Kitchen Stewardship

It's Sunshine Awareness Week at Kitchen Stewardship! I'm burned on half my body as a result of testing natural sunscreens...be sure to check all this week's posts for the scoop on what works, what doesn't, and when (if?) we need sunblock at all, along with over $400 in sun protection giveaways. Check out the natural sunblock review for the scoop.

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I had such fun reading all the questions I was asked for an “extra entry” in this giveaway!  I didn’t expect folks to have such interesting topics and I’m amazed at how much you all think I know.  Humbled, really.  I wanted to reply to every question right away, but I couldn’t do that and sleep too!  Below I’ll list all the questions and tackle a few of them; the rest, although this wasn’t my intent, are now on my draft ideas list and will become an entire post.

Before I get too distracted from the good news, the winners of the

Real Food: What to Eat and Why and Real Food for Mother and Baby books are (one book for each):

Mareth

Jen @ Happy Little Homemaker

Mareth gets her choice because random.org picked her number first.  (Of course, both books are great!)

If you haven’t put them on hold at your library, get to it!  Now for you underliners and highlighters (you know who you are), you might want to own your own copy. If Amazon is the way you’d buy it anyway, I’d appreciate the favor of using the links above to purchase the book; they help me make a little something for the work I do on KS.  And if you’re not using Swagbucks yet, you should sign up to get stuff at Amazon free!  I have enough free$ to buy one of these books, just by searching the web and putting up with some ads in the results since early September.  Check out Swagbucks through the link here and start earning free stuff today!

Now, for the fun part!

Questions from readers

1. What do you know about carrageenan? It’s an ingredient listed on the heavy whipping cream in my coffee and I’m trying to decide if I need to cut that out.  This isn’t something I’ve looked into, but Rachel from Titus2Homemaker replied: “Carrageenan is a seaweed.”
2. I actually have a question I’ve been meaning to ask you: if I end up having to use broth powder (because I tend to run out of real broth), do you think I could add unflavored gelatin to it? I’m guessing yes…but I don’t know anything about broth powder or unflavored gelatin – so sorry!  If I run out of broth, I use either canned broth or a chicken stock paste from Penzey’s spices.  ???
3. Does raw milk taste different?  Yes.  Some people like it better, some don’t.  It even changes depending on what the cows are eating and what time of year it is.  Some weeks it seems really “grassy”, but I almost always appreciate it.  I describe it as “fresh”.
4. I would love to get some thoughts on making and canning soups – for the pantry not freezer – what is safe to can, how to do it…  I’ve only canned tomatoes and pickles and applesauce.  I’m absolutely not an expert here, but I would try asking Charlotte at Canning Jars, Etc. She’s really helpful and knowledgeable!
5. What should I do with all the red/yellow/orange peppers I bought? What was I thinking? The freezer will catch part of them for use later, but what shall I do with some fresh? I always freeze peppers from summer farmer’s markets, but here are some great ways to use them:
   
   • Pasta Salad (an example where they must be fresh)
   • on top of lettuce salad
   • I “stick them” in lots of things, like Mexican Rice
   • Jamaican Meat Marinade takes all 3 colors
   • Pizza is a great one – peppers in the sauce and on the pizza!
   • I put sliced peppers in chicken wraps with pesto and in quesadillas with homemade refried beans just this week!
6. Have you ever heard of the d’Adamo blood type diet? What do you think about it? Sorry, no idea what this is.
   
7. What has been the hardest real food item for you to switch your kids to? (mine has been going from low-fat to full fat yogurt)  My daughter has never known anything but how we eat now, and my son was always fed fairly healthy.  The hardest part for him is keeping things like candy out of our diet as much as possible.
8. How do you handle Christmas gifts? Certain # or $ or both? Last year we decided that from “Santa”, the children would get 3 gifts each in honor of the three kings:  something to wear, something to read and something to play with.  I still buy a lot of presents for the kiddos secondhand, to be honest.  It’s a bit of a touchy subject as far as how to limit gifts from other family members so that our house doesn’t overflow and our kids don’t become too materialist.  I usually have to stick with hints about how we have too many toys and reminders that we can’t handle anything else that takes up floor space or uses batteries.
9. Do you ever think you might want to live on a farm and raise a few animals (chickens, etc.) yourself?  Um, no.  I like being married to my husband.  He’s a computer guy, NOT a  farmer!  My son thinks he’d like to be a farmer someday, but I couldn’t handle all that work.  I’m way too lazy!
10. Which nut is currently considered the healthiest? I’ve read varying opinions.  Almonds have a lot of Vitamin E and walnuts are great for omega-3s.  I’d put them at the top of the list – see more here.
11. I was wondering if you’ve ever tackled the “cream of….” condensed soup problem with casseroles. An alternative?  Yes!  I started making my own cream-of soups when I tried freezer cooking a few years ago with a very simple recipe from 30-Day Gourmet’s freezer cookbook.  It made a big batch (4 cans), so I always had to make multiple casseroles in the same week to use it all up.  Recently I’m a fan of the rich seasoning in Tammy’s Recipes cream of chicken, and Finding Joy in my Kitchen has simple recipes for cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups.
12. What ideas do you have for a single woman living on a tight budget to eat more real foods?  The Nourishing Gourmet has an amazing wealth of answers to that very question (see the comments) at this post.  I don’t think I could add anything, except maybe to recommend homemade yogurt.
13. What are your favorite books on the subject of nutritious eating?  See my Sources list.  From the list, the best ones are Real Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma (and others by Pollan, I am sure).
14. Can you please help me? I am pregnant w/Baby #2 and feel like I need to eat more organ meats. But I am scared of them.  Congrats Anne!  I have only dabbled in liver and beef heart myself.  I’ll have to post someday about my crazy experience with an accidental whole beef heart (!!), but you can buy it ground and mix it in with regular burger, about 1/4 or less heart.  It tastes a little sweeter, but not too different.  I am still working up to cooking liver as liver.  I am scared of it too!  But I figured out one way to use it and guest posted at Kelly the Kitchen Kop about it:  How to Sneak Liver onto your Table.
15. So I have to ask…I just linked up to your how to make yogurt post in my recent Raising Baby Green… does it really taste like store bought yogurt?  Yes, 100%!  In fact, I think sometimes it is better than store-bought, because you can be in charge of how tart you make it.  With frozen fruit, my homemade is almost as satisfying as ice cream.
16. What was the first “big” step you made towards real food?  Check out “My Story“, starting here (and to be continued someday soon).  The “big” thing that comes to mind is the raw milk…I haven’t taken many “big” steps, just lots and lots of baby steps.

These will all be great posts someday:

1. Any tips for achieving an unmedicated birth in a hospital? I wimped out at the end with our first.
2. What is the difference between High fructose corn syrup and just corn syrup? Is corn Syrup okay to use in recipes? Short answer:  my corn syrup bottle says it contains HFCS anyway…
3. How did you get your husband to “buy into” the real food concept? My husband’s favorite treat is oreos…(although we only have them every couple of months)
4. How did you present the transition to real food to your husband? Mine has been reluctant…
   This one is going to be a good post someday…also see a story about one transition with my husband here.
5. What are some of the things that you say to other people when talking about how you eat? I don’t know how to talk about the choices that we make with sounding totally negative/condescending about the way other people eat.
6. What is one thing about “real food” that is “real hard” for you to do? I’ve switched to soaking my grains, eating fats, avoiding plastics and the microwave, baking almost all of our snacks, using honey in place of refine sugar, etc, etc…But fermenting my own food and LIVER are my two biggest things right now. I really hate liver; I wish it tasted like chocolate! And I’m really afraid to make saurkraut and stuff like that. I know it’s supposed to be easy, but I’m afraid of the mold growing on it and ruining it and/or making it and then no one eating it.
7. Do you ever “cheat” and go to McDonald’s or something of the like? If so, do you notice an effect on your health?

Thanks to all of you for your interest in Real Food and your insightful questions.  Be sure to check out today’s Monday Mission on canola oil before you leave your computer chair.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop has a super giveaway for a shower filter this week.

Hungry for more? Related posts:

1. Real Food Wednesday: The Ultimate Traditional Real Food
2. Real Food, Real Moms: Working to Feed a Family, Freezer Style
3. Real Food Face-Off: Titus 2 Homemaker vs. GNOWFGLINS
4. Real Food Face-Off: Cheeseslave vs. Sarah’s Musings
5. Real Food, Real Moms: What if I Work Outside the Home?