel they may have lost while they simultaneously explore their world while they are in control.

I remember when my brother and I use to play school with our little sister and her friends.  I was the teacher and my brother was the principle. The game always went best when we were as mean and over-the-top as possible, "punishing" them for even the slightest misbehaviour.  While most adults might shudder at the thought, these kids roared with laughter whenever the principle made a surprise inspection, yelling and berating each little offender.  They would even beg us to yell more and be meaner!

We were playing and they knew that. But I'm sure the process was therapeutic for more than a few in our little brood.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, play is so critical to the optimal development of a child that in 2007, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights deemed it a "right of every child".  And, play is becoming an endangered species of its own. Our over-booked pressure-packed schedules,  and focus on academic enrichment and achievement, has left little time for "free child-centered play." 

And that my friends is the good stuff. That's where the magic happens. That kind of play develops imagination and creativity and improves cognitive, emotional, and physical strength. Play allows children to try on different roles in a pressure-free environment which ultimately builds confidence and self-esteem.

Play isn't just for kids either.  Though adults often view it as a luxury, or worse, a sign of immaturity, it is neither of those things. Research shows that the 7 types of play help improve health and well-being and strengthen relationships and community ties. Play also allows us to transcend our ordinary lives which helps us create new thoughts and ideas, and, oh yah,it's fun! 

Remember fun? I know...it's been a while.  As we age,  we become so preoccupied with the seemingly important adult world that we loose the ability to let go, be free, and in the moment.  A concept which books like A New Earth tell us is pretty important for our well-being and spiritual evolution.

I think we all need to reconnect with the amazing child within who still has a lot to teach us. So put down your phone, close your lap top, stop cleaning or doing whatever you do, and give yourself permission to play. Even if all you have is a cardboard box :)

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." 

~ Plato

"The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that." 

~ Nagel Jackson

***For further reading, check out this article from Scientific American, where a 42 year study reveals some very scary things about a world without play.

Night Time Parenting

"Oh, I don't wonder babies always cry when they wake up in the night. So often I want to do it, too. Everything presses on my soul then and no cloud has a silver lining." 

~Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily's Quest

 Attachment parenting tells us that it's okay to hold our children close, to be loving and nurturing, to treat them with respect and dignity. Most people will tolerate the attachment parenting model, or at least, discreetly roll their eyes when you glance away, BUT, hardly anyone will condone providing this level of care to your child during night time hours.

With methods like Cry It Out, we are being pushed to leave our children alone at night in an effort to foster independent, self soothers. And yet, according to anthropologist, James McKenna of Indiana's University of Notre Dame, humans are biologically designed to be dependent.   He stipulates that the concept of independence gained through solitary sleep arrangements is unproven. "No study has ever determined  if the ability to sleep alone through the night at an early age relates to the emergence of other skills or personality characteristics unavailable to children who sleep with their parents, as do children in many cultures around the world." (Today's Parent, August 1999)

Hmmm. So, if solitary sleeping isn't leading our babies to the promised land of independence and positive self image, then why are we doing it?


Well...we are tired.  We want (and need) our sleep.

Yet, I feel so strongly that what my son needs at night is equally important.  Throughout his whole little life I've been telling him, through my words and my actions that I love him, that I am here for him. And I must keep that promise, even when it is inconvenient and I am exhausted.

For many, many months, I've been asked the same question, "Is he sleeping in his crib yet?" And, as a co-sleeping family, I have shamefully,  guiltily,  replied,"No...not yet." But I am happy to announce that the shame and guilt no longer reside inside me. 

Is it because he is finally sleeping in a crib you ask?

No. He is not. And I have finally accepted in my heart that it's okay!

He is sleeping in our bedroom on a little mattress beside our bed. And we love it! We really, truly love it!  Sleeping close means we can comfort him right away until he falls back asleep. It means if my husband worked 12 hours that day and missed his son, he can snuggle with him all night. It means that the very first thing we see in the morning is a beautiful, angelic face smiling at us, ready to greet a new day.  

Fynn napping in Grandpa's Hammock.
Photo by Larry Kurtz (Grandpa)

And how could that ever be wrong?

Organic Heirloom Tomatoes

For the longest time...I hated tomatoes. To me, tomatoes were mushy, flavourless red things that people kept putting on sandwiches for some reason. Then one day, things changed. I reluctantly tried a black krim tomato grown fresh from David's garden. I was prepared to be unamazed, but actually, it was incredible! It was juicy...packed with flavour...and grown mere steps from our house.  This is what a tomato was supposed to taste like! That summer my husband grew many varieties of heirloom tomatoes and I grew to love them all (though I'll always have a special place in my heart for the black krim).

If like me, you wonder how there can be such a difference in taste between conventional and heirloom...read on! 

Heirloom tomato plants are varieties of seed that have been preserved for at least 50 years, or before 1940, allowing them to develop resistance to diseases, pests, and to adapt to specific climates and growing conditions. These tomatoes are open pollinated naturally, by birds and insects, and produce offspring that are bio-diverse. Commercially bred tomatoes are artificially cross-pollinated resulting in a hybridized tomato species with little genetic variation.

Commercial tomatoes are ultimately bred for yield, uniformity of size and colour, and long transport life, so if your experience with grocery store tomatoes has been less than impressive, you can see why. No conventional tomato that has sojourned across the country could ever compare with the bold and unique flavour of a locally grown heirloom variety bred, painstakingly, for the love of it.

Heirloom tomatoes may also have a lot more to offer us nutritionally when compared to commercially bred tomatoes. Tomatoes in general are known to contain high amounts of vitamin c, a, and k, as well as lycopene, a powerful antioxidant.  Studies published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture confirm that, "The organic growing system affects tomato quality parameters such as nutritional value and phenolic compound content. " (1)

Varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes and Their Uses

There are hundreds of varieties of heirloom tomatoes unique to virtually every region. To make it a little easier, there are a few colour categories of heirlooms such as, yellow, red, orange, green, and black. And of course, heirlooms have varied uses as well, some are sauce tomatoes,paste tomatoes, salad tomatoes, or sandwich tomatoes. Here are a few family favourites at our house to get you started:

Black Heirloom Tomatoes:

Black Krims are one of the most delicious black tomatoes, bearing 5" roundish fruit. Their beautiful black colouring is often speckled with green or red. This is a tomato that was born to be on a sandwich.

Black Prince tomatoes are medium sized and bear relatively early. The fruits are fleshy, have low-acid, and a great, deep flavour. Use these little princes for sandwiches and slicing.




Red Heirloom Tomatoes:

The most popular red heirloom is known as brandywine, a lush and sweet flavoured large tomato. The brandywine date back to the 1800s and is another excelled slicing and sandwich tomato.


San Marzano tomatoes are an elongated plum variety with very few seeds and are favoured as the ultimate sauce tomato by many, many Italians.

Cherry Heirloom Tomatoes:

Yellow pear tomatoes are small and pear-shaped with the rich flavour of a cherry tomato. These plants bear a lot of fruit and are perfect way to add a splash of colour in a green salad.

The brown cherry tomato has been on our top 5 list for the last few years.  It is a rich tasting, fairly large cherry tomato that  produces prolifically even after the summer months

Sources: 

(1) The influence of organic and conventional cultivation systems on the nutritional value and content of bioactive compounds in selected tomato type. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture. Feb 2012

Laundry, the Green Way

Most people who convert to eco-friendly laundry detergent probably wouldn’t even notice the difference from their conventional brand. The products are similar; available in liquid, powder, and concentrated formulas, and the price difference is basically non-existent (due to the smaller amounts of detergent used per load). 

There is however one big difference...earth friendly detergent is, well, earth friendly. And, I'm ALWAYS looking for ways to be a better friend to this beautiful earth.
So, when it comes to getting clothes cleaned the green way, here are just a few of the many options available to you:

Soap Nuts

Soap nuts might be new on the market but they’ve have been a staple in South Asian communities for many centuries. The soap nut is the dried fruit of the Ritha (Sapindus mukorrosi) tree, a tropical, deciduous tree native to Asia. When dried soap nuts are exposed to water, they release saponins which act as a natural surfactant, reducing surface tension and allowing dirt and oils to detach from clothing.

Soap nuts are a product of nature and are completely pure, containing no additives, fragrances, or chemicals. They also have antimicrobial properties and are 100% biodegradable.

To use soap nuts, simply place 2-3 whole nuts in a re-usable cotton bag and add it to the washing machine. When used in cold water cycles, soap nuts can be reused 4-5 times, but only 2-3 times when used in warm water washes. Between washes, remove nuts from the cotton bag and let air dry.  These natural gems can be purchased at most health food stores and on many websites.

Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent


EcoMax is a family owned Canadian company, with its operation just over an hour from where I live (talk about local). The detergents are made with 100% plant ingredients as well as therapeutic grade essential oils. The manufacturing facility is powered with 100% green electricity from Bullfrog Power, they do NOT test on animals, and all of their ingredients are sourced form renewable, sustainable resources. Well done.

Earth Friendly Products (Canada and U.S) has developed a line of laundry products called Ecos. This detergent is 100% biodegradable, contains no chlorine, petroleum, or phosphates, and is made from sustainable ingredients. Earth Friendly Products is a family owned company that aims to do business in a “socially responsible way that safeguards the earth.” What more could we ask for?

(Buyer Beware:  Watch out for conventional companies who are trying to hop on the green bandwagon with their own "natural" products. Natural can leave a lot to be desired.  Always read the ingredients and make sure that they didn't just add a drop of lavender to their usual toxic recipe and call it "earth friendly". 

Make Your Own Detergent

If none of the previous options sound appealing, don't be afraid to make your own detergent! There a number of ways to do this but the most popular method is to grind together the following ingredients in a food processor then add two tablespoons of the mixture to each load of laundry.

• 1 bar of good quality soap (Dr. Bronner’s)
• 1 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate)
• 1 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• 1 cup Borax (hydrated sodium borate)

Scent is another important factor in the cleaning process, so definitely add a few drops of your favourite essential oil into the mix (mandarin, lemon, lavender, etc).


Vinegar is another great, inexpensive ingredient to add to laundry cycles to get clothes clean, bright, and somehow,not even remotely smelling of vinegar! Add half a cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle and it can act as a fabric softener, lint reducer, and even eliminate excess detergent residue on clothing. (Note: vinegar should never be mixed with bleach as the fumes produced can be toxic)

Whichever option you decide on, remember that this small change can have a big impact on your body, local water sources, and the planet!