Eat Fat Lose Fat

Like most Americans, I want to lose weight, so I picked up the book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat. This book is by the same authors as Nourishing Traditions, and uses the principles of Traditional Cooking to help you lose weight. The book uses a lot of coconut products, because of the health and possible metabolism raising powers of Lauric Acid, which is the main Acid in Coconut oil. You start off on a 2500 calorie a day plan for 2 weeks, and if you don't lose any weight in the first 2 weeks, you go down to 2000 calories a day. You take a 1-2 Tablespoons of Coconut oil 20 minutes prior to eating, which is supposed to help you feel full faster and longer, and only eat 3 meals a day, no snacks.

I started today with Phase 1, the 2500 cal/day plan. I have eaten breakfast and lunch according to the plan. So far the food has been pretty good, I feel a little bit hungry, but not starving by any means. My only complaint so far is the expense of the food, I'm hoping it gets a little better now that I have purchased a few things like spices and oils that are expensive but last a long time. I hope to keep on the plan for the full 2 weeks, and see how things go.

Don't throw that away!

I am hanging out with Little Man, while Bug naps, and watching Barefoot Contessa. Ina is making cucumber salad, and she has drained the "water" off of her yogurt and then instructs us to "toss it, because we don't need it" Don't throw that away! Its whey, and is wonderfully valuable for soaking grains and rice, and making lacto-fermented vegetables and condiments.

Creamy Cucumber Salad- Barefoot Contessa

SERVES 8

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Ingredients

• 4-5 hothouse cucumbers, thinly sliced (4 pounds)
• 2 small red onions, thinly sliced in half rounds
• kosher salt
• 4 cups plain yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup minced fresh dill
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Mix the cucumbers, red onions, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt in a bowl. Pour them into a colander and suspend it over a bowl. Wrap the bowl and colander with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to drain for at least 4 hours or overnight. Discard the liquid that collects in the bowl.

2. Pour the yogurt into a sieve lined with a paper towel and suspend it over another bowl. Wrap the bowl and sieve in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Discard the liquid that collects in the second bowl.

3. When the cucumbers are ready, roll them up in paper towels or a kitchen towel and press the towel lightly to remove most of the liquid. Place the cucumbers and yogurt in a large bowl with the sour cream, vinegar, dill, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper. Toss well and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and serve chilled.

On a rainy day

There is nothing like a fresh baked loaf of bread and homemade soup. Since I made up my dough yesterday, the bread part was easy. I cut off a piece, shaped it and let it rest. Then I had to find a soup recipe that I could make with ingredients we had on hand, which was no easy task since we just got back from vacation. I knew I had seen a cream of vegetable soup in one of my books that I wanted to try, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I improvised and came up with:

Potato Carrot soup:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup carrots, chopped
3 baking potatoes, cut in to pieces (leave skins on, that is where most of the nutrition is)
6 cups chicken broth (I think it needed a little milk to make it more creamy, next time I want to try 3 cups milk, 3 cups broth)
a few sprigs of tarragon or thyme
8 oz. sour cream

Melt the butter over low heat and cook the carrots in the butter until soft, about 30 minutes (if you like onion, you can chop up an onion and cook it with the carrots), add potatoes and broth (or milk) and turn up the heat to high and bring to a rapid boil, skim the foam off the top, add your sprigs of fresh herbs, put the lid on the pot and lower the heat to low. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove the herb sprigs and blend soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. Stir sour cream in off of the heat and serve with grated cheddar cheese to taste.

In true Crystal side-trackism

Is that a word? It is now. I don't know if its ADD or Mommy brain, but I can't just do one thing at a time. Both kids were content, so I decided to throw together some bread dough (more on that in a little bit) Well, I couldn't find the measuring cup to measure the water, so I checked the dishwasher, the dishes in the dishwasher were clean, so I started putting them away. While I was putting away dishes, I noticed that I had left a cast iron skillet dirty after melting butter in it, so I turned on the burner, to melt the butter so I could clean it. I found my measuring cup and stuck my water in the microwave to heat it up, finished unloading the dishwasher, and started loading it again, notice my skillet is smoking, so take care of that, and back to loading the dishwasher. By that time my kids had found me and Little man was trying to climb in the dishwasher as usual, and Bug was trying to be a little mama and "help" as much as a 2 year old can help. So here I am writing this post, and my bread is still just some water in the measuring cup

More about the bread. I found this bread recipe on a forum that I frequent, and I was intrigued. Its kind of a cheater sourdough, but requires very little effort and the outcome is Amazing. I made it once with unbleached flour, and this time around I'm going to make do a combo of whole wheat and unbleached. Since the dough sits for awhile I think it should be enough to neutralize the phytic acid. The scientist in me would love to do a study to see if and how long this type of dough needs, but for now I'm just going to worry about actually getting the ingredients in the bowl and making the dough

Kutztown Folk Festival

On Friday July 3rd we went the Kutztown Folf Festival. I was really excited to go the festival and see all of the demonstrations and have a nice celebrating our PA Dutch heritage. Well between all the vendors, two small children, and a huge crowd, we didn't get to see very much, but we had a great time, and next year we go during the week to avoid crowds

A little about the Festival
" Nine days of wholesome family fun with a distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch flavor awaits visitors at the Kutztown Folk Festival June 27 – July 5, 2009 at the Kutztown Fairgrounds.

Now in its 60^th year, the Kutztown Folk Festival is the oldest, continuing folklife festival in America. It is one of the largest too, and in 2008 drew well over 135,000 visitors. In addition, it is one of the most celebrated festivals in the nation. Among many honors, the festival has been twice selected as one of America’s Top 100 events by the American Bus Association, and was named by the Washington Post as one of three “must see” festivals in the region.

“There is so much to do at the 2009 Festival. There is literally something for everyone, including our famous folklore programs, the huge quilt show, folk art and crafts, music, dancing and entertainment running continuously on six stages, an expanded program of children’s activities and, of course, the best Pennsylvania Dutch food anywhere,” according to Festival Executive Director Dave Fooks. "

I, of course, had to stop and watch the glass-blowing demonstration. I really want to learn how to blow glass.

Then we took Bug to watch a puppet show

and of course we visited the petting zoo

Bug shows off her handmade bonnet

Daddy took her to get some food for the animals

Little Man wanted to pet some animals, too.

Falling Off the Wagon

Its been busy in our house lately and it been hot, and I've been returning to my dear processed foods for quick and easy meals. I'm horrible at planning in advance, and remembering to soak my grains, beans, and rice. We've also been eating out too much again. I have some plans as to how I'm going to get back into the routine and soon we are going to getting raw milk. We found a dairy nearby, and I hope to visit there tomorrow. I also found a new method for bread, that I want to try out.
I thoroughly enjoyed having fresh baked bread all week. The recipe made 3 loaves, and we gave one to our neighbor. With the rest I made cinnamon toast for breakfast, we had some slices with our meals, and I made all time favorite breakfast, eggs in a basket. Delicious, and so much better on home baked bread.
For those of you that don't know how to make an egg in a basket, its simple. First you preheat your pan, non-stick or cast iron, whatever floats your fancy to medium-high. I use a non-stick for now, but have a cast-iron pan that needs some TLC, but that's another post. While your pan is preheating, take a slice of bread and cut a circle in the center. My dad always used a shot glass, but baby bottles are a good diameter as well. Melt a chunk of butter in the pan, about a half tablespoon. Place the piece of bread and circle cut out in the pan. Crack an egg in the center of the piece of bread. Cook until the white starts to get opaque and flip, and cook just until brown. Serve with the toasted circle of bread for dipping. My dad used to take a 2nd piece of bread and make more circles, so I would have extra dipping toast. Yum
The last 1/4 or so of the last loaf was getting hard, so I made croutons out of that. I slice the bread into half inch cubes, and tossed with olive oil until just coated, and added some garlic seasoning mix, then baked at 425 for about 15 minutes, giving them a toss every 5 minutes.

Nothing beats the smell of homemade bread baking

I'm so amazed at how my sourdough turned out. I was really nervous about the whole process. How can you put flour and water in a bowl and have it turn into the base for a loaf of bread. By day 5 of the process, it started to smell like bread dough, and I was getting excited. Yesterday I took the sourdough starter and followed the recipe for Cheater sourdough bread from Nourishing Traditions. It needs to rise longer than regular bread, so it was 930 until it finally got in the oven, and 1030 until we got our first taste. There is nothing like warm bread straight from the oven, still warm enough for the butter to melt on it. There are few things that I will tweak when I make it again, but it really wasn't that difficult. The bread was moist and cake-y, so I don't think I kneaded it enough, and I could have added more water while making the starter. The directions in the book are kind of vague. She just says to add water until the consistency is soupy. All in all I'm pretty proud of my first attempt at real sourdough bread. Bug and I had cinnamon toast with it this morning. Yum!