The Twelve Days of Christmas, Eight Maids a Milking

On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

I'm continuing my series on The Twelve Days of Christmas. As I shared previously, Brian McLaren pushed me to ponder how I might put the Twelve Days of Christmas into action. On the eighth day after Christmas, I'm not milking a cow, but we'll explore some moo.

I do have to share, that as J and I talk budgets, I work at my writing, and we talk and work towards Safe Families and new year priorities, we've been asking each other, "how much skin do you have in the game?" This is not a normal phrase at our house, but we keep circling back to it, sometimes testily. As I pondered this post last night, I couldn't help but laugh and ask him whether the eighth day ought to be all about breast feeding. Hey, it fits with all things milk, and well lots of skin is in that game! Alright, just teasing. Let's moooooove on.  

Heidi of the Swiss Alps also comes to mind, and she makes me think of Swiss and Belgian chocolate (Fyi, Belgian is the better of the two. Sorry Heidi). So let's talk chocolate, because eight maids a milking in the French speaking Swiss Alps are certainly making chocolat au lait.  What else would they do?

Lausanne, Switzerland

Many years ago, when I was here, we took a windy mountain road trip here.

Photo from Maison Cailler

We ate a lot of chocolate, and you should know, Swiss Nestle is very different from American Nestle. They are a world apart in taste, because I dare to venture, the Swiss have more discriminating palates than the Americans. Tis' true.

Watching the video, I was shocked to see the tasting room has completely changed. It's a boring white and brown, not milk brown, but not a deep dark brown either. I think that boring room keeps chocolate consumption down. Wanna bet some chocolate on it? 

When I visited Callier 20+ years ago, the tasting room was filled with golden chandeliers and tiered white laced tables covered with golden platters of glorious chocolate. In those golden days, you were given 1 minute to consume chocolate. Yes, 60 seconds to eat as much chocolate bliss as you wished. But! When your 60 seconds was up, the very strict Swiss ladies standing guard over the tables bid you adieu. Their very stern statures spoke, "Don't even think about one more bite. Back away from the chocolate." I don't think anyone challenged them, and our group was comprised of 30 perpetually hungry and broke college students. We ate a lot of chocolate in 60 seconds! Ah, for those long ago days, when chocolate was not drawn from lip to hip. While, we didn't gain weight and there was no admission fee to Cailler, we paid in other ways.

The ride home was as miserly as the strict Swiss ladies. Yours truly, hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. I was planning ahead. No breakfast meant more room for chocolate. I don't think I ate a pound of chocolate, but I might have come close. A few of the guys ate well over a pound of the deep dark stuff. It seems to me, I got down 12-15 pieces, but who counted? I'll never forget the ride back to Lausanne filled to the brim with chocolate on a previously empty stomach. To this day, I have no problem enjoying a tiny bit of chocolate at a time. 

So as you can see, the eighth day of Christmas really is about giving the gift of chocolate to someone you love. We're getting a jump on Valetine's, and I'm quite sure Jesus would be supportive, and if He's in, I'm sure Heidi and the Swiss ladies would endorse giving au chocolat. In Switzerland, you'd of course be required to give Swiss Milk Chocolate, but I wish for you to receive the gift of whatever kind of chocolate you find delish, and to give in kind. Do remember, some of us are deep dark chocolate purists, but we can all get along in 2015. Chocolate and world peace sounds perfect.

For those with milk allergies, dark chocolate and marzipan is a great gift. Marzipan often saves the day at our house. Especially with sister, whose sweet tooth must avoid milk. Now, back to our maidens. I'm sure they'd encourage you to give the gift of chocolate, but they'd also encourage you to think about other moo oriented gifts.

Give a goat or water buffalo through Heifer International this year. Heifer is the gift that keeps on giving because cows keep on having cows, and goats keep on having goats. A family receiving the gift of an animal through Heifer, pledges to share the offspring with others in their community. This maiden and her farm hands love Heifer. Our kids help raise money to give an animal and in exchange, they receive a very small stuffed plush to represent the animal they gave.

I get their little plush animals at a small independent toy shop. The independents do a good job of stocking Gund plush animals. I've tried to encourage the small toy stores to set out Heifer catalogs beside their plush animals. Can you help me in this? Give the gift of Heifer animals in 2015 and then give a small plush animal to your loved one as a reminder of the gift.  It will bring a world of joy, and sustenance.

 Visit Heifer Village?

www.heifer.org

Ivory Coast farmers taste chocolate for the first time.

During my time with YWAM Lausanne, we went to Budapest and another large city on the African continent. We stayed on the grounds of a monastary/orphanage and we took chocolate for the boys in the orphanage. We threw birthday parties for them and played games. We practiced the gift of hospitality, and yes, we learned that a gift as small as chocolate can be powerful. 

A bit closer to home, the moo in our fridge is a menagerie these days. When the kids were young, we bought organic, but then we moved back to Oregon and all milk was mandated rBST free. We felt more comfortable switching to Alpenrose Dairy and other local brands. But this year, we once again went Oregon organic. We buy a 1/2 gallon of whole milk each week and make SCD lactose free high probiotic yogurt for sister. The boys and I, drink organic skim by the gallon. I buy organic lactose free for C. Have you ever looked at the label of lactose free milk that is not organic? Yikes.

On this 2nd day of January 2015, pull up a chair and share a glass of milk with someone you love. Add a little Ovaltine and a homemade chocolate chip cookie and you've a feast of comfort and joy on the eighth day of Christmas. But, look at that! We wound our way around to milk and chocolate again.

Below is my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I eat them for breakfast when no one is looking. These days, we are eating more Paleo/SCD cookies. In fact, I made my first batch of homemade "Lara Bars" last night. 

Kim's Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I dump, blend, and add a little lactose free milk to make the batter soft. The flax meal is an oil, but it takes baking, to get it to respond like an oil, hence the use of milk to get the batter scoopable. You can also use coconut, rice, or almond milk. A super simple recipe, it takes me about 8 minutes to make this batter, if that.

1/2 cup of soft butter (or coconut oil)

aprox. 1 cup of brown sugar, a bit more is fine if you like.

3/4 cup of flax meal (not seeds!)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. sea salt

2 farm eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

aprox. 1 cup of quick oats

2 cups of gluten free flour. I use Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 GF Flour*

2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup lactose free milk to make a soft cookie batter

1 bag of  dark chocolate chips that are milk free. 

Oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar first, then add the eggs. Dump in the rest of the stuff. Mix and add milk to make the batter like consistency you want. Bake about 8 minutes.

*If you live in Oregon, stop at the Bob's Red Mill Outlet Bakery/Rest./Store in Oregon City and buy this flour in a 25lb bag for serious savings.

Here's to strong bones and strong spirits in 2015! Take your Vitamin D and drink your milk! Bake cookies, pray, eat and give chocolate, and Bon Appetit!