Zocalo Sweet Potato Flour. We’re giving away TWO one pound boxes. So there will be two winners.

Let me tell you how I learned about this product.  At the university where I teach (Bastyr University) we have many students who eat a gluten-free diet.  In both the Dining Commons and the culinary classes we are always looking for innovative ways to make tasty gluten free products.  One day I heard that the chefs in the Dining Commons had produced  some awesome coconut cupcakes using this flour.  I marched right up there and asked if I could borrow a cup.  It worked really well in Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies.  Also in Sweet Potato Corn Muffins. I bought my own boxes and started adding some to breads, muffins and scones. I used a tablespoon in the Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes recipe we’re featuring this week.  Very fun product.

The ingredients?  100% sweet potato.  The sweet potato has been a significant source of nutrition for over 8,000 years and in modern times is known for its  high  fiber, vitamin A, iron, and calcium. Despite the name “sweet,” studies have shown that it actually helps stabilize blood sugar levels. The roots are most frequently boiled, fried, or baked. They can also be dried and processed to make starch and flour. Sweet potato flour holds moisture well, brings a richness of flavor, and adds a slight sweetness to any baked good.  Sweet potatoes are a proud member of the EWG “Clean 15″ list too.

The Zocalo company also makes a nutty tasting Mesquite flour (that Patrice added to some chocolate chip cookies - divine!), as well as quinoa flour, lima bean flour and more.  Check it out!

HOW TO ENTER THE DRAWING!

For a chance to play with Sweet Potato Flour:

1. Be a subscriber of Cookus Interruptus  Not a subscriber yet? Type your email address in the subscribe box right up there on the right above the blue navigation box.   There’s also a place to subscribe on our home page (upper  left).  I check this.  The last two contests I’ve had to move on and punch up a new number on random.org because the first choice folks weren’t subscribers.

2. Be a friend on  Cookus Interruptus facebook.  Not our facebook friend?  Easy.  Go to the Cookus Facebook page and click the thumbs up “like”.

3. Add a comment to this blog post (not facebook)  telling us ( in a sentence or two) any silly pet names you were called as a child.  Unfortunately no one called me Sweet Potato.  Instead I got called Hammerhead (by my dad - don’t ask), Cindy Sue (don’t ever call me this).  Later in life I have been sometimes called Miss Cynthie and my friend Brian refers to me as “That Lair Woman”.  Okay.  I’ve totally fessed up.  Your turn now.   Only ONE entry per person please.  Multiples will be deleted.

4. Contest ends at 5pm on Sunday May 20th .  Check your email on May 21st .   The  winners will be chosen by random.org.  If you don’t respond to your “winner” email by Tuesday the 22nd  @ 5pm , we will choose a new winner.

I’ve divided the nine into wheat-free flours – for those of you who like to have the variation but who don’t necessarily need to make gluten-free baked goods – and gluten free wheat-free flours.

One of our culinary students at Bastyr, Benita Baird, is a very skilled gluten-free baker.  So much so that she already has a job prior to graduation!  I have added Benita’s two cents throughout. Neither Benita nor I are particularly fond of wheat-free, gluten-free baked goods that employ bean flours.  We find them too beany, which sounds redundant but I can’t think of another way to express it.

Wheat-free flours
1.    Barley – Here’s a nice change from wheat with enough gluten to hold a cookie or muffin together (but not enough to make a loaf of bread).  Barley flour has a slightly sweeter taste than wheat, but produces a similar texture.
2.    Kamut – This grain is an ancient form of durum wheat that flourished in Egypt 5000 years ago.  About 2/3 of those with wheat allergies can tolerate kamut. This grain has a more delicate texture than standard wheat and products made from the flour have a golden color.  I like using it to make bread or using some as part of the dough for bread.
3.    Spelt- This durable grain has enough gluten in it to make nice yeasted bread.  A hybrid of emmer, the grain originated in SE Asia and was brought to the Middle East 9000 years ago.  Its thick husk protects it from pollutants. Spelt is higher in protein, fat and fiber than wheat.

Wheat-free AND gluten-free flours
4.    Almond meal – Benita finds almond meal or almond flour a little bland and pricey for what you get.  Fair enough.  I have had some good luck making gluten free cookies and muffins by combining freshly ground almonds with freshly ground sweet brown rice flour (you have to have a flour mill).  There’s enough fat and  moisture when ground fresh to keep the baked good from having that dry gritty texture and I didn’t need to add the gums.
5.    Buckwheat flour is great, says Benita, “because it forms a gelatinous aspect  much like xanthan or guar gum, meaning those don’t need to be used! Savvy gluten-free bakers take advantage of this and find gums innecessary when using buckwheat flour. I don’t usually use the pre-ground flour unless I’m making something that I want to scream BUCKWHEAT. Instead, I buy raw (or untoasted) buckwheat groats and grind them as needed in the coffee grinder. The flour is very soft, absorbent, fairly neutral in flavor and has a color comparable to whole wheat flour making it one of the most all-purpose gluten-free flours out there.”  Buckwheat is an awesome grain too because it’s is high in fiber and low in calories and fat.  It is also rich in lysine, not present in most grains.
6.    Hazelnut flour – Benita says this is the flour to buy if you are willing to spend a little extra to get a lot extra.  She loves working with hazelnut meal because it adds a buttery, rich quality to crumble toppings and pie crusts. It’s not very absorbent, however, and Benita warns it should mostly be used for texture and flavor in baked goods and not as a main flour.
7.    Rice flour is the main go-to flour for gluten-free bakers.  We have a gluten-free flour recipe on Cookus (click here) that centers around rice flour.  This grain needs a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to make the baked good stick together so we add some potato starch, tapioca flour and xanthum gum.   Sweet brown rice has a higher fat content than regular rice flour which means the flour mix won’t  require as much of the extra gums or flours and as mentioned before, I have had good outcomes combining sweet brown rice flour with almond flour.
8.    Sweet potato flour –  my new heart throb flour.  Stay tuned because not only are we going to show you how to make some Chocolate Lava Mini-cakes using this flour but also we’re giving away two boxes of it.  What’s it made out of?  Just dried ground sweet potatoes – so the nutritional profile is out of this world.  My sourdough starter gets all jazzed up when I feed it some sweet potato flour.  If the baked good has some ground nuts in it, you will probably not need any tapioca or gums. If not, you might add a teaspoon of tapioca flour to the mix.  And I guess it goes without saying that you’re going to get a beautiful pale orange color.  The “sweet potato-ness” doesn’t come through enough to overwhelm – just a hint. Adding this flour adds a slight spongy texture to the food.
9.    The teff grain  and flour from it are what is used to make the Ethiopian flat bread injera.  You know that bread that has  a stretchy texture to it?  Well that stretchiness comes in real handy when making wheat-free (or even non wheat-free) baked goods, especially if you’re using a base of rice flour or other flours and need something to give the dough some stickiness.  We use it in the Gingerbread Molasses Cookies on Cookus Interruptus.  My friend Mary uses teff flour in her brownies where the sticky stretchy makes gooey goodness. This flour can’t stand alone to make a cookie or cake.  Best if used as an added flour for texture.

Random.org spun out #56.

She wrote, “My favorite thing about my garden is the fact that it’s right outside my back door. It’s easy to sneak in a few minutes of gardening since it’s so close to the house and I like being able to see it easily from my back door.”

Nice.

Loved loved loved hearing about everybody’s garden!  Willi did too.  And some folks posted pictures - extra credit!  The most touching thing was that so many posts began with the words “I love…”.  Anybody else notice that?

I’m proud as spring peas to bring you this beautiful, practical book for our next giveaway.  Already in it’s third reprint (after being available for like two monthes…), this how-to from Willi Galloway is hotter than a serrano pepper.

Described as ” A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips” we feel this book is perfect for our Cookus Interruptus friends who are gardners or those dreaming of a little garden.  From sinking a seed into the soil through to sitting down to enjoy a meal made with vegetables and fruits harvested right outside your back door, this kitchen gardening book is filled with  useful information for both novices and seasoned gardeners alike.

The book also fills in the blanks that exist between growing food in the garden and using it in the kitchen with guides to 50 of the best-loved, tastiest vegetables, herbs, and small fruits. The guides give readers easy-to-follow planting and growing information, specific instructions for harvesting all the edible parts of the plant, advice on storing food in a way that maximizes flavor, basic preparation techniques, and recipes. The recipes at the end of each guide help readers explore the foods they grow and demonstrate how to use unusual foods, like radish greens, garlic scapes, and green coriander seeds. I love how Willi gives recommendations for which type of starts or seeds to buy.  She helped me with my garden a couple of years ago and boy was she right about the type of Japanese cucumbers and the variety of pepper plants to buy.

SO!  Down to business right?  How to enter to win this beauty.

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. There will only be one winner. .

2.  You gotta be a subscriber of Cookus Interruptus  We check.  Not a subscriber yet? CLICK HERE.

3. Be a friend on  Cookus Interruptus facebook.  Not our facebook friend?  Easy.  Go to the Cookus Facebook page and click the thumbs up “like”. Good stuff.

4. Add a comment to this blog post (not facebook)  what detail you love most about your garden or about someone else’s garden.  Or even a garden you’ve seen in a movie.  Any garden will do.  Last year my husband helped me build a fence around my garden.  I was so tired of dogs and crows trampling my little seedlings and having to replant.  It is just a wire fence but the gate!  Oh the gate.  We found a rusty white wrought iron gate.  He put a simple latch on it.  Even though you can see through the fence and the gate I do feel like I am entering my own private space.  Love that gate.  Okay.  I spilled my beans.  Let’s hear from you.  Only ONE entry per person please.  Multiples will be deleted.

5. Contest ends at 5pm on Sunday May 6th.  Check your email on May 7th.   The  winners will be chosen by random.org.  If you don’t respond to your “winner” email within 48 hours , we will choose a new winner.

My stomach and I like our beauty sleep. The following day is so much more enjoyable and productive after a restful night. If we time our meals with some degree of consciousness, our sleep benefits are magnified. No really. Read on.

As we slumber the body shifts its forces towards completing the processes of digestion, absorption and assimilation and then moving into detoxification, repair and growth. Approximately eight hours after eating our last bite the full digestion is completed and the detoxification mode begins. A healthy body, used to eating good Cookus Interruptus food, requires about a four hour process of cleansing and detoxifying all the waste products of normal metabolism. So if my last bite is at 7pm, I don’t eat anything before 7am. That way my gut gets 8 hours to finish processing the food of the day and 4 hours to clean house. Neat.

If you go to bed on a full stomach, your body is busy digesting all night instead of falling deeply into the land of dreams. I find I sleep better if my last bite of food is at least a couple of hours before I hit the pillow. Timing is everything. As Marc David writes in The Slow Down Diet, “Sumo wrestlers have known for centuries that large meals eaten late at night give them the physical advantage they covet most – flab.” We burn calories less efficiently in the evening hours when our metabolism is at low tide. Evening is not the best time for the heaviest meal or richest dessert of the day. The metabolic fires are slowing down not revving up.

So one of the positive food practices I employ is giving my gut a rest for 12 hours during every 24 hour cycle. I think I heard about this on Oprah. Typically I don’t eat after 7pm and enjoy Steel Cut Oats or Be Bop Breakfast around 7am the next morning. Though I absolutely have been known to break the late night eating rule on the weekends I still maintain the 12 hour thing. If I wined and cheesed at 11pm I’m smiling at 11am brunch the next morning.

I prefer these natural rhythmic practices to maintaining a healthy weight and strong energy to the negative messages amplified by the no-no’s of food restriction.

Try it. See if you don’t feel better the next day. Are a little hungrier for a good  breakfast.  Experience a little more bounce.

]]> http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3125 http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3109 http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3109#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:38:57 +0000 Brad Huskinson http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3109 Chosen by random.org (not ME because I could never pick…so many people that I would like to be my friend and hope that they need to butter me up !)

#36 and #111

“I butter people up with buttery, flaky biscuits. With butter and jam on top. Or gravy.” says Katie from Oakland.  Mmm. Stop on by.

Brenna from Colorado wrote:

“I don’t know what is more fun — this butter crock or reading everyone’s posts! Great ideas. My boyfriend moved with me from the Seattle area to Colorado so I could go to graduate school, so I butter him up by cooking dinners for the two of us to share most nights of the week, no matter how hectic school is. Sunday night dinners are particularly fun, but we can find any reason to celebrate and toast over dinner!”

Here comes your butter crocks ladies!

I want out give a shout out to Roberto for writing the funny joke and to his wife who seems to adore him

And to everyone really.  Wonderful answers.  Gives me ideas…

“

Many food processors, seeking to eliminate trans-fat, which comes from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, have switched to using palm oil.  Palm oil comes from the fruit of the oil palm trees which grow in tropical climates.  Palm oil is refined, bleached and deodorized for use in the food industry.  It is orange-red in its pre-refined state. The fat is semi-solid at room temperature indicating that it is part saturated and part mono-unsaturated.  This combo of fat types helps keep chocolate coverings firm but flexible.  It can also create a fake butter spread like Smart Balance and still allow the company to claim that the product contains no trans fats.  I’m not sure if this spread is balanced, but I know for sure it’s not smart.

The largest producer of palm oil is Indonesia. Rainforests are cleared to grow the oil palm trees.  Rainforests support 500 times more species than North American forests. The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) estimates that an area of Indonesian rain forest the size of six football fields is cut down every minute of every day to make way for palm oil production.

Palm oil production has been documented as a cause of substantial and often irreversible damage to the natural environment.  Its impacts include: deforestation, habitat loss of critically endangered species such as the Orangutan and Sumatran Tiger, and a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions.  Rhinoceros and elephants are other casualties.  When rainforests are cleared for production these wild animals are often shot or burned to clear the path.
The pollution factor is exacerbated because many rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia lie atop peat bogs that store great quantities of carbon that are released when the forests are cut down and the bogs drained to make way for plantations. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace claim that the deforestation caused by making way for oil palm plantations is far more damaging for the climate than the benefits gained by switching to biofuel.
Read more  in this report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Palm oil is an ingredient in many food and non-food products including but not limited to, cookies, crackers, popcorn, frozen dinners, low-fat dairy, candy, soap and cosmetics.  One food that often (but not always) contains palm oil is vegan cheese.  Here is the ingredients list for a typical vegan cheese:

Organic soymilk (filtered water, organic non-GMO soybeans), tapioca starch, soybean oil, corn maltodextrin, palm oil, salt, carrageenan, vegan natural flavors, corn-derived lactic acid (vegan), vegan natural white color added.

There it is.  I guess even worse is that some manufacturers have caught on to the treachery behind growing palm oil trees and cloak palm oil in the ingredient list as “non-hydrogenated vegetable oil”.
It is estimated that no less than 5,000 orangutans are killed every year to make way for palm oil.  At this rate extinction of one of our closest relatives would occur within 10 years.

In earnest many friends seek the vegan lifestyle as a way of protecting farm animals from harm. I agree with sharply reducing or eliminating buying products that come from animals in confined animal feeding operations.  But do we stop to consider the impact of food production on wild life?

CONTEST CLOSED.  THANKS TO EVERYONE!

Many years ago while visiting my mother-in-law in southern California, I was  preparing a piece of morning toast and peered in the frig to find some butter.  Imagining that I would be scraping the hide off of my  bread trying to spread hard cold butter on it, she walked in and pointed to the counter.  Following her lead I spied this cute little crock.  What a surprise  when I easily pulled off the top and found a little cup of perfectly spreadable delicious butter.  The next Christmas I had my own butter crock thanks to Lura and I have loved it and used it ever since.  I give them as presents.  Christmas, birthdays, hostess gifts, thank-yous.  I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t have one of their counter.  I know you’ll want one too and am bursting with smiles that Butter Bell happily offered to do this giveaway.

The unique design of Butter Bell crocks keeps butter at the perfect “spreading” consistency by reflecting outside heat while insulating and cooling the butter. Flavor and freshness is protected by an airtight seal of water at the base of the crock.  The proper maintenance is so easy it’s silly. Water should be changed out every three days.  The crock should be stored away from heat or sunlight. Holds up to one full stick (1/2 cup) of butter. Softened butter is packed firmly into the bell-shaped lid. Cold water is poured into the base of the crock. The lid is placed upside down back into the base of the crock. And voila - soft, spreadable shelf-stable butter!

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN A BUTTER BELL CROCK

1. Take note: we’re giving away TWO.  That’s right, there will be two winners .  We have a beautiful green crock and a blue one (see below or view on this page) .

2.  You gotta be a subscriber of Cookus Interruptus  We check.  Not a subscriber yet? CLICK HERE.

3. Be a friend on  Cookus Interruptus facebook and a Butter Bell FB friend.  Not our facebook friend?  Easy.  Go to the Cookus Facebook page and click the thumbs up “like”. Click here to LIKE Butter Bell. Lots of liking.  Good stuff.

4. Add a comment to this blog post (not facebook)  telling us how you butter someone up.  What works best for me is to give a little jar of my kim chi.  In the summer and fall a jar of homemade apricot or raspberry jam.  Basically I give special peeps any homemade food item that can fit in a jar.   For a really big buttering up I give one of these butter crocks full of pastured butter and a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.  No one paid me to say that either.  But I’m talking about a darn lucky person here. Okay.  I spilled my beans.  Let’s hear from you.  Only ONE entry per person please.  Multiples will be deleted.

5. Contest ends at 5pm on Monday April 16th  Check your email on April 17th .   The  winners will be chosen by random.org.  If you don’t respond to your “winner” email within 48 hours , we will choose a new winner.

]]> http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3048 http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3089 http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3089#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:25:41 +0000 Cynthia Lair http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/blog/?p=3089

Jennifer from North Carolina emailed us this week asking for ideas on something other than mayonnaise to spread on her kid’s sandwiches.  Most mayo is made from refined seed oils that are …well questionable as to their wholesomeness. Read our previous post “Check Your Oil“.   And then there’s the eggs involved, which some people need to avoid.  Regardless, it’s cool to change up what you slap on your bread and occasionally move away from the mustard-mayo routine, right?  So here are 5 pretty yummy subs.

1. Avocado-naise.

You can make a creamy spread out of avocado by blending 1 rips avocado, the juice from 1/2 lemon, 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  For a little kick add a pinch of cayenne.

2. Middle Eastern-aise

Try lemon tahini sauce as a spread!  Just use less water so it’s thicker, less like a salad dressing.  Especially good on a veggie sandwich.

3. Creamy Cilantro-naise

Another option would be to use the creamy cilantro sauce (the one we use for our fish tacos).  It  can be made with a yogurt base and I’d suggest using plain whole milk Greek yogurt to get the thicker consistency.

4. Tofu Goddess-naise

A fourth option is the Tofu Goddess Dressing, which has a (duh) tofu base.  Again, keep it thick, less pourable but cutting back on the lemon juice and eliminating the water.

5. Better Than Naise

I totally groove on spreading Mary’s Olive Tapenade on my sandwiches.  Makes them spark right up.

1. Set a good metabolic pace for the day

When you skip breakfast, you may feel ravenous later and be tempted to reach for a quick fix — such as vending machine candy or doughnuts at the office. In addition, the prolonged fasting that occurs when you skip breakfast can increase your body’s insulin response, which in turn increases fat storage and weight gain. In fact, skipping breakfast actually increases your risk of obesity.  Eating early in the day keeps us from “starvation eating” later on. But it also jump-starts your metabolism, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, nutrition manager for the Duke Diet & Fitness Center at Duke University Medical School. “When you don’t eat breakfast, you’re actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you’re not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight.”

2. Make healthier food choices all day.

Eating breakfast may get you on track to make healthy choices all day. When you eat breakfast, you tend to eat a healthier overall diet, one that is more nutritious and lower in fat. When you skip breakfast, you’re more likely to skip fruits and vegetables the rest of the day, too.

3.  Have more energy.

Eating breakfast may give you energy, increasing your physical activity during the day. A healthy breakfast refuels your body and replenishes the glycogen stores that supply your muscles with immediate energy. Skipping breakfast is associated with decreased physical activity.

4.  Reduce risk of certain diseases.

Better breakfast eating, particularly high-fiber foods, is shown in some studies to help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even intestinal polyps and colon cancer.  Studies also suggest “that breakfast frequency and quality may be related in causal ways to appetite controls and blood sugar control, supporting the hypothesis that the breakfast meal and its quality may have important causal implications for the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.”

5.  Think clearer and behave better.

Several national studies consistently confirm that breakfast helps kids concentrate, think, behave and learn.  Might work for adults too, what d’ya think?  A better breakfast:

• Improves children’s classroom performance, including better test scores and grades
• Increases children’s ability to focus and concentrate on school work
• Decreases behavior problems, tardiness and visits to the school nurse
• Increases attendance rates

And this of course begs the question - what do you mean by a “better breakfast”  hmmm?  Most breakfasts are unbalanced.  Refined grains and sugar, uh most boxed cereals, are full of high glycemic carbohydrates and not much else.  To achieve “better” breakfast needs to include foods where fiber, protein and fat are also present, not just carbs.  And let’s think outside the cereal box.  Way outside.  Take cues from other cultures summarized in this swell article “Rethinking Breakfast Conventions” by Eli Penberthy where she reviews breakfast around the world - soups, fish, beans, even pickles.

Plan ahead and start the day in a way that will make you feel GRRRRRREAT. What’s your better breakfast look like?