I love pumpkins!

I love the time of year pumpkins are harvested, I love the color of pumpkins, I love roasted pumpkin seeds, I love pumpkin pie, I love pumpkin spice lattes, and most recently I love pumpkin sausage soup. This year was our first trip to the pumpkin patch with our toddler. He was very excited to go out to the field and pick out a pumpkin, until he discovered the tractor drawn hayride. Then it was all about the tractor. We waited in line then rode the tractor out to the field, as soon as we got off the tractor he asked for more tractor. I told him we first had to pick out some pumpkins then we would get back on the tractor. He looked around pointed to the nearest pumpkin and said, "That one. More tractor?" Well it wasn't very pretty and the hayride was full for its return trip so we urged him on deeper into the pumpkin field to find the best pumpkins. In the end we got some nice pumpkins and he got two tractor rides out of the deal.

The recipe I want to share today is my new favorite, Pumpkin Sausage Soup. I was looking for recipes that would be easy to freeze and found a few websites listing pumpkin sausage soup. This one is my favorite because the only dairy it has is from the butter which could be easily replaced with olive oil. The creaminess comes from adding coconut milk at the end. Another thing this recipe gave me was the courage to find a way to use mushrooms so that I don't have to feel the texture in my mouth, I only get to experience the dimension of flavor they add. Instead of cooking the mushrooms whole I chopped them up in my food processor first then cooked them. When stirred into the soup and mixed amongst sausage and onions I didn't even notice them.

Bon Appetite!

Hey Punkin'!

This time of year, it's all about pumpkins. First we carved our jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, and now, we're getting ready for my personal favorite form of pumpkin: pie! Nothing beats a slice of pumpkin pie topped with a dollop of whipped cream…for breakfast! This year, I'm hosting Thanksgiving for a dozen people and Wednesday I'm going to be baking pies—Polynesian pumpkin pies to be exact. I found this recipe several years ago when faced with the task of making dairy-free pumpkin pie (I have several friends--including Chef Brett--and family members who don't tolerate dairy and it really doesn't get along with me too well, either) and I prefer it to the pumpkin pie I used to make (the recipe on the back of Libby's canned pumpkin). Two years ago I won a pie contest with this pie—I served it topped with whipped cream flavored with a dash of spiked rum and some minced crystallized ginger. My other favorite way to enjoy pumpkin I discovered last year—a friend passed on a recipe for pumpkin pancakes that rapidly became a favorite: they taste like pumpkin pie and you get to smother them in maple syrup! I served them Christmas morning last year, with scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. I'll share both recipes at the end of this post.

Pumpkin is loaded with nutrition. The flesh is high in beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant and precursor to vitamin A, which is important for skin integrity and eye health, helps protect against cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases. Vitamin A is used to make secretory IgA, the major immune globulin on mucus membranes—basically, vitamin A can boosts our immune defenses on all the inner surfaces of our bodies. So, pumpkin is a great thing to be munching on this time of year! Pumpkin seeds are also great for us: they are high in protein and zinc. Zinc is an immune-boosting nutrient as well—it can shorten the symptoms and decrease the severity of cold symptoms. Zinc is necessary for collagen synthesis making it an important nutrient for skin health, wound healing, acne, eczema, and psoriasis. For men, zinc is essential for the production of fertile sperm and is protective to the prostate gland. Eating a handful of pumpkin seeds a day is all it takes! For more health benefits of pumpkin, see my post from last Thanksgiving.

So, enjoy your pumpkins this fall! Happy Thanksgiving!

Polynesian Pumpkin Pie

1 partially baked 9 ½ - 10" pie shell (see below for recipe or use whatever crust you like)
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup agave nectar
1 ½ cups coconut milk (do not use light or cream of coco)
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree (I use one 14 oz can)
1 Tbsp rum (I use either Meyer's dark rum or a spiced rum—substitute with 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract if preferred)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
dash ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, and agave nectar. Stir in the coconut milk, pumpkin puree, and rum. Add salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and mix until incorporated. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 1 hour or until a thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool to room temperature. Serve with whipped cream (flavored with rum if you like, or skip or use a non-dairy option for those who can't do dairy) and minced crystallized ginger, if desired.

Pat-in-the-Pan Crust (original and dairy-free)

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (sub all or part with whole wheat pastry flour, or use a gluten-free flour mix)
½ tsp salt
10 Tbsp unfiltered coconut oil (original recipe: 10 Tbsp butter at room temperature)
3-4 Tbsp coconut milk (original recipe: 3-4 Tbsp heavy cream)

Preheat oven to 400. Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl or process for 10 seconds. Add coconut oil divided into small pieces and mash with a fork or process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle coconut milk over the top and stir or process until crumbs look damp and hold together when pinched. Transfer mixture to a 10 inch pie pan and pat evenly over bottom and sides with your fingers. Flute or crimp the crust edge. Prick bottom and sides of crust with a fork. Bake 10-22 minutes until golden brown, checking during cooking for bubbles (prick with a fork to pop or use pie weights). If you like a crispy crust, brush with a beaten egg and cook 1-2 minutes longer to set glaze.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (the original recipe calls for cake flour, but I don't have any)
¾ cup cornmeal
2 Tbsp sugar (or other natural sweetener of choice)
4 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves (this isn't in the original recipe, but I love the flavor so I add it)
4 eggs
3 ¾ cups buttermilk
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin (I use one 14oz can)
½ cup melted butter (1 stick)

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs then add the buttermilk, pumpkin, and melted butter—stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to mix thoroughly. Allow the batter to rest for 15-30 minutes. Heat a griddle over medium heat until a small amount of cold water dropped on its surface rolls off in drops. If necessary, lightly grease the griddle. Use a ½ or 1/3 cup measuring cup to ladle batter onto griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the surface and edges are dry. Turn and cook 2-3 minutes longer. Serve with butter, vanilla yogurt, maple syrup or other toppings of your choice. This recipe makes enough to feed a crowd!

“Milk in the Batter! Milk in the Batter!

Stir it! Scrape it! Make it! Bake it!" – Maurice Sendak from In the Night Kitchen.

I used to love milk. My favorite snacks in high school were Tim's Cascade Jalapeno chips with a tall glass of cold 2% milk to cut the spice or any cold cereal with milk. Mmmmm yummy! Then I discovered when I drank a lot of milk within the next few hours I would have some gas. Not the kind that just sounded embarrassing but rather the kind that smelled embarrassing. So being in high school and highly self conscious I decided milk had to go. Now, 13 years later, I still avoid drinking milk or eating too much ice cream though I eat cheese and butter without incident. My husband also feels he is sensitive to it so he doesn't drink it and our son is only drinking goat's milk.

When milk has been heated it's lactose proteins have been broken down making them easier for a sensitive body to digest therefore when cooking and baking I don't hesitate to use milk as an ingredient. Most recently my favorite things to make with "milk in the batter" are pancakes. Here is a recipe that I have adapted from Joy of Cooking:

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Blueberries

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon double-acting baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons honey

1 egg

2 cups buttermilk or yogurt

1 cup blueberries

    Mix together both flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

    In a separate bowl combine honey, egg, and buttermilk or yogurt.

    Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, add blueberries and stir.

Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a 10-inch nonstick sauté pan or griddle.

Spoon approximately 1/3 cup batter on the hot pan.

Cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface and check the underside if it looks good flip it!

The second side will only take 1-2 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Food Myths Debunked: Got Milk? Part One

Since we got our grass fed beef (and may I just say it is hands down the best beef I've ever had), I've been thinking about cows. And this logically has lead me to think about milk. Recently, I've had two very dichotomous experiences with milk: my vet recently got a cow and has been enthusiastic about her family's experience with fresh milk and I got a newsletter in the mail from the school district with an article about how they add sugar to the milk to get kids to want to drink it. So here we have two extremes: milk in its raw form as it has traditionally been consumed and milk that has been pasteurized, homogenized, fortified, and laced with sugar. So, is milk good for us? Let's explore. (An important note: I'm going to limit this particular discussion to cow milk—good old "moo juice"—and I'll save the discussion of other dairy (cheese, yogurt, kefir, goat milk, etc.) for future posts.

It is likely that humans originally domesticated hoofed animals for milk, not meat and shepherding preceded agriculture by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Humans began domesticating and milking cows about 8500 years ago in Mesopotamia. Unlike goats and sheep which tolerate rough climates and poor forage, cows are a bit more delicate and produce best on plenty of fresh grass. So, domesticating the cow gave us access to plenty of milk—but was that a good thing?

Critiques of milk fall into three major categories: milking is inhumane to cows, dairy farms pollute the earth, and milk is unhealthy. While it can be true that industrial dairies are bad for cows and the earth, the same cannot be said of traditional dairy farming (as we'll discuss further in a moment). Critics link dairy products to acne, allergies, anemia, eczema, asthma, constipation, IBS/IBD, obesity, and breast cancer. They cite the problematic components of milk: bacteria, viruses, allergenic proteins, lactose, growth hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol, and saturated fat. So let's look at each of these concerns.

To address the first two critiques, we need to look at the industrialization of the dairy industry. This really could be a blog post all on its own but we're going to condense it down considerably (See my previous post about beef—the commercial beef industry and commercial dairy industry share many of the same problems). Industrial confinement dairies keep cows indoors and feed them grains, corn, and soybeans. Confinement increases disease requiring the use of antibiotics. Eating grain, corn, and soy gives cows acid indigestion and ulcers (the four-part bovine stomach is designed to digest grass, not grain). Cows in industrial dairies are often given growth hormone to increase milk production to unhealthy levels and requiring them to be milked up to three times a day, which greatly increased the incidence of mastitis (breast infections). The manure lagoons from industrial dairies pollute the environment. Traditional dairy farming is very seasonal—the cows graze on grass out in pastures and produce an abundance of milk and cream when the weather is pleasant and are "dry" in the winter while pregnant cows are moved indoors and fed grass hay. Cows grazing on pasture are healthier than those in confinement and proper pasture management is actually beneficial to the environment. For more detailed information about the industrialization of dairy farming (as well as tons of other foods), I highly recommend the book Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck.

The third critique about milk, that milk in unhealthy, is a major topic and I will address it in my next post so stay tuned for Got Milk? Part Two!

Here’s the Beef

A few months ago I got a call from my neighbor who owns a food cart here in Portland asking if I would like some part time flexible work. Well sure, as any mother knows, "part time" and "flexible" are magical words when it comes to juggling work and children. So I started working for Wiffies Fried Pies in their production kitchen making pies Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. It is now three months later and I just worked two 40 hour weeks in a row and my mom is here helping with my toddler and the upkeep of the house. I am enjoying my job, but missing my family, I want to throw myself into this job as I have in the past, to take over the kitchen and whip it into shape, but at the end of a 10 hour day at work I feel sad that I have missed a day with my son and we are eating Chinese food again. How do I balance my old passion for running the show at work and my new passion for running the show at home? Luckily I have an understanding husband and an understanding boss. I am shifting things around at work and making more time for my family at home. All this is helping me to prepare to one day launch my own business so it is valuable in more ways than just financially.

 

The reason I have chosen to share this story with you today is because I was at work one early morning thinking of recipes to post for the topic of beef. As I was thinking of this I was taking three large beef briskets out of the oven where they had been cooked low and slow for many hours. I then proceeded to chop the juicy and tender meat up and then douse it with owner's secret recipe BBQ sauce. It dawned on me that instead of posting a recipe this week I will give you Portlanders a dinner suggestion perfect for a busy summer day; head down to Whiffies Fried Pies at SE 12^th and Hawthorne and try the BBQ Brisket pie and for dessert I recommend the Mixed Berry pie. The most brilliant thing about eating at a food cart lot is that there is a variety of choices so while one member of the family is eating at Whiffies the other members could be enjoying French fries from the Potato Champion (try their new banana ketchup, crazy I know, but delicious) or Pizza from Pyro pizza.

 

I look forward to sharing more recipes and my journey with all you readers as I start down this new path in the coming months.

Food Myths Debunked: Beef…It’s What’s For Dinner (All Year at My House!)

So, two days ago we put down a deposit on beef. In a few weeks we'll be getting a whole, grass-fed beef from Soggy Feet Enterprises on Sauvie Island. I am so excited about this amazing, grass-fed beef; a friend of mine let me sample some of their "grass burger" at it was really tasty. What makes me so pleased about this is that I'm getting a wonderful, nutritious, grass-fed, hormone-free, local beef! And because we're buying in bulk, it's really affordable (just under $4.25/lb final cost). Beef seems to have a bad reputation because it's high in saturated fat. If you have been reading our blog from the get-go, you would know that this is a misrepresentation (see my post about coconut oil). Beef can actually be a wonderful source of protein, iron, B vitamins, and even healthy fats if it is raised properly.

It is important to point out the distinction between industrially-raised beef and grass-fed beef. Industrial methods are designed to bring animals to market weight quickly and cheaply; this method involves unnatural, fattening diets, antibiotics, growth hormones (steroids), and over-crowding (less space to move means less calories "wasted" on exercise). Corn-fed beef, with its marbling (30% fat by weight) became regarded as superior to grass-fed beef whose fat content is equivalent to a skinless chicken breast. Feeding cattle grain instead of grass increases the acidity in their guts which in turn increases the risk of E. coli infection in people. Grass-fed beef is higher in omega-3 fats, vitamin E, and beta-carotene than grain-fed. Overcrowding in feed lots leads to increased disease in cattle; antibiotics are fed to cattle with the side effect of increased drug resistance in the bacteria (helping to create "super bugs" that are resistant to common antibiotics). Drug-resistant bacteria are becoming a major health crisis. Industrial cattle are implanted with hormones to help fatten them up quickly; these hormones, when consumed by people eating commercially-raised beef, alter the body's natural hormone balance and contribute to breast, prostate, and testicular cancer. Mad Cow Disease (bovine encephalopathy) becomes a problem when commercially-grown cattle, herbavores, are fed animal byproducts. In short, grass-fed beef is better for the cow, better for the environment, and better for us (and it even can be more profitable for the farmer because grass is cheap)!

So, enjoy your grass-fed hamburger! The protein helps build enzymes and strong muscles, the vitamin E and beta-carotene help boost your immune system, and the saturated fats help fight infection, aid digestion, extend the use of omega-3 fats, improve calcium absorption, and build cell walls. And remember, the fat in grass-fed beef is typically 50-55% saturated fat, 40% monounsaturated oleic acid (the same fatty acid in olive oil), and 5-10 percent omega-3 fat (the same healthy fat found in fish). Oleic acid and stearic acid (which is much of the saturated fat in beef) help lower LDL ("bad cholesterol") while maintaining HDL ("good cholesterol") levels. Grass-fed beef is also a good source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which is anti-cancer and builds lean muscle.

I'm really looking forward to having a good supply of grass-fed, local beef at my disposal! I'll be making my fair share of burgers, stews, roasts, steaks and—my favorite—Shepherd's pie! I hope this inspires you to make healthy choices about your diet and bring beef to the table more often.

Date Night

My hubby and I haven't had much time in our relationship that hasn't involved kids (sorry about the double negatives…). For the last couple of years, we have tried—mostly unsuccessfully, unfortunately—to have "date nights." Tonight is Tuesday and for the last year or so, we have tried to consider Tuesday our date night. As I sit here typing, it is 10:10 pm, my children have just now gone to bed, and my hubby is taking a shower…alone. Needless to say, we were unsuccessful yet again with date night tonight. I realize that this post is supposed to be about dates the fruit, but I have this other kind of date on my mind tonight and felt like sharing. Since Chef Brett and I wanted to make this blog about our lives—and share these events and stories with you, our faithful reader—for this post I'm going to talk about the "health benefits of dates" and I hope you will pardon the pun and bear with me!

My family life is a bit crazy. I'm sure that many of you are in a similar situation. How do you balance time for work, children, home, friends, family, self, and still have time for a relationship? My husband works very hard, long hours and has a 35 mile commute each way. He leaves home most mornings at 6 am and often (especially this time of year) doesn't get home until after 6 pm. I work two days a week (outside our home) and take on most of the household duties and get to spend time at home with our boys. I am so grateful that my hubby's job supports us and allows me the chance to be home to raise our boys and also has given me the opportunity to work part time and start building my medical practice. But this definitely comes with a trade off: he and I don't get much time together as a couple.

Fortunately, we have a very strong relationship and despite the fact (hopefully not because of it!) that we don't get much quality alone time together, we are still going strong. We try to take advantage of the times we do get together, we talk to each other, we are on the same page about parenting, we have lively political and social debates (he's a bit more conservative than I tend to be), and we try very hard to keep the romance alive. So here in this public arena of my blog post, I'm going to make a promise to my hubby—for our health and the health of our relationship—to be better about date night! I love you babe! Wanna go out?

Yours in health,

Doctor Crystal