And my friend [...]]]> It’s now been nearly two weeks since the website problems here were all resolved. The two subscribers still affected could tell when the glitches ceased, I’m sure! In uncovering my website’s problems, I actually helped the subscription software company solve a bunch of niggling problems that were affecting a lot of their clients. In fact they’ve released a new version of their software that includes all the changes they made to this site.  As a result of not having to continually deal with problems, I’m now free to make improvements to the service and the site!

And my friend Heather of http://www.mamaiscomic.com is doing a giveaway for two six-month long subscriptions to my menu service! You can find it here: http://www.mamaiscomic.com/2012/give-away-good-life-menu/ . You can get up to eight chances to win!  That should give you a good start on learning a new way of eating.

For almost a year, a scant, everchanging random handful of people have experienced glitchiness, never more than one or possibly two people at once. This kind of thing is hard to track down, and if I could make it resolve for them, I did. Sometimes it wasn’t on my end [...]]]> Even though it’s been a week where many people are off work and most of us were celebrating one holiday or another, I’ve been working hard to try to resolve a series of odd errors. I’ve now got two of them fixed. Here’s the nutshell version of what happened:

For almost a year, a scant, everchanging random handful of people have experienced glitchiness, never more than one or possibly two people at once. This kind of thing is hard to track down, and if I could make it resolve for them, I did. Sometimes it wasn’t on my end at all (cache-clearing once in awhile is a very good idea, for the record).

In fact I thought I had had these odd errors completely resolved until just before Christmas. Then, upon looking into at the problem a new subscriber reported, I realized I was seeing a possible pattern, all having to do with the third-party software I use to control subscriptions. But I’m not that advanced a code monkey, so I contacted the company that makes that software.

They suggested I upgrade to their newest software, which had just come out. In addition, there were some other security upgrades I needed to make.

Let’s just say things got a little too secure there for awhile.

Even I was getting a blank page after logging in, and I’m the site owner!

I figured out pretty quickly if I just went back to the URL for the home page by deleting everything after the .com in the URL bar, I could proceed as normal. But I hit that as a fluke, not a real solution, and knew I needed to fix the problem.

Even though that happened just a couple of days before Christmas, the software company worked on the problem and found *two switched lines* in their upgrade that caused the problem!

The second problem was that if people clicked “Northern Hemisphere Menus”, no new post titles were showing after the date of the upgrade. If subscribers used the link in the week’s email, they could get in, but otherwise had nowhere to click.

Again, that was an upgrade glitch (part of the security upgrades), found and fixed.

The original odd glitchiness is still there. But it’s very minor compared to these. And given the fact that the company fixed *two* problems for me while they were elbow-deep in figgy pudding (they’re an English company), I’d say that’s enough until they’re officially back into the office, wouldn’t you say?

Have a Happy New Year!

For me, the most crucial part of making my condiments is that the carb count has to be pretty much nonexistant, and there can’t be any artificial sweeteners. This is a function of my metabolism and my migraines. For some of you, it might be that they have to be gluten-free as well.

I do a lot of things the healthy, traditional way that has kept people healthy for thousands of years. People used to eat a lot of condiments that didn’t have vinegar as the [...]]]> I ran across this post earlier this week, and thought I should share.

For me, the most crucial part of making my condiments is that the carb count has to be pretty much nonexistant, and there can’t be any artificial sweeteners. This is a function of my metabolism and my migraines. For some of you, it might be that they have to be gluten-free as well.

I do a lot of things the healthy, traditional way that has kept people healthy for thousands of years. People used to eat a lot of condiments that didn’t have vinegar as the base, but whey left over from making cheese or yogurt. This enhances both the nutrients available in the condiment, but also makes it probiotic.  Not only that, but this method also reduces the carb count!

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be eating my probiotics than having yet another cost in my budget and pill bottle on my counter!

I cannot now find the original post to direct you to it, but I’ll edit this post if I do. Basically, you can do this with any condiment in your fridge, from salsa to mayo to ketchup or barbecue sauce. I’d try it with something that’s over half gone, because it will only last a week or so after you do this.

Simply pour around a tablespoon of whey into the container, put the lid back on it, and shake it up! You can use whey from purchased yogurt. Or if you make your own, you may have whey anyhow.

Then cover the container with a coffee filter or a piece of paper towel, and secure it with a rubber band. Leave it on your counter top in a warmish spot (not chilly, but not hot), overnight. Then replace the lid and refrigerate, using whatever it is like normal.

The probiotic culture from the whey will then be in your condiment, and the lactic acid from it will unlock nutrients in the condiment so your body doesn’t work so hard. There are many benefits to lacto fermentation that you can read about here.

Here’s an interesting video that explains it more:

Here, I’ve finally seen the last of the huge amounts of snow we’ve had this winter. I can’t wait to plant my garden! I already have some herbs greening up. It’s going to be around two months before I can even hope to plant a lot of things, but I may be able to put snow peas and lettuce in the ground soon. I am looking forward to having salads that were growing minutes before I eat them.

This can be an object of great debate sometimes, but it doesn’t need to be.

This started because one Thanksgiving, I was asked to bring yam casserole. I went down the list of what others were bringing, and the only thing I was going to be able to eat was turkey. [...]]]> What do you do when you can’t eat much of what’s typically served at holiday meals? The mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the desserts? Do you eat what you’re not supposed to have, but then feel sick for days afterwards, as I do if I go off-plan? Or worse?

This can be an object of great debate sometimes, but it doesn’t need to be.

This started because one Thanksgiving, I was asked to bring yam casserole. I went down the list of what others were bringing, and the only thing I was going to be able to eat was turkey. And I knew the person assigned to make the turkey always ended up with dry turkey. Yuck. Some celebration!

So when I realized that, I decided to also bring a pumpkin cheesecake on a nut crust that I could eat (and that the three diabetics in the family could also eat). While I was making it, I realized I could also make some mashed cauliflower in my crockpot, and I had some broth I could make gravy with. Turns out no one else brought gravy, and the cook had disposed of the pan drippings, so I had the only gravy there. And everyone loved it!

It started there, with my dinner being mashed Fauxtatoes and gravy, dry turkey, and pumpkin cheesecake. Which is quite a bit more festive than just dry turkey, or feeling like I had the flu for the next week! The next year, I added breadless stuffing and a green bean casserole. Yes, I’m essentially bringing everything now; but I do it in small quantities so it’s really just enough for those of us who can’t have sugars, many carbs, or grains.

Except the Fauxtatoes. Those are a huge hit, so now I’m permanently assigned to bring it and the gravy. Oh, and the cheesecake. When others bring a “sugar-free” pumpkin pie, it’s always on a wheat flour crust, and bought in the store, and slightly burned. Everyone likes the pumpkin cheesecake a lot better.

Over the next couple of months, the menus will include gluten-free, sugar-free, low carb versions of traditional holiday dishes (including Chanukah) that actually taste good and are the right texture. I took these things last year for the various celebrations, and in most cases returned with an empty dish. Mostly I got complements, and mostly people did *not* know what they were eating wasn’t the traditional version!

The way I have it set up, there are instructions for all dishes if you’re hosting, including a week-long Master Plan, so you can be cooking ahead a little to reduce your workload on the actual holiday itself. And there are individual links to each recipe in the case we’re all often in, where Mom or Aunt Judy calls and says “You’re bringing the ‘x’.” Pretty much every commonly-called-for dish is there, so if this happens to you, you can make it and know at least you can eat the turkey/ham/brisket plus the dish you brought!

What do *you* end up doing on the different holidays?

These are the dog days of summer. I can tell, because it’s steamy-hot, and every time I walk past the grapevines cascading over my deck, I terrify the locusts that are chattering there. And they terrify me as they zoom away. They have an uncanny knack for flying straight into my forehead. Maybe they’re doing it on purpose. Brave little things; it would be like me flying my plane straight into Godzilla. Or maybe those over-sized eyes have too little brain tissue behind them.

That sound of the buzzing of locusts I can [...]]]>

Typical Summer Supper Side

These are the dog days of summer. I can tell, because it’s steamy-hot, and every time I walk past the grapevines cascading over my deck, I terrify the locusts that are chattering there. And they terrify me as they zoom away. They have an uncanny knack for flying straight into my forehead. Maybe they’re doing it on purpose. Brave little things; it would be like me flying my plane straight into Godzilla. Or maybe those over-sized eyes have too little brain tissue behind them.

That sound of the buzzing of locusts I can remember far back into my childhood. It always meant vacation was over; school was approaching; it was too hot to think or play, yet Mom kept shooing us outdoors, where the lulling sound of the locusts and the sauna-like heat was enough to put all of us into a stupor. We didn’t want summer to end, but on the other hand, we were tired of the heat!

Mom would often wait for my dad to get home, closer to sunset, before serving dinner. He’d grill something she had marinating all day. She’d go to the garden and pick something fresh, from corn to beans or whatever was ripe. There would always be a couple of big sliced tomatoes. She always got mad at him for taking the center slices and leaving her with the ends. Little black bugs would appear out of nowhere to make a play for the tomato or watermelon slices. The sun would set and tree frogs, bull frogs, and crickets would start up. Fireflies would appear—and mosquitoes.

It seemed like the world was more alive after the sun set than when it was up, at least for most of the insect and amphibian world. I don’t know that the white noise produced by the locusts really counts. We were certainly more lively once the sun set. Although playing hide and seek and tag in an area with trees, vines, and gardens was not necessarily the safest choice. But no one felt like running around when it was bright, hot daylight! Not in August, at least.

I fully understand why my mom tried not to cook inside during August, especially when she already had heated up the kitchen canning beans, tomato sauces, ketchup, apple butter and all kinds of things. I’m not even doing that, and I’m hot! So I’ve been trying to grill out as much as possible. At least when you’re done, you can come in out of the heat. I’ve also been doing main course salads, with either grilled meat, or deli meat.

This week, subscribers get to have Greek Grilled Chicken, Tequila-Lime Shrimp Kabobs, Grilled Zucchini Splits, Roast Beef Salad with Goat Cheese, and more. Subscribe today, and get all recipes, the complete, coded shopping list, Master Plans, and more!

And only twice will you turn on your stove.

This past week, it was acting like August where I live. The tomatoes and peppers that I put in my garden blossomed overnight, and the seeds I planted sprouted within just a couple of days!  I kid you not.  Had I planted them a couple of weeks ago or longer when it was acting like March, they’d likely be to exactly the same point they’re at now. And we had pleasantly cool weather to boot. At one point, I commented to a friend “We’ve had heat indexes close to 100F, [...]]]>

Willow and Lark go for the berries

This past week, it was acting like August where I live. The tomatoes and peppers that I put in my garden blossomed overnight, and the seeds I planted sprouted within just a couple of days!  I kid you not.  Had I planted them a couple of weeks ago or longer when it was acting like March, they’d likely be to exactly the same point they’re at now. And we had pleasantly cool weather to boot. At one point, I commented to a friend “We’ve had heat indexes close to 100F, frost warnings, rain, sleet, hail, tornado warnings and fog all in 10 days. All we need is a good blizzard and a nice typhoon and we’ll have had just about all the weather on offer.”

My herb garden is well underway, too. I have more oregano, chives and cilantro than I can use, at least until the tomatoes and peppers ripen. At that point I can make salsa or pasta sauce, and I’ll have plenty of the right herbs to use in it. I also have quite a lot of thyme, lemon thyme, sage, various mints, and lemon balm. I’ve got basil and dill coming from seed (rapidly!) and still need to get marjoram, rosemary, tarragon and maybe parsley plants. The last week, we’ve been vacillating between those hot temps and rain showers every couple of days, so this is prime planting weather for quick germination.

So you’ll see lots of herbs in the menus for the rest of the summer. You can plant herbs in containers, Square Foot Gardens (like mine); even a rain gutter nailed at waist height along the side of your deck, shed, balcony or house. You’ll save a ton of money and your food will taste better. Plus there are many vitamins and minerals in herbs.

But if you really have no space? You live in a high rise with no decent window space, as I did at one point? In most recipes, you can substitute dried at half the quantity specified. But not in the chimichurri this week!

Chimichurri is a South American condiment/marinade that’s a bit like pesto, traditionally made with parsley. It’s sometimes made with oregano or cilantro, as it is here. But if you’re hungry for pesto, there’s some in the Untato Salad. We’ll also do some Korean-style grilled chicken; a seasonal Midwestern chicken and berry salad; a shrimp salad that would be home in Key West; and French and Italian ideas on what to do with a grilled steak. The bonus this week is chocolate-covered strawberries! Yum!  Lots of grilling, but you can do the grilled items on the stovetop if it’s cool or pouring rain outside.

Southern Hemisphere menus this week finally stop the grilling and start the soups, using seasonal produce like squash and pears in dishes like Roasted Chicken with Squash and Pears;  Cauliflower and Gruyère Soup with Sausage;  Looed Chicken; Carnitas in a Bowl and more, with the same style of shopping list.  All of it without sugar, artificial sweeteners or grains/starch.

Today, I’m taking all four kids (including one of my son’s best friends) to pick strawberries at a new organic farm that just opened in my area.  I anticipate making lots of those chocolate-covered strawberries!  Wish I had space for a strawberry patch like I had growing up.

Subscribers get all these recipes and more, plus the shopping list coded back to the recipes.  Subscribe today, and have more time to enjoy your summer!

We’re now in the identity crisis of spring, where the weather can’t decide if it’s spring, summer, or “tonight I’m putting on my winter frost face”, thanks very much. I’m still seeing some late daffodils and tulips and the lilacs are still out, but I’m starting to see irises and my roses are getting buds on them! Officially the last frost date in my area is May 10th, but I just had frost last night and more is predicted. Wild asparagus is at its prime, while garden asparagus is starting to come in [...]]]>

First Greens of Spring

We’re now in the identity crisis of spring, where the weather can’t decide if it’s spring, summer, or “tonight I’m putting on my winter frost face”, thanks very much. I’m still seeing some late daffodils and tulips and the lilacs are still out, but I’m starting to see irises and my roses are getting buds on them! Officially the last frost date in my area is May 10th, but I just had frost last night and more is predicted. Wild asparagus is at its prime, while garden asparagus is starting to come in season. Those whose lettuce has survived the periodic frosts may have lettuce, but I’ve never had a lot of luck with early spring lettuce, due to the fickle weather.

So, according to some, I should have planted my peas, spinach, radishes and lettuce by now.  But last year, we had frost in late May, and then had hail about 4 weeks apart that knocked all the blossoms off my garden twice so that I didn’t have tomatoes, peppers etc. in July and August.  Instead, I had them in October and November!

So this week, I’m waiting.  Waiting for the lilacs to be done (wish they’d bloom always) so that I can trim them.   Waiting for it to get just a tad warmer so I can plant radishes, peas, and lettuces.  Waiting for the tomatoes and peppers I’ve ordered from http://www.thechilewoman.com to come in so I can get them planted.

But that’s okay.  While I wait, my husband, with a bit of help from my son, have put corn gluten meal on the lawn to keep weeds from germinating; he’s pulled a bunch of tree seedlings that were trying to come up, as well as thistles; they’ve mowed the lawn and they’re going to build at least one more square foot garden for me.  Or should I say, for them, because they really do like to eat what comes out of our gardens!

And while I wait, I can still enjoy listening to my 5-year-old sing and play while I putter around inside and out, getting dinner.  I can enjoy the scent of my lilac bush and my tulips and my spring-blooming hazelnut, given to me by a friend who called it “spicebush”.

Waiting’s good.  It slows me down.

Soon I’m going to be waiting on some pork chops coming off the grill.  Subscribers will get 7 quick menus, with recipes and shopping list.  This week’s includes Thai Pork Burgers with Asian Slaw; Lamb, Asparagus and Snow Pea Skillet; a quick Greek Chicken; a Spring Salad and more.  The menu is up now and starts Saturday, but you don’t have to wait if you’re hungry!

Slow cookers.  Redolent of chili, barbecued Smoky links, macrame, mushroom decor, Avocado appliances, and a society-wide, decade long epidemic of bad hair.  The ghost of a thousand church pitch-ins.  One of the few gotta-have-it appliances from my childhood that’s still around (unlike the hot dog cooker that basically electrocuted hot dogs–I have one, if anyone doubts me).

For years, I associated slow cookers with that whole regrettable era of the 70′s; the years when “exotic food” meant “Chung King from two cans” (unless you were lucky enough to live in Manhattan or L.A.) and [...]]]>

Just Like Mom's

Slow cookers.  Redolent of chili, barbecued Smoky links, macrame, mushroom decor, Avocado appliances, and a society-wide, decade long epidemic of bad hair.  The ghost of a thousand church pitch-ins.  One of the few gotta-have-it appliances from my childhood that’s still around (unlike the hot dog cooker that basically electrocuted hot dogs–I have one, if anyone doubts me).

For years, I associated slow cookers with that whole regrettable era of the 70′s; the years when “exotic food” meant “Chung King from two cans” (unless you were lucky enough to live in Manhattan or L.A.) and no one north of Texas knew what tacos were.  The only time my mom ever brought ours out was to make either chili or beef soup for some kind of pitch-in.  She didn’t even use it for pot roasts, because those were usually for Sunday dinner, and a slow cooker took too long and was too small!  And that’s the way I used the one I kept from the three I got for my wedding.  Until I got rid of it because it was only really a sauce-sized pot.

Two years ago, my life changed drastically when my daughter started with a pre-professional ballet school.  Suddenly I had almost no time to cook, because we were gone several evenings a week right over the dinner hour.  I had been subscribing to a menu service for a couple of years that told me what to cook, and the food was flat-out great, but it required time in the kitchen I just didn’t have.  And I realized I was going to have to deal with my leptin insensitivity/insulin insensitivity problems before I ended up with full-blown diabetes.

I thought about my options, and asked a couple of the other ballet moms.  The answer: a slow cooker.

It is amazing what you can do with a slow cooker.  I’ve done quiche; mashed “fauxtatoes”; spiced nuts; custard; roasts…I would say I’ve only used it for soup or dips less than 5% of the time!

When I bought mine, I wanted to get one big enough to actually be useful.  In the interim I’d been given the “average” 5 qt. size crockpot; but with a family of 5 that includes a teen boy I knew it was going to be too small.  So that put me into the oval slow cookers.

I also needed to deal with the problem of not necessarily being home when it was done, because they give the kids their full allotted time, no matter what the clock says, so that sometimes class goes over.  And I wanted to be able to take it places easily.  In the past, taking a crockpot of chili somewhere required a newspaper and plastic bag-lined box in case it spilled during transit.

Slow cookers have come a LONG way since 1974!  The one I found was a programmable Hamilton Beach with a clamp-on lid and thermometer, 7 quarts.  It has a stainless steel exterior and removable stoneware interior.  I can set it on low or high for increments of 1/2 hour up to 12 hours; it will turn itself to “warm” when it’s done and stay on that setting for another 12 hours, or until I turn it off.  Or I can use the thermometer and set it for a certain temp, and it will turn itself to warm once that’s temperature is reached.

There are other programmable slow cookers that cost as much as 8 times what I paid that will allow different timing increments, but they really don’t do 8 times what this one does.

And there are also slow cookers that offer a variety of insert sizes with one base, but they aren’t very transportable–they’re even sort of funnel-shaped and not terribly stable when the largest inserts are used.  Fine on a counter, but not on a table for a pitch-in (at least the ones I saw when I was looking).

Now I use my slow cooker starting when it begins to get cool sometime in September or October, up to when it’s grilling weather.  I sometimes use it in the summer when the weather’s nice by putting it on my deck table so it doesn’t heat up the kitchen, but not often.  It gets a vacation then.  And it deserves it, because it is rarely empty September through about May or June!

Whatever slow cooker you have, here are a few tips to make using it easier:

Sear meat before putting it in the slow cooker.  The Maillard Reaction of browning, where the sugars and proteins in the meat combine, adds a lot of flavor; browning meat also adds texture.

After you sear the meat, deglaze the pan using some of the liquids from the recipe.  If you use a very hot pan and don’t let it cool at all before pouring the liquid in, the stuck-on browned bits, called “fond”, will come right up.  This is the most flavorful part of what you’ve browned, so get it all!  Add a few extra ounces of the liquid to account for the evaporation from the deglazing.

If you can eat starch, you can bread the meat before browning it, and the starch will help it form a sauce as it cooks.  Otherwise, you can thicken with xanthan or guar gum, or Xpert Food’s Thick n’ Thin Not/Starch after removing the solids from the slow cooker at the end of cooking.

Whatever you put in the slow cooker is going to be juicier than you think, because the liquids won’t evaporate they would on the stovetop or in the oven.  I sometimes use frozen cauliflower to make fauxtatoes, and I don’t add any water at all so that I don’t need to drain them at the end of cooking time (about 2 hours), the way I would on the stove.

You can do custards and quiches by using a ceramic casserole dish that will fit inside your slow cooker (another reason to get a BIG one).  Put the ingredients inside the casserole dish and the pour very hot water inside the slow cooker to within about an inch of the top of the dish.  Cover and cook on low.  This works wonderfully on egg-based dishes that would normally take just a little too much time to do if you had to have the oven on that whole time. Oh, and cheesecakes!

You can even do meatloaf if you put it on a rack!  I’ve even done Carnitas in it.  And things like stuffed bell peppers and flounder rolls and stuffed seafood things!

You can make nicely-spiced nuts and nut mixes in your slow cooker!  Soak them as usual; melt butter, mix in the spices, and then mix with the nuts in the cooker.  A few hours on low does the trick.

And sometimes I do chili and dips.  Yes, I do.  And channel Mrs. Brady while I do it.