So, if you haven't been reading the comments on my face book, I'm pretty sure that you probably have the wrong idea about this post based on the title of the message. No one has fallen down and scraped up their precious shins.
So this week's project is to make homemade beef stock. A few weeks ago, I checked the store, and guess what...they don't sell beef part ingredients for making stock. We'll, I just so happened to get to know a new wonderful family at church and her hubby is a butcher, and we found out a few months later that her brother is Baker, although he is not *a* Baker, that's just his last name. For those of you who don't know "Baker" his name is Eric Baker, and he and my hubby have been buddies for quite a while. Obviously, if you know me and my hubby...they both share the same first name which is why we just call him Baker. We had our bonfire wedding in his backyard.
Hu-mongo thanks to our friends, we were able to obtain all of the *ingredients* even at the perfect price! So, Saturday our friends delivered the marrow and neck bones, but the cow shins...or whatever cow legs are called from the "knee" down, would have to wait until Monday. To my surprise the shins arrived...all 21.5lbs of them arrived with fur, WOW...fur makes it a bit more real.
I knew for sure I'd need some back up. So, my other Amish-wannabe friend (note the hyphen to differentiate that she most definitely is my friend and the wannabe links to the other noun in that phrase) and I got together this morning and embarked on a whole new experience for making beef stock. We did reminisce about how easy it was to just measure out at teaspoon of Wyler's bullion granules. But this way, is the healthful way.....you can can learn why here: beautiful broth. We know it will be worth all the effort. Although, admittedly we knew nothing of how to accomplish skinning shins, but we decided that its much easier to get started when you have a friend there that is just as clueless as you.
So, we spread the table with paper sacks and tied on our aprons and got started. About 2/3rds of the way through our project my friend reminded me that the book did say that the hooves were *optional. We laughed about that and decided we would finish skinning 3 of the shins and to just chop the hoof off the 4th one. We did take a few moments to show the kids how the ligaments worked and printed off some information about the anatomy of the hoof, us homeschooling mama's are always looking for ways to incorporate school into our daily life.
Next we obtained permission to use the hack-saw, but before we got started my gracious hubby offered to do the hoof removal. I have to say that was a bit of a relief. Today was prep day, tomorrow we'll start the stock.
The thought of boiling calves hooves isn't nearly as bad after going through the process of skinning them first. Plus, I learned what to ask the butcher for next time....So much for my Amish training.
Unfortunately my Encyclopedia of Country Living book arrived on the front porch this evening. It as a whole chapter dedicated to raising cows and butchering them.
Well my awesomely wonderful husband helped us with the hooves. I sat idly by and read through my new book to see if I could come up with some helpful info. He tried out a few different saws and it was quite entertaining watching him. He decided to go out to his wood-shop and build a "shin-stabilizer". (I think he just wanted an excuse to build something with his new dado set that arrived in the shipment with my book). Next he attached the hoof to the stabilizer by drilling a screw through it, and used 2 clamps to secure it to the table so he could hack-saw through the first hoof section. He decided to try out the sawzall to cut through the second. So very un-Amish like, but it worked well. Round 2: on to separating the joints on the skinned shins....and after a bit of practice he was able to get the 3rd one apart in 2-minutes and 40-seconds...yes, we timed him just to see how good he was! I'd say that's good!
Showing posts with label weston Price Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weston Price Foundation. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
BTW, I've be come a "foodie"
for my online novices..BTW = by the way :)
Our little Corban would eat and eat and eat then poop and poop and poop, but never getting fed. His food went strait through his system without absorbing the nutrients from his food, staying in a constant state of hunger. His diapers were overflowing and a huge mess multiple times a day and Mama needed a solution. Our pediatrician said he didn't know a whole lot about special diets, so I took some friends' advice and called up a nutritionist.
When we first tried giving him dairy (at 11ish months) it didn't seem to go over very well, even when we used raw whole milk instead of the dead milk they sell at the grocery store, interesting concept. Pasteurization isn't really for our health, but actually for the convenience of shipping milk all across the country.
Corban has been on a Gluten Free and Dairy free diet for the past 4 months....it seems like it's been forever though! He's been wheat and dairy free since April and started an enzyme as well which really helped his appetite. Two days before we went to see the nutritionist we tried giving him some Goat's milk, to see how he would react and he had his first "solid" BM since...maybe ever!
The nutritionist (Lorrie Metford) did a finger prick and we looked at his blood under the microscope. His cells were 3 different sizes and clumped together so she advised that we start a few things. The gluten free diet helped his appetite and nutrition absorption issues some, but she advised that we continue the enzyme as well as the gluten free diet but keep doing the goat's milk, she also added in a pro-biotic, zinc and b complex whole food supplements. Things were shaping up nicely...especially in his diapers! They were what I think is "normal" and only once a day for a change. Which is great when he was having 5-6 a day that were a complete mess!
Well a few weeks ago, I didn't make it over to the dairy to pick up the goat's milk...which is much cheaper there than the store ($9.50 vs $16 per gallon) and I started noticing that his diapers were going back to how they were before we started all the supplements. The past few days we stopped doing the supplements also just to see how he reacts and we aren't seeing much of a change, so I think all in all it's the goat's milk that is really helping the most. Come to find out, interestingly enough Goats milk is the most closely realated to human breast milk and what people have been consuming as "milk" all over the world, and it's mentioned in the bible. Imagine that, God knows what we should be eating, maybe we should ask Him instead of the food network?
I'm prayerfully considering taking him to see a pediatric-dietitian or an allergist. Meanwhile he will continue the healthy diet, and hopefully help get the rest of the family off processed food and sugar....which leads me into my food rant, you have been forewarned: enjoy!
Researching all this nutrition information has made thinking about food very frustrating. We've been convinced over the past 50 years that what we are supposed to eat was based on balancing the profit margins of the main areas of the food industry rather than our nutrition. They have won us over by chemically addicting the American people to THEIR idea of "food" which means as long as it only kills us off slowly, is shelf stable, cheap to make and sell all they gotta do is slap some bold and misleading label...like "all natural flavors" or throw in the tiniest amount of "fruit or vegetable" in the recipe and call it Yogurt Blends or Sweet Potato Puffs....so we feed it to our infants and Voila....our babies are slowly drawn into this unhealthful addiction as soon as they are off of 1st stage foods (that's the little jars that they eat for the first 2-3 months, at least they only contain water as an extra ingredient.)
I knew that processed foods were not the best, everyone does, I think. What about baby formula which is also a culprit and represented as the "only" option (it is not) besides breastfeeding. Since I make my own "baby food" I know for sure what is going into the food and thought using "basic" ingredients would be enough. Nope. I found that I didn't even realize that some things are processed that seem natural. I found that I could get puffed wheat by the bag, the only ingredient listed was red wheat, and it was cheap...Score!! I fed it to Corban around 9 months of age and he loved it, it was a great alternative to cheerios, which daddy is not fond of, even if anyone tries to convince him that they have a "breathing hole". One choking episode with his niece a few years ago was all he needed! Anyway, a few weeks ago, I read about a little study on puffed wheat. you can read it here: should we eat puffed grains? Evidently lab rats are better off eating a card board box than what the grocery store sells as cereal. The ones who got cornflakes died before the ones who got cardboard box and the ones who ate puffed wheat lived 2 weeks, while the ones on regular whole grain wheat lived over a year. I didn't really think about puffed wheat even being processed...who knew, don't I feel stupid! Then there's also the sugar issue, even the rats addicted to cocaine chose sugar over their drugs. We wonder why we're the most unhealthy people in the richest nation in the world. Forget health care, we need an overhaul on the food industry, maybe if we stop filling our bodies with garbage we'll feel better and live longer....but then again it means more time and work and getting past that addiction. I think unfortunately most Americans would rather die and enjoy it while lasts, so sad.
For more information on food check out the Weston Price Foundation its a great resource, very interesting reading.
Our little Corban would eat and eat and eat then poop and poop and poop, but never getting fed. His food went strait through his system without absorbing the nutrients from his food, staying in a constant state of hunger. His diapers were overflowing and a huge mess multiple times a day and Mama needed a solution. Our pediatrician said he didn't know a whole lot about special diets, so I took some friends' advice and called up a nutritionist.
When we first tried giving him dairy (at 11ish months) it didn't seem to go over very well, even when we used raw whole milk instead of the dead milk they sell at the grocery store, interesting concept. Pasteurization isn't really for our health, but actually for the convenience of shipping milk all across the country.
Corban has been on a Gluten Free and Dairy free diet for the past 4 months....it seems like it's been forever though! He's been wheat and dairy free since April and started an enzyme as well which really helped his appetite. Two days before we went to see the nutritionist we tried giving him some Goat's milk, to see how he would react and he had his first "solid" BM since...maybe ever!
The nutritionist (Lorrie Metford) did a finger prick and we looked at his blood under the microscope. His cells were 3 different sizes and clumped together so she advised that we start a few things. The gluten free diet helped his appetite and nutrition absorption issues some, but she advised that we continue the enzyme as well as the gluten free diet but keep doing the goat's milk, she also added in a pro-biotic, zinc and b complex whole food supplements. Things were shaping up nicely...especially in his diapers! They were what I think is "normal" and only once a day for a change. Which is great when he was having 5-6 a day that were a complete mess!
Well a few weeks ago, I didn't make it over to the dairy to pick up the goat's milk...which is much cheaper there than the store ($9.50 vs $16 per gallon) and I started noticing that his diapers were going back to how they were before we started all the supplements. The past few days we stopped doing the supplements also just to see how he reacts and we aren't seeing much of a change, so I think all in all it's the goat's milk that is really helping the most. Come to find out, interestingly enough Goats milk is the most closely realated to human breast milk and what people have been consuming as "milk" all over the world, and it's mentioned in the bible. Imagine that, God knows what we should be eating, maybe we should ask Him instead of the food network?
I'm prayerfully considering taking him to see a pediatric-dietitian or an allergist. Meanwhile he will continue the healthy diet, and hopefully help get the rest of the family off processed food and sugar....which leads me into my food rant, you have been forewarned: enjoy!
Researching all this nutrition information has made thinking about food very frustrating. We've been convinced over the past 50 years that what we are supposed to eat was based on balancing the profit margins of the main areas of the food industry rather than our nutrition. They have won us over by chemically addicting the American people to THEIR idea of "food" which means as long as it only kills us off slowly, is shelf stable, cheap to make and sell all they gotta do is slap some bold and misleading label...like "all natural flavors" or throw in the tiniest amount of "fruit or vegetable" in the recipe and call it Yogurt Blends or Sweet Potato Puffs....so we feed it to our infants and Voila....our babies are slowly drawn into this unhealthful addiction as soon as they are off of 1st stage foods (that's the little jars that they eat for the first 2-3 months, at least they only contain water as an extra ingredient.)
I knew that processed foods were not the best, everyone does, I think. What about baby formula which is also a culprit and represented as the "only" option (it is not) besides breastfeeding. Since I make my own "baby food" I know for sure what is going into the food and thought using "basic" ingredients would be enough. Nope. I found that I didn't even realize that some things are processed that seem natural. I found that I could get puffed wheat by the bag, the only ingredient listed was red wheat, and it was cheap...Score!! I fed it to Corban around 9 months of age and he loved it, it was a great alternative to cheerios, which daddy is not fond of, even if anyone tries to convince him that they have a "breathing hole". One choking episode with his niece a few years ago was all he needed! Anyway, a few weeks ago, I read about a little study on puffed wheat. you can read it here: should we eat puffed grains? Evidently lab rats are better off eating a card board box than what the grocery store sells as cereal. The ones who got cornflakes died before the ones who got cardboard box and the ones who ate puffed wheat lived 2 weeks, while the ones on regular whole grain wheat lived over a year. I didn't really think about puffed wheat even being processed...who knew, don't I feel stupid! Then there's also the sugar issue, even the rats addicted to cocaine chose sugar over their drugs. We wonder why we're the most unhealthy people in the richest nation in the world. Forget health care, we need an overhaul on the food industry, maybe if we stop filling our bodies with garbage we'll feel better and live longer....but then again it means more time and work and getting past that addiction. I think unfortunately most Americans would rather die and enjoy it while lasts, so sad.
For more information on food check out the Weston Price Foundation its a great resource, very interesting reading.
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