Leaves Falling and Recipe Gathering

It's the Holiday Season...but not that one!

So I was walking into Costco a couple of weeks ago to pick up a couple of things, and I saw all the lovely Christmas decorations.

It was the BEGINNING of September. What???!!!!

Really, Christmas decorations being out before the middle of November, in my humble opinion, is a sin! Before my birthday is an abomination! (My birthday is at the end of September, in case you were wondering.) It's Autumn, people! We should be eagerly watching for the leaves to be falling from the trees, not looking for snow falling from the sky.

My brother doesn't even acknowledge Christmas decorations are in the store until the weekend after Thanksgiving. He will look at the shelves and comment, "Look at all those empty shelves. You would think the store would want to put merchandise on those shelves."

My brother cracks me up. Never a dull moment around that man.

But this does make me start thinking about that wonderful holiday tradition that everyone in my family loves...cookie baking season. I'm going to start hunting around for awesome Paleo/Primal cookie recipes. Keep coming back for more yummy ideas as I find and test them out.

Since it's currently Autumn, what are your favorite Fall recipes? Do any include cookies?

Grinding Your Own Hamburger Part 1

So I was listening to America's Test Kitchen on NPR yesterday, and I heard you can grind your own hamburger meat using a food processor.

Yes...you read that correctly...a food processor.

According to the chefs, using a food processor breaks up the connective tissue in the meat, so your burgers won't shrink up into tennis ball shapes when you fry/grill them. The show recommended using flank, skirt or flat iron cuts instead of chuck or round steak, though you can still use those cuts.

I'm curious to see if the meat will "stick together" less when you fry it in bulk instead of in patty shape. I have some flank or skirt steak in the freezer (can't remember which off the top of my head). I may just have to try this! Once I figure out the process, I'll present it in Part 2. I will make sure to try both bulk and patties during the test (lots of cooked beef makes for a happy household in my family).

What cuts do you think would be used for ground pork? Feel free to weigh in with a comment.

Breaded Pork Chops and Almond Flour Fritters

The old saying is that “necessity is the mother of invention.”

It seems that “waste not, want not” causes more invention in my house.

I was raised poor. I mean dirt poor. As in “eating out of church boxes, one missed rent payment from living in a box on the street” poor. So the idea of wasting food, even to this day, makes me sick to my stomach.

So when I decided I really wanted breaded and fried pork chops the other night, I hit a small conundrum. Okay, maybe a few small conundrums.

Conundrum 1 (I love this word, by the way): What am I going to bread the chops with? Regular flour is right out, because a) I don’t eat wheat and b) there isn’t any in the house.

Solution to Conundrum 1: Almond Flour. Why not? The texture of almond flour is closer to corn meal than wheat flour, so it would make a nice, crumbly crust. I thought, I’ll just dredge the chops in some egg and then the flour mix and fry them up. So here is the mix I used to make 2 chops. You'll want more oil if you make more.

Breaded Pork Chops

1 cup almond flour (you can use Bob's Red Mill or Trader Joe's)

1 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Salute Seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 tsp bacon grease

2 tsp coconut oil

Heat the oil in a skillet. Mix the almond flour, seasoning, and salt together in one pan. In the other pan, whip the eggs (don't cook them!). Dip the chops into the egg mixture, then dredge in the dry mixture on each side. Place in the skillet and cook on both sides until done. Don't turn them too much. I actually only turned the chops once.

It worked! The chops had a nice, fried, breaded coating...what? I'm a Hoosier! We like our fried food. And my husband and I don't cook like this often.

Then I hit…

Conundrum 2: What do I do with the leftover breading? Throwing away almond flour is completely out of the question! Even if it has had raw pork meat rubbed in it. Almond flour is way too expensive to waste! For that matter, so were the leftover farm-fresh grass-fed eggs I had used.

Solution to Conundrum 2: I’ll add a little more salt to the almond flour and seasonings then add the egg. I’ll fry them in the pan after the chops are done, and voila! Almond Flour Fritters!

What?

They’re kind of like a hush puppy, but shaped more like a pancake. But they were tasty! I stumbled upon a great idea! And here’s the recipe.

Almond Flour Fritters

Makes about 8-10 fritters

1 cup almond flour (I had to add some to get back up to a cup)

2 eggs (about 1 egg had been used to coat the chops)

1 tsp Trader Joe’s 21 Salute seasoning

¼ tsp salt

Oil for frying

 Mix the dry ingredients together, then blend in the eggs. Let the batter sit about 5-10 minutes. In a skillet, heat enough oil to be about ½-1 inch of oil. Drop teaspoon servings of batter into the skillet. Cook until done on one side, then turn and cook until done on the other side. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm. Though I had one the next day straight from my fridge, and it actually tasted better cold.

I served the chops and fritters with some boiled red potatoes (yeah, I know they're not Paleo, but I'm a little too Irish to give them up). Dinner got my husband, David's, grunt of approval.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of these tasty morsels.

You're the What?

"You're the Hoosier Paleo Gourmand?"

What?!!

Let me break it down.

Hoosier: I’m a Hoosier, born and raised. It means I come from Indiana. Love me or hate me for it…I really don’t care. It’s taken me years to reach this point, but I love the fact that I come from the Midwest. We’re an interesting set of people. Polite and friendly, but sometimes a little distant (until we get to know you, then we're often as loyal as you can get). A friend of mine claims we Hoosiers are a lot like our German ancestors that way (he’s from Lichtenstein, so I’ll take his word for it).

Paleo: I eat following (somewhat loosely) the Paleo eating style. It’s a healthy way of eating a lower carbohydrate diet that has a lot of health benefits (at least, to me it has). I’ll explain more about that in the next post. Is everything I follow “hardcore” Paleo? Lord, no! Being “hardcore” about eating is too stressful, and I live by this motto…

“Stressing out about eating healthy defeats the purpose!”

Gourmand: I’ve been cooking since I was 9 years old, but I’ve never been “professionally” trained, unless being trained by a short-order cook and bakery/deli counter worker counts (Hi, Mom!). And a “gourmand” is someone who loves and appreciates food (and knows a lot about it) but doesn’t have professional training regarding it (that would be a “gourmet”).

So that's me...the Hoosier Paleo Gourmand!

Join me on my journey as I explore the wonderful world of food, through both the adventures in my kitchen and the amazing foraging I do out in the world of grocery stores, farmers markets, and restaurants. Buckle up! It’s going to be a wild and crazy (but tasty) ride!