The Long and Crunchy Road

Glad We Came This Far

2011-05-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

We are well past the 30 days of grain free and feeling oh so very much better. More energy, less ouchies, just better all over. I am amazed that I don't miss bread, I do make some biscuits and such with coconut flour and almond flour and other breadish things, but for the most part it's not something I think about where before I would start meal planning with what kind of bread I wanted to eat and what I should put with it. I am amazed at how fresh and yummy my food tastes and well pretty too.

Just Over the Half-Way Mark

2011-05-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Our 30 day grain-free challenge is just over half done and we have definitely found some things out. We both have issues. Mark's gut has hurt his whole life, it is getting better by the day. I have more energy and my joints are feeling better. I actually was able to walk up the stairs yesterday without having to lean on the handrail to make my hip work right, I wasn't skipping up the stairs by any means but it was so so much better than it has been in a very long time. We are eating tons of veggies and fruit, along with meat and good fats and learning to cook with coconut and almond flour. I have a serious need for chips, corn chips specifically and hope to get past it with out indulging. I don't know that the corn chips would hurt anything, but would prefer to wait out the 30 days to see. We have not added in exercise, actually we have talked about this and we both HATE exercise, it sucks and seems pointless kinda like manicured grass that nothing is eating, personal prejudice, but ours so here we have it. So instead we are finding more things to work on, mowing, cleaning, etc., actual work just feels so much better than exercise, we'll see how that goes.

New Information and an Update

2011-04-26T17:01:00.001-07:00

So we've made if for yesterday and today without both grains and sugar. Is it having a result? Well, it's probably too soon to know much, but I do know this, I made it through yesterday and today without a nap, that's pretty cool, especially since John hardly slept last night at all and consequently neither did we, and we've spent all day in Columbia and John is napping right now, so I could be asleep if I wanted to, but well I'm tired, but just not so very tired that a nap is a must. So, so far so good!

Today I was getting ready to give books back to the library and decided that I needed to flip through Good Calories Bad Calories and came across some information that was too helpful to return the book yet. First let me give you the author's conclusions listed in his epilogue and then some thoughts of my own from what I read as I glanced through the book today. I will tell you upfront that this is no pleasure read, it is heavily footnoted, it is full of facts, quotes, and documents to fill out the author's research.

As I emerge from this research, though, certain conclusions seem inescapable to me, based on the existing knowledge:
1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
2. The problem is the carbohydrates, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis -- the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars -- sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically -- are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance -- a disequilibrium -- in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue, and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when hormone regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated -- either chronically or after a meal -- we accumulate fate in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.
9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.

This author also discusses what we have evolved to eat as does the author of Primal Blueprint I have said before that this doesn't bother me, and for the most part it doesn't, if they were religious authors writing for my church I would be appalled and offended, but they are not and so they can only write and interpret their findings through their own lens on life and that is, sad for them, evolution. As for me I know that God is my creator and redeemer, and I am free in this life to use research discovered by evolutionists to better manage my health.

I have always thought that being fat was my fault, surely some of it is, but maybe, just maybe the info I received all along was wrong. Armed with this new info I look forward to going forward and seeing what happens.

30 Day Challenge

2011-04-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have quickly grown weary of hearing people talk about how old they are and then looking and finding that they are my age, or some even younger. I am raising a 7yo, one who will likely need a few more years in the nest than others and who needs me to be very active in his life to make sure that he does finally get to leave the nest, in a good way and for all good reasons, not that other people don't need to do the same, but this is what I need to do. Lately I have been hearing my friends talk about their diets, my friends have great influence over me, not because of peer pressure, but rather because I travel in an e-pack that does a lot of research into anything and everything that they are involved in and come to conclusions based on way way more than just emotion. I followed these friends when they were discussing Nourishing Traditions and it helped, but it still didn't help enough. Mark and I are still both achy and tired more than we would have liked and we have other issues going on that lead me to believe that trying a Paleo - Primal Blueprint - Perfect Health Diet, kind of approach is at least worth trying and taking seriously. I don't personally care what someone's opinion of what cave men ate or didn't eat was, I don't care whether we evolved (we didn't) to eat certain things and frankly I don't really even care what we were created to eat (creation is broken, as are we), I also know full well that we will die, no matter what we eat, how we exercise or anything else eventually we will all die, no 'right' food will fix that. What I really care about is just how crappy we both feel. At this point we are often taking ibuprofen to deal with aches and pains that we did nothing to get, I have always reacted to carbs badly, which is why so many foods around our house are called coma foods, and Mark has had GI issues that have plagued him his whole life and no matter what we have tried over the years we have not been able to make them significantly better. At the bottom of all this we just want to feel better, and we want to figure out what diet works for us and for our house, and then eventually move John onto a blenderized diet of the same. I don't think that I will post here daily about how this is going, I might, who knows, but I will post occasionally and I will definitely post at the end of 30 days.

For the record the 30 days are going to be a mix of the paleo/primal people. Grain free, sugar free, but we are still going to have milk, I don't think that milk is our issue and we have such a nice clean source of raw milk that I hate to even think of giving it up. We want to add in exercise, and will, one of the most encouraging things that I read from friends who are going down this road is that they actually feel good enough that they want to exercise, that's been a while, and I'm really looking forward to this part. Any amazing recipes we find I will post here and other than that we'll just see what happens, we couldn't possibly feel worse than we have been.

So I Grew Compost...

2010-08-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, make that 2 tomatoes, 1 teeny tiny bell pepper, 1 puple hull pea and 1 green bean, lol, that is still 500% more than I have grown in the past several years but maybe next year will be better :)

Gardening, really, are you sure?

2010-06-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm sure. You see I have for years and years and years killed garden after garden, oh I have always loved the idea of having a garden and garden fresh food but the carrying out of that idea was just beyond me. This year, as a homeschool idea for John, Mark built a gardening bench along the front of our house and as much as John loves it, well it's really ended up being my joy. We started so late that I'm not sure that we'll get much out of this one, food wise that is, but what we are getting, what I am getting is a sense of peace, a belonging, an inner calm that thus far has only come from knitting and handwork of that nature. I'm amazed at how much I love this, and yet it's constantly on my mind and I just cannot wait to go back out there and I definitely need more plants because I've done all I can with these for the day way way before I'm done with the enjoying of it. So Mark has plans to build more benches that John can access, I have better ideas about this container part of our garden and I keep eyeing spots in the yard that would be great to grow corn, and cabbage family stuff, and garlic and onions, and carrots and hey how about some raspberries or grapes or well do you see where this is going, yep, obsession, but it's an obsession that gets me outside in the vitamin D giving sunshine, makes me feel good and makes for good eats, well eventually when I get better at this.

Ode to Bacon

2010-05-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

If I were a poet or songwriter this would probably come out in verse, but since I'm neither it will just be a mish-mash of all the wonderful things that I've learned about bacon!

If you are a vegetarian just skip this, ok and most of my blogs and practically all meals in my house, not that I don't like ya, just that I don't get ya.

So on to the fine attributes and uses of bacon:

Bacon needs to be cooked slowly - you can rush it if you must, but often it ends up burned and it never renders up it's full flavor, nor the full amount of bacon grease that can be used for so many other things.

Bacon is yummy all by itself but it adds a richness and depth of flavor to so many other dishes that it's a shame to only ever eat it solo.

Bacon comes in versions, Proscuitto etc, but really I have found that good old American bacon fits beautifully in any recipe from any country, from Chinese food to Italian all of it is better with American bacon.

American bacon all tastes different, but that's because even though the process of making it is the same, each maker has his own twist, his own wood, or timing or spices. The best bacon we have found comes from small independent processors, like Patchwork Farms in Columbia that is getting hogs from family growers that are growing a few pigs here and there and then processing them mostly by hand. It's certainly more expensive bacon, but bacon like chocolate and shoes is often reflective of the price paid for it. If you haven't found a bacon you love, you just need to try more bacon!

Bacon needs not come in huge quantity to make a huge impact. Because we buy relatively expensive bacon on a pastor's salary we tend to stretch it as far as we can. A few pieces of bacon cut into lardons can flavor an entire dish, and the fat that was rendered from it can either add more flavor to that dish or flavor a whole other dish.

Bacon shouldn't just be used in the traditional places. Everybody in America (normal people) knows that bacon is good with eggs, muffins or biscuits, it's breakfast fare for sure. Bits of bacon (or nasty little soy flavored ones) go on salads and strips of it onto cheeseburgers, or other sandwiches. But bacon makes an awesome pizza, adds notes to mac & cheese and other white pasta dishes that bring them up the scale of yumminess by miles, adds richness and depth to any dish that has an onion or tomato in it and well basically there just is no bad place to have bacon! If you're cooking something and it just seems to be lacking flavor, depth, or a certain you-can't-quite-put-your-finger-on-it add bacon, if it doesn't fix it, it will still have been worth the experiment. Here is even a recipe for bacon ice cream which I haven't personally tried but is on our list.

So I guess my whole point here is bacon is amazing, in a culinary sense it can go anywhere, do anything, and it just makes everything better. Even dishes where it's not up front and center you can always tell there's a little yummy bacon in the background making everything better.

Hummus, Tatziki and Pita

2010-05-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

It is a running joke in our family that Mark is a carnivore that will not consume a meatless meal, at least not enjoy one. This one changed all that, well okay just for this meal, and it really had nothing to do with an intention of being meatless, it just turned out that this is something we really both love. He claims that the reason that it is okay even though it has no meat in it is because it has so much flavor, works for me.

Hummus
1 can chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1/4 c tahini
juice from 2 lemons
6 large cloves of garlic, grated or mashed
2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients except reserved liquid in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth, add enough liquid to make the consistency right for dipping.

Hummus is all about what you like, add more tahini, add less, more or less lemon or garlic, add in some roasted red peppers, hot yellow peppers, horseradish, onion powder, chili sauce, whatever makes it work for you. Our favorite brand of both chickpeas and tahini is Ziyad, it took us a while to find the one we like, try different ones they all taste much different than you would imagine since they pretty much all look alike. Oh and lastly the thing that amazed us was that hummus served as a meal out is a huge pile of hummus and a little bit of pita, this isn't the food that you put a speck on your bread, that pita is basically just an edible spoon.

Tatziki
1 24oz container plain Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, seeded and grated into a strainer, let sit for a bit to drain some of the water off, squeeze some out but don't squeeze it dry or you'll have no flavor left
10-15 large cloves of garlic (or as many as you can handle) grated or mashed
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 T dill weed
1 t Penzy's Greek Seasoning
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and enjoy! It gets better with time, and the garlic will actually get hot if you add LOTS and let it sit for a few days, yum!

For Serving
We love to serve this on a plate, a nice heaping helping of hummus, a big spoonful of tatziki, a little pile of feta cheese (Sam's has a good brand but it needs aging and is much better if you bring it home, remove it from it's wrapping, wrap in wax paper and store in an open Ziploc bag in your fridge for a month or so) some diced red onion and tomato and a nice big pile of fresh whole wheat pita.

Normal

2009-01-12T16:41:00.001-08:00

I couldn't believe my ears, so I asked the doctor to repeat herself, and yep, she said normal in reference to my labs. Now anyone who has met me in person knows that I am a significantly overweight person, I've lost 60 pounds since we've moved to Missouri, I have over twice that much left to go, this news has made it seem much more real that I might actually make it. It at least seems to indicate that I'm finally, after all these years, on the right path. When we moved here, 7 years ago, my thyroid functioned at the lowest point that could be called normal, my insulin resistance was so bad that I was immediately put on glucophage and labeled pre-diabetic and told that I had a very short window to fix this before it was just diabetic, and my cholesterol numbers were horrible, the good was too low, the bad was too high and the triglycerides were just scary. Now normal, thyroid is normal normal, insulin resistance is entirely gone, and cholesterol and triglyceride numbers are right where they are supposed to be.

A little background on me, it was suggested that I have PCOS (poly cystic ovary syndrome) when I was 15, they didn't really diagnose it back then like they do now, but now I have the diagnosis too, that came about 12 years ago. Since being a kid I have tried every single diet that I came across, don't eat, eat only this or that, shakes instead of food, prepackaged food, weigh in times, herbal concoctions, low fat, low carb, everything. All of it worked for a bit, and afterwards all of it failed not only to help me lose more weight but the moment I went off those diets all of it came back and brought friends. I went from a little heavy to putting-my-life-in-danger heavy on diets. I exercised here and there too, but with the awful things that I was doing to myself with diets the exercise didn't have a chance to counteract much of anything. Finally I gave up, none of that packaged low-fat, low-sugar stuff tastes worth a darn, actually the package probably tastes better and so I just quit, all of it.

Now we eat normal food and I have normal labs, that cracks me up, but it makes sense too. Maybe it could be called a whole foods diet, I prefer to just call it eating good food that's good for us. We eat real butter, real eggs, drink whole milk (raw when we can find it), use real cheese, eat real meat, lots of vegetables, lots of fruit, whole grain everything and even use heavy cream from time to time. The recipes that we cook don't come from Light magazines, or if they do we've replaced the non-fat this and that with real sour cream and real yogurt. What we have changed aside from the food itself is the portion size, I had no earthly clue what a normal portion looked like. I learned this from a very dear friend who didn't even realize that she was teaching it to me, I look back now and I can't believe the massive portions that we used to eat. A big help along this road was giving up soda, completely, we drink water with lemon in it through the day and find that soda is now way too sweet. We have John to thank for a lot of this because he can't handle much sugar at all and also can't handle fake sugar either and he eats so little that we wanted to make sure that anything that he did actually eat was the very best we could provide. It just cracks me up that the day that I get the normal lab report comes on the morning that I made bacon and fried eggs for breakfast, one day after making bacon, fried eggs and homemade biscuits for breakfast, and I was eating the same things when the labs were drawn.

Through a lot of this I have said we, and that has also made a humongous difference. This past year when Mark started being tired of feeling fat and wanting to feel better it helped that he too was interested in changing things. I can't believe how much his cooperation, not just support, not just an I-love-you-honey-lets-do-whats-best-for-you attitude but actually wanting to change things for himself has made.

My dad died from arteriosclerosis when he was 44, I turn 43 this May. I was 23 when my dad died and it was hard and I miss him to this day, John will only be 6 the year that I turn 44, I just can't stand by and do nothing. I know that I am not in charge of the length of my days, but I also know that I can do everything in my power to make as many of them as can be, and there's a wonderful little boy zipping around in his power chair at way too fast of a speed who needs me. So now that I'm on the right road I'm in for more of the same, watch the portions, make good real food to eat, and exercise, oh yes there is always that. Actually I really enjoy going for a walk and so have been getting out for 30 minutes a day most days, I want to push that to 45 minutes a day every day and now that John can zip along in his chair it won't be very long until he will just be able to go with me when he wants. Of course thanks to my mom we now spend more nights standing around in the living room playing Wii than we do sitting around watching the tv, so that is some help.

For today I'm still just very much surprised and thankful for normal, ye-ha, who would have ever thought that I could be normal ;)

Words Worth Remembering

2008-12-29T06:17:00.001-08:00

This morning in those few minutes of laying awake before getting out of bed, listening to Mark sleep and listening via baby monitor to John sleep too I was thinking about the words that I have heard since we found out that we were told 'you have miscarriage, it happen, 20% women, so sorry, go wait in lobby'. A few of those words have been well worth remembering, reminders that our baby is real, that our grief is real, that we should take the time not only to grieve but also that I should be resting and taking the time to heal physically too. Unlike the death of a born loved one an early miscarriage brings with it more lack of understanding than sympathy, and in a world where gift certificates to Planned Parenthood can be purchased that's not surprising at all, the value of life is this country and indeed in this world is pretty low, the value of unborn life lower yet, after all at the developmental stage that our precious child stopped growing many don't even recognize a human life, let alone one that is loved, anticipated with joy and now grieved more deeply than I realized grief could go. Many things stand out as comforting at this point, two particularly this morning.

Our friends who learned from friends that it was okay to name their unborn child, seems silly to need permission to do so, but it helps that even though our baby was too early in development for us to know whether she was a boy or girl, we felt like girl and so went with it and named her Katherine. In a world where the nurses still use the words 'product of conception' until you use the word 'baby' enough for them to be comfortable in using it, a name is a nice thing to hold onto and there is just know way that I could use the word 'it' for a precious life given by God even if taken so early. One other thing stands out this morning, a poem in a card sent by a friend:

Sometimes a lifetime is lived
in the space of a single breath
...a heartbeat...
or a thought in the mind of God.

No matter how long your unborn child
nestled beneath your heart,
it's brief life was no less precious
than one whose span is measured in years,
and the pain of your loss no less real.

May your heart find comfort in the promise
that you will be together again someday,
for the bond of your love is everlasting.

You are enfolded in prayer.

In side this card is tucked the ultrasound picture in which we can see Katherine's little 1cm long body, her heart had already stopped, and though I didn't get to hold her in my arms here I will treasure her picture, the memory of the joy of knowing that she was here, and the knowledge that she is safe, perfect, happy and in heaven praising God. I still can't sing the Sanctus without thinking of a little curly haired girl singing her heart out with those same words, but through the tears it always makes me smile to think that she probably carries a tune better than her mommy ever did.

A Bitter Pill

2008-12-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

A very good friend of mine called miscarriage a bitter pill to swallow. I find that her statement is not only true, but that it is not only bitter but that it is a pill that doesn't stay swallowed. Christmas Eve a very concerned and caring mommy took me aside to talk with me, she miscarried three children, the most recent 16 years ago, and as she talked to me and comforted me I could see the pain in her eyes and hear it in her voice. I am only weeks from finding out that our baby died before I could even hear it's heart beat, and I will admit that my feelings are pretty raw even though today with the hormones straightening themselves out I find that they aren't as raw as they were yesterday. I'm not so sure what my goal is here, or that I have one, I know that losing this baby has changed me and just as I have never been the same since I met and married my true love, just as life has never been the same since we adopted our precious boy, just as life has never returned to be like it was before either my dad or Mark's mom died, life now is changed forever and there is nothing I can do to make it go back to what it was before I found out I was pregnant and before we received the news that we wouldn't hold our child this side of heaven. I know other families have suffered through this, I know that other women have survived and I'm sure that I too will someday talk to another mommy who lost their precious child without getting to hold them in her arms and she will be able to see the pain in my eyes and hear the pain in my voice as I comfort her. There have been many people who have helped me through this thus far, and then there have been those who can't figure out what to say so avoid the subject or me and then of course there are those whose words hurt even though I'm sure they didn't mean for that to be the case. Having someone to talk to about all this has helped me immensely and I find that now I have come to the point where I need to talk/write and so that is my plan to do here. It may be several posts, it may be just this one, it might come and go for years, at this point I can't imagine how I will make it through the 9th of July, our calculated due date, but by God's grace I know that I will and somehow I will swallow this bitter pill and if my ramblings help anyone else maybe that will take the edge off the bitterness as time goes by.

Andouille Cream Farfalle

2008-09-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

For years I've tried to replicate a dish that I enjoyed at Applebees and that they no longer make. Just recently I finally stumbled upon the right combination to keep the sauce light and creamy, cream, huh, who woulda thought, obviously not me for years, but finally I have it and now I'd like to share. The original dish was made with blackened chicken, we prefer it with Andouille sausage but like it with grilled chicken breast too.

Andouille Cream Farfalle - 4 servings

1 ½ Smoked Andouille sausages, remove casing and slice into 1/4" rounds
2 c dried whole wheat Farfalle, cooked al dente, drained
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, fine dice
½ bell pepper, fine dice (we like yellow best)
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, fine dice
4 T unsalted butter
1/4 c heavy cream
Mark’s Essence
kosher salt

Saute onion, bell pepper, tomato and garlic in butter. When the veggies are soft and starting to caramelize a bit add the sausage and continue to stir and cook until the sausage is hot through. Add drained Farfalle and cream, stir until thoroughly mixed and continue cooking until hot. If needed add a little more cream or butter to keep the sauce loose. Add salt and essence to taste. When we can't get the rich cheesy smelling butter that comes from a local dairy here we use regular unsalted butter and add 1/2 c of grated Gruyere, either way it's one of our favorites.

Mark’s Essence - we call it this because it's similar to Emeril's but with my dh's own twist.

2 ½ T smoked paprika
2 T salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T onion powder
1 T cayenne pepper
3 T crushed red pepper
1 T oregano
1 T thyme

Combine in a spice grinder and grind until desired consistency, store in a shaker.

Mushroom Fan?

2008-09-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not really. They are okay here and there, but I really don't like the texture of them much and so when everyone else is all agog about running out into the woods getting morels or what have you, I'm fine staying home and missing out on the craze. I finally did find a way that I LOVE them, chopped beyond recognition and put in soup, go figure. Actually in our pursuit to get rid of the processed foods and chemicals and such in our diet I've been working on finding a good substitute for the ubiquitous cream of mushroom soup that shows up in so many recipes. Well the search is over, and while it's a bit of work it's so worth it. Today we tried it in Sour Cream Enchiladas but I can't wait to try it in several other applications. So here, I'll share...

Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe - recipe makes 2 cans worth

1 pound regular white mushrooms, cleaned, quartered or sliced
1 T lemon juice
1 T unsalted butter
2 T minced shallots
1 T chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
2 c half and half
3 chicken bullion cubes
2 T cornstarch
1/4 c dried parsley

Chop mushrooms in a food processor with lemon juice.

Melt butter in a (4-5 quart) sauce pan and lightly saute shallots on medium heat. Add mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf, saute over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid the is released from the mushrooms disappears.

Add bullion cubes to cream, heat just enough to dissolve bullion. Add to mushrooms along with pepper and parsley and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cornstarch, dissolved in a little water and stir until thickened and boiling.

To use in recipe: This makes 2 cans worth, use as is.

To serve as soup: Add 1 ½ cups water prior to adding cornstarch.

And here's the recipe for those Sour Cream Enchiladas, I'm guessing they make at least 8 adult servings and with a side dish they could easily go to 10 or even 12.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

Meat:
1 pound ground beef or deer
1 can Rotel
salt
pepper
chili powder
garlic powder
cumin

Sauce:
1 recipe Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 c sour cream
3/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
14 oz canned green chilies

Assembly:
8-10 large flour tortillas
1 large onion chopped
1/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Meat: Brown ground beef or deer. Add pureed Rotel, and salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder and cumin to taste.

Sauce: Add all ingredients and heat over medium until cheese is melted and the sauce is very warm but not too hot to handle.

Assembly: Grease a 9x13-inch pan. Coat the bottom of the pan with a generous layer of sauce. Place a ladle of sauce, a portion of the meat and some chopped onions in the center of a tortilla, roll and put seam side down in the pan. Continue until all meat and tortillas are used, pack them into the pan pretty tightly. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, making sure to get it down in between and in the ends of the enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until hot and bubbly and slightly browned on the top. Fresh this takes about 35 minutes or so, refrigerated allow 45 minutes to an hour.

Glazed Carrots and Fried Chicken

2008-04-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Mark is spending the afternoon and evening at the country parish today and so is taking 'lunch' actually supper with him. His favorite food ever has always been fried chicken and we spent years not making it because I just couldn't get it to come out right, nice and crunchy on the outside, done yet moist on the inside, and spicy but still chickeny flavored. I finally got that solved with this recipe from my all-time favorite cooking show:

Good Eats - Fried Chicken

I only make two changes to the recipe:

1. Add enough hot sauce to the buttermilk to make it a nice rosy pink.
2. Use Emeril's Essence for the spice, well okay it's Emeril's original recipe but I leave out the paprika and double the amount of cayenne in it - do you see a pattern here.

Since Fried Chicken is Mark's absolute favorite and we are really trying to do healthy stuff I decided it was time to find new sides. Mashed potatoes, corn, peas and gravy just don't need to be eaten every week, well at least we don't need to eat them every week. This week I made it with pasta salad, just a throw together using Italian Dressing, a little feta and whatever veggies were around and the most scrumptious Glazed Carrots that I've ever tasted.

For the carrots we got some yummy brewed ginger ale, Mark loved finishing off the bottle and they were perfect, they didn't need additional anything - which is hard to believe in my house. I've tried lots of different glazed carrot recipes over the years looking for something that was like the fantastic carrots at Kobe Steak House where Mark's mom took us to eat a couple times. Over the years most of the recipes have always been too sweet, too mushy, too weird, too gingery or just too not right, this one however is fantastic. It's not exactly Kobe's, the carrots are a bit thinner and a bit more al-dente, but it's certainly the best one I've found so far and definitely Good Eats ;)

So the wonderful husband gets to take his favorite food along with him this evening and some yummy sides too!

What's For Dinner, Tea and Old Potatoes

2008-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

Part of using more whole foods is longer preparation times and so once again I find myself trying to figure out a menu for the next couple weeks. When even cornbread takes 24 hours to make, it takes a little more planning. This morning we tasted the steel cut oats that I put in the crock pot last night before bed, YUM! So we're liking this a lot, it just takes a little more brain power than using prepared foods.

I've been wishing for a while that I could find something hot that I liked to drink, mostly because my hands are cold in the evening, especially if I've been on the computer much and it'd be nice to have something to warm them on. I can't stand coffee, no matter how I try it, or who makes it or how expensive it is it just always tastes like coffee to me, yuck. I have the same problem with beer, but that's has nothing to do with this. Hot chocolate is good, but it's too much sugar and the non-sugar stuff is fake tasting and well ick. We did get hot chocolate from Starbucks the other day, and well okay now I can understand why people rave about the place, YUM! Finally I decided to try tea, I've never liked hot tea. Mom made us drink it when we were sick and it was always bitter, or you had to put sugar in it, which I didn't want to do. So I asked Mark if he liked tea and what do you know, after 12 years of marriage he finally tells me that he loves the stuff and starts telling me about the kinds that he likes. The man is sometimes a mystery to me. So we started with a box of Earl Grey, okay this stuff is quite yummy and doesn't need any sugar or honey, at least for me, Mark likes his with wildflower honey in it. The first cup we had solo, that was good. This afternoon while John was napping we had a cup with a piece of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao that was wonderful and last night we had a cup with popcorn, hmmmm, this tea thing is pretty versatile. When we go shopping on Monday maybe we'll try another of the kinds that Mark listed that he likes, I wonder, just how many teas out there go good with both popcorn and chocolate.

Well Old Potatoes, in our house we tend to throw away the last potato or two out of every bag that we buy because they have grown eyes or are mushy or are just plain rotten. This happens to us whether we buy a 5# bag or a 10# bag, and at one point I got to where I was buying one or two baking potatoes at a time. We just don't eat that many potatoes. Well I just put the last of the potatoes from a bag that I bought in early December into Spicy Potato Soup and they were fine. Hmmmmm...these were the first organic potatoes that I've purchased, and I've noticed this trend with other organic produce too.

So let me share those recipes, they are yummy!

Overnight Oatmeal

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups raisins
4 cups water
1/2 cup half-and-half or heavy cream

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 7-8 hours. In the morning stir and serve.

The raisins make it sweet enough that even Mark didn't add honey or sugar, we did add some butter for that yummy buttery flavor and a sprinkle of cinnamon because well cinnamon is just plain good.

Spicy Potato Soup

1 pound ground beef
4 cups 1/2" cubed red potatoes, peeled
1 small onion, chopped
3 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
4 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon ground oregano
few drops of hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Brown ground beef in dutch oven. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook uncovered for 1 hour or until the potatoes are tender.

I made this tonight with ground deer. My theory tends to be if beef is good, deer is better, at least for most things. I tried substituting Spicy V8 juice, um well no, that doesn't work and added the tomato sauce anyway to give it more depth and richness. The best experiment of all, when it's all hot and piping in our bowls, I added a tablespoon or so of thick heavy cream, oh man is that good! It elevates this dish from regular old hey this is good soup, to holy cow this stuff is AMAZING! We like it with French bread to get every last drop.

Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-01-03T18:56:00.000-08:00

I finished reading this book just in time to drop it off at the library before we left for Omaha last week. It's certainly worth the read, although there are parts of it where I found myself skimming, lol, not as bad as I've done with some other books though. I think it could just as well have been titled the Evolutionist Omnivore's Dilemma because much of the pretense of the book is how things, including people, have evolved to eat. This did give the author fits when he was dealing with animal rights wackos rat=dog=boy stuff, but in the end he hunted, ate and enjoyed. Did the book change my mind on some food stuff? Yes, some, no others.

I certainly don't have the least bit of guilt or remorse when it comes to eating animals. I firmly believe that God created animals for us to eat, but also to take care of and so even those animals that are to become food should be treated humanely. This isn't a new belief for me, it stems from my father who believed that hunting was good and right, but deer, elk, etc. should be killed as quickly as possible. I think this is part of what bothers me about catch-and-release fishing, but that's another topic entirely. What this book changed for me was now I have a picture of what goes on inside of the places where animals are raised for the tons of burgers, chicken mcnuggets and pork sausage patties and it gives me pause and reason to search out meat raised by farmers who treat their animals more humanely.

It has affected how I think about the food that I cook and serve. I have often thought that it was sad that little kids didn't know that hamburger was from a cow, and sausage from a pig, etc., but little did I realize where a bunch of other foodstuffs are from or that lots of adults don't really think about where the food comes from. We have been moving more towards whole foods for a long time, and this book served to push us down that road a bit.

I certainly don't have a problem with the use of petroleum. For the life of me I can't figure out why oil is less organic that say salt, or other things that come from the ground. I also am a total non-believer at the church of Global Climate Change, so don't particularly care how much CO2 is spewed out by grocery transportation trucks, after all isn't CO2 what organic lettuce breathes. So while I don't cringe at the thought of how much gasoline was used to ship lettuce from California to Missouri, even organic lettuce, I do think that buying local is good and much more sustainable. After all, it's nice to have seen the cow that my burger comes from and I kinda like knowing the farmer that grew the lettuce in my salad.

Pesticides and artificial fertilizers have always bothered me. Yep, I understand that we use them and feed the world, well okay at least before we got selfish and decided we should burn our corn at the altar of Global Climate Change, oh wait that's an ethanol rant for another day. While I'm not a believer of evolution, I do believe that God created stuff to work the way it does and that includes soil which is full of microbes and worms and stuff that I wouldn't want to eat, but makes what I do want to eat good for me. I'm not a person with a lot of knowledge in this field, but as a thinker it does kinda make sense to me that doing things more naturally and with less chemicals is going to be better in the long run.

So has the book changed my mind on stuff, not so much I guess as given me reason for some things that I've thought for a while and opened my eyes to some stuff that I didn't know. Do I choose to preach about organic food, buying local and such, well no, preaching is my husbands job and besides all that stuff comes off as so much ex-smoker's syndrome. You've met them, the person that quit smoking and so now that's their one horse to ride and they've ridden it until it's dead and desicatted even. But for me I'll change the way we do stuff here and there, less stuff from Walmart and more from the Root Cellar, a store that sells locally grown produce and meat. Of course their is the pleasant irony in that, I always wonder if they know that an evil Republican is in their midst, bwa, haw, haw. So in the end it's a book that I'm glad I read and one that I would recommend to anyone else who is interested in knowing where their food comes from.

Why Organic?

2007-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

I find myself pondering this question more and more as I read books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and Real Food and Twinkies, Deconstructed. Meat, milk and eggs is easy, I'll gladly pay more for raw milk from grass fed cows, eggs from pastured chickens and meat that isn't jacked up on antibiotics, hormones or feeds that those animals were never designed to eat. I love my Wheat Montana flour, and not just because of my natural affinity for the state, and am totally sold on organic ketchup because it's the only kind that I can find that's not so syrupy sweet that it would work better on a waffle than a waffle fry. But the more that I read, the more that I ponder organic produce. I really like the idea of no pesticides or chemical fertilizers on my food, but is industrial organic stuff really any better? For now I think I'll use my organic dollar a little higher up the food chain and pay the big bucks for real meat, milk, eggs and dairy products. I do find it ironic that our sweeping love of all things whole and organic came just as the farmers market is closed for the winter, sensibly as there is snow and ice everywhere and obviously nothing growing, but I can't wait for it to open this spring and find out what we can eat that's local and in season. I do find it rather interesting that this desire to get back to real food brings us into contact with so many people whose politics are so far flung from ours as to be other worldly feeling, it does kinda make us smile that wry smile when we wonder if the health food store people realize that they are being invaded by right wing nutjobs :)

Let Them Eat Cake

2007-12-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

See the Clifford cake, well of course you don't, because Clifford is in the trash, with his pink icing. Well the story goes like this, I decided that since we were trying to do all this healthy stuff that I would make a cake from scratch to avoid the hydrogenated fats and dried eggs and such, of course I made an executive decision to use whole wheat pastry flour. Yes, I know I'm insane. Well, the cake was okay, not excellent, not real good, but edible. Then I decided to make icing with just the butter that I had in the house, so I tried Swiss Meringue Buttercream, hmmmmm, after all the work that I did on it, um, we don't like this kind of icing at all. Of course I tasted it after I tried to dye it red, well that turned out pink. So at 11pm last night I threw the whole mess in the trash and down the sink, decided that it was more important that cake was good than healthy, after all who needs healthy cake and went to the store for cake mix and shortening to make regular buttercream with, lol, as you can tell I got a little carried away with the icing, oh well that can be scraped off a little if need be.

So here's the recipes, all of them are Nancy's, they are all delicious and yet another testimony to the love and cooking expertise of this wonderful woman.

Nancy's Cake Recipe

1 box cake mix, any flavor - this time I used dark chocolate
1 package instant pudding mix, any flavor - this time I used chocolate
4 whole eggs
2/3 cup oil
1 cup water or other liquid - this time I used 1/2 evaporated milk, 1/2 water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Bake in a 9x13" or other cake pan. Time will vary depending on the pan and liquid chosen.

When she was alive this cake recipe was her secret that she shared with her beloved daughter and daughter-in-laws, I was/am thrilled to be among that group. Now that she lives in heaven with Jesus I wanted to share it because since she's not here to make one for you, you should make it for yourself and think of the most wonderful Grandma you've ever met and that would be Nancy, or Omi, as the kids called her. My favorite combination of this cake that Nancy made was yellow cake, vanilla pudding and water; a 4 layered cake with raspberry jelly between the top two and bottom two layers and Vienna Cream in the middle layer with buttercream frosting over all. I have made tons of different combinations of this cake, aside from chocolate our favorite combinations have been lemon cake with lemon pudding and lemon juice; orange cake with lemon pudding and pineapple juice with one package of orange/pineapple koolaid mixed in the dry ingredients; and raspberry cake with chocolate pudding and milk. One of my favorite things to do with this cake is to separate the eggs, beat the egg whites until stiff, prepare the rest of the cake mix as per usual, then fold the egg whites into the prepared mix. This makes the cake about half again as high when done, and very light textured yet just as rich. I especially like to do this with a citrus flavored bundt cake.

Vienna Cake Filling

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 egg yolk
1/2 pound butter
1 cup powdered sugar

Put 2 cups of milk in the top of double boiler with yolk of 1 egg. Bring water to a slow boil. Add sugar and cornstarch. Stir constantly until thickened. Place a piece of waxed paper over pudding and place in refrigerator to cool. When pudding is cool, cream 1/2 pound butter in electric mixer. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and blend in pudding.

This recipe is from Clara's Bakery, Clara is Nancy's mom and evidently quite the baker, although it's hard for me to imagine anyone who was better than Nancy. When totally pressed for time I have cheated with this recipe and made instant vanilla pudding and then blended that with the butter and powdered sugar, it's passable, even good, unless you've ever tasted it made right and then of course it's just a quickie and cheap flavored imitation.

Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container this icing can be stored for 2 weeks, but needs to be rewhipped before using.

For the chocolate icing I added 2/3 cup of cocoa and enough more milk to make it the right consistency, I lost count but I think it was upwards of 6 total tablespoons. This recipe makes a lot of icing, I had forgotten that and doubled it tonight and I could have frosted the cake that I made, and several other cakes too by the time it was all said and done.

Serowic

2007-12-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

2 pounds small curd cottage cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
graham crackers
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line greased jelly roll pan with whole graham crackers as completely as possible breaking some to fit in the holes.

Pour liquid off of cottage cheese and process the cheese in a food processor until it is no longer lumpy looking. Add vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar and evaporated milk and process until well mixed.

Pour over graham crackers and sprinkle top with a liberal amount of cinnamon.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

My mom found this recipe looking for a way to make what my Grandma called Cottage Cheese Cheesecake, according to Grandma this was exactly the right recipe, just like hers. We always make this very thin and cut it in squares, kinda like thin bar cookies.

Nancy's Cheesecake

2007-12-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

Crust:
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 ounces butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

Filling & Topping:
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla
32 ounces sour cream
24 ounces cream cheese, cubed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar

Crust: Mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and 2 tablespoons sugar. Press into bottom and sides of a springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Filling: Beat 1 cup sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla into beaten eggs. Add pieces of cream cheese, a little at a time. Beat mixture 15 minutes at high speed of an electric mixer. Fold in 16 ounces of sour cream. Pour mixture into crust and bake 35 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Topping: Mix 16 ounces sour cream with remaining vanilla and sugar. Place on top of cooled cheesecake and put into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Refrigerate cake for at least 8 hours before serving.

This is the very first not-Sara Lee cheesecake that I ever tasted, and after this one I've never even wanted to taste another 'box' cheesecake, yuck. This cheesecake is delicious, I've made many other cheesecakes from different recipes and always come back to this one for the most special occasions, it's different than those other recipes in a good good way and besides the memories that go with it are better! Nancy is Mark's mom, and cooking with her was one of my absolute favorite parts of being part of the Hass family. Just about any morning that we were at her house I could find her in her housecoat, hair all awry, hanging out in the kitchen in the morning drinking coffee and cooking for the ones she loved. There was never a dull moment cooking with her and it's time that I always treasured. I never make this cheesecake without remembering how much fun I had cooking with Nancy.

Variations: Nancy never played with this recipe, and her family treasured it just as it is. I, however, tend to play with everything and so did experiment some. Nancy and I talked about these, and she even got to taste a few of them and liked them, but I will tell you that nothing beats the original recipe. For Pumpkin Cheesecake substitute 1 can pumpkin puree for sour cream in filing with required pumpkin pie spices times three, just as if making pumpkin pie. For Lemon/Almond Cheesecake substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract for the 3 tablespoons of vanilla.

What's in a Name

2007-12-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

I thought a long time about the name of this blog, after all the other one is all about John, or mostly about John and this one is more about me, cooking, food, being a mom, and all those kinds of things. I started off by calling it "What Would Julia Do?" because I really like Julia Child's cookbooks, and poking a little fun at the WWJD crowd was entertaining, but it just didn't sum up what I wanted. Finally after more thought I came up with this name, The Long and Crunchy Road.

The road is the journey of life that all of us travel, this road is mine that I currently travel with my beloved husband, my sweet piglet boy and one silly dog, all sorts of friends, family and who knows who will be on the road ahead. It's been a long road, a darn good one, but at 41 I'm certainly not at the beginning of the road and by God's grace it's one that I'm still traveling, and more importantly still enjoying. The crunchy part cracks me up. It could be referring to the feel of my kitchen floor from time to time when the dog, son and husband occur more often than the broom, dustpan and mop. It could be referring to the two pairs of Birkies in my closet. It could be something to do with the growing amount of things in my refrigerator and cabinets that are labeled organic, whole grain, free-range, etc. It's a combination of those things and all in all its said as much seriously as it is tongue in cheek.

This blog is to give me a place to store recipes, share those things that I love, opine about things from religion to politics and everything in between that drives me crazy or that I just can't stand to not say something about. It's probably going to be crazy and eclectic but then if you've ever met me in person you'd know that it really couldn't be anything else.