Dice potatoes into half-inch cubes. Saute rosemary and garlic in butter, lard, or olive oil or a combination of those for a couple minutes and then add the potatoes with salt and pepper. Close the lid for 10 minutes and then take it off and turn the potatoes. Leave the lid off and fry for another 10 minutes.

In another pan, saute onions in butter until soft. Add ham, bacon, or sausage and cook until done. Whisk some eggs together with some cream, salt, pepper, and just a bit of chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. Dump the eggs in with the meat and cook until done. Add some chopped tomatoes.

Combine everything and mix it up. Add some grated cheese if desired.

UPDATE (6/28/08): Here are some recent improvements in this dish. I use stainless steel pans for all but the eggs.

For the potatoes, set the pan on medium-low (about 2.5-3 on a scale of 1-10). I generally use a combination of butter and olive oil. Make sure it is preheated before adding the potatoes. Cook with the lid closed for 8 minutes and with it off for 8-10 minutes depending on how crispy you want the potatoes.

For sausage, saute on all sides on medium-low until browned and there is fond (the brown stuff) stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add butter and onions and season with salt and pepper. The liquid that comes out of the onions will help to deglaze the pan. If there is still fond stuck to the bottom toward the end of cooking, deglaze with a little water or just a tiny splash of dry red wine or stock.

Cook the eggs separately in a non-stick pan with some butter. Add some of the chilpotle to both the eggs and the onion/meat mixture.

I use whatever fresh herbs I have on hand. Generally that’s rosemary and thyme. Sometimes I use oregano. Chives and/or parsley makes a good garnish.

• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry grain (or about 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
• 6 tablespoons rapadura or sucanat
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2/3-3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• rapadura or sucanat and cinnamon to sprinkle

Blend butter into flour and rapadura with a pastry blender or food processor until the butter is in pea size or slightly smaller chunks. Gently mix in the buttermilk until all the flour is wet. Let soak at room temperature overnight.

In the morning, put the dough in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes to harden the butter. Preheat the oven to 425F.

• 6-10 baking apples, peeled and sliced (sorry, didn’t count)
• 1/3 cup rapadura or sucanat
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons butter

Saute the apples in butter until tender. Stir in the rapadura, spices and salt and cook for a few more minutes.

Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Evenly sprinkle on the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Roll up the dough. Flatten and fold the dough gently about 5 times. Roll out into a square until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. Slice the dough into 6 rectangles. Spoon apple filling onto rectangles (probably a couple tablespoons), fold over, and pinch the edges together.

Wisk the egg and brush it over the pies with a pastry brush. Sprinkle rapadura or sucanat and cinnamon over the pies.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Yum.

Make a batch of biscuit dough.

• 1 1/3c soft white wheat ground into flour (about 2c flour)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Blend the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles a course meal. Mix in the buttermilk just until it all sticks together. Let site 12-24 hours at room temperature.

Gently knead in the remaining ingredients, about 9 or 10 times.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 16-18 inches by about 12 inches. Gently spread with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over the top of the butter. Generously sprinkle sucanat over the top. Roll along the longest edge to form a log. Cut gently into half, then quarters. Cut each quarter into 3 pieces.

Butter a 9×13 pan (smaller will work as well) and place the rolls evenly. Bake for about 14 minutes in a 425F oven.

Instead of making frosting, spread unprocessed local honey on top.

• 4-5 eggs
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• milk (whole)
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg

Cover the eggs with cold water in a sauce pan. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn off the burner and let it sit on the burner for 10 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before peeling.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium-low heat. Whisk in the the flour. This is called a roux. Turn up the heat to medium and let it bubble for at least a minute while whisking gently. This eliminates the flour taste. Continue whisking and pour in some milk. Bring to a gentle simmer until it thickens. Whisk in additional milk to obtain desired consistency.

Chop eggs and add to gravy. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper or use your favorite seasonings. Shari is partial to garlic.

Serve over whole wheat biscuit.

Additionally, I’m not convinced that the NT method of “nixtamalizing” corn is quite in keeping with tradition. It doesn’t sound like any practice I can find in the Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods or anywhere else. The traditional process is said to greatly increase the nutritional value of corn, increasing the protein value and also other nutrients. Societies that use corn as a staple and neglect the nixtamalization process tend to have problems with pellagra or kwashiorkor.

Nixtamalization sounds complicated. I made hummus once from dry garbanzos, and decided it was too much work rubbing off the outer skin. Nixtamalization sounds about the same. Imagine my delight when I discovered that you can actually buy nixtamalized corn in little packages in the store. It’s called posole or hominy.

So rather than try to adapt the NT cornbread recipe, I tried Sue Gregg’s blender cornbread recipe. In place of whole kernel dry corn, I used the packaged posole/hominy. Because the hominy is not pre-ground into meal, I get the full nutritional value of freshly ground meal. The only thing I might change in this recipe is to add a little baking soda. I used yogurt in this recipe and it’s a bit on the sour side. ½ teaspoon of soda should neutralize the sour.

I recently decided to try modifying one of her muffin recipes. My kids (and wife) will often eat things if they have even the remotest inkling that there might be chocolate in them. Chocolate chips are the method I used to get them to first try Sue’s whole grain pancakes. (I had made other whole grain pancakes before and they were less than thrilled. Sue’s are unbelievably yummy – even without the chocolate chips).

I’m pretty particular about the food I cook and serve, so I happened upon Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They are made with mostly Nourishing Traditions endorsed stuff (minus the cocoa). I also discovered Ah!laska cocoa powder.

I have obtained the kind permission of Sue Gregg Cookbooks to present my recipe for chocolate muffins here. It is a modified version of Sue’s Good Morning Blender Muffins.

Mix the following ingredients in your blender until smooth (takes 2-3 minutes in the Bosch). Leave at room temperature 7-24 hours:

• 1 cup buttermilk (I culture my own from fresh milk)
• 1½ cups whole soft white wheat (not flour)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Add the following and blend for a minute or two:

• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ¼ cup Sucanat (evaporated cane juice)
• enough extra buttermilk to keep the vortex going

Blend in the following briefly but thoroughly:

• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Fold in:

• 2/3-1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Pour this mixture into greased muffin tins almost full (I use the kind with 12 holes and have enough left for a few extras).

I bake this for 16 minutes at 350°. The larger size tins will take longer. It depends on your oven, but the key is to bake them ONLY just until a toothpick comes out mostly clean (remember there are melted chocolate chips in there). If you bake them too long they get dry and crumbly. The shorter baking time keeps them moist.

The first time you make them you might want to pour one muffin with no chips just to check with the toothpick. Once you establish a good baking time for your oven you won’t need to worry about it anymore.

UPDATE (9/13/2007): I have found that 13-14 minutes is even better and makes a richer moister muffin. Your mileage may vary based on your oven and pans. The 6 cup tins definitely need to bake longer, more like 18-20 minutes. No matter what I try with the smaller muffins, the larger ones always come out better – moister and richer.

Also, I have since realized that while the Enjoy Life chocolate chips are far better than average, they are not really NT. While they claim to use “evaporated cane juice,” this does not mean it is whole evaporated cane juice. My guess is it is more refined than I had hoped. That’s one of the reasons I put less in these days.

I take whatever whole grains I have on hand. Usually that’s brown rice, barley, oats, and some type of wheat. This time around I used spelt, which is an ancient variety of wheat. Sue Gregg suggested cracking these grains right in your blender, which is ingenious. It’s also nostalgic for me because I used to spend a week every summer in a grain elevator where my grandfather worked. After you run this mixture through your blender it will smell just like a grain elevator.

I used to make something similar from an Arrowhead Mills box. The freshly ground grain tastes much better.

Based on Nourishing Traditions, I soak this over night in water with a couple tablespoons of whey added. I use 1 cup of grain to 3 cups of water. In the morning I add salt (Eden Foods celtic sea salt) and dried fruit, cook till it’s thick and not too soupy and then add butter, ground flax (freshly in the blender), and maple syrup. This morning I ground some almonds and added those.

Mmmmm.