Preparing for the weekend

This mornings newspaper informed me that we are expecting a foot of snow tomorrow and then a brutal blast of Arctic air behind that.  It is bad enough when the temperature is -6, but when you throw in a wind chill of -20 to -30 you have to remind yourself why we choose to live here.  I love MN - don't get me wrong; buuuut I do have to admit that if I could swing a second home (a winter home), I would opt for a nice home on the island of Vieques.  But since my plans do not involve sunscreen & flip flops for tomorrow; I am instead focusing on laying in some good eats for the weekend.  It should work out to be perfect for some test baking.

I did make a cream run yesterday and procured a gallon of heavy cream.  Having all of the other ingredients on hand, I had a go at making some Real Eggnog.  At this time, we cannot get raw cream (other than what I can skim off of my raw milk, so I used pasteurized cream, but thank goodness it is NOT homogenized.  I am quite happy with the results:

Primal Traditions Real Eggnog
1 1/4 c Heavy Cream                      1 1/4 c Raw milk
4 egg yolks                                      4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg (ground)                1 tsp. cinnamon (ground)
pinch of celtic sea salt                     1 tsp Lo Han sweetener
2 or 3 ice cubes (optional)


Separate 4 egg yolks from the whites.  Save the whites for a batch of macaroons or they freeze well also.  Light whip the 4 egg yolks with a wire whisk until light and fluffy.  Add in the Lo Han sweetener, to your taste.  Whisk until well incorporated into the egg yolks.
In a large Pyrex measuring bowl or any other bowl that is easy to pour from, add heavy cream, milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.  Stir until all ingredients are well blended.  Add yolk mixture to the milk bowl.  Whisk well, until all of the egg yolk mixture is well incorporated.  Next add in nutmeg and cinnamon.  If making an alcoholic version of Egg Nog, you could either blend in crushed ice or serve it over the rocks.
NOTE:  the first batch I made, I put everything into the blender.  If you like drinking Egg Nog Clouds, then you'll want to go the blender route.  I had a 7 inch foam head on my pitcher of Nog!  It still tasted great, but that was even just a wee bit much foam for me.  So the next batch, I hand mixed everything and it had a more thickened, classic composition to it.  You can garnish with a dash more Nutmeg before serving.  
Ice Cream Version:  this would also make a great frozen treat.  The recipe is good to go for any ice cream machine; just prepare according to your machine's protocols.  

What makes this a Primal Traditions recipe?
As I so often try to explain to people, P.T. is a combination of a Primal diet and that of Nourishing Traditions.  It all boils down to using real food, as close to how it occurs in nature.  Real Milk, and for this recipe NOT heating it which would destroy all of the good enzymes, healthy bacteria, and denature the proteins.  I would have preferred the cream to be raw, but then no one would have drank the rest of the "skimmed" milk that I would have been left with, raw egg yolks [you don't want to consume the whites of an egg raw.  They contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with B vitamin absorption].  The eggs that I use are free-range, to the point where they are roaming around the driveway & yard when I pull into the farm.  Once you have real eggs, you'll never want to eat the ones from the store again.  I choose to use Lo Han sweetener instead of a natural N.T. version such as Rapadura, Maple Sugar, or honey because Lo Han does not contain any sugars and does not cause a release of insulin.  So this recipe basically has the healthy fats from the cream and milk, is loaded with vitamins & minerals, is sweet, but does not trigger a major flood of insulin.  The only sugars would be what occurs in the whole milk [cream does not have any], but the Cinnamon would temper a slower release of insulin into the blood stream - making this a great beverage for anyone, even diabetics.   We carry Lo Han over at our website Primal Traditions  under "Sweeteners".

With the snow coming, I'm feeling like a pot of soup should probably factor in sometime tomorrow, but I just came across a really great recipe for pork spare ribs; so we'll have to see how tomorrow shapes up.  For now, I need to get to the store and pick up some veggies to have on hand over the weekend.