Welcome to another edition of Tasty Traditions, a real food blog carnival!

What is a real food blog carnival? It is the time for Real Foodies to share their wisdom and creativity. For those of you not familiar with a carnival, it is a place for bloggers to link their posts on a particular subject – in this case, real food.  These posts can be Real Food Recipes, Book Reviews, Tips for Healthy Living, Giveaways (involving Real Food or neat kitchen gadgets), Video Tutorials or Green Living Solutions. Just about anything that would help others in their quest to return to traditional healthy living.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, you can still join the fun! Simply post your recipe or tip in the comment section.

Rules to Participate:

1. If you are posting a recipe – Please only post REAL food recipes. That means no processed, fake ingredients like margarine – let’s keep it nourishing!

2. Please link the URL of your blog post NOT your homepage.

3. Show you are cultured by using your best blog carnival manners - Update your post with a link back to Tasty Traditions so others can enjoy the fun! For example – ” This post is part of: Tasty Traditions”

4. Speaking of sharing the fun – It would help me and others if you would share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other social media sites you participate in – you will help increase exposure to traditional real food.

5. Leave a comment with a description of your link.

I read somewhere that each home should have their own house dressing, just like restaurants …

And, to me, that means homemade salad dressing!

Since I have been on the GAPS diet for awhile with such phenomenal results, I have become very conscious of the ingredients in our foods. If it is not homemade, I read the label.

Ugh!- it is hard to believe how many ingredients some processed foods have! Not to mention how difficult some are to pronounce!

One food that is particularly filled with unnecessary ingredients is salad dressing. And, even the “healthier” brands will have canola oil which can go rancid quickly. This causes the manufacturers to use a deodorizing process to cover up the smell – this process also causes trans fats to be produced!

So, I would like to share with you my basic house salad dressing. Please keep in mind that the following recipe is just a start don’t be afraid to use your own imagination and try different spice blends. The recipe follows the video.

Before I give you the basic recipe, let me remind you that this is a basic recipe to get you started. Use your imagination … rosemary, sage, Italian blends, honey and mustard – the possibilities are endless! You can even make a creamy dressing by cutting the  raw apple cider vinegar down to 1/4 c. and adding cultured sour cream to the basic recipe.

Oh, and don’t forget the extra virgin olive oil that provides oleic acid!

This recipe is easily doubles, tripled, quadrupled so you always have some on hand. If you make it ahead the spices blend together so that it is even more delicious!

 Homemade Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 c. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 c. raw apple cider vinegar

1 tsp sea salt (where to buy REAL salt)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

If you are looking for organic non-irradiated herbs & spices Click Here.

Procedure

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and whisk to blend thoroughly.

Pour over your salad and enjoy!

I posted a few weeks ago about getting organized in my kitchen – including my spices. You may have noticed the links to Mountain Rose Herbs in that post, as well as, in other recipes. I recommend them ONLY because they offer quality products and I have personally had good experiences with them. The products offered by Mountain Rose Herbs are free from irradiation and chemicals, certified organic and certified kosher.

I have found that I am able to save money by buying my herbs, spices, salt and teas in bulk. At first glance, Mountain Rose Herbs does have a high shipping rate. But, even taking into account the shipping prices, per ounce, they are more economical! I am able to purchase better quality products for less money than I can purchase them locally.

Buying in Bulk = Savings!

You might wonder what I do with bulk herbs. As you can see from the picture above, I have organized my herbs and spices in pint jars which are labelled. The remainder that does not fit into the jar gets resealed in the bag it was shipped in and placed in an airtight bucket. I store the bucket or buckets in a dark cool closet. This way, they stay fresh for a long time! It is also very convenient to have a stockpile so, when I empty a jar, I can simply refill it from my bucket!

Right now, I have two 2 1/2 gallon buckets of herbs in the closet and each bucket is labelled as to what is inside. This helps keep me organized and allows me to take advantage of the bulk discount prices that Mountain Rose Herbs offers. Here is the discount rate – keep in mind that the poundage is cumulative so the more you order, the more you save!

I love spending money to save money  

As stated on their website, the bulk herb, spice and tea discount schedule is:

Mix and match to receive substantial discounts without having to purchase multiple pounds of the same herb, spice, or tea.
Accumulate the total whole poundage of your order to receive these discounts (does not apply to ounce orders):
5-9 lbs – 10%
10-24 lbs – 15%
25+ lbs – 25%

You can even order with one or more friends and split the shipping cost, as well as, the pound bag of herbs and spices! I do this often with my daughter-in-law. It works great especially when we both just need an item or two!

The herbal teas from Mountain Rose Herbs smell and taste amazing. I have found that I can use less of their loose herbal tea than with any other brand and still have a wonderful cup of tea. I used the box that the tea was packaged in to make the label for my glass jar – it looks so nice in the pantry! The herbal teas I have tried so far are Vita-Blend, Mint, Memory Zest, Lemon Tea and herbal coffee.

Be sure to check out their monthly specials tab found at the top of the menu bar. With the last order I placed, I was able to purchase garlic powder for $2.50/lb – you can’t beat that!

I have also ordered and used supplies for soap making including essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs – the peppermint essential oil makes wonderful soap! The only problem with the peppermint was that when the boys came home from working in the vineyard and we had made soap, they were terribly disappointed that only soap had been made! The soap was sitting in the middle of the table in a cake pan and the house smelled so wonderful, they were sure a new homemade peppermint cake had been made!

Because I have been so pleased with the quality of the products from Mountain Rose Herbs, I have become an affiliate. This simply means that if you order from Mountain Rose Herbs using a link found here on Cultured Palate, I will make a small commission and you help support Cultured Palate.

A couple of weeks ago I detailed how we had started to apply EIFS to the greenhouse walls. Well, this week we completed them!

EIFS is an acronym for exterior insulation finishing system and also provides insulation value. It is like a synthetic stucco but more durable than traditional stucco. EIFS is applied in 3 steps – a thin layer of concrete is spread over the surface of your wall, then a fiberglass mesh is embedded into it and finally a color coat is applied for a more finished look. This color coat also adds more waterproofing to the wall. You can see the application of the first 2 steps by clicking here.

If you remember, we had poured the concrete in the ICF walls (another acronym for insulated concrete forms). We used the ICF for ease rather than for their wonderful insulation value. Since the ICF snaps together like really big legos, they are great for DIY’ers like us! So, the EIFS is applies directly to the surface of the ICF.

With vineyard work and the unfortunate event of a winery not paying, we were forced to put this and other projects on hold. Even though the winery has not completely paid us yet, since our Alabama house sold, we can finish some projects!

So, back to the project at hand – the greenhouse!

My favorite color is yellow. In fact, almost every major event in my life has been yellow – my bedroom growing up, our wedding, the baby nursery bedding, our house in Alabama and now the filter house. So, as you probably have already guessed, the greenhouse too will be a pale yellow!

The last coat of color is like grout with a lot of sand in it. First, the final coat is troweled on in a thin layer and then it is smoothed. It looks very easy. And, it is easy. But, it does make for some sore muscles over the next couple of days. Your hands get tired holding the trowel and your shoulder and arm feel like they will drop off! Still, it is worth the effort – the final product is not only nice looking but very durable. Because the greenhouse walls are 40 ft long, 2 people worked in adjoining areas, side by side. Of course, there were onlookers and extra helpers! Finally, we are ready to put the panels on the roof. But, since we have missed this years growing season, to start seedlings anyway, we are going to put the roof on hold and get started with the EIFS on the ICF barn we built last fall!

Welcome to another edition of Tasty Traditions, a real food blog carnival!

What is a real food blog carnival? It is the time for Real Foodies to share their wisdom and creativity. For those of you not familiar with a carnival, it is a place for bloggers to link their posts on a particular subject – in this case, real food.  These posts can be Real Food Recipes, Book Reviews, Tips for Healthy Living, Giveaways (involving Real Food or neat kitchen gadgets), Video Tutorials or Green Living Solutions. Just about anything that would help others in their quest to return to traditional healthy living.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, you can still join the fun! Simply post your recipe or tip in the comment section.

Rules to Participate:

1. If you are posting a recipe – Please only post REAL food recipes. That means no processed, fake ingredients like margarine – let’s keep it nourishing!

2. Please link the URL of your blog post NOT your homepage.

3. Show you are cultured by using your best blog carnival manners - Update your post with a link back to Tasty Traditions so others can enjoy the fun! For example – ” This post is part of: Tasty Traditions”

4. Speaking of sharing the fun – It would help me and others if you would share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other social media sites you participate in – you will help increase exposure to traditional real food.

5. Leave a comment with a description of your link.

Recently a friend asked me exactly how I soak my nuts and what I do to dehydrate the nuts after soaking. She had read about phytic acid and the importance of properly prepared grains and nuts but just didn’t know how to do it! So, I thought maybe some others would like a step by step tutorial.

But, before I get to the nitty gritty of the how-to’s, let’s review a bit.

You probably already know how important it is to properly prepare your grains and nuts, but if not, see Grain Preparation for more information.

Do you remember what phytic acid is and what it does?

 Phytic acid is present in the bran of all grains and the hulls of nuts and seeds. Phytic acid inhibits absorption of minerals – especially calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc – in the body. According to Wikipedia:

In-home food preparation techniques can reduce the phytic acid in all of these foods … effective methods are soaking in an acid medium, lactic acid fermentation, and sprouting.

Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient. It prevents your body from absorbing minerals and binds with them to make them unavailable to the body for use.

Sprouting or soaking the grains overnight is a very easy way to properly prepare nuts. When you hear the word, “sprouting”,  if you are like me, you think of the little sprout that comes out of the seed or nut after it is soaked and left for 1 to 3 days. Soaking overnight also sprouts the nuts but the little sprout is microscopicly small.

Proper preparation of nuts and grains neutralizes the phytic acid making them more easily digested plus increases the  nutritional value!

The following tutorial is based on the Crispy Nuts recipe found in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook written by Sally Fallon. I think this cookbook is a must for every REAL food kitchen. If you don’t have it yet, you are in for a treat! This is an easy way to properly prepare nuts so as to neutralize phytic acid and make the nuts more digestible. Crispy Nuts is a great start to delicious homemade trail mix – my children love it!

Soaking and Dehydrating Nuts

Ingredients

4 c. raw nuts – almonds, pecans, cashews *, peanuts, hazelnuts 

2 Tbsp sea salt (where to buy REAL salt)

Procedure

Mix the nuts, salt and water and leave overnight to soak.

In the morning, drain the water from the nuts. I don’t rinse them – they are good with a hint of saltiness.

Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet.

Place in a warm oven – 170F for 12 – 24 hours – My oven only goes down to 170F but if I am using the dehydrator, I set it to 150F. Stir occasionally (if you think about it) until the nuts are completely dry and crisp. Make sure to dry the nuts completely or they may mold if kept over 2 weeks.

Store in an airtight container.

* Cashews take a bit more care because even if they are “raw”, they have already been heated twice during processing. Do not soak cashews  too long or dry them out too slowly – they develop a bad taste. For cashews, soak in salt water for 12 hours and dry in an oven set to 200F.

If you have been around for awhile, you know that we moved from Alabama a little over 5 years ago. We left a very comfortable lifestyle (thanks to corporate America) to relocate in west Texas and start a vineyard.

Unfortunately, our nearly 5,000 sq ft home about 40 minutes from Mobile was put on the market just in time for the housing crash.

And, there it sat!

For a little over 5 years that beautiful house – our dream house, the one we were to grow old in – sat unsold!

But, in a quick flurry, the right person came along and it sold!!!

Now, we are Texans for good – hopefully!

So, this past weekend, we had a “Yeah – the House Sold Party”!

All the children were here, of course, including our second oldest son and his wife from El Paso, a friend from east TX, John’s brother, Joe from Tennessee, neighbors, grape growing friends and church friends. We ended up with quite a crowd!

Being a bit compulsive, when everything was over, I had to check the guest list of those who had RSVP’ed and we had 92 people! The party was held in the overhang of our new barn and thankfully the weather was perfect. There was just a slight breeze as opposed to our very common 20+ mph winds!

The menu included a shrimp boil, coleslaw, rolls,  sweet tea, water, lemonade, beer and coffee. Oh, I forgot to mention the 2 full-sized sheet cakes – and no, they were not sweetened with honey nor were they healthy, but, they sure were good! This definitely fell into the 80/20 rule meal!

Our goal was to have something for everyone! There was a lot of fun, fellowship and even a bouncy house for the children.

Needless to say, no one was in a hurry to leave. I think after the freezes we have had over the past few weeks and the grape crop being pretty well devastated, everyone was ready for some fun and relaxation! Going well after dark, we finally cleaned up and had a fire that took the chill off the cool night air.

Returning back to the house with the friends left, we continued talking and having fun until after midnight! Then, when everyone was gone, we watched “Doctor Who” which is free with Amazon Prime. (This is an example of my using “we” loosely – I fell asleep in the recliner and woke just in time for the end – about 2:30 am!

Welcome to another edition of Tasty Traditions, a real food blog carnival!

What is a real food blog carnival? It is the time for Real Foodies to share their wisdom and creativity. For those of you not familiar with a carnival, it is a place for bloggers to link their posts on a particular subject – in this case, real food.  These posts can be Real Food Recipes, Book Reviews, Tips for Healthy Living, Giveaways (involving Real Food or neat kitchen gadgets), Video Tutorials or Green Living Solutions. Just about anything that would help others in their quest to return to traditional healthy living.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, you can still join the fun! Simply post your recipe or tip in the comment section.

Rules to Participate:

1. If you are posting a recipe – Please only post REAL food recipes. That means no processed, fake ingredients like margarine – let’s keep it nourishing!

2. Please link the URL of your blog post NOT your homepage.

3. Show you are cultured by using your best blog carnival manners - Update your post with a link back to Tasty Traditions so others can enjoy the fun! For example – ” This post is part of: Tasty Traditions”

4. Speaking of sharing the fun – It would help me and others if you would share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other social media sites you participate in – you will help increase exposure to traditional real food.

5. Leave a comment with a description of your link.

Chocolate covered bananas are a real treat!

Healthy chocolate covered bananas – even better!

I haven’t even mentioned yet that they are GAPS legal – just make sure the bananas are ripe and have spotted skins!!!

Imagine how excited I was to find a chocolate recipe using coconut oil! If you missed it, you should stop right now and make Chocolate Coconut Oil Treats – Regular and Spicy. This was my first attempt at a chocolate recipe to feed our sweet tooth but still be healthy. Since it was met with such approval, I became more confident to venture out and try more!

The chocolate covered bananas recipe also uses coconut oil mixed with cocoa to make a delicious syrup that coats bananas or any fruit well – think strawberries, grapes, pineapple…

When I first made chocolate covered bananas, I froze them and it was delicious BUT out teeth hurt from the cold! So, now after dipping the bananas, I keep them refrigerated so the coconut oil stays solid.

Since our children were older when we began our REAL food journey, we have taste buds which have been influenced by processed foods. Not that we ate a diet high in processed foods and sugar especially, but refined sugar defined the “special-ness” of treat foods. So, I am always trying to find suitable replacements that will be healthy but also nutritious and these chocolate covered bananas fit the bill!

I started taking coconut oil to increase my metabolism and help balance hormones. Coconut oil is a very healthy oil! Regular intake of coconut oil:

• improves the body’s immune system and helps fight off viruses and bacteria
• helps stabilize  blood sugar
• helps stabilize hormone levels
• helps boost thyroid levels to increase metabolism, energy and stamina
• improves digestion and helps absorb fat soluble vitamins
• decreases cholesterol levels. Coconut oil has a saturated fat called lauric acid which has been shown to increases the good HDL cholesterol in the blood to help improve cholesterol ratio levels.

Chocolate Covered Bananas

Ingredients:

• 5 bananas, cut in half
• 2 cups coconut oil, at room temperature (where to buy coconut oil)
• 4 Tbsp raw honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (where to buy REAL salt)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (where to buy)
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• wooden sticks – popsicle or shish kebob

Procedure:

1. Mix the coconut oil, honey and vanilla together. I heated mine in the microwave for 1 minute since the house was cool and the coconut oil was solid.

2. Blend in the remaining ingredients – sea salt, cinnamon and cocoa powder

3. Blend until light and fluffy – I used my immersion blender

4. Skewer each banana half  with a wooden stick – I used shish kebob sticks broken in half and used both halves for one banana since I did not have popsicle sticks

5. Dip each banana half in the chocolate mixture rotating to cover.

6. Place each dipped banana on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet

7. Freeze for about 3 minutes to harden the chocolate

8. Continue to dip and freeze bananas to reach the desired thickness of chocolate – I dipped them 3 times.

9. After the chocolate is the desired consistency, place in the refrigerator or freeze – remember, coconut oil liquefies at about 75F so it is important to keep them cool!

10. After dipping is complete, pour any extra chocolate into a parchment paper lined dish and refrigerate until firm – this makes delicious chocolate candy!

Enjoy!

This post is part of: Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesday, Party Wave Wednesday

April went by like lightning – but then this whole year is whizzing by!

I think this has been one of the most challenging months since beginning the vineyard! We have had temperatures in the high 80F’s most days but then dropping below freezing for the last 3 weeks and each week has been on a Wednesday! There was even snow – which you do NOT want to see in a budding vineyard!

We finally finished pruning the vineyard and that meant catch up time for me with things in the house – working so much in the vineyard, I let things slide in the house! So, I enjoyed getting organized in my pantry and even my spices again.

One of the most exciting things that happened in April was beginning work on the greenhouse again – we poured the ICF walls and started the EIFS on the exterior.

I have been privileged to become a monthly contributor to The Nourishing Gourmet and shared How to Cook Nourishing Food for a Large Family. Join me there, where I shared five of my tips for preparing nourishing food for crowds.

Some of my favorite things around the blogosphere in April were:

• Oh Lardy gives a list of real food kitchen tools that includes tools you may want to purchase!
• With spring here (midst our freezing weather) I am planning the garden and am always tempted to buy new indoor plants. This article by Health Extremist about indoor plants that clean the air was very interesting and fed my temptation!
• Speaking of gardening, did you know that most of the garlic sold in the grocery store comes from China? Growing garlic is suppose to be easy!
• The Well Fed Homestead gives more information about compost and its benefits.
• I have shared before that I had started taking coconut oil to help balance my hormones and speed up metabolism. Living the Nourished Life shares 15 coconut oil skin recipes that look really good.
• Empowered Sustenance answered some of my questions about almond flour and reasons to avoid almond flour. While it is not a traditional food it does come in handy on the GAPS diet!
• Our family has been taking cod liver oil for quite sometime but PV Nutrition tells why cod liver oil for dogs is also beneficial!
• Since I can eat meat now – thanks to GAPS – I have found that I love bacon and these bacon wrapped green beans sound yummy!