Oh natural Cooking contest cultivates community at Monica’s…Naturally

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The cars lined both sides of Main Street in Unity on Saturday morning and a casual passerby may have wondered what in the world was going on inside the Unity health food store with the bright pink sign.

But the regulars around town knew. Monica’s … Naturally was hosting its monthly cooking contest.

The judges – George Lougee of Newport, Alicia Moon of Pittsfield and Al Picogna, who was visiting from New York – had a difficult task, as Saturday’s entries were all blue ribbon: citrus ginger nut cake, orange mandarin cheesecake with butterscotch sauce, tangy fresh fruit fondue, orange eggnog, and orange puff custard.

“Everything is so delicious!” said Picogna.

“There are some exceptional cooks represented here,” said Lougee.

As the judges tasted each entry and then carefully noted their ballots, more people began gathering.

Here’s a quiz: What do you get when you combine tofu and cloves, steak and nutmeg, cardamom and chick peas?

The answer: a community.

On Saturday, inside the cozy, antique building with its soft brick-colored walls and cream tin ceiling, two women sat at a little table in the front window, reading the newspaper, talking politics. Another pair sat near the homeopathic medicine shelves, talking about their children. One man was working at the computer, and another stood reading a book. Still others gathered around the coffee and tea pots, filling their mugs with a hot brew.

And buzzing around, talking to everyone, seeing to everyone’s needs, getting the food entries set up, taking a minute to visit here, answering the phone there, signing people up for classes, was the indefatigable Monica Easton.

At 46, Easton believes she has found her home. In the past year, the health food store has become a community gathering place – a place to rest, to discover, to experience something new.

From the popular cooking contest to the classes in meditation, Reiki and self-improvement, Easton has fit right in to this environmentally and spiritually conscious community.

“I really believe in the whole connection: mind, body and spirit,” said Easton, while enjoying a quiet cup of tea a week before the contest.

Posters on the bulletin board reinforce her views. There are ads for yoga classes, community-sponsored agriculture, didgeridoo lessons, reflexology and spiritual readings.

And just as her cooking contest customers gather the varied ingredients to create a spectacular result, so does Easton gather the varied people to create a home, a resting place. Sort of like the old general stores of time gone by, Monica’s … Naturally has become the heartbeat of the community.

But getting here from there isn’t always an easy road.

Easton believes her spirit was meant to end up on Main Street in Unity. “This community embraced me,” she said, “just when I needed it most.”

“I didn’t have a cent to my name. I had gone through bankruptcy and had to completely start over,” she said. Easton was raised on one of Mount Desert Island’s outer islands, Islesford, and was virtually on her own from the age of 14. “My mom dropped me off in the center of Bar Harbor and all I had was $5 saved from my lunch money. I clammed, I was a chamber maid, I managed a craft shop,” she said. “I did anything and everything.”

She got married and with her husband operated George’s Take Out, a Southwest Harbor restaurant.

For the next six years, she drove 62 miles a day to work at a health food store in Newport. But a year ago, she was suddenly laid off and found herself at a crossroads. “Everyone kept telling me to open my own place,” she said. Over the years, her own interest in homeopathy and organic and healthful eating had turned her into a self-educated expert.

“I looked for a location in Milbridge, Harmony and here,” she said. “This building is the original Unity Co-op and Unity is the home of [Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association] and the environmental Unity College.”

Neighbors and customers helped her build shelves, stock the store and set up the classes. Then they began flocking to the business, and not just for the organic pasta or the tinctures and oils.

They came for Easton – a tiny woman with a bubbly, larger-than-life personality, whose genuine caring spirit is quickly evident.

“We are all here because we want to keep this business in town, and we want to support Monica’s efforts,” said Carol Giles on Saturday. “This helps make Unity more of a community.”

“We’re so glad to have Monica and her business here,” said Jane Holmes of Plymouth. “The whole reason we enter the contest is to support her.”

“I really want to help people help themselves,” said Easton. “I want to help – whether it’s suggesting a healing herb, providing cooking advice or just lending an ear to someone who needs to talk. I want you to come by and have a cup of tea with me and maybe get some answers. That’s what it’s all about, the connection, the educating. The energy is so exciting.”

And that’s how the cooking contest became such a community event. This is how it works: There are two jars, and a pile of paper slips on the counter. Customers are invited to write down a spice and put it in one jar, and then put a main ingredient in the other. One entry is randomly selected from each jar and the next cooking contest is born.

This month was a fairly easy combination – nutmeg and oranges. But there are have months when the combo required some real cooking creativity. Steak and nutmeg turned out grilled pineapple steaks with a nutmeg glaze, butternut squash steak stuffed with cranberry oatmeal and drizzled with maple syrup, and sweet potato steaks with walnuts and feta cheese.

Tofu and cloves resulted in Kahlua pumpkin cheesecake, and cardamom and chick peas resulted in Cornish game hens on a bed of peas with a cardamom cream sauce.

To spread the feeling of community around even more, Easton said she plans to create a cookbook with all of the year’s recipes.

On Saturday, the contestants waiting eagerly while the judges tasted and conferred. And in the true sense of community, when Carol Giles was given the first-place prize, she passed it on to second-place contestant, Jane Holmes.

“Stick around,” advised Easton. “The leftovers get eaten.” And the community descended on the table, all Monday-morning quarterbacking about which was the best entry.

Giles reached into the jars and picked next month’s ingredients – rosemary and noodles.

“Isn’t this fun?” said Easton, as she breezed by on her way to greet a friend.

Here is the winning recipe for February, created by Carol Giles of Unity:

Orange Mandarin Cheesecake with Butterscotch Sauce

Crust:

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons mandarin orange juice

1/2 teaspoon fresh nutmeg

Mix and press into springform pan. Bake in 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Filling:

3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated orange peel

4 eggs

1/4 cup mandarin orange juice

1/2 teaspoon fresh nutmeg

3/4 cup mandarin oranges, drained

Blend cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer. Add one egg at a time, then add orange peel, juice, nutmeg and gently fold in oranges. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, 15 min. Cool overnight in refrigerator. Remove from pan. Pour on topping.

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg

3 tablespoons mandarin orange juice

Combine in saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool in refrigerator until it starts to thicken. Pour immediately over cheesecake.