Poached eggs with bacon

This morning Hugo and I enjoyed poached eggs (from a small farm upstate) over sourdough toast (from Hawthorne Valley at the Greenmarket), and bacon (from Flying Pigs Farm, also purchased at the Greenmarket). Ollie had a few tastes of bacon and seemed to like it a lot. We also had baked apples with raw cream as a special brunch dessert. For perfect poached eggs, crack eggs into tea cups, then slip into gently boiling water and cook in gently bubbling water for exactly 2 minutes 20 seconds. Remove carefully with slotted spoon and allow to dry off briefly on paper towels. For baked apples, I wash and core them, then bake covered in a glass dish with a little water in the bottom and plenty of cinnamon - about 30-45 min. at 350 degrees.

Notes: Be sure to reserve the cooking water (which is like a cinnamon-apple syrup) to use as a light sweetener on yogurt or ice cream! Also the fat from high-quality bacon like this should be saved for frying potatoes and potatoes, or to be used as the shortening in Yorkshire pudding.

Brown rice for breakfast?!

The past few days I have been eating leftover brown rice (from the salmon-bok choy stir-fry of Wednesday night) as a hot breakfast cereal. Besides oatmeal this is my favorite weekday breakfast. I cook the leftover rice with raw honey, butter, and milk, plus golden ground flaxseed, dried shredded coconut, and the final touch: cinnamon.

Tonight I spent about 5 minutes getting some stuff ready for tomorrow. I put spelt and kamut (two great whole grains) on to soak -- they will be going in my turkey soup; also combined soured milk with flour for what will be Yorkshire pudding for tomorrow's dinner (to go with chicken livers & shallots); and washed three Greenmarket apples to be baked with cinnamon in the morning. I plan to eat them over the next few days with raw cream...or maybe some of the ice cream we made last night! YUM

Note on soured milk: raw milk/cream etc. go sour very gently. In fact, I find that the first few days of souring are still pleasant-tasting enough to continue drinking them. Once the milk or cream (or even sour cream) have become too soured and fermented to consume, use them in baking. They are a great source of leavening power and work well in any of the baking recipes I offer here that require soaking flour ahead of time. If you cannot obtain raw dairy, you can still use regular soured dairy products for these purposes, but raw dairy from a certified small farm will provide amazing nutrition and support your local farm economy.

Have I told you lately...

...that I LOVE raw dairy? Yesterday was the monthly pick-up night through our local buyers' club. I had ordered the following (all raw of course) - keep in mind this will last us about 4 weeks. The total cost (with 16% delivery charge) was about $180:

• 3 gallons milk (this is always whole milk, no nasty low-fat variations allowed! whole milk not only tastes better, it's actually really good for you unlike low-fat dairy)
• 3 lbs. butter
• 2 pints cottage cheese
• 1 pint sour cream (Hugo says this is like the sour cream in Mexico!)
• 2 quarts yogurt
• 1 quart light cream (for making ice cream)
• 1 quart kefir (an effervescent, tart drinkable yogurt)
• 1 lb. cheddar and 1 lb. monterey jack
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage links (pasture-fed, like all Abner's meats)
• 1 lb. ground goat meat (tastier than beef!)
• 1 dozen pastured eggs (for my friend Sarah who was delighted last time by the deep orange color of the yolks)
• unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
• 1 pint kim chee
• 1 quart maple syrup
• 2 large sweet potatoes (Oliver LOVES them)

As always, it was an adventure getting all this booty home! First I went to Sharon's with Ollie to make ice cream (more on that later). Hugo came to pick us up and carry the food home. Of course the whole way back he was wondering why he married me... In case you're wondering, yes, that entire rolling cart is filled with raw dairy and farm products and weighs well over 60 lbs. Aren't husbands great? :)

*Note added 1/19/10: our requirements have grown with Oliver -- we now need about $150 worth of these foods every two weeks! Gone are the days when Ollie drank only tiny amounts of raw milk.

Sleep deprivation = cravings

The last three days I have had less than half my usual amount of sleep (due to a large project with an absurd turnaround time). In addition to the usual side effects like mental fuzziness and bumping into things I have begun having strong cravings for foods I never eat anymore: think Ramen noodle soup, Chinese food, white flour. I know cravings are a sign my body needs something. It's possible I'm craving salt because I need extra minerals to deal with this stress. As for the carb cravings usually those signal protein deficiency. I skimped on eating a bit yesterday as I was just too busy so will need to catch up today... It's interesting to me to observe these cravings I haven't had in several months.

Pepitas!

As I mentioned earlier, nuts and seeds must be properly prepared so that you will benefit from their nutrients -- and experience the best flavor as well! I just recently learned about this, and decided to finally try it this week as we enjoy nuts and seeds on a regular basis at our house. Hugo picked up a container of organic raw shelled pepitas (pumpkin seeds) at Whole Foods the other day, and two days ago I put them on for a long soak (2 cups pepitas, 2 cups warm water, 1 tbsp. sea salt). I drained them in a colander today and then dried them out at about 150 degrees for many hours -- at least 10 I think (the time is not that important, they just have to be completely dry and crisp).
I was delighted to find they taste quite delicious -- much better than raw! We will enjoy them on salads, in baked goods, and straight from the container. When stored in a cool dark place they will last a few months.