Saturday, February 28, 2009

REAL Milk

If you have been following my blog and Duncan's Blog - you may have noticed that I have become an omnivore. I started craving meat about 5 months ago (I think my body starting craving "real" protein when I started weight training), combine my craving with a most excellent book Real Food by Nina Planck, and my fabulous doctor's nutritional supervision, I made the decision to incorporate meat back into my diet.

I tell you all of this because on this meat journey, I learned about the benefits of real dairy foods (mostly from Nina - she is very convincing). I've been drinking soy for a few years because I felt like I might have been mildly lactose-intolerant, plus most commercial milk is full of terrible things, but with incorporating meat, I have also added in the most delicious thing EVER (in my opinion)... real, raw milk from grass-fed, pastured cows. It is sooo good; Dunc and I have decided that you almost have to drink it like wine, smelling and savoring every sip. Although I don't drink any other milk, Dunc assures me that the taste is dramatically different.

Now, I thought it would be really hard to find RAW milk, mostly because of the whole unpasteurized deal, but lo and behold, farmers can sell it in stores and at farmers markets in this lovely state o'mine. Dunc, the dairy man, informed me they sell raw milk at Whole Foods, but it is not from grass-fed cows (important because cows were meant to eat grass -not grain- and the grass-fed cow's milk contain's more omega-3 fats, vitamin A and beta-carotene - also "butter and cream from grass-fed cows are rare sources of the unique and beneficial fat CLA." - Nina Planck, Real Food, pg. 68). After a bit of research from "Where Can I Find Real Milk?" I learned of a fabulous farm on Vashon Island, Seabreeze Farm, that sells their grass-based farm goods at our local farmer's market every Saturday. YAY! 




So if you haven't ever tasted the tasty tastiness that is raw milk, I encourage you to find yourself a good grass farm and partake! Yum yum! 












*If you've heard that raw milk is bad for you and causes tons of diseases, and want more information from someone who isn't a super gung ho raw milk fan, check out these guys:

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I can bake!

So this may or may not be over a week late, but I find it very hard to sit down at a computer anywhere else besides work. But today I have found myself home and in front of our computer. With this special occasion, I thought it was finally time to reveal the most delicious dessert I have EVER made.

I recently started following a number of blogs - mostly cooking blogs - like Bakerella, Orangette and Tartelette. I was inspired by their food photography and delicious recipes to create a Valentine's Day treat for Duncan. We personally think our anniversary (Feb 29th) is waaay cooler than Hallmark's Day of Love, but we can't ignore it, so we made a great dinner (I ate meat!) and followed it up with these tasty bites that took about 3 hours to create (including fridge time, not all work time).

Behold... Red Velvet Cake Balls!!!














For the first time in my life, I made a cake from scratch. Turns out Red Velvet takes FOUR TABLESPOONS of red food coloring - I cleaned our house out!



















Baked me a cake, cooled it and CRUMBLED IT! Very satisfying.














Mix that crumbled cake with cream cheese frosting (not made from scratch...)













Roll into balls and refrigerate!



















Then the best part, dip in delicious melted chocolate. And I decided to be festive and cover with love sprinkles.














Last step, CONSUME!

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