Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 2

Week 2 of the Real Food Challenge was way easier than Week 1.  Much less bitterness.  Many more pancakes.  Correlation?  Yes.  Causal relationship?  Also maybe yes.

Day 8 – Fats for High Heat

If we are what we eat, I am becoming a sourdough pancake.  Cold, hot, plain, sweet, savory – good no matter how you eat them!  High heat fats task today, but no coconut or palm oil at the standard grocery store – surprise, surprise.  Why is the co-op so out of my way?  Will have to continue using butter and being careful not to let it get too hot.  Set out dough for tomorrow: noodle day.

Day 9 – Fight Against GMOs

First, please go check out Nourished Kitchen’s Action Alert: Genetically Engineered Alfalfa.  The USDA public commenting period on GE alfalfa ends tomorrow.

Not pretty, but very noodley.

Made sourdough noodles.  Took forever and couldn’t possibly be worth it.  Was. Ate with homemade alfredo.  Never realized noodles were actually a food, not just a vehicle for sauce or an inexpensive filler.  Sauce was weird, but who needs it with these noodles.  Recommendation:  Watch The End of Suburbia while making noodles to decrease whining about how hard it is to make noodles.

Day 10 – Fats to Eat Raw

Attempt #2 at wet sprouted rye bread-food.  Different method, equally inedible result.  Looked like a loathsome little heap of oatmeal, tasted like… not food.  Discouraged.  Nothing resembling bread in my house for a week now.  No end in sight.  I can feel the sprouted rye staring at me from the fridge.  Pathetic.

Day 11 – Sourdough (!)

Bread!  Could there really be bread?  Yes.  Maybe.  Not for at least twelve hours.  Mix dough, knead, cover, wait.  *tap foot impatiently*  Also, discovered that the spiced butter used to cook many Ethiopian dishes is a type of ghee.  Score!  That has been on my To Do list for years, literally.  Bumping it up and adding plain ghee alongside it.

Sourdough bread (mine!)

Day 12 – Finding Real Milk

Found some real milk in my fridge – so there, Day #12!  Domestic goddess today: two loaves of whole wheat sourdough, sprouted lentil yum, red cabbage yum, sourdough started naan and puffed rutabaga gratin.  That’s a lot of food, people.

Day 13 – Get Your (good) Bacteria

Leftovers make me happy.  Not cooking anything makes me happy.  Real food with no prep makes me happy.  Also, still no old man smell.  A little disappointed, a little relieved.

This made my house smell like curry. But I like curry.

Day 14 – Valentine’s Day, yo

Finally made it to the co-op – raw milk, eggs, onion (local, woo), spices for niter kebbeh, corn meal and coconut oil (I know, days behind).  Trying wheat berries instead of rye, because all the best cooks know to blame the ingredients if something doesn’t come out right.  Treated myself to a tasty kombucha drink because Day 14 told me to!

Bring on Week 3!

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9 Responses to Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 2
  1. Jamie
    February 16, 2010 | 9:08 am

    Wow! Look at the domestic Goddess here! Good job!

  2. Maggie
    February 16, 2010 | 3:42 pm

    I am in awe and bow before you. As for myself, I screwed up a loaf of sourdough bread today. Bad.

    • Jess
      February 16, 2010 | 8:03 pm

      Hah! Well I wouldn’t be in awe. Doesn’t awe require the bar be set a bit higher than, “I made this and it was edible”?

      • Maggie
        February 16, 2010 | 8:21 pm

        ooh…darling, no! not when you are starting with paleo-kitchen skills like mine

        • Jess
          February 18, 2010 | 3:29 pm

          Hm… traditional foods, paleo-cooking skills… at least they’re from the same era on the geologic time scale! /geekout

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