How to eat on non-Fasting days.

Slow Days: Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

In the depths of winter, when snow is deep on the ground in the North, lemons are ripening in warmer climes. How cheery they look! How fresh they taste! Lemon-growing spread around the Mediterranean Sea by 1000 CE. Berbers brought their cultivation to Spain, then when Spain took over the Netherlands in the 1500s, lemons went with them to Northern Europe. Eventually, lemons and limes were prized as sources of Vitamin C to prevent scurvy in the winter, when fresh vegetables were scarce. Have you tried Lemon Ricotta Pancakes? They are bright and light in flavor, and are perfect for a February breakfast. If you have left-over pancakes, freeze them. The recipe is from Geneveve Ko, writing in the New York Times.

8-10 pancakesHeat a griddle or large nonstick pan or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over medium-low.
33 g/3 Tbsp sugar
zest ½ lemon or 1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp vanilla		Put these in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
2 eggsAdd eggs and whisk until foamy.
½ c lower-fat ricotta
3 Tbsp yogurt/buttermilk
20 g butter		Melt butter. Add these to the bowl, and whisk until well blended.
½ c/52 g white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt		Add dry ingredients and gently stir until no traces of flour remain.
Optional: drop blueberries on the batter as pancakes cookButter griddle. Use a ¼ cup measure to portion batter onto it. Cook 3 mins on each side until golden brown.
Blueberry Maple Syrup or other toppings
chicken breakfast sausage		Serve warm, with blueberry syrup and chicken sausages.

Slow Days: Greek Pizza

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many discussions on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Every Saturday we enjoy pizza for dinner. Not store-bought, not delivered, but home-made. Mostly, we will prepare the red-sauce-mozzarella type, and we vary the toppings week to week. But once in a while, I suggest a “Greek” pizza. This variety was developed by a Greek immigrant who ran a pizzeria in New London, Connecticut in the 1950s. Since then, Greek Pizza has been popular in New England and eastern New York. Very regional. [I’m not going to get in the middle of which culture really invented pizza — I’d rather just eat it.] My version is based on reading many recipes, taking out the best bits, and putting them together in this recipe.

You will need two whole wheat pizza crusts, each 8″ in diameter. This takes [about 6 ounces of dough for each crust] Pat the crusts out on an oiled baking sheet. Preheat oven to 490F.

Salad Dressing makes 7 Tbsp dressing 1/4 cup virgin olive oil 1.5 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice large pinch oregano Shake together in a small jar with a lid. Brush each crust with 1 Tbsp of dressing. Save the rest for the salad.

Pizza Topping enough for 2 pizza shells thaw or cook 5 oz spinach. Squeeze it in your hands to expel extra liquid. 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella 1/2 tsp garlic powder pinch ground nutmeg pinch crushed red pepper. Toss lightly to combine, and divide between the pizzas.

8″ dough rounds, brushed with salad dressing
Pizzas topped and ready for the oven.
Baked and plated with a salad.

Garnish for each pie: 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled 3 black olives, pitted and cut in half or quartered 2-3 cherry tomatoes, halved

Bake at 490F for 4 minutes on an oiled baking sheet on the upper of two oven racks. After the first part of baking, remove the pizzas from the baking sheet and move them to the bottom rack with no pan under them. This bakes the bottom of the pizza nicely. Bake 3-4 minutes longer, until the cheeses melt. Serve with a salad of greens which are tossed with the same salad dressing above. Try this pizza some time — I think you will enjoy it.

Slow Days: My Grandmother’s Christmas Cookies

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

My father’s mother was not a good cook. No surprise there. Born in 1884, she was raised to know how to run a household, not to do the cooking and cleaning. In fact, one of the stipulations that my great-grandfather made when my grandfather asked for her hand, was that the wedding would be delayed until such time as the prospective groom had a sufficient income to hire domestic help. Once I asked my father what his family would eat when it was cook’s night off. He replied that his mother would open a can of ravioli and that was dinner. One of my grandmother’s two signature recipes was for the cookies that she made at Christmas. We would drive through the night from Connecticut to Pennsylvania to arrive before Christmas morning, and my grandmother would greet us with the cookies that she had just taken from the oven. They were cut-out cookies, misshapen and often a bit burned, but my father loved them. My sister and I never understood that when we were children, but now I get it. My mother, a great baker of cookies, asked for the recipe and here it is in the original: “Lard, Molasses, Cinnamon, and enough Flour.” My grandmother’s devotion to those cookies tells me that the recipe was from her beloved mother, who no doubt had it from her mother: Agnes Waugh Greason, 1811-1885. My grandmother called the cookies “Ginger Snaps” although there is no ginger in them. My mother called them “Greason Cut-outs” in honor of the Greason Family. Ancestor William Greason/Grayson settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1775, and married Agnes Waugh, 1756-1855. Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna River was the frontier at that time, and supplies were scarce. The lard was from your own pig; molasses was obtained by barter [cane sugar was unavailable]; flour was milled locally; cinnamon was a precious commodity. When you encounter a recipe with such ingredients, you know it is an old one, from a time of perilous scarcity. Now I bake these cookies every December. At first, Dear Husband would not eat them. Lard? ick! But once he found that the recipe had such a long family history, he has taken to them and even finds them to be good to eat..

Simple ingredients tell you that it is a recipe from the early 1800s.
The cinnamon red-hot adds visual interest and a little kick of flavor.
Grandmother’s cookies with a cup of tea on a cool December evening.
Original recipeScaled down recipePreheat oven to 325F.
1 cup lard
2 cups molasses
2 tsp cinnamon		1/3 cup lard
2/3 cup molasses 2/3 tsp cinnamon 		Mix together, either by creaming by hand or by using an electric mixing device.
‘as much flour as necessary to make a soft dough rollable’ 1 cup white whole wheat flour*Stir in the flour thoroughly.
Cinnamon red-hotsRoll out in batches on a floured surface to around ¼” thickness. Cut in your preferred shape. I use a Moravian Star** and press a red-hot into the center of each one.
Bake on parchment paper until firm to the touch, 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the pan. These cookies store well, as a ‘frontier’ cookie would need to do.

*I use white whole wheat flour because I think it is more like flour that would have been available in 1840. **The Moravians are a common religious group in eastern Pennsylvania, so I think that their many-pointed Christmas star is an appropriate cookie shape. If you want a Christmas Cookie with a history, try these.

Slow Days: Ossobuco

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Italian cuisine runs the gamut from plain to complex, from North to South, from pasta dishes to pasta-less dishes. In the North, the Piedmont Region has foods that one never finds in the southern part of the country: beef in plenty, cheese from water buffaloes, rice, butter, corn, and fewer tomatoes. One famous dish from Milano in the Piedmont is Ossobuco. The word means ‘bone with a mouth’ since the meat in the meal is slices of veal shank with a hollow bone in the center — the bone with a mouth. As we get into the cooler weather and past Saint Martin’s Day [when the farm animals were slaughtered], our thoughts turn to eating rich, flavorful stews or heavier pasta dishes. Enter Ossobuco. Perhaps the most difficult part of the recipe is finding the veal, since veal has justly fallen into disrepute due to the sad way that the veal calves have been raised. Our veal comes from D’artagnan, an online source of many meats, and it is raised humanely in France. That solved, preparing Ossobuco is not a complex process. Our recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazen’s excellent Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

We make a large batch so we will have leftovers. Four veal shanks will serve many using this recipe
The ingredients are simple and so is the preparation.
6-8 ServingsLarge covered Dutch oven or 16” cast iron pan with cover.Preheat oven to 350F
1 Tbsp vegetable oil + 1 Tbsp oil 4 veal shank slices, each 1½” thick white whole wheat flour, pepper, saltHeat oil in casserole over medium high heat until quite hot. Dry meat with paper towels and dredge in seasoned flour. Cook meat on both sides until ‘deeply browned.’  Depending on size of the casserole, you might do this in stages. Add more oil as needed. Put meat aside on a plate.
The wine is simmering and the brown bits are being scraped off the pan.
The soffritto adds a depth of flavor to the stew.
Now the veal is returned to the pot.
½ cup dry white wineAdd wine, cook down by half while scraping up brown bits. Pour it off and save it. 
1 Tbsp butter
½ c onion, chopped finely
½ c celery, chopped finely
½ c carrot, chopped finely 		Put butter into casserole over medium heat on stove top. When melted, add vegetables. Cook, stirring a bit, 6-7 minutes to form the soffritto. In Italy, they call it soffritto, in France it is mirepoix.
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
1 strip of lemon peel, no white pith 		Add these, cook and stir ~1 minute, until vegetables are wilted but not brown.
Put veal atop the soffritto, laying the pieces flat if possible, or overlapping them slightly.
Ready for the oven, all ingredients in the pot.
Stew is cooked, meat is mixed into the sauce with marrow bones in center.
½-1 cup homemade meat broth
1 c canned Italian plum tomatoes with juice 3-4 sprigs of thyme
2-3 sprigs parsley, chopped 2 bay leaves freshly ground pepper + salt 		Chop tomatoes and parsley. Put all of these into the casserole, along with remaining deglazing liquid. Liquids should come up to top of the veal slices, but not cover them. Bring to a simmer and cover. Put casserole in the heated oven and set a timer for 2 hours.
Every 20 mins, check the cassserole. Turn and baste shanks, adding more liquid, 2 Tbsp at a time, if needed.
When meat is very tender, take casserole from oven. Remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs. If sauce is too thin, cook it down on the stove-top.
Now for the heresy! Remove meat shanks and slice meat, saving the marrow bone. Add slices back to the sauce, stirring them in. Nestle marrow bones in the center of the pot, standing on end.

For a vegetable course, we prepared an antipasto plate of vegetables marinated in Italian Vinaigrette. For bread, no-knead focaccia, sliced for ease of serving.

Fresh, hand-cut pasta, 5 oz per person drizzle olive oilCook pasta 1-3 minutes until al dente. Drain, adding some water to sauce. Drizzle pasta with a bit of oil.
focacciaPresent casserole and pasta separately, allowing diners to serve themselves and to take one of the marrow bones if they like. Serve with slices of focaccia loaf.

One could serve risotto or polenta, to be in keeping with Northern Italian cuisine, but we opted for fresh pasta which is more typical in the North than the South. For dessert, panna cotta with fruit coulis.

Slow Days: Cranberry Corn Sticks

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Autumn in New England means foliage in stunning colors, apple cider, the last of the sweet corn, apples, cranberries, and Thanksgving. In our family, Thanksgiving is not just a feast on a particular day, rather it is an unfolding process of celebrating local foods. Cornmeal was introduced to the early European settlers here [the Puritans at Plymouth, Massachusetts] by the First Nations people who had grown corn for centuries. Dried, it could last the winter, providing vitamins and carbohydrates all year long. The Puritans thought they would be growing wheat, but the climate was unsuitable. Cornmeal filled in for flour in many foods of the era. In old recipes, the word “Indian” in the title [Indian Pudding, Indian Bread] meant that the dish contained cornmeal. Cornbread caught on all over the Eastern seaboard and people now tend to think of it as a Southern thing, despite its deep roots in New England. For breakfast on Thanksgiving, we get out the old corn-stick molds for a history-soaked breakfast. These cast-iron pans allow you to bake corn-bread in the shape of little corn cobs. Mine were from my mother’s kitchen, though I don’t remember her ever using them. The design goes back to 1919, so I guess they were my grandmother’s pans. Bottom Line: corn bread + cranberries + cute cast-iron pans = Fun Fall Breakfast.

Here are two recipes that I have used, Fannie Farmer and Hayden Pearson, both as New England as you can get:

Corn Bread by Fannie Farmer8×8” baking pan or cast-iron cornstick pans. Preheat oven to 375F
¾ c cornmeal
½ c white whole wheat flour
½ cup white flour
¼ cup sugar 3 Tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt		Sift together into a large bowl.
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten 4 Tbsp butter, melted		Add these to dry ingredients and mix well.
For Corn Sticks, one 7-stick pan is filled using 1 cup batter. The pan must be greased in all its crannies with melted butter. For Corn Bread, butter the baking pan.
½ – ¾ cup cranberriesAfter batter is in the pan, poke cranberries into the Corn Sticks, using 4-5 per Corn Stick. For Corn Bread, sprinkle the berries on top and gently swirl them into the batter.
Bake 15 minutes for Corn Sticks; 25 minutes for Corn Bread.Since I have left-over batter from the Corn Sticks, I bake it and use it in the turkey stuffing.
Sunny Acres Corn Bread by Hayden Pearson8×8” baking pan or cast-iron Corn Stick pans. Preheat oven to 425F
¾ cup yellow corn meal
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup white flour
3 ¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1/3 c white sugar
¼ tsp allspice		Sift these into a large bowl.
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick/8 Tbsp butter, melted
¼ c milk 1 Tbsp brown sugar		Add these to dry ingredients and mix well.
For Corn Sticks, one 7-stick pan is filled using 1 cup batter. The pan must be greased in all its crannies with melted butter. For Corn Bread, butter the baking pan.
½ – ¾ cup cranberriesAfter batter is in the pan, poke cranberries into the Corn Sticks, using 4-5 per Corn Stick. For Corn Bread, sprinkle the berries on top and gently stir them into the batter.
Bake 15 minutes for Corn Sticks; 25 minutes for Corn Bread. Since I have left-over batter from the Corn Sticks, I bake it and use it in the turkey stuffing.

Slow Days: Corn Fritter Breakfast

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Fresh corn is a food that comes but once a year, and that is in late Summer. True, supermarkets will offer corn on the cob in May, but they have to bring it in from far away. To get the full effect, you must get your corn locally and in season. After you cook up a batch for dinner-time feasting along with burgers or grilled chicken, cut the cooked kernels off the remaining ears and turn them into Corn Fritters. Southerners would insist that a fritter must be deep-fat fried, but in New Hampshire, a griddle works very well and is easier. Here in Northern New England, these delights are served many ways: as a savory side dish, if chopped chives or scallions are added; as a cocktail nibble when prepared as tiny rounds; as a first course at dinner, with maple syrup [Yes, seriously. Children swoon at this]; as a dessert, with maple syrup; and at breakfast, with maple syrup. Can you tell that we like our fritters? Here are two recipes to try:

Fannie Farmer Cookbookmakes ten 4” diameter fritters
1 cup corn kernels, drained if canned 1 egg yolkStir together.
½ cup + 2 Tbsp white whole wheat flour ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt
pinch of paprika		Sift or stir together with a fork.Add to the corn/yolk.
1 egg whiteBeat until stiff and fold into the corn/flour mixture.
Pan greased with bacon fat.

For each fritter, pour 3 Tbsp batter into the hot pan. Don’t let it spread too widely. You should get 2 or 3 into a 10” pan or use a larger griddle. Cook a few minutes until bottom is set and brown. 
Flip and cook a little longer. 
Maple syrupServe hot with maple syrup.

For a complete breakfast, I cooked up some back bacon and wrapped it around slices of sweet, ripe melon. Here are those fritters, waiting for the maple syrup!
thekitchn.com7 three-inch fritters
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp fine yellow cornmeal 1.5 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper		Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper together in a large bowl.
1.5 c. corn kernels 
1 Tbsp New Mexico green/red chiles 1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives 		Seed and mince the jalapeno, if using. Toss these with dry ingredients until the vegetables are coated.
1/4 c. whole milk
1 large egg		Mix together in a measuring cup until incorporated, then pour into flour-corn. Stir until all flour is moistened. Batter will be quite thick, but do not overmix. Let sit.
Wipe pan with a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil OR spray with cooking sprayHeat oil into a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Drop 1/4-cup portions of batter evenly around pan and flatten each slightly. Cook until golden-brown on the bottom, 2-3 mins. 
Flip cakes and cook until puffed, brown and cooked through, 2-3 mins more. If using frozen corn kernels, they may need 1-2 minutes more cook time per side.
Remove fritters to a towel-lined basket. Keep making fritters with remaining batter. 
Maple syrupPlate fritters, serve warm or at room temperature.

Slow Days: Gateau aux Fruits Frais

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

In Summer, there is an abundance of fresh fruit. Heaven! And there are many ways to eat it, besides eating it fresh, of course. For a few years, I worked in a restaurant owned and run by a Frenchman. [He would have insisted that he was a Breton, but we will let that go.] Although I did not work in the kitchen, I was happy to glean as many tips as I could about cooking. Chef did not give out his recipes. However, I managed to get enough clues to produce a reasonable version of Gateau aux Fruits Frais — a simple cake made special by a topping of fresh fruits.

The simple slab of cake.
Cover the cake with pureed rhubarb sauce, slightly sweetened.
Pipe the ‘vanilla cream’ around the edge.

The base of the Gateau is a simple yellow cake — you could use sponge cake or pound cake as well. It was baked in a 4×8″ loaf pan, then cut lengthwise into two slabs, each about 1-inch thick. If you are serving a large gathering, put the cake slabs end to end on the serving board to create one 16″ long gateau. I freeze the other half for a dessert in the future. Next, the top of the cake is slathered with pureed rhubarb or thick applesauce. The sauce should be lightly sweetened, but not too sweet at all.

Then you need a cream mixture, the sort that could be the filling of a cake or the piping at the edge. It could be an Italian meringue, or a butter cream icing, or whipped cream. I stirred together vanilla yogurt, almond meal from unpeeled almonds and let it sit for a bit to thicken. Spoon or pipe the ‘vanilla cream’ around the edge, on top of the pureed fruit. Rake the cream with a fork to pattern it or get creative with your piping bag.

Arrange any fruit on top in a pleasing pattern.
Glaze the fruit with melted jelly.

Arrange any sort of fresh fruit over the cake: whole strawberries, kiwi slices, raspberries. Since we had blueberries and red currants ripe in the garden, I arranged them in stripes. For the final touch, melted jelly was brushed over the top of the fruit to give it a gloss. Voila! Gateau aux Fruits Frais.

Slow Days: Porcini Pasta

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

3 bicolors, 1 cep

Neither Dear Husband nor I grew up eating mushrooms, but we have come to relish them. Foraging is one of my favorite pastimes and when it yields a bounty of wild mushrooms, it makes my day. Imagine our surprise when we found mushrooms coming up in the moss under a Red Oak tree on our lawn. NB: One must approach wild mushrooms with caution: many species look slightly alike and correctly identifying the fungus is very important. In this case, the identification was unmistakable: dome-like cap the color of a well-baked bun; no gills under the cap, but a mosaic of tiny pores; bulbous stem, unlike any other species. These were Boletus edilus, the prized cep/cepe/porchini mushroom! Then, another edible Bolete showed up: the Bicolor, Boletus bicolor. We were in hog heaven!!

A search for mushroom recipes yielded this excellent dish from skinnyspatula.com and we are eternally grateful to her for it. The original calls for fresh shiitake and dried porcini, but we had lots of fresh ‘shrooms, so I changed the recipe a bit. Because the sauce is cream-based, we know that the recipe is from Northern Italy. To stay true to the region of origin, fresh pasta is preferred to dry pasta for the meal. I have found that my recipe for pasta made of white whole wheat and semolina flours works very well. For the record: this is NOT a recipe for weight loss!

Serves 2
105 g FRESH pasta nb: pasta made with white whole wheat flour is good here.Boil pasta in salted water until almost al dente – 1 minute. Reserve ¾ c water (~ 120 ml) before draining. Rinse pasta.
8 g/ 0.28 oz butter or more
80 g/ 2.82 oz Bicolor Boletes, sliced  90 g/ 3 oz King Boletes, sliced 170 g total = 3.8 oz fresh		Slice the mushrooms.
In a cast iron skillet, melt butter + add mushrooms. Cook for 4-5 mins until tender and lightly browned.
Take skillet off heat. Very IMPORTANT
20 ml double [or heavy] creamAdd cream + continue to stir, about 2 mins, until it evaporates. Scrape the bits on the bottom often.
60 g mascarpone
40 ml pasta water
40 ml pasta water		Add mascarpone and 1/3 of the pasta water. Cook until sauce is creamy. Add more water if needed, but keep it creamy, not watery.
Salt as neededAdd drained pasta + toss over moderate heat, until it’s cooked through (~ 2-3 minutes). Add more pasta water if needed.

Serve with zucchini or a green salad, and a Tuscan red wine of your choice*. Oh! So good!

from peterspicksblog.com Wines That Pair Well with Pasta and Wild Mushrooms:  Barbera d’Asti (Italy), Pinot Noir (Oregon), Pomerol (Bordeaux, France), Barolo (Italy), Rioja (Spain)

Slow Days: New England 4th of July  

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Hot dogs. Hamburgers. Potato Salad. Macaroni Salad. Rich desserts that are Red, White, & Blue. These are typical 4th of July fare all across the country, so it must be all-American, right? No, actually. Hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad came to us from German immigrants in the 1800s. Macaroni salad is a combination of Italian and German culinary traditions. Where do you go for an ‘authentic American’ meal for Independence Day? New England, of course. Salmon was very common in New England during the 1600s and 1700s, before the Industrial Revolution dammed the rivers. If you wanted inexpensive protein, salmon was the thing. In early Summer, salmon would return to the rivers, swimming far up-stream to spawn. At the same time, the first peas were available in the gardens. By coincidence, the first new potatoes could be found in the fields. [Potatoes originated in South America, were taken to Spain by Columbus, then to Ireland by Walter Raleigh, then to New Hampshire by Scottish settlers.] Thus, by early July, a fine dinner was available to all and sundry: cooked salmon served with peas and new potatoes.

Coat the salmon fillets with olive oil on a plate, then strew with salt and pepper. Put the shelled peas into cold water, ready to cook. In a bowl, put small new potatoes — preferably with flesh of different colors — salt, pepper, and olive oil to coat. Stir well to cover the potatoes all over with oil. Put the potatoes on a glass pie plate into a 400F. oven and set the timer for 25 minutes. By now the grill is hot. Cook the salmon, undisturbed, for 5 minutes on each side. Turn on the heat under the peas and simmer them uncovered. The peas will be done first, so keep and eye on them. Drain and salt them, cover the pan and let them wait.

And there you have it: a fine meal for early Summer. For a delightful wine paring go to peterspicks.com.

Slow Days: Carbonara Pasta

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

There is an idea that this dish was created in Rome during the 1940s with ingredients from American GIs, since ‘bacon n eggs’ are so American. Not so, says Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Rather, it is traditional food of country men who go into the woods for days on end to burn charcoal in the hills outside of Rome. Since that activity involves flat-out work during days of living rough, there was a need for a meal that was quick to prepare from portable ingredients: dried ham, pasta, Romano cheese. Thus this is the pasta of il carbonaio, the charcoal maker. I’ve tried recipes with more ingredients that claimed to be authentic, but this is the dish that I will prepare again and again.

Grated cheese, egg, pasta, pancetta, flat green beans. These ingredients serve two [2] people.
Sv 8Sv 2
2 Tsp EVOO
6 thin slices pancetta		½ tsp EVOO 1½ slices pancettaCut meat into ¼“ strips. Heat oil and pancetta over medium, and cook until meat is crisp but not burnt. Take off heat, cover, set aside.
4 two-oz eggs
2 tsp grated Romano salt + pepper		1 two-oz egg
1 tsp grated Romano cheese salt + pepper		Grate the cheese to produce 4 oz [for 8 servings] or 1 oz [for 2 people]. Remove a bit for now and save the rest. Beat cheese into eggs, and add seasonings.
Boiling salted water
1# spaghetti		Boiling salted water 4oz wh-wh spaghettiCook pasta until tender but undercooked. Drain into a bowl and measure ¼ cup of pasta water.
¼ c pasta water cooked pancetta3 Tbsp pasta water cooked pancettaAdd pasta water to the pancetta in its pan and reheat, scraping up the brown glaze from the bottom.
Cooked pastaCooked pastaAdd cooked pasta to pan and stir to combine.
Beaten eggs
ground black pepper		Beaten eggs ground black pepperStir eggs into the pan until eggs are cooked and clinging to the pasta. Season with lots of pepper.
Scant 4 oz. RomanoScant 1 oz RomanoSprinkle with cheese and stir to combine. Plate, serve.
Delicious when served with flat green beans of the variety called Roma or Romano. Some crusty whole-grain bread completes the meal.