About > Health & Fitness > Diabetes
    Diabetesan About site   
Hi, I'm Paula Ford-Martin, your Guide to Diabetes. I can help you find what you need to know about Diabetes.
Search  
  
 with Paula Ford-Martin Your Guide to one of hundreds of sites
 Home · Articles · Forums · Chat · Classifieds · Newsletters · Help    
  Build your home on the Web and Invite your friends. Start here!brought to you by About Web Services 
 
            
 Subjects
 
  ESSENTIALS
 · Carbs and Diabetes
 · About Diabetes Recipe Box
 · Tools for Diabetes Control
 · Image Gallery
 · NEW: A to Z Site Map
  BUYER'S GUIDE

About Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetic Emergency
Food & Diet
Newswire
Gestational Diab.
Kids and Diabetes
Glucose Monitoring
Diagnosis
Search for a Cure
Causes
Coping
Discrimination
Exercise
Eye Disease
Foot Disease
Free Offers
Heart Disease
Hypertension
Hypoglycemia
Insulin
Insurance/Medicare
Kidney Disease
Lifestyle
Medication
Neuropathy
Reference Shelf
Sexuality
Español/Spanish

Subject Library 

All articles on this topic

 
Stay up-to-date!
Subscribe to our newsletter.

Advertising
> Free Credit Report
> Free Psychics


Today's Special: Giving Thanks for Native American Foods

Healthy Foods for a Traditional Thanksgiving Feast

 Recipes from Marilyn
•  Baked Stuffed Pumpkin
•  Chilly Chili Corn Milk
•  Pueblo Festival Bean Salad
•  Algonquian Three Sisters Rice
•  Oklahoma Corn & Squash Pawnee
•  Buttermilk Green Chili Cornbread Stuffing
•  Yukon Morning Glory Story Muffins

•  Comanche Chickasaw Plum Bars
•  Cranberry-Maple Ice
•  Snowy Vanilla Pecan Crescents
 
 Related Resources
•  Diabetes and Minorities: Native Americans
•  Eating With Diabetes
•  Today's Special Archive
•  Food in the Forum
 Compare Prices
•  Enduring Harvests: Native American Foods and Festivals for Every Season 
•  This Day in North American Indian History
Elsewhere on the Web
•  Marilyn Helton's Cinnamon Hearts

 Free Newsletter

Email Address

Subscribe to:
About
Diabetes

Email Newsletter

By Marilyn Helton

Welcome to Today's Special! With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, this month's focus is on Native American foods, which found a place in our culinary history on the earliest holiday tables.

European foods are well-known in American cuisine, but more than half of the foods we enjoy today are from our own shores, given to us by the North American Indian. One of the most notable is the famous Indian triad of corn, squash, and beans. These three sisters were planted and grown together -- the corn stalk supported the snake-like bean vine sown on the same mound, and squash grew between the rows of corn. Adapted and transformed throughout the years, they shaped both our culture and cuisine.

Corn became corn bread, spoonbread, corn fritters, and hominy grits. Succotash, a unique Native American dish made of a stewed mixture of corn and lima beans, quickly became a favorite. Maple syrup, tapped from the maple trees which heavily populated New England and New York state, was a popular Indian sweetener often used with fruits, nuts, and squash. In fact, it was probably the Narragansett and Penobsoot women, two Eastern tribes that lived along the Atlantic coast, who taught New Englanders how to sweeten beans with maple syrup and fat -- the forerunner of our Boston Baked Beans.

North American Indians often prepared wild turkey, a native American bird, with corn, lima beans and tomatoes in a thick mixture which we now call Brunswick stew. Other Native Americans paired turkey with wild rice. The Winnebago and Chippewa Indian tribes of the lake country of northern Minnesota considered this dark, chewy grain as precious as gold and used it in stuffings, soups, and side dishes.

The recipes in Today's Special are from Enduring Harvests ~ Native American Foods and Festivals For Every Season, by E. Barrie Kavasch. When I first reviewed Enduring Harvests in September 1997, I couldn't find enough superlatives to praise this book. E. Barrie Kavasch, a recognized authority on Native American culture and cookery, shares with the reader a culinary history of the Native American, an abstract in anthropology, a vision of color and botanical landscapes, and the culture of a people who made food preparation an art as well as a prayer. Enduring Harvests also presents a colorful travelogue of regional Indian festivals, brought to the reader against the backdrop of their dances, drums, and ceremonial fires. In a word, it is fantastic!

E. Barrie Kavash holds many titles as a distinguished authority on Native American plants, cuisines, and cultures. She is of partial Native American descent (Creek, Cherokee, and Powhatan). Kavash is a free-lance author/artist, ethnobotanist, food historian, and consultant. Enduring Harvests is published by The Globe Pequot Press, 1995.

I'm pleased to be able to share some of the wonderful recipes from Enduring Harvests for your holiday table (see Recipes from Marilyn; right). The prose with each recipe will lure you to the heart of each Native American festival, and I heartily recommend you include some of these sweet and savory delights in your holiday menus. Be sure to share the history and ceremony of each dish with your family as you sample these delightful Native American foods.

Until next time, hold on to your patience and try to stay centered ~ It's time to enjoy the holidays!

- Marilyn

Return to About Diabetes home.

Start a chat now!




Email this page!

 Sponsored Links

Representing Medical Malpractice Victims 50 States
If you believe you or a loved one is the victim of medical malpractice or healthcare negligence our attorneys will evaluate your case for free to assess your legal options.
http://www.medicalmalpracticelawyernetwork.com/   (Cost to Advertiser: $0.41)

Diabetes tests and testing information.
Diabetes tests and testing information – monitoring diabetes with Hemoglobin A1C, Fructosamine, and Microalbum.
http://www.diabetes-tests.com/   (Cost to Advertiser: $0.31)

Free Impotence Hotline for Diabetics
Call toll-free. Get confidential questions answered instantly by an Erectile Dysfunction Institute nurse or schedule an appointment with an experienced ED specialist near you. Absolutely no charge.
http://www.erectile-dysfunction-impotence.org/   (Cost to Advertiser: $0.20)

Buy a Link Now!





               
spacer
Important Disclaimer Information about this About site. 
spacer


 
Explore More on the About Network!
Related Sites
Exercise
Heart Disease/Cardiology
Nutrition
Pediatrics
Senior Health
India Mourns
Business Majors Guide Ajeet Khurana has Indian reaction to the death of astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
Heroic Bios
Space Guide Nick Greene looks back at the lives of the seven astronauts lost in Saturday's disaster.
Women in Space
Women's History Guide Jone Johnson Lewis has images of NASA's most famous female astronauts.
Search About
  
 
About Us | Advertise on This Site | User Agreement | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy | Help
Copyright  © 2003 About, Inc. About and About.com are registered trademarks of About, Inc. The About logo is a trademark of About, Inc. All rights reserved.