Friday, January 2, 2009

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Georgian Red Bean Salad

This recipe comes from the fabulous Russian cookbook "Please to the Table" by Anya Von Bremzen and John Welchman.

1&1/3 cups small red beans (I used Kidney instead)
soaked overnight
1 onion, peeled
1 medium sized carrot
3 inches of a celery rib
salt to taste
5 pitted prunes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. Tamarind concentrate or
2 Tbs. unsweetened plume butter
1 teaspoon Chinese chili and garlic paste
( I used Sambal)
1/3 cup EX olive oil
3/4 tsp. coriander seeds, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground fenugreek
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Combine beans, onion, carrot,and celery in a soup pot. Add enough water to cover the beans by three inches and bring to a boil. Add salt, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook the beans until tender but not mushy.
Meanwhile, combine the prunes and the balsamic vinegar in a nonreactive saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the prunes and chop finely. Add the tamarind concentrate to the vinegar and let stand about 10 minutes until it dissolves. Whisk in the chili paste, coriander, fenugreek and olive oil.
Drain the beans and discard the onion, carrot, and celery. Let cool.
Toss the beans with the tamarind mixture and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

No slow introduction

We finished and celebrated last night at Doug and Emily's house with roasted chicken, cheesy fixins', chocolate and ice cream, and booze of all kinds. I pretty much expected to feel like hell this morning. Beyond light sleep during the early hours( due mostly to the wine) I felt good. The meal in fact was deeply satisfying. I hold the chicken responsible for that one.
I stuck with the morning routine today and will continue this until it seems to be a hassle. I really like letting my digestive system relax in this way. Jeff and I are also going to continue eating a salad once a day as well as cooking with more grains. We have also decided to eat out less frequently and choose the places that we do eat at wisely. Interestingly Jeff and I split a linguica, egg and cheese bagel this morning and it was bland. It was a similar feeling to the first time I had eating fast food after a couple of years. Some how it should be really good since it is purely meat, fat and carbs but there is no depth of flavor and it doesn't quite hit the right spot either.
Of note:
We saved money this month. We eat out too offten and it really adds up here on the island. Our Total food bill from the month came to about $800. This probably could be cut down some but it is Martha's Vineyard. Also, though I have not jumped on a scale yet I do feel like I might have lost a little weight.
I would definitely do something similar to this once a year. Maybe tweak the herbs and the food criteria some. It has opened my eyes to the finer qualities that food has on my body, like the effect of eating so much roughage. I like salads but to much and it really dries me out.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all of you who are finishing today or tomorrow! Trixie and I won't be finished till Tuesday. But this conclusion also marks the beginning of a phase just as difficult as the regimen we've just completed.

Trixie and I have lost about ten pounds each, and my blood pressure has fallen between ten and fifteen points within three days of starting. So how will we reintroduce the foods that have been prohibited? Very slowly, very cautiously. I'm going to drop the lemon, but continue with the cranberry, pectin, and psyllium followed by fruit. Perhaps my blood pressure will skyrocket. If not, I'll drop the cran, p, and p. I'll begin to reintroduce fish, chicken, beef; a little more salt; then wheat; finally dairy (cheese and cream). Doug and Emily have access to fresh goat milk and cheese, and that may have a very different impact than the consumption of those same items from cows.

I'll try to be aware of my old habits creeping back: cheese and pasta, bread, and bagels, which are quick and convenient and easy to overdo. Also, I'll be paying attention to the impact of foods processed with a fair amount of additives like bacon or salami. Coffee, pu-erh, wine, beer‑‑what effect will they have? I've felt clearer, brighter, and less bloated these last three-and-a-half weeks. I'd like to make that my benchmark when determining which of the foods that have been excluded can now be re-included in my post-detox routine. I know it's not simply a matter of what foods, but also what combinations and what quantities.

Did you see the duck? Or the rabbit first? It's said that you can't see them simultaneously. Try it yourself. Sometimes I think that cheese, wheat, and meat are one aspect, and that vegetables, grains (other than wheat), and legumes are another. If I start eating the former, will I ever go back to the latter?


I'm hoping that for the next several weeks you all will continue to post your observations on this transitional phase. It's been a pleasure. I can honestly tell you that we would not have done it without you.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Kale Kelp Salad

One bunch of Kale
1/2 cup dried Kelp
3 large Carrots
1/4 cup Almonds

Dressing:
3 dried ancho Chilies
2 cloves of Garlic
1 lime
1 egg yolk Room temperature
3/4 cup olive oil plus 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

In separate bowls submerse the ancho chilies and the kelp in boiling water. Cover each with a plate and leave to rehydrate.
Wash, dry and remove the stem from each kale leaf. Place about 5 leaves on top of each other and roll them up so that they look like a cigar. Hold tight and slice 1/2 in sections off of the roll. continue until all leaves have been cut in this fashion ( chiffonade is the term). Toss into a mixing bowl
Either great, shave or julian the carrots. Toss into the mixing bowl along with the almonds
Slice the hydrated kelp in a similar fashion to the kale and add to the bowl
The Dressing:
This dressing doesn't need to be used nor does the egg if it is, but this is how I made the salad.
With the back of a knife remove the flesh from the skin of the hydrated ancho chilies. Discard the Skin. Crush the garlic salt and chilies together and add the squeezed lime juice.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolk together with the oil a few drops at a time until it is thick like mayo. Slowly whisk in the lime chili mix until the dressing is smooth. Add more oil at this point if necessary.
Toss with the salad and serve.

100% pure satisfaction, unless you're Doug

Ahhh, Rye Bread.
Here's the recipe for 1 loaf.
From the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz
First: you've got to make the wild yeast rye started.
Mix together equal parts rye flour and water. 1-2 cups each. Cover with a cloth that lets air in and keeps bugs out. Stir it up at least twice a day if not more to really get the yeasties going. If the starter does not begin to foam ( not while stirring) on the 3rd day try adding unwashed organic grapes or a plum. The white on the peel is yeast. That should help get things moving. Remember to remove the fruit after the the starter is activated. Additionally making the starter with the water that pasta or potatoes were cooked in will help attract yeast. The Starter can last forever if taken care of. Remember to feed it every few days with a couple of teaspoons of rye flour and add water if it starts to become dry. You can also keep it in the fridge which will put the yeast into dormancy. Before doing so feed the starter and let it sit out for 3 hours. Cover and put in the fridge. Feed once a week. Remove the starter a day before beginning the sponge.
Every time the starter is used replenish the remaining part with equal parts flour and water. Only a little left over starter is needed to keep the yeast strain going.

The Bread
2 onions (medium dice)
1 cup sourdough Starter
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbs. caraway seeds
4 Cups Rye flour (Use coarsely ground rye flour if you can find it)
1 teaspoon salt

Step 2: The sponge
Saute the onion until browned. Cool
combine the sourdough starter, water, caraway seeds, onions and 2 cups of the rye flour. Stir well. Cover with a cloth and let sit in a warm spot for 8 to 24 hours. Stir occasionally. When the sponge is good and bubbly it is time for step three.

Step 3: We are getting closer
Add the salt and 1/2 cup flour at a time until the dough becomes so thick that it seems ineffective to stir it with a spoon. Cover with a moist towel and let rise 8-12 hours until its bulk has increased noticeably.

Step 4: The last step
Form the dough into loaves if you can. It is awfully sticky but wet hands help. The other option is to just spoon the dough into a well oiled bread loaf. Or, try the boule, a round free standing loaf. That is my next experiment.
Leave the loaf to rise another hour or two until the dough has risen noticeably.
Preheat the oven to 350 and bake the bread.
Check the loaves after 1 1/2 hours to test for doneness. It may take closer to 2 hours. take the loaf out of the pan and knock on the bottom. If it sounds hollow then it is done. let cool on a wire rack.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

can we eat eggs???
i want to eat eggs!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Best Beet Stir-Fry with Garlic and Ginger

Here's a recipe for all you beet eaters:

2 lbs beets - baked, skinned, and sliced
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, bottom white part only, finely chopped
1/3 cup thinly sliced scallions; reserve some of the green for garnish
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Pepper to taste

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until very hot. Add the oil and reduce heat to medium.
Add the garlic, ginger and lemongrass, and stir-fry until lightly cooked, about 1 minute.
Add the beets and scallions and stir-fry 1 minute more.
Add the maple syrup, lemon juice and zest, and stir-fry briefly.
Season with pepper to taste and transfer to a dish.
Garnish with reserved scallion greens and serve.

Note: In order to protect the innocent, this recipe has been modified from the original (by excluding soy sauce, sugar, and salt).

Barley Experiments

Barley Stuffed Green Pepper, good. Barley Morocco, good. Barley Pozole, excellent. I know the rest of you are in your third week, so it's too late to try the last dish mentioned: too spicy. But I want to share with you all this link to the basic recipe:

http://www.recipezaar.com/86844

My variation: I made half what the recipe called for, and used vegetable stock in place of chicken broth. In a cast iron skillet I toasted a cup of pearled barley to a medium brown. Though this is almost doubling the amount of barley called for, I added another 3/4 cup of unroasted pearled barley. When cooked, the roasted barley doesn't seem to get even a little bit gooey, and it makes a nice contrast to the unroasted type. I needed to add another couple of cups of water to the mix.
I don't know what grated cheese would add to the flavor, but chopped green onion didn't do much, nor fresh cilantro. Some fresh ground pepper was nice.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Detox Tic-Tac-Toe!

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Our young, sprightly blogger, enjoying a hearty breakfast before taking on the world one blog at a time...
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Pectin Monster!


Grrrrrr......
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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Habits

Fruit isn't food. Salad is a side dish; likewise grains and vegetables. Give me meat, carbs, and gravies. Now that's the core of a real meal, even when it's never satisfying enough to stop the craving for something more. Just keep eating yourself into a dull stupor.

Pear and banana. Wow! The fleshiness of cherries, alongside the color and taste of blueberries. Incredible! It's not exactly hunger I feel after this morning's abundance, even though my stomach and intestines aren't feeling the same as they do after a real meal. Take a moment to tune in anew. It's some unknown energy bubbling, and who knows how it might be used.



Friday, January 11, 2008

The Cravings

I have been craving carbs like a fiend and unsalted grains just aren't cutting it. I am not used to cooking with grains. It is especially hard to add flavor to something that just needs a little salt.
When did I become so dependent on Salt? This is very hard for me.
I was becoming cranky and dissatisfied with eating.
Luckily I found that brown rice pasta takes care of these little craving quite sufficiently. Not quite sure why because brown rice doesn't do it. Maybe it would if I just sauteed up some garlic and onions with crushed chillies and olive oil.

are we intimate enough to talk about this?

may i poll you all about your poo? may i inquire about your caca? may i deduce from your doo-doo? what im sayin is....what the crap?
i jest.
but not really.
what is happening in the bathroom for me is less exciting and revealing than i thought...perhaps day five is too soon to wonder about the mysteries of my toxic intestinal buildup.
either way...feelin pretty normal besides an overall tinge of fuzziness/weirdness that i can't explain. not bad, just odd. kind of like im a tiny bit drunk. can someone help me figure out my water intake? i left my book at home today, so i can't figure this out....besides at a main mealtime, eg.lunch/dinner, can i drink water whenever i want? with my fruit in the am after my cran/water/pectin cocktail? all morning until i eat lunch? hmmm.
am hot on the trails of a detox-friendly black bean tart..maybe tonight!
love, briana

On the road with cell food and psyllium...

Some observations during our trip off island:

1. Detoxing makes certain roadside attractions more... attractive (McDonald's, rest stops, gas station hot dogs, ice water).

2. Detoxing makes the otherwise tolerable temperature of 58 degrees feel frigid.

3. Detoxing makes dinner with friends an exercise in compromise, where they grab a burger after dinner.

4. People drive fast on the mainland, with strange, divided roads where they try to attack you with their cars.

5. Nopales are spiny and delicious.

6. I love pectin in capsule form. More than my parents, friends or loved ones, but not more than my detox buddies.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Pectin Needn't Be Clumpy (and Other Observations)

Day...Which?

Five I suppose and the various routines that make up our lil' experiment in cleansing are becoming part of the day's rhythm. Lemon water is welcome before I hit the barn for morning milking, though I still want better explanation of why lemon juice makes my stomach's PH more basic. Don't really get it. And somehow that's okay.

To tell you the truth there are quite a few instances in our guide book of prescriptions with (i think) inadequate explanation. She says "when you introduce acid to your stomach it actually alkalizes your gut." (para.) But no real explanation of how or why...but I like the element of faith involved in some of this stuff. Its bolstered by enough appreciable positive effects that I feel very confident saying I'll see this month through and maybe become something of a detox bible thumper.

One very positive development was my discovery of pectin in pill form at the local health food store. For the first couple days we'd all been suffering through the powdered form mixed into water. The powder pectin (hereafter refered to as "the supplement of which we dare not speak" or T.S.O.W.W.D.N.S.) had a revolting coagulating and expanding property that made drinking it similar to downing the spittle of a TB patient. Or so I imagine...that was graphic huh? But really it was unpleasant and I'm glad we found the alternative.

Another thing: deceptive foods/supplements. I don't like 'em. We've got the veggie derived supplement called "green food"...you put a Tbs of the powder and mix it in water and throw it back once a day. It's scent is downright delightful:
citrusy, flavor tones of summer grass and suggestions of childhood innocence. But the taste. Something like a dirt slurrie with a dash of motor oil. Very odd. More often it's the other way around: funky smelling food that turns out to be tastey. But not here.

And lastly I mention something that I heard about in conversation just last night. Some friends of friends have moved to LA and this circle of folks are apparently subsisting on a diet of water, cayenne, maple syrup and what? Grapefruit or somesuch? All in an effort to free from their body what was described to me as a "deflated balloon" of compacted fecal matter that is expelled only after suffering through several days of this altogether rediculous combo of foods. These saught after elongated collections of ancient nastiness are, I'm told, photographed and put on the internet. More on that later...or maybe not.

Till next time...
Keep Cleansin'
Doug

Kiting

Yesterday, "I" went through the motions of daily activity (e.g., chatting with Al at KAM Auto, talking on the phone to the receptionist Debbie at Sure Temp heating, reading to Trixie from M. Bull's Seeing Things Hidden, watching part of The Big White on DVD), but "my mind" was an ocean froth unable to seal these activities. In the late evening and through the night "my body heat" seemed outside my body. Only this morning, holding Trixie close (no more than that), did the heat return and "body tension" ease away.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

First day

I may have to quit my job to do fruit and vegetable prep full time. Doug may have been the least "prepared" for starting this , but I'm sure I win for being the least knowledgeable concerning the preparation of vegetables. Beef stew, chicken and dumplings, pork chops and scalloped potatoes (with onion of course) - this is about the extent of my wanderings into vege-land. And I thought I'd be spared Jeff's sad story since I only drink 2 cups of coffee per day - but without my half-gallon of black tea (with milk and sugar), I nearly had to take a nap about 10am. Ah well! But I've nearly survived my first day with only two or three minor headaches, slight pain in my right kidney, and lots of toilet time. Two questions: CFS wants a bowl of popcorn with olive oil & garlic - are any of those items restricted? and does the 2nd cup of cranberry water require the psyllium and pectin? All for now.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Preparation

Have recorded and will continue recording blood pressure, pulse, and weight. Trixie and I will be starting tomorrow with the new moon (on the first day of the twelfth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar). Primarily seeing the next four weeks as something to be endured. Your humor is an offset and even suggests the possibility of enjoyment.