Post Surgery Rehab

   



     Here is a video of don after his right hip replacement. He is doing well, and is back from the hospital and living at home. He cannot drive as of now, but depending on how well he recovers he might be able to drive soon.

Tea with Erin and Aliza

Erin made little hors d'oeuvres from her homemade sprouted wheat crackers.

The toppings included:

Local raw cheddar cheese
Hard boiled eggs from her chickens
Smoked oysters-very high in zinc
Goat cheese from the Farmers Market
Mashed sardines with mustard and onions
Garlic scapes

These were delicious.  I make sprouted whole wheat flour by first sprouting the wheat berries and then dehydrating them for at least 12 hours and then grinding them in my grain mill.

Erin used CHEESESLAVE's recipe for the crackers:Sprouted Wheat Crackers.
These are delicious and my favorite ones were the crispy, browned ones.

 

Cream of Kamut for Jim

Cream of Kamut cereal with 3 1/2 C. of water used in cooking.

Day before serving:


1 C. Kamut grains toasted at 350° for 15 minutes and cooled.
2 t. whey (optional)
2 C. water


Blend in standard blender until grains are broken and it is beginning to look cloudy.


Let sit on kitchen counter overnight.


Next morning for breakfast:


Add 1 1/2 to 2 C. more water.
1/2 t. salt


Cook in heavy bottomed saucepan until bubbling.  Let sit on warm burner for 10 minutes or so until you like the texture. 


Top with your favorite ingredients such as:


Raisins
Cream
Coconut Oil
Butter
Maple syrup
Almonds, chopped.


Tastes like cream of wheat which it actually is.  Kamut is an ancient wheat grain.


Jim might add cocoa too.  The taste is nutty and smooth.  There is no indication that you are eating a whole grain.  The bran becomes soft in the overnight soak and more digestible.

Chickens are my neighbors

 Every so often, I leap at the chance to take care of my neighbor's chickens.  My job is to open the little door you see in the background.  It slides up and hooks there all day while the chickens are out.  They need to be able to come and go to access their food and water, and also to lay eggs.

Chickens coming out in the morning.


The light red chicken made it her job to run out first. As I opened the door, she would leap out and then leap back inside.

One gray, rainy morning, when she came out and ran right back in, they all stayed inside. She had indicated to them that it was a cold, hostile, wet world.  All I understood her to "say" sounded like wonderful throaty clucking noises.  I had never really known how satisfying the sound of clucking is.  When you read the word "clucking" in a book, it doesn't make clear how soft the sound is.  It is most engaging.
If the light red chicken liked what she saw, I could hear immediate thumping noises which is how they sound flying down from their perch.

Deciding what to do and collecting some seeds.



Picking up a few seeds and grubs on the way to the garden.

One time the light red chicken brought everyone outside, and then went back in.  I sat with my cat for about  5 minutes.  When she came out again, I opened the big door and collected her freshly laid warm egg.  I had that one for breakfast.


Cleaning up the garden, an all day job.

Our neighbors have the most clever arrangement for their chickens.  The fencing leads into the garden which is where they spend most of their day eating seeds and grubs.  Admirable work for a chicken who in turn, lays the most wonderful eggs.  After a day of messing around, they lay gold.  Then I go and close their door.  They go inside by themselves and wait for me to come and close the door to protect them for the night.

I get paid in eggs and it is truly a fair trade.

Christmas Tree

I went out to cut a tree today.  There weren't many choices that would actually fit in our house, so I chose:

It has single branches radiating from the trunk which allows you to actually hang ornaments vertically instead of on a fat bushy tree...this can also be nice, but I really like a sparse tree.

And then Rosie came to join me.

I put on Christmas music, A Robert Shaw Christmas, and made Orange Blossom Cookies from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook.  I never would have picked this recipe because I especially like chocolatey or carmel things for parties, but Sam made these at work and they are really delicious.

Fall Ferments

I spent an afternoon making fermented vegetables out of my purchases at the Farmers Market:

I began with Giardiniera.  That's the half gallon on the right.  It has cauliflower florets and stems, carrots, onions, red peppers, garlic, and mixed peppercorns. I salted the vegetables first to make them wilt a bit so they would be easier to pack into the jar.  I then added well water to cover them.  I put a little jar on top as a weight.  These are two days old and bubbling madly.  I had more than a half gallon, so I put the rest into the far left jar and put carrots on top of them.


The blue crock is from my friend, Melissa.  She hand threw this fermentation crock with a little reservoir for water around the rim to seal it and keep from air entering.  It works beautifully.  The half gallon in the center is nappa cabbage sliced with red peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, and hot pepper flakes.  I tossed these vegetables with 3 T salt and when I packed them in, they had made their own brine.


The jar just to the left is zucchini with carrots, onions, oregano, garlic, red peppers, and salted brine.


The back two are only carrots and garlic in brine.  I didn't have dill for them.


These will be so good when they are done and full of probiotics and lactic acid.  They will actually be "pickled" with their own generation of lactic acid and nicely sour.  There is no sugar in these.


The little jar is leftovers which will ferment just fine in their recycled jar.

I just went to a Sandor Katz Fermentation Seminar

I came home incredibly inspired to ferment everything.  Sandor Katz is the national guru of fermentation and he was at the Friendly City Food Co-op tonight.  He mentioned lots of interesting combinations to ferment:

Apple, Cranberry, Cabbage Kraut

Cabbage, Corn Kraut

Cabbage mashed potato Kraut, yes, cooked potatoes, mashed and added to cabbage, then fermented.

He suggests just salting to taste and then fermenting. 

I am so excited about this.  I got to talk to lots of fun people who want to learn fermentation.  We desperately need this bacteria in our systems because of the over use of antibiotics and germ-phobia.  Fermented vegetables and cultured beverages are a lovely way to do this.

Some tidbits:

The head of the USDA says there have not been any incidents of food poisoning from fermented vegetables.

Fermentation pre-digests food which is beneficial for our gut.

Nutrients become available during fermentation.  Nutritional Augmentation. (I love that description).

B vitamins become available through fermentation of vegetables.

Ferments are full of unique micro nutrients good for the digestion.

Fermentation detoxifies phytic acid which otherwise binds with minerals preventing you from absorbing them.  Phytic acid is in grains.

Traditionally, water has been made potable by adding a little sugar and fermenting the liquid and in that process, the alcoholic  result kills the bacteria.

Babies get their first bacteria from the lactic acid which is in the birth canal.  They have sterile guts and bodies in the womb. 

Chlorine kills beneficial bacteria in our bodies when we drink treated water.

Eating fermented vegetables replenishes the beneficial bacteria.

Fermentation is a "Natural Phenomenon That Is Inevitable" .

Put ferments in smaller and smaller jars as you use them to keep the air space to a minimum.

Fixing the lawnmower with bread dough

Bread dough inserted just to the left of the red gas primer.

The gas tank actually broke off its mount and began to splash gas around and stopped.  The whole machine rattles terribly due to a slightly bent shaft......so while it is hard on the arms and wrists, I prefer to get the most out of this mower before I buy a new one.  I wrapped wire around the tank, hooked bungee cords into the wire and stretched and attached each to something on the other side of the mower.  Then I mixed:

1/2 C. King Arthur all purpose flour

3 T. Water

1/4 t. yeast

I kneaded this into a paste and pressed it into the cracks around the break.  I figured the yeast would help it expand and seal the tank.  IT WORKED.  I was able to mow the lawn normally without the tank splashing up and down losing gas.  The seal remained flexible enough to jiggle without breaking.

I didn't need to buy a new lawnmower today.



Rhubarb Pickle

Lacto-Fermented Rhubarb

I was given some rhubarb tonight.  I don't usually use it because it requires so much sugar to make palatable.  Then I thought of lacto-fermenting it.  I diced it up, added sea salt, hot pepper flakes and onion.  I tasted it and it's deliciously sour and I can imagine eating it as a condiment with most all meats and fish.

Diced rhubarb to fill a quart jar....and a little more as it turns out.

2 T plus 2 t. unrefined sea salt

1/2 t. hot pepper flakes

1/2 Spanish onion

Stir all together, pack into a quart jar with a little more for a tiny jar, seal and wait.

I'll burp these morning and evening so that pressure doesn't build up too much.  I've never heard of using rhubarb in this way, so please wait until I report back to let you know if I was successful.

 Update: May 7- After 2 days of "fermentation", no bubbles have appeared and there is no pressure building.  Perhaps the rhubarb is so very acidic that that won't happen.

Update: May 11, This rhubarb did not actually ferment, although I have read about people using it to flavor kefir soda.  I did not add any whey which may have helped.  It is very tasty as a condiment, but since I made it, I've read that rhubarb isn't all that useful as a nutrient.  It's worth making a little in the spring I think.

Lacto-Fermented Carrots with Garlic and Dill

10 lbs. organic, peeled carrots yielded 3 half-gallon jars and 1 quart jar.  After I peeled and trimmed the ends, I cut them on the diagonal and put them in the jars along with dried dill weed and garlic cloves which I simply cut open but did not peel. I added 3 Tablespoons of unrefined sea salt to each half-gallon.  I filled each jar with well water, but you can use filtered tap water....the chlorine can be a problem so filter it out.  To cover, I put a metal canning type lid inside my plastic lids and screwed them on tight.  I'll "burp" them a couple of times in a day to release the pressure.  This lasts for about 4 days at this cool time of year.  After that, I refrigerate and hold on to them for a year or more depending on how fast we eat them.  I use them in salads, on top of rice stir fries and just to eat because they are so deliciously sour, tasty, and full  of pro-biotics.                 

Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

I visited Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian on Sunday.  I got a few good photos in spite of the Plexiglas barrier.  I love how her kitchen reflected her specific needs in the kitchen.  She had little cup hooks up the window frame for all of her Pyrex measures.  She put in wall lights to shine down on the counter/sink area and there are no cupboards above the sink, so she didn't have any bulky things to bump into.  I love that.  I hit my head on my cupboards regularly when I am concentrating and lift my head....oops. She had framed cat pictures attached to her cupboards which show in the above photo.  She didn't have cupboard doors on all of her shelves, so she could just grab a pot and not need two clean hands to get it out.

I think the Flame Orange pot-bellied piece is a Descoware enameled cast iron pot.  She used masking tape to label everything and it's still intact.  This is the most eccentric kitchen I've ever seen and I've been twice because I adore it.

Baked Pumpkin, Sausage, and Cheese

I cut a "lid" like you do for a Jack-O-Lantern and scraped out the seeds from a 4 lb. pumpkin I got from my winter vegetable vendor. 

1 1/2 C. eggs (five very large eggs)
1 1/2 C. Chicken broth
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
Whisk together the eggs, broth, and seasonings.

3/4 lb. Fried, crumbled sausage plus or minus to your taste and add to empty pumpkin.
2 C. Shredded cheddar or Swiss divided.  1 1/2 C. goes into the pumpkin now.

Pour egg/broth mixture over the sausage and cheese.

Put the lid on the pumpkin and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours in a pan with sides to contain any liquid that runs out, then remove lid.

Add reserved cheese and bake without lid for 1/2 hour. 

Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.  Scoop out filling and pumpkin for each serving.  This is better served after cooling to bring out the flavors.

Something with a cup of Tea

Smoked Oysters, lactofermented dill garlic pickle,
local raw cheddar cheese, croistini, gala apple,
hardboiled egg, and olives.

I needed something to make a cup of tea special.  When we get home from work, we sit down and have a little tea party, so I put together this:

Canned smoked oysters
Lactofermented dill and garlic pickle from local cucumbers this summer
Local raw cheddar cheese from the Eberly dairy
Gala apple
Hardboiled eggs from my favorite local farm
Croistini from a sourdough sub roll from work with olive oil, salt and pepper
Green Olives

This went extremely well with a cup of black tea.

Scalloped Vegetables

Here is the recipe that I jotted down for scalloped potatoes. I liked the simplicity of the white sauce with cheese poured over the vegetables.  I made the potatoes for Christmas but found out then that 1 hour was not enough to fully cook it.  I now think that it should be baked 1 hour and 10 minutes and be covered for the first 40 minutes.



Original recipe



4 C. potatoes sliced
3 T Butter
3 T Flour
1 1/2 C. Milk
1 t. Salt
Cayenne to taste

1 C. Sharp Cheddar stirred into sauce
1/2 C. Cheddar for the top

Make a roux, add the cheese and pour over
 4 Cups of vegetables.



4 Cups sliced carrots, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes,
kale, onions, and Swiss chard.  Very vitamin dense.






Pouring the sauce onto the raw vegetables.  I used chicken
and tomato broth combined instead of milk.







Ready to bake covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for 30 minutes.







Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

I made this for breakfast and enjoyed it immensely.

In a stainless steel skillet:

½ Onion-medium, sautéed
3 Garlic cloves sliced or chopped
1 C. Kale or any greens sautéed with onion and garlic

Add:
1 ½ C. Tomato Juice
2 t. cumin

Let simmer until reduced slightly by about 1/4th and add salt.
½ t. salt or to taste.

4 Eggs brought to room temperature. Put these in a measuring cup with a spout and pour each one into the sauce spaced out. Put a lid over the skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes or more until the eggs are done how you like them.

Serve in a bowl with sour cream on top.

This is just delicious.

Beef, Mushroom, Tomato, Rice Soup

This soup turned out to be so flavorful.  Sometimes they don't even when I've added so many good nourishing ingredients so I was delighted at the rich full flavor.

1 Onion diced and sauteed in
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 lb. hamburger fried in the onions
5 cups beef broth
1 quart tomato juice
3 cups dried mushrooms
2 cups precooked brown rice.
1 1/2 t. sea salt

Simmer gently.

I make beef broth by cooking bones slowly in my crock pot for 48 hours.  The broth I used for this was very jelled and rich.  I found commercial  tomato juice in bottles which I'm pleased about.  Sometimes I can my own but not this year. Sometimes I tire of my own cooking but this recipe will be a repeater. I also liked the hamburger in this and didn't mind the texture which is similar to the rice. 

Christmas Morning Hot Chocolate

Scale the recipe up or down from these amounts:


4 C (1 Quart) Milk
2 t. cornstarch
4T Sugar
4 T Cocoa
Dash of Salt


Pour 1/2 C milk into a small saucepan with the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and cocoa.  Heat until it bubbles and cooks for about 30 seconds while whisking.  Remove from heat and let sit for 2 minutes. 


Add remaining milk and heat to 160° while whisking.  Serve in warmed mugs with whipped cream floating on top.


For the whipped cream, I use a very thick (so thick I have to dig it out of a jar) local dairy cream.  In order to whip it, I mix it half and half with milk.  For a several mugs of hot chocolate, I use:


1/2 C Super Cream
1/2 C Milk
1/2 t. vanilla
2 t. sugar
dash salt (for non-commercial milk)


Whip until soft and spoon over hot chocolate.


This hot chocolate has a nice "mouth feel" and is superior to the hot chocolate I make using chocolate chips.

Cheesy Baked Grits for Christmas Dinner

This is especially for niece Heather.

Cheesy Baked Grits is/are a family favorite for our Christmas Dinner. They are delicious hot and also as they cool down on a buffet.

4 C. water
1 C. grits
1 t. salt
1/3 C. butter
6 drops Tabasco hot sauce
3 eggs
2 C. sharp cheddar cheese

Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the grits and salt and bring back to a boil and cook for minute or two. This tends to splatter so I use a hot mit while I stir with a whisk.

Take off of the heat and whisk in the butter and Tabasco sauce.
Have eggs ready to pour in all at once while whisking.
Add the cheddar and whisk that in until smooth.

Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish with some kind of cover.

Bake at 275 for 1 hour. Cover the baking dish for 50 minutes, and then uncover it for the final 10 minutes.

If you choose a smaller deeper casserole, then it will need a longer baking time. This casserole re-heats very well too.

I've also used cornmeal and loved it. The basic recipe is quite versatile.

Brian's Old Smokey Chili

My nephew Brian is know for this special chili recipe

Ingredients

¼ Cup Olive oil

½ onion, chopped (chunky)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 T chili powder

1t paprika

1T cumin

1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can chopped tomatoes with mild green chilies
1 can black beans
1 can red beans, drained
 ¼ cup corn meal
2 cans green chilies
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 pound ground turkey
1½ t liquid smoke

4 or 5 rings jalapenos rings

¼ cup vinegar
1 large chunk roasted red pepper

Instructions
Start by drizzling one “ring” of oil around the bottom of the pot.
Add the garlic (fresh from the press) and onions. Let them sauté while you drain the garbanzo beans. Stir occasionally. After draining the garbanzos, add in the ground turkey with the onions and garlic. Let it cook and absorb the flavor.

As they sauté, mash the garbanzo the beans on a plate or cutting board until they are a thick paste. Finely chop the jalapeños and carefully mix into the garbanzo paste with the masher. Pour just a smidgen of the jalapeño pickle juice into the meat and onion mix.

Dump in the garbanzo/jalapeno paste and mix thoroughly until the mix is uniform. Turn down the heat, because the chili is very thick. Stir in the chili powder, the cumin, and the paprika. Next, dump in the tomatoes. This will add more liquid to the chili, so you can turn the heat back up. Let the chili simmer for a minute or two. Then mix in the black beans, juice and all. Once they are mixed in, drain the kidney beans and add them in.
Let it simmer for another minute, and then add both cans of green chilies.

Let it simmer some more. Once the juice comes to the top, plop in the brown sugar (lightly packed) next add a little less than ¼ cup cornmeal.

Next, add the vinegar, ¼ cup. Add the remaining oil. After that, add in the 1 and ½ teaspoon of liquid smoke. Let it simmer for a minute again, and then add the finishing touch, the roasted red pepper. Chop it up into small squares.

You are done with the ingredients. Now let it cook until it begins to smell really good (It should already smell good, but after it cooks for a little, A delicious smell almost like barbeque will become more prominent.) This is when you know it is ready to eat.

Extra tips:
- using a rimmed plate is best for mashing the garbanzos, as they won’t spill.
- make sure to mix the jalapenos really well, you don’t want any clumps.
- be sure to get all the green chilies, they really make the chili

-Do not be afraid of the jalapeños, there are so many other ingredients that the chili does not get too spicy.

-Same thing for the chili powder (It looks like a lot.)

-Use a large pot, the last time I made the chili was a double recipe, and I cannot remember if the normal recipe will fit in a small pot.

-Feel free to modify (improve) the chili. I am always happy to have better chili. In fact, I think the next time I make it I will try adding some Texas Pete. I would suggest trying the chili normally before you make many changes, so you can tell me what you think about it. (Please do)
Happy chili making!

Salmon Salad-A Quick Summer Supper-for two

1/2 C. chopped fermented dilled carrots
2 spring onions sliced diagonally
1 Can drained Salmon with all the skin and bones included
2 T. Vinaigrette dressing.

2 Stalks celery sliced diagonally.
1 Red bell pepper cut into sixths, roasted or fried.

2 Eggs- hardboiled and sliced for garnish.
2 Tomatoes sliced for garnish.

Fresh ground pepper over everything.
No salt is needed because the salmon has enough.

Mix the salmon with everything except the tomatoes and eggs. Place on the plate with tomatoes, eggs, and roasted peppers for garnish.

This "recipe" was constructed from the items I had on hand. I do like to keep salmon in the pantry and I always have eggs, celery, and fermented carrots. The onions were from the garden and the tomatoes were very good ones from the grocery, not actually in season and were the red peppers.

If I'd had radishes, they would have gone in and probably a few chopped leaves of spinach for more color. Potatoes would have been very good on the side. I would have fried them with the peppers in coconut oil. I've been enjoying warmer weather cooking which includes cold and hot on the same plate. The salmon salad was cold and the peppers and eggs were warm. A very nice salad composé.