The Garden of Happy Endings

by Barbara O'Neal

  2 T olive oil

  1 large yellow onion, diced

  3 ribs celery, sliced

  3 carrots, diced

  1 bay leaf

  1 tsp thyme

  1 tsp sage

  1 tsp salt

  ½ tsp pepper

  Water

  Wash chicken inside and out. Pour the oil into a large, heavy pot and add onions, celery, and carrots. Cook gently for 5 minutes, just to release the flavors. Add chicken, whole, and cover with water. Add seasonings and bring water to a boil, then turn heat down to medium low and let simmer for several hours.

  When the chicken is falling off the bone, strain the liquid into a clean bowl, and then return to pot. Let the chicken and seasonings cool, then pick out the bones, loose skin, and bay leaf. Return mixture to pot and return to a low simmer.

  Dumplings

  Dumplings of this sort are really just biscuits poached in the stewing liquid, which is what gives them such lovely flavor. They absorb the fat and seasonings from the broth, and taste like pure love.

  2 cups flour

  2 tsp baking powder

  ½ tsp salt

  1 tsp sugar

  2 T cold butter

  1 cup buttermilk

  Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix well. Cut in butter using a pastry cutter or two knives. Add buttermilk and blend quickly, then knead just ten times on a floured surface. Roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick, then cut it into triangles about 2 inches wide. Gently drop the dumplings into the simmering broth and cover the pot. Let cook for about 10 minutes. (You can test one by taking it out and cutting it open—the inside should be fluffy, like bread. If it isn’t, let them simmer a little longer.) Serve in bowls with plenty of chicken and broth.

  Split Pea and Barley Soup

  —Elsa—

  SERVES 10 EASILY.

  TO SERVE 100, MULTIPLY ACCORDINGLY.

  This is a hearty soup with a surprisingly dense flavor.

  Olive oil

  1 large yellow onion

  3 stalks celery, sliced

  5 carrots, sliced

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  2 quarts vegetable broth

  1 lb. split peas, picked over and thoroughly rinsed

  2 cups pearl barley

  1 15-oz. can chopped tomatoes

  2 tsp salt

  1 tsp pepper

  1 bay leaf

  Water as needed

  Pour olive oil into a heavy, large pot and add onion, celery, and carrots and let them brown slightly. Add garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Add broth, then peas, barley, tomatoes, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn down heat to medium low. Cook for 2 hours, checking often to add water as necessary. When peas and barley are fully cooked, correct seasonings and serve with bread and butter.

  Tarta Santiago

  —Joaquin—

  It is true that the Gloriosa sisters, who keep house for me, would be scandalized to find a priest cooking for himself, much less for others. This is an almond cake that you find on the Camino de Santiago. Not too sweet, not too complicated, and very good with a cup of tea. Elsa loves all the foods we ate on the road, but this is her favorite of all.

  2 2/3 cups ground almonds

  1 stick butter at room temperature

  4 eggs

  1¼ cups sugar

  ¾ cup flour

  ½ tsp baking powder

  ½ cup water

  Zest of 1 lemon

  Powdered sugar to decorate

  Blanch the almonds, then using a grinder or a food processor, grind them until they are fine. Set aside.

  Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a round 8-inch pan and cut a piece of paper to cover the bottom of it. Grease that, too.

  Beat together eggs and sugar, then add butter and mix again. Add flour, baking powder, and water, and beat well.

  Stir the almonds into the batter. Grate the lemon and add the zest and stir until thoroughly mixed.

  Pour batter into cake pan. Bake in oven on the middle shelf for approximately 45–50 minutes. Check doneness after 45 minutes. Cake is done if a toothpick inserted into the center of it comes out clean.

  The final step is the marker of the traditional cake. Cut out a cross of St. James (a sword that looks like a cross) from a piece of paper. Place the paper on the center of the baked cake, and dust the cake with powdered sugar. Remove the paper and you have the traditional cake.

  Caldo Gallego

  SERVES 10 EASILY

  A hearty peasant soup to hold you over many days of walking. Plus, how can any soup with bacon be bad? Don’t skip the turnip: It’s full of things that are good for you and no one ever knows it’s there.

  1 lb. bacon ends and pieces

  1 large onion, chopped

  3 cloves garlic, minced

  4 quarts vegetable or chicken stock

  1 lb. mixed beans, white or brown or red, doesn’t matter

  1 large turnip, diced to 1 inch

  2 potatoes, peeled and diced

  ¼ lb. chorizo sausage, skinned

  1 lb. collard greens or other fresh greens, thoroughly washed and torn into small pieces

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Brown the bacon in a heavy soup pot, and let drain on paper towels. Pour off the fat in the pan, leaving 2–3 T in the pan. Add diced onion and cook 5 minutes over medium high heat, then add garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add bacon, stock, and beans, and cook until beans are tender, 2 to 7 hours, depending on the type of bean you use. (If you like, use two 15-oz. cans of white and/or pinto beans instead.) Add turnip and potatoes and cook until tender. Add diced chorizo and greens and cook until greens are wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  Serve with bread and butter and no one will go hungry.

  To all mis chicas peregrinas

  who walked the Camino with me,

  especially

  Anne Pinder who led us,

  Betsy May, who got it all rolling,

  and Mary Strand who corralled me into walking.

  Thanks to Bethany Barber, who sang the most glorious

  Ave Maria at Monte do Gozo, bringing us all to tears,

  and her mother, Brenda, for long talks about writing and love,

  and Sharyn Cerniglia who walked on bloody feet

  just like a medieval pilgrim.

  Love to Jean and Chris, Caroline and Rhonda.

  I’m honored to know you all.

  Acknowledgments

  Some books require an army to be born. This one certainly did.

  A tremendous amount of research was required for me to understand the lives of ministers and priests. I’m grateful to Reverend Lawrence Palmer, Unity minister, and one of the most influential teachers on my own journey, and to Father Ben Bacino, in Pueblo, for helping me to understand the day-to-day lives of ministers and priests, the great power of a calling, and some of the challenges of a life of service.

  To say I am grateful to Reverend Ahriana Platten would be a gross understatement. It is impossible to express how providential and illuminating her arrival in my life was—and remains. This book would be a shadow of what it is without her. Thanks for showing, through example and conversation, so much of what makes a woman’s calling so different from that of a man. I am honored to now call you friend.

  Other women who shone with spiritual beauty in my thoughts as I wrote this book: my grandmother Madoline Putman, as always; my dear friend Heather Stocker, who has brought joy and a certain sanity into my world; also Noreen McGregor and Christina Ahlen, who have taught me so much. And last, but certainly not forgotten, the fellowship team who had my back through the intense, crazy year I was writing this book: Virginia Clark, Julie and Brad Poulson, Ann Luciani, Pam and Brenda and John Rogers. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  Much gratitude to Aphra Caraballo, a natural and elegant cook whose soups inspired me—and many of the recipes in this book. All mistakes are my own.

  Without my publishing team
, my books could never arrive in the world. Deepest thanks to Meg Ruley, who saw the potential in the early, early stages, and to Shauna Summers, who encourages me to do the work that inflames me—that’s rare and I’m grateful—but also pushes me to give it all I’ve got. Deep thanks to Jane von Mehren, who creates such excitement for the books, and to the entire art and sales departments at Bantam who create the beautiful packages and get the books into the world.

  Y mil gracias a Santiago, por supuesto.

  BY BARBARA O’NEAL

  The Lost Recipe for Happiness

  The Secret of Everything

  How to Bake a Perfect Life

  The Garden of Happy Endings

  BARBARA O’NEAL fell in love with food and restaurants at the age of fifteen, when she landed a job in a Greek café and served baklava for the first time. She sold her first novel in her twenties, and has since won a plethora of awards, including two Colorado Book Awards and six prestigious RITAs, including one for The Lost Recipe for Happiness. Her novels have been widely published in Europe and Australia, and she travels all over the world presenting workshops, hiking hundreds of miles, and, of course, eating. She lives with her partner, a British endurance athlete, and their collection of cats and dogs, in Colorado Springs.