Vegetable Fermenting Class

A reader contacted me and asked if I would teach a class on vegetable fermentation in her kitchen.  Of course!  We had a fabulous time.

When I pulled out my kraut pounder, the most senior woman exclaimed, "Oh, so that's what that thing is!  I have one sitting on my mantle but didn't know what it was for."  As a child, she had even made sauerkraut.

If you're interested in hosting a class with friends, shoot me an email and we can talk details.

-Julie
luvmyhub@gmail. com

Pâté from Butcher and Public

One of the many things I have learned from Dr. Price's work with people untouched by ill-effects of modern food is the importance of eating organ meats.  Organ meats are some of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet.

Knowing I should eat liver and actually eating liver are two different things.

I've tried to hide liver in enchiladas (my taste buds found it.)  I have a beef tongue in my freezer wanting to try this recipe because I've heard that tongue is quite palatable if you can get over the fact that you're preparing a tongue.  Also in my freezer is a beef heart and too many packages of liver.

Nutrition in my freezer does nothing for my body unless I eat it.

So -- what's a girl to do?

Buy ice cream and pâté.  Seriously.

Ice cream is the reward for eating organ meat.  

What is pâté?  

In simple terms, pâté is cooked ground meat with a high concentration of fat.  Usually it is a combination of meat which includes a portion of liver as well as other organ meats.  Other names it goes by: liverwurst or braunschweiger. 

I decided to leave the preparation to Butcher & Public in Argenta.  [Travis, the butcher, uses locally grown *clean* animals for his meats *awesome*.]  The day I was in the store, they offered two varieties of pâté.  Upon my request, they were eager to offer samples of each type.  In the end I bought some of both.

The variety on the left, above, was composed of liver, kidney and maybe one other organ.  Its texture was similar to bologna; firmer than the pâté on the left.  It was flavorful in a delightful smoked meat kind of way.

The pâté on the right had a higher concentration of liver, which caused it to taste more liver-y.  The texture was creamy, more like a meat mousse, which means it probably also had more fat in it, too.

They both were definitely palatable.  I might go so far to say the one on the left was delicious.

Once home, I toasted slices of a baguette and added honey mustard just as they'd done in the store.  (I make honey mustard with equal parts of ...wait for it...honey and mustard.)

As you may guess, just because I liked the taste of something in the store does not mean it will pass the taste test from the pickiest of my tribe.

 For the gluten-free eaters in my house, I prepared it on slices of cucumber.

What did my family think?

I was shocked.  My most adventurous child couldn't be persuaded to eat more than the thank you portion.  The pickiest eater said, "I could eat this for an after school snack...everyday."  This is saying something.

Here's the kicker: we had pizza for dinner.  The picky child, who always calls me out for even the slightest change in a recipe, had eaten so much pâté that he only ate one piece of pizza -- when he usually eats 3 or 4.  He had eaten more pâté than everyone combined.  This is huge.

The morals from my story:

1.  Buy pâté from Butcher & Public.  Hillcrest Artisan Meats also makes it.  I haven't tried it at HAM but have drooled from their Instagram feed.  

2.  Eat it. (Because it doesn't do the body good just sitting in the fridge.)

3.  Bribe your family with ice cream.  The Clean Plate Club has its rewards.  By the way, when I passed around the initial samples of pâté, I didn't mention ice cream.  I wanted to see what my people would do without a sweet promise.  Ice cream was mentioned after pizza. 

Other articles

How to Eat More Organ Meats by Chris Kessler (great article + recipes)
Health Benefits of Eating Organ Meats by Dr. Mercola
Why Everyone Should Be Eating Organ Meat by The Paleo Mom

Pssst -- Interested in learning about butchering a whole hog?  Travis from Butcher & Public is teaching a class March 21.  Check out the details here.

-Julie

A Salad Dressing for Mexican Night

If you would like a light dressing to compliment a Mexican meal, look no further.  This one is simple yet flavorful.

Often I encourage people, who want to take baby steps towards healthier living, to make their own salad dressing.  Store bought salad dressings are made with unhealthy oils and usually chocked full of corn syrup.  When you make your own salad dressing you know what's in there, the quality is much higher and saves you money.

The 4-Ingredient Salad Dressing

1.  lime juice

2.  honey

3.  olive oil

4.  sea salt

Lime juice = When I made it this week, I juiced 2 limes.  Some limes can be really dry but these gave me about 1/4 cup lime juice.  You could also use bottled lime juice.  I think fresh is more flavorful (when I can remember to grab them while I'm at the store!) but also fresh limes have enzymes that help you digest your food.  The bottled lime juice has been pasteurized for longer shelf life.

honey = I used about 2 tablespoons of honey.  You can add more, or less.  Just don't omit.  Whisk the honey  into the lime juice.

olive oil = about 1/3 cup.  If you can think of the lime juice and honey as one, you want about equal that amount of olive oil.  [I buy a gallon of Chaffin Family Olive Oil once a year.]

sea salt = about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sea salt.  Please add the salt.  It's a game changer for this dressing.  Also, making the switch to sea salt is another simple, painless baby step toward healthier living.  The sea provides many trace minerals our modern diets are lacking.

The Salad

Start with green lettuce.  I went to the grocery store specifically to buy jicama but they were out [I've written about jicama here.]  So I decided to add green onions and thin slices of apple, since those are the flavors that jicama imitates.

Easy peasy.  

Hope you try it.

Julie