Caviar, lemon, creme fraiche - Smoked salmon entree - Guillaume at Bennelong - by Julia by avlxyz, on Flickr

Even though we had started our Real Food journey last year at this time, this was our first real food Super Bowl. Last year we still “splurged” on snacks and got all the things we normally would for this special event. Chips, dip, candy, all the worst processed food has to offer.

This year I wanted to still have fun food, but I didn’t want to stray quite as far nutritionally. I picked up some exotic Terra chips and some Flat Earth cheddar chips, still chips but a half step up the nutritional ladder. Maybe not even that with the canola and soy, but still I felt better about getting them. Both bags had hardly been touched when I put them away. Instead, most everyone chose carrot and celery sticks for crunch.

I was separating a gallon of milk for curds and whey earlier this week and let it sit too long before I strained the cream. I was heartbroken. “What am I going to do with soured cream? I don’t know what to do with…wait. Soured? Like sour cream??” Hello! Although it was more sour and not thick like the locust bean gum-added version at the store, once I added some herbs and made a ranch dip for the veggies it was yummy.

We had a contraband box of crackers I was supposed to store with the emergency food in the garage (but never moved.) I put that out with some cream cheese, smoked salmon and caviar. The kids absolutely demolished the crackers. Rose, my salt fiend, loved the caviar and John, my pickiest eater, ate most of the smoked salmon. Huh.

For the main course, I made a huge pot of chili using the Red Meat Chile recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I used two quarts of sprouted, cooked kidney beans, but used a pound of ground goat and a pound of ground pork for the meat instead of beef. The goat tasted much like lamb. Hubby said it was the best chili I’ve made for a long time. I guess it must have been, because the pint that was leftover was eaten by someone for breakfast before the sun was up. I can’t believe there are no leftovers of that huge pot!

I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I’ve been craving weird foods (read: nutrient dense) lately. Just last week at the store I picked up smoked salmon, a tiny jar of inexpensive caviar, some oysters, a tin of anchovies and ordered a beef liver from my farmer. I also have a bit of mystery meat (mysterious only to my family until they eat and enjoy it, then I might share it’s source) scheduled for later this week. I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but those foods sound really good right now.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.