So easy a child could do it...yeah, RIGHT!

So I decided that as an official blogger, I needed to have my own domain and a WordPress site. I've been with Blogger since I started but I've heard so much about the versatility and user friendliness of WordPress that I felt compelled to give it a try. If you thought that surfing the internet was a time consumer on par with a black hole, you've clearly never tried to set up a WP blog! Plugins and Tools and Settings, OH MY!

Okay, okay. So it's not brain surgery or biochemical research. Then again, it's not exactly elementary either. I knew I was in trouble when a majority of the plugins were written to address the professional blog-builders who have to 'deal with the expectations of blog owners'. When I had to go to Google Translate to convert from Latin and Greek to English, I felt as if the effort was doomed.

But...I press on, no WordPress pun intended, and am determined to one day make it into the WordPress world of blogging. Some day.

If you're interested in how the effort is going so far, and after swearing not to giggle when you see it, you can click here to see the work in progress.

Hey...I said NO giggling...

Beef Stock from Nourishing Traditions

My favorite cookbook, without a doubt, is "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats" by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. You might remember both of these ladies from Fat Head.

It's a bit of a cross between a cookbook and a history of food and the politics that surround it. I've had it for at least 10 years and though Sally and I don't see eye to eye on everything, we agree an awful lot more than we disagree. There are some things in the book that I've never tried, some for reasons of taste (fermenting dairy and vegetable items) and others for reasons of laziness (sprouting grains) but everything that I have tried has been a huge success.

It was Nourishing Traditions that led me to the Weston A. Price Foundation which in turn led me to Save Your Dairy as a source for Raw Milk and then to Tropical Traditions for organic, virgin coconut oil and coconut products. You could say that Nourishing Traditions has been the linchpin on which our health has turned.

Here's Sally's recipe for Beef Stock which can be found on page 122:

About 4 pounds beef marrow and knuckle bones
1 calves foot, cut into pieces (optional)
3 pounds meaty rib or neck bones
4 or more quarts cold filtered water
1/2 cup vinegar
3 onions, coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
several sprigs of fresh thyme, tied together
1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed
1 bunch parsley

Place the knuckle and marrow bones and optional calves foot in a very large pot with vinegar and cover with water. Let stand for one hour. Meanwhile, place the meaty bones in a roasting pan and brown at 350 degrees in the oven. When well browned, add to the pot along with the vegetables. Pour the fat out of the roasting pan, add cold water to the pan, set over a high flame and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen up the coagulated juices. Add this liquid to the pot. Add additional water, if necessary, to cover the bones; but the liquid should come no higher than within one inch of the rim of the pot, as the volume expands slightly during cooking. Bring to a boil. A large amount of scum will come to the top, and it is important to remove this with a spoon. After you have skimmed, reduce heat and add the thyme and crushed peppercorns.

Simmer stock for at least 12 hours and as long as 72 hours. Just before finishing, add the parsley and simmer another 10 minutes.

You will now have a pot of rather repulsive looking brown liquid containing globs of gelatinous and fatty material. It doesn't even smell particularly good. But don't despair. After straining you will have a delicious and nourishing clear broth that forms the basis for many other recipes in the book.

Remove bones with tongs or a slanted spoon. Strain the stock into a large bowl. Let cool in the refrigerator and remove the congealed fat that rises to the top. Transfer to smaller containers and to the freezer for long-term storage.

And that's all there is to it!

As a testament to how much I love this cookbook; here's a picture of my copy. As you can see, it's been loved nearly to pieces.

Mission accomplished

As you may recall, last week Trish, of the JustChickenScratch Blog, and I challenged ourselves to blog every day for seven days and as of last night, that mission has been accomplished! I had a lot of fun along the way and luckily never ran out of things to say (whether or not those things were interesting is an entirely other matter). Those of you who have known me for any length of time know that I rarely run out of things to say so you're not surprised but hopefully, you've been entertained.

Today is the start of another new week, even though the calendar says it's Tuesday, and new adventures loom on the horizon. My second batch of beef stock ala Nourishing Traditions is happily bubbling away on the stove, and will be for the next 24 hours, new breads are waiting to be made, new blog posts from some of my favorite bloggers are waiting to be read and there's a world of research out there just waiting to be Googled and consumed so...I'm off and running. Anyone want to come along?

Epic Fail: The rest of the Bread Story

Note to self; You can't bake 2 2-pound loaves for the same amount of time that you cook 4 1-pound loaves because is you do, you'll get what you see pictured here. Ewww...

I decided that the one pound loaves were too small to make sandwiches out of so I used my two pound loaf pans instead. I thumped and thumped and thumped them and I really thought that they were done though there was constantly a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something didn't seem quite right.

The first loaf sliced up pretty well so I thought that things were A-Ok. As it turns out however, even the first loaf had a muddy section in it towards the back that I didn't discover until this evening when we got that far into it. Seeing that, I decided I'd better cut into the second one and...well, needless to say, it had a little more than just slightly muddy section. It had an entire swamp.

But tomorrow is another day and with it comes another opportunity to start again.

Baking & breaking bread on Family day

I started my bread bright and early this morning. Ok, so it wasn't actually early but it was actually quite bright. I used a very simple recipe that made four one-pound loaves and here are the remaining three plus the last two slices of the fourth in all their glory.

I do believe that this is the best bread I've ever made. The flavor and texture were both just right; that is to say, the flavor was mild and the texture was light. I had several pieces slathered with butter and it's all I can do to keep from slicing up another loaf and having lunch early but I am determined to take it slow since this is the first wheat I've had in about three months.

It was thrilling to use my NutriMill and my Bosch again. While the bread was rising I strained the chicken stock I'd been cooking in the crock pot for the last two days so between milling my own flour, baking my own bread and straining the chicken stock I'd been cooking for two days, I was feeling like quite the little Betty Crocker this morning.

On the agenda for this afternoon? Homemade cleaners! Below is the bread recipe that I used and I've added notes in parenthesis to specify what I used. Also, I used a Bosch mixer, not the Kitchen Assistant.

The Bread Beckers Bread & Rolls

1-1/2 cups hot water
1 cup cold milk (raw, unpasteurized)
1/3 cup oil (olive)
1/3 cup honey (organic, raw, unpasteurized)
3 eggs

4-1/2 tsp instant yeast (SAF)
6 to 7-1/4 cups freshly milled flour (I ended up using 8 cups that were a blend of half hard red and half hard white wheat berries)
1 Tbsp salt (sea salt)

Combine water, milk, oil, honey and eggs in the bowl of the Electrolux Assistent.  Add yeast and about 5 cups of the flour.  Mix on medium speed until well blended. Add the salt. Continue to mix adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time.  Bring the Assistent's  arm into the center and out a few times between each addition of four.  When the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl enough flour has been added.  Lock the roller about 1/2" from the side of the bowl (or more if you double or triple the recipe).  Turn the speed to high and allow to knead 8-10 minutes, or until the dough, forms a smooth ball .  Let rise until double.  With a single or double batch, you may let the dough rise in the bowl. With a triple recipe, turn the dough out onto a floured surface to let rise.

After rising, form into loaves or other shapes using any of the variations that follow.

I like to braid my loaves.  To braid, divide the dough for one loaf into three pieces and roll into ropes.  Braid, tucking the ends under. Place in greased loaf pan.  Let rise until at least double in size.  Bake loaves at 350o for 25-30 minutes.  Recipe makes 3 medium size loaves or about 30 dinner rolls.

*Note: One package of yeast is about 2-1/2 tsp. of yeast.  With instant yeast you do not need to sprinkle the yeast over the liquids. You may add it with the flour.

Seeds of Change

I talked yesterday about my crisis of faith; that is to say, my faith in what type of diet is best for optimal human health. I said that I was going to start doing some research on what the Bible has to say about health and true to my word, here's what I've found so far.

First, here's the latest book that I've downloaded to my Kindle. Aside from the fact that some of the science appears to be (woefully) out of date, I am enjoying the book quite a bit. Second, here's a blog post that I stumbled upon last night that not only expressed some of the same reservations, but for the very same reasons. After completing the blog read, beginning the book and petitioning God through prayer for His perfect will, I made a trip today to Shar's to pick up some hard red wheat which I intend to blend with some hard white wheat for several loaves of fresh milled and baked wheat bread for tomorrow - the Sabbath day.

Coming tomorrow...pictures of the bread!

A Crisis of Faith

Since mid January of this year, I've read books, blogs, editorials and opinions about what type of diet is best. The one that has always made the most sense to me is a diet that is low in carbohydrate, high in fat and moderate in protein.

Years ago I read and fell in love with Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook which teaches about the wonder of grains that have been soaked/sprouted or fermented and for quite some time, I believed that this was the way to go with grains though I never actually followed their advice. At least in terms of the grains. Bone broths and proteins, you bet. Dairy and grains, not so much.

My most recent research has been focussed on the Primal/Paleo diets which completely rule-out grains along with the Atkins Diet which initially forbids grain though they may be added in, in extreme moderation, by those who have achieved their desired weight and now look to maintain it. Everything negative that I've read about grains, about wheat in particular, makes perfect sense to me whether it's Sally Fallon's view that grains are safe and nutritious if phytic acid is neutralized by soaking/sprouting/fermenting first or whether it's the Primal/Paleo view that the human body has not, and may never, adapt to eating grains which is a relatively new addition to the human diet in terms of the history of humanity.

It all makes perfect sense to me from a scientific point of view and as a result, I've completely removed all grains from my diet and from that of my family's diet. But from the very beginning there's been a seed of doubt growing in my mind and with every passing day, that seed grows just a little bit more and today, I found that it's sprouted into a beautiful little plant that I can no longer ignore. I'm going to have to decide what this seed of doubt has grown into; a weed that needs to be plucked or a plant that needs to be nurtured?

Here's the crux of the problem, or the point of crisis in my faith; if grains are bad for human digestion, to the point that they should be completely avoided, why are the Scriptures full of references to them and to products made from them? Jesus himself is referred to as the Bread of Life, God gave Ezekiel a recipe for bread, Joseph was told to store grain for the coming famine, Jesus and his disciples walked through a wheat field on the Sabbath and ate the grain, bread was baked for the Temple and bread figures prominently in all of the Biblical feasts. Bread and grain appear over and over and over again in the Bible so how can it be that humans are not meant to consume grains?

Could it be that we're simply not meant to consume the modern version of these grains (refined white flour and the plethora of snack and cereal items made from 'whole grains', etc) but rather the ancient ones?

Answering this question will be the subject of my research in the coming weeks and your thoughts would be MOST welcome. After all, you're some of the smartest folks I know.