Recent Eats

Lots and lots and lots and lots of final studying has been going on here...

And we're all kind of bored with it...

Unfortunately, upon returning back to MA, my sleeping abilities went even farther down the tube. I have a few culprits, one of which I'll get into in a later post, but the moral of the story is I've started waking up after about 5 hrs and can't get back to sleep, which led me to getting very, very sick for about a week, smack dab in the middle of finals. No bueno. But I'm on the upside now, just in time for our last one in physiology. And the good news is I was able to make it through 2.5h of standing during our anatomy practical yesterday. The second night I was sick, I had done a TON of batch-cooking to get me through the week. Unfortunately, I spent a few days where I ate nothing but broth, jello, and some ground beef, so most of it has gone to the freezer where it will most likely be used in emergencies early next semester. But here's what's been going down in the kitchen...

Chordae tendinae!

A renal pelvis!

This is a tangent off of this recipe (which I made for Christmas step-by-step last year and it was great).  I made a stew with some chopped up Boston butt, pork heart, pork kidneys, cabbage, butternut squash, prunes, and onions. I was a little crunched for time and I could've left it in a bit longer, but it's made for several tasty breakfasts. 

With the rest of the butt, I finally figured out how my mom makes some great "pulled pork." And by that I mean, I just asked her. But I had been under the impression she does it on the stove, but apparently that's just how she would warm up leftovers. But apparently you just preheat the oven to 350*, put the butt in a heavy pot after coating it in whatever you want (for me, just salt and garlic powder), fill the pot about 1/3 of the way up with broth (or water or wine), and stick it in the oven for 3-5 hours, depending on how big it is. My mom says she rotates it every hour or so but I didn't bother. I also added in some cabbage, which caramelized deliciously. I also take the lid off for the last 30 minutes or so. It turned out great!

This actually happened before the big batch-cooking night. On that night, I took another big butt :) and put it into my dutch oven with carrots, cabbage, garlic, and onions. I used water for the liquid, because I hadn't made broth (because I'm considering testing out a low histamine diet, but then I read The Paleo Mom's take on histamines and she hasn't found broth and slow-cooking to be an issue, so in the throes of illness, I whipped up a continuous batch of broth so I'm all stocked up again... but more on this later). Again, I put it in too late and as a result couldn't wait for all the caramelize-y goodness to occur, but it's been pretty tasty. 

I also don't have a photo, because during my almost/sort-of sick day, all I did was a ton of vegetable chopping, and so the next day, when I was sicker, I just threw it all in the pot and put it in (because a defrosted butt and several cups of chopped onions can only hang out in a fridge for so long). So maybe I'll get a plate picture up now that I'm eating again.

I also made 2 lbs. of ground beef with some onions and oregano, a butternut squash and fennel roast, carrots, some sauteed kale, mushrooms, and broccoli, garlic, and mushrooms. Most of it's gone to the freezer since I'm going home in a few days. 

And here's the end result in my fridge and little freezer. I also made lots of jello (for glycine, to help with the sleeping) and segmented a few grapefruits (I've decided to make some concessions in locality for AIP). 

But this is what was going on the weekend before all this started, when I had time for some fancy, non-left-over shenanigans...

I bought a tub of chicken liver at WFM. It's lower quality than what I would eat for actual chicken, but hey, liver's liver, right? So I had chicken liver twice a day for about four days straight. 

Anybody else think salting raw liver makes it look cancerous? Anybody?

Served over baked apples with Brussels sprouts and a sweet potato one night and over broccoli the next.

I came across this atrocity while I was at WFM...

I also brought back a bunch of fish from home that my mom was kind enough to vacuum-pack and freeze for me. We have two awesome fish mongers at our local farmers' market. They come straight out of Long Island. Even in the middle of summer, they open their case and all you smell is briny sea air. I'm seriously missing good fish here in central Massachusetts. One night I sauteed some scallops and wrapped two of them in two slices of bacon that were left over from Thanksgiving. 

Treat yo' self!

Aside from our physiology final on Friday, I'm seeing a new practitioner in a few hours to hopefully push my healing along. It's a ways a way (plus we got another almost foot of snow last night) but I'm hoping it will be worth it. I'll try to get some more meal photos up and before Christmas will try to get a post up that (gasp!) is about some recent animal experiences.

In the meantime, some lazy concessions are being made for the end of finals week...