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Friday, January 2, 2009

Two Candles

Today marks the second anniversary of The Sunny Raw Kitchen! Woo hoo!!! *doing the happy dance*

A Short Recap
It's been an extremely event-full and, yes, challenging year in many ways for me. Come to think of it, it seems that things have been happening in two's... After spending a number of years at the same spot, I moved not once but twice in 4 months, my dear Heathy came for a visit in September then again in December, I did two Vipassana meditation retreats, went on two major road trips, and lastly, I published two ebooks, The Best of Raw Freedom Community and Just Desserts.

Life's busy-ness has limited my involvement in the cyber world and, at times, even in the kitchen. Still, whenever I got the chance I let you in on what I'd been up to via my What's Uncookin' Good Lookin'? series and shared with you (almost religiously!) my Recipes of the Week. I also reported back on the results of my experiments with making cultured cashew cheese and, let's not forget, my second chocolate marathon which I recounted in great details in For The Love of Chocolate.

Feedback From the Online Raw Community
This year, I have received honors I would never have dreamed of! I was given the Inspirational Blogger Award and Creative Blogger Award, and was featured as one of the Favourite Raw Chefs of 2008 in Raw Pleasure Australia's December newsletter.

I was also nominated five times for Best of RAW 2008 and I am beyond thrilled and honored to confirm that I qualified in 3 categories! My Sunny Raw Kitchen blog was voted 3rd Best Raw Vegan Website as well as 5th Best Raw Vegan Media while I came 6th place as Best Raw Vegan Chef. (The other 2 categories were Best Raw Vegan Educator and Best Raw Book with The Best of Raw Freedom Community.)

Wowsers! I was content with being nominated and didn't expect to end up among the finalists, right alongside raw food well-known personalities such as Ani Phyo, Cherie Soria, David Wolfe and Nomi Shannon!

My heart-felt thanks to all those who have given me their votes of confidence and to my dear readers who have been dropping by this virtual kitchen over the last couple of years. It wouldn't be the cozy and fun place that it is if it wasn't for you!

My Favorites of 2008
At the beginning of a brand new year, one is naturally moved to reminisce about what's happened in the last 12 months: the good, the bad, and in my case, the yummy. (Yah, yah, I know I'm a bit food obsessed! lol) So I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes of 2008. I always find it difficult to stick to a select few, but I exercised great discipline and managed to come up with the following. You may recognize a few from last year's list, but these are all staples that I have been making over and over again.

Here we go...

My Top 28 Raw Recipes for 2008:


(In no particular order)
  1. Heathy's Butterscotch Shake
  2. My Super Choconana Shake
  3. Ingrid's Tomato Dressing
  4. My Dill-icious Dressing
  5. My Cheddar Cheeze Spread or Dip
  6. My Sunflower Garlic Spread
  7. Ocean's Oh My This Is A Tuna!
  8. My Cream of Leek
  9. My So Like Campbell’s Tomato Soup
  10. Matt Amsden's Scarborough Fair Vegetable Soup
  11. Jennifer's Cream of Zucchini Soup
  12. My Popeye Gone Raw Cream of Spinach Soup
  13. Don's Pilgrim's Soup
  14. Matthew Kenney's Rosemary-Garlic Mashed Potatoes
  15. Cherie Soria's Crab Cakes
  16. The Daily Raw Cafe's Jalapeno Burgers
  17. My Spinach & Cream Pasta Casserole
  18. My Spinach & Mushroom Pockets
  19. Joz's Fajitas
  20. The Famous Onion Bread
  21. Ani Phyo's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread
  22. Garlic & Dill Cheeze
  23. My Strawberry Shortcake
  24. My Dazzling Hazelnut Cream Pie
  25. Heathy's Chocolate Orange Cake
  26. Heathy's Nutless Chocolate Crème
  27. My Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
  28. Cafe Gratitude's Mudslide Pie
I know Heathy loves that sorta thing too so I'm handing the ball over to her. I'm dying to find out your fave recipes of the year, dearie!

Away From The Kitchen
Sorry to have to say it, but I won't be blogging for a while, as I'm getting ready to leave for another Vipassana retreat. Can't think of a better way to start the new year! I'm looking forward to the opportunity to plough through (and hopefully release) yet more layers of 'sankhara' or mental conditioning. But before I go, I decided to leave you on a fun note!

'Name Your Fave' Draw
Tell us your 3 favorite recipes posted on The Sunny Raw Kitchen and which of my 2 ebooks, The Best Of The Sunny Raw Kitchen and The Best of Raw Freedom Community, you'd like to receive. Upon my return, I will draw 2 names who will deserve a copy of their ebook of choice.

Wishing you all a growth-full and blessed new year 2009!

*~*~*~*~*

16 comments:

  1. mmm my favorites are:
    - The cheddar cheese dip
    - Goddess kale chips
    - Strawberry shortcake

    Oh it was hard to decide! The Best of the Sunny Raw Kitchen would be wonderful, but either way, the site is a gift in itself!

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  2. Favorites...
    Blueberry Creme Cake - impressed my mom!
    Pad Thai - good on everything
    Lemon Chewies - making those tonight!

    I'd love to get the Best of the Sunny Raw Kitchen. Happy Anniversary and thanks for such a great site!!

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  3. Happy Anniversary! Your site is awesomely delicious. You deserve all the good things 2008 brought your way and much more in 2009!

    Ok, you want me to pick only three of your recipes as favorites.... that is tough to do but I say your Spinach & Cream Pasta Casserole and Pasta Primavera are two of my favorites.

    Speaking of favorites, I'm feeling honored see one of my recipes made it on your list of favorites. :-)

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  4. Tough one! I would say the Goddess Kale Chips and the Pad Thai...maybe because those are the ones I make the most!! :)

    You should star on Top UN-Chef!! :)

    -Erin @ "Vegan & the City"

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  5. I love a lot of those, ok, all of the ones I've tried. I am curious what is your favorite chocolate-free dessert recipe. The shortcake?

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  6. Thanks everyone for dropping by and telling us about your favorite recipes. This is going to be fun!

    Aimee,
    Yep, you guessed it! ;-)

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  7. I'm fairly new to raw, but am loving it....I find that doing raw is easier with your newsletter and awesome recipes. Thank you for all your help....

    My favs are:
    Spinach & Mushroom Pockets
    Cream of Leek
    Heathy's Chocolate Orange Cake
    I'd love to have The Best of The Sunny Raw Kitchen, although I wouldn't say no to The Best of Raw Freedom Community :-)

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  8. My favorites are the raw hot dogs and mango cheesecake!

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  9. hmmm Cream of leak and the spinach pockets have been in constant rotation of sorts.

    best of sunny raw would be rad.

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  10. Spicy Carrot Ginger Soup
    Almost Nutless Alfredo Sauce
    Persimmon & Coconut Cream Parfait

    The best of the sunny raw kitchen would be my choice. Delightful blog!

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  11. Bravo! As we say in french... and Happy anniversary! You deserve the best!! Thanks for bringing so many good recipes and inspiration to me and others! And even if I don't ''talk'' I sure read you often... my english is not good enough, it will come though!! ;)

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  12. Have a nice retreat!!!

    my fav recipes are: oatmeal raisin cookies.
    so like campbell's tomato soup
    super choconana shake.

    My choice would be:
    the best of sunny raw kitchen!!
    I'll be honored if I recive you ebook

    I really enjoy making your recipes!

    with all you goodies I'm plannig to make a raw potluck and invite my non raw friend to tastes you goodies!!

    Thanks for this blog

    Raw Katty

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  13. Hi Sunny Raw Kitchen!,

    My favorite recipes (although all of the recipes posted look incredible) would have to be:

    1. Lemon Coconut Bars (so incredible!)
    2. Our Daily Green Fuel (this inspired me to incorporate more green smoothies into my diet)
    3. Heathy/Fairygirl's Apple pie (yum!).

    I would be so elated to be in the running for either one of your amazing e-books Carmella! Thank you for sharing your inspiring raw food creations and words of wisdom!

    Best wishes!

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  14. Thanks to your site, we've been able to maintain a raw food lifestyle - we check your site all the time for recipes and advice. Thank you for being such an inspiration - and only 3 favorites? Well let's do this weeks favorites!
    1) Spinach dip
    2) Curry Sauce
    3) Lemon Poppyseed cake
    We'd love to win "The Best of Raw Freedom Community" and thank you again!

    caron in Victoria BC

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  15. Come from FFF, nice to find your fantastic blog!

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