Chicken Liver Crostini and Caprese Salad July 16, 2008

If you love liver and are looking for a new way to eat it, you’ve got to try this recipe.

For the rest of you who just can’t find a way to make yourself eat liver, even though you know you should, you’ve also got to try this recipe.

What makes liver so good for you?

It contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. In summary, liver provides:

* An excellent source of high-quality protein
* Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
* All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
* One of our best sources of folic acid
* A highly usable form of iron
* Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
* An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
* CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
* A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

Source: WAPF

This is the Italian version of French pate: chicken liver crositini. In Italian, that’s crostini di fegato di pollo.

Say it out loud with me. Crostini di fegato di pollo.

Ahh… doesn’t that sound sexy?

This meal is as sexy as the Italian language.

It makes a great fancy appetizer you can make ahead for company — or bring to a potluck or summer barbecue. Add a caprese salad and you’ve got a delicious gourmet summer meal.

Here’s the recipe (which I modified from this one on Becks & Posh):

Chicken Liver Crostini (serves six to eight)

4 tablespoons grass-fed butter (unsalted, raw if possible — I used KerryGold)
4 tablespoons good quality olive oil
1 large white onion, chopped
1 large handful of fresh sage leaves (mine came from my garden)
1 lb organic, pastured chicken livers
1/2 cup dry white wine (organic if you can find it — I used Trader Joe’s chenin blanc — I think you could leave this out if you are making the meal for your kids)
1 small jar of capers, drained (organic if possible)
1 loaf of sprouted or sourdough bread (I’m using GAPS almond bread)
More olive oil to grill bread
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Trim the chicken livers of all little pieces of sinew and fat.

2. Melt together 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of olive in a large saute pan or Dutch oven over low to medium heat.

3. Saute the sage and onion in the butter and oil, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until they are soft and translucent. Be careful not to overheat and brown the onions.

4. While that’s going on, take your drained capers and dump them into the food processor. (You can also mince them by hand if you prefer.) Pulse quickly a a number of times (like this, “Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!”) — just until they are roughly chopped.

5. Transfer the onions and sage to a bowl and set aside.

6. Melt the remaining 2 TBS butter and 2 TBS oil. Add the chicken livers and quickly sautee them for 2-3 minutes, just until they are ever-so-slightly browned on the outside. Be VERY careful not to overcook the livers, or they will toughen and have that nasty “livery” taste. They should still be pink in the middle.

7. Add the onions/sage and the 1/4 cup white wine to the chicken livers and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

8. Transfer the liver/onion/sage mixture to the food processor, where your chopped capers are still sitting. Add several pinches of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

9. Pulse sharply only a few times (”Bzt-bzt!”) — you want a VERY coarse — NOT blended — mixture.

10. Transfer the chicken liver mixture to a bowl and stick it in the fridge to cool some — it should be very hot and liquidy — you want it a little cooler in order to properly spread it.

11. Coat bread slices with olive oil and a generous pinch of sea salt.

11. Grill or broil the toasts before topping with the chicken liver mixture and garnishing with flat leaf parsley.

12. While the toasts are broiling, chop up the parsley.

13. Spread the chicken liver mixture on the toasts and sprinkle with the parsley.

On to the salad…

(that’s the first basil of the summer — from my back yard!)

Caprese Salad (serves 2)

2 tomatoes (organic if possible)
1 block of mozzarella cheese around the size of a tennis ball (homemade if possible, or good quality)
Big bunch of fresh basil (rinsed, organic if possible — mine came from my back yard)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Good quality olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

1. Slice the cheese and tomatoes.

2. Layer in an artful way.

3. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

This meal goes especially well with Prosecco, a sparkling Italian wine which is very similar to Champagne. Only much cheaper ($6/bottle at Trader Joe’s) and not quite so dry. I love Prosecco in the summertime. Makes me think of that Marilyn Monroe movie, “The Seven Year Itch” where she’s always drinking Champagne and eating potato chips.

Buon appetito!

Lunch at Lilly’s July 10, 2008

Kate and I got to go to lunch today with Seth. We went to Lilly’s, a French restaurant in Venice where you can eat outside.

Seth and I both had moules frites (mussels with French fries) and Kate had duck liver terrine, olives, onion confit, and cornichons. She ate some mussels, too.

Baked Beans for Dinner July 6, 2008

Kate’s dinner: Leftover baked beans mixed with some organic grass-fed beef and beef liver.

I modifed the Nourishing Traditions baked beans recipe. I soaked the beans for 48 hours (just because I was busy and didn’t have time to make them sooner). I used chicken fat instead of butter and olive oil — just because that’s what I had on hand. Instead of water, I used homemade chicken stock to make the beans more nutrient dense. And I added ham hocks for extra flavor and nutrition.

She would have loved some sauerkraut with this dish — but I’m fresh out. I have a couple of quarts fermenting in the cupboard. I need to make more pickles soon, too. Kate loves pickles.

Three Meals for Baby Kate July 2, 2008

Some of you have expressed an interest in what I feed Kate — so I thought I’d document some recent meals.

1. Breakfast:

Two pastured eggs scrambled in butter, with raw organic grass-fed beef liver (frozen and grated) and sea salt. Plus organic cantaloupe and blueberries.

Since then, I’ve stopped giving her raw berries and other fruits with a lot of pectin. She always has runny stools when she eats them. I don’t think they are good for an immature digestive system.

2. Yesterday’s dinner:

Pastured, organic chicken livers sauteed in raw butter, with sea salt.

Organic peaches sauteed in raw butter (yum — tasted just like pie).

Homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut (she absolutely loves this).

She’s waving and saying “Hi!” in this picture.

3. Dinner tonight — a “baby salad”:

Pastured chicken livers and organic strawberries and purslane.

I sauteed everything in raw butter (babies need a lot of fat!). Garnished with a little creme fraiche.

Here she is fingerpainting with her food:

Southern Fried Chicken Livers June 20, 2008

Every time I go to Texas, I have two requirements while I’m there: (1) Good Tex Mex and (2) Dixie House.

Dixie House is a chain in Texas. They serve stuff like chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken (my favorite — it’s just boneless Southern fried chicken), mashed potatoes and gravy, fried okra, and cornbread. It may not be the highest quality food (nothing grass fed or organic), and they probably fry in vegetable and soybean oil. But I don’t care — I still have to eat there when I’m in town. It’s just so good.

Anyway, while I was there, I spied on their menu something I’m really excited about: Southern Fried Chicken Livers. I didn’t try theirs because I figured they were definitely not organic, but it’s something I really want to try making at home.

Here’s a recipe I found that looks pretty good. The only thing I would change is obviously I would not fry in shortening. I’ll use lard. Also, I’ve read that you can soak the livers in buttermilk for ten minutes or so first, before you fry them.

I think I’ll make this one night when Seth is not here — since he can’t have flour yet. I’m eating flour and bread with no problems, however, I still won’t eat it in front of Seth. Plus, he’s not a fan of chicken livers. I’ll have to try it first and see if it’s good before I can serve it to him (and also wait until he can eat flour).

Another thing I’m excited to make is Pate de Campagne (country pate). I was just reading the recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two”. It’s made with pork butt or pork loin, pork fat, veal or chicken, and pork, chicken or beef liver. I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten it before but it is really delicious — especially accompanied by some crusty bread, Dijon mustard, and cornichons.

I’m also thinking about cassoulet. I love cassoulet, and it’s totally GAPS legal (white beans are legal on GAPS). I also want to make French-style mussels in white wine. That is one of Seth’s favorite dishes ever.

I’m also dying to make some things that are not GAPS-legal… most especially, French Fries with the beef tallow I rendered a couple of weeks ago. Ooh — and fried oysters!

And salmon croquettes. My stepdad made some while I was in Dallas and they were terrific. And so inexpensive to make. He used canned wild salmon (very cheap), plus bell peppers and celery and onion. You make patties (like crab cakes) and then you fry them in peanut oil. They were fantastic, and especially good served with a brown rice black bean salad. But of course, the salmon croquettes are not GAPS legal because they are breaded.

The other thing I’m dying to make is homemade tortillas. I want to make migas and huevos rancheros and quesadillas and carnitas and carne asada.

Seth said he ate a roll last week when I was out of town — and had no adverse reaction. So we’ll see… maybe we’ll start with a little cream or milk and see how he does. Then in another week we could try potatoes. Dr. Cowan told us that he thought Seth’s gut would heal in just a couple of months — so that’s encouraging. We shall see.

Anyway, I’m very inspired these days to try lots of new things. I’ll be posting recipes soon.

Balthazar’s Chicken Liver Mousse May 14, 2008

It was a busy day in the kitchen. I made lacto-fermented salsa, lacto-fermented ketchup, chicken stock, a brisket and carrot soup (for dinner), and chicken liver mousse (which we also ended up eating for dinner).

I used the recipe from the Balthazar cookbook for the chicken liver mousse. If you’re not familiar with it, Balthazar is a restaurant in New York City. In SoHo. It’s a fun place to go. And the food is very good.

Anyway, this is a good recipe. The mousse came out great. In the restaurant, they add a little foie gras. But I honestly don’t think you need it. This was so good, even Seth ate it.

It would have been better if we could have put it on bread. But it was still good.

Yes, it has butter in it. We’re trying butter to see how he does. He’s doing fine so far.

I know, you’re supposed to start with clarified butter but he wanted to try. Seth knows himself pretty well and he keeps saying, “I’m fine with butter.”

Anyhow, here’s the recipe:

1 pound chicken livers
1/2 pound plus 4 TBS butter, melted
1 egg
2 tsp salt
Pinch of quatre-epices (equal parts nutmeg, allspice, cloves and cinnamon)
Pinch of freshly ground white pepper
2 TBS Cognac

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Brush 6 4-oz ramekins with the 4 TBS melted butter.
3. Process the chicken livers, egg, salt, quatre-epices, pepper, and Cognac in a food processor. (I left out the Cognac, since I wanted to feed this to Kate. I didn’t have any white pepper so I used black pepper instead. And I used freshly grated nutmeg, only because I happen to have whole nutmegs and a nutmeg grater.)
4. With the food processor running, slowly add the 1/2 pound of melted butter. Blend for 15 seconds.
5. Pour the mixture into the ramekins, filling 3/4 of the way.
5. Set the ramekins in a baking dish and fill the baking dish with water to half the height of the ramekins.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Let the ramekins cool, and then refrigerate until needed.
8. Run a warm knife around the edge of each ramekin, cover with a plate, and invert.
9. Serve chilled (we ate it room temp) with baguette toasts.

So yeah, we ate it without the baguette. No Cognac either. Still so good. Kate loved it, too.

I forgot to put the ramekins in the water bath (see the photo above). But it still came out great.

The salsa came out really good, as well. I didn’t think to use gloves when I was cutting up the chili peppers for the salsa — and I burned the shit out of my hands. They were on fire — for hours. It would not go away. I tried fresh aloe vera and it helped for about 5 minutes but the pain came right back.

I looked online for remedies — and I tried several to no avail. Soaking in vinegar, dishwashing liquid and cold water, olive oil… nothing worked. Then I tried waterless hand sanitizer — it’s ethyl alcohol.

And that worked. Like magic!

GAPS Diet: Day 15 May 11, 2008

I have been reading through the papers Dr. Cowan gave us, and reading the GAPS book.

It says that we can eat squash. So I’m going to pick up some at the market — a good substitute for potatoes or pasta. It says that we can eat lentils and white navy beans — but not in the beginning. I think we will wait a while on that.

It says that you can move through the stages as quickly as you are able to. Seth and I have stopped having diarrhea. And Seth says he is not feeling any gut pain.

So I think we are ready to progress to the next stage.

I am going to start giving Seth kefir — a tiny bit to start and more each day. I want him to get to the point where he can drink a few glasses a day. I’m also going to give him some clarified butter this week and see how he does with that. Dr. Campbell McBride says that it is very digestible for most people.

We’ll see how that goes. I’ll give him a little Hollandaise sauce with his eggs — see if he has any reactions.

After the clarified butter, we’ll try regular butter. If he is OK with that, we’ll wait a few days and then try a little cheddar cheese and see how he reacts.

I asked him and he thinks he will do OK with butter and small amounts of cheese. He also thinks he does OK on kefir. He just can’t do milk or cream. I guess in time he will be able to drink milk and cream — but it could be a while.

We can also see how he does with some of the nut butters and ground nut flours. We can see how he reacts to peanut butter (homemade) and also bread made from homemade almond flour and coconut flour. I can also use this flour to make muffins, pies,

After we get through all of that, I want to see if he continues pain-free and has normal stools for at least a week. If so, we will move from the Introduction Diet to the Full Diet. There are no grains on the full diet, and no starches either.

But there are some recipes that look fun — pizza made with nut flour (without cheese unless it is tolerated).

Oh, and I noticed in the papers that I am supposed to be giving him liver twice a week. He hates liver. I have been giving him dessicated liver tablets… however I think we need to do more than that. So he agreed to start drinking the Pottenger Liver Cocktail in “Nourishing Traditions” twice a week (or more if I can make it more often). It’s basically tomato juice and calf’s liver. A very nutritious virgin Bloody Mary.

Sorrel Liver Soup April 7, 2008

I made a kind of gross sorrel liver soup tonight for dinner. (Seth’s out of town so I’m experimenting.)

They had sorrel in my CSA box this week. I added russet potatoes and onion and butter and chicken stock to make soup.

It was pretty good. Especially with the added raw cream and homemade cream cheese.

But of course I wanted to make it even more nutritious so I added one cooked chicken liver to my bowl of soup.

It was almost good. Not bad. Kind of gross, but almost good. I ate almost all of it.

I need to get healthy so I can have another baby.

Kate had scrambled egg and chicken liver (cooked in butter) for dinner. She liked it. Ate until she was done and when I tried to feed her more of the liver, she took it in her fist and threatened to toss it onto the floor.

At which point I exclaimed happily, “All done!”

Weston Price Smile March 9, 2008

This is Yensi, our wonderful nanny, smiling her beautiful smile.

Look at those perfectly straight, white teeth! She never wore braces and has never had a cavity.

And look at her gorgeous bone structure. High cheekbones and a wide palate.

Yensi moved here from Guatemala when she was seven years old. As a child, she was fed raw milk from grass-fed cows, liver, egg yolks, bone broth, and cod liver oil. They made their own bread and tortillas and the grains and beans were always soaked. Yensi said they soaked the grains for their bread for two weeks. They also drank kefir (which they call bulgaros) and a fermented drink similar to kombucha (called chicha).

And no, it’s not just genetic. It’s the food! Her younger brothers have grown up on modern American food and have crooked teeth and lots of cavities.

Compare these two photos of Seminole Indians, taken by Weston Price (published in his book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”):

The “primitive” Seminole girl (left) has a wide face with plenty of room for dental arches. The “modernized” Seminole girl (right), born to parents who had abandoned their traditional diets, has a narrowed face, crowded teeth, and a reduced immunity to disease.

Avocados and Live Chickens March 9, 2008

Just got back from our Sunday shopping. Kate and I went to the farmer’s market then Whole Foods. Our usual routine. When we returned home, Seth and I put Kate down for her nap, unloaded the car, and then I came out back to sit in the garden to enjoy a glass of yummy zinfandel (organic, bien sur!) and a snack of raw milk cheese. Seth opted for a nap.

It is a beautiful day today. 77 degrees, sunny, clear blue skies. This is why we live in Los Angeles. There is a slight breeze which is making our whole backyard smell like jasmine.

I am so excited about what I found at the farmer’s market today. An avocado tree! There is a nice lady who sells organic plants — I also got a strawberry plant from her. Last week I bought some aloe (for Alla) as well as some chives and mint.

I’m going to put the avocado tree right next to the lemon tree. I’m thrilled that we will have avocados in our own back yard! Next I’ll get a Meyer lemon tree and a lime tree (my lady at the market said she’s going to get some in). And I must have a banana tree. One of Kate’s favorites!

And when I came home, our neighbor Otto saw my avocado tree. He was so excited — told me he just planted an apple tree yesterday. He took me in the back to show me his other trees — a kumkuat, a fig and an orange tree. Said he’s been eating 2-3 oranges every day ever since December. I told him we should trade — said I’d give him vegetables and herbs and lemons and avocados for his figs and oranges and apples.

I also bought a grape vine at Whole Foods. I want a grape vine mainly for the leaves. I want to make dolma. I also want to use the leaves to add to my homemade pickles. You add grape leaves to make them crunchy. I know right where to plant the grape vine. On the other side of the lemon tree, there’s a very sunny spot on the back wall.

I also got very fresh fish at the farmer’s market — wild salmon and sea bass and oh, I forgot what else. I’m going to make sushi for dinner tonight. I picked up some sushi rice, nori, and rice wine vinegar at Whole Foods, along with some sake and pickled ginger.

I love shopping at the farmer’s market. If I could buy everything there, I would. There is something about shopping there, buying directly from the farmer, that makes me feel so alive and so connected to my community. Kate loves being wheeled around in her stroller, sun on her face, tasting organic strawberries and apples.

A woman stopped me at Whole Foods today to compliment me on Kate. She said, “How old is she?” When I told her 10 months, she was taken aback. “My niece is 14 months and she is not this big!” I said, “Liver, egg yolks, raw milk, and cod liver oil. Every day.” She wrote it down.

I also met a very nice chicken farmer today at the farmer’s market. Bought some of his onion and garlic, as well as some of his free-range eggs (truly free-range, meaning pastured on the grass and dirt — not the faux free-range where they keep them packed in the giant rooms). And they are not fed soy.

I asked him if he ever sells chickens and he said he’s not allowed because he doesn’t have a processing plant. (Read Joel Salatin’s book, “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal”)

I said, “What I really need is chicken feet. I can’t seem to find them anywhere, and I make a lot of broth.”

He said, “I can sell you whole chickens — but I have to bring them here alive. I can sell them to you for $8.”

He said I’d need to get there early in the morning on Sunday — 8 am. And he’d break their necks for me right there. All I’d have to do is boil and pluck. He said I could buy just one or as many as 10.

They’re not very big, he said — maybe 3 pounds. And they’re laying hens so they’re older. Not as tender but much more flavorful. Perfect for chicken stock! Plus I’d get the chicken feet and the livers and other organs which I could add to the stock.

He told me all I need to do is put them in boiling water and the feathers and claws will come right off.

So I’m going to talk to Yensi and see if she can help me process them. We could do a big batch on a Sunday. I don’t think she will have a problem with it — I’m pretty sure this is the way they do it in Guatemala.

Anyway, it’s a real bargain — only $8 for organic, free range chickens. They normally cost twice that at Rawesome — and three times that at US Wellness Meats. And those prices do not include the feet or the organs (the best parts!).

I’d better go now — Kate will be up any minute and I need to get the rice into the rice cooker. I found a sake called Otter Festival. I bought it in honor of my stepdad, John, whom we call Otter.

Hide the Liver! March 7, 2008

I mixed up a huge batch of baby food for Kate today. This is a very easy way to serve organ meats — by hiding them in ground beef.

This is a recipe for an older baby or toddler, since the texture is like ground beef, not a straight puree.

I used organic everything — and the meat was all organic and from grass-fed animals. You can use heart, kidney or other organs or glands in addition to or in place of the liver.

The garlic and onion are very nutritious, as are the herbs and spices.

2 TBS coconut oil, butter or lard
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces homemade beef stock
3 lbs grass-fed beef or bison (I used bison)
3 lbs grass-fed beef or calf liver, pureed in the food processor
1-2 tsp cumin (this helps camouflage the taste of the liver)
8 egg yolks
Spices to taste: cilantro, parsley, thyme (use fresh if you have it — mince finely)
Sea salt to taste

You need two 10-inch cast iron skillets. If you don’t have two, you can just cut the recipe in half. I like to make my baby food in bulk and then freeze it.

Put a tablespoon of coconut oil, butter, or lard in each skillet. Add garlic and onion and cook on medium until soft. Throw in 4 frozen cubes of beef stock (make ahead and freeze in ice cube trays). Add ground bison or beef and pureed liver. When cooked through, add 4 egg yolks to each skillet. Add spices and sea salt cook a few more minutes. Let cool and pack into ice cube trays. Freeze and then pop out to use a cube as needed.

You can use more or less liver to your liking. I try to use as much as possible so that Kate gets more liver. I tasted it and it was pretty darn good. Only faintly tasted of liver. It also got a thumbs up from Julianna, Yensi, and Yensi’s friend Maria who was visiting.

You can feed the ground beef mixture as is. We mixed in a little raw butter to make it taste even better (and make it more nutritious — toddlers need about 6 TBS of good fat per day).

It also makes a great base you can use for all kinds of dishes you can feed to baby (or the whole family). Each cube is about 1 ounce — a good amount for a baby or toddler.

Here are some ideas:

You could add it to a cooked (runny) egg yolk for breakfast.
You could add some coconut milk and or/cream and make it into a yummy soup.
You could add it to stew.
You could add cheese and make a cheesy casserole.
You could add stewed tomato and make a sloppy joe.
You could add it to broth or to a broth-based soup (like carrot or fennel soup, made with broth and cream).
You could stir fry with some finely chopped vegetables and coconut oil.

For older babies (over 1 year) you could mix it into rice, risotto, or other grains (just be sure to soak them for better digestion/assimilation of nutrients). You could also use this as taco meat or for enchiladas (again, soaking is necessary for any grains).

Save the Liver! January 6, 2008

When we were little, we used to watch “Saturday Night Live”. My mom loved the skit Dan Ackroyd did when he impersonated Julia Child. She used to always bust up laughing at that skit, and she’d always repeat the punch line, “Save the liver!”

Julia Child was always promoting things like liver and high-fat foods. Because it was traditional in French cooking. But the reason it is traditional is because these things are very good for you!

Liver is one of the best things you can eat. What makes liver so healthy?

According to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Quite simply, it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. In summary, liver provides:

• An excellent source of high-quality protein
• Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
• All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

It’s not just the French who revere liver. People all over the world have prized liver. It is traditionally the first food native cultures feed to their children.

Our grandmothers used to serve liver once a week. It was considered a staple and a health food. How many people eat liver today? I know very few.

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of liver and onions. I suppose if it were prepared well, I would enjoy it. I have yet to eat really good liver and onions.

So I’ve been getting my liver from supplements. Cod liver oil and dessicated calf’s liver tablets.

But two forms of liver I truly love to eat are liver pate (from ducks or chickens) and foie gras (the fatty liver from a goose or duck). I’m feeding Baby Kate liver every day — raw calf’s liver (frozen to destroy pathogens) which I grate onto her egg yolk, and chicken liver pate.

A lot of people say foie gras is inhumane. My mother and sister went to France earlier this year and they talked to a farmer who produced foie gras — they said the ducks happily lined up for the feeding.

Dr. Michael Eades just posted an interesting article about foie gras — read it here.

He also posted this Anthony Bourdain video about the making of foie gras:

Very interesting, eh? As for me, I will continue to eat duck and goose and chicken liver frequently and foie gras on occasion.

Oh, and you know what else I love? Liverwurst. My mother used to feed us liverwurst sandwiches when I was a child and I loved them! I haven’t been able to find a good source of liverwurst. I saw some at Whole Foods but I wasn’t sure about the producer.

Well, guess what? I just googled it and I found a good source!

US Wellness Meats: Liverwurst:

Liverwurst is a mixture of grass-fed beef trim (30%),liver (30%), heart (20%) and kidney (20%). This is a rare opportunity to purchase grass-fed organ sausage.

I’m so excited! I’m going to order some today. Soon I’ll be able to eat liverwurst sandwiches again — on real homemade sourdough bread! (Ahem — once I learn how to make sourdough bread.)

Sources: Protein Power and Weston A. Price Foundation

What If Fat Isn’t So Bad? January 4, 2008

MSNBC reports:

Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk. A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat — about half of it saturated. If your first thoughts are of statins and stents, you may want to consider the curious case of the Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.

In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded). Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.

Scientists, confused by the finding, argued that the tribe must have certain genetic protections against developing high cholesterol. But when British researchers monitored a group of Masai men who moved to Nairobi and began consuming a more modern diet, they discovered that the men’s cholesterol subsequently skyrocketed.

Weston Price studied the Masai as well:

Africa also afforded Dr. Price the opportunity to compare primitive groups composed largely of meat eaters, with those that were mostly vegetarian. The Masai of Tankanika, Chewya of Kenya, Muhima of Uganda, Watusi of Ruanda and the Neurs tribes on the western side of the Nile in the Sudan were all cattle-keeping people. Their diets consisted largely of milk, blood and meat, supplemented in some cases with fish and with small amounts of grains, fruits and vegetables.

Rich in animal fats, these diets provided large amounts of the fat-soluble vitamins Price discovered to be so necessary for proper development of the physical body and freedom from disease. The Neurs especially valued the livers of animals, considered so sacred “that it may not be touched by human hands. . . It is eaten both raw and cooked.”

These tribes were noted for their fine physiques and great height—in some groups the women averaged over 6 feet tall, and many men reached almost seven feet.

Examinations of their teeth revealed very few caries, usually less than 0.5%. Nowhere in his travels had Price yet found groups that had no cavities at all, yet among the cattle-herding tribes of Africa, Dr. Price found six tribes that were completely free of dental decay. Furthermore, all members of these tribes exhibited straight, uncrowded teeth.

Largely vegetarian Bantu tribes such as the Kikuyu and Wakamba were agriculturists. Their diet consisted of sweet potatoes, corn, beans, bananas, millet and Kafir corn or sorghum. They were less robust than their meat-eating neighbors, and tended to be dominated by them. Price found that vegetarian groups had some tooth decay—usually around 5% or 6% of all teeth, still small numbers compared to Whites living off store-bought foods. Even among these largely vegetarian tribes, however, dental occlusions were rare, as were degenerative diseases.

The healthiest tribe that Price studied was the Dinkas, a Sudanese tribe on the western bank of the Nile. They were not as tall as the cattle-herding Neurs groups but they were physically better proportioned and had greater strength. Their diet consisted mainly of fish and cereal grains. This is perhaps the greatest lesson of Price’s African research—that a diet of whole foods, one that avoids the extremes of the carnivorous Masai and the largely vegetarian Bantu, but incorporates both nutrient dense grains and seafood, ensures optimum physical development.

Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724 and http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/out_of_africa.html

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.

Homemade baby food November 17, 2007

Busy day today. Got up, nursed, made coffee, did dishes and laundry, and whipped up breakfast for Kate: 1/4 tsp cod liver oil, a soft-boiled egg yolk with frozen organic grass-fed liver grated over it, and some defrosted applesauce (homemade from organic apples).

Then I made a batch of baby formula and packed lunch. Wasa whole wheat crackers, raw cheese, an apple, some raw milk with two egg yolks mixed in for me, and some applesauce, butternut squash (leftover from dinner last night) and formula for her. Then she napped, I showered, and we headed over to the park to meet my mother's group.

I think Kate is going to be a tomboy. She tried to pull grass and eat leaves the whole time we were at the park. I wouldn't really mind if she ate leaves — I'm sure it wouldn't hurt her. But I don't want her to choke on them. So the whole time I had to keep moving her. She could care less about her toys and didn't want to stay on the blanket. Finally she found the wheels on the stroller and that kept her occupied for a while.

I keep flashing back on Seth's baby photos — he was probably like a year and a half and he was carrying around a tire. A TIRE. Sheesh!

She is also still *almost* crawling. She creeps and slithers around the floor like the Grinch.

Oh, and did I mention that she is WAVING? She does that backward wave — opening and closing her fingers. I wasn't sure if she understood that it was a wave, but then yesterday we were at Surfas buying kitchen and gourmet supplies for Thanskgiving and she waved at the people behind the counter! I think it's that “Sharing Signs” video we watch every day. She is learning!

When she gets up from her nap we are going to go downtown to the Organic Pastures store to get milk and cream. I am going to need a lot for Thanksgiving. Sarah's talking about going over to Rawesome too — maybe we'll go with her. I need more eggs and butter for my pies, and milk and cream for homemade ice cream.

I picked up some chicken livers the other day at Whole Foods. I'm going to start feeding it to Kate. When I saw the pediatrician yesterday, she said I needed to feed Kate cereal for the iron. But I don't want to give her cereal yet because it is not easy to digest (and WAPF doesn't recommend giving it to a baby this early).

In the US, Dr. Nancy Krebs headed up a large infant growth study that found breastfed infants who received puréed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months grew at a slightly faster rate. Kreb's study suggests that inadequate protein or zinc from common first foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. More importantly, both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat. Thus, the custom of providing large amounts of cereals and excluding meats before seven months of age may short-change the nutritional requirements of the infant.

Meat is also an excellent source of iron. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources (non-heme). Additionally, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb iron from other foods. Two recent studies, have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. While researchers found no measurable change in breastfed babies' iron stores when they received an increased amount of meat, the levels of hemoglobin (iron-containing cells) circulating in the bloodstream did increase. Meat also contains a much greater amount of zinc than cereals, which means more is absorbed. These studies confirm the practices of traditional peoples, who gave meat — usually liver — as the first weaning food. Furthermore, the incidence of allergic reactions to meat is minimal and lower still when puréed varieties are used. (http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html)

So I am feeding her beef liver and chicken liver instead of cereal. Apparently there is almost as much iron in liver as there is in fortified cereal (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/iron_requirements.html) AND it is actually a lot better in terms of absorption (15-30% for meat sources of iron compared to 5% for other sources)

I've been taking beef liver tablets to make sure I get my iron. Because I'm not crazy about liver.

And I just found this recipe for chicken liver pate:

http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/recipes/chickenliverpate.html

Yum! Sounds good! Maybe Seth will even eat it.

I'm also going to whip up some more varieties of baby food for Kate, purees that I can freeze: beets, carrots, ans sweet potatoes.

I also have to render my leaf lard today.