My first 4-H sewing project

I must have been about 8 years old when I did my first 4-H Club sewing project. We had to do a skirt and a scarf. The skirt is long gone, but I still have the scarf, nestled in my drawer of dishtowels.

I just bought a huge new bowl (on sale from Amazon, has a big dent but paid $20 for a $100 bowl!). I am now doing many more boules and batons for market, and the dough just doesn't fit in any of my bowls for the crucial initial mixing stage. I have a nice big plastic container with room to spare -- holds 12 quarts --  for my bulk fermentation, but I needed that BIG bowl.

I used it for the first time this morning, and it was nice to have all that room in the bowl. However, when I went to cover it, a dish towel is too small. Voila! There was the scarf from the 1949 sewing project! I don't know how many washings it will tolerate, so I am handling it like fine China.

Here is my new bowl with the scarf from my first sewing project! I was so proud of it! Brings back many memories. Where did the years go?

The scarf

Day with my daughter at Jungle Jim's

My daughter Valerie and I went to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati - a grocery store that is five acres under one roof! She had been there once, assured me that two hours was about all you could take in one visit. She had a meeting in Zionsville that night (a little over two hours from Jungle Jim's) so we had about three and a half hours max for shopping.

We wandered about a bit, then I found housewares and wandered in awe. My daughter went for groceries, came back to find me, tugged on my arm and informed me that I had been in that department for about two and a half hours. If I wanted any groceries, I had better get out of there stat!

So I reluctantly left. There were some real finds there. I got a new set of dishes last year, and I had broken one plate. I found one that looked pretty much like what I had. And it was! When I got it home, it was exactly the same make! I like my martinis in the old fashioned martini glasses. Had two, broke one, then recently broke the other. They cost a small fortune, but there were the exact glasses that I once had. Two martini glasses into my cart and at a very reasonable price. I found all sorts of tools but left most of them there, realizing how much of the things I was looking at already resided in my cupboards, drawers and china cabinets at home. I did buy a lovely red coffee mug, and I use it every day. I didn't have a RED coffee mug, so I convinced myself I really needed it.

Of course I checked out the sales. I had a Lodge braising pot, very old, very stained as those porcelain lined pots all seem to be with age and hard use, but still worked fine. But be still, my heart, there was a whole rack of Le Creuset ON SALE! And right in the middle of one shelf was a bright yellow braising pan, a little shallower and wider than the one I had at home. I didn't need it, and where would I put it? Aha! I would offer up my old pan for $10 on Facebook. I had three buyers in a flash!! Amy bought it, is using it and loves it. And I am braising in my bright yellow Le Creuset braising pan. It says it is dishwasher safe but having used many cast iron pans with porcelain finish, I beg to differ. My new girl is getting the best treatment. She is hand washed like fine china.

We had such a lovely time. Val got home for her meeting in time. I love every last thing I got. We were going to try to make another trip before the holidays with my son's fiancée Christine in tow, but time has slipped away. It will have to be a trip for another time.

My new braising pan

Getting ready for A Few of My Favorite Things

Our church, First Unitarian Church of South Bend, Indiana, has a fund raiser each fall. We call it a service auction, and it is our largest single source of funds outside of pledges. 

We all try to be inventive, and I love to go through the catalog, and I always buy too much. I get a little carried away with giving too. Last fall I offered a new dinner, which I called These Are A Few of My Favorite Things. 

There are recipes I make over and over and over again, because they taste so, so, so good, and because they are not terribly time consuming to make. Well, I guess a couple of them are, but I make them so often that they are pretty easy for me now. 

So what is the menu? Starters will have to be liver pâté, recipe from a Chicago restaurant no longer there called The Bakery. When the owner Louis Szathmary retired, he closed it. I heard he didn't even try to sell, probably because he thought nobody could do it well enough. I have two of his cookbooks, autographed by him, of course, and once when we were in there, I ended up getting a tour of his kitchen. When one had dinner at the bakery, there was no choice about starters. A small plate with a dollop of this exquisite pâté was brought to each guest with some fresh sour pickle slices and a crusty slice of baguette. There was plenty of unsalted butter available too. But now I have a new favorite starter, so there will be two. This one is so simple that I will give you the recipe right now.

• Slice some garden fresh tomatoes, pretty thick. Heat some unsalted butter in a cast iron or carbon steel pan. When the butter is browned, put in the tomato slices, flip once (just to get them warm), put them on the plate and pour the browned butter (now with fresh tomato juice in it, of course) over the warm tomato slices. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and serve. You will definitely need a slice of baguette to mop up the juice. Elixir! 

The salad is one I have made for years. It's from an old Gourmet magazine. It's a happy marriage of Napa cabbage, crispy pancetta and Gorgonzola cheese (I like that better than the blue cheese that is called for in the recipe), topped with a warm salad dressing of Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, garlic, vegetable oil (not olive oil) and the fat rendered from the pancetta. Yum!!

On to the main course. It's green beans, tossed with light olive oil, salt and pepper, then sautéed on a grill pan until there are some brown bits, and into the serving bowl. And of course red potatoes coarsely chopped, lightly salted and boiled until tender, drained, then back in the pot with lots of butter, where they will stay warm until ready to serve. And the piece de resistance is lemon chicken. It's a pain, and I'm not going to go into details here, except to tell you it is really lemony, and served with a lemon butter sauce. It's a little tough to make, but well worth it.

My apple pie recipe has morphed over the years. You can go to allrecipes.com and find it more than once, slightly different names, but look for Grandma Ople's apple pie. You'll find it, and they are all virtually the same. I've messed with a bit, including adding some cider vinegar to the filling, a touch of my mom's apple pie spice, and a hefty dose of vanilla. I also bake it in a cast iron skillet, which I saw done on American's Test Kitchen. Choice of New York white cheddar or homemade vanilla bean ice cream on top.

So those are a few of MY favorite things!! Hope my guests like them as well.

Why I was late to the market AGAIN!

Jerry told me about these wonderful pickles his mother made called mustard pickles. They were made in a crock, fermented for ten days, and then could be kept in a cool dark place without refrigeration for up to a year. My kind of pickle!

My one and only invention is my Easy Peasy Fermenting Jar. I originally called it my Suze Goldberg Pickling Jar, since one of my nicknames is Suze, and I put it together from odds and ends in my kitchen. But given the history of Rube Goldberg inventions, it may have given the impression that it would be unnecessarily complex. My jar is simple and it works! So I renamed it to reflect how easy it makes what was kind of a messy job.

I had several crocks and used them to make my own pickles. But even with a weighted plate on the pickles, skimming of mold was required. It was messy. There was a fermenting jar for sale on the internet - $30 plus shipping and no mold to deal with. It had a unique jar that, if broken, cost $20 (and shipping) to replace. I could do better than that. I am a frugal person.

I rooted through my cupboards and found a half gallon wide mouth canning jar, big enough to hold large head of cabbage if fermenting sauerkraut. Two of them would hold a half peck of pickling cukes. Perfect!

The trick to stopping mold is to keep the oxygen out of the process. The on-line pickling jar had a looped straw in the lid to allow any gasses to escape, and the lid screwed on tight to keep out air. So how would I keep the air out of my jar? No matter how full I filled it with my salt water, there was sure to be a small amount of air trapped in the top when I screwed the lid on. And a tight lid plus a build up of gases could actually cause the jar to explode.

I did some more rooting and found the perfect insert - a very small soufflé cup that we had used in my restaurant. It fit firmly into the neck of the jar and had straight sides. I filled the jar with pickles, spices, oak leaves for tannin, and salt water, making sure that the insert fit completely into the neck. When I inserted it, with the jar in a shallow bowl, a little of the saltwater spilled out. This meant that there was no air in that jar! The insert was heavy enough to keep the pickles under the salt water, and light enough that if gases accumulated, it would allow them to escape. You can always add a bit more saltwater if there are too many burps, which could allow a little air into the jar.

Suze's Easy Peasy Fermenting Jar at work

In five days, you will have tremendous dill pickles. In a week, you will have mighty fine sauerkraut. In ten days you will have mustard pickles. However I can't attest to how good they will taste because the reason I was late today is because I was making my first ever batch of Mustard Pickles. We will see. (Update: August 11, 2017 - decanted the pickles. They are fantastic!)

Today's Mustard Pickles. Will be ready August 11, 2017.

Wilma and Estelle

I was wandering the halls of the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, a.k.a. the GA, when I heard a couple of women in a conversation with someone about where to eat in the center. I caught up with them to ask them if they had learned anything useful, and I had the privilege of meeting Wilma and Estelle - two delightful ladies who belong to a UU church right here in New Orleans. They asked if I would like to join them while they tried to find the food court.

Wilma bragged about being 81 (and if I do say so myself, she looked pretty youthful, wouldn't have guessed it). She whispered to me that Estelle is 95 but didn't want people to know, then added, "I don't know why I'm whispering. She is deaf as a post." Estelle certainly didn't look 95. Both were decked out, definitely not the typical Midwestern women I am used to being around. Jewelry, makeup, coifed hair, although how they managed the hair in this climate is beyond me! Every morning, I fix my hair in the hotel room, think it looks great, and by the time I have arrived at the restroom at the Convention Center, I all but scream when I look in the mirror! What happened?

So anyway, Estelle, Wilma and I meandered towards this hypothetical food court, which seemed ever out of reach. Estelle walked over to a table where a man sat alone. She yelled, "HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!" Then she and the gentleman started talking at the top of their lungs to one another. Wilma suggested we have a seat, because she knew this was going to take a while. She said the guy is deaf, too, so it would take them a bit to get through their conversation.

Wilma gave me her history while we waited for Estelle to return. She was originally from New York City (I detected the accent), then moved to Urbana, Illinois, home of the University of Illinois, where she and the man she married were both educated. Her husband became a college professor, had taught at Indiana University in Bloomington at one time, then DePaul University in Chicago. He retired from there and they moved to New Orleans for their golden years, a place she obviously dearly loves. Her husband passed several years ago.

Finally Estelle was done with her conversation, then brought her friend over to our table to meet both of us, and after much shouting, introductions were complete.

The three of us continued our wandering towards the food court. It became obvious that it was too long a walk for Estelle, so my new friends headed back, while I went on towards the court. We parted, said we hoped to run into one another at the Sunday morning service, and we were on our way. I do so regret that I didn't get a picture of my new friends. Maybe I will run into them today, in the midst of the 4,000 people who will be attending the service this morning. If I do, I will get a picture if they will allow - and something tells me they would LOVE to have their picture taken.

I enjoyed meeting them, and I think the feeling was mutual.

Prologue: I didn't see them Sunday morning. Since Wilma, obviously a sharp shopper, told me there would be bargains in the bookstore right before the convention closed, I went there in the hopes of running into them. But alas, they were not to be found. But I got a few good bargains. :)

NEW RECIPE - Low Carb Tuscan Kale Soup

This is adapted from a recipe I found for a soup with kale and white beans, which is a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, those white beans make it impossible for me to eat it.

To make it my own, I left out the beans, changed some proportions, added some hot pepper flakes, changed the method here and there, and came up with something that I hope is just as good, without the carb overload. Recipe called for grated Parmesan cheese, but I had some nice artisan cheese in the fridge. I grated it using the grater with large holes, needed only a tablespoon or so on the soup to add a real kick of flavor.

I didn't run this through my program, but eye-balling it, there shouldn't be more than six or seven grams of carbs in a BIG bowl of soup. It's a meal!

Tuscan Kale Soup

1 tbsp. EVOO
1 lb. pork sausage (I used mild Italian, not in casings)
½ pound sliced mushrooms
2 cloves peeled and minced garlic
4 cups (or 2 – 14 oz. cans) chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 or 2 bunches kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt – depends on how salty the chicken broth is. Taste first!
Grated cheese – I used some good artisan cheese, grated through large holed grater

Brown the sausage and mushroom in olive oil until sausage is broken up and browned. Add the garlic, then stir and cook for three more minutes. Add broth, bay leaf and kale. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Serve in large bowls with grated cheese on top.

Serves 4

By Susan Siemers, from Devonshire House Low Carb Delights©

(If you want to reprint recipe, please ask me first. I'd be delighted to share!)

Soup's on!

Always read the bad reviews first!

When I am shopping on line or trying a new recipe, I gravitate to the least favorable reviews first. If there are any show stoppers there, why go any further? In the case of recipes, I am less concerned, because often the reviewers have some great suggestions, and the recipe ends up being quite tasty.

I am teaching a bread baking class this Sunday. As part of the class, my five students get to partake of a charcuterie board, quite elegant if I do say so myself, with slices of freshly baked baguette and glasses of wine in hand. The highlight of the repast is my three meat terrine.

When I was in Paris, I ate a terrine that made my knees shake. It was fantastic! I have searched recipes but haven't found anything like it. I found a pretty good one on Epicurious.com, and I make one each spring for my bread baking students.

Even though it isn't as good as that memorable terrine in Paris, it is still pretty impressive, and I have never had a complaint when I bring it out, surrounded by cornichons, homemade dill pickles, mustard and Cumberland sauce.

I start it several days in advance. It starts with a trip to the store for ingredients not on hand. After much chopping, weighing and mixing, I put the meat and spices into the bacon lined terrine (yes, the product and the pan are both called "terrine"), wrapped it and then read through the comments at the bottom of the page. One cook wrote that it was good, but not nearly as good as one she had in Paris, so she only gave it two forks. In fact, the reviewer said, she had a spice mix from a famous restaurant in Chicago called The Bakery and said she was going to try to kick up the flavor by adding some of Chef Szathmary's magic pâté spice the next time she made it.

I was excited! I had some of his spice on my shelf and thought, it's not too late to spoon out the meat and add some spice. What a great idea! Then I noticed that the reviewer was SusanVey from Indiana. That's me, folks. I was reading my own review. That was my laugh for the day!

And by the way, I brought it up from my basement fridge where it will marinate for a day before baking, spooned it out of the bacon lining, added the magic spices and put it back to rest. Then after a slow bake, it is weighted and left in fridge for a day or so. Tasting is still a good way off. 

We will see if the suggestion from "SusanVey, Indiana" gets it closer to the wonderful Parisian terrine of my memory.

Terrine marinating for a day before baking

Baked terrine, sitting with weights for a day

After weighting for a day

Wrapped and ready to chill - look for my bread baking class blog to see it sliced and served!

NEW RECIPE - Steak and blue cheese

Need to kick-start your ketogenic diet? I know I need to, after one too many cheats during the holidays.

Someone gave me a gift certificate to DC meats, and I bought a beautiful New York strip steak. Any good steak will do, or even good quality hamburger. The topping is where it's at. And by the way, it's ZERO carbs.

Take a 4 oz. container of crumbled blue cheese. There is an Amish brand that is very reasonable. Turn it out into a bowl. Add 3 tbsp. soft butter and a rounded tbsp. of fresh grated horseradish. A couple of vendors at the South Bend farmers market have good horseradish. Mix them together with a spoon - should still be a bit lumpy. Then sprinkle a tsp. of good Italian seasoning mix over it. (Ceres & Co. at the farmers market has a really good one, reasonably priced,  and it's organic.)

Liberally salt and pepper your meat. I like to use smoked salt and smoked pepper, especially in the wintertime. Fry your steak or hamburger in a screaming hot cast iron grill pan or skillet - or if the weather is good, on your grill. I like it 5 minutes per side. Meat should still feel springy when you press your finger into the meat. Then put on heated plate to rest for five minutes. While it is resting, spread a fourth to a third of a cup of the blue cheese / horseradish / butter topping evenly over the meat.

Now this is a "get back on track" meal, so tuck in! Only side should be a shot of good bourbon or whiskey. You will definitely be full, and you will be back on track!

Happy New Year! And bon apetit.

Blue cheese topped steak

Do you remember Jumer's cinnamon rolls?

My Illinois roots are showing. When going through my mom's recipe box recently, I found her recipe for Jumer's Castle Lodge cinnamon rolls. I remember my mom saying this was the real Jumer's Castle Lodge recipe. So even though Jumer's has closed its doors for good, their rolls can live on! If you know anyone from Peoria or Bloomington in Illinois or from Bettendorf, Iowa, they will remember Jumer's and these tastey little cinnamon bites. We hope they become a favorite here in South Bend-Mishawaka as well!

The famous Jumer's cinnamon rolls

Want to try some? Available at my booth at the Farmers Market in South Bend today! 

50¢ each or 3 for $1.00.  

Jumer's was an Old World attraction with its Bavarian theme. Elegant, yet it was always within reach of the average person. The lodge was known for its eclectic collection of antiques and German bric-a-brac that included a stuffed black bear. It was truly a unique experience in the Midwest.

I think this was the Peoria site

Need a little bling in your life?

Not too shabby

Dine in style - lots of German dishes.

NEW RECIPES - three low carb recipes for the holidays

You will not have to feel left out at the Thanksgiving table with these three treats.

Crackers:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a half sheet or cookie sheet with parchment or use a silpat sheet. Put six to eight piles of shredded cheese, evenly spaced, on the sheet. (You can get eight on the sheet if you form them into ovals.) I use about two tbsp. per cracker. Put in the hot oven for 7 minutes. Watch them closely so they don't burn!

Remove from oven and immediately put on cooling rack. Experiment with size, also with types of cheese. Even the brand of cheese will affect the outcome, so when you find one you really like, make note of it for future batches.

6 of these crackers provide ONLY 1 GRAM OF CARBOHYDRATE! And they will stand up to dip.

Faux mashed potatoes:

Boil a head and a half of cauliflower (or two smallish heads) roughly chopped in a large pan of water with 1-1/2 tsp. sea salt. Drain thoroughly. In fact, I put the cooked cauliflower in the sink in a colander and forget about it for an hour or more so it gets good and dry. Put the drained cauliflower back into the pot you used to boil it. Throw in half (or more) of an 8 oz. package of cream cheese. Use a stick blender to thoroughly blend, or use a food processor and do in batches. When ready to use, heat in a heavy bottom sauce pan over very low heat, watching to make sure it doesn't burn. Use like mashed potatoes.

Four ounces of cauliflower provides 3 net carbs, and the cream cheese will add about another gram to that four ounce serving.

Gravy:

The better the stock you use, the better the gravy will taste. I have even used canned broth, and it's pretty good. Start with two cups of broth or stock. Heat it and reduce it by about a fourth to enrich the flavor. Lower the heat and add about a tbsp. (or to reach the consistency you like) of xanthan gum. Beat well with a wire whisk while you increase heat and bring it back to a boil. It takes a bit before it thickens. Start on the low side with the xanthan gum, as it will thicken as it sits. Last thing, add some heavy whipping cream. I put about a half cup of cream in the amount listed here. Bring back up just to the boil and immediately remove from heat.

So now you too can have "potatoes" and gravy on Thanksgiving Day. What a deal if you can get the hostess to give you a bit of turkey stock, a pan and a whisk (bring your own stash of xanthan gum) and make your own gravy. I doubt the diners will know which is the low carb gravy!

Per 1/4 C. of gravy  - less than one carb.

Let's talk dessert:

Forget the pie. Just cross it off your list. But how about a big bowl of whipped cream with vanilla? You can add a tbsp. of sugar free vanilla pudding, or go all natural and add a tsp. of real maple syrup. If you are really, truly minimizing carbs and using little or no artificial sweeteners in your diet, that tsp. of maple syrup will add only 4 carbs and will provide an explosion of sweetness! The cream is about 3/4 grams carbs per ounce. You do the math and decide how much you want to splurge.

For a point of reference, a piece of pumpkin pie has 43.4 net carbs. Does that help you make a choice?

Oh, one last note - a slice of turkey, any size - 0 grams carbs. :)

NEW RECIPE - Low carb Belgian waffles

This one is pretty simple, and pretty tasty. I found a recipe for chocolate waffles and invested big money in low carb chocolate whey protein powder from grass fed cows. AND I bought a waffle iron! Big investment. But I really didn't like them. Too much artificial sweetener in them. I wish they hadn't sweetened the whey protein at all and just left it to us to add what we wanted. Oh, well.

So now, there is a waffle iron sitting on my counter, and I have to find a way to use it, of course. And I did. These waffles are much tastier to me, and you add the sweetener to your own liking. I am a firm believer in minimizing even artificial sweeteners, as I do think that sweet taste on your tongue, from whatever source, is apt to make you crave more food, especially sweets.

You will need to invest in a box of Carbquik. (Click on this link for more info:  Carbquik FAQs ) Hopefully you have a waffle iron tucked somewhere in a cupboard. If not, St. Vinnie's, Goodwill and Salvation Army shops are my go-to stores, especially for stuff I am not going to use often.

Low Carb Waffle - single serving (This can be doubled or quadrupled with no problem.)

Turn on your waffle iron. I like mine brown and crisp so I set it on high.

1 large egg, beaten

1/3 C. Carbquik

1/4 C. heavy cream

1/4 C. (or less) water

1 TBSP light olive oil

1 tsp. (or to taste) xylitol for sweetening - or your zero carb sweetener of choice

You can add a spice of your choice. I add about a half teaspoon of Mom's Apple Pie Spice, which is available at my booth. Or just add a healthy shake of cinnamon, nutmeg and whatever sounds good and is at hand. The size of your egg will make a difference, So don't put all of the water in - save a little to thin it more if it is too thick.  It should be fairly thin but not "soupy."

Beat all of the ingredients together. My waffle iron beeps to let me know it is hot enough just about the time I am done with the batter. Pour it into the middle of the iron and put the lid down. It takes about six minutes for mine to be as done as I like.

Put on warmed plate. (Waffles seem to cool down too fast, so a warm plate helps.) Top with about a tablespoon of soft butter, and dig in! If you want to add a tsp. of maple syrup, go for it.  But remember, it's 4.5 carbs per teaspoon, so use with discretion. I really don't think it needs any syrup - just LOTS of butter!!

Here are the nutritional values per waffle.

Calories: 370 / Net Carbs: 3.2 / Fat: 21.8 (not including added butter) / Protein: 12.6 / Fiber: 14 (fiber is already subtracted for net carbs)

Half a waffle - I already ate the other half!

Did a lot of research before purchasing - this is a good machine.

What is Samhain?

Samhain (pronounced Sow' en) is one of the eight Sabbats on the Pagan Wheel of the Year. It is also known as All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos, and All Souls Day. It is the Sabbat when the veil between the living and the dead is very thin, connoted by the many skeletons we see in celebrations.

This is a time when we may try to get in touch with someone who has gone before us. How do we do this? At our Unitarian Church, we celebrate the Sabbat with a silent supper, during which no one speaks. The tables are set with one place setting unused by the living, but hopefully visited by those who have passed before us. Those wishing to remember a loved one may bring a picture or some small amulet as a reminder of him or her. Some bring favorite foods that are put on the plate in the place of honor.

Our great room is lit with candles only. Once we invoke the spirits of the four directions and cast the circle, then there is silence throughout the meal. It is a solemn time, with the only noise the clink of silver on plates.

This Sunday evening, we will celebrate Samhain at 4:00 pm with a potluck dinner, empty places at each table, and a myriad of candles throughout the hall. Who will join us?

It is a sacred time. If you are interested in attending, send a comment to this post.

Pictures from the past . . .

 

NEW RECIPE - Susan's Low Carb Chili

With the hint of fall in the air, it seemed time to update my chili recipe. Getting the nutritional values right is very time consuming. I built a model so that I can do it my way. It allows me to play with the recipe, adding or minimizing to get a healthy number of carbs per serving in the finished product without compromising flavor.

All that being said, here is my chili recipe. A few things about it. First, those darned tomatoes! They are a fruit, you know, and so they contribute nearly half of the net carbs in the recipe.  If you want to trim 1.5 carbs per serving, cut them in half. That's the big hitter. Even the onions don't amount to much, and they add a spike of flavor. It's the tomatoes. Sigh . . .

Second, I have written about my views on black soybeans, so you might want to leave them out if you are going to make this often, but I will repeat what I said in my earlier post - a few soybeans are not as bad as a piece of pie. So make it an every now and then treat.

Last but not least, I watch Bobby Flay and Anne Burrell for inspiration frequently, which has made me cognizant of texture and flavor when I am developing a new recipe. So you will see a couple of ingredients in here that are a bit unusual - finely chopped celery for a little bite (and almost NO carbs!), and white wine vinegar, the zero carb kind, to brighten the flavor.  Thanks, Anne and Bobby.

Susan's Low Carb Chili

1 tbsp. olive oil 1/2 C. finely chopped celery 1/4 C. finely diced onions 1 tsp. toasted ground cumin 1 tbsp. chili powder 1 poblano pepper, seeded 1 lb. ground beef 15 oz. can black soy beans, well      rinsed, not turtle beans Diced tomatoes,14 oz. 1 tbsp. tomato paste 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar        (no carb kind) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 C. roughly chopped cilantro 1-1/2 C. water

Finely chop the celery, onion and seeded pepper. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan over medium high heat, then add the vegetables. Put in your chili powder and ground cumin. It improves the flavor of the spices if they are cooked prior to adding the crumbled ground beef to the pan. Once the spices have released their wonderful aroma and the onions are soft but not brown, add the ground beef. Keep the heat on medium high and stand over the burner until the hamburger is cooked almost through. Don't burn the vegetables while you are cooking the meat! Watch over the process. This is no time to check email.

Now add the rinsed soy beans (if using), tomatoes, tomato paste, cilantro, vinegar and salt. Stir to combine well. Add a cup and a half of water. Taste for seasoning. Now is the time to add salt if necessary. Bring to a low simmer, cover the pan and cook for a half hour to an hour, stirring occasionally. NOW you can check your email!

In the picture, there are a couple of garlic croutons on the edge of the bowl. They are very low carb, but that recipe is for later. You can top the chili with butter (which smooths out the tartness of the tomatoes) and sour cream or shredded cheese. Just remember to add in the carbs for the additions. All three are very low carb, but they need to be accounted for.

Revision to original nutritional data! (I'm still working on my model, found major error this morning!)

Nutritional info (with soy beans):

	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Calories
TOTALS	3.32	10.29	1.70	112.00
% of total calories	11.8%	82.2%	6.0%	100.0%
Calories from:	13.3	92.6	6.8	112.6

Bon Appetit!

Susan Siemers
From Devonshire House Low Carb Delights

Susan's Low Carb Chili

Daisy - she was a GREAT British cook!

Someone recently told me about The Great British Baking Show, and I just started watching. Enough with the politics. This is a delightful show, and it is bringing back many memories of my dear mother-in-law Daisy. She put the lie in "boring British cookery." She could cook!

I treasure a handwritten recipe she gave me for how to make treacle pudding. Although she called it "treacle" pudding, it was made with Tate and Lyles Golden Syrup. In the instructions, she wrote that she had David (my husband at the time) hold the string while she tied down the waxed paper that was part of steaming the pudding. Steaming pudding? Had they not heard of Jell-O? Maybe I will share her recipe with you in a future post. Today, I just want to do a shout out for British Grub, also the name of a cookbook she gave me.

When I became part of Dave's family, I learned to understand English without asking Dave to interpret for me when we were alone. I learned to love a woman who loved her son fiercely and eventually took me in, once I had met her approval. I learned to make a proper cup of tea. Daisy said that the Americans couldn't make tea, and the British couldn't make coffee. Agreed. I learned to do both - coffee from my German mother, and tea from my British mother-in-law.

She made tea every morning for Dave's dad, and he rang a bell to let her know when he was awake. She then carried his cuppa into the bedroom and served him his morning tea. She told me she would get me a bell for David. I told Dave if he tried that routine with me, he would be wearing that bell where the sun don't shine!

Our Christmas dinner went from turkey or ham to roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. It was a nice transition. I miss those dinners. Perhaps I will have a proper British dinner for a few friends this year on Christmas Day. I spend my Christmas days alone, since my family does Christmas Eve, and it is crown roast of pork at my son's house. But I do have fond memories of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, finished with treacle pudding drizzled with Bird's custard for dessert, along with hot tea.

What is it with the British and their puddings? "Two great nations divided by a common language." (Attributed to both George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.) Treacle pudding made by steaming, and Yorkshire pudding made in hot beef drippings.  Oh, that Yorkshire pudding, I remember watching it puff up in the oven, browning here and there on the top. It was then cut up and served on the side of the roast beef slices, with good, dark rich gravy over all. Oh, and oven roasted potatoes. She taught me well. I'm sure my grasp of British cooking helped us get over a rough start. But we did, and I cherish the memories of her. She treated my children as her own grandchildren, and they both have fond memories of her.

Daisy also taught me to make a proper English breakfast - with fried bread (in butter, my friends, not lard or bacon fat), sunny side up eggs, and very thick bacon. The other breakfast I often made was her recipe for English crepes. Nothing fancy, but oh, so good. Very thin crepes, hot from the pan, with fresh lemon squeezed over them, then sprinkled with sugar and rolled up. Three to a plate, and garnished with a lemon wedge. And a cup of hot tea made right.

Okay, one full recipe here.

How to make a good cup of tea. 

First pour boiling water in the pot to heat it, swish it around and dump it out. Bring more water to the boil, then turn off. Then throw black tea leaves into the bottom of the pot (I happen to favor Ceylon), use about a heaping teaspoon of tea per cup, then pour the water (not boiling, but still very hot) into the pot. Pop on the tea cozy. If you don't have one, then covering the pot with a heavy dish towel will work fine. Let it sit until you see that the tea leaves have sunk to the bottom of the pot. Then oh so carefully, so you don't disturb the leaves in the bottom, pour into cups that you have also rinsed with hot water. Add lemon or milk depending on your taste, and sugar if you must. There may be a few tea leaves in the cup. But how are you to read your tea leaves to learn your fate if you don't have a few leaves in the bottom?

Reading tea leaves

Are you ready for a new recipe?

I had two large chicken breasts in my freezer. I bought them for the skin! Did you know that NOBODY sells chicken skin? And I wanted to make this great recipe for crisp chicken skin with goat cheese and pomegranite seeds. So I bought four whole chicken breasts just to get the skin. LOL I'll give you that recipe later, with my adaptations. But for today, let's use up those chicken breasts! Low carb and delicious. There are a lot of details in this recipe. Those details are the difference between a nice chicken salad and a truly spectacular one. Serves 6.

So if you want, you can grab a roast chicken by the checkout at Meijers, shred it, mix some curry powder into some Miracle Whip and throw it onto the chicken. It's adequate, but if you want to wow yourself and your guests, try this.

First I thawed two chicken breasts, about 2-1/2 lbs. total weight, then put them in a foil lined pan with sides, just large enough for them to fit. (If the pan is too big, they are more apt to dry out. Just another detail to make this recipe so good.) I drizzled some organic vegetable oil over them, about a tablespoon on each, then salted well. This is the only chance to get the salt into the meat, so don't be shy! I used about a fourth tsp. on each breast.

A very necessary kitchen tool for me is an instant read thermometer. You can get them at Meijer or Target for around $8. Here's why you need that thermometer. I baked the breasts at 400º for 30 minutes, then checked the temp. One was done ("done" is 160º), the other, larger one, wasn't even close. I removed the breast that was done and put it on plate, continued cooking the other breast until it too reached 160º, which took nearly 10 more minutes. Be sure to check the temperature in the thickest part of the breast, and make sure the tip of the thermometer is not hitting bone. This is so important. Overcook and the meat is dry. Undercook and you are risking salmonella! Neither option is acceptable.

The chicken breasts need to cool until you can handle them. Pour any pan juices over them so they can be reabsorbed while the breasts are cooling. This makes for juicier chicken. Even if you are mixing it with mayo, veggies and spices, you still want each individual bite of chicken to be tender and juicy. I know, I'm going on and on, but these little differences are the things that will make a memorable dish.

By the time you are done making the dressing, the chicken will be cool enough to handle. And if it is still a little warm, I think it absorbs the dressing better. If you want to refrigerate the cooled chicken until later, though, you can delay making the final salad for up to two days.

Here are the ingredients for the dressing:

• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 2 very thin slices of red onion from a medium onion, finely chopped (Onions have carbs, but finely chopping them will give you a nice burst of flavor from a minimal amount of onion.)
• 3 tbsp. roughly chopped cilantro
• 1 C. real mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip)
• 1 to 1-1/2 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. raisins (They are full of carbs, even more than the onions have, but if you chop them, you can get a surprising amount of flavor out of just one tablespoon.)
• 2-1/2 tsp. good curry powder
• 1 tsp. honey (leaving out the honey will save you 1 g. carbs per serving, but . . .)
• 3 tbsp. roughly chopped walnuts

Throw all of the dressing ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine. Then shred or chop the chicken and add to the dressing. If there are accumulated juices on the plate from the chicken, by all means add them to the bowl as well. That is pure flavor!

Chill for at least an hour, and serve on a chilled plate with a few cilantro leaves and a wedge of lime for squeezing. The second picture shows the salad with half of a low carb roll. Recipe later for the rolls.

Update: Here are the nutritional values for this recipe, first line for serving 6, second line for heartier servings, serving 4. For only two more carbs, you can stuff the "serves 6" amount into a low carb roll, for a total of only 6.5 carbs. It's a meal. You will be full if you eat this on the roll. The recipe for the rolls is coming. I'm still working on it. I am not getting the texture shown in the pictures, so there is something in the recipe that they are not telling us. When I figure it out, I will post the original recipe with my updates so that you are happy with the end result.

                         Carbs/ Fat/ Protein/ Calories
Six servings:     4.5    36.0     22.5     438.5
Four servings:   6.7    53.9     33.8     657.8

Bon appetit.

Recipe by Susan Siemers, from Devonshire House Dishes.

Curried Chicken Salad

Curried Chicken Salad with half a low carb roll

What is ketosis?

In a previous blog, SUGAR AND YOU (click on link to read blog), I maligned sugar and spoke about ketosis. I provided few details about ketosis in that blog, so here is a little more to chew on, including why a ketogenic diet might be just what you need to improve your waistline as well as your mental attitude.

Those following a ketogenic diet are doing so for a variety of reasons. For most people, it is to lose a few pounds, especially belly fat. For others it is a medical necessity. Children with epilepsy who are non-responsive to drugs to prevent seizures can be helped by a ketogenic diet - in fact it is successful in lowering the number of seizures in more than a third of such cases. In addition, some of them are cured - yes, I said cured - of ever having another seizure by staying in ketosis for two years or so. Of course, these children are under medical supervision.

When I had my farm, we had a raw milk association. In Indiana, you may not sell raw milk for human consumption, but if a person owns a share of a cow, then they can legally consume their own raw milk. One of our shareholders, when she learned of my ketogenic diet, told me that both of her sons had been plagued with epileptic seizures. They were both hospitalized to get into ketosis, and from that time forward, neither had another seizure. After two years, they were able to eat anything they wanted. It was as if their brains had been retrained during the two years of ketosis. Like I said, some are cured.

She showed me little cards she still carried in her wallet to warn well-meaning mothers that her boys couldn't have so much as a bite of cake or a spoonful of ice cream at the birthday party. She always brought their own "legal" treats, so they could participate without fear of a seizure.

Think of that, a diet to cure epilepsy! Some children are subjected to brain surgery. Wouldn't you want to try a diet first? So what is a ketogenic diet? Here goes, my explanation of keto diets.

We burn carbohydrates for quick energy. Our body pretty much doesn't have to do anything with the sugar - it goes right to our brain and sets to work. (If you are interested in the details, there is a good book called Life Without Bread. Chapter 3 explains how the body utilizes carbohydrates, and it is quite different from how it works with protein and fat. You will enjoy it if you are a wonk like me who likes to look at the mechanics of things.)

I hear many people say, "You have to have carbohydrates for energy!" And yet I have a friend, George, who is on a keto diet, has been for years, and he runs marathons. He went through an adjustment period, but now he has no lack of energy when running on bacon and eggs. No pasta for him!

So how is it that George can run marathons without carb loading prior to running? Our body is a wondrous thing! If we don't eat carbs, our body manufactures a replacement, something called ketones, derived from the bacon and eggs (fat and protein). Our body is more than happy to use these ketones for energy. Yes, you can cross the finish line on ketones.

Those of us on a ketogenic diet usually check our urine daily. If we are utilizing ketones for energy, there will be evidence of it because we throw excess ketones into our urine. The Ketostix (the brand I use) will turn color, and it will tell me that I ate right yesterday. And depending on the color, it will tell me just how right I ate.

I am on a ketogenic diet for mood control, and I usually know before I get out of bed what color the stick will be. If I'm in ketosis, I am not so restless, definitely NOT depressed, and feel focused. The stick rarely tells me something I hadn't already figured out. While some will argue that they are not very useful, I kept careful records of my keto readings for six months, which included a diary of my thoughts and feelings each day. I stand by the Ketostix.

Now on to ketoacidosis. When I tell people I have been in ketosis for over six years, I often hear, from people with some knowledge of ketones and/or diabetes, that I can ruin my kidneys by going too far and going into ketoacidosis. They are right, of course, but it is hard enough for me to stay at a reading of 5, 15 or 40, so I cannot imagine eating a diet that would get me all the way to ketoacidosis. What would I have to eat? Maybe a pound of Crisco? With a pound of hamburger? Not going to happen!

Stay tuned to this blog for more about low carb eating and how it impacts our health.

Bon appetit.

Sugar and you

Energy from our food comes from three sources - protein, fat and carbohydrates. Most foods are a combination of at least two of them. Our bodies and our brains handle them differently. While fats and proteins follow one path, carbohydrates take a different one, a path that will influence your ability to think and how much weight you carry around your waist, to name a couple.

Why should you care? Remember that the carbohydrates in the food you eat has to be metabolized differently, you know, the "different path." What many people miss is that many supposedly innocent foods are loaded with carbohydrates - a.k.a.sugar! As a low carber, of course I avoid the obvious things like sugar, bread and pasta. But did you know that fruit is full of carbohydrates? Even fresh fruit, even organic fruit. I just don't eat it. Did you know that all root vegetables have a lot of carbs? We all might think about potatoes, but what about turnips and carrots? Full of carbs. If it grows beneath ground level, I just avoid it. And how about a glass of wine or beer with dinner? Nope. Both are full of carbs!

If your breakfast is a bowl of cereal, even without any added sugar, and maybe a piece of toast, washed down with a glass of orange juice, you are setting up your brain to tell you to eat more in just a couple of hours. You are whetting your appetite for carbohydrate laden food for the rest of the day. If you don't believe me, try this breakfast and tell me how long it takes for you to be hungry again.

• Scramble three eggs in a tablespoon of butter.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Top with a little more soft butter
• Eat and enjoy.
• Have a glass of water and some coffee, black
• STOP

I can almost guarantee you that you will not even think about food for four or five hours. Try it! Just for one day. Please!! And if you do, let me know how it works for you. (I hear how low carb diets are so expensive, but eggs are very cheap. Deviled eggs - yum! Egg salad, also yum. Mayo is pretty inexpensive as well.) While I'm not a fan of soy, black organic soy beans do make a great salad. (Don't use black turtle beans - they are FULL OF CARBS.) Drain and rinse, then add homemade vinegar and oil dressing (or check the label on the stuff from store to find some without carbs), crumbled feta cheese, cilantro or mint and a tablespoon of very finely chopped red onion for a little seasoning. Not too many onions though. They fall into the "root vegetable" category. Then salt and pepper to taste. It's an occasional treat for me.

Your will see references to "ketosis" and "ketogenic diet" in this blog. There will be more about that in my next blog. For now, it's enough to know that a ketogenic diet is one very low in carbohydrates and very high in fats. Details later.

Here are some good reasons to start cutting sugar and carbohydrates out of your diet - obviously not all of them, but virtually everyone should be able to happily live on 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. (You can record your consumption at Atkins.com - no cost to join for an eye-opening view of just how many carbs you are eating.) 

1. Your brain will thank you. You will think more clearly. I know people who have been able to cut out antidepressants when eating a low carb diet. About 35% of epileptics will experience reduced seizures, and in many cases a complete cure, with a very low carb diet (under 50 grams per day). Although the study was very small, two women with bi-polar disorder were able to cease taking any medication with a very low carb diet. Children with autism are known to function better with a very high fat, very low carbohydrate diet. Don't take my word for it - start googling!
2. Your waistline will thank you. Nothing will get rid of belly fat better than the good old-fashioned Atkins diet. You really don't have to pack the pounds around your waistline. Really! Go to the Atkins site for a lot of support and good recipes. It's free.
3. Your heart will thank you. Your triglyceride level is a more effective measurement of heart health (or lack thereof) than your cholesterol reading. Speaking for myself only, when I went into ketosis with a very low carb diet, my reading fell from 105 to 53. Not too shabby! Yup, my total cholesterol reading went up, but my ratio of HDL to LDL is very good. 
4. Your blood sugar will thank you. Google "the use of a ketogenic diet in controlling type 2 diabetes" and read all about it. Sadly, the average age of the onset of Type 2 diabetes is getting lower and lower. Soda isn't the only culprit. The hamburger bun isn't good, either, and French fries, and cereal, and pancakes with syrup, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Eating too many carbs increases insulin resistance, which of course leads to Type 2 diabetes, but also is a part of metabolic syndrome associated with heart disease. Can you imagine how much less this country would spend on medical care if we cut back on the carbs in our diet? It's going to be hard to do with the push for vegetarianism, the malignment of meat, and nutritionist encouraging the consumption of whole grains. There really are no "good" carbs, just foods with carbs that have offsetting advantages, such as kale, cauliflower and nuts, to name a few.

So with increasing publicity for paleo and low carb diets, why do people still eat all of the carbs? Because sugar a.k.a. carbohydrates make us feel good - at least temporarily. Short term pleasure vs. long term health? I know what most people choose. A friend of mine was on statins, knew how bad they were, but she loved her sweets, and she said she could eat more sweets if she took statins. Really? 

So if you want to try a low carb diet, here are some tips.

1. Go to Atkins (or another is fitday.com) and record your food for a couple of days just to see where you are with your current diet. If you are doing this for weight loss, record your weight.
2. Strive for a menu that is 10% to 15% carbohydrates, 65% fat and 20% to 25% protein. Don't make the mistake of replacing carbohydrates with protein. Replace them with fat, really.  And stay away from polyunsaturated and trans fats. Best are saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. If you want to fry something, using lard or clarified butter is better than olive oil because they can be heated to a higher temperature without damaging them. But by all means use olive oil for salad dressing or a light sauté of vegetables.
3. Try eating this way for just one day. Don't decide about what you are going to do tomorrow until you get up tomorrow. One day at a time - it works. Really.
4. Have some good foods on hand. Get eggs! You can buy a pack of 24 eggs at Meijers for less than $2.00. Cauliflower can be used for everything you would do with potatoes, including really good mashed "potatoes" and "potato" salad.
5. Read the labels when you shop. Take your smart phone with you and look up carb count of fresh vegetables that don't carry nutritional labels. Don't bother to look up the fruit. Just stay away from it for the time being. When checking for carb count, you can deduct the fiber from it - so if something has 10 carbs per serving but 2 grams of fiber, your net carb count would be 8.
6. I don't have to tell you not to eat between meals because you won't want to. But should you get the urge, have a BIG glass of water. If you still want something, eat a few nuts, walnuts being the best choice, or maybe a couple of Brazil nuts. You will be fine. Really.
7. My biggest challenge is the desire to nosh in the evening. If you ate a "proper" dinner, e.g. a hamburger with no bun, mustard and/or mayo instead of ketchup, and a side of mashed cauliflower with plenty of butter, at least your stomach and your brain will not be telling you to eat. But the evening munchies is kind of a bad habit. Not sure what to tell you. Just bite the bullet, and eventually it will be time for bed. And BTW, you will sleep better on this regimen.
8. Focus on what you CAN eat, not on what you can't eat. Steak on the grill topped with blue cheese and a side of greens swimming in olive oil? No problem! Here is another site with great recipes, one I use a lot. Linda's Low Carb Recipes

I would like very much to get a group together to hold each other up and give encouragement to stay on a low carb way of eating. If you are interested, be sure to send me a comment on this blog. And now, here is a picture of your brain on cocaine, and your brain on sugar. Really!

There are nice red spots in the middle of those green blobs in a healthy brain! I don't see any here. Do you?

Lamb burger hot from the grill!

Here is my recipe for Lamb Burgers. I sold lamb for a local farmer for a while, so wanted to develop some recipes, and IMHO this was my best. In the pic, it is served with black soybean salad and some organic cucumber slices. If served with no bun, this recipe is very low carb.

Lamb Burgers with Moroccan spices

Makes two large lamb burgers

12 oz. ground lamb

One fourth medium onion, sliced thin and finely diced

One small egg

2 tbsp. panko bread crumbs

1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 ½ tsp. Ras el Hanout – purchase at Ceres & Co. Booth 50

¼ tsp. toasted and ground cumin seeds

¾ tsp. ground black pepper

¾ tsp. sea salt

Sauce:

2 tbsp. sour cream

2 tbsp. real mayonnaise

1 medium garlic clove, grated

¼ tsp. dried dill weed

Pinch coriander

Pinch toasted and ground cumin

Chopped cilantro for garnish

Mix together with hands all of the burger ingredients and form into two large patties.  Pat them out so that the centers are a little thinner than the edges so that they cook evenly.  They will flatten out as they cook.

Heat a heavy iron skillet and put a thin film of oil in it.  I use bacon fat, or you can use olive oil.  Heat the pan to medium hot and add the burgers.  Fry five minutes on each side, then remove to a large plate and let sit for about five minutes while you make the topping.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.  Put one burger on each plate and top with half of the sauce.  Sprinkle with cilantro, if you like. 

These are very low carb if you eat them with no bun.

Bon appetit.

Recipe by Susan Siemers 

Hot off the grill!