Follow me on Twitter Lacto-fermented Asparagus
This is my first try at lacto-fermenting asparagus. I used the general lacto-fermenting recipe from the Nourishing Traditions book.
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May 112011
Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
2 cups spelt flour
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons whey
Combine ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until crumbly. Cover and let sit overnight (12-24 hrs.)
Add:
1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
1 cup sucant or rapidura
In a saucepan combine:
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
3 cups fresh rhubarb, chopped
3/4 cup honey
3 Tablespoons of arrowroot powder dissolved in 1/4 cup of water
Bring to a boil stirring constantly until fruit is soft. Set aside to cool. It will thicken as it cools.
Meanwhile, divide dry ingredients in half. Press the first half into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spoon the fruit over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining dry ingredients on the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 min.
These are delicious warm or cold. We enjoyed plain morsels of this rhubarb delight right out of the oven, and then later in a bowl with milk.
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Jan 192011
This beautiful spaghetti squash was a gift from a friends garden. It has been waiting patiently on my shelf all this time. Finally, I cut it open and baked it in the oven for an hour and a 1/2 upside down in a pan with water.
Put it into a pasta bowl.
And covered with chili.
Yum! This was so good! My kids even ate it.
Wait until you see what I do with the leftovers!
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Oct 132010
We eat endless eggs around here since we gave up eating breakfast cereal. So we keep looking for ways to keep it interesting. 
I put my homemade cottage cheese on the eggs and it was delicious. The homemade cottage cheese melts slightly, unlike the commercial kind. It is also drier so it comes out 1/2 way to feta. Once I made feta with a few changes to the recipe and it was good too.
In the picture you see my homemade bread. This is my first successful loaf without a bread pan. I like the shape. Next on my list to try is biscotti. At the last Weston Price meeting someone brought Lemon-Ginger Biscotti. I don’t know if she’ll give up the recipe or not.
My homemade cottage cheese recipe got deleted off the internet. Stay tuned and I will get it up again soon.
For other real food recipes and ideas check out Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Other Nourishing Real Food Breakfast ideas:
Sep 222010
This year the garden produced beautiful sweet peppers. I don’t know what kind they were because I got the seeds from my sister. And yes, I did save some for next year. The plants grew very tall. The peppers were rather small. 
These pepper look as though they would be hot but they are not. My sister suggested that I fry some up in a pan with onions. Now I am not a pepper lover. I just grow them to put in my homemade salsa and chili. I decided to give it a try. YUM! I ate it everyday for a few days. That’s it, just 1 onion and a few peppers fried in real butter.
Years ago I avoided peppers becasue they did not sit well on my stomach. My dad told me he had that problem with green peppers but not with red or other colors. I started eating red peppers in my chili and it didn’t bother me. Now I can eat any color natural pepper and my stomach is fine. I notice a difference between the ones I grow naturally in my garden and the waxed peppers from the store.
I even tried stuffed peppers.
For interesting recipes and information check out Real Food Wednesday.
Someone asked the question – “can I make sweet pickles wihout refined white sugar?”
In the book “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” by Sally Fallon, she has a recipe for Lacto-Fermented Sweet Pickles that calls for honey or maple syrup.
Lacto-Fermented Sweet Pickles
7 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers
1 cup thinly sliced mild onion
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup Homemade Whey
1 cup honey or maple syrup
3 T. sea salt
1-2 T. celery seeds
2 tsp. turmeric
1 T. yellow mustard seeds
In a lg. bowl, mix cucumbers with onions and place in a 2 qt – sized wide-mouthed mason jars, pressing down lightly with a pounder or meat hammer. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover. Keep the top of the liquid 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature 2 days then refrigerate.
This year we tried all kinds of cucumbers soaked overnight in pickling lime. The pickles were very nice and crispy, crunchy. This seemed to work well with the lacto-fermenting.
Has anyone else tried soaking cucumbers in lime then lacto-fermenting?
For more real food information visit – Real Food Wednesday
Jul 212010
One Jar at a Time.
Recipe for 1 pint jar of lacto-fermented dill relish.
1 cucumber, about 7 inches
1/4 cup onion, organic
1/4 cup green pepper, organic
1/2 tsp Real Salt
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp dill seed
1/4 tsp dill weed
1 Tblsp whey
1/8 tsp tumeric
Coarsely grate the cucumber, (for 1 jar I seeded it, the other jar I did not) chop the onion and the green pepper into tiny pieces. Stir in remaining ingredients, mix together. Spoon into a pint canning jar leaving 1/2 inch head room. This mixture will bubble up slightly (some more than others) meaning that the lacto-fermentation process is working. Put the lid on lightly. Leave out in the counter for 24 hours. Tighten lid to store in cool place (the fridge or celler)
I have found that the rubber seal on the canning lids keeps the air out of my lacto-fermented foods. When I store them with a non-airtight lid, they turn a darker color on top. With my saurkraut I just took a fork and romoved the top layer of kraut and ate the rest. Not at one sitting. Lacto-fermented foods are made to eat in small quantities.
For other interesting Real Food topics visit Kelly the Kitchen Kop for Real Food Wednesday.
Jul 142010
The garden is producing lots of zucchini. 
We are eating zucchini for breakfast, lunch, and snack. One of our breakfast favorites is Zucchini Fritters.
4 eggs beaten
1 stick butter melted
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups grated zucchini
1 cup flour (freshly ground spelt)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch of nutmeg (optional)
1 cup of cheese (I use mozzarella)
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and melted butter until blended. Add vanilla and the zucchini and mix. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Last add the cheese. Fry on a pancake griddle on a low temperature to make sure the middle is fully cooked. This makes 12 thick fritters. The thickness will depend on the moisture of your zucchini. Add more or less flour for desired size.
These refridgerate or freeze well for future breakfasts. I let them cool on a rack then slip into a plastic or glass container to freeze. Then reheat in the toaster oven. Toast once from the refrigerator, twice for freezer.
Serve with real butter and real maple syrup.
I got this recipe from a realitive who makes it with Parmeasan Cheese and italian seasonings instead of Mozzarella and nutmeg.
For lots of other tasty recipies and information visit Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Jul 062010
Goal: Lacto-Ferment Zucchini
This July my kitchen will be busy with the harvest from my garden. I have exchanged my old heat canning methods with lacto-fermentation. I like it better because I can preserve my veggies one jar at a time instead of a huge batch. When I would wait to get enough cucumbers to make a heat canned pickle batch, the first cucumber would start to go bad (a problem with a small garden).
Sauerkraut and Kraut slaw with peppers
Pickled Cucumbers dill or spicy
Now I looking for a recipe to lacto-ferment zucchini. Can anyone help? Have you lacto-fermented zucchini before? What other lacto-fermenting have you tried?
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.
Jun 232010
I wasn’t sure what to call this tasty dessert. I refuse to buy those sponge like, chemical tasting, dessert rounds that are supposed to go with strawberries. So, I was thrilled to find a ‘real food’ substitute. Well, not exactly a substitute, my kids have never eaten one of those spongy dessert rounds so they don’t know what I am switching out (only my dh has any idea). This is a family favorite when the strawberry patch is ready for picking.
Shortbread
1 stick of butter
2 cups spelt flour, freshly ground
1/2 cup sucanat
1 tsp vanilla
Mix ingredients in the mixer until crumbly. Pour into 8×8 baking dish. Press down into the dish. Score lines and fork it.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Put into a bowl and add strawberries and real whipped cream.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.
