Salmon Croquettes with Coconut Mayonnaise July 15, 2008

This is a meal I highly recommend. Seth and I both loved it.

It’s not super quick to prepare (you have to chop various things, although the food processor does help some) but it’s very nutritious and not expensive to make since you’re using canned salmon, which is cheaper than fresh or frozen salmon.

Just be sure you are using WILD salmon. Not farmed! Alaskan salmon is wild, so if it says Alaskan, you can be sure it is wild.

For the homemade NT mayonnaise, I used the flavorless expeller-pressed coconut oil from Wilderness Family Naturals — not quite as good as raw, but you can’t taste the coconut oil at all.

This recipe is modified from a recipe in the New Basics cookbook.

1 can (about 15 ounces) wild salmon
3/4 cup dried (or toasted) bread crumbs (I stuck 4 pieces of frozen sprouted bread into the toaster oven — then pulsed them in the food processor)
1/2 cup homemade mayonnaise (I used the recipe for mayonnaise in Nourishing Traditions, only I substituted coconut oil for half of the olive oil)
1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 of a large yellow or white onion)
1/4 cup minced yellow bell pepper (you can use red or orange bell pepper too — it’s about 1/2 of a medium sized bell pepper — I cut it up into big pieces then pulsed it in the food processor)
1/4 cup minced celery (about 1 stalk — cut into pieces and then pulse in food processor)
1/4 cup fresh parsley (I grow this so it was easy to get — just pulse in food processor)
1 egg (I used 1 egg plus one egg yolk — I figured, why not?)
2 tsp grated lemon zest (I didn’t have enough on hand so I used 1 tsp — still came out fine)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (you can get an organic additive-free variety at Whole Foods — I think it’s made by Annie’s)
6 drops of Tabasco (I forgot to put this in — still came out fine)
1/4 tsp salt (sea salt)
1/4 cup macadamia oil (found this at Whole Foods)
Extra coconut mayonnaise to serve

OK, yeah, that’s a lot of ingredients. Make the mayo ahead of time. Then chop/pulse all your various things (onion, celery, pepper, etc.) and set them out mise en place. Get your breadcrumbs all ready too (I toasted mine in my toaster oven — worked great!).

1. In a mixing bowl, combine half the salmon with 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs, along with all the other ingredients (except for the macadamia oil and the mayo to serve).

2. Mix it together with your hands and then mix in the rest of the salmon. Shape into patties that fit in the palm of your hand.

3. Roll the patties in the rest of the breadcrumbs. Set on a plate.

4. Heat 1/4 cup of macadamia oil in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Cook the patties 3-4 minutes on each side, until brown and crispy.

5. Serve with coconut mayonnaise.

I found that they were not quite salty enough so I added some sea salt.

Serves 4, according to New Basics, but I kind of screwed up and some of my patties fell apart — so this recipe only served two.

Oh, and here’s a tip — cook only 4 patties at a time. Or fewer if you are using a small skillet. Add more oil as needed.

Otherwise your patties will be too close together and what happened to me will happen to you — they’ll break into a million pieces — no fun!.

Delicious with a green salad (we had red leaf lettuce from my garden, plus purslane, some sprouted mung beans and lentils, and chopped tomatoes, with red wine vinaigrette).

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.

GAPS Almond Bread May 28, 2008

Here is the recipe for the GAPS Almond Bread from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s book, “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”.

This bread is really easy to make. Tonight I’m going to make some more to go with the butternut squash soup I’m making — and serve it with butter and roasted bone marrow. Either that or homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese…

2 1/2 cups almond flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup softened butter (or coconut oil, goose fat, chicken fat, duck fat, or homemade yogurt or creme fraiche) plus a little extra to grease the pan

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf pan or cookie sheet. Mix the almond flour, eggs, and fat in a bowl. Press the mixture into the greased loaf pan — or mold into a loaf shape on a cookie sheet.
3. Bake for about an hour. Test for doneness by inserting a clean butter knife — it will come out clean when it’s ready.
4. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before using a butter knife to remove it from the pan.

You can also make different kinds of loaves by adding various ingredients. You could add a cheese or olives and rosemary or you could add some dates or honey to make it sweet. You can use it for pizza dough as well, and for muffins.

You can also make multiple loaves and freeze them.

I Heart Texas Chili May 26, 2008

I grew up in Texas, and chili is still one of my favorite meals (nachos is number one). Here’s a Texas-style (no beans) chili recipe that is GAPS legal and incorporates organ meats — namely, heart.

It was delicious — and I swear, you can’t taste the heart.

This made just enough for 2 1/2 — a meal for Seth, me and the baby. Now that I know it’s good, next time I’ll double the recipe so we’ll have leftovers.

1 pound grass-fed beef or bison
1/2 pound beef or bison heart
3-4 TBS chicken or duck fat, beef tallow, lard, or butter (I used beef tallow, which I rendered from my beef stock)
1/2 large yellow or white onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed or minced
1 tsp minced oregano (I used fresh from my garden, but you could use dried)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 TBS good quality chile powder (I got mine at Whole Foods)
3 large tomatoes (it not in season, you can use peeled whole tomatoes in a can)
1 TBS tomato paste
2 cups homemade chicken or beef stock (I used beef stock — here’s a good recipe for beef stock.)
Sea salt to taste

1. Bring a medium saucepan full of water to a boil. Set the tomatoes in the saucepan for 20 seconds. With tongs or a slotted spoon, remove them and place them in a bowl of ice cold water (or under running cold water).

2. Peel the tomatoes, then cut in half. Squeeze each half and scoop out the seeds with your fingers. Discard seeds and chop tomatoes.

3. Cut the beef or bison heart into chunks. Blend in food processor until ground.

4. Heat the fat in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the heart, ground beef or bison, chopped onion, and garlic. Cook until lightly browned.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt and bring to a boil.

6. Lower the heat and simmer for 1-3 hours (longer if you like — this would actually be wonderful in a crockpot). The longer you simmer, the more concentrated it will become, and the better the flavors will be. If the chili gets too thick for your liking, just add more stock.

7. Season with sea salt to taste.

I served this with buttered warm almond meal bread (made with almond flour, eggs, and butter).

If you’re not on GAPS, you could add beans (black or pinto) to this recipe and it would make a lot more food (just add a little more onion, garlic and spices).

Modified from a recipe by Chef Stephan Pyles, “The New Texas Cuisine” (one of my favorite cookbooks).

Avgolemono Soup May 22, 2008

Known as Tarbiya in Arabic, and in Turkish, Terbiye, Avgolemono Soup is made from chicken broth, egg yolks (or whole eggs), and lemon.

My friend Ebru, who is Turkish, told me about it in the comments on this blog. I’m going to try it for dinner tonight, along with some hot Italian sausage, sauerkraut, and leftover spaghetti squash. We’ll call this meal pan-European.

It’s usually made with orzo or rice. Obviously I will be leaving those out.

Here’s the recipe (modified from a recipe on Epicurious.com):

4 cups homemade chicken stock
2 eggs, separated
Juice of 1 lemon
Fresh ground black pepper
Sea salt

1. Heat the broth until it boils, then turn down the heat and let simmer.
2. Beat the egg whites until they form medium peaks. Continue to beat and add the yolks and then the lemon juice.
3. Add half (one cup) of the hot chicken broth to the eggs, in a slow, constant stream while continuing to beat so as not to curdle the eggs. Combine the egg mixture back into the broth.
4. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4 (I’m making extra for lunch leftovers)

I think I will also try making some coconut macaroons for dessert.

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.

Chocolate Banana Coconut Milk Ice Cream May 21, 2008

This ice cream came out so delicious! Seth raved about it and actually asked for seconds.

And it’s a very healthy dessert. And GAPS legal! (I think… cocoa is legal, right?)

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (I know, canned coconut milk is not technically legal on GAPS. If you are strict — which we are not — use coconut milk from fresh coconut)
2 TBS organic cocoa powder
2 TBS raw honey
1 very ripe banana
(I was going to add a bit of vanilla extract but I forgot)

Throw everything in a food processor or a blender and mix well. Transfer to ice cream maker and run for about 45 minutes.

This is a super delicious dessert. Very good for the thyroid, too. Maybe I’ll try adding a few egg yolks next time — and the vanilla extract.

PS: According to Bruce Fife’s book, “The Coconut Oil Miracle”, the average adult needs at least 3.5 TBS of coconut oil a day. This estimation is based on the amount of medium-chain fatty acids that are found in breast milk, and the daily amount required to nourish a baby.

Fife says that you can get the same amount of MCFAs in 7 ounces fresh coconut meat (about half a coconut), 2 3/4 cups dried, shredded coconut, or 10 ounces of coconut milk.

So, one smoothie with 2 TBS coconut oil and 4 ounces of coconut milk would be all you need for the day. Or, 2 TBS coconut oil (you can take it in a little warm water) and a bowl (6-8 ounces) of this chocolate coconut milk ice cream.

NOTE: Cocoa is not allowed on the GAPS diet (see comments). Whoops!

Smoothie Recipes May 19, 2008

I’ve been making a lot of smoothies lately. It’s such an easy and quick way to provide nourishment. I especially like them because they make it so easy to take coconut oil. If you’re not doing dairy, just use coconut milk. I’ve been making these for Seth and he LOVES them!

They also make a great breakfast if you’re tired of eggs — or on the run. Or you can make them for a fast and easy lunch. They are so filling — they keep you going for hours.

I hit upon a couple of really great recipes I thought I’d share. The measurements are approximate — adjust to taste.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 TBS organic cocoa powder

Peach and Cantaloupe Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 large peach, or 2-3 small peaches (peeled and pitted)
1 cantaloupe wedge, minus the rind (about 1/4 of a cantaloupe)

Vanilla Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

I sometimes also add a few TBS of raw cream (for me, not for Seth yet), just to make them even more nutritious.

Daily Photo: Roast Duck and My New Apron May 18, 2008

I love aprons. Always have. I always like to wear an apron when I’m making holiday pies or cooking a big dinner. I’m always wiping and washing and wiping my hands — and it’s a pain trying to keep a dish towel on your shoulder. So much easier to wear an apron.

Lately, since I’ve been cooking so much (3 meals a day, every day), I’ve gotten used to wearing an apron most of the day. I feel naked without it. And it comes in handy for all kinds of things — I especially love aprons with pockets — for clothespins when I’m doing laundry, or to stick my iPod while I’m listening to audiobooks while I do the dishes.

My blogger friend, Paula, sent me this gorgeous apron. All the way from Alaska! Isn’t it fabulous? I’m amazed at how “me” it is. I love pink, chartreuse and orange — they are my favorite colors!

It’s beautifully sewn, too. I wish I could sew like this.

Thanks, Paula! I absolutely love it. It’s so pretty, I hate to wipe my hands on it (but I still do — got plenty of duck fat on it today).

I’m going to send Paula some mp3s and kefir grains in exchange (this, week, I promise! :-P)

Pretty cool, isn’t it — blogging and trading things by mail. Very fun!

Here’s Paula’s blog: http://www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com/

And her Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5728859

She makes custom aprons, too.

PS: Here is the recipe I use for roast duck. It’s so easy. Just takes over 2 hours to cook. You need a roaster (preferably not aluminum) and a rack. I saved all the fat from the bottom of the pan, which I will use for frying. I fried some chicken livers in it tonight, along with some butter — which Kate and I had for dinner (I also had a little of the duck).

German Dinner and Coconut Strawberry Smoothies May 16, 2008

Tonight we ate:

Rocky Canyon Bratwurst with Dijon Mustard
Homemade Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut
Kale Sauteed in Chicken Fat and Butter
Chicken Broth

For lunch Seth had some sliced turkey breast and avocado. He was still hungry after that (not enough fat, I told him), so I offered to make him a smoothie.

The man who said he hated coconut oil willingly and happily drank 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, plus a cup of coconut milk.

Here’s the recipe:

A couple of handfuls organic strawberries
8-10 ounces coconut milk
2 raw egg yolks (pastured, preferably)
2 TBS coconut oil
1 banana
1 TBS raw honey

Put everything in blender and mix.

The best think about the coconut oil and coconut milk — Seth said it really filled him up. He didn’t even eat all of his dinner.

Coconut is also really good for the thyroid.

I think I’m going to start giving him smoothies as often as possible. An easy way to get good fat into him.

I had the same smoothie, only I added 4 TBS of raw cream and I omitted the honey. It was sweet enough for me as is.

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!

Duck and Blood Orange Salad May 7, 2008

I have a leftover duck carcass in the fridge. It still has a lot of meat on it. I was trying to think about what to make for dinner and I came up with a good idea:

Duck, Blood Orange and Kalamata Olive Salad on a Bed of Arugula with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Sounds good, eh? I’ll serve it with some nice chilled Prosecco.

I’m going to pan fry the duck breasts (we ate mostly the drumsticks and wings and other meat the other night) in a little chicken fat (I’ve got a lot of that on hand these days, what with all this broth I’m making). Then I’ll prepare a bed of arugula (it’s growing in my garden), then arrange on that some blood orange, kalamata olives, and toasted pine nuts, maybe some thinly sliced onion. Dress with the vinaigrette.

Served with a side of — what else? Chicken broth!

This is good because I need to use those duck bones and innards to make some more stock.

Eggs Benedict Made Easy April 29, 2008

Sunday morning Kate and I got up and I felt like doing something special for breakfast. So I made my favorite: Eggs Benedict.

I hadn’t made it in a while but you know what? It’s really not hard. And what a healthy and delicious breakfast! All those egg yolks and tons of butter. This is a great way to get healthy fats into your family before a long day. Most of us don’t get enough good fats throughout the day so this is a nice way to get a jump start.

Of course, I did not give the English muffin to Kate since she is not eating grains yet. She loved the poached egg and Hollandaise.

Also, I didn’t have any Canadian bacon (or any bacon or sausage for that matter) lying around (it was all in the freezer) so I scrapped that. The Eggs Benedict was still absolutely delicious. (If you do add the bacon, fry it in a little butter or lard while you are poaching the eggs.)

I also used the food processor to make the Hollandaise sauce — so easy!

Here’s how I did it…

Ingredients (this makes enough for two):

2 Ezekiel Sprouted English Muffins (not perfect because they do have sprouted soy… next time I will make this with homemade sourdough bread)
3/4 cup raw butter plus 1-2 TBS
4 pastured eggs plus 3 egg yolks
1 lemon
1 TBS Dijon mustard
Filtered water

Add 2-3 inches of filtered water to large skillet. Cover and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, put a little water in a saucepan. Turn the heat on high. Take a stainless steel mixing bowl and set it on top of the saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of butter to the bowl. Let it melt and take it off the heat.

In your food processor (or use a wire wisk in a mixing bowl), process 3 egg yolks. Add the juice from one lemon (about 1/8 cup) and 1 TBS Dijon mustard. Continue to process and then slowly add the melted butter in a slow stream. When thoroughly mixed, set aside.

Butter your English muffins and stick them in the toaster oven.

Your water should be boiling by now. Reduce the heat to medium. Crack 4 eggs into the water, making sure not to let them touch each other. Cook for 2-4 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs (2 minutes for runny, 3 for medium, 4 for firm yolks).

Put the toasted English muffins on a plate. Using a slotted spoon, spoon the eggs onto the muffins. Ladle on the Hollandaise sauce. Add sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Barbecue and Beer April 20, 2008

Seth is happy tonight. I made barbecued spare ribs. He had a beer go to with it.

It was GOOD!

I used this recipe for the sauce. And this recipe for cooking the ribs. I did it in the oven — it was so easy.

I used maple syrup instead of brown sugar. And I nixed the Worcestershire sauce and steak sauce (both contain high fructose corn syrup).

The spare ribs came from Rocky Canyon. No antibitotics, no hormones. Happy pigs on pasture.

“Would you eat this again?” I asked.

He said, “I’d eat this every night!”

I had to ask. “Are you sure you’re Jewish?”

Super Fast Breakfast March 28, 2008

Sometimes I’m so busy, I don’t even have time to fry eggs or make a smoothie.

Here’s an extremely fast, very healthy breakfast you can make when you are on the run:

1 cup raw milk, kefir or a combination
2 egg yolks

Just mix the egg yolks in with a fork. If it is not sweet enough for you, add 1 tsp of honey (preferably raw honey) or maple syrup.

Coffee and Raw Honey Sweetened Lemonade March 26, 2008

I’ve been trying to cut back on coffee. No, not trying. I have been cutting back. I’m pretty proud of myself!

Sally Fallon said that cutting out coffee was the hardest thing she ever did. I’m not trying to cut it out completely (yet) but I am trying to cut back. For the sake of my adrenal gland. Drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of sugar is really bad for your adrenal gland. Most people have adrenal exhaustion due to constant stress, and too much coffee and sugar.

You can heal your adrenal gland. I just listened to a lecture about it from the WAPF 2007 seminar. The guy said that it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. He said to take a multiglandular (like the ones Standard Process sells), vitamin B complex (I’m taking nutritional yeast, blackstrap molasses, and lots of fermented foods for my Bs), and a few others… I’ll have to look at the list I wrote down. He said it can take anywhere from a few months to a couple of years to heal your adrenal exhaustion — depending on how severe it is.

Adrenal exhuastion is part of the thyroid puzzle. You can’t really heal your thyroid unless you fix the adrenal too.

So anyway, I used to drink 2-3 cups per day. Now I’m drinking just 1 cup a day. With raw milk and blackstrap molasses. I have heard that blackstrap molasses helps with grey hair. (I’m starting to get some — and I’ve stopped highlighting my hair.) This was from Donna Wild of Standard Process, the nutritional supplements company (not just something I read on the internet!).

It hasn’t been that hard, cutting back on the coffee. I think, instead of cutting it out all the way, I’ll just keep cutting back to less and less. Go to half a cup a day, then a quarter cup.

It will be nice not to have to drink coffee. Drinking it here and there is one thing — but when you have to drink it that is an addiction, and that’s something I’d like not to have.

Meanwhile, Yensi has been making homemade lemonade for us. It’s delicious! And you would never know that it does not have any sugar!

Here’s her recipe for homemade lemonade:

Juice of one lemon
Raw honey to taste (she said she only uses about a tablespoon)
Pinch of sea salt
Fill pitcher with filtered water

It’s so wonderful to be able to drink homemade lemonade with nutritious raw honey — instead of Diet Coke or other soft drinks like we used to do. The lemons come from our tree in the backyard!

Penne All’Amatriciano March 10, 2008

Seth is out of town — on a business trip in San Francisco. My best friend Sarah and her dear sister Emily came over for dinner tonight.

Since I was busy all day helping Seth get on the road (working on a Keynote deck for his pitch to HP, booking his hotel, getting his clothes washed, packing his supplements, etc.) I didn’t think about what to make until about 5 pm.

Kate and I were at the mall, buying a diaper wipes warmer (for the cloth wipes we will soon be using), when I started trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. I realized nothing was defrosted. I mentally went through the ingredients on hand.

Bacon, fennel, blood orange, brown rice pasta, etc. I thought about making risotto (I had the Arborio rice) but I didn’t think I had enough chicken stock so that was out.

I ended up making Penne All’Amatriciano (so fun to say — you have to gesture while you say it) tonight for dinner. It’s a classic Roman dish made with red chili pepper (you probably have this on your spice rack) and pancetta. If you don’t have any pancetta, bacon works just fine. And very easy to whip up fast.

I had never made it before — but I’ve eaten it a few times. The first time in Rome (when I went with my sister and mother a few years ago). Second time in LA a year later.

Here’s the recipe I followed: http://www.babbonyc.com/rec-bucatini.html

I found other recipes online but this one’s by Mario Batali so I figured it was probably decent. Plus he called for 3 times the amount of bacon and twice the garlic that the other ones did. And he said to sautee the onions and garlic in bacon fat instead of olive oil — I thought that was a good thing.

I used brown rice pasta instead of the bucatini since I wasn’t planning to cook and needed something fast for company coming over. I didn’t have time to soak grains. Sally Fallon says it’s okay not to soak rice — it’s low in phytates.

I also didn’t have any tomato sauce so I used fresh tomatoes chopped (which had come in my CSA box). And I had the flat leaf parsley in my garden.

Served with a salad of arugula (also from my garden), thinly sliced fennel, crispy pecans (soaked and dried, per “Nourishing Traditions”), and fresh strawberry and blood orange slices (both also from my CSA box), with oil and vinegar dressing.

This pasta’s especially good paired with a spicy red — I poured a zinfandel — Full Circle (organic!), which I found at Whole Foods. It was very good.

I have to say, the meal came out great! I will definitely make this again.

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).

Kombucha Cocktail February 11, 2008

I made Seth his first (and second) kombucha cocktail tonight. He LOVED it!

So much that he asked for a second.

Here’s how I made it:

2-4 oz (to taste) GT Dave’s Cranberry Kombucha (Synergy brand)
2-4 oz (to taste) Bourbon — I used Knob Creek
Dash of cranberry liqueur
Dash of Angostura bitters

Pour into shaker with ice and shake. Pour into chilled martini glass.

Some fresh lime would complete this. I didn’t have any. It was still good (I tasted it).

You could also do this with plain kombucha and a dash of cranberry juice.

UPDATE: Seth has had this a few times now… he said he thinks it might be even better with a little less Bourbon and maybe less sweet. So next time I’m going to do twice as much cranberry kombucha, half as much Bourbon (I was doing 50/50) and no liqueur. I’ll see how he likes it. If it works, it would be nice since not everyone can find Italian cranberry liqueur (I got it at Surfas, a local gourmet/restaurant supply shop).