Bugs in my Food: part 2

It’s a well documented fact that epic failure teaches us way more than stunning success. Isn’t that obnoxious? None of my food attempts were inedible per se, but none of them were quite what I had hoped for. I’m a one-try-get-it-perfect-or-I-am-annoyed kind of person (my husband is a one-try-and-he-always-gets-it-perfect kind of person…I’ve learned to love it. Although I’m not going to lie…Sometimes his epic failures, rare as they are, make me feel less pathetic.) This was my first attempt at all of these things so I should count it a victory that I didn’t kill anyone with these bugs and everything I made can be eaten (and probably will be eaten exclusively by me because I can’t waste food). Starting off with might-not-be-failures.

 

This is a bowl of walnuts and pecans soaking in slightly salty water. Tonight I will be dehydrating them (One of these days I need to tell you about my love for my dehydrator. It’s song worthy). Here is the reason that I’m not happily popping them in my mouth straight out of the bag. If you Google “why soak nuts,” you will get way more info than you need. I need more snacks for munchkins, and since little man loves dates and other dried fruit I’m going to make him some trail mix.

The glorious red thing is a hard cheese I had made a few weeks ago and waxed today. The last time I posted, we had made another hard cheese but that one isn’t ready to wax. Nor will it ever be after what I realized today. The reason why you have to press it with so much pressure and then salt it for days to get a rind to form, is to get as much liquid out as possible. I learned today that if you don’t the liquid will seep out and compromise the wax, leaving your cheese open to mold [smacks forehead]. We didn’t press the newest one with as much pressure because I wanted a softer, moister cheese. Apparently leaving water in it if you are planning on aging it is not the way to do that. So well yes. But I am getting the waxing process down, leaving a smoother more consistent coat. I’ll figure out how to deal with the other cheese later but for now, at least the wax will slow the mold growth right?

 

Mayonnaise is a very simple thing. In theory. Here is what I learned about mayonnaise: Olive oil makes everything taste like olive oil. Yellow mustard is a horrible substitute for Dijon mustard. I should have taken the commenters advice and used some coconut oil to help it thicken when it cooled. However, despite the fact that it doesn’t taste or feel anything like mayonnaise, it makes good tuna and really good ranch dip.

 

The ketchup was ok. It tastes like gussy-ed up tomato paste, but I guess that’s all ketchup really is. I added a bit more vinegar and that helped. The real test will come when the munchkins have it on eggs, or to dip chicken or hamburgers.

Does that jar of sauerkraut look like the one in my last post? That’s because the pictures are the same. I didn’t bother taking a new picture because it looks and tastes the same as the night we made it. I don’t think we made sauerkraut so much as salty cabbage. Granted we didn’t use a crock, we only let it sit 3 days, and we might have used too much salt and we didn’t submerge it under a weighted-down plate. You know, minor stuff really. Tonight we are going to try kimchi, and we’ll see if that turns out more fermented goodness and less plain salty veggies in fish sauce. But there is always round two for the bugs in my food and you know I’ve got big plans for round two!

Bugs in my Food: part 1

Tonight was a good night. The kind to make my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder sound her “barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” I’ve got awkward pregnant hugs for anyone who gets both those references.

Changes are happening at our house and while I’d rather not get into it with anyone over good or bad, healthy or not (I’ve done my research and this is what my family needs, so there) I do love talking about food and the stuff I’ve read. We are going to be doing the GAPS diet for a little while. If you are curious go read about it as I’m not really going to explain it here (it is done much better other places) but a huge component of the diet is re-introducing healthy bacteria to the digestive tract. Bugs in my food! Everything we made tonight is fermented. No, not booze, although I hear there might be a market for that when the world ends. There is actually a ton of fermentation that goes on in traditional food cultures…think the sauerkraut of Europe and miso and soy sauce from our neighbors in the far east. Also turns out it is super good for you and not just a nifty way to preserve food. So it makes sense that as people start to revisit more traditional means of food prep. they are also re-visiting beneficial bugs.

We have been doing homemade yogurt for a while (and with some new tweaks we now do it awesomely!) , but tonight we branched out.

 

Speaking of sauerkraut. We made some! It is super easy, but we will see how it turns out. I love the store bought canned stuff but Neil hates it. Here’s to hoping it’s like bread and butter pickles…he hates store bought but loved the ones we put up ourselves. We didn’t realize it would smash down that much, so next time we will know better. Someday we will have tons of money and I’ll own this. And I’ll use it to put up the hundreds of cabbages we get from our perfect multi-acre garden. Someday.

Homemade Ketchup with whey (from the hard cheese we also made tonight). The whey has lots of the cool bugs that turn the milk into cheese still in it after it is separated from the curds. When you add it to stuff like ketchup the bugs go to work eating the sugars in the ketchup. Then it is slightly ferments and it is both healthy and long lasting.

 

Yogurt! I loved it before, but on the advice of the woman who started the GAPS diet we changed how we made it. Instead of incubating the fresh milk at 115 degrees for 10-12 hours in our dehydrator, we did it at 95 degrees for 24 hours. Its magical. The taste is milder, but so much thicker and creamier. Making it the first way, the kids would eat it over fruit, but only if I poured maple syrup on it too. Now they eat it straight or on fruit. The lower temp doesn’t kill any of the probiotic lovelies and the longer time allows all those bugs to completely eat all the sugar in the milk making it even healthier and easier to digest. I [heart] science.

The next picture is of a pot of milk with starter culture sitting, getting happy and waiting to be turned into cheese and the whey that went into the mayo and the ketchup. Those half gallon jars are filled with chicken and goat bone-broth. Just so you know…frozen goat smells fine. Cooked goat smells fine. Raw goat smells really, really weird. But bone-broth (boil bones in some water with a bit of salt) is great for what ails you, and it tastes good. Perfect for these balmy 60 degree days we have been enjoying.

 

I’ve always wanted to try making mayonnaise but just never got around to it. Now that homemade mayo is the only way to have this creamy goodness and be GAPS compliant, I figured I owed it to my kids. They are such good sports about food and honestly I think eating this way is going to be fairly easy for them. But ranch dressing/dip makes everything better. As does tarter sauce. And hummus. That’s happening tomorrow.

The mayo and the ketchup now sit on the counter for three days. Sauerkraut will be done tomorrow and the yogurt is tasty right now. I’ll be posting in three days about how everything turns up…or I’ll be dead from food poisoning. There is always that.

Wheat Belly

Bet you thought I stopped reading, huh? I’ve actually read a ton since my last book review, just nothing that prompted anything worth saying. This, however, was a very thought provoking read. To review it though, I need to tackle it from two different perspectives: what he said and how he said it. And to be confusing I’m doing it in reverse order…ha!

How he said it. In his attempt to make the dry science palatable he filled the book with flat sarcasm and jokes that weren’t that funny because he was trying too hard to be funny. It left the book sounding very unprofessional which was a shame because he had decent points to make, which were substantiated with data. Also he was so biased it was off putting at times, because that bias came out as snarky. And not even “ha ha, that was good” snarky. It was just childish. You can be passionate and have a strong bias (why else would you write a book about it?) without coming off as the mean, weird kid on the playground that no one can talk to. The paragon, in my mind, for a nice balance of readability, professionalism and raw information is The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Everyone who cares about what they put in their mouths should read that book. Period. I wish I could give such a broad, unqualified recommendation on Wheat Belly, but I can’t. It was a quick read and he was interesting. Lots of good information, but he came off as being kind of a snot.

Now onto what he said. If you like wheat or can’t imagine life without one of it’s myriad byproducts, this book will be a rough read. He talks in depth about what wheat/gluten does to all the body systems and the chemistry and physiology behind what he is saying. Frankly, it is scary stuff. That’s why as soon as I can get myself sorted out, the kids are going off wheat too (husband guy joined me January 1st). To anyone who gets the GAPS diet, or the Paleo Diet, or is diabetic this is old news. For most people this is shocking and that is, of course, the point of the book. There is a lot of helpful stuff here, if you are struggling with health issues or are just interested in your body. I would recommend it to everyone, poor writing tone aside, because most people now a days should know what they are doing to themselves. However, it has been painted as very controversial which is why I don’t blanket recommend it to anyone who will listen. As far as his other diet recommendations (no sugar, few fruits, high fats and high amounts of quality meat and dairy) it is “dangerous” to some but nothing new. These ideas have been gaining traction over the last 10 years so really it’s nothing too far fetched.

Personally, it was helpful for me to understand a lot about why I feel so much better since I went off wheat/gluten 9+ weeks ago. It’s a long story but the short version is that I was having funky mood swings and was exhausted all the time (beyond normal “mom-life is hard” and “I chase active munchkins all day”). Finally I got to the point where I decided my cyclical meltdowns were not normal and around the same time I was muscle tested by two different professionals who both said, “Yeah, you and gluten…not so much.” So off I went and I haven’t been tired or had a weird meltdown since, despite getting pregnant at almost exactly the same time I went off wheat. For those of the Latter Day Saint persuasion, this can also be difficult because not only do you most likely have bags/cans of wheat in your house somewhere but we are taught that wheat is “the staff of life.” For me this was an easy reconciliation…my body doesn’t do well with wheat, so it’s not something I should have. And I don’t miss it. Honestly, the only reason the kids aren’t totally off of it is because tortillas and bread are convenient. As soon as I’m over morning sickness junk, shifting our diet is my top priority. Read it and draw your own conclusions as to whether or not this feels right for you and your body. I totally buy it, and have seen huge improvements. Who knows what will happen for my kids, especially my Layna? I know for sure that going off wheat certainly won’t hurt anything and there is enough to be gained that it is worth the inconvenience. Now to actually make it happen…stupid wheat being easy!