Pain, Pain, Go Away!

If you don't like fermented foods because they're too tart or sour, you might like these pickles. There's no vinegar or sharp taste. Even the onions are mild. They're not sweet, either, even though the recipe calls for brown sugar: the bacteria consume most or all of the sugar. They're just mild, savory pickles. There's no need to add culture because cucumbers naturally have  L. plantarum  bacteria on their surface.  Equipment needed 1 quart canning jar* with ring and lid (or fermenting lid) 1 fermentation weight or small, clean stones in a Ziploc baggie Ingredients 1 pound pickling cucumbers** (not salad cucumbers), preferably unwashed 1/4 sweet onion (like Vidalia) 1 teaspoon juniper berries 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns 1/2 teaspoon anise seed 1 tablespoon brown sugar 3 tablespoons pickling salt or other salt without iodine 1/4 teaspoon pickle crisp Filtered water free of chlorine Instructions Rinse the cucumbers in the filtered water...

If you miss battered cod on a low-carb, grain-free diet, here's a recipe that'll satisfy your craving. It's based on a Dr. Davis recipe. Battered cod and cole slaw Ingredients 1 pound cod fillets 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cod into 1-1/2 to 2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and butter. Beat continuously--don't let the butter cook the eggs. In a shallow bowl, combine the flaxseeds, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat each piece of cod in the egg mixture and then roll in the in the flaxseed mixture. Place on the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Eclipse Crescent Shadows Today was the total solar eclipse, and my house was in the "path of totality....

It's almost Christmas. Are you sick of sweets yet? Then you might like a hot, rich, savory pie on a cold winter's day. Savory pies are more common in England than America, but the pumpkin (a North American vegetable) and the buffalo ranch dip (a combination of American sauces--hot sauce that originated in Buffalo, New York and creamy ranch salad dressing) make this an American dish, made by an American who's had it up to here with pumpkin spice everything.  Ingredients Savory low-carb pie crust, cooked and cooled (I made the almond crust variation on the hazelnut crust recipe from 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender , page 436) 1 small pie pumpkin 3 eggs 1/2 cup Primal Kitchen Buffalo Ranch dip (it's medium heat) Directions Stab the pumpkin a few times at the top, through to the center. Bake it at 350F for one hour or until it gives when you touch it. Let cool. Cut off the top, scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and discard. Scoop out the flesh and mash or chop ...

Most readers know that magnesium supplementation is important, especially on low-carb diets. Magnesium deficiency is common, and low-carb diets require more magnesium--a mineral that's important for heart, muscle and digestive function and helps regulate blood sugar.  Photo from Unsplash . The magnesium powder in this recipe is the best form I've found--I had a lot of trouble with magnesium supplements during the pandemic not working, or giving me diarrhea, or (in the case of all the milk of magnesia) being contaminated with bleach. This magnesium powder doesn't require a carbonation machine, unlike some other powders. The peach flavor is only mildly sweet.  Note--limit servings to two per day, preferably spaced out several hours apart. Too much magnesium at once can have a laxative effect.  4-5 mint tea bags filtered water (enough for 1 medium pitcher) Doctor's Best magnesium powder, peach flavor Boil a cup of the water and add tea bags. Let steep for five minutes. Add...

 Tonight I set out to create the perfect summertime dessert: Low-carb: check. Full of prebiotic fibers: check. Full of beneficial bacteria: check. Cold but light and delicious on a hot day: check, check and check. If you serve this to someone who isn't used to lots of prebiotic fiber or high doses of bacteria, it could upset their stomach. For those guests, make some  XXX chocolate  or  lemon ice cream . * * * * * 1 green banana 1 can coconut milk (full fat, unsweetened) 2/3 cup yogurt (either Greek style or Dr. Davis style) (amount is 1 glass container that comes with some yogurt makers) 3 large strawberries, chopped Slice and puree the banana. Put the coconut milk in a large mixing bowl; puree if separated. Add the banana and yogurt, stir well. Stir in the strawberries. Process in an ice cream maker for 10 minutes. To serve leftovers, bring them out of the freezer 30 minutes ahead of time. 

By popular demand, I'm finally posting this recipe. People want cultured food besides yogurt--and here it is. It's tasty, it's non-dairy, and you can get apple and date goodness without the sugar.  After starting Ideal Immunity probiotics, my heart palpitations, which I've had since 2014, started improving. I can't remember the last time it happened. Another member at Dr. Davis's site said her atrial fibrillation improved on Sugar Shift (also made by Biotiquest), and now that she's taking Heart Centered (yet another formula they sell), she's better. I haven't tried fermenting those products, but they contain some of the same microbes as Ideal Immunity. It should go without saying that you need to make sure everything is very clean. No need to boil anything (I never do--everything around here is hand-washed); just remember that all microbes in the jar are going to multiply exponentially. Ingredients 2 apples, peeled and cored 2 carrots 4 dates, pitted...

Pants Don't Fit? It Might be the Pants If the clothes-o-meter says you're gaining weight, it might be the clothes that are off. Half the ladies' blouses I recently bought are medium sized (I normally take a small) and the jeans I just bought are smaller than the ones from before, even though they're they same brand, cut and size.  They're smaller in the thighs, too. I thought I'd had too much prebiotic fiber. This doesn't seem to be a one-off. One reviewer who bought the same jeans said she bought them a size up to wear over tights, but couldn't get them on even without tights. Over at Talbots--which normally carries high quality clothes--several reviewers complained about undersized jeans.  Click to enlarge (the screenshot--alas, it doesn't work on jeans) Of course, if your jeans used to fit--well, jeans don't shrink from sitting in a drawer.  Another Cold Averted? Regular readers know I'm prone to respiratory illnesses. But my last cold onl...

If you still have green tomatoes on the vine, you can make green salsa with them. It's tangier, the chunks are firmer than regular salsa, and it's unlike anything you can buy at the store. Recipe here .  Green tomato salsa.

This recipe is adapted from the New York Style Cheesecake recipe on Dr. Davis's site. Despite some kind members there recommending gum-free brands of cream cheese and even cultures to make your own, there's no acceptable cream cheese sold near me, and using ricotta cheese is less trouble than adding another fermentation project.  Using ricotta gives the cheesecake a fluffy texture and adding lemon extract gives it more flavor. I used Simple Truth ricotta (Kroger's organic store brand), which didn't need to be drained since it wasn't runny.  The net carb count of Dr. Davis's recipe is 4.7g per slice (assuming 8 servings); that figure should hold true for this recipe, also. Crust 1½ cups almond flour  1½ teaspoon cinnamon  ½ cup Splenda 2 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons pastured lard  1 egg  1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
 Filling 16 ounces ricotta cheese (with no emulsifiers or gums) 1 cup sour cream ½ cup Splenda 1 dash salt  3 eggs 3 tablespoons lemon j...

It hit me Sunday night. After feeling tired and a little congested for a few days, I went to bed with a sore throat. Monday, I called in sick. The next day, I took a COVID test at a CVS drive through, worked from home and decided to go to bed early. But that day, I saw this video on Pfizer's new antiviral pill. I'd seen some videos from this YouTuber, John Campbell, before--he's pretty gung-ho on COVID vaccines. So I was surprised to see him talking up ivermectin, and I'm even more surprised it's still on YouTube: he describes how ivermectin does exactly the same thing the new Pfizer antiviral pill does, plus inhibit COVID in five other ways. It looks like the new drug is "Pfizermectin," an antiviral without ivermectin's long safety record or low price. I had some ivermectin, purchased when I was enthusiastic about the stuff after watching episodes of the Dark Horse Podcast with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. First, I made sure I could get more...

Maybe you've heard of doomsday cults: religious sects with charismatic leaders who predict the world will end by a certain date. Doomsday comes--but by some miracle, the world doesn't end. Neither does the cult--many members go on being members.  So it is with coronabros. We were all supposed to die of COVID (well, a bunch of us, anyway). Now that apostates have kept on living, left the cult and refuse to take the holy water, some of the cultists are coming unglued.  Southwest Airlines cancelled over 1,000 flights over the weekend. The word over at Unreported Truths is that there's a pilot sick-out over vaccine mandates, and pilots from other airlines are ready to join them. Some blue checky-check on Twitter called the sick-out "domestic terrorism." Silence is violence, and apparently so is not showing up for work. Other cultists want the president to fire them, apparently not realizing that Southwest Airlines is a private employer, nor that firing pilots wouldn...

 Five minutes, and lunch is ready! 1/2 T butter 1/4 c sliced mushrooms 1-1/2 c stock 1/2 c chopped cooked chicken (no skin) 2 T nacho cheese 2 T salsa In a small soup pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat and cook the mushrooms. Chop the chicken while they're cooking. Add stock and chicken to pot and heat. Stir in the cheese and salsa and serve (or pack up for lunch).  It looks a lot like this stock photo.

Equipment (pick one): Pot-style yogurt maker Cup-style yogurt maker + heating pad and insulated container if you don't have enough cups for the recipe (see #4 below) Sous vide stick and pot Heating pad and insulated container (e.g., camping cooler, insulated grocery bag) Note that your yogurt maker must let you set the temperature at 97 degrees F (36C) for 36 hours.   I use this one  (a cup-style yogurt maker). Since the yogurt takes a long time to ferment, and I don't like to go without while I'm making a new batch, I make a few extra cups in an insulated container.  My heating pad does the job at the medium setting in an insulated grocery bag at room temperature. (My insulated grocery bag is just a paper grocery bag with a bubble wrap liner.) I use  8 oz plastic freezing cups , available where canning and freezing supplies are sold. Ingredients 3 T powdered plain gelatin 1/2 c water (cold or room temperature) 4 cans regular coconut milk (13.5 oz each)...

Tonight I created the perfect muffin. This is not the gluten-free baked goods of the 90s that tasted like cardboard. From the top of the muffin to the bottom, it's moist and delicious. It's a variation on Mark Sisson's pumpkin muffin recipe, which is a variation of a Bruce Fife recipe. The red kuri squash was a bit cheaper at the store than pie pumpkins. It has a mild flavor (despite being called "onion squash" in the UK, apparently after its shape). To cook it, stab it through to the center around the top a few times with a meat fork or sharp knife and bake it on a cookie sheet or pie dish at 350F (175C or gas mark 4) for an hour. Allow it to cool, then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, scoop the flesh into a pan, and mash with a potato masher. (You could use a food processor if you don't mind the cleanup.) Red kuri squash. Image by  Marzena P.  from  Pixabay   Perfect Muffins 12 servings. 1/2 cooked red kuri (hokkaido) squash, cooked and ...

Here's an easy recipe for summertime--no cooking, and you can make several servings at once. This is based on a recipe in Freakin' Fabulous by Clinton Kelly. 1 can salmon 1 envelope unflavored gelatin 2 T cold water 1/2 cup boiling water 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 T lemon juice 1 T finely grated onion 2 dashes hot sauce 1 t salt 2 T finely chopped dill 1 cucumber, sliced In a large mixing bowl, add the gelatin and the cold water. Stir to combine. Add the boiling water and stir until the gelatin dissolves. Let cool. Add the salmon, mayonnaise, lemon juice, onion, salt, dill and hot sauce. Stir well. Spoon into a decorative mold and chill for four hours. When ready to serve, immerse the mold in hot water (without letting water into the mold) for 10 seconds. Put a plate upside-down on top of the mold and flip them over in one quick motion. The salmon mousse should come out of the mold; repeat immersion if needed. Serve on cucumber slices.

Merry Christmas! It's the seventh anniversary of the blog. Just as I was seven years ago, I've had some health problems--but I know how to deal with them now. The past few years put me through the wringer mentally and physically: my parents' problems, being accused of elder abuse (without any basis), an infected tooth, my father dying and my mother moving, and then my own moving and working at five different jobs this year. The stress and illness made my stomach too sensitive for me to want to eat fat--but with my stress level cranked up, I lived on a higher-carb diet and still lost weight. I also had acne and scary palpitations. Last Christmas, fumes from wasabi nuts roasting in the oven made me so ill I spent the day in bed. This Christmas season, feasting at holiday parties kept me up those nights with an upset stomach. I've adopted a Midwestern niceness that makes it hard to say no to goodies. But the same kindness of the people around me has removed a layer of...

Processed foods have a bad rap these days. "Just eat real food," everyone says, and the real food will cure anything from arthritis to migraine headaches. The people who give this advice do tend to be in good health and do tend to eat real food. Well, except when they're eating dark chocolate, or sugary fruit that's only existed for a few hundred years, or drinking wine. The first and third foods are about as real and unprocessed as a Cadbury egg. But if we can wink at dark chocolate, bananas and wine, why not fake cheese? Real cheese and cream give me acne. Fake cheese, like Velveeta and American cheese, don't. For me, they're better than real cheese (and Velveeta melts better than real cheese, too). If you'd like to add fake cheese to your real foods list, here's a wonderful recipe I made (up) tonight. It would have been good with shiratake noodles. 1 pound grass-fed ground beef 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce made with local, vine-ripened tomatoes...

Cauliflower is the usual low-carb substitute for starchy foods, but celery stands in surprisingly well for potato in soup. 1/2 can coconut milk (~1 cup) 1 carton chicken stock (1 quart) 1 packet gelatin 15 oz canned salmon 1 T lemon juice 1/2 t ginger 1 carrot, sliced into coins 4 stalks celery, sliced 1/2 t basil 1 t curry powder 1/4 t cayenne pepper salt and pepper to taste Pour the coconut milk and stock into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. While that's happening, pour the gelatin onto the liquid, let sit for a minute, then stir in. Add salmon, ginger, carrots, and celery and simmer. Stir in curry, ginger, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree in batches and add lemon juice.

I'll admit it: even though my dietary requirements include organ meat, it was a chore to eat it...and you know what happens when that's the case. I ended up eating Atkins bars instead of liver. Partly, I've been too busy the past few weeks to eat many home-cooked meals, but mostly, there are a lot of things--even on Atkins induction--that I'd rather eat than liver. Last Saturday, needing some wind in my sails after a few weeks of family emergencies, uncluttering my parents' house with a room temperature of 85 degrees, and being too wound up to get much sleep, I checked out a book called Freakin' Fabulous by Clinton Kelly from  What Not to Wear and The Chew. Just looking at the pictures at red lights on the drive home inspired me to stop at the store--the grocery store. I knew Kelly was a stylist, but didn't know he could cook, too. He's quite the meat eater--his good looks attest to that. That, and it sounds like he eats little or no junk food. I ...

I feel well enough to try Atkins induction again. The palpitations are gone, even without taking potassium. My energy level is back to normal--no more trucking on the treadmill early in the morning  to burn off nervous energy or emergency meat, cheese and mineral water stops after yoga. It's back to lounging around to Chopin and Debussy in the morning and stopping at the wine bar for pleasure. I'm using the original Atkins book: Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution from 1972. While looking in the book for a way to make gelatin (which is allowed on induction, but Jello(TM) and products like it have questionable ingredients), I felt the earth move under my feet : those recipes from 42 years ago look delicious and they're mostly real food. It makes sense, though: the cooks who wrote the recipes probably didn't have had a palette used to low-fat food full of added sugar or a bag of tricks to make low-fat food edible. Anyone who writes a recipe called "Cottage Cheese and...