Books, Documentaries, Reviews: THE HEALTHY SLOW COOKER

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: December 18, 2014

THE HEALTHY SLOW COOKER

Daughter-in-law Corinne has cooked several meals for me now out of Judith Finlayson’s book, THE HEALTHY SLOW COOKER.

Each meal has been delicious.

So, I ordered this book when I got home from Charleston, SC, after Thanksgiving.

Now, I do not have a slow cooker at present. My last one cooked way too hot–a familiar critique if you start reading the “reviews” of slow cookers. I threw it out after it seemed to burn the bone broths I was trying to make using a slow cooker. Bryan and Corinne have a large-size Faberware that was given to them for their wedding, ten years ago now. Faberware seems to have disappeared. And, it also seems that all of our appliances have taken such down turns in quality that even if I could find a Faberware one now, there would be no guarantee that it bore any resemblance to a product made ten years ago now.

I can’t find a slow cooker I’m willing to buy. I did find a 10-quart one with a crockery insert, but at least one reviewer surfaced the fact that slow-cooker crockery inserts contain lead. Apparently there is a web site that can reveal how much lead, etc., but…

Cuisinart is ranked currently as the “best” slow cooker of the moment, but I’m never buying another Cuisinart product after having their expensive toaster fail and being grossly disappointed in their food processor, which is an expensive piece of junk. This week, the shaft that the grating disc sits atop bent while grating carrots:

Look at the metal curling out of the stem. Anyone with half a brain can tell you that this piece of equipment is not going to stand up to grating carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. I ordered a new shaft, and the motor seems ok, but… A PIECE OF JUNK and SHAME ON CUISINART.

Some slow cookers have aluminum inserts. Aluminum is toxic and should not be used around food. (Substitute parchment paper for aluminum if you need to top something in the oven.)

Some slow cookers have teflon lining, which is also toxic.

So, I am going to cook the slow cooker recipes in my Creuset pot with a lid–in the oven. The whole thing will cook faster anyway.

I tried the black bean and squash chili (with hamburger) this week, and it is DELICIOUS. (I’m allergic to hot peppers of any sort, so substituted cumin, tumeric, coriander, and a bit of cinnamon for the hot peppers.) I covered the whole thing with a layer of grated cheese at the last minute and let it melt. Delicious.

Turkey Tracks: Sprouted Blue Corn, Buckwheat and Blueberry Muffins from Nourished Kitchen

Turkey Tracks: December 15, 2015

Sprouted Blue Corn and Buckwheat and Blueberry Muffins

I made these this morning!

They are delicious!

The recipe came from Jennifer McGruther’s blog, Nourished Kitchen:

Sprouted Blue Corn, Buckwheat and Blueberry Muffins — Nourished Kitchen.

And she got it from the Shiloh Farms online VERY INTERESTING store.

They have a whole range of SPROUTED gluten free flours and will ship them.

There are other products as well, and I will be taking a much closer look at what they have to offer soon.

Next step: try to get our local coops to carry these flours.

What a treat to start the day!

Turkey Tracks: Sewing/Knitting Projects Update November 2014

Turkey Tracks: November 17, 2014

Sewing/Knitting Projects Update November 2014

Late October (that strange blizzard) and early November have brought a fair amount of inclement weather. It is snowing off and on today, as a matter of fact.

So, I have been snuggling into a whole array of winter projects.

This big quilt is quilted, and the binding is on. It is just waiting for me to sew down the binding. It’s 97 inches square, so it will take some nights of hand sewing.

BUT, I’ve been finishing knitting a white linen shawl at night. There’s a tale here. I started this shawl on the J&E Riggin in early September. I had it completely finished but did not like the tension, so I took it apart and went down a needle size. I’m much happier with it now, and it’s almost done. Just a few more nights.

After linen is knitted, one thoroughly wets it, dries it, and irons it. In the process, the linen turns soft as butter and very shiny.

Our Coastal Quilters and Georges Valley auction took place last weekend–and look what I bid on and won:

Gail Galloway Nicholson made this quilt, and Joan Herrick quilted it freehand on her long-arm.

Here’s a closeup:

It gives me such pleasure to have the work of friends and family in my home. Everytime I walk past one of these pieces I am reminded of the loved ones involved and of all the wonderful energy that they have put into their work.

You can see that this quilt is so, so happy to live on my coral chair!

I am in the process of making other quilts for this downstairs room. I need quilts that can be loved, used, and washed–in place of the dog-blanket strategies that live in this sitting room/tv room/den space. So, here’s a quilt top I’ve just finished that’s going to go on the back of the couch–where Rey Rey likes to hang out so she can see the back door comings and goings:

Fun, huh? It’s 85 inches square, and I think I’ll just bind it without adding any borders. I’ll quilt it when I return from Charleston December 2nd.

Here’s the backing–which is especially nostalgic as grandson Kelly Enright picked it out with me this summer. He’ll get such a kick out of seeing this quilt with it’s lively backing when he next comes to visit.

This quilt is made with the 2 1/2-inch strips that I cut up from my stash two summers ago. I had a HUGE bin filled to the top. Look now:

OK, I have a few of the darks and mediums out on the cutting board as I’m using them in another quilt top:

It’s Bonnie Hunter’s Scrappy Trip Around the World version, and I’m having so much fun putting together various sets of 6 strips for each block (at 16 inches). Here’s two of the blocks I made yesterday:

I’ve seen so many variants of this quilt now, and I can’t wait to see how mine develops. I’m sure the blocks will get moved over and over again until I’m happy with the results.

My leader/ender project now is a low-contrast quilt made with a focus fabric and 2 1/2-inch light and dark blue blocks. I’m mixing the focus fabric into the four-patch/eight-patch blocks.

Here’s what’s forming on the design wall–in a dark corner of the wall. I’m playing with creating a center of 8 pieced blocks surrounding one of the focus fabric squares. I don’t know how this will work out… I’m just playing. I may play with some single 4-patch blocks surrounded with sashings of the focus fabric as well. Or, use another fabric that co-ordinates. Who knows? That’s what play is all about…

I made a big soup yesterday so was able to quilt until I got hungry. AND, I’ll freeze some of it to have on the night I return. The meat is from the turkey I roasted earlier in the year–a turkey from last Thanksgiving that came from my neighbors: Susan McBride and Chris Richmond of Golden Brook Farm. Sometime last summer I defrosted the turkey, cut it up, and roasted it. I froze one-half of the turkey breast and am just now using it.

I used a chicken bone-broth base (of course), the turkey, and what I had on hand: frozen tomatoes from the summer, onions, carrots, celery, fresh parsley, rutabaga, some brown rice, and the Indian spices (cumin, coriander, a bit of cinnamon, tumeric). It’s super delicious!!

My fabrics for Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt 2014–Grand Illusion–are ironed and ready to go! I’ll get the first clue the day after Thanksgiving, but will not be able to start it until I get home. But, I’m ready!

I leave for Charleston, SC, this Thursday, for the Thanksgiving holidays with my family, and, as always, posting to the blog with the ipad is always chancy–but I’ll take lots of pictures and will post when I get home if all else fails!

Turkey Tracks: Fall Squashes

Turkey Tracks: November 14, 2014

Fall Squashes

I get such a kick out of passing my kitchen counter and seeing the fall squashes assembled there.

I’ve learned the hard way that squashes keep best in a warmish room–not a cold room. Last year, Melody Pendleton gave me a large pumpkin that sat on the counter until early spring.

The big guy is, as those of you know who read this blog at all, a Blue Hubbard. I’ve successfully grown a few over the past years. But not this year. Our summer was way too cool and rainy for squashes of any sort. Anyway, the hubbards are fabulous keepers. You can, even, cut chunks out and put the rest in a cool spot (which I don’t really have) and it will keep as long as you work away at it within a few weeks.

The long bright orange one and it’s mate, the long green one are pie pumpkins. I’ll cut them in half, scoop out seeds, and roast them. Soon. Then I’ll freeze them. I like to let all of these squashes sit a bit before cooking them as the “sugar off” and get really sweet

The tan butternut is a common squash in grocery stores and a winter staple.

The striped yellow squashes are Delicatas They are more fragile and need to be eaten early. I like to slice them in half, scoop out the seeds, and then slice the halves into strips and roast them. I like to use red palm oil and lots of garlic. And I often mix them with a lot of other roasted fall veggies of all sorts.

The green round squash is a buttercup. It’s a dense, sweet squash that I like to cut up and pair with the last of the green tomatoes chunked up, some red onion chunks, some small potatoes chunked up. Drizzle all with UNREFINED coconut oil, throw in garlic and fresh rosemary and roast at about 375° until soft and beginning to char at the edges.. Turn once with a spatula about 5 minutes in to coat everything with the oil and turn once more in about…30 minutes?

The purplish round veggies are rutabagas. I use them like I would a potato. They are delicious peeled, chunked up, cooked in water until soft, smashed, with lots of raw butter and salt and pepper. Sometimes I also use them in the turnip, parsnip, carrot, onion/leek, garlic mixture I grate up and lacto-ferment.

Interesting Information: Homemade Laundry Soap Update

Interesting Information: August 21, 2014

Homemade Laundry Soap Update

In a nutshell, it’s really good.

I like it a lot.

See the recipe elsewhere on the blog.

I’m not so crazy about the smell of it, but it CLEANS!

And its CHEAP!

Turkey Tracks: Budget101.com: Make your own Laundry Detergent

Turkey Tracks: July 29, 2014

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

Friend Bonnie Sinatro posted this “recipe” on Facebook the other day.

Hmmmm, I thought. That’s really interesting.

And note that Bonnie used THE UNCOOKED version of the recipe–which I will also do.

Here’s a picture from the Budget101 web site listed below.

Budget101.com – – Moms Super Laundry Sauce | Whipped Laundry Soap | Make your own Laundry Detergent.

Basically, this laundry soap uses 3 ingredients and makes 1/2 gallon, for under $2 for each batch, and washes 128 loads with 1 Tablelspoon a load:

The Fels-Naptha soap gave me some pause, so I did a little research–especially after I bought it. It does contain petroleum products, and there is one that is toxic. But that’s the ingredient that helps dissolve grease. And there are dyes and a really strong fragrance chemical smell.

I’d still say it’s worth a try. Various users write that this mixture is good about removing stains. And it’s really cheap.

If you want an environmental laundry option, try soap nuts. I use them all the time. they are the dried fruit of the Soapberry tree and are a natural cleaner (Sapindus mukorossi). I find they work really well. I use more of the nuts for dirtier clothes. I do treat stains, especially grease stains, before washing.

Each batch of about six does about six loads of laundry. And the little baggies come with the packet. I’ve had this package for about 18 months now.

Here’s another non-toxic laundry product I keep on hand for dirtier loads:

It does about 100 loads for about $11.

Turkey Tracks: My Dog Food

Turkey Tracks: July 23, 2014

My Dog Food

With the dogs I have now, and which I’ve had for 12 years and 9 years (Penelope, No No Penny, PenBay–was about two years old when we rescued her from Katrina), I’ve never used dry dogfood.

Up here in Maine, I am able to get whole chickens (skin, bones, organs, meat) ground up for $1.59 a pound. I mix that pound with 1 cup of dried veggies (Sojos) and one cup of water and let it sit overnight. This batch feeds two small dogs for two days. I only recently added the veggies as both dogs needed to drop a bit of weight. I’ve been very pleased with the addition of vegetables.

Before Maine, I used various ground muscle meats from the Virginia grocery stores, mixed with veggies I cooked. That’s ok, but eating all muscle meat isn’t great either. Make sure you get at least 15% fat, not all lean muscle.

I’ve never added grains to dog food. And I supplement with some of my constant and ongoing bone broths, leftover foods and fats they like, and so forth. Penny likes fruit. Reynolds does not.

Both dogs LOVE raw chicken necks–and those are filled with so many great things for dogs.

The dogs love this current mixture, and they are really healthy. People can’t believe their ages (10 and 11). They don’t have any old-age white on their faces, their coats are thick and glossy, their eyes are bright, they have no skin issues, and their poop is great.

I think feeding issues show up when dogs get old…

Penny’s teeth stay pretty clean because she will chew bones. I use a 5 or 6-inch marrow bone (those little ones don’t get chewed) that makes her work to get at the marrow.

Reynolds won’t chew bones on a regular basis, so I have to have her teeth cleaned about once a year–which is hard on her I think. My holistic vet uses a chemical that knocks her down, cleans her teeth, then rouses her up with the antidote. It’s the same process that you see when a vet knocks back a lion, or tiger, in order to check them. I am with her the whole time, touching her and talking to her. We did the teeth cleaning thing last Monday. An hour later Reynolds enjoyed a walk all along the Belfast harbor. You’d never know she’d been knocked back an hour earlier.

Turkey Tracks: Soaking Nuts

Turkey Tracks: July 23, 2014

Soaking Nuts

All nuts and seeds need to be soaked, sprouted, or fermented in order to get rid of the awesome chemical packages they carry to protect themselves from being eaten before they can sprout and grow. Some of these chemicals are phytates, and phytates can seriously inhibit your body’s ability to keep or use the minerals it takes in.

When I mention “soaking nuts” before eating them, the listener’s eyes glaze over, and I get slotted into the category of “weird woman.”

But, you know, it isn’t hard to soak nuts. And they are delicious afterwards.

Here’s a bowl of walnuts soaking in my kitchen the other day:

Basically you just cover the nuts with water and add some salt. I used two tablespoons for this lot

After soaking for from 12-24 hours, I scoop them out and dry them in the dehydrator–which does not take all that long.

I put them in a Mason jar and they keep for a long time. Now I have an asset to use as my heart desires. All for less than 10 minutes of real work.

These are WALNUTS, which need to be refrigerated, so into the frig they went.

Not all nuts need refrigeration. And some nuts, like cashews, need only about 6 hours of soaking–or they get mooshy, would be my guess.

For more information on good-food practices, I cannot recommend highly enough getting a copy of NOURISHING TRADITIONS, by Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Mary Enig, both of The Weston A. Price Foundation.

Turkey Tracks: Rose Thomas and La Dolce Vita Farm

Turkey Tracks: July 19, 2014

Rose Thomas and La Dolce Vita Farm

Rose Thomas is an amazing baker and an amazing friend.

Rose bakes in a wood-fired oven (and in other ovens too) and her commercial kitchen is almost finished.

Her baking is…delicious…and her other cooking is…inspired.

Take a look at her Facebook page if you can, and you’ll see what I mean.

Rose has been to Italy many, many times over the years and worked in farm/resort kitchens there as well. One place she goes is to the Tuscan kitchen and farm Spannocchia.

Her La Dolce Vita Farm is a really fun place to be, and I go over about once a week on Wednesdays to pick up milk and yogurt that arrives. This week, though, I got there on Thursday, and Rose was baking for the Isleboro Island farmer’s market on Friday.

Here’s Rose on this big baking day–the oven is behind her and she’s already loaded about 15 loaves of this bread into the oven’s maw–with more to go.

She uses Tartine bread–from the famous bakery in California–as her ultimate model for her loaves. She will cut the tops of these loaves with a razor before she puts them in the oven.

Here’s a pic of the inside of the oven, which is, unfortunately, blurry, but it gives you some idea:

Earlier this spring, Rose knew that I was down to three hens with two of them not laying and that I’ve talked about getting Buckeye chickens for some years (they’re hard to find in Maine). So, she surprised me with some Buckeye chicks that she is raising, and I’ve been visiting them when I go to the farm.

The Buckeyes are the brown chicks, and the Cockoo Marans are the speckled ones. The latter will lay a big chocolate brown egg, and the Buckeyes will lay a lighter colored brown. Both of these breeds are big hens and are very cold tolerant of our Maine winter.

The chicks are almost big enough to be released to the freedom of the yard. They have to be big enough to handle the other hens in the hen house.

And I can’t wait to bring some of both breeds home. When I do, I’ll return two of my more…territorial…hens to her flock so they won’t beat the new chicks to death.

Rose is also raising four pigs. They’ve doubled in size over the last week.

Here they are:

And, here’s a picture of the heavenly milk and yogurt I’m getting from MilkHouse–who drops off at Rose’s farm. Can you see that the cream on the milk bottle reaches all the way to the bottom of the jug handle? That’s Jersey cows for you…

I am so spoiled up here in Maine…

And I know it.

Turkey Tracks: CSA Bounty

Turkey Tracks: July 19, 2014

CSA Bounty

My CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) is Hope’s Edge, in Hope, Maine.

My pickup is on Friday, which was yesterday.

Friend Giovanna McCarthy picked up for me as I spent the day on Vinalhaven Island (an hour ferry’s ride away) with my book club.

So, I came home to two large sacks in the garage refrigerator that include a gorgeous fennel bulb, lots of greens, peas, spring onions, herbs, broccoli, and on and on.

It was…a haul.

So, I spent this morning processing food.

Jennifer McGruther of THE NOURISHED KITCHEN in a recent blog post noted that when she has a glut of greens, she dries them in the dehydrator and pulverizes them to green dust in her food processor and stores them in jars. She adds the “green dust” to soups and stews at will. I really liked that idea. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

So, my greens are upstairs drying out as we speak. AHA! It’s the inaugural summer use of the dehydrator, which runs day and night in August and September. I took the lid off so you can see. I’m drying kale and beet greens.

I used the chard leaves and a lot of the CSA produce in a summer soup–whose base is a VERY rich turkey bone broth. I wrangled my 23-pound Thanksgiving turkey for two whole days this week, which freed up needed freezer space and produced a lot of cooked meat. (The cooked drumsticks I refroze and will use them to build more bone broth AND some delicious dark meat for a soup/stew.) The turkey came from Golden Brook Farm, owned by Susan McBride and Chris Richmond.

Here’s the soup. I ate it for lunch, and it was so delicious. It has the turkey bone broth, garlic scapes, onions, carrots, the fennel bulb, wintered-over potatoes, a handful of small broccoli crowns from the garden, celery, dried cherry tomatoes from last summer, fresh herbs–and that’s all I can remember. I stir the chard leaves in at the last minute. And I used the turkey fat on top of the jars of broth to sauté the veggies. The only thing from “away” was the celery.

Jennifer McGruther in THE NOURISHED KITCHEN has a terrific recipe (or so it looks) for fermenting chard stems. So, I tried it, but added, also, the beet green stems to fill out the jar. She uses a savory pickling mixture and has what looks to be a lovely combination in the book. I didn’t have all the spices at the seed/whole level, so fell back on a pickling mixture I already had.

In one of the fermented mixtures I’m eating now–that I put up last fall–I put in some whole tatsoi/baby bokchoi leaves with their stems. They are delicious–the stems are crunchy and lovely, so I have no doubt that these stems I did today will be fun.

Thanks, again, Jennifer.

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