Hunt It. Gather It. Work It.

New Hampshire HOPS

2011-05-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

"Uses of Hops

Hops are perhaps best known for their use as a bitter agent in brewing beer. But hops also are a nerve sedative and hormonal agent. Because they promote stomach secretions, bitter herbs are good digestive tonics. The bitter principles in hops are particularly useful for indigestion aggravated by stress or insufficient stomach acid and for gassiness and sour burping. Research has shown that hops also may help the body metabolize natural toxins, such as those produced by bacteria.

Hops contain plant estrogens, and women who harvest hops flowers for an extended time sometimes develop menstrual-cycle abnormalities. Its estrogenic constituents make this plant useful in treating menopausal complaints, such as insomnia and hot flashes.

You also may use hops for anxiety and nervous complaints or for indigestion and cramps resulting from anxiety. Use the tincture or tea before bed if you experience insomnia."

As I have mentioned many times, this whole life-in-the-desert gig is a little weird to me. I like greenery, plants, dramatic seasons and my farm girls!! Last summer when I got to New Hampshire I was welcomed with homebrewed beer. Not made from ingredients purchased on line. My former neighbor and Sister Mama, Shannon (with her awesome chef/husband Andy), is one of those people who sees wild hops growing on the roadside, stops, harvests, and brews beer.
Like all plants (you heard me, all plants), Hops has some issues. Hops is extremely estrogenic (like our natural Paleo-life enemy soybeans). This, of course, is ironic since beer is so "manly". We could speculate all day why this relationship developed. Some believe the European governments/religions mandated the inclusion of Hops in beer to reduce the sexual drive in men!!! Tell that to the creators of TV beer ads.

The description above, from an herbal practitioner, talks about the power of hops. This is a plant that we need to treat with respect. Insomnia, mentrual irregularities and digestive issues. I love that my Farm Girl/Sister Mama Shannon can see and feel the presence of a plant like hops growing on the roadside.

Plants like hops can have a place in our lives if we understand the ability of the plant to effect our body. Shannon's brew felt nourishing and deeply delicious to me.

Not in the Mood for a Mess

2011-05-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

I love fish, but hate cooking it in the house. The smell and the messy cooking pans are just not enjoyable for me. I cook it outside on the charcoal grill. Same for steak. Outside is better. We needed something easy for lunches this week. Second to last week of school for the kiddos and it seems busier than usual. Decided on Fish Salad Verde. Although it is true that cutting vegetables initiates their deterioration and loss of vitamins, I occasionally pre-cut things if I know the week will be busy. This Sunday I chopped a green cabbage, 5 baby zucchini and a bunch of cilantro. I wedged a couple limes too and bought some salsa verde. Store the vegetables separately so that they retain their individual flavor. I grilled two packages of tilapia. As long as you get the grate of the grill super hot before you put the fish on, and you don't try to flip the fillets until they are a little browned on the side, you don't need to add any oil. I avoid brushing the fish with oil because I don't really want to eat extra grilled polyunsaturated oil. After I took the fish off the grill I sprinkled it with cumin, Mexican oregano and lime juice before putting it away.
It is really easy not to just throw a handful of the vegetables, a piece of fish and a lime wedge into a travel container with a spoonful of salsa verde. If you are looking for some extra fat, avocado is delicious on this!

ALKALINIZE with GREENS for PERFORMANCE and RECOVERY

2011-04-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

A green love note for all the Coaches at CrossFit Works. Ingredients for their own Green Smoothie.
Met with a certain amount of skepticism by certain people who verified that it all goes in the blender together...and, yes, you drink it. Less work than chewing up those interminable salads!
Many athletes and people who begin a fitness or training program wonder about what they should eat to aid in their recovery. People start talking about proteins or carbohydrates or purchase expensive powdered mixes or consume corn syrup in artificial coloring-filled “sports drinks”. Many performance oriented folks are very savvy about clean protein with a high percentage of their carbohydrates post workout. We can talk about branch chain amino acids and creatine and all those useful things. It is rare to hear mention of green vegetables in a conversation about sports recovery. Isn’t post-workout nutrition the one place where green vegetables don’t matter? Afraid not. Greens are especially meaningful in these days of increasing heat and profuse sweating.
Let's not let your stereotype of the yoga/juice bar crowd prevent us from developing a close relationship with the green smoothie for recovery. In fact we can even learn a little bit from some old school "doping"...soda doping. Athletes involved in high intensity, anaerobic sports have been shown, clinically, to improve speed by ingesting baking soda. Baking soda is a powerfully alkalinizing substance which is thought to assist performance by increasing the rate at which the acidic muscle waste products can be removed and the production of ATP kept high. Clinical studies are more in agreement about the performance boosting effect of baking soda than a lot of the other fancier, more expensive performance aids. Ummm, yes, unpleasant digestive side effects can occur, as well as the negative effects of ingesting large amounts of sodium (baking soda is sodium bicarbonate). OK, so I'm not suggesting baking soda for performance enhancement, I'm just providing a little background to get you to take the alkalinity of the body seriously with regard to training and performance.
Our ability to benefit from our workouts is determined by our ability to recover from them. Recovery involves the inflammatory process, the anti-inflammatory response, glycogen replenishment, muscle building and bone modeling/construction. There is a wide assortment of nutrients involved in these complicated metabolic processes, but one controlling condition for many of them is our pH, particularly the pH of our blood stream. Working out, and heavy breathing increases acidity in the body. Healing , recovery and rebuilding happens most effectively at a slightly alkaline pH. If we remain in an acidic state we risk breaking down muscle tissue and cannibalizing our bones and losing calcium. Your body tries to restore alkalinity by releasing calcium from your bones and nitrogen from your muscle tissue-exactly what you don’t want! We can easily use food to quickly restore alkalinity to the body. The best foods (those with the most basic-producing pH) to restore alkalinity to the body are the vegetables and some fruits. Spinach, celery, carrots and zucchini are all good. Blend them up in your blender with water, ice and a lemon wedge. Add mint, parsely or basil if you'd like. Raisins, black currants and bananas are also alkaline producing. If weight loss is one of your fitness goals choose the vegetables over the fruits.
Raw greens also provide lots of minerals (especially the more bitter ones like dandelion greens), plenty of electrolytes and a dose of heat sensitive vitamins like Vitamin C.

Long week ahead, Empty fridge

2011-03-21T10:15:00.001-07:00

You could, of course, make this stew with all fresh ingredients. I bet it would taste better. But this one is basically instant food cobbled together out of bags in the freezer and odds and ends in the fridge. It tastes rich, Italian without pasta, and delicious. In a short time, without a trip to the store, I have 4 dinners (or breakfasts).

1 bag frozen (already cooked) pearl onions
1 bag frozen multi-colored peppers
1 bag frozen asparagus
5c chicken stock
2/3 jar organic marinara sauce (I had this leftover in the fridge, but you could use a can of diced tomatoes too)
4lbs hot italian chicken sausage
1/4-1/2c pesto (if you don't have pesto you could use olive oil and some dried Italian seasonings like marjoram, thyme, oregano and basil)

Place the chicken sausage in one deep skillet. Add 1/2" water, cover and simmer about 20min. Meanwhile dump all the still-frozen vegetables into your large soup pot, add the pesto and the stock and turn on the heat. Bring to a simmer. When the sausage is done, remove it from the pan and slice it. Add sausage to the vegetables, add your tomatoes sauce and heat through. Sometimes it is just a relief to have appropriate food on hand.

The Potluck

2011-02-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

I now remember how much I LOVE potluck dinners. For awhile my feeling about potlucks was "where will I find any meat amongst the pasta salads and rice pilafs?". I've always been blessed with incredible friends, many of whom are very good cooks, but many of them, alas, have been vegetarians. Last night I had the good fortune to attend a potluck at which the majority of the people are Paleo eaters. There was one, probably a little bit hungry vegetarian, and I would've cooked some of my vegetables separately from the meat for her had I remembered. I was reminded of what I love about potlucks too. Surprises. Getting a little bit of inside information on the other folks. Checking out what people bring to a potluck is kind of like finding out what kind of underwear they like. It is a piece of personal information that brings you closer to them. When you live your life surrounded by people who like to live well and eat Paleo they also have the ability to inspire you. I love to be humbled by the cooks around me. For example, I always stuff my mushrooms with ground nuts, herbs and garlic. Some time soon I will do it in honor of Summer's mushrooms. There was a meat cake (it was a belated birthday celebration) topped with roasted red peppers, a delicious Paleo chili, stuffed mushrooms with pine nuts and raisins, a huge bowl of guacamole (and no one at Paleo potlucks expects you to only take a little spoonful of guacamole, they expect you to take a huge glop), sliced apples and strawberries with chocolate/avocado and chocolate/almond dip, a crab-spinach dish, delicious varieties of peppers stuffed with meats, some Paleo sweets with shredded coconut, and a shredded pork with sage and butternut squash. The shredded pork and butternut squash with sage was my offering. Here you go:

SHREDDED PORK WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND SAGE
Whether or not I am cooking for a potluck I make an enormous amount. It is very good leftover. Sage is a pretty magical herb. Don't ruin it by combining it with other things. It stands on its own.

About 6lbs of pork shoulder or butt (don't use something fancy like a pork roast or loin, you need the heavily marbled fat)
3-4T dried sage (not the finely powdered stuff)
8T lard (or if you are bereft of lard use clarified butter)
black pepper
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled and coarsely sliced
4c chicken stock
2 butternut squash (peel them with a carrot peeler and chop them into smallish bite-size pieces, you can either separate the seeds and toast them or eat them later or you can put them in the compost, discard the stringy stuff around the seeds into the compost)
4 medium yellow onions, peeled and finely chopped

Heat the oven to 275F. Cut the pork into large chunks (3-4" pieces). On the stovetop, melt half your lard in an oven proof pot that can be covered. Place the pork pieces in one layer with space between them (you might have to do two batches). Cover with the sage and lots of black pepper. Brown them on high heat on two sides. Once all your pieces of pork are browned on two sides, add 3 cups of the chicken stock to the pan, bring to a simmer. Add all the sliced garlic, cover and place in the oven. The stock should come about 1/3 or 1/2 way up the meat chunks, but should not cover them. The meat should stay in the oven for around five hours. As the five hour mark approaches, place another heavy skillet on the stovetop and melt the rest of the lard in it. Add the squash and onions. Saute on high heat 'til browned (about 12min). Then add your remaining 1c chicken stock, cover and turn to low). Take the meat out of the oven. Remove the meat pieces from the pan and place them on a cutting board that will catch the juices. Put the pan on a burner and turn it onto high. You are going to reduce the liquid in the pan to about half. Stir it every now and then. While the squash and onions are cooking and the meat juices are reducing you shred the pork. Just get two forks and pull the meat apart. It will shred easily. Throw out any big chunks of fat that are left (or your potluck guests and your children will be grossed out). Once all the meat is shredded, and the liquid in the meat pan has been reduced by half, return the meat to the pan and mix it well with the reduced sauce. As soon as the butternut squash is soft and tender to the bite (about 40min, don't undercook it) add it to the meat. Mix gently, add a pinch of sage while you give thanks for the pig you are about to eat. Also add some sea salt if you'd like.

Nutrition Research and Men or Never Be Without Sausage

2011-01-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

The effect of prenatal, pre-conception and lactational nutrition has always been at the center of my interest in food and health. The majority of health care practitioners are deathly afraid of discussing pre-natal and pre-conception nutrition with women because they don't want women to feel guilty if their child has a health or behavioral issue that might be related to Mom's poor nutrition. Health care practitioners are afraid to discuss issues of nutrition with breastfeeding Moms (lactational nutrition) for the very real reason that if Mom thinks her diet is bad for her baby she will quit breastfeeding rather than change her own diet. We have lost touch with an incredibly important aspect of reproduction that was a hallmark of traditional cultures: what you eat is directly correlated with the health of your child. Even the most "primitive" of peoples had special nutrition practises for newly married couples (preconception) or pregnant and breastfeeding women. Foods such as raw organ meats, fish eggs, and bitter herbs and weeds were carefully collected by the families and hunters of a group and reserved for members of the group who were in child-bearing mode. Gathering these special foods was performed at great risk to the group often involving trading with an enemy or treacherous expeditions. When asked why they take such risk to procure special foods traditional peoples don't say "because decades of research finally convinced us that adequate folic acid prevents neurologic defects". They say "because without these sacred foods for the parents the children are not strong". The reality of hunter-gatherers was that a child with a significant health issue at birth would die and even a small issue, which we don't even consider a disability today, like poor eyesight or crooked teeth, would likely mean that child did not reach adult hood or could not hunt or support the group. There is no room in this discussion for blame. Guilt is not powerful. Knowledge is power. With knowledge and power comes responsibility. Responsibility is certainly a heavy burden at times, especially when it comes to raising children. During the last few centuries of industrialization we have forgotten our sacred food practises, so we rely on research. Recent research finally is getting around to handing some of the power for healthy babies over to the Dads!! We mostly think of men as sperm donors who either are "good" husbands and fathers or "bad" ones. Our concept of the importance of preconception nutrition for men has been stuck at knowing that if men had really poor nutrition their fertility would drop and they would have trouble fathering a child at all. Slowly, slowly research is digging more deeply into the effect of a father's nutrition on his future children. A fascinating study just published discusses the relationship between the protein intake of males and the cholesterol and lipid synthesis of their offspring:
"The phenomenon, called epigenetic inheritance – where changes in gene expression not caused by changes to the underlying DNA sequence are passed from a parent to a child – may be relevant to a number of illnesses.
Researchers fed different diets to two groups of male mice – the first set receiving a standard diet, while the second received a low-protein diet.
All females were fed the same, standard diet.
They observed that offspring of the mice fed the low-protein diet exhibited a marked increase in the genes responsible for lipid and cholesterol synthesis in comparison to offspring of the control group fed the standard diet – indicating an increased risk of heart disease.
Previous studies have suggested a father's lifestyle can come back to genetically affect his kids – but were unable to rule out socioeconomic factors."
I look forward to the day when men and women will discuss freely and openly with their health care practitioner and their families, the impact of preconception, prenatal and lactational nutrition on the next generation. In the meantime, although my childbearing days are firmly behind me, I'm not going to be one of the low-protein lab rats. Did you know that a couple pounds of chicken sausage cooked up on a Sunday evening is better than an Instant Breakfast on Monday morning? Sometimes I have been know to run late and lack organization in the morning, so while finding homework, computer cords and packing lunches, I just throw my chicken sausage into the nearest appliance that provides heat (pan on the stove, toaster oven) and then I dump it in a bowl and it becomes travel food. You just never know when, at the stoplight during your morning commute, a movement in the car next to you will catch your eye, you will look over expecting to see someone sipping a syrupy "coffee", eating a "breakfast sandwich" or applying mascara while talking on the phone. Instead you will see a completely organized, saucy mother of two boys, eating sausage with her fingers out of a hand made bowl. Mother and boys might be singing along with some classic rock at the same time because eating sausage in the car just calls out for accompaniment by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I believe Lynyrd Skynyrd is also the proper way to prepare for Spanish quizzes and multiplication tests. Try it.

What to do with a Limequat

2010-12-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

We have an abundance of citrus fruits ready here in Arizona. Go to the Farmer's market and get some. It is so important for food diversity and security of our food supply (as well as taking in a wider range of nutrients on a regular basis) that we try and eat more unusual plant foods. Many of the more unusual species are better suited to growing in your own local environment. Kumquats are a tiny little orange citrus fruit that are eaten whole (skin and all). Limequats are similar except they are yellow, larger and delicious! Unlike larger conventional citrus fruits the "quats" are actually eaten especially for the skin. It is the inside flesh that is the sour part.

I have encountered so many people who don't know what to do with these little citrus fruits even though they have a tree full of them! Aside from eating them whole you can use the zest to make delicious sauces. Using zest in recipes is lightening fast if you get yourself one of these cheap microplaners from the hardware store (see picture). Here is a ghee, parsley, limequat sauce that we had on grilled salmon for our Christmas dinner.

Combine:
2/3c ghee (clarified butter)
1/4c finely minced fresh flat leaf Italian parsley
zest of 4 limequats

Let everything sit at room temperature for a couple hours so the flavors meld.

It's gravy

2010-11-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

Gravy used to disgust me. I liked my turkey and potatoes dry as a kid. I'm not sure if this was a personal issue with stunted development or a commentary on the gravies I was served. Gravy is now the best part of any roasted meat meal, including the Thanksgiving behemoth, the turkey.

It is possible to get very sophisticated about terminology regarding gravy. "Gravy" is a thick, flour-based sauce. Potentially disgusting. A reduction sauce, or deglazed stock is thinner, more flavorful and all around more delicious, not to mention easily Paleo. Although we will serve this at our Thanksgiving table, and we will serve it out of a gravy boat, and we will call it gravy, it is not truly "gravy", it is a deglazed, reduction sauce. And it is better.

The first thing about making gravy is that if you are one of those super-stress freak type cooks who focuses more on the end result than on the process you need to get a hold of yourself. The gravy will be made after the turkey comes out of the oven when all the relatives and guests are peppering you with offers of "help" and/or asking when the food will be served. You will be tempted to rush and give in to this outside pressure. Don't do it. The final moments before a large meal with a roast of meat are sacred. Everyone but your true assistants steps aside. It is nice if the meat carver is a different person than the gravy maker. Do as my grandfather always wanted, and warm your gravy boat or dish on the back of the stove. Nothing takes a gravy downhill faster than pouring it into an ice cold dish.

If you begin the roasting process with that Holy Trinity of herbs (sage, rosemary and thyme) mixed in to softened butter, you will not have any worry regarding the flavor of your sauce. I slather this herb butter under the skin of my turkey as well as all over the top before it goes in the oven. Turkey skin is hardly attached to the meat, so this is easy. I use this melted butter as part of the pan drippings that I baste the turkey with during cooking. Once I remove the turkey form the roaster to the carving board I have a large pan full of delicous drippings. If the turkey was particularly succulent and there is a large amount of fat, I pour some of it off. I keep about 1 cup of fat in the roaster and all the other liquid and drippings. If you let your turkey get too dry during cooking you might need some additional stock or water. You can have additional stock on hand by simmering the "giblets", (the neck etc... that is in a little bag inside your turkey usually) in some water while the turkey is roasting. I like about 1 1/2c of liquid to 1c of fat, but to be honest, I usually just leave EVERYTHING in the roaster and get started. I take 1/2c of drippings out of the pan and put them in a pyrex measuring cup. I add 1/4c of arrowroot powder and I mix like mad until there are no lumps. Arrowroot is not as forgiving as flour about yielding up its lumps later on in the process. My grandmother's edition of The Joy of Cooking asserts that arrowroot will make the most delicate textured sauce! This gem of a book also reminds us that arrowroot has a neutral flavor and, unlike flour, does not need to be cooked to remove its "rawness". Arrowroot also has a calcium-base which makes it nice for the Paleo crew. Now, add your arrowroot mixture back into the roasting pan which you should have on a burner with the heat on medium. Whisk vigorously! At this point, your sauce is finished except for the addition of salt if you want it. I sometimes throw some onions, garlic, carrots, white wine etc... in around my roasting meat. You can use this as part of your sauce by removing all chunks of vegetables and blending them with stock before returning them to your roasting pan.

Cranberry Sauce-truly hunted and gathered

2010-11-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Combining new and unusual flavors is one of the most rewarding expressions of culinary artistry. Our global food world has opened up a whole new array of tastes and ingredients to us in the kitchen. This is exciting and makes for some delicious recipes, but it also allows us to engage in some eating habits that are extremely suspect in terms of sustainability. The presence of international flavorings certainly takes us a long ways away from the flavor experiences of our hunter gatherer forebearers. We are approaching the Thanksgiving holiday. There is no shortage of writings on the meaning of Thanksgiving, food and the politics of settling the United States. Personally, I am grateful for a day of family, food, rest and feasting and I believe it is a wonderful day for many of us. However, I also spent many years learning about the history and politics of European settlers and the Native peoples they displaced. This blog is also not the place for an evaluation of that shocking chain of events. This blog is about food and hunter gatherer food traditions. We have robbed the native people's of the United States of many of their food traditions, either by hunting their food supply to extinction, forcing them off the land that sustained them, or by wreaking ecological havoc with water usage practices and invasive species. On this Thanksgiving Day, when we are supposed to be honoring the eastern native peoples, the Abenaki and their neighbors, for saving the helpless, starving pilgrims let's take a moment to be true to the food traditions of those people. Today, we begin with that deep red staple, the cranberry. Cranberry sauce is on many tables only once per year. For some of us it comes jellied in a can and for others we get more adventurous combining cranberries with cinnamon, cloves, oranges and sugar. I'd like you to think about how cranberries would have been used by the Abenaki (or maybe the pitiful pilgrims). Cranberries grow in a swamp where there are nice cold winters. They are primarily a crop of New England. Gathering cranberries is a spectacularly fun activity. There are no thorns like raspberries, you don't have to bend over like strawberries and there aren't zillions of flies and mosquitos like blueberries. In my experience you paddle down a lovely blue river on one of the final brilliantly sunny warm days of the season in your canoe. You paddle up to the bushes alongside the river and you reach out and pick the cranberries and toss them into your basket. If you are brave and adventurous you might climb out of the canoe and cautiously pick your way into the bushes hoping not to misplace a foot and end up waist deep in really cold water!
If we put our minds to the ingredients available to the Abenaki or other early New England settlers (who had used up all their ship stores) we quickly realize that cane sugar would not be available. Citrus fruit was certainly not around, nor were the spices of Asia and Africa. However, gelatin was available in great quantities as well as three wild sweeteners: birch syrup, maple syrup and honey. I made mine with birch syrup.
The Roots of Cranberry Sauce

1 bag organic cranberries, washed
3T powdered gelatin (this obviously is not the form the original Thanksgiving kitchen would have possessed)
1/4-1/2c birch syrup
Clean water

Cook cranberries in 1/4c water on low heat until they soften and burst (about 15min).
You can either press the cooked cranberries through a sieve (wait til they cool) or you can dump them in a blender. I used the blender because I want to eat all the skins and seeds. In my blender I added the birch syrup. Blend until smooth. In the pot you cooked the cranberries in add 1/4c water and heat so that you can dissolve your gelatin in it. Stir up your gelatin until it dissolves and then pour the blended cranberries and sweetener in with the dissolved gelatin. Stir well. Use any type of glass mold or dish that is smooth. If you are worried about removing the sauce from the mold you could line the mold with saran wrap, but let the sauce cool a little before you pour it in. Pour the sauce into the mold and refrigerate for several hours. The flavor of my sauce is deep, rich, and tart, but it is actually less sour than many of the overly sweet canned sauces I've tasted.

Honor the hunter gatherers that gave us this holiday.

Minerals for your bones, from bones

2010-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

I believe one of the single biggest flaws in the average Paleo person is the absence of bone stock in the diet. It is absolutely true that paleolithic people did not use dairy and that dairy foods are not required for optimal calcium intake. However, non-dairy eating, paleo person had an extremely good, frequent source of not only calcium, but every other mineral that is required to create strong bone in our body. They got these bone building minerals straight from...other bones. One early cooking method used by several indigenous cultures involved placing chunks of meat and bone into a vessel containing water and heating the contents either over fire or by adding hot stones to the mix. Bones were cracked open and the marrow eaten out and they were sometimes ground and eaten powdered. Fish bones from small fish were always eaten whole (which is why sardines with the bones in are such a good source of calcium whereas boned sardines are not). Even our great grandmothers fed their families bone minerals. A few generations ago no self respecting head-of-the-kitchen would have thrown away a chicken carcass or beef knuckle bone. It would have gone into the stock pot. Modern day Paleo folk who sustain themselves on salmon fillet, boneless chicken breasts and ground beef are missing out. Have your kids do the following experiment just to make it fun. Try to bend a chicken thigh bone. Feel that it is hard. Soak the bone in vinegar for 24 hours. Now check it out. It is rubbery. All the hard minerals like calcium have been dissolved by the acid in the vinegar and are now in solution in your water. Here is how to do it as a delicious stock instead of as a science experiment.

1 chicken carcass precooked. My family likes roast chicken so I use the leftover gristly pieces and bones from our roast chicken. I take any leftover meat off before this process.

Fill a large stock pot with non-chlorinated water. Add 1/4c of vinegar (you won't taste it in the soup). Add the carcass (don't add the leftover gravy or gelatin). Add a couple bay leaves, a few celery stalks, a quartered onion and a few hunks of carrot. Leave this pot at room temperature for about 2 hours.

Bring it to a boil on the stove and then turn it way way down, until it is just barely simmering. Leave it simmering for about 1-2 hours.

Let the stock cool just a little. I set up a large colander over a huge pot or bowl and I dump the contents of the pot into the colander. All the beautiful stock drains into the bowl and I get rid of the rest.

Now you have a plain chicken stock that you can use right away or freeze for later. All winter long you should be consuming bone stock daily. Soup for breakfast is my favorite in cold weather.

EAT BONES FOR STRONG BONES

Make Your Own Superfood…MAYONNAISE!

2010-11-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

Mayonnaise is creamy, delicious, rich and…Paleo. For those of you missing your creamy dairy, make some mayonnaise and it should make you feel like you ate something creamy and cow-like. Mayonnaise is not supposed to be sweet and cloying. It should be complex and delicious.
Homemade mayo will include raw eggs, olive oil, mustard, sea salt and an acid like raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. The use of raw eggs calls for a conscious search for clean food. There is nothing dangerous about raw eggs if your own immune system is decently functioning, and if your eggs are from a farm that cares for its animals and grounds. Remember that salmonella bacteria is all around us. Kids and old folks or those with autoimmune diseases are the ones who suffer seriously from food poisoning. It doesn’t make sense for us to try to sterilize our food. It makes sense for us to repair our immune systems and to restore the microorganism populations that kill the pathogens in our guts.
Homemade mayo with raw eggs is an extremely enzymatically-rich sauce. Another way to improve your homemade mayo, to turn it into a super food, is to use liquid whey. Liquid whey is a blip in the Paleo approach since it is derived from dairy. Whey is the clear liquid you see on top of yogurt. Using whey enables you to create a lacto-fermentation process such as is used to make traditional saurkraut or Korean kimchi. Anybody who says hunter-gatherers did not eat fermented foods does not understand lacto-fermentation. This is different process from yeast-sugar fermentation which results in alcohol. In lacto-fermentation the process derives from lactic acid producing bacteria. These are many of the bacterial strains people pay money to get in a probiotic nutritional supplement. Lactic acid producing bacteria are the microorganisms that create an inhospitable habitat for pathogenic bacteria like salmonella. You can make your own lacto-fermented foods without whey, but it is an extremely hit-or-miss process which terrifies many people because we have lost the intuitive sense, as well as the food-crafting techniques, to recognize when our fermentation has gone correctly versus when we have cultivated the wrong types of microorganisms. Therefore, please keep in mind that you ABSOLUTELY CAN LACTO-FERMENT WITHOUT DAIRY. Using liquid whey makes the process easier.
Today I added 1 teaspoon of chipotle puree to my homemade mayo so that it made a creamy, spicy dressing for some mahi mahi chunks I had grilled the day before. Here is the recipe:
2 egg yolks + 1 egg at room temperature (or warm the blender jar)
¾ c olive oil (don’t use the extra virgin, green oil, use the cheaper variety or your may will have a decidedly olive oil flavor)
1/2t sea salt
2T raw apple cider vinegar
1/2t Dijon mustard
1T whey

Place all ingredients except olive oil in your blender and blend on low until well mixed, drizzle in the olive oil extremely slowly while the blender is running and then do the same with the whey. Leave at room temperature for 6-8 hrs, then refrigerate. It will last a few weeks. If you don’t use whey, refrigerate your mayo right away and it will only keep a week or so.

To make your own whey you have two choices.
1. If you have access to raw milk, pour raw milk into a quart jar and leave it for 2-3 days at room temperature until it separates. The clear liquid is whey.
2. Purchase a large container of unflavored, plain, whole milk, organic yogurt. Dump the whole thing into a thin, linen dish cloth, tie the dish cloth up and hang it from a hook at room temperature over a large bowl. Over about 24hrs all the whey will drain into the bowl. In the dish towel will be a cultured , cream cheese that if you have anyone in your life who eats dairy , will be a lucky beneficiary.

North African Steamed eggs

2010-11-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

This summer I had a chance to eat brunch with my sister at Amanouz Cafe, a Mediterranean- North African restaurant in North Hampton, MA. It was a great paleo brunch without any sense of loss and even with new things to try. The spicy lamb sausage links served with a little onion, tomato salad were unbelievably tasty. The eggs were spectacular. One plate of eggs had a buttery herb sauce over the eggs and the other plate of eggs had a spiced tomato sauce. The most noteworthy thing about the eggs was that although they appeared scrambled (my favorite) they were actually steamed. Most of us only think of poached eggs when we think of steaming eggs. Those of us who enjoy our eggs scrambled up and cooked in a skillet, are unfortunately ruining the eggs in the process. Scrambling the yolk and then subjecting it to the temperature of a hot skillet oxidizes the cholesterol in the eggs and damages the Omega-3 fats in the yolk as well. This is an issue many eaters of eggs are willing to accept, especially those of us who do not like egg whites separately no matter how they are cooked! However, scrambling the eggs and then gently steaming them prevents you from wrecking the delicate, beneficial fats in your egg yolks. You need to have an egg poacher or heat proof cups (ramekins) to put the eggs in and then the cups sit in a shallow water bath that is gently simmering. The pan containing the water bath is covered with a tight fitting lid so the eggs are cooked via indirect steam heat. First, scramble your eggs with some liquid. You can use water. A ratio of 1.5:1 will make silky smooth eggs. If you want them drier and firmer use less liquid. You can use broth too. They are moist and fluffy and delicious. And will essentially be "molded" (think jello mold) when they are done so they look extremely chic on the plate. Just in case you need to bust out that kind of impressive food skill. Caveman style...

Definition of an adult

2010-10-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Within the Paleo community and the traditional food ways community there is an on-going "conversation" regarding dairy. Strict Paleo followers obviously do not include dairy. In general, I suggest to my clients that they avoid dairy with the exception of butter/clarified butter which is an incredibly valuable, rare source of the short chain saturates. I also am intimately familiar with the work of Dr. Weston A Price and his nutrition research as well as the experience of thousands of present day families and individuals who have introduced raw dairy into their diets with profound health benefits. Where does that leave us with regard to what to do with dairy? It leaves us in the usual position when it comes to our food. How do you respond to it? How do you feel, behave, perform, look? How is your health? How is your body composition? What happens to you when you leave dairy out of your diet completely for six weeks? Be ruthless in your assessment. Don't make excuses for yourself. For example, dairy is impactful enough on my 12 year old son's acne that even he has begun to turn down ice cream on occasion. He doesn't say to himself "Well I'm a pre pubescent adolescent boy, I'd have zits anyway."

One thing is absolutely certain about dairy. If you are going to eat it you must consume it in it's original, nutritious form. Raw, alive and complete. No pasteurization, no homogenization, no skimming, no heating or cooking. You can culture it (raw cheese, raw sour cream and raw kefir). If you can't get your dairy in this form, DO NOT EAT IT.

Dr. Tom Cowan, M.D. is the author of The Fourfold Path to Healing, a brilliant look at many common illnesses with the adherence to Ancient Food Ways (although not Paleo ways) as one of the four healing paths. He likes to tell the following story: One day his son asked him, "Do you know the definition of an adult?" "What is it?" asked Dr. Cowan. "A person who likes vegetables" replied his son. Dr. Cowan uses this story to illustrate a vital point about nourishing a growing body-namely that human beings likely possess an intuitive sense about nutrition to which most of us have lost our connection. In the case of vegetables as fodder for children the issue of the necessity for fat-soluble nutrients is raised. When we reach adult hood our metabolism becomes more proficient at turning plant nutrients into forms usable by humans. As children, or when we are older, or if we have a metabolic deficiency, we are not proficient at using plant nutrients for our requirements. Dr. Cowan encourages parents (or those of us who are older or who have illness) to derive excellent nutrition by running the vegetables through a cow first!! Raw cream, butter, organ meat, bone broths come out the other side. For all you muscle-adding athletes out there you should think of yourselves as growing children. A child's body is in the process of building proteins, collagens, connective tissue, hormones, bone and muscle just like yours. All the original strong men knew this too. They ate raw cream, raw whole milk and raw beef and eggs (WITH THE YOLK).

Red Palm Oil

2010-10-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Red palm oil has not had the rebirth that coconut oil has been fortunate enough to experience. It may be that the taste is more unfamiliar to westerners and a little stronger. Red palm oil is a nutrient dense fat. It is loaded with beta-carotene (hence the color) as well as coenzyme Q10 and other benefits. You can read the story of red palm oil here.

There is a legitimate concern amongst folks who take environmental stability and sustainability into account when they chose their food supply that the Paleo diet is not an earth-friendly diet. In its correct form, the Paleo diet should be the MOST sustainable diet. Including a variety of foods that are produced in marginal ecological zones where conventional agriculture is not possible should be a desire we all have as Paleo eaters. Red palm oil needs to be on our radar. You can read more about it here. I think that African cooking is not on our radar at all! It doesn't have the cache of Asian cooking or the popularity of other ethnic cuisines. We miss out on some very Paleo food concepts if we don't look at many of the food traditions of African nations. I purchase my red palm oil at our international grocery store in Tucson and it is very affordable. In the pictures is the brand I found, and the nutrition label.

A study from right here in our own home state, looked at the dietary intake of red palm oil and its effect on the nutrient intake of breastfed babies: "Dr. Canefield of the University of Arizona in the US discovered that mothers who nursed their babies provided their babies with more vitamin A and carotenes by pre- paring their food with red palm oil than the control group which took beta-carotene capsules."

For a recipe that includes red palm oil and is derived from several African traditions sign up for the mailing list at www.paleofoodlist.com!! This month's recipes coming soon...

Family Food traditions - The Pea

2010-10-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

Green peas aren't really Paleo. They are legumes. But in my personal nourishing food universe, I try my best to eat freshly shelled peas once a year. My uncle makes fun of me, "You have to pay extra to get the peas that you have to do the work of shelling! Why not just buy the frozen ones?" He is right about the price actually, but I still don't care, because he didn't mention taste and effect on the soul. These days, if I get to New England at the right time of year, I take some money to Crossroads Farm and get a big bag of peas in the pod. Peas in their pod are a powerful reminder of the fact that there are some foods that just cannot be available all year around. There are only a couple weeks where gardens produce peas in their pod. As a kid we ravished the pea vines in my grandparents' garden gobbling them up right there in the row. We had to take turns shelling the peas on the front porch with my mother, grandmother and aunts so that they could be blanched and frozen. It was one of those tasks that was sort of boring, yet reassuring and peaceful. It was kind of a test to see how big a pea could get before, upon popping it in your mouth, you realized it had turned bitter instead of sweet. Eating peas from their shell once a year is a reminder to me that growing food is special, seasonal food is special, local food is special and family food traditions can be special. This past summer I wanted my sons to experience what I felt. The picture is my oldest son, shelling peas with my grandmother at her kitchen table. Eating green peas once a year may not be strictly text book Paleo, but it encompasses so many important aspects of eating well that I'm not throwing that baby out with the bath water just yet!!

Paleo Hors d'œuvre

2010-09-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

At our recent "In the Paleo House Event" we served up several different Paleo party foods. This one was a little skewer of marinated lamb, heirloom cherry tomatoes and cracked green olives. Traditionally, a Middle Eastern lamb with lemon and oregano would be served with a yogurt sauce. Ours was served with a tahini sauce. When I make a tahini sauce I don't like to use lemon juice. The flavor is too harsh. I put some sesame tahini in my Vita-Mix. If I use 1c tahini, I add about 1/4c water and 1/4c olive oil. Then I add the grated zest of about 2-3 lemons. That is a nice powerful lemon flavor without the sharp acid sourness of lemon juice. Tahini and olive oil take quite a lot of salt as well, so I would add about 1T of grey, sun-dried sea salt.

Bored eating the same old thing?

2010-09-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

It seems that lots of people find themselves stuck in a rut when they start eating Paleo. I think there are a bunch of reasons for this. The first one is that many people want any old excuse to go back to eating the same cereal/bagels/toast they were eating for the previous twenty years (although they never complained about having to eat the same thing every day then?!?!). Another reason is that many people think that breakfast is supposed to look a certain way. For example, when I tell people I eat stew for breakfast they think that is CRAZY because stew is for dinner not for breakfast. Why?? There is no good reason for that at all. In fact we should eat our most nourishing food earlier in the day. Another reason people feel stuck in a rut with their food is because we are so ADHD and overstimulated that we no longer notice and appreciate subtle differences in flavors and textures. Let's talk asparagus. During asparagus season I like to have it a few times per week, but it is different every time. Sometimes I grill it and then drizzle it with olive oil. Other times I make a little Hollaindaise sauce for it. Sometimes I steam it and serve it with garlic butter. Once in awhile I steam it with matchsticked carrots and make a little chili/miso sauce for it. The photo shows lightly steamed asparagus sprinkled with truffle salt. The truffle salt was a beautiful gift. It tastes nothing like regular salt, and asparagus with truffle salt tastes nothing like asparagus with olive oil and lime juice. Allow yourself the opportunity to see your food in all its wide range of beauty. Develop an appreciation for the more refined and subtle nuances of your food. My Dad had a stock answer for my sisters and me when we whined about being bored, "Only boring people get bored." Hmmm, I won't go so far as to accuse you of being boring if you are complaining about being bored with your food, but my father would.

BIRCH SYRUP

2010-09-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hello again. The long hot Sonoran summers drain me of all zest for life and creativity. The end of this inferno is in sight and I'm ready to write here again! As I've mentioned before, my definition of "Paleo eating" always returns to the hunter-gatherers. During the Tucson summer my spirit creeps north where it hides in a mossy, shady spruce forest near a cold little splashy brook. In those parts of the world we have three hunted/gathered sweeteners: raw honey, maple syrup and birch syrup. Almost nobody has had a chance to taste birch syrup. You have to order it from Alaska or Canada. This is not as unreasonable as it sounds unless you have made a commitment to eating locally because I'm sure you eat many foods every day that come from that far away. It would be better to order birch syrup from Alaska than to eat unfinished honey imported from China (see this NPR story).

Birch syrup is more precious than maple syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap from a maple tree to make one gallon of syrup. It takes nearly 100 gallons of sap from birch trees to make 1 gallon of birch sap. It can be done sustainably and without harming the trees. Check out the management of the sugar bush that produces Kahiltna Gold birch syrup. They let the trees rest two years between tappings! Birch syrup is less sweet than maple syrup and tastes faintly of molasses. It has a similar nutrient profile to maple syrup including manganese, magnesium, iron and some B vitamins, but birch syrup has more than double the nutritional content. The one drawback, as far as I'm concerned, about birch syrup is that it is primarily fructose as opposed to maple syrup which is sucrose. Isn't it fascinating that trees have different types of sugars!

Birch syrup is delicious and pretty soon I'll give you a couple recipes. The basket in the picture is perhaps my favorite possession. It was made by a Penobscot man in Maine using the traditional brown ash. It is strong as an ox and beautiful. I grew up watching my grandfather use his Penobscot-made pack basket for all his hunting and fishing trips. No plastic, no fancy fishing bags. I feel honored to have this beautiful, utilitarian basket. Brown ash trees, birch trees and sugar maple trees are found in similar ecological zones.

Friends are for Experimenting

2010-05-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

It might have been easy for me to go Paleo because I've never really liked baking. I did the whole homemade wholegrain bread thing and mountains of "healthy" muffins for play groups. I never liked it. Didn't like all the stirring, the messy flour everywhere and the sticky dough in the bowl that has to be washed out. Give me vegetables to chop and meat to roast and I'll cook all day, but baking? Nahh. At this point though, it is really important for my household to remain grain-free (and potato starch-free and rice flour-free and free of all the other crap in gluten-free mixes). I also like to keep my troops happy (when appropriate) and I love to use food to celebrate important moments in life, SO baking delicious things has a place in my world.
If you read advice on cooking for others or hosting dinners I think it is generally accepted that busting out an experimental concoction is not recommended. I do get the good sense in that, having made some pretty disgusting stuff in my time. But I feel like it is a test of your friends and families' character to use them as guinea pigs. I feel as though if you have someone in your life that seems like "good folks" then they will tolerate and perhaps, on occasion, benefit from kitchen experiments.
Last week it was Crandall's birthday. Crandall absolutely qualifies as good folks, so I though it was safe to experiment on a birthday cake. Plus I had extra insurance because I knew he'd be worn out from lifting a whole bunch of heavy weights beforehand, so there was a chance his judgement would be impaired. Plus, Crandall then qualifies as a Power Athlete so full-fat dairy is in his Paleo cupboard which makes desserts a reasonable undertaking.

Experimental, Chocolate-Coconut Birthday Cake

1/4c coconut oil
1/4c coconut butter (I use half oil and half butter to cut the noticeable after-taste of straight coconut oil)
1 1/2T vanilla
1 1/4c Rapadura (this is a specific sweetener. It is dehydrated crushed sugar cane. Sucanat is NOT THE SAME.)
3/8 cup RAW (I used Vivapura brand) cacao powder
1/4c coconut milk

9 eggs
3/4t salt
scant 3/4c SIFTED coconut flour
3/4t aluminum-free baking powder

Melt coconut butter and oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cacao powder, Rapadura and coconut milk and mix together. Remove from heat and set aside. In a bowl, mix together eggs and salt. Stir in cocoa mixture. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Pour batter into greased 8x8x2 or 9x9x2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.

This time when I made the cake I topped it with hard-whipped heavy cream (I add 1T Dr. Bernard Jensen's gelatin dissolved in 2T hot water to the cream) mixed with shredded coconut, and 6T maple syrup. However, it turns out this cake, because of all the eggs and coconut flour, is like a firm sponge cake. It is a little bit on the dry side (sorry Crandall). It has a firm, even texture and is not at all crumbly like a cake. Next time I will make a hot cherry or raspberry fruit compote. Then I will slice the cake thinly and pour the hot fruit sauce over the cake and then put a little whipped cream on top. This will make it more like a traditional trifle and this cake recipe will hold up perfectly for it.

Loquats and a Kid breakfast

2010-05-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

I LOVE to try new fruits and vegetables and yesterday at the farmer's market I tried and purchased some loquats. These are members of the rosaceae family (see my post on Jan 22 about the importance of these seeds). According to the citrus man at the farmer's market, loquats don't last long once picked and the season is short too. Ahhhh, the hallmark of a real paleo fruit! They also require a little bit of effort and mess to eat. They are about 1 1/2" in diameter with a slightly fuzzy skin like a peach. The skin is flavorless, but a bit tough so some people slip it off although I ate it. The flesh tastes like ripe apricots and their is a giant cluster of seeds in the middle. I chewed up and swallowed a couple of the seeds which had the characteristic almond-like flavor of the cyanide-bearing rosaceae family. I overheard one lady at the farmer's market who characterized the typical American approach to food. The citrus man was incredibly kind and tolerant, but I had to restrain myself from giving her an impromptu lecture! He gave her a loquat to taste after showing her how to slip the skin off and expose the flesh and the seeds. She said it tasted good, but was too much work to bother with and she didn't purchase any. This lady looked like she spent more time getting dressed to go to the farmer's market than me and my kids put together. I can guarantee her car is very clean, she has a well maintained yard (probably done by a staff) and probably sets the table each evening for dinner with matching table ware, but she can't be bothered with a 45second process so that she can eat a sweet, juicy, local, fresh fruit. Get your priorities straight people!! Do you want the farmer to wash, peel, and separate your food for you? Do you want him to cut it up into bite size pieces? Maybe you want him to hand feed you and then clean up afterwards?

The kids got loquats, turkey kielbasa, half an egg, cherries and bananas with pumpkin seeds and coconut for breakfast.

Gifts

2010-05-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

My table is blessed this week with gifts of fruits and vegetables. First, from Mateo's client Daniel, came organic roma tomatoes, heirloom yellow and purple tomatoes, cucumbers and jalapenos. Later from Mike T. came fresh rosemary, mint and one of his last lemons. If you've never eaten any of the giant, lumpy, bumpy, strangely colored tomatoes you're missing out. They should just be sliced up (don't refrigerate them because the flavor gets reduced), sprinkled with a little sea salt and slurped. I had thawed some mahi mahi for the grill before Mike gifted me with the herbs and lemon, so I made a marinade/sauce for the fish. I put 1/4c balsamic vinegar, 1/2 oliveoil, leaves from the 10" stalk of rosemary and all the zest from the lemon (not the juice) into my blender and made a thick vinaigrette. I marinated the fish in it for about 20min before grilling it. While the fish was grilling I poured the leftover vinaigrette/marinade into a saucepan and brought it to a boil. I reduced it for about 7min while the fish was grilling. This takes care of the raw fish factor and makes the balsamic a little sweeter. You end up with a thick, lemony/sweet/herb sauce for your fish. Gratitude Mike and Daniel.

2010-05-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm. A new Paleo delight. Crandall found it. A Pan de Higo Almendrado, from Spain. Translated as Fig Almond Cake. My kids said it was in no way a "cake", but that does not diminish it's deliciousness. It is basically mashed up figs pressed with whole almonds. The ingredients are: Pajarero Figs and Marcona Almonds. That is a good ingredient list.

Swiss Chard and Beet Greens

2010-05-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

We have an abundant crop of swiss chard in my back yard and I bought a bunch of small beets at the Farmer's Market which came with greens, so I decided to add them to breakfast. I know A LOT of people who don't really like the dark leafy greens and I've been served dark leafy greens in many ways that make me appreciate why people wouldn't like them!! The first trick to make lovely greens is to not leave them whole with big thick stems. Gross. If the stem is very thick cut it out. You don't have to waste it. I then chop them up very small and add them back in. Slice the greens into ribbons, ACROSS the stems. Place the chopped stems into a frying pan with a little water and turn the heat on high. Once the stems soften a little then you can add the rest of the greens and just gently steam them in a very small amount of water that is mostly cooked away by the time the greens are refinished. This means you need to keep your eye on things so the pan doesn't dry out.
For the breakfast in the picture, I minced 4 cloves of garlic (I was cooking enough greens for 4 adults) and very gently sauteed them in about 5T of butter. I cooked the garlic just until it started to turn golden so it didn't have a burnt taste. When the greens were done I poured the garlic and melted butter into the pan with the greens and added a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Cacao Butter

2010-05-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I'm always getting asked about Paleo desserts. Even more frequently than questions about Paleo desserts, are questions about Good Fats. One of the ways I approach desserts, especially in the land of kids, is to use them as a vehicle for good fat. There are the usual options, most frequently eggs, butter and coconut. There is one other MOST EXCELLENT option which has only recently become widely available in food grade form. Thanks to the Raw Food Movement, raw organic cacao butter can now be purchased in nearly all natural food stores. Sadly, I feel as though when I mention the Raw Foodists I must immediately distance myself at the same time. Vegan Raw Food activists are primarily a group of slightly to intensely flaky people pushing their own strange/hypocritical food morality, often with trust funds, who would benefit from a very good steak. They have some things really right about food, so I don't like to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but I can't stand their preaching about how people who eat animals are not as spiritually "high", and yet most of these Raw people have adopted several spiritual traditions (drumming, sacred circles, chanting etc...) that originated with the world's HUNTER-gatherers. Uggh. Still, I'm not beyond acknowledging and thanking the Raw Food Folks for making raw cacao butter an option for me.
Cacao beans grow on a tree. A tree called Theobroma cacao. This, of course, translates to Food of the Gods. Cacao trees are originally a South and Central American equatorial shade tree. Nearly 50% of the cacao bean is fat. This fat is cacao butter. It is about half saturated and half unsaturated fat. Cacao butter is rich and delicious and provides you with a lovely variety of fats. All you hard gainers out there, if you are tired of olive, coconut and eggs, get some cacao butter. It comes in soapy-feeling chunks which need to be gently melted over a pot of hot water (double boiler). After that you can mix in anything you like including minced dried fruit or nuts. Here is an example:

1c unsweetened shredded coconut
1c finely chopped goji berries
1/4 raw honey
3 drops orange oil
3/4c melted cacao butter

Mix well, it will be very crumbly. Press into a pan in a layer and refrigerate. Once it has cooled you'll be able to cut squares out of it.

Paleo Greek - Episode #3: Bacon Wrapped Figs

2010-04-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

It turns out it was the post-age 50, possessor of more strict pushups than years, Betty F., who made the bacon-wrapped figs at our CrossFit BBQ the other day. I've been wanting them again and somehow I am sure that figs qualify as Greek, even if bacon might be a stretch. The thought of bringing them to our theatrical potluck occurred to me in the grocery store, so I bought the only figs I could find: dried Tena Figs. Once I was home and began researching the methodology it became clear these were not the preferred fig. Never mind. Push on through. Just like making grape leaves and spring rolls reveals my inner character flaws, making bacon-wrapped figs revealed an inner truth about Son #1. I gave him the job of poking a hole in each fig and inserting 2 pine nuts. Done and done. Then I mentioned he would now be wrapping the figs in raw bacon... "What!? Raw, slimy bacon!!! Do I have to??" "Yes, you have to" I said. I sliced the strips of raw bacon long-lengthwise and then in half cross-ways. I gave him the bacon strips, toothpicks and the figs. The first 5 bacon-wrappings were accompanied by squeals of disgust and allegations of child torture which I pretended not to hear. Then there was a long silence. I spied a little bit and it was clear that the engineering issues involved in taking a round fig, a long strip of bacon and a toothpick and trying to cover as much area of the fig as possible had won out over the grossness factor of raw bacon. He was hooked, and worked in quiet concentration until they were all finished. Son #1 played King Midas in one of the plays, so here is his recipe. He also wanted to make sure it was clear in the photos that he is wearing a Red Sox hat...

King Midas' Bacon-Wrapped Figs Stuffed with Pine Nuts

Preheat oven to 400 deg.

25 dried Tena Figs
50 raw pine nuts
25 strips of uncured bacon (cut as described above)

Using a sharp knife, poke a little hole in each fig and insert 2 pine nuts. Wrap a strip of bacon around the stuffed Fig, secure it with a toothpick and lay it on a cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven, about 12min per side, turning once.

Paleo Greek - Episode #2: Grape Leaves, The Filling

2010-04-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

Grape leaves can be found in Middle Eastern as well as Mediterranean cuisine. As we searched recipes for a more Greek version, we noticed two types of spice themes: the allspice/cinnamon version sometimes incorporating raisins or the dill/mint/oregano version never including raisins. The allspice version is a little more Turkish-leaning and the green aromatics are a little more Greek. I'm a little particular about when dill shows up in my life (I love it, but not in every setting), so we went with the mint/oregano spice theme. Because I wasn't using rice and I wanted the finished Grape Leaves to have a lot of flavor, I wanted to use lamb. Lamb is flavorful, but a little strong and expensive. I mixed it 1/3 with 2/3 ground turkey and was very happy with the meat flavor. I made an enormous quantity of the filling. It was easy and I used the leftovers to make meatballs for later.

Paleo Grape Leaves: Filling

1 lg white onion (minced very small)
5 garlic cloves (minced)
4T butter
In a small saucepan melt the butter and add the onions. Cook them over medium heat until they begin to turn transluscent (again don't overdo it). Add the garlic and cook another 3min just to remove the "raw" garlic taste, but to keep the garlic flavor strong.

1lb ground lamb
2lbs ground turkey
4-5 T. shredded/minced fresh mint leaves
3-4T. dried Greek oregano
Salt and Pepper
Saute until just cooked (use a little butter if you need to)-don't brown the meat. It will cook more later. While the meat is still hot add the herbs and some salt and pepper as well as your onion/garlic mix.

Let your filling cool enough to be handled.

To stuff the grape leaves, lay one out flat. Put a small spoonful of filling at the base of the leaf. Fold up the bottom, in the sides and then roll. It is easier to use the largest leaves (although the steam and veins are tougher so they are a little harder to chew). If you have kid helpers, let them do the big ones. I always have to check my greed and Zen nature when I make grape leaves or spring rolls because it gets boring and I start rushing. This means I try to put too much filling in and then it won't roll well. Plus the filling tastes delicious so naturally I try to cram in as much as possible. Who knew that making stuffed grape leaves could reveal your inner character flaws? Roll the leaves as tightly as possible without breaking them.

Use a heavy pot. Coat the bottom with olive oil. Use all the broken or extra grape leaves to line the bottom of the pot. Pack the stuffed grape leaves in tightly, seam side down. You can layer them up. Add enough water to cover the bottom layer of stuffed leaves. Add the juice from a lemon to the pot. Use a heavy plate that fits just inside your pot to weigh down the grape leaves. I have a pottery one that I place on the grape leaves and then I put a clean rock on top of the plate. Bring your pot to a low boil and then let it gently simmer for about 30-45min. Keep an eye on it to make sure the water level stays steady. When they are done, remove them from the pot. I like to serve mine cold, so I put them on a plate coated with olive oil in the fridge. Just before serving, I drizzle more high quality olive oil and maybe a little salt and pepper. Looking at the non-uniform nature of my grape leaves it is obvious I do not possess a Greek grandmother who taught me how to roll grape leaves, but they taste good! I ate some for breakfast one morning and it made a very good, cooling meal out in the sunshine in my back yard.

Paleo Greek - Episode #1: Grape Leaves

2010-04-24T18:57:00.001-07:00

My sons performed some plays last night based on 4 Greek myths. Their fellow cast members were a bunch of other homeschoolers. Homeschoolers are notorious for leaving no stone unturned, so in honor of the Greek myths we had a Greek potluck. This seemed the perfect reason to unearth the jar of grape leaves from my shelf (that had been there awhile) and make stuffed grape leaves. My sister, realizing my often frantic, over-scheduled existence, was like "why the hell don't you just go buy some stuffed grape leaves"? "They won't be Paleo. They'll have rice" I said. "Yeah, like 14 grains of rice. So what." My sister is way more sensible than I am. But I had already envisioned an idyllic homeschool, mother-son experience -cooking Greek food to soak up the whole Greek thing before the debut. First, as I was gingerly tugging the wad of grape leaves out of the too-narrow-mouthed jar I told my sons the story of their Dad and I watching the very old Portugese women pick grape leaves from a vine alongside our triple decker apartment building in Somerville, MA. Like most children of divorced parents, my kids find stories involving their parents together, fairly compelling. Grape leaves aside. I gave Son #1 the task of carefully peeling apart the fragile leaves, unwrinkling them, and rinsing them. Since Son #1 is currently the physical equivalent of a bull in a china shop, this was risky, but turned out OK. Son #2 was playing the role of "grape picker" in one of the Greek plays. We had been to the dollar store the previous day to find some plastic grapes for a costume piece. "Look Ezra", I said, "these are real grape leaves, like the ones on the plastic grapes". "Grandma says the Greeks picked grapes to make wine," Ezra says skeptically. My mother, with good reason, is a tee totaller of the most stoic variety. Somehow she managed to pass on her feelings about wine to her grandson even in the context of a Greek myth! "Yup. Dionysus was the God of wine. He was very important." I try to inject some objectivity, but I'm pretty sure Grandma is more influential. "We don't have to eat these do we?" both sons ask. Maybe my sister was right...

5 min breakfast

2010-04-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

3 eggs scrambled in a little butter. One box of Trader Joe's microgreens. One hunk of tomato. Drizzle of leftover parsely/garlic/olive oil/balsamic dressing from a previous dinner. I've spent a lot more time on meals that were much less lovely!

Eating a Thistle

2010-04-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

There are so many annoying know-it-alls in the Paleo world. Perhaps I find them especially annoying because a lot of them are men with cavemen and spears for avatars and are looking for an excuse to be boorish and rude. I don't think we have any evidence that CaveMen were boorish or rude. For all we know they had elaborate systems of manners and behaviors that were required. One of the most annoying Modern Paleo Man arguments you can find is the kind where they argue about whether or not a particular vegetable was eaten and whether or not we should eat certain vegetables in the present. You can even find them arguing over artichokes. Since I have not provided you with a pretend version of myself wrapped in an animal skin holding a spear, my masculinity is not at stake with regard to eating artichokes. I LOVE THEM. They are, to me, like asparagus - a lovely harbinger of spring. Botanically we are eating thistles which reminds me of Eyore and Winnie the Pooh and also brings a little magic to the whole thing. The Globe artichoke is the underdeveloped flower of the plant.

Artichokes are Mediterranean in origin and do not possess any folkloric (or real) historical reputation as poisons (like eggplant and tomatoes). We are not eating an underground stem (such as a tuber). Therefore, I am happy with them.

We do know that hunter-gatherers frequently ate a very high variety of plant species each year and anything that ups my plant variety is good.

Most people steam artichokes and then create a melted butter/lemon concoction for dipping the flower bracts (they are not leaves). When I want to eat butter and lemon I do, but to me the consistency and powerful flavor of a butter/lemon sauce is too much for my sweetly delicious artichoke. I eat it plain with maybe a little sea salt on the heart. Artichokes are notoriously poor matches for wine because they leave a sweet, unusual aftertaste that ruins good wine. So don't get all fancy and serve artichokes when you are trying to show off your wine. Don't cook artichokes in cast iron or stainless steel because they turn an unpleasant gray color (although they taste fine). Use your teeth to slide off the tender base of each flower bract and discard the rest. Once you get to the inner, pale, lavendar-tinged heart you can eat around the fibers. I use a sharp knife to cut away all the edible bits and leave the fibers. Large varieties require about 30-45min of steaming. You should be able to insert a sharp knife in the base easily. They are also a very glamorous cold picnic food. The taste, I think, is more pronounced cold.

Elk sausage

2010-04-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

There really aren't enough hunters in my life. Especially since moving to Tucson. There is a certain cache to being a sustainable farmer or selling your grassfed beef at the Farmer's Markets or even buying your meat from the local ranchers and the Community Supported Agriculture. That puts you in with high brow crowd. All good for sure. But your average hunter goes underappreciated (or even possibly maligned) by the folks showing off their dogs at the farmer's market. Keep in mind that grass fed pastured meat is only a best substitute for wild game. Yesterday Crandall brought some elk meat to the CrossFit Works BBQ given to him by his Dad who was the hunter. He threw it on the grill (wrestling the tongs away from Cate J. who superbly manned the grill for nearly the entire evening) and then he cut it up and passed it around. It was rich without being strong and tender and delicious. Nothing like deer in case you are wondering. Even more fortunate for me was the gift from Crandall during the cleanup...a little package of elk sausage. IT. WAS. DELICIOUS. There it is in the picture-Sunday brunch. Elk sausage, saurkraut, salad with greens from my garden and a balsamic/parsley sauce. Thanks Crandall and abundant appreciation to the Hunter for his work.

The Grown-Up Mushroom

2010-04-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Mushrooms are just one of those foods that a lot of kids don't like. I think that is perfectly fine. Mushrooms have plenty of adult energy considering all the powerful myth associated with them. They can, of course, be deadly, hallucinogenic and magically mysterious. If you have a chance to get out of this desert and harvest some wild mushrooms with a knowledgeable person I highly recommend it. Oyster mushrooms (on trees) are easy to recognize and not particularly similar to any of the more dangerous varieties. The boletes are tricky because there are some that are poisonous, but the bigger difficulty in my experience is that they become hosts to maggots and bugs as soon as they come into existence. It is disconcerting to get your mushroom basket home and leave it on the counter for an hour only to come back to it and see...yeah, gross. Anyway, here in Tucson you'll have to go to the grocery store. Stuffed mushrooms make any dinner feel kind of glamorous and they are easy to make Paleo.

STUFFED ROSEMARY MUSHROOMS

As usual, I make many extras for leftovers.

3 packages of small portabellas. I like the kind that are 1-3" size.
3 cloves garlic
Stem of fresh rosemary (leaves removed from stem) about 4"
1/4c pine nuts
1/4c macadamias or cashews
Salt and pepper
Butter and white wine

With a small sharp knife take out the stem of the mushroom. Trim off the end if it is very dry or woody. Mince up the mushroom stems very small-set aside. I throw all the other ingredients except the butter and wine into my Vita Mix (you can use a food processor) and process until they are coarse crumbs. Then I mix that with the mushroom stems. Pack the mushroom caps tightly with the filling and put a pea size piece of butter on top. Arrange the mushrooms in a buttered baking dish and pour in some white wine (or you can use chicken stock) so there is about 1/8"-1/4" in the dish. Bake at 375 for about 20-30min. They should be tender, but not dried out, with the top of the filling a little bit brown and crispy.

NPR's Beef-tasting story

2010-04-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I wrote-sometimes life happens and blogs rest. I wanted to talk about National Public Radio's recent story on grass-fed vs corn-fed beef. In the story, they do explain some of the nutritional difference in the two beefs. Grass-fed beef has much higher Omega-3 fats than corn-fed. Remember, not all our hunting-gathering ancestors ate cold-water fish, and they sure as shootin' didn't eat flax seeds. Game meat, pastured meat has your O-3s. Another fatty acid not mentioned in the NPR story is conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is ONLY found in ruminant animals (those with 4 stomachs-so if you only eat fish or poultry you lose). CLA is the subject of an enormous amount of research right now regarding its anti-diabetic, anti-cancer properties and it is already well known to be a fighter of fat-storage/obesity. Grass-fed beef also is derived from animals that are healthy. Ruminants are not meant to eat grain. It changes the pH of their stomachs and the bacterial populations of their guts. This makes them prone to hosting E. Coli and other nasty things that cannot survive in the stomachs of ruminants that eat grass.

In terms of the taste test that NPR did, you'll notice that Susan Stamberg said the grass-fed meat was "meatier". The flavor was more intense. To me that is a good thing... Of course the meat was chewier. This was partly a function of the way it was cooked. Quickly searing grass-fed beef is not the best option. Now, I'm not going to pretend that your grass-fed meat is ever going to be as buttery as a the meat from a fat, sedentary, corn-fed animal. It won't be. But cook it right and you'll have better results.
Try this:
Use the juice and zest of 2 lemons as well as a spoonful of crushed peppercorns. Pound your grass fed meat lightly with a meat pounder (you know all those old-fashioned kitchen tools should tell us something about food preparation). Marinate your tenderized meat for several hours or overnight. Then you can dry the meat and proceed.

Defeated...What to do about fat kids?

2010-03-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday I took my son to a make up kung fu class. He did very well, but I lost. Nothing to do with kung fu. We arrived in time to watch the tail end of the girl's class which made my heart break and my blood boil and I couldn't figure out a single action to take. All the girls in the class are under the age of 12. Three of them were really fat. Get it straight. These were not kids having a chubby phase before they stretch out or kids just going through a little pudginess, or even kids just a little on the heavy side. These girls were really fat. My guess is TWICE the amount they should weigh. Anther small handful were probably technically overweight as well. It was the belt test for the girls, so one of the very heavy girls was having to respond to a stranger "attack" from the kindly, supportive, twinkly eyed kung fu teacher. In under 5 min, in a space of 12' x12', she was wheezing, red faced, panicking and crying. I heard someone ask her Mom if she had asthma. Her Mom said she did not, she was just nervous. This situation brought up SO MANY conflicting feelings for me. On the one hand, how wonderful that these parents are paying for an expensive martial arts program to help their daughters be more physically assertive and accomplished. On the other hand...get real! Once a week of a little kung fu is not going to change an 11 yr old who weighs twice what she should. The line between being a parent and caring for your child's health and creating poor self-esteem is, I agree, a fine one. But, I'm sorry, allowing your child to be 75lbs overweight at age 11 and basically NON FUNCTIONAL is just wrong. This little girl could never run across the playground when the bell rang. She could never run and play with a group of kids. I can guarantee her parents would find it unacceptable to prevent their daughter from learning to read or write, but somehow it has become ok to raise your child so that they cannot function physically. Being a parent is really hard and there are a million things to do well. I hate to find myself criticizing people's parenting. But there I was, truly angry at the physical condition of these kids. I watched the little brother of this girl eat an entire box of Wheat Thins during Kung Fu class!!! Wheat Thins contain soybean oil, flour and 3 types of sugar along with some other crap. If you are reading this and you don't know me well, please be assured my kids eat far from perfectly. For one thing, 50% of their time they live in a household where white bread, noodles and dessert are the staple foods. Just so you know I get much more worried when I see a kid who is all bones and titchy and weedy, than I do when I see a slightly heavy kid. My vision of the perfect human body runs more along the lines of farmer than triathlete. I am not in the business of being a parenting food zealot. BUT THESE KIDS ARE HUGELY FAT AND NON FUNCTIONAL. OK-so, in my mind, while this girl was gasping and wheezing and crying, I thought of all the ways I could make a difference: I could offer the owners of the kung fu studio a free nutrition talk for parents of their students. I could walk straight up to the Mom and say "Hey, I work with people to increase their fitness and health. I think I could make a difference for your daughter. Come and see me. No charge." I guess I just completely chickened out with the second option. How do you offer that kind of help and support without someone potentially feeling extremely insulted and offended? She didn't ask me for help and basically, it isn't any business of mine how her family cares for itself. As for offering to do some free nutrition work through the kung fu studio, I changed my mind about that when I saw the class assistant for my son's class... a huge young man. This young man was extremely kind and wonderful with the students and I'm sure he could keep me safe in a dark alley, but as a wellness role model? I was just stumped. I felt very disempowered. On the one hand people's lives are private and their health is their own business and I believe that strongly. However, that also feels like turning my back on a situation right here, in my own city, in my kids' own kung fu studio. I will be spending the next few days thinking about this and trying to either think of an appropriate response or make peace with doing nothing. Let's end with some Paleo kid snacks: carrot sticks with salt, celery sticks with a little nutbutter mixed with raw honey, nuts, grapes, apple slices, sunflower seeds, cubes of meat, pre-cooked turkey bacon, plantain chips, coconut/gelatin "jello" squares, home made trail mix, pieces of Lara Bar.

The Best Breakfast includes saurkraut

2010-03-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

This morning I had the very good fortune to have some leftover roast pork. I warmed it up with butter which took no time at all. Then, I utilized the best "instant" food ever invented-saurkraut. Northern Europe may not have contributed much to my general vegetable traditions, but they make up for their lack of Mediterranean/Asian vegetables skills with saurkraut. It gets spooned out of a jar onto my plate. I like Bubbies brand if I've been too lazy to make my own. 1/2c has only 1g of carbohydrate!!! Brilliant. All of you out there looking to lean out are supposed to be keeping a tight eye on your carbs. 1/2c also has 30% of your RDA for Vit C. I have at least 1c on my plate, so I've only got 2g carbs, 60% Vit C, 18%iron and a dose of probiotics. And of course it tastes salty and sour and gourmet with leftover pork roast. Should be a good day.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper

2010-03-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

My current read, 5 pgs today waiting inline at the post office and a few more tonight listening to my kids' shaolin kung fu teacher exhort them to live a life of love, is called "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper A Sweet Sour Memoir of Eating in China" by Fuchsia Dunlop. I am loving this book. Click here to check her out. It chronicles Fuchsia's developing relationship with the gnarliest components of Sichuanese food. This is something that the most ardent Paleo proponents often ignore. I don't know if they neglect the topic through ignorance or eyes squeezed tightly shut to avoid contemplating eating gristle, tendons, guts, feet, eyes and brains. Please don't think I am braver than I am. I am as grossed out by this stuff as you probably are, although I can eat raw meat without difficulty these days. But, the reality of the Paleolithic peoples and more recent hunter-gatherers is that they ate just like the Sichuanese people that Fuchsia describes in her book. These gruesome tidbits are also, of course, purveyors of nutrients that we undersupply ourselves with on a regular basis. Check out this excerpt from her book on pg. 145 "The artistry of the finest Chinese cooking, with it's subtle command of colour, aroma, taste and mouthfeel, still leaves me speechless with admiration. Those fugues on a single theme-imagine, if you will, an entire banquet based on on duck: wings, webbed feet, liver, gizzards, intestines, tongues, hearts, heads, skin and flesh, each part cooked according to its particular character! That combination of intellectual thrill with raw, sexy, sensual pleasure! Those smooth and bouncy and silky and chewy and crunchy and tender textures! Those games with hot and cold! Apply yourself to the study of Chinese gastronomic culture, and most particularly, to the understanding of texture, and whole worlds open up." The photo is a page in Ms Dunlop's scrapbook from her website.

Sunday Dinner Side dishes: Japanese Miso meets Chippewa Wild RIce

2010-03-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Wild Rice with caramelized onions, Baby Greens with Sesame Dressing

Finally, we have managed to grow an abundant enough crop of greens so that I can make a salad and haven't used up the entire garden! This is absolutely due to NO work of my own. My father and sons are the gardeners. Tonight's salad will have sorrel, 3 kinds of leaf lettuce, tat soi and red mustard greens. The red mustard greens have a peppery bitterness as they should, so they can stand up to a robust dressing.
Sesame Dressing
1t toasted sesame oil
3 heaping Tablespoons of white chick pea miso (see note below)
1/8c rice vinegar
1/8c water
You could add a touch of raw honey to cut the vinegar if you wanted.

You might wonder if miso could possibly be Paleo since it is made from either soy beans or chick peas usually. Clearly the answer is "no". In my home I use miso because it is one of a few easily included sources of good bacteria and enzymes that are so sadly missing from our ridiculously hygenic existence. There is some very interesting research about the protective effects of miso for those exposed to the atomic bombs in Japan. Finally, any food that takes years to make has to be special. My favorite is South River Miso because they use traditional processes, excellent ingredients and package in glass. This is an excerpt from their website:
Unpasteurized miso is a "living food" containing natural digestive enzymes, Lactobacillus, and other microorganisms which aid in the digestion of all foods, and which have been shown to ward off and destroy harmful microorganisms, thereby creating a healthy digestive system.

In traditional Japan, miso gained a special place in the minds and hearts of generations who came to rely on miso soup as an essential part of their daily life. In Physical Constitution and Food, Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki, director of St. Francis Hospital, Nagasaki, writes:

I have found that, with very few exceptions, families, which make a practice of serving miso soup daily, are almost never sick.... I believe that miso belongs to the highest class of medicines, those which help prevent disease and strengthen the body through continued usage...Some people speak of miso as a condiment, but miso brings out the flavor and nutritional value in all foods and helps the body to digest and assimilate whatever we eat....
-The Book of Miso, page 25.

Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions
Wild rice is the seed of a marsh grass. Try to purchase rice harvested by the Anishinabe. Traditional users of wild rice. It is extremely important to their local economy and the cultural survival of their people. You can read about it here. This site has a picture and description of the difference between the most commonly available "Wild Rice" and true American wild rice.

I like to use a longer cooking approach to my wild rice, but you can just follow instructions on the package. I begin early Sunday morning by rinsing the rice. In a heavy stock pot I place 2c rice, 6c Non-tap water and 2T whey or saurkraut liquid. It is important to avoid chlorinated water when you want the benefit of living cultures in your food. Chlorine kills things. Nerve gas, you know? The whey (from raw milk which I give to my kids) or the saurkraut liquid adds an acidity to the soaking liquid as well as some bacterial activity. I leave this in a sunny spot on the counter all day til I am ready to bring it to a boil and simmer it for about an hour. Sometimes there is excess liquid I drain off, sometimes it all cooks away. Just keep an eye on it at the end. The grains should be a little chewy, but tender.

To caramelize onions, chop 3lg yellow onions . Melt 6T butter in a heavy pan and add the onions. It takes nearly 30min to properly caramelize onions. Keep the heat high enough so that the onions are browning, but not so hot they crisp or burn. The longer you allow the cooking, the sweeter they will taste.
Add a big spoonful of caramelized onions on your serving of wild rice.

Sweet Potato Soup and pink cake!

2010-03-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

So, on the east coast in the winter, this is how they stay warm. Toussaint the Liberator is my sister's partner, or more importantly, Daddy to my fantabulous niece who is turning FIVE on St. Patrick's Day. Born on St. P's day in Boston to a reggae/soul singer and a red-haired mama, go figure. Inari wants a pink cake for her birthday. She is allergic to egg so my sister will produce an undoubtedly spectacular egg-free, pink cake. Maybe we'll get a picture. Happy birthday Inari. I hope the strawberry cake is delicious! In Tucson, while I guess we have a lot of sunshine to keep us warm, I'm not that impressed with the hot music. Plenty of tattooed hipsters, not too much soul. Oh well. Keep warm with soup. Try some Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with bacon and red onion salsa. I got the idea for this soup from Ming Tsai, owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, MA. He has a degree in Engineering from Yale, so he must really have followed his true passion when he became a chef. I love that.

Use your kitchen scissors to snip up 5 pieces of good smoky bacon. Saute the bits in a heavy soup pot until browned. Scoop out the bacon, set aside, take 3T of bacon drippings and add them to a small skillet.

In the heavy soup pot, in the remaining bacon drippings, saute 2 large yellow onions with 5 cloves of garlic. Don't worry about chopping stuff small, because you'll puree it later. When the onions are soft add 3 large or 6 small peeled chunked sweet potatoes and 8-10c chicken stock. Add 1 scant teaspoon powdered ginger and 1-4t chipotle puree (depending on your tolerance for spice). Simmer until sweet potatoes are very soft. Use a hand immersion blender or your regular blender. Just be careful blending hot soup. Cover the top of the blender with a heavy kitchen towel.

Finish the salsa by mincing a red pepper and a medium size red onion. Saute them until just soft in the reserved bacon drippings. Add the bacon bits and squeeze half a lime in.

Serve the soup with a big spoonful of the salsa on top and a little salt and pepper. You can use it as a side dish or starter. I also used it as my main dish by chopping up a piece of leftover steak and adding it to my bowl. Really good.

Delicate food. Crab Salad.

2010-03-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

I love the way food smells, tastes, feels and looks. Cookbooks with photos, cooking magazines, food blogs and the whole cooking thing itself makes me happy. These ancillary aspects of eating are not, apparently, rewarding for many of my nearest and dearest ones. The subtle beauty of all the various hues of greens on the yellow of a square enamel plate is lost on my sons. Diced mango mixed with crab is likely to cause my father to ask “what is this yellow stuff with the meat?” followed by “this green stuff isn’t cilantro is it?”. Faced with the above meal delivered to his office, Carl would be fervently hoping the next meal would have a lot more butter and something that sounds like “steak”. So, one of my personal pleasures is to cook this sort of thing for myself on Sunday evening when the kids are at their Dad’s and everyone else is fending for themselves. It feels so civilized! A quality, sadly lacking, in many of my days.
Crab Salad with warm tomatoes.
2 cans of Trader Joe’s crab
1/8c diced parsley
1/2c frozen mango chunks minced
3 pinches ground coriander
Juice of 1 lemon
1/8c minced red onion soaked for a minimum of 30min in rice vinegar, drained.
Salt and pepper
3 large fresh basil leaves minced
Mix well.
In a pan drizzle 1-3t olive oil and add halved cherry tomatoes (however many you would like to eat). Turn pan on to low and heat carefully so that nothing sizzles but the tomatoes are hot.
Make a nest of little greens. I used mache and microgreens from Trader Joes, but baby lettuces would be nice too.
Top the greens with the warm tomatoes and their juice and a few heaping spoonfuls of the crab mixture.

Grown Up Children

2010-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

We have been busy around here! Nice to get back to thinking about food and preparing some slightly more inspirational foods. So, I've been writing about my own children, who are far from grown. Always be skeptical of people giving parenting advice until you can see the end product. I remember reading my first book about an approach to children's education called "unschooling" and when I realized that the woman who wrote the book had kids only a couple years older than my own I wanted to ask for my money back!! Ditto for someone claiming to be qualified to guide me through childbirth who had never had a kid. Nope. Give me an expert, a wise old soul, someone who has been there and done that, or at least been there and done so many other things it doesn't matter if they've never actually experienced the issue at hand. There are some members of my "elder council" whom I can look to for such experiences. They are all also qualified to tell me if I just used the word "whom" incorrectly. For example, I have an uncle who raised 4 kids. He told me that one of the best parenting decisions he ever made was to put a couch in his kitchen. The benefits of this arrangement should be obvious and I can report, from my admittedly limited knowledge, that his 4 kids are fit, athletic, sane, funny, intelligent and love to spend time with each other and their father. One of them is even a food writer. I have a friend who has read way more parenting advice books than I have and she once told me that communicating with boys is very different than with girls and what the experts say is that boys will talk to you more if you just be with them, instead of actually trying to have a bona fide "conversation". That expert suggested bicycle riding or drives in the car, but my guess is that my uncle's couch-in-the-kitchen did the trick. He did the work of cooking, sometimes maybe his boys just sat on the couch, sometimes maybe they helped, but that seems like a low key, day-to-day chance for "side-by-side" communication. As soon as I get a couch, I'm going to put it in the kitchen.
Another member of my elder council is my aunt Judith who also raised and homeschooled two boys. She is the person responsible for creating an absolute certainty in my mind that sausage and cabbage soup, the most peasantiest of foods, might be the most delicious food invented. I can't make it myself at all, but hers is divine. Her boys are grown men, but recently came home and WENT FOOD SHOPPING with their parents and cooked a Paleo feast. This was sort of an unusual undertaking for them which is just so cool that no matter how old your children are, you can still have an evolving relationship with them and food. The photos are of the Cajun blackened chicken, roasted fennel, beet salad (from this very blog!), and Mulligatawny stew. So I will try to keep all this in mind when my own kids leave my kitchen and experience the world of Mountain Dew and Ramen noodles. They will come back if I am welcoming.

Are these roots poisonous?

2010-02-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

This is an example of me feeding lunch to my sons: Oldest: "It looks like you are feeding me roots. Are these roots? How do you know they aren't poisonous roots? What if they poison me?" Youngest: "Did someone serve these as a dessert at your dance?" Me: "My guess is if Sleeping Frog Farm is selling poisonous roots at the Farmer's Market they will go out of business soon. I'm pretty sure those are multicolored organic carrots. What kind of terrible human being would serve carrots as a dessert?" Both sons: "You would." Crack up laughing. But now they are crunching away happily.

The one tactic I resort to on a regular basis to get my sons to eat the good stuff is prioritization. I set down the meat first and/or the vegetable or whatever I know will meet with the greatest resistance and I have decided is most valuable in their bellies. I save the sweet potato fries, the fruit etc... until they get some of the less popular food into them. When I was first transitioning Silas to a Paleo-type existence I did it with baby steps, but very little conversation. I will confess to beginning his meat intake with bacon, sausage covered in maple syrup and chicken nuggets. Pick your battle. I wanted protein and fat in him at the start of the day and no grains. Yup, chicken nuggets had breading-they were a baby step. He didn't have to eat it. Like I said he never HAS to eat. But the next time he was hungry the same thing was presented. He threw astronomical tantrums. He went about 24rs without eating. We stayed at home. I knew that I had made a mistake in the way that I had begun to nourish my son and it was a mistake that his future health and behavior depended on me repairing. Giving in to a little boy's nonsense was not an option. This process took about 3 months as I recall. I tried to be as respectful as I could by not expecting him to eat mixtures of things, or soups or cooked vegetables. I stuck with the proteins, fruits and vegetables he accepted most readily. When we went out or to a friend's house I did not worry about what he ate.

Silas: wheat-eating monster to Paleo Sweetie

2010-02-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

Imagine yourselves invited to a New Year's Eve party in your small New England town by the one other family in town that might have something in common with you. Imagine you go to this family-friendly evening where the lovely Shannon and Andy have cooked the most delicious feast. Then imagine your 5 yr old son looking around at all the food and saying loudly, "There isn't any of MY kind of food here!!" Shannon is now a good friend of mine, but that wasn't a very auspicious beginning. Being Shannon, she laughed and asked him, "Silas, what is your kind of food?" At that moment in time the only things Silas ate were peanuts, crackers, toast, frozen blueberries, apples and cereal. In all seriousness, nothing is missing from the list. I have total familiarity with the situation of a "picky" eater. My oldest son came into the world with sensory integration issues. Food and eating was a total nightmare and his behavior was a total nightmare as well. He was super jolly and happy, but like a whirling dervish or perhaps like a small Barbarian. He could not control himself and I could not control him. If we went to a social gathering of any sort, Silas would race himself, sweaty and red-faced, around until he often actually threw up from the intensity and exhaustion. Those of you who now know my oldest son as someone who prefers not to shift himself at all until the book he is reading is finished, might find this hard to believe, but it was true. All the accompanying issues plagued our family-was I a bad parent? I tried everything. I was too strict, not strict enough, blah blah blah. Everyone had a solution that usually involved something I was doing wrong. Mothers get so used to taking the blame! Finally, a very wise woman said, "Feed him meat for breakfast and no more wheat." I knew instinctively she was onto something, but the idea of Silas eating meat for breakfast was hilarious. Thus began my experimentation with changing the eating of my child. However, I had one advantage that many parents do not. I did not ever "feel sorry for" or "feel badly" for my son. I notice that so many parents turn to jelly when their child is unhappy or struggling. Perhaps I am inherently hard-hearted, but when I know something will benefit my child I do not feel "guilty" or "sorry" for them during their struggle. When I began to change my son's food choices and he flipped out I was not distraught or immobilized with uncertainty. I do not believe my job is to create a situation where my child has their every whim met. I believe it is my job to raise up my kid as strong and healthy-physically and mentally- as is reasonable. If you are confident in your actions do not let a small tantruming person throw you off. The photo is of my son today-relaxed, mellow and totally suitable for bringing to New Year's Eve parties, with his lunch: fish, frozen blueberries, banana slices and baby lettuces with sea salt.

Be Free!!!

2010-02-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

These are my boys and my fantabulous niece. We stayed at the "Be Free" bed and breakfast in the White Mtns of NH this past summer together. "Live Free or die" of course being the NH state motto, made life in AZ politics an easy transition. My two nephews were there for a bit also. It was a very nice place and the child-less lady who owned it was very kind and tolerant of the child mob. But, we didn't really feel exactly "free". I have total respect for people who do not bring kids to their vacation and would like a little peace and quiet. But kids, even well behaved ones (ruling out complete repression) are boisterous and energetic...and don't always like the "Be Free" breakfast that is served. My kids have been squelched enough/repressed enough or perhaps tucked enough manners into their little selves to avoid totally embarrassing responses to food they don't want, but my niece has neither the age nor inherent inclination to go around pleasing other people. Good girl. Something along the lines of "I don't want that breakfast at all. It doesn't look good." might have been said while her mother is nowhere to be seen-just her aunt. She hopped down from the table and that was that. "Should I make her something else?" asked Be Free proprietess? "No," I said "she is fine. Thank you for offering." Meanwhile all 4 boy cousins were looking wistfully at their plates wishing they were still 4 and could do something similar. It was really pretty funny, but is one of those GIANT MOUNTAINOUS parenting issues. Food and kids. Kids and food. What about kids and Paleo food? What about traditional cultures and food for kids? My next few posts will be on this issue (although I might intersperse some other stuff, like what we had for dinner). I want to first set out the notion that I believe kids are individual human beings and deserve the same respect and contemplation we might give to another adult. Of course they aren't adults and need parenting and so there is a mountain of gray area here, but in terms of forcing kids to eat something they don't want- I am not for it. Each autonomous human being whether young or old should be able to say no to putting food in their mouth unless they have extreme extenuating circumstances like anorexia. As a parent I believe it is my job to purchase WHAT foods will be on our table, and to decide WHEN they will be prepared, but not WHETHER my kid will open wide. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING takes the joy and pleasure and renewal out of shopping, cooking and serving more than fighting and cajoling at the table. I hate it, so why would I do it? Forcing kids to eat what they don't want does not make them appreciate my cooking or have gratitude for the healthy food in front of them or acknowledge how much more powerful I am than they are. It makes them mad. It makes them feel small - not in size. It might make them feel sick even. Or maybe it makes them happy because they had the opportunity to engage in a little battle with their parent which kids LOVE.

Are they for holiday decorations?

2010-02-05T07:40:00.000-08:00

There is a certain time of year (just before Thanksgiving) when people actually look at the mountain of winter/hard squashes in the grocery store and maybe even buy them to cook. After that squash-centered holiday the winter squashes get passed by pretty regularly as if maybe they aren't really food just ornamental. I sometimes find myself looking at them thinking "too much time and work". What a dumb thing to think. I cooked one up yesterday and it was the best no attention required sort of vegetable ever. Not to mention cheap because no one else wants to buy them! I used a butternut. Chopped it in half, did not take the seeds out and put it cut side down on a buttered tray at 400 for about an hour. I completely ignored it. After an hour I turned the oven off and still ignored it. When I wasn't busy I scooped the seeds out and then scooped all the soft flesh into a bowl, sprinkled in a little nutmeg and ginger and salt and mashed it up.

We had it with salmon cooked in paprika/thyme butter (melt butter, add Hungarian paprika and thyme) and mushrooms cooked in butter, rosemary, garlic and onions.

Mamas and Daddys feed your babies good

2010-02-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

I know so many Mamas like my sisters. Kick a** mothering, hard working and broke a**. It sucks that decent food costs a fair amount of money. There is no doubt about it. I can go into the cheap a**, funky smelling, depressing supermarkets, dollar stores, Big Lots and discount warehouses and buy low cost food for myself and my family. I can fill up two grocery bags in a way that would keep my kids’ bellies full for the week for about $30. Check out my carefully chosen wording, “keep my kids’ bellies full”. That is all I’d be doing. I wouldn’t be nourishing them. I wouldn’t even really be feeding them. I’d simply be filling them up. But the enraging fact is, that in this very rich nation of ours there are a hell of a lot of families buying food at those places just to keep their kids filled up. I’ve written before about prioritizing good food over fast food meals and nice sneakers. I lecture and teach all the time about how you can make good, inexpensive food choices. Most people who know me have heard me describe how the true cost of a gallon of proper, raw milk produced to provide the farmer with a living wage for himself, is about $12 a gallon. I’ve spouted off about what a bargain a dozen local, pastured eggs is if you think about cost per egg and number of meals provided. Anyone who has spent more than a few hours around me knows that I can pontificate relentlessly about how the cost of bad food is much worse than the cost of good food, it just takes longer to hit. Blah, blah, blather. The ugly reality is that sometimes the bank account is empty. The gas has been shut off. The car barely runs. Coffee comes from the gas station instead of Starbucks and it isn’t even possible to rent a movie to watch because the late fees from the previous rental are too much. I have been there, done that and occasionally do it still. It is stressful, sad and f***ing unfair. Most of the people buying their kids’ food at the dollar store work their fingers to the bone every day, but they don’t speak English or they got divorced or their mental health isn’t so great or their education ended too early. Every one of those people has a kid that deserves good eggs. Not one of those kids eating Ramen noodles for dinner deserves that poison. So let’s not get all elitist. Let’s do the down and dirty work of figuring out how to nourish yourself and your kids with the cheapest sh** you can buy or get at the food pantry. Priorities:

1. Good fat

2. Protein from animals

3. Fruits or vegetables

Here are my top food choices for those folks out there who are living the ghetto/white trash financial reality. All my love to you. Hold your head up. You can nourish yourselves and your kids too. If you can swing a Costco membership somehow, get yourself 2lbs of organic butter for $6. This is like medicine. Dispense 2T each day to your loved ones. While you are there get whatever are the cheapest vegetables and fruits. If you can’t get to Costco then get to your Food City and get produce on sale. Get cabbage. Eat a lot of it. Sweet potatoes or yams. If you are lucky enough to live in Tucson I hear that many of the Carnecerias (meat shops) sell lard that has not been bleached and wrecked. Thanks to local rancher Josh, friend of Chris L, for passing on that tip. Get some. Cook in it.

Frozen vegetables are better than canned. Sometimes you can find canned fruit in its own juice (not in syrup) or unsweetened applesauce-these make great treats or desserts. Whole coconut milk can often be had for pretty damn cheap at your corner Asian market. Use it to make soups, sauces or smoothies. Get as much into your kiddos as possible. Throw a can into your blender with some ice and some of that canned fruit in its own juice. Delicious treat. Get a bag of straws from the dollar store and you will be a rock star mama. Get some olive oil if they have it for cheap. Don’t cook with it, but pour it over whatever vegetable you have. Look for sunflower seeds, as unadulterated as possible. You can often get a big bag for $2 or $3 and, if they are raw you can sprout them, or roast and toast them. Finally, get your canned meats. Look for tuna in water (but beware-don’t eat it if you are pregnant or nursing a babe, and feed it once or twice a week to kids). Look for sardines in water or olive oil. Bone-in sardines in water or olive oil are like a magic, cheap elixir. Stock up. Get some Spam. Hell yeah. You heard right. Spam. It will nourish you. It has sustained many an Arctic research team. Goya, Hormel and Libby’s all make a cheap corned beef that is MSG-free and contains protein and fats that you need. Thanks to the 2010 Weston A. Price Foundation Shopping Guide for the canned meat low down. Get yourself big packages of chicken thighs and drumsticks. Cook them up. Save the bones and make a stock for your soup. Go to a market with a fish counter and ask for heads and bones. Make a delicious, live-forever fish stock out of them.

Avoid always: refined carbohydrates (crackers, cereal, cookies, pasta, bread), anything with corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, any beverages besides water, canned/boxed/prepared meals, vegetable oils like corn, safflower, soy and margarine and “snack food”. Know that things will look up for you. Life will get better. Hang in there. Revolt. Don’t sabotage yourself or your family with crap.

Pie and Sauce

2010-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

THE PIE

For the crust:

You really need a food processor. I do mine in the Vita Mix, but it doesn't appreciate it.

in the evening soak 2c of raw almonds in plenty of fresh water. In the morning, drain them and get rid of any skins that are easily removed. Process them with about 6 dates, pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg and a spoonful of vanilla. It should be moist and crumbly. Mix in by hand, 1/2c of almond meal and press it into a pie plate. These nut-based crusts are very rich and heavy so press it in as absolutely thinly as possible.

For the filling:

In a sauce pan cook up 2 bags of frozen raspberries. You may need to add a tiny bit of water. When they are nice and hot I add 4T of Dr. Bernard Jensen's gelatin. I add this anytime to anything I can. Put it all in the blender and puree.

We sliced up about 2lbs of little apples, just removing the core and stem, but not peeling them. Slice them thinly so that they will cook more easily. Fill up your pie crust with them. Pour the raspberry/gelatin puree over the apples.

Bake for 45min at 325. You might need to cover it with foil at the end so that you don't burn the top, but the apples get nice and soft.

This pie brought up some interesting thoughts for me. The apples we used weren't very sweet and hence the pie wasn't very sweet. After the first couple bites I found myself thinking, "I should've added a little raw honey or maple syrup". Then I realized how crazy it is that my taste buds no longer find apples and raspberries sweet enough! I also observed that the pie actually felt like a positive component of the meal instead of this detrimental ending that I would need to prevent myself from having more of 2 hours later. My suggestion is that if eating Paleo is new to you and your family and you are trying to get comfortable with it and feel happy about it, check the sweetness of your apples. If they are a little bit tart you might add some honey to the raspberry puree.

The pie was also good with coconut milk poured over it!

Sauce:

I used the other bag of apples we had to make a sauce. These apples were pretty ugly, wrinkled and lumpy. No way I was getting my kids to eat them as is. I have made gallons of apple sauce the proper way in my day using an ancient food mill and then canning it. Too busy now, so all I did was take out the core and stem and throw them in a big pot. I added a bag of frozen strawberries and some cinnamon. I also had to add a little water because the apples were pretty dry. I cooked everything until the apples were pretty soft and then poured the whole thing into the blender, added my 4T of gelatin, and blended it up. It was pretty and pink and I sprinkled on some dried coconut and some chopped macadamia nuts. Good warm or cold.

Apple seeds

2010-01-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

What about the seeds in those little tiny delicious apples? EAT THEM. Wasn't there a whole thing in the 70s about cyanide in apple seeds causing death?? Maybe in the 70s, although that probably had more to do with disappointment regarding apple seeds as a mind blowing hallucination source.

There is a category of chemicals in many foods called nitrosilamides. Dr. Krebs called the nitrosilamides Vitamin B-17. In the anti-cancer research community B-17 is also called laetrile. There is a complex story behind laetrile and its use as a cancer treatment. G. Edward Griffin documents this story in his book World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B-17. Even if we aren't interested in the politics of cancer research there is plenty of interesting information in that book about the incidence of cancer related to the nitrosilamide content of the diet. The prunus rosacea family (plums, peaches, apricots) as well as many grasses and apples contain nitrosilamides. As always, we should look at traditional people and their relationship to these foods. The Hunza, one of the world's longest-lived people in the mtns of central Asia eat the seeds of the apricot as a primary food. Inuit peoples who do not have access to fruits regularly eat the partially fermented stomach contents of reindeer and caribou. These grazing ruminants eat arrowgrass which is very high in nitrosilamides. Cassava, not the popular sweet version of today, but the original bitter cassava that was the staple of many African peoples is also quite high in nitrosilamides. Cancer was virtually unknown in these cultural groups. Mr. Griffin writes that primates will automatically pull open a stone fruit, take out the pit, crack it and eat the nitrosilamide-rich kernel or seed. If you like the technical scientific/political stuff read Mr. Griffin's book. If you just think that apes and hunter-gatherers know what to do with food just do what they do! In the most condensed way possible here is how nitrosilamides perform their anti-cancer function: Nitrosilamides contain two glucose molecules, one benzaldehyde molecule and one cyanide molecule-safely locked up in this molecule. The molecule can be "unlocked" by an enzyme called beta-glucosidase. When beta-glucosidase contacts B-17 the toxic cyanide and benzaldehyde are released. Guess where we find the enzyme beta-glucosidase? In cancer cells. Only cancer cells can release the cyanide-which then kills the cancer cell. We must consider another enzyme called rhodanese which is protective against cyanide. All our healthy cells are protected by rhodanese, but our cancer cells do not have rhodanese. OK-enough science. Back to the food. Traditional fruit preserves made a couple hundred years ago almost always contained the fruit pits. I once was given a jar of traditional cherry preserves and found to my surprise the cherry pits were in it! I still think about those cherry preserves. You can find bags of apricot kernels at Trader Joes or Himalayan kernels at Aqua Vita. They taste a little like marzipan/almond. Or you can eat your apple seeds: a lovely source of nitrosilamides. As you live your Paleo/Hunter-gatherer lifestyle don't forget to look at your food in new ways and be sure you aren't putting the most valuable part on the compost pile!

Paleo Fruit

2010-01-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

What about fruit and Paleo? Fruit technically is Paleo. However, the problem is, of course, our fruit. As fruit growers over the last decades we've selected for appearance, sweetness and storage capacity. We haven't bred our fruit to be more nutritious or have less sugar in it. In short, we haven't created fruit that is healthier. We've created fruit that is less beneficial. Look at the apples in my son's hand. He is a tiny 7 yr old. He holds multiple apples in his hands. These are locally grown, organic, heirloom varieties of apples. Even 150 yrs ago, when every small homestead or farm had a few apples trees, these would be your apples. The flavors are exquisite, even now at the end of the apples' season. Go to the farmer's market (Sunday AM at St. Philips plaza) and the orchard owner will give you a tasting. As with everything the answer to the question, "What about fruit?" is more complex than you might imagine. But, as always, if we look back in time we see part of the answer. Remember though, when you see these apples at the Farmer's Market, it is moving to the end of the apples' storage capacity. They are getting a little bit smaller, dehydrated and wrinkled. Does that mean you should pass them up for those Roid Rage apples or the imported New Zealand ones? NOOO. It means you should use them to make a pie. In my next post, I'll talk about the sticky pie issue when dealing with nature's fruit.

The Horse Boy, and reindeer herders

2010-01-17T14:20:00.001-08:00

Showing right now at The Loft is a movie called The Horse Boy. It is a fascinating story of one family's attempt to address their young son's autism. They decide to take a trip to inner Mongolia to take advantage of their son's connection with horses and to ask the shamans of Mongolia to help them. It is a cool movie, not sappy or melodramatic at all.

Personally, I love any movie that shows indigenous people eating their own food. Wow. There was a scene in this movie which makes me sort of glad I'm not visiting inner Mongolia, although at the same time I am drawn to it like crazy. First of all, I love all things arctic and subarctic. The peoples impress me, the wilderness compels me. I dream of northern lights, heavy felt coats and giant furry dogs. Yes, I know. Tucson is a strange place for a girl whose most desired place to travel to next is Iceland.

Back to the movie. In one scene the father of the family is invited into the yurt and offered food. The food is one communal dish of meat. There is no muscle meat. And it sure doesn't look like it was roasted over an open fire. It looks boiled. And it is all organs including the lungs. What can we learn about food from these amazing reindeer herders? First of all humans and reindeer have an unusual relationship. Reindeer were one of the last animals domesticated because they are practically domestic by nature. One researcher hypothesizes:

"Why reindeer were domesticated so late is speculation, but some scholars believe that it may relate to the docile nature of reindeer. As wild adults reindeer are willing to be milked and stay close to human settlements, but at the same time they are also extremely independent, and don't need to be fed or housed by humans."

Perhaps reindeer were one of the first animals to make our non-herding, Big Game Hunting ancestors scratch their heads and wonder about adding some milk to their diet. Who knows.

Boiled organ meats as dinner would be a tough sell in my house (including to me), but they are packed full of nutrients, enough to sustain a person in an arctic desert where spinach and avocados are scarce.

Go and see The Horse Boy. Think about eating boiled lung.

2010-01-14T19:48:00.000-08:00

Part III “Sunday night. The Ghost of Shopping at Five Grocery Stores in one Weekend”

Right. So, if you buy food at 5 grocery stores there is a quantity of cooking to follow. Here is what I started with:

1. The scaffolding for that salad of roasted red pepper/sun-dried tomato from the radical feminist vegetarian cookbook (that whole pendulum swing thing you know? I really like men now, and meat, of course) . I roasted a bunch of cheap red peppers from Costco over the burner on my stove. I contemplated firing up my grill, but lighting a fire of real wood demands my appreciation in the form of a good oatmeal stout and a couple hours of sitting outside next to it, so I opted out. I soaked sun-dried tomatoes ( a raw food) in warm water to rehydrate them. After covering the roasted peppers in foil to steam I pulled out the stem, slid off the burnt bits and cut them up. I added the soft squishy dried tomatoes, drizzled on some olive oil , sprinkled on sea salt and some minced parsley. A quantity of minced parsely. Very good for you. I will use this throughout the week on top of sunflower sprouts or the baby heirloom ruby lettuces I found for .79cents each. It also goes very well mixed up with ground beef or shredded beef.

2. Scaffolding for an orange/beet salad. I steamed 2 large beets while I was doing the peppers. Dice them up and add 4T raw apple cider vinegar and the juice of 4 clementines that had shriveled up too much to eat normally (or squeeze some fresh OJ). This is a great topping for any type of lettuces or greens you have and will last several days in the fridge.

3. Thai Soup. I went all out on this one. Many unusual ingredients, all paleo. Restaurant quality. But it was stupidly easy. Do this:

Pour 2 cartons of organic chicken stock (or use 2liters of your own) into a heavy soup pot. Add 8 kaffir lime leaves, 3 inches of ginger in peeled slices, 3 stalks of lemongrass and 1/4t red chili flakes. Boil. Turn off. Let sit.

In a separate skillet melt a spoonful of coconut oil and sauté up 6 chicken breast halves, chopped into large bite-size pieces. When the chicken is cooked through, but not browned get out your strainer (a tea one works fine or larger). Pour the chicken stock into the chicken straining out all the aromatics. Bring to a simmer. Add 2 cans whole coconut milk. I threw in 10 baby yellow, red and orange peppers sliced thinly as well as about 3c sliced oyster mushrooms. Thanks Aqua Vita. Oyster mushrooms do not get mushy and disgusting like button or crimini mushrooms. They have backbone. I also added about 1/4c of ribboned fresh basil from Trader Joe’s and finally, add 4T fish sauce and the juice of 1 lime. Top each bowlful with a pinch of fresh minced cilantro.

All this took me 2 1/2 hours. I listened to Sinead O’Connnor, The Lion and the Cobra and Bob Marley’s Catch A Fire (soul-nourishing) and made a schedule for my kids’ homeschool work for the week. I also cleaned up after myself. And put together the schedule for my CrossFit Affiliate. No excuses. It Can Be Done. You can do it. I can do it. We can do it.

2010-01-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

Part II “The Ghost of Cooking Past”

Heirloom baby ruby lettuce ($0.79), pumpkin seeds, steamed beets in fresh squeezed clementine juice w/ olive oil and sea salt

I was in high school before I realized that some people love cooking. I mean I was a TEENAGER before I knew that some people considered cooking an enjoyable artistic, creative endeavor. I thought cooking was something that resulted in swearing, crashing pots, and standoffs between parents and kids at the dinner table. I love my mother and she nourished me very well and I am eternally appreciative, but it was absolutely joyless. Except for chocolate cakes. Delicious. Here is my story of realizing that cooking could be an art form or hobby:

I was a town kid at a very expensive boarding school. My Dad subjected himself to a teaching position that absolutely did not suit him so I could get the best education New Hampshire could provide me. I was a righteous kid and at least graduated Valedictorian. Goody two shoes? Let’s call it “late bloomer”.

Anyway, each year we had “Project Period”. “Project Period” was something that made my prep school stand out as innovative and creative. You could spend 1-3wks doing all sorts of interesting and exotic activities like going to Machu Pichu, rafting the Colorado River, seeing Paris or going on Safari in Kenya. If you happened to be raised by parents who loved having you around, but didn’t have fat wads of cash, you got to choose from things like horseback riding at a local farm, visiting colleges or learning how to cook. You see how it was? Anyway, one year my very best friend Amanda and I signed up to stay in town and cook. You can imagine us just in knots trying to decide “should we go sailing in the Caribbean or stay in town and cook”? Right on. Amanda is the most creative person I know. She is an awesome artist and grew up one of two girls living with her single mother and her artist grandmother. So here we are in a cooking project spear headed by our English teacher, Chris Noll. Son of the Pittsburg Steelers coach Chuck Noll. Chris had quite a following among the debutantes, so there were a bunch of us, some of whom might otherwise have been in more exotic locations. I had never seen a man approach cooking as a genuine desireable activity, except my grandfather who cooked as an extension of his hunting and fishing prowess. I mean, when it was my Dad’s turn to cook he threw together a mean meatloaf, but we begged him not to tell us what was in it. Chris taught us how to use a Wok and create proper Chinese stir frys. When it came to baking day, for some reason, Chris took pity on me and Amanda. Since we both had been baking sh** for years, he decided to teach the junior yacht club how to sweet talk yeast and he let me and Amanda bake our own bread in his apartment kitchen. He said something like “Cooking should be really enjoyable. Glass of good wine and good music. Well, you can’t have wine, but you can use my stereo.” That just shattered my whole image of cooking. “Enjoyable? Music? Wine?” Apparently there is “cooking” and then there is “Cooking”!!

In case you are wondering, the next year for “Project Period” I visited colleges.

Anyway-I’m telling this story for you: My Brothers and Sisters in Charge of Nourishment. Meet your Chris Noll. Turn up your stereo. Find some wine. Give your kid a cookbook and let him pick out a pie with Cherimoyas. Substitute frozen strawberries from Costco. Attitude adjustment.

A Multi Part Series on Shopping and Food Prep

2010-01-11T04:35:00.000-08:00

POST-GATHERING SUNFLOWER SPROUT, CUCUMBER, CELERY SALAD

Part I: "The Gathering"

Five grocery stores in a 48 hour period is unusual even for me, but every now and then I just get absorbed in food and it seems like the best use of my time to scour the City of Tucson looking for the foods that are calling to me. Anyway, since I no longer live on a little mountain in the middle of nowhere, I may as well take advantage of my urban bounty. A different kind of joy. I strayed very very far from local foods this weekend, but I had lots of fun.

I gave my 11 year old son a Raw Food cookbook and told him to pick two recipes out of it for the week. He chose a vinaigrette dressing (no shopping required) and a raw fruit pie made of…cherimoyas. A cherimoya is a delicious little tropical fruit, but a tiny bit on the unusual side. My best guess was that just maybe 17^th St. Market would have them, but they didn’t. Without doing my research I’d guess cherimoyas are out of season and do not appear to come canned or frozen. No big deal, we’ll use something else, but while at 17^th St. I was inspired by some plaintains and kaffir lime leaves as well as grape leaves and sun-dried, oil-cured olives.

That evening I got out a pile of my favorite cookbooks and searched for vegetable inspiration. In a book that I grew up on (as a cooking feminist that is) called The Perennial Political Palate by The Bloodroot Collective, I found a little salad made of sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers (among other things that aren’t Paleo, but easily fixed). Now I know not all of you want to spend your weekends at grocery stores and reading cookbooks. Bow in deep gratitude if you have someone who takes care of your nourishment so that you are rendered free of food shopping and meal planning. If you don’t have such a Divine creature, male or female, in your life then f***ing dive in! Making excuses like “I don’t have time” or “I’m not a good cook” or “I don’t know how” or “I don’t like to” is bullsh**. That’s like saying you don’t bother brushing your teeth because you don’t know how, or you don’t wipe your bum because you don’t have time or you don’t wash your hair because you don’t like to. Procuring and preparing food is a life requirement. Do it well, live well. Do it like shite, feel and look like shite.

If you are a woman, and the constant servitude of cooking, feeding and cleaning up the mess has worn you down and made you resentful don’t fall into that self-sabotaging gerbil wheel. I have a cadre of powerful women in the generation of my family that precedes me who do not like to cook. I think it is a tightly woven complicated story, but the general plot line is that to constantly serve and nourish the ungrateful is a sh**ty way to spend your years. There are the constraints of time, food budgets and the futile sense of needing to make others happy. Pile on top of all that the fact that if you are one of my relatives you likely wish you were thinner and having to cook makes you deal with food which makes you guilty and angry and miserable and you wish that you could be left alone to read books. Dude. Bad news. Bust out. Throw it off. Do it for yourself and give a harsh smack down to anyone who whines, complains or undermines your work in the kitchen. If you have to get divorced, do it. Just kidding. Actually, that might be my ex-husband’s very best feature. He never complained about my cooking and was always grateful. Stay tuned for Part II when I’ll tell you how I stumbled across the concept that cooking might be pleasurable.

"You should write this one down..."

2010-01-06T07:35:00.001-08:00

I don't really cook by recipe, although one of my fondest pleasures is reading cookbooks and cooking magazines. Somewhere, jumbled up in my head are all the recipes I've ever read and all the things I've ever cooked and that's what shows up on the plate.

This can be annoying to people who eat my cooking because it is sometimes difficult to get a repeat performance. Carl has taken to saying "You should write that one down so you can make it again." Here it goes:

Shredded beef with Ginger-Mushrooms

I sometimes purchase already cooked shredded beef, or you can make it yourself. When you make it yourself, make extra!

Finely mince 1" ginger, 3 cloves garlic and begin to saute them in a large heavy skillet in 3T coconut oil.

Add 4 chopped scallions, greens and all. Add 1/4-1/2t dried red pepper flakes.

Add 4 minced carrots. You have to cut the carrots very small or they will take too long to cook.

Saute about 10min.

Add 1 box crimini mushrooms, sliced.

Saute about 5min or until carrots are done.

Sprinkle on 1T toasted, dark sesame oil and 8T wheat-free tamari.

If we want to be quibblers, which I do not have time for, toasted sesame oil is not the greatest ingredient. However, it is delicious and unusual and improves my life. Use it very sparingly. We can also quibble about the wheat-free tamari. Same answer. If you have it, you could use truly fermented fish sauce instead which is absolutely Paleo and it sustained the Roman army.

Add in your shredded beef (about 6oz for this recipe). Mix it in and heat everything through.

Eat. OK-I wrote it down.

Bacon-the ultimate vegetable improver

2010-01-03T15:35:00.001-08:00

I will make a daring statement: all vegetables are improved with bacon. More nutrients from plants are absorbed if we ingest a little fat with them because many important nutrients are fat soluble. More people will eat vegetables if the are cooked with bacon, therefore bacon increases the vegetable content of peoples' diets. Finally, bacon tastes magnificent. Even my son described the green beans I cooked with bacon as "These green beans are actually pretty good." Now, it is true that some people do not believe green beans are Paleo because they are a legume. Since a green bean is primarily the shell of the bean, and I am not looking to reduce anyone's vegetable intake by making rules about string beans I'm going to leave the quibbling to others. The biggest problem with using bacon as a vegetable-improver is that cooking bacon makes a mess. I don't like spending a lot of time cleaning up bacon pans. Here is how I do it: I take my sharpest knife and about 3 strips of real, smoked, non-chemical bacon. I stack the slices and cut them into tiny little pieces by making one cut lengthwise down the stack and then slicing all along. I throw the tiny bacon pieces into a heavy skillet and saute them until brown. This produces crispy little bacon pieces and a thin coating of drippings. The pan is just starting to look as if it will be unpleasant to wash. At this moment I toss in my green vegetables with a spoonful or two of water (careful of splattering) and use a metal spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan. Then cover the pan for 5-10 minutes (or longer depending on your vegetable). Once everything is done the moisture from the vegetables will have cleaned the bacon mess from the bottom of the pan! And your kid will pronounce the vegetables more edible than usual.

The Primal Creations of my beautiful friends, the Heinos

2010-01-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

In my mind what makes a true dessert is when my Sister Mama, beautiful Steph Z-H, makes it for my son on his eleventh birthday. Desserts nourish the heart and soul because they are special and sweet. When Steph makes you a dessert, her passion and love is in every spoonful. First of all, like everything made by Steph, it will look pretty, so it nourishes the senses. It might be, like this one, made from berries that she herself foraged from some muddy, mosquito-y, stand of berry bushes. On top it will have raw cream, from the Owens Farm, where Steph does chores. Potentially, this raw cream will be sweetened with maple syrup that Steph and her family boiled in the spring when the sap was running. Steph is an ancestral culinary tradition Goddess.

Steph is also an artist and recently has tapped into one of our most Primal raw materials for her work. All that Big Game hunting and early domestication of animals didn't just feed us, it clothed us. I love my artificial-fiber-CrossFitting-gear as much as the next grrrl, but when I dressed my babies, when I care for my sick children, when I need to remind myself that I am of, and from, this earth, I turn to wool. In fact, my least favorite thing about living in southern AZ, might be the lack of wool clothing required. I miss my mittens, scarves and sweaters! Check out Steph's wool creations at her family's website, where you can find her husband, JD, doing the other most Primal of activities, building with stone. The picture is my son Ezra standing in front of one of JD' s walls.

http://www.meadowbrookstoneworks.com/www.meadowbrookstoneworks.com/Family_Fibers.html

Salt, salty, salt

2009-12-30T06:24:00.000-08:00

Salt is a perfect example of how, in our efforts to make our food more "user-friendly" we wreck it up. When we added anti-caking agents to our salt and bleached it so that it could flow easily out of a salt shaker we took a step away from using it wisely. The picture shows true sea salt, dried at low temperature. It doesn't sprinkle out of a shaker. It has to be served in a salt. Did you know there was such a thing as "a salt"? The one in the picture is an antique that my Aunt Judith gave to me, complete with its little silver spoon. Real sea salt, after you spoon it up and put it on your food, does not become invisible. Think about it. Pure white, miniscule crystals that you shake out do not give you the opportunity to truly notice how much salt you are using.

There is plenty of debate in the Paleo world about the role of salt. Some very well known authors claim that salt should be avoided and was not a Paleo food. These tend to be the people who are mired in their own "knowledge". They also don't know much about cooking and eating in my opinion. It is absolutely true of course that Paleo Person took in vastly less sodium, and no processed iodized salt. They maintained a proper ratio of magnesium to sodium and potassium which is virtually impossible if you consume much salt or processed food. However, hunter-gatherers went through extreme efforts to obtain salt. They sent yak caravans over mighty mountains, they traded with enemies, they burnt the roots of certain plants that concentrate sodium, they drank blood, they sprinkled their food with clay and they ate bones. They engaged in all sorts of eating behaviors that provided a more concentrated source of sodium and other minerals which modern people do not do. Dr. Howell, who studied enzymes, theorized that cultures who consumed primarily raw foods (yes, meat) did not need very much salt because they did not require the activation of many digestive enzymes (raw meat is practically already digested) whereas cultures that ate primarily cooked foods required more salt to activate digestive enzymes. Especially here in Arizona during the summer months we have to be careful to ingest enough electrolytes, including sodium. Zucchini and celery are good vegetable sources of salt. The best sea salt for consumption is grey in color and moist. Delicious and primal.

Primal Boys? Go to the Skate Park.

2009-12-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

I bought my 7 yr old son, Ezra, a real live skate board for Christmas, complete with DC shoes in red and black which he was pining for after a visit to Starr Skate shop in Tucson. This is the kind of present I feel super happy about giving my kid. Could it result in several traumas? Yes. Important for a boy and anyway, he got Hello Kitty band aids to go with it. Could it result in physical challenges, risk taking and integrating himself into a “tribe”? Check, check and check.

We spent part of Christmas day at one of Tucson’s best skate parks and were back again today. Holy Smokes those bowls are steep!!! As you might guess there are scant few women or grrrls of any sort at the Skate Park, and no one else had their mother there, but no one else was 7 either, so I felt justified and Ezra stayed a reasonably cool distance away. I certainly did not anticipate writing about Skateboarding on my Primal Living blog spot, but once I got up close to all those boys it hit me hard… boys are primitive and skate parks are a place to go to honor that primitive nature. Why is the world always trying so hard to make boys into civilized, proper creatures? I hope my beloved sexism-fighting sisters and I aren’t to blame. I hope we didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Date rape is not acceptable, but crews of boys doing their thing? I saw the Primal nature of it today at the Skate Park.

We know that hunter-gatherer cultures usually have a system in place for recognizing achievements, physical and intellectual in their boys and young men and honoring the different stages in life that mark entry into manhood. This is sadly missing in our modern culture as many sociologists have recognized. The self-help and family sections of the book stores are packed with books on the problems with boys and modern society. Everyone knows that public schools reward typical girl behavior and that we overuse dangerous medication to create quiet, sitting-still, non-rambunctious boys. Boys need danger and other boys. They need skate boards and skaters.

It was a complete multi racial mix at the Skate park : black, Latino, and white blonde ranging in age from 7 to early 20s. I watched them check out each other’s boards. Older boys complimenting the younger ones on their boards. I watched teenage boys teach younger kids moves. Watched them perform feats for each other where they were really impressed and offered congratulations for a good accomplishment. It was genuinely cool. Even though it was not designed to impress girls (since I was the only one there), it was impressive from a girl perspective. I ended up with a crush on them all. They were funny, daring, athletic, and jovial. All things wonderfully boyish. I dragged Ezra away after an hour since I had to get to work, with him saying “I love skateboarding”. I decided that I would be more than happy with my kid hanging out at the Skate Park with a boy crew…especially if I’m there, the only Mom, keeping an eye on things. I’ll be cool about it though. Promise.

Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Today I will not write a long post about all the types of hunger that don't have to do with food, but there are a bunch. Nourishment has to do with many aspects of life. Satisfying our most innate desires is important so that we don't compensate later. Today is the Winter Solstice and acknowledging and celebrating this day makes huge contributions to some of that non-food type of nourishment. The Winter Solstice is an extremely Primal moment in the year. This 24hr period is the longest stretch of darkness we will experience in the year. Cold and dark. Two of the original human challenges. We need visible, feel-it-in-your-gut type enemies, like coldness and darkness. These are human challenges that unite us in our attempts to overcome them. For those of you with experience living in cold places you are familiar with that slight euphoria that precedes a big Nor-easter. Everyone runs to the store for batteries and bread and laughs and jokes and shakes their heads together. As a society we don't have those moments very often. Some of my most memorable moments from when my children were very little involve battling the weather with my Circle of Mamas. Leaving the house to be together, to make soup together and to mother together was a big adventure in the winter. I remember one cold winter day where we congregated at my friend Katy's house for some sledding. The Moms joined forces to keep the kids mittened, booted and warm, but while the fun was going on there was a little thaw so that the icy driveway became even slipperier. When the sun headed down over the horizon everyone went to go home and my friend Deb couldn't get out of the driveway. Her old SUV was of the type that did not engage 4WD unless it could move a little. An entire crew of tired Mamas and kids worked to push, shovel, innovate and sand to get Deb's vehicle free. Unite and fight together against an enemy that is real and not another human!! Cookie swaps were less about cookies than about a little human contact in that long stretch of cold and dark. Fire takes on an important role at the Solstice too. Heat from a fire is warming like no central heat system can ever be. Kids love fire (like most adults). Let them light candles and poke the back yard Chiminea. Teach them to build a fire. If they burn their fingers give them some ice and aloe and they will have grown smarter in the process. Fire is dangerous, challenging and incredibly rewarding. Of course cooking food on your fire makes it better. Keep it simple. Four Christmases ago my family and I spent the holiday in the Chiricahua Mtns. Santa found us there, but I forgot to pack any knives or silverware! We cooked over an open fire with sticks and it was hilariously challenging. Amazing how inept and useless we all become without out little crutches! Following a Primal diet should not be done out of context. Notice your seasons, your weather. Provide yourself and your family with some of those other aspects of primal living that are just as nourishing as food. Celebrate the Winter Solstice.

Oh no! Steamed Meat?

2009-12-18T06:22:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to roast my Thanksgiving turkey involved the usual scanning of magazines and cookbooks for anything inspirational. In my mind I was anticipating finding something like a new herb butter rub or gravy addition. For some reason I got out my grandmother's original Joy of Cooking to read about roasting a turkey. And there I found myself accused of steaming my turkey instead of roasting it! It said that the modern cook now often covers the bird with tin foil thinking to prevent it from drying out, but that the tin foil actually results in the turkey being steamed due to trapped moisture rather than a true roasting process. No way in hell was I steaming my turkey (even though I've always been very pleased with my turkeys). The solution? Take a cloth, soak it in butter, and lay it over the turkey during cooking. I am always keen on the idea of plenty of butter, but a cloth soaked in it? Was I gonna burn the house down or ruin the turkey? Who knew, but no tin foil was going to be in my oven, so I tried it. I used an old fashioned, very thin, linen dish towel soaked in melted butter. Every 25min I basted the turkey right over the cloth so it stayed moist. I did have to add a little more stock than I would have to my steamed bird, but it went swimmingly and was delicious. The skin was actually the very best turkey skin I have ever tasted. Perfect texture. Every year from now on this will be my method. Tin foil-another example of how "modern" cookery has stolen from us!

The Best Use for Candy and Sugar

2009-12-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

It is the holiday season. I've got kids. All that candy and crap is appealing. Gingerbread houses are cool...but potentially edible which has always driven me crazy. Candy is totally suited to construction projects in a way that it is not suited to consumption. This year we made a sugar cube castle stuck together with GLUE rendering it completely inedible. It was an architectural experience for my 11 year old especially since the instructions called for sugar tablets and I bought sugar cubes. Who knew there was a difference? Apparently sugar tablets are rectangles. You can see the problem. Anyway, building this sparkling winter wonderland castle enabled us to pick out bags of candy and there was a little taste testing during construction, but then it was all over. Now, I can look at this thing composed of all things detrimental and enjoy it because I won't have to think about anyone eating it too!