COMING OUT TO MUFFIN

KEFIR! My new jam. Making Kefir is wicked easy and supplies my with a continuous stream of probiotic goodness. I got these Kefir grains from my good friend Allie and have managed to keep them alive for about a month now. The process is simple: just put the grains in milk (i add a little cream too for an extra-thick drink) and store it in a warmish place for 24 hours, shaking them when you think of it. When it looks thick, strain out the grains and start the process all over again. EASY! The Kefir left over goes in the fridge (pour in a dash of vanilla extract) and you can drink it straight or make smoothies out of it. So good! Making Kefir means that you need a steady supply of milk on hand, as you change the milk every day and the grains will die if they are not stored in at least a little bit of milk. Bill has remarked on more than one occasion that I’m “really going through the stuff!” but all-in-all it’s pretty cheap and an excellent, healthy snack to have on hand at all times—I never feel as though I have too much Kefir. I highly recommend incorporating the routine into your kitchen! Let me know if you need some grains—I’ve been feeding my extras to the dog (they reproduce rapidly), but I’m sure she would share.

Peanut Butter & Banana Smoothie:

1 1/2 Cups Kefir

1/2 Banana

2 Egg Yolks (Free Range, Organic)

1 Tbs. Organic Peanut Butter

1 Tbs. Maple Syrup

1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg

Put it all ingredients in a blender and blend it up for a super yummy, protein-packed snack!!

                                             FUN WITH ORGAN MEATS!!!!

My second attempt at Pate. I made some chicken liver pate for my family for Christmas and it was a hit, so I decided to try again with duck livers. Hafta say, both were pretty dank. I was surprised by how easy the whole thing is. I always though the process was much more involved but all you do is saute the livers with onions and garlic for a few minutes, add some cognac and blend with a LOT of butter…delicious! I think I slightly overcooked the livers on the second time because the duck liver pate was a little less smooth and had a bit more of a grainy texture than the chicken liver pate but i DO think the flavor was better. I keep hearing and reading that eating liver is so essential and, as long as it is comin’ at me in the form of pate, I say BRING IT ON!

BEEF LIVER for dinner. I had some trouble with this one. It tasted just a little too much like the cow barn smells. I was having flashbacks of chipping poop of the poles in the barn for workday—not exactly the memory I wanted to equate to dinner. Weez and I shared my portion. Hoping to try this again after soaking the livers in milk or lemon juice to help get some of the gamey flavor out.

Liz makes BEEF HEART stew. Weez tries to help.

I felt it was appropriate to post this homage to Cliff Huxtable today, as we discovered yesterday that THEY REMOVED “THE COSBY SHOW” FROM NETFLIX…..WTF?!?!

Cliff wears this apron in Season 1, episode 9 “How Ugly Is He?” Check it out.

I made this apron for Liz for Christmas.

Our first fermented dairy project: HOMEMADE YOGURT! Made with raw milk from neighborhood favorite Livewater Farm. I followed the recipe from Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions”. It was super easy: the basic idea is to add yogurt that is already yogurt (we used Butterworks Farm’s jersey milk yogurt) to “gently heated” milk as a culture, then let it stand in a warm place (we wrapped the half-gallon jar in towels and put it in a cooler in front of a heating vent) for several hours to let those bacteria do their thing. I think I let it stand too long (12 hours) before straining, causing it to be a bit… grainy when it came out, but I mixed it up and then it was fine. I think next time I’ll strain it after more like 6 or 8 hours.

I like really thick, Greek-style yogurt so I strained it through cheesecloth for quite a while and then squuuuuueeeeezed it, which produced really cool looking “sweat beads” of whey on the outside of the cloth. I think it’s delicious. We ate it with honey and fleur de sel—highly recommend this combo. Liz put jelly on hers this morning - also very good. I saved the whey which is good for lots of stuff, from lacto-fermenting (add it to yr sauerkraut!) to simply drinking for a nice little probiotic boost (Liz thinks this is disgusting, but I like it!). I am REAL psyched to knock this off my “to-try” list, and expect to be making lots more yogurt very soon!

I stopped by the Aquaviva’s (a.k.a. Livewater Farm) last Sunday night to retrieve two dozen eggs (we’ve been eating a lot of eggs lately) only to be informed by Muffin Aquaviva, the lady of the house, that she had sold out. The guy in front of me offered to sell me a dozen but my good manners got the better of me and I declined. Muffin went into the house and roughed up eight ugly “odd ball” eggs which I bought from her and she promised to hold two dozen for me the next day. “They’re just flyin’ outta here” she boasted, “but you’re here all the time, I’ll save you some.” I told her that it might be my partner, Liz, that would come to retrieve them instead of me and she seemed struck dumb, somehow deflated. “She’s tall…” I coaxed, thinking her hesitation was her trying to summon a mental picture of my girlfriend. She finally said, “Oh, yes, I…I recognize that…your partner…Liz.” She smiled and shoved my crumpled three dollars in her pocket. As I was walking back to the car, I realized that I had just accidentally revealed that I was gay to my neighbor, my egg and milk retailer, Muffin. When I got back to the car, I turned to Liz and I said, “I think I just came out to Muffin”. We both decided that it was the perfect title for a blog.

In this space, we hope to document our adventures as a gay couple in rural territory - most of the writing will probably revolve around food and our dog.  You will hear more about Muffin.