Weekly meal plan

What I am making this week:
1) Sauerkraut! I have started getting cabbage in my Johnson’s Backyard Garden CSA box again so it was time to try my hand at the NT sauerkraut recipe. I usually buy some at our weekly farmer’s market but boy was this easy and I was able to get 1.5 pints from one medium cabbage! Talk about cheap – that saved my $14!
Ingredients:

• 1 medium cabbage, cored and shredded (use a food processor to shred)
• 1 T caraway seeds (optional)
• up to 1 T sea salt
• 4 T whey (optional: for a casein/dairy free recipe, omit and use twice the sea salt) (you get the whey from making yogurt cheese – see the link for a great post on this by the Nourishing Cook)

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix cabbage with caraway seeds, salt and whey. Pound with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer for about 10 minutes to release juices. Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down firmly with a pounder or meat hammer until juices come to the top of the cabbage. The top of the cabbage should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. I added a ziploc bag filled with water to weigh down the cabbage. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage (fridge, cellar, or cold basement). The sauerkraut may be eaten immediately, but it improves with age.
That’s it – couldn’t be easier!

2) Homemade Mayo
using Food Renegade’s recipe for an enzyme rich version (minus the sweetener) that is so tasty! I use this to make dressings and chicken salad with the chicken I get from making chicken soup. Again – very inexpensive to make this and it lasts a while too because it is naturally fermented.

3) Salmon spread
This is for our Chanukah party this weekend. I want to make sure people have some good fats and protein to eat to balance out all of the latkes and donuts.
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked fresh wild caught salmon
1 small onion, grated
3/4 cup Creme Fraiche (my new favorite ‘alive’ sour cream)
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp capers, drained, rinsed and dried with paper towels
dash cayenne pepper
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Blend salmon, onion, cultured cream, lemon juice and capers together in a food processor. Season to taste. Spread on whole grain crackers or toast (or in my case – latkes!) or put a spoonful on an endive leaf!

4) Latkes (Potato Pancakes)
I am making these for Chanukah this week and when making them for my family I am frying in beef tallow – yes – you heard me right. Here is how to make beef tallow using beef fat you can get from a farm or butcher using a ‘wet render’ method – I did it and it worked! I am a believer:
Take a nice sized pot, put about 2″ of water in the bottom. Put the whole 5# blob of fat in there and let it cook down on high, then med/high and then whatever temperature keeps it at a low boil. The water will evaporate off leaving you with a beautiful golden oil. Take a stainless bowl, set a stainless colander on it, line with butter muslin and pour the hot oil through it. The muslin will catch the fine particles of meat. When it cools, store in plastic containers in the freezer.
For the Chanukah party we are having I can’t serve meat as we are doing ‘kosher style’ so I will just try those in a little olive oil and butter.
Ok–to the latke recipe:
Ingredients:
6 baking potatoes, washed but not peeled
1 tbsp sea salt
3-4 tbsps whey or lemon juice
2 med onions, grated
2 eggs lightly beaten
3/4 spelt or unbleached white flour (optional-I will not be using)
sea salt and pepper
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed!)
or beef tallow

Directions:
Grate potatoes in a food processor. Cover with water and stir in salt and whey or lemon juice. Cover and leave at room temperature for about 7 hours. Meanwhile, mix grated onions with eggs and flour and season to taste. Rinse the potatoes in a colander, squeeze dry with a tea towel and stir into batter. Saute on both sides in a mixture of butter and EVOO or beef tallow.

I am sure there will be others but this are my major time items. Let me know if you want help making these items yourself.