Welcome to the Estate.
Pull up a chair.
The kettle is on and the doors are open. Wander the kitchen, gather a recipe, and take a little of this life home with you.
Step insideEvery room has a story
Every door is open. Choose one and come on in.
The Kitchen
The Recipes
The Approach
The Journal
Try
Fewer ingredients. Extraordinary flavor.
- Pork
- Tomatoes
- Vinegar
- Gluten
- Refined sugars
- Leaveners
- GMOs
- Caffeine
- Chocolate
- Iodized salt
- Microwaves
- Anything you cannot pronounce
It isn’t less cooking. It’s better cooking.
What replaces what
Cutting an ingredient is the easy part of this. The harder, more useful part is knowing exactly what goes in its place, so nothing here just disappears without a plan.
Pork
Organic pasture-raised chicken, turkey, organic grass-fed beef or lamb, and wild caught fish. Organic smoked paprika for that smoky flavor.
Tomatoes
Organic lemon and organic roasted bell peppers. Also organic roasted beets, carrots and butternut squash puréed with organic lemon, or organic pumpkin or sweet potato purée as a sauce base.
Vinegar
Organic lemon or lime, organic unfermented grape juice, unsweetened organic pomegranate or cranberry juice, or organic sumac.
Refined sugar
Organic pure maple syrup, organic raw honey, organic fruit, organic dates or date paste, organic blue agave, or organic coconut sugar.
Iodized salt
Leaveners
Whipped organic pasture-raised egg whites, organic pasture-raised whole eggs beaten until thick, aquafaba (the liquid from cooked organic chickpeas), or steam.
Chocolate
Pure organic carob, or organic roasted mesquite flour.
Gluten
Organic almond flour, organic buckwheat flour, organic sprouted oat flour, organic coconut flour, organic cassava flour, or organic chickpea flour. Or homemade sourdough made with organic sprouted whole grain bread flour, or low sodium Ezekiel bread.
GMOs
No replacement. Look for both the USDA Organic and Non-GMO Project Verified labels.
Caffeine
Organic roasted dandelion root or chicory brewed like coffee, or organic herbal teas like rooibos, peppermint and fresh ginger.
Microwaves
A skillet on the stove or the oven.
Six things this kitchen runs on
Take away the pork, the tomatoes, and the vinegar and people assume there is nothing to cook. There is more, and it tastes cleaner.
One chicken, multiple ways: roasted whole, spatchcocked on the grill, or simmered into soup once the carcass is all that is left. It is the one staple this kitchen never runs without.
Four things on one afternoon
Sunday feeds the week. One afternoon of cooking, and the week takes care of itself. The roast, the vegetables and the blend are already made, and the bones are saved for broth. From there it’s endless choices: salads, fajitas, lettuce wraps, bowls and so much more.
One roast
A whole chicken or a large piece of fish, seasoned all the way through and roasted until the house smells like dinner. Serve it whole tonight, then pull it into salads, bowls and wraps for the rest of the week. Cook once and eat well for days.
One pot of beans
Built flavorful from the first minute, layered with herbs and seasoning, never just salt and water. Spoon them under tonight’s roast, into tomorrow’s breakfast bowl, and anywhere else the week takes you.
Two trays of grilled vegetables
Bell peppers, onions and mushrooms, grilled until they’re charred at the edges and sweet in the middle. Toss them warm into salads tonight, then heat them in a pan under an egg for breakfast tomorrow. One round on the grill, twice the meals.
One jar of blend
A pinch from this jar, a spoonful from that one. Garlic, paprika, thyme and whatever the week is calling for, stirred together in a bowl until the color turns rich and the smell hits you. Pour it into a jar and shake it over the roast, the vegetables and the eggs all week long. Five minutes of work, a week of flavor.
Pan-Seared Herb Chicken with Spaghetti Squash
Fast enough for a weeknight, good enough that it never feels like you settled. Twenty minutes of attention, most of it hands-off.
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 4 organic, pasture-raised chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon organic cold-pressed olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- Himalayan salt and black pepper, to taste
For the spaghetti squash
- 1 medium organic spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
- 1 tablespoon organic cold-pressed olive oil
- Himalayan salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 large organic yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup organic fresh chives, chopped
Method
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Roast the squash cut-side down with the oil, salt, and pepper, 35 to 40 minutes, until fork-tender. Scrape into strands.
- While the squash roasts, caramelize the onion in the butter over medium-low heat, 20 to 25 minutes, until deeply golden.
- Season the chicken breasts with the thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Sear in the olive oil, 5 to 6 minutes per side, until cooked through (internal temperature of 165°F).
- Top the squash strands with the caramelized onion and chives, and serve alongside the chicken.
It took a year of mediocre dinners before it got good.
I am a home cook. Not a chef, not a nutritionist, not a doctor, and nothing here is medical advice. When I was diagnosed with lymphoma, I changed the way I eat under the guidance of my doctors. For the last three years, I’ve cooked using only the ingredients on a much shorter list, and I’ve worked out how to keep real, delicious food on the table. I’m sharing what I’ve learned so you don’t have to spend years figuring out how to cook with whole ingredients on your own. Please talk with your own doctor before making changes to your diet. This is not a treatment plan for anyone or anything. It’s simply how I eat, and the recipes and tools I use to do it.
MaryAnnSouth Central Texas
Once you start reading labels, you do not stop at food
The question that changed how I shop for dinner changed how I shop for everything. Toothpaste, shampoo, laundry soap, the cleaner under the sink. I swapped them one at a time and kept what actually worked.
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