My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to GNOWFGLINS. We try as much as possible to make use of “God’s natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally and in season.” So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in my kitchen this week!

This week…

• Muscovy Ducks – We purchased three Muscovy hens and one Muscovy drake. They are about a year old, and settled right in. Pictured is Addy – short for “Adventurous” and that she is! We were going to have chickens…. but then we decided to do ducks instead. These three gals are laying eggs already, and keeping track of them. When they have enough eggs, they’ll setting and hatching cute little ducklings, which sadly and thankfully, one day we’ll eat. We hear that Muscovys are good little mothers — that’s what we’re hoping these will be. We want them to be happy and healthy, so they will make us happy and healthy. Today I am going to send in our order for Khaki Campbell ducklings from Holderread Waterfowl Farm & Preservation Center in Corvallis, Oregon. The Khaki Campbells are going to be our egg birds. We hear they are wonderful layers! It feels good to know that now we’re raising more than goats.
• Sprouted Pintos – I sprouted pinto beans this week, lots of them. We enjoyed them in chili and an amazing chicken skillet dish, the recipe to which I’ll share later this week.
• Ableskiver Pan & Ableskivers – I followed Jami’s instructions to reseason my new cast iron Ableskiver pan (Goodwill $3.99 — yes!). Then I made ableskivers in it. They didn’t stick; the seasoning was awesome! And they were pretty good – but not great. I’ll keep working on it. I used sprouted spelt flour and they were doughy inside. I think next time I’ll thin the batter. I filled some of them with my mom’s homemade apple butter. She made it with the kids when they were in Montana last summer and then gave us some of it. Yumm!
• Kraut – We just love it! Naomi asks for it when we’re out, so I’m doing my best to keep her in good supply. She doesn’t like salad without it — and neither do I. Kraut is an easy way to get a daily dose of probiotics!

So, that’s it for me – what’s twisting in your kitchen? To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post.

Welcome to the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival! The theme of this blog carnival is to share, through words and pictures, what’s twisting in our kitchens during the past week. Show us your GNOWFGLINS – God’s natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally and in season. I’m eager to see what’s been twisting in your kitchens!

How to Participate

1. Publish a Tuesday Twister post on your blog. Include a link to this post: http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/16/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-16
2. Come back here and add your name and the URL of your blog post in the MckLinky list (at end of this post).
3. Next to your name, you have the option of putting a brief description in parentheses, such as: Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS (Muscovy Ducks – Ableskiver Pan – Ableskivers)
4. Leave a comment on this post. This is optional, but important. Sometimes links get lost, or I need to email you about something.
5. Check out the other posts linked in the MckLinky list – let’s encourage and enjoy each other’s twister posts!

See here for answers to many questions and ideas for the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival. If you don’t have a blog, please feel welcome to share what’s twisting in your kitchen in the comments below.

Add the Tuesday Twister Image to Your Blog

If you wish to add the Tuesday Twister graphic to your blog post (optional), here’s how.

1. Right click on the Tuesday Twister graphic, and choose “Save As” or “Save Image As.”
2. Save it to your computer in the desired folder.
3. Use your blog program to upload it and insert it into your post.
4. (Optional) Link the image to this post: http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/16/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-16/

Alternately, you may include the following image code in your post, which will not only pull the graphic from this website, but also link back to this post:

<a href=”http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/16/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-16/“><img title=”tuesdaytwister” src=”http://gnowfglins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/tuesdaytwister.JPG” alt=”tuesdaytwister” width=”200” height=”200” />

That’s it! Share your links below. Thanks, everyone!

The topic is saturated fats, at the beginning of Chapter 2, where Dr. Enig and Sally Fallon set the stage by pointing out where dietary conventional wisdom has gone wrong for the last four decades.

“If you’re like most people we meet, when you hear about the benefits of coconut and other saturated fats, you may wonder, “If saturated fat is so great, why have I always been told it’s bad?” The fact is that for the last four decades, saturated fats, including coconut oil, have been banned from general consumption, condemned and locked away for the misdeeds of polyunsaturated fats, trans fats, and refined carbohydrates, foods that are still at large wreaking havoc with American waistlines (not to mention our life expectancy).

If eating saturated fat caused heart disease and weight gain, then eliminating those fats should have resulted in a decline in heart disease and an increase in weight loss. But look around you. That’s not what happened! While we American have been dutifully eliminating fat from our diet, eating low-fat foods, and avoiding saturated fats from tropical oils, butter, and red meats, obesity rates and the overall incidence of heart disease have continued to climb.

The truth is that the “diet police” condemned the wrong culprit. It was not saturated fat or coconut oil (a dietary staple in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines with consistently lower heart disease rates than our own) that caused our galloping heart disease rates. An entire body of research implicates refined grains and sugars (especially high-fructose corn syrup) — not saturated fats — as the cause of obesity, and vegetable oils and trans fats as key factors in heart disease.”

Shocking, isn’t it? Then again, maybe not. In the rest of the chapter, Dr. Enig and Sally Fallon go on to answer four key questions:

1. Does saturated fat raise cholesterol?
2. Does cholesterol cause atherosclerosis and heart disease?
3. Does scientific evidence support or contradict the view that saturated fats raise cholesterol, thus causing heart disease?
4. Are polyunsaturated oils “heart healthy,” as we’ve been led to believe?

For the next four weeks of RFQM, I will briefly cover the answers to these questions through quotes from this book. For now, though, what do you think? Are you shocked? Have you known this for awhile? Are you still on the fence?

Note: The book link in this post is an affiliate link to Amazon.com. If you choose to buy the book via my link, I’ll earn a commission. But I don’t care about that too much. The point of this post is for us to share inspirational words. That’s my sincere disclaimer. Thanks for reading.

The following information is based on the article, The Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning, posted on Sheryl’s Blog. In her blog she writes:

“The seasoning on cast iron is formed by fat polymerization, fat polymerization is maximized with a drying oil, and flaxseed oil is the only drying oil that’s edible.”

She goes into all the science behind seasoning of cast iron, but the gist of this is – that the use of cold-pressed, unrefined, organic flaxseed oil, with its low smoke point, is the best for achieving a hard, slick, lasting finish on cast iron.

“It’s possible to use a suboptimal oil for seasoning, like Crisco or bacon drippings, and still end up with a usable pan. Many (most) people do this. But the seasoning will be relatively soft, not as nonstick, and will tend to wear off. If you want the hardest, slickest seasoning possible, use the right oil: flaxseed oil.”

I followed her recommendation with my always-sticking cast iron pans, and I’m thrilled with the results! Here is how I did it . . .

The Science

When cooking we don’t want the oils we use to get to the point of smoking, because then they release free radicals which are carcinogenic. This is called the smoke point. I will add a chart of various oil’s smoke points at the end of this article. With seasoning, hitting the smoke point and going beyond that is exactly what we want. We want the oil to become so heated that a chemical reaction occurs (polymerization), which changes the oil into a sealant of sorts. So the science of seasoning is the opposite of the science of cooking.

Supplies

• Steel wool pad, or oven cleaner
• Good, thick oven mitts
• Paper towels, or Cotton cloth
• High grade, organic flax seed oil* – should be refrigerated and fresh; check the expiration date.

*You should never use the flax seed oil for cooking with heat because it smokes at very low temperatures, releasing free radicals which can get into your food. However, this oil is very good for you when consumed unheated like in salad dressings.

Cleaning Old Cast Iron

It was suggested that if your pan is very badly coated with stuck on gunk you can use oven cleaner to ‘strip it’ and start fresh from bare iron. This reminds me of the old advise of throwing a really bad pan into a very hot fire and burn the stuff off. Of course oven cleaner is composed of harsh chemicals so use this tip at your own discretion and with caution. I went a different route that worked just as well for me.

What I Did: Cleaning Old Pans For Re-Seasoning

I set my “everything sticks” cast iron pan on a burner and heated it (FYI – I have a glass stove top). I heated the pan, old oil, bits of burnt food and all for a couple of minutes on a medium temperature . . . Then I took my steel wool pad and began to scrub all that old gunk off the inside of the pan with the heat still on. I scrubbed the inside walls also, but not as vigorous as they were not as bad. I watched as everything started loosening and coming off.

Next, I ran my warm pan under hot water to rinse it all that stuff off, using a stiff kitchen brush to help. I put the pan back on the burner, turned off the heat and wiped it dry and clean with paper towels, leaving it there to completely dry and then cool. Success! I was left with a dry-grey looking pan with no seasoning on the inside. If you have food stuck on the handle, bottom or outside of your pan you’ll need to clean and re-season those areas as well.

The Best Process For Re-Seasoning Cast Iron

Seems like everything having to do with cast iron starts with heating; this is no exception.

Step 1: Pre-heat your pan to 200°F in your oven to open its pores and remove all moisture for about 10 -15 minutes, or when the pan looks dry and your sure it’s warmed up.

Step 2: Get your flax seed oil from the fridge and shake it really well to mix the contents. Then remove the pan from the oven using a good oven mitt and sit it on your stovetop. Squirt a quarter size drop of oil (for large skillet) in the pan and using your hand rub this into the pan all over. The pan will have a very shiny appearance at this point.

Step 3: Now wipe all that oil off with paper towels or a non-fuzzy cotton cloth. YES, all of it! It will look dull and no longer shiny, like all the flax oil is gone, but it isn’t. A very thin layer remains, and that’s exactly what you want. You are going to bake (polymerize) this oil into the pores of the pan, thereby sealing them.

Step 4: Now turn up your oven to its highest temp – mine went to 450°F (anywhere between 400 – 500 is good). Place your wiped-off pan upside down into the oven. You shouldn’t need any foil to catch drippings, because there had better not be enough oil left to drip! When your oven comes up to temp set a timer for one hour. At the end of an hour, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. Let the pan cool inside the oven, about 1 hour, or until it’s cooled enough to handle. The pan will come out of the oven a little darker, but matte in texture – not the semi-gloss you’re aiming for. It needs more coats. In fact, it needs at least six coats.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 through 4 five more times.

Note: During your first seasoning session, the pan will smoke a lot, so be ready to open windows or use fans as needed. Soon the smoking will be finished and the rest of the time the polymerizing will have no smell/smoke. The first smoking is not just the flax seed oil but also some of the old stuff on the bottom of the pan that didn’t get removed completely. Every session beyond the first will not smoke as bad. In fact, you may find they each smoke a little less as I did.

Care And Cleaning Of Newly Seasoned Cast Iron

Most of the time I only have to wipe out my pans with paper towels. Sometimes when sticky sauces have been cooked I will run hot water over the pan and wipe it with a non-stick pad or brush at the same time. Then I place the pan back on the still warm burner and wipe dry with a paper towel. I do not re-coat it with oil. I only have to put oil in my pans now when cooking.

I’m so sorry I don’t have before and during pictures. I didn’t know I would be writing about my experience until Wardeh kindly invited me to do so. However, you can see the nice semi-gloss finish this process puts on a pan from this above picture. And I have to add that the entire experience was very straight forward and easy. I’m no longer tense over re-seasoning cast iron. I hope you will give this a try and have the same great results I’ve had.

Blessings,
Jami

I haven’t re-seasoned my own pans yet – not only was I waiting for her clear instructions, but I’ve been working on cleaning off the old seasoning on some of my pans. I picked up flax seed oil on Wednesday and I’m going to try to find time today to season at least one pan. (Perhaps the ableskiver pan I got at Goodwill last week!) What about you? Are you willing to give this a try? Do you have cast iron pans that could use some TLC?

Please consider guest posting at gnowfglins.com! See this post for more details and then contact me.

Smoke Points Of Various Oils

I’m sharing this post in Fight Back Friday! hosted by FoodRenegade.

It seems that many of you agree with me that the healthy eating principles in Nourishing Traditions are rather daunting! I was looking through it the other day and decided that part of the problem is the way it reads like a college textbook. So I decided to cut the whole thing up!

Essentially I wanted to re-format Nourishing Traditions to separate the “textbook” from the “cookbook.” First I went through the whole book and wrote the page numbers above each recipe column for reference purposes (it was a great way to spend a sick day in bed). Next I tore each page out. If it was a full page introduction to a new subject I left it whole. If it was a wide column of recipes next to a narrow column of information, I cut the columns apart, trimmed the margin and slid the columns into plastic sheets.

Here is a photo of assembled ingredients – clear plastic sheet protectors, a binder, scissors and of course, Nourishing Traditions (cover already cut off).

Next, this photo shows me tearing off a page after the cover was off.

In the following photo you can see two different kinds of sheets: two columns of recipes side by side; or 3 columns of interesting information side by side, destined for the textbook binder.

Look at my new “cookbook” in progress!

Finally – the finished binder!

In the end I have two binders of clear plastic sheet protectors loaded with the columns of Nourishing Traditions.

Here’s why this isn’t perfect:

• when a recipe continues on the next page its a column nearby but not the next column…
• this process is time consuming.
• page numbers are not in perfect order.
• the finished product isn’t as pretty as the book was whole.

However, here’s why it works for me:

• this will be more kitchen friendly by laying flat when open and the plastic will wipe clean – I’m a messy cook.
• this seems less daunting to me without tons of info and stories to distract me.
• 600 pages of recipes condenses to 300 (size matters).

Blessings to you all,
Christina

Thanks, Christina! To everyone, please remember that I am looking for guest posts. Read this for ideas of what I’d like to see and then contact me with your great and/or helpful ideas. You have an open invitation, so please contact me at any time.

I’m excited to share this inspiring guest post from Gary Anderson (@GanderCo on twitter). He tells about the wake-up call that gave him a new mindset, and the miraculous work of God which improved his health. Thanks, Gary!

A Quick Foundation

I was a good Christian man, the ideal husband and well known as a fantastic father. I was the bass player in my church with near rock-star status. I had an amazing job as a contracted truck driver for Eastman Kodak Company and I was making money hand over fist. I had a nice house, two new cars, a brand new Harley Davidson and I even had the proverbial dog in the yard. I never got the white picket fence… I felt that I had achieved all life had to offer.

God Giveth And God Taketh Away

Fast forward a few years. I was suffering terribly from anxiety and depression. This lasted at a severe level for about three or four years. I finally had two nervous breakdowns landing me in the hospital on two separate occasions. These nervous breakdowns caused my near rock-star status to vanish seemingly overnight.

I simply gave up on life. I just quit trying. Why should I? No one cared anymore anyway, right? I even started drinking lightly, but every day! As a result, according to my blood tests, my cholesterol was up, my blood pressure was up, my blood sugar was up and my liver tests indicated really bad stuff on the horizon. See how my mindset affected my life?

Three Doctors Told Me I Was Going to Die

I believe that a person can achieve seemingly impossible things if they are motivated enough and for the right reasons. When no less than three doctors told me that I was going to die a young man, I got motivated. One doctor wanted to put me on cholesterol medicines immediately! When I refused, he said that if I didn’t start taking care of myself by eating better and getting some exercise, that I would likely die within five to ten years. I was unable to work and was sedentary for these three or four years…. can you say lazy-good-for-nothing-couch-potato?

A New Mindset For My Children

Like a light-switch, my thoughts went to my children. My mind and my way of thinking totally changed in a split second. I knew that I couldn’t change things overnight, but… I decided to do better with each passing moment for the rest of my life.

Two years later, my doctor ran some tests on my blood for a follow-up. “Wow!” he said. All tests came back perfect. And I had even lost 60 pounds. He knew that this was not hard to do, but he said that it has been his experience that people simply refuse to believe that they can do what I did, and so they die. Yes, that’s what he said.

Change From Within

Disclaimer: I realize that everyone is different; not everybody fits into a standard cookie-cutter plan. So, please keep in mind that everything that I say is my own personal opinion based on my own personal experience. That being said, what I’m about to tell you is true and factual.

It’s my opinion that diets, per se, do not work. When people get healthier and thinner and stay that way, this is due to a decision. A life changing decision — not a new year’s resolution. This is a new mindset. Sadly, sometimes it takes a life threatening situation to make people pay attention. I wish that I could tell you exactly what changes I made with myself but that would be a disservice to you because everyone’s chemical make-up is different.

But I can say this…

No matter who you are, no matter what your chemistry, there is one thing that will always make YOU healthier. Ready?

The Right Mindset

If people can have such a mindset change as I did, then they will find and choose better foods and habits as time goes by. If you remember nothing else, please remember this: have the right mindset and the rest will be added to you. Sorry, I don’t have some mysterious complicated super secret. With the help of people like Wardeh and a new way of thinking, you’ll be set for healthy success.

Gary Anderson II @GanderCo

My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to GNOWFGLINS. We try as much as possible to make use of “God’s natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally and in season.” So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in my kitchen this week!

To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post. See you there!

This week…

Here is one of the stews we enjoyed over the weekend. There was one day that I didn’t have any grains soaked – but had pinto beans and broth cooked, and potatoes, cabbage, garlic and onions available.

I browned the ground beef, added the broth, onions, garlic, and diced potatoes. When the potatoes were done, I added the sliced cabbage and pinto beans. Seasoned it all with homemade seasoning salt and garlic and pepper. We liked it. We really liked it!

This is the 100% whole wheat sourdough bread I’ve been making since I came home from the Fat Rendering Event of the Eugene WAPF. Marianne, who I got to meet there, taught me my latest trick to make perfect sourdough bread – after I knead the dough, I shape it for baking and let it rest in that form. I have also developed a special, oh-so-easy, method for kneading that I’ll show you one of these days.

So, that’s it for me – what’s twisting in your kitchen? To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post.

Welcome to the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival! The theme of this blog carnival is to share, through words and pictures, what’s twisting in our kitchens during the past week. Show us your GNOWFGLINS – God’s natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally and in season. I’m eager to see what’s been twisting in your kitchens!

How to Participate

1. Publish a Tuesday Twister post on your blog. Include a link to this post: http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/09/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-09
2. Come back here and add your name and the URL of your blog post in the MckLinky list (at end of this post).
3. Next to your name, you have the option of putting a brief description in parentheses, such as: Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS (Beef and Cabbage Stew – Amazing Sourdough Bread)
4. Leave a comment on this post. This is optional, but important. Sometimes links get lost, or I need to email you about something.
5. Check out the other posts linked in the MckLinky list – let’s encourage and enjoy each other’s twister posts!

See here for answers to many questions and ideas for the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival. If you don’t have a blog, please feel welcome to share what’s twisting in your kitchen in the comments below.

Add the Tuesday Twister Image to Your Blog

If you wish to add the Tuesday Twister graphic to your blog post (optional), here’s how.

1. Right click on the Tuesday Twister graphic, and choose “Save As” or “Save Image As.”
2. Save it to your computer in the desired folder.
3. Use your blog program to upload it and insert it into your post.
4. (Optional) Link the image to this post: http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/09/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-09/

Alternately, you may include the following image code in your post, which will not only pull the graphic from this website, but also link back to this post:

<a href=”http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/09/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2010-03-09/“><img title=”tuesdaytwister” src=”http://gnowfglins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/tuesdaytwister.JPG” alt=”tuesdaytwister” width=”200” height=”200” />

That’s it! Share your links below. Thanks, everyone!

Another Real Food Quote Monday (RFQM), another Q & A… This question comes from a reader, Tiffany:

I was hoping you could explain about the proteins in beans and legumes. I’ve heard some vegetarian friends say you have to have a grain with your beans to make a complete protein out of the nutrients. It just doesn’t jive. If the nutritional content is 9g protein per serving, isn’t that what’s there? Thanks!

Great question! And here’s the answer, from Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions:

“Proteins are the building blocks of the animal kingdom. The human body assembles and utilizes about 50,000 different proteins to form organs, nerves, muscles, and flesh. Enzymes — the mangers and catalysts of all our biochemical processes — are specialized proteins. So are antibodies.

All proteins are combinations of just 22 amino acids, eight of which are “essential” nutrients for humans, meaning that the human body cannot make them. When the essential amino acids are present in the diet, the body can usually build the other “nonessential” amino acids; but if just one essential amino acid is low or missing, the body is unable to synthesize the other proteins it needs, even when overall protein intake is high.

…

Just as animal fats are our only sources of vitamins A and D and other bodybuilding factors, so also animal protein is our only source of complete protein. All of the essential amino acids, and many considered “nonessential,” are present in animal products. Sources of protein from the vegetable kingdom contain only incomplete protein; that is they are low in one or more essential amino acids, even when overall protein content is high. The body must ingest all the essential amino acids in order to use any of them.

The two best sources of protein in the vegetable kingdom are legumes and cereal grains, but all plant foods are low in tryptophan, cystine and threonine [2 essential and 1 non-essential]. Legumes, such as beans, peanuts and cashews are high in the amino acid lysine [essential] but low in methionine [essential]. Cereal grains have the opposite profile.

In order to obtain the best possible protein combination from vegetable sources, pulses and grains should be eaten together and combined with at least a small amount of animal protein. Most grain-based cuisines instinctively incorporate this principle. For example, animal products plus corn and beans are staple fare in Mexican cuisines, as are chickpeas and whole wheat in Middle East and rice and soybean products in Asia.”

So, there you have it. Grains and beans don’t contain all the essential amino acids alone. But combined they can, although some combinations might still be low in certain essential amino acids – making a small amount of animal protein eaten alongside such a meal a tremendous benefit. Also, as Sally Fallon points out here and elsewhere, grains and beans lack essential fat-soluble vitamins, such as A & D, and protein should always be eaten with fat for best assimilation.

Do you have a quote to share in RFQM? I’m always looking for ideas! Do you have a question for the Q & A series? Be sure to let me know via the contact form.

Then I figured I could share this picture I took the other day, of my glorious kefir grains. Though iPhoto helped a bit, they really do glow!

This is about three cups of dairy kefir grains, with some finished kefir surrounding them. I had just taken the grains out of a finished batch of kefir. I usually don’t rinse them, just transfer to a new jar of milk.

It is winter, and the cooler temps make kefir growing a little different. For one, it takes longer. I am brewing my kefir for 48 hours instead of 18 to 24. We like it a little on the thick side, so it does taste more sour by the time I like the thickness.

For another, the kefir is a little stringy in the winter. Hopefully that doesn’t gross you out. There’s nothing bad about it, just pulling out the grains also brings a strand of finished kefir that breaks when it gets thin enough.

We love eating our kefir in various ways, especially in a kefir parfait; but sometimes just with maple syrup and cinnamon. Our kefir is thick enough to serve in a bowl, like pudding. We like it.

On the eCourse forum, a few members have mentioned taking less sour, yet more thin, kefir and straining it through cheesecloth to thicken it up yet keep its mild taste.

Back to those grains… I have been using all three cups to make 1/2 gallon of kefir every other day. I am growing them up to share with eCourse members, but also because the extra grains help make the kefir when the temps are more cool.

Also see: 7 Yummy Ways to Eat Kefir and What’s So Great About Kefir?

Have you noticed anything different with your kefir in the winter?

I’m sharing this post in Fight Back Friday! at FoodRenegade.