Ask Your Doctor...To Shut Up

Does the diagnosis "Failure To Thrive" sound like something you would want to hear about your infant? If your pediatrician then recommended supplementing your eight-month old's breastmilk diet with formula(!) and solids, which subsequently made him sick, would you be stressed-out? If her sole reason for this diagnosis was that he is in a low weight percentile according to the American Academy of Pediatrics chart, which is heavily weighted towards formula-fed infants, would you get suspicious? If she then told you that her practice sees (not "diagnoses", but "sees", as if it is some objective truth to be observed rather than interpreted) this "condition" in a third of their patients, primarily in families where the babies are exclusively breastfed and the parents are conscious of careful nutrition and physically active, would you start to get pissed?

If you were diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and the doctors recommended surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and then more of the same when the first round failed, would be feel distressed? If no one mentioned that

• the studies used to proclaim the "success" of chemotherapy don't count people who died in treatment because they didn't complete the course, 
• that some research concludes that as many as 80% of tumor cancer patients do not see any meaningful benefits from chemotherapy 1, 2, and that the improvement in five-year outcomes is partly related to the inclusion of non-lethal cancers and early detection (which has nothing to do with chemo), 
• that prolonged exposure to chemotherapy will cause organ failure and, possibly (probably?) death (no citation needed here, just read the side effects from the drug inserts)

Would you feel betrayed?

If you were a college kid and the doctor told you that you had to have "minor" surgery on your cervix or you would get cervical cancer (and during the surgery she screwed up, and you could see the fear of a malpractice suit in her eyes when she apologized), and then you found out later that this condition and the associated virus often resolve without treatment, would you feel frustrated?

If you suffered from minor medical maladies for years and the doctors all suggested it was psychological and prescribed some superficial treatment, and then you healed yourself by dramatically reducing your exposure to HVAC and altering your diet, would you be annoyed?

If you took your toddler to a doctor for the first time in his life because of odd stools (that ultimately resolved without medical treatment) and ended up in the pediatric urologist's office with a specialist

• recommending surgery with general anaesthesia for a 22 month old because the fluid around his testicles might annoy him at some point (which it did, of course, after the doctor messed around with it), and 
• telling you to forcibly break the foreskin adhesions because, er, well, just because, 

would you shake your head and walk away?

If you had personal experiences with all these things, would you stop listening to doctors?

Do I sound unusually negative today? I guess the extent of this malpractice is weighing on me. These are people's lives! Practitioners in the allopathic tradition have either forgotten to stop talking when they don't know, or they have forgotten that they don't know. If you have a doctor, that relationship needs to be a partnership, not a professorship or a dictatorship. If you are a client, listen to your instincts and participate in the diagnosing process; YOU are in charge of  the healing process! So, most respectfully, I suggest that, when the doc says something that sounds strange, you politely ask your doctor...to shut up. Just for a little while.

Just some snacks

No deep thoughts today, just a couple of quick recipes that I have made with success.

I finally made my own fermented vegetables, and it was so easy! My first batch was a mix of cabbage, beets and onions. I bought some beet seconds in bulk from a farmer friend, a couple of cabbages and a few pounds of onions. The first lesson was that a little goes a long way with these vegetables. It's not perfect, but my first batch went like this:

1 large head organic white cabbage
5 lbs organic beets
2 lbs onions
sea salt
well water

I cut the cabbage into large pieces that fit in my food processor feed tube, and then I shredded them. I cut the beets into quarters and sliced them in the food processor (next time I might cut them a little smaller). I did the same with the onions.

I mixed it all together and packed it into 1/2 gallon mason jars and a ceramic crock, pressing down occasionally to make it really compact. Then I mixed a solution of 8 tsp sea salt to 8 C water and covered the vegetables; I added just enough to liquid to cover them when they were firmly pressed down. I had to keep re-pressing and packing more vegetables to make sure that the air was out. I closed the lids tightly, covered the crock with an inverted lid and a weight, and put it all in a cupboard for a week. I packed the kraut from the crock into jars and put it all in the fridge. Done.

Chocolate-Ginger Macaroons - paleo approved!

I got this from Michael Kenney's 'Everyday Raw,' but I modify all his recipes to substitute either honey or maple syrup where he calls for agave nectar because I don't think agave nectar is a healthy alternative to sugar. I cook this recipe, so it's not raw (and neither is maple syrup, anyway, or cocoa).

1 3/4 C dried coconut
3/4 C chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 C + 2 T cocoa powder
3/4 C maple syrup
1/4 C + 2 T coconut oil
1 T ground ginger
1 1/4 vanilla extract
pinch sea salt

Mix together dry ingredients; add wet ingredients and blend. Drop by spoonful onto parchment paper-covered cookie sheets. Place in oven and turn on to 200. Check every half hour until they are the texture you prefer (or you can dehydrate them for two days, but I am too impatient!).

I am currently in the process of making a vegan, grain-free key-lime tart, so I'll let you know how that turns out.

Occupy Your Life

I am so fortunate to have a life full of amazing responsibilities. My time is occupied with the demands of a toddler and a young child discovering themselves in the world, and with supporting my husband as he pursues his dreams. All of this leaves me with little time for "The Nourishing Path" these days, but my mind is often on it.

There are a lot of scared, angry people in the streets lately. In believing the promises of people who were never in a position to deliver the goods, they followed paths that seem to be leading to dead ends. They suspect they have been had, and they're looking for someone to blame. In Wall Street, some of them think they have found it.

Whether this is true is the subject of a different discussion. It is natural to look for a bad guy when we think we have done all the "right" things and life is still turning out "wrong." But even if the bad guy really is a bad guy, is my current situation his fault? If I own every action, every moment of my life, there is no way it can be wrong. The path is always evolving, always unfolding. Is it a nourishing path? Do these choices make sense? Is this my dream, or the road to it? Am I living my life how I want to be living it, right now? Am I banking on a pay-off that I am in a position to attain?

In the words of Wall St., another's "past performance is no indication of future returns;" I cannot live anyone else's life.

So I'll leave the occupiers in the street, and hope that each and every one of them can find the individual nourishing path that springs from within, and that will lead them away from the rage of feeling helpless.

Am I failing to deliver on my promises to myself? If so, then it is time to Occupy My Life.

(Sometimes the hand does seem devastatingly crappy, and sometimes there is someone else to blame, at least in part. Nonetheless, in my life I have never found that a peaceful, positive outcome can stem from angry action.)


Want some recipes?

Most of the time I cook simple meals from the farmer's market, since I like to shop there and, once I'm done, I rarely have much cash left! Once a month I shop the sales at the grocery store fish counters, and I fill my freezer with eight dollar sockeye salmon and six dollar haddock and cod.


Coconut-Pistachio Fish Fry (serves 4)

Exactly what it sounds like.
2 lbs white fish, such as cod or haddock (previously frozen works fine)
1/4 C ground pistachios
1tsp sea salt

1/4 C coconut oil

Heat the coconut oil in a skillet (coconut oil will smoke and burn if it gets too hot, so keep an eye on it).
Toss the salt and pistachios together, then dredge the fish in this "breading."
Cut the fish into four pieces and fry for a few minutes a side, depending on thickness, until the fish can be flaked with a fork.

Coconut oil is super good for you, which is a great excuse to eat fried food!

If you want to add a sauce, strain 1/2C yogurt through a coffee filter for 1 hr, and then mix in some chopped garlic and lemon juice.

Serve with parsnips roasted with honey mustard, and fermented beets (I am about to embark on a beet fermenting process, so I will fill you in once I have done it. In the meantime, I buy Real Pickles brand beets from the natural food store.)

Breakfast-for-Dinner: Salmon and Eggs (serves 4)

15oz can of Alaskan salmon
1 C chopped organic celery
1/2 C chopped organic white onions
1 tsp curry powder

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove salmon from can and take out large vertebrae, but leave the skin.
Mix the ingredients together and press into an oiled loaf pan and drizzle olive oil over the top.
Bake about 25minutes, until a little crusty.

While the salmon is cooking, you can make hollandaise or lemon curry mayonnaise, depending on whether you want a strictly paleo meal. They are both easy to make, although hollandaise requires some practice. For mayonnaise, follow Julia Child's recipe here. For hollandaise, I also stick with Julia.

This is her recipe, it makes a lot so I usually reduce it by 2/3 (using 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp water, and 1 tsp lemon juice)

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 6 -8 ounces very soft unsalted butter
• pinch salt 

Directions:

1. Whisk the yolks, water, lemon juice and a pinch of salt in the saucepan for a few moments, until thick and pale (this prepares them for what is to come).
2. Set the pan over barely simmering water and continue to whisk at reasonable speed, reaching all over the bottom and insides of the pan, where the eggs tend to overcook.
3. To moderate the heat, frequently move the pan off the burner for a few seconds, and then back on. (If, by chance, the eggs seem to be cooking too fast, set the pan in the bowl of cold water to cool the bottom or onto a cool, damp towel, then continue).
4. As they cook, the eggs will become frothy and increase in volume, and then thicken. When you can see the pan bottom through the streaks of the whisk and the eggs are thick and smooth, remove from the heat.  Immediately add 1 Tbsp cool butter and whisk.
5. By drops, add the soft butter, whisking constantly to incorporate each addition. As the emulsion forms, you may add the butter in slightly larger amounts, always whisking until fully absorbed. Continue incorporating butter until the sauce has thickened to the consistency you want.
6. Season lightly with salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper, whisking in well. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding droplets of lemon juice if needed. Serve lukewarm.

Fry eggs to order and serve over the salmon, topped with hollandaise or mayo.

Squash stuffed with walnuts, apples, cabbage and goat cheese (serves 4)


2 large acorn squash
1 small head red cabbage
2 white onions
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1 tart apple
4 oz chevre
1 C balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut the squash in half through the "waist," so that each piece has scalloped edges. Scoop out the seeds. Place the squash face down on a sheet pan and add 1/4 inch of water. Place the pan in the oven and cook about 45 minutes, checking occasionally to add more water if necessary. When the squash is done it will pierce easily with a fork.

While the squash is cooking, slice the onions finely and put them in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt and cook, stirring constantly, until they brown. Shred the cabbage or slice it finely and add it to the pan, stir to coat with olive oil and then cover and cook about 10 minutes, until wilted. Chop the apple and add to the pan, stir, turn off the heat, and cover.

After the apples have warmed, about 10 minutes, empty the pan into a bowl and return the pan to the burner. Over high heat, add the balsamic vinegar and stir constantly until it has thickened.

When the squash are cooked, place them face up on plates (cut or notch the bottoms if necessary to make them stand), and add a pat of butter. Toss the walnuts and crumbled chevre with the cabbage mixture and then spoon into the squash shells. Spoon the vinegar reduction over the top, and serve.

Roasted beets glazed with ginger and cumin (serves 4)

2 lbs beets
1 T grated ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 C butter
1 shallot, chopped fine

Preheat the oven to 450.

Place the beets in a roasting dish that just accommodates them, and add 1/2 inch of water. Cover tightly with a lid or foil. Place in the oven and cook for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the beets, checking on the water level occasionally. They are done when they pierce easily with a knife. Remove the beets and drain in the sink. When they are still warm, but cool enough to handle, slip the skins off. Cut into wedges, and cut the wedges in half.

Heat in the butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the ginger and stir constantly. When the ginger is fragrant, add the cumin, and when it starts to foam, add the shallots. Stir for 2 minutes and then add the beets and stir to coat. Turn off heat and continue to toss the beets until glazed.

War and Peace

Apparently I always rush off the to ER on the Friday before Labor Day.  This year it was for something that turned out to be nothing, and I knew it was going to be nothing.  I have no idea why I went; I have only gone to the ER three times as an adult (including for my kids).  As I was driving over there, already feeling silly for getting worked up over something minor, I realized that I had checked myself into the emergency room of Mercy Hospital exactly one year before.

So my year of the crab has come and gone.  I went to a party on Saturday afternoon, and celebrated both the occurrence and the completion of the past twelve months. (I drank too much of Chresten's amazing home brew and belabored the point, so I don't plan to rehash it here.)  But then I got thinking.

The language around cancer (and illness in general) is often very violent.  I hear terms like "battle," "war," "fight," "survivor."  If violence is not the path to peace over geopolitical differences, how can it be the path to peace within our bodies?  How can it ever be a path to peace? 

In declaring war, I name an enemy.  It seems to me that this act makes the "enemy" stronger.  The more violent the assault, the more powerful this enemy becomes.  We see it now, today, in the current military conflicts raging in the Middle East.  But look at the other wars we live with: the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the War on Illiteracy and Ignorance, the War on Obesity, Mental Illness, Disease, Terror.  Have these become stronger or weaker as these wars have raged on?  Or have these wars just made more enemies, caused anxiety and casualties and collateral damage, and squandered resources and lives?  Could it be that war is never the answer, no matter how well-meaning I am? 

Now we are in the thick of another presidential election, and declaring war on "bad ideas" and "bad  government" (a redundancy, in my mind), and on each other.  Is it possible that, by staying in this constant cycle of political battle, I strengthen the opposition, or even create it?

I can be free even as the shackles rattle on my ankles, and I can work towards harmony and well-being for the whole world, by recognizing the inherent violence in the effort to bend others to my will.  (I think it's pretty hard work, but it feels like good, meaningful work).  It is possible to shine the light of compassion on the most challenging of adversaries; really, I think it is critical in order to get off this treadmill.  Even disease, ignorance, terror, poverty are not meaningful without recognizing that it is the human experience of these things that makes them important.  These issues are always about people. 

If "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger," what happens to that which we try to kill?

When the Walls Close In

I have been sketching and scrapping posts since we came back from our trip.  I want to tell you about the Newport Folk Festival, which means so much to me.  I want to tell you how Dave Rawlings taught me to play guitar (and if you have heard Dave play, and heard me play, you will wonder if I was paying attention).  I want to tell you so many things that are flying around in my head, but I find myself with an hour to write, and it is this hour, and this is what I am writing:

Today is August 21.  A year ago at this time, I was ignorant of the fact that the walls were about to close in.  I felt bad enough to finally make a doctor's appointment (having not slept for more than a few hours for at least a month and finding myself almost unable to eat due to pain in my mouth), but not bad enough to think anything was really wrong.  I had a bump on my jaw that I needed to have checked out, and I would half-joke to myself that it was cancer (I think I knew it was cancer), but even that didn't alarm me particularly.  By Thursday of this coming week I will know that I probably, most likely, have leukemia.  I will sit on the grass in the sun in front of my house in a hallucinogenic daze, weeping in fear and in joy and in confusion.  I will realize I don't know anything about leukemia.  I will spend the coming weekend with my husband's mother, brother and sister-in-law, trying to smile, waiting for the results of my biopsy and trying to figure out how to treat myself and how to avoid chemotheraphy.

The world will become very small, the slant of light thin and blinding; the periphery will disappear.  I will spend most of the September that I had so looked forward to, that golden child of the calendar, in a series of small, white rooms in an aged brick building in Portland.  I will spend the rest of it trying to rebuild myself from inside ninety-two pounds of flesh, behind sunken eyes, under a shaved head. The rest of the fall will look much the same.

Sometimes the moment is so big that you can't climb out of it even if you want to.  Sometimes the sky falls so far that you find yourself sitting in the clouds.  Sometimes, somehow, gratitude and fear are the same. 

I had so many things I wanted to tell you tonight.  I am grateful, so grateful, that I will have another day in which to tell them.

This photograph was taken at Thanksgiving, 2010

This is me now, with John's grandfather and the little boys

A Little Light Mourning

When John and I were in our mid-twenties, we lived in a trendy little city.  Every Friday morning, we would have coffee and salt bagels at a cafe.  Another young couple, attractive and hip in the way that we secretly hoped we were, had the same ritual at the same time.

Now I am in my mid-thirties.  I don't drink coffee anymore, and I have stopped eating grains.  I am trying to eliminate cheese.  No more coffee and bagels at the cafe.  I think that other couple broke up.  She keeps a shop in that same city; when I'm in town I stop by.

A friend of mind has found herself suddenly adrift.  With two small children and no place to call home, she's off to clean out her old house.  All her possessions, the peripheral items that color her rituals, are going into storage.

Each day, each hour, each minute, a little door closes behind me.  I don't dwell in that, but I acknowledge it.  "You're gonna drown tomorrow, if you cry too many tears for yesterday," as Townes said.

I rejoice in this moment, on the crest of the wave of my life.  I am grateful for the great force of the swell beneath me, and for the detritus lifted or left behind.  Still, there are flickers of sadness for the little things lost along the way, and it would be foolish of me to deny them.  Much we make of the addict's desire to return to a chemical state, but that's not the whole story.  It is also the association of our memories, the big and small places that we choose to leave but in which we also leave a piece of ourselves. "I don't want another drink, I only want the last one again," as the song goes.

So for a moment, even as I throw my arms wide in acknowledgment that I choose this place with all its rewards, let me mourn.  A slice of pepperoni pizza.  A favorite coffee cup.  The giddy luxury of a bender, when the next morning was unclaimed by children, household and health (and age).  Bread with butter.  Pierogies.

I will not try to re-create these riches now in rough facsimile, but rather let them linger, bittersweet, in my memory.  Occasionally I will put fresh flowers on their graves.  Sometimes I will throw a death-day party.

Sometimes we put parts of our lives in storage; sometimes we leave parts behind.  That's okay; if we can allow ourselves the emotional space to find what is opening ahead it can even be wonderful.  Nonetheless, those little losses are real, and sometimes I need to mourn them.


And with that, here are a few recipes that are working in my life Right Now.  One is vegan and can be raw or cooked, one has fish.

Taco-less Fish Tacos

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs. firm wild-caught white fish, such as haddock or cod
3 large sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp chili powder

Sauce
1 C yogurt, strained through a coffee filter or cheesecloth for an hour
1 Tbsp cumin
1 clove garlic, diced fine
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Optional toppings: 

1/2 C grated gruyere
chopped scallions 
diced avocado
tomatillo salsa

Directions:

Bake sweet potatoes at 450 until tender when pierced with a knife.  I make a slit in the top of them while they cook to let the steam escape, and I put a baking sheet on the rack below so that the sugar doesn't bake onto the oven.

Once the potatoes are done, remove and lower the heat to 350.  Allow the temperature to drop, and then brush the fish with olive oil and sprinkle with chili powder.  Bake about 10 min, until flaky.  Check it regularly so it doesn't overcook.

Mix the yogurt and other sauce ingredients.   If you are not eating any dairy products, you can try making a similar sauce using a base of soaked, pureed almonds, avocado cream or a nut yogurt.  You can also omit it entirely, along with the cheese.

Cut the potatoes in half.  Put two halves on a plate, top with butter and 1/4-1/2 lbs. of fish. Top with sauce and cheese if desired.  You can also add other taco toppings, if you want.

Portobello Cap Pizza

6 large portobello mushrooms 

Marinade (optional - this is only necessary if you plan to eat these raw.  Mushrooms should not be eaten totally raw; they require cooking or marinating)

1/4 C soy sauce or tamari
1/2 C olive oil

Toppings

1/2 C softened sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 C pitted calamata olives
1/4 C olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh Italian parsley
Parmesan cheese (optional)

If eating these raw, marinade the mushrooms until they feel "cooked," about 15 minutes with regular turning.  

In a food processor, process the topping ingredients until they are finely chopped but still chunky.  Top the mushrooms.  

If eating raw, warm them in a cool oven to desired temperature (food must be less than 115 to be considered raw).

If cooking, put the topped mushrooms on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until warm and soft.

You can do any pizza topping on these; this was what I had in the house.

Now I have my computer back, and soon I will be getting a keyboard that works properly (the u and the 7 don't function on this one so I have to cut and paste from other text), I should be able to keep up with my blog again!  However, due to all sorts of excitement that I will report later, I will not be updating the blog next week.         

The Cure for the Common Everything. Best Paleo Veggie Burgers Ever, Plus a Little Impermanence For Good Measure

Yesterday morning I sat down to a precious few minutes at the computer and began to load last week's photos for My Time-Lapse Life.  My computer crashed.  Undeterred, I rebooted, only to discover that iPhoto was completely blank.  Yep, pictures all gone.  Five years of photos, not backed up. (The thing about the lower items on my to-do list is that, as the upper items all involve the survival of the family and are barely executed most of the time, they stay at the bottom.  Undone.  I have been meaning to back up my iPhoto and iTunes for about 3 years.)

My first reaction was to wail and weep as if the house had burned down.  Since then, oddly, I have felt really calm about the whole thing.  There is a good chance that I can retrieve the files if I take the machine to a tech (yes, I will buy backup memory and back everything up RIGHT THEN!), but my usual response to this type of situation is to panic until I have taken care of things.

Why am I sharing this scintillating tale with you? Well, in addition to offering an explanation for why I won't include any pictures this week, I think this is a testament to the incredible success my current dietary regimen has had in terms of regulating my adrenals.  Accepting impermanence, staying present and mindful, meeting each moment with openness and energy; everything is suddenly much easier.

I have shared here before that I often have insomnia, waking during the night for hours at a time.  While my other anxiety symptoms have declined over the years as I have made chances to my lifestyle and diet, I occasionally feel panicky or my heart races.  I have to be very careful what "news" I consume and how; certain issues put me over the edge and I have trouble bringing myself back to a normal mental and emotional state.

Last week, I wrote that I was making a casual transition to a modified paleolithic diet (and by modified I mean that I cheat sometimes!).  So now that I have gone and told everyone to eat lentils, I am easing myself off legumes and pulses.  Since I stopped eating wheat and all other grains (I am not strict about beans and lentils and dairy products, although I can tell that I don't digest as well when I eat them), I sleep at night.  Almost every day, I wake up refreshed at a reasonable hour.  If I am up during the night, it is because the baby is needing something, and I can usually nap during the day with him to catch up.  Other than that, I have energy all the time.  I feel terrific.

The big issue I am noticing during the transition is that I am hungry often.  At first, I felt really hungry, and I just ate snacks as often as I could, making sure to keep a lot of good stuff on hand.  After a little more than a week, I need to eat fairly often, but I don't feel ravenously hungry ever.  I don't eat very much at any one time, except for when I occasionally eat meat.  When I eat meat, I tend to eat a lot, and then I am not hungry for a long time; usually well into the next morning.  It occurs to me that I may be adjusting to a natural condition of being slightly hungry; I don't need to eat, but I can.  That would make sense if I were a grazing omnivore in a jungle somewhere.

One symptom I have been fortunate to avoid over the years is chronic headaches, but I know many folks who suffer from them.  I have recently read some fascinating stuff about glutamates (including, but not at all limited to, MSG).  You are right, Mom, autolyzed yeast is essentially MSG.  A lot of foods are high in glutamates, or exacerbate glutamate-sensitivity when cooked or fermented.  Check out the information on this website, it is fascinating stuff.  All of us should be careful with glutamates.  We need some, they are essential to the production of hormones that calm us down.  Too much overwhelms these processes and produces opposite and undesirable effects.  This is an area where I need to learn a lot more, so please add any links that are useful to you.

So what are we eating, you may ask? Here are some terrific recipes that are working for our family.  I still make bread or pasta when it is requested, but I am noticing a decline in demand lately as we all start feeling better.

I am living out of Ani Phyo's "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen".  Sometimes I follow her recipes but cook them.  I find the text in this book to be somewhat sanctimonious and annoying, but the recipes are terrific.

Sun Burgers with Basil Cashew Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C chopped celery
• 1/4 C chopped yellow onion
• 1 C chopped cremini mushrooms
• 1t sea salt
• 2t dried oregano or 2T fresh oregano
• 1 C sunflower seeds, ground 
• 1/2 C flax seeds, ground
• 1/2 C water
• 1/4 C chopped parsley
• Basil Cashew Sauce, see below

Instructions:

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, adding water last to get a good burger texture.  As it is important not to eat mushrooms raw, you can either pre-marinate them in a little olive oil and tamari, as I did, or cook the burgers.
• Form burger patties.
• If cooking, bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, checking regularly.

I did not use parchment or silpats, but I think these would be helpful in keeping the burgers from sticking the pans.

Basil Cashew Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 medium garlic clove
• 1 t sea salt
• 2 C cashews (I soak mine for 4-8 hours)
• 4T lemon juice.  If fresh, juice of 2 lemons
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 bunch basil
• 1/2 C water, as needed

Instructions:

• Puree all ingredients in blender or food processor to make a thick cream.  

I keep a batch of this in the fridge; it is terrific on raw veggies, or on "breads" (I'll add some bread/cracker recipes next week).

Ragged animal hides not required.