delicious quiche and a special leftover pie crust treat!

A good friend came over for breakfast a couple weeks ago. I decided to attempt a quiche in my brand new deep-dish pie plate that I bought at the Moynihan gallery in downtown Holland! I consider myself a pie-crust novice, but I managed to pull this one off. It had that melt-in-your mouth almost shortbready feeling that a buttery pie crust should have, and the filling was fluffy and flavorful, filled with sauteed mushrooms, swiss chard, and several kinds of cheese. :)

Recipe notes:

I managed to sneak a little sourdough starter into this recipe. It is a small amount, but with the fantastic properties that sourdough has for both flavor and digestion of grains, I figured it could only help! I will also show you the option of making the crust without sourdough starter, but if you are maintaining a starter, by all means, give it a go!

I did not let the dough "sour" at room temperature this time, but I plan to try that next time. Since the crust should be refrigerated before rolling out, I think I will leave it out for 8 hours or so, and then refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight. The original recipe (from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking) says to refrigerate overnight or up to three days.

I made the crust in my stand mixer, but it is definitely doable without one. You might need to knead it with your hands at the end to get it to hold together.

Final note: I know this looks complicated, but it's really not that bad! And the final product is TOTALLY worth all your hard work!

Swiss Chard and Mushroom Quiche with Sourdough (or not) Crust

Makes Two Quiches

Crust (start at least 1 day ahead):

1-1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 T. sucanat (unrefined sugar)

heaping 1/2 t. sea salt

1 c. (2 sticks) butter

1 egg

1-2 T. sourdough starter or milk

Whisk together the flours, sucanat, and salt. Work in the butter until crumbly, with a pastry cutter, mixer, or your fingers until the dough is unevenly crumbly. Add the egg and stir to incorporate. Add 1 T. of starter or milk and mix to form a cohesive dough. Add more starter or milk if necessary for the dough to hold together. Shape into two disks, each one inch thick. Roll the edge along a clean counter to smooth it. Refrigerate overnight or up to three days.

Remove the crusts from the fridge 10-15 minutes before you plan to roll them out. Preheat oven to 375. Now you can start preparing your filling. When the dough has warmed up slightly and is able to be worked, roll each round into a 12 inch circle, and transfer to pie pans. Crimp edges and trim if there is extra (but save it!). Place in fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

Coconut oil for sauteing

1/2 c. chopped onion or some chives for milder flavor

1/2 a package of mushrooms (I used mini bellas), sliced

1 bunch swiss chard, stems removed (save them to throw in your broth!) and leaves chopped

8 Eggs

2-1/2 c. whole milk

a few ounces cream cheese or chevre (optional but delicious)

1/2 t. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1-1/2 cups (or so) other grated cheese, such as cheddar, swiss, parmesan, pecorino romano

a few pinches of nutmeg and thyme

Saute onion and mushrooms in coconut oil until cooked through ("don't crowd the pan!"). Set aside and add chard to pan. Cover and cook a few minutes until wilted, stirring occasionally.

While veggies are cooking, whisk together the rest of the filling ingredients, reserving some cheese to sprinkle on top. (I used my stand mixer with whisk attachment to make it speedier.)

Take crusts out of fridge. Layer mushrooms and chard in bottom of crusts, dividing evenly between the two. Pour half of the filling mixture into each, and sprinkle with reserved cheese.

Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes, covering the edges with foil after 20 minutes to prevent burning. Let rest a few minutes before cutting and serving.

Put leftover bits of crust to good use!

I had a little bit of pie crust leftover, so I rolled it out on a cookie sheet (floured to prevent too much sticking) and spread on some coconut oil, drizzled on some honey, sprinkled on some cinnamon, and scattered chunks of apple all over. Then I rolled it up (gently!), sliced it into 2 inch pieces, and baked it at 350 for about 25 minutes. And voila! Apple pie roll-ups! The only problem with these is that I wished I had more! Seriously good.

This is part of Real Food Wednesday and Pennywise Platter Thursday, I'm Lovin' It Fridays, Friday Potluck, and Weekend Gourmet

Our Adventures with Cod Liver Oil

A year or so ago I ordered some chocolate cream cod liver oil that was on clearance. I took it three times, and it has been staring at me from the door of my refrigerator ever since. Now I know why it was on clearance.

It was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. Except for the time a lady bug landed on my water glass in the middle of the night and I woke up thirsty and took a swig in the dark. Texture: a bit like a half-popped popcorn kernel. Taste: indescribably nasty. Still makes me shudder to think of it.

The cod liver oil was nasty in a different way, not quite so bad as an evil lady bug. Just the most extreme fishy flavor you can imagine mixed with...of all things...chocolate. What was I thinking!?

I was thinking this: the benefits of taking this stuff are unmistakable. The Weston Price Foundation can tell you all about the benefits of cod liver oil in this article, but I'll name just a few. It has been known to help reverse and prevent: heart disease, cancer, depression, bone loss, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, allergies, and learning disabilities (among many other things)! The only downsides are cost and taste. I did not want to let those things stop me. I thought I could get over the cost ($44 a bottle) by buying it on clearance. Bad idea.

But, wait a sec, Joanna, why don't you just buy the cheap stuff that comes in capsule form at the grocery store?

Because not all cod liver oils are the same! Most are heated to super high temps, stripped of their natural vitamins, and have synthetic vitamins added back in. Yuck! But there is one company, Green Pasture Products, that extracts their cod liver oil using time tested fermentation. This results in a much more nutritious supplement!

I don't know about you but I'm willing to pay a little more if it means a better product that my body can actually use. And let's think about this: $44 a month, 118 servings per bottle. That means one bottle lasts almost four months for one person taking it daily. So we're paying only $11 per month! I can never remember to take it every day, so for us it lasts even longer.

OK so even if you don't buy a nasty clearance flavor, I think we can say that $11 is not a rip off. I can handle that. But it doesn't do any good to have a bottle of fermented cod liver oil in your fridge if you never take it! So how DO you get over the nasty taste?

The easy answer is to buy the capsules. The problem: they are a bit more expensive. 60 servings per bottle, and the bottle costs $30. So more like $15 a month. Not that bad, but if you've got the same frugal mindset that I have, you might think it's worth it to take the liquid. In our house, Caedmon and I take the liquid and Steven takes the capsules. It's a good compromise for us.

So, how to take the liquid? Well, here is what I do.

1. Measure the dosage of FCLO into a medicine cup/shot glass.

2. Add about a teaspoon of homemade elderberry syrup.

3. Get a glass of juice or other strongly flavored beverage ready.

4. Take the shot, chase with juice. Keep sipping til you can't taste fish.

5. Wash all utensils immediately to avoid making your whole kitchen smell nasty.

Now you can do this without the elderberry syrup, but we were taking that daily for our immune systems this winter anyway, and it really does help mellow the taste of nasty fishiness.

The FCLO liquid comes with a syringe to measure the dosage, and you can just shoot this into the back of your throat if that works for you. I prefer the shot glass method.

Now, what kind to buy? The chocolate cream I ordered is a gel, which really only lends itself to being taken right from the spoon. Gross. Currently I am taking the unflavored liquid, which enables me to mix it with the elderberry syrup. There are a few flavors, too, but really, if you can't disguise the fish, why bother trying?

They also have combination butter oil/cod liver oil liquid and capsules. Why? Because Dr. Price found that the two have a synergistic relationship and each makes the other more effective! I figure with all the grass-fed butter we eat, we're probably getting enough of this healthy fat in our diet.

So go get yourself some Cod Liver Oil - your body will thank you! One of these days I might have the strength to finish off the chocolate cream.

More info? You can find another helpful post on the subject here.

Also, have you heard that cod liver oil is dangerous because of possible vitamin A overdose? Read this for some clarifications.

Do you take cod liver oil? Why or why not?

creative leftovers

Since there are only two adult eaters and one toddler eater in this home, we sometimes get sick of our leftovers before we can finish them. And sometimes it's just fun to switch things up a little. So here I present to you...two super fun and non-boring ways to eat your leftovers!

1) Put them in your eggs.

A couple nights ago we had steak and roasted vegetables for dinner. Since reheated steak is not so good, I knew I'd better do something special with it. So I chopped up the steak and heated it in my iron skillet in some coconut oil, and then added some roasted carrots and turnips (that we'd eaten with the steak the night before), along with some leftover cooked kale. Once it was all heated, I added a little more oil and a few beaten eggs, and cooked until done. At the end I shredded some raw-milk cheese on top, turned off the heat, and put a lid on it to gently melt the cheese (I didn't want to "cook" the cheese too much, since that kinda defeats the purpose of it being raw).

Steven approved off this steak & eggs variation - and eggs are a hard sell on him. We gobbled it right up!

2) Put them in a quesadilla.

This works for any grain/legume combination such as lentils and rice or quinoa with black beans, or leftover shredded chicken, or anything else that you think might go! Get yourself some authentic corn tortillas (El Milagro is a great brand if you can get your hands on them) and some muenster cheese (someday maybe I'll tell to you why muenster actually is a fairly authentic cheese for quesadillas). Layer some cheese and a bit of your leftovers into the tortilla and cook in a dry iron skillet until cheese is melted and tortilla is slightly brown. Serve it up with some salsa, plain yogurt or sour cream, and guacamole for an extra special treat. :)

What ideas do you have for creatively enjoying your leftovers?

Menu Plan Monday and my Meal Planning Method

Last week I abandoned my meal plan entirely due to illness. So this week I'll be making the things I wanted to make last week. We are going to be out of town Friday night through Sunday, which you'll see reflected in my meal plan. Sunday night I’m making something that is really easy to throw together without any prep for when we get back home hungry and tired.

Menu Plan 3.7.11-3.13-11

Monday: Turnip Cheese Chowder (based on Potato Cheese Chowder from Simply in Season)
prep: make dough for hamburger buns, soak white beans to cook in AM
Tuesday: White bean dip with sourdough crackers, cheese, salad, and fruit
prep: AM - bake hamburger buns
Wednesday: Burgers on homemade buns, salad, roasted veggies (from our winter CSA)
prep: start sourdough tortillas
Thursday: tuna salad
prep: cook tortillas
Friday: finish leftovers and leave town!
Saturday: out of town
Sunday: Quick Clam Linguini (with brown rice pasta) from Southern Living’s Easy Weeknight Favorites

You’ll notice I wrote “cook tortillas” but there is no meal involving tortillas. I was inspired by this post to have tortillas around more often for quick meals. So these will be waiting in the freezer for the next time we need them. :) I love Wardeh’s sourdough tortilla recipe from her e-course.

My Meal Planning Method
I have found the easiest way for me to plan meals is to choose daily “meal themes.” That makes it really simple to decide what to cook on each day of the week! When I sit down to plan the menu for the week, I look at my meal themes and choose a meal that fits into each category. Most recipes I use are dishes I’ve made before, or recipes in my “recipes to try” google doc - where I save links to recipes on blogs that look good. Here is my master meal plan that I use for reference:

Monday
lunch: soup/casserole
dinner: leftovers
Tuesday
lunch: leftovers/grilled cheese
dinner: grain & legume
Wednesday
lunch: tuna, salmon, egg, or chicken salad sandwiches
dinner: leftovers
Thursday
lunch: leftovers/bean dip
dinner: Meat as Main
Friday
lunch: leftovers/peanut butter sandwiches
dinner: Italian (pizza or pasta)
Saturday
lunch & dinner: leftovers (we try to rest on Saturdays)
Sunday
lunch: homemade mac & cheese or leftovers (something fast for when we return home from church hungry)
dinner: Breakfast for Dinner (waffles, pancakes, egg strata, quiche, breakfast meat...)

On the days that I teach in the early evening, I make our main meal for lunch so there is no panicking in the evening - we just reheat leftovers whenever we get hungry.

I find it helpful to have a rough list of meals that fit each category, so that when I’m meal planning I can just glance at it and fill in the blank. It’s helpful to also write your grocery list as you are planning your meals so you don’t miss anything! I generally grocery shop on Thursdays, so I make my meal plan on Wednesdays. Since we buy much of our food locally, I am often planning meals based on produce that is in season, too. I tend to switch up my meal themes and schedule a couple times a year or whenever I feel the need for a change. (I’m always striving to find the balance between variety and consistency!)

If you're not sure how to choose your meal themes, try this: write a list of your family's favorite meals. Once you see them on paper (or on the computer screen), you may be able to divide them into themes easily. Here are some examples (in addition to the themes I use): sandwiches, main dish salads, beef, chicken, seafood, meatless, Mexican, ethnic (such as Indian or Thai), crock-pot, one-dish meal, favorite dinners, fast dinners, etc.

For awhile I tried the Monthly Meal Planning method that Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking uses, but I found that by the time I got to the second week in the month, my plans had already shifted enough that I had to redo the meal plan. So it actually made more work for me, instead of less. If you are the type of family that is more structured and less fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, it might work for you!

How about you? Do you plan meals? What methods/ideas have you found helpful? What struggles have you had? If you don’t plan your meals, why not?

Check out Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plan Monday ideas.

What We Do When We're Sick

Well I'm back after a week-long hiatus. I came down with a cold a week ago and haven't had the energy for anything extra.

But today I'm feeling great, minus the residual junky sounding cough. Here's what I did to take care of myself and recover quickly from the dreaded late-winter cold:

1) I ate nourishing foods and drank plenty of liquids.

When I'm sick, I pretty much only want to eat liquid foods. It's a lot easier to breathe when you are sipping rather than chewing. So this week I lived on soup, smoothies, and herbal tea.

The day I felt the worst, I somehow gathered enough strength to make some chicken soup with homemade bone broth. I added some crushed garlic at the end, since raw garlic has so many healing properties. I also pulled some tomato soup from the freezer (made last summer with heirloom tomatoes). I had a smoothie containing frozen fruit, yogurt, coconut oil, and pastured egg yolks every day to get some more nutrients in me - since other foods weren't very appetizing. I drank like six cups of tea a day - mostly immune system support and throat comfort (we like Yogi Tea and Traditional Medicinals). And I drank a lot of water.

2) I supplemented my diet with superfoods.

I continued taking all the things we usually take: Homemade elderberry syrup, fermented cod liver oil, and liver capsules. In the first couple days, I took the elderberry several times a day, in hopes of giving my immune system the extra boost it needed. I have also taken a homeopathic remedy in the past at the first sign of a cold with definite success - it's called Alpha CF.

3) I rested.

I took two days off of work, let the housework and laundry go, slept in as much as I could, and rented Jane Austen films from the library. (I recommend the BBC version of Sense & Sensibility!)

And now I'm back to my chipper self and ready to face the week ahead of me!

Why I Eat Butter

Photo Credit

I often tell people I am not afraid of butter, that it's a "good fat." Sometimes I get laughed at; I guess they think I'm joking. Even my husband, who has been on this real food journey right along side me, will sometimes say, "Are you sure it's ok to eat that much butter?"

Yes, I'm sure.

We in America have some serious misconceptions about fat. I don't want to go into too many details. It will just make me angry, and this blog is about the joy of real food, not the anger and sadness of industrial food.

My Butter Story

So I'll start here. I love butter.  My history with butter goes like this:

When I was little, my favorite snack was bread and butter. Not even toasted. I remember my grandma giving this to me quite often when I was at her house and suddenly needed a snack.

My mother instilled in me a pretty strong anti-margarine sentiment, for which I am grateful. Right on the money, mom! It tastes fake, it looks fake, it is fake, and whether it's made with hydrogenated oils or "heart healthy" vegetable oils, it's been processed into oblivion, is rancid (toxic!) and more closely resembles plastic than food.

Sorry, I got distracted. I am passionately opposed to margarine.

Fast forward to late high-school and much of college. I, like most other people, thought that butter was bad for me. As a dancer who spent much of life in a leotard in front of a mirror, I was very body-conscious and thought (so mistakenly!) that my worth had something to do with my weight and pants size. So I stopped eating butter. I taught myself to eat bread plain. No more bread and butter. Sad day for me!

Imagine my delight a few years ago when I started reading about how our bodies need fat, good, traditional fat, to function, to thrive! Since then I've been eating as much butter on my bread as I want.

And you know what? I haven't gotten fatter. In fact, I weigh less now (16 months after the birth of my son) than I did pre-pregnancy. All I've done is breastfeed him and eat butter, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and bacon grease with my food. (Ok I've exercised a little. But really, only a little.)

Butter: the Real Deal

And this is why I am not afraid of those fats: people have been eating them for a long, long time. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes were virtually unknown...until the last century or so.

When we started eating Crisco and margarine and soybean, canola, and cottonseed oils, we got sick. Of course other things about our diet were going down the tube then, too. But here's the deal - hydrogenated vegetable oil is heated to insanely high temps, deodorized to disguise its rancidity, and then boiled for many hours with hydrogen to turn it into a solid and extend its shelf life. The result is a highly processed food that we were never meant to eat.

Butter comes from cream. Which comes from a cow. All you need is a blender and some cream, and you can make your own butter in your own kitchen. You can leave it out of the fridge for quite a while (provided all the buttermilk has been removed) without it going bad. It remains solid at room temperature naturally. I don't know about you, but I feel a lot better about putting that time tested, delicious food into my body and my children's bodies than the alternative.

But how could this be?! Have we been lied to? Sadly, yes. 

Data has been skewed or ignored to "prove" that traditional saturated fats cause heart disease (the "lipid hypothesis"). I'm not going to list all the reasons butter is good for you here, because someone has already said it better than I could. Go read this article to learn more!

After you read it, go into your kitchen and toast yourself a piece of whole grain bread. Spread it heavily with butter. Then eat it, one drippy melty crunchy bite at a time. And try to tell yourself that it's good for you, because it is.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

clam [and oyster] chowder

See that basket of clams? If only we lived near an ocean and had access to fresh, local clams and oysters. Instead, I'm making due with the canned variety. It's better than nothing, certainly!

Clam and oyster chowder. I was afraid to make this. But I did it anyway because I'm trying to get more seafood in our diet. Oysters are the best source of zinc you can find, far and above anything else! (See this article for more info on nutritional benefits of oysters.)

My first attempt at cooking with oysters (oyster casserole - basically baked mac & cheese with oysters) was a flop. Steven tolerated it, I simply picked out the oysters and fed them to Caedmon who ate them quite willingly. I had opened two cans of oysters for that recipe but after looking at them in all their gray-ness...I could only bear to put one can into the casserole.

So for a few days I've had the contents of a can of oysters staring back at me from a glass jar in the fridge. (Should've chosen something opaque to store them in.)

But on Sunday night I boldly wrote "Clam Chowder" on my meal plan, with plans to "sneak" the oysters in there, too. And...it worked! I think it was actually delicious. Something about the fishy flavor permeating the whole dish made it ok. That and lots of bacon. Bacon - always nitrate-free - is sort of a special occasion food around here on our limited budget. But in this case it was definitely worth it.

I started with this recipe from Cheeseslave, and tweaked it a bit. Here's what I ended up with!

Clam and Oyster Chowder

ingredients:

1/2 lb nitrate-free bacon

One large yellow onion

2 large stalks celery

1/4 c. flour (sprouted would be preferred; I used all-purpose)

5 small carrots

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced

4 cups chicken stock

1 can oysters

1 can clams

2 cups cream or whole milk (preferably raw, grass-fed)

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

dried tarragon

nutmeg

fresh parsley

for serving: whole grain sourdough bread with grass-fed butter

method:

Fry the bacon until crisp in a dutch oven. Place on paper towels. Keep the grease in the pot. Meanwhile, chop the onion, celery, carrots, and potatoes. Cook the onions and celery in bacon grease until soft. Add the flour and stir to incorporate. Add the carrots, potatoes, and stock. Season with salt, pepper, tarragon, and nutmeg to taste. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender. Meanwhile, drain and roughly chop the oysters. Drain the clams, pouring the liquid into the pot, and roughly chop the clams. When veggies are tender, add the clams, oysters, cream/milk, bacon, and chopped parsley to the pot. Simmer a few minutes to let the flavors meld. If it is not thick enough, stir a tablespoon or so of flour with a splash of water in a cup, and add to the pot. Simmer until it is the desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with warm/toasted sourdough and plenty of butter. :)

P.S. If you are not into baking sourdough bread and you live near a Trader Joe's, they sell 100% whole wheat sourdough for a very reasonable price!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.