Tomatoes in December

I hate to make my colder weather viewers jealous but I picked all these tomatoes off my tomato plant on December 9th. Some kind person told me to put them in a sunny window and they would ripen. So I put about 8 or so in my window and now, 20 days later, one is nearly ready to eat! The rest are in my pantry, in a bag. They'll get their turn to ripen soon.

My tomato vine is doing better this winter than it did all summer, but it was too cold to ripen the tomatoes. So, I decided to try to just cut it way down, nearly to the ground and I took all the unblemished, unripened fruit off.

More about binge eating

Just ran across this article today: Why some continue to eat when full. It basically describes how ghrelin, a hormone connected to eating and appetite, works to keep us eating.

Scientists previously have linked increased levels of ghrelin to intensifying the rewarding or pleasurable feelings one gets from cocaine or alcohol. Dr. Zigman said his team speculated that ghrelin might also increase specific rewarding aspects of eating.

Are we helpless in the face of all this biology working against us? No, we should be able to outwit Mr. Lizard Brain, as I discussed in that posting.

Dr. Mario Perello, postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine and lead author of the current study, said the idea was to determine "why someone who is stuffed from lunch still eats -- and wants to eat -- that high-calorie dessert."

Any over-eater worth their salt already knew about the "dessert box". That's the portion of your stomach that never gets full when presented with delicious things you want to eat. Dinner food is great and all, but I can get full on meat and veggies and not want to eat more. However, the "dessert box" is always empty (or almost always).

Simple Chicken Wings

I am enjoying the heck out of my new range.

Anyway, yesterday I found some frozen chicken wings (raw) in the freezer and defrosted them. Actually, I wasn't sure what the heck part of the chicken they were, they were frozen into a solid block. So I defrosted them and saw one of my favorite parts of the chicken, the wing!

Here is a super easy recipe. 3 ingredient...

Chicken wings
Butter
Louisiana Style Hot Sauce (or whatever your favorite brand is).

Melt some butter, pour in some hot sauce. Coat the wings. Broil them a bit far from the heat source, I use the 2nd from the top rack spot and that worked fine. About 5 minutes, paint on more sauce and flip, another 5 minutes. Paint and flip once more. They should be crispy and browned.

Oh yes, cover your pan with foil for easy clean up!

I like to dip these guys in mayonnaise.

More Sous Vide Shortcuts

Since I made a batch of nose-searing mustard I decided it was time to eat a bunch of sausages. I bought some Italian sausages and packaged them up with my food saver. Threw some in the freezer and some in the Sous Vide at 165'. Then they're all cooked and ready to be popped into the microwave for a fast reheat and doused in my lovely mustard. So easy!

Another shortcut to mention is in fermenting things. I keep the house around 68 degrees in the winter which is kind of cool if you're trying to make a batch of Creme Fraiche or kefir. So I put whatever I'm cultivating into a jar and set it in the Sous Vide at 80-86 degrees and it goes much faster than letting it happen at 68 degrees.

Right now I'm trying to resurrect some kefir grains I had dried from several years ago. I'm not sure it's going to work but I got a quart of milk and I'm going to give it a try. My hope is to use it to make some sour dough starter using coconut flour. This is a project I only give a small chance of success, on many levels.

If I were eating yogurt then the SV would be absolutely awesome. Heating the milk to 85c (185f) according to this article about yogurt observed under an electron microscope puts more nubbies (lack of scientific term entirely my fault) on casein molecules which means your yogurt will be thicker and nicer. So, if you're doing Sous Vide, give it a shot! The recommended temperature is 185-194 degrees for 10 minutes. Let it cool, of course, before adding in your starter. Then you could stick it back in the SV for 12 hours or however long you like to culture it, but at 80 degrees or thereabouts.

How to Make Creme Fraiche

I suppose it's cruel of me to mention making creme fraiche and not tell you how I do it. I don't know exactly how authentic this method is but it is what I do, or did rather, I don't use dairy products much any longer. I take about a cup or two of heavy cream and add about 1 Tbl of sour cream, or cultured buttermilk, per cup of cream. Mix well and let it sit until it becomes very thick. This ordinarily takes a few days but in the SV at 80-86 degrees it doesn't take so long. Maybe 24 hours. Refrigerate after it thickens up. It gets even thicker.

Cranberry Walnut Bread

• 8 eggs
• ½ cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• ½ cup coconut milk
• I used half and half this time as I had it on hand and didn't have any coconut milk open.
  
• ½ cup sugar substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• I used lemon juice, no extract on hand. About 1/4 cup.
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup sifted coconut flour
• I use Aloha Nu brand coconut flour which I buy online.
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped
  

Blend together eggs, oil, coconut milk, sugar substitute, vanilla, lemon extract, and salt. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk thoroughly into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in cranberry sauce and nuts. Pour into greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 C) for 60 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

This comes from Nancy542 on the Low Carb forum

My guests raved over this. They couldn't believe it was low carb and gluten free.

The only thing I'd change about this bread is using sugar free cranberries however, they're impossible to find. Next time I'll probably just use a shredded apple instead of cranberries.

Sear your nose: Mustard

My sister has a recipe for sweet, hot mustard she shared with me years and years ago.  We have it on Thanksgiving and Christmas on what ever meat we're having.  It's really sensational on almost any kind of meat.  I really like it on sausages too.

I'll give you the original recipe and my changes to make it low carb. 

• 1 - 2oz Can of mustard flour (or powder), Coleman's is one brand.  
• Nowadays I buy it in bulk from the health food store, cheaper that way.
• 1 Cup of Malt Vinegar
• I don't use malt vinegar any longer due to my gluten sensitivity.  Apple cider, red wine and other vinegars are just as good.
• 3 eggs
• 1 Cup of sugar
• Obviously I don't use sugar any longer.  I use a combination of sweeteners or Splenda.

 Mix well (I use my blender) and cook while whisking in a double boiler until thickened.  Around 150-160 degrees.

OR

 Now you can hate me a bit if you don't have a Sous Vide... put in your Sous Vide bath for 20 minutes or so at 150 degrees.  Voila!  No whisking like a maniac.  I'm definitely going to be eating this hot, sweet mustard a lot more often now that I've seen how easy it is to do by sous vide.

Grateful for hash!

We're talking about the kind you make in the kitchen with meat. I had a brisket that was less than perfectly yummy and the talented and lovely Allison suggested I turn it into hash. So, I happened to have a chayote (picture on left) on hand which I shredded in my food processor. I also chopped up some onions and pressed a few cloves of garlic. I cooked the onions and garlic in some duck fat then added the chayote, salt and pepper and some cayenne pepper. I cooked that until it started to brown up and the onions and garlic were nice and softened. I chopped up brisket in my food processor (quick pulses) and then added it and fried up the whole mess.Delicious! And it works well for any meal. For breakfast I put an egg on top.

I had even more brisket left and I made another has, this time I had some left-over root veggies I used. Next time I really need to include some green sweet pepper in my hash.

So, if you want use up some meat I'd suggest dicing it finely and making a nice hash out of it.

Found I had a picture of my hash in my camera