Delicious meals with the best cuts so you can look & feel younger
Chicken Salad with Livers is a celebration of this summer and the simple pleasures all around us. I’ve noticed that that so many parks, typically empty or sparsely used, have been well-utilized this summer. So many people are enjoying big, open spaces for visiting with friends or simply getting a breath of fresh air. We’ve taken this Chicken Salad with Livers outside with us several times this summer….
Kidney Meatloaf with Shitakes was so popular last weekend, I’m selfishly posting so I can find it later. Surprise, surprise, we’re not eating tons of liver right now. In fact, we’re enjoying other organs still available from our local farmers during this collective exhale. After diving into Chris Masterjohn’s well-researched Food and Supplement Guide to Coronavirus last week, I wanted to share why we’re skipping extra liver right now and how we’re incorporating zinc and copper into our diet these days….
Chicken and Gizzard Meatballs with Dill have been a simple and familiar part of our everyday this winter.
This past week I met a friend at the Art Institute and she guided me to the Noda Tetsuya exhibit. I found such an inspired and beautiful set of prints. An original expression of social media, in layered print. Reflecting his day to day, life and family. Deliberately.
Tetsuya shares his day to day experiences in his work. Some of his most celebrated pieces reflect exceptional days, such as his engagement announcement to his family and future in-laws. However, he makes his everyday beautiful at the same time, with prints of his wife or growing children – a stamp in time. Or as a commentary on a moment or place where he found himself over the years….
What to do with all those odd bits? Make Stuffing with Giblets and share them with the people that you love!
And count your blessings while you do… That you have a turkey that comes with giblets. That you have the resources for using them. And that you will be able to savor the nutrient density of these goodies, all the while enjoying a delicious meal.
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Amino acids are the building blocks to protein. We need all of them, together, to build and restore our body. Many people aren’t getting enough. Deficiency shows up in so many familiar ways, like swelling or insomnia. Gizzard Rillettes are a great source of protein. (Along with a host of vitamins and minerals, and cholesterol to boot.)
Plus, a slow and low braise gives plenty of time to break down this tough organ into the tender goodness it should be. Gizzard Rillettes are easy, delicious, and put so much love back into this humble organ. I hope that you try them this fall, and that you love them as much as I do!
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Happy Halloween! Scrambled Brains with Beets are so beautiful, but also worthy of a Halloween scare. In honor of Halloween, I digress from my usual nutrition soapbox or nudge toward self-care. I am finishing Permanent Record by Edward Snowden, and want to comment on something truly scary to me: our collective loss of privacy and civil liberties at the hands of the US government.
I have no idea how this could play out in the long term. Like everyone else, I am reluctant to completely fall off the grid because I appreciate the connections and joy that I stumble upon using technology. This blog. Social media accounts. Twenty plus years of email. I’m writing this post to create more awareness. The thought of all this truly scrambles my own brain and I’m asking you to take a moment, over Scrambled Brains perhaps, to think about how complicated this is….
Lamb’s Tongue with Turnips and Bacon. The turnips lend earthy and devine. The arugula adds freshness and peppery bite. Bacon takes the whole dish home.
This was a beautiful dish and well worth the effort. But make no mistake, it was just another day and yet another example of things ‘gone wrong’ in my kitchen. But mindset matters. If the outcome is a reflection of me, I’m in a bind. If it’s all an experiment, I can avoid taking it personally and carry on. Even when I’m eager to prepare something ‘beautiful’ and ‘delicious.’…
“Tomorrow is just another day. I’m afraid you’re going to screw up the rest of your lives…”
Sauteed Brains were inspired by the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. And are a reminder that every day is our best day. That tomorrow is no different. That we already have everything we want. Use your mind, harness some discipline, and shape your life as you dream it be.
I was too young to watch Stand and Deliver when it was released, but was always intrigued. I’m just catching up 30 years later. It’s loosely based on the true story of math teacher Jaime Escalante. He leaves his professional job to become a teacher at a working class school in Los Angeles. He realizes his students have untapped potential and works to bring them up to their grade level and then beyond, taking AP Calculus by senior year.
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This week I finished Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat – about the origins and history behind the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Disclaimer: I’ve spent the last year in a collaborative effort to bring back a scratch-cooking kitchen at our school. Meanwhile, learning this history seared my own heart a bit. After seeing the painful evidence that we’d been through all this before (ie. school lunches as a remedy to widespread nutrient deficiencies), I was a bit raw inside. Yet for Seared Beef Heart, leaving it largely raw in the middle is also the secret to its tenderness….
I’m committed to serving organ meats weekly in our home. It’s become a steady part of our rhythm that has familiarity and comfort. This week, let Chicken Liver Enchiladas inspire you to put liver on your table.
In the Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck pauses to explain the steadiness of Ma. “She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook…” I’ve learned, through motherhood, that my own steadiness defines the world around me. Both in how I see the world, and how steady action compounds over time.
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