BACON BITS ...a journal of our transition to Nourishing Food & living in community

Moving Day!

2010-01-19T19:55:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-31T13:12:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

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:

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!
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)
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!

2009-11-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

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

Universal Studios 11/11/09

2009-11-14T18:52:00.000-08:00

Kanan in a Phone Booth

Joe with Jason Bourne & his favorite tiny car

Gotta love an airstream!

Korean Tacos!???

Mr 3-D

My boys with Chuckie. ewwww! Scary!

Raspberry Balsamic Martinis

2009-09-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

So, at my favorite foo foo restaurant, Cafe Firenze in Moorpark (yes, Chef Fabio from Top Chef!)....they make a Martini that is very different & interesting... a Strawberry Balsamic.

I've enjoyed one on several occasions, an the other night, I thought I'd try to replicate it. After all, I went to bar tending school (who cares that it was 15 yrs ago!) I should be able to conquer this!

So I made a reduction of Balsamic Vinegar & Organic Sugar. Let that cool, it was too thick, so I added a little water & reheated, it was still very thick, but better...I was thirsty! No more waiting!

I put in into an old Agave Nectar bottle so I could decorate the frosty martini glass with it.

Ah! Purty!

Then into the shaker went ice, a handful of frozen Organic Raspberries, 360 Vodka, Citronge & a squeeze of Lemon. Shake Shake Shake!

Pour out into the chilled purty glasses & garnish...Voila!

Girls in the Kitchen

2009-09-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well.....another fun & successful Girls in the Kitchen Night (sans one girl)....we did homemade Limoncello:

My sister, Kirstin, zested 69 lemmons!

We divvied it up between 4 bottles of vodka, some were 100 proof!

She didn't draw blood until lemon #61! So, after applying a Bacon Bandage to her finger, I finished the job. ;)

We (myself & Anna, below) also made a Sprouted Grain (mixture of Soft White Wheat & Kamut) Pasta:

The pasta had a really nice texture & was SUPER easy! We jsu used Sprouted Flour instead & it was great - didn't even taste "healthy"! Honest.

Lemon Verbena

2009-09-06T13:02:00.001-07:00

So, not sure if you were up on that Kombucha Challenge I somehow roped myself & Anais (from Urban Homestead, Pasadena) into a couple weeks ago... it was quite comical. She had pans to make a Lemon Verbena Flavored Kombucha, and since I had vague plans to go to their monthly potluck/movie screening a couple weeks later, I suggested a friendly competition... The comical part is that I couldn't find Lemon Verbena ANYWHERE in my county. Anais kept offering some of hers, but Pasadena is about 40 minutes away & I just felt that was not an eco-responsible thing to do... (I had already done a special trip down there for figs recently...)

Surely it would turn up somewhere...I kept looking....

But my window of opportunity finally ran out, so I sheepishly told Anais that I had not been able to locate the LV... and she graciously let me off the hook, saying to come down anyway & bring whatever Kombucha I had on hand & we'd just taste them... no big deal.

So, I went to the screening & during dinner, Anais found me & we tasted, and shared with other folks at the table & talked Kombucha until the movie started. It really surprises me that so few people really know about it.

Anyhoo, after the movie, I bought some figs & Anais clipped some fresh lemon Verbena sprigs off the enormous bush in the front yard. The scent filled my car, making the car smell wonderful! I WISH smell-a-vision was a real thing because unless you've sniffed this gift of GOD, you cannot truly grasp what a wonder it is! It's herby & lemony & fresh. (wow, great description!) Words simply cannot describe it. Gonna hafta get some for yourself!

Go. Now. DO IT! GO!

So, what does a person do with it?, you might be asking.... well, it was past my bedtime already, so I did the obvious and dried it. Then I crushed it (the smell was intense!) and found a jar to keep it in. Every now & then, I just open the jar & sniff. **guilty look** What?! It's cheap therapy!

Today I decided to make simple syrup from it to flavor a future batch of Kombucha or ice cream or (fill in the blank).... It's pretty simple:

1 cup filtered water

1 cup organic cane sugar

1/4 cup dried Lemon Verbena leaves

Bring to a boil, lower heat & simmer for 10 minutes. Cool. Strain into a jar & store in fridge for up to 2 months. I am looking at this site to find some more ideas..

Buttermilk Pancakes

2009-08-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm reposting this as part of Wardeh's Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival and also because we've enjoyed these pancakes at least 3 times since I tried the recipe conversion the first time. It's SO easy & tasty. Especially with chocolate chips! (I buy Trader Joe's, which although they have Soy Lecithin as an emulsifier, apparently theirs is Non-GMO). They are great as leftovers too, to pack for a to-go breakfast.

I am also working on a Sourdough starter & planning to render my own Milk-fed Heritage pork fat into lard. Stay tuned!

Good Morning! How about some scrummy blueberry pancakes?

The key to fluffy pancakes is not to overmix the batter; it should not be beaten smooth.

If serving these pancakes with bacon, reserve half a teaspoon of bacon drippings to grease the griddle instead of butter.

(Can you believe MS said that?!?!?!)

Ingredients

Makes nine 6-inch pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

Directions

Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons butter; whisk to combine. Batter should have small to medium lumps.
Heat oven to 175 degrees. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter or reserved bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.
Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
Repeat with remaining batter, keeping finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven. Serve warm.

I used the Martha Stewart Buttermilk Pancakes recipe, but of course, I changed out a few key ingredients: homemade raw buttermilk, farm fresh eggs, organic sugar, kerrygold butter, and sprouted soft white wheat...

I had Organic Blueberries in the freezer, Cascadian farms (from Costco! believe it or not)

We like our pancakes, less cakey & more crepe-like, so I added a splash of raw milk to thin the batter & also poked a whole in the center (after flipping) to sort of deflate....

You seriously could not tell these where whole wheat, or 'healthy' in any way, they were SO tasty! We served with more kerrygold butter, real maple syrup or homemade blackberry jam.

Soaked Oatmeal Cookies Pt. 1

2009-08-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

This is a NT-Style adaptation of Martha Stewart's fabulous "Oatmeal Raisin Cookies"....

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Any dried fruit can be substituted for the raisins.

Be sure the cookies are completely cool before storing in an airtight container.

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 3 dozen.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
2 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter with both sugars, and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, milk, and eggs, and mix well. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Remove bowl from the electric mixer, and stir in oats and raisins. Place dough in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, and shape into a ball; place on one of the prepared sheets. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Press down to flatten into 2-inch diameters.
Transfer to the oven, and bake until golden but still soft in center, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans between oven shelves halfway through baking. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week

First published

Copyright 2009 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ok, so obviously I had to try to change a few things... and I'm seriously interested in your input in case you have other ideas on how to convert these even more....(like "can you really just use rapadura instead of Brown Sugar?" Seems like a texture issue...)

I used Sprouted Soft White Wheat Wheat (freshly ground) that I order from Azure.
I used Craisins (gotta use them up, then when they are in season I plan to make my own!) sad to say I bought at Costco.
I ground the cinnamon fresh (in the coffee grinder, after cleaning!) I got it from Azure, not organic.
I made my own Vanilla (it's SUPER easy!
My eggs are farm fresh (Healthy Family Farms) & a tad on the smaller side this week, but I figured that was better because of the extra liquid on the oats...
2 nights prior, I soaked the oats in the smallest amount of buttermilk I could to just "wet" them. (Homemade RAW Buttermilk & Organic Oats, of course!) This way they were not sopping wet, just a tad fluffier than when originally dry.
I omitted the milk. (But the Buttermilk was made from Organic Pasture's Raw Whole Milk.)
I also added Crispy Pecans, about 1/2 cup, chopped. (From Azure)

I put in tupperware & refrigerated overnight...
Another thing I like to do (if I have the time, like on a Saturday morning) is to drop the cookie dough onto a sheet pan, covered with my precious Silpat or Parchment as if I'm going to bake them. Cover tightly in plastic wrap (optional I guess) & freeze. Once frozen, I put the frozen balls of dough in to Food-saver bags & vacuum pack (quickly) and re-freeze. (Don't forget to label it so you know where to find the baking instructions!)

I'll have to do a Part 2 to let you know how they come out...

Stay Tuned! (Ain't I a tease?)

**Update**

I baked a dozen on 2 separate occasions & the flavor is great, but they are super soft & crumbly.... So after some research & consultations with other bakers, I've determined to try it again, this time adding 1 more egg & more flour. Stay tuned to another update...

Girls in the Kitchen

2009-08-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

So, we've started a thing. We call it Girls in the Kitchen. And we love it.

The first Wednesday of each month we all rush over to my place as soon as we can after work & we hang out in my lovely little kitchen & create. And laugh. A lot. And learn. And Share.

Tonight was our third time. In past nights, we've done sprouted whole grain bread, sprouted crackers (which we liked so much we did again tonight)....dang, I'm getting old! Can't remember!

Anyhoo.... tonight we did Thai Coconut Soup for dinner, Sprouted WW Crackers (in the oven, not dehydrated - much tastier! And we also did Strawberry Freezer Jam. 2 Batches, one with sugar & one with honey. For each we also filled a couple jars & then added a jalapeno because we are partial to having a spicy jam with our standard Cheese, Crackers & Wine. We used Pomona's Universal Pectin. I can't wait to see how it came out, and I sure loved not slaving over a hot stove stirring & stirring....

GOOD TIMES!

Fast Food

2009-07-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

So, times are tough & we are trying to avoid eating out. Here are two of our common standby's:

Omelet:

Made with HFF Fresh eggs with a splash of raw milk, inside are raw cheddar & raw pepper jack, topped with sliced avocado & salsa (Herdez).

Quesadillas:

Made with Rudi's Organic Spelt Tortillas (YUM!), raw cheddar & jack, pan fried in Pastured KG buter, topped with homemade Guacamole & salsa (Herdez).

A Vegetarian Meal

2009-06-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

So, umm....my last post was about Carnitas so I think you all know that I'm not a vegetarian. Far from it! So when we had my dear friend Kahroline over recently, I had to really think.

ok, so a salad is pretty obvious!

this ended up being a lentil, carrot potato stewy thing that was pretty tasty. I had veggie broth.

My sprouted wheat bread (it has yeast, which I found out later she can't have - so my new challenge is a yeast free sprouted grain bread for her!)

And, of course, sauteed green beans with a little garlic & EVOO tossed with toasted pine nuts.

Voila! A well rounded yet completely vegetarian meal.

The next time she came over, I saved my CSA box & had her help me unpack it. It was like watching a kid at Christmas! (Well, actually I am like that every week too!) But she was SO impressed with the contents of my box that she joined up a few weeks later & I now get to see her every Saturday at the meeting place! So cool...

Carnitas

2009-06-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Who has ever eaten Mexican food, I mean REALLY good authentic Mexican food & doesn't LOVE Carnitas? I don't really know anyone who could say "me!". So our new friend, Leslie who we met at a Slow Food LA event last month, came up from Santa Monica this weekend to hang out! As she was leaving, she said, I'm going home to eat Carnitas with my husband. And I thought, YUM! I should make those! So I said to her, I have a pastured pork Butt Roast from AHO in my freezer. And she said, that is exactly what you use! And so I did! Well, first I actually researched recipes, and found this one by the oh-so-talented David Lebovitz formerly of Chez Panisse! (I actually got to TA a chocolate class he did at WCI ages ago. Lovely man.) So this is my take on his method.

Sorry I didn't take before snaps! It was frozen solid. I rubbed it all over with Safflower Oil, poured a tons of Kosher Salt on top & rubbed that in, placed in a Stainless saute pan (don't ask me about my roasting pan, ok!) And stuck the whole thing under a hot broiler to brown...about 15 minutes each of the 4 sides. Then I cut it all up into large chucks, placed in a glass pyrex, added some beer, half a cinnamon stick, about 2 cloves of garlic, just smashed to release flavor, chili powder, paprika, cumin all over (best guess: 4-5 Tsp) pepper & bay leaves (you need enough liquid to cover about 2/3rd of the meat). Tossed it all around together & placed back under the broiler about 10 min, flipped, another 10-15 min. Reduce oven heat to 300 & let bake uncovered for about 3 hours. Flipping every now & then to keep moist. I think I had to add more beer after awhile so it didn't dry out completely.

Take it out, & chop into smaller bite sized shreds & chunks.

Put back in the oven & flip every now & then until most of the liquid is gone (about another 30 minutes...). Serve however you want: with rice, beans tortillas, salsa, make it into burritos, tacos, OM! The possibilities are endless & it by far THE yummiest meat you will ever taste!

You know how when it's thanksgiving & you want to eat that one little piece of crispy skin? And some meat is stuck to it & sort of caramelized...that's how this is, except the whole outside is pumped with flavor & crisp! And the soft insides are soft & white, but not dry & flavorless, they taste amazing too!

I got 2 words for you: bon appetite!

Back Door Screen Project

2009-06-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

So, ever since we began the remodel, Joe has always talked about turning the back door into something special. When we were door shopping we kept seeing this really great beefy castle door with wrought iron & a speak-easy. It was awesome, but super expensive, so we ended up with a really nice Mahogany door that was in our budget & 2.5 years later, Joe finally had his way with it.

So he cut out the center section of the door:

We found the Wrought Iron grate at Tuesday Morning for $99, it didn't quite fit the door the way it was, so he took some bits off & re-arranged them to make it work, he had some help from the guys at work...

We still have to put screen up, but it was special order & has not come yet.

Isn't it gorgeous? See the cool latch to keep it shut?

This is what it now looks like from outside.

Awww! So proud!

Healthy Family Farm Visit

2009-06-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

EUREKA! I have found it! My Aunt Dorothy (the one who taught me to Jam) & her daughter Kristina turned me on to this place out in Santa Paula where you can go spend the day....so I started researching to find out more about it.... no website (yet!) no blog (yet) no nothing, except an email addy: healthyfamilyfarms (@) gmail (dot) com. So email I did! And guess what? All that stuff is coming, along with cheese making classes, pick your own produce & all kinds of other fun stuff! She's just gettin' started! Watch out, Ventura County! We got FARM.

Sharon raises milk goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks, pigs, Scottish Highland Beef that look a bit prehistoric & an 'accidental' litter of puppies that will be groomed into guard dogs roaming the acreage protecting the cattle from predators like mountain lions.

You can email the farm for a price list & a membership form. She has a pretty extensive list of products, including Goat Yogurt & Ice Cream. Because it's tricky to sell raw milk & some of the other items, they way it works is you basically pay an annual fee to be a member (a sort-of partial share holder) and this enables you to get a share of her products. But enough about the legal stuff! You can get farm fresh, pastured chicken & duck eggs! Fresh chicken's for roasting, necks & feet for Stock! Fresh Milk-only-Fed Pork! We bought a Ham, and did a giant family feast last night - the Ham was WONDERFUL! We did a Leg of Lamb too! We all bought fresh whole chickens & have loved a chicken dinner, leftovers & making stock - and with this crazy June-Gloom we've been having, it's perfect timing for all that!

Joe & I in front of Barn My folks

Sharon (Adult on right)

Sharon has the farm open on Sundays from 10-4 so members can come pick up what they need, fresh on a weekly basis - she doesn't sell any of the meat frozen! On Sundays, her kids & a few other Staffers are there to give you tours & talk about the farm & how they do things...

Sea J comes up from Malibu to spend weekends on the farm. She came on our tour with us photographing & video documenting all our antics (with 4 little kids, we had plenty!) She's working on the website & also documenting the progress of a passle of 'rescue chickens' Sharon got from a local 'organic' farm. When they arrived at HHF, they couldn't even walk because they'd been raised in such confined spaces! (If this doesn't convince you that just 'organic' isn't good enough, I dunno what will!) Now most can walk around the 3000 Sq. Foot Chicken Run & are looking much better, although their feathers are still pretty mangey! Poor creatures! She has all the feed made especially to her specifications, meaning not only organic, but NO SOY! Wonderful!

You are looking at one Happy Camper, er farmer, er wanna-be Farmer, er Farm enjoyer!

Jammin'

2009-06-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

Look at the funny way Azure shipped my Rhubarb! It was SO long! Longer than my huge sink is deep! Crazy, huh?! :)

Ok, so I'm sure by now you all know that I buy a LOT of my goods from Azure (whatever I can't get thru my CSA & our new Organic Pastures Co-Op!), on my very first 'shopping' adventure with them, I stumbled upon Pomona's Universal Pectin. Never heard of it! So I read up on it & you can make jams & jelly's with honey! And low sugar! It's AWESOME stuff! Each purchase (you can buy a small packet or a pound - thru Azure is the best price) comes with a recipe sheet, but if you lose it (like I always manage to do!) it's also on their site as a PDF. It's so easy to do all kinds of concoctions with this stuff! Here are some of the combo's I've done:

Peach, Ranier Cherry, Blueberry w/Lemon Zest, Blueberry Rhubarb, Peach Rhubarb, Peach BBQ Sauce (recipe from Ball's Jam Book). Today I'm going to try Orange Plum & Orange Peach. After I get some more Rhubarb from Azure I want to try Strawberry Rhubarb!

Look at all the gorgeous blueberries, we are getting 2.5 pounds for 10! I got 2! The catch? They come in a baggie & many still had stems on, so I carefully sorted them, I literally put a very small handful into the compost, the rest we gorgeous! I sorted into 'soft for jam' & firm for freezing.

I have made a LOT of Jam in the past few years. I started out with my Aunt Dor making microwave Jam, her thing is that every year, the day after Thanksgiving she'll make about 4 batches of her famous Pear Raspberry Jam for Christmas gifts for all her co-corkers. If we were lucky she'd have a few leftover for our Family's White Elephant game & 2-3 lucky lucky family members would get a small jar to last the year....She also made a microwave Jalapeno Jelly. Although I will no longer use the microwave, I am really glad to have learned from her,it was so easy & that is still one of my most popular flavors & I add Jalapeno's to it now, for a spicy twist!

What kind of canning do you do?

RAW Coffee Ice Cream

2009-05-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

In a small dish, add enough boiling water (no more than 2 TBSP) to dissolve the sugar:

3/4 cup Organic Sugar

2-3 TBSP Instant Espresso Powder

Stir frequently until all dissolved.

Put in Blender:

2 cups Raw Cream

2 cups Rw Whole Milk

6 Egg Yolks

1 Tsp Vanilla

Pinch of Celtic Sea Salt

Coffee Sugar Mixture

Blend for about 1 minute, place in fridge (covered) overnight (or several hours at least) to chill. Freeze according to your manufacturer's directions.

*Variation: When almost frozen, add 3 TBSP (or so) Organic RAW Cacao Nibs & stir in well.

Or add 2 TBSP of Kahlua Liquor! YUM!

My other thought was to Shave really good quality chocolate into it. I don't like big chunks of chocolate in ice cream, I like something that will just dissolve on my tongue.... but I haven't tried it yet, so be sure to let me know if you do!

RAW Peach Ice Cream

2009-05-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

peel & chop up about 8 peaches

put about 1/3 of the peaches in the blender with:

about 1.5 cup cream

about 1.5 cup milk

about 3-4 big blobs honey - best guess? about 3/4 cup? maybe a bit more...taste it!

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 Tsp Almond Extract

6 egg yolks

Blend it all up to dissolve the honey. Taste, make sure it's sweet enough & tasty. Don't be grossed out about the raw egg, it's Yolk only & in any case we know our eggs are happy & healthy. RAW eggs won't hurt you!

I read that the freezing process actually reduces the sweetness, so make a bit more sweet than you actually like...

Freeze according to your manufacturer's directions. I have the Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment & so far I am thrilled with it! Couldn't be easier & now that I have a biger freezer, it has a constant home on the top shelf (easy access for me to use frequently!)

;) YUM

FRUIT glorious FRUIT!

2009-05-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just want so show you my produce box from last Saturday (isn't it gorgeous?!) and in the cooler are the Raw Milks, Cream & the grass fed meat (this week I ordered Tri-Tip & Skirt Steak), YUM! We also could add on Organic Blueberries for $4 (9oz.), pretty good price, right?

so thru our CSA we've been able to add-on special orders like a huge box of peaches or cherries...SO exciting, right?

Here's a few snaps of me processing some of these gems:

I made several things so far, stay tuned for recipes! (Aren't I a tease?) XOXO

Co-op & New Garden Blog

2009-05-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

I am going to begin posting my "garden posts" over to the garden co-op blog, Partners in Dirt. I hope you'll follow along as we blog about how we formed the co-op, who's involved & how we grow it (pun intended) into a bigger, better thing altogether! Our dream is one day start a Community Garden....

Join me there! ;)

New Toys!!

2009-05-23T15:54:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'm just bursting to share & who better to share these things with than YOU? I've been so busy that I am SO far behind on my blogging!

Last weekend I got a used Chest Freezer off Craiglist for agood price, it's almost liek new & works great! It's about 4 ft wide, I think it's about 14 cubic ft...? Anyhoo, it works GREAT! I was so excited to transfer everything to it from my small stand up freezer & the tiny one in the house! It looked very nice & organized for about 5 minutes! Naw, just kidding, it's still looking pretty good, I just REALLY need to get a 'working inventory list' going & stick with it so I always know what's in it! See in the top left corner? That's the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment I just got last week (WHAT??? I had a gift card!) So far I've tried an all RAW creamy Peach Ice Cream, Peach Sorbet & Strawberry Sorbet, I love that I can use honey in them! Now I just need a source for raw goat's milk & I can give Laloo's a run for their money! EIGHT DOLLARS a pint at Whole Foods (and ya can't get it anywhere else locally!) I don't think so!

On Wednesday I received my Kitchen Mill! I already used it! ;)

On Friday I noticed sprouts in my garden that I just seeded in the last 2 weeks! YIPEE!

Today I received my dehyrator! You can buy from Excalibur directly, I got a Refurbished model, because they come with a 10 yr warranty & the lower price on it allowed me to get the bigger, better model. It has 9 trays! I also got some of those Paraflexx sheets for it, so I will working on some Fruit leathers & stuff like that!

I knew it was coming so I had wheat berries ready for it!

The Garden Update

2009-05-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Goodness how things have changed! I planted tomatoes before the trip, and while I was away, Tami & Terrie (good garden fairies) came over & planted some cucumber & other seedlings in that same box. (See above) So that was fun to come home to! ;)

Since being home, I've been VERY busy trying implement the rest of the plan. I had to fill & seed the Right box & we are still working on the watering & timer set up...for now we have to do it manually each evening...ugh...

Today I working on building mounds in front of the smaller boxes along my wall. It was a beautiful morning! But man was I sweaty! The idea is that lots more things can be grown outside the boxes too! So I built some tiers, so we'll have lots of 'edge space' for things like strawberries...and then taller things like onion & chives will be behind them - cool huh!?

This is the left box, when it was first built & Joe attached it to the wall! Then he lined it with landscaping paper so my precious dirt (hey, I had to PAY for it!) wouldn't sneak out the cracks...

The same Left box after being filled with dirt & grapes!

Today, after I made the tiered mounds... I'll be planting onion, chives & strawberries on them! Oh, and notice the beautiful trellis? My wonderful Joe borrowed a friend's truck to bring those home from work where he discovered them in the dumpster! FREE!

Isn't that AWESOME???

Ok, one more brag about my JoeBacon, he is going to let me (that sounds so wrong somehow! I bring home the bacon too, you know! ;) But we are trying to be more careful about where our money goes & get a handle on our debt, etc... so in light of that) he is OK with me spending money on: an electric grain mill & a super cool dehrydrator!! I know, you're all got them already, but this is HUGE for me! I'm so excited! I was gonna say nanny nanny boo boo, but being the mature grown up woman that I am, I will graciously accept your congratulations.

** grin **

Vacation Part 2

2009-05-09T10:40:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this one is LONG overdue, my apologies! I ended up not having internet access the rest of the trip and arrived home to find ours wasn't working EITHER! Argghh! Miss me? ;)

After Sedona, we rushed to Orange County to attend my dearest Great Uncle Bruno's memorial service, which was lovely & sad & sweet - all the things it should be...

This was the Piper that played at the Service. He was great!

So in between family gatherings over those few days, we managed to squeeze in some Disney magic, which was surprisingly a LOT of fun!

No kiddo, but my folks came with us one day too, so that was fun!

Vacation Part 1

2009-04-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have explained about how MUCH I love Spring, right? Well, traveling in the Spring is simply the best! The weather is not too hot, yet the sun is warm & that makes me VERY happy...

So far, we've spent 2 nights in Las Vegas, our timeshare-dealy got us a 1 Bedroom overlooking the pool, which would not normally appeal to me but it was great, there were water slides & that was the main point of going there. Some friends cam to visit for the day & the boys were IN HEAVEN in that pool!

We were blessed to be given tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian, it was AMAZING! We got seats right under the chandelier! ;) For those of you who have not seen it, I will say no more.

So then we headed to Williams, Arizona to meet up with the folks & do the whole Grand Canyon Railroad adventure thingy. It was AWESOME. We could not have asked for better weather, clearer skies or more fun!

(Me at the Grand Canyon)

So yesterday the family took the kiddo & headed home so Joe & I could spend some time 'alone' to try & be romantical to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. So we spent the afternoon in Flagstaff, which was great, had the BEST MOCHA EVER!! ....such a neat little town! Then we came to Sedona, I swear it is one of THE most gorgeous places on earth!

(Me in Sedona, kissing the "chicken", which is actually Coffee Pot Rock, but from this angle I thought it looked more like a chicken...)

We don't get cell or internet at the hotel so we're enjoying a lazy morning at the local coffee shop & took a mo' to bang out a quick post to show you all some love...

Stay tuned for Part 2....amazingly there is more, this is a long trip! ;-)

Spring Break

2009-04-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks! Just wanted to pop in & let ya'll know that I'm not THIS much of a slacker, we're going on vaca & I simply won't be around for awhile!

We're doing Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona & Disneyland, full report when I return, I promise!

Buttermilk Bicuits

2009-03-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

So I try (note the word "try") to make bread on Monday, as we are generally home. So when I got home, I watered all my babies, by the time Joe & Kanan got home, I was almost done (we gots a lotta babies right now & it's starting to get hot during the days now, and we gots no automatic watering systems at the mo, so it took awhile!)

Anyhoo, so then I started bread, and then it occurred to me that I had no plan for dinner. What else is new? So I say to JoeBacon "whaddya want fer dinner?" and he begins to list every meal that ever sounded good to him. Helpful, isn't he?

Well, actually, it turns out he is. The fist thing outta his mouth was "Biscuits & Gravy", and Kanan seconded the motion...so guess what I made? ;)

I had no grains soaking, I had no time for stuff like that, but I DID have some sprouted Soft White Wheat Flour (homemade, of course) so I used that for this lovely & simple recipe.

It turned out purty darn good, if'n I do say so misself... ;) We each had half with butter & jam for dessert! Yum Scrum! (and we have breakfast covered tomorrow! Woo Hoo (a plan).

Oh, by the way, the bread turned out pretty nice tonight..and I also squeezed in cookin' up some chicken thighs for future meals this week...

Burritos for Dinner

2009-03-16T22:08:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I had ordered some (3) Mary's Chicken Thighs thru my CSA, so I put them in a pan during a free moment over my crazy gardening weekend. I tossed them with my gorgeous new Olive oil from Azure, it's 100% pure EVOO from Napa, yum... S&P & broiled

them for about 15 minutes. Then I dumped about a half a cup of Salsa

(I haven't ventured into the world of lacto-fermented salsas yet, so for now, my old FAV, Herdez will just have to do) on top, covered with foil, lowered the oven to 350 degrees & baked it for about 30-45 minutes (I honestly can't remember...) The meat should fall off the bones & it will be VERY easy to clean & shred...

Anyhoo, I let it cool while I did a bazillion other things & eventually I got around to cleaning it (taking off the skin, separating the bones & ick away), so it's mostly shredded by then, just from that process. I put it back in the salsa it was cooked in & threw it in the fridge.

Tonight was THE night...

I got home, pulled the frozen, but pre-soaked pintos out of the fridge. Chopped & sauteed half a brown onion & a clove of garlic, in the pressure cooker. I added Cayenne Pepper, S&P, Cumin & stirred, added the beans, added stock to cover the beans, stirred it all up, put the lid on, set to #1 & once it came to a boil, I cooked for 20 minutes. Turned it off, checked & sure enough, the beans were cooked. I adjusted S&P & added a half a Jalapeno, let it simmer on low for awhile while I got other things going...

I grated cheese, raw goat cheddar & raw Jack.

I chopped up 2 organic tomatoes.

I LOVE, did I say LOVE, cuz I mean LOVE these wonder Spelt Tortillas I found at Lassens, the are soft enough to almost be as 'normal' as white flour junk tortillas & they keep FOR-EVER!

I also sauteed onion, added some salsa & then threw it in Rice Cooker for some easy-peasy MexiRice.... remind me to never use Short Brown Rice again, kinda weird!..

So I heat the tortillas (dry) in a large skillet (YES I still own some nonstick, but I love my Berndes pans, so hard to switch!)

Put some Re-Fried Pintos (fried in Bacon grease, yummy!)

Top with cheese, chicken, some sour cream & salsa and you got Heavenly mexican food for dinner!

Update: a couple nights later I wasn't up to making dinner, so I told Joe to make it. He started pulling things outta the fridge en masse, so, natch, I panicked & took over. ;) Can you spell control freak? (I can! ooh I can! Pick me! E-R-I-N)

ok, back to the story... he'd found the leftover tortilla shells so I thought ok, there's leftover pintos too... and I always have cheese. We'll just have bean & cheese burritos. Then I remembered that I'd fried extra bacon on Sunday & it was in the in the fridge... when I asked Joe if he wanted bacon in his burrito, he said, are we making breakfast burritos? So I thought about it for a sec and decided that was doable.

So we had Egg, Bacon, Pinto, Salsa, Sour Cream & Raw Jack Burritos, they we huge & messy as could be! But man were they tasty!

Crusty Sourdough

2009-03-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

I tried a new Sourdough Starter and today was day 8, so it was time to make the bread. Now ALL the recipes I was seeing wanted you to bake it in a Dutch Oven or a Cloche, neither of which do I have (yet!) So I was a bit nervous about this, but I just went for it anyway... here is the recipe I used. But I split it into two small loafs, and basically halved the baking times. I wanted them to fit into my Stoneware, as that was the closest thing I could come up with, and I put a shallow pan of water in the lower part of the oven & sprayed water in several times during the baking process. Guess what?! I got 2 pretty nice crusty loaves, and the texture turned out pretty good, nice & soft, with evenly spaced holes & the flavor is nice, not super strong, but a pleasant slightly sour tang...

Askinosie Chocolate Giveaway!

2009-03-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Nourishing Days is doing a chocolate giveaway & I wanna win! ;) Check it out! I have to admit that I went to the site & read voraciously every word, hoping to catch a hint, a taste, something...(smile) but what I got was teary. Yup. Downright 'teary' at their story! You must read it for yourself & decide if your budget & your love of chocolate can warrant supporting these wonderful folks at Askinosie who simply DO chocolate right. 'Nuf said.

Azure Standard

2009-03-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, so last month was our first GO with Azure & I think I can speak for Tami when I say we are in love! *smile*

Here's a few snaps of our loot:

Tami is dividing up the grains (we shared Soft White Wheat, Hard Red, Kamut, Spelt, Oat Groats & Rye

We Split a 25 lb tub of Raw Honey (my leftover 32 oz Agave Nectar jugs worked out great for that!)

We split a box of pears, Tami took hers home & the Chu Babies devoured them in short order. I made about 2 gazillion batches of jam. ;)

This was my share of grains!

We also split a 10 Doz. box of Fertile Eggs three ways (with Terri), they are huge & wonderful! After a month, Tami only needed to buy another dozen form TJ's before our next order, Terri still had plenty & I had just run out. This month just Tami & I split, so 5 dozen each! Woo hoo!

As I said, this was January, so we've ordered again, Tami bakes bread 2-3 times a week, so she was thrilled to get a 50 lb. bag of Red Wheat for like $30! She's also kept up using Soft White for all her baked goods like cakes & cookies, etc... with a noticeably finer texture! Awesome!

Meal Plan, Schmeal Schplan!

2009-02-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, so if anyone actually cares, this week's attempt at a 'meal plan' was a pretty dismal failure!

Here's how my week actually played out:

Monday: Pork Chops (pan fried w/some sort of reduction sauce), Salad & Couscous with Pine nuts & Goat Cheese

Prep: Make Yogurt (crockpot), store dried sprouted grains, make Ginger Pear Marmalade, make bread

Monday was perfect, I added Roasted Scorn Quash to the meal AND still did everything else I set out to do! Yay! We're off to a good start...;)

Tuesday (Book Club at 7:30): Leftover Sweet & Sour Cabbage Soup with homemade bread/butter & roasted Acorn Squash

Ummm, let's eat out tonight....We used to eat out every Tuesday because it ensured that we made it to Book Club. It used to be: Joe picks up Kanan, they come get me, we mosey on down that same freeway, try a new place each week & then make it to book club on time & without all the 'wasted time & gas' of going home first (home is pretty far out of the way). Then I instituted a 'No Meals Out" for the month of January & we somehow made 'going home' first just work. We'd go home, I'd make a simple meal, we'd still go to Book Club. (Imagine that!)

But since we are in February & we are allowed to eat out this month, it sure was easy to just fall back into our old routine! And, while we did order only water to drink, split an entree, K ate off the kids menu, and dinner for us all with tip was $30... not too bad... but I still felt over full & wasteful...(hmmm....maybe I'm changing, after all?...)

Wednesday: Not home/eat out - Garden Co-Op Meeting with Tami & Terri - location TBA

Prep: Make Potato/Turnip Mash

Ok, so Joe's brother was in town for tonight only, so I got home, did dishes, started laundry, heated up the Cabbage Soup for myself...had a nice early evening alone, then went to my first ever Garden Co-op Meeting with Tami & Terri (my partners in crime, er "partners in dirt"!) LOL We met at Starbucks & closed the place down! So much to talk about & decide!! Joe had dinner out with his brother at our fav little Mexican Hole-in-de-wall, Los Toros. I was jealous so he brought home chips & their famous bean dip for me, awww! So sweet! I munched a bit before bed, and divvied up the rest for lunches. That soup sure didn't stay with me!

Thursday: Shepard's Pie (from Sunday's leftover Chicken stew topped w/Mash & Salad

Prep: Thaw Ground Turkey & beans for Chili, move Kombucha bottles to fridge

Well, it was a really exceptionally rough day at work, so I really NEEDED to just go to bed straight away! I did manage to heat up the rest of the Cabbage soup & serve a big bowl each with homemade toast, then we sat in front of the tube & vegged out all night!

Friday: Crockpot chili & cornbread

Hah! I'm sure by now you've realized (IF you are not falling off your chair with sleepy boredom) that I never defrosted the meat! I did, however quickly make the mashed potatoes & do the Shepherd's Pie. Whilst that was cooking, I ground some Soft White Wheat berries & soaked them (in the hopes of making muffins or waffles on Sunday). Dinner was yummy, even though it was a bit strange to have both pasta & barley, not to mention chicken! in a "Shepherd's Pie"! Talk about untraditional! I did taste my Kombucha, but feel it need s bit more time, so I did not bottle yet, will do it Sunday. No salad with dinner! We watched movie & went to bed early.

Saturday: Roast Chicken & root veggies & salad

Prep: Make stock

OK, well I do consider today a pretty productive day. I started crockpot yogurt again, baked bread, made White Turkey Chili with Kale (based on this recipe), which we ate for dinner. We made all our errands in one 2 hour trip! Awesome what having deadlines can do! In 2 hours, we did Lowes to buy chicken wire, landscaping paper, a couple plants & seedling trays; the Nursery to buy Organic dirt & inquire about large deliveries of dirt; the Soil place next to the Nursery to compare their prices (better!); Trader Joe's - I had 3 things on my list: onions, yogurt & cereal. I walked out in less than 5 minutes with: onions, yogurt, 2 boxes of cereal & 2 packages of rice stick noodles. NOT BAD! (hmmm... maybe I'm changing, after all?....)

At 1pm we picked up our CSA Box & headed home. I started the bread, added to the chili that was already started, pitched the yogurt, put bread in oven while Tami & Terri visited. We all went outside & planned/talked some more while Joe worked on the Garden boxes. After they left, I took bread out of the oven to cool, went thru my CSA box, finished up dinner, started my first tray of seedlings, & when we finally lost our light, we came in & ate. Finally! (never did have lunch - too busy!) Now I'm posting this & then to bed for another big day Sunday!

Kanan & Austin showing alternate uses for the Garden Box they built for me last weekend....

Sunday: Recycle chicken into Tortilla Soup or tacos...?

Well, since I never roasted the chicken, I can't very well do anything with the leftovers, can I?

I'm dragging my poor Joey to a Homestead Workshop this afternoon, so I imagine that I'll make muffins or waffles for breakie & then eat out for lunch or dinner, prolly not both...(what!? one can hope!) ;)

Ok, well, I'm NO quitter! ... so I think I'll keep trying. I also think I am better under a bit of pressure, so I plan to make March a No Eating Out month again (with the exception of Kanan's birthday weekend, of course!).

Meal Plan Monday... or an attempt thereof:

2009-02-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, I keep mulling this over & over & trying to find a way to make it work for me, the way my life is now (as opposed to the way I wish my life would be!) Right now, I'm only going to post dinners & basic prep. I think part of what's making this so daunting to me is trying to do 3 meals a day (not that I don't cook or provide 3 meals a day - at least most of the time) but the planning ahead for all those meals makes me crazy! and seems like a lot of extra work for me right now), so for now, I'm going to just start with dinner, how does that sound?

Monday: Pork Chops (pan fried w/some sort of reduction sauce), Salad & Couscous with Pine nuts & Goat Cheese

Prep: Make Yogurt (crockpot), store dried sprouted grains, make Ginger Pear Marmalade, make bread

Tuesday (Book Club at 7:30): Leftover Sweet & Sour Cabbage Soup with homemade bread/butter & roasted Acorn Squash

Wednesday: Not home/eat out - Garden Co-Op Meeting with Tami & Terri - location TBA

Prep: Make Potato/Turnip Mash

Thursday: Shepard's Pie (from Sunday's leftover Chicken stew topped w/Mash & Salad

Prep: Thaw Ground Turkey & beans for Chili, move Kombucha bottles to fridge

Friday: Crockpot chili & cornbread

Saturday: Roast Chicken & root veggies & salad

Prep: Make stock

Sunday: Recycle chicken into Tortilla Soup or tacos...?

Chocolate IS love....(or is it butter?)

2009-02-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, well, my good friend Tami & I have recently co-ordered & split a bunch of different stuff from Azure Standard. It was so fun, planning & ordering together & separately & driving down to Burbank together to pick up our order, then coming back to my house &divvying it all up!... but I digress...Tami has ALWAYS (since I've known her, anyway!) baked her own bread (and other goodies) from her own freshly milled Hard Red Wheat Flour, I come from the opposite school of gourmet French Cuisine where everything is made with WHITE AP Flour! Needless to say, I've come along way, and Tami deserves a Lot of the credit for my swing to the "other side"...on that same note, I might have something to do with the dramatically amazing turnout of this cake she made for us on Friday night, because I turned her on (somewhat inadvertently, I might add) to Soft White Wheat Berries, which are used primarily for cakes, muffins & pastry because it's softer & gives a lighter texture to these types of items. (Although, Tami used it in her bread the other night too, and it turned out beautifully! So there you go!) Anyhoo I was reminded of the cake when I was reading Kimi's blog with all the yummy & nourishing Chocolate recipes last night & today... so, better late than never, I always say...so without further ado...(dang, I WISH I had a picture of it!) here, in Tami's words, is her recipe:

Tami's Moist Choc Mocha Cake
Preheat to 350 degrees.

1/2 c. butter, softened
1 cup sugar, organic cane
Mix those together well, then add
1/2 c. applesauce
1/4 c. maple syrup
Mix. Then add:
2 jumbo eggs or three medium or large, 1 at a time
Mix. Then add:
2/3 c. cocoa mixed with 1/3 c. melted butter

In a separate bowl whisk:
3 1/2 c. flour (freshly ground soft white wheat)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Add to chocolate mix alternately with:
1 c. buttermilk

Prep 2 cake pans: grease and cover bottom with parchment, greased

Evenly pour batter into both pans.
Cook for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Rest in pans for 10 minutes then finish cooling on wire racks. For an excellent moistness, cut each layer into 2 horizontally. This makes 4 layers! When frosting, make sure there is plenty of frosting to make things nice and flat.

Mocha filling/frosting
12-16 oz of heavy cream (raw is best but otherwise organic works)
Begin to whip cream in mixer. Add:
1/4 c. soft butter
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. sugar (powdered or organic cane both work)
1-2 tbsp instant coffee crystals (decaf! The more you add the richer the coffee flavor)

Mix until good thick consistency. Taste to check flavor. Add more sugar or coffee as needed.
(I didn't actually measure the frosting when I was making it so these are kinda rough estimates! yikes!)

Once finished frosting, take organic chocolate, melt, and drizzle over the top of the cake to make it pretty.

Yum!

Pay it Forward

2009-02-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

So...I was reading this lovely blog I found called Chop Wood, Carry Water and I saw this button, so I clicked and fell down this rabbit hole of the idea of giving, or really "gifting".

Amy found it on this blog... basically I will send a little home made 'gift' to the first three people who sign up on my blog to participate, they in turn will do the same on their blog, etc...

I think it's a really neat idea, because all of us have different & unique talents & it's really fun to share (and maybe show off just a tad! lol), but really just to share! To have an opportunity to say thank you to a fellow blogger who has a unique talent that YOU can appreciate!

So c'mon, jump on this band wagon with me! I promise you won't regret it!

CSA Box

2009-02-08T23:20:00.001-08:00

So, I was SO excited to open my first CSA Box from Abundant Harvest Organics that I forgot to Blog about it, much less take pictures! My bad!

So, to make it up to you ('cuz I know you've been sittin' there all week wondering what was in my box & how I served it!) lol ....here's a detailed post about my second box:

There is this adorable little crate that collapses when you're done with it...I pop it in the trunk that way I don't forget to take it the following week! I go thru the box & separate everything, putting them in green veggie bags or prepping them for immediate usage.

there's what was on the right side (under all that Spinach!)

And here's what was on the left side...

I still haven't used ANYTHING that came in this box except the Red leaf lettuce (used about 1/3 in a salad the other night) and the Yukon Gold potatoes (I made a Spanish Tortilla last night & enjoyed it cold with Sea Salt as a scrummy breakfast this morning!)

I LOVE Arugula, but haven't been doing 'dinner planning every night like I hoped, so I can only hope the green Veggie bags help keep everything fresh enough 'til the weekend!

Kombucha 4

2009-02-08T10:08:00.001-08:00

YUM! Joe liked the plain better, but I am LOVING the Craisin version! I had Kanan taste it (my almost 13 year old who likes my homemade bread, but shuns many of my other 'healthy' creations), I told him it was like a fizzy apple juice.

He tried it & I asked him what he thought it was...(at this point I told him it was called "Kombucha" and that it was a tea drink) he said it reminded him a little of pickles! (YES! My child is brilliant!) I said that was SO right, "vinegary" is an oft-ascribed attribute of Kombucha.

I bottled batch #2 tonight & got 3 bottles this time, so I did a Plain, a Craisin & a Ginger - I originally bought the bottles to make ginger beer (which I have yet to do!) so, if my ginger laced Kombucha turns out nicely, I may never have to...

Kombucha 3

2009-02-07T21:07:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I drained most of my brew out via the spigot, trying to not disturb the baby SCOBY forming at the top of the liquid (see it there? looks like a layer of pond scum!)

I tasted it & it was good, so I went ahead & bottled it. (SO EXCITED!!)

I kept one plain & I flavored one with a couple of Craisins...yum, right?

I'll let you know...

Kombucha 2

2009-01-31T14:51:00.000-08:00

Kombucha might not be a failure after all, I found out after my last panick induced post! My new BFF, Michael (aka, Bacteria Pimp) told me it was jsut doing it's thing & to let it go a few more days & post more pictures & to taste it for goodness' sake!

The fastest soup ever! Recipe

2009-01-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have NOTHING planned for tonight's dinner & tonight is supposed to be a quick night we run home, eat & go to our Book Club. So I thought about what I had going bad in my fridge, a giant container of Spinach from over a week ago!

I had some sauteed onions in the fridge, so I dumped them (about 2 TBSP) with SS&P, about a cup of chicken stock, and a handful of spinach (I just couldn't bring myself to really dig in & pick it over, so just grabbed the really nice looking leaves off the top, SO lazy!)

I gave it a whirl...

Meantime, I have a medium saucepan with about 3 cups of broth (and I tossed in a couple chunks of lemongrass) heating up. Once it got reasonably warm, I added half a package of Rice Stick Noodles to that.

Added the contents of the blender to the pot, brought it all up to simmer & tasted, kinda good, but boring - added cumin, cayenne & paprika (abut 1 Tsp of - more if you like!). Hmm... much better!

Once noodles were soft, I turned off the heat & gently stirred in some cream (about 3-4 TBSP) & served. It might have been nicer to garnish with a little fresh parsley or cilantro, but who has time for that on Book Club night!??

Kombucha 1

2009-01-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Well folks, I think I did it again. FAILED, that is. Any ideas? This doesn't look like normal mold...? Is there anything that looks like this that is OK? I'm so loathe to chuck my first batch! So sad! I was sooo excited...

The Grain Silo

2009-01-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

So... my cup runneth over. Joe looked at me the other day & said "I think I need a project, I need a creative outlet every now & then..." So I said, "Make me a storage bench." And so he did.

When we bought the stools for the Bar in the kitchen, I bought 3, but we really only needed 1 or 2... so Joe used that '3rd wheel' as a frame for the bench...

Joe doesn't have a table saw & several other tools necessary, so he took the whole project over to the Chu's & Tony was very helpful! (Thanks Tony!)

This is what the stool looked like, before he cut it in half! (Pay NO attention please to my filthy dishwasher in the back round!)

Ta- Da! Here's the finished product!

Here's Joe, reluctantly posing for a "proud moment" snap.

Here's the back, and the genius of the design: If we need extra seats at the table, we can pull it away from the wall & use the back as the front (on the bench) so whoever is sitting on it can still put their feet on the bar...but when it's a storage area, it will fit my bread maker & several big sacks of grain! Perfect timing too! My big Azure order will come in a week! I can't wait to fill up my new "grain silo"

Saffron Pearl Barley Risotto Recipe

2009-01-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

Can you believe I've never cooked Barley before? I love the old standard: Beef & Barley Soup, but I've never even made that! This morning I made a Stewy Crock Pot thing with Lentils (which I'm also pretty sure I've never cooked!) and it was supposed to be served over Barley. Well the stinkin' book assumed I knew how to cook Barley & guess what?! I don't! Dang it! So I googled a few recipes & got some ideas & then this is (approximately) what I did... it's basically a risotto method.

In a small saucepan, heat stock (any flavor you want or have on hand) I used about 3 1/2 cups

In a med-large spot Sweat 1 med chopped onion (my son Kanan chopped for me & cried buckets! ) in some olive oil for about 5 minutes

add the non-rinsed Barley (1 cup dry)

saute that for a few minutes, add a pinch of saffron, about 1 Tsp of Tumeric & 1/2 Tsp of Cumin

Stir & saute that for about 2 minutes

start adding hot stock, a ladle full at a time (about 1/4-1/3 cup)

stir often

add more stock when the pot is almost dry (no burning or sticking should go on)

keep doing this for a 20 million years until the barley is plump & cooked thru. (yes you have to taste it, it'll take about 40 minutes or so)

season with a bit of SS&P (Sea Salt & Pepper, of course!)

Serve with gusto!

It was yummy all by itself (IMHO) but my plan was to use it a base for the Midas Feast (Lentil Stewy Crock Pot concoction) which also worked out...(:

Found a CSA! oh the J-O-Y ! ! !

2009-01-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been looking for a great local source for a CSA box, but I've been having TONS of challenges as none seem to be local. Actually, I take that back (sorta). I found on in my county, BUT (and boy is it s BIG BUT!) they are not organic!! Imagine that! Why bother? ;(

Anyhoo, so my friend, Tami, who's been on this quest with me of late used to have deliveries a long time ago, in her old house, in her old neighborhood, in a different town and in fact, in a different county!!!

The service she used to use has merged with SPUD. When she researched & discovered this, we decided to try it, sounds great & you can control what you get, add extra items, etc...BUT, they do not deliver to my county!! I think maybe you are beginning to sense my building frustration here! We live in what is seriously one of the 'farmiest' areas around! It's ridiculous to me that on the 40 minute drive to visit my folks, who live at the beach, I pass countless farms and NONE of them are organic, and NONE of them do a produce box delivery! Arrggghhh!

**Deep Cleansing Breath**

So, we actually talked another friend into 'hosting' our SPUD box delivery & agreed to only order every other week (to keep within our budgets & cut down on her 'put-outed-ness' (yes I'm aware that is not really a word!) So this other friend, although she graciously agreed to host our SPUD boxes, asked around & found a site that helps you locate CSA's in your neighborhood..(I had actually checked this site a while back, but didn't come up with anything in my county..) Anyhoo, this time, I broadened my search & found Tierra Miguel & it is awesome! The only problem is that the actual farms are about 120 miles from us & they have a strict policy to only deliver within a 100 mile range....ok, I can live with that. If we order bi-weekly boxes & take turns then I'll only have to pick up once a mont, right? Not the end of the world, except I already do milk runs twice a month & now I'm adding a quarterly Azure Standard order...so yah, I'm not loving the idea of driving 20 miles to pick up my produce too!

So last night I get an email from Tami saying she found a different CSA & to wait & check this one out. So last night I stopped by & we looked at it together while my darling husband sat there patiently...the best part is that there is a drop point not only right here IN MY COUNTY, but right here in my town, within about 5 miles of my house & the delivery time is at 1pm on Saturdays! Awesome, I can totally fit that in my schedule!

OMGosh! It's amazing! I am so impressed with what I've seen & signed up last night when I got home & am eagerly awaiting my first box (next Saturday 1/31) - Check back with me for my first impressions... www.abundantharvestorganics.com

It's so nice, when you sign up, you choose a small or large box, each week you can see what will be in your box, you can add on extra items, like raw milk, nuts, chicken beef, lamb, a case of seasonal fruit (you bet I'll be taking advantage of that for making my jam on a seasonal basis)!! Tonight I watched every single video interview with all the farmers, saw how my boxes will be packed & 'met' (virtually) all the folks that are responsible for bringing me & my family & friends the freshest, most seasonal & sustainable produce!!

I realize I'm not the first blogger to point this concept out, but I sincerely hope my enthusiasm will capture your attention, your curiosity & that you will pursue something like this on your own life! Drop me a comment & let me know!

A day to brag about!

2009-01-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I had originally taken today off to hang with my boys since they were already off for MLK Jr Day... but Joe got a call to go help a buddy with a house project, and Kanan opted to go with so he could play with Rambo (our friend's baby chihuahua). So I ended up with a bonus Kitchen day!! Wahoo!

So after brunch (I had thawed a batch of Kelly's Cinnamon rolls & baked them up - they were great hot out of the oven, but both the boys were like "where's the icing??" so I made a quick small batch made with butter, powdered sugar & maple syrup- I wasn't sure the maple & butter alone would do it..), the boys left me all alone....

Yogurt:

I started by finally tackling Yogurt - I've been a bit scared to try it, but I found an easy crock-pot recipe that I felt I could handle... It's incubating (is that the right term??? Eww!) right now! Can't wait! I'll probably leave half plain & sweeten the rest with Maple Syrup - Trader Joe's has their own brand of Granola, one of the flavors has crystallized ginger in it - I'm seriously in love!! Anyone have any idea how to duplicate that?? Anyhoo, I love to add a scoop to my oatmeal or yogurt, or sometimes I combine all three! I take oatmeal packets to work currently, but one day I hope to figure out how to make my own & make it easily portable...

Kombucha:

I've had a Kombucha SCOBY for months in my fridge for a few months (I ambitiously bought one when I found Kefir Grains on eBay from the nicest man who goes by the alias of 'Bacteria Pimp' - cute eh?) Anyhoo, I started making Kefir as soon as my package arrived & my grains seem healthy despite my many attempt to kill them lol...I just didn't ever get around to researching the art of Kombucha & have the time (or so I thought!) So today I decide that was IT - no more excuses - just DO it!! It was easy. I ended up following the recipe in NT, I had some lovely Organic Pastures "Living Tea" - which is my favorite store bought...so I hope mine will come out like theirs! One thing I am not sure of: I did not have any organic tea. And I didn't have access to a car to run to the store... so I used what I had & just hope it's ok... next time!

Dairy:

I had some Raw Cream on hand that was starting to go, so I started a bowl of Sour Cream! We love this & use it as regularly as I can keep it stocked! I was inspired by Ann Marie to try the Kefir again. I don't know where I got this, but I've been using my soured milk to make Kefir... does that make sense to anyone? I honestly cannot remember if someone told me to, or if I just decided it was a logical thing because you let the milk sit out & 'sour' to an extent anyway...??? Anyone? One that subject, does anyone have any uses for sour milk?

Grains:

On Friday night I had started a bunch of grains to soak, so today they were sprouted enough to start drying. Thankfully, my oven is gas & goes as low as 100 degrees, so it's not hard to let my grains dry overnight or all day while I'm at work. I tried the 100% Sprouted Wheat Bread recipe from Marilyn Moll last week & we loved it! It's my favorite so far. I made a double batch (in the Kitchen Aid, as it was WAY too full for the bread machine) because Joe's boss has offered t buy it from me she liked it a lot! I added sesame & sunflower seeds for some extra texture & appeal.... it looks gorgeous & tastes pretty good...I think I'll try a bit more next time, but I think I also need to up the liquid a tiny bit...

I also soaked a cup of Almonds on Sat morning, so today I threw them into the VitaMix to make Almond Milk. I always try to use the left over pulp in a soaked grain muffin recipe, so I have that (about 1 cup) with about 2 cups mixed whole grains soaking to make muffins tomorrow evening....or maybe Wed morning (although it's awfully ambitious of me to think I'll get up early & make them! But I bought some fresh berries, so it sure would be nice to use them in a muffin. We'll see...

Meat:

Saturday morning I went for Raw Milk again, as I was short on Milk. I bought enough this time to (hopefully!) last a month. I also ran to Costco to stock up of stupid things I like best there like TP & Cat litter...I ran a bunch of other errands & made bread. On Saturday night I had roasted a chicken. (Thanks for the inspiration, Erica! I bought the Coleman's organic ones at Costco for about $12 each! I'm going to shoot for 1 every other week!) On Saturday we'd eaten an extremely gourmet bowl of cereal early on, so when the chicken was done, we just wanted a snack, so I cut up one of the breast & we just nibbled on that - it was SO yum! I roasted it breast side down so the white meat would be super moist!

So then the rest went right into the fridge & today I stripped all the meat off & started stock. It was even easier than usual because I'd been keeping a freezer bag of veg scraps for the last couple weeks...I can't wait to see how this batch turns out! There were mushrooms, bell peppers, leeks, onion, broccoli bottoms, you name it, it was in there! It's been smelling so good all day! Ok, so with the meat I stripped off, I chunked all the dark meat & made Creamy Chicken Enchiladas with them for tonight's dinner. The remaining breast got cubed & I made a small bowl of Chicken Salad for sandwiches this week. I added mayo, mustard, cayenne, craisins, chopped celery & chopped pecans - YUM! I would have added apples too, but I don't have any at the moment...

Freezer Meals:

I ran across a nice easy recipe here for Egg Cups, so I made those, wrapped up 3 for the fridge & the rest are freezing as I type for future To-Go Breakfasts... Yum!

Meal Plan

I keep reading every one's Meal Plans & it seriously seems like such a good idea! I just haven't felt 'ready' to begin. Yet. I think I'm almost there...I have a partial list, but I'm really having some challenges because I already know that we will be out of the house Tues & Thurs nights for Book Clubs at friend's houses. So I'm trying to think of quick dinners for those nights (don't forget that we've taken on the oh-so-important challenge of "No Eating Out" this month, and normally that would be my solution... I'm working on it, but I think I'll see how it goes before attempting to join the official "Meal Plan Monday"...

Well, the boys got home at 6-ish, we had dinner & now I'm all caught up! Must go strain my stock, now - g'night!

The Quest - Part 2 - ramblings on change....

2009-01-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so tonight on our drive home, my DH was on the phone with his mom who lives in CO. She is elderly & has problems getting around, so she's having to be very reliant on others to 'meet her needs'... to bring her groceries, for example. This has been going on for quite some time & I finally had had enough! I swear if I have to hear her say she's OUT of TP one more time!...

So as soon as we got home I went to the website of the grocery store that I know is near her house & created an order for her online for delivery tomorrow. Problem solved. Right? ;)

Well, yes, immediate problem solved. BUT (you knew there'd be a 'but', right!?)

The process of doing this REALLY made it clear to me just how much my attitude towards food & grocery shopping has changed over the last 6 months or so... really more in the last 3 months, actually. Right about when I starting blogging, and finding all these wonderfully informative blogs is when I really began my transformation.

I used to shop at Costco & Vons primarily, I used to buy soda every time I went! I would occasionally shop for specific things at Trader Joe's, but that was about the extent of my 'grocery world'. I used to cook a lot from scratch, being a trained chef, I tend to want to do it myself properly & use good ingredients... but boy, do I have a whole new perspective on that as well!

Now I'm on the verge of canceling my Costco membership, I rarely step in Vons and when I do, it usually involves an organic produce purchase & using the ATM! ;) After much research, I'm about to place my first order with Azure Standard for grains & other staples (even though I have to drive about 30 minutes on a Tuesday night to pick up my order! Thus I'm trying to only order quarterly...) I can't wait until 2/3 when I can pick up my gynormous order of grains, beans, seeds, eggs, raw cheeses, Pectin (for my Jam), raw honey, organic cane sugar, and seeds for my garden!!!

I buy a few things regularly on Amazon, they carry a huge variety of Organic snack items as well as grains & seeds... I do "Subscribe&Save" so I can get an extra 15% off, can choose how often I want that item, get free shipping on everything & I can still cancel anytime. The things I usually buy from Amazon are:

Organic Agave Nectar - Madhava (2-46 oz. jugs for $18)
Organic Maple Syrup (although I have since discovered that Trader Joe's price is better, although I can't remember if it's Organic) - B Grade is $44 for 2-32 oz. jugs & A Grade is $20 for 1-32 oz. jug
Scarpetta Pasta Sauces (not organic, but simply the yummiest store bought sauces I've ever tried (they are about $4-5 each (and only come in 4 packs), but the Tuscan Vodka Sauce is mind blowing!)
Izze Juices in small cans (this is our portable, away from home replacement for soda)
Organic Coffee, I have tried a couple different ones, but recently stumbled across one that sounds really great! It's called Larry's Beans Fair Trade Frenchy French Roast, it's Whole Bean of course & is about $40 for 5 pounds, that's about $8/lb.!! A little less than the Starbucks 2/5 lb. bag I usually buy at Costco, and it's NOT Starbucks! ;)
Organic Jerky (Golden Valley Natural) - haven't tried it yet...
Organic Light-on-the-Sugar Oatmeal (Dr. McDougall's Right Foods)

(Now, before you judge anything on that list, please keep in mind that we both work full-time & my DS is almost 13 and packs a lunch everyday for school, no cafeteria junk for him anymore!)

I've been frantically searching for a CSA delivery or pick up, but so far the best thing I've found is SPUD. However, I live just on the border of LA County, but IN Ventura County, so SPUD won't deliver all the way to my house. Of course, being the tenacious & determined gal that I am, I have figured out work-around, but it becomes complicated. I have to 'use' a friend for her address & then coordinate a meeting or a pick up at her house every 2 weeks. It's d0-able, but hardly the convenient organic produce delivery I am dreaming of....

Today I discovered Tierra Miguel Farms, the farms itself is 120 miles away, all the way in No. San Diego County, but they have pick up points as close as 30 minutes away from me, so I'm looking into that. I'd much rather support a local CSA, but the only one I can find is not organic, so it seems like a lot of $$ for not as many nutrients...?

As in my Milk Post, I described that I've completely switched the family to Raw Milk & Cream - Organic Pastures also sells meat & really truly RAW Almonds (did you know that a new law passed that makes all Almonds be Flash Steam Pasteurized??!!! and did you know that they are still allowed to label them as "raw"??!!! - aren't you horrified?) Anyway, from the raw milk, I make Kephir, from the cream, I make Sour Cream pretty regularly (it is SO good) & am hoping to get in the habit of making my own butter on a regular basis.

I've been trying some different bread recipes over the past several months, and although a few have been good, I still haven't really found what I'm looking for. But my hope it to be making bread from Soaked and/or Sprouted rains on a regular basis & giving/selling it to friends & co-workers as well as feeding my own family, of course! My DH's boss is begging for me to make & sell her bread! I guess I'd better get started! ;)

The Quest - Part 1 - Minty Fresh?

2009-01-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

OK! I've decided to dramatically cut my food budget, and one step I'm taking that is helping (or I'm very much hoping that it will really help) make this easier for me is:

Mint.com - I added the App to my iPhone (but you can totally use this w/o an iPhone - don't use this as an excuse to not try it if you need help!) & can access it easily from your home computer.

It sets up your budget, you load in ALL your credit cards, all your checking accounts, even saving accounts & investments and it tracks everything for you & gathers updates on activity & transactions directly from your banks, so there's almost NO lame, time-sucking data entry!

I LOVE it! It sends email alerts warning you of large purchases & deposits, and when bills are due, but the BEST thing so far (for me in the quest of lowering my grocery budget) is it warns you when you are over your set budget amount!!! It even tells you what you normally spend!

Isn't that great! I really thing this is going to help me stay on track with my spending.

So far, this month I've only spent $23 on Groceries, my budget is set at $350....if you've met me, you KNOW this is nothing short of a miracle! The old me was notorious for WAY overspending on groceries (and then letting at least half of the produce rot in the fridge while we ate out every other night!)

This month after the first week (that was still 'the Holidays' & we lived it up!), we set a "no eating out" rule & my DS/DH have been pretty darn supportive. We've been tempted, but have stayed the course, which makes me so proud, it's SO empowering to think we are actually capable of this! Woo Hoo!

Sourcing & Blogging

2009-01-12T22:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'll admit it! I'm completely addicted to Blogging, making Bloggy friends & exploring this new world of Blog-dom. I LOVE it! I can't get enough! And, the best part: I'm learning SO much! I'm like a sponge! I'm soaking it all in.... and loving every word!

I'm so inspired by all the Blogs I've been following & some I just stumble upon!

Inspired to live more frugally (which is a BIG one for me! Anyone reading this: you should ALL be SO PROUD!)
Inspired to get & stay more organized (in the kitchen for now, perhaps someday it will spread to other areas... wouldn't that be cool?!)
Inspired to be a more Godly wife & mother - seems like a no-brainer, but we can all improve, right?!
Inspired to source out the BEST priced, most nutritious ingredients & the BEST, affordable ways to procure them!
Inspired to share what I learn (stay tuned)...

I see a lot of other Bloggers committing to a weekly series on one specific Theme or other, which is awesome and is definitely something I, personally, look forward to... but I don't know yet if I'm ready or able to commit to such a thing. I hate to disappoint, so instead of setting myself up for failure (and you, for sadness) what I will do is just Post randomly whenever I learn something that really blows my mind, or really works for me in my quest. Fair?

Raw Milk

2009-01-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

I had been mulling over in my mind a post to share with my fellow So Cal nourished bloggy friends how, where & when they could obtain a 'deal' on fresh RAW MILK straight from the company....but Cheeseslave beat me to it. Please check out her wonderfully informative post & go show Sean & the good folks at Organic Pastures some love & support, they deserve it! (Do you know how hard they are fighting, on a constant basis, to keep Raw Milk legal...?)

Anyway, I asked if I could mix & match my 10 Dairy items to earn a freebie & he so graciously allowed it! So cool! I know I can freeze it, but I didn't really have a lot of space in my freezer to stock up, so I got 2 milks for me, 2 for a friend, & 7 Creams! (2 for mom & 1 for a friend at work who's trying the Maker's Diet & was curious) Next time I'll stock up on Milk, and maybe instead of making the trip every 2 weeks, I can aim for once a month.

I shared the concept of "raw milk" with a friend at work & I am really hoping she tries it so I can share a true life success story! She has Lactose Intolerance (newly, as an adult) and her daughter is always sick & has allergies... Also, another friend's little boy was born allergic to SO many things, so I brought her some from my 'run' on Saturday & am anxious to hear how it treats him!...

In the meantime, instead of biting your nails waiting for updates on these stories, please take moment to check out this site & voice your God-given freedoms to vote for the legalization of Raw Milk!! Thanks

**update**
My friend's little boy had raw milk yesterday & NO allergic reactions!!! I'm so stoked!

My Fridge

2009-01-03T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well, in the spirit of New Year's resolutions and all that, I could decided this morning that I simply could not start 2009 with my fridge the way it was. I had been reading lots of blogs where folks were brave enough to show the contents of their refrigerators, and they were always clean, neatly organized & filled with only "good" ingredients :)

I realized there was no way I could let ANYONE see mine until I cleaned it up & got rid of some of the yuckies growing inside! ;) Gross! I also went ahead & threw out those yucky salad dressings that I never ate anyway & were filled with so many things on my "bad" list: Corn Syrup, Canola Oil & MSG!

Ok, so it took a couple of hours because I also inventoried every last little thing and it was amazing how much tupperware & how many jars I freed up to store new "good stuff" in!

More later on the inventory & how I plan to use it...

The Pantry Challenge or The Grande Failure

2008-12-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to admit, and I'm not terribly ashamed: I have failed beautifully, I only got as far as taking inventory on the lower pantry & freezer, I even had the brilliant idea of putting them on a list on my iPhone so I'd always have that important info at my fingertips. I still have not done the upper pantry or the fridge, it's just SO daunting - I have countless little jars of this & that in the fridge...

So I failed. I pretty much KNEW I would. December is a crazy month spent entertaining, potlucking & being too busy in general to make eating frugally a priority. (Which is a whole 'nother topic & problem of mine!)

However, I did LEARN a LOT about myself thru this process of sincerely trying and of failing. I learned that I definitely have a problem with buying too much food. I am not very good at planning ahead, which tends to be pretty darn necessary when eating more nourishing foods. I am also very lazy - there, I said it! I want to make this new lifestyle a priority, I want to learn a rhythm to integrating these habits into my daily, weekly, monthly life. I tend to live in cycles, I'm sure that's not unusual. I have periods of time, where there are lots of social commitments that take up your time, energy & focus. There are periods of time where, I am able to make home more of a priority. And there are periods of time when we travel & no matter what I try, it has been impossible to get back into whatever rhythm I had finally worked out previously. And then I have these cycles of excitement to try all these new things & I just go crazy - I tend to be a bit extreme, all or nuthin', you know? And then overall that, I tend to get very overwhelmed & very frustrated that I can't seem to bring it all into focus & achieve these goals I've set for myself....

So, while we're talking about goals, with Christmas being over now, and 2009 quickly approaching, everyone is already talking about setting New Year's Resolutions. I generally try not to bother, knowing I will simply let myself down & all that...

So this year, Kimi from the Nourishing Gourmet has a marvelous post that I found very encouraging about setting realistic goals, rather than 'not bothering' at all. I read her post tonight on the way home from my 5th and hopefully final Christmas and I felt encouraged & inspired. Instead of 'not bothering' again this year, I will give it some thought & really try to boil down all my many aspirations to just a few, and to make sure those few really make sense at this point in my life....

Stay tuned...

Merry Christmas to all!

2008-12-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

Happy (belated) Christmas to you!

Just wanted to pop in & share some things...

I always get more excited about giving things at Christmas, our family has always placed great emphasis on giving & helping the needy, etc....

With that said, I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but it's relevant to my quest & thus, relevant to this blog, so bear with me....

I SCORED!!!

My lovely husband gave me a grain mill! It's been on my wish list for a few months, so I'm very excited to try that out & stop buying pre-ground flour from the store!

I got a new computer, so that should help me post with greater ease, thus hopefully my posts will be more frequent & more interesting with pics & possibly videos...ooo, imagine the possibilities...!

And lastly, our digital camera died last month, so we have a nice new camera, it has all sorts of bells & whistles, but most important, it takes video & it has a 'food' setting...I can't wait to try it out!

Anyway, again, not to brag or anything like that, just to say I'm now very well equipped to be a better blogger in the coming year & I was so excited about that I had to share...

Hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas Season & looking forward to sharing healthier foodie adventures with you in 2009!

Pantry Challenge Week 1

2008-12-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

So here's the promised snaps of my Pantry, Before & After:

Before: Pasta & Grains
After: Pasta & Dried Fruits

Before: Baking Supplies
After: Baking Suppies

Before: Cereal & Snack
After: Cereal & Grains

Before: Spreads & Teas
After: Spreads & Teas

Look at my formerly messy pantry, it feels so great to know that it's all organized & clean!

Sorry about the picture sizes being wonky - technical difficulties! After remodeling the house, I 'moved into' my kitchen in October '07 and I am loathe to admit: I don't think I've cleaned them or re-organized them since! How embarrassing!
Thank goodness for the "Challenge"! What better excuse/encouragement?

We be Jammin'....

2008-12-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

So my Friend, Terah cam over today & we JAMMED! I started at 8:30, she came at about 10am, and by 4 pm, we'd completed 9 different flavors of Jam - I now have every spare surface in my kitchen & dining room covered with Jam Jars!!

Here's what we did:
Wine Berry Jelly
Strawberry Jam
Jalapeno Jelly
Pear Raspberry Jam
Lemon Strawberry Marmalade
Red Onion Marmalade
Habanero Gold
Orange Marmalade
Strawberry Vanilla Bean

Pretty amazing!

Oh, and I did get a second wind after Terah went home and forced myself to make:
Mint Jelly
Mint Vanilla Bean Jelly
Lemon Mint Jelly
Herb Jelly

Recipe: Cranberry/Jalapeno/Ginger Chutney

2008-11-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Recipe for Cranberry/Jalapeno/Ginger Chutney (from my Aunt Louise)

1 Big Bag of Cranberries (Costco size) or 3 reg size Bags
Maple Syrup (to taste - I use about a whole 12 oz. bottle)
Juice & Zest from three Oranges
Zest from one lemon
Crystalized Ginger (8 oz) - Chopped fine
Grated Fresh Ginger (about 2 Tbsp)

Put Cranberries in a heavy bottom Stock Pot & cover with water (the kind you like to drink!)
Bring to a boil
Add the rest of the ingredients & bring back to a boil

Adjust the Maple Syrup to taste, it should be tart, but sweet enough to enjoy.
It will thicken & develop a candied look right as it's getting done. Watch for it, then:
Add about 3-5 (chopped med/fine) Jalapenos to Serranos (check for heat before you go crazy!

Stir them in & let cool. Stores for 2-3 months in fridge, or you can 'can' to preserve in your pantry...Enjoy

My fav in on leftover Turkey & Stuffing Sandwiches! AMAZAZING!

Mexican Food ROCKS

2008-11-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we just returned from a week in the Riviera Maya. We had a condo so I did do some minor 'cooking' during our stay to save on eating out. That said, we still did eat out & man do I love it! We had tacos arrachera, tacos al pastor, quesadillas, Sopa de Fideos Seco (so good!), lime soup, ceviche, lots of chips y salsa, some guacamole...and even that which wasn't phenomenal, was pretty darn good! Wash it down with some Corona's with lime & add a beachfront terrace overlooking the Caribbean Sea & you've got yourself a DREAM! Well, I do, anyway! lol
While I love food in general, Mexican has definitely been one of my most favs for a very long time. It's funny, living where I do there are lots of Mexican 'implants', thus we have access to some great Mexican restaurants in the areas we frequent, but I really have only a few 'Mexican' items I make, and I wonder at their authenticity....I mean I can make a pretty yummy pico de gallo, but that's pretty darn easy. I make a very popular enchilada casserole, but it's far from authentic! Chicken & creamy soup....? Not so much in the traditional Mexican pantry! lol I'll have to work on that!
In the meantime, I really enjoy vacationing in this gorgeous country & look forward to many more trips, perhaps we can start moving away from the traditionally touristy spots & head inland....unfortunately, I'm having some serious technical issues with my camera so at the moment, I don't have any I can share, but stay tuned....

Culinary School Challenge

2008-11-13T22:04:00.001-08:00

So I felt like sharing some pictures & happened upon this one. It was about midway thru the course & we were assigned a meat (mine was Porterhouse), we had to make it, plate it, name it, price it & present it with "gusto" to our Chef Instructor.

It was truly an opportunity....to shine or fail miserably....

See, the trick was in the details, was the plate warmed, was the color palette balanced, what did you name the dish, what was your cost vs. price? It's been almost a year now, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I believe I served the Steak with Roasted Beets & a Timbal of Parmesan Mashed potatoes...yum...I see sauce on the plate, probably a red wine reduction...?

Anyhoo, Chef was pleased and I had a proud moment ;)

the best day ever!

2008-11-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, so yesterday I've had the loveliest day! I realized Monday that both Joe & Kanan were off Tuesday (School Holiday for Veteran's Day) so I took the day off too & we just hung out at home mostly! We slept in 'til 9, made a yummy scrummy breakfast. I soaked some grains the night before in excited anticipation & made raspberry muffins (NT recipe). While they were baking I made coffee, bacon & an egg/cheese Frittata. YUM! The bacon was Niman Ranch, the eggs were pastured....as I've shared, we are making baby steps. ;) Trying to focus on quality & packing the extra nutrition in wherever possible.
I prepped a jam recipe & put Tami's sourdough bread recipe in the breadmaker on 'dough cycle' and the three of us went for a hike to top of our hill, man is it steep! Sheeshenheimer! I was dying! But we gotta start somewhere, right?
We hurried over to the pet store (we've recently started the process of allowing our cats to maybe think about going outside once in awhile - long story) but the first step is to make sure they have proper collars & tags...
Ran back home, put the bread in the pan to rise again, the dough looked pretty good this time (I've been struggling with this for a few weeks, more on this later - perhaps with recipes?)....I made a batch of Pear Raspbery (Yes, the same jam I made on Sunday, but it IS the most popular flavor I make, so I must stock up!)
I had canned some Cranberry Jalapeno Chutney last week, but had completely forgotten the ginger!!!! Hello, now I remember that I called it Cranberry Ginger Jalapeno Chutney last year! DUH. I knew I was missing something, but sallied forth. Well, now that I had remembered, I decided to fix it - isn't canning great? You can just re-do it! I emptied out all the jars, heated it up, added the fresh & candied ginger, let it stew a bit, washed the jars, sterilized them & was done in no time! It tasted MUCH better after that - thank goodness I caught my mistake before I started selling & giving it away!
So, in the midst of the canning, the bread came out of the oven. I am VERY pleased to say that this is MUCH close to what I've been intending to produce! YAY - finally! ;) The only thing is that Joe pointed out a 'sour' taste, my natural response was "well, babe, it IS supposed to be Sourdough bread, you know...?" LOL We examined this a bit further & have decided that the 'bitter-ish', sour-ish taste he was referring to was indeed present & I think it's the Olive Oil! Next time I'm going to use butter & see if our theory is correct...makes sense though...I think.
Olive oil, especially the good kind, the organic extra virgin, has a very distinct flavor, that may be less obvious when sauteing veggies, but in THIS bread, it really stands out!
Ok, so after a few slices of bread & butter for an afternoon snack.....Kanan & I began making homemade pasta. I had bought a pound of Semolina at Lassen's over the weekend, so we chucked it in the Food Processor with a pinch of sea salt, Kanan cracked 4 eggs into a bowl & we added them slowly to the flour as the machine ran. It was still too dry, so I added my yummy RO (reverse osmosis) water, a little at a time, until finally it formed a ball! Woo Hoo! I wrapped it in Cling film & let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes...Meantime, I got the kitchen aid fitted with the pasta roller, floured a couple of baking sheets & put the Heavy Cream in a Saucepan (I use Berndes nonstick - Haven't done that research yet! Anyone?) Anyhoo, as the cream was reducing for Alfredo sauce (Kanan's pick) we rolled the pasta thru the roller & then cut it with the other attachment into Spaghetti....threw it into the rolling, sea salted, boiling water, stirred it a couple of times, seasoned the cream sauce....it actually looked a bit too thick, so I added some of the pasta water - professional trick, now I've told you I might just have to kill you - Shhhh! We drained the pasta, tossed it back in the big pot, added the cream sauce, tossed it together, added some Parm (Trader Joe's brand) and "Voila"!! It was SOOOO yummy!
After we ate our fill, I rolled out the rest (half the dough made enough pasta for a small portion for 3 of us - we also had plain ole' oven roasted acorn squash & some garlicky cheese toast - what??!! I did NOT claim to be well balanced all the time!), and took it to our Book Club to give away....everyone was excited!
So, we came home & went straight to bed & I can say with complete satisfaction that it was "the best day ever!" (I'm not that big a dork, it's a Sponge Bob Song!)
I wish you many happy returns of my glorious home day! Work hard in doors & out...and bon appetite!!

Baby Steps

2008-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

A little about where I come from (food-wise): my background in cooking (which I've always loved since childhood) is grandma & mom's family 'comfort foods to feed a crowd', it's still, to this day, hard for me to make anything in small batches - I mean if you're going to make something, make a ton of it & freeze some for later!). I went to a small local culinary school in 2000, I've done some catering & private chef jobs, I love to do food for other people, but as I get older I find my time to be too valuable for feeding strangers in exchange for money, it simply isn't 'enough' for me anymore....so my focus has shifted over the last couple years to home.
I stumbled across the Nourishing Traditions book while I was doing the Maker's Diet a couple summers ago. An amazing diet that really works - I dropped some serious inches! Anyhoo, I found myself getting more & more curious about Sally Fallon & these old world methods. I bought the book a few months ago & immediately starting making things. I tried Cream Cheese, Kefir, Sourkraut, Kimchee, Sourdough Starter, soaked grain muffins & quick breads...
I found a source for Raw Milk at a discount (Organic Pastures has a HUB Store in San Fernando, CA every Saturday from 10a-2p.), so I have developed a routine of going every other Saturday morning. It actually is only about 15 minutes away & there is a CNG Station in town so I can fill up the Green Bean while I'm there!! Gotta love efficiency & saving $$!
So I since starting that, I have made my own Cream Cheese, Sour Cream & Raw Butter now several times. The Sour Cream is THE BEST - my husband loves it, he's a big sour cream freak anyway, so now he is enjoying the 'real thing'! I find I don't even consider buying these items commercially anymore unless I'm desperate.
I bought a Sprouter, and some seeds - still working on making that part of my routine. But I have tried sprouted Wheat Berries (which I dried in a low oven overnight & am storing until I get my grain mill (Santa Baby?) and can grind into flour & make some yummy super nutritious bread! I know there are tons of other uses & methods for using them, just haven't gotten that far...
I had some money in my pay pal account, so I treated myself to a few new attachments for my kitchen aid mixer: the pasta roller & spaghetti cutter, the meat grinder, the sausage stuffer. I also got a Food Saver, and got a used freezer for my garage so I can store all my yummy creations! I also found some good deals on Pampered Chef Stoneware loaf pans, so my bread will turn out gorgeous & healthy! Other large kitchen gadgets I had already are: Viking Food Processor (not horrible, but I wish I'd gotten the Cuisinart!), Vita Mix Blender (LOVE it, could NOT live with out it!), meat slicer (trying to buy lunch meat whole - Trader Joe's sell small ones) and slice my own for freshness & savings!. I also found another great use for it: I froze a chicken breast, sliced it thinly, and made Tom Kha Gai. I never could get the chicken thin enough & that was perfect. I used some & put the rest, which was still frozen, in a freezer bag & then I had some for next time I made the soup (will Post the recipe later). Of course, now that I have the food saver, I will store in them next time.
Ok, well I'm almost at Stage: Crucial with my Pear Raspberry Jam, so I must end this post with a quick encouragement & be done (for now)....
I know this first post is all over the place, but I am a bit like that myself, so 1. you are getting to know the real me ;) and 2. I will go into greater depth on all these subjects, as they are not the random ramblings of a lunatic! They all work together towards the goal of of finding methods & lifestyle changes that will add up to a healthier, happier home & family.
Bless you for bearing with with me, hope to hear from you soon with input/questions/comments.
~Erin