Moving Day!

A little over a year & blogger has been good to me.... but it is time to move on...

you can find me now at Nourishing Bacon Bits

I hope you'll follow me there...

Eggs Benedict a la BaconBits

Oh how I LOVE Eggs Benedict. It's almost always what I'll order if we eat breakfast out. My favorite is in Honolulu's Halekulani Hotel restaurant: Orchid's. Dining al fresco with my JoeBacon (he ordered Haupia Stuffed French Toast & a side of Portuguese Sausage) we shared their famous popovers with lilikoi & guava jelly and I savored every bit I could manage of their famous Eggs Benedict with truffle shavings on top! What, with views of Diamond Head & Waikiki Beach right there! ... well yeah! Best breakfast ever! Until now....

I had some leftover ham from the holidays, I also had some mashed potatoes.... so I had decided to make "hash" patties out of them. I mixed about 2 cups mashed potatoes, about 1 cup ham finely diced, some seasoning, an egg... formed patties & fried them in coconut ghee for an appetizer one night, but we had some left, so that is when I got the idea to use them for my base to top with eggy buttery goodness....

So I put the leftover patties on a plate in the oven to heat (covered with foil).

I used this Hollandaise Recipe, because I had all the ingredient & it looked fairly idiot proof. I used whole grain mustard, 'cuz that's all I had, it still turned out great! ;) I put it in a small glass jar & placed that in a bowl of HOT water to keep it warm while I did everything else.

I used Alton Brown's poaching method (2 inches of simmering water in a non-stick frying pan. I used a mason jar ring to carefully pour the eggs into so they'd stay in one area, then used tongs to move the ring for the next egg... once all four eggs were in & ring removed, I tuned off the heat & covered the pan for 7 minutes. They were perfect. I could have gone 6-6.5 minutes but no longer than 7. I hate it when the whites are googly, but I want the yolks still runny, of course. They were purty darn perfect!

Plated the patties, made a small dent in the top so the eggs would nestle in, then drenched them in the still warm hollandaise & served them for dinner. It was SO yummy.

Next time, I want to try it with my own home made English Muffins... stay tuned....

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR/DECADE!!!!

So.... I've been a bad, bad blogger! Santa surely kept that in mind this year! (lumps of coal found in my stocking...?)

I've decided to skip over Christmas & go straight into the new year with a burning focus on my goals: both in blogging, in "real" life and in NT practices...

• Menu Planning - I've tried a couple different methods, which clearly haven't worked out for me.... so I am still looking for one, I have a feeling I need to apply some Fly Lady Principles & just tweak them so they work for me... more on this process to come, please bear with me!
• Speaking of FlyLady, I REALLY need to get some basic home care routines going...
• In Blogging, my goal is be a bit more consistent, maybe even just once a week, but regularly wold be an improvement! I have much bigger ideas, but I wouldn't want to get your hopes up!
• As far as real life, I'd like to find a bit more time for me. Selfish, eh? ;) I'd like to lose a few inches, which means changing up what I eat (less carbs, less alcohol...? ugh!) and making some time for regular exercise....(double ugh!)
• And for NT practices.... well.... I tried a LOT of different things last year, some were great, some were huge flops, but in the end I only really stuck with a few, So this year I'd like to try to get a few more to 'stick"...

Ok, so here's Step 1, a Pantry challenge, from Money Saving Mom & Life as Mom that I'm goign to take on, to start the New Year right!

Here's the scoop (and some extra goals):

• I will take a full inventory of pantry & freezer (by the end of the week).
• Figure out menus based on what I have in stock. And use up those supplies. I have a well stocked pantry, and my fridge is stuffed to the brim. I get a produce box this weekend, and it will have to last me 2 weeks. No grocery store stops unless absolutely necessary.
• No eating out (unless it's an unforeseeable emergancy)!
• Try to eat less grains (unless sprouted) & carbs & sweeteners (I get 1 sweet drink per day, morning tea, but that's it!)
• Drink more water! I got an adorable Stainless Steel bottle for Christmas, so now I must USE it! I'm really quite terrible about drinking water! It's shameful, really!
• Take my FCLO!

I'm hoping this will accomplish several things:

1. I'll spend less on food this month. My food budget is $400/month, I'd like to see if I can spend about half that & put any savings towards our most immediate concern - our property taxes!
2. It absolutely drives my DH crazy that I keep buying more food when we 'have so much still'! So, it'll make JoeBacon happy to not buy any more...(for awhile! LOL)
3. Also, I think it'll be a good exercise in Meal Planning... which, as mentioned above, is something I struggle with a LOT.

I have a couple of things I'm allowed to buy weekly: farm fresh dairy, eggs & produce. I buy these from CSA's & Co-Ops:

• 2-3 Half-Gallons of Whole RAW Milk - $12-19/per week
• 1 pint RAW CREAM - $9/week
• 2 Doz Eggs - $8/wk
• 1 Small Produce Box - $20/every other week

I just stocked up at Trader Joe's tonight ($160) & on Tuesday I have a large 'catch-up' order coming from Azure ($150), so I should be set for grains & such. **Update: I had to run to Vons (ugh!) tonight to get cat food, because it will NOT be on my Azure Order (they are out) and I also grabbed a few other items, abut $35 in total.**

I'm ready. BRING IT!

**Update 1/4**

So already, I've spent $55+$160+$150+$35 = $400 (except the Azure order got placed & paid for in December, so really that doesn't count. So, adjust that, and we have:

This week: $250 (a little over my month's goal, but next week I don't get my CSA box & I really shouldn't need hardly anything from the store... so I think this is do-able!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, I'd like to share something I stumbled upon, a mantra of gratitude to live this new 'nourishing' lifestyle by:

“I am thankful to family farmers for keeping the traditions of seed preservation, environmental stewardship, and good animal husbandry alive now and for generations to come. I will continue giving my 'dollar votes' to local farmers who practice sustainable agriculture.” ~Anonymous

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that I can name many of my food providers this year, I am humbled to know that these people work SO hard, putting their hearts & souls to the test every day to provide me & mine with healthy sustainable meats, dairy & produce:

• Vernon & every farm involved with Abundant Harvest Organics where I get my CSA box of fruit & veggies from


• Mark McAfee with Organic Pastures, where we get our Raw Milk & Cream


• Sharon with Healthy Family Farms, where we get our eggs, and truly healthy chickens who live & play outdoors, don't eat soy & are distinctly NON vegetarian :), also Heritage milk and whey-fed pork, grass-fed free range beef lovely lambs.


• Kim with Blue Hill Farms for the Turkey.


• Azure Standard for the grains & other bulk items we consume regularly.

This year I had the honor of participating in the "Processing of Turkeys" at a local farm. All the laughter & giddiness, nervousness & 'grossness' aside, I was struck by what an earthy, respectful & peaceful process it was. I chose my bird, held her head and thanked her for providing us our Thanksgiving meal.

I feel VERY connected to my food this year & for that I am strangely grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Blogiversary!

So, guess what!? I missed the anniversary of my first blog post! I can't believe I did that! I knew it was coming & was planning to whip up a special post to mark the occasion....

Wait a sec! Did I say "I can't believe I did that!"??? I'm such a liar! Of course I can believe I missed it! Truth is I'm like that a lot! Life seem to be this crazy fast merry-go-round lately & I'm sometimes lucky I can remember my name! Sheesh!

Oh, I know! I have another really good excuse for forgetting! It was my sisters birthday & I was busy getting ready for her party that day! (Nov 9th, if you must know!)

Here's a few snaps of the food we celebrated with:

Local Organic Fuyu Persimmons (grown with care by Kanan's grandpa), crackers with Chevre & home made jams & marmalades & an authentic Spanish "Tortilla Espanola" (Potato omelette)

The Paella is about half way done, still too much liquid...

Isn't that just yummy looking, and pretty too!

It's Saffron rice, with chicken, sausage, shrimp, peas & a garnish of red peppers

So, back to my blogiversary....I'd planned on a sort of "before & after", a year of blogging & the differences in my life during this year...

We are still:

• (mostly) Eating Nourishing food (raw milk, pastured & grass-fed meats, organic produce)
• Making stock on a regular basis & use it more liberally in everyday cooking
• Soak & sprout legumes, grains & nuts (I try to keep a stock of crispy pecans for baking)

We've added and maintained a few more things:

• Sprout grains & grind fresh flour for my baking
• Make sprouted whole grain breads on a pretty regular basis, hardly ever buy it
• Make & Drink Kombucha & Water Kefirs
• Raw Milk: yogurt, sour cream & buttermilk
• Only use farm fresh eggs from HFF (no soy in their organic feed at all!)
• Make a point to buy grass fed beef, lamb & milk fed heritage breed pork & wild caught/sustainable fish
• I bought Coconut Oil & have incorporated it into several thing I make pretty regularly (Popcorn, baking, sautéing...). Recently I bought Coconut Ghee from Green Pastures (a combo of Grass-fed butter Ghee & EV coconut oil - it's DEE-lightful!
• For butter I use Kerrygold almost exclusively, the exception is that for baking I use Trader Joe's unsalted, it's about half the cost & I feel what's so special about the Kerrygold is the flavor, I feel that is sorta lost in translation when you use it in baked goods....so the TJ's butter is a compromise, it's not organic or grass fed, but at least it's rBst free....
• I made my own lard from milk fed pork fat - amazing! I also keep my bacon grease & use whenever appropriate - about 90% really good bacon

We tried but really haven't liked:

• homemade lacto-ferments: I tried a bunch early on & didn't like them, kept in fridge to see if they'd taste better after time - NOPE
• raw cream cheese, it was sour-ish & too loose to use in most recipes, just feel like it's too labor intensive to be worth it.
• raw milk kefir, I made it very regularly in the beginning, but found I only used it for baking, soaking & smoothies. I did not enjoy it plain; sweetened was good, but not super fast & easy... so I never did that enough to stick with it....I find the buttermilk gets used more frequently for baking & is a simpler process....I still have the grains, maybe I'll try it again & see if I can find a way to make it work better for us....

Haven't tried & not sure we will:

• Organ meats - not entirely true!! I did buy a beef heart (from HFF) & some really great grass fed stew meat from Whole Foods & ground that up to make my own ground beef. That is really tasty & I feel good knowing I'm able to 'handle' it. The boys don't really know about it, so don't say anything! ;)

Still need to work on or implement:

• taking CLO - I bought Green Pastures' fermented CLO capsules, but haven't started taking them yet! What a dork!
• adding more coconut oil to diet
• oil pulling on a regular basis
• exercise of some sort!

So there you have it, a brief review of our progress or lack there of... next year's comparison should be interesting! ;) I sense change in the air in the year to come....Stay tuned...

Sourdough Pancakes

Sourdough Pancakes

2 1/2 cups flour (I used half Sprouted & half AP)

2 cups warm water

1 cup sourdough starter (I used Amber’s Alaskan Starter - all white flour)

2 eggs

2 tbsp Sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Combine flour & warm water, add sourdough starter. Add eggs & whisk to combine thoroughly. Mix sugar, salt & soda in a small bowl, sprinkle over batter evenly & fold in gently (do not over mix!)

Heat a griddle over med high heat add fat (I used coconut ghee) scoop about 1/2 cup at a time for each pancake. Wait until edges look a bit dry & then flip.

Serve with real butter & real maple syrup.

The batter seemed a bit thin, but it works!

This is the Coconut Ghee I used in the frying pan (Azure has it for about $18)

Here's what it looked like right after I put the scoop in the pan & then how it looked after about 1 minute, see how the edges look a little dry, now it's ready to flip

Viola! A beautiful golden sourdough pancake, just add Kerrygold & maple syrup & we were in Heaven!

This is being posted as part of Real Food Wednesday