On the Side

A Tale of Two Sourdough Starters

June 10, 2011 By jenniepaige 7 Comments
3 sourdough startersThanks for checking back at Pure Homemaking, I hope you make yourself at home!

Many of you have read the very popular post I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the new information about soaking grains and how it is now recommended to avoid calcium containing soaking mediums. Well, finding out that information caused me to finally stop avoiding sourdough. I thought it would be so hard to get it going and then once I did so, I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it. I had sourdough worked up as being this level of real food cooking that I just wasn’t ready to tackle yet. I was happy with soaking my grains and had found some really great recipes that worked well for my family. I simply didn’t have room in my life for another fermented food project. I was already up to my ears in water and dairy kefir, and kombucha. I was good. Besides, what do you do with sourdough other than make bread right? Boy was I wrong! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breads, Kefir, Random Stuff Tagged With: ,

Hollandaise Sauce

May 25, 2011 By jenniepaige 2 Comments
hollandaise sauce

Oh just think of freshly made Hollandaise sauce all over those spring asparagus you’ve been getting. Why not top it over your steak or chicken you just grilled up too? Why not, if made at home using healthy fats like grass-fed butter and local pastured eggs it’s very good for you! I LOVE real food. It’s so liberating once you know that you can enjoy the types of foods that you enjoy while not only not feeling bad about it, but good about it. Know that you are are doing your family a service by providing them with foods that build your body up right and keep them slim and healthy. Plus real food taste better. God gave us all these wonderful gifts of food for us to enjoy, not to mutilate into food like particles. So dig in and take part in the bounty of the season!  Oh, the freedom!

So, please let me share with you this really very simple sauce that can be prepared as in about 5 minutes. I just made it this past weekend in the time it took our grass-fed steaks to rest before we cut into them.  (This recipe is originally found on all recipes) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Condiments Tagged With:

Homemade Mayonnaise

May 25, 2011 By jenniepaige 1 Comment
Homemade Mayonnaise

Have you ever been getting ready to make chicken salad or anything else that requires you to use mayo but you found that you are out? Have you ever wondered what was really in mayo and wonder if you could just make your own but thought it was some sort of big deal to make it? Or are you tired of spending five-plus dollars on the “good” mayo and are looking for an alternative? Well, making your own mayonnaise just like a lot of condiments is really very easy! If you have some basic pantry essentials and a blender then you can make mayo. Oh, and about 5 minutes. You do need to clear out a good five minutes to whip this up. [Read more...]

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What’s on Your Plate Tonight?

May 15, 2011 By jenniepaige 9 Comments

Tonight (provided the weather holds out) we are grilling up a few grass-fed Delmonico and Porterhouse steaks. We are serving it with some left-over mashed potatoes that my lovely husband made last night, and a fresh salad. I got many of the ingredients for the salad including the lettuce in my CSA share this week, and I can’t wait to use it up! I just made up this yummy dressing to top the salad with:

1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
3/4 cups cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
few squirts lemon juice
2ish tsp. Dijon mustard
dried herbs to taste:
basil, thyme, rosemary
pinch of sea salt, dried onion, and freshly ground pepper
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tsp. raw honey

Put in a jar or salad dressing carafe and shake well. Best if made at least an hour in advance so the flavors can mix together.

Thank you Plus Other Good Stuff for the inspiration for the dressing!

Oh and I forgot to add that we will be drinking Kefir soda to go with it! I have three different flavors all ready to go. We have ginger-ale, cream soda, and grape! YUM!

Filed Under: Condiments, Random Stuff Tagged With: ,

Liberating French Fries

May 10, 2011 By jenniepaige 4 Comments

I had a hankering for french fries this past weekend. Like I HAD to have them. And I’m not even a big french fry person-I am SO picky about french fries. They must be thin, crispy and light feeling. Not burnt and not chewy-gross! I also try to avoid any kind that you can get through a drive-through, and I have never seen any advertised in a restaurant that says they were cooked in a HEALTHY oil.  The affordable frozen pre-made variety are always only so-so and usually have nasty things in them like trans-fat, msg, etc. So, I generally just don’t eat them.

But we were grilling up some fantastic grass-fed cheeseburgers this weekend and I told my husband that I MUST have french fries. I think I was tempted originally by a recipe over at The Cheese Slave and decided that I had to give it a try. We have made french fries that were fried in olive oil before and baked in the oven but they never compared to that boardwalk fries taste I was going for.  So I decided to give french fries fried in grass-fed tallow a go. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Lunch, On the Side, Side Dishes, Snacks & Deserts Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lamb and Soaked Lentils

May 2, 2011 By jenniepaige 2 Comments

This dish was so appreciated after a long day; I just wanted to curl up with my kiddos and relax without spending over an hour in the kitchen trying to make them something healthful. I wanted something easy but also very comfort food-ish without spending all day preparing it. With a little forethought this is a very effortless meal to prepare that even your little ones will enjoy.

I will admit that I have never honestly cooked with coriander and fenugreek before and I’m really not sure why. I have only ever seen them in a couple of recipes and it’s a shame. They bring a certain mellowness to the dish that is really hard to describe unless you try it yourself. I wasn’t sure how much to use them so I didn’t measure the amounts and rather just sprinkled it in. If I had to guess I would say around 1/4-1/2 of  a tsp. Feel free to experiment starting with less and them build from there. Your mouth will thank you! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Beans, Lamb, Main Dishes, Soup, Stews & Chili Tagged With: , , , ,

Soaked Banana Millet Muffins

April 13, 2011 By jenniepaige 2 Comments
banana millet muffins

 

Uh…YUM! That’s all I have to say about these muffins.  You will not believe how good they are for you either.  These are stock full of a variety of whole grains (even better if you include the soaking option) , eggs, good fats, fruit, and honey goodness. These are best when topped with grass-fed butter. And you can even get crazy with it by adding nuts or chocolate chips (a favorite with the kids).

I adapted this recipe for consistency from this recipe from Passionate Homemaking and they turned out fantastical both times I made them. They are an easy beginner recipe for soaking grains too as it turns out  well each time. Baby steps… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Soaked Buttermilk Biscuits

April 8, 2011 By jenniepaige 1 Comment

This recipe I adapted to add a soaking step to break down the phytic acid and unlock all of the vital nutrients in the whole grain flour but you can also just use sprouted flour as the original recipe calls for. If using sprouted flour then you can skip the soaking step. I pulled the original recipe from Kelly the Kitchen Kop. This is however a cheater cheater recipe because it does contain white flour. If someone has a recipe using 100% grains then please post! This was pretty straight forward and I will add a couple of tips to doing biscuits to help you along. This was my first attempt at making completely homemade biscuits of any kind and it turned out SO well! I was surprised. For some reason I had it in my head that making biscuits was hard. It’s not! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Beans and Rice with Sausage

June 30, 2010 By jenniepaige Leave a Comment

I’ve had opposition to this meal before. In the past.  I wasn’t sure how to put it all together, what seasoning to use, when to season-do you season the rice, or the beans, or wait until it’s all together to season it? Do I need to add vegetables or just leave it as is? Well, I’ve made this so many times and it always manages to turn out right so I’ll tell you what I did last night. This can be varied quite a bit so keep it in mind.

The most important thing is the base of the meal. The beans. The rice. The meat. You don’t absolutely have to add meat as this meal really has a lot of protein on its own, so feel free to skip it if you want. But it’s more filling and dare I say more flavorful if you add sausage to it.

My camera charger thingy is lost so no pics. Sorry people. You will just have to use your imagination on this one. But trust me, it’s good! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Beans, Rice Dishes Tagged With: , , ,

Super fast Gingered Chicken and Rice

January 12, 2010 By jenniepaige Leave a Comment

This was really good! I had decided to make chicken and rice at the last-minute because I remembered that I had some left over chicken from making broth the other day that I needed to use up. I always use the breast and the dark meat separate and I had dark meat left over. I really prefer having the dark part of the chicken for things like chicken and rice because I think it has more flavor.

So this was super simple, fast and good! Great combination right! Great for a I have no time but must make dinner weekday meal. The only thing that you might not have on hand in the ginger. But you must have it for gingered chicken and rice. Other wise it would just be plain old chicken and rice. Which is good, don’t get me wrong. But this was special because of the ginger. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Chicken, Main Dishes, Rice Dishes Tagged With: , ,
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