Ohhhh... Fudge... My Mouth Is Watering!

    

 The first time I made fudge, I was, oh.... say 17 years old or so.  I melted the butter with the sugar over a low heat... then the chocolate chips... stirring and stirring, so it wouldn't burn you know.  I had little to worry about in terms of sugar diabeties, excess fat, blood pressure and the sort because I was, well, I was 17!  Those were the days I could slam down an entire pizza by myself without gaining a pound or even worrying about the health stuff.  These days are different!  It's been over a decade since those "eat anything, when ever and where ever" days and my outlook on nutrition differs greatly.  It took some extremism (eating disorders, no fat, calorie counting, you name it, I went there!) to finally arrive at the conclusion that I want a fully nutritional diet, the way God, the Creator and Savior of the world, intended.  That includes unaltered full fat, unaltered cholesterol, preferably organic, grass fed (never grain fed, not even at the end of their lives), no processed sugars of any kind, soaking grains, nuts and seeds, make everything in your own kitchen; Picking up what I'm putting down?!  That's right!  I've put down the boxes of manufactured foods in order to pick up raw foods that I make and enjoy (enjoy the awesome flavors as well as the nutritional benefits!)  All that aside, being that it's the Christmas season (yes, I am a Christian and celebrate Christmas), we needed some fudge around here so I went on the hunt!

Here's What I found!  Got your pen and paper handy?!  Enjoy this simple delicious recipe that is full of health benefits and nothing fake!

Ingredients: Five Total

• 1C Coconut Oil
• 3/4 C Carob Powder (you may use Cocoa Powder but Carob is a bit healthier and hardly different in taste plus, carob is naturally a bit sweet where cocoa isn't!)
• 1/4 C Honey
• 1/4 C Almond Butter (Try making it yourself.  I'll follow up with a post on "how to" within a day or so)
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

Add it all to a bowl, preferably stainless steel.  Get a pot of water (approximately 2/3 of an inch of water will do) nice and hot.  When it starts to boil, put the bowl of ingredients on the pot, making sure the bottom of the pot is not touching the bottom of the bowl, we want indirect heat here.  Stir constantly until all the ingredients are mixed well and totally melted and dissolved (approx 5-10 minutes).  Next, line a baking dish with parchment paper and pour the mixed and melted ingredients into the dish. 

When it is totally solid, slice into cute shapes of your choice ; ) and enjoy!  Keep these babies cold as coconut oil melts at around 70 degrees.  Try putting nuts in it next time!

The original recipe came from a compilation of YouTube videos which you can find here.  The nice lady in the video series says the credit for the original recipe goes to Dr. Jordan Rubin.  Dr. Jordan Rubin is the author of "The Maker's Diet" which I plan on following come New Years when the food madness of this beautiful season is passed.  I will keep you posted and am planning on blogging about the details!  Looking forward to it!

As usual, I would love to hear your feedback!  Tell me if you made them and what you thought of them!  I personally think this is my new recipe for the rest of my life! 

While I Was On The Farm With My Mom...

Yes!  Those are chicken feet!  Excellent for making rich chicken broth!  Chicken feet broth is full of nutrients like collagen, glucosamine chondroitin, gelatin, minerals and much more!  All things that our bodies absolutely need!  I prepared these two pairs of feet myself, which is far from where I came from ( as you may know, I spent lots of years eating a vegan and/or vegetarian diet ).  That all changed when I started feeling like I wasn't getting ALL the nutrients my body needed in order to do what it needs to do to reproduce, and pretty much... function well.

As a quick side note, an awesome blog called Nourished Kitchen has a wonderful recipe for making stock from chicken feet.  Check it out!

My mom lives in a small town called Calimesa where if you buy a house, it will probably be an older one with some property.  Her property is just under a half an acre and she has ducks, a goat, lots of chickens, a goose, dogs, cats, fish, a bird, and her gardening.  I know this is relatively small compared to the country, but for the city, it's great!  We eat the eggs and now, for the health benefits of eating organic, pastured meats, the chickens, and soon the ducks!  So that is what we did today!  We butchered two chickens, well, one rooster and one hen.  It was very humane and quite interesting!  Here is a video snip of the "crime scene" where the killing and feathering was already done and my mom is TCBing ( Taking Care of Business ).  If you have a weak stomach or are an animal rights activist, do not watch as you will have lots to complain about...  Following the video, I will put up a picture of the forming eggs that were taken out of the hen... super, super interesting if the video is too much for you.

That is my mom.  She is such a wonderful lady.  She is a cancer survivor from age 13 when she had to have her right leg amputated.  She finds lots of strength in things like what we "city" folk call farming.  I, on the other hand, try to find all of my strength in Jesus, when I get myself out of the way.
Here is a photo of the egg development progression inside of a hen.  All of these came from one hen and there were more attached on the inside that didn't come out.  Fascinating if you ask me!

Sorry, I had to make the picture huge!

So that was an interesting event huh?!  Butchering chickens ( Humanely! And for our food!) has now been qualified as quality time with my momma!  Thank You Lord for the life You gave us and for the food You provide!

Sincerely,
Candace

I'm Jammin', I hope You Like Jammin' Too...

That's making jam of course!  This was my very first time making jam!  I used Pomona's Universal Pectin, which is made from citrus fruit peel, and honey!  For my first batch of jam ever, it was delicious!  I gave some away so we didn't have much to enjoy for ourselves but I did freeze some apricots (processed in the food processor and lemon juice added to help retain color) so I can make more when needed!!!

Making jam seemed daunting at first.  I had the pectin on hand for about a month, pulling it out from time to time to read the directions, only to fold them back up and put the little box back into the pantry.  Our plethora of apricots were just the thing to muster up the momentum I needed!  I didn't want any apricots to go to waste so I quickly took care of them by splitting them to take the seeds out and chopped them in my trusty food processor and made jam!  The process included mashing four cups of fruit mixed with 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and 4 tsp of calcium water (sounds complicated, I know - the calcium comes with the pectin and you add it to water via the directions - easy) then heated to just boiling.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup of sweetener (I used 3/4 cup of honey), 3 tsp of pectin mixed into sweetener, then added to the fruit/lemon juice/calcium water mixture,  stirring constantly for about two minutes until the pectin is dissolved.  Bring to another boil then pack mixture into jars of choice (the directions call for eight 8oz jars but it only filled six)!   Next, boil jars to seal the canning lids for about 10 minutes - time specified for jar size.  And you are finished!  Total time to make six 8oz jars of jam was approximately 30 minutes - WAY easier than I thought!

Have you made jam before?!  What flavors?!  How about any good "jammin'" stories?  Now that I am confident that I can produce delicious jam, I am looking forward to making all sorts of flavored creations!

What's In Season: Summer

I love the old days.  The days when the family would be out on the farm taking from the land what they sowed into it.  During the summer, the whole family would be out at the garden picking fresh grapes from the vine, stopping from time to time to pop into their mouths a few bulging fresh grapes, after all, it's warm outside and there is nothing like a refreshing crisp grape in the mouth of the laborer!  How about down by the cherry trees and the peach trees.  The tops of the branches always had the best.  Poppa would take a long stick and shake the branch  while momma and the little ones would collect the fallen fruits.  Usually everything enjoyed by the family would be the seasons best.  Nowadays, we can take a walk, or shall I say drive, to the nearest grocery store and pick from a slew of colorful fruits and vegetables that are in season elsewhere in the world besides here in your own home region.  In order to achieve the bright colors of the out of season delicacies in your produce isle, grocers and huge industries have to spray wax and chemicals to preserve the "freshness" because the items have traveled for many days over sea and land to make it to your grocer in the appearance of "fresh".

How do we get around this?  Enjoy what is in season!  To me, prolonging self gratification tastes so much sweeter in the right season!  From sweet potatoes in the winter to juicy peaches in the summer, and an overall happier immune system to thank me for my patience : )  I believe that God intended for us to enjoy a vitamin packed orange in the peak of the cold winter days in order to help us fight off those "cold bugs" and "flu bugs" that are at our throats when the weather is damp and chilly.  Or how about the antioxidant rich slew of berries ready in the summer to fight off the sun's damage to our skin.  It's worth a thought!

At last, I hear you asking, no, screaming, "WHAT'S IN SEASON NOW?!"  I am glad you asked!  I looked it up for you and found a great website called Fruits & Veggies More Matters to lead us to the well anticipated answer to our question.  Here is a list compiled from the site:

• Apricots
• Asian Pears
• Beets
• Blackcurrants
• Bell Peppers
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Boysenberries
• Breadfruit
• Butter Lettuce
• Cantaloupe
• Casaba Melon
• Champagne Grapes
• Chayote Squash
• Cherries
• Cherries, Sour
• Corn
• Crenshaw Melon
• Crookneck Squash
• Cucumbers
• Durian
• Eggplant
• Elderberries
• Endive
• Figs
• Garlic
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Green Beans
• Honeydew Melons
• Jack Fruit
• Jalepeno Peppers
• Key Limes
• Lima Beans
• Limes
• Loganberries
• Longan
• Lychee
• Manoa Lettuce
• Mulberries
• Nectarines
• Okra
• Passion Fruit
• Peaches
• Peas
• Persian Melon
• Plums
• Radishes
• Raspberries
• Sapodillas
• Sapote
• Shallots
• Strawberries
• Sugar Apple
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Summer Squash
• Tomatillo
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon
• Winged Beans
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Zucchini

And you thought eating in season would be boring ; )  Only more interesting!  See, "For maximum nutrition, we're better off eating closer to the source and relying on Mother Nature for seasonal produce to keep us in balance" ( Terry Walters, Clean Food).  While I believe God is in charge of keeping balance, I agree that balance is key and that eating in season means fresher, more nutrient dense foods, and more sustainable local economies. 

What do you think?!

My newest venture: Whey

Yogurt in cheese cloth draining whey over a measuring cup

I have been vegetarian for the last 12 plus years, with a chunk of that time being dedicated to vegan nutrition (not beliefs) added with allergies to milk and other grains, it's time for a change.  I am going to try experimenting with other whole foods besides vegetables and grains including meats and milk.  I will create an entire post on why the switch soon (hopefully - as the idea of eating meat is a little disgusting to me, but nutritionally, I'm gonna go for it - at least give it a whirl!), but for now, I want to gently step into this diet transition with a soft substance called whey.

Whey, according to the dictionary is, "a milk serum, separating as liquid from the curd after coagulation, as in cheese making".  So if you eat yogurt, it's that liquid that develops on top.  And like lacto-fermentation, whey is not new, it has been around for centuries used by European, Middle Eastern, and Asian Peoples (Nourish Magazine).

I have an interest in whey because it is a great food-tool for lacto-fermented (see my post on lacto-fermentation here) foods, used as a starter in the fermentation process.  Not all recipes require whey though because you can often use salt in its place.  The world of fermentation is only made grander by adding it to the "nutrient-packed" list.

Whey is full of minerals and necessary digestive bacteria.  It can be taken straight to stop vomiting and diarrhea or to just aid digestion and can be used for fermenting foods (as previously mentioned) like kimchi, sauerkraut, chutneys, fruit preserves, etc.

Considering the introduction of dairy into my diet is a big deal to me.  I am convinced that the gallons and gallons of milk lining the dairy isles of the grocery stores aren't full of quality by any means.  Most, if not all that is in that isle are full of chemicals, hormones, animal secretions which alone can make one sick, additives, and preservatives (A little disclaimer: I grew up on this milk and I am fine so this is not to offend anyone who loves this milk!  Ideally, I would personally prefer to consume foods as close to the way God made them as possible).  Saying that does not make me anti dairy, just very cautious of what I put into my body.  My goal will be to find a local organic dairy farmer (if one exists around here) so I can get the good stuff!  I will keep you updated on my search.

With that said, here goes... not nothing... but a great idea with lots of momentum behind it.

If you are interested in how to make whey or homemade cream cheese check out this link:

Kelly The Kitchen Kop

Or this link:

Kitchen Stewardship