Work & Play

It's going to be a busy week here at the Plum Palace. Last night my son and I had a chile verde throw down and invited some friends to taste test the results. He won, but I already knew he would. Years ago he was gifted the 'secret family recipe' from a now defunct (but not because of their food) taco stand he loved. I remember the day he was given the recipe. We were shopping at the local grocery store, and he saw the man who used to run the taco stand and they got to chatting about this and that and how the man became disabled and wasn't able to keep his business going, and then my son mentioned that the man's chile verde was the best he'd ever had, so the man whipped an old receipt out of his wallet and wrote down the recipe and handed it to my son while stating, "Don't forget to pop the tomatillos before you cook 'em." My version of this same recipe has been only slightly altered, but my son's been building on the original recipe, tweaking the spices and using different techniques to get the best flavor from the meat and the verde. He is a trained chef, after all. He's been perfecting his spice blend and has now decided to package it as gifts this holiday season for family and friends. Next year he hopes to expand this into a real business.

While he's working on that, I'll be working on some custom holiday orders -- 10 bars of peppermint and rose geranium soaps, custom nilotica shea face butters, more tub mud, and probably more soap. I might also make a pretty little roll-on oil-based perfume featuring jasmine grandiflorum. Like I said, it's going to be a busy week. I'm also going to be making some cookies featuring juniper berries as flavoring, and others with a fir sugar icing to gift family and friends. I got these recipes from the blog 'Gather' that features wild food recipes. I've only just begun reading this blog and so far I love it. I wish I had the energy to create a blog like theirs with videos and hefty content. Instead you get this ~ ha!


I've been rolling the idea around in my head to write an expanded version of the Kyphi booklet. I'm actually getting emails and FB messages from people who've bought the book asking questions about it. This has been going on pretty much since the book was published, so it isn't anything new, it's just that now seems the time to focus some attention there. I've learned so much more since I wrote that book, so much more about incense in general, and a lot about the raw materials thanks to some very generous and adventurous suppliers. I've got reams of research and first-hand evaluations of incense raw materials that I'd like to sort out and share. Since I know that Kyphi making, and burning, can be a transformative venture, now, in this time in history, a positive transformation is necessary if we are to thrive.

Comments

Popular Posts