Category Archives: Food

2021 – Another tough year

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2020 totally sucked between the Coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns, wildfires and finally Lira injuring her knees so I had hopes 2021 would be a huge improvement.  As I write this we are pretty much back in the same place we were in winter of 2020 with the new omicron variant raging in Seattle and the rest of the world and the obvious impacts of climate change hammering us with snow and, for Seattle, extreme cold.   The year has been full of pandemic canceled plans but has some bright spots with Lira making a full recovery by summer time and taking on new challenges this fall.

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Pheasant Thai Coconut Soup

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While I usually pluck birds and roast them whole there are times when I either have one a bit shot up or too many birds to process that way in which case I breast them and take the  hindquarters (along with the heart, liver and gizzard for Lira.)   We use the breasts in place of chicken breasts in recipes and usually slow cook the the hindquarters in a creole, cacciatore or some other similar dish.   This last week I have had a bad cold and was in the mood for a Thai Tom Kha Gai soup so decided to try and make one from pheasant.   I merged together a few recipes I found on the web and came up with something delicious and  cleared out my sinuses.   The recipe is totally Paleo, Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free.

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Processing an elk by yourself

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You know the saying that you eat an elephant one bite at a time, well I found out this past week the processing an entire elk by yourself is about like eating an elephant.  After our hunt it took me basically a full week to get from the time the elk hit the ground until I got everything packaged up and in the freezer not counting the 1.5 days the elk meat was in transit on the way home.  The good news is that the freezer is mostly full and we should have plenty of meat to get through the year.  Meat crisis averted!

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Pheasant Creole

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While I’m busy prepping for the upcoming hunting season I’m also busy trying to clear out the freezers in hopes of re-filling them soon.  I had a few pheasants left from last winter and decided to try something new with them after doing some variation on smoked pheasant for the last several.   We had some Shrimp Creole a few weeks ago and are inundated with tomatoes from the garden at the moment so that inspired me to make Pheasant Creole last night and it was awesome plus I did it in the slow cooker so it didn’t heat the house up too much on a hot day.

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Smoke roasted venison

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This weekend we had a dinner party and I decided to make use of the last big leg roast from my buck but had no idea how I was going to cook it.   I ended up combining about 3 recipes to get the final result which was awesome so I thought I’d better document it for future use.

I started where I always start, Hank Shaw‘s Buck, Buck, Moose which has been my goto cookbook since last October, everything we’ve made from there has been fantastic.   Following his Roast Leg of Venison recipe he has a side-bar on Smoke-Roasting a Leg of Venison which is what I wanted to do.  Hank gives 3 options to deal with this in a smoker:

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More Portland Paleo

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IMG_0691Another trip to Portland and another restaurant to try out, we love eating in Portland.   I have done two posts already about this city – Portland Paleo and Portland Paleo II from last year’s trips.   We headed to Portland last weekend to go look at a dog and decided to try something new.  Originally I was going to just head to Brooklyn House but felt it was better to explore.  Tasty & Sons had been recommended to us by a friend and their menu had potential but it was one the other side of the river so I found Tasty & Alder which is just a block away from our hotel in the Pearl District and looked to be very Paleo friendly.

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Paleo OC

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We just got back from our bi-annual trip to Orange County.  This time, as usual, we mostly prepared our own foods but we did make it out to a couple of restaurants.   OC isn’t nearly as Paleo as Portland but there are options out there and still quite a bit to explore on our next visit.

Provisions

Paleo section at Whole Foods

Paleo section at Whole Foods

Finding Paleo groceries is pretty easy, the Whole Foods in Newport Beach is better stocked in Paleo goods than any of the ones in Seattle and the Laguna Beach location is also good though smaller.  They have most products by Paleo Chef, Julian Bakery and others plus locally made grass-fed Paleo jerky.    Add to that a complete seafood and meat department where we got wild salmon, organic chicken, bison steaks and grass fed ground beef.   Of course we also stocked up on organic fruits and vegetables.  The only thing missing was guar-gum free coconut milk.  I made up for that by making my own from Nutiva Coconut Manna and a blender.    I was excited to see the Julian Bakery Coconut Flakes, I’d been craving cereal lately and most Paleo cereals have almonds or almond flour which is one of my few allergies.  The Coconut Flakes are nothing but coconut so are OK for me and were great with strawberries and coconut milk.

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Meatless Mornings

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After 20 months of meat at every meal I’m finally to the point where I don’t need it at every meal so I’ve been instituting Meatless Mornings quite a bit this last week.   Eggs are what saved me, once I could eat them daily it opened up my possibilities for breakfast meals that didn’t have to include a sausage patty or bacon.  I was in a total run on the basic AIP Scramble which had been my staple breakfast item for about a year.  This week I’ve gone meatless about half the days and here are a few of my breakfasts from the week:

IMG_9366Scramble with chanterelles and asparagus with sweet potato hash browns, a banana and a coconut milk latte.  It is so nice to be able to eat mushrooms again, just in time for chanterelle season in the NW since they are one of my favorite mushrooms.   A few days before this I had a scramble with asparagus, zucchini and button mushrooms.

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Paleo now, no longer low FODMAP AIP

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In the last few months my diet has expanded quite a bit to where I no longer consider myself eating AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) but instead am eating a pretty full Paleo diet.   I added in eggs first about six months ago and have been slowly expanding with some nuts and seeds.  I’ve also stopped the low FODMAP portion of my diet and have added in many fairly high FODMAP foods.  This week I even went a little crazy and had a bunch of garlic and mushrooms with several meals with no real effects, I was kind of surprised.  I’m finally able to eat apples and stone fruit which are my favorites. I also ate a lot of raw food on my trip to the Deschutes with no issues so salads are back.  I eat a TON of sweet potato these days which are pretty hard to handle for most SIBO sufferers but I eat several a day now.

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Seattle paleo burgers

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I realize I’ve posted about Paleo eats in Portland and the Quad Cities but have never mentioned Seattle yet.  Well, in the last few weeks I’ve actually eaten out a few times at burger places that are Paleo friendly and thought it was due a post.

Blue Moon Burgers

IMG_8511First was Blue Moon Burgers in Fremont which Kristen and I went to on the day of the Geocaching Block Party.   Blue Moon has an extensive Gluten-free menu and even a Paleo Burger on the menu which consists of a 1/3 lb. beef patty, two strips of bacon, an egg and red onion all wrapped in lettuce.  I left the sauce off.  They also have sweet potato fries of various forms, regular and curry which are also GF.   Blue Moon also locally sources it’s beef and gives back to the community.   Blue Moon has location in Fremont, South Lake Union and Capitol Hill.

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