Fermenting Classes For August 2015

Homemade Sauerkraut and Kefir class will be Tuesday, August 11 at my home in Orem at 1:00 pm and there is no charge.   I will demonstrate how easy it is to get your own nutritious, "gut healthy" sauerkraut and even store it.   We will discuss other vegetable ferments or "pickles" as they used to be called.  

This class will also discuss the benefits of making your own milk and water kefirs.  Different microbes for each kefir but both are wonderful pro-biotic foods.  I will also discuss the art of kombucha making.   There is always lots to taste and perhaps a starter you can buy.  


Tuesday August 25, at 6:30 in Sugarhouse at the Real Foods Market on Highland drive, I will be teaching about Sourdough bread and other baked goods with sourdough and Pulses, which are alternative grain and legume combinations.  
No charge for class but to take home a Pulse combination for you to cook at home will cost $2 and sourdough starts will be $5.  


For those in Idaho in the Buhl area, I will be teaching at Pioneer Preparedness Fair in the old church in Buhl on Saturday July 25.   

Camp Zarahemla!

Just returned from a week-long preparedness camp with 365 other wonderful people at the top of a mountain at 9,000 feet in the Manti-LaSal mountains of central Utah.  That's our 15x18' Davis Wall tent set up in the "Bountiful" camp and my outdoor cooking station under the "fly".  Below picture is me pulling our new "monster wagon" loaded with my "peddle grinder" and other things for the classes I taught Wednesday morning.

I taught "Sourdough Bread" first hour with Lisa Cox who taught "Gluten-Free Breads" and second hour we baked our breads.  She used a Solar Oven to bake hers, I used a 10" Dutch Oven for bread and a foil covered box oven for some sourdough muffins.  I didn't think the muffins were done because they didn't brown on top but they did bake but too late for the class. 

The next day, I taught a "Pulse" class in the same area on the top of the hill in the "Waters of Mormon" camp.  Everyone got to choose 2-3 grains for their blood type and then choose 2 legumes best for their blood type and then grind the legumes into smaller bits using the "peddle grinder" we brought.  Many people asked questions about the grinder and pulses and sourdough breads.   All these topics are here on my blog...you  just have to scroll down a few times to find the blogs. 

If you are one of the people who got my green card at one of my classes and want to ask me more questions, please email me or phone me.  Don't comment here, I rarely blog and never see the comments here.  Contact me directly.  I'd love to talk with you again.  I truly want to be back in camp.  There was such a lovely feeling of safety and peace and joy that week.  Being around like-minded people is truley a joy!  We are preparing for a wonderful but hard and difficult exodus.  

It's Chocolate! Not Candy

It's chocolate, not candy meaning; this chocolate is so healthy that it is a supplement!

I've used this recipe a bunch of times and love the variation possibilities.  Thanks to Dr. Kyle Christensen of Woodland Hills, Utah for this process (super easy) and recipe.

Basic Recipe:

1 cup cacao powder  ( cocoa but organic and better and original)

1-3 TBS cacao nibs  (little bits of real cacao beans)

1 TBS  Maca powder  (a hormonal super supplement)

1/2 cup raw honey

1/2 cup cocoa butter( with perhaps some coconut oil also). 

Flavor with essential oils  10-12 drops of peppermint, orange or other exotic flavor. 

I also like to add some cayenne pepper with the orange oil. 

Process;   Measure out the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Get ready a candy mold; silicon ones are nice.   I use small papers because I have a miniature muffin pan.  

Break off a chunk of the cocoa butter and melt very low temp., like warm.  Measure this melted oil to see how close it comes to 1/2 cup. If not quite enough, add more cocoa butter, or add some virgin coconut oil to make up the difference.  In the same measuring cup, pour out the honey.  Add that to the melted oil and stir.  DO NOT LET IT BOIL !  When it gets too hot, the chocolate doesn't set up and get hard, it stays soft. 

Add oil and honey mixture to the dry stuff, then add the essential oils for flavoring and stir quickly.  Drop by spoonfulls into the molds or on a clean flat, pliable surface or paper molds.  Work fast.  Lick the spoon and bowl.  (You can share, or not)   Allow a few hours for it to set up and harden.  

Classes in Price April 10

     Thank you one and all for attending one or both of my fermenting classes last Friday on the USU Eastern college campus, Women's Conference. It was a great experience meeting so many new friends.  Please feel free to call or email me with any questions about fermenting foods or questions concerning the things you bought.  I hope to see some of you again.  I live in Orem, close to 800 North.  My phone is 801-765-4645 and my email is at the top of my blog.  
I am still behind in getting more milk kefirs, so please call me and I will place you on my wait list for milk kefirs.  Water kefirs I have plenty and also kombucha.   

Sourdough Fish Pancakes

Here is a different kind of sourdough pancake.

I needed a quick dinner and needed to feed my sourdough start at the same time.  I also had only one tilipia fillet in my freezer...not enough to feed both of us for dinner.   But, adding it to a pancake batter would stretch that one filet for both of us so I made "fish pancakes" for dinner that night and served with my own sauerkraut, was a wonder meal.   

1/2 cup whole grain sourdough start

1/2 tsp. Real Salt

1 or 2 eggs beaten

1 TBS chopped green onion

1/2 tsp. chia seeds

1/2 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning

1 small fish filet like tilipia cut into small pieces  with scissors

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. baking soda

some bacon grease, or coconut oil or olive oil or butter to fry them in.  

Fry in hot oil on both sides until the bits of fish are done.  Makes 5-6 pancakes.  Serve with tomato cocktail sauce  or tartar sauce.  A side dish of sourdough corn bread or cooked brn. rice or quinoa and salad are nice with this. 

Spinach Cookies

     No kidding!   Spinach "cookies" are a hit every time I bake some up.  Recently I baked a batch for a committee meeting and the whole batch was eaten very quickly.  The other regular cookies were left behind.  I wish I had taken a picture but we were late for the meeting. Lots of people are trying to avoid sugar and this recipe helps.  

     These "cookies" are not sweet but savory and taste very good.  When I was asked to bring cookies I replied yes, but they will be the healthy kind.   

4 eggs beaten
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry  ( I use scissors to cut it smaller)
1/2 onion chopped fine
1 cup dry sourdough bread crumbs  (another reason to keep sourdough bread that fails to rise)
1/3 cup butter  softened or melted
2 TBS cream or milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp. Real Salt  and some pepper
1 tsp. poultry seasoning

Optional:   1 TBS.  raw sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds or both.

     Mix all together and allow  2-3 hours for it to sit covered, at room temp. to completely soak the bread crumbs.  Use a spoon and form balls of dough to drop and press onto greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.  

Kefir Class in Orem

     First Kefir class of 2015 will be at the Real Foods Market in Orem,  Thurs. March 12  at 5:30.    Real Foods Market is on 800 North and 400 West.   This class will be on making your own milk kefir with the old world kefir grains which I  will sell there.   I will also have some water kefirs and I will talk about the wider topic of "lacto-fermentation" using whey to enrich other foods that have been canned to bring them back to life.   I will have my " Dairy Strainer Cloths" to sell, that strain the whey from the caseine so you get kefir cheese.   Of course I will have taste samples  and there is no fee.