Real Food Kitchen Tour: Gutsy

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Caroline Lunger, author of Gutsy.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Gutsy

This week we travel to Minnesota to tour the kitchen of Caroline Lunger, author of Gutsy.

Caroline is only 18 years old and a ball of fire! Not to mention adorable.

We’re so excited to have her join the Real Food Media blog network. I know she’s going to do big things!

With a name like Gutsy (isn’t that so cute!?), can you expect anything less?

Blog Name: Gutsy
Blog Author: Caroline Lunger
Location: Minnesota (Twin Cities suburb)
How Long Blogging: 5 months
House or Apartment: House
Size of Kitchen: 15 x 17 feet (main kitchen area)
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: I love our huge island. I usually take up the whole thing when I have the chance! The large deep copper sink is amazing plus the little side one on the island is handy. I LOVE my new fermenting/dehydrating room off to the side of the kitchen! Oh, and our fridge and freezers are great because they can pack in so much. But sometimes things get forgotten in there!
Things You Would Change: I can’t complain really because I have a beautiful spacious kitchen to work in. But If I could change something, it would be to have more natural lighting. I love the light, it makes me happier and taking pictures is much easier. I am constantly moving around the windows to find good lightning for my food pictures!
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: How can I possible choose one! Here are my top kitchen helpers that make cooking real food possible. My Vitamix blender (we use it for juice, soup, nut butters, flours…and the list goes son), cast iron pan (we use ours every day, it never leaves the stove top!), gallon glass jars (holds kefir, ferments, dry goods, soaks nuts), ice cream maker (we love coconut milk ice-cream for breakfast!), crockpot (leave it and go do your things), muslin or nut milk bag (we strain the pulp out of juice, hang cheese) mini spatulas (love that it can get into small places), ice cube trays (used to freeze tallow, pumpkin, squash, bone broth, smoothies, avocados) fermented veggie smoosher (It looks like a long smooth lemon juicer. I use the rounded end to push down on the top of the ferments to keep them covered in juice), 5 gallon crock (It rotates between fermented veggies and kombucha), Excalibur dehydrator (nuts, crackers, cookies, and fruit rollups!)
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: I love to do big projects in the kitchen and make a mess! Though I have to remember that I live with 5 other people and I have to share the kitchen. Time and preparation isn’t so much of a problem anymore because we have gotten into a routine. Oh, and this may sound silly but getting fresh water! We currently don’t have an in-kitchen filtered water system so we go back and fourth to our grocery store to fill up 10 gallons of RO water every 2 days…we just can’t decide on what system to get!
Current Family Favorite Meal: Wild salmon bellies with sea salt! I know this is not really a full meal, but it sure can be just by itself! They are so buttery and yum! We get them from the local fisherman who goes to Alaska and brings them back to the Minneapolis farmers markets. They are actually the little bellies of the salmon with the fin and all. You just stick them in the oven until they are crisp. My mouth is watering just thinking of them!
Favorite Cookbooks: [easyazon-link asin=”1931498237″ locale=”us”]Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”0967089735″ locale=”us”]Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats[/easyazon-link], and food blogs or course!

Welcome to my real food Gutsy kitchen! This is pretty much the favorite spot of the house and you can always find something interesting going on in here. I use this big counter space everyday and I am so thankful for it. On the left top is the steamer oven, which is right above the oven. We always keep a teapot on the stove along with 1 or 2 cast iron skillets. The crock-pot is usually going with broth. Behind the stove range is some black pepper, sea salt, and olive oil.

Top left: fancy plates, air popcorn popper, Le Creuset enamel red stockpot, kitchen napkins. Bottom Right: green enamel stockpot, 14 cup Cuisinart.

I love our big sink because I can clean so many dishes at once. We always have some kind of plants or herbs on the windowsill. We can never bear to throw away our roses so we are constantly hanging them above the window.

On our kitchen table we always have a big bowl of fresh fruit for on the run. The hutch on the left is where we keep our appliances. My favorite current cookbooks are always found stacked on the wine cart on the right.

Fried duck eggs in butter and fresh organic berries that we picked at a farm.

Making chicken stock with local chicken backs and chicken feet!

On the left drawer under the stove is where we keep our pots and pans. On the right top, we keep our measuring cups, rolling pins, and spatulas. Under that, are 2 drawers where we keep our glass containers and some jars.

My dad surprised me a few weeks ago and told me that I could have the old stuff/cleaning room and turn it into a fermenting room! Whoohoo! I love my dad and my new fermenting room. I keep kefir on the top shelf. On the second shelf is kombucha and water kefir. On the third shelf is an assortment of fermented veggies and flavored kombucha’s. On the fourth and fifth shelf are more fermented veggies. On the side shelves in the ball jars are dried fruits, veggies, beef jerky, and a whole shelf for fruit rollups…I have gone a little crazy on those! On the other side of my tiny room, I have our Excalibur dehydrator and 5 gallon crock set up.

Left top: Kim chi, asparagus, caraway/celery seed kraut, asparagus, mixed veggie (cauliflower, carrots, green beans), and garlic. Left Bottom: spicy Kim chi, mixed veggie, asparagus, beet/ginger/red cabbage kraut, caraway/celery seed kraut, and garlic.

Making ahead of time in big batches and freezing is a lifesaver on the GAPS diet. We have fresh picked frozen strawberries and raspberries, frozen avocado, coconut milk/pineapple smoothie in the ice cube trays, egg whites, coconut fluff, whole orange puree, and sockeye salmon.

This is the outside of your fridge…doesn’t really look like a fridge, but it is pretty. On the sides behind the glass doors we keep bowls and plates. I always use the little handy sink on the island.

To save space inside, we set up an extra shelf in our garage next to the sauna to keep all our glass bottles. We go through waves where we have a lot or we almost run out, depending on the season. Right now we have a lot empty. I guess I need to make some pickles or more fermented veggies!

Usually I just hang my kefir cheese on a cabinet knob like this with twine and muslin. Behind it is our very old, but still useable drying rack. Do you see the 2 bottles and 1 jar of homemade magnesium oil? The spray bottle is food grade hydrogen peroxide to wipe down the counters with. And of course more drying roses!

Kim chi in my 5 gallon crock.

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT cheeseslave dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
How about a lovely herb garden?
Kids or pets are always cute!
Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.