Breakfast Quiche Casserole

In a large bowl:

1 t. salt
7 c. shredded potatoes
1 onion shredded
1/2 c. butter melted and tossed with the potatoes
Press into large glass baking dish and bake at 400 for 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile prepare:
2 lb. sausage fried and crumbled and set aside
4 c. shredded cheese

Whisk in the same bowl:

12 eggs (3 c.)
3 c. milk or Chicken Broth (Updated 1-26-11)
1/4 t. pepper

When potatoes are baked, sprinkle on the sausage and cheese and then pour liquid mixture over everything. Squish your finger tips down into the bottom of the baking dish several places and then bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Since the baking dish is nice and hot already, it doesn't take long for this egg mixture to set.

For lower carbs sometimes I use spinach instead of potatoes and bake for only 15 minutes at 350 during the first part of prep. Cool, and cut into squares. I wrap in plastic after it's room temp. Another way to freeze would be to freeze the separated squares on parchment paper and then put into a big container to keep in freezer.

This dish seems to improve with freezing even though potatoes don't usually freeze well. For Fast Food at breakfast, I put the squares into individual casseroles the night before, place them in the counter top convection oven and in the morning, they are ready to heat. This makes a wonderful fast breakfast.

Update January 26, 2011
I often use chicken broth instead of milk to mix with the eggs.  This adds the benefits of broth and means I have more raw milk available.  I don't like to ruin the enzymes if I don't really have to. 

Pepper Parmesan Blender Dressing-No Mess

First, check to see if your blender blades screw onto a standard mason jar. If it does, you make this without much clean-up.

I use a 12oz. mason jar, but a pint would be fine too.....into the jar add:

1 clove garlic, peeled
1 egg yolk, free range
3 T Lemon juice, fresh
2 t. Dijon style mustard, I don't bother to measure this
1/2 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 T coarse ground pepper
1/2 C. grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 t. salt, "Real Salt"

I screw the blade/base component onto the jar and turn "up-side-down", place on the blender and pulse several times, and then blend at a medium speed. The mixture seizes up nicely for me even though I haven't drizzled in the olive oil like Julia Child says to do. I don't even bother to have everything room temperature which is supposed to be better.

This is very intense and satisfies those who need some real zing with something else bland. I screw on a regular lid to store and only need to wash the blades of the blender.

Yogurt Made in the Cooler

I like this way to make yogurt:

Buy yogurt to use for culture. I like Seven Stars or Fage.

Freeze in ice cube trays filling each hole half full. (Store in freezer) It doesn't take much at all to culture a quart.

I have a small “Playmate” cooler that holds two wide mouth quart jars.

I measure out two quarts of organic, raw milk into my saucepan and heat it to 180 degrees (I like thicker yogurt, so I use this temp.) I’ve gotten the heating down to a science. Two cold quarts takes 23 minutes on my medium heat to come to 180. It's a shame to heat this lovely raw milk, but to get the texture I want, I kill the good bacteria and enzymes, and re-introduce a yogurt culture. Using organic un-homogenized pasteurized milk is the next best choice.

Cool milk to 110 and pour into jars. You can pour hot milk into jars slowly and let cool there.
Update: I'm currently cooling the milk to 118 degrees and like the taste better.

When 110 (update: 118), drop one tiny cube into each jar, screw on lid and put in cooler. I found that stirring is not at all necessary for me. I think the culture likes to make its way down the jar kind of like growing roots. It always works.

Fill cooler to jar necks with hot tap water. Don't let the water touch the lids because the jar will suck in water as it cools which I don't want.

Close and wait overnight. In the morning I have perfect yogurt and best of all for me is that I used equipment that is also used for everything else. No single use stuff involved which makes it a lot more fun for me. It feels creative and when I get up in the morning I think “oh boy, I get to check my yogurt” and it’s always thick.

After I developed this system, it was simple to get it right every time. It reads complicated, but it is not.

Roasted Vegetables with Sausage

In a large bowl toss ingredients in fat:

Potatoes cubed
Rutabaga peeled and cubed
Sausage fat melted
Sea Salt-(Real Salt)

Pour into roasting pan with:

Sausage links-pastured, cut up

Roast in a 400 degree oven until browned.

Served with:

Steamed red cabbage and a dressing made from
Vinegar, sucanat, butter, and sea salt.

Steamed Swiss Chard with butter and salt.

A small scoop of sauerkraut for the pro-biotic.

Streamlined: For this meal, I used the big bowl to toss the vegetables first. Then I used the same bowl to toss the cabbage and sauce. I love using the same equipment over again. I used the steamer twice too. The red cabbage was first and the quick cooking swiss chard was last. The water from the steamer was a beautiful blue.

Coconut Oil Bars-How to eat coconut Oil

I prefer coconut bars over melting coconut oil in tea.

Gently melt:
1 C. Butter-raw spring butter is the best
2 C. Coconut oil-unrefined, I like Green Pastures

Add:
3 C. Coconut, dried and shredded
1 C. Nuts, chopped
1/2 C. Prunes, cut up
1/2 C. Apricots cut up
1/4 C. Peanut Butter
2 T. Really Raw Honey
1/4 t. Real salt

Add anything else you'd like to eat on a daily basis like sour cherries or a lot more nuts. The coconut oil firms everything well. You can add Stevia if you want it sweeter, or more honey. I try to keep it on the lower end of the carbohydrates scale. The PB really adds a nice flavor and chocolate makes it incredibly good.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and pour in this mixture. Smooth with a spatula and refrigerate until firm. Pop out of pan and cut into small squares to eat 20 minutes before each meal. Store in the refrigerater. These promote weight loss naturally. If you wish you had added something else, you can easily melt the whole batch and add things.

See Eat Fat Lose Fat by Mary Enig for details about the nutritional value of coconut oil.

Update: I found that I can add Kelp (chopped in the blender-for iodine) and tart cherries (for the anti-oxident properties) and even chocolate and keep the excellent flavor.

Organ Meat Burgers

Back to Kelly:
http://kellythekitchenkop.com

Today I braved eating organ meats. I ground a 3 1/4 lb. grassfed beef heart and added 1/2 lb. of goat liver. I mixed it together and to sample the flavor, I heated my iron griddle with bacon fat and fried a tablespoon of the mixture. I took another tablespoon of the mixture and added ground bacon, and the third taste was the meat mixed with salt and pepper. All three were delicious. I can barely taste any liver flavor and even though the mix is heavy on the heart, I will actually eat this as burger, meatballs, or meatloaf.

With one pound of the meat, I added 1 t. unrefined sea salt, 1 t. pepper, and one egg along with some ground onion which I put through the grinder last. I formed the mix into small meatballs and fried these up in bacon fat and will add the sauce ingredients next. I used frozen tomato sauce and served this over brown rice cooked according to Nourishing Traditions. It was very satisfying.

I made burgers using a press lined with plastic wrap. I still use some plastic and feel that if it's cold, it's much safer than with hot food. I froze these flat on a cookie sheet, and then gathered them up in a container to use as "Fast Food"

Clam Chicken Corn Chowder

1 Onion, chopped
1/2 Red Pepper diced
1/2 C. celery diced
1/4 lb. Bacon, no nitrates, cut up

3 Carrots, cubed
2 Potatoes, cubed

4 Small cans of chopped clams
2 Chicken breast halves, raw, and cubed
Frozen corn
Chicken broth
Milk
Sea Salt
Roux from butter and white flour or sprouted wheat flour or what you like.

Serve with Angostura bitters sprinkled on top.

This is a creamy, thickened, milk based soup that reminds me a bit of New England Clam Chowder but shouldn't be called that of course.