From an article in USA Today:

I was thinking about the Super Bowl. What goes with the Super Bowl but chicken wings? And I said, ‘Oh, a chicken wing cupcake, Rachel?’ And I tried five or six recipes and the last recipe when I was ready to call it quits I think we kinda nailed it on it.

I take you back in time to my classic blog post: “Sautéed Raccoon’s Funnel Cake Ass on a Cheesecake Caramel Deep-Fried Stick.”

I get so many of these letters each week/month from libertarians who latch on to the primal/paleo articles on LewRockwell.com and turn their lives around by vastly improving their weight and health. It is a joy to read every single one of those emails. I admire these folks because they step up and work hard to educate themselves, they reach out to folks for advice, and ultimately, they take accountability for their choices and actions to improve their quality of life. And then they pass on their knowledge and resources to those around them who want to do the same.

For more on this topic, also listen to Lew Rockwell’s podcast with Mark Sisson, “Just Do the Opposite of What the Government Says.”

Since I have not yet found the time to ferment my own sauerkraut (one of my goals for 2012), I buy quarts of fermented sauerkraut from a seller at Detroit Eastern Market for $5/quart. He makes 150 gallons at a time to bring to the market. A bargain, especially considering how many meals I get from one quart.

I start off by putting pastured neck bones in my smallest crock pot at night, on low, and in the morning I awake to the smell of fresh-cooked neck bones with the meat falling off of the bone. I carefully peel off all of the meat and the desirable fat – most of the fat (about 90%) from a pastured pork neck bone is edible and tasty. I don’t find the same to be true with industrial pork. My pork comes from my favorite pork farm, Melo Fams, in Yale, Michigan. In fact, this pork sauerkraut recipe was inspired by my farmer and friend, Melody Nye.

I throw the kraut in another crock pot (my medium size) and toss in the pork meat and fat. I add red pepper flakes, sea salt, pepper, and some dried onion flakes.

After cooking for about an hour, I add some dark lager to the crock pot. In this case it was Michigan Brewing Company Nutty Brown Ale.

Then I mix it all up, throw the lid on, and let it cook on low for 2-3 hours.

Meanwhile, in the oven goes the pastured bacon while I multitask – usually while blogging/writing.

I keep the bacon in the fridge, and for each serving of the sauerkraut I tear one piece of bacon over the top of the serving of sauerkraut. Thanks to James H Lewis II, on Facebook, for planting the beer & bacon idea in my head.

Pay attention to Tom’s hilarious comment at the 9:30 mark about the government’s recommendations for daily servings of grains. See my review of Mark’s new book here.

I love to make bone broth during the winter months. Bone broth is one of the most natural, satisfying, and nutrient-dense foods in my arsenal. I have been making it every weekend in the slow cooker since Thanksgiving. Though it takes 24-30 hours, it is very simple and low-maintenance, as I will explain. However, due to the time passage from the initial investment of labor to the production of an edible good, folks with high time preferences might not want to bother with this recipe. In my case, since I use grass-fed bones, my labor started back in May when I worked with my farmer to order the appropriate quarter of cow, have it delivered to slaughter, decide upon the various cuts and wrapping for each cut, and then I made a 150-mile round trip to pick up the meat.

First off, don’t let the dogmatic “paleos” tell you that only grass-fed bones will suffice – that is poppycock. It is my preference, and since I buy cows directly from my farmer(s), I always have a six-to-nine month stash on hand, including all sorts of beef cuts, at any point in time. Meaty soup bones, marrow-filled bones, short ribs, or beef shanks that are store bought will still make a healthy and fabulous bone broth.

There are so many ways to make bone broth, so I do it differently each time. I am a make-it-up-as-I-go-along type of cook, so I don’t have definitive recipes for anything. But here is my general blueprint.

I use a 6-quart slow cooker and I toss in my grass-fed bones, and I cover the bones in the crock pot with filtered or spring (never tap!) water. I add a few splashes of raw coconut vinegar (available from Whole Foods), though most folks use apple cider vinegar. Then I add salt (Himalayan or Celtic) and fresh-ground pepper, and I let things cook with the crock pot on “high” for a couple of hours.

Then I revisit the crock pot to add more bones (the ones that have far less meat), add more water, several bay leaves, minced garlic, thyme, a tablespoon of bacon grease, and a couple of tablespoons of raw butter. Then I switch the crock pot to low and go do stuff (for a few hours, or whatever).

When I come back to the kitchen (the time is not important) I cut up onions, carrots, and fennel, and add it all to the crock pot (the carrots are in here; they sunk to the bottom). I also added the last piece of (whole) fennel bulb to the crock pot to help flavor the broth. Some people also add celery and other vegetables for flavor.

I have a crock pot with a timer with a 12-hour maximum, so I reset it every so often and cook my broth on low for 24-30 hours. The house smells glorious for a 2-3 day time period. After that time I use a fine strainer to strain the broth into a stock pot for storage in the refrigerator, where it is good for a week. I keep the strained veggies and meat for other purposes and separate the broth entirely in the stock pot. I use the tender, delicious meat pieces in omelettes, in veggie dishes, or I add it back to some of my servings of the broth. I will make side dishes from the tender veggies. My dogs get the bigger bone remains (after I dip them in the broth). My dogs really like me.

Eating pure bone broth is a joy, and I also use it to detoxify when necessary, especially as I find myself attending multiple Christmas Parties and eating food that is not a part of my daily routine. I detoxify by eating bone broth for an entire day, or more, and I feel marvelous afterwards. Often I eat the broth on its own, but sometimes I add veggies, some of the leftover meat slivers, etc. Also, when reheating the broth, I heat the whole stock pot and take my servings from that, or, after heating the broth, I pour servings into small serving bowls that I can take to work, etc. I don’t like to dish out a serving while the broth is cold because of the fat, or tallow, that forms a solid at the top, which will give me an uneven distribution of that fat. Lastly, if I want to save some of the broth for a later time, I will freeze it in ice cube trays and warm the “broth cubes” in a pan on the stove when desired.

If you want to get creative and separate your top layer of fat, or tallow, from the broth after it sets in the refrigerator, you can – the tallow will make a good cooking resource on its own.

It really is that simple. Get creative with your broth and splash in some new flavors each time you make it or reheat it.

But what continues to fascinate me is the generally conservative premise of the Primal Blueprint — that the experts who’ve told us for years that eating whole grains and fiber was a healthy alternative to fatty foods have been completely wrong and that our meat-and-plant-eating ancestors had it right. I know the “experts” at the Federal Reserve with their Keynesian economic approach to government “stimulus” and bailouts have been completely wrong in their analysis and prescriptions for the financial crisis. Perhaps the Food and Drug Administration and the entire health establishment are just as ass-backward?

In spite of the fact that 40 years of the government’s dietary guidelines, the launching of countless health agencies, and force-feeding Americans the USDA-approved health and wellness paradigm has only made people fatter and sicker, some folks think that rinse and repeat is a viable strategy. Counting calories is still a popular fetish in spite of decades of failure from…counting calories.

Bite Technologies has rolled out another tool to help Boobus along the road to failure, because, after all, the conventional wisdom says it’s not what you eat, it’s how much you eat. The company has rolled out an $800 bite counter that you wear while it tracks wrist motion using “sophisticated filters and heuristics to determine when the user has taken a bite of food or drink of liquid. Calories are calculated from bite count based upon a formula similar to what is used in exercise equipment for estimating calories burned.” And we all know how well those calorie-counting machines work! There is even an alarm buzzer to tell you when to stop eating. Some of the FAQs are quite funny, in spite of the tragic fact that many of the statements represent the myths and lies of the conventional wisdomists.

Doesn’t food matter? A bite of chocolate is very different from a bite of celery.

That’s true. However, the caloric content of a bite averages out over the long term. People also tend to eat the same foods week to week, further stabilizing the calorie/bite relationship.

What if a person talks and gestures while eating?

The Bite Counter can get confused by some non-eating motions, such as using a napkin, adjusting glasses, and some types of arm gestures. However, people tend to conduct the same amount of these types of motions meal to meal, minimizing their effect on long-term tracking of intake.

Don’t be shocked by the price tag (no Black Friday deal here) because this is the product version for “professional” calorie counters. The consumer version is to come, surely, as soon as some gullible investors can be found. As one media story noted, we should welcome all tools (including such “science-based” items as shake weights and Giddyup!) that help to exacerbate fight the obesity epidemic. Thanks to Bill Potter for the tip.

For years, I have been lecturing and writing about the nonsensical argument the conventional powers-that-be claim that lowering salt in the diet will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

…The recent JAMA (November 23/30, 2011) study found the lowest rate of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure and non- cardiovascular death occurred when the sodium intake was 4-6,000mg/day. Lower and higher intakes were found to increase a compositd of all the outcomes studied (in a near linear fashion). You read that right; lower and higher salt intakes were all associated with worse outcomes.

I use Celtic Sea Salt and Redmond’s Real Salt, as recommended by Dr. Brownstein’s office, where I am a patient.