Ozette's Destiny (12 page)
Ozette and her friends hope you’ll enjoy trying some of their favorite recipes. They like to eat healthy foods so that they have plenty of energy for adventuring, rafting, skydiving and other outdoor activities. Feel free to add your own touch to the recipes.
So brew up a cup of mint tea, relax and imagine your Farlandia friends are sitting next to you. Who knows? With all the magic in the air, you might be surprised at what can happen.
*Safety Note:
Like those in Farlandia, some of these recipes use real, edible flowers. Please make sure any flowers you use have not been sprayed with chemicals. Also, food processors are wonderful for chopping ingredients quickly, but the blades are very sharp. Have an adult do the chopping or, if you do it, be very careful. If you don’t have a food processor, you can hand chop the fruit and nuts and give 1/2 of the oatmeal a quick whirl in a blender.
Garden Bouquet Salad
– makes about 6 servings. Ariel loves this salad and has been known to pick all of the violets from it and gobble them down. She swears it makes her violet eyes brighter. You can personalize this salad by adding or subtracting whatever you like. Add a little cheese or nuts for a main dish.
Ingredients
1 package organic Spring Mix (if you grow your own salad greens, that is even better)
Snippets of young dandelion greens (optional) (These can come from your yard – but not if they have been sprayed with chemicals. You can also find these at some larger supermarkets.)
1/2 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained
1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
3 chopped green onions
1 stalk chopped celery
1/2 cup sliced olives – black or green
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup freshly picked unsprayed violets from the woods or garden. Later in the season you can use nasturtium flowers. Yummy.
Mix well in your prettiest salad bowl. Toss with your favorite dressing.
Jumbledberry Scones
– Makes 8. Unless you live where elves and fairies are growing jumbledberries, you may have to make some substitutions. Ozette suggests you use a jumble of dried fruits for the same taste. She likes a mix of dried cranberries, dried blueberries and dried cherries, but feel free to experiment with other combinations.
Ingredients
2 cups flour (Ozette likes organic whole wheat pastry flour for her scones)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup heavy cream or milk
1/2 to 1 cup jumbledberries or dried berries of your choice. How much you use depends on how fruity you want the scones.
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (Ozette loves walnuts or pecans in these, although you can use any nuts. Use more or less depending on how nutty you like your scones.)
2 teaspoons sugar to sprinkle on top
Mix the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Using a fork, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add the dried berries and nuts. Mix well. Add the eggs and cream to make a stiff dough.
Most recipes call for rolling out scones and cutting them, but squirrels are too impatient for that. Ozette likes to flour her paws (wash them first), divide the dough into 8 pieces, and pat each piece until it is fairly flat but still a little mounded. Sprinkle each round with a little sugar.
Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until browned. Enjoy with a cup of honeysuckle tea or other beverage.
Nutty Fruitinas
– Oliver developed this recipe and loves to add new kinds of nuts and seeds to the cookies for his friends. They freeze well. (The cookies, not his friends.)
Ingredients Group One
3 cups mashed bananas
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup oil (Ozette likes coconut oil)
Mix well with a spoon.
Ingredients Group Two
Put 1 1/2 - 2 cups of dried fruit in a food processor. Ozette loves a mixture of raisins, dried berries and dried fruits. Her favorite combo is dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried pineapple and dried apricots, but you can experiment.
Then add:
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (uncooked)
2 cups pecans or other nuts
1 cup of seeds (This is optional. Ozette likes to use pumpkin and sunflower seeds.)
These all go into the food processor and are processed until well blended.
Add group two to group one.
Then add 1 1/2 cups uncooked oats to this mixture. Be sure to mix well and spread on two greased cookie sheets. Bake at 315 degrees F for 40-50 min. When cool, cut into squares.
Chocolate Neener-Neeners
Ingredients
2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/2– 2/3 cups dark chocolate powder
1 cup dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries and/or cherries are especially good)
1 cup walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats, divided
**To turn these into chocolate neener-neener supremes, increase to 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Put the nuts, fruit and 1/2 of the oatmeal in a food processor. Process until chopped and mixed.
Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix until well blended.
Grease a cookie sheet and evenly spread the mixture on the sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, depending on how moist you want them. Cut into squares.
Spinach Quichette
– serves 4
Ingredients
1 pound fresh spinach steamed for 10 minutes
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon oil to coat the pan
7 ounces goat cheese (if you don’t like goat cheese, mozzarella or feta are also good)
5 large eggs (Ozette likes free-range organic eggs)
2 ounces sun dried tomatoes (optional)
If using a food processor, process shallots and garlic in a food processor until minced. Otherwise hand-chop them. Add cheese and eggs and puree until smooth. You can use a food processor or a blender.
Oil an 8x8-inch baking pan. Spread the lightly steamed spinach on the bottom of the baking pan. Pour egg mixture over spinach and bake at 425-degrees F for 20 minutes, or until the top is browned and a table knife inserted in the center of quiche comes out clean.
*This is also good using lightly steamed asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. Buy mushrooms at the grocery store - don’t gather mushrooms from the wild. Ozette can eat mushrooms that could be poisonous to her human friends, so buy yours at a human store!
Lemonette Linguini
serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 pound linguini (Ozette likes whole wheat for the fiber)
juice from 2-3 lemons, depending on how lemony you want it
zest from 1 lemon
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 – 2/3 cup chopped nuts (Ozette likes this with pistachios or pecans)
1/2-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander. Toss all of the ingredients in a bowl until well blended. You also can add chopped tomatoes, basil or snow peas if you like.
Pistachio Pasta
serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 pound whole wheat angel hair pasta
1 1/4 cups milk
6 ounces feta cheese (If you prefer, you can substitute blue cheese. Ozette wants to try it with mozzarella sometime.)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
2 tablespoons fresh, chopped parsley
Cook pasta according to package instructions. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan and add pistachios. Sauté until nuts are fragrant. Add milk and cheese. Cook over low heat until feta has melted. Drain pasta in a colander. Put pasta in a bowl, add cheese mixture and toss until blended. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.
Bugette Burrito
– serves 4. Our favorite spiders, Abigail and Gertie, insisted that their Bugette Burrito recipe be included. Ozette put on her thinking cap and came up with a variation – minus the bugs – she thinks you will like.
Ingredients
4 9-10-inch flour tortillas
1-2 cloves chopped garlic
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 2/3 cups canned black beans, rinsed, drained
2 teaspoons minced seeded jalapeño chile (omit if you don’t like spicy foods)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 cups lettuce, torn into small pieces
Plain non-fat Greek yogurt
Your favorite salsa
8 tablespoons grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 2 ounces)
4-6 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped (omit if you don’t like cilantro)
Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Wrap tortillas in foil. Warm in oven until heated through, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onion. Stir over medium-high heat until golden, about 4-6 minutes. Add cumin and chili powder; stir. Add bell pepper and corn; sauté until almost tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add beans and jalapeño (if using); Simmer on low heat for 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Place warm tortillas on plates. Spoon filling down the center, dividing equally. Top each with 2 tablespoons cheese, then 1-2 tablespoons each of Greek yogurt and cilantro. Add lettuce, tomato, and salsa. Fold sides of tortillas over filling, forming packages. Turn each package, seam side down, onto plate.
Garbanzo Legumettes
– Ozette hates getting popcorn kernels stuck in her teeth, so her friends devised this recipe. It’s a crunchy, delicious snack that is a wonderful change from popcorn.
Ingredients
3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or substitute 3 cups of canned chickpeas (about 2 15-ounce cans), rinsed and well drained.
1/4 cup olive oil
6-8 cloves of finely minced garlic – use more or less depending on how well you like garlic. (Ozette claims it helps her stay healthy.)
Salt and pepper to taste, if desired
Preheat oven to 450-degrees Fahrenheit. Using paper towels, pat chickpeas dry. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with cooking oil.
In a large bowl, toss together chickpeas, oil and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper if using. Spread in single layer on cookie sheet.
Stir occasionally while baking. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until chickpeas are very crunchy but not burned. Cool 5 minutes before serving.
About the author
Originally from Washington state, Judy lives on 17-acres in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband and four rescued dogs. She has worked in environmental education, feature writing, advertising and university teaching. Judy’s writing is influenced by her love of nature and work with Bichon Frise rescue and wildlife rehabilitation. When she’s not writing, she loves to raise and use herbs, bicycle, hike, camp and visit family on the West Coast.Visit her website at
www.talesfromfarlandia.com
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Table of Contents
2 What Goes Up, Must Come Down
3 Flying High – Maxwell to the Rescue
8 Skydiving, Minus the Parachute
10 The Metamorphosis of Oliver
