Low Carb Fish Pie

2 lbs. flounder or other thin fish
grated rind of one lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large shallot, diced small
1 tblsp olive oil
8 oz. creme fraiche or sour cream
2 egg yolks
1 tblsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 tblsp grated parmesan
1 medium spaghetti squash
2-4 tblsp grated cheddar

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a pan, maybe 9x12, and lay out the raw fish in an even layer.  Sprinkle fish with half the lemon peel and all the lemon juice.  Cook the shallots in olive oil until they begin to brown.  Remove from heat and add creme fraiche and then egg yolks (and 1-2  tblsp potato starch if you want a thicker sauce).  Stir in parsley, the other half the lemon peel, salt and pepper, and parmesan.  Shred cooked spaghetti squash into a bowl and mix with the sauce.  Layer squash mixture over the fish.  Sprinkle with grated cheddar.  Cook at 400 for 30-40 minutes, or until it begins to bubble.

no sugar added chocolate cheesecake

1-2 teasp butter
2 tblsp almond or other nut flour
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa or more)
1 oz (1/4 of a 4 oz stick) butter
3 8 oz blocks cream cheese, room temperature
4 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
a little salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cherry juice concentrate (found at many health food stores)

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a springform pan with butter and sprinkle bottom with almond flour.  Wrap outside with aluminum foil.  Melt 1 oz. butter with chocolate over very low heat.  Set aside to cool a little.  Beat cream cheese and add eggs and yolk and salt.  Beat in one at a time heavy cream, cherry juice concentrate, and melted chocolate mixture.  If you prefer a somewhat lighter cheesecake beat an extra minute or two.  Pour into prepared springform pan and place in a larger pan.  Pour hot tap water (not boiling water) into the larger pan about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the side of the springform pan.  Bake at 325 for about an hour, or until mostly puffed or beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in over with door ajar for 30 minutes or so. Cool fully before serving but it is softer and creamier if you make it the afternoon you are going to serve it and don't refrigerate it before serving.  Remove sides of the pan and serve from the pan bottom.

Duck with Rhubarb in the Persian Style

4 duck legs
1 onion
1 large shallot
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tblsp grated fresh ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup port or apple cider
1 Tbsp tomato paste
3 large stalks rhubarb – cut into 1 inch pieces with stringy bits removed if the skins are very thick
1/2 cup golden raisins
salt and pepper as needed
1 Tblsp potato starch mixed with a little cold water
¼ cup minced mint and parsley

In a deep saucepan or dutch oven brown the duck legs then remove from the pan. Cook the onion and shallots in the rendered duck fat.  Add the coriander and cumin and saute a little longer.  Add cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, stock, port, tomato paste and the duck legs.  Bring to a boil on top of stove. Cover with a tight fitting lid and place in a 300 degree oven and cook for 1/2 hour. Add the rhubarb and raisins and cook for an hour more, or until meat is very tender.  Strain out the solids and boil the sauce until reduced by half.  Remove some of the fat with a fat separator or skim it, then taste the sauce and add salt and pepper if needed.  Return the solids to the pan and add the potato starch slurry.  Remove from the heat and stir in the mint/parsley mixture. Serve over pureed celery root. 

Credit for the recipe we worked from: http://getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahboubeh-persian-tulips-and-lamb-and.html

Fluoride in drinking water

I am trying not to become a health nut, but the more you know the more there is to avoid.  I am a believer in the benefits of fluoridation of water for teeth, but now that I am taking Iodine I do think it would help to limit my exposure to fluoride to help the iodine get to where it is needed (fluorine is chemically similar enough to block the receptors).  So I wondered about getting spring water.  I just did some research, and Poland Springs water has about .1 mg/liter fluoride.  My local city water shows .53 mg/liter in the latest test results.  I found a 2011 news story saying the government is lowering recommended fluoride levels to .7 mg/liter.  So not a high priority--my city water is on the low side.  I do use a filter pitcher because I dislike the clorine taste, but filter pitchers do not remove fluoride.

25 years later

Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary (which I forgot until today), and as I thought about that time I was curious to see how much I had changed.  So I scanned a wedding photo and found one from a recent photo shoot with a very similar smile, though a slightly different angle.  I used photoshop to adjust sizes, brightness, and contrast and blurr the more recent one to make them more similar.

I'm not sure what I conclude.  In some ways I am amazed by how little I have changed.  In other ways I think I look frighteningly young in the wedding photo (particularly considering that I was 31).  How much do people usually change?

the doubting Thomas story

Susie's sermon today at Peace Congregational Church was about the story that is called Doubting Thomas, because she only got half way through the reading when she preached on it the week after Easter.  What she had to say grew partly out of a story I had told her, and it moved me very deeply.

She started by saying that Doubting Thomas should really be called Brave Thomas, and with a quote from Kahlil Gilbran: "Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."  She pointed out that Thomas was very brave not to run away or make excuses when Jesus appeared again and invited him to touch Jesus's wounds. 

Then she moved from the story to how she imagined the scene.  She imagined that Jesus reached out and took Thomas's hand, and placed it on his wounds, first each hand and then in his side.   And then Jesus lifted Thomas's chin to see his eyes and invited him to believe.

The story I had told her was about a therapist who literally touched my wound when I asked for that.  I had forgotten the detail that I reached out and placed his hand on my arm. 

raw milk yogurt

I buy from a pre-order farm market, Clemson Area Food Exchange.  For a while I bought goat milk yogurt there, but learning about a primal diet I kept reading about the advantages of raw milk (and the goat milk yogurt is pasturized).  CAFE offers raw milk from Jersey cows, which some people think has a healthier kind of protein than the more common milk from Holsteins.  I felt a bit intimidated by the raw milk both because there is so much written about the risks and because I remember not liking it as a child, so I decided to make yogurt to use in my smoothies.

After some research, I decided that I wanted to keep the advantages of the raw milk and not heat the milk to 180 degrees, as most recipes call for.  I'm currently using purchased yogurt starter.  If you use raw milk you shouldn't just start your yogurt from the last batch, as other bacteria can increase.  I didn't want to go to the trouble of making separate batches in pasturized milk to use as starter, and the purchased starter has the advantage of a wider range of live cultures than even good supermarket yogurt. 

So here's the system I have worked out.  To my surprise, it makes a nice firm yogurt even though it is low fat and from raw milk, both of which tend to make yogurt set less well.  I thought about buying a yogurt maker but I keep reading reviews that they run too hot or too cold so I decided that the cooler method would work as well.

Raw milk yogurt

Sterilize glass canning jars in boiling water (I make two quarts).  I pour off most of the cream from my half gallon of raw milk to use for other purposes.  Fill your jars (leaving at least an inch headspace) with milk and place in the pan of warm water left over from sterilizing the jars.  Let sit, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 115 degrees.  Stir in yogurt starter.  Cover loosely (I use the plastic storage lids sold for canning jars). I wrap the jars in a towel inside a cooler with a hot water bottle of hot tap water and a couple of insulated travel mugs of boiling water and let it sit on the counter for 8 to 10 hours.  Refrigerate.