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.

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.

Lasagna with Gluten Free Soba Pasta

I learned to make soba (buckwheat and gluten-free) noodles from Kimi at Nourishing Gourmet. Two changes I made were to add 1 1/2 t. salt after I had soaked the mixture for 36 hours along with 1 T. arrowroot powder to help with the flexibility. It was no problem to work these things into the dough. There is no gluten to tense up and resist. I used arrowroot to dust the board and rolling pin.

Update 1-24-2010: I made soba noodles with great success when I ground my own buckwheat but when I bought buckwheat flour, it was very different. It was much darker and had a strong flavor when I cooked a test noodle. I didn't end up using the dough. I'm researching why this would be. I find my own ground flour to be delicious, but not the purchased flour. I don't know why yet.

I got my regular lasagna ingredients together and then rolled out the pasta onto a board, cut it into wide noodles (just like commercial lasagna noodles) and layered them into the casserole dish raw, along with everything else. I did wait to top with fresh mozzarella until it had baked for 45 minutes. If I don't do that, the mozzarella browns too much for me.

Tomato sauce with oregano and basil.
Sauteed hamburger, seasoned with salt (1 t./lb.)
White sauce made with sprouted whole wheat flour.
Collard Greens-cut up and raw
Soba noodles cut wide like lasagna
Peas-just a few sprinkled in.
Mushrooms-sauteed
Mozzarella cheese-fresh sliced
Cheddar cheese-I still like a little cheddar in my lasagna even though it's not authentic.

Layer the above ingredients and bake for 45 min.
Add mozzarella and cheddar cheeses and bake 15 to 20 min. more.

Cool a bit before eating-for best flavor.

Hoppin John

A favorite meal, especially for work lunches (thermos food) is Hoppin John. I make my own version which uses foods I always have on hand.

Bacon, chopped and sauteed with
Onion, chopped
Celery, chopped
Carrots, cubed

Cooked black eyed peas using the overnight soaking method, then drained.
2 Bay leaves
Garlic, plenty of cloves
Bone Broth that I usually have cooking on the stove. It doesn't seem to matter what kind.
Thyme, dried
Hot pepper flakes.
Sea Salt, unrefined.

1 C. brown rice cooked with
2 C. water
1 t. salt
2 T butter


I saute the first ingredients in the bacon and fat, then add everything else, adding the bone broth to just cover the pea mixture. I simmer this while I cook rice to go with it. I add the two together to store for lunches. I like to cook brown rice on a very low heat and do it an hour. It has such a nice nutty flavor. I usually try to soak the rice overnight too which neutralizes the phytates, but rice isn't so high that this step gets skipped in my house sometimes.

Everyday Cassoulet-Fantastic

I love cassoulet. After I read Julia Child's recipe, I was delighted to learn all about it. Though inspirational, I've never made her recipe because it's so involved. I tasted two authentic cassoulets in France and both were hearty, plain, and delicious. I developed an everyday version that uses simple ingredients.

Soak 2 lb.s Great Northern beans in warm water with whey or lemon juice. Leave overnight. I like to rinse them once during this time, like early in the morning before I cook them. I think it makes them digest easier.

Boil a kettle of water to precipitate as much calcium from hard water as is possible. Pour boiling water over the drained beans and simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain again and pour more pre-boiled water over the beans and simmer for 2 to 3 hours until tender.

Prepare the chicken by cutting into pieces and then make stock out of all the bones. You will need this to pour over the bean-meat mixture.

Roast chicken pieces in the largest Le Creuset casserole you have. I added Italian sausages (no nitrate) and a piece of fatty bacon (no nitrate) too. Drain the beans when cooked and pour over the meats with 2 bay leaves. Add a can of diced tomatoes and about 2 T. tomato paste. A tiny amount of paste is best. I keep extra tomato paste in globs in the freezer. Add un-refined sea salt. Pour the chicken broth over the mixture until you can see the liquid. Add more water to the bones and keep them cooking for even more broth for future cooking.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Remove the lid and bake 20 minutes longer. I let this cool down in the oven after I turn it off. The skin that forms makes the broth delicious.

Let this casserole cool down a bit before serving. This is a dish where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's not authentic cassoulet but what a fabulous flavor it has.

Lentil Salad with Dry Land Cress

I cooked some lentils in my crock-pot after soaking them overnight to remove the phytates. I drained them well and added:

Olive Oil
Lemon-juice of one
Sea Salt
Spring Onions
Lacto-fermented carrots, chopped

As a side, I cooked some dry land cress like this:

Saute 2 strips of nitrate-free bacon
Toss into pan, 2 heads of chopped dry-land cress (I got this at the farmer's market)
Saute the cress until limp and slightly cooked.

I actually put both of these together on top of a fresh bib lettuce leaf.

This is a delicious cold or slightly warm salad. For lunch the next day I took more lentils and seasoned with balsamic vinegar, onions, salt, pepper, and olives and topped with slices of avocado coated in vinegar.

It's fast food if you have the lentils already cooked and in the fridge unseasoned. This way you can get them out to make a salad, stew, or soup.

Fried Rice

I found a way to make fried rice that I love.

I make it in my large iron skillet starting with some good lard, sausage fat, or bacon and the fat.

I use brown rice that has been soaked and cooked and can be leftover.

Fry bacon pieces and leave that fat in the skillet. While that is frying, prepare vegetables and other ingredients in separate small containers.

Sesame seeds
Onions sliced or diced
Garlic cloves. I crush these on top of another vegetable type ingredient.
Almonds, crispy a la Nourishing Traditions, coarsely chopped.
Cucumbers diced.
Red peppers diced.
Spinach leaves chopped a bit.
Tomatoes quartered or diced.
Anything else you want. Whatever I get at the farmer's market goes into this.

Add the sesame seeds to the bacon and fat and fry until a bit toasty.
Add the rice and fry at a medium heat, stirring and scraping every few minutes with a metal, flat spatula. When the rice is hot and frying, add the spinach and toss every so often for 2 to 3 minutes.

Toss in everything else but the cucumbers and tomatoes and let those ingredients get warm.
Put onto serving platter and add one egg per person to the empty skillet, using more fat in necessary.

Fry eggs very lightly and turn over, adding this to the top of the rice mixture.
Sprinkle on naturally brewed Tamari sauce and garnish with cucumbers and tomatoes.

This meal is very simple to construct and has everything you could possibly want all in one dish. I like the fact that the garlic and onions are almost raw but the spinach is slightly cooked which makes it more nutritious. I also garnish with lacto-fermented carrots since I keep those on hand. The skillet does not need to be washed afterwards and the little bowls of prepared vegetables are easy to wash. This dish is delicious even as it cools down and the egg with a very soft-to-liquid yolk is the very best!

Sweet Potato Apple Sausage Bake

Sweet Potatoes - wash, dry, peel and save the peelings.
Apples- peel and slice apples
Sausage-Fry and crumble.

Toss Sweet Potatoes and Apples with cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
Put in oven proof lidded casserole and put sausage on top.
Add chicken broth or water to come up 1/4 of the ingredients.
Cover and bake for 1 hour. Best served after cooling slightly.
Green Beans with garlic and butter on the side.

While the casserole is in the oven, toss the peelings in olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp. This happens fast, so watch. I actually used my toaster/convection oven for these. They are like potato chips and since I don't really like them left on the potato in this casserole, this was a delicious way to eat this vitamins.

Polenta from Nixtamalized Corn using Blender

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I used nixtamalized corn to make polenta without a grinder or mortar and pestle. I followed the method posted at Mother Earth News.


I put the corn in my blender with water. I was able to blend the corn to a nice consistency maintaining a vortex (by drizzling in water) while blending for 3 minutes. This is similar in method to making Sue Gregg's blender pancakes from whole grains. I then added more water (could be broth) and salt and cooked it in a double boiler. This made a wonderful polenta with the nutty flavor that's mentioned in the article and has all the nutrients available.

I added farmer's cheese to the hot mush and served with sauce made from onions, ground beef, chili powder, garlic, and tomatoes over the top. I added a dollop of sour cream.

Curried Beef with Potatoes and Turmeric

The texture of the meat is on the dry side (in a good way) and the potatoes roast on top and get crispy. It reminds me of sloppy joes except with Indian spices

2 medium onions chopped and sauteed in
4 T Butter
1 lb. hamburger or cut up beef sauteed with butter and onions

Spices:
1 T Curry Powder
1 t. Turmeric
1 t. Salt
1 t. Thyme
1 t. Red pepper flakes

4 Cloves garlic chopped and added with spices.

Stir everything together in a oven-proof casserole and top with:

Diced potatoes coated in tallow or melted butter and 1/2 t. Turmeric

Bake at 350 with lid for 30 minutes
Uncover and bake for 30 more minutes

I served this with steamed, buttered kale, sour cream, red sauerkraut (probiotic), and hot black tea spiced with cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves with milk and honey.