Carrot and Fennel Hash Recipe

I've never had fennel before. It's something I feed my rabbits and they love from bulb to frond. They can't get enough! It smells good. Kind of like anise or licorice, but milder. I thought I would give it a try and acquired a small bulb.

I found this pic on the web.

Then, I searched for a recipe. I found this one: Carrot and Fennel
I didn't have all of the ingredients, so modified it a bit:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 carrots, shredded
1 fennel, diced
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup milk

Sauté carrots and fennel in olive oil/butter mixture on medium-high, until slightly tender and browned.
Lower temperature and add spices, continue stirring until mixed with vegetables. Add butter/milk mixture and cook until absorbed.
Fennel will have a slight 'crunch'. The carrots lend a sweetness.

This made enough for 2.

Served with a small T-bone steak and milk.

And, an FYI, fennel is used to make absinthe ... which I have no intention of trying. ;)

Holiday Dinner - December 25, 2013

We didn't really plan to have a big dinner for the holiday, but it sure turned out to be a feast.
We had a baked organic whole chicken infused with homemade bone broth (via syringe) & rubbed with rosemary, thyme, garlic salt and pepper; chicken gravy; wild rice blend and millet with lots of butter; dressing made of chopped chicken offal (the heart, gizzard and liver from the chicken), wild rice blend, millet, cranberries, apples, olives, gluten-free croutons, walnuts and pine nuts); homemade tapioca pudding with apples and cream; gluten-free rolls with lots of butter; and, milk.

Homemade cranberry sauce

Dressing before meat, rice, millet and broth are added.

Tapioca with apples (forgot to add the cream for the pictures)

I should have taken the lid off of the cranberry sauce for this shot ...

I. Am. Stuffed.
Lots of yummy leftovers will commence tomorrow.

Resistant Starch Experiment and Kefir

I have spent most of the morning reading up on resistant starch (which is NOT a real starch, it is a fiber.) I got interested recently in it when Steve Cooksey (The Diabetes Warrior) started posting about his experiments with it and where he got the idea. So, I have been reading more about it all on Richard Nikoley's blog, Feed The Animal. I am going to start on it and by next month, I will have my mom on it. I am not diabetic, but she is. The LCHF (adapted Paleo) lifestyle has done wonders for both of us. But, this may help a bit more. I am starting with 1 tablespoon of Bob's Red Mill Unmodified Potato Starch a day and will work my way up to 3 or 4. I am splitting it up. A teaspoon, 3 times a day, mixed in liquid. Right now, I have 1 teaspoon in my milk kefir with vanilla and maple syrup. I'll have some in water later and also in my milk with dinner. Potato starch has no real flavor, so can be put in many things easily. I think this would help a lot of people to add this to their food, as it works a bit like a pre-biotic and helps feed the pro-biotics in your gut. Most of us, at some point in our lives, took antibiotics and killed most (if not all) the good bacteria in our bodies and absolutely HAVE to re-populate them to thrive. Grocery-store yogurt WILL NOT do it. (If you are outside of the US and Bob's Red Mill is cost prohibitive, I think Encona Farina is the equivalent in the UK - from what I read on the Feed The Animal blog comments.)

As for my milk kefir. I've had it hibernating in the fridge since my farmer dried up his last cow. The other is due in January, so hopefully, I will start getting colostrum and then milk soon after from them. But, I have missed my kefir. So, I just changed out the milk. The kefir is a bit more sour than I like, but still very good. The weird thing is, the jar that had raw milk had HUGE kefir grains. The jar that had pasteurized (Straus Whole Milk) hadn't grown at all. That is after more than a month in the fridge. My grains had gotten used to the raw and thrived on it.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2013

Although we don't really 'celebrate' Thanksgiving here, we did make up a nice dinner tonight.
Turkey thighs stuffed with fresh sage, rosemary and thyme. Garnet yams with lots of butter. Green beans, pearl onions, Granny Smith apples, dried peppers, dried tomatoes all steamed together. With milk. And, a dessert of sliced Pink Lady apples in a dip made of pumpkin pie filling, mascarpone, Crème fraîche, cinnamon and ginger and topped with walnuts and raisins.
MMMMMMMmmmmmm.

Dinner - March 9, 2013

I stopped at a grocery store I don't normally shop at today and discovered they carry a fish that I haven't had in years because my usual stores don't stock them. Smelts! This was a favorite when I was younger.
I also found blood oranges. I've wanted to try them for a while, so bought a couple. I am allergic to regular (navel) oranges, but can tolerate Mandarins, Clementines and tangerines without problem. So far, I seem to be okay with bloods, too!
The smelts were coated in pastured egg, milk and rice flour before frying in coconut oil.

Raw Milk article

homegrown & handmade: What's so bad about raw milk?

What's so bad about raw milk? Maybe it's just coincidence or maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems that since Farmageddon was released, the heat has been turned up against raw milk....