Gothic Granola

Today I present two recipes using golden assam tea, both of which were made for “events.”  Golden Assam Tea Bread and Irish Tea Brack But Q, you say, I thought you weren’t going to post more than one recipe per post?!  Well, no, I’m trying not to, but one of these recipes is a rerun.  I ought to trust myself more. As I searched for this recipe, I failed to take into account that after I separated out the recipes from my gonzo 2011-2012 posts, I have two posts with “brack” in the title, and the bread recipe was in the second post. I knew it was on this blog somewhere! Anyway, I redid the recipe, and I used chia seeds in the egg replacer since I think they bind better. I used different dried fruit as I have a friend with date sensitivity. I also used different flours in a different ratio since that’s what I have in my pantry.

I am American: my heritage is 5/8 Italian, 2/8 Finnish, and 1/8 Armenian.  One year, when visiting my dad’s side of the family as we do every New Year’s, we were introduced to dolmades at a Mediterranean restaurant called The Black Olive  (since closed) in Tewksbury, MA.  Dolmades consist of blanched grape leaves filled with rice and sometimes meat or nuts and raisins (trail mix?) which are then steamed to tenderness.  Last year, I made sushi for Christmas. This year, I made dolmades with the help of my mom and grandmother.  My grandfather took all the photographs of the assembly.

A cool, dark, yin-tastic mint cookie complements a cup of ginger tea while surviving the Virginia DMV and driving late on Solstice.  Interstate 70 East makes for a lovely late night drive because of its relative emptiness, with the lights of Baltimore polluting the sky to the east.  Spending Solstice with friends--and making new friends--truly welcomes the light to the world and helps me commit to allowing more light into my life.  Light, grace, positive energy--whatever you call it--is always available to us.  We work on letting go of all that we do and think that blocks its presence in our lives. I modified the melty mints to make them a more balanced, stable cookie with dates and coconut sugar. Sure, they could probably replace a cup of coffee with the caffeine from the cocoa and chocolate, but they're rich enough to satisfy with just one cookie.

Soup is a tradition for Solstice (OK, so, fine--a tradition of two years).   The wife of one of my spiritual mothers makes a delicious vegan bean soup for their Solstice party.   It’s fortification for the late-night labyrinth walking and firepit gathering. I brought the soup described below to new friends’ house and one of them suggested I bring it to their Solstice party.  It’s a bright, sturdy soup to celebrate the return of the light.

Since I made my cake and rushed to my cousin’s graduation party, I left it in the pan and frosted it at her house.  It received good reviews from high school seniors!