Strawberries - June 1, 2013

I was just looking over last year's posts and realize that it isn't just my imagination and impatience that thinks the spring/summer fruits are taking forever to come into season this year. Last year we were picking strawberries in mid-May and already had peaches canned by June 1!

2013 is off to a later start, but the fruit that we are getting is tastier than I remember. We got up early this morning and drove out to Hollin Farms in Delaplane, VA. It is just a bit more than an hour drive from our house, but such a beautiful drive that we don't mind taking multiple trips out there, beginning with strawberries today! We each got a flat and decided just to pick until we were sick of picking or until the boxes were full, whichever came first. That ended up being just a bit over 20 lbs.

Then a spent the rest of the day sorting, cleaning, washing, jamming, and freezing! I put up (love that quaint phrase) nine pints of honey-sweetened jam and seven quarts of whole berries in the freezer. There are another three quarts or so that were less than ripe sitting on the counter, and another quart that I held back just for us to enjoy.

Tonight we had a few of them as grain-free, lactose-free, and refined sugar-free strawberry shortcakes.

The cake is an almond flour, honey sweetened cupcake and the cream is whipped coconut milk. I haven't quite perfected the technique yet, but it was delicious.

Hen with Garlic Sage Sauce - May 8, 2013 (and a puppy birthday party)

It's no secret that the Hartmans are pretty big food TV junkies. Richie in particular has become a bit of a Top Chef addict and has even purchased seasons 1-5 on iTunes to watch whenever he needs a fix! Therefore we couldn't help but be drawn in when we saw season 5's Italian star, Fabio Viviani, staring back at us from the book display at Costco. Even though we have a plethora of Italian cookbooks at home, he charmed his way into our cart anyway and I'm glad he did as the first dish we made from it was definitely a winner.

This is his recipe for "hen with garlic sage sauce" and my only quibble is that his directions were a bit imprecise. I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen, so "cook until done" was OK with me but I would imagine it might not work for less seasoned cooks. The end result was absolutely delicious and a great use of some of our abundant herb garden growth.

I also made a grain free focaccia bread and ate the dish with steamed green beans. Richie had his over angel hair pasta.

In other news, Lily is no longer a puppy! She turned one on May 2 so of course we had a party. I made four kinds of cupcakes (vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, grain free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, grain free toasted coconut, and peanut butter pumpkin for the dogs) and we invited all her two and four legged friends to a little gathering in the common space next to our house. 

Here is a picture of Lily with two of her four-legged friends. She's the one in the middle.

Sirloin Steak and Mustard Greens - April 7, 2013

Dear mustard greens,

It's not you, it's me...

I wanted to like mustard greens. I tried. I researched recipes, I chopped shallots and garlic, I sautéed. And I even ate about half of what you see here on my plate before I dropped my fork and said, "These do not taste good." And so we broke up. Sorry, mustard greens. There must be someone out there for you, but it isn't me.

In happier news, this weekend I made grain free and refined sugar free doughnuts that are legal for my diet. And they were delicious!

This was the recipe. Definitely a keeper!

Moroccan Chicken and Creamy Spice Market Kale - March 23, 2013

Until this moment, I just wasn't on the kale bandwagon. I know it is good for you and very popular, but I had not found a way to prepare it that really made my mouth happy. In fact, I was so sick of it by midsummer last year that I let our then puppy go nuts and eat all of it that I had growing in the container garden to assuage my guilt over not picking and eating it

But this dish has made me a believer! Both elements, the chicken breasts and the kale, are recipes from my new favorite cookbook: Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love To Eat by Melissa Joulwan. Only modifications were to leave out the coconut aminos (not SCD legal) and to roast the chicken in oven rather than on the grill since I didn't feel like going out in the cd.

Bolognese Sauce over Spaghetti Squash - March 7, 2013

I need to work on my food photography skills. My problem is that I am just so anxious to start eating the yummy food, that I don't want to take time to stage the shot and get it just so!

This was our dinner tonight and I assure it tasted much better than its pathetic photo. The bolognese sauce recipe was from Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meats with Recipes for Every Cut. I adore this book. It is a fabulous companion to the grass-fed beef larder we got from Polyface Farms last fall and have been steadily eating down all winter.

I made just a couple changes to the recipe. First, I used the food process to very finely chop the veggies so they would essentially disappear into the sauce and leave just their flavor. Second, I forgot to thaw out my frozen beef broth (and I'm currently down to just one pint anyway, so I'd prefer to hoard it for something where it would be more crucial to the flavor) so I just substituted water for that cup of broth. Finally, to make this SCD-legal and keep it lactose free, I subbed coconut milk for the regular milk.

Then I served it over spaghetti squash and topped with aged parmesan  Delish! Richie had his over regular noodles.

This was a tasty dish on a cold winter-ish sort of night. We were supposed to be celebrating the first day of our spring CSA with a fresh meal from that bounty, but unfortunately they had to postpone the first delivery due to a colder than anticipated late winter in the mid-Atlantic.

Apple Crisp & Homemade Frozen Yogurt - February 28, 2013

These are the last of the apples we picked last fall. Our spring CSA starts next week, so I needed to make room in the refrigerator.

The apple crisp is completely grain and refined sugar free, following this paleo recipe. I made the frozen yogurt from my 24-hour lactose free yogurt and some honey. It is delicious, but super tart and not necessarily the right accompaniment to the crisp. I liked both, but not necessarily together.

Tandoori Chicken with Yogurt Sauce (and Jaime's new outlook on food)

Greetings Dinner Clubbers! I'm sorry I've been quiet lately, but I have a reason. A little over a month ago I came to a big decision in regards to my health and it relates to food in a big way.

As dinner club members all know, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 19. I then spent my 20s trying to pretend that everything was just fine, eating everything I wanted and choosing to believe that diet had nothing to do with my digestive health. More than anything, I just wanted to be normal.

Then I paid for that negligence with a series of surgeries and complications in my early 30s. I am now 37 and have post-surgical short bowel, chronic anemia, and food allergies in addition to active Crohn's Disease. Right after Christmas I finally decided that I wasn't willing to put up with that as status quo any longer and that I was ready to try some dietary changes, even if that meant radically changing my relationship with food.

On January 21, I started the day with a bagel and cream cheese, granola bars for a snack, a stuffed baked potato for lunch, for dinner a cold cut and cheese combo on a big sourdough baguette and then followed it with a huge bowl of homemade ice cream with hot fudge and caramel sauce.

On January 22, I started following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). No grains of any kind, no starchy vegetables, no sugar, and no lactose. I won't lie... the transition was really, really, really hard but I decided to give it a month and then reassess.

I'm happy to report that the results are already positive. My digestion is vastly improved and I had a colonoscopy last week that showed major improvement in all areas. YAY!

And now that I'm 5 weeks into this new way of eating, I barely remember what it was like to eat the old way. Just writing about that day of eating makes my stomach hurt.

So what is left for me to eat? Lots of great thing like fruits, meat, nuts, most vegetables, homemade yogurt, and most cheeses. For example, tonight I made this tandoori chicken with yogurt sauce from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. It was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture and so am using the one from the website. Richie had rice with his; I enjoyed a side of steamed green beans with mine.

Now that I've decided the diet really does work and am committing to it for the long haul, I'm looking forward to sharing more of my delicious meals!