April 7th, 2012 • Posted by Joan Cole • Permalink
"At the very top of the Napa Valley, centrally located between Napa and Sonoma counties, Calistoga remains the historic hot springs resort destination of wine, water, and wellness."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calistoga,_California]
The valleys of Napa and Sonoma are famous for their countless wineries, But they are also famous for spa activities. Ancient volcanic activity in Northern California bequeathed the area with hot springs and volcanic ash, and these are both highly prized for natural health. On my recent trip to California, I took some time to visit this area and "take the waters" here.
"Geysers ... and hot springs are generally found in regions of young volcanic activity. Surface water percolates downward through the rocks below the Earth's surface to high-temperature regions surrounding a magma reservoir, either active or recently solidified but still hot. There the water is heated, becomes less dense, and rises back to the surface along fissures and cracks. Sometimes these features are called "dying volcanoes" because they seem to represent the last stage of volcanic activity as the magma, at depth, cools and hardens. ... Hot springs occur in many thermal areas where the surface of the Earth intersects the water table." (Watson)
The area of California called "The Geysers" is an active geothermal area within the Clear Lake volcanic field, and geothermal power plants here in the Mayacamas Mountains provide electricity to Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Marin, and Napa counties.
As in the other volcanic areas of western North America, hot springs were used by the Native Americans for sacred and medicinal purposes for thousands of years before European settlement. "The Indians of North America considered hot springs as a sacred place where the "Great Spirit" lived, and thus were great believers in the miraculous healing powers of the heat and mineral waters. These areas were also known as neutral ground; where warriors could travel to and rest unmolested by other tribes. Even though archeological finds date Native American presence at hot springs for over 10,000 years, there is no recorded history prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500's... The area was originally settled by the Pomos and Mayacamas Indians, called Wappo by settlers, To the Native Americans this was 'Tu-la-ha-lu-si, the beautiful land'; and the hot, spongy turf was 'Coo-lay-no-maock, the oven place'." (Lund)
The first recorded Euro-American discovery of The Geysers was in 1847. It didn't take long for a spa to be developed for The Geysers Resort Hotel in 1852, whose visitors included Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. Samuel Brannan, California's first millionaire, gave Calistoga it's name. Having purchased more than 2000 acres intending to develop a spa reminiscent of Saratoga Springs in New York, supposedly under the influence of alcohol, he 'is said to have intended to state "I'll make this place the Saratoga of California," but to have in fact uttered "the Calistoga of Sarifornia."' His Spa/Hotel is now Indian Springs Resort. Brannan's railroad company built a track to Calistoga, completed in 1868, and it became an easy destination from San Francisco.
Just outside Calistoga, you can visit an actively erupting geyser called "Old Faithful" (like it's more famous cousin in Wyoming). It erupts about every 30 minutes. You can also visit the Petrified Forest, viewing giant redwoods felled by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Konocti, buried in ash for about eight million years, until the huge trunks were excavated after 1857. Within Calistoga itself, dozens of spas offer the opportunity to bathe in a mixture of the volcanic ash from that explosion, heated mineral water, and peat moss. In fact, Calistoga calls itself the "mud bath capital of the world".
The mud bath recipe commonly used in Calistoga today is a combination of volcanic ash, local hot spring water, and imported peat moss, to make it soft and help the body float. It was developed by John "Doc" Wilkinson, a chiropractor who came to Calistoga in 1946, and established a spa a few years later. His spa is still operated by the family.
If you don't want to get muddy, there are plenty of options for bathing in the mineral waters. Many of the local spas offer day passes to their pools. Even the local Comfort Inn (where we stayed) fills its swimming pool and hot tub from the local waters.
About a half hour drive north of Calistoga, is the Harbin Hot Springs retreat and workshop center. First built up by Richard Williams in 1870, as the Harbin Springs Health and Pleasure Resort, the hot springs at Harbin spent the next 100 years as part of a Victorian resort, hunting lodge, boxing camp and then free-form university. Most of the buildings now standing were built in the early 1900s. In 1972, Harbin Hot Springs was acquired by Robert Hartley (AKA Ishvara) who sold it to Heart Consciousness Church, which now operates it as a nonprofit retreat and workshop center.
The spring water filling Harbin’s soaking and swimming pools comes directly from natural hot and cold mineral springs. According to their website, "Soaking water is constantly being pumped from all pools and passed through a state-of-the-art treatment system. This system combines filters, peroxide and ozone (peroxone) injection, and ultraviolet sterilizers to remove all foreign matter and bacteria before recirculating the water back to the pools. Absolutely no chlorine is used as a residual disinfectant."
Harbin was of interest to me because it is the birthplace of a massage form called Watsu. Based on the Japanese art of Zen Shiatsu, Harold Dull began floating people and applying Shiatsu stretches in 1980. Today the art is practiced all over the world.
According to the Harbin website, '"In the Orient, stretching as a way to open channels through which our Chi energy flows is even older than acupuncture," say Harold Dull. "Stretching strengthens muscle and increases flexibility. Warm water like that in the pools at Harbin, which many associate with the body's deepest states of waking relaxation, proved to be the ideal medium."...The support of water takes weight off the vertebrae and allows the spine to be moved in ways impossible on land. Gentle, gradual twists and pulls relieve the pressure a rigid spine places on nerves and helps undo any dysfunctioning this pressure can cause to the organs serviced by those nerves. The Watsu receiver experiences greater flexibility and freedom.'
I was fortunate enough to experience a Watsu session in the arms of Sunheart, a Senior Watsu Practitioner, at the Domes at Harbin Hot Springs. In the future, I am hoping to pursue training in this modality, when our expansion with warm water therapy pool at Studio Helix is completed.
A Pinterest pinboard contains images illustrating this post: http://pinterest.com/joanscole/taking-the-waters-in-california-wine-country/
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calistoga,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geysers
Geysers, Fumaroles, and Hot Springs by John Watson - http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/geysers.html
HISTORICAL IMPACTS OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES ON THE PEOPLE OF NORTH AMERICA by John W. Lund (a revision of the paper published in the
Proceedings of the 1995 World Geothermal Congress, Florence, Italy) - http://geoheat.oit.edu/bulletin/bull16-4/art2.pdf
http://www.calistoganapavalleyspas.com/
http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/canapacalisspas/a/mud_bath.htm
http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/topcalifornia/a/ca_hot_springs.htm
http://www.harbin.org/water.htm
http://www.harbin.org/watsu.htm
Watsu Around the World - http://www.watsu.com/
Youtube Video about Watsu - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PMayvbzmQI
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March 12th, 2012 • Posted by Joan Cole • Permalink
With the longer days of spring, people are getting outside and stepping up their activity level. While we see plenty of injuries year round just from the amount of sitting and lack of movement in our society, we see different kinds of injuries cropping up when there are more runners on the road.
Muscles provide propulsion, but from the standpoint of injury resistance, their function as the body’s own natural shock absorption system is extremely important. Muscles, tendons and ligaments should absorb the shock of impact –bones are not designed to do so.
Many bodies lack the ideal positioning of the hip, knee and foot within the running form to get maximum leverage and power from each stride. Flaws in positioning often translate into a higher chance for suffering injury. Some muscles are used for purposes they shouldn’t be, and in conditions of overuse they shorten and their fascial bags glue together. Other muscles are weak or misfiring, and recruit help from neighboring muscles that were not designed to do that task. Some muscle groups have forgotten how to “turn on” and “shut off” in proper task sequence.
Running with a balanced and aligned body involves proper maintenance of the stiff springs that protect your bones and joints from impact, and that achieve power from elastic recoil (storing energy at foot strike and releasing it during push off). Muscles must be capable of quick contractions to achieve best alignment when the ground is contacted, as well as maintaining relaxation when contractions are unnecessary. The flexing and unfurling of the lower leg during the swing cycle, the stiffening and stabilization of the knee at the right time, maintaining shape in the arch and foot at the right time – all of these functions play a critical role.
Running with a body out of alignment, where adhesions are preventing relaxation of particular muscles, where improper muscle recruitment is creating chronic stress in other muscles, tendons and ligaments, where overstriding increases impact stress – all of these can eventually result in injury. Movement and posture at the knee, foot and ankle are all influenced by greater strength and control at the hips. Lack of such control can mean excessive compressive or torsional forces that strain important tendons and ligaments, or compress fatty pads beneath them. Tendons and ligaments are also asked to perform more of the energy return when critical muscles are weak. Tightness is a loss of flexibility. Poor range of motion in a joint requires the muscles to work harder to move the joint
Overuse injuries develop when repetitive stress to bone and musculotendinous structures damages tissue at a greater rate than that at which the body can repair itself. The “big five” most common running injuries are plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints), chrondromalacia or patellar tendonitis, and iliotibial band syndrome.
Solving any of these problems is best accomplished with a combination of targeted exercise and bodywork. Customized exercise programs developed by a skilled trainer or exercise therapist are the best way to address the areas of weakness and incorrect firing patterns. Properly designed eccentric exercise can induce collagen remodeling in injured tendons. Tightness represents a loss of flexibility. Appropriate bodywork can break down scar tissue and clear muscle adhesions and thereby improve range of motion. Bodywork can also assist the healing of tendon injuries (or bursa irritations) by working tissues farther from the site of injury – feeding it length by clearing issues at the other end of the structure.
Bodywork is also great awareness training. When you go from couch to marathon, it is easy to push through the body changes too quickly for you to be aware of them. But get on the table and you will feel the areas you need to pay more attention to.
Finally, massage is helpful for recovery – limiting the damage after a workout ends. Most strategies for decreasing muscular fatigue attempt to decrease inflammation and increase the efflux of fluids from the muscles back into the blood and the rest of the body.
As John Davis summarizes, “Inflammation occurs for two reasons: 1) the damaged muscles leak their contents out into their surroundings and 2) the body rushes blood and lymph fluid to the damaged areas to repair them. Repair may seem like a good thing, but the combination of the cellular fluids leaking out from the damaged muscles and the fluids rushing in from elsewhere in the body can increase pressure to the point where further damage and internal fluid leakage occurs.“
In a study by Mark Tarnopolsky’s group at McMaster, massage was used after exercise to exhaustion to induce muscle damage. Comparison of muscle biopsies (at rest, immediately after, and 2.5 hours after) showed that “[W]hen administered to skeletal muscle that has been acutely damaged through exercise, massage therapy appears to be clinically beneficial by reducing inflammation and promoting mitochondrial biogenesis.”
The kind of massage done in Russia and Eastern Europe, which uses a wide range of kneading techniques, a particular speed of massage strokes, and work within the inhibitory regime (massaging while gradually increasing pressure, and avoiding activating the pain analyzing system), is also used to decrease peripheral vascular resistance and normalize resting muscle tone. A study by Dr. LL Smith at East Carolina University “showed that, yes indeed, the muscle soreness and fatigue is dramatically reduced by sports massage when it is conducted correctly. One of the critical components is time of massage application. If massage is conducted less than 2 hours and later than 3 hours after the intense exercise it doesn't affect the muscle soreness or fatigue.'” (Turchaninov/Prilutsky)
Adding regular sports massages to your routine can be of considerable benefit. It can help you prevent injury, improve body awareness, and recover from workouts and events.
Sources
Brian Martin, Running Technique (2011)
John Davis’ excellent blog Running Writings, inflammation quote
Oleg Bouimer, Russian (With an American Accent) Sports Massage
Ross Turchaninov and Boris Prilutsky, A response to the New York Times interview with Prof M. Tschakovsky
Michelle Shoup, Speeding Recovery through Sports Massage
About Sports Massage in Russia and Eastern Europe
I took a workshop with Oleg Bouimer last March. He had this to say about Russian Sports Massage:
“Russian Sports Massage is the most advanced system of sports massage in the world. It was regarded as an integrative part of sports training and competition in the former Soviet Union. Massage therapists were highly respected, sharing the spotlight with athletes and coaches. When an athlete would bring home a gold Olympic medal, he or she would get a medal of honor and recognition from the Soviet Government. However, his or her massage therapist would get official recognition from the Government as well as a part of the team who helped the athlete to win the Olympic competition.
"Essentially, massage therapy was used as a 'secret weapon' at the time of the Cold War, when winning at the top international competitions had become a political statement about supremacy of the socialist system over the West. It is empowering to learn, based on the historical facts, that sports massage therapy played great role in giving the edge, to the Eastern Bloc Olympic Teams needed to dominate Games.”
Oleg Bouimer
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February 9th, 2012 • Posted by Joan Cole • Permalink
If the lost art of therapeutic herbal bathing were to be rediscovered, a most useful tool would be restored to healers and physicians. (Rosita Arvigo)
There are basically three variables you can manipulate in creating a bath treatment: temperature, time and additives to the water.
- If your goal is to relieve physical fatigue, stimulate the body and enhance elimination, take a tonic bath in the morning at a neutral temperature of 98.6 degrees F.
- If your goal is to release, relieve stress and prepare the body for sleep, you do not want to get the water too hot. You should take a relaxing evening bath at a warm temperature of 98.6 to 102 degrees F.
- If your goal is muscle or joint soothing after intense physical exertion or a very stressful day, a hot bath of 104 to 107 degrees F would be the way to go.
Note that a hot bath may be too vigorous for some circulatory systems to endure – you are essentially inducing an artificial fever when you take a hot bath, so if there’s any question in your case, check with your doctor before you take more than a warm bath.
Beyond time and temperature, there are a wide variety of ingredients that can be added to bath water for therapeutic effects. In the month named after Februa, it seemed appropriate to share a few recipes.
Baking Soda and Salts
Balneotherapy is one of the oldest forms of pain relief. The term "balneo" comes from the Latin word for bath and means soaking in thermal or mineral waters. One popular kind of bath recipe attempts to recreate mineral waters by adding mineral rich alkaline salts to bath water. Epsom salt is the common name for a mineral found in seawater that was first distilled in the town of Epsom, England. The salt is also called magnesium sulfate, because it is made up of the metal magnesium bonded to sulfur and oxygen. Dead Sea salts contain high levels of magnesium, potassium, calcium chloride, sodium and bromide. There are mail order sources of a wide variety of salts from different locations around the world with different mineral profiles that can be explored.
A common recipe for “bath salts” mixes Epsom salts with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Baking soda is said to help eliminate the chlorine in the water, as well as soften the water, and help the body to absorb the magnesium. Sea salt (which will have varying mineral profile depending upon the mineral content of the location it was taken from) can be used instead of or in addition to Epsom salt.
Muscle Soak
The first recipe I will share comes from Tamara Felix, who I studied with in 2009. It is a muscle soak that combines Epsom salts, baking soda, herbs and essential oils.
1/2 cup baking soda
10-20 drops essential oil of eucalyptus, peppermint, juniper or pine
1/2 cup Epsom salts
1 tbsp juniper berries
1 tbsp dried rosemary leaves
1 tbsp dried chamomile flowers
1 tbsp dried eucalyptus leaves
2 tsp dried lemon balm leaves
2 tsp dried peppermint leaves
Put the baking soda in a mixing bowl, and add the essential oils. Add the Epsom salts and herbs and mix well. Place the mixture in the middle of washcloth or cheesecloth, and tie up the ends. You can also acquire reusable drawstring muslin sachet bags. This will keep plant material from clogging your plumbing. Hold the sachet beneath running water until the tub fills. If you can tolerate it, you want the water hot (104-107 degrees). Massage your body with the bag and let it float in the tub. Soak until the water cools.
Milk Bath
Another philosophy is to make the bath water weakly acid, with the intention of helping to retain and replenish the skin’s protective acid nature. This can be done with additives like milk, milk whey, or apple cider vinegar. Cleopatra was famous for bathing in milk. Milk is said to leave the skin smooth and moisturized.
Citrus & Milk Bath
This recipe comes from a book by Catherine Bardey. It would be perfect for a relaxing evening bath to help you get to sleep.
1 cup dried milk powder
1/4 cup orange peels
1/4 cup lemon peels
4 drops lavender essential oil
Add warm water (102 degrees F) to tub and mix in the milk powder and essential oil. You may want to put the citrus peels tied in a washcloth, cheesecloth or sachet bag for easier cleanup. Stay submerged in the bath for 10-20 minutes. After your bath, if you don’t go immediately to bed, take the time to wrap in a warm blanket and rest for at least 10-20 minutes.
The final recipes feature herbs and essential oils.
Revitalizing Ginger, Lemon & Parsley Bath
This recipe also comes Catherine Bardey. It would be perfect for a neutral morning bath (with the water at body temperature). Ginger is heating to the body and may cause you to sweat profusely or make your skin turn slightly red, so be careful with the amount you add. Ginger is appropriate for a detoxifying bath.
1/4 minced ginger root for promoting circulation
1/4 cup dried parsley, an herb valued by the ancient Romans as a tonic for the skin
1/2 cup lemon peel (grated) for a cleansing and aromatic effect
2 tbsp oatmeal to soften the water
If you wrap your body in a blanket immediately after getting out of the tub, you can continue to detoxify through perspiration for another couple of hours. This is especially beneficial if you are trying to rid the body of a bug of some sort, like the flu, or a cold
A Mayan Winter Bath with Dried Plants
This recipe comes from Rosita Arvigo. The procedure given more deeply steeps the herbs than occurs with simply adding them at the time of the bath.
1/4 cup dried rosemary
1/4 cup dried sage
1/4 cup dried roses
1/4 cup dried rue
Boil herbs in a large pot for 5 minutes, then turn off the burner and let steep for an hour. Strain and pour the herbal water into the tub. Soak for twenty to thirty minutes. If at all possible, don’t towel-dry. Let your body air-dry to retain the goodness of the herbs as much as possible.
Aphrodisiac Bath Blend
Finally, since we are coming up on Valentine’s Day, it seems appropriate to give this essential oil recipe. This one also comes from Catherine Bardey.
4 drops ylang-ylang essential oil
3 drops neroli essential oil
2 drops bergamot essential oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp fresh cream
In order to avoid ending up with a film of oil on the surface of the bath water, you can add one capful of pure castile soap or very mild shampoo to disperse the oils in the bath water.
Sources
- Rosita Arvigo, Rainforest Home Remedies: The Maya Way to Heal Your Body & Replenish Your Soul, 2001 ISBN 0-06-251637-X
- Catherine Bardey, Secrets of the Spas: Pamper & Vitalize Yourself at Home, 1999 ISBN 1-57912-063-6
- Tamara Felix, Mayan Massage: Revealing Secrets of Traditional Mayan Medicine, 2009 ISBN [pending]
- Image: © Yonel | Dreamstime.com
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February 6th, 2012 • Posted by Joan Cole • Permalink
Cupping is the application of a vessel to the skin of a client where a vacuum is induced in the vessel causing the skin to rise in the vessel and seal it against the skin. This decrease in pressure creates a vacuum which draws blood and lymph to the area. (Carrie Jones)
Cupping is a part of many traditional and folk medical systems around the world, found in Europe and Asia (Finland, Malta, Poland, Russia, Kazakstan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China) and the Americas. "Medical cupping glasses" were mentioned in Plato’s Timaeus (c. 360 BC), and in China, the earliest recorded mention is in a work written by the Taoist alchemist Ge Hong (281-341 AD).
Traditionally, cupping has been a static therapy. Within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), cups are often placed on acupuncture points in a pattern specific to the issue. In the traditional western folk medical therapy for improving respiratory function, the cups are placed in rows down the back next to the spine for 10-20 minutes.
In June of 2009, in the course of some travels on the West Coast, I spent a week with Tamara Felix studying Mayan Massage, and one of the techniques that she taught me was flame cupping.
According to Rosita Arvigo, doctor of naprapathy who apprenticed to a Mayan h’men, the Mayans call their cupping technique ventosa, "Viento in Spanish means wind, and ventosa means pulling out the wind. Wind, or viento, is another name for muscle spasm and tissue congestion."
With flame cupping, an alcohol soaked cotton ball is clamped in a hemostat. It is lit on fire and held inside an inverted glass cup for a few seconds to heat the air and create a vacuum, as the flame consumes the oxygen in the glass. Then the glass is quickly placed on the skin. It takes practice, because other than the selecting the size of the cup, the only way to regulate the amount of suction is to change the length of time the flame is inside the cup (the more oxygen consumed, the stronger vacuum), and how quickly you place the cup on the skin (while staying aware that it is possible to get the edge of the glass too hot from the flame).
Since 2009, I have acquired a manual vacuum cupping set and began experimenting with using it on some willing guinea pigs, gradually adding it to my practice. This set uses a hand pump to remove the air from inside a set of plastic cups. It is easier to control the amount of suction created, and allows a pulsing move that approximates lymph drainage, where suction is added and removed by how I pump and how I move the cup. I’ve learned that a number of other massage strokes can be imitated, from skin rolling to friction and cross-fiber strokes.
Cupping is fabulous for loosening unwanted adhesions in the superficial fascia, or between very shallow musculoskeletal structures (such as the Iliotibial Band) and the muscles beneath, allowing for freer movement. As the suction lifts the tissue up into the cup, it stretches muscle and connective tissue. The vacuum in the cup brings blood and lymph to the area, promoting circulation, clearing stagnation, and draining and moving fluids.
According to ACE Massage Cupping, the following conditions may respond to massage cupping: fibromyalgia, tissue and joint inflammation, sluggish colon, stagnant lymph and edema, poor circulation, sciatica, insomnia and general anxiety, sluggish devitalized skin, lung inflammation, cellulite, and toxicity.
Since cupping strongly invigorates the circulation, it is not appropriate for everyone.
"Cupping is contraindicated in cases of severe diseases, i.e. cardiac failure, renal failure, ascites due to hepato-cirrhosis and severe edema, as well as hemorrhagic diseases such as allergic pupura, hemophilia and leukemia, and clients with dermatosis, destruction of skin, or allergic dermatitis. Cupping should not be applied on the portion where hernia exists or has occurred in the past. For pregnant women, the lower abdomen, medial leg and lumbosacral region should be avoided."
(International Cupping Therapy Association)
If you plan to receive cupping, you need to be aware of the possibility of "cup kisses". A cup kiss often looks like a hickey. It’s a generally painless reddened area that takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days to fade. Cup kisses are a fairly likely result of static cupping, and, though less likely, can sometimes occur in moving cupping treatments, especially if a particularly congested area "grabs" the cup more strongly.
As Carrie Jones described, "It can truly look like you had a fight with an octopus for several days. Or you can have reddish rings from the edge of the cup that last a few hours. Or, if the cups are on too tightly, you can have bruising show up." Therefore, "it is wise if you are going to be donning a swimsuit or evening gown that reveals parts of your body and you do not wish to be explaining what you have done that you do not engage in cupping at that time."
What does cupping feel like?
While it can sometimes feel painful, like pinching, when it is the most active – for instance, if an area is particularly congested - for most people, cupping does not hurt. In fact, I have been able to use cupping in cases where other deep tissue methods were intolerably painful to the recipient. Mostly cupping feels like suction, as if you had put the hose of a vacuum cleaner on your skin and moved it around.
In my cupping sessions, I incorporate cupping with other manual therapy techniques, taking the opening the cup has provided, expanding the release, and reintegrating the area. If you are interested in knowing more, I would be happy to discuss this with you at any time.
Sources:
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January 22nd, 2012 • Posted by Joan Cole • Permalink
In Chinese medicine, winter is related to the element Water, and the bladder and kidneys, which deal with the body’s water, are the organs related to that element. The kidneys filter the blood and work closely with the adrenal glands to oxygenate the system and regulate muscle tone.
Beneficial winter foods include:
FRUITS: apples, cranberries, grapefruit, oranges, persimmon, pomegranate, pineapple
VEGETABLES: sturdy greens, kale, roots, celery, winter squash, pumpkin, sea vegetables (hijiki and kombu)
HERBS: rosemary, juniper, birch and yarrow
GRAINS: brown rice, buckwheat and oats
LEGUMES: soybeans, kidney beans, adzuki beans, and black-eyed peas
MEATS: fish, poultry, game, and lamb
Note how many of these are high in anti-stress nutrients such as vitamin-C, pantothenic acid, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin B6.
(Source: The Ancient Cookfire by Carrie L’Esperance ISBN 1-879181-51-7
)
I’ll leave you with a few recipes starring Kale, 2 soups and a side dish.
Kale, Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup
1 yellow onion , small, diced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger , grated
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 stalks celery , diced
1 large sweet potato , peeled and diced
3 cups great northern beans , cooked and rinsed
3 tablespoons mirin
1 bunch kale , chopped
2 cups vegetable stock (or more)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
gomashio or toasted sesame seeds for garnish
In soup pot over medium heat, saute onion and ginger in olive oil until soft (3 min). Add celery, sweet potato, beans and mirin, and stir. Add kale and enough vegetable stock to cover all ingredients by an inch. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes to cook potatoes through and allow flavors to develop. Season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper; and serve topped with gomashio or toasted sesame seeds.
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
Tweaked from http://www.food.com/recipe/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana-9782 and http://www.food.com/recipe/zuppa-toscana-soup-olive-garden-clone-208429
1 1/2 cups italian sausage (ground, or if in links, removed from wrapper or sliced)
2 medium potatoes , cut in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
3/4 cup onion, diced
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups kale leaves , cut in half, then sliced
2 tablespoons chicken base
1 quart water
1/3 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste, and optionally, a dash each of ground aniseed and red pepper flakes
Cook sausage until done. Remove from pan, set aside, and wipe out any grease.
Cook bacon and onion over medium heat, when bacon is crisp, take it out of the pan and leave the partially carmelized onion in the rendered bacon fat.
Add garlic to the onion, and cook 1 minute.
Add chicken base, water, and potatoes; simmer 15 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.
Crumble bacon. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale and cream, and season to taste.
Simmer 5 minutes, then serve.
Baked Curly Kale with Potatoes, Olives, and Garlic
1 1/2 lbs curly kale
1 1/2 lbs small yellow fleshed potatoes
about 20 black olives
about 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup dry vermouth
pepper
lemon wedges
Preheat oven to 350. Wash kale. Drain. Strip out heaviest stems. Stack and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Halve potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices. Halve and pit olives.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in casserole dish. Add garlic and stir over low heat until lightly cooked. Add garlic and stir over low heat. Add potatoes and toss. Add kale, olives, water and vermouth. Bring to a boil.
Cover tightly, set in oven and bake until potatoes are just barely tender (about 40 min) shaking or stirring occasionally.
Add olive oil to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature with pepper and lemon.
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