Pickled Radishes - Lacto-fermented (Probiotic) & Paleo!

Perhaps you have a bushel full of radishes that you have plucked from the soil in your garden.  Or you may have gone a bit overboard just bought a bit too many radishes at the farmers market.  Either way, I have a suggestion for your consumption of said radishes:  Pickled Radishes!

[I do like very thinly sliced raw radishes on my salads and such, but most of the time raw radishes are a bit too "hot" for my palate.  So, of course, you can eat them raw, if that's your thing.  You can roast them up with other veggies in the oven.  You can also sauté them in some butter/ghee, salt and pepper.  Cooking them, in general, gives them a much more smooth, mild flavor.  Sautéed Radishes are one of my FAVORITE ways the eat a radish, second only to pickled.]

Pickles - Pickles - Pickles

You've probably had many different kinds of pickles in your life.  There's dill pickles, gherkins, bread and butter pickles.  I'm guessing you've probably also had other non-cucumber pickled items: sauerkraut, kimchi, pickled garlic, pickled watermelon rinds, hot Mexican-style pickled carrots, and many others.  Have you had pickled radishes before?

When radishes are pickled, the flavor becomes mild, smooth and almost buttery.  It still tastes like a pickle, but like no other pickle you've ever had.

Grass-fed grilled sirloin steak with pickled radishes, carrots, Romain and red-leaf lettuce, black olives, and 5 Cheese Garlic Spread from River Valley Kitchens

Pickling radishes (this recipe at least) uses Lacto-fermentation.  Feel free to check out the Wikipedia site for it here.  Basically,  you use water and salt.  No vinegar.  For Dill Pickles you would also add fresh dill, garlic, and pickling spices.  You can check out Sandor Katz's Book "Wild Fermentation" for a ton more info on all kinds of pickling.  (You can also google him, and there are a bunch of recipes on the web.)

Also, on a side note, pickled radishes are SO EASY!!!!  Oh my gosh.  You'll make them and literally be AMAZED at how low effort and quick these steps are.  Ready?

Start with a big bunch of radishes and a large mason jar with a regular 1 piece lid (not the kind that have a top and a seal, just one piece).  Wash and cut up your radishes into the size pieces you'd like your pickles to be in.  I like to do mine in bite size pieces.

Place your pickles in the bottom of your mason jar and cover with a thin layer of kosher salt.  I had about 3/4 of a quart jar full of radishes and used about 3 tablespoons of salt.  DO NOT ADD WATER YET!  Cover the top with cheese cloth and either tie a string around it or use a rubber band to make sure no bugs can get inside.

Wait 24 hours.  Take off the cheese cloth, and fill the entire jar to the tippy-ippy top.  If possible use filtered water, as chlorine may not allow your lacto-fermentation to do its thing correctly.  Place your metal lid on the top and screw it on, but not too tight.  Flip the jar upside down on your counter, on top of a rag or old towel.  SLOWLY and CAREFULLY open the lid until you see a little water come up around the edges of the jar.  This means that you have made a seal.

Don't touch this for a week.  Put a sign up if you need to, but just leave it alone and keep it out of direct sunlight.  After a week, BEFORE PICKING IT UP, screw the lid back on - then flip it right side up and take the lid off.  The odor may be quite foreign to you, but I'm telling you, these little bites of love will leave you craving more when they are all gone.

DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS OR USED UTENSILS IN THE JAR.  Don't do it.  There may be bacteria on those items and could ruin your pickles.  Use a CLEAN spoon and spoon your pickled radishes out into smaller mason jars (with their juice - if you need more liquid to have these jars full up to the top, add more filtered water) and then seal them up.  Stick them in the fridge and they should last up to (and maybe beyond) 6 months.  Enjoy!

Beginning to Lose it

It has been a little over 6 weeks, since I began eating primally.  So far, so good, I'd say.  Although the weight loss has slowed down, I'm still losing, which keeps me motivated.  Even on the days when I weigh myself and I realize I may have done more of a 60/40 than an 80/20 (primal/non-primal ratio), I still feel better than I have in a very long time.

It seems to be less of a struggle to go out to eat than I was expecting, which probably isn't the greatest thing ever: I should definitely be eating at home more.  The price tag of fresh veggies and meat is much more expensive on the "outside" and I've found very few places that serve grass-fed meat.  I have been bringing my lunch with me to work, which is not nearly as social as going out with a group to a local fast or slow food eatery, but I feel better by using the groceries I've bought for the week and not spending extra cash.

Some of my recent foodie loves:

• Grass-fed Mozzarella balls (about an inch in diameter - they come packaged in water) drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  I know this would be yummy with tomatoes and basil, but even by it self, it must be tasted to be believed!  
• Grass-fed skirt steak marinated and then grilled to perfection
• Lunch meat (Whole Foods roasted turkey, roast beef, or Applegate salami or ham) wrapped in a delicious, fresh piece of red leaf or romaine lettuce
• Coconut cream (take a can of real, full-fat coconut milk and put it in the fridge for an hour or so - we just have the A/C on in the house and that is enough - and then open the can and scoop out the soft, fluffy, coco-licious cream at the top) over frozen cherries
• Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, BACON! Yeah.
• Olives
• Mild Kim-chi
• Farmers Market fruit, for when I need something sweet
• Grass-fed, Beef summer sausage

Chorizo Buttered Veggies (with a bit of Chalula Hot Sauce)

Bacon Buttered Veggies
Last night I made myself a new amazing veggified bacon meal.  It's also amazing with chorizo and chalula hot sauce - don't skimp on the butter!  Here's the recipe (for 1 serving):

1 slice of raw bacon chopped up into medium sized pieces
1 big bunch of fresh veggies cleaned and roughly chopped (I used long purple beans (they called them purple asparagus's at the farmers market, but I think that's bologna), green beans, wax (yellow) beans, kale, and some crazy type of spinach where you can also eat the stems (it's purple and green))
Grass-fed butter (Kerry Gold, anyone?!) to taste (I probably used about 4 tablespoons)

Start with a cast iron pan on medium heat.  Once its toasty, throw in your bacon pieces and mix around until they are cooked through and a little crispy.  Then add about a tablespoon of butter (or two if you're in the mood) to the pan and let it melt.  As soon as it is melted, toss the veggies into the pan and toss to cover with bacon pieces and melted butter.  Add more butter if you feel like it.  Toss and wait a minute and a half and then toss again, on and on until your veggies are cooked to your liking.  I added some pepper and truffle salt.  It was yummy.  Check it out!

Shampooing your hair? You're doing it wrong!

So by now, you've probably heard about "no-poo."  Or perhaps you haven't.  No, "no-poo" isn't about abstaining from taking a crap.  "No-poo"is a collective term for methods of washing hair with no commercial shampoo, according to Wikipedia.  I guess I'm kind of on a track to being a "crunchy granola" hippy, although I'm sure there are many that would disagree with my definition of hippy.  


In college, I had an amazing Women's Studies professor who told us all about how every time you shampoo your hair, or put on deodorant, or lather up shave gel, you are putting chemicals in contact with your skin.  Your skin is the largest organ you have and will transfer chemicals into your body.  


Then I went to a "Arbonne Party," A.K.A. a gathering where someone tries to sell you a bunch of natural makeup and skin care products, and they were talking about the ingredients in skin care products and how most are petroleum based or have other chemicals in them.  Then I read the following paragraphs from in "What's in this stuff?" :


Many of us rely on the fact that the chemicals we use every day have been fully tested and found to be safe for humans.  But the reality is that there are about 70,000 chemicals currently in use, with 1,000 new chemicals coming on the market each year.  There are no basic safety data for over 43% of all chemicals in use today, and full safety information is available for only 7%.  Among the compounds commonly used in household products [shampoo, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc.], there are full safety data for only a quarter of them.
...
Nowadays, we ingest dozens of harmful and largely unevaluated chemicals when we eat conventionally grown produce; fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides all combine to make so-called fresh food a significant source of poisons.  When we eat conventionally reared meats, we are ingesting growth hormones and a myriad of just-in-case medications given to conventionally farmed animals -- not to mention the pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and fungicides contained in their feed.  
... 
In addition, when manufacturers try to reassure us that potentially harmful chemicals are used only in small amounts in their products, they are glossing over some relevant facts.  Each day, we are exposed to many different chemicals.  For example, we don't just use a shampoo once in our lives; we use it regularly  sometimes daily, and we use it in hot showers and baths, so that the chemicals become vaporized and are absorbed in greater quantities into our bloodstream.


Then I spoke with a couple people at an "Eco-Judaism" retreat about no-poo.  They said it was really easy.  You just don't use shampoo.  You can use apple cider vinegar to condition your hair.  You can use  a mix of water and baking soda, if your hair becomes greasy.  Everyone has their own way of doing it.  So I figured I'd give it a whirl.


I have greasy hair, but I also have TERRIBLE psoriasis on my scalp.  So I started out by using a mix of water and baking soda to wash my hair and then conditioning it with apple cider vinegar -- every day.  Through the last few years I've been on again, off again of the no-poo thing, but recently, I've been on it.  Instead of washing it every day like before, I'll shower but just rinse my hair with only water.  Then a few days a week I'll drizzle my wet hair with apple cider vinegar, then rinse it out with water.  


I love the way my hair feels.  I love that I'm not adding additional chemicals to my body.  I love that it is very inexpensive.  I love that my psoriasis is much less prevalent.  


If you're interested, here are some more websites with info on "no-poo."


"No-Poo" Livejournal Board
Green Upgrader
MSNBC
Naturally Curly: The Curly Girl Method