Perfect Flavor

I teach a cheese class at a local culinary vocational school to both students and average jill’s & joe’s that typically sells out in two days or so.  And I can’t take the credit for it.  With a class of 50-60 students, they come to see how cheese is made in the hopes of being able to make it at home.  What they don’t know going in to this experience is just how simple home cheesemaking can be.  Now, we’re not talking triple creme camembert or 18 month-aged parmesan.  (Which can become easy with a lot of practice and exprimentation.)

We’re talking simple, fresh, soft cheeses, like ricotta, impastata, queso fresco, queso blanco, creme fraiche, cream cheese, mascarpone, mozzarella, yogurt, fromage blanc…you get the picture.  Now most of us born-and-bred Americans don’t use a lot of these cheeses in our everyday cooking/consumption.  Ask any French or Italian expat, and they’re tell you that these cheeses were a part of their daily diets back home, and are quite difficult to find in the U.S.  Once found, they tend to be expensive.

At Perfect Flavor, we made all of these cheeses and found that our customers, grocery stores, and restaurant clients hesitated not to get their hands on these locally sourced and produced cheeses.  Why?  Locally made soft, fresh cheeses are in high demand.  We were the only local creamery making a lot of these cow’s milk cheeses.  And for those local-food conscious individuals, being able to purchase these specific cheeses on a local level helped them complete their missing link of locally sourced, handmade and home grown foods.

Now that we’re no longer selling our cheese in stores due to this not-so-little expectation of ours, people are constantly complaining of the lack of these products on their local shelves.  My answer?  Make your own…and here’s how!

Today, we’re going to start with one of the simplest of all: Ricotta.

True ricotta is extremely different from that found in commercial grocery stores.  First of all, real ricotta made with local milk (raw milk from a local milk share IS preferred) has a sweet, complex flavor.  In other words, this simple cheese is far from its bland sister found at the grocery store.  And why skimp on flavor when it’s easier to make ricotta at home than it is to go out and buy some–cheaper, too!  Also, as an added bonus, what if I told you that you could make homemade ricotta AND from-scratch bread all in the same go-round?  Well, you can.  Both recipes could not be any easier, and are great for beginners.

Homemade ricotta can be great on its own, in a savory dish OR a sweet dish.  Often pureed with a little cream and organic sugar, ricotta is the very best healthy dessert served with some fresh,  seasonal fruit.  Also pureed, it can be used to make an ethereal cheesecake.  Mixed with a little sea salt and fresh herbs, it is fantastic as a spread for crackers or crostini.  And of course, there exist its typical uses: filling for cannoli, stuffed shells, lasagna, ravioli, and more!  Making it at home ensures a nice medium curd that is soft like a cloud and oh-so-healthy.  Here’s the recipe:

Ricotta

1 gallon whole milk, preferably raw and from a local farm (never skim, which would make the cheese too dry and rubbery.  If you’d like to experiment but cannot get your hands on local milk just yet, go with organic whole milk, just keep in mind that store bought milk is already over-processed and produces a small, grainy curd)

3/4 cup white or apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt

Process:

Gently heat milk in a stock pot or large saucepan over medium-high heat to 190 degrees F.  Be sure to stay near the milk toward the end, constantly whisking the bottom to prevent major scorching and an even more major clean up later.  Once at 190, remove from heat and pour in vinegar.  Let sit 30 seconds, then begin to whisk slowly.  You will begin to see the curds separate from the whey (yes!  Just like the Miss Muffet rhyme).  What you’ll be looking at are big, puffy, cloudlike white curds that will float separately of the yellow-green watery whey.  Add your salt and stir to incorporate.  At this point, you can strain out your curds through a fine-meshed sieve set over another large bowl or stock pot big enough to hold the whey. Why?  Well, you’re saving the whey, of course!  Now you can package your ricotta in an airtight container and store in the fridge.  It should keep for at least two weeks and usually longer, depending on the freshness of the milk.  To keep it moist, pour a little remaining whey over top to cover.  Ricotta does not melt when cooked, and is great cold, but preferred when warmed.

While whey is not great-tasting on its own, it makes a great substitute for milk in the following bread recipe.  Also, I’ve found that my dog absolutely loves whey and gobbles it up any time I have extra.  After eating/drinking it frequently, her coat becomes softer and shinier.  Amazing and so healthy for her!  Here’s that bread recipe I was talking about, adapted from Ricki Carroll’s “Home Cheese Making” book.  It is not only fluffy and delicious, but so quick and easy to make that you have no excuse NOT to make homemade bread for yourself and your loved ones.  It practically makes itself in an hour and a half from start to finish, with only about 10 minutes being actual hands-on time.

Italian Feather Bread (perfect as an accompaniment to an Italian-themed dinner starring your very own Ricotta)

1 cup warm water (100 degrees)

2 packages yeast (or 4 1/2 teaspoons)

1 tablespoon sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

3/4 cup hot whey (120 degrees)

2 teaspoons salt

5 1/2-6 cups all purpose unbleached flour

Process:

1. If you need to proof your yeast to make sure it’s still alive, then mix it with your warm water and sugar and watch it dissolve and grow.  If you use it often and know it is still kickin’, simply add the water, yeast and sugar directly to 3 cups of the flour in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Add your butter and salt to the heated whey and whisk to melt.  You do not want to add this mixture to your yeast if it is too hot, as it will kill the yeast.  I find that adding cold butter helps to bring down the temp to about 100, which is where you want it in order to keep the yeast happy.

3. Once you have added your whey/butter/salt mixture to the 3 cups of flour, mix until incorporated.  Add a cup of flour at a time, not to exceed 6 cups, until the dough looks manageable enough to knead by hand.  If you only need to add 4 cups of flour, then go for it.  The less flour, the better the bread!

4. Knead until smooth and soft (like a baby’s bum).  If it seems to get too tough and resistant, let it sit under a damp towel for 5 minutes, then go back to kneading.  Don’t worry if it seems a tad sticky, just remember to flour your HANDS constantly and NOT the bread itself.

5. Divide your dough into two portions and either shape into large loaves, each on its own parchment/silpat-lined baking sheet OR place shaped loaves into individual buttered or oiled bread pans.  Since this bread is great for sandwiches, I like this option because you WILL have leftover bread and this way it can go into lunches for the week!

6. Cover with damp towels or oiled plastic wrap to rise for 45-60 minutes in a warm place.  Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

7. Once risen, brush with a beaten egg white (if you like a glossy bread) or just leave plain and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden in color.  You can go on feeling the bread to judge its doneness, just keep in mind that a stiff crust in the oven will turn into a soft crust once slightly cooled, and that is the nature of this bread.  Cool on a rack in order to avoid a dewy underside!  (did I just say that?!?!)  =)

Happy Cheese & Bread Making!

Long before we got Perfect Flavor up and running, making fresh ice cream, cheese and yogurt, we were making yogurt at home.  There are many, many reasons why we thought that making our very own yogurt at home was important.  From a crunchy point of view, we loved the idea of making lots of our own food from scratch.

From a healthy point of view, we were discouraged for some time over the state of commercial yogurt.  Turn over almost any commercial yogurt in the store and you’ll see ingredients way beyond just milk and cultures (which are the only ingredients that should be in there!).  You’ll see ingredients like gelatin, pectin, corn starch, powdered skim milk, chemical dyes, HFCS and more!  All of these ingredients are completely unnecessary to the production of yogurt, but are added by big, BIG commercial producers of yogurt to ensure a “consistent” product every time that is smooth, thick, and creamy.  What does this mean exactly?  Well, it means that dairy products are inconsistent by nature.  Depending on the type of cow, the ever changing fat content of the milk depending on the cow’s diet and the season in which the cow was milked, and the cultures used.  In fact, yogurt made with just milk and cultures can often turn out slightly different every time it is made.  PLUS, real yogurt, like the kind you find in Europe or the kind you make at home, is MOST often much thinner than the kind we’re used to from Yoplait, Dannon, or other brands.  Adding unnecessary ingredients like pectin, gelatin or other stabilizers is only added to increase thickness, and like I mentioned before, consistency.  If you see a yogurt on the shelves with any other ingredients besides milk and cultures, then in my opinion it is not a true yogurt.

When we began making yogurt and selling it at Perfect Flavor, we encountered almost immediately many customers who were very confused when they saw how “thin” our yogurt consistency was.  It was only when we encountered chefs, the family members of dairy farmers, europeans, and a small number of educated local consumers that we got the response we were looking for.  Finally, they said, here was a yogurt that was the real thing!  And we agreed.  Now, the question is, how can you achieve this real yogurt at home for less money and more fun than buying it at the store?  Easy.

There are two main ways to make yogurt at home.  The first is using an incubator: a small piece of equipment that you can purchase for little money online.  The second is using an oven.  I have used both methods and find them to both be effective!

I first came across the act of making yogurt at home using an incubator when I lived in France.  Needless to say, I was in absolute awe of the fact that I could watch my French hostess pour milk mixed with culture into small glass jars placed in an incubator at night, and in the morning have delicious yogurt in time for breakfast.

When back from France but visiting my dear friend, Samira’s, Bengali mother in Toronto, Ontario, I was curious about the delicious yogurt we ate at her home at almost every meal.  It was then that Samira’s mom taught me how to make homemade yogurt in the easiest way possible: at home with the help of an oven.

For the incubator method, your equipment needs are a little higher, therefore you’ll want to give yourself a week or so to procure your necessary tools.  You’ll need a medium saucepan, a working thermometer whose range starts at at least 100 degrees, great quality raw milk or organic milk (the less processed and pasteurized, the better!), an 8 ounce cup of plain, unsweetened yogurt as your starter (choose Brown Cow, Stoneyfield Farm, or Seven Stars–better yet: a local brand is BEST, but remember to look for the brand with the right ingredients.  You do not want to start your yogurt off on the wrong foot with unnecessary ingredients) and of course an incubator.  My current favorite yogurt incubator is Euro Cuisine.  For this model, make sure to purchase a set of extra glasses on amazon.com so you can make a batch of yogurt while one is still in the fridge.  I like this model in particular because not only is it easy to use, but it’s got glass jars.  With the constant questions raised with the health risks of plastics, especially plastics that are coming in contact with your food while being heated, go with glass and rest assured that you’re not adding any phthalates into your diet.  This incubator is also very easy to clean and has only two buttons: an on/off button and a timer to use for setting how long your yogurt incubates for.  Here’s the recipe:

Take 1 quart of milk, place in your saucepan and heat until the milk reaches 110 degrees F.  This will happen sooner than you think, so stay near the stove and keep an eye on your thermometer.  Remove your milk from the stove and have a pitcher on hand.  Spoon all 8 ounces (1 cup) of your yogurt into the pitcher, then little by little, add the warm milk while whisking until you have a smooth yogurt starter/milk combination.  The small amount of yogurt you have added will be very happy to be mixed in with the warm milk, and once incubated, the cultures present in the mixture will begin to multiply and thrive, turning your milk into full-on delicious yogurt.  Pour your milk/culture mixture into each glass jar, tighten lids, and place in the incubator.  Allow to incubate for as little as 10 hours and as long as 16 hours (the more time the yogurt is in the incubator up to 16 hours, the thicker it will be and the stronger the taste).  I make this yogurt after dinner, allow it to incubate overnight, and place in the fridge in the morning.  The yogurt is ready to be eaten once it is done incubating-at room temp or cold.  Just for your own personal knowledge, the incubator keeps the yogurt at a constant 108 degrees F.  Do not be worried about food poisoning here!  Even though you wouldn’t normally leave milk out on the counter overnight, introducing yogurt culture actually combats the growth of negative bacteria that might make you sick.  Think of it this way: yogurt culture is good bacteria that kills off the bad bacteria naturally.  This does not mean that you would want to never refrigerate your yogurt, just that in the 10-16 hour window that it’s not refrigerated is not going to hurt you.  In fact, those cultures present (probiotics) aid in digestion and help the digestive system to break down all of the food you eat in a healthy, natural way.  This yogurt, once refrigerated, will last in your fridge for up to one month, however this all depends on the freshness of your milk and yogurt starter used.

Now, for those of you interested in trying your hand at yogurt making before committing to a piece of equipment, making it at home in your oven is a great way to start.  Here’s what you’ll need: an oven, a heating pad, a towel, mason jars with lids, a saucepan, a thermometer, milk and 8 ounces of yogurt culture.  Here’s the recipe:

Repeat process above by bringing 1 quart of milk to 110 degrees F, removing it from the stove and adding yogurt culture and milk together in a pitcher.  Meanwhile, prepare your oven: Turn your heating pad on its lowest setting and place the heating pad in your oven to gradually warm the oven.  Make sure you can still create a draft-free environment for your yogurt by ensuring that you can close the oven door with the cord of the heating pad sticking out the side.  Clean your thermometer and place it inside the oven but not on the heating pad.  This is to make sure your oven is maintaining the proper amount of heat for incubation.  Your desired temperature is 108 degrees.  If this means that you’ll need to increase the heat to medium, then do so accordingly.  Pour your milk/starter mixture into your clean mason jars, loosely screw on lids, and place in oven on top of your towel but not directly on the heating pad.  The heating pad should just be sitting somewhere in the oven.  Put a note on the outside with not only the time you put your yogurt in, BUT that NO ONE should turn on oven while your yogurt is incubating.  If the yogurt reaches 120 degrees or higher, the culture will die and you will not make yogurt.  This yogurt, if made at night, will also be ready in the morning, however you may want to experiment with it to let it go a little longer than 10-16 hours in order for you to reach your desired consistency.  Periodically before bed, check the thermometer in your oven by gently opening the oven door, or better yet, just by looking through the window, to make sure the temp is staying at an even 108 degrees F.  If you must open the oven door, do not jostle your mason jars.  Yogurt does not like to be moved at all while it is incubating.  If it does move, the consistency will be chunky and not smooth.

Troubleshooting:

If your yogurt, once incubated, seems to thin, refrigerate it first and the yogurt should become thicker in the fridge, especially if it’s got fat in it.

If your yogurt has lumps, this means that when you combined your milk and yogurt starter, you did not whisk thoroughly enough and distribute the cultures throughout the milk.

Any other questions?  Contact me!

We like to add a bit of organic sugar, raw honey, fresh fruit or wheat germ to our freshly made yogurt.  Have fun with flvoring yours OR just eat it plain!

Here’s to your health!!!

Want a smoother smoothie? Tired of those stubborn icy pieces that don’t get quite blended in? Try this tip that I learned from my good friend, Kristie, when we both had to get to work at 4:30 am and needed to bring along a quick, easy, and healthy breakfast:

Freeze your fruit! That’s right, instead of using fresh fruit, place your freshly purchased fruit, like blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, etc. into the freezer after washing and shaking dry. Place the fruit in a gallon size ziploc bag or rubbermaid container and allow to freeze overnight before making that morning smoothie. If, by chance, you prefer to buy locally grown fruit when it’s in season, then when strawberries are in season, for example, buy enough for the year and freeze the strawberries in smaller containers, like ziploc bags, that you can easily shake to separate the frozen fruit if it’s stuck together. Also, as an extra tip, let your fruit thaw in its bag, in a larger bowl, overnight in the fridge and what you’ll be left with is delicious all-natural juice that can be used to also flavor your smoothies or salad dressings. Strawberry balsamic, anyone?

Anyway, as usual when it comes to food, I digress…

Here’s the Smoother Smoothie Recipe:

Combine 2 cups frozen fruit with…

1 cup yogurt*

1/2 cup milk*

add a bit of organic cane sugar or local honey if desired. However, in-season fruit is perfectly sweet on its own!

*as many of you know, I am a real dairy girl, and therefore love milk, yogurt, and cheese in its most unadulterated form. Therefore, I use whole milk (full fat) everything! It’s much more decadent, not to mention that full fat dairy has the right kind of fat in it that is truly healthy.

Blend in a blender until smooth and eat right away. The frozen fruit will give your smoothie the chill that you’re normally going for when adding ice if eaten immediately. Also, the texture of your smoothie will be rich, creamy, and thick, as opposed to a thinner smoothie made with fresh, not frozen, fruit.

No doubt my friend, Gleamer: the Smoothie Queen, has already discovered this tip for making smoother smoothies for her beautiful kids who, lucky ducks, get to enjoy smoothies all the time. Gleamer, if you’ve got any more tips, I’m sure we’d love to hear ‘em!

Oh boy, here we go. I am trying as hard as possible to hide my haughty laugh of incredulity as I write this up in the full coffee shop which I am presently calling my typing home. As I sat in bed enjoying my breakfast this morning…don’t worry-I got it myself, we gave our butler the day off…and while Colin was getting ready for work, a segment was advertised as coming up on The Today Show in a matter of minutes. The subject of this segment? “Are you Skinny Fat?”

Well, I thought to myself, maybe they’re finally going to discuss the body type that most of us have. You know the one. It’s where you eat right (local, sustainable, organic food) and where you take good care of yourself (exercise in ways that feel good not bad, meditate, practice yoga, run after your toddler) and, voila, you’re left with not only great self-esteem, but a body that matches your “body type.” Like me for example: after years of working so damned hard to make my body match what the media was dictating, including dieting, over-exercising, skipping meals-on purpose, and constantly worrying about those extra few pounds, I finally wised up. I met my husband, realized that I was beautiful just the way I was destined to be, and over the course of four years, began eating local, healthy food, cut processed foods out of my diet, and began practicing well-being type exercises, like yoga and pilates, AND gained 30 pounds.

Me, enjoying delicious crab,just before being told by my doctor that I am borderline obese and would be unable to conceive. I am now 25 weeks pregnant.

While most of the time I was so thankful to look and feel better, including the added perks of being more curvy, going up 3 cup sizes, and turning even more heads on the street, there were times when I would fall back in to the media trap of thinking that I was overweight. In fact, when trying to get pregnant, I was even told by my ex-gynocologist that I was too overweight to conceive (due to my height and weight, my BMI classifies me as borderline obese). I quickly changed doctors, and with my next visit at my benevolent midwife’s office, I heard the following news: A)I was at the weight that my genes, heritage, and lifestyle dictated, and that B)my weight gain over the last four years was directly related to my happiness that I had finally achieved through meeting my husband and starting my family. What a fantastic “ah-ha” moment. With that news, guess what? I was pregnant within 10 days. I think it would be foolish to assume that none of the above isn’t connected. Self acceptance equals happiness.

So, getting back to this morning’s Today Show segment on Skinny Fat, I ignorantly thought that this segment would finally bring the news to women out there that what I already knew was finally being accepted. That my “fat” was my very own “skinny.” Well, no surprise, but I was wrong.

As it turns out, Skinny Fat actually refers to women who, gasp, ARE skinny on the outside, but fat on the inside. Are question marks circling around your head, too? Sigh, here we go…

Joy Bauer, contributing health editor to The Today Show, who’s book, “Your Inner Skinny” I think says it all as far as her approach goes, claims that even though we may appear to be skinny, that really deep inside we’ve got a terrifying combination of genes and heredity brewing that actually makes us in reality, fat, according to what doctors deem to be so. She compared two women: both of whom are skinny, one of whom is skinny fat. Basically, the one who is skinny fat has never had to do much to maintain her figure. She never works out, she eats what she wants, she is what most would call “blessed with good genes.” Not so, according to Joy. In fact, because she does not “take care of herself,” even though she may appear to on the outside, she is slowly bringing on her own demise: a long, torturous, fatty death. Joy said, in fact, that now “it’s not enough to be thin” anymore. Because being thin could mean “skinny on the outside, obese on the inside.” Her “obesity” is determined by using a tool, much like a vice, to pinch the outside layer of her fat, therefore measuring the relationship of her fat to her overall weight and height. Now, for those of us out there (me four years ago), this would be exactly the news that I would not need. To be told that appearing skinny still could mean that I’m obese on the inside would throw me into a disastrous cycle of obsessive exercising followed by extreme dieting. In fact, the skinny fat woman, after hearing of her major fat issues, said that she is now going to “work hard and watch what she eats,” which we all know is code for not eating as much. It is only since recovering from my faulted ways that I can hear news like this and not go off the deep end. But imagine how many women (and men) are out there who are taking this news to heart?

As my genius husband brought up after watching this segment in disbelief, what about the women from Fiji, Hawaii, or the Inuit or Yupik Eskimos?

An Inuit Woman

A Fijian Woman

A Hawaiian Woman

What if they were subjected to this fat-pinching device? No doubt they would blow this poor skinny fat woman on The Today Show out of the water. Wouldn’t we all agree, though, that their bodies are designed based on a mixture of factors: environment, heritage and genetics? From Joy Bauer’s point of view, these women would practically be knocking on death’s door. If it were up to her, they would all be put on strict diets and exercise regimes, only to lose half of their body weight and return home, where they would be unable to function in their own societies. Do only Joy’s rules apply to Americans? And what of this poor Skinny Fat woman on The Today Show? Could her natural body type, instead of being a ticking time bomb, instead just represent her potential Nordic heritage? Why should she change to have to conform to the current ignorant standards of our current thinking when it comes to body image, health, and the desire to be thin?

The bottom line is this: we all look exactly the way we should, IF (and a big “if” it is) we allow our bodies to slowly get back to the size and shape that they were always meant to be. Instead of looking at an ex-Skinny girl and saying, “She’s really let herself go,” why don’t we look at her in admiration and hope, saying instead, “Wow, she must be really happy. Looks like she’s finally found herself.” My hope is that everyone watching The Today Show this morning can look inside themselves, instead of listening to a woman who does not know them, and ask themselves if there is anything they can change in order to get closer to achieving the body, heart, and mind that is the healthiest for them.

Imagine my surprise this afternoon, when folding some laundry, I decided to also turn on Oprah and see if anything caught my attention. With her topic being “FOOD 101″ and her guests including Michael Pollan, author of 4 best-selling real food books, the most famous being “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and Steve Ells, Founder and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, pioneer of healthy, real fast food, I knew I would be not only riveted to the screen, but could anticipate a certain rise in my blood pressure. As my husband would say: talk of real, sustainable, responsible food really lights my fire and gets me very revved up.

Perfect Flavor is interwoven into the stories of these two men and the documentary “FOOD, INC.” in a way that would be enviable to most sustainable food companies. Not only have I brushed shoulders with Pollan, who can be thanked for launching our current local & sustainable food movement into its current stratospheric position, but I have worked closely for the last year with the family and farm that is responsible for catapulting both “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “FOOD, INC.” into the public’s view: Polyface Farm and The Salatin Family

When we began the process of starting up Perfect Flavor, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” was the first book on local, real food that Colin and I read. We were stunned and so very pleased to discover that Polyface Farm and the Salatin family were located just miles away from our home and where we would eventually settle our production kitchens. Sheri Salatin, the daughter-in-law of Joel, married to Joel’s son, Daniel, was the first person I would contact in order to begin the process of sourcing all of our ingredients locally. It was Summer of 2006, and Sheri’s and my relationship has grown stronger and stronger ever since. I have much admiration and respect for what she and the rest of the Salatin family are choosing to do with their lives, that is: raise beef, pork, chickens, rabbit, eggs, and more, honorably and honestly.

How do we at Perfect Flavor fit in? Well, we started by buying eggs from Polyface for our ice cream in early 2008 at the launch of our company. We then teamed up with Polyface to begin selling our ice cream through their amazingly popular Buying Clubs, which are full of intelligent, well-educated and themselves honorable Buying Club Members, who once a month subscribe to this Club which allows them to order everything that Polyface produces. This is especially important because it gives folks in many cities in Virginia no excuse to buy grain-fed beef or antibiotic-filled chicken from a no-name source at the grocery store EVEN if they can’t make the trip down to Swoope, VA (pronounced Swope) located near Staunton, for a grocery store run. Through the Buying Club, everything Polyface has to offer gets delivered to a drop point located in central locations to where many of these members live, often in neighborhoods. These folks, when offered the chance to also purchase our handmade ice cream made with Polyface eggs and local milk, jumped at the chance, and we had a steady business from last March 2009 to December 2009 selling to Polyface’s customers everywhere from Williamsburg to Harrisonburg to Northern Virginia and beyond. It must be mentioned that Polyface only sells locally, meaning that the farthest north they will take their Buying Club is Southern Maryland. The farthest South currently is Central VA. For more info and to become a member, visit here! I was so thrilled to be a part of Polyface’s far reaching touch that I volunteered to ride on the delivery truck for one month with Polyface’s amazing delivery guy (for lack of a much more fitting term), Richard Morris, who has an inspiring story of his own pertaining to the lessons he learned in dealing with real, whole foods. Learn more about him here! My experience working with Polyface and Richard taught me absolutely invaluable lessons about the educated consumers out there who demand good food for themselves and their families. And this was what Oprah’s show was really about: the necessity for all of us to take the health of ourselves and our families back under our own control when it comes to the choices we make about the foods we eat.

As far as Chipotle goes, and our connection with it, it may be small, but I am proud of our ties to this wonder of a business. Firstly, when we started making cheese at Perfect Flavor, we were ending up with a fair amount of whey, which most industrial cheesemakers just dump down the drain. Not us! I went straight to Polyface and asked if we could donate our whey to them each time I came to drop off an ice cream order. They were happy to take our whey and feed it to their pigs. And from what I hear, the pigs loved it! Now, how does this connect with Chipotle? Well, did you know that the Charlottesville Chipotle location was the first to not only use outdoor, humanely raised pork, but that it was the first to use LOCAL pork. That’s right, and where do you suppose they get it from? Polyface, of course. So, every time I eat at our local Chipotle, I order nothing but the Carnitas pork option on the menu. With confidence, not only do I know that my meat is local, but that I am also eating a little bit of my whey from my own sustainable business as well!

I am happy to admit that I am both a member of the Charlottesville Buying Club and also currently have a half a pig in my freezer that most likely was fed our very own whey!

Now, I must note that due to my pregnancy, we are no longer supplying Polyface with ice cream or whey, and boy are our customers upset, the pigs in particular=) My hope is to do right by my family first, however, as the Salatin’s have chosen to do. In a long conversation with the always inspiring Teresa Salatin, Joel’s wife, we discussed how family should come first. Until I can reopen Perfect Flavor in terms of ice cream and cheese production, I will continue to gather my research and resources and share the good news about local and healthy food here on my blog.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank both Polyface and Michael Pollan for the chance to work along side their cause, even in the most humble of capacities. My experience has been priceless.

What is the prize for a diet high in protein?

Well, prior to being pregnant, I always assumed two things regarding high protein diets primarily: One was that folks on the Atkins Diet (which I tried out of desperation in college and quickly stopped 1 week in) consume lots of protein, and really only protein. Another aspect of a high protein diet brought to mind body builders downing strawberry-flavored powdered milkshake blends. yum…?

I never really knew until getting pregnant and beginning my childbirth education class focused on The Bradley Method that protein is good. Really good if you’re pregnant. In fact, contrary to what some doctors may say, a diet high in protein during pregnancy is really healthy for both mom and baby. Dr. Bradley, founder of The Bradley Method and an obstetrician from the middle of the 20th century until his recent death, recommends a daily intake of 80-100 grams of protein. Since I couldn’t really wrap my head around what this meant, but now after learning I understand how to incorporate healthy protein into my diet, I’m going to share what I know:

Protein can be found in many foods. Some have lots of protein, others don’t have as much. Foods high in protein are meat, dairy, grains, eggs and nuts. For example, a 3 oz (pretty small) serving size of steak has 20 grams of protein. Chicken of the same portion has 25 grams. Eggs have 6 grams each. A cup of milk (8 oz) has 8 grams, an ounce of real cheese 7 grams, and so on.

Why do I know all of this? Because as a student of The Bradley Method, I have homework each week in which I must record and calculate my daily protein intake as part of a well-balanced diet. In other words, I can’t just eat steaks all day and drink milk, even though my husband would argue that that is exactly what I do-at least when it comes to milk consumption. You see, unbeknownst to me, as I would fill out my daily protein intake on my little pink homework sheet and hand it in to my wonderful teacher, Jenny, she was actually examining everyone’s sheets and running a sort of “protein contest.” Well, as it turns out, my love for milk has paid off. Being that on a typical day I drink between one and two quarts a day, which results in between 32-64 grams of protein alone, I was the Number 1 protein consumer in my class. And I got a prize! It’s a beautiful little Peter Rabbit baby spoon.

Now, first of all, I was not expecting a reward aside from the most obvious prize of all: a healthy pregnancy and really healthy baby. But, I have to admit, getting recognized for my protein-packing abilities makes me feel good. Not to mention the fact that physically, I actually feel fantastic.

Here’s a nice, easy recipe to follow that helps you, pregnant or not, to get a healthy meal with a really healthy dose of protein.

Blue Cheese Steak Salad

Ingredients:

one 8 oz steak (about 53 grams of protein), preferably a locally raised cut like a Delmonico from Polyface Farm

a nice 4 ounce slice of locally made or artisan blue cheese, crumbled (28 grams protein)

1 cup pecans (24 grams protein), toasted at 350 degrees for 7 minutes whole in the oven, then chopped roughly

a big heaping portion of your favorite salad green: I like to use arugula for its spice, or romaine for its crunch. Spinach also works!

Salad Dressing (recipe to follow):

1 hard boiled egg (6 grams protein), pureed with the following: juice of two lemons, 1/2 cup olive oil, smoked sea salt or regular sea salt, white pepper or black pepper to taste, and anchovy paste if you’ve got it, just a couple squeezes from the tube. If you desire, throw in a 1/4 cup blue cheese to make a creamy dressing. Blend and pour over mixed salad.

Process:

Remove steak from packaging, pat dry with a paper towel while your skillet (preferably cast iron) heats on medium high. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper on both sides and place steak directly onto hot skillet. Set a timer for 6 minutes and DO NOT MOVE, POKE, PROD, or otherwise TOUCH. When six minutes is up, flip the steak, set timer for 6 more minutes, then remove to a cutting board to rest for ten minutes. This will produce a perfectly cooked steak, and depending on how thick, can range from a medium rare to medium well. A 1 inch thick delmonico yields a medium at my house. Do not cut into the steak before the ten minute rest is up.

Presentation:

In a large bowl, place salad greens and scatter still-warm pecans over greens. If you’re using arugula or spinach, the warmth from the nuts will help to wilt your greens to a nice texture perfect for this kind of salad.

Sprinkle on crumbled blue cheese.

Pour dressing over salad and toss.

Slice your steak thinly, plate your salad onto two individual plates, and arrange steak on top.

If desired, sprinkle some more pecans and blue cheese crumbles on top and enjoy while warm!

If shared between two people, for instance a pregnant lady and her partner, this meal yields a whopping 55.50 grams of protein per person, which is more than half of your daily required intake!

For dessert, throw in some ice cream (the real stuff!) or some whole milk yogurt with fresh fruit, and you’ve got a fantastic, delicious meal that is not only practically effortless, but also quick to prepare and a very easy way to get the protein you need with the smallest amount of hassle possible.

Look here for more posts concerning healthy protein-filled recipes as well as much more info on The Bradley Method and my adventures in childbirth education!

If you’re at Perfect Flavor reading our many blogs, then there’s not a whole lot I need to say to dignify this current marketing campaign with a response. We all know that HFCS is bad for us. Much research is currently being done to understand just how bad, in fact. Yikes. Just look at the political necessity for a corn syrup “push” behind these ads, and you’ll know that government subsidies alone are enough to want to CONVINCE the American consumer that corn syrup is good for us and just has a bad rap. I mean, after all, if we all stopped, heaven forbid, buying products with corn syrup in them, half of the grocery store would go away and what would we be left with? Fresh produce and meat that comes from farmers and farms who have chosen to not just specialize in corn production with the help and backing of the US government.

Maybe I’m coming to the party a little late, but I don’t watch TV much and just came across a slew of commercials, ads 1, 2 & 3, that make intelligent, educated foodies look like idiots and corn syrup lovin’ consumers look like the smartest people on the block. See the first ad about two moms at a party sharing a RED DYE #33 beverage together here, a couple in a park here, and two brothers who keep the brotherly competition alive here. What will they do next? Tell us that obesity, acid reflux, diabetes, and, dare I say it, cancer, are just a product of our imaginations?

Now, take a look at this parody. I think this guy says it way better than me!

As you can see, the topic of being mislead by big food producers for the sake of THEIR bottom line really gets me fired up. What can I say? I am a food crusader=)

To learn more about what this ad campaign is all about, visit SweetSurprise! To learn the truth about HFCS, read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” or watch the documentary “King Corn” by filmmaker Curt Ellis.

It’s been a long time since we got rid of our microwave.  I must admit, after having grown up with a microwave, the thought of not having one in our kitchen was slightly scary.  What would we do if we needed to, gasp, reheat something?

Our reasons for getting rid of our microwave were not entirely wholesome.  We were renovating our kitchen and were worried that our current microwave’s location would be too close to the large and leaping flames of our new gas range getting installed directly underneath our behemoth of a microwave.  The microwave itself was probably installed in the 70s, as our good friend Samira and Philip can attest to, since they have the very same one in their condo which was built around that time.

So, with a little trepidation and a lot of hope for what our food future would hold, we ditched our giant microwave.

While prior to saying goodbye to this large device, we were making most of our food from scratch and not eating processed food TV dinners, easy mac, vegetable “steamers” or the like, I don’t believe we knew what a profound impact life with out a microwave would have on our family food culture.  Think about it, what foods can’t you prepare without the help of a microwave?  Processed, typically frozen foods, of course.  Just ask anyone who has, in desperation and sans microwave, tried to heat up a lean cuisine in the oven…what anyone would end up with is a bunch of semi-hot food surrounded by melted plastic-yum!

…also, as a side note, do we really need to be eating frozen “health food” anyway?  Take a look at the current Cambell’s Soup Select Harvest tv ad in which shoppers are blindfolded as they purchase their “health food” and ask yourself…should they be looking at the calorie content or should they actually just be reading the ingredients???  Yes, it is true that a lot of the American public walks around a grocery store with blindfolds on when it comes to intelligently discerning the ingredients present in the foods we eat, but guess what…no microwave = no processed frozen TV types of foods.

Colin and I have a hard time figuring out just how many processed foods we consume currently, the reason being that we do not consume much aside from the occasional bags of chips or crackers and the cereal (we try to find the best possible) that we eat in the mornings sometimes.  MOST of the food we eat, about 95% of it, in fact, is made from foundational ingredients, like unbleached flour, unsalted butter, local eggs, local meats, local or organic veggies and fruits, or both, depending on the season.  All of these ingredients, when used in conjunction with each other, can turn out some pretty tasty dishes that are really, really healthy for our family, and require no microwave to cook.

The bottom line is this:  If you want to make healthy food for your family, get rid of your microwave.  How to reheat that cup of coffee?  Pour the rest in a small saucepan and heat up over low heat.  What about defrosting that chicken?  Place the chicken in the fridge 1-2 days prior to cooking.  Also, you can defrost any piece of meat, sausage, etc quickly by placing it in a ziploc bag and then inside a large bowl filled with cold water.  Change the water out every hour, and within 1-3 hours your meat should be thawed.  (Do not think that running hot water over the meat will defrost it quicker-it will not…it will only harm the texture of the meat by cooking it slightly.)

When in doubt, think 19th century…how did they cook and heat food in the old days?  There’s no reason why we can’t figure this out in today’s culture!

As a family, we feel better when we eat real, healthy food.  We’re teaching our children about how to do this for themselves as well, which is an invaluable lesson.  Life with out a microwave may take a little more planning and organizing, but its values go far beyond tonight’s meal.  Good luck!

Aebleskivers. When I came across the cast iron pan by the same name, I had never before encountered such a name and concept. What are they?

In essence, aebleskivers are pancake balls that, when cooked in oil in this very special pan, fluff up in the shape of perfect little globes that get eaten so fast once made that one can hardly keep a full plate on the table!

As seems to be usual for us, Colin and I purchased an aebleskiver pan long before they started to seemingly become popular. This past holiday season saw shelves filled with practically a different aebleskiver pan for each different recipe. I am here to say that you need just one pan and one recipe. This recipe, altered slightly to my specifications and desires, comes directly from the official Lodge Cast Iron cookbook entitled, “A Skillet Full of Traditional Southern Lodge Cast Iron Recipes & Memories.” This recipe was originally written by Sarah Kirkwood Lodge of the original Lodge family.

Here’s the recipe in all its delicious glory. You’ll find that these little pancake balls have a crispy, buttery texture on the outside with a doughnut-like, buttery, chewy texture on the inside. They really are nothing short of heavenly, and if you happen to have a group of grumpy kids or a husband who’s had a long week, there is nothing like a batch of aebleskivers to get everyone back on cloud 9!

Aebleskivers

Ingredients

4 eggs separated

2 tablespoons organic cane sugar

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (local is best, but King Arthur red bag will work)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 stick butter, melted

scant 2 cups whole milk

Method: please read all the way through before beginning

1. Melt butter slowly in a small saucepan and remove from heat when stick is almost melted but not quite. Swirl in the saucepan and you will have accomplished two things: melted the rest of the stick AND maintained a low enough temperature with the butter to not cook the eggs once added to the batter.

2. In the meantime, separate your eggs: yolks into a medium sized bowl, whites into the bowl of a mixer or just a separate medium bowl, making sure that your whites are free of any trace of yolk or other debris (except salt, see below), as any foreign ingredient other than the white itself will inhibit the whites’ ability to froth up and beat properly. Add the salt to your whites, which will help them beat up to an even stiffer and more stable peak.

3. Hand whisk your yolks until thickened and light in color. Add your sugar and continue to whisk until even thicker and lemon colored.

4. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) in a small bowl and retain your measuring cup in this bowl.

5. Measure milk into a glass measuring cup meant for liquid measure and set aside.

6. With your whisk in hand, begin to add dry ingredients 1/4 cup at a time and alternate with milk 1/4 cup at a time. This will aid in developing the cake-like structure of this batter. Also, and perhaps most importantly, if you’re a lump-freak like me, adding your ingredients alternatively and little by little this way will ensure that your batter will be lump free if you’re whisking vigorously as you add each ingredient.

7. Once all ingredients have been added, fold in melted butter with a large rubber spatula until just mixed.

8. In three batches, add your egg whites (which you could have had beating while preparing the batter), folding in slowly and gently.

***Now is when I like to add a little extra magic: Combine in a small cereal bowl 1/2 cup organic cane sugar with 1 teaspoon (or more depending on taste) cinnamon. Mix and set near your pan.

9. Heat your aebleskiver pan over medium heat and pour 1/2-1 teaspoon vegetable oil into each well. Allow oil to heat enough for frying. If your oil is not hot enough when you add your batter, the batter will soak up the oil before it has the chance to bake, and will be heavy and greasy. If you’re unsure of when the temperature has reached the right point, you’ll just have to do what I do: sacrifice a poor aebleskiver individual first and take a look at how it bakes, then proceed with the others.

10. I spoon out the batter with a medium-sized cookie/ice cream scoop, which helps make clean up a little easier and ensures that each ball is the same size. After the edges begin to look brown, 3 minutes or so, I use a fork to gently turn each ball over so that the batter side can form and cook. Basically, you’re going for a perfect sphere, so turning your ball over before all of the batter in the center is cooked means that the rest of the raw batter will mold to the well in the pan and thus create a perfect circle of decadence.

11. Remove aebleskivers one by one, rolling each in your cinnamon-sugar mixture until coated, then place on your breakfast dish.

12. When repeating cooking of all the batter, you may need to adjust your stove top temperature. I find that for my gas range, I must reduce the heat to low as time goes by because the pan tends to get very hot and my batter has the tendency to burn if I do not monitor the temperature very closely. Also make sure to add a new round of oil to your pan every second-third batch.

Once my first batch is done, I holler at the kids and wonderful husband to come in and eat. Usually by the time I finish each consecutive batch they are finished with the plate that came before. There are days when they are not as hungry, so I do not make all the batter into aebleskivers at once. Instead, I’ll use about half of the batter up and then make more aebleskivers the next morning or the morning after.

This batter makes about 40 pancake balls and can be kept in the fridge for up to three days.

Incidentally, a well-seasoned cast iron aebleskiver pan is the best (see my previous cast iron post), and cheapest, option. There are some nonstick options out there, which as usual, I do not trust both for their lack of long-term nonstick capabilities but also for the fact that teflon scares me. If you cannot locate the proper pan, consider this: the recipe recounted above can also be used to make waffles that are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, as well as pancakes AND pancake puffs (or special pancake as my kids call it, which is aebleskiver batter baked in a buttered glass dish in a 375 degree oven until puffy and golden).

Yum, now I’m hungry!

Recipe Variations:

Want chocolate aebleskivers?  Substitute 1/8 cup cocoa for 1/8 cup flour and continue recipe like normal.

Want savory aebleskivers? How about chive & chevre?  Substitute 1/2 cup fresh chevre for 1/2 cup milk and add 1/2 cup chopped chives.  For other cheese variations, keep milk content the same and add 1/2 cup shredded hard cheese to batter.

yummy aebleskivers, pronounced "able-skivvers" according to my authoritative knowledge!=)

Today’s focus on local food is wonderful, and if you asked most farmers, has been a long time coming! We’re reeducating ourselves on the importance of eating local, seasonal foods that are grown near our homes, either by farmers or by ourselves.

We love that this is happening. However, there is still one pretty big hole in the movement.

Where’s the dairy?

Colin and I started Perfect Flavor with this question at the forefront of our mission. How can we both get local, healthy dairy products to local consumers and how can we begin the process of reeducating people on the fact that just because a label says “Shenandoah’s Pride” does not mean that it comes from the Shenandoah Valley.

In fact, according to our dairy farmer, Dan Holsinger of Holsinger Dairy Farm in Waynesboro, VA, and our Virginia Department of Agriculture inspectors, most of the milk produced by Virginia’s cows gets trucked South. It’s sad to say, but the wool really has been pulled over our eyes. Great marketing does not an honest company make.

With that said, what do we do now? Where do we go from here? And most importantly, how do we start bringing back local dairy?

There are many steps to take in this very complex process. However, starting somewhere is key. We started at Perfect Flavor with bringing local ice creams, cheeses and yogurts to our Central VA customer base. And while we’re on a break now due to my pregnancy, we realize what a huge impact we did make on our community. Every one of our customers is shouting “Bring Back Local Dairy!” Well, we hear ya!

Here’s how you can help your family: Belong to a milk-share program. The milk you purchase comes straight from a cow that you partially own, that is fed, taken care of, and milked by a farmer raising a very, very small herd. The cost per gallon is more on average than a gallon of store brand milk and about equal to the cost of an organic gallon of milk, but so much better. You can trust this milk in every way, shape and form. The milk is raw, which can often scare off a lot of folks who have been told that drinking raw milk is unhealthy. But stop and think for a second. Where do you think the news of raw milk being unhealthy is coming from? The super large milk processors, of course.

Milk Shares VS. Large Milk Processors

Small dairy farmers have such control over their herd, often do not treat their cows with antibiotics, and never with hormones (like rbst, which encourage more milk production from each cow for the purposes of increasing the bottom line). These cows are often completely grass fed, which is the best option for herbivore cows. Raw milk coming from a milk share does not travel far or long to get from the cow to your fridge. There is, therefore, no need to pasteurize this milk because there are not many risks for the spread of pathogens that could hurt us. And the bacteria present in the raw milk that would otherwise be killed off by pasteurization? That bacteria actually aids in digestion! Why do you think so many people suffer from non-genetic lactose intolerance these days? When we stop eating meat, we lose the enzyme in our stomachs to digest it. The same holds true for when we stop drinking milk that has the necessary bacteria present (or enzymes) that aid in our digestion of lactic acid. It’s a very simple equation.

VS

Large milk processors must pasteurize their milk to ensure the safety of the product. Why? First of all, milk from multiple herds gets mingled together when picked up by the milk tanker truck on its way to the milk processing plant. Once the milk is picked up, it can travel in the tank for up to TWO DAYS, raw and, under refrigeration before it must, by law, be deposited at a milk processing plant often states away from the cows that produced it. Incidentally, the milk that is coming from these farms is coming from herds that number in the hundreds. Most medium-sized dairy farms average in the 150-200 herd range. Larger farms? Try a herd size of 800, give or take. Pile on top of that the fact that in order to keep these cows “healthy” since they are living on top of one another and are not for the most part grass fed and free, they must be pumped full of antibiotics. Most of these farmers also do administer hormones to increase milk production. When you throw all of these components together, and then bring this milk to a large milk processing plant which sees thousands of gallons milk go through its doors every day, it is no wonder that pasteurization is not only a benefit to the public but a requirement. If even one herd had tainted milk, and that milk upon being picked up by the tanker was mixed with the milk of other herds, and then brought to the processing plant and NOT pasteurized, then thousands of households would get sick.

Breath (and drink) easier. Sign up for a milk share today if raw milk is not sold in grocery stores, supplied by local farmers, in your state.

Visit localharvest.org or farmtoconsumer.org to learn more and find a milk share in your area.