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Dear Nidobak [friends], I hope summer is finding you happy, healthy, and ready to say "yes" to any and all social invitations. Bring an "easy to make" summer salad. You probably have all the makings already in your pantry. Lately, I've become a fan of bean-based salads that I can make the night before, or even an hour before any event. By adding just a few ingredients you will have a beautiful offering for the buffet board that is pretty much foolproof. There's nothing like a...
I love strawberries, both wild and cultivated. Wild ones are small but contain more flavor than those big, beautiful ones in the market. Fragaria chiloensis is a coastal strawberry that grows from California north to Alaska. The most common meadow berry east of the Mississippi is fragaria virginiana. In the 20th century, this variety and other wild native berries were pushed out of the commercial market and replaced with oversized, tasteless, modern hybrids. There are over...
What does "Indian Life" mean anymore? To me it means "best life," which I try to live and know that others do too. It means living in harmony in all ways with nature and other humans. In that regard I try to be totally kind, and I find listening more than talking is the key. A benefit of this is you usually learn something. For example, I recently learned that there is a new chocolate shop in a nearby town. It is adorable, and I bought many of my Christmas presents there this...
Here comes another year, another cycle, a clean slate and a new chance to feel happy. In Abenaki, happy is alamizwidahomgwad. As an admitted “foodie,” each year I search and hope to find new taste sensations. Sometimes I find this at a friend’s house, or a restaurant, often by accident having read about a new way to fix something familiar. If it comes out successfully it becomes a new part of my culinary crazy quilt. As we approach “hunker down time” in the chill of winter, co...
Dear Nidobak (friends), another year is slipping by, this time dropping changes left and right, both good and not so good. Even apple and pumpkin time is flying into eggnog and candy cane territory so fast. It begins again. This year I plan to embrace the joy that comes with the season. A chance to catch up with myself and others. This is the perfect time to get a lot of baking done. I know now that I have no talent for making fudge or penuche with walnuts, like my mom made. P...
Summer was so lovely with visits from lots of old and new friends. My mind is still dreaming about new ways to fix lobster and other seafood. However, with boxes and baskets of tomatoes, squash, and corn surrounding us, it will be better to get on with “harvest” thoughts. GREEN SQUASH/CORN & GROUND BISON 2 green summer squash 1 pound ground bison-buffalo (or ground veal) 1 10-oz. package of frozen yellow corn 1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped 1 onion, chopped 4 mus...
Dear Nidobak(friends), Whenever the sun is out and you are, too, it is time for a party. You can be as formal and fancy as you’d like or keep it totally simple. I put some ideas below so you aren’t so busy. As with all things, organizing is the key. Some dishes go with everything, others don’t. If you are having more than six people, it’s a good idea to have a card table size table to keep drinks separate from food. In summer, we all sort of mix our ethnicity by prepari...
The old adage "the more things change, the more they remain the same" has rarely been truer. So many ways to prepare things, all trying to be so different. Okay, so we give this a try and that a try yet somehow come back to the original way we had it the first time. Spring is always good for showing us what is good and classic. Asparagus, for example, is just fine and delicious as is, but even better with a new sauce. We try it and sometimes the 'new' is better and sometimes n...
You may feel differently but I think this winter went quite fast and was so mild. It was a good year for zogalosobonek (maple sugar, sap or syrup). Even just a little in a recipe or box cake can stir up a new taste sensation. Here is where I like to say just 'play'. This spring weather brings renewal, a chance to rewind and do over whatever you didn't like about last year. Almost ready to give up on a big garden, well I am ready. It would be nice to have a small raised garden...
On cold winter days I always think of how hard it must have been for our ancestors who lived in inhospitable lands, how they struggled to keep warm and find food. I dare say they were strong and hearty souls who handled discomfort far better than we do. They taught themselves to make foods with endurance, things like Buffalo jerky, dried corn made into pemmican with dried fruit, nuts and oils, flat breads, thick soups and stews. Comfort foods are just that: food we can have...
Greetings Nidobak! I hope life is going well for you. Harvest should be in, the kids happily back to school and everyone who likes to cook is in their kitchen. I like to stay outside as much as possible when the weather cooperates. It has lately and we’ve had lots of sun. Time to go through all the recipes, old and new. The first ‘old’ one I have for you is from a tribal reunion I attended a few years ago in a park on Lake Champlain in northern New England. I’m not a big fan...
I just blinked for a second and summer disappeared! Now, we have to think about school lunches, hay harvesting, all things ‘fall-ish’. That’s all right, every season has its own positive notes. There is a big ol’ movement that has been going on for about 40 years to bring Indigenous food to contemporary kitchens. This is fine but as North America’s Indigenous Peoples, we are just happy to have food to cook and we are, of course, naturally good cooks. Or, we can get fancy or down and dirty, thinking root crops and foraging. It...
Dear Nidobak, The glorious time of year we wait for is here and we can revel and play in this warmth and sunshine! So many foods we grow are now ready for us to pick, prepare and enjoy. The first one that comes to mind for July and into August is CORN, the sacred Mother Corn followed closely by TOMATO. When I went to find the Abenaki word for corn, not surprisingly I found 38 variations! There are 98 words for water so I was not astonished. Because maize is not self-sowing it...
Nidobak (Friends), Spring makes me happy and I dare guess most of you readers as well. Foraging is an ongoing endeavor so it is time to focus on planting so foraging can always be in the background for a while. A big round planter with several herbs is more than useful, it is pretty, easy, and aromatic. Oh, did I mention economical? The way prices of everything are going up we can use all the help we can get. Some herbs I can just go and scoop up with a spoon in the yard to...
Dear Friends, I hope this winter is going fast for you as it seems to be here in the Northeast U.S. Either that or I have been rushing about too much. From everything I've been reading about maple sugaring, it is supposed to be a very good year because of the warmer days and cooler nights. Not only that but people are looking for healthier sources of sweet. As far as that goes, honey and maple sugar or syrup top the list. Always buy authentic maple syrup as other maple syrups...
Kway, kway, Nidobak (Hello friends), When the weather gets really cold and frigid, my thoughts go to Mexican food of the American southwest and comfort food in general. HOMINY SOUP 3 pounds of venison, cut bite size or cubed into small pieces 2 onions, chopped 2 cups of cooked wild rice 1 or more cans of hominy 1 quart beef or bison broth Salt & pepper to taste Brown the meat in a little shortening. Cover with broth and water. Simmer until meat is tender, add onion, rice and...
Kwai, Kwai Nidobak (Greetings Friends), How does time fly? I have no idea but I do know that it is Harvest Time and it brings a lot of work and happiness as well. Bushels of vegetables, nuts, fruit and more. What to do with it all? Cooking it up or preserving is the primary activity but I think sharing is the most fun. When we share we usually get some good, new ideas from our friends especially when we bring dishes of food together at a social or someone’s home. I’ve never be...
Now is it, now is our time to breathe in the aromas and bathe in the sunshine. Sure, there will be lots of time and occasions when the weather is perfect and cooking outside is no hassle at all, July and August are pretty reliable for these endeavors. Fresh ingredients are also easier to obtain whether you buy them or grow them. You may even have some in the freezer needing to get out and used. The Old Ones of every nation cooked outside over fire, not for fun, because they...
Dear Nidobak, I do believe we have made it through another nasty, hard, mean and clingy winter with our optimism still in place! There are still a few foods that are universal, rather than Native and specific to one area or the other. Honey is one, onions another and asparagus. Asparagus is still a mystery as to its origin, though it is now a beloved symbol of spring worldwide. We planted it years ago in a deep trench with neutral soil and it is still producing, although not...
Dear Nidobak, It is now early spring “wskizigwaniwi” a season we are all quite grateful for, I’m sure. There is nothing like hope and sunshine to put a smile on anyone’s face. Being inside most of the time in winter, it isn’t hard to understand why most people have a lack of Vitamin D. To get the proper amount of this nutrient you would have to spend 10 to 20 minutes in the sun at least three times a week with your bare skin mostly exposed. I set out to find which foods con...
We Abenaki call January Alamikos, Forgiveness month. February is Biaodagos or literally, falling in pieces branches moon. Personally, together I would like to call January and February ‘stay inside and get something worthwhile done time’. It might be sunny, but it is really cold out there. Can’t say so yet for sure, but I think this winter is milder so far than last. People still want to be with relatives and friends so there will be visiting, expected or not. What do you do i...
Hello Dear Friends, I have missed you, here it is Fall already! We have not had snow yet, but are nearly knee-high in leaves. This was a bountiful year for some things. We are fortunate to have many chestnut trees on this property that have always produced large nuts around the beginning of October. Last year we hardly got a one. Weather, squirrels or poachers are to blame. This year made up for all that and we harvested so many I didn’t think we had the energy to process them all. Usually we used a paring knife with a f...
Abundance reigns, beauty as well! With so much fruit and produce available now, I have so many choices to pick from to write about. I got to thinking about another time in my life and the most wonderful tomato soup I have ever had before or since. I was at a meeting with four others at the home of good friends who were not doing well, job-wise that is; doing fine every other way. They grew their own food and tomatoes had just come in—bushels of them. They made this soup for al...
Dear Nidobak (friends), I’m sure we all were thinking spring would never come this year after such a cold, mean and tumultuous winter, one of the worst ever. A couple of nice days full of sun and warmth set the mind to thinking joyous thoughts. I thought about my childhood and the stunning hill of violets that my mother grew. Then we picked and sold them in sweet little bunches with the leaves on the outside and an elastic band to hold them together. Violets are edible and a...
Gezandami Nidobak (Dear Friends), It is the time of the cracking trees, I can hear them right now. There will be major cleanup this year. As you all know, the big push is on food sustainability and nutrition for ourselves and our children. Many nations have started active programs which we will see even more of this year. My most recent interest has been in the “food not lawns” idea. It is so sensible, organic and doable, you can save money as well as eat healthier for a few...
