A book I came across recently that I think all blood types might be interested in is a book called The Food Substitutions Bible by David Joachim. It’s got over 5,000 substitutions for all sorts of ingredients, techniques, and cooking equipment. Since the BTD usually requires a revamp of so many recipes I thought I’d through the book information out there for everyone. This book is not a BTD book, so you do need to know what foods your type or the type(s) you are cooking for can have in order to know which suggested substitutions are appropriate for you to consider.

Pumpkin is only a neutral of us AB’s, but I like pumpkin ravioli so much I sometimes even eat it in the summer with tomato sauce on it at a local Italian restaurant. Now that pumpkin is in season it’s fairly easy to find where I live in the refrigerated section of the grocery, but I do not like the price (or the wheat) of the pre-made ones. I do not like to take the time to make the raviolis from scratch either. So, my answer to that is to make the ravioli filling (cooked, mashed pumpkin or canned solid-pack pumpkin puree, lots of heavily caramelized onions, garlic, sage, and sometimes Italian seasonings) and then use it as the sauce over regular (unstuffed/unfilled) type cooked pasta with some grated mozzarella, manchego, or pecorino toscana cheese to garnish it. It’s extra good if you make the pasta, drain it well, let it cool a little, and then saute it a bit in some clarified butter and then sauce it with the pumpkin. If you need some additional protein in there, ground turkey that has been cooked with Italian seasonings, garlic, and chopped onion makes a nice addition. Either way is yummmmm. If you need an actual recipe, they are fairly easy to find right now with just about any search engine.

Another fall meal that I’ve made lately is one of the national dishes of Belgium: Carbonnade Flamandes. It's made with diced lamb that has been browned in clarified butter over high heat. Next, I put it in my crock-pot with some cut up onion, a bottle of strong beer, and strong beef stock or broth. I then add some Hen of the Woods (Maitake) mushrooms, a small piece of cinnamon, a generous sprinkle of dry ground ginger, and a bit of ground cloves and nutmeg. Turn it on low for several hours and yummmm! If you’ve already started your holiday baking, you could use some hard spelt gingerbread cookies (no icing) or gingersnaps instead of adding the individual spices. It’s good with spatzle served on the side. Since spatzle is wheat, go easy on it if you decide to have this. Nutmeg seasoned mashed potatoes or spinached mashed potatoes are good, too.

Salmon is still high on my list of preferred foods. I had it one night this past weekend grilled on an indoor grill. It was served with a mayonnaise that was flavored with garlic, horseradish, and a bit of dill weed. I had beets and potato pancakes on the side with unsweetened applesauce and sour cream. A glass of German riesling was my beverage. Again, yummm.

A comfort dish that I’ve done recently was rabbit noodle casserole. It was supposed to be rabbit noodle soup (instead of chicken noodle soup), but I didn't have anywhere near enough stock or broth so it was more of a stew which became a casserole. First, I cooked the rabbit in the water with carrots, onions, celery, a bay leaf, two cloves, and ¼ teaspoon of dried thyme. Then I fished out the rabbit meat, discarded the veggies, stained the broth, and let it cool overnight in the ‘fridge. The next day, I sauteed bite sized pieces of onion, carrots, celery, and chopped garlic in a mixture of half olive oil and half clarified butter. I shredded the rabbit meat, seasoned it with about a tablespoon of Italian seasonings and added it to the veggies. Then I mixed it all into the broth I reheated that I had made the night before. Then I added about 8oz (dry weight) of cooked, drained spelt rotini (spiral shaped) noodles. It had been so long since I’d fixed rabbit noodle anything.

Tomorrow I'm off of work so I'm going shopping for our Thanksgiving meal. We're having the traditional turkey with sides of garlic-y green beans, spelt dressing, cranberries cooked in red wine, spices, and lemon peel instead of orange and a Chardonnay for the beverage. My son really wants mashed potatoes and gravy. I don't believe in ruining people's once a year holidays by being a slave to the BTD so we're going to have it as well. We'll also be having some white wheat bread filled with spinach dip. A rich dark chocolate and sour cream cake is the most likely candidate for our dessert at this point.