I made ghee...

I am following the Whole30 eating plan for the month of September.  
It is a very simple plan for me because I already eat close to that way, yet this challenges me to go further, and to get rid of all sugars, grains, legumes and dairy ( and even wine ).  It will clean up my diet and help reset my metabolism.

This cool pale yellow jar of deliciousness  is called Ghee. It a staple in India  and is very easy to make.

To prepare ghee, melt one pound of  unsalted butter in a pot over medium heat. The butter will melt, forming a white froth on top. Simmer it, stirring occasionally and the froth will reduce slowly and the color of the butter will change to pale yellow. 

Then  cook on low heat until it turns golden. The residue will settle ( and it makes nice crackling sounds) at the bottom and the ghee, which is now clear, golden, translucent and fragrant, is ready. Strain the ghee through cheesecloth or a small strainer to filter it. 

  Your ghee will solidifie when completely cool.  Ghee has a long shelf-life and needs no refrigeration if kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.

Why use ghee?  

I found lots of reasons why people love it.  Here are a few:

*It is devoid of any solid milk particles or water.  Some even say that it is lactose-free.  I am     giving it to my dairy free daughter and she is able to digest it.

*It also has a high smoking point which is great for sauteing or pan frying food.

 *In India it is used for the whole body, including inflammation and it is also known to be good for one's digestive health.

To me it just taste good and one more healthy food  I can include on the Whole30.

Celebration

It's been a few weeks and even a couple of months since I've been tweaking my diet.  And the good news is I have  no more leg or hip pain!  I feel energetic and happy.  I am able to live life to its fullest and continue to be active.  Hart and I are running three miles a day, amazing, because just this winter I thought I would never run again.  I love it!  Cate, Nan and I are doing yoga at least four times a week.  I find the stretching to be so important.  As far as my diet, I am still GF and now dairy free.  I am still working with the nightshade vegetable group.  I have had no potatoes or tomatoes yet.  I can tolerate a few peppers, which is nice.  Also sugar is out, for the most part.  Nan and I eat alike now.  I now know God was telling me years ago to switch to her diet, I just didn't listen or want to.  And I see the difficult path I've gone down because I didn't.  I am a slow learner at times. But it is totally worth denying myself certain foods, to be pain free and healthy.  I just wish I hadn't waited so long.

To celebrate our anniversary Hart and I went on a day trip to nearby Roanoke, Va.  We spent the day roaming the farmer's market downtown, browsing Black Dog Salvage, eating lunch out, just being together.  A nice time to connect and enjoy each other's company.  We actually spread out our anniversary celebration this year, not by design but it just happened that way.

Last Friday, the girls spent the night with their friends and Hart and I had the opportunity to have an early anniversary dinner.  We cooked crab legs, shrimp, sweet potato fries and artichokes.   I had not attempted whole artichokes before but they turned out well, although it was quite a process to prepare them and cook them and to even eat them!  But we did enjoy them.  Find a recipe from an old, reliable cookbook and follow it to the letter and you will have no problems with yours.  I even made the Hollandaise sauce, which was very good.

Interesting vegetable.

Reminds me of a rose.

Delicious!

So on our actual anniversary, which is May 21st, we had a lentils and rice.

Recipe from the Internet.

The figurine that sat atop our wedding cake 29 years ago.

Yummy dessert Nan made from coconut milk.... chocolate mousse.

Here is a tribute in an email I wrote for Hart and as a way to share my thoughts with my family.

  Today is my 29th wedding anniversary!  Wow-that sums it up!

 So many years, so much time, so much joy, work and hard times behind us.  But there are so many years, so much time, joy, work and hard times ahead of us as well.  I'm blessed by the past and looking forward to the future!  I have a wonderful husband and I am so thankful for him!

So much has changed in our lives--- grown married children, grandchildren, Hart working from home, my job, two kids at home, a different way of eating and cooking, etc.  Even what we are having tonight reflects the change--lentils and rice, when a few years ago it would have been steak and baked potatoes!  (Actually if I had steak in my freezer, it would be on the grill!).  But I will still get out the white tablecloth and my wedding couple figurine that sat on top of my wedding cake that my Aunt Doris made, we will eat with Cate and Nan, telling them stories of our wedding day and early life together.  How he proposed, how Frank fainted, the reception, our time at Kiawah, our Victorian apartment on Chestnut St, just the two of us for just a little over a year.  The fun we had, how hard our first year was, how we've grown and changed and become better people, better together.  How God has blessed us with health and  happiness and life to the fullest.  We will lift our glass of champagne as we toast  our 29 years of marriage.  My cup overflows!  

 . 

Thanks for celebrating with me by letting me share my thoughts with you

Love, Nancy

Living without...

   The detox is over.  It lasted three weeks and it was a good thing to do.   The foods that I ate  were simple and nourishing.  I didn't eat potatoes or grains or alcohol during that time. I ate organic meats, vegetables and drank lots of water. During that time  I noticed my leg pain went away,  that achiness that I felt when I stood up in my knees and shins.  I even remarked to my family that it was gone, but I didn't know why.  


   It's been a week since I've been eating "normal".   And the pain is back, even worse.  This morning when I got out of bed my knees buckled, the pain was so great.  What is going on? 
Today I picked up an old copy of Living Without, a food magazine for those with food allergies and sensitivities. The article I turned to was about being allergic to nightshade vegetables.  It seems that tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers and chili peppers can, in some people,  cause arthritic pain,  nerve pain and other central nervous system problems.  Really?


    Then I remember that two nights ago I had made a delicious roasted chicken dish with roasted potatoes and  I had the leftovers for lunch the next day.  The next couple of day my legs were killing me.  I couldn't figure out why, until I read that article.  Not more food problems.


  What's a girl to do?  I am already GF, I tried meat free  and now I am to be free of certain vegetables too.  I just don't understand why.  Do I want to give up more foods?   Yes, if it means I can run and  hike and chase my granddaughter... pain free.  What a sacrifice!  Yet it is doable.


  I am going to give it a try for three more weeks.  No more roasted potatoes, mashed or baked.  No fajitas with peppers.  No Eggplant Parmigiana.  No spaghetti sauce or fresh tomatoes on my salad.  I will let you know if it works and is worth it.


 It will be if I can walk without grimacing.


http://www.getting-started-with-healthy-eating.com/nightshade-vegetables.html

Gabriela, so happy and carefree on the swing, (her mother was within reaching distance!)
I love the smudge of dirt on her nose:)

Happily sitting and posing for her Easter portrait.

Not so happy now.

See what I mean about keeping up with her!

All girl.

These great pictures were taken by my daughter, Cate Gordon.  She did a great job of photographing Gabriela Aylen Hull.

Satisfaction

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.  Psalm 63:5

This verse has become my mantra lately.  This is day three of my detox and of just plain eating good food.  When I say good, I mean good for you, and it does help that it also tastes good.  I am following  a yeast-free, grain -free eating program for 30 days.  The purpose is to get rid of yeast, eliminate foods that contain or nourish yeast, and to repopulate my gastrointestinal tract with friendly bacteria. Why do I need to do that?  I'm not sure really, except that I've been praying for God to show how to eat  and to restore my body to it's youthful ache free ways, to restart my metabolism.  I wish I could say I did it in the first place for spiritual reasons, yet it has become more and more of that.

Back in February,  I  prayed about what God wanted me to surrender during this Lenten season that was coming up.  Not getting a clear answer or maybe I wasn't listening well, I gave up my great love, chocolate.  I felt that was hard, a real sacrifice, because I really did (and still do) crave it.  Lent began on February 22 and I still would love a bite of dark chocolate--right now!  But later in the month I felt God speaking to me about more, giving up more.  When I found this eating plan in one of my health books, I knew this was it.

My food is simple.  I eat organic vegetables, beans, eggs, and if I want it organic meat.  So much of the way I used to cook for Nan when she had all her many food sensitivities, but she couldn't even have eggs back then.

As I have gone through these past three days I can see how I have depended on food to fulfill a part of me, a place that would bring me joy, by sipping a glass of Petite Syrah with a nice piece of chocolate.  I could go into the kitchen and indulge in any treat I wanted, a homemade granola bar, a smoothie, whatever.  But not any more.

Right now I am not eating rice, potatoes, milk , any dairy, any baked goods-- GF or not,  corn, any alcohol or any type of sugar, ie honey, maple syrup, etc.

The good news is I can have lots of vegetables, salads, dried beans, eggs, oatmeal, avocados, nuts and nut butters , olive oil, coffee and tea.  In two weeks I will add fruit and butter.  I already like all of those foods, but I like a lot of others too.  That's the catch.


God has shown me that he is the one who will satisfy every longing and that I can sing to him while I fix my dinner and my girls dinner who are not on the plan.  But, my sweet Hart is on this journey with me.  He and I will sing together.







Here is a recipe that I made on Monday.  I noticed that I have three bags of split green peas in my pantry.  I do love split pea soup so I found this vegetarian one and it was really quite delicious.

Two cups of pretty green peas

Cooking the peas in my big red pot

Removing a large cupful of the cooked, but still slightly firm peas.

Pureed peas, my handy hand held mixer.

A satisfying bowl of split pea soup.

recipe by www.101cookbooks.com


Very, very good.

Granola love!

Who doesn't love granola?  I don't mean the hard, tasteless kind, but the soft chewy oat-walnut-honey kind.  I love this kind on my plain yogurt and on my cereal, whenever I eat any of that.  It's hard to find GF granola, so I make my own. Later I will include the recipe, but this post is about TO DIE for Granola Bars. Again I'm talking about the soft, chewy, slightly crunchy kind (with lots of chocolate chips!!).  My family LOVES these.

It doesn't take long to mix these up and get them right into the oven.

I used a 9 x 13 here, but I think they are even better in a 8 x 8, thicker and softer.

The finished bars! Ready to grab!

So yummy!

Pretty too.  These have butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, because I gave up chocolate for Lent.

They get eaten really quickly.

See what I mean...

Chewy Granola Bars

1/3 c agave
3/4 c honey
2 tsp vanilla
1 c Brown rice flour (or Whole wheat)
1 c walnuts
1/2 raisins (optional)
1/2 c dark chocolate chips
2/3 c Natural Peanut Butter/Almond Butter
2 TBs hot water
2 1/2 c rolled oats

Mix agave, PB, honey, water and vanilla until well blended.  Stir in rolled oats, flour, walnuts, dark chocolate and raisins.  Press mixture into greased 9 x 13 pan. ( for  8 x 8 cook 5 mins longer) Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cut into 24 bars while still warm.  Cool completely before removing from pan.

Thank you Lisa for the recipe!

Tiny eggs

                            Bea and Patsy have decided to get in on the egg act.
                      Monday we got our first Blue Cochin egg, so cute, if I may
                                                      say so myself!

a Blue Cochin egg and a Rhode Island Red egg

The eggs we've collected this week so far.

Good recipe

After having been in Atlanta all weekend, I went to the grocery store to stock up for the week.  My plan was to have Chicken Alfredo for dinner, but once I began to make it, I realized that I had no Parmesan cheese.  And of course it hadn't been on my grocery list so I hadn't bought any either.  Oh, well, what to do?  Send my sweet hubby back to the store or rethink dinner.  Thank goodness for computers.  I got online and found a tomato based recipe for a creamy sauce.  My family loved it, so now it is in the favorites.

Tomato-Cream Sauce for Pasta:

olive oil
diced onion
minced garlic
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 TB dried basil
1 ts Italian seasonings
little salt and pepper
1/2 cream
1 TB butter

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes through pepper.  Bring to boil and then let simmer for 15 minutes.  Stir in cream and butter.  Cook for 5 more minutes.

I had sauteed chicken slices in garlic as the sauce was cooking.  I like to serve the plates in my house from the stove, so I put pasta on the plate, topped with the sauce.  Then I put the sauteed chicken on top of that and sprinkled it parsley.  Pretty and delicious!

So yummy and easy too.

Tomato tea

A cure for the common cold... I think I've found it. I woke up Tuesday night unable to breathe and could not go back to sleep.  Since I do not keep over-the- counter or prescription drugs in my medicine cabinet, I went downstairs to seek help from the Internet.  I found a natural remedy and amazingly enough I had all the ingredients on hand.  So at 2 in the morning I, along with my ever loving husband, made Tomato Tea.

1 cup tomato juice
1 tsp minced garlic
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 ts hot sauce
dash of celery salt for taste
Heat and drink.

I went back to bed and immediately my sinuses cleared up and I was able to sleep. ( I will say that I brushed my teeth very well and gargled with Listerine, first)

I made more TT in the morning and again that evening and each time it helped.

PS.  Hart has discovered a really good tomato juice that he enjoys each morning.  He buys it at Save-a Lot and it is Diane's Garden Tomato Juice, all natural ingredients.  I like it as well.

Black bear and brown tomatoes

Today  after I dropped the letters from work off at the post office, I ran into Earth Fare for some apples and large baggies.  As I passed the tempting produce, my eyes taking in  the splendid colors and smells of  the fresh, organic fruits and veggies, I got the needed apples and some brown tomatoes. The first time I had seen this delicacy was at Whole Foods Market with my sister.  She had raved about how good they were, so I had become curious.


 I work on Tuesdays (and Thursdays) for a lawyer friend of mine, so dinner is usually a simple affair for Hart and me, since the girls are already at their Bible Study when I get home.

  Kumato tomatoes, I learned,  are originally from the Spanish Mediterranean 

 They are about the size of a golf ball, a brownish green and dark red color.  

Dinner tonight was pan fried flounder, oven roasted sweet potato slices and fresh brown tomato salad.  Very delicious. 

The lettuce is from my garden.  I cut herbs of parsley, rosemary and a bit of mint, chopped them finely.  Then I added a minced garlic clove and olive oil, which I drizzled on the tomatoes.  Feta cheese topped it all off. 

.And I saw a very unusual sight on my way home tonight--a black bear.  He was in a tree in someone's yard, probably very scared and thirsty.  People were on the sidewalk pointing to him and the police had already been there I heard.  Poor guy.  I guess he wished he were back at home in the forest, alway from noisy traffic, people staring and dogs chasing him.  Hope they rescue him soon.

Baking for a crowd

I took on the assignment of baking 125 cookies for a church conference back in February.  The weekend arrived of the meetings and it was time for me to start baking.  Fortunately my 14 year old daughter, Nan, wanted to assist me.  Cate, 16, helped with the packaging later on.  I had chosen my Chocolate Oat Crunch cookie recipe because it is one of my favorites. It  is a yummy substantial cookie, consisting of oats, coconut, chocolate chips, with a hint of cinnamon.   I decided white chocolate chips would be a nice addition.  This recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and 3 cups of oats, so it makes a large batch of cookie dough.  Three recipes would do the trick, I decided.
We began baking at 1 pm and until 6 pm the oven was in full use.  As the cookies cooled, I drizzled each one with white chocolate.  Once that had hardened, each individual cookie was place in a cellophane bag and tied with a pastel ribbon. Cate, Nan and I formed an assembly line and soon the job was finished.  I arranged them in my long wooden basket and set them on the table for a final count by my husband, eighty exactly, so I threw one more in for good measure.
The next morning he was going to the conference breakfast at the church and was able to deliver them for me.  How nice to complete the job.  I really do have a deep love for baking.  It was not a burden at all, but a joy.

Soft Pretzels

There is nothing better smelling than bread cooking in my oven and for someone who is wheat and gluten free it is a smell that I don't often get to experience .  It is tortuous anyway!  But on this Friday afternoon, Nan, my 14 year old daughter was in the mood to "cook something".  And since she and her older sister have a teen function tonight that required them to bring a snack, I told Nan she could cook something for the party, serving two functions at once.  We looked beyond the usual chips and dips, cookies and brownie recipes, especially since Nan is hypoglycemic and can't have sugar, and I found the perfect recipe for soft pretzels.
The recipe is quite simple, and she is used to making bread, having made pizza dough before.  I will say it was time consuming process because the pretzels had to rise for 45 minutes, then immersed in almost boiling water for 30 seconds and a final baking at 475 for ten minutes.  But it was well worth the wait and I am sure they will all be gobbled up quickly tonight.  Ahh, for just one taste....

The pretzels rose for 45 minutes.

The hot water bath.

The finished product with cinnamon sugar.

Closeup of pretzel with kosher salt.

Nan with her creation.

Soft Pretzels for 12

1 1/3 c hot water
2 1/2 ts dry yeast
1 1/2 ts sugar
Mix these well and let proof for 5 minutes.

4 c flour
2 TB butter
3/4 ts salt
Add ingredients to yeast mixture and mix well, I used my kitchen aid mixer for this.  Cut dough into strips and roll into ropes and shape into pretzels.  Place on greased baking sheet, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

4 c water
1 1/2 ts baking soda
In a cast iron or other non aluminum pan, bring water and baking soda almost to a boil.  Gently lower pretzels into water for about 1 minute, turning once.  Do not let water boil.  Remove pretzels and return to greased baking sheet.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake at 475 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy a hot pretzel--just like the ones in the mall!

Homemade Yogurt

A good breakfast  is yogurt with walnuts, fruit and a drizzle of honey.  If  I'm really hungry I'll have a gluten-free muffin as well.  It's quick, easy and nutritious.  I love Stoneyfield Organic plain yogurt, but it's expensive so I decided I'd like to make my own.  I was in Goodwill and as I was perusing the appliance section I came upon a  Salton yogurt maker for just 2 or 3 dollars.  I figured since it was intact and cheap, I could take the risk of whether it worked or not.
After a good scrub, the ceramic cups are dishwasher safe, I searched for  recipes and found one from the Salton  website that I liked.  I successfully followed the instructions and poured the ingredients into the 5 cups of the yogurt maker and plugged it in.  Voila!   Ten hours later I had rich, creamy yogurt and it's delicious too.

        

My Goodwill Salton Yogurt Maker

                                                  

Plain Yogurt Recipe

1quart organic milk

1 TB plain yogurt (this is your starter).

Bring milk to a boil ( heat until 185 degrees).

Cool milk until it reaches 110 degrees.

Add the TB yogurt starter.  Stir well.

Pour into the 5 serving jars, cover.

Plug in yogurt maker and set the dial for 10 hours.   

I'm looking forward to some freshly picked strawberries to put on my yogurt:)

Sausage Making 101

Bright and early this morning, Hart and I began the process of making our own sausage, something we've never done before.  I've had the desire to try this lost art for a while and for Christmas I received the Kitchen Aid Meat Grinder attachment (I picked it out).  But life got busy and I set it aside for when we'd have the right moment to give it a try.  January went and February was almost gone as well, when I looked at my calendar and decided we might have this weekend free.
  Hart researched techniques and recipes.  I ordered the casings.  We bought the necessary ingredients and we were ready to give it a try.  Now we only needed a large block of time.  I voted for early Saturday morning, when we would both be fresh and energetic and our teenagers would still be asleep, so no need for any urgent carpooling.
Hart actually got up much earlier than I did and he began the process by getting all of our tools--bowls, grinder and attachments, and meat very cold.  He had read that it would go through the meat grinder easier if all things were very cold to start with. He also soaked the casings in cold water for about two hours.
I arose around 7 am and came down to a cup of coffee and a slab of very cold pork that needed to be cubed.  Not exactly my dream way to wake-up but by the time I had cubed 6 lbs of ice cold pork I was indeed awake!  Our first recipe was called American Farm Sausage.  Our next recipe was Italian Sausage.  Considering that this is the first time we have attempted to make sausage everything went really well.  We learned a few things and by noon we had about 10 lbs of sausage drying, waiting to be wrapped for future cooking.

We cut up a 5-6  lb pork shoulder into cubes.  

Hart is getting every last bit off of the bone.

The cubed pork and 2 lbs of cut up bacon.

We also used a 3 lb pork tenderloin.

My trusty Kitchen Aid mixer with new meat grinder attachment.

It worked great!

The cubed meat was put onto the tray and pushed through the opening with a special tool.

Next we added spices and seasonings. Plus a cup of red wine for the Italian and a

 cup of beer for the Farm sausage.

Mixing it all together by hand, boy was it cold!

Hart is threading the pork casing onto the sausage stuffer on the mixer.

The sausage mixture is placed onto the tray once more and pushed through.

It comes out of this tube and on to which the casings are threaded.

                                         My job was to guide the sausage as it was being filled

Lovely coils of sausage.

Hart then gently twisted the sausage, careful to let air bubbles escape.

A mornings work produced about 10 lbs of sausage.

Italian is on the left and American Farm is on the right.

The sausage must air dry for two hours before it can be packaged.

Packaged and ready to be refrigerated overnight so that it can "bloom".

Then it can be eaten or frozen for later use.

But we are cheating and having some for dinner tonight.  Shhh...