Homemade Cheese Ball

A great starter to serve before a holiday gathering. You won’t believe how simple it is to make and the best part is you know what’s in it. I like to serve it with organic crackers. Be sure to offer gluten free crackers too.

Recipe

1 package of cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese ( I like Tillamook )

4-5 green onions, chopped

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup chopped pecans

Place the cream cheese in a medium size bowl and blend with a hand held mixer. Add the cheddar, green onions, garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce, mix until incorporated. Roll into a ball and then roll it through the pecans covering it. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in a container for up to a week in the fridge.

November 25, 2019

Mom’s Clam Dip

Okay this isn’t healthy and that’s why we only eat it once a year. But it is really delicious! You may want to double or quadruple the recipe for a large gathering. I like to serve it with Kettle sea salt potato chips.

Recipe

1 package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 can of clams, drained with some of the juice reserved

1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Juice of half lemon

Sea salt and pepper

Place the cream cheese in a medium size bowl and whip with a hand held mixer. Add the sour cream, clams, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of clam juice to thin out and add flavor. Can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

November 25, 2019

Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner

I really like this simple recipe because I use a dry brine method. It just takes a little thinking ahead, but that’s okay because it frees up time when it really counts! Give yourself a few days before serving to prepare it. It is wonderfully moist and flavorful!

Recipe

1 (12-14) pound fresh turkey

1 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

1 lemon zested and then quartered

Coarse sea salt

1 large onion quartered

8 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 tablespoons melted butter

Fresh ground black pepper

Two days before you would like to serve the turkey prepare the dry brine by mixing together 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt, rosemary and lemon zest. Wash the turkey with cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the rosemary salt mixture inside the cavity. Rub the rest on the outside. Place the quartered onion, lemon, and thyme inside the cavity. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until the day you are ready to bake it.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the turkey with the melted butter and sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Roast the turkey for 45 minutes. Lower the oven to 325 degrees and roast for another hour until the leg registers 180 degrees with a meat thermometer or the breast at 165 degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil for 20-30 minutes. Carve and serve.

November 25, 2019

Thanksgiving Stuffing with Sourdough Bread

I love this side for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner because I cook it in the crock pot, making it an easy side to leave for the most part to do its thing. You can use french or sourdough bread. I like to use my sourdough bread recipe. It isn’t Thanksgiving dinner until I start smelling the butter, veggies and sage sauteing together! Yum!

Recipe

1 loaf of bread cubed into bite size pieces

2 onions diced

4 stalks of celery chopped

handful of fresh sage, chopped

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Sea salt and pepper

In a large skillet saute the onions, celery and sage with the butter, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally until the onions become translucent.

Add the cranberries and cook for another minute. Place the cubed bread into the slow cooker with the onion mixture. Distribute 1/2 cup chicken stock over the bread and toss to coat.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours stirring every hour to prevent any burning. If it dries out too much add a bit more chicken stock. Serve warm.

November 25, 2019

Mom’s Sweet Potato Casserole

We grew up eating this dish for every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It is so sweetly delicious and very filling, almost like eating pie. It reminds me of Ruth’s Chris sweet potato side dish if you’ve had a chance to eat there. I like that this is one side I can make for Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time and even freeze if need be.

Recipe

For the Filling

10 medium or 6 large sweet potatoes

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

4 eggs

4 tablespoons cream or milk

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Score the sweet potatoes with a fork or knife. Place on rimmed baking sheet and bake until soft at 400 degrees for about 1 hour. Let cool slightly so you can handle them without burning yourself. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Remove skins from the potatoes and place in large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip with a hand held mixer. Place in a 9×13 baking dish.

For the Topping

In a large bowl place 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, 1 stick of cold butter (1/2 cup), 6 tablespoons flour and cut the butter into the sugar and flour. Add 3/4 cup chopped pecans to the bowl and toss until incorporated. Sprinkle on top of the sweet potatoes.

At this point you can cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for a day or in the freezer for up to a month.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm.

November 25, 2019

Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

We tend to think of Thanksgiving, Sunday dinner or other holidays when it comes to mashed potatoes. These do not disappoint. They are full of flavor and nice and fluffy! It’s really important to use Russet potatoes here. Yukon gold or Red tend to have a more glue like consistency.

Recipe

10 large Russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Once you have the potatoes peeled and chopped, rinse through a strainer to remove any excess starches. This will help keep them fluffy. Boil the prepared potatoes in a large pot with water just covering them. Crack the lid if it bubbles over. Once the potatoes are soft strain and put back in the pot. Add the sour cream, butter and salt and pepper to the pot and whip with a hand held mixer until nice and fluffy. Serve immediately.

November 25, 2019

French Green Beans with Caramelized Onions

This side is so yummy! The caramelized onions add so much flavor! We love to make these for holidays and special occasions.

Recipe

2 pounds french green beans

1/2 cup butter

4 large onions

Sea salt and pepper

Place the green beans in a large pot and fill half way with water. Place the lid on the pot and cook until tender. Cut the top of the onions and lay on cut side so the root side is facing up. Cut straight down through the onion. Then lay on side and cut thin half moon shaped slices.

Saute the onions with the butter, sea salt and pepper. Stirring occasionally in the beginning.

Continue to stir regularly to keep the onions form burning. I like my onions just a little darker than the picture below.

Strain the green beans and add put them in a serving dish. Add the onions and a little more butter. Check the seasonings. Serve immediately.

November 25, 2019

Rosemary Glazed Carrots

A perfect side dish for Thanksgiving dinner or any other occasion. They are so good you may not have many left overs.

Recipe

2 pounds carrots, sliced

1 cup chicken broth

6 tablespoons organic sugar or honey

2 teaspoons rosemary, chopped

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Place carrots, chicken broth, salt and 4 tablespoons sugar in a large skillet. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer until the carrots are mostly done, about 5 minutes. Uncover and add the rosemary and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. The liquid will reduce to about 1/4 cup as it finishes cooking. Stir in butter and lemon juice. Add any additional needed salt and peeper to taste. Cover until ready to serve.

November 12, 2019

Kimchi – Learning How To Make Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are a big thing right now and rightfully so. Science is now finding more answers behind the microbiome and what it is all about. Did you know we are only 1% human?! The rest of us consist of bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa and they out number us 100:1. These little guys are critically important to the health or disease we experience in life. They are all speaking with our mitochondria to coordinate repair and growth within our cells that help to fight off disease. The microbiome is the control center of our body. For every 1 message our brain sends to the gut, our gut sends 9 to the brain. These messages control our stress response, brain hormone production, activation of the immune system and much more. We also know that more gaba and serotonin is made in the gut than in the brain effecting how we feel mentally, making our gut our second brain. If our microbiome is off it can impact our mood, create brain fog, anxiety, behavioral disorders and even trigger depression. This is why it’s so important to take care of these little guys and to replenish our gut with them daily. A great way to do this is to eat fermented foods. The fermented foods you make at home contain far more micro-organisms than a capsule you can buy in the store. Fermenting your food can save a lot of money in the long run and it tastes really good.

You can ferment just about anything, especially if you use a whey starter. A brine can also be used, but not for fruit. Before we get started there are some things you need to be aware of when fermenting food.

These ferments will be lacto ferments made from lactobacilli, it occurs when yeasts and bacteria convert starches and sugars in foods into lactic acid. Lactic acid helps with blood circulation, prevents constipation, balances digestive acids and encourages good pancreatic function.

When fermenting foods, both beneficial (bacteria, yeasts and mold) and spoiling organisms can ferment our foods. We don’t want the latter to happen so it’s important to facilitate the right conditions for beneficial organisms to thrive and crowd out the ones we don’t want.

Creating the perfect environment – Salt brine is the most common way to protect food as it ferments. Reasonable amounts with pure water create a safe place for bacteria to thrive. Too salty and they can’t survive. Whey is another good kick start culture that contain a high population of good bacteria.

Eliminate oxygen exposure by covering food with a weight or water and then a tight lid or airlock. Airlocks allow gases to escape preventing exploding jars while keeping the exposure to air and spoilage organisms out. This works for fruits, veggies and meats. Sourdough requires some oxygen.

Increased acidity can also help like lemon juice and vinegar.

Use organic foods whenever possible. Microbes can die from the pesticides used on crops. Think about what pesticides do to the micro-organisms in our soil?… This is one reason why we don’t have as much nutritional value in our modern food today.

Use clean jars, tools and utensils. Do not use corrosive metals like aluminum and even stainless steel. Glass or ceramic jars or crocs are best. Amazon is a great resource.

Do not use table iodized salt. Use unrefined sea salts in grey or pink color that contain trace minerals which are good for the organisms.

Use your nose to smell the fermented food. It should always smell pleasing. Anything that is repugnant, throw out. There is a difference between sour and spoiled or rotting. It is unmistakable.

If your ferment creates gas or bloating you haven’t fermented it long enough… so it is fermenting in your gut. Just pull it out of cold storage and let it finish fermenting. Sometimes eating fermented foods can cause die off symptoms of the not so friendly micro-organisms found in the body. Back off a little, but keep eating the good stuff. Those symptoms should only last a few days to a few weeks.

Let’s get started!

Recipe

Whey Starter: – Strain 1 quart yogurt through double layered cheese cloth fitted into a mesh strainer. Place in fridge and let strain for a day. Eat the “Greek” yogurt and save the whey in a container kept in the fridge for later use.

Brine Starter – Combine 6 tablespoons of fine sea salt or 9 tablespoons of course sea salt in 8 cups of chlorine free water. Allow to sit on the counter for a few hours until the salt is dissolved or heat the salt and water in a large pot until the salt is dissolved. Keep in a jar until needed.

Kimchi

1 small head of cabbage (green or purple), shredded or chopped
1 bunch on green onions (about 6-8)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tablespoon fresh chopped or grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp dried red pepper flakes (optional)
½ tablespoon of sea salt
¼ cup whey starter

Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl, cover with a tea towel and let sit for 30 minutes until the salt pulls the liquid out of the veggies. About half way through pound the veggies to release more water. Transfer to a wide mouth mason quart jar and pack tightly as you fill. Place your weight on top if using and make sure liquid is covering the veggies. Leave a 1” space at the top. Cover tightly with lid or airlock. If using a lid only be sure to burp your ferment a few times a day to prevent explosion. Leave at room temp for 5-7 days. When the ferment is starting to bubble a bit that is when it is ready. Keep in fridge if not using right away.

November 12, 2019

Medicinal Herb – Wild Choke Cherry with Wild Cherry Cough Syrup

Medicinal Herb Post #41 Wild Choke Cherry – Prunus virginiana and other species

Along a wild path that is now a dry creek near my home, leading up into the mountains several miles away, there are a several wild choke cherry shrub like trees. Choke cherries grow everywhere from the Rocky Mountains to California, N. Arizona and up through Washington. They tend to grow near river banks and canyon bottoms. Choke Cherries flower in the spring and produce dark purple berries in the fall. The fruit is quite astringent leaving the mouth to pucker when eaten raw. Once they are cooked they have a much sweeter taste. Although the fruit contains antioxidants, are nutritious and can help with digestions and bouts of diarrhea, the medicine lies within the inner bark of the plant. This plant contains cyanide so it’s important to harvest the inner bark in the fall after the berries have ripened indicating the cyanide is in the seeds. Don’t worry, after they are cooked there is no cyanide left. Besides you won’t be using the seeds when making a syrup.

The inner bark is fabulous for dry hacking coughs that aren’t productive and serve no purpose. It is really good for protecting the cilia found within the bronchi as a cough suppressant for dry mucous membranes, pertussis, irritable coughs, bronchitis and even lung cancer. Combine wild choke cherries and the inner bark with elderberries for a powerful antiviral, immune-enhancing medicine. Or combine it with elecampane root and pleurisy root for deep bronchial infections that won’t go away. Use with mullein leaf and marshmallow root for irritated inflamed tissues within the respiratory tract. It’s is also known to reduce aches and pains caused by fevers. As you can gather it is a great herb for colds and the flu. It has also been known to help break up stones in the kidneys.

This fall I harvested several pounds of choke cherries just outside my door and made a delicious wild cherry bark syrup with the berries for flavor and depth.

Recipe
4 cups choke cherries
4 cups water or more if needed
1 cup wild cherry bark
1 cup raw honey
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Make a decoction by simmering the choke cherries, water, and wild cherry bark until cooked down to 1 cup strong liquid. Strain and press out remaining juice from the cherries.

Add the honey and almond extract. Stir and place in pint jar. Keep in the fridge for up to 6 months. You can add 1/4 cup brandy to extend the shelf life if you like.

For young children take anywhere from 1-2 teaspoons every few hours as needed. For adults take 1 tablespoon 3-4x a day.