Pickled Purslane July 1, 2008

I was looking around the web for a recipe for purslane salad. I found purslane at the farmer’s market on Saturday and we have not gotten around to eating it yet — I want to make a salad tonight before it goes bad. I’m also serving grilled salmon and artichokes with melted butter.

Anyway, I happened to come across this recipe, which I think looks really yummy!

Of course, I would not make the recipe this way — I would use whey and sea salt, just like we make Nourishing Traditions dill pickles. I think I will try it. They’ve got to be super-nutritious. I’ll post my results and modified recipe.

Pickled Purslane

(from Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich)

1/2 lb. purslane stalks, cut to fit vertically in a pint jar
1 dill head
1 small fresh or dried chile pepper, split lengthwise (optional)
10 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
10 Tbsp. water
1 1/2 tsp. pickling salt
1 garlic clove, sliced
4 black peppercorns

Pack the purslane stalks vertically in a pint jar, slipping the dill head and chile pepper down the
side. In a nonreactive saucepan, bring to a boil the vinegar, water, salt, garlic, and peppercorns,
stirring to dissolve the salt. Pour the hot liquid over the purslane. Cover the jar with a
nonreactive cap.

Store the jar in the refrigerator for 1 week before eating the purslane. It will keep, refrigerated, for several months or longer. Yields 1 pint.

Photo credit

Potato Cheese May 31, 2008

It’s funny — when you’re single, sitting at home on a Saturday night is the worst thing you can imagine. And then you become a mom. And you’re always doing doing doing for everyone else. And the idea of having some time to yourself is so fabulous, you don’t care what night it is.

Seth announced that he had to go out to a business thing and I got so excited that I was going to get to stay home, put my feet up, and do my own thing. I don’t even have to cook dinner! I can eat cheese and some almond bread if I get hungry.

So I got Kate down (so easy, she goes down every night and every nap with no crying, no fussing) then I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and watered my seedlings. Then I poured a glass of wine, dimmed the lights, and am now happily watching Oprah and House Hunters and Martha Stewart and Iron Chef America.

I’m also making “Potato Cheese”, a fermented potato dish (for Kate — we can’t eat potatoes on GAPS). I don’t like the name. Hopefully the recipe comes out better than the name.

I really like to try to serve fermented foods to Kate at at least one meal a day. Ideally, it would be every meal… but once a day is great. If I do more than that, all the better. She really loves sauerkraut and kefir and fermented yams and homemade lacto-fermented ketchup and dill pickles. Today she had some dill pickle relish in her tunafish for lunch, and this evening she had fermented yams with liver and ground beef stew for dinner.

Anyway, I got the Potato Cheese recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Well, it’s in Nourishing Traditions, but it was originally published in 1833, in a book called The American Frugal Housewife.

You cook 4 pounds of potatoes (I baked mine), then peel them, then throw them in the food processor with 2 cups of kefir or piima milk (I’m using kefir). Let that sit out at room temperature in a bowl (covered with a dish towel) for 2 days. Then you strain it the same way you do when you strain the whey when making cheese. When done, transfer to an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Kate’s Dinner May 24, 2008

Chicken livers cooked in duck fat and butter, leftover Avgolemono soup, fermented yams with raw butter, egg omelet with avocado and a tiny bit of lacto-fermented salsa, cod liver oil, butter oil, Lugol’s iodine, and her Biokult probiotic.

Click on the photo to read more.

Fermented Yams May 22, 2008

A few of you have asked for this so here you go!

This recipe is from the Fermented Taro Root (also known as Poi) recipe in “Nourishing Traditions”. I couldn’t find taro root so I used yams. This makes a very yummy and super-nutritious baby food. It’s also really good as a side dish.

2 pounds yams (or sweet potatoes)
1 TBS sea salt
4 TBS whey (homemade whey from raw milk or yogurt — recipe on page 87 of “Nourishing Tradtions”)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Stab the yams with a fork. Stick them in the oven and bake for 2 hours or until soft. Let cool, then peel and mash with salt and whey (a sauerkraut pounder or meat tenderizer works great). Leave this mixture in a bowl and leave out at room temperature, covered with a dishtowel, for 24 hours. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Chicken and Sauerkraut May 12, 2008

This came out absolutely delicious.

I started with a recipe from my friend Jungleen. She posted a comment a few days ago with a recipe for Chicken Cacciatore. It’s basically chicken cooked in homemade chicken stock and tomato sauce. I left out the vegetables and added arrowroot to make a thicker sauce. Then served it with homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut and cream cheese made from goat yogurt (Seth is out of town so I’m allowed to eat dairy).

YUM! This was really good. And it’s so good for digestive health. The bone broth, the fermented foods. And it was good!

Kate had the same thing for dinner — she loved it!

PS: The gorgeous flowers were a Mother’s Day gift from my in-laws. Thanks, Nancy & Ed! Love you and miss you!

GAPS Diet: Day 14 May 10, 2008

Just got back from the farmer’s market.

Here are the meals I’m going to make this week (not in any particular order, although I know we are doing ribs tonight and brisket tomorrow night):

BBQ Pork Spare Ribs with Beet Greens sauteed in chicken fat, tomato and cucumber salad — and broth
Brisket with Sauerkraut and some vegetables (not sure what yet), and Carrot Ginger Soup
Roast Chicken, salad, broth or soup
Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and a green salad — and broth
Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad and Sashimi
Ribeye Steak, Salad, and maybe I’ll try to make Onion Soup (sans cheese and bread, of course)
Chicken Cacciatore with an arugula and fennel salad and soup

Both the brisket and the chicken will provide leftovers which I will use for lunches. I also got 5 dozen eggs. Jungleen asked me, “Do you really go through that many eggs in one week?” Yes, we really do. Seth usually eats 4 eggs for breakfast, and Kate and I split 4 eggs. That’s 8 eggs per day right there. And we eat eggs every morning so that’s 56 eggs. Plus we use eggs to make the coconut oil mayonnaise (which we eat almost every day for lunch — either chicken salad, tuna salad or egg salad — oops more eggs for the egg salad).

And I often make smoothies with 2 egg yolks for lunch. That’s actually one of my favorite lunches. Two raw egg yolks, some strawberries or blueberries, 2-3 TBS of coconut oil, 1 TBS of Frontier brand nutritional yeast, and either kefir or coconut milk, and sweetened with a TBS or two of raw honey. (I am still doing kefir. That is the only dairy I still eat. I don’t have any problems with dairy like Seth does and Dr. Cowan said if you can tolerate kefir, you can eat it from the beginning.)

I need to check the papers from Dr. Cowan to see when we can start eating beans. I’d love to have some lentil soup. Or make black beans and taco meat.

But I don’t want to start introducing anything new until I’m sure Seth’s gut pain is totally gone and he’s not having any constipation or diarrhea.

I’m also really excited to start making my own ketchup. Seth loves ketchup and eats a lot of it. It will be great to have real lacto-fermented ketchup. Same thing with salsa. I’m going to stake my tomatoes today. We should have tomatoes in another month to 6 weeks.

It’s a perfect day to garden. Nice and cool outside.

I have some potatoes we never gotten around to eating that started sprouting… Cute little purple ones. I think I’m going to throw those into a big container I have (used to have a palm in it but it died). We’ll see if they grow. We can eat potatoes right now but maybe by the time these come up we will be able to.

Oh, PS: I’ve lost somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds now. (Sometimes the scale says 148, sometimes 147.) Yes, it’s true, I may have lost weight because we are eating so low-carb. But I was on a low-carb diet for a few months starting in December and I couldn’t lose past a certain point. I really think the Iodoral is what’s helping. Anyway, we’ll see how next week goes.

I also bought a Lumiscope thermometer — the kind Dr. Rind recommends on his website — from Drugstore.com. It was only $6. He says it’s the most accurate. I’m going to start charting my temperature every few hours like he recommends.

Scallops, Spaghetti Squash, and Starting GAPS April 26, 2008

I’m relaxing in our “outdoor living room” in the backyard with a glass of Viognier. Seth is putting the baby down. It was hot today, but now it’s pleasantly cool. I can smell someone barbecuing in the distance.

Tonight’s dinner will be easy. I got a dozen fresh scallops at the farmer’s market today. So fresh, they are still alive! They gave them to me in bags of salt water.

I’ll probably braise them in a little butter. Then we will have some kielbasa and sauerkraut, some spaghetti squash with butter, and a green salad with sliced apple.

Tomorrow night I will make pulled pork. I’ve never made it before but Rocky Canyon had a nice pork butt at the market today. I think I’ll soak it in brine overnight, then slow cook it in the crock pot all day.

Seth had his phone consultation with Dr. Cowan on Thursday (which also happened to be his birthday — Seth’s, not Dr. Cowan’s).

Dr. Cowan recommended the GAPS diet. I knew he was going to say that, but the biggest reason we did the consultation was to convince Seth. He needed to hear it from someone other than me. Better yet, a doctor. I’ve been trying to get him to do the GAPS diet for months. Of course, he just thought it was some wacky think I read on the internet.

The good news is, he’s willing to do it now.

Let me back up — the GAPS Diet was formulated by neurologist and nutritionist, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. GAPS stands for “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”. The idea is that most of the psychological disorders we have are due to digestive disorders. Click here for an overview of the book.

I’m excited because Seth has suffered from anxiety and depression for years. He has also had digestive problems since he was a kid. He said he can remember being constipated when he was a small child, and said the depression started when he was 17. And I have noticed that his anxiety/depression is always worse when he has intestinal pain. Whenever he gets really cranky or anxious, he always says his guts hurt.

Dr. Cowan mentioned a book called “The Second Brain”. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with the author that may shed some light on this for you:

Ever get a gut feeling about someone, or I anxious butterflies in your stomach? That’s because you have a second brain in your bowel, according to Michael Gershon, M.D., author of The Second Brain (HarperCollins, 1999), and a neurobiologist at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Gershon recently explained to Psychology Today how an independent network of over 100 billion neurons in the gut not only signals our bodies to stress but causes illness.

Q Why do we need a second brain?

A Most importantly, to control digestion. It also works with the immune system to protect us from hostile bacteria.

Q Does it use neurotransmitters?

A Actually, 95% of all serotonin in the body is in the gut, where it triggers digestion. Nerve cells in the gut also use serotonin to signal back to the brain. This information can train us not to eat certain foods by communicating pain, gas and other terrible feelings.

Q Does the brain in our heads influence the “second brain”?

A Yes. Butterflies in the stomach arise when the brain sends a message of anxiety to the gut, which sends messages back to the brain that it’s unhappy. But the gut can also work in isolation.

Q How does this brain influence irritable bowel syndrome (lBS), which many believe is a psychological problem?

A Irritable bowel syndrome, whose symptoms include abdominal pain accompanied by loose stool, affects 20% of Americans. But doctors often dismiss its severity, attributing IBS to psychoneurosis because they don’t know exactly what it is. I propose that the second brain is the cause. Antidepressants like SSRIs, when used in doses too low to treat depression, are effective immediately in IBS patients. Prozac takes weeks to kick in. This suggests that the drugs work not on the brains of people with IBS, but in the bowel. Source

Anyway… the idea is if you heal the digestive tract, you will alleviate mental/emotional disorders. Dr. Campbell McBride has had much success with this program in her practice in England where she has been reversing autism, ADD, etc. in children.

So here’s the plan:

He has to drink about a quart of bone broth a day, plus 4-8 ounces freshly juiced fruits and vegetables 3-5 times a day. I’m going to give it to him mixed with beet kvass at least twice a day.

In addition to that, he can have meats, fish, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit. No grains. No dairy. He also has to take cod liver oil and a couple of other supplements (including Dr. Campbell-McBride’s probiotic, BioKult, plus plenty of fermented foods (sauerkraut, homemade pickles, kefir soda pop, etc.).

After anywhere from a few days to a few weeks (depending on how it goes), we will start to introduce dairy foods — one at a time. Starting with ghee (clarified butter), then kefir, yogurt, etc. Not sure about the exact order — I have the list Dr. Cowan sent in my purse.

In a matter of weeks or months, we can start to introduce soaked beans, soaked grains, etc. Ultimately, Dr. Cowan says, Seth should eat a “Nourishing Traditions” diet.

Dr. Cowan says he thinks Seth can heal in a couple of months. But he said the longer he stays on the diet, the better, and that it can take up to two years.

I’m going to have to have a stock pot of broth going all the time. And I’m going to have to be juicing all the damn time too. And for any of you out there who have juiced, it is messy. You have to clean that thing every time you make juice.

But it’s okay. I’m just grateful he’s finally doing this. I just know this is going to help him!

So I guess we’re starting tomorrow…

Look, Mom — No Cavities! April 8, 2008

I went to the dentist today. And guess what? No cavities!

This is the first time I’ve had no cavities in years. And you would think that I would be more prone to dental decay — considering the stress I’ve had on my body over the past year (childbirth, breast feeding).

Here’s the interesting thing… For the past six months, I have not used toothpaste. No fluoride.

My whole life I was told that you’re supposed to brush with fluoride toothpaste to prevent cavities. Yet I only used Tooth Soap and baking soda for brushing. Of course, I ate a very nutrient dense diet — cod liver oil, pastured eggs, raw milk, butter, cream, and cheese, and organ meats. I avoided sugar and any grains/nuts/seeds/legumes that were not soaked and/or sprouted.

But isn’t fluoride supposed to prevent cavities?

When I asked my dentist, Dr. Raymond Silkman, what he thought of fluoride, he responded with one word, “Bad.”

He’s probably the only dentist in Los Angeles who gives prescriptions like this: “Drink beet kvass and freshly juiced green vegetables and carrots — daily”. And he told me to get tested for heavy metals. He thinks I may have heavy metal toxicity. (Beet kvass and freshly juiced vegetables chelate heavy metals.)

But back to the fluoride… This Crest ad says that “Crest stops soft spots from turning into cavities.” Lies! Crest doesn’t do any such thing.

Here’s another lie:

Coke’s slogan proclaims it is the opposite of what it really is — a fake. For centuries, people have been producing naturally fermented soft drinks like kombucha, naturally fermented root beer, and ginger ale. These naturally fermented soft drinks are very high in B vitamins and probiotics — they are health tonics. Conversely, Coca Cola is artificially carbonated sugar water. Not only is it devoid of nutrition, but the sugar in it actually blocks the absorption of vitamins and minerals in the body.

Of course, nowadays Coke doesn’t even have sugar — it’s made with high fructose corn syrup. Which is genetically modified corn soaked in battery acid. YUM!

Here’s an ad for sugar from the ’60s:

I love how transparent it is. Looking at it today, it’s so obvious. You can see the lies.

This is how you have to look at ads. Ads are made to convince you to buy. That is their sole purpose. They don’t care about you. And they don’t care about truth. They are often saying the very opposite of what is true.

Ads also prey on your fears and insecurities.

Here’s a Heinz baby food ad:

The message is based on the idea that real food is not safe, and only food in jars is safe for babies. See what I mean? It’s the opposite of the truth.

Of course, not all ads are bad… here’s a neutral one for iodized salt (iodized salt is not good for you — sea salt is best — but the iodine is something we need):

In the 1920s, with the depletion of the soil in America, people in the midwest started getting goiters due to iodine depletion. This prompted a campaign for iodized salt. Many Americans today are cutting down on salt — but there is a bigger problem today. Soy.

Soy is a goitrogen, which blocks the absorption of minerals, including iodine. Most Americans are deficient in iodine today — due to widespread consumption of soy foods.

Think you’re not eating soy? If you eat in restaurants, you are eating soy. If you eat processed or packaged foods, you are eating soy. Restaurants cook with soybean oil or vegetable oil — which is almost always cut with soybean oil. Most processed and packaged foods contain soybean oil and/or soy lecithin. All baby formulas (not just the soy formulas) contain soybean oil.

Here’s one I like — a French advertisement for cod liver oil:

This next one is not a real ad — it’s a spoof — but it’s great:

Too bad lard is so maligned today. It is such a healthy fat!

Lastly, here is my favorite — calling for a boycott of Kraft genetically modified foods:

Boycott Kraft Foods! Krafted: Genetically Krafted Foods

Hot Dogs: A Health Food! March 19, 2008

I worked all day today and don’t really feel like making dinner. But I can still make a healthy meal — quickly and easily.

We’re having:

US Wellness Meats Hot Dogs (all-beef, nitrate-free, from grass-fed cows) with Homemade Lacto-fermented Sauerkraut and Pickles on Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Bread
Organic Green Salad with Tomatoes (from CSA box), Raw Milk Blue Cheese and Homemade Vinaigrette
Organic Corn with Raw Butter (from the freezer)

Grass-fed beef is so good for you. According to the Eat Wild website:

… compared with feedlot meat, meat from grass-fed beef, bison, lamb and goats has less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. It also has more vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and a number of health-promoting fats, including omega-3 fatty acids and “conjugated linoleic acid,” or CLA.

I feel good, too, knowing that the cows who gave their lives for this meal lived good lives on pasture in the sunshine, eating green grass — not confined, standing on cement up to their knees in their own manure in a feedlot.

It will only take a few minutes to heat everything up and serve. And this is a meal any kid would love.

Add some reheated homemade chili and raw milk cheese and it’s even better! (I don’t happen to have any chili in the freezer so we are having them plain tonight.)

UPDATE: Seth said, “There must be a lot of fat in these hot dogs because they taste REALLY good!” Actually they have less of the bad fat and more of the good — and yeah, they do taste better.

Beet Kvass February 4, 2008

I started a new batch of beet kvass over the weekend.

It’s easy to make. Just (coarsely) cut up 3 medium (or 2 large) beets, add 1/4 cup homemade whey (I will post this recipe soon, 1 tablespoon sea salt, and 2 quarts of filtered water. Stir and cover. Let sit on the counter for 2-4 days (depending on the temperature in your kitchen), then transfer to fridge.

Filled with vitamins (the lacto-fermentation actually increases the vitamins), enzymes, and probiotics! It’s sour-tasting, so not something you’d offer to guests — but it’s an extremely healthful morning tonic.

(Recipe from “Nourishing Traditions”; the recipe for whey is also in this book)

Got filmjölk? January 26, 2008

Kate enjoying her breakfast — Swedish filmjölk and fruit.

What’s filmjölk, you ask?

It’s a lot like yogurt, only not as sour.

And it’s easy to make at home. Just add the culture to milk and let it sit out for several hours. That’s it! (And if you add the culture to cream, it will make crème fraîche.)

We love it!

What to do when you’re sick December 5, 2007

I woke up with a sore throat this morning. A friend with a cold came over yesterday. She figured she was past being contagious but I guess not.

It could have been her, it could have been someone else I caught it from. Doesn’t matter. This is a sign though that I need to get healthier.

The thing is, I’m very susceptible to getting sick right now. My immune system is compromised — obviously more than I realized. Ever since my OB-GYN put me on the birth control pill. Which I promptly stopped taking a couple of months later when I read that the birth control pill causes candida.

You see, I had really bad candida when I was in my mid-twenties. It was from all the antibiotics I got as a child. I had recurring strep throat, and every time I got it, they gave me more antibiotics.

Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in the digestive tract and it is caused by a lack of good bacteria. The good bacteria normally fight of the yeast and other “bad” bacteria. If you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut, the yeast grows out of control. Antibiotics kill all the bacteria in your gut — which causes candida.

I guess the birth control pill does the same thing. I stopped taking it back in September. I think I only took it for about three months. That’s long enough to cause an overgrowth of yeast. I have sores in my nose that won’t heal — same thing I had when I had candida in my twenties.

Obviously with a shortage of good bacteria, you are more susceptible to getting sick. You don’t have the good guys to help you fight off the bugs.

The ironic thing is, when people get sick, they go to the doctor and the first thing they do is give you an antibiotic!

We live in a backwards upside-down society.

And most of us are living these days with a chronic shortage of good bacteria. Jenny McCarthy (as well as Donna Gates of the Body Ecology Diet, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, and many others) believe that this is what causes autism. I think there are tons of diseases and disorders that can be traced to a lack of probiotics in the digestive tract.

What to do? How do you fight a cold or a flu?

Do what your grandma would have done. Chicken soup.

And I’m not talking about Campbell’s from a can. That stuff is useless. Plus it’s full of MSG.

You need real homemade bone broth. Bones from animals (poultry, beef, bison or fish) that are simmered in water for 8-24 hours. With a little sea salt and parsley for minerals.

I could try to list all the benefits of broth here but it would take too long. Just read this: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/brothisbeautiful.html

In addition to bone broth, animal organs are one of the best things you can eat. When I had candida in my twenties, I was working with a chiropractor-nutritionist. She had me on a supplement called Congaplex, which is made from bovine (cow) thymus gland, as well as crushed up bone. The thymus gland is one of the main parts of the immune system in the body.

Anyway, even though my immune system was compromised, I still recovered from the flu in a matter of a few days. Everyone else in my office who caught it was out for WEEKS.

However, I looked up the ingredients in Congaplex and it has yucky stuff like soy lecithin (sludge waste product from industrial soybeans). Here is a better product: http://www.drrons.com/organ-delight.htm I think I will order some to help me improve my immune function. I need to get Seth on this, too.

I don’t happen to have any bovine thymus gland on hand, but I do have frozen liver. Liver is chock-full of B vitamins, which help to build and repair immune cells in the body.

The best way to eat liver is raw. You can freeze it for 14 days (this destroys any pathogens) then simply grate it into some milk or broth or put it into fresh vegetable juice.

More information on liver: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/liver.html

Cod liver oil is another excellent way to take liver. I could go on and on about cod liver oil. It is the one supplement everyone should take. Even Dr. Oz on Oprah said so!

Remember, our grandmothers were always telling us to eat our liver and take cod liver oil.

Another thing that helps is coconut oil. It is antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal and helps to support the immune system. You can put it in a smoothie and also use it as a lotion. The pores in your skin absorb the nutrients. (http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/nutrition/coconut.htm)

I am going to start taking a high dose of a quality probiotics supplement to battle my candida. I ordered some ThreeLac which is what Jenny McCarthy used to help her son. Regular probiotics supplements you get in the store are not effective on candida because they are only a “maintenance” dose. With candida, you have to bring in the big guns.

However, I think I’m also going to order some Bio-Kult. This is the probiotic developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. She reversed her son’s autism as well. Here is their story: http://www.bio-kult.com/nicholas.html

Unfortunately I don’t have any of these yet! My ThreeLac has not come in the mail.

So today I will drink a quart of colostrum kefir (from Organic Pastures — chock full of probiotics). Colostrum is the cow’s first milk which is loaded with antibodies. Kefir is fermented milk.

I am drinking a big glass right now. I added a heaping tablespoon of some over-the-counter probiotics I got at the health food store, as well as some coconut oil. I also just took my cod liver oil.

I am also going to drink at least a quart of chicken stock and take my liver supplements. I have some frozen liver I can also grate into a glass of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables. I have some kale here, as well as tomatoes, broccoli, beets, carrots and strawberries. All high in antioxidants. I know, sounds like a nasty drink but I bet it will taste better than a V-8.

The highest ranking fruits and vegetables are prunes, raisins, berries, oranges, pink grapefruit, grapes, kiwi, spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, beets, red peppers, carrots and tomatoes.

(http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29448.asp)

If I feel well enough, I may have to make a trip over to Rawesome today to get some more high-antioxidant fruits, veggies and more colostrum and kefir. I need to stock up on eggs anyway. (They are only open today and Saturday.)

Oooh! I also have my beet kvass. I should try to drink a quart of that as well. Beet kvass is a lacto-fermented beverage that is super high in antioxidants as well as probiotics. All you do is cut up 6 medium sized beets, put them in a gallon of pure filtered water with a little sea salt and some homemade whey. Then you let it sit on the counter for a few days before you move it into the fridge.

Apparently foods that are lacto-fermented have a LOT more vitamins. The fermentation helps increase the vitamins. Here is an article on kvass: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/kvass.html

I will also drink lots of hot tea with lemon, and do a steam bath. As recommended by Alla, our nanny, who just arrived. The steam bath helps you detoxify.

And rest of course.

I’m actually glad this happened. When you get a cold, it’s just a sign that your body is fighting. And this tells me my immune system is compromised. Now I will take the steps I need to take to strengthen it.

I will let you know how I recover.

Why you should feed your baby butter, raw milk, and sauerkraut … December 3, 2007

… and why you need to eat them too.

This whole series (videos 1-6) is worth watching. They are talking about nutrition for autistic kids… but it is important information for all of us.

Did you know that fermenting foods increases the nutrition hundreds of times? Isn't that exciting?

Did you know that serotonin is manufactured in the gut? Isn't that amazing?

PS: The woman on the right, Natasha Campbell-McBride, reversed her son's autism through diet.

Leaf lard, turkey giblet stock, and a German meal made by a Russian November 20, 2007

Tonight, for the first time in my life, I rendered lard.

It was pretty easy!

Actually I'm not quite done yet. It's still on the stove, melting in the cast iron skillet (this is the best way to do it so I've read — because it has the added advantage of seasoning the skillet). When it's as melted as it's gonna get, I need to strain it and cool it. Not sure how long it will take to fully melt — we shall see. If it's not done before I go to bed, I'll stick it in the oven on low heat overnight.

It needs to be very cold by tomorrow night however, so I can get my pie crusts made in time. I may just strain it tonight.

I followed this recipe:

http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/2006_01_01_blog-archive.html#113709378997673043

I also made turkey giblet stock — from the lungs and heart and liver and gizzards (secondary stomachs). It is also still simmering on the stove. The stock will be going into the stuffing and the gravy.

Here's the recipe I used for the stock.

Anyway, turkey giblets are incredibly good for you. Simmering them in water (with vegetables and herbs) turns all those nutrients into a very concentrated broth. Extremely nutritious!

Alla (our nanny) stayed late to help me with the stock and the lard, not to mention the laundry. I didn't wnat her driving home yet anyway because the traffic was HIDEOUS. I guess people were out driving around to get things for Thanksgiving — or maybe they were leaving to go out of town. I don't know what they were doing but they were ALL out there, clogging up every street and highway. UGH!

After she helped me with the stock and the lard, Alla helped me with the dishes and whipped up some dinner. “You're nursing!” she implored. “You need to eat!”

So she boiled some cauliflower (from my CSA box) and then rolled it in raw egg and then cooked it in butter. I ate that with Bratwurst (also prepared by Alla) and my homemade sauerkraut, and a bottle of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. So delicious! And very healthy. All organic, with lots of good fat and probiotics.

I must go to bed now. I have my 6 am wake-up call from This Lady. And tomorrow I have to get everything ready for Thanksgiving: bake pies, make homemade ice cream, set the table, assemble everything mis en place in the kitchen (there are a thousand details that go into this stuffing — it's a recipe from Martha after all), and brine the turkey. Plus fifteen other things (phone calls, etc.) that I need to do for Seth.

Good night! Oh, wait, I have to go strain the lard and the stock. OK, good night in a little while!

PS: I also ordered my kombucha baby today. I can't wait to get it and start making kombucha! I also ordered some fil mjolk (Swedish culture that makes something similar to buttermilk), kefir grains, sourdough starter, and various other things like cheesecloth and lids for my mason jars.

PS2: The sauerkraut, as mentioned, has come out very well.

The pickles taste fine (well two of the jars did — one tasted off so I dumped it). They are not QUITE as crunchy as I'd like them (I couldn't get my hands on any grape leaves) however they are still good. But I'm going to give them a few more days.

The papaya chutney tastes pretty good — I think I'll refrigerate it in the next day or two (refrigeration stops the fermenting).

The orange marmalade was a miserable failure.

OK really I must go now and strain and cool my potions (that is what Seth calls them) so I can go to bed!

Sausage, sauerkraut, and spinach November 12, 2007

Long day of meetings — but it was very interesting and fun.

I still managed to make a good dinner:

Chicken sausage cooked in coconut oil (in a seasoned cast iron pan)
Homemade sauerkraut!
Fresh spinach salad with heirloom tomato, grated carrot, hard-boiled egg and gorgonzola with vinaigrette
Organic rose wine

Everything was organic — even the coconut and olive oil. I seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The sauerkraut was really good. Although I think it needs to ferment a bit longer. I let it sit for just over a week. It was good — but I think another week will make it even better.

I'm also in the process of lacto-fermenting some dill pickles and orange marmalade. Lacto-fermentation involves using whey. I'll let you know how those turn out. The pickles probably won't be ready till December — I have heard that they take about a month. Not sure about the marmalade.

Oh and by the way, lacto-fermentation is really really good for you — due to the probiotics. Pretty much everything you buy in the store is pasteurized — which means all the good enzymes and probiotics have been destroyed.

OK, it's time for bed now. Glass of milk and then bed.

Nina Planck, Pickles & Sauerkraut November 4, 2007

A short interview with food writer, Nina Planck:

I'm going to buy her book.

We are going to the farmer's market today in Hollywood. I want to find a good local source for organic pastured eggs, plus I want to buy some pickling cucumbers to make my own pickles. At the Weston Price chapter meeting last week, we had a fermented foods potluck and our chapter leader brought pickles she had canned herself. They were the BEST pickles I ever tasted!!! I did a taste test with hers against Bubbe's Pickles. There was no comparison. The Bubbe's Pickles were really rubbery and tasted weird. The homemade pickles were crunchy, tart and delicious. Like no storebought pickles I've ever tasted.

She said that she got the recipe from a book called “Joy of Pickling”. She also said that grape leaves are the secret. When asked where she gets her fresh grape leaves, she said that you can get them at the farmer's market from certain vendors. They don't advertise — you have to ask.

On the National Center for Food Preservation website, it says:

Grape leaves contain a substance that inhibits the enzymes that make pickles soft. However, removing the blossom ends (the source of undesirable enzymes) will make the addition of grape leaves unnecessary

Interesting! I will have to try that and see if it actually works. A lot easier than finding organic grape leaves.

Other than the addition of grape leaves, she used the recipe from Sally Fallon's “Nourishing Traditions”:

4-5 organic pickling cucumbers
1 TBS mustard seeds
2 TBS fresh organic dill
1 TBS sea salt
4 TBS homemade whey
1 cup filtered water

All you do is wash the cucumbers and put everything in a wide-mouth mason jar, add filtered water as necessary — liquid should be at least one inch from the top of the jar. Cover and let sit unrefridgerated for 3 days — then move to fridge.

Nourishing Traditions says it takes 3 days a month to make pickles but my chapter leader said it takes a month for pickles and at least a week for sauerkraut. I'm going to start my sauerkraut today, and if I get the stuff for pickles, I'll start them too.

Not incidentally, it is important to use real homemade whey. Lots of people make pickles with just salt or with vinegar.

“Regular” pickles are soaked in vinegar and sealed in sterile jars via a hot-water bath. The vinegar, heat and resulting vacuum seal kill off potentially dangerous bacteria and keep the contents safe against new growth. Those who enjoy working under pressure can also preserve produce — minus the vinegar — in a pressure canner. The pressure causes mass germicide by bringing the container's temperature above the boiling point.

(From http://www.sevendaysvt.com/food/food-features/2007/totally-pickled.html)

It is much better to make “lacto-fermeted” pickles and sauerkraut with real homemade whey (the recipe for making whey and cream cheese is also in Nourishing Traditions — you can also search my blog; I posted it). Homemade whey (*not* whey powder from health food stores) made from yogurt or raw milk contains probiotics which not only aid digestion and promote immunity, they also, amazingly, INCREASE the vitamins in food.

I think fermentation with salt (regardless of whey) increases vitamins, but I think using the whey includes the live cultures which are good for the gut and promote immunity (the “good” bacteria that kill of the “bad” bacteria in your intestines).

Here are some excerpts from an article about the benefits of fermenting foods:

The process probably first arose as a way to preserve foods. In the 18th century, the English explorer Captain Cook loaded 60 barrels of sauerkraut onto his ship for a 27-month voyage, and not one sailor came down with scurvy, an ascorbic acid (vitamin C) deficiency in which the muscles become weak and the gums turn soft and spongy. It turns out that fermentation increases cabbage's already naturally high content of vitamin C.

The primary benefit of fermentation comes from nutrients created by the active bacteria. For example, bacteria in the gut regularly synthesize vitamin K, which is important for blood clotting. When milk is fermented, lactic acid bacteria synthesize folate, an important B vitamin, and the lactobacilli also produce healthy short-chain fatty acids, essential for immune-system function.

“These nutrients promote the health of the entire digestive system,” says Richard Sarnat, M.D., co-author of The Life Bridge: The Way to Longevity With Probiotic Nutrients. “It's the process of fermentation that unlocks all these wonderful nutrients.”

Perhaps the greatest advantage of fermentation comes from those foods that are “alive”–that is, foods that are still teeming with the lactic-acid bacteria that fermented them in the first place. Heating cultured food kills these bacteria.

“Live-culture foods are the true probiotics,” explains Fallon. Probiotic bacteria are those that have a positive effect on the body. For example, women who suffered from recurrent candidal vaginitis had three times fewer infections during the six months they ate daily portions of live-culture yogurt, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers at the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Japan found that subjects who drank fermented milk for three weeks had a significant increase in natural immune cell activity that lasted three weeks after they stopped consumption. And a study in the British Journal of Nutrition found that goat's milk fermented with a special strain of lactobacillus increased antioxidant activity.

(From http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_4_34/ai_114783531)