My First Day of Gardening

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 4 Comments

At long last we have started our container garden! Jesse and I spent Saturday afternoon shopping for supplies and plants at McGuckin, our local old-fashioned hardware store. Before starting out on our adventure, I read up on buying seedlings, soil and fertilizer in my library copy of The Bountiful Container. (If you’re also new to container gardening, I’ve found The Bountiful Container to be a very helpful resource – it’s all about growing herbs, vegetables and fruits in containers.)

Shopping for Plants and Supplies

Despite my research, I still felt very awkward and insecure at the store.…

Filed Under: Green Living

Sugar-Free Elderberry “Syrup”

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 18 Comments

My mom has been into alternative health since I was in elementary school, so over the years I have consumed quite a bit of elderberry syrup. Elderberries are believed to be a potent anti-viral agent and thus I always take some elderberry syrup at the first sign of a cold or other viral illness. Despite my long history of taking elderberry syrup, however, it was only a couple years ago that I learned that you could actually make your own syrup. As with most foods, making your own gives you total control over the ingredients and, in many cases, can save you quite a bit of money.…

Filed Under: Real Food Recipes

Three Tips for Making Large Batches of Soup

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 3 Comments

I eat soup year round. When made with plenty of meat and vegetables, it’s a tasty and filling meal in itself. For a long time I only cooked enough soup for the meal we were about to eat. Eventually, however, I realized that making soup in large batches is much more efficient. Although you have to spend a bit more time making a large initial batch, your reward is several meals worth of pre-made soup ready to be pulled out of the fridge and simply reheated whenever you’re hungry.

I realize that a “large” batch of soup is a relative term.…

Filed Under: Kitchen Tips and Tricks

How to Eat a Quarter of a Cow Even if You Don’t Like the Taste of Beef

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 4 Comments

We have nearly finished eating our way through the quarter of a grass-fed cow that we bought last summer. The fact that we buy our beef in quarters is not remarkable, but it is perhaps a bit more unusual considering that I don’t care for the taste of beef.

Why buy a quarter of cow, then? Well, for three main reasons: Jesse enjoys beef; I think it’s important to have variety in our diets; and I believe grass-fed beef is a very healthy food. The result of all this is that I have long been determined to make beef a regular part of our diet.…

Filed Under: Kitchen Tips and Tricks

GAPS-style Swedish Meatballs

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 5 Comments

This Swedish meatball recipe is derived from a traditional recipe that Jesse’s great-grandmother brought with her when she immigrated from Sweden to America. Over the years it has gone through various modifications depending on the preferences of each family member.  Most recently Jesse and I modified it to make it GAPS-legal. At this point I would no longer describe this as a traditional Swedish recipe, but we still think it’s absolutely delicious.

This recipe will make six pounds of meatballs. Our motto is that if you’re going to make meatballs, you might as well make a lot of meatballs. Meatballs freeze well and making a big batch means you spend less time prepping and cleaning up overall, so every few months we make six pounds and then get to eat meatballs out of the freezer for several weeks.…

Filed Under: Real Food Recipes