Culinary Time Travel

 Wouldn't it be something if we can time travel back to the past? Imagine the famed people we'd see or get to connect with ancestors we've only heard of in family lore? In a way you can, and it doesn't have to do with Einstein's theory of Time Constant. You can easily do it with cooking and baking.

Before you start pick an era that really sings to you. If you adore it, then odds are you've already tried recipes form that period of history. if not , there are a lot of eras to explore from a culinary side Everyone is jumping on the Paleo diet but what did real cave people eat? Luckily there's no cooking here. Our first ancestors were big fruit eaters, getting their nutrients from dates, oranges, apples and grapes. There were no roasted meats and veggies. That came later, by a few centuries. If you want really good eating then look to the Romans. They knew how to feast. They also created a forerunner of polenta called puls made with  a kind of wheat. It was served with veggies and cheese or eggs. Sometimes it was served with meat and fish on special occasions. Keep in mind that tomatoes and  potatoes along with corn were not introduced  until the Columbian Exchange The same goes for spinach and eggplant which came with the Arabs. Yet there was plenty of olive oil and bread so you could make focaccia and serve it with caramelized onions and leeks. The Romans were big on sausages, especially pork ones. You could create a dish with modern day polenta , tomatoes and sausage to recreate this.

Most home chefs have been to their local Renaissance fairs. These fun fests are not exactly an homage to the 1400's and 1500's. They serve fajitas and corn dogs along with pierogies and cotton candy so far away from the real recipes of that time. The Elizabethans were big on seafood such as lobsters and crab along with salmon and trout. Think lobster with butter  with maybe a side of salad (brought from Spain by Henry VIII's first wife the Spanish queen Catherine of Aragon). Chicken was also popular and you can easily roast one and serve it with homemade bread. The Europeans weren't the only ones with centuries of interesting dishes.African cuisine was mostly vegan for millennia, with cattle being held in high esteem, They relied on grains and vegetables for food. Think about making rice with a variety of different veggies such as eggplant or green beans. Amaranth flour was also used and it can be used to create various breads like the Ethiopian teff. The Ancient Egyptians took it a step further and had beer with their meals. They also had chickpeas and different veggies that easily can be made into a salad or grind the chickpeas into hummus.

Yes, you can time travel. Just find any recipe from the past and adapt it to fit modern cooking or baking. It's like a time capsule for your palate.

A Very Paleo Christmas

Christmas is the time for rich food and even richer desserts. There's a lot of guilt - and calories involved though and that means spending January dieting. Yet suppose you can have tasty treats and eat them too? You can - with a Paleo based menu and recipes.

Ham is a big deal and a classic Christmas main dish for centuries. Guess what? It's also the star of many a Paleo dinner too. Instead of crusting it in brown sugar and ginger ale use a mix of coconut crystals, raw honey, along with maple syrup. Zing it up with dijon mustard and coconut vinegar which has the similar taste to apple cider vinegar.It can still be decorated with pineapple rings and cloves. Another choice is of course,turkey.Keep it moist with constant basting. so there's no need for gravy. Since a flour based gravy is taboo, try a barbecue sauce mixed with chicken broth for a different spin. Every Christmas dinner table is also laden with sides. Think a simple grilled Brussels sprouts  with just olive oil or better yet a melange of veggies. Try a colorful mix of cauliflower, kohlrabi, and butternut squash baked in coconut oil and spiked with thyme and rosemary. For fanciness, try a sweet potato Dauphinoise, made with almond milk.There is some decadence with the addition of butter and Gruyere cheese. You could also just roast them in the oven and serve with a small dab of butter or coconut oil.

Christmas means cookies and treats. The Paleo diet allows for a wide variety of ingredients to be used so that means a variety of goodies. Paleo sugar cookies have an extra nuttiness thanks to homemade cashew flour being added to the recipe. This is easy to do. It's just taking raw cashews and grinding them in your food processor. Coconut flour is added for more substance, Tapioca flour is also added as a binder along with the clarified Indian butter ghee,one egg and honey. It  may sound like a bit too much for a simple cookie but the end result is worth it. Want more variety ? Then try the caveman's version of the chocolate chip. It's more or less the same as a regular one, but the standard brown sugar is replaced with raw honey (keep in mind that the taste won't have that earthy sweetness regular ones have). Blanched almond flour mixed with coconut flour is used instead of white.The Paleo recipe does require organic dark chocolate chips and not the usual bag of morsels. If these recipes are a bit off putting then think about Paleo peppermint meringue trees. These don't vary too much from the original  recipe. They're made with egg whites, tinted with a natural green dye , and piped into three blobs on top of each other. After baking, the bottoms are dipped in a mix of peppermint oil and dark chocolate . This is a great treat for kids and adults alike.

Paleo doesn't t mean basic. You can have some good for you holiday treats Paleo style that are relatively healthy and fun. It's still a Christmas with a good meal , followed by tasty treats.

The Back Pain Relief Diet

Can what you eat solve that crippling lower back pain?Is giving up coffee and soda better than a heating pad? Could simply forgoing cake and other sweets alleviate aches more so than pain pills? The answer is yes, thanks to an eye opening new diet. Follow it and feel the difference.

Dr.  Todd Sinnett, a chiropractor and son of one wrote this  self help/ diet book.The Back Pain Relief Diet :The Undiscovered Key To Reducing Inflammation and Eliminating Pain (East End Press 2018) is a combination of medical advice and recipes, with patient testimonies sprinkled in between. Dr. Sinnett is the founder of Tru Whole Cure which is patient centric medical center where all sorts of ills from back pain to skin problems are treated through, diet, stress management and acupuncture. The doctor expertly dissects what causes back pain and it always returns to what we eat. He also believes gas and constipation contribute to it. (there's an interesting but vile chart of poop and what's considered healthy and unhealthy)There are chapters which are tests which should be take,There is also the diagnostic nutrition test -another must take to determine if eating habits should be changed.After the diagnostic , Dr. Sinnitt recommends one of four diets - The No More Back Pain Diet or The Paleo Plus Meal Plan, The FODMAPS Diet and The Digestive Rest diet. Following these and the recipes that go with them will help in bringing those with severe back pain a return to a normal, active life.

The chapters with the recipes are preceded with a chapter on super foods.These are crucial in the healing process and there  foods that everyone loves such as avocados, dark chocolate and sweet potatoes to name a few. Dr. Sinnett does enlist the help of nutritionists , Willow Jarosh and Stephanie Clarke for the Paleo Plus meal plan. Are the recipes easy? Yes. even novice chefs can follow them  and have good results. The FODMAP one  is probably  the most restrictive. The recipes are still delicious, with a brown rice French toast with blueberries. There's also a delicious sounding Chopped Spinach Salad with Avocado and Tuna that  also has carrot,cucumber and tomatoes in it. The Paleo Plus diet is full of  flavorful recipes such as balsamic and herb roasted chicken with quinoa and cauliflower. Since it is a Paleo diet it does have a bone broth, but it's also loaded with sweet potato. cremini mushrooms and broccoli florets with carrots. Those on the diets shouldn't feel deprived of fun treats. There's  chia pudding with all sorts of fruits and flavoring added as well as the dark chocolate-coconut vegan truffle. The last is just a dark chocolate  bar chopped up and combined with two tablespoons of full fat coconut milk  rolled into balls. They're then rolled in cocoa powder. They can be used as a treat or in hot cocoa.

The Back Pain Relief Diet is a definite must have for those who suffer chronic back pain. Reading it and changing diets will more of a help than relying on addictive opiates.Buy it today and start on the path to a no pain life.

A Variety Of Burgers

One of the best recipes to have fun with is the hamburger.It can be made a variety of different ways  with different ingredients for oomph and surprise. It can be basic, it can be spicy. It can even have a tangy sweet flavor. Best of all, it can be made by anyone, from a novice to an experienced home chef.

The basic burger is made from a pound of  good ground beef mixed with one egg and half a cup of bread crumbs. The egg is whisked with salt and pepper and then the meat and bread crumbs are added.it can be mixed with a fork or hands and then mounded into balls. From there , they're flattened into patties and either are fried or grilled. If you want more flavor think about cutting the beef amount in half and adding ground pork or just completely going with pork. You can also do the same with ground turkey to create a healthier burger. As for flavorings. this is the fun part. Go crazy. Try a jalapeno burger with the addition of sliced jalapenos and tomato sauce. Garlic and cilantro can also be used too. Speaking of garlic, roast it and add it to the ground meat. It's so flavorful that a bun is not necessary.Onions are another flavoring that can make a burger sing. Mince them very fine before adding for a deliciously sweet and earthy flavor. Caramelizing them  also lends a great depth of taste too. Its just cooking the onions in oil before adding them to the beef.

A burger surprise is always a fun meal. Try any kind of cheese , from cheddar to American. Remember don;t use slices, instead get the bricks and cut them into cubes. These are easy to insert into the patties. Another idea is grating the cheese or cutting it into small bits and flecking it through the burgers. Bacon and hamburgers are a no brainer together .Imagine a burger stuffed with it. The bacon should be thoroughly cooked and crumbled first. You can also add cheese for a fun spin on a bacon cheeseburger.If you want to get the kids to eat nutritiously , you may want to sneak in some broccoli or carrots into their burgers.One of the hottest recipes around is the Paleo influenced avocado stuffed ones. It's a  a perfect marriage between the unami based meat and the sweet , buttery fruit. It's mashing the avocadoesas you would do for guacamole and then slathering the mash  on one thin patty. Another patty is put on top and the edges are them sealed. After grilling, the burgers can be topped with any leftover mashed avocado. The burgers can be served in tacos and with salsa for a neat twist.

Have your burger your way, You may want a garlic infused one or one with a surprise in the middle. It'sup to you,. Any burger is a good one.

The King Of Pot Roast

Everyone American has their favorite pot roast memories. Whether it's brisket on the East Coast or daube down in New Orleans, it's been a kitchen staple for generations.Now there's a king, yes king of pot roast, Gavin Kaysen and he's making the dish haute.

Brett Anderson wrote about this nostalgic dish in today's New York Times Food section.He grew up in Minneapolis/St. Paul where pot roast reigns supreme.It's also the home of Spoon And Stable,Chef Kaysen's signature restaurant.The dish wasn't on the menu at first because Chef Kaysen felt it may offend diners. He thought that he was pandering to their down to earth tastes. because he was a young cook  with an impressive resume. Chef Kaysen  first worked at impressive restaurants in Switzerland,London and California, He, himself, also  impressed the famed French  chef  , Daniel Boulud which lead to a seven year stretch as executive chef at Cafe Boulud  This alone  could be off putting to many  Midwestern customers who may be insulted by his rendering of  their family  dishes. Instead he first  offered dishes with a nod towards the Minnesota regional along with a nod to nearby Canada instead  The initial Spoon and Stable menu offered:. Canadian bison, cheese curds in the creamed spinach  and dill cured salmon. It was a whim that made him sneak in his grandmother, Dorothy's pot roast onto it . It was a good call. Diners loved it.

Mr. Anderson does too. It is not mom's pot roast, instead a more upscale version. The sides are lacy chanterelle mushrooms along with a pomme puree,  a silkier version of mashed potatoes and a milk soaked and sauteed parsley root. Mr Anderson missed the traditionally made veggies which are usually soft enough to mash. - although Chef Kaysen feeds those to his staff. The gravy was spot on, redolent with rosemary and silken. This is the way it should be .Pot roast gravy is a restorative Paleo broth , appealing to our most primal tastes. The meat used is a richer flavored  shoulder cut the French called paleron and Minnesota butchers call flat iron roast. Why this, instead of the usual chuck that everyone including Kaysen's grandmother's Dorothy used? According to the chef, it has a "really fantastic tendon that runs right in the middle of it" .If it's cooked down enough , it turns into a marrow like consistency.He first used it during his time at Boulous for the pot au feu. However home chefs following the recipe need not worry, Chuck roast is the meat called for. It also has carrots and parsnips for pot roast purists too. Tomato paste is also added for color and flavor as well along with enhancing the meat's flavor.

Gavin Kaysen is the king of pot roast. His recipe ofor pot roast will change the way America thinks about it. It 's still comfort food but elevated to another level.

Paleo Muffins

Muffins are one of the healthiest ways to start off the morning. Well, they were until certain  national coffee chains turned them into sugar and fat bombs. However they can be returned to their original heart healthy goodness with adding all natural ingredients and home baking.Nothing beats a fresh from the oven muffin bursting with benefits..

Julia Moskin realizes this,being an expert home chef and baker,, and wrote about them in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. The paper dropped their breakfast issue then and it was centered on everything AM. Muffins are another aspect of the morning routine. Unfortunately most of the ones eaten are usually purchased through a drive through window and has more sugar than doughnuts and even Twinkies. As Joanne Chang, owner of several Flour bakeries in the Boston area puts it, muffins are nothing more than cake batter poured into muffin tins.How to make them paleo healthy again. By going back to paleo flavorings and ingredients. Instead of using refined white sugar, rely on maple syrup or honey. Make sure there are nuts and whole grains mixed in  Sadly muffin recipes  do need refined white flour in order for the bake to be successful. White flour gives not only taste but lightness.Its' gluten  content also allows the batter to stretch,  rise and give the muffins their rise.. Whole grain is the preferred and it can be varied with the ancient grains of millet, spelt and bran, just to name a few.Buttermilk is the preferred liquid because baking soda needs to be activated by liquid and acid. Try to use newly bought baking soda too . An older one will not give the desired effect.

What else is needed to create the perfect home baked muffin? Ms. Moskin recommends doubling up on the baking soda and baking powder to increase the size of the muffin tops.It also gives the batter a  better chance of rising correctly.Stay away from over beating. Doing such will inhibit leaveners from working. Also ignore that age old advice of not filling up the tins to the top. Do so, but remember to grease the pan's top. This will prevent the muffins from sticking and breaking after they've been cooled.Another old baker' s rule that can be broken is don't rush the batter into the oven directly  after mixing. Resting it allows the grains to soften and absorb the liquids. It produces a  tender crumb and lightness. Baker Chang stores all of her batters overnight in the fridge to get the ultimate best  texture. If you are making muffins are home, just leave the batter on the counter for an hour.Just resist the urge to stir it This will  cause  air bubbles which will expand  cause the baking powder to reactivate and the baking powder to redouble its efforts. This will cause the muffins to have a small or little rise.

Muffins can be both healthy and tasty. The secret is baking them at home, where ingredients can be monitored . Try  making a batch today and enjoy the benefits.

Bulletproofing Your Diet

Everyone thinks that the start of the holiday season means extra pounds and tight clothes. Not necessarily.You can actually eat tons of butter and red meat between now and the New Year's and actually lose weight. There's a new cookbook showing how with  the bulletproof way of eating. It's a great way of keeping healthy and satisfied during the weeks ahead.

Bulletproof, The Cookbook (Rodale Press) was written by David Asprey who also wrote The Bulletproof Diet, and developed the discipline of the same name. Mr.Asprey was a Silicon Valley tech magnate when he discovered a way to improve his life and shed pounds His famed  bulletproof coffee, a mix of high energy coffee beans, oil and grassfed butter, has a following that includes Jimmy Fallon.Mr. Asprey  recommends using grassfed butter in almost all of his recipes (more on that later). The book is an instrumental guide in how to cook as well as how to live .He recommends very rarely using microwaves because of the radiation leakage as well as not cooking food in metal pots and pans. Dieters following his advice should be buying a sous vide- and also gentle baking or baking at the moderate temperature of 325 degrees Farenheit.  In a way the bulletproof diet is one of extremes Mr Asprey recommends eating grass fed beef but looks down on eating certain fruits like cantaloupes and plums He is big on avocados along with Brussels sprouts and olives. One of the best aspects of the book is that he values spices, and their benefits. The diet is rich in cancer fighting turmeric and cinnamon, along with cloves , the last not normally used a lot in every day cooking.

The recipes are tantalizing, despite the many restrictions. Mr/ Asprey used grassfed butter along with the Indian clarified butter or ghee  in many main and side dishes. He also uses a lot of coconut oil and a concoction you can buy on his website called Bulletproof Brain Octane Oil. Unlike some diet recipe books, there is a wide variety of recipes that will appeal to all ages.He has an interesting spin on Salad Nicoise, which uses trout and sweet potatoes as opposed to the usual tuna and yellow potatoes.He gives a nod to the Paleo diet with  recipes for bone broth and an Asian version of it. The sides are pretty tasty too,His buttered kale and buttered Brussels sprouts would be good gracing a Thanksgiving turkey as would his spice roasted fennel. There are recipes for smoothies and lattes with one for the famed Bulletproof coffee. Surprisingly there are also dessert recipes in here as well such as bulletproof cupcakes made with the chocolate and vanilla bulletproof powders (that can be bought on the website) along with recipes for pineapple granita and blueberry gelato.The back of the book is devoted to home made condiments like mayo and herbed butters. Newbies may want to try these out before embarking on the whole lifestyle

Bulletproof The Cookbook, along with the actual diet is a great way of losing weight and gaining energy for the busy holiday season ahead. It's full of yummy dishes that cater to everyone. It's flavor plus goodness .