Test Kitchen: Day 2

More weird and funky things coming out of the test kitchen because it's frigid here and all I want to do is stay toasty and make yummy foods. Look at all the buildings running their heat. I didn't even go outside yesterday.

Breakfast prep...ramekins greased with tallow

Broth warming

I lined the bottom with ox tail meat

Then a layer of zucchini and spaghetti squash

Homemade bbq and more meat because a gal can never have too much meat.

Eggs cracked on top of the lot and in the Breville

Precious drink ready to go

Eggs after about 20 minutes. I am still figuring out the fine nuances of the Breville. Me thinks the convection should not have been on but whatevs.

While the eggs cooled a little I mixed more oxtail with the homemade bbq sauce for dinner.

Breakfast... since my avocados weren't ripe so I quickly chugged a glass of homemade almond milk with about 2 tbsps of cold pressed flax seed oil shaken up (no pic sorry!). Easy, yummy omega 3 and good fats. I personally need a lot of fat protein and veggie carbs in morning to set me up properly for the day and of course the bone broth.

With the egg mixed in

Lunch...I am really bad for eating half my meal while I am prepping the half. What you don't see was celery loaded with half a can of tuna and homemade mayo the way you make ants on a log. I ate 3 of those while making the other half of my lunch which you do see. The lone leftover burger with bbq sauce and mayo and huge salad with homemade dressing (raw apple cider vinegar, extra light evoo and some weird brown compliant mustard all shaken together)

Check out my cute new travel mug. It's the kiddie mug from David's Tea (you NEED to know about David's Tea...my savior after I gave up coffee. If you don't have a brick and mortar, check em out online) I heart this mug, it's my new hot room cup since I totally demolished my old one I bought only 2 months ago. I am rough on to-go cups.

 FINALLY! Homemade bacon. Apologies for the lighting in the test kitchen, it is awful AND the fixture is in a really weird spot so it casts shadows from almost every angle. This friends is homemade bacon. Uncured pork belly from the Asian grocery store, rubbed in sea salt and a tiny pinch of garlic powder and left to brine in the fridge for a week.

I was unaware I was suppposed to slice the skin off BEFORE the brine step, so I just cut it off after. These pictures make it look awful and it doesn't help that it gets dark at like 4pm here. I tried my best not too cut off too much fat and to not cut into the flesh. I think I did an ok job for the first time and it was cold and slippery as hell.

Bacon and a the removed skin.

Once the belly was doing it's slow bake I was left with the skin and what to do with it. I basically don't throw anything out anymore (almond pulp got made into awesome almond flour, squash seeds saved and roasted) pig skin apparently makes delicious cracklings. I read on the web for about 15 minutes about lots of confusing methods on how to make them one involved a hair dryer...no effing way was I doing that. So I cut up most of em into small squares and cooked em in the cast iron until my smoke detector went off and then I threw them in the Breville with the 2 small strips I put in there to see how they would do.

This is the end product. The end product was delicious. Crunchy, kinda chewy, salty and a little greasy...basically heaven. I got 2 small pieces before the beasts literally devoured the rest. Add pork skin to the list of stuff that was going to go in the garbage but ended up being awesome. That yellow thing is fluff from the towel I put them on to dry...please remove fluff before eating.

Time to start dinner...I riced up a quick bit of cauliflower for fried "rice" to go with the "pulled" oxtail I mixed up in the am.

Dinner...fried "rice", pulled oxtail with homemade bbq sauce and leftover spaghetti squash and chives because I'm fancy.

Lots more goodness in the test kitchen as the bacon has to get sliced and cooked, the bone broth will be done soon and other things!

Test Kitchen: Day 1

30 came and it's here and it really wasn't anything to throw a hissy over. I did the things I love with the people I love and that included hot yoga with K.P. She did so good and I was so proud of her. The instructor asked how old I was and I said 30. Apparently her idea was to do as many vinyasas as my age. Vinyasas are like yoga push ups and link 4 moves together in a flowing manner. A regular class has about 10 vinyasas but I was amped to do 30...others were not as amped to do 30. I think we did about 24 but I felt great doing them with no fatigue and K.P pushed em out like champ.

I came home smiling to make food with my husbie...I swear my fishie cutting board was giving me the "life is groovy" smile. He was recused from a bin about to hit the trash years ago. That avocado was not ripe...unripe avocados are my first world problems right now.

 Hard boiled egss were made to sing

LA LA LAAAAA!

I got dem bones son! Sunday is officially starting making your week's bone broth day.

 I roasted my bones before hand this time because it's effing SMART!

Pause for food...big ass salad and tuna lettuce boats with homemade mayo and sauerkraut! I am so proud of myself for eating sauerkraut. It is something I was confident I would never love but it is actually really good in this combo and the only ingredients in mine are cabbage and salt and it's made in Germany...right proper.

Roasted marrow bones. I poked the marrow...you know...for science and shit....One it was really hot and two it was very delicious and jelly-like. Apparently a restaurant near me serves great bone marrow, I now of course want to check it out.

I brushed the bones with tomato paste for the last 20 minutes of the bone roasting process. This batch of bones is identical to the last batch. My next batch has a different combination of bones...yes, I am already hoarding more bones in my freezer.

I decided to use salt again at the beginning. I used this tiny amount of pink Himilayian salt (I love this salt!)

Bones in the pot...add water and walk away

Homemade compliant bbq sauce bubbling away

And the finished delicious product.

Birthday dinner! Sushi was typically our celebratory meal but I decided to make my own birthday dinner...burger...not just any burgers....bison burgers...not just any bison burgers, bison burgers WITH LIVER! YES, LIVER...in my 30th birthday dinner burgers. More "lettuce boats" as we call them, these have essentially replaced bread for things like sandwiches and burgers.

A done up bison and liver burger with homemade mayo and bbq sauce...OMG...so.freaking.good. I wanted to try organ meat and liver seemed like a good place to start. I used a 10% liver ratio to 1lb of local ground bison. I don't have a meat grinder so I just chopped it up and put it in the FP until I had liver paste then mooshed the liver paste into the ground bison as I was squishing in the seasonings.

Burger making station with a fresh batch of bone broth in the slow cooker...happy kitchen!

Lots of test kitchening occuring this week as I am in the final stages of preparation for a pretty big challenge. I feel like I have more than just the basics nailed down which is great. I also have more than a few people curious about bone broth, hot yoga and lots of other good things which is super awesome!

30

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I officially have lived longer than I ever though I would, for some reason I have always thought I would be dead by 30 but I'M AAAAALLLLIIIVE, loving it and actually in the best shape of my life...so 30 is fucking awesome!

Since I've been gone,  I haven't taken many pictures. Yoga kinda sucked me in then craddled me close to her warm sweet pachouli scented bossom and that's where I am have been nestled but work on the massive Shoppers continues. This pic is over 2 months old. They have all the iron girders and I beam up now.

 COLOR!

A particularly foggy day

The happiest avocado pit you will ever see

 We carved pumpkins...this is husbie's...I love his happy face

Mine...I refuse to branch out and I carve the same simple face every single year

BUDDY...DUDE...HOMIE

The light in your eyes...is shinnnning

Then Miss Em came back into town to visit...and she jacked my camera and took about a billion pictures. I love when I get camera jacked the follow 5 photos are taken by her.

J wrecking a lovely shot of the 2 of them

I made them a paleo feast to dine on...Mmmmm sweet potatoes

Red, our darling fishie pants

STEAM CURLS!

My legs in long underwears, I am spying on the dinner in the oven but I love this shot and it reminds me of yoga for some reason

And the snow is on the ground now...all this now fell in less than 48 hours...no need to call the army, we just plow and carry on

 Paleo breakfast for a queen. I ate this for breakfast 4 days in a row it was soooo good. Sauteed zucchini, sweet potatoes, egg, oxtail meat, avocado and wilted greens.

And of course a delicious mug of bone broth (in a Lion King mug...what?)

  

Same breakfast different day... I am slowly phasing out my non-stick pan as I properly season my cast iron. Sauteing veg and meat.

 

After eggs are added...I call it a breakfast scramble or stiryfry

Plated and looking delish

Wilting baby green in tallow...Mmmm

BRUK-FUST!

BONE BROTH!

 More snow and treacherous driving

OH LOOK a tiny spaghetti squash...this cutie is birthday dinner

Tree sap goodness. I've never tried this kind before and it is AWESOME, it's very dark (the darker the better...In America, Grade B maple syrup is paleo-good-to-go. In Canada we grade with numbers and colors...Grade.1 Medium is paleo-good-to-go.)

 It even had a paleo-approved although I am sure completely unintentional dressing recipe...YES, mayo is paleo-good-to-go AS LONG AS YOU MAKE YOUR OWN...I do, it is the fucking bomb and so easy sleazy.

GAY TAPE! I went to evil Walmart and got sucked it....but it's rainbow tape I couldn't not!

Rainbow notebook! I might be obsessed with the rainbow lately.

GIMMIE PRESENT! My gift from the husbie

A smart oven so I can get rid of my microwave...irrationally excited!

Sexy blue LCD may I bask in your light?

My next Breville....a muthatfucking juicer!

 Test kitchen-ing some roasted broccoli

More gifts... a nut milk (HEEHEE NUT MILK HEEHEE) bag for homemade nut milks and a CUPPOW!

"rawesome"

I totally have a thing for mason jars and drinking out of them. I think I got more excited about the Cuppow than the Brevilla...Bone broth to go anyone?

Homemade cashew butter (I heart my Cuisinart FP...big time)

Snackies (fyi..there is debate over whether green beans are paleo...but they are for sure primal and DEFINITELY better than chips or crackers)

Pumpkin cranberry muffins from Everyday Paleo and I suck and can't find the link for the recipe ATM...these are for sure not vegan...I recall 6 eggs being part of the recipe.

I got a nasty cold and husbie bought these on a whim. I normally hate lozenges but these were 99.995% pure Canadian honey.

Absolutely no creepiness in the lozenges. They are really nice tasting and provide good throat relief. No creepiness and made in Canada, I am a big big fan.

 I am taking K.P (soon to be Mrs.K.S!...she's engaged) to pop her hot yoga cherry (ewww) at my home away from home, the Moksha studio. Namatse Bitches.