Forget about the Iron chefs, Alton Browns, and Rachel Rays; learn from the original. Cheeseslave writes a delightful tribute to Julia Child, a TV Chef who wasn’t afraid to cook with fat.

Planning on living a hundred years? Be sure to save enough money! The Washington Post reports that Larry Haubner may lose his savings before he loses his health. He’s 107 and still pumping iron!

America is growing fatter and waiting time at the emergency room is growing longer. Coincidence? Via Trust for America’s Health and Healthbolt, respectively.

If your lust for bacon wasn’t satisfied by last week’s Bacon & Scallops recipe, try Food Renegade’s Bacon and Avocado Egg Salad.

Or if bacon’s not your thing, if you desire more fruits and veggies, the beautiful food photography of Primal recipes from Joyful Abode will be sure to make your mouth water.

The Onion’s recent “food and dining” issue contains a smorgasbord of satirical gems. Read the latest and fakest about Taco Bell, Frito-Lays, Keebler Elves, Little Debbie, and one complex food pyramid.

And finally, a cautionary tale of alcoholic vervet monkeys, courtesy of the BBC.

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Weekend Link Love
2. Weekend Link Love
3. Weekend Link Love

A few weeks ago, in the name of showing a little appreciation for local farmers, I went to a chic but homey restaurant nearby to sample from their menu of locally-grown and organic ingredients. (They even have organic beer!) I tried an appetizer of roasted lamb, aged balsamico and sage, and decided right then and there this dish held all the power of the entree. I would have to replicate it.

On my weekly Sunday farmers’ market trip I wandered around with the idea of the re-invention in mind, stopping first at the meat vendor to look through all the varieties of local lamb (ground, shoulder, chops, t-bone) and decide on a centerpiece. I picked out a few chops and moved on to inspect everything from apples to chicken livers and free-range turkey eggs, to wines and herbs and leafy greens, in search of those other possible components. At the produce vendor, my knees weakened for a bundle of Swiss chard (is that romantic?), and at the berry vendor, the recipe for my dish finally crystallized. Blueberries. Of course! Cooked and made into a sauce. Sautéed Swiss chard on the side! Lamb, broiled in red wine!

When I finally got home and started preparing the lamb, I was so tempted – as most people are with lamb, I think — to make a big production. I was tempted to add a lot of seasoning, to cook the chops in oil, to wrap them up with thread and braise them. But why? Under the broiler, unadorned, lamb meat practically smacks with perfection (just listen to that crackling!) A few minutes on either side, and you could eat broiled lamb chops all by themselves.

But like most who enjoy cooking, the smell of roasting meat motivates. And if it prompts you to cook further, you won’t be sorry. Blueberries lend the most delicious and complementary sweetness, and they’re not only entirely worth the extra few minutes to prepare, but they’re easy. All you have to do is mix the berries with a little red wine and garlic, and you have the makings of a Primal gourmet marinade. Bye bye, mint jelly.

The verdict: this recipe is an excellent reminder of the why putting time into your food is so rewarding. Even if you don’t go hand-pick local ingredients at a farmers’ market like I did, choosing the best ingredients available, and then taking them home and preparing the different features of the meal pulls you in and allows you to appreciate what you’re eating in a way that those saloon patrons of the 1950s never did.  Being able to stand at the stove and taste things, smell the lamb fat as it rises in heat waves from the oven below – there is something about this that made the final product so satisfying. Like “lean back in your chair and sigh” satisfying. I’m telling you so. But don’t just take my word for it.

To make lamb and chard you need:

• 12 oz. lamb chops, fresh preferred but frozen thawed will work (also, feel free to use any other cut of lamb, it will work just as well!)
• As much or as little fresh green or red-stem Swiss chard as you want (I used green, and local organic)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)

To make the blueberry reduction you need:

• 2 cups fresh organic blueberries
• 1 cup red wine (use a Cabernet or Zinfandel, something you’d actually drink)
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Heat broiler. Pat lamb with a bit of salt and pepper, and set chops in a glass baking dish (unoiled). When the oven’s hot, cook chops for 5 minutes, turning them when done to cook for another 5-6 minutes on the other side.

While chops broil, heat oil in a saucepan. When hot, add garlic. Saute for a minute and then add wine. Bring to a boil, then slightly reduce heat. You want the wine to reduce by half, but don’t overcook!

Add blueberries to the reduction and simmer for 1 minute. The product should not be thick, so don’t worry if it looks like red-blueberry soup. The blueberries should not be cooked so long that they lose their skins and become mushy. You want the blueberries to keep their shape, and to mingle with the flavors of the wine, garlic and oil. Let the sauce simmer on low heat.

The final step is the Swiss chard. Steam this separately just by placing it on the stove and boiling it lightly in a little water, just until it begins to wilt and is still nice and green.

On dinner plates, finally spoon blueberry reduction over lamb chops, and serve with a side of Swiss chard. Beautiful!

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Fiddlehead Ferns With Bacon, Browned Garlic and Onion, and White Wine Reduction
2. Healthy Tastes Great!
3. Healthy Tastes Great! - Time to Grill

Bing cherries are in high season right now: ripe, luscious and juicy, not to mention packed with vitamins and antioxidants. There’s just no good reason to smother all that goodness with sugar and a pie crust, especially if you have a recipe on hand that’s healthier and easier. Cherry Thyme Confit is just that recipe. Savory, rather than sweet, it’s delicious served as a garnish for meat. Pork is a favorite meat to serve it with but turkey and lamb are really good too. The cherries are cooked down just enough to soften (that’s the confit part) but the ripe, fresh summery flavor remains intact. Onions add the savory element and the aromatic fresh thyme is an essential accent of flavor and color.

Ingredients:

2 cups pitted cherries (about 1 lb.)
1 red onion, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp fresh thyme
1/2 cup red wine (try Malbec)
2 or more Pork Chops, about 1 inch thick

First, you’ll need to get the pesky little pit out of the cherry. If you have a cherry pitter, this job will be less messy than for those of us pushing down on the cherry with our thumb to pop the pit out. Either way, try to save the juice from the cherries as you pit them – you’ll end up with about a tablespoons worth (pitting the cherries in a bowl makes this easy). Set any juice you get and the pitted cherries aside.

Salt and pepper the pork chops and put a tablespoon of butter in a pan over medium-high heat. When the butter melts add the chops and cook about 8 minutes on each side. If it’s a hot summer night and you prefer to grill the chops, go for it.

While the meat grills, melt the butter in a pan and add the sliced onions.

If you’re not grilling, remove the meat from the pan after each side has cooked, turn the heat down to medium and then add the sliced onion. Cook until the onions are soft and slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the red wine. Turn the heat down just a bit more so the red wine is just barely bubbling. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, until the wine evaporates and the onions are really soft. Add thyme, cherries and any cherry juice you reserved, as well as a dash of salt and pepper.

Cover and cook 3-5 minutes to finish the confit. You can add the pork chops back to pan at this point to re-warm them and to soak up a little flavor.  The confit is best served as a generous garnish, rather than a full-fledged side dish and you’ll have more than enough to serve with two pork chops. If you have more fresh thyme, sprinkle a bit on top before you dig in.

Check back tomorrow for another delicious recipe featuring a beautiful cut of meat and fresh, seasonal fruit.

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Roasted Pork Loin with Apples, Onions and Sauerkraut
2. Fiddlehead Ferns With Bacon, Browned Garlic and Onion, and White Wine Reduction
3. Healthy Tastes Great! - Time to Grill

We’re talking about a favorite of mine: low level aerobic activity. Sure, it can feel all too relaxed, even indulgent compared to the intense stuff. But don’t be so quick to disparage. Low level aerobic activity, I’m here to tell you, is the crucial base of Primal Blueprint fitness (Rule #3 in my book for those of you who are currently reading it). It’s the base, the foundation, the keystone to the big fitness picture.

After all, it was how our good man Grok and his family spent most of their days. Carrying water from the stream. Collecting fire wood, walking through the forests and meadows to gather greens, berries, and other plants. Working on their shelter. Perhaps migrating to another area because of drought, predators or competing tribes. Butchering, building, washing, cooking, dancing, you name it. Some of it was hard work, but it was mostly just continual – the sheer volume of low level activity that characterized Grok’s existence.

If the human body evolved within these conditions, our lives today often leave us as fish out of water. There’s the joke about old time farmers laughing at people who pay to slog away on a treadmill for hours at the gym. Why would anyone pay to run in place like a hamster when there’s plenty of real, hard, useful labor to be done instead? Of course, not all of us have livelihoods that involve enough physical exertion to constitute adequate exercise, and our modern home lives (with washing machines, electric/gas mowers, etc.) don’t require the same labor as they once did. Unlike Grok, few of us built the homes we live in. Few of us till large tracts of land for planting. We generally don’t spend our days scrubbing, hauling or foraging. But it doesn’t matter, ultimately, what form our low level cardio takes. What matters is what happens on the inside.

Let’s take it apart. Low level aerobic activity involves working at 55 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. You often see it referred to as “moderate exercise.” (Recently, researchers attempted to define the term more and came up with 100 steps a minute. Their results offer some kind of guidance, but they’re nonetheless a vast generalization.) Heart rate (and the aerobic activity that determines it) varies considerably based on how in shape you are. Here’s what it looks like translated into practical terms. For fit folks, the low aerobic range usually kicks in on the lower end (55%) with a slow to medium paced but easy hike, a slow bike ride or relaxed cardio workout at the gym. An out of shape person would likely hit that same 55% with a stroll around the block. Now flip to the upper limit (75%) of low level cardio, and a fit person is likely looking at a vigorous hilly hike, a somewhat hilly bike ride, or a medium cardio workout at the gym. An unfit person will achieve that 75% with a medium level hike, a minimally hilly and casual bike ride, or an easy-medium intensity cardio workout on the gym equipment. (As for the endurance athletes out there, 80% of your maximum heart rate generally constitutes the upper limit of the “low level” range.)

As I’ve suggested before, our society has come to worship a chronic cardio model as the beacon of fitness. It follows that low level aerobic activity appears to do nothing but fall short – a weak attempt at the “real” thing. Worse yet, it’s an attitude that makes the fitness quest seem like an all or nothing proposition. No pain, no gain. Total bunkum. Sure, the Primal Blueprint model incorporates low level aerobic activity as part of a larger picture along with strength and “sprint” interval training. The PB fitness model, however, is built upon that low level foundation.

Not only is low level aerobic activity the natural evolutionary expectation of the body, it’s flat out beneficial in its own right. It plays an integral role in maintaining weight and metabolic balance. It also builds your base and makes more strenuous workouts possible by toning all the muscles, joints and connective tissue needed for optimal strength training and high intensity aerobic activity. Low level aerobic exercise engages your energy systems and incrementally improves their functioning and efficiency. And while it does all that, it also physiologically and hormonally counters the effects of stress.

The impact is impressive to say the least. Specific studies have found that it reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome, breast cancer, and death from cardiovascular disease. It also appears to reduce the risk of vascular dementia. But the kicker is this. Low level aerobic activity, research suggests, can decrease overall systemic inflammation and the risk for the vast array of degenerative diseases that plague our modern society. Skeletal muscle fibers, researchers have found, act as “an endocrine organ.” Working the muscle fibers, it appears, stimulates the production of Interleukin-6, an anti-inflammatory cytokine, which in turn signals and benefits other organs. Don’t you love this? (On the lighter note, low level aerobic activity also decreases the incidence of colds. As we all know in the context of our busy lives, that’s nothing to shake a stick at.)

Want more? Turns out there are mental health benefits as well. Moderate exercise has been shown to improve the mood and well-being of those with chronic depression. But for all of us, low to moderate level aerobic activity can elevate our mood a good two to four hours after exercise. (And that’s just after twenty minutes or so of activity.) We’ve all felt this one, haven’t we? Letting go of the stress on a solitary hike or evening walk with a friend?

But how much do you need per week for real, ongoing health benefits? While there’s no limit to the benefit of low-intensity aerobic exercise, rest assured that you can experience outstanding health gains by engaging in simply a moderate amount of low-intensity aerobic movement. It shakes out likes this. Go for a minimum of two hours of low-intensity aerobic movement per week. Two hours pales in comparison to Grok’s daily grind, but I know few of us have the time to live a full Grok existence. (That’s not really the point anyway.) Ideally, however, we’d put in more than that two hour bare minimum. I’d consider three to five hours a week of low-intensity an optimal range for modern day folks.

What does it boil down to then? Simple activity – whatever floats your boat. Dancing (line, club, ballet, etc.), outdoor hikes, pleasant bike rides, vigorous gardening, brisk walks, a light swim, rollerblading in the park, ice skating, yoga, some doubles badminton or tennis, a game of Ultimate, playing or just mowing the lawn. In short: leading an overall active life by working in low level aerobic exercise into the daily pattern of your life, your relationships and your free time fun. It’s the good life, I’d say.

Now I’ll turn it over to you. Tell me how you make low level aerobic exercise fit into your life and fitness? Have other comments or questions? Shoot me a line, and thanks for reading.

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. The Definitive Guide to Play
2. Definitive Guide: The Primal Blueprint
3. The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar & Type 2 Diabetes (and you’ll understand it)

Now, before you recoil in horror from the New Agey guru-lingo that question probably sounded like, bear with me a minute. I was recently thumbing through one of my favorite books, Dr. Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief, and it got me considering the possibility that creative visualization and positive thinking can both play enormous roles in the context of the Primal Blueprint. Lipton’s book discusses the emerging science of gene expression (sound familiar?), including the very PB-friendly notion that our environment – our diet, our stress level, even our state of mind – controls our DNA, rather than the other way around. If that’s the case (and the science seems to be agreeing that it is), our thoughts, actions, and moods might play an even bigger role in our health and general wellness than previously thought.

We’ve all heard anecdotal accounts of and seen movies about people beating terrible diseases with the power of positive thought. Little kids in baseball caps and terminal wards who get better when their hero hits a couple home runs for them at the big game. Cancer cases where the chemotherapy and radiation treatment don’t seem to work, but the reintroduction of a former lost love does. Even Lance Armstrong attributes a ton of his success – and part of his survival – to positive thinking and optimism. And I don’t think anyone would deny that being generally glum, surly, and unconfident about life will generally result in unfavorable outcomes – but does that mean the opposite is necessarily true?

There’s definitely evidence that positive thinking can be protective. Take breast cancer, for example. While the biggest determinants are largely genetic and environmental (including Vitamin D blood levels) in nature, one study found that of 255 women with breast cancer, most had either suffered adverse life events, like divorce or the death of a loved one, or were likely to characterize their pre-cancer life as “unhappy.” The control group – 367 healthy, cancer-free women – tended to be happier. These results suggest that a person’s state of mind can affect their susceptibility to cancer, but it doesn’t mean thinking happy thoughts can replace treatment. In fact, an Australian study found that a patient’s mental well being had no effect on breast cancer survival or recurrence. It may be that thinking positively can help stave off the depression that often accompanies an illness, and it can even reduce the chance of developing breast cancer, but it’s not a magic cure-all, and it won’t miraculously destroy cancer cells.

One way in which positive thinking can absolutely, unequivocally improve health is via the reduction of stress. Stress and negative thoughts – the two go hand in hand. If there’s one, the other probably isn’t far off. There’s no way the banker who works fifteen hour days, never sees his family, and loses hair every time he showers is happy; he’s stressed out beyond belief, and the negative health effects are plain to see (and some, like increased heart attack risk, poor sleep habits, and stroke, are probably lurking beneath the surface). Being happier would most likely reduce a lot of his issues and kill the stress, but it’s not as simple as putting on a (fake) smile and thinking (fake) happy thoughts. He can’t just will himself into thinking positively. His positive thoughts need some basis in reality; otherwise, he’s just lying to himself. As long as he’s still amassing all that stress and working the same job without any behavioral changes, all the happy thoughts in the world aren’t going to change a thing.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario found that such “false” positive thinking can actually have a net negative effect. Merely repeating positive statements – regardless of whether or not they actually made sense or were applicable to a patient’s real mindset – wasn’t helpful to the subjects who already had low self-esteem. Those subjects who were already happy and confident found them helpful, but that was probably because the statements were just reinforcing what they already knew. The unhappy patients just got unhappier. Rather than filling them with newfound self-confidence, the superficial positive thinking just reminded them how terrible they felt. The happy people were telling the truth when they thought, “I am a lovable person,” because they believed it. When the unhappy people “thought” that, it amounted to a big lie, because they didn’t believe it. They may very well have actually been “lovable,” but it didn’t matter.

So what does this tell us about positive thinking? Is there any merit to it? Absolutely. Positive thought is essential to health and happiness, but you need to back it up with something substantial. Just going around with a silly smile on your face isn’t enough, unless you follow through with actual behavioral changes that reflect your optimism. Don’t think of happy thoughts as a panacea; think of them as a symptom of good living. Live well, eat well, move well, and you will be naturally happy. Also, thinking happy thoughts is a pretty reliable indicator that you’re doing it right and living well by the Ten Laws.

I’ll be touching on this topic again in the future. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how positive thinking plays (or doesn’t play) a role in your Primal lifestyle. Hit me up with a comment!

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Some Reps on the Ol’ Thinking Machine
2. Weekly Health Challenge
3. Backache? Quit Whinin’!

Like I said, the ATP-PC system is the path to instant, raw power, but it doesn’t last for long. It’s our first choice for immediate high energy, and we can tap into it for around 10-15 seconds of maximum output, almost like touching flame to gasoline. ATP already present in the muscle is used and then reproduced (recycled) by breaking down creatine phosphate (the same stuff that’s sold over the counter also stores naturally in our muscles). It flares up brilliantly and fleetingly and allows us to move big weights or run really fast, and then it goes out. Sprinters, heavy lifters, golfers (yes, golfers!), home run hitters – these guys all have to engage their ATP-PC system to perform at a high level.

After we’ve exhausted our ATP-PC, anaerobic glycolysis begins to kick in. Also called the glycolytic or lactic acid system, the anaerobic energy system breaks down some of our muscle glycogen to form more ATP. Our muscles are thusly fueled, but the byproducts are the production of lactate and a dramatic increase in hydrogen ion (acid) secretion. The burn you get when you sprint for longer than 20 seconds, do Tabata intervals, or reach higher reps on the weights? That’s the build-up of these hydrogen ions which literally prevent further muscle contractions at high levels. You can go longer in this zone than on ATP-PC, but you can’t go as hard or as heavy. One nice side effect of the lactate and hydrogen ion production is improved human growth hormone secretion, which is partly why moderately-higher reps are effective for increasing muscle mass (to a point).

The next level is aerobic energy production. This kicks in after about five minutes of output, supplementing the anaerobic pathway (but not fully replacing it until around half an hour of work). The aerobic energy system, unlike the anaerobic pathway, requires both oxygen (hence “aero”) and glycogen to produce enough ATP to fuel our muscle contractions. Yes, fat (fatty acids) contributes to this phase of energy production, but glycogen is still the limiting factor. Though there are certainly healthy doses of aerobic activity allowed and encouraged (slower is better), on the Primal fitness plan there is much less emphasis put on this aerobic energy path. I was a long-distance aerobic junky, as you probably already know, for years. It required massive amounts of carb-derived glycogen. For our purposes here – building muscle, increasing strength, reducing insulin load, overall better health – extended, high-end aerobic exercise (chronic cardio) can be counterproductive. Still, it’s nice to know that a level of long-range energy production is there if we need it.

What really interests me is the ATP-PC pathway. It’s the most purely Primal, visceral energy system and seems to be the key to developing raw strength (without necessarily getting “huge”). When I tried cycling the supplement creatine a few years back and got some appreciable strength gains for the duration, I was simply increasing my muscles’ short-term ATP reservoir. My creatine post a couple weeks back got me thinking. What if I were to engage my ATP-PC pathway exclusively – would I then increase my ATP stores along with my strength?

So for the past couple weeks, I’ve been trying something new on those occasional days I’m in the weight room (because otherwise I’m doing mostly bodyweight stuff as a rule now). Instead of lifting moderately heavy stuff for a few sets of 10-12 reps, I tried lifting a heavier weight for 5-6 reps until muscle fatigue, followed by a 5-10 second long break where I maintained the weight in the “starting” position while recovering. I then attempted another single rep, rested 5-10 seconds again and so on until I was at true “failure” and couldn’t do another. Most literature I’ve come across suggests that the ATP-PC pathway replenishes fairly quickly, especially if you’re already a trained athlete, so I was hoping I could take advantage of that. I didn’t want to venture into anaerobic glycolysis; I wanted to strictly stay in the ATP-PC zone. For the most part, I was able to pound out reasonably heavy weights repeatedly, as long as I rested a few seconds in between each rep. Because I was only spending around 1-2 seconds per rep, I wasn’t using all my ATP, so the recovery time was more manageable (as opposed to the recovery time after all-out 10 second sprints, for example). After a few sets of squats, deadlifts, weighted pull-ups and presses, I was totally beat.

I wasn’t breathing especially hard, though, and I wasn’t sore. I felt (for lack of a better word) Primal and totally energized. And over the past two weeks, the weights have gotten heavier and I’ve felt stronger. Now, it could be that the strength gains came simply because I was really focusing on pushing heavier weights and not because of any energy pathway tinkering, but I don’t know. I definitely felt a difference. If nothing else, it’s a refreshing way to lift weights, get stronger, and maybe even burn some fat (the ATP replenishment process draws on stored body fat, so depleting your body’s supply is great for leaning out). When I do find myself in the gym and just hitting the weights, I think I’ll try lifting this way a bit more often for a change of pace.

If anyone wants to try this out, I’d be interested to hear how it goes. Let us know in the comments!

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Dear Mark: What is Creatine?
2. Dear Mark: Low Energy on Primal Challenge
3. Dear Mark: Chronic Cardio

Your website inspired me to join a CSA this year, and I’ve been frequenting a local farmers’ market since May. I absolutely love all the produce selections, but this has me thinking that come late fall/winter I’m going to feel pretty limited by what’s usually available (and affordable) in the grocery store. (I live in the Northern Plains.) I’d like to begin thinking about freezing some items to enjoy them post-season. What tips do you have for doing this? Thank you!

Thanks for the timely question. I’ve actually gotten similar inquiries from a few readers this week. Yes, we’re rounding the corner on June if you can believe it. It’s a great time of year for taking advantage of the variety – try some new items, find new recipes for old favorites. (Anybody wanna share new discoveries?) However, as incredible as it is to enjoy fresh veggies and fruits now, it’s smart to look ahead to the “scarcer” months. One of the best ways to carry over the season’s best, of course, is freezing. (Grok would’ve traded a lot of hides for a deep freeze chest….) As you load up on summer produce, here are a few suggestions (and resources) for best freezer prep and storage.

Set Up

First off, I’d highly recommend investing in a deep freezer. You can certainly make use of the freezer compartment of your refrigerator, but it’s typically a limited space and doesn’t stay as consistently cold as a deep freezer chest. (For best results, freezers should be kept at 0° Fahrenheit or less. A simple freezer gauge can give you an accurate reading.) Although items should still last a number of months, you aren’t going to get the same longevity (8-12 months for most produce when properly prepped and packaged). If you’re worried about initial outlay, keep in mind that there are plenty of good used ones for sale. Check scratch and dent sales, classifieds and Craigslist for starters. And also keep in mind that you have the potential to recoup much if not all of that money within the first year alone, depending on how much you choose to freeze (produce, meats, etc.). It’s less expensive to buy good quality produce in season and make it last through much of the winter than it is to buy your full produce needs in the off-season. When you add the savings of cowpooling or other bulk meat/poultry/game storage, it won’t be long before your freezer will pay for itself.

As for wraps, bags and such, don’t skimp. You’ll need high quality storage to keep out moisture. Lined freezer paper and freezer tape can work for “dry” packing of produce. Another option, particularly for purees or fruits that will be stored with juice, is freezer appropriate canning jars. Many people find it more convenient to use plastic freezer bags (either the Ziploc kind or the self-cut kind that requires a heat sealer). In any case, the freezer wrap or bags should be freezer-designated, vapor proof as well as pliant. The idea here is to mold the packaging as close to the outline of the food as possible and to prevent the exchange of moisture. If the item is allowed to give off its own moisture, freezer burn will set in. You know those brownish, tough, odd-tasting areas on thawed veggies? Spare your produce the calamity and yourself the frustration (and lost money) by investing a little extra change in good storage.

Prep the Produce

For the sake of taste and nutrients, you’ll want the freshest produce you can get your hands on. If you’re not a gardener yourself, the next best thing can be found in CSA packages or farmers’ markets. Items are generally picked within a day or even a few hours of sale/distribution.

Wash, cut, peel and prep as needed. (The smaller the pieces the more tightly you can pack your produce.) Nearly all produce items – other than a few like melon and herbs – will need to be blanched before freezing. (A few like sweet potatoes and pumpkin should be thoroughly cooked before freezing.) The quick shot in boiling water or steam will halt the enzyme action responsible for natural decomposition. Too little, and you run the risk of not shutting down the enzyme activity (maybe even accelerating it). Too much, and you might be sacrificing nutrients as well as texture and taste. (A brief “shock” in ice water immediately after blanching will keep the items from cooking further.) The timing on blanching, however, is a delicate dance. Check out these resources for specific blanching times tailored to specific fruits and vegetables. If you choose to “steam blanch,” the times are generally 1.5 times the given minutes for traditional blanching.

A few other notes to keep in mind… You won’t need a lot of complicated equipment – just some large pots, bowls, tongs, towels and wire baskets. Although microwave blanching may work for small batches that will be eaten in a short period of time, many experts recommend against it for long-term freezing. There’s doubt that it halts all enzyme activity. Certain fruits like apples, peaches, avocado, and pears should be stored with ascorbic acid to prevent discoloration. You might also consider it for vegetables like artichokes and sweet potato to maintain peak color.

Package Well and Freeze Fast

Once the vegetables and fruits are appropriately prepped, cooked and cooled, allow them to thoroughly drain and dry. Dish or paper towels can speed up the process especially for certain intact items like green beans or whole berries. Most vegetables and many fruits can be packed without any juice. After draining, they can be tightly packed in freezer bags or wrap and frozen in their bulk packaging. Another choice is to allow individual pieces of drained vegetables and fruit to freeze on a tray first and then immediately pack them in bags or wrap. Cooked purees can be stored in large containers or in smaller portions/cubes that may be more useful for recipes or baby food. Some fruits like apples and nectarines tend to freeze better with juice. (Sugar or syrup packing is often recommended, but a small amount of juice and ascorbic acid can work just as well.)

Once you have your packages loaded and ready for storage, stack up already frozen items and move them to one side of your freezer. Spread the new packages across the open areas to encourage speedier freezing, which will discourage freezer burn and help preserve taste.

Have your own tips for freezing summer’s best? Favorite uses for your frozen stores? As always, thanks for your questions and comments, and keep ‘em coming!

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Vegetable Victory: How to Best Preserve Produce
2. Dear Mark: Seasons for Nuts and Seeds?
3. Dear Mark: What’s Wrong with Juicing?

Then join the New York Times for a good sprint…

And then relax with a slice of pie. For this week’s Primal recipe, try Steve Pavlina’s raw fruit pie. Just be careful how many pieces you have.

For the folks who enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel, you might like Tom Standage’s new book, An Edible History of Humanity. Listen to Tom discuss the way food has fueled history at NPR.

Tammey Burns lost 410 pounds. An incredible achievement. But as That’s Fit points out, TODAY may have turned her into a sideshow for the sake of sensationalizing weight loss.

Tired of buying eggs? Just buy a chicken. And if you’re looking for a place to keep that chicken, Omlet makes a handy little hen house.

In the research and report dept…It’s not a shocker to MDA readers that carbs can lead to heart attacks. Tel Aviv University has the research, and Science Daily has the report.

And finally… from credible news source, The Onion: Does going to the gym feel like…work?

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Weekend Link Love
2. Weekend Link Love
3. Weekend Link Love

There is something to be said for letting your mind wander. Even in the kitchen. Even when you have a rather sharp kitchen tool in your hand. Even when you’re cooking meat that is notorious for turning dry and flavorless if you’re not careful. I have often aspired to take part in the disciplined mind-wandering of meditation or to be lulled into a peaceful mental vacation on a yoga mat. But in my busy life this is unlikely. More often than not, my mind enters the blissful state of thinking about absolutely nothing when I am in less zen-like places. Like in front of the kitchen sink. It happened the other day when I was peeling a carrot. I kept peeling and peeling, my hands focused on the task but my mind …well, I don’t know exactly where my mind was.  But before I knew it I had peeled the entire carrot instead of chopping it into rounds like I had intended. But this is the beauty of letting your mind wander. Sometimes it leads you to an interesting place; a place you never would’ve gotten to had you been following an exact recipe. The carrot had turned into a beautiful swirl of thin ribbons that I sautéed quickly with fennel and red pepper flakes.  The carrot was still a carrot, but changing its shape and texture made it taste like an entirely new vegetable, one that I hadn’t already eaten thousands of times during my life.

This tendency for my mind to wander while in the kitchen also explains why I like using a slow-cooker so much. A slow-cooker (or crock pot, as it’s also called) is the ultimate appliance for cooks who have trouble focusing on specific recipes and techniques. You can throw almost any combination of meat and/or vegetables into a slow cooker, add a cup or so of liquid, and it will cook itself into a meal. I regularly walk away from my slow-cooker, completely abandoning the food for most of the day. I don’t give dinner a second thought until I return home to the warm, rich aroma of meals like Cinnamon Pork With Parsnips. I do this year round, not just in the winter when slow-cooked meals are especially popular. I do this without feeling the least bit like a 1950s housewife. Crock-pots are for everyone now: hip young cooks, macho cooks, single cooks, inexperienced cooks, and professionally trained cooks like myself who can’t help but let their minds wander away from the kitchen from time to time.

Carrot Ribbons With Fennel

Ingredients:

4 medium carrots
1 fennel bulb
2 tsp olive oil
Dash of red pepper flakes

Discard stalks from the fennel bulb and the first outer layer of the bulb. Slice fennel as thin as you can.

Warm olive oil in a pan over medium heat for 20 seconds. Add red pepper flakes, carrot ribbons and fennel.

Saute for 10-15 minutes. Salt to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Slow-Cooked Cinnamon Pork Loin With Parsnips

Ingredients:

4 large parsnips, peeled
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/3 to 1 1/2  lb. pork loin
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups water

Cut parsnips into even rounds.

Mix together cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ground ginger, black pepper, garlic and salt.

Cut excess fat off the loin.

Rub meat with 1 Tbsp olive oil then vigorously massage spice rub all over the loin.

Turn heat on high under a sauté pan and add 1 Tbsp olive oil. Sear sides of the loin until browned, about 3-5 minutes each side.  Put pork in the slow cooker with parsnips. With heat still on, add water to the sauté pan and use a spoon to scrape up browned bits. Add the water to the slow-cooker. Turn the temp to high and cook 3 1/2 hours or low and cook 5-6 hours.

Cooking Tips

• Carrots aren’t the only vegetables you can peel into ribbons. Try celery, cucumber, squash and kohlrabi.
• Meat doesn’t have to be seared before going into a slow-cooker but browning the meat will intensify the flavor. This isn’t because searing meat seals in flavor and moisture (Food scientist Harold McGee has proven this is a myth). Rather, searing meat caramelizes the surface of the meat, enhancing its meaty flavor.
• To save time, use 1 1/2  tsp Chinese Five Spice + 1/2 tsp kosher salt instead of making your own spice rub.
• Experiment with different spices to create a variety of rubs. Or, just season the meat with salt and surround it with fresh herbs.
  Garnish finished dishes with minced herbs.

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Roasted Pork Loin with Apples, Onions and Sauerkraut
2. Guest Post Friday: Almost Vegetarian and Kitchen Geology
3. Healthy Tastes Great!

I’m guilty.

I once spent a lot of money buying alternative meat products under the impression they were somehow “better” for me. If you’ve done it too, you know that aside from health, there are more important aspects of meat that necessitate buying the real thing. Taste, for example. There’s no taste comparison whatsoever between soy sausage and the real stuff, and really I can’t see how “quorn” quite cuts it for anybody.

What I missed most while eating faux-meat, though, aside from the taste and the lack of unpronounceable ingredients in real meat, was scallops and bacon. It speaks to their Primal goodness, perhaps, that so far the salty, smoky flavor and texture of real bacon and the tender succulence of scallops have not been perfectly replicated in a soybean laboratory and sold on organic food shelves as the preferable choice. (I know there’s “Smart” Bacon, but have you ever tried the stuff? Ick).

In my view, scallops and bacon are already perfect, and you can’t reproduce perfection. But you can combine and multiply it, and this recipe is proof.

What I love about sea scallops is that cooking them always intimates summer. Even on a cold autumn day in rural New York, searing scallops at the stove reminds me of the ocean, a warm breeze blowing through the open windows of the beach house, a glass of Prosecco in hand. And the joy of cooking scallops can be easily shared, too. After 3 minutes on medium heat, the soft fleshy caps have never failed to evoke a resounding “mmm” in my kitchen, as they melt in multiple mouths.

The scallop is a humble but succulent mollusk; self-sufficient but amiable to other foods. And though recipes often call for pairing it with a grain or bread, a little bacon and a bright, steamed vegetable are better. They complement, rather than distract from the meat’s natural flavor. Add a little fresh tarragon and a quick squeeze of fresh lime juice to the pan, and this simple scallop dish is as good as Primal gets.

To make Scallops and Bacon, you need:

• 1 oz. uncured, nitrate-free bacon
• 5 fresh sea scallops
• 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

Slice bacon crosswise into thin pieces, cooking on a medium-high skillet until crisp but not dry. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel or dish.

In a small bowl, add 1 tbsp olive oil and a few squeezes of fresh lime juice. Coat scallops in the oil, adding salt and pepper to taste. Sear scallops on skillet over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes until opaque and glossy. Transfer to a separate plate.

Over medium heat (in the same skillet), add a few squeezes of fresh lime juice and begin to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of water and tarragon to the skillet, then bacon, followed by the scallops. Give the skillet a nice little swirl to blend juices. Cook 30 seconds to 1 minute to allow flavors to combine.

Serve the scallops on plates with bacon and a sprig of leftover fresh tarragon.

Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds

Related posts:

1. Fiddlehead Ferns With Bacon, Browned Garlic and Onion, and White Wine Reduction
2. Poblano Chicken with Verde Sauce Casserole
3. Spice it Up: Perfectly Primal Pepper Recipes