Mushroom Beef Stew Recipe

 I came across a fellow blogger's site and this sounds like a delicious beef stew.  I have made a beef stew with mushrooms before, and it has turned out really well.  This recipe is making my mouth water...

From Kath Eats Real Food.

Simple Shroom Beef Stew

Ingredients

• 1 pound grass-fed local beef chunks
• 2.5 pints of sliced mushrooms
• 2 carrots
• 4 celeries
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 quart of water
• 1.5 cups frozen peas
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Brown beef. Set aside. Add mushrooms, carrots and celery and cook until tender. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Put mixture into crockpot and cover with water, paprika, peas and salt and pepper. Set to high for 1 hour and low to 2 hours (since everything should already be cooked your just looking for simmer.)



Source: katheats.com/hungerstruck

Worth Your Butter

It was during Thanksgiving that I went to the grocery store, buying the ingredients for the big non-turkey roast that we did...Non-turkey because our family is not the biggest fan of turkey in general, and as a result, turkey leftovers may stay in the freezer for a year!  So, we did duck instead, which turned out great. But, in my grocery hunt, I came across pasture-fed butter by Kerrygold.  I know that pasture-fed anything (or I should say, any animal that should feed on grass) is always a better choice.  In general, I don't eat a lot of butter, and have never tried pasture-fed butter.  I decided to give it a whirl.

Boy oh boy, have I been missing out!  It is a similar experience to when I first tried grass-fed milk, the taste was out of this world different!  There was actual aroma to the taste of the milk.  You can read more on my previous post: Got Milk?.  This butter from pasture-fed cows in Ireland was so aromatic.  In my opinion, worth its double in price, especially when you want to spread it on bread or use it for dipping.  Baking, not so much.

We decided to go big one night and bought a couple of lobsters.  Steamed the lobsters, and I used the grass-fed butter for the dipping sauce with garlic and lemon.  I went bonkers.  Lobster and pasture-fed butter, an incredible combination.


Picture source: Kerrygold

Not Every Egg is Laid Equal

Related to my previous post on eating pasture-fed chickens, I have also eaten those chicken’s eggs.  Wowsers.  These eggs are awesome.  I mean really, we are all missing out if we don’t have a source.

What does a super fresh, pasture-fed chicken egg look like?  For sure, they are different from grocery found eggs.  Ever notice, that a hard-boiled grocery egg has a pale yellow color yolk?  The eggs that I ate have orange color yolks.  The color is orange yellow, very vibrant compared to the pale yellow.  The egg shells of pasture-fed are also thicker.  Grocery eggs typically have very thin shells.

What the chicken eats will determine the kind of eggs she lays.  Better taste and perhaps better nutrients come from diets that that include other things besides corn. 

Freshness is also a factor.  I have been guilty of eating overdue, old eggs.  They don’t seem to go bad, but now I have noticed, that after you hard-boil old eggs, there is a big divot on one of the ends.  Really fresh eggs don’t have this air pocket that forms when boiled. 

I looked around online, and there is a buoyancy test for the freshness of your eggs.  This is the same concept as the air pocket discovery, except the test lets you know before you cook.  Basically, if your raw egg sinks to the bottom in a bowl of water, it is fresh (no air pocket has formed in the egg).  If the raw egg lies on its side in the water or kind of bobs, the egg is not as fresh.  If the egg floats on the surface of the water, then it should be discarded.

For more information:

http://recipehut.homestead.com/FreshEggTest.html

http://southernfood.about.com/library/howto/hteggsfresh.htm

Really Good Chicken

I have had the incredible opportunity over the last few months to eat really fresh, pasture fed chicken.  Wow.  The difference between a pasture fed chicken and a corn-raised chicken (read: grocery bought) is so evident.  The pasture fed chicken meat is tighter and the flavor, especially when the carcass is slow cooked for a soup or broth, is just so aromatic.  Not bland, droopy meat with tons of fat (you would see this if you bought the whole bird), and almost tasteless broth.  If you haven’t tried it ever, you need to find yourself a farmer friend.

Now, this is not really comparing organic vs. conventional chicken.  Most organic chickens are still grain fed.  Chickens weren’t meant to eat only grains (i.e., corn), but most of the ones you find in the grocery do since it is the fastest way to fatten up chicken for market.  Pasture-fed chicken means it eats bugs, worms, other little critters in addition to corn, and usually these chickens run around outside, like really live the life of a chicken.  I have seen this in action.  And, I would guess that small farmers who raise chickens just for their family and friends rather than for industry let their chickens grow this way.

Here’s a crazy idea.  What does it take to raise chickens?  I want to raise chickens.

I was curious, so I went to the library.  I couldn’t find any chicken books in the system, so when I asked the librarian, the conversation went something like this… 

“Can we help you?”

“Yes, I am looking for some books on how to raise chickens.  Silence.  Like farming, um not really like children's books.  Yeah, I know, it’s kind of weird.”

Librarian heads both nod while trying not to smirk.  I couldn’t help laughing myself, what is an urban girl doing asking for books on how to raise chickens?  (sidenote: my mom wanted to know more about the chickens than I did.)

More to come on what I find out. 

Is that really cheese?

This is America.  People love cheese.  It is amazing to me just how many varieties of cheese exist and how many people love them.  Not long ago, some friends (who have super cute dogs named Izzy and Mathman :) ) introduced me to Robusto cheese and truffle cheese.  Out of this world delicious, and amazing on a French baguette.

Although cheese in and of itself has been eaten for centuries, not all cheeses are made equal.  The premium cheeses imported from farms that actually pasture-feed their cows (meaning grass, natural habitat) versus the majority of commercial farms in America that feed their cows corn, soy, or some concoction thereof produce cheeses that are vastly different.  The grain-fed cows produce milk heavy with Omega-6’s and little Omega-3 fatty acids, whereas pasture-fed are more balanced with more Omega-3 fatty acids.  OK, so why does this matter? 

Diets heavy in Omega-6 without the balance of Omega-3 tend to cause people to become fat, and it increases the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and inflammation.  This is major.  And, this is happening. 

In a previous post, I wrote that olive oil is for beautiful women (and for men, we hope you are beautiful too).  One reason is because olive oil is low in Omega-6 fatty acids.  Vegetable oils such as corn and cottonseed are high in Omega-6’s.  

Moderate consumption of cheese (which was done for centuries) should not significantly contribute to burgeoning waistlines; however, it does in this country, in our modern age.  I see a few choices.  Research and get to the source of your cheese if you want to consume regularly.  Or, balance it out with foods that have A LOT of Omega 3’s (somehow…seems difficult).   Or, eat on occasion…which is what I do.

For more information: http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm