Beef Bacon Acorn Squash Mash Bowl

Presenting food prettily has never been my forte. I think it stems from a belief that good food doesn’t need good presentation.

Of course, this belief is totally bogus! Some of the best restaurants in the world pay just as much attention to presentation as they do to the taste of the food. In fact my trip to Meadowood really showed me that amazing food deserves and is enhanced by amazing presentation.

Ways to Make Your Food Look Prettier

I’ve experimented with several methods of enhancing the prettiness of my food (I think it should be called food vanity):

• buy pretty plates,
• buy pretty place settings,
• buy pretty cutlery,
• decorate the plate with different garnishes.

I’m pretty bad at all of these methods, so I wanted to try a fifth method – making use of the natural beauty of the fruits and vegetables in the dish (to make the dish more colorful and to use them to hold the foods).

And so, for this amazingly delicious recipe, I used the acorn squash as both the food and the decoration. I really love the autumn colors in this dish (the dark green of the acorn squash skin, the dark yellow of the acorn squash flesh, the green of the collard greens, and the dark red of the beef bacon). In case you’re not familiar with beef bacon, there’s more on that next.

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Is Sesame Oil Paleo?

What is Sesame Oil?

Sesame oil has been around for thousands of years and is one of the oldest cultivated oil crops (dating back 4000 years to Babylon and Assyria).

Its distinctive and flagrant flavors make it one of the most popular oils in Asian cooking – you’ll be hard pressed to find an Asian family without a bottle of sesame oil sitting among their cooking oils!

As with most cooking oils, there are many types of sesame oil resulting from different processing techniques. The most common 2 types are:

• Toasted Sesame Oil. This is the type of sesame oil most commonly used in East Asian cooking. To make the oil, the sesame seeds are first toasted (which imparts a rich flavor as well as a dark brown color to the oil) before the oil is extracted from the seeds. Extraction can be done through various methods (including with chemical solvents at high temperatures or with expeller presses at cooler temperatures), and you should check with the manufacturer of your sesame oil to determine what method they use.
• Raw Cold-Pressed Sesame Oil. In the United States, raw cold-pressed sesame seed oil has become increasingly popular. This type of oil starts with the raw sesame seed (no toasting occurs), and the oil is extracted at low-temperatures using high pressure. The lower temperatures that the sesame seed is kept at during the entire process ensures that less of the oil is oxidized. This typically results in a pale yellow oil (less fragrant than the toasted sesame oil).

Is Sesame Oil Paleo?

Quick Answer: No (but ok in small amounts occasionally)
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Crispy Indian Chicken Drumsticks

I’ve been making this non-stop because it’s so easy, so flavorful, and so delicious!

There’s a quick video of this recipe here, and a printable version is below:
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Eating Out Paleo – Farmstead in Napa, CA

If you’re looking for farm-to-table dining, then this is it. Long Meadow Ranch has a 650-acre ranch that produces their restaurant’s (the restaurant is called Farmstead) grass-fed beef, eggs, and heirloom fruits and vegetables.

And you can really taste the difference in freshness when your food isn’t traveling half-way around the globe!
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Are you on the Someday Diet? – 2 Simple Steps To Start or Restart Your Paleo Diet

Recently, I returned from Vegas to find piles of clothes strewn everywhere around my house.

For some people, this might mean that there had been a burglary.  Not for me.  This was simply how I’d left things.

Even my closet had piles of clothes on various shelves.  (And by “piles,” I don’t mean neat and folded stacks.)  So as I began unpacking my suitcase, I was initially tempted to simply dump more clothes on top of the piles already in my closet.

That’s when it dawned on me.  I was waiting for “someday” to throw away all the clothes I never wear (several still had the tags on!).

Are You a Someday Person?

I didn’t think I was.

While at dinner one night in Las Vegas, several of us girls discussed our husbands (always a fruitful topic!).  The conversation drifted to the topic of laundry, and one girl told us her way of ensuring that her husband never wears clothes that she hates:  “I tell him that if he ever wears it and it comes through the laundry, he will never see it again.”
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Eating Out Paleo – The Restaurant at Meadowood, Napa, CA

How Great Food Can Inspire and Will Keep on Giving

I was already a bit apprehensive when we started the long drive to Napa. Making a reservation at Meadowood had been one of those spur-of-the-moment you-only-live-once sort of decisions when you hand over your credit card, close your eyes, and hope everything turns out ok.

I was hoping to be wow’d but deep down, I was already prepared for disappointment. I’d eaten at some of the top restaurants in the country already (including four 3-michelin star ones and some crazy-cheap but amazing hole-in-the-walls). So how could Meadowood deliver me an awesome experience to make it worth the hefty price-tag?

When we arrived grumpy at having sat for 2 hours in traffic, they completely brushed aside the fact that we were almost half an hour late and instead seated us immediately. The dinner had been in celebration of my birthday (which we had told them), and the director of the restaurant greeted us with this personalized card.

I was touched, but really, the true inspirations came with the food (you can see the full menu below).

The Aftermath

It’s hard to describe how ingenious combinations of fresh and local ingredients can change my life, but it did.

I was so moved, I stopped by Whole Foods on my drive home and bought some fresh carrots to marinade in champagne. LOL

Then I proceeded to sign up for the Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science course offered by Harvard on EDX. I know, I’m a geek, but the experience left me with a huge thirst for more. More flavors, More experiments, More creations, More knowledge about my food.

Most restaurant meals typically leave me with only a passion for napping. Meadowood left me with a passion for life!
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Chicken and Apple Sausages – Guest Post at PaleOMG

I’m sure most of you already know and love Juli from PaleOMG – she’s freaking hilarious and has the most outrageously delicious recipes. And she was kind enough to let me share this chicken and apple sausage recipe with her readers. Continue reading

Is Walnut Oil Paleo?

What is Walnut Oil?

Walnut oil is a lightly colored and slightly nutty-flavored cooking oil. It’s often used on salads to give it a slightly nutty taste. However, unrefined walnut oil is generally not used for pan-frying due to its low smoke point (320F or 160C). The oil is also reported to turn bitter when heated (which makes them not all that appetizing).

Is Walnut Oil Paleo?

Quick Answer: No (but ok in small amounts occasionally).
Explanation:
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No-Bake Paleo Apple Pies [Paleo/Gluten-Free] – Guest Post at PaleoNonPaleo

I love Apple Pies, and apparently so do a lot of other people. My longer recipe for a large Paleo Apple Pie is one of the most popular recipes on my blog!

So, I want to tell you about my recent guest post at Alison Golden’s Paleo Non Paleo for this really fast and easy, no-bake Paleo Apple Pie recipe.

It takes around 30 minutes (from start to finish) to make 2-4 of these.
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Eating Out Paleo – Bouchon Bistro, Las Vegas, NV

I’ve been a long-time fan of all of Thomas Keller’s restaurants (he’s most known for The French Laundry, often called the best restaurant in the US, and the popular/very-non-paleo Bouchon Bakery).

This was about my 5th or 6th time at Bouchon Bistro in Las Vegas, and I still rave about it. So why do I always keep going back?

Have you ever heard of Europeans (especially French and Italians) talk about a great little restaurant in their neighborhood serving hearty traditional foods that they pop into for dinner all the time? That’s how I think of Bouchon Bistro even though it’s not in Europe (although the food is French) nor in my neighborhood! It’s just I know I will always like the food, and it won’t break the bank.

Is Bouchon Bistro Paleo?

To me, pretty much all French cuisine is Paleo! Fine, there’s a bit of bread here and there, but overall, it’s very Paleo. For instance, traditional French cuisine places a huge emphasis on nutrient-dense foods (think organ meats, red meats, and seafood) cooked in good fats (think clarified butter and duck fat).
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Blueberry Spicy Pepper Calf Liver Saute

Liver has never been top of my favorite foods list!

And it most definitely isn’t top of Jeremy’s list. But, it is one of the most nutrient-dense foods around, and we try to eat it when possible.

To help us eat it more frequently, I’ve been experimenting with making liver taste more delicious (i.e., less like liver!). I hope one day to appreciate the taste of liver by itself, but for now, masking the liver taste is crucial for us.

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The Flu Shot: How Dangerous, How Effective, Should You Get It?

“I’d NEVER get the flu shot – it’s got mercury in it.”

That was my coworker’s reaction after I told her that I had just gotten my flu shot (which I had told her as a passing “I should say something to make conversation” statement.)

This definitely was not the response I was expecting, and it suddenly invoked strong feelings within me:

• Fear. Had I just willingly allowed someone to inject mercury into my veins?
• Anger. Why is she trying to scare me with her sensationalist claims again?
• Quite a lot of confusion. So what is this flu shot all about anyway – does it even work?

Let’s just say that those feeling did not lead to the most productive of conversations. However, what it did leave me was a feeling that I had to get to the bottom of this.

Are flu shots dangerous or am I just defending my sense of pride for having gone and gotten a flu shot without examining all the facts? What does the flu shot protect against – did I just waste all that time for something that won’t even protect me from the flu? And should I get the flu shot in the future?
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Super Fast Paleo Avocado Salad

I’ve been enjoying this delicious salad for months now! I kept wanting to share this recipe with you, but every time I start writing it, it just seems so silly – it’s so simple it barely deserves to be written down!

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Are Cheese and Yogurt Paleo?

Cheese is Paleo if it’s made from raw milk, and yogurt is Paleo so long as it is full fat, actually fermented, and has no added sugar or other problem ingredients.

During a period 10-15 years ago, no dairy was considered Paleo. However, that view has changed. Generally, dairy is very full of nutrients, and is not really very toxic for humans.

With all that in mind, it’s still best to remove all dairy from your diet when you first go Paleo. And it’s best to keep it out for 2-3 months.

Many people are lactose-intolerant without knowing it, and many people are sensitive to casein (a protein group in dairy). Once dairy has been removed for a while, I encourage adding back raw and/or fermented dairy, but pay close attention to how you feel. If you feel bloated, if your joints feel stiff or achy, or if you notice signs of inflammation like acne, then dairy probably isn’t something you want to continue eating.

Pasteurized dairy is most certainly not Paleo because all of the good bacteria and enzymes in it have been destroyed, making it much less nutritious and harder to digest. Unfortunately, there are many “Paleo” recipes out there that don’t differentiate.

Personally, I handle dairy very well and have been drinking a fair amount of raw milk. Hugely nutritious (relatively high in Vitamin K2), and it’s something I’ve always loved and have access to in California.

Here are some primal recipes with cheese as an ingredient:

1. Mini Cauliflower Crust Pizza Bites

2. Grain Free Chicken Dippers with Buffalo Ranch Dipping Sauce

3. Eggplant Tomato Bake

4. Pesto Chicken Pizza

Here’s a primal recipe using yogurt:

1. Homemade French Onion Dip

Images (in order): roboppy and Chiot’s Run.

Eating Out Paleo – All Spice in San Mateo, CA

I’ve always loved Indian spices and Indian cuisine (even if it is British Indian food like Chicken Tikka Masala), so when I heard about All Spice, I had to go try it!

It’s a Californian restaurant with an Indian flair, and it has a Michelin star!
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