Manna - the most secret ingredient in the world

Manna from heaven. Some have a good idea of what that might have been and I agree with them.

Homemade Yogurt with Pomegranates

Mix 1/2 cup of pommy seeds with 1/2 cup of fresh homemade yogurt. A home run on all fronts.

Pomegranates:

Summary Features of Pomegranate

1. Most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits
2. Potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects
3. Inhibits abnormal platelet aggregation that could cause heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease
4. Lowers cholesterol and other cardiac risk factors
5. Lowers blood pressure
6. Shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque
7. May have benefits to relieve or protect against depression and osteoporosis


Homemade Live Plain Yogurt:

This is a picture of "Kefir Grains" - a commodity more precious than gold in my book
though it is merely a "gelatinous community of bacteria and yeast".

If you know how to use "Kefir grains" to ferment foods
(not just milk for making yogurt), it will give you a condition known as
WTMB - Way Too Many Birthdays, routinely, 120 of them.

Summary of live (probiotic) yogurt features:

Provide dual roles (protective and therapeutic):

1. They manufacture some of the B-vitamins including niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid and biotin.
2. They manufacture the milk-digesting enzyme lactase which helps you digest calcium-rich dairy products.
3. They actively produce anti-bacterial substances which kill or deactivate hostile disease-causing bacteria.
4. They do this by changing the local levels of acidity or by depriving pathogenic bacteria of their nutrients or by actually producing their own antibiotic substances which can kill invading bacteria, viruses and yeasts.
5. Some (such as the bifidobacteria and acidophilus) have been shown to have powerful anti-carcinogenic features which are active against certain tumors.
6. They improve the efficiency of the digestive tract and when they are weakened bowel function is poor.
7. They effectively help to reduce cholesterol levels when this is high.
8. They play an important part of the development of a baby’s digestive function and immune system. Bifidobacteria infantis is acquired from breast-milk and when it is in poor supply allergies and malabsorption problems are more common.
9. They help protect against radiation damage as well as deactivating many toxic pollutants.
10. They help to recycle oestrogen (one of the female hormones) which reduces the likelihood of menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis.
11. Therapeutically they have been shown to be useful in treatment of acne, psoriasis, eczema, allergies, migraine, gout (by reducing uric acid levels), rheumatic and arthritic conditions, cystitis, candidiasis, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome and some forms of cancer!

There's this helpful tidbit from Wiki:

In 2005, Mireille Guiliano released her best selling book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, in which she touts yogurt as her secret weight loss weapon.

In her novel, she campaigned for Americans to discover the benefits and pleasures of homemade plain, non-fat yogurt, as opposed to the sugar and corn syrup-laden ‘imposters’ found in most U.S. supermarkets. Her book was the first contemporary weight loss plan to center around making homemade yogurt.

You see where I'm going don't you?

I shall be marched straight to a CODEX jail subsidized by the AMA and the FDA and George Bush's GrandPop's IG Farbenverbunderen Global Big Pharma for ruthlessly promoting all this!

Apple Coconut Redux: Yogurt!

I made the title Apple Coconut Redux, because of some copy cats out there in the CHOW world. I don't make a zillion dollars ripping off other people's culinary knowledge, so I shall make it a bit harder for them. They are the gateway to the Corporate Plasticized Homogenized Food industry. Beware! They are out to make it illegal for the average person to own raw ingredients and cook!

I am addicted to Apple Coconut anything - fresh or fermented, raw or cooked, boiled, baked, grated, ground, toasted, roasted, squeezed, pies (oh yummy!), cakes, dessert, chocolatized, caramelized, cerealized, porridge, soup, salad, yogurt, ice cream, curries - and this time, we're taking on Apple Coconut YOGURT.

This is not the "take some live culture raw yogurt and add some coconut and apples and honey to it", nope, this is the real deal, where this apple coconut yogurt is produced by encouraging the Yeastie Beasties and Culture Vultures to do their thing, with Mr. Coconut and Ms. Apple right there.

If you suspect there might be some synergistic chaos and fusion magic from cre-arranging a taste-stage where cultures unite - YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!!



Yogurt by definition is made with milk. Coconut can be fermented into making fermented coconut (kefir) and even coconut vinegar (we're not going that far!) So can apples be fermented (cider) and even apple cider vinegar (we're not going that far!) What we are doing is a double, then a triple witching fermentation making apple coconut yogurt, and umm, apple coconut milk yogurt yogurt.

EQUIPMENT, INGREDIENTS and REASONS:

To make yogurt you will need 1 quart of whole milk, about 1/4 cup whole powdered milk with no preservatives (ask me about brand names if you are serious), about 1/4 cup of yogurt starter culture with at least the following:

In addition, you will require a candy or frying thermometer that you can easily and quickly read 100, 115, 120, 190, 200 degrees F real well, and one you can clip to the side of a heavy metal pot or else you'll have to stand there over the stove and hold it at least 2 inches into the milk or other fluid, as you don't want it to touch the bottom of a metal pot (false high readings).

For the apple coconut part of this, you will need 1 cup of peeled cored, ground up ripe apple and 1 cup fresh unfiltered unpasteurized raw apple juice. Also, 1 cup of fresh coconut meat from a young coconut (the slippery stuff, not the old hard stuff) or 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut that you must reconstitute using 1/2 fresh coconut water or 1/2 coconut milk with no preservatives (ask me about brand names if you are serious). You will need a sweetener which I prefer to be HONEY. Have some vanilla and coconut essence on hand.

"The family that ferments, fandangos and flosses together stays together forever." I said that, 2008.

Lets Get Cultured...

You can culture the coconut separately and the apple separately or you can do it together. The difference is the taste and texture of the final product.

Fermenting Together...

INGREDIENTS

1/4 - 1/3 cup starter
2-3 tablespoons of finely grade fresh eating apple
2-3 tablespoons of fresh shredded coconut

Note: If you can't get fresh, then use store-bought but it will like have preservatives. I believe the preservatives in the yogurt ingredients are responsible for a slightly salty aftertaste, which can be alleviated in the final product by adding a bit of honey.

Note: if the only shredded coconut you can get is SWEETENED, then use less honey in the first step mix.

1-2 tablespoons honey.
1 pint of whole milk (note: many times I have run out of milk and sometimes use a mix of evaporated and whole milk; evaporated has a number of additives but it will still work. )
2 tablespoons of powdered milk

METHOD:
Prepare food thermos by cleaning and filling with hot water to heat thermos.
Stove burner between medium and medium low.
Take starter out of refrigerator to bring to room temperature, place in pyrex measuring cup at least 2 cup size.
Mix the apple coconut and honey you plan on using in a small container.

Pour milk into a deep pot and affix the candy thermometer to the side
Add the powdered milk and stir
Add the coconut apple honey mix and stir.
Keep stirring to prevent scorching until mixture reaches 200 degrees F.

Remove from heat and let cool to 120 degrees F.
Empty the thermos of the heating water
Quickly remove one cup of this mix and add to starter, stir well.
Quickly pour this into the thermos
Quickly pour the rest of the mix mix into the cup and then transfer into the thermos until all milk is in thermos.
Mix quickly and well then close thermos
Let rest for 6 hours
Open and pour into container and refrigerate overnight, or at least 2-4 hours.

It will have a very creamy consistency, a tart yogurt taste followed by a coconut taste and a sweet taste. The shreds of coconut add some perceptible texture, as this closeup I took sort of show:



Goes extremely well over APPLE COCONUT PIE! Or even Just Coconut Pie!

The Fermentation of Milk, a culinary enleavening experience in Two Parts

You can always count on my refrigerator harboring the odd pint of spoiled milk. I hang on to it, convinced one day I shall find a way of transforming it from "bad" to "wondrous life-saving elixir". Then someone comes by and points out the mold, the stale cheesy smell, and tosses it out. Then I start over. I am amazed at the flourishment of all sorts of life with regard to milk.

But I digress. Cow's milk is for children. Adults thrive on culture... fermented milk. Here's how to make two which feature interchangeably in XYZ recipes: YOGURT and SOUR CREAM.

A note on the equipment - you will need:

• A good candy thermometer that YOU can find the following temps easily 98, 100, 115, 120, 125, 190, 200 degrees F even when it's steamy and milky. Make sure it has a clip so you can clip it on the side of the container/pot or else you will find yourself standing over a pot of warm steaming milk for longer than you like holding it in 2 inches of fluid without touching the bottom of the pot. They cost around $5.
  
• A heavy (stainless steel preferably) pot.
• A funnel or a pyrex measuring container with a spout
• A food thermos, has a wide opening so you can get the yogurt out after it has incubated. Thermos brand thermoses has a nice one that holds over a quart for about $15.00.
  

YOGURT

For the longest time commercial yogurt sold in stores had no live cultures. It was packed with sugars and that corn syrup. People wised up and all of a sudden commercial yogurt companies had to bend to people pressure, and they put the live cultures in - well, we think they're still in there! Now they pose off as being the owners of a very special traditional knowledge...hey, lets make our own yogurt, and keep our own starter culture to pass around to family and friends - this way you can make sure it it isn't genetically engineered!

INGREDIENTS:

1 quart whole milk
1/8 to 1/4 cup powdered whole milk or 1/8 to 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup starter culture with AT LEAST:

• Lactobacillus bulgaricus
• Streptococcus thermophilus

It is said these two strains are the closest to what the Mongols used (kumiss) which came from the steppes, you know, home to those people who live to 120 zillion years.

For the starter culture use a good quality plain commercial yogurt. I recommend, if you can get it, Nancy's plain non fat Yogurt. You can be assured that your yogurt will turn out perfect and BETTER tasting (if you thought that was possible) than Nancy's. Nancy's is far better than Dannon or the others, in my opinion.

Nancy's yogurt has all the good stuff:

L. acidophilus

• Acidophilus produces enzymes that improve the digestibility and absorption of vitamins.
• Acidophilus suppresses the overgrowth of yeast infections following antibiotic therapy.
• Acidophilus, by balancing the bacteria in the gut, helps with dermatitis and acne.
• Acidophilus is able to survive digestive acids and enzymes to become a resident of the small intestine where it becomes therapeutically effective.

S. thermophilus

• Thermophilus produces high levels of the enzyme lactase, which assists humans in the digestion of milk based foods.
• Thermophilus helps form the body and flavor of yogurt.-that tartness you taste with Nancy's is the live culture!

L. bulgaricus

• Bulgaricus increases systemic immune response.
• Bulgaricus produces an antibiotic-like substance called Bulgarican.
• Bulgaricus produces lactase, the enzyme needed to digest milk products, thus helping lactose mal-digesters enjoy yogurt.
• Bulgaricus helps give yogurt its distinctive flavor and creamy consistency.

L. casei

• Casei is a highly prolific probiotic.
• Casei, being a probiotic, successfully survives digestive acids to take up residency in the intestines where it provides many health benefits.
• Casei significantly enhances lactose digestion.
• Casei reduces the risk of infection from E. coli, salmonella, shigella, lysteria and intestinal viruses.

L. rhamnosus

• Rhamnosus stimulates an immune response to invading foreign organisms.
• Rhamnosus suppresses rotoviruses and diarrhea-causing organisms.
• Rhamnosus is effective in treating colitis.

B. bifidum cultures

• Bifidum is known to make milk products more digestible to lactose-intolerant consumers.
• Bifidum eliminates yeast and intestinal virus infections Bifidum repairs and prevents intestinal inflammation.
• Bifidum contributes greater protection to breast-fed infants by stimulating the immune system.
  

I like the Springfield Creamery team because they were "the first to use live acidophilus and bifidum cultures in yogurt over 30 years ago." Casei immunitas closed, Dannon!

I do not recommend using Corporate Probiotics. Be careful. Those clowns are mucking around AGAIN in all sorts of ways, including genetically engineering our beneficial bacteria. Worse, they have stolen traditional processes and decided they can make it better with their "More is More" mantra ... NO! More is greed, gluttony and ... so George! Check out what HEALING CROW has to say about the "yogurt conspiracy".

METHOD

Take the 1/4 cup of starter out of the refrigerator and place it in a large (2 cup) pyrex measuring container, to bring to room temperature.

Take the 1 quart of whole milk and add the extra powdered milk or cream to it. Mix well.

(At this stage you would later add certain flavorings but if you try to do this now without ever having made plain you will screw up and likely make something that tastes like frog vomit.)

Heat the milk slowly to between 190 and 200 degrees. Keep at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. You will notice that at around 190 to 200 it begins to bubble ever so slightly at the edges of the pot, it will steam but not boil. I keep mixing with a wire whisk constantly.

After 10 minutes of this, remove from heat, but keep the burner at the setting you had for 120 in case you have to warm it back up for whatever reason.

Let it cool to 130 degrees then remove one cup full and bring this to 120 degrees by placing it in a blow of tepid not cold water. (You want this cup to cool down a tad faster than the pot).

When it is at 120 degrees pour over the starter in your pyrex container. Mix gently but well. This mix has a mind of its own and will lump up just like that. Make sure it doesn't drop below 115 degrees so work fast.

While you were mixing the starter with the cup of milk, the rest of the pot milk is cooling - and should now be close to 120.

Pour this pot milk into the food thermos, and check the temperature. It should be at 120 degrees and not more. It's OK if it goes down to 115, but you only have these 5 degrees of separation to work within.

(If you pour the pot milk into the thermos when it's at, say 130 degrees, it will take forever for it to cool down to 120, even if you leave the lid open, it's a thermos!)

Now, add the starter mix you prepared to the thermos with 120 degree milk, mix well, and close it up tightly.

It will keep at between 115 and 120 which is perfect. You don't want it to drop below 98 degrees, and I think better firmer yogurt is made if you stay within 115 to 120. Other recipes will say heat to 190 degrees, or cool to 98 degrees as boundaries, but I say 120 and 200 are the only numbers you have to remember for perfect yogurt.

Let it rest for 6 hours.

Turn the stove burner off!

After six hours, open it up, and pour into a container, marking the date and time. Feed some to your cat - they LOVE warm freshly made yogurt - and NEED the probiotics too.

As for you, hands off, put into the refrigerator for a couple of hours, better yet overnight. You will likely find the taste less harsh than the original, and the texture more solid, less commercial.

If it didn't come out this way, then start over and follow the instructions to the T. I never failed on my first try and I made all sorts of mistakes so this is about as fool proof a recipe as you'll get.


SOUR CREAM

Most commercial sour cream I find in my local supermarket, with few exceptions, such as NANCY's, has corn starch to make it artificially thick and no live cultures. Nancy's sour cream:

• No additives, thickeners, or preservatives
• Cultured for 18 hours with acidophilus, bifidum, and four lactic cultures

It is a food group by itself. It is addictive. I can eat no other commercial sour cream. By comparison, other commercial sour creams taste like milk with corn starch and lemon juice. Even so, if you make your own sour cream it will taste better than Nancy's.

The process is far less involved than yogurt IF you start out with ultra-pasteurized (heated past 280 F to extend shelf life) heavy WHIPPING cream, (not HEAVY CREAM) According to "Whats Cooking America - What is Cream - Are you Confused?":

• Heavy Whipping Cream has 30 % butterfat
• By contrast Heavy Cream has 36-38% butterfat.
• Heavy Whipping Cream is Cream with enough butterfat in it to allow it to thicken when whipped.
  Does not whip as well as heavy cream but works well for toppings and fillings.
• Almost all whipping cream is now ultra-pasteurized, a process of heating that considerably extends its shelf life by killing bacteria and enzymes.
  

The issue of ultra-pasteurization is not just about the killing of bacteria etc. The process changes the protein structures and that is why you have to heat it up to 200 F if you do not start out with the (ultra-pasteurized) whipping cream - not all heavy creams are ultra- pasteurized.

• Pasteurized and Ultra-pasteurized: Creams will generally be labeled pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized creams will remain fresh longer but pasteurized will provide a better flavor, will whip up fluffier, and will hold up longer.

If you don't have or want to start out with something that processed, then the method for making sour cream is exactly the same as yogurt where you have to heat to 200 degrees and let it cool back down to 120.

INGREDIENTS

1 Quart of heavy whipping cream - decide whether ultrapasteurized.
1/4 cup of starter culture - use Nancy's yogurt or your own yogurt as above

METHOD

Using Ultra-pasteurized:

In a heavy steel pot, heat the whipping cream slowly (stirring gently and constantly with a wire whisk to ensure even temperature distribution) to 120 degrees F.

Add the culture, and mix well. Do not let the temperature drop below 115.

Pour into a food thermos for six hours. Remove from the thermos, and refrigerate overnight. Actually you can use it after a couple of hours, but it sets better overnight.

Muy Miso

For Saturday night, there was a repeat of "Peasant Miso Soup" with a salad that had definite elements of Mexican and Asian cuisine: avocados, corn, bell pepper, garbanzo beans, shitake mushrooms ... and the salad dressing must contain: lime, diced to microscopic perfection shallots, garlic/ginger powder and cumin with plain live yogurt and sesame seeds together with rice wine vinegar and brown sesame oil, and a tad of brown sugar to taste. Wave some chili and black pepper powder in the general vicinity. I sometimes substitute (for the yoghurt) coconut cream/milk (without the meta bisulphites please, that leaves only ONE brand that I know of, the one in the red can brand named Thai).

Oops I did it again

Broken promises!

For Thursday February 21st, I made "Indian Lamb Chili" but I omitted the lamb. I replaced the lamb with quite a bit of hamburger beef.

Because of that substitution, for this episode, I added more flax seeds, 1/2 can of corn, a bit less kidney beans, less garbanzo beans, and a bit more peppers, including whole chilis to the mix.

To balance the spicy hot taste, I served it with HOMEMADE live-culture yogurt, and avocado slices on top.

I failed to take pictures, it was gone too soon. However, it did remind me to do a section on fermented foods - this time fermented Milks - such as yogurt and flavored yogurts. If you are real good I'll show you how to cross over into non aerated ice-creams, fermented ice creams and ummm, masalarized ice creams, you know, curry ice cream!

You can't call yourself a proper nutraceutical cook without owning your own live "yeastie beasties", this time, yogurt cultures. Okay I know live yogurt cultures are bacterial "YEASTIE BEASTIES" - but it's my food blog and I like calling the whole lot of them that leaven up our lives - the Yeastie Beasties.

Indian Lamb Chili

I have now returned to posting what I make every day for my self-declared Health Month. Since I have to tend to healing my fur angel, I have limited myself to 30 minutes for preparing any meal.

My fur angel is on a very nice protocol to cure his oral gum teeth issues without the horrific risks of oral surgery, that Corporate Vets know about, and I am so glad I fired that Nazi Vettery. Interestingly, fur angel's teeth and gums are very quick to heal, with the right care and homeopathic products. The usual suspects work quite well. I am amazed at how quickly they are returning to health. I thought I couldn't make myrrh based formulations but turns out I can.

I found a quick recipe for chicken chili that I modified and used for lamb. I modified it so much it's hardly recognizable and the final result is a "keeper", especially it only took me 30 minutes to make.

INDIAN LAMB CHILI

Served with buttermilk soda bread, topped with fresh avocados and homemade plain yogurt (daahi style)



INGREDIENTS (yes this part takes only 10 minutes to prepare)

A. The "Holy Trinity"
Red Onion or Shallot chopped fine - 1/2 cup
Garlic 1/2 head finely chopped
Fresh Ginger 1 inch finely chopped

B. Basic Indian Spices - Seeds
Cumin seeds and powder
Coriander Seeds and powder
Cilantro

C. Meat - cubed lamb about 1 plus pounds
Marinated 5 minutes in soy sauce balsam vinegar brown sugar S&P (discard marinade)
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

D. Chili Spices and stuff
Oregano
Garlic Powder
Bay leaf
Chili pepper
Red crushed peppers
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
1 diced red bell pepper
2 diced jalapeno peppers

E. Beans
Red Kidney Beans
Garbanzo beans

F. Vegetables
Diced tomatoes frizzed with tomato paste and tomato juice and Soy sauce

G. Olive oil

METHOD



1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy steel skillet.
2. Add the Holy trinity, and saute about 10 minutes on low.
3. Add the Indian spices stir about 30 seconds
4. Add meat and salt and pepper and braise lamb until the meat is browned and converted.
5. Add Chili stuff stir
6. Add beans and stir
7. Add "vegetables" tomatoes and tomato juice/or/paste and water and stir

Bring to boil. Cover, turn heat to low, simmer for another 20 minutes. Serve hot. It's all you need for dinner, plus 4 oz red wine.

The trick here is in the organization of your basic ingredients. When you do your shopping, for the basics, e.g, onions, garlic, ginger etc. divide this stash in half, chop one half immediately before storing them.

Make sure your spices are organized so you can pull one teaspoon quickly. Use the library approach.

Served with buttermilk soda bread...

Taming the Wild Yeastie Beasties

I wanted to make India's oldest most difficult, most sophisticated, most healthy, most common simple food items: Idli/Dosa's...

I have been putting it off for a year cuz of traveling, one reason or another. It's like making music, you get into the groove with your band and it's all perfect, you get out of the groove and y'all just don't sound right. Same with me and my Idli Dosa ingredients, they're a tough crowd - the Yeastie Beasties.

By the way, fermented foods are the secret to long healthy life, if you want to really know. Yes, it's also about omega fatty acids, yes it's about anti-oxidants, but really, let's all cut to the chase - if you're over 50, you've gotta start fermenting to live past 120.

When Dixie belonged to Whiskey

A Summary of Whiskey Recipes a la Taste Wheel (tm)
- when there are health benefits and when there are not

Exotic "Leftovers" - Eggs Migos again!

This is a weekend institution when I am in California - I love the fresh corn tortilla taste with the fresh red peppers, jalapeno peppers, vine tomatoes, avocados, shallots, cilantro, jalapeno jack pepper cheese and shot through with bit of deli meat. And eggs.


The trick is to wake up motivated to cut veggies. If you're sane, you're not.

So, start by going into the kitchen and start the coffee. Grab the bag of tortillas at the back of the refrigerator, waiting faithfully and patiently for you to remember them again. They can do this for months.

You start with browning some 1-2 inch tortilla strips in brown sesame oil. While that is browning on low to medium, chop the jalapenos and onions and red peppers real fine and layer over the tortilla. That will take several minutes. While that is cooking slowly, dice the tomatoes and add some balsam vinegar and sugar and let marinate. Break 3-4 eggs in a bowl and whisk, add some cumin, soy, sea salt and black pepper. Dice half the avocado into medium sized pieces. Take a few slices of whatever deli meat you have and dice it into small pieces. Chop some cilantro.

Let's see about now, the coffee should be ready so pour yourself a cup. Cut a small block of the cheese and grate it.

About now the corn tortilla-onion-pepper base is ready for the next layer. Add the meat and some cilantro. Stir. After a minute of two, add the tomato mix, and stir/cover, then add the rest of the cilantro and the avocados. Stir. Cover. After a minute, pour the eggs mixture carefully and evenly, and stir to make sure it cooks evenly, then add the cheese, and cover.


Let it cook slowly for a minute, then take the lid off - check for egg done-ness - and serve immediately.

Health Month's promise to post daily recipes

I remember I wrote this a mere two weeks back, though it seems a lifetime ago:

For the month of February , self-declared "Health Month", I am going to post what I make each day mostly for dinner per Taste Wheel (tm) (c) protocols.

Then one of the two felines got sick and I was tending to him. All promises go out the window when your fur babies are sick. The Tonk threw up one last round that scared the bejesus out of me. I actually went into the bathroom and cried, cuz I thought I was going to lose him. He didn't eat for 3 days, and with a cat that is dangerous. He lost a lot of weight. Course they get sick at midnight at the start of a weekend. Bitch-vet played games with me ordering antibiotics at midnight Friday night from 1800 PetMeds. You can read all about my response "at another blog".

I cooked for him, I fed him every hour on the hour sometimes only 1/4 tsp some food until he got over the hump. Bought store-bought for me or wasn't hungry. I had professional carpet cleaners come with their van and vacuum hoses and their non toxic cleansers and clean the entire house. I had to leave with the two fur babies for several hours; they were wonderful in their box and carrier. I was a nice day. When I came back the air in the house smelled better. Since I had to get everything off the floor and move the furniture around, it was a time I did early spring cleaning.

All of a sudden it was Valentine's Week, and lots of cooking, baking to do for self and others. No time for posting here.

On Valentine's day I thought I would skip the Tonk's nightly administration of his nutraceutical supplements* - something I have to do with a medicine dropper and he hates it. I figured I'd give him the night off, as a special treat. He wasn't having it. As much as he hates it, he parked himself at the "medicine dropper" place, and waited: his sweet dark chocolate/cappuccino colored apple face looking up, a quizzical-laughing look in his drop-dead gorgeous aqua jewel eyes. (He knows how to use those eyes, hearts of pure strangers skip a beat.)

I hugged him, and gave him his supplements. When I was done he crawled on my shoulder and hugged my neck. My Heart. My Soul. My Furry Valentine.


Note for those interested:

Tonk has a range of issues - bad gums - likely an old abcess flaring up - but he also has some kidney issues due to toxic pet food attack of 2007. Hence he also has liver issues. Anesthesia is out of the question. Infections have to be controlled and his gumz have to be made healthy again. He won't eat when his teeth hurt. The poisons make him throw up. Brushing his teeth, and giving him a wide range of natural antibiotics, and supplements, and food he can bear to keep down, 1/4 tsp at a time.


*Current Feline Supplements:

• Missing Link Superfood Feline Supplement
• Gumz n Teeth Native Remedies powder

Separately:

• Oli-Pet Olive Tree Leaf Extract

*Food he keeps down:

• My special chicken soup recipe for cats
• Weruva canned "grandma's chicken soup" formula
• Weruva Mack n Jack seafood formula
  
• Broiled orange roughy or tilapia only - and - boiled large shrimp
  
• Canned tuna in water very very low sodium only mixed with boiled white rice (a tempter to eat, in desperation, not good to feed tuna regularly due to mercury contamination)
  
• Orijen kibble (no grains at all) from Champion Pet food in Canada!

And, if you are REALLY interested... from a HOLISTIC MAMMAL CARE point of view...

The cat is an older Tonkinese male, and Tonks are known for having teeth problems and throwing up. Most vets I have taken him to do not know this fact. Tonks bodies are dense, they are "bricks wrapped in silk" and they do not look like those stupid poster picture from the 1950's of the alley cats most vets have up on their wall to show you when your cat is overweight. Tonks have fur coats to die for, so most of their weight in in their coat. Go ahead, put one in the tub and wet it down. What you're left with is an overgrown rat. Sick Tonks emaciate quickly, while looking full and furry. Even Holistic vets, who should know this, don't, and IMO should be taken out and &*^!

So taking him to a vet is a crap shoot and he is too sick for crap shoots. Vets have no bloody idea what to feed sick cats except to push the Science Diet Killer Korporate foods on them.

So I'm on my own. Food and meds. Healing food and healing meds. For healing meds, even if I can get a scrip for an antibiotic, most Corporate pharmacists are too stupid or lazy to mix down the human grade e.g., Clavamox down to cat sized. What the &*%! did they go to school for?

So, throw out "all they make you believe in, all that you should be leaving"...

Holistic meds for dental care works the same for pets as for humans: Vitamin C to decrease swelling and pain; Myrrh to heal gums; Echinachea, (both types but especially purpurea) for infection and periodontal therapy; Arnica for healing; Fragaria vesca paste softens and breaks down years of built up plaque and tartar (that artificial sugar laced crap they put in pet and human mouthwash just gives you cancer and you do not need a dental cleaning or dental surgery to whack off the plaque or fix the gums); Herpericum perforatum is excellent for oral pain control. Hepar Sulphur promotes suppuration (pulls out the poisons from abscesses) and for pain as well as Mercurious Sol for abscesses. Even Traumeel tincture. You can get these anywhere real Americans have had the courage to burn the American Nazis (Kissinger- Bush - and Hillary Clinton's codex alimentarious) and stock their shops properly.

YOU have to read up on this for dosages and strengths and interactions for both humans and pets. Once you have it worked out for yourself, you can figure it out for the pet. If you're lucky you might get to talk to a human being (not a corporate clone). If you are really really really lucky you might find a vet, or a friend who will actually give you the name of a vet who will help you out with all this. Most friends who know vets won't give their names out, cuz the Nazi's are going after the good vets first.

As for the foods: your pet knows better than you the tastes that will heal. You just have to throw out what they tell you and start cooking and spicing and herbing for your sick pet they same way you do for humans.

PS They say cats and dogs will die if they eat onions. Develop Heinz body red blood cells. Kidneys destroyed. The cruel onion lab experiments on cats have been grossly misinterpreted. On purpose. There is nothing more dangerous than a poorly educated twit with a typing finger and an internet connection who have replicated dire warnings about onions of all sorts being a deathly threat to cats. Only in America. Don't feed it raw you twits. And don't believe anything a corporate lab experimenting on animals has written.

My cat loves and thrives on curry. But that's another blog.

Orange Cappucino Pudding Cake

I was listening to Carly Simon's "Hymn of Wall Street", which is better remembered as "Let the River Run", her Oscar winning song... in the vid you can see the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center... Carly captured the spirit of New York of that time, there was still an innocence despite it all.

If you ever had anyone tell you as a child you could be anything you wanted to be, then "that New York" was the place with a special energy that pushed you to make it happen. I know, it pushed me, it made me, and in the end, it saved me. The Twin Towers were my beacon home. I have been all over the world and every single State in the Union, and no place has "that New York's" energy. Now, neither will "this New York". It's become a craven caricature of its former self, filled with plastic people from the other plastic places of this and other countries who flooded to it after 9/11, who never knew her. They are all trying to be cool citizens of the Silver City Carly wrote and sang about. New York will never be that enchanted Silver City ever again. Listening to that song made me homesick for a lot of things, including this Orange Cappuccino thing.

It is from the old Ebinger's bakery. Ebinger's was a New York institution until the Entenmann's of the same era moved ahead with marketing their bakery items in supermarkets and other places. These days, (in my opinion of course) Entenmann's tastes plastic, filled as it is with High Fructose or other Corn Syrup and other Corporate plastic food ingredients. Ebinger's may have disappeared, but at least they didn't sell out. As a result, it is the Ebinger's recipes that are hunted down, argued over and missed; it is the Ebinger's recipes that garner sighs; it is the people who stored the last of Ebinger's famous Brooklyn Blackout cake as museum items in their freezer for years who are respected in culinary circles.

Here's the recipe for their Orange Cappuccino Pudding Cake.


I found it on the web over by Uncle Phaedrus, Consulting Detective and Finder of Lost Recipes, and made a change or two, or three - you didn't think I was going to leave out Mr. Jack Daniels or Mr. Jim Beam? Naah, this is Valentine WEEK!

I gave some to Vegetable Cutting Boy - he had ordered Cacao Nibs a la Scharffen Berger for Valentine's day. This is what the baked nibs look like, and they taste muy better than the chocolate chip dealies.

I always appreciate a man who brings me the correct chocolate things - things I can use at the start of a chocolate cooking adventure, rather than some end result, that is pretty to look at, and pleasing to taste, but where's the fun!

Here's the fun! Make yourself some Choccolada fun! Vegetable Cutting Boy said this version turned out to be a $15.00 dessert in a five star restaurant and could not believe this was the first time I made it. See it's FOOLPROOF! Well, to good friends anyway!

Orange Cappuccino Pudding Cake

Serves 12
(Note: 12 is a stretch goal, do your best. In my house, half of it was gone in one sitting, two helpings each of dessert, I was careful to make just a hearty salad with cheese, shrimp, avocado, tomato, celery, carrots and mixed herb greens with a sesame coconut dressing for the dinner).

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed (I mean really packed) golden brown sugar
2 rounded tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. orange zest (note, I had two oranges, overly ripe but not gone bad, I used all the zest a bit closer to 3 and I would do the same again).
1/2 cup orange juice (I used the juice of the above oranges plus some pulp).
2 Tblsp. vegetable oil (I used 2 Tblsp. melted and cooled butter)
1 egg (hmm, I looked at the lone egg, it didn't look right, so I added the yolk only of a second egg)
2 tsp vanilla extract (and if some extra runs over that's OK too).
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used the Scharffen Berger Semi Sweet Chocolate Covered CACAO NIBS. I used enough to dot it the way it came out in the picture. I didn't measure but it is a least 1/4 - 1/3 - 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup instant coffee powder (Note they say "or hot chocolate mix" - NO it must have the coffee or is isn't right!)
1/4 cup cocoa (I used the GHIRADELLI Unsweetened Cocoa - I get fabulous results with their products).

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch square baking dish (they said spray with vegetable spray, I don't, and suspect it was so done by Ebinger's for kosher reasons - note there is no milk in this recipe).

Put up about 2 cups of hot water to boil for this recipe. You'll only use 1 - 1/4 cup of it. Fill the espresso maker for later, it tastes real good with espresso.

Note: This is a recipe where you mix the dry and mix the wet then mix together. Remember I treat brown sugar as "a wet one" 'cuz it is wet, so even though their recipe says "mix the brown sugar with the flour", as a dry, DON'T. Mix the brown sugar in with the WET ingredients. Ask Alton Brown, he finally did a show that backed me up on this, though he has no idea who I am.)

In a bowl stir together flour, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together orange zest, orange juice, BROWN SUGAR, egg, vanilla, then mix in the butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, blending until JUST mixed. (Do NOT over mix!!!) Batter will be thick. Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chocolate nibs (chips) over the top.

In a bowl whisk together 1 -1/4 cup HOT water, granulated sugar, instant coffee mix, and the unsweetened cocoa. Pour carefully over cake batter. (Yes, DROWN THE CAKE - it'll pool at the bottom to make the sauce - see picture).



Bake 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.

(In my cheap oven that runs cold, I had to do the 385, 375, 365, 350 drill which worked well).

SERVE WARM. Spoon cake and underlying sauce into individual dessert dishes.


CALLING Mr. BEAM! Mr. DANIELS!

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup whisky (Kentucky bourbon)
1 goodly capful vanilla essence.

Put cold heavy cream in a blender, add sugar and WHIP until hard; add whisky - (now look, you DON'T have to reach for 130 year old Kentucky Bourbon, but then again, if you're going to knock up the cream in proper Southern fashion, then you sort of have no choice), and vanilla and WHIP again.

Spoon onto and around cake and chocolate.

Serve with espresso coffee. Serve again and again and again. (Ummm, If you're a minor reading this, you have no business drinking in the first place.)

After you have made this cake, things like BAB AU RHUM begin to make sense. "Delisheye" things that cost $12.50 per teensy-weensy spoonful in those snotty yet trendy coffee houses, with the $25 cappuccino's suddenly become in your reach. It's real power, man, this is where it's at!

NOTE:

I fought the urge to add Cointreau or Bourbon to the coffee, cocoa mix you drown it in before you put it in the oven. Instead I opted for the whipped cream "knocked up" by Mr. Daniels or Mr. Beam. In reality, you could add your favorite orange liqueur in with the coffee, the taste will be added to the cake, though the alcohol will have evaporated off, AND you can also add it to the whipped cream.


A final word on the Silver City: For each anniversary of 9/11, in honor of my DNA being Touched by the Sun , it has become a planned activity - with a select few of us who were "in danger of burning by fire" that day - to wake up with Carly and Mr. Daniels. I suppose I shouldn't - depleted Uranium alone is a deadly toxic legacy, much less to mix with Kentucky Bourbon, but as Carly sez in her song:

"Let my wings of desire
Soar over the night
I need to let them say
she must have been mad..."

And I am, still, extremely, quite... mad!

Every time I raise a glass, it's a back-handed "slap in the face" salute to the International Dixie Mafia for pulling off the most ghoulish stunt since they lifted those missiles and took them up to that airport in NJ, for the TWA 800 stunt.

When "Dixie belonged to Whiskey", y'all were better gentlemen politician pirates than the ones you've become on this global narco-terrorism jaunt of yours. Phoo-ey in your eyes. A pox on your karma. No pudding for you!

Sweet and Sour Chicken a la Fast Food

February 2nd, 2008

It was a cold, rainy, windy Saturday dedicated to my feline master and mistress.

The male is doing much better on chicken soup. I resorted to using a medicine dropper to ensure he gets his nutraceuticals, and waving a 12 inch turkey baster at him to "encourage" him to eat something.

The female is a world class athlete, Siamese were bred for that, and she starred today in some awesome videos; I spent all day and night making into YouTube material (does anyone know how to export a photo captured within a Windows Movie Maker clip into Adobe Photoshop without resorting to capture software like Hijaak or Snag-it?)

Around 8:30pm it occurred to me it was Saturday night, and no, cold roast chicken and slices of cheese with celery and carrots were just not gonna cut it. In addition, there's all that delisheye bok choy...

In 15-25 minutes, the following was whipped up and set to wine and song:

Ingredients:

• Cold roast chicken cut into small chunks
• Cold jalapeno cheese sliced and diced
• 4-5heads baby bok choy sliced and diced
• One tomato, diced
• One fresh jalapeno pepper diced small
• One stalk celery diced
• 4-5 Tb canned corn
• 4-5 Tb frozen sweet peas
• 1-2 heads spring onion diced finely
• Sesame seeds
  

• 2 Tb canned diced tomato
• 1 Tb tomato sauce
• 1 Tb dark sesame oil
• 2 Tb Soy sauce
• 2 Tb vinegar
• 2 Tb dark brown sugar
• 1 Tb Cumin
• 1 Tb ginger powder
• 1 Tb garlic powder
  

• 2 twirls of sesame oil for the wok

Method:

• In a small mixing container mix the tomatoes and and the sweet and sour ingredients.
• Heat oil for wok, and stir fry on hot hot heat all the green stuff 2-3 minutes.
• Add chicken, corn, stir fry for a minute, then add the sauce. Stir for 2-3 minutes.
• Add sesame seeds and cheese. Cover, and turn down heat.

Serve hot over rice.

First Friday in February Fast Food

For the month of February , self-declared "Health Month", I am going to post what I make each day mostly for dinner per Taste Wheel (tm) (c) protocols.

February 1:

Feline companions, the Tonkinese especially, are not feeling well, they took the priority. Did you know the extent of the horrific state of National Vettery?

Because I spent most of the day doing research into National Vettery (sort of like the National Lottery - if your pet survives a vet appointment you win the jackpot!) - the quick Friday Night Special dinner was a roasted herbed chicken with steamed broccoli and brussel sprouts as sides, done "a la sesame"

Recipes:




Taste Wheel Values: