Last week on St. Patrick’s Day, Kent emailed me after he left for Mass and asked if I “by any chance” was planning corned beef for dinner. I said no, but since it was only 6:30 am, it was early enough that I could figure something out. So I went to my “compromise” meat store (not as good as my favorite local meat farmer, but close to home, and at least not as bad as the regular grocery store meat) and asked for 
corned beef, not really even knowing what it is. (Anything “corned” sounds fishy to me, but I’ve found out since that it’s just the way it’s prepared, not what the cows are fed.) He said they had beef brisket roasts, but that I’d have to “corn” it myself. He showed me a recipe, I copied it down and headed home, knowing I’d obviously have to skip the overnight step. I threw my frozen solid brisket into a crock pot with all the seasonings that I thought were going to do their magic, and then let it cook for 7 or 8 hours on high. We ended up with a really tasty roast, one of our best ever actually, but it wasn’t corned beef. My Googling since has taught me that, duh, to make corned beef you have to “brine” it for a few days, which basically means marinating it with salt and some other stuff. So I may post this roast recipe soon just because it was so good, and then next year I’ll work on my corned beef recipe. Am I the only one who didn’t have a clue what corned beef is?
There were a lot of interesting things going on at my Facebook page last week. Jen asked this question: “Kelly, can you tell me if there are any chips on the market that are made with a healthy oil? Or least with one that isn't as bad as vegetable oil?” Here’s my answer: “My best advice is to make homemade potato chips – it's easy but just takes a little time and thinking ahead. My other suggestion is to buy these potato chips fried in lard from Miller’s Farm. I had them at the WAPF conference and they're SOOOOO good!- I also got a rant going at my Facebook page on low-fat yogurts after Yoplait sent an email asking me to join in on a promotion. When I tried to find a whole milk yogurt on their site, I was unable to, so I called them and they don’t carry ONE whole milk yogurt! I asked her to pass my comments on to the higher ups there, to let them know that as more people become educated on this issue they WILL be wanting whole milk yogurt options. I also told her we’ll want it to be organic and from pastured cows. A girl can dream, right?! Surely she thought I was wacked.
They’re no different than almost all of the other yogurt companies, though. Look at this picture to the right – rows and rows of low fat yogurt and there’s only a tiny little shelf of whole milk yogurt to choose from. (Here’s how I make my own Homemade yogurt, but because that kind is more runny than store-bought, I’ve been using it mostly for soaking grains. It’s still on my list to try one of my other types of yogurt starters that makes a thicker yogurt. Different types of yogurt make different consistencies.) - Jane Hersey sent me the link to this GREAT article about a man feeding kids REAL FOOD in a low-income Chicago school and they're loving it AND it's saving the school money! Miracle worker in the school kitchen.
- Here’s one of my tweets last week with a link you may want to check out. The first part was a retweet from Harvest Health, a local health food store here, the 2nd part is my comment: “RT @harvest_health: Want to become a #vegan? Here's how. –>NOT RECOMMENDED. Here's why.”
Did you see this post last week? Coming Off Anti-depressants (Weaning from Paxil: A reader shares her story) – there were some really helpful comments there in case you missed them. Please pass it on if you know someone who could use the information.- Have a great week!
There were a lot of interesting things going on at my 
Did you see this post last week? 
Janice says
Becky D,
I am also local and previously bought Heffron meats. My understanding is that the cows are not pasteured. Though they say “grass fed” on their website they feed them hay and I question how much other grain they receive. (Check out the FAQ’s on their website.) While it is probably a better alternative than conventional I prefer Creswick or Crane Dance which you can get at the market or through the West Michigan Co-op.
WordVixen says
If you can’t get lard chips without preservatives (I seriously only live 12 minutes from Miller’s- but I have yet to find out if they have an on-the-farm-store. I’m so not paying shipping!), I highly recommend the Good Health Natural Foods brand avocado oil and sea salt potato chips. Avocado oil has a higher smoke point, and the only ingredients are avocado oil, potatoes, and sea salt. And they’re delicious! I personally prefer them over lard fried chips. They also have olive oil fried chips, but they have a kind of bitter flavor.
Melissa at Dyno-mom says
I am glad you still enjoyed your “non” corned beef. We had ours Saturday when Daddy could be home. We went nontradi and grilled it over hardwood coals. It was fabulous! I posted pictures on my blog. I am also starting a feature of traditional/natural foods approved by my teen since getting teenagers to eat healthily is tough business when they can go eat out with friends. All my food items posted today all receive his enthusiastic approval, especially the grilled corned beef!
Linda M says
Kelly,
I learned to make yogurt at a class at Lubber’s Farm and my yogurt is not runny at all. She said to heat the raw milk to 140 and then cool it to 110 and add the starter. I got Y5 starter (mild) and Y4 starter (tart) at Siciliano’s on Lake Michigan Drive. Now I just use a Tbsp of my prior batch for the starter. She then said to fill up a 6-pack sized cooler with really hot water, put your yogurt in there and close it up overnight. It works well!
Julie says
Linda your advise on how to make yogurt really helped me. I’ve made yogurt with great success several times since using your method. I just have one question–for raw milk yogurt, are you sure 140 is the temp to heat the milk to and not 180? To be on the safe side until I found out from you about the 140, I have been heating the milk to 180. Thanks for sharing your method with us. It’s better than any other way I have tried, believe me I have tried many and have had just as many failures!
[email protected] Ponderings says
Grandma Utz Chips are cooked in lard, and I get them at Christmas Tree Shops, of all places. I don’t get the BBQ flavor, as the ingredients scare me, but the plain ones are TASTY!
Stanley Fishman says
Dietrichs Meats in Pennsylvania sell chips that have been fried in their own superb pork lard. Be sure to ask for the chips without preservatives. They ship all over the country. They also have superb lard, at a reasonable price.
Magda says
I’m yet to make my own yogurt since I’m not sure I can do dairy (right now I do cheese mostly, some sour cream). I do buy my 14 month old Stonyfield – I’m trying to switch him to regular plain yogurt with fruit and maple syrup/honey for sweetener. It’s tough finding a full fat yogurt for my picky 6.5 year old. He wants his caramel flavored yogurt – and it’s lowfat!! There are no kids yogurt that are full fat – only baby and of course he won’t eat that. He’s going to Europe for the summer so I’m going to ask my MIL to only buy him full fat yogurt there. When he gets back I’ll have homemade caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and various fruit purees ready so he can flavor and sweeten his own full fat yogurt (I love Seven Stars as well!!). I hope after being on GAPS I can do dairy again. Then I’m making my own yogurt. And kefir, too. Right now I’m mixing store bought lowfat flavored with homemade plain (my 6.5 YO complained when he saw me, but when I mixed it into the store bottle and poured, he drank it all).
DH will only eat Yoplait – he likes the whips. Have you seen the ingredient label? Arghh…. I try to keep it away from my 6.5 YO. Mostly I succeed.
Becky D says
Hi Kelly,
I made corned beef for the first time ever this year! It was great…but I had a hard time convincing my little guy (who is corn-intolerant) that it was okay for him to eat. 😉
I’m local to you, and I buy a really great brand of whole milk plain yogurt at Harvest Health – the brand is Seven Stars Farms. It works well for us, we use it mostly for our morning smoothies. I don’t make my own yogurt…although it’s on my list. One thing at a time!
Also – I’ve been buying a great deal of my meat/poultry from a local farm that has retail outlets in the area…(Heffron) and I wondered about your thoughts on that?
M.E. Anders says
Yeah – I just realized the other week that “corned beef” was brined. 🙂
Heather M says
Kelly,
The video from CPS was great, I really enjoyed it. It gives hope:)
Amanda Dittlinger says
I’m glad you mentioned pectin Kate, because I was going to ask about it. I read on another blog (don’t remember which one) that they were using a natural pectin to thicken their raw milk yogurt. Since I wasn’t sure what pectin even is, I wanted to ask here. I know you can strain it to make it thicker, which is good since I use the whey but I feel so deprived of how little yogurt you get after straining! And my raw milk is expensive!
I’m sad that Stoneyfield yogurt now is homogenizing their yogurt instead of “cream top” it’s now Whole Milk… at least it isn’t low fat…. but still, why did they go backwards? They advertise that they “stir it for you” because you know… stirring yogurt is SO hard to do.
Also… I didn’t know what corned beef was either!
WordVixen says
It’s probably because they were so embarrassed at how little cream they actually had in their cream top!
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
At Whole Foods the other week, I could not find a SINGLE acceptable brand of yogurt (which I buy if I don’t have the time or don’t have enough raw milk). It was all low-fat or fat-free with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions, and ALL had pectin and other junk in them. Why can’t I buy plain, whole milk yogurt with nothing else in it?! Luckily, Trader Joe’s carries it (and cheaper!) so I buy it there. It annoys me to no end though.
I also found that ALL of Trader Joe’s spaghetti sauce (with one exception) has soybean oil in it. I did buy some (VERY rare for me; it’s been like 3 years!), but made sure it was organic so at least it wasn’t GMO.
What passes for “food” really just shocks me.
Adrienne says
Kelly,
I didn’t know what corned beef was until a few years ago either.
I actually really wanted to try to make it myself this year, but it’s been a really busy couple of weeks, so we just settled for some Homemade Saint Patrick’s Day fudge instead (made w/ natural food coloring, of course) 🙂
Maybe we can have corned beef in a few weeks. I love it w/ cabbage. On a side note, I am half Irish, but I don’t ever remember my relatives having corned beef! 🙂
Soli says
Kelly, a week or two ago I got a follow on Twitter from a SOY yogurt company. How do they find us and think we’re going to be a go?
Michelle in Colorado says
On the yogurt you can strain it through cheese cloth. I do this to make the yogurt thicker and to have whey for fermenting and smooths.
KitchenKop says
Why do I always forget that?!
Thanks!
Kelly