To Fellow Grapefruit Lovers

Note: I read and enjoy every single comment. At the moment, though, the blog isn't letting me reply to them. I hope to resolve that soon!

Apologies to the majority of humans who eat little or no grapefruit, but this short post is dedicated to my favorite fruit, red/pink grapefruit.

And we start with the question, Why?

Why, for all those 60-some years, did I carefully cut my grapefruit in half, slice around each half just inside the rind and separate the segments by painstakingly cutting on both sides of each membrane?

My current method is SO MUCH EASIER!

Holding my grapefruit with the stem at the top, I slice it into quarters vertically and then slice each quarter into 3 wedges. There's no magic number, but I find a 1/12th wedge the perfect size to put partially into my mouth in order to suck the yummy flesh/membranes off the rind. Edit:  I peel the rind away from the pointed corners, put the partially peeled flesh in my mouth and pull off the remaining rind. Just in case you were wondering.

While I like many fruits, there's no nothing I enjoy more, and nothing that seems to stimulate good health, more than a good ripe grapefruit. I know many people take 1 or more prescriptions that force them to avoid grapefruit, but the irony is I really believe my love of grapefruit is one of the reasons this old lady takes no prescriptions.

I've been told I'm a fast healer, but I certainly wasn't as a poor child from the north who rarely saw citrus. When I was 11, we spent a few winter months in Florida and I ate a lifetime's dosage. What happened, you ask? Well, lifelong minor nosebleeds and bleeding gums disappeared never to be heard from again AND in about 4 months I grew 3 inches.

Today, of course, there are hopefully very kids at risk for scurvy but I can attest that my best heath has always been those times when I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and meat. Hmm, sounds like a food plan, doesn't it?

With all due respect to the "an apple a day" folks, the menu item I'm most eager to dive into each day is my grapefruit. 

A Different Kind of Feast ...

"When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste."  Laiko Bahrs

While practicing for maintenance by pretending not to be obsessed with food, tee hee, I've been thinking of holiday feasts and feasting in general. What do you think of when the words splurge or feast come up?

When I ate SAD (Standard American Diet) I thought of huge Thanksgiving spreads with 3-5 kinds of pie, or Christmas baked goods and candies or Easter chocolates and peeps. Although I gradually ate less and less of those things over the course of the last year I still thought of them as the gold standards of festive eating.

But today I ate a feast that included none of those things. I went shopping the other day so I have the maximum inventory of fresh produce. Yesterday I had a large, beautiful, leafy salad and lots of lamb, but today I wanted a different kind of feast.

I lined a baking sheet with foil and spread a nice layer of slushy coconut oil, to which I added generous pats of Kerrygold butter. I had 2 mildly-wrinkly rutabagas that I peeled and sliced, along with a nice yellow summer squash. Three nice beets, peeled and sliced, added sweet flavor and spectacular color to 1/2 head of cauliflower divided into large florets.

I folded foil over the veggies and baked them at 350F for 30 minutes, then flipped them over and re-covered them for about 25 minutes with fresh basil and chives added to "flavor" the steam. For the final 25 minute session, I just stirred the veggies and left the foil open.

The rutabaga slices were slightly chewy, so on a future batch I'd probably give them 15 minutes on their own before adding the others which were all PERFECT, by which I mean barely cooked but not yet soft. A sprinkle of salt and I dived in:

Rutabaga, yellow squash, beets and cauliflower with basil, chives and salt.

Okay, I hear your thoughts. "Vegetables? She baked vegetables and she's calling it a feast? What's up with that?"

But it WAS a feast. I usually include one fresh-cooked vegetable in my main meal--occasionally 2--but having generous quantities of four definitely felt a level above and was a delight to my senses. And that's my point today: we define what a feast is and how often to have one. On this particular day a four-vegetable baked dish was a guilt-free feast (which doesn't change the fact that I'm planning to have a Cadbury egg on Sunday.)

I challenge YOU to go beyond cooking dinner and mix some whole foods into a feast. You'll feel better for it, I promise.

“The pleasure of junk food lasts until it slides down your throat: the pleasure of good health manifests itself 24/7 in better sleep, less pain, greater mental clarity and capacity, and greater physical ability.” J Stanton – gnolls.org

Cold Banana Pudding

Enough about stress and health! Let's talk food ...

I've been making home-made full-fat yogurt for a few months. Mine is actually extra-fat, because I use one part organic heavy cream to 3 parts organic whole milk. I make 2-cup batches, which I usually eat in 3 portions. I keep it in the refrigerator, of course, and I usually slice a banana or other fruit into the yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon. 

This recipe uses the exact same foods to produce a dessert that's just as healthy but tastes sinfully good.

A Day or So Ahead ...

I frequently have several bananas reach "perfect" at the same time--freckles, wonderful aroma, etc., but I can't eat 3 or 4 bananas in one day. I throw extras into the freezer peels and all. 

About the Yogurt ...

Whether it's home-made or store-bought, once you use some of the yogurt (clear liquid) whey should seep into the empty space. That's good, because the yogurt becomes even thicker and the whey can be stirred back in but can also be used separately. That's what we'll do. From my yogurt, there's between 1 and 2 tbsp whey for each serving of yogurt remaining in the dish.

Make the Pudding! (at the beginning of meal preparation)

* 1 frozen banana (take it out to soften slightly 10-15 minutes before using)
* 2/3 c. full-fat plain yogurt
* 1-2 tbsp whey
* cinnamon to taste

1. Peel and slice/chunk the banana. It should still be frozen but softened enough to slice easily.
2. Put the banana chunks, whey and cinnamon into your blender/food processor/bowl and immersion blender.
3. Pulse just enough to turn the banana and whey into a thick paste.
4. Gently stir the banana/whey/cinnamon paste into the chilled yogurt; I like to barely mix it in rather than thoroughly whip it.
5. Put the pudding in the freezer and fix/eat your meal.
6A. When you're ready for dessert, the pudding will be very cold but not really frozen. Mine made a thick creamy pudding with rich banana flavor.
6B. There's a short-cut method too. Just slice/dice the frozen banana into chilled yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon. The frozen/cool combination is very interesting and the flavors are a little more separate.
6C. If you make pudding and want it truly frozen, you'd need to make it farther ahead. I don't know if it would have  creamy texture, it might be more of the icy frozen yogurt texture. If I try it that way, I'll come back and update this post.

Just remember, this is not a "paleo-friendly" dessert. This is a healthy probiotic food that just happens to taste like a dessert. Enjoy!

The Tastes of ADF

"Fasting is the single greatest natural healing therapy. It is nature's ancient, universal 'remedy' for many problems. Animals instictively fast when ill."  Elson Haas, M.D. in Staying Healthy with Nutrition

Today happens to be my 10th day of ADF (alternate day fasting.) If you haven't read my last 2 posts, I'll explain quickly that I limit my intake to water and black coffee on  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On the other 4 days I can eat as desired but I am trying to lose weight as well as optimize my blood glucose/pressure so my "feed" days so far have included only whole real foods.

On my fast day yesterday I was high energy so I did many chores and errands. At one point I went to Safeway with my son and grandson and I'm happy to report being surrounded by food didn't stress me at all because I knew I could eat until happily full today. Tomorrow is Sunday and it will be the first time I have eaten 2 days in a row since I started ADF because at first I followed a true 2-day cycle pattern. After the first weekend I decided it would be simpler and easier to follow ADF if my fasting days were always the same days each week.

Yogurt and Fruit (archive photo)

So, this was my 5th "feed" day and I ate 2 meals. Actually, I ate exactly the same meals/amounts as when I ate daily. I broke my fast by sipping 2 mugs of coffee with heavy cream and honey. My breakfast at about 9 am was a banana, a handful of berries, some cinnamon and about 1/2 cup of home-made Bulgarian yogurt. Now, you may think you've had some great meals but let me just say when you haven't eaten in about 42 hours yogurt and fruit taste GREAT.

I was not feeling urgent hunger so I spent the day visiting with my son and then my friends and I didn't have my main meal until about 6 pm. I forgot to eat a grapefruit, my usual appetizer, but since I had fruit this morning no biggie. I started my meal with a 4-5 cup leafy salad; the only dense ingredient was a few stuffed olives. I usually find when I finish a salad that there is some liquid--oil, vinegar and water--left in the dish. Usually I just pour that liquid down the drain but today it became the "magic ingredient" for my main dish (pictured below.)

I slow-fried (setting 4 out of 10 on my induction cooktop) a pound of grassfed ground beef.  I removed the cooked beef from the skillet and melted a chunk of Kerrygold butter--between 1 and 2 tbsp. I had rough-chopped about 1/3 of a fresh fennel bulb and had cut a bunch of asparagus into 1-inch pieces; I added those to the skillet and slow-fried them in the melted butter.

Ground beef, asparagus and fennel

To finish my main dish I mixed the vegetables into the crumbled beef AND poured my leftover salad liquid into the dish. I put half of it into the fridge for tomorrow or Tuesday and ate the other half. WOW! The mixture of flavors really worked. In some bites the dominant flavor was fennel and in others there was a hint of the salad liquid. Still others were pure beef or asparagus. I'm glad I have half of this dish left over and I will definitely use my salad liquids in my main dishes on a regular basis.

On the health front, which is why I decided to practice ADF for a couple months in the first place, I am truly amazed at the difference the first 10 days have made. Until the recent family-related stresses affected my blood glucose/pressure I had considered my overall health much improved after 9 months of quality nutrition, but honestly I have never felt THIS good in my life. Not as a child or teen or young adult or middle-ager. This morning I "sensed" every part of my body and could not identify one single complaint. If I had to decide right now I would definitely choose to stay on ADF permanently, although I still intend to shift to 2 fasting days per week in April.

UPDATE: For day 2 of my eating weekend, I sauteed some cauliflower in butter then poured the leftover dish from yesterday on top and covered the pan to re-heat the leftovers. I barely managed to take the photos below before attacking the food:

Today's Leafy Salad

Beef, asparagus and fennel with cauliflower added

Note: With the addition of cauliflower this was again a large batch of food so I ate half and  refrigerated the other half for my grandson tonight or my meal on Tuesday. Since I was eating less meat (divided again) I also ate a can of sardines, which went very well with the other flavors.

Chain Saw Stew

Sorry about the title, but my kitchen currently looks like the scene of a chain-saw murder.  


As I mentioned in my last post, I've been hungry for more fruit and vegetables lately and still enjoying but much less hungry for meat. And, as you may already know, I always have a bone broth stew on hand with less meat nowadays than in the past but still very rich with meat juices and marrow, etc.


So my menu today reflects my current interests. I started with my usual coffee--flavored with heavy cream and local honey. 


The first course of my breakfast was a whole grapefruit, 2 tangelos and a ripe banana. Before eating those, though, I started the main course. I had my stew in the slow-cooker to re-heat it for adding fresh vegetables later today so I started by dipping out about a cup of fatty meat broth. I put that on my induction cook-top and sliced/peeled 3 nice fresh beets. Once I had the beets cooking away in the broth, I dug out the remaining cooked rutabaga, cabbage, fennel, celery and carrots from the stew to clear the way for the next set of vegetables (celery, carrots, cabbage and rutabaga.) 


I left the dished-out warm vegetables, with bits of meat and fat, in the dish while the beets cooked and I ate the fruit. I then added some pats of butter to the top of the stewed vegetables before dumping the cooked beets and broth over the top of the other vegetables.

Chain Saw Stew

Heaven! I definitely inhaled the beets. Sorry, I ate about 2/3 of the beets before remembering I really should take a pic but I figured late was better than never. My review of this ad-lib recipe is that the beets were very sweet and while the visual is a little vivid--definitely blood red broth--the flavors meshed wonderfully. This was a GREAT meal!


Okay, the final step is to clean up the "gore" from my pans, bowl and counter. I will make this recipe again soon.


P.S. I called my meal "breakfast" because it's my first meal of the day. I may or may not eat again, though. If I do eat later, it will be a meat-based meal since I've already had a lot of vegetables and fruit.

Speaking of Eggnog ...

I grew up on home-made eggnog. We made it one serving at a time whenever we wanted some. The store-bought nog available today just isn't acceptable to my taste buds so I decided to make my own. The goal of my recipe is to have eggnog as thick as store-bought without all the additives.


In today's environment I don't feel safe with raw eggs so  my recipe requires heating a milk/egg base. You absolutely need a good thermometer you can clip to the side of the pan so all you have to do is stir and watch the temp. 


I also strongly recommend using 2 pans: a larger one that holds boiling water and a smaller one that can be added without boiling water splattering into it. Before turning on the heat, test the water level in the larger pot with the smaller one pressed to the bottom of the larger one. Make sure there's plenty of room for the water to boil without spilling into your eggnog base. The taller the smaller pot is the better, as long as you can stir.


Okay, to make 5+ cups of eggnog I used the following:  

• 3 cups of whole milk (I use organic)
• 1 c heavy cream (organic)
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp-1tbsp of vanilla as preferred
• 1 tbsp of sugar or honey (optional)

Put your larger pan with pre-measured water on the heat and bring to a boil. Don't forget to also pour our cold water into another larger pan to use when cooling the base later; check to make sure you can add the smaller pan in, pushed to the bottom, without spilling any water into your eggnog base. 


To create and cook the base, put about half the milk/cream into a blender, add the 3 eggs and whip until very well mixed. Make sure you clean your blender after you put the cold mix into the smaller pan for heating, because you'll be whipping the cooked eggnog base in it later and you don't want to add any germs back in.


Pour the eggnog base into the smaller pan and add to the pot of boiling water. Let it heat for a minute or two, stirring constantly, and lower the heat under the larger pan when it comes back to a boil--you really only need an active simmer to heat your eggnog base.


When the base reaches 160F, it will suddenly begin to thicken. Place the hot pan into the cold water bath and keep stirring--you don't want scrambled eggs! After a couple minutes it will be starting to cool and you can pour the hot base into your (cleaned) blender. Whip it and it should have the texture of a very thick milkshake. 


Pour the still-warm base into a large bowl or pitcher; you'll need to spoon the last of the base out of the blender as it's so thick. Add the vanilla and the rest of the milk/cream plus the sugar/honey if desired.


The eggnog should still be pretty thick after you add the milk/cream. Put it into the fridge until nice and cold--you'll never want store-bought again! I sprinkle nutmeg on mine; I'm a non-drinker but with or without the nutmeg you may also want to add a tiny bit of rum.

Thoughts About Home-Made Yogurt

Forgive me if I gush about my new hobby, but you know how it is. The  new toy gets all the praise.

It's less than 3 weeks since I began making my own yogurt, but by itself that should tell you there isn't a long learning curve. I've been asking myself why I waited so long to start making it, but the answer is that I could never tolerate it before. Since I started drinking water kefir, though, good things have happened and I now handle a dish of yogurt just fine every morning.

Let's Eat!

Because ancestral eating means eating whole foods without fear of animal fats including dairy, I don't make reduced-fat yogurt. In fact, I enhance my whole milk with heavy cream. Fats have been wrongly accused of causing heart disease when research now shows the opposite--low fat diets increase your chance of suffering heart disease. If you want to read more about that, here's a link to a relevant article. However, if you want to make reduced-fat yogurt then just buy reduced-fat milk.

Here are my first reactions to making yogurt:

• I can't believe how easy it is!  
• I love having control of how much/little fat is in the yogurt
• I love having control of how much I make each time rather than having to buy containers that are too large/small
• I love the flavor--the plain yogurt isn't sweet but it definitely tastes like a dairy product unlike the commercial ones that taste like sweeteners, thickeners and stabilizers
• I love the texture. I'm already successfully producing a nice thick yogurt that mixes easily with fruit and is smooth on the tongue either plain or mixed
• I like the fact that my  home-made has a full complement of live, active cultures and has no appreciable shelf life as I make it every 3 days

And that's just the beginning. In case you're curious, I'll detail a few facts:

• I bought a yogurt maker. Living in a 5th wheel RV, temperatures are comfortable but quite variable. In winter, it gets cool overnight and in summer it's quite warm despite 2 air conditioners and a ceiling fan. I bought one that allows me to use my own container of preferred size. Many people are able to make yogurt without a yogurt maker, though, and advice is easy to find online.
• I buy organic whole milk and heavy cream (the cream also goes in my coffee.) I purposely tried mixtures of different strengths--milk plus a little cream, half/half and mostly cream. My strong favorite is 1.5 cups of whole milk and 1/2 cup of cream. It sets up beautifully but still has a milky taste.
• Few supplies are needed other than the yogurt maker. I use a stainless steel bowl for heating the milk/cream, a silicone spatula to stir, my full-purpose glass measuring cup, an instant-read thermometer and 2 2-cup ceramic mugs-with-handles that are nice for handling the warm liquid and yogurt. The only things I purchased for the yogurt project were the 2 2-cup mugs and a package of culture starter.
• To make the yogurt, you heat the milk/cream to 185 degrees, then cool to 110. You then add the starter culture (I used the one I bought for the first batch only) or 1 tbsp live-culture yogurt per cup of liquid. I reserve 2 tbsp of yogurt from each batch to start the next.
• My yogurt is ready in about 5 hours; I cool it briefly then cover and put it in the fridge. Right now I'm using about 2/3 cup per day.

New Batch

Sample for Next Batch

Instead of staring in bewilderment at the supermarket's yogurt display, looking in vain for full-fat yogurt without additives, I now open the fridge and take out my creamy fresh yogurt and all I have to do is decide which fruit sounds good today.

Resources: The most complete information I've found about making yogurt at home is at makeyourownyogurt and I recommend you check it out.

Holiday Splurge: Yogurt as a Between Meal Dessert

The best things about my recipe are that I'm using home-made, full-fat yogurt and there are no sweeteners used.


If you aren't making yogurt, then look for plain unsweetened yogurt with no- or few additives as they basically make yogurt taste like something else. My favorite part of my home-made is that it still tastes like a dairy product. I can and will eat it plain, but only to keep losing weight. Once I reach my desired weight I plan to eat it this way every day.


I start with a ripe banana. Mash half of it coarsely with a fork and sprinkle with cinnamon. Add your yogurt. I use about 2/3 cup of yogurt; you should start with your preferred portion and, if it's much more or less than 2/3 cup you may want to adjust the fruit quantities from what I describe.


Once the mashed banana and cinnamon are stirred into the yogurt, slice the other  half of the banana and add a handful of either sliced or whole grapes in your desired quantity. Gently mix with your spoon and EAT! The mashed banana sweetens the yogurt but not so much that the other fruit tastes sour.


To enhance the flavors, I add a few raw pecan or walnut halves for contrast.


Variations can include replacing the grapes with any of these: kiwi, sweet apple, pineapple (preferably fresh), berries.

Brewing Water Kefir, part 2

If you aren’t familiar with the basic process of making water kefir I strongly recommend reading part 1 of this recipe—or basic recipes on other sites—before reading this article.

Sometime in the past day or two you started a new batch of water kefir and now we’re going to discuss ways of flavoring it and/or creating home-made sodas.

First, though, let’s review the overall daily routine: you need to feed your kefir grains by starting a new batch and you need to do something with the water kefir that is now fully brewed.

Feeding the Kefir Grains. This involves preparing a new sugar water solution in one of your glass mixing bowls (steps 1-5 in part 1 of this recipe), straining the finished water kefir into the other mixing bowl and rinsing your pitcher. Then rinse the kefir grains by running clear un-chlorinated water through the strainer. If they have multiplied, just put the amount of grains you need—usually a cup or so—back into the pitcher. 

Fermented Fruit--Sweet not Sour!

If the fruit in the cheesecloth was new yesterday, you can just rinse it and put it back in the pitcher. I always take out the now plump-and-juicy fig because I eat it on my yogurt, so I have to put in a new one. If the fruit has been used more than twice you should eat or discard it and rinse the cheesecloth, then make up another set of fruit (step 8 in part 1) and put the sack into the pitcher with the kefir grains.

Finally, pour the new sugar solution into the pitcher and stir so the grains get a nice flow of liquid. The actual amount of new sugar solution should be based on the number of people for whom you’re making it.  Also, if you mix fruit juice with your water kefir for a second fermentation, you’ll need less basic water kefir per day; if you don’t, you’ll need more. Just remember, it’s 1 tbsp of sugar for each cup of water. Cover the pitcher again and place it into a shady corner or cupboard.

Too many water kefir grains?  If your water kefir grains are healthy and happy, they are likely to multiply—mine frequently double in volume in a day of brewing. If you don’t have anyone who wants some and you don’t need them all, just measure a nice amount of rinsed grains into your pitcher for the next batch and throw the rest away. You can also eat them, they taste very sweet and nice and have a tapioca-like texture, or give them away or put some around your plants.

Too much water kefir? Since you need to keep enough microbes—I’d say at least a cup—to ensure a healthy community of them, and you need to feed them every day with new sugar water, the truth is you  may wind up with more water kefir than you wish to drink. At the end of the recipe I’ll mention resting the grains, but that’s a vacation or emergency thing rather than a casual practice so you need to give yourself permission to give away excess water kefir, feed it to your plants occasionally, or (gasp!) throw some away.

Using  the water kefir as is.  You don’t HAVE to flavor or bottle your basic water kefir. You can just put it into a regular pitcher/container and refrigerate it—I also like a room-temperature cup of the fresh kefir I just took out of the pitcher. The kefir is teeming with those probiotic microbes that are so good for you so unflavored, the water kefir will continue to get more and more sour and at some point you’ll probably find it undrinkable although it might make a fun substitute for vinegar.

If you seal it in an airtight bottle (I use the old-fashioned kind with long necks and rubber stoppers on wire brackets) it will still get more and more sour but it will also get fizzy. For good carbonation, leave it at room temperature for another day and “burp” the bottle to ease pressure before you chill it.

Pineapple Water Kefir

Flavoring the water kefir. If you browse the internet you’ll find many recipes for flavoring your water kefir. Two simple ones are adding vanilla extract or some grated fresh ginger (or ginger extract.) There are also extracts for other flavors such as root beer. If you don’t want to add other flavors but you need it to be sweeter you can just add your favorite sweetener but in that case I’d do it as you serve it rather than before chilling.

My preferred method for flavoring my water kefir is to add fruit or fruit juice. If you use fresh fruit, you’ll want to mash or puree it so the  microbes have lots of surface area to work on, and you’ll want to strain out the juice with cheesecloth or a fine strainer. So ready-made juice is more convenient.

Organic Grape Kefir

You’ll need to experiment to find the mixtures and flavors you like best. I normally mix 50% juice and 50% water kefir. It’s going to ferment again, remember, so the microbes will eat most of this sugar too. I’ve tried many flavors and my current favorite is blueberry. WARNING: I bought organic cranberry juice but it killed the probiotic bugs and didn't carbonate. I don't know if it's a lack of sugar or too much acid but I don't use cranberry juice anymore. I've had great results with pomegranate juice but I usually mix it with another juice so the total mix is only 20-25% pomegranate.

Now, when you buy 100% juice blueberry (and don’t buy juice with additives—just mixtures of juice) there will be other juices shown such as apple and that’s fine. When you first mix it, you may not taste much blueberry but after the second fermentation and chilling the blueberry flavor really pops out and, with the carbonation, it’s delightful. To make the pineapple water kefir pictured above, I pureed a fresh pineapple and strained the juice through cheesecloth. It turned out excellent, like fresh pineapple juice with a zing and fizzy bubbles.

Start with your favorite juices and see which ones are the best match for the kefir.

The second fermentation. All this means is that you  give your liquid more time at room temperature for the microbes in the water kefir to eat the sugar out of the fruit juice; if you don’t want carbonation just put it in a pitcher or container with a loose lid.

If you do want bubbles, use your funnel and pour the juice/kefir mix into bottles and leave a lot of space at the top. 

Ready for another day on the counter!

For instance, I use the long-necked bottles and I fill only to the top of the wide body of the bottle. If you fill the bottle too full and make it airtight there’s a risk the pressure of carbonation could blow the top right off the bottle. Leave the bottles at room temperature for 12-24 hours. The actual time will depend on how sweet your like your home-made sodas. Since the fermentation will continue for a while after the bottles go into the fridge, I put  my bottles into the fridge when the soda is still lightly sweet. “Burp” the bottles by carefully opening the tops and re-sealing them, and place them in the fridge.

And that’s it, except every day you get to drink either fresh or carbonated water kefir or both! With different flavors, it should never get boring. To get the maximum benefit from the probiotic microbes in your water kefir, drink it between meals so your stomach is empty and the probiotic bacteria can sail right through your (hostile) stomach and into your (friendly) gut.

Resting your water kefir grains. It’s risky to stop the daily routine as the grains may deteriorate or die. If you’ve given grains to friends and family, you have a back-up and you can just toss them if you wish. Otherwise, the easiest way to stop your daily routine for a vacation or other situation is to put some grains in a 2-cup jar, pour in new sugar water solution and cover the jar with a coffee filter. Put the jar in the fridge and the microbes will slow way down and not starve in a reasonable time of a week or two.

When you want to use them again, expect them to take a few days to get back into full action but make sure you give them new sugar solution every day.

I’ve also read that you can freeze them but I haven’t tried that. And, of course, you can buy a new starter set of grains.

An Excess of Holiday Ham?

Yesterday my day started as usual, with 2 mugs of coffee, each with a little heavy cream and about 1tsp of honey. At mid-day, I had my usual dish of 2/3 c. home-made yogurt with a banana and a fermented fig (more on the fig later.)


So, in late afternoon, I decided to have some ham. This is not a strict "ancestral" ham because it's not from a pastured hog and I'm sure it was sugar cured. You know the type I mean, a ready-to-eat shoulder with the bone still in. I have plans for that bone, but for now I'm just going to freeze it.


Now about my meal--normally, I make a leafy green salad that marinates for a bit in vinegar and olive oil. And I usually have raw and/or cooked vegetables, and maybe a piece of whole fruit for dessert.


But not yesterday. No, I carved myself a huge slice of ham from around that bone, browned the slice of ham in a skillet and made a feast of it. It was about the regular thickness for a ham steak, but I would normally eat about half of a round with the salad and veggies.


That slice filled my dinner plate! And nothing ever tasted better. Ham has never been my favorite meat, so I only have it once or twice per year, but I am a woman who hasn't had refined sugar in 8 months (well, except for that binge in August) and my taste buds actually work now. The sweet, delicate flavor of the ham inspired me to eat that whole slice with gusto.


How, you ask, was I punished for eating a large meal of nothing but ham?


Umm . . . well . . . I WASN'T! When I woke up this morning, alert and well-rested, I had that tell-tale feeling when you know you've lost a little fat overnight. When I walked my dogs I was light on my feet and I had tons of energy; my waist was the same size as it was on Nov. 15th when I went on my holiday rules.


So, the moral of the story is that if you really feel like a big meal go for nothing but meat. It's not the ham that'll make you fat, it's the bread and mashed potatoes and pie. There's no such thing as an excess of holiday ham!


P.S. The fig I mentioned above is a dehydrated (unsweetened, unsulphured) fig I put in the pitcher when I brewed the previous day's water kefir. It soaks up the brew and becomes the juiciest, most delicious fig you ever had. I change out the other fruit every second or third day, but I have to put in a new fig every day because I just can't resist them.

Brewing Water Kefir, part 1

This recipe is divided into 2 parts because I normally brew my water kefir twice. In this part, I will talk about what water kefir is, how to get started and how to brew a batch of “fresh or raw” water kefir. The second part will talk about recipes for mixing and bottling water kefir to create home-made fruit sodas.

What is water kefir? If you do an Internet search for “water kefir” many detailed articles will come up so I will keep it simple: water kefir is a probiotic drink (think good microbes for your gut) that is fermented in a pitcher or jar on your counter or in a cupboard. There are 2 types of kefir, actually: dairy kefir and water kefir. I will talk only about water kefir.

Do I really want to make water kefir?

You should ask yourself this question before spending any money even though water kefir is really cheap to make. I thoroughly enjoy the daily routine of bottling water kefir and starting another batch, but it’s a commitment. You know, when you get a puppy you have to walk it e v e r y  d a y. Well, with water kefir you need to do the daily routine of feeding the kefir grains. Once every great while you can rest the grains in the fridge, but 95% of the time you need to rinse and feed them.

How can I get started brewing water kefir? If you don’t know anyone who makes water kefir (they’ll frequently have spare microbes they can share) you can purchase some of the microbes (commonly called water kefir “grains”) online. You’ll need to assemble some ingredients and supplies, many of which you already have, including some sugar—I use organic unrefined whole cane sugar from Rapunzel. The sugar is for the microbes, not you!

Ingredients:

• Sugar (different people use different types but I stick with the least processed, most complete type called rapadura
• Water kefir grains
• Baking soda
• Bone meal or egg shell (cleaned)
• Salt
• Fresh lemon
• Organic unsulphured/unsweetened raisins
• Unsulphured/unsweetened fresh or dehydrated figs
• Non-chlorinated water with normal minerals (don’t use city water or distilled; use well water, spring water, etc.)

Supplies:

• a glass 2-qt pitcher, fairly wide-mouthed
• 2 mixing bowls
• Cheesecloth, a piece large enough to make a 2-layer piece about a foot long
• A large strainer, either plastic or stainless steel
• 2 glass 2-cup measuring cups
• 1 tbsp plastic or stainless steel measuring spoon
• Wooden spoon
• Coffee filter, rubber band

Note: The items that I said “2 of” are for convenience and you could get by with only one.

How do I start drinking water kefir?

The recipe below will make 4 cups of water kefir, which is as much as a typical starter set of water kefir grains (several tbsp) can produce. Be prepared for the first few batches to be weak or sour as your kefir grains adjust to your home's water and temperature.

You can taste the water kefir at all steps at any time during fermentation; it will be sweet at first, because it’s just sugar water, then it will become less and less sweet as the microbes eat the sugar. At first just taste a tablespoon or so once or twice per day. Let your GI tract get used to the good microbes you are introducing.  When the kefir is done (not too sweet, not too sour) you should plan to toss the first batch or two—NOT the kefir grains, just the strained liquid--after drinking your small amount.

By the third batch, you should notice that it’s tasting better. That will be because your kefir grains are settling in and you are getting used to the taste. Gradually increase how much you drink every day. With luck, your kefir grains are now multiplying and you can increase to 6 cups of sugar solution if desired. Just remember, 1 tbsp of sugar for each cup of water.

I drink 2-5 cups of water kefir every day, but I took 2 weeks or so to build up to that amount and you  may  need more or less time to become fully accustomed to this new beverage.

How do I make a batch of water kefir? Okay, let’s go!

Kefir Grains

Fruit for Fermentation

1. Measure out one or more cups of water based on desired amount of kefir. Again, this should NOT be chlorinated or distilled; you need well or spring water.
2. Add one tablespoon of the Rapunzel sugar for EACH cup of water you will have in the pitcher; for the first batch, start with 4 tbsp (you can use any type of sugar, but if you  use refined sugar you need to add some blackstrap molasses—check online for recipes using other sugars.)
3. Heat a little of the water (a cup or less) and the measured sugar just hot enough to dissolve the sugar. While it’s heating, put the rest of the cool water into a mixing bowl.
4. Stir the heated water and sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved. Pour it into the bowl of cool water. The bowl of solution should barely feel warm,  about room temperature. If it's too warm, just let it sit and cool a while.
5. Add tiny pinches of the salt, baking soda and bone-meal/egg-shell into the sugar water that’s still in the mixing bowl.
6. Remove your kefir grains from the container or storage liquid and rinse them with cool clean water (not part of your brewing liquid, and again it can’t be chlorinated.) Put them into the glass pitcher you’ll use to brew the water kefir.
7. Pour the pleasantly cool sugar water into the pitcher.
8. The fig, ¼ fresh lemon (well scrubbed on the outside) and 6-8 golden raisins should be tied up in the cheesecloth. You don’t have to use the cheesecloth but it makes it much easier to discard the used fruit later; without it, you’ll be picking the raisins out of the kefir grains. The lemon is important because it adds acid to the brewing solution.
9. Drop the cheesecloth sack into the pitcher.
10. Put a coffee filter or two over the mouth of the pitcher and hold in place with a rubber band. Put the pitcher on the counter where it won’t get direct sun or in a cupboard.

Brand New Brew Solution

That’s it! If you’re around, stir it occasionally with the wooden spoon. Check the brew after about 24 hours. If it no longer tastes sugary sweet and the color of the liquid is much lighter (with my whole sugar, it goes from dark brown to honey color) the batch is done. The longer you let it brew the more tart it will get. If it’s not done, you can let it brew up to 48 hours but with the first batch or two plan to prepare new sugar water (steps 1-5 above) after 24 hours because you are trying to encourage the grains to grow.

Strain the water kefir you're going to drink or store into a cup or container. Any liquid you're not going to keep can be strained into the sink. Rinse your kefir grains--now in the strainer--in cool, clean non-chlorinated water and put them in the new liquid and also rinse your pitcher out. 

Ready to Strain and Drink/Flavor

Freshly Strained Water Kefir--Good!

If your grains multiply, you will reach a point where you need to make more water kefir at a time OR you will need to throw some of the grains away--or give them to friends and family. It's good if they grow as it means they're happy and probably making terrific water kefir!

Please note that water kefir grains can starve if left too long after all the sugar is gone from the brewing water. My water kefir has always been ready after 24 hours. Don't put too many grains in the sugar water or they'll run out of food and could starve.

If you want to bottle the water kefir you can, but I recommend you just sample and toss the first two batches because you’re only drinking small quantities per day anyway. I normally use the bag of fruit at least twice before discarding it, rinsing the cheesecloth in non-chlorinated water and putting new fruit in it.

Fresh water kefir from the first brewing cycle (not yet flavored or carbonated) is not particularly sweet or fruity, although I enjoy about 1/2 cup of it in the morning. It is somewhat like apple cider if you're off sugar, more like vinegar if you're adapted to a high-sugar diet. It is, of course, teeming with the good bugs for your gut.

In part 2, we’ll add flavor and seal the water kefir in an airtight bottle or container so it becomes carbonated. If you don't want to add anything for flavor, just seal it loosely if you don't want bubbles and tightly if you do.

Important: If you put water kefir into an airtight bottle or jar, it should be "burped" once or twice a day to release carbon dioxide. After a day or so, put it in the fridge for a day or two and the fermentation will slow down so you can stop worrying about pressure but always open water kefir slowly and move the top carefully in case it's very fizzy.

Resources: I recommend you check out Basic Water Kefir Instructions and this  YouTube video

What Does a Typical Menu of Ancestral Eating Look Like?

One practice in the ancestral eating community that’s been very helpful to me is intermittent fasting aka IF. I have a history of binge eating and I have found that eating only 1 or 2 meals per day quiets my urge to binge. So, the first thing I can tell you about my daily menu is that it currently involves a small mid-day lunch and a main meal in the afternoon.

I don’t experience sharp hunger or lack of energy. In fact, since I don’t normally eat in the morning I never even think of food and I have plenty of energy even if my schedule causes me to miss one or both meals.

Meal #1: This is normally home-made yogurt. I buy organic whole milk and cream; I use ½ c. cream and 1 ½ c whole milk to make 2 cups of yogurt. I also eat fruit with this meal—one day it may be a whole grapefruit and the next a small salad of a fig, a date and a banana (sliced and mashed into the yogurt.) Per day, I’m eating between a half and a whole cup of yogurt.

Meal #2: This is my main meal. I like to be full when I finish. I start with a leafy salad, usually rich-colored leaf lettuce, chunks of fresh celery including leaves and slices of English cucumber (all my favorites, you can choose your own.) I use vinegar and olive oil on the salad and I like to let it marinate a bit while I cook the other foods.

I make slow-cooked stews with strong bone broths at the base. However, most of my actual meals are skillet meals.

Here’s a typical recipe:

• Fry 1 or 2 pieces of uncured bacon. The crisp bacon comes out and is usually munched as an appetizer; the bacon fat stays in the skillet. If I don’t use bacon, I will either cut visible fat/skin off my meat/poultry to provide a little liquid fat or I will skim hardened fat off the top of my current slow-cooked stew. Another option is a spoon of coconut oil or beef tallow.
• Okay, we now have a seasoned skillet with at least a little liquid fat. I now add any fresh/frozen vegetables that will be part of the finished meal. They are removed once cooked and fat is added to the pan if needed.
• The next step is the main piece of meat—could be beef, lamb, poultry, fish, etc.—and cook it until what we’d call medium-rare. Now we start adding things to the skillet, leaving the main meat in it.
• Once the meat is nearly cooked, I dump in 1-2 cups of slow-cooked stew. Ideally, the meat in the stew will be a different kind than what I’ve cooked. The broth in the stew should have a firm gelatin texture coming out of the fridge; I bring it to an active simmer and let it cook down a bit to more of a sauce.
• While the broth is simmering in the skillet I’ll add any fresh/frozen/canned vegetables.

The final step is to sit down, munch the salad and enjoy every spoonful/bite of the skillet meal.

Note: My day of ancestral drinking includes at least one bottle of water kefir; more on that in another post. I usually drink the water kefir before or well after a meal because it is a strong probiotic drink and I want it to sail through my stomach when it’s empty.