Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Salad Sunday 30 December: Blue Cheese Pecan Slaw

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Many of the revered smokehouse and barbeque joints around Texas and the South serve some version of a Blue Cheese Pecan Slaw; this is the version we’ve come to adopt as our favorite.

We’re big fans of great slaws and salads around our camp, and have often taken to incorporating a head of radicchio into our slaws of late, along with the occasional parsnip and grated or shredded beet.

The combination of sour cream and avocado oil mayo as the dressing base is a great one, just tart enough, and of course there’s a bit of vinegar, hot sauce, and celery seeds thrown in.

The pecans and blue cheese add a tasty crunch and salty, funky flavor that only blue cheese can bring to the table and are a wonderful change of pace from simpler slaws and salads. By the way, you’ll often see this served with sweetened dried cranberries mixed in; for those moderating their carb intake, those little sweetened carb-bombs cross the line, though unsweetened dried cranberries add a burst of fruity tart flavor and a bit of color during the holidays.

1 head green cabbage, cored and shredded
Up to 1/2 head purple cabbage, cored and shredded
1 large carrot, shredded
1 large head radicchio, cored and shredded
1 bunch green onions, trimmed, white and green parts thinly sliced
Optional: 1 parsnip, peeled and shredded
Optional: 1 golden beet, peeled and shredded

1/2 cup (or more) toasted pecan pieces

Dressing
1 and 1/2 cups crumbled blue cheese, divided
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup avocado or olive oil mayo (use this recipe)
1/4 cup apple cider or distilled white vinegar
2-3 jalapeno hot sauce (we use Green Tabasco here)
2 tsp good salt
1-2 tsp celery seeds
1-2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Toast the pecans in a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes; set aside.

Meanwhile, prep and combine the cabbage(s), carrot, radicchio, green onions, and other vegetables of choice in a large bowl; toss gently to mix well. Throw the bowl in the fridge if you’re not using right off the bat.

Mix 1 cup of the crumbled blue cheese with the remainder of the dressing ingredients, combine well. When ready to serve, pour over the cabbage mixture, add the toasted pecans, and toss gently (use your hands here) to coat the vegetables well.

If using a serving bowl at the table, transfer the dressed slaw, then sprinkle with the remaining blue cheese.

Enjoy.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know (Links and Stuff) 29 December 2018

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An Eclectic Collection of Older Bolder Reads for the Holiday Week

Make the joy of giving a year-round principle to live by. (More detail here.)

Maximize the good in spinach – let’s talk about the antioxidant lutein.

Your brain, food, and a dopamine double hit.

Why you love your steak – the Maillard Reaction.

An interesting look at vacations; they’re absolutely necessary and useful, but get your sleep too.

Declining smell in old age – an explanation?

Do you need to get ready for a Dry January?

Using the Yale Food Addiction Scale to look at food addiction – a review. Here’s links to the scale itself and the scoring methodology.

The Dark Horse path to happiness; this deserves some pondering time.

From the no more excuses file, a great story about a 97-year old mountain runner. Git ‘er done.

Our Recipes for the Week

Brown Butter Cranberry Sauce

Collard Greens Kimchi

Rib Rub Pork Shoulder

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 28 December: Rib Rub Pork Shoulder

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In keeping with our recipe theme of late focusing on traditional Southern foods that, according to folklore, bring good luck for the New Year, here’s a wonderful, and ridiculously simple, recipe for a tasty pork shoulder prep, the Rib Rub Pork Shoulder.

Pork is of course a celebrated protein in many cultures around the world, and the fact that pigs root moving forward symbolizes (ostensibly according to tradition) progress and attainment for the New Year. As noted before, both my wife and were raised in the South and learned these traditions around our Grandmothers’ tables; we eat pork today because it tastes so good.

A slowly smoked pork shoulder is still considered a treasure in the modern South today, pulled and most often served with a regionally-favored sauce (for example, the mouth-puckering vinegar-based sauces in the Carolinas). Not always having the time to tend a smoker for the day, we oven roast a pork shoulder using this recipe every six weeks or so and eat on it for a week in various preps. This technique is simple as can be, and produces foolproof results every time.

Two summers ago, in the days before my son married, we even catered a backyard party he and his then fiancé threw for visiting family and friends, using the very rib rub recipe my son had crafted years before (Jake’s Rib Rub). I’ve included a link to that recipe below – it’s delicious, but you’ll note it contains sugar, as do many rubs you’ll find commercially these days. We typically make a batch of one of a number of our favorite rubs without any sugar; there are a number of great recipes around, and Jake’s recipe works well (in terms of flavor profile and balance) with the sugar greatly reduced. You make the call…

6-10 pound whole bone-in heritage pork shoulder roast (Boston Butt)
Your favorite pork or rib rub (we use Jake’s Rib Rub occasionally, see above)
Apple cider vinegar

Preheat your trusty oven to 425.

Rinse the pork shoulder and pat dry; paint with the ACV and coat with a generous layer of the rub (all surfaces).

On a foil-lined baking sheet place a rack covered with a sheet of parchment paper; settle the rubbed shoulder atop the paper, skin side up, and side into the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 250 and plan on at least a 6 hour cook; you need a deep meat temperature of 185 for the fat to render out and the toughest meat fibers to fully (and magically) tenderize. Bigger shoulders (9 to 10 pounds and up) may even need times more in the range of eight hours.

When done, rest for at least 30 minutes before pulling, slice or shredding.

For those making tacos tonight, here’s a little trick to put this one over the top – pull or shred the shoulder and heat a skillet over medium high heat. Place a healthy layer of meat in the skillet, sprinkle with a bit more rib rub (you’ll know when it’s enough), and heat, turning now and again, until hot, sizzling and just beginning to caramelize.

Enjoy.

Dig a Little Deeper: A Time to Fast

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Recently a very insightful article posted at Science – A Time to Fast, written by a team from the Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging at the NIH in Baltimore. [Science  16 Nov 2018:Vol. 362, Issue 6416, pp. 770-775]

If you have any interest whatsoever in the concept of fasting, even if doing something as ridiculously simple as compressing your eating window during a given day, take a few minutes to read through this article at your leisure.

A section of their of opening comments from the article, emphasis mine –

…Besides socioeconomic status, energy, environmental quality, and genetics are the most powerful determinants of health and longevity. Although environmental quality and genetics are not under our direct control, energy intake is. The consumption of food provides energy and nutrients necessary to sustain life and allows growth, repair, and reproduction. Proper nutrition can influence health and survival and delay or, in some cases, prevent the onset and progression of chronic diseases. However, both hypo- and hypernutrition have the potential to increase the risk of chronic disease and premature death. Furthermore, manipulation of a nutritionally balanced diet, whether by altering caloric intake or meal timing, can lead to a delay of the onset and progression of diseases and to a healthier and longer life in most organisms (2–4). In general, both prolonged reduction in daily caloric intake and periodic fasting cycles have the power to delay the onset of disease and increase longevity. Data from experimental studies in short-lived species and emerging clinical and epidemiological observations indicate that dietary interventions are valuable strategies that can be applied to promote healthy aging. In model organisms, caloric restriction (CR) provides beneficial effects on health and survival, and there is an extensive literature that provides insights into its molecular mechanisms of action (4)…

The authors go on to review key aspects of, and a bit of the history behind, simple caloric restriction, time-restricted feeding (what many of us in the ancestral/Primal worlds identify as intermittent fasting), intermittent fasting and periodic fasting, which the authors define as an eating pattern in which no or few calories are consumed for periods of time that range from one to several days, and what they labeled as fasting-mimicking diets.

There are several excellent diagrams, emphasizing key points from the article, and offering comparisons of the different approaches.

For those who wish to dig a little deeper in the subject of caloric restriction and different approaches to fasting, something all of us have the potential to benefit significantly from, the article is well referenced.

On a personal note, we’ve been, for the most part effortlessly, practicing what the authors term time-restricted feeding for more than two years now. In the ancestral / Primal worlds, this approach is often labelled as using a compressed eating window or intermittent fasting, consuming the predominance of the day’s nutrition in a six to eight hour window.

As we became more Primally-aligned in our own nutrition, and consciously applying the WHEN principle (eat When Hunger Ensues Naturally), eating in a compressed eating window evolved quite naturally, and provided a host of benefits, including better overall energy and endurance, improved mental clarity and cognitive function, improved sleep, intentional/desired weight loss, and more. I personally plan on giving a 5:2 fasting routine a trial run this upcoming first quarter of 2019.

If you’ve tested some form of fasting in your own routine, it’s time to dig a little deeper and give one (or more) of the approaches a spin.

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday 26 December: Collard Greens Kimchi

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With New Year’s Day celebrations looming on the horizon now, being good children of the South my wife and I have been raised to eat greens as part of the traditional New Year’s Day meal.

Truth be told, I didn’t grow up willfully embracing the concept of stewed or sautéed greens, though in my youth I picked at mustard, collard, and turnip greens at many a grandmother-prepared table over the years.

My personal view of greens changed when one of our favorite Southern restaurants here in the DFW metro started serving a wonderful crudite plate with a Collard Greens Kimchi as part of the array. We often have a quart jar of some version of kimchi in the fridge (using this recipe), and while collard greens take a bit of time in a briny soak to soften, they’re well worth the effort, and some say will help ensure wealth flows your way this year (if you hold to old Southern New Year’s Day tradition).

2 medium bunches collard green leaves
Fine sea salt

6 scallions, cut on diagonal into 1 inch pieces, use the white and pale green sections
1/3 cup (or more) gochugaru (Korean red chile flakes, coarse) OR
1.5 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes, ground
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoons fish sauce

Remove the stalks from the collards and cut the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Wash well, drain, and quickly pat dry. Now layer in a small bowl with generous amounts of the sea salt between layers, place a dish (or other weight on top) and leave for 30 minutes. Then massage the leaves a bit, turning them over, and making sure they’re fairly well covered with salt, cover with the weight in place for another 30 minutes. Repeat this process another three times, you’re looking for the leaves to become somewhat tender.

Rinse the leaves of salt and pat dry on paper towels.

Now combine the collard leaves with the scallions, pepper of choice, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce; stir to ensure all the leaves are well coated.

Now pack into a sterilized jar, leaving about an inch of headspace. Cover loosely and leave on the counter (out of direct sunlight) for up to two days to begin the magic of fermentation. Once you’re happy with evidence of fermentation, throw in the fridge, where the flavors will deepen and mature over the next week as fermentation slowly moves onward. Kimchi gurus insist this will keep for up to two months in the fridge.

Enjoy.

Take a Gratitude Day Now and Then

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Through a set of unplanned circumstances beyond my control, today has ended up providing a break from the work routine and time to reflect with family on things we’re truly appreciative of and thankful for.

There’s never a bad time to exercise your gratitude muscles, and the more you do, the more accomplished and able they become.

Image: Copano Bay sunrise out of Rockport, Texas.

the Older Bolder Life Sauce Sunday 23 December: Brown Butter Cranberry Sauce

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Last week at a small gathering with friends our hostess served a very tasty brined, roasted turkey with this Brown Butter Cranberry Sauce.

She’s a paleo foodie, and served an array of roasted vegetables too (beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts) that were simply awesome with this sauce as well.

Her palate aligns fairly well with ours in that she said she has reduced the amount of maple sugar in this recipe, enjoying the tart burst of flavor from the cranberries, along with the ginger, orange, a hint of shallots, and thyme.

She also suggested cooking it down for just a few minutes after stirring in the brown butter (note the two links below for tips on making the best brown butter) so that a nice jammy consistency is achieved.

Give this one a spin; our reaction was “wow”, and I quickly began to mentally list all the proteins and vegetables this would complement well.

1 small bag fresh cranberries, picked and rinsed
1-3 tbsp good maple syrup (start with one and adjust to taste)
2-inch piece fresh ginger, grated (or more)
2 tsp fresh orange zest
1 and 1/2 sticks butter
1 small shallot, trimmed and finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Combine the cranberries, maple syrup, ginger, and orange zest in a medium saucepan over medium heat; stir frequently until the cranberries begin to release their juices and open. Remove from the heat.

While heating the cranberry mixture, prepare the brown butter using this technique or this one.

When the butter is just about “there”; stir in the shallot and thyme, stir for another minute or two until the shallots just begin to soften.

Now stir the butter mixture into the cranberries, place over low heat for another 1-3 minutes, stirring to combine well, and cook it down just a bit.

Serve warm, and use your imagination with this one.

Enjoy.