And easy enough to prepare! Just follow the directions, and remember what I said about prepping your recipes as soon as you can! All my recipes are fully prepped for my Sunday Macrobiotic Cooking Class for Thanksgiving Day! I’ve even cut the baking paper for my stoneware loaf pan that will bake the pumpkin-nut bread for that class! And every dry ingredient is measured, ready to be used! What a time-saver, and those cannisters are all put back in the cabinets! Another advantage to this pumpkin bread recipe: if you want to make it in advance, you’ll just enhances that moist deliciousness! Mine is sitting within a cake platter, looking yummy!

We still have a few openings for this unique Macrobiotic Cooking Class featuring Thanksgiving Day recipes. Sunday afternoon, November 22, 1-4 pm. Just $45 per person. So if you have friends or family in Atlanta, please let them know to contact us! And you might just want to make the trip over too! If you’re out of town and wish copies of our recipes just send your $20 check, and we’ll mail or email them to you!

PUMPKIN-NUT BREAD

from Sweet and Natural, by Meredith McCarty

Baking time : 45 minutes, up to 1 3/4 hour, depending on your stove.

Dry ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup unbleached white flour

2 1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon}

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg    }     or       1  1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cloves       }

Wet ingredients:

3/4 cups sweet kabocha squash puree or a 15-oz. can organic pumpkin

1/4 cup light walnut oil

1/2 cup maple syrup or 1/2 cup barley malt and 1/4 cup maple syrup

To fold in later:

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/4 cup raisins

2 Tablespoon golden raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree,, Line bottom of a standard 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with parchment & brush the sides with oil.
2. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.
3. In a small bowl, whisk wet ingredients together.
4. Then stir into dry ingredients, until well moistened.
5. Fold in nuts and raisins.
6. Transfer this thick batter to pan and smooth surface.
7. Bake until bread tests done, is golden brown and pulls away from side of pan, about 45 minutes. My oven cooked this in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Please watch your oven carefully.
8. Set pan on rack to cool 10 minutes, then turn loaf out to cool completely. It becomes more moist as it cools! Enjoy!

• Prepare Squash: Peel skin, discard skin and seeds. bake  at 350 either whole or cut in half, cut side down on baking sheet. Or cut in smaller pieces, and place in casserole dish with small amount of water. This will soften in about 25 minutes and is ready to puree in a food processor,  perhaps adding tablespoon of water if dry. 1 pound squash yields less than one cup of puree.

Orange Glaze: optional – we thought the pumpkin bread really did not need this.

1/4 cup orange juice                                       1/4 cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup

Bring ingredients to boil in small saucepan, then turn heat to low & simmer til a light syrup forms, 5 – 8 minutes, whisk occasionally. Drizzle and enjoy!

Did you use to cook a Sweet Potato Pudding for Thanksgiving with 4 cups of brown sugar, Carnation condensed sweet milk, sweet potatoes – queen of the night shade vegetables, plus 3 cans of Dole crushed pineapples? Topped with melted brown marshmellows? Yep, that was my beloved family’s heritage recipe from all Thanksgivings past, and just about every other holiday as well.

Now enter a Macrobiotic Diet, 17 years of it to be exact, and we found the most delish substitute – cooked stove-top, delectably sweet, savory and healthy!

In my macrobiotic cooking classes I call it Easy Squash Pie, but our first Thanksgiving dinner with my son-in-law’s family when his dear Aunt Gail said, “This is the best Sweet Potato Pie I’ve ever had”, my daughter and I never said a word that it was made with Kabocha Squash! Kids of all ages enjoy this one! And a dessert really good for you, too! Didja know, squash is really good for our skin and especially our pancreas?

Here’s the recipe for you and your family to enjoy and savor!

Easy Squash Pie
1 Kabocha squash per 8 people, cut in inch large chunks
please use organic and do not peel, just cut away hard spots on
surface
potato masher
Steamer basket
Filtered or Spring water
Pinch Si Salt Sea Salt – teeny pinch enhance sweetness of squash
Optional: Suzanne’s Brown Rice Syrup if you wish a little sweeter

Directions:
1. Steam squash for about 20 minutes, until knife slides easily through chunks.
2. Mash squash, and place in pie pans, serve warm.
That’s it folks! Nature has sweetened this squash for you! Yummy it up!
Optional: set into pie crust if you like.
Sprinkle with toasted pecans.

Please join our Thanksgiving Cooking Class, Sunday November 22nd
Atlanta/Dunwoody, Georgia 1-4 pm for a complete Thanksgiving Dinner
Menu perfect for vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic diets! $45 per person.
Can’t make that date? Private classes are available.
Check our website for menu: www.atlantamacrobiotics.com
RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com or call: 770 -396-9413
Not in Atlanta? Send your $20 check to Marsha Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338 for perfectly wonderful and healthy Thanksgiving
recipes! Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your dear ones!

Warren Kramer internationally-known Senior Macrobiotic Counselor will be in Atlanta July 15-20, 2009. Teacher for the Kushi Institute, Strengthening Health Institute, the Macrobiotic Cruise, and New England Macrobiotic Center, Warren brings a wealth of knowledge gained from the eleven years he served as Michio Kushi’s private assistant, as well as over 25 years counseling throughout the world.

In Atlanta Warren will be giving private consultations, macrobiotic cooking classes, and evening  lectures in the Dunwoody area. Attend all events & have a private consultation, and you will receive 15% savings on lecture and cookings classes Thursday through Sunday.

Please contact Marsha Rueff to reserve consultation time with Warren and your choice of venues.

Phone contact: 678 . 643 . 5662 or 770 . 396 . 9413.

For Warren’s bio please visit www.macrobioticsnewengland.com

Saturday, July 18, at 5:00 PM please join us for a Macrobiotic Lecture, Application of the Five Transformations, How to Discharge Sweets & Dairy, following the Wrap it Up! Awesome Sandwiches & Wraps Macrobiotic Cooking Class at The Rueff Home, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338

We learn studying macrobiotics how the effects of food we’ve eaten in the past does not just exit our bodies when we stop eating it. We all wish this were the case! Clients often say, Oh, I haven’t eaten cheese for over a year, how can you think it is affecting the arthritis in my knees? So, what do we do to expedite a change in our health, and reap the benefits of eating on a Macrobiotic Diet?

Just wait til you hear Warren’s lecture, How to Discharge Sweets & Dairy Applying the Five Transformations. His information will absolutely astound you! Applying macrobiotic principles, makes so much sense, and as Warren explains the energetics of the food, everything falls into place. Learning how to draw the effects of food out of your body gives you such freedom to restore your health, melt tumors, look and feel younger, and increase your energy tremendously. And you’ll understand the why of it all. I always introduce Warren as our why man – because he takes the time to explain and chart the rudimentary basis of this structure. The yin and yang of it all will surely play into this too!

And you can’t even begin to imagine how much better you will feel! Food tastes more delish than ever before! Yes, our taste buds change when we stop sugar and dairy. We develop a gourmet taste for real food and some items we’ve never before enjoyed. Macrobiotic cuisine isn’t bland or tasteless, but flavorful and delicious. We  still satisfy our sweet tooth using Suzanne’s Genmai Brown Rice Syrup and Barley Malt and sweet vegetables. You might even easily slim down in the process. One thing is for sure! There is almost no favorite dish you will have to do without. It’s surely been recreated in a macrobiotic recipe version to please your palate!

Warren will be suggesting actual dishes, and some home remedies, special drinks – certain combinations of foods, and your notes will reflect unique properties of these dishes.You will find this class very beneficial as Warren introduces you to a whole new level of macrobiotic cooking, broadening your understanding of the macrobiotic lifestyle.

Recommended cookbook: Sweet & Natural, by Meredith McCarty for 120 desserts without sugar, eggs, yeast, butter

Warren Kramer internationally-known Senior Macrobiotic Counselor will be in Atlanta July 15-20, 2009. Teacher for the Kushi Institute, Strengthening Health Institute, the Macrobiotic Cruise, and New England Macrobiotic Center, Warren brings a wealth of knowledge gained from the eleven years he served as Michio Kushi’s private assistant, as well as over 25 years counseling throughout the world.

In Atlanta Warren will be giving private consultations, macrobiotic cooking classes, and evening  lectures in the Dunwoody area. Attend all events & have a private consultation, and you will receive 15% savings on lectures and cookings classes Thursday through Sunday.

Please contact Marsha Rueff to reserve consultation time with Warren and your choice of venues  at marsharueff@mac.com .

Phone contact: 678 . 643 . 5662 or 770 . 396 . 9413.

For Warren’s bio please visit www.macrobioticsnewengland.com

Join us for our Opening Event: First, we’ll gather & enjoy a delicious vegan Buffet Dinner at the new Mellow Mushroom Restaurant, 6100 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, at 6:00 PM. Featuring the hummus, amazing vegan pizzas overflowing with fresh veggies, tofu and tempeh hoagies and field green salads! And a most informative lecture,  Supporting a Healthy Heart. The charge for the entire event is specially priced at $20 for the dinner/lecture. Warren’s lecture from 7:30 – 9:00 PM is at the Rueff home in Dunwoody, where a macrobiotic dessert will be served, vegan of course! Warren will share such enlightening information regarding the heart, including visual diagnosis of heart health, healing foods, remedies and activities supporting the heart. He will also discuss how this amazing organ, known as the fire element of our body, increases in activity for the summer  – and what this means to each of us. Especially as we near late summer. And of course we’ll also learn how the heart is the rhythm keeper in our lives, affecting our love and joy.  Warren will answer your questions, and even more special, he always tells us the why and how of everything. That’s one of his specialties, and you’ll hear me introduce him as the Why Man of Macrobiotics!

How special an evening this will prove! And we thank Wendy Steinbaum, long-time macrobiotic supporter for recommending Mellow Mushroom, a favorite of her’s and Aubrey’s! We look forward to seeing you  July 15!

Bonus! Bring a friend New to Macrobiotics and YOU attend 2 lectures half-price Thursday  - Sunday.

Suggested Reading: The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, Michio Kushi and Alex Jack.

]]> http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/everything-you-need-to-know-to-cook-macro-well-atlanta-cooking-class-january-29-2011/1322/feed/ 0 http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/everything-you-need-to-know-to-cook-macro-well-cooking-class-january-29-2011/1292/ http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/everything-you-need-to-know-to-cook-macro-well-cooking-class-january-29-2011/1292/#comments Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:02:17 +0000 Marsha http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/?p=1292 Everything You Need to Know to Cook Macro Well, A Macrobiotic Cooking Class

Call it Background, Insight, the Inner Tickings, being prepared like the Boy Scouts! This class contains all the info allowing your Intuition to kick-in and let your Macrobiotic adventure skyrocket your health in a very easy, orderly & non-time-consuming fashion. Then your singing, I’m just a doin’ what comes nat’rally!

Meal Planning Made Easy

A Little Kitchen Organization Goes A Long Way

What Pot’s For What, and What’s Not

Out of Time, & How Do I Get the Food on the Table, Right Now?

Cook Books to Make My Life Easier, and Food Delish

Shopping Locally & Ordering Speciality Foods

Tools of the Trade: What is My Kitchen Missing, & Where Do I Buy It?

A Yummy Menu too!

Squash Souffle Soup in Le Crueset Pot

The Really, Really Right Way to Pressure Cook Brown Rice

Homemade Gomashio

Azuki.Kombu.Squash, the Magic Potion of Macrobiotics

Qwik, Qwik Blanched Greens with Pumpkin Seed Dressing

Poached Apple and Pear Surprise

The Secret to Roasted Barley Tea

January 29, 2011          1 – 4 pm           $45 per person

RSVP: Marsha Rueff            marsharueff@mac.com
770 . 396 . 9413              678 . 643 .5662

Your check holds your space:
Please mail to 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338

]]> http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/everything-you-need-to-know-to-cook-macro-well-cooking-class-january-29-2011/1292/feed/ 0 http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/atlanta-macrobiotic-vegan-cooking-classes-january-11-15/1232/ http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/2011/01/atlanta-macrobiotic-vegan-cooking-classes-january-11-15/1232/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 04:16:39 +0000 Marsha http://atlantamacrobiotics.com/?p=1232 Welcome to Macrobiotics — a Macro Cooking Class

Our beginner’s cooking class welcomes Newcomers to Macro
Covering delicious easy recipes, and important basic info!

You’ll learn what Macrobiotics is really all about,
So you can cook with success and reap many benefits – without a doubt!

We’re excited to offer our Tuesday series just for you
To spice up your health and well-being through Macro food!

New Date: Tuesday, January 18                  10 AM – 1 PM                  $45 per person

Menu

The MacDaddy Miso Soup
Pressure-Cooking Brown Rice Really Isn’t Scary!
Azuki Beans-Kombu-Squash, the Magic Potion of Macrobiotics
Qwik-Qwik Blanched Greens with Pumpkin Seed Dressing
Homemade Gomashio
Poached Apple Surprises
The Secret to Bancha Tea

plus handouts what to buy & where to order it!

****

Nabe, the Perfect Winter Dish, Macro-Fondu, Easy and Quick!

Nabe Cooking?? What could this be?
Just come to class — and then you will see!

Why in Macro-land this is the dish we all do,
And almost no clean-up, once you are through!

A one-dish meal: noodles, veg & protein all served in one bowl,
Cooked at the table, easy for two or a party, just so you know.

This might remind you of Swiss Fondu — no need to beware,
Minus cheese and heavy oil, we enjoy this meal without a waistline care!

Winter’s the reason Nabe is my first cooking class.
‘Tis Relax-our-Kidneys-season, and Warren asked me to teach every lad and lass!

This clay Nabe pot’s perfect for Winter, a great way to go
Guaranteed to turn you into a Nabe fan after Saturday’s Nabe Demo!

Saturday, January 18                     1 PM – 4 PM                           $45 per person

Hope to see you! Early registration is greatly appreciated.
RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com phone: 770.396.9413    cell:678.643.5662

With limited seating, your check reserves your space:
Please send to Marsha Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, GA 30338

Join our next Group Cooking Class: Cooking to Restore Natural Beauty ‘n Health

Saturday, July 17               1-4 pm

RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com 770 . 396 . 9413         Limited seating!

Beauty is only skin deep – what’s deep inside us is who we really are, right?

Ok, but in macrobiotic view and oriental medicine, our facial features, coloring, condition of our skin, hair and nails actually gauge our health deep within, and the health of each of our organs.

So, this macrobiotic cooking class examines lifestyle and recipes to actually  attain renewed levels of health. And bring you both compliments & personal delight at how improved you look and feel! A very special class!

The Magic Menu!

Hato-Mugi Salad & Light Dressing

Kool Cucumber Soup

Summer’s Pressed Salade & Yummy Citrus Dress-it-up!

My Favorite Daikon Nishimi with Sweet Miso Dressing

Arame Salad

This Can’t Really Be a Dessert?! Dessert

We will also discuss and include recipes for home remedies to improve our health.

•••••••••••

July welcomes Warren Kramer back to Atlanta! Yep, July 28-August 1

Join our great week, starting Wednesday evening, July 28 at Cafe Sunflower with

our Dinner at 6 PM, and lecture to follow at 7:30 ~ location at the Rueff home.

Five days packed with lectures, cooking classes, private consultations offering you a chance to really streamline the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle to your personal condition at this time. Check Warren’s information at www.atlantamacrobiotics.com, and follow the prompts to the flyer of the week’s events and discounts! Definitely worth the trip to Atlanta! Remember, Warren’s the macrobiotic counselor Alicia Silverstone is suggesting we see whenever he’s available in your city.

A few consultation times are open, morning, afternoon, and evening after the lectures, so call or email me to get your time preference!

Please share with your friends & family!

So, this class features our favorite dishes, using less stove and prep time, yet giving the energy, relax, cool effect we all need for Summer’s heat. Each of these macrobiotic dishes suits the very organs we wish to nourish this time of year, yes you guessed right! Heart and small intestine. And these need and deserve our attention all the way into the late beautiful Indian summers so many of us enjoy at home and while traveling.

Here’s the macrobiotic cooking class menu, with a little more detail for your keen understanding! What’s the favorite dish served all summer long, and causing havoc for people over-indulging when fall-time arrives? You guessed it, Ice Cream. So that’s why we start this menu with a light Creamy Corn Fluff Soup, to please everyone’s palate, and enjoy that creamy texture. And if you get yourself the awesome Breville blender your soup will be as fluffy as ours!

For our grain dish we’ve chosen a Colorful Couscous Salad with a medley of veggies to further lighten the dish, creating a delightful sweet taste with roots & round vegetables, as well as lighter seasoning such as parsley & basil, picked from your own garden. We enjoy our pots growing treasures on our deck, and these sparkling our grain and veggie dishes all summer long! That bitter taste of parsley also nourishes our hearts! Enhance your dishes with parsley all summer!

For our protein choice, we combined real macro delicacy and old favorite taste, tho you won’t find any chicken here. But I think you could easily disguise it to some friends and family who haven’t tasted tofu yet, and get away with it in this Tofu Old-Fashioned No-Chick’n-in this Salad. A winning taste you’ll repeat all summer long! And tofu’s ease in digestibility , great for circulation, respiration & nervous functioning as well as excellent source for protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A & B according to Alex Jack and Michio Kushi in Healing Foods. Creates  summer cooling! Look at this: tofu is even used as plasters throughout the East to bring down inflammation, swelling and bruises – even more effective than ice. So this dish is a must-have!

I’ve chosen the Arame – Orange – Watercress Salad for numerous reasons! As we perspire more in summer’s heat, we want to replace our minerals – voila, Arame with it’s iron & calcium & being so great for our bones & teeth, … benefitting our circulatory system.* It works on removing old dairy – help out the ice cream again. The orange cooling factor, sweet taste and lovely color fit perfectly, and the watercress according to Healing Foods is high in calcium, vitamins A & C, and other nutrients. It’s fiber aids digestion…is especially strengthening to the liver and gallbladder. Ever chew watercress? It’s just about the macdaddy of fiber. Remember we’re nurturing our heart and small intestine all summer long, right? So, strengthening the organs we pay greatest attention to in Spring — our liver/gallbladder pair — even into the Summer, benefits the next pay-attention-to-me, now-it’s-summer-heart-&-small-intestine-time still even more.

And, what’s summer without watermelon! Here’s a delightful surprise for a watermelon treat that goes a bit beyond just slicing it up, and passing it around! I mean, everyone in your world will know you’ve done something very special here! And what better way to cool off than this lovely refreshing Summertime favorite.

So we certainly hope to see you at one of our summertime macrobiotic cooking classes.

This is the first class for our series in 2010 we are offering at 2 different time slots, May 18 and May 22. Trying to honor your schedules, and requests for some guests who could not attend Saturday macrobiotic cooking classes!

Please RSVP as soon as you know, and mention which class you wish to attend!

At the home of Marsha and Fred Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338

RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com 770 . 396 . 9413

Limited seating: your check holds your place. Please write check to Marsha Rueff.

May 18          11 am – 2 pm       $45 per person

May 22          1 pm – 4 pm       $45 per person

Menu

Creamy Corn Fluff Soup

Colorful Couscous Salad

Tofu, there’s just No-chick’n in this Old-Fashioned Salad

Arame-Orange-Watercress Salad

Watermelon Surprise

*Healing Foods, Alex Jack & Michio Kushi

What’s the ideal Macrobiotic Dessert? Gentle desserts, just cooked stove-top, rather than baked in the oven. Here’s the reason: when we’re changing our health, we avoid hard, baked ingredients with flour products so cookies, pies, cakes are not recommended daily fare. Instead we enjoy fruit cooked stove-top with a lovely kuzu glaze, or fruit kantens creating a luscious pudding consistency. Or select a parfait with fresh fruit, using kuzu rather than dairy for the creamy sauce. With locally-grown organic melons and berries soon available & ready to cool us down this summer, May’s perfect timing for a sweet macrobiotic cooking class featuring desserts!

S’pose you’re wondering: if I wish to be really healthy, why would I want to eat desserts anyway? A very insightful question! Here’s the reason. Just like deer are attracted to a salt lick, humans desire a sweeter flavor for eighty percent of food. That may seem like a lot, but just look at all the sweet vegetables we enjoy, as well as fruit, and there you have it. Even sauces served around the globe often have a sweet taste. And sometimes we just want a little something to end the meal, clear the palate, as Margaret mentioned when we prepped our Leftover Macrobiotic Cooking Class yesterday. And these milder treats keep us out of  t-r-o-u-b-l-e, like all traditional brimful of sugary, creamy, buttery sweets everywhere we go.

Another reason for learning good quality Macrobiotic Desserts is serving company and even friends stopping by. You feel confident something in your fridge is yummy-as-the-Ritz or NYC’s Serendipity – even serving friends who aren’t eating macro. You’ll enjoy your dessert, and their compliments. Recently we delighted Abe, the insulation expert inspecting our home, with our Apple Crisp, & we joined him too, natch! Learn some delicious, healthier desserts in this macrobiotic cooking class, and you won’t have to be singing this old song:

If I knew you were comin’ I’d've baked a cake, hired a band, goodness sake!
If I knew you were comin’ I’d've baked a cake
Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?

This macrobiotic cooking class features desserts you can use frequently plus just one over-the-top for very special occasions, well, maybe two over-the-top! Sometimes we just need something a little more special, or when we entertaining. I mean wouldn’t you just love to serve a mini chocolate truffle? What if it had kanten flakes in it instead of eggs & a little Eden Blend Rice/Soy Beverage instead of butter & cream?

And that little chocolate chip cookie I made this December? Chips sweetened with barley malt, without dairy! So delish I gave them to lots of people in our world. One sweet note on top of a letter ~ Sure enjoyed those chocolate chip cookies! Thanks, Mailman Mike tells it all. Bet you’ll like them too! So like Rosemary Clooney sings, Come on-a my house, I’m gonna give you candy …!

Come on-a my house, my house,  I’m gonna teach you cookies and truffles and tarts,
Come on-a my house I’m gonna teach to you … some sweet, yummy, healthier macro things..

Join us in Atlanta!  Macrobiotic Center of Atlanta

Saturday May 15              1-4 pm        $45 per person

RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com 770. 396  9413

Menu*

Fruit & Berries Tart, A Macro Perfection
Possibly the Yummiest Rice Pudding on the planet
Blueberry Pie
Chocolate Truffles
A very teeny, harmless Chocolate Chip Cookie
~ Peach Compote with Kuzu ~
perfect recipe for blueberries, apple, pears & more!

* menu choices may change slightly as new desserts are being tested! check for updates!

RSVP please,  soon as possible!

Your check to Marsha Rueff holds your space:
Please mail to 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, GA 30338