I’m so excited! I came across this restaurant, Zarela, in New York City. It’s a Mexican restaurant that still uses lard. Real, home-rendered lard — not the gross toxic stuff they sell in stores (which Chef Zarela says is “poison”).
Not only that but they have all kinds of wonderful traditional dishes on the menu, things you will not find at most Mexican restaurants — like liver and pork shoulder and roasted duck:
Hígado Encebollado - Pan fried liver marinated in pickled jalapeño juice and Worcestershire sauce. Served with onions and bacon
Cochinita Pibíl - Yucatán-style pork shoulder marinated with achiote and sour oranges and slow cooked. Served in a banana leaf with a red onion, habanero chile and orange relish
Manchamanteles de Pato - Roasted half duck served with a tomato red chile sauce with dried apricots, prunes, raisins and pineapple.
We are definitely going when we are in New York City for vacation! I wonder if we can try her chicharones… they are not on the menu. I will have to ask.
Here’s a video with chef Zarela Martinez, showing how to render lard at home:
“For the first time in American history, our generation was at risk of having a shorter lifespan than our parents. And it was because of what we ate.” —Curt Ellis, KING CORN filmmaker
I’m so excited. They are showing “King Corn” on PBS tonight. You do not want to miss this movie!
I’m watching a really great documentary on the Sundance Channel about American’s obsession with green lawns. It’s called “Gimme Green”.
40-60% of the water in the US is used for lawns.
Isn’t that a shocking statistic? What a waste.
It’s our obsession with green lawns that require massive amounts of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and water that is one of the biggest causes of our water shortage — which is getting worse and worse every year.
Meanwhile, according to xeriscaping expert Andy Wasoski, natural landscapes do fine with rainfall. So if we just ditched our stupid lawns and let our yards go back to natural xeriscapes, we wouldn’t have to waste all this water. Nor would we have to spray toxic chemicals which leech into the water supply.
“The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water, not oil.” — Andy Wasowski
Did you know that due to water shortages, people in Las Vegas are being paid $1 per square foot to remove their grass?
Sadly, the people living in Vegas are not putting in natural xeriscapes — they’re installing artificial turf.
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?
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.
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.)
Guess what came in my mailbox today? My very own DVD copy of “King Corn”. I ordered a copy from their website, since I missed it in the theater.
I’m watching it now.
It’s BRILLIANT! Horrifying. But brilliant.
They actually make high fructose corn syrup at home. Did you know that high fructose corn syrup is inedible industrial corn soaked in battery acid?
Let me repeat that:
high fructose corn syrup is inedible industrial corn soaked in battery acid
Why in the world are we eating this? It’s in lots and lots of processed foods, drinks, and fast foods.
There is only one reason we eat it. Because it makes money for the chemical companies.
Did you know that drinking ONE soda a day doubles your risk of type II diabetes?
Why are we feeding corn to cows? Cows that are meant to eat grass and hay? They are not meant to eat corn and they get very sick when we feed them corn. Which is why they are pumped with antibiotics.
What the hell has happened to our country? Our farmers don’t eat their own corn or the milk that comes from their cows. This shit is inedible. INEDIBLE.
And we are ruining the land. Monocropping destroys the land.
Why are large chemical corporations controlling our food supply?
How in the hell did that happen? And why are we letting this happen?
Everyone in America should watch this movie. People need to wake up before it is too late.
It’s time to wake up and do whatever we can to support local, independent farms who sell directly to the public.
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the website where you can order your copy of the DVD:
After I read that, “coincidentally” (not), someone else on a newsgroup posted a link to this video about the history of genetically modified food:
This is just an intro; I want to buy the whole video.
The scary thing is that pretty much everything you buy in the grocery store is now manufactured by companies like Monsanto. Everything is sprayed with pesticides and most things are now genetically modified. Anything with soy oil or vegetable oil (which is mostly soy oil). Anything with industrial corn or soybeans. It’s hard to know what’s what because the way they label it, you can’t tell.
For example, did you know that when you buy a food product at the store and it lists “spices” as an ingredient, that can contain anything? It usually (almost always) contains MSG.
It’s disgusting that Monsanto is going out and suing small farmers for saving and reusing seeds. It’s disgusting that there are only FOUR varieties of potatoes grown today. It’s disgusting the way huge corporations have driven small farms out of business.
I’m not buying seeds from catalogs anymore. Why? Because it’s all seeds from Monsanto!
“Virtually every large mail-order garden company in the United States uses a seed broker to supply them with stock.”
“The American nursery trade is a 39.6 billion dollar a year industry. With the purchase of Seminis in January of 2005, Monsanto is now estimated to control between 85 and 90 percent of the U.S. nursery market. This includes the pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer markets. By merging with or buying up the competition, dominating genetic technology, and lobbying the government to make saving seeds illegal, this monolith has positioned itself as the largest player in the gardening game.”
“Monsanto holds over eleven thousand U.S. seed patents. When Americans buy garden seed and supplies, most of the time they are buying from Monsanto, regardless of who the retailer is.”
I’m going to step up what I’m doing to change the future of our food. I’m going to join a seed saver organization and start growing all my vegetables and herbs from seed.
Of course everything I grow is organic. But I want truly organic non-Monsanto seeds in my garden. I’m going to rip out everything that’s in there — it all came from Home Depot. Which means it’s all from Monsanto. UGH! It makes me sick that even people who are growing their own food are still unknowingly buying seeds genetically modified by this evil corporation.
I don’t have a lot of land but I have some and we live in sunny southern California — I can grow food all year long.
This is my first New Year’s resolution! I’m excited to start planning my garden. It’s a small step to take, but if more of us do it, it will impact the planet.
So much so, in fact, that — I’ll admit it — I cried a little bit at the end.
It’s just so OBVIOUS! And so sad. That treadmill we are all on. Work, watch TV, consume.
But at the same time, it offers hope. A way out.
Actually I think this is better than An Inconvenient Truth. I’m not knocking An Inconvenient Truth. That movie did impact me.
I’m now using cloth diapers, buying my produce from a local organic farm CSA program, and thinking about getting my car converted to a plug-in electric (actually that one I owe to Who Killed the Electric Car?).
And the further down the rabbit hole I go, the more inspired I get to make even bigger changes. A place in the country with a cow and some chickens. And alternative energy sources. Maybe homeschooling. Definitely organic vegetable gardens.
Who needs TV when there’s chickens to feed and butter and cheese to be made?
What struck me most about that show was, as hard as life was, many of the people missed their frontier days after it was over. They wanted to go back.
As I get older, I find that less really is more and there is such beauty in simplicity. For relaxation, I enjoy reading and cooking and going for walks and breathing clean air and taking a nice bath. I can’t remember the last time I was in a shopping mall. And there is less and less on TV that appeals to me.
Anyway, watch The Story of Stuff. It takes 20 minutes. And it could change your life.
Everything good for you is bad for you. Everything bad for you is good for you.
Butter is good.
Butter is BAD!
Margarine is good!
Margarine is BAD!
Butter is good again!
Milk is good.
Milk is BAD!
Soy milk is good!
Soy milk is BAD!
Milk is good again! (raw milk, that is)
Why is this happening? Why do the medical/nutrition/food industries keep changing their minds about what we should be eating?
Could it be… money? Prestige? Corruption?
Sigh. Same old story. That story is called Money Makes the World Go 'Round.
Ask yourself this question: What's cheaper to produce than butter?
How about “vegetable oil” and “margarine” (made from cheap industrial corn and soy)?
Cheaper and “healthier” (???).
Healthier only because certain scientists did research that showed that it was healthier. If you watch the video below, you'll see that the research was flawed.
The good news is — you can eat butter again. (Make it raw butter if you can. It's better for you.)
And if you're still scared to eat butter, remember — Julia Child was a big advocate of saturated fat… butter, heavy cream, foie gras. She ate that kind of stuff all the time.
In fact, my favorite quote from Julia Child was from an episode of one of her TV shows. She said (paraphrase), “If you're worried that there's too much butter in this recipe, you don't have to use this much butter — you can substitute with cream.”
And how did she die? Heart disease? Diabetes? Stroke?
None of the above.
She died in her sleep, aged 91.
This is an clip from a new movie coming out, a documentary called Fat Head that is a response to Morgan Spurlock's “Super Size Me”. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
I'll leave you with this… did you know that breast milk is over 50% fat, much of it cholesterol? It has the highest percentage of cholesterol of any food (according to Dr. Mary Enig http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html).
If breast milk is so good for you, and it's chock full of cholesterol and saturated fat, how can those things be bad?
“Appreciation: to see the nature of or to increase the value of”
“Love and appreciation are identical vibrations. It's the vibration of alignment with who you are. It's the absence of resistance. It's the absence of doubt and fear. It's the absence of self-denial or hatred to others. It's the absence of everything that feels bad and the presence of everything that feels good.”
Right now I'm appreciating this glass of Riesling, the delicious seared ahi and salad I just had, Seth, my parents and in-laws, our baby Kate, Alla and Carla who both worked so hard today, and who are both so loving and such a delight to have in our home. I'm appreciating our cat Rita, the wonderful weather we had today, the quiet. The fact that I'm going to really enjoy sleeping tonight.
This is my nephew, Alex, at Seaworld, seeing a whale for the first time.
Isn't that cute? My brother has taken a lot of videos of their family over the years and this is one of my favorites. Reminds me of how fragile and wonderful life is — how you have to live your life and enjoy it and love your family while you still can. Because one day they are grown up and it's over.
My brother sent out the sweetest Christmas card last year. It was a DVD slideshow of his family set to music — set to some country song, “Let Them Be Little”.
The lyrics go like this:
I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand
Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute
How it amazes me, you're changing with every blink
Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon
So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little
I've never felt so much in one little tender touch
I live for those kisses, prayers and your wishes
Now that you're teaching me things only a child can see
Every night while we're on our knees all I ask is please
Let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little
So innocent, a precious soul, you turn around
It's time to let them go
So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little
Let them be little
Needless to say, I cry every single time I watch that DVD.
This video is one of those little moments in time that reminds you of how magical life can be. How important family is. How fleeting it is.
I am very grateful for my family — my child and my partner as well as my mother and father and stepfather and my sister and brother and sister-in-law and brother-in-law, my grandma, my aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews my favorite Great Uncle Roy. And my new in-laws. It is so good to have family you love and who love you.
*** PLEASE SHARE THIS VIDEO. Post it on your blog or email it to your friends. ***
See, my sister-in-law, Sherry (she's the one in the video) has entered a contest at work. The person with the video viewed the most times on YouTube wins an iPod!!!
I really hope she wins. And right now she is in second place!
Just think — YOU could make the difference in helping her win! Come on — it will only take a second. Don't you want her to win?! Share it!
PS: I'll keep you all posted and let you know if she wins. I have a feeling that she will. Now go share that video!
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.
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.
