Welcome to the Garden

As a child I was loathe to make contact with anything that had more than 4 legs. My parents would try and try to get me out in the garden and I'd come up with any excuse not to do it because simply, bugs grossed me out. As an adult I have long gotten over my antipathy toward crawling things (well mostly gotten over it) and have made numerous attempts to grow things but apparently I spent so many years thwarting gardens my payback was that anything I tried to plant died a slow and agonizing death.

I am formally thumbing my nose to my gardening history and affirming that this is the year. With my little one turning 4 in September the time has come to grow some of our own food.

We ordered raised cedar beds from Naturalyards in Southern Oregon and with a friend who designs gardens for a living, on the nastiest and windiest day in a month, we got them set up and fully planted. As we start to harvest the veggies (knock on wood) the plan will be to add recipes to the blog that include our fresh, home grown veggies. I may even take a stab at canning if I can get someone to convince me I'm not going to give my family botulism.

Cook This: Juniper Brined Pork Chops, Vegan Caramelized Shallot Mashed Potatoes and Sauteéd Green Beans

Heading into my last day of vacation I wanted something delicious but not too complicated. I remembered that I tried this recipe once before and had some kinks to work out so was excited to get back to it.

I found this recipe on the foodandwine.com (photo is from the site, not my kitchen, see link for credit). Usually I mess with recipes but this time just prepared them as-is so instead of copying the recipe verbatim I'm linking. The first time I made these they were a bit tough. It turned out I missed the "double cut" part. I used the correct cut, was more careful this time, and it was better but still not perfect. Next time I'll check them at 20 minutes and not wait the recommended 30 minutes.

The recipe calls for brining chops for 2 hours (enough time to clean the kitchen from the rest of my cooking and hop on the spinning bike for a quick workout) then browning chops and placing in the oven for about 35 minutes. I made my potatoes and green beans earlier but the oven time is just about exactly how long you need to make the potatoes and green beans.  And yes my husband took my kid out today.



Caramelized Shallot Mashed Potatoes. 
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs mashing potatoes (there is never any agreement on this...I use yellow potatoes)
• 1 TBSP soy-free Earth Balance
• 1/4-1/2 cup (your preference) MimicCreme or organic cream/half and half if you want dairy.
• 3-4 large shallots sliced into crescents
• 2 TBSP olive oil

1. Cut potatoes into 2 inch chunks and put in saucepan with water just covering. Bring to a boil then simmer until soft.

2. While potatoes are cooking cook shallots on low until they are first soft and sweet, then continue to cook until they get slightly crispy. (If you're doing green beans you can wash and cut at this time.)

3. Once potatoes are soft, drain 90% of water and start to mash with potato ricer or fork. Add Earth Balance and cream to preferred taste and texture.

4. Add carmelized shallots and any cooking oil left in pan to potatoes. Mix and season with salt and fresh ground pepper if desired.

If you're trying to do lower carb, this recipe might work with cauliflower as well. I'll try it and let you know how it goes. 

Sauteéd Green Beans

In Shallot pan, saute washed and dried green beans (I like to cut them in half) until done to taste. If you have it, sprinkle with a little truffle salt before serving. It's spendy but a jar goes a long way. I also love to use truffle salt on popcorn. Delish. 

Enjoy!
-Dr Samantha

Gluten free in Portland? Your All in One Resource.

Everything you could possibly want to know about living gluten-free in PDX.
These guys rock.

http://www.glutenfreeportland.org/

Fish oil and PCBs. How Do You Trust Your Supplement Brand?

Every time a new patient comes into the clinic I have 'the supplement talk.'

Here's the thing; no one is regulating the supplement industry. And it is indeed an industry, a big one at that. Does that mean that you can't trust anything out there? No. It means that you need to be very careful about which supplements you buy. Just because something is expensive, doesn't mean it is good. However, if something is very inexpensive (compared to other similar products) there is a pretty decent chance that it hasn't been through stringent quality control. Why? Because it costs companies much more to test each batch of raw material that comes to their plants, and even more to test the final products.

So how do you know what is ok and what isn't? As a physician, I work closely with a few companies that have stringent controls. But if you are just buying something at the store, don't take the sales person's word for it (they are usually trained by the companies directly), and don't take the word of the product label either, do your own research. Here is what I recommend.

Call the company and ask the following questions regarding supplement "X".

1. Do you manufacture it? If no, you need to speak directly to the manufacturer. Some companies just label supplements produced by another company.

2. Do you test all raw materials that come to your plant for ingredient, contamination, and potency (if applicable?)

3. Do you test the product for quality post manufacture? If yes, is it random testing, or batch testing? And, is it done in house or by an independent testing company. Fair warning here, I did some consulting for a mass market brand where they would 'shop' the product having a batch tested 3 or 4 times before someone came back with the answer they wanted.

4. If I read you the batch number of the supplement "X" in my hand, can you send me a certificate of analysis. If you don't feel 100% confident with their answers, go to another brand.

Here is a link about a lawsuit being brought against a number of high profile companies that were found to have PCBs in their fish oil. And as if that is not bad enough, many of them had statements on the labels stating that the product was "screened for PCBs" or "treated to remove PCBs."

One online resource, the subscription site Consumer Lab does do random spot checks of many supplements. What they are trying to do is very important but the potential problem here is that just because one batch looks good doesn't mean the manufacturer won't change their raw materials supplier at any time, or even that the raw materials supplier is providing consistency in product.

The take home? My advice is to only by supplements from companies that have stringent quality control of their product and manufacturing from start to finish.

Janie's back!

We were so lucky to have had the lovely Laura step up to take over for Janie while she was on maternity leave. She did such a fabulous job and we'll all miss her. Thank you Laura!

As of last week, Janie is back 2 days a week. Her hours have changed a bit and are now Tuesday and Friday from 11:30-7:30. She's looking forward to seeing folks again so if you've been holding out for her return, the time has arrived. 

Simple Dinner Party: Avocado, Orange and Kohlrabi Salad, Yucatán Pork Stew and Quinoa.

My favorite stew, it turns out, is a fabulous dinner party main dish. Not only does it taste great but all of the cooking and clean up is done long before guests arrive. It is pretty easy to put together and then just simmers for 4-5 hours.

Dinner party day at 1pm, getting started:

Yucatán Pork Stew. I first saw this recipe in a very fun newsmag called The Week, which had reprinted from Food and Wine. When I was visiting my sister in San Francisco we walked into Avedano's, her favorite local butcher shop and I saw a copy of the recipe on display. It had originated in that very shop! The only changes I've made to this recipe are that doubled the carrots and onion, and I serve the cilantro on the side. If I didn't have a 3 year old I'd probably throw some jalapeños into the stew to give it a little kick. Please note also that browning the pork may take up to 20+ minutes. Also, I take the lid off after the first hour and cook it for closer to 4-5 hours, rather than 3 so it cooks down a bit more and the house smells yummy. The rest you just throw together. Oh, and make sure you use a large pot, I like my 6 quart enameled cast iron pot, Absolutely delicious.

This will serve 7 hungry folks with several rounds of leftovers. Freezes great!

20 min before guests will arrive, start the quinoa.

Quinoa. 20 min before you are going to serve dinner, put 2 cups quinoa and 4 cups of cold water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer about 20 min until water is gone and grain is a little fluffy. Toss lightly with a fork to lighten it up.

The salad can be made right before guests arrive, or as they are arriving.

Salad. Makes 6-7 plates.

• 1 head butter lettuce
• 3 ripe but not oversoft avocados cut into wedges then halved
• 3 seedless oranges cut into sections then halved- rind and white removed
• 2 small or one medium kohlrabi, grated
• 3 T cup olive oil
• 1 T fresh squeezed lime
• 3 T white wine vinegar
• 1/3 tsp brown sugar
• 1/3 tsp cumin
• 1/3 tsp ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• additional lime to taste

1. Wash and dry butter lettuce leaves, leave whole.
2. Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small bowl
3. Mix oranges and kohlrabi in medium bowl.
4. Pour dressing over oranges and kohlrabi and toss.
5. Add avocado and lightly toss

Place butter lettuce leaf or two on a small plate and top with a spoonful of avo mix.

Sorry no photos, I'll see if I can snap some the next time I make them.

Processed food intake may lead to depression.

"For the new study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, they studied dietary data provided from 3486 participants in the Whitehall II Study. With an average age of 55 years the participants, who worked in civil service departments in London, completed a questionnaire on their eating habits at the start of the trial and, five years later, a self-assessment on depression.

The team, led by Archana Singh-Manoux, identified two dietary patterns. Those with the highest intake of whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables and fish, were less likely to report depression symptoms later on.

Those eating a lot of processed meat, chocolate, sweetened desserts, fried foods, refined cereals and high fat dairy, on the other hand, were seen to be more vulnerable to depression"

Quote lifted from here.