Real Food Lifestyle

The First Cherries of the Season

Every Saturday I'm at the La Canada Farmers Market for eggs and cauliflower for my gluten free pizza crusts and crackers.  Today I had a pleasant surprise.  Cherries.  Oh how I love cherries.  Growing up we had two trees in my yard.  I still have the root of one of them that my father refinished after the tree died. 

It's the start of the Spring harvest here in California.  Cinco de Mayo, already a day of celebration,  is giving me another reasopn to celebrate today.  I'm doing my own private celebration for the many wonderful things that are starting to pop up at the markets.  The organic fruit juice (and fruit) booth from Nicholas Farms also had fresh white and yellow organic peaches and fresh apricot juice.  Fresh apricots are here as well.  The cherries and apricots will only be here for a while.  Peaches in some variety or other until at least October and sometimes later. 

Fresh corn on the cob is here, too.  I buy mine from a farmer at the Pasadena Farmer's market that has been saving and planting their own seed for about 30 years, so there's no fear of eating GMO corn. 

What to do with all these goodies? 

Apricots -- I'll probably dehydrate a lot of them.  The season is short and I want to have some around.  Sally Fallon in her book Nourishing Traditions, has a wonderful recipe for apricot jam made from dried apricots. 

Cherries.  I just eat them from the bag.  And, they are amazing with homemade yogurt -- the recipe for this is here.  Then there's fermented cherries.  OMG, these are amazing. Will share the recipe tomorrow. 

Peaches.  Just had a bowl with homemade yogurt, fresh cherries and a touch of raw honey.  I fermented peaches last year, thinking they'ed only last a while, but I had delicious fermented peaches in January and again in March. There's still some in my refrigerator.  Peaches and raw cream is one of my favorites. 

Stand by for more thoughts on fermenting and preserving, as well as enjoying the bounty that will be available in our Farmer's Markets 

Country Biscuits -- a 200+ Year Old Tradition Revived w/ Einkorn

In the 1780's, the Revolutionary War having been won, Patrick Kendrick Sr., his wife and family and members of the Horton family moved 400 miles from Stafford, VA. to the Southwestern part of the Appalachian mountains in the Clinch Valley.  The log cabin they built was a part of the home I grew up in during the 1950's and 60's.  It's where I developed my love of real food, gardening, raw milk, homemade butter, buttermilk and biscuits.  Most of all biscuits. 

On Sundays, my grandmother, Corrie, would make biscuits and I stood right there watching her every  move.  Sometimes she would let me sift the flour and dry ingredients, sometimes I got to stir the dough.  Always, I got to taste it.  I love raw dough, and can tell from one taste whether the end product will turn out.  It all started there with little bits of dough from the blue and white enameled metal bowl that was our "biscuit bowl". 

Corrie learned to make biscuits from her mother, and the tradition has been carried forward from mother to daughter or grandaughter.  As far as I know, the roots of this recipe probably go back before the 1800's.

Having been interested in cooking, baking and food most of my life, I have modified it to fit whatever diet trend or food focus I was following at the moment -- included (but not limited to), 40-30-30, whole wheat, and low fat. I've used yogurt, cottage cheese and even coconut oil and olive oil.  I've even made sprouted lentil flour biscuits. 

Right now there's a lot of focus on gluten sensitivity and on the toxicity of regular commercial wheat (Read WHEAT BELLY by Dr. William Davis, cardiologist) which has been genetically altered since the 1950's.  Once wheat was called the "Staff of Life. After all the alternations, it is so toxic that it might be called the "staff of disease or death".  No more the "Amber Waves of Grain", commercial wheat is now short and stubby having been bred and re-bred - altered over and over to maximize whatever would make more profit. 

The original wheat, Einkorn, was what probably assisted our ancestors to move from a hunting and harvesting wild society, to cultivating grains - according to Dr. Davis.  Wheat changed little over the centuries.  The wheat of the 1940's was much the same as the wheat of the 1840's and the 1740's. It was the wheat with which my ancestors made biscuits. 

Today, I took my grandmothers, et all, recipe and made biscuits with Einkorn Sprouted Flour, the original wheat.  Memories from my childhood and of Corrie and my Mother telling me just how much of each ingredient to use were so present they might have been in the room.  I knew as I tasted the dough that it was going to be something I thought was delicious.  How wonderful it was to use.  The texture is soft and light like pastry flour, the color a soft gold.  I used yogurt as the liquid (viili culture that I made from more milk than cream so that it would be thinner).  You can use buttermilk, or cultured milk or even keifer. 

Soon you will be able to get sprouted Einkorn Flour from To Your Health Sprouted Four.

Okay, I've gone on long enough, here's the recipe. 

The Kendrick Family Biscuit Recipe

3 cups einkorn flour

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

4 tbl butter or lard

1/8 tsp soda

1 cup thin viili culture yogurt

Preheat overn to 375 degrees.

Step 1.  Mix together flour, salt and baking powder.  You can sift it into a bowl, or you can just put in the bowl and whisk together well.  (If you prefer to use a food procressor, you first put in dry ingredients and pulse a couple of times for 5 seconds each time.)

Step 2.  Cut or rub in 4 TBL butter or lard until it's a small seed like consistency.  (You can also cut this in with a Food Processor as well.)

Step 3.  Put 1/8 teaspoon soda in the bottom of a glass measuring cup.  Add the 1 cup of thin yogurt, buttermilk or cultured milk and stir well - until you can see the bubbles on the top, which means that the soda and the liquid have begun to act with each other.

Step 4.  Mix the liquid into the dry ingredients stirring to mix well, but not overstirring.  (If you use the Food Processor, do not over mix). 

Step 5.  Turn the dough out on floured parchment paper.  Roll out lightly and cut with a biscuit cutter.  (Yes, you can use a glass or a mason jar -- only it presses the dough down so your biscuits may not rise as high.  Also remember to flour your cutter before each cut.)

Step 6:  Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.  They will brown lightly on top. 

Step 7:  Enjoy with butter, honey, jam, or with eggs, sausage and sausage gravy. 

 

 

 

Enjoy Pizza Again -- Gluten Free, Grain Free and Guilt Free Pizza Crusts now at Culture Club 101 in Pasadena

Start with Enjoy, Pizza Crusts

Ingredients: organically grown cauliflower from local farmers, organic sprouted lentil flour, raw milk parmesan cheese, pastured eggs, Himalayan crystal salt, organic oregano, organic granulated garlic, organic minced onion, cold-pressed California olive oil

Lentil Stew

Several weeks ago one of my clients that I cook for, asked me to make lentil stew.  I said I would and then realized that I didn't know much about Lentils.  I grew up in the Appalachian mountains where beans were a staple and I loved them.  Great northerns, navy beans, dried lima (butter) beans and especially pintos were on the menu every week.  To me there was nothing better than "soup beans" meaning pinto beans cooked in pork "fatback".  And yes, all our beans were soaked overnight before cooking.  At the time, I didn't know why or that it was a healthy way to prepare beans.  It was just the way you did it.  

But I never saw or heard of a lentil growing up.  Of course, I've eaten them in Indian restaurants, but up until now, I had not cooked them myself.  I turned to Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions to learn more about them. Here's what she said.

Since the beginning of civilization, the lowly lentil has nourished healthy peoples across a wide portion of the globe.  Dr. Weston Price considered the lentil the most nutritious of all legumes, due to its high phosphorus content.  Lentils are also rich in calcium, potassium zinc and iron as well as vitamin B complex.  Lentils have a high molybdenum content, a mineral that plays a role in protein assimilation, iron absorption, fat oxidation and normal cell function. They are low in phytates as well and thus need only be soaked a few hours rather than overnight.

American markets usually carry brown lentils.  Some markets carry the pretty red lentil, which is best used only for soups as it disintegrates during cooking.  The French prefer the tiny green lentil, available in gourmet markets and specialty shops. These make the most satisfactory cooked lentils as they hold their shape very well.  SWF, p. 507.

A great place to find lentils in the Pasadena area is the Alta Dena Farmer's Market in Alta Loma Park on Wednesday afternoons from 3 to 7.  There's a beans and rice booth there and his lentils are beautiful.  So are his beans for that matter.

When I'm making something new, it's an adventure and a journey.  I remembered that Mark Hyman's Ultra Metabolism Cookbook has some lentil recipes.  Unfortunately, Hyman is locked into the many of the current myths about what's healthy like that Canola oil is good for you.  So, there's always modification needed when I go to recipes from his book.  On the other hand, whoever created these recipes had a wonderful pallate and their spicing of the dishes is almost always delicious. 

I found all sorts of goodies in his lentil soup recipe like leeks, shallots, celery and celery leaves, tomatoes, thyme.  In the process of making my own soup, I went to what I had available at the time, celery, onion, carrots, some (not too hot) chilles from my garden, fresh (but dried) bay leaves from the Pasadena Farmers Market and fresh homemade chicken stock.  The recipe is below. 

My client, who can be very particular, liked the stew a lot and so did her family.  So, I took a quart by Elaina's at Culture Club 101.  She's always such a fabulous source for me, that I wanted to give back a little.  She shared the stew/soup with her employees and interns and one of them asked me for the recipe.  I promised I would post it, so here it is.  

Lentil Stew

2 cups red lentils  (I used the red ones because I love their color, and they make the stew creamier when they break up.)

2 cups green lentils  (you can use all green ones if you want.)

1/2 cup keifer whey  (1/4 cup for each color - I soak separately.)

 

Soak red and green lentils separately in filtered/spring water w/ 1/4 cup keifer whey -- for 7 hrs or they can be soaked overnight

 

1 cup onion chopped

1 cup celery chopped

1 cup green bell pepper chopped

1 to 1/2 cup red bell pepper chopped (optional)

1 ripe poblano chili chopped (optional)

2 ripe anaheim chilis chopped (optional)

1 yellow squash chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 carrot thinly sliced or chopped (about 3/4 cu)

1 bay leaf

3 leaves french sorrel chopped

1 multi-branch twig of thyme

2 qts chicken stock

1 qt water

3 to 4 tbl butter or more

 

1.  Soak lentils.  (See above directions.)

2.  After soaking, rinse the lentils with filtered water and put in pot with the chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and skim. 

3.  Add the above ingredients and simmer.  You can also put in other things you may have like leeks, shallots, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.  Or, you can just cook the lentils, stock and spices.  Making soup is an adenture of combining ingredients and there's no right way as far as I'm concerned. 

4.  My experience is that they should be simmered for about 2 to 3 hours.  You want the green lentils soft, but not mushy.  Unless you like mushy, which I do. 

 

Let me know what you think of this. 

GAPS Friendly Goodies - Almond Meal Muffins

Sitting in my garden this morning I thought about the Westin A. Price Pasadena Chapter meeting tonight and wondered what to bring.  I knew I had a huge cocozelle zucchini squash that I needed to pick from my garden. It was over 20" long and weighted over 10 lbs.  I could stuff it, but what with.  A number of the people who attend these meetings are doing the GAPS Diet, so I wanted it to be GAPS "friendly", so to speak. This ruled out cheese and bread crumbs. 

Then it occurred to me that I could make almond meal muffins and use the muffins as breadcrumbs for both the top and in the stuffing itself.  I came straight from the garden into the house to make the savory muffins seasoning them with fresh picked rosemary.  One of these muffins made a delicious breakfast spread with homemade raw butter.I shared one with my house mate and that left 3 for the stuffing and topping. 

A little after 4:00 I picked the cocozelle split it in half scooped out the harder seeds (putting them aside to dry cause I want to raise more of these squash. I chopped up the softer insides.  Half of it I stuffed with the almond muffin bread crumbs mixture (see below), putting the breadcrumbs on top as well.  To the other half of the stuffing, I added parmesean cheese, and used some TJ's Quattro Formaggio (shredded mixture of four Italian cheeses) on top. 

To me an empty dish tells the story.  Just so you know, I have taken dishes to this meeting and brought most of it home again, at least once.  Tonight I brought home a dish with only two little end pieces (one from each half) left in it. All the stuffing has mysteriously disappeared even from these pieces.  I promised that the recipes for the muffins and the stuffed cocozelle would be up by morning.  So, here I sit at 10:30 in the evening, making sure I keep that promise.

Rosemary Almond Meal Muffins

1 1/2 cups unblanched almond meal
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 TBL ground up fresh rosemary

Note:  I used Almond Meal because I wanted them to be crumbly and textured.  If I'd used blanched almond flour, then the texture would have been much finer.

I used fine ground Celtic Sea Salt, because it is rich with minerals

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, salt and rosemary. In my mixer using the wire whisk (your can do this by hand) I cracked 3 eggs and whipped them on high for a few minutes until they were foamy and almost getting stiff (this is how I avoided using baking soda). I added the olive oil, and honey and gave it about 30 seconds more. Changing to the batter attachment, I began to slowly add the dry ingredients until it was well mixed. 

I use paper cupcake holders in my muffin pan -- it just seems to make things easier. Because I'm not using baking soda (not gaps friendly) I fill the muffin cups almost to the top.   Once they bake they will rise above the top and you'll never know that the only thing that made them rise was the eggs.  I find that this recipe makes about 6 small muffins when you fill the cups almost full.   Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool further on a rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature alone or with keifer cheese, homemade butter or yogurt cheese. 

Coczelle Stuffing

1 lb. Dey Dey's Ground Beef (grass fed all year round)
1 onion chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 heirloom tomato, chopped
2 TBL beef tallow
3 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 small anaheim chiles chopped (optional - I happened to have them growing in the garden)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1 teaspoon taco seasoning
1 teaspoon Course Celtic Sea Salt
2 Almond Meal Muffins -- ground up in a chopper or food processor -- or with your fingers
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400.

1.  Saute the onions, bell pepper, anaheim chilles & garlic in beef tallow.

2.  Add the cumin, pepper, taco seasoning.  Mix well. 

3.  Add the tomato and cook for a minute longer. 

4.  Transfer from the pan to the mixing bowl you'll use to mix the stuffing.

5.  Saute the beef lightly.  It's okay if some of it is rare, you'll be cooking it anyway. 

6.  Add that to the mixing bowl.

7.  Crumble one of the muffins into the mixture and mix well. 

8.  Stuff the cocozelle, put it in a pyrex (glass casserole)

9.  Spread the muffin crumbs from the 2nd muffin over the top. 

10. Surround the coczelle with water and cook in the oven for about 40-50 minutes or till the squash is at the level of tenderness you like.  I like mine a bit al dente. 

 

For the Cheese Version

Make the Stuffing through Step 7. 

To this add 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese and then continue to step 8.

Spread your shredded cheese over the top.

All the rest is the same.

If the top begins to brown, and the squash is not tender to your liking, remember you can put parchment paper or foil over the top to keep it from browning further. 

 

 

 

 

Zucchini, Zucchini and more Zucchini. Right now I have tons in my garden -- so of them growing to epic proportions. Last night I made stuffed zuchini. Recipes abound for tons of luscious ways to fix zucchini. What's yours?

Happy 4th of July.

Right now I'm rendering pork fat in the oven, so I have lard to cook in. It's so much healthier (contrary to what we've been taught) than any of the vegetable oils except maybe olive oil, though, and this is the funny part, it is stored less as fat in the body than vegetable oil. And pigs that get to be out in the sun and open, store Vitamin D much more efficiently than anything else. So pork and pork fat from pastured pigs is the best source of vitamin D.

Found about how to render it in the book, FAT, by Jennifer McLagan. What a magnificent book.

Real Food Symposium - Early Bird Extended to April 22

OMG, Elaina has extended the Early Bird Special.  You can still register for the Third Annual Real Food Symposium for $95.00.  If you missed the deadline, this is wonderful news.  Go here to Register. 

Almost every day some new goodie, extra or amazing raffle prize is added.  So, you also want to buy the 10 pak of raffle tickets. Trust me on this. 

Third Annual Real Food Symposium - Pasadena

Lately, I've been working with Culture Club 101 and Elaina Luther on the Third Annual Real Food Symposium that will be held at the Sheraton, Pasadena on May 6 from 9 am to 7 pm.  Being involved in the coordination and plans that are part of bringing an event into fruition is one of those things that I love.  A combination of speakers and workshops, this event is going to have something for every taste from home beer brewing to cheese making, from the GAPS Diet to the art of Beekeeping.  If you are anywhere in the area I urge you to attend. You can register here. 

Speakers will include Anna Hammalian. The GAPS Diet, Mark McAfee, Sharing the Secret of Raw Milk, Nysha Dahlgren on Growing it Forward and Backyard Beekeepers on The Art of Beekeeping. (For Speaker info and bios, go here.)

Home Beer Brewing (Dr. Dan Berisford), Kombucha Brewing (Hannah Krum), GAPS Style Cooking (Monica Ford), Grass-Fed Beef on a Budget (John de Bruin) and Fresh Raw Milk Cheese Making for the Home Kitchen (Mariposa Creamery) will make up the workshops. 

But, wait, that's not all, included in the $120.00 price is a "real" food lunch, over a dozen "real" food vendors and free delicous food sampling all day.  I'm going to be there and I want to see you there, too.

You can register here.

 

 

 

Making Kefir Cream Cheese

I'm in the process of making Kefir cream cheese. It goes very fast in my house - and last week I catered a 1-year celebration breakfast for my networking group - Pasadena Networking Connections, and they finished it off - as well as the Quiche, sprouted wheat muffins and raw milk yogurt with raw honey.  

All this real food takes some pre-planning and that's taken me a while to get in rhythm with.  I'm one of those spontaneous, in the moment kinds of folks, so the idea of getting the chives, garlic, and green onions dehydrated and ready for when I'm making the cheese is a little daunting in itself.  Right now I have the green onions and have made green onion, black pepper and cayenne cream cheese.  Yesterday I found some chives at Our Little Market (a private co-op I belong to), so they are in the dehydrator and tonight we're going to chop garlic.

Sometimes I just want it done.  Fermenting is a process.  As I've learned and experimented I realize that the more I get in tune with this process, the more in tune I get with the flows of life.   Completing the current step your working with is a key. Then it's easier for me to figure out what the timing is for the next process.  Remember, watched pots never boil.  If there are dates I need to remember, I put it on my Droid3 calendar.  That's the one thing I'm always paying attention to.  

Kefir Steps:

You need grains for Kefir. The best thing is to have someone give you some.  You can buy them at Cultures for Health, or Culture Club 101 if you live in the LA area. That's where I got mine.  The grains (not seed grains) are a community of live microflora.  And they multiply like microscopic rabbits.  When I first brought home grains I had less than a quarter cup.  Right now I have about a quart (16 quarter cups) and I've given away a pint, and have some I separated for goats milk kefir.  

For a half gallon of raw milk you need at least 1/4 cup, and using a cup or a pint won't hurt, just give you stronger kefir faster.  

Step 1, Day 1.  Making Kefir. In a half gallon jar put 1/4 to 1 cup kefir grains and fill with raw milk.  

Step 2, Day 2.  After 24 hours, separate the liquid from the kefir grains.  I use a steamer to do the straining cause the little round holes in it are just right to separate the grains and yet let the solids of the milk go through. 

Now you have basic kefir and you have a choice to make.  Do you want to make kefir cream cheese or do you want to continue fermenting?  Continuing to ferment has its advantages, it increases the nutrition of the kefir, especially the folic acid and if you are going to make kefir drinks this is the way to go.  I'll discuss this more in another article. 

Today I'm focused on making cream cheese.  

Step 3, Day 2.  Strain the kefir so that you separate the milk solids from the whey.  Don't worry, you can use both products of the straining - the whey for fermenting and the milk solids for making the cheese.   

I use an 8-cup pyrex measuring cup and a 7.5 inch double mesh stainless steel strainer.  You want to line the strainer with cheese cloth (well really the best thing is butter muslin).  As a side note it is called butter muslin because it was a finely woven cloth that was used for wrapping butter. 

Double line your strainer and pour in the kefir. Cover and let drain.  I have a heavy hand-made pottery plate that just fits over the top.  Let it drain in the refrigerator overnight -- at least. If you need to, you can just leave it alone for a couple of days.  

Step 4, Day 3 or 4 -- Check your draining kefir.  Probably it will have stopped dripping.  But, the bottom of the cheese cloth will still be wet.  So now it needs to drain more.  To do this you'll need some kind of tall cylindrical container and a wooden spoon. Tie the ends of the cheese cloth around over the spoon and then use the spoon to suspend the cheese over the container.  The weight of the cheese will cause it to drip and dry out further.  Put it back in the refrigerator and let this drain for another day.  Pour your whey in a quart jar and date it.  Whey is good for about 4 months, and when you add new whey it renews the whole thing.  

Step 5, Day 4 or 5. Wrap in paper towels.  Untie the kefir milk solids and wrap in paper towels.  This will further dry out your cheese. It depends on how thick you want the cream cheese.  

Step 6, Day 4 or 5.  Making the Cheese. After several hours of letting the paper towels absorb additional dampness, dump into a stainless steel mixing bowl.  Mix with some cream.  I use a fork.  A danish dough hook works well, too.  And you can get them from Amazon. 

I end up with about 2 cups (give or take) of the kefir cheese and to start I add a half cup of raw cream.  Then I mix and see if it's the consistency I want.  Just keep adding cream until it's the perfect consistency.  What determines that?  You do!

You can add in chives, garlic, green onion, salt, black pepper and cayenne at any time in this process.  I usually wait till toward the end after I've achieved the consistency I want. 

This cheese is fabulous for appetizers on a sour dough baguette