To Your Health! Eggnog, Raw And Fresh

What is the month of December without Eggnog?

Eggnog is one of those foods I would indulge in year round if possible. When the holidays roll around and that little creamy yellow carton of joy shows up in the supermarket once again, I can't help but feel conflicted emotions. One is pure joy accompanied by a gluttonous urge to grab the carton and guzzle it right there in the shop. The other is sadness and dismay when remember how seriously unhealthy it is for you. I actually look at the ingredients every year. Yes, I've read them many times before and I'm well aware of what I'll find before I look, but for whatever reason I'm eternally hopefully that someone has granted my wish of an eggnog that I could sip on more than once or twice in the month of December without feeling like I'm doing myself a serious disservice.

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A New Homebrew - Raw Goat's Milk Kefir

I have an exciting new kitchen witchery experiment going! As of the day before Thanksgiving, there has been a nook on the shelf of our hutch in the kitchen dedicated to this:Noooo - it's not a candle... it's kefir! Kefir is a fermented milk drink, similar to yogurt with origins in Eastern Europe. The traditional "starter" is a living colony/symbiotic culture of yeasts and lactic bacteria that resembles cauliflower or little opaque beads clumped together. These "beads" are commonly referred to as grains, and they will actually grow in number daily as they consume and ferment more and more lactose while fermenting milk into a super-powered probiotic drink.

Before this experiment, I had never consumed traditional kefir. I had tried the kind you can buy in the grocery store and made my own with freeze dried cultures... These are just approximations of the real thing,

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Grinding Whole Grains for Flour and Breadmaking


Grinding whole wheat berries with the Kitchen-Aid

As I mentioned previously, we started buying whole grains from a local, organic farmer to feed our goats (Windy Acres is the name of the farm, if you live in TN and want to check them out. We love them.). We sprout the whole grains and that’s what our goats eat on the milking stand. Sweetbreads wrote about the process last week.   

But enough already about what the dang goats eat, this post is about human food. 

It so happens that the local grain farmers also sell cleaned grains for human consumption. We use whole grains in our daily cooking (wheat berries, spelt, barlety, etc.) Wheat is the most consumed grain since we make bread using wheat flour. So the last time we were out at the grain farm we picked up a 50lb bag of whole wheat berries and bought a Kitchen Aid attachment to grind them with.

I tried making 100% whole wheat bread and it turned out to be a bit of a brick when it came out of the oven. I finally got my recipe to work after I substituted one cup of all-purpose white flour, reduced the water by 1/4 cup and increased the yeast by 1/2 a tablespoon. 

Making bread can be intimidating. This recipe makes it easy.

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