unEarthingMe

My cute little daughter wanted to make something special for dessert.  She thought about it and asked my to buy strawberries and blueberries and to make whipped cream.  I was so impressed.  I know this type of thing has been done before but, she didn't know that.  She was so proud or herself.

I, too, was proud of myself the next day when I whipped up a salad so yummy that I had to drink my leftoever dressing!  I sliced and blanched some asparagus and tossed it with slices of shiitake mushrooms, slivered almonds, black sesame seeds and an Asian style dressing made of sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and Bragg's liquid aminos.  I sure wish I had more today.

I haven't been posting in this section as I've been reconfiguring my relationship with food.  Due to a number of health issues in my family, I've spent much of the winter doing nutritional research - something I'm quite fond of doing anyway.  We have come to the decision to try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and see what sort of impact it has on all of our health.  While I very much enjoy making things from scratch, sometimes my hand is bothering me and I like to have some quick, easy meal options.  With the SCD there pretty much is no quick and easy.  So, I've been trying to adjust, find my balance and make things when I'm feeling good.  That way I'll have something on hand for when I'm not feeling up to an involved day in the kitchen.

Here are some of the things I've made lately:

yogurt, yogurt and more yogurt - I'm making this almost daily as it is the only dairy really allowed besides certain cheeses

frozen yogurt - for the above reason.  So far I've made a strawberry-lime that was very sherbert-like (my first attempt); a vanilla bean; and (my favorite) lemon (with lemon zest and lemon extract)  Lemon was the rest of my family's least favorite, whereas I could have eaten the entire batch.

blueberry muffins made with almond flour -  Even though it cost me $12-$15 to make this batch of muffins, I was still able to enjoy them.  Everyone has been longing for some sort of bread.  Starches/grains  are a no-no on this diet.  Almond flour is quite expensive, as are blueberries, honey and anything else in this recipe save the baking soda!

pre-egg & gouda frittata in the worksaparagus mushroom frittata - this was fabulous.  The cookbook I got this from recommended serving it with a tomato chutney that I also made.  In my opinion, the chutney overpowered the flavors of the delicious frittata.  I used aged gouda, asparagus and crimini mushrooms (of course garlic too).  A. liked it so much that she ate half of it.  That's like her eating a four egg omelet, not something she would do too often.

tons o' pork - there was a great deal on this enormous, locally raised, pastured pork roast at Back Door Butcher.  Here is where my planning for a rainy day comes in.  I've slow-roasted the pork and tonight served it with the tomato chutney (it was perfect with the pork), salad greens from our garden, and minted (mint also from our garden) peas. 

In the process of making the minted peas, I needed lemon zest.  I went ahead and zested the whole lemon because I knew I would be making frozen yogurt for dessert - so why not lemon.  There was a lot of liquid left from the chutney when I made it yesterday.  I reserved it and will use it as the base for a BBQ sauce that I will be making for the remaing 5 1/2 to 6 pounds of pork roast.  This can be portioned and frozen for my not feeling up to making so much from scratch days.

Tune in for more exciting adventures in SCD cooking with you OCD host, me!

I have taken to making smoothies again but now I'm throwing in veggies.

Back when we had chickens, I used to make smoothies with raw milk, raw egg, fruit and whatever vitamins or suppliments the kids found unpalatable.  Throw in a little local honey and you're set.

I have finally found a source for raw milk again after our move and though we've given up our chickens, I'm getting fresh eggs from a homeschool friend.  We're back in business only now instead of suppliments, I'm adding vegetables.  These are two flavors that did well:

Raw milk, kefir, egg, organic frozen blueberries, honey and some large handfuls of fresh baby spinach.  I was surprised at how much spinach I could get in there and still have it taste sweet and fruity.

Raw milk, kefir, egg, organic frozen raspberries, organic frozen peas, and honey.  Yum!

I had bought some fresh cranberries and thought I'd make a cranberry orange relish to serve alongside some pork.  When I got home just in time to make dinner, B. had eaten my Mandarin Oranges.  I had a can of Mangos, so I blended those together and poured part of the puree on the pork.  I still had quite a bit left and have been trying to use it up.  My next use was also set in motion by B.  He accidentally defrosted a venison tenderloin that I hadn't decided what I wanted to do with yet.  It was a nice gift from a neighbor but, I've never made venison tenderloin.

Knowing that it's a tougher, lower fat meat, I marinated it overnight in a raspberry-blackberry wine vinegar.  I covered it and slow roasted it for about an hour.  The drippings and marinade were reserved for a butter sauce.  I decided that I would get fancy and use up some of my cranberry mango puree with this meal too.  I ladled some puree on the plate and topped it with fresh spinach.  On top of that I placed some butternut squash that I had been roasting at the same time as the venison.  The venison was very tender and finally put on top making a nice tall stack.  On the stove top I heated, then turned off the drippings and marinade.  Into this, I placed a ton of butter and swirled it until it had the nice creamy consistency of a decadent butter sauce.  This got poured over the whole mess.  It seemed to be a hit with the everyone in my family.

Now, my plan for the last of the puree.  I have a little bit of chevre left sitting in a container that I need to store something else in.  I also have some buttermilk remaining from having made butter today.  I'm thinking these will get thrown into a muffin batter with what is left of the cranberry mango puree.  It sounds good to me.  We'll see at breakfast tomorrow.

Next, what to do with the TON of cream cheese I have stockpiled.  It was on sale.

So, I'm trying to remember a few things I made over the past couple of weeks that were big hits.  The first was with a couple of turkey-sized organic chicken breasts that were super cheap at the grocery store.  They had to be used that day so I browned them and scrounged around for something to throw in the pan.  I found that I had several orange and yellow bell peppers which I cut into chunky strips and added on top of the browned chicken.  Before doing that I had placed thin wedges of onion around the chicken so that they would be closer to the bottom of the pan.  I tossed in some oregano and sea salt, then finally topped that with a can of sliced roma tomatoes, covered it and cooked it about thirty-five minutes.  It was pretty popular here in our little household served with steamed kale and potatoes, but the breasts were so large that the four of us only ate one.  Knowing I was going to make soup out of the leftovers, I reserved one large leaf of kale.

I set aside the remaining breast and pureed the tomato, pepper, onion mixture with a leftover potato for a soup base.  I could see that it was not going to make enough soup for us and added a container of Pacific foods tomato red pepper soup since it was pretty much what I had made to begin with.  Some added water ensured enough liquid to cook in the crock pot the following day along with the diced up remaining chicken breast.  About thirty minutes before serving, I added some leftover black japonica rice and the kale cut in ribbons.  When I served the soup, I garnished it with some kefir.  It was incredibly good and I sent a bowl over to my neighbor who was suffering from a cold.  She and my family enjoyed it so much that I was inspired to blog it before I forgot how I'd made it.

The third thing I made that was a big hit was a dip for a Solstice Party we attended.  My neighbor had made a blue cheese spread for us that was too strong for most people.  I wanted to do something with artichokes for the Solstice Party but was too short on time to use the fresh ones I had purchased.  I grabbed a jar of marinated artichokes and a can of artichoke bottoms and pureed them with a block of cream cheese and a little bit of the blue cheese spread - not too much or it would overpower.  I threw in sea salt, key lime juice and cayenne pepper.  This was all blended into a dip served with little toasted slices of rye bread.  I could eat this by the spoonful.  Even B., who is no fan of artichokes, thought it was great.

Lastly, and this is soooo easy, I made what has become a traditional Christmas morning fruit salad for me.  I cut up pink grapefruits into little wedges, quarter and slice kiwi and toss with raspberries.  I made this mixture up a few Christmases ago because it looks so festive.  I have never dressed it with anything until this year because it really has a perfect balance of sweet and tart for me.  To try something different I squirted in a little bit of light agave nectar.  I liked my new addition.  I'm not sure which way I like it better.  I did have to make this a day ahead this year and I don't know if it was because of that and/or the addition of the nectar, but the colors bled and blended and it didn't look as pretty as usual when I served it.

So, these were my meals of note for December!