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Herbal Recipe: Sesame Orange Cookies

Herbal Recipe: Sesame Orange Cookies

Now that you’ve made your own food-grade herbs in the form of dried orange peel (see previous post with directions), here’s an idea of how to make something tasty with them! These black sesame, cardamom, and dried orange peel cookies are a wonderful treat to support digestion, nourish us in this yin time of winter, and open the new year.

Bonus: the ingredients help move and counteract some of the stagnation from heavy holiday meals (so these would also make a great dessert for Thanksgiving or December cookie swaps). Enjoy in moderation, of course.

Make Your Own Herbal Medicine: Orange Peel

Make Your Own Herbal Medicine: Orange Peel

Plenty of herbs in the Eastern traditional medicine pharmacopeia (collection) are very familiar to us: what we call food-grade herbs. These are items most of us have in our spice cabinets, vegetable drawers, and fruit bowls. Using some or only these ingredients in a formula can make for some seriously tasty medicine!

Herbal combinations don’t have to be administered only in tailored treatment for a condition. Cinnamon, fennel, ginger, and black pepper are only a few of our food-grade herbs, which means we are supporting our digestion almost every time we eat. Just as we reach for mint for cool refreshment in the summer, turning to some wintery staples is a great way to nourish your system even while enjoying a sweet treat or hearty meal. Understanding the functions of our food-grade herbs helps us understand why some of our food traditions exist and why choosing one taste over another makes us feel better at a particular time.

Despite the wide variety of ingredients and tastes, the stereotype of Chinese herbal formulas unfairly persists as bitter and unfamiliar concoctions. The best way to counter this is to make and use your own herbs and familiarize yourself with them. Since food-grade herbs are incredibly safe (we eat them all the time), there’s a lot of room for experimentation and finding your own experience.

One of my favorite ways to use food as medicine is with homemade chen pi or dried tangerine peel. Satsuma or mikan (aka California Cuties or those little peelable oranges) are a big New Year’s food in my Japanese-tradition household. It’s easy to make use of the peels so this is a true no-waste food!

Stress Relief and the Pantone Color of the Year

The Pantone Color of 2017 is Greenery. Leaves. Fresh greens and dark, shadows and tendrils. The classics say green is the color of Spring and of its associated meridian, the Liver (not to be confused with your anatomical organ).

The Liver is easily injured by anger, whether felt rightfully when we are not respected or felt in excess when we seek more than we're due. A smooth Liver meridian allows for the free movement of energy (qi), properly nourishing other body processes and meridians and relieving pain, stress, and tension. Since the Liver governs the sinews and tendons, we can stretch and move freely in our physical body as well as in our emotional range when the channel is free of stagnant energy and substances.