Delightfully Raw in Utah: Part I

After spending over 4 weeks in Matt and Dawnen's yard just south of Walla Walla, we finally got back on the road and continued our journey south. Since the going is rather slow when pulling a 27' trailer I figured that we'd be ready to stop after 5 hours of driving. (And I was soooo right!)

We arranged to spend that first night parked in front of some strangers' house near Boise, Idaho. See I found out about something really neat called the Boondockers Welcome Club. For a very small fee you can join the Club and in return be able to communicate with other members and stay on their property for free. Pretty darn cool if you ask me! Our hosts lived in a quiet neighborhood so the next morning we were well rested and ready to make our way to our next stop.

Miraculous Soak
While scouting online for a place to camp I discovered that a slight detour from the main road would take us to one of the best hot springs in all of Idaho. Now you're talking! Not only does Miracle Hot Springs have several neat camping domes but it also has a little campground. Perfecto!

It was a short two hour drive, which was great as our plan was to arrive early so as to make the most of the hot springs. Lord knew I could use a good soak in healing waters with my kidneys hurting like they were. The weather was cool but none of that mattered once we were in! As a bonus since we camped there we received a free one hour session in a private pool. Yay!

We then went to the outdoor pools which varied in temperature. We stuck to the warm ones. ;-)

Donnie getting ready for a dip.

Soaking my health troubles away...

The camping domes

Cloud-O-Rama
The next morning we continued our travels towards Utah. The drive was rather uneventful, other than my kidneys hurting badly, especially with all that bumpy sitting. Once we turned onto the I-84 E the sky suddenly got super interesting. I'd never seen anything like it! Don and I joked that some of the clouds looked like alien ships. ;-)

This next cloud formation was simply incredible!

If you look closely you'll see the sun disappearing behind the clouds and the upper right side showing the colors of the rainbow.

Woo hoo! I so love clouds!

Driving through Salt Lake City was super stressful. We suddenly found ourselves on 6 lanes and lots of traffic. Slow as we were we stuck to the right lane but it kept turning into 'exit only's. Eeek! Were we ever glad when we saw ours come up!

Visiting the Fox Family in Eagle Mountain
After a bit of a detour we thankfully made it safely to the Foxes, which we hadn't seen in nearly 2 years. Thomas is in the blender business. After selling various machines like Vita-Mix, Blentec and Waring, he turned his focus to the OMNI V 3 HP, an awesome high power blender a great deal more affordable. (You can learn more about the Omni here.)

Don, Thomas, Jasmine and Angelica

Their dog Coco is still as sweet as ever! She has calmed down a great deal since we were here last. Too bad Kyky couldn't be here too; the two of them got along fabulously!

Eagle Mountain is fairly high in elevation, and while there wasn't as much snow as last time we were here, the temperatures dropped to well below freezing at night. And so we gratefully accepted the warm bed that Angelica had made for us in their spare bedroom. It was also nice to be able to easily sneak in and keep Miss Puss company who was confined in the room - Coco can get so excited, you just never know! - rather than having to go over to the trailer. Jasmine LOVES cats so she made sure that Pu didn't get lonely.

I was a little concerned about how it would go around the table, with me having been on liquid foods for a week or so. So much for playing in the kitchen or even eating together, I thought. But I discovered that my digestion quickly improved while I was there. Yippee!

Some of the food we enjoyed...

Cheezy Corn Chowder

Marvelous Mushroom Soup

My first solid food, Spring Rolls in rice paper, with just a teeny bit of Ginger Dipping Sauce went down fine. Woo hoo! And so I continued to expand my repertoire little by little.

Collard Wraps

Angelica was intrigued by Matthew's Hot & Cold Salad but felt intimidated by the many steps. I reminded her that it's mostly a bunch of chopping. It certainly helped to do all of the work together; between her, Don and I we had everything ready in a reasonably short time.

Our cold components were lettuce, arugula, spinach, basil, red and yellow bell peppers, celery, cucumber, tomato and a little green onion to sprinkle on top. Our hot components: cabbage, red onion, bok choi and carrots.

I thought we did a fine job; it was super delicious!

Here you can see how the salad sits in a warm broth. Yummo!

I was even able to have a bite of the lovely dessert Angelica made: my Cheesecake with Berry Sauce.

Coming up next: our adventures in St-George, Utah!

Rawcking near Nelson, British Columbia

My friend Ulla and I had such a wonderful time facilitating our Raw Radiance Retreat last September that we almost immediately started planning other raw events. And so in October we held a three course raw vegan gourmet Mexican Dinner as well as a one day Raw Radiance Workshop at her lovely home near Nelson, BC.

Mexican Dinner
This was soooo much fun!!! Ulla went all out, playing along with the evening's theme by using tablecloths and small serving bowls that she brought back from her trips to Mexico. She even wore a Mexican top! ;-)

We started off the evening with me demoing how to make Cheezy Corn Chowder and Nacho Cheeze. We then all sat down and enjoyed this fiesta together. It was a great opportunity for all of the attendees to talk about their own interest in raw foods and, of course, pick my brains to their hearts' content. ;-)

We were introduced to the concept of raw Tostada (actually I just looked it up online and it's really more like a Taco Salad) during one of our trips to the US. It is now one of our staples as it is so tasty and really simple to assemble: crumble your favorite corn chips at the bottom of a plate and top with guacamole and Nacho Cheeze (we often omit it). Next comes slivered lettuce, followed by fresh Tomato Salsa and Cashew Sour Cream. Yum!

Dessert was Pamela Vinten's Chili Chocolate Nut Bar from her Amazing Guilt Free Chocolate ebook.

I really really enjoyed this formula and will definitely continue to play around with the idea of themed raw dinners in the future!

Raw Radiance Day Workshop
 A few days later we conducted a Raw Radiance Workshop. The intention was to give the participants an overview of the benefits of including more raw foods in their diets, and introduce them to some easy yet really yummy recipes.

In this food prep demo I showed them how to assemble what we like to call our Whole Meal Miso Soup. This soup has been such a life saver for us, especially when we are on the road! The combination of fresh veggies with warm hot ginger miso broth is oh-so-comforting on a cold day!

Marinating mushrooms

Sooooo good!

Later in the afternoon Don and I shared about our own health journeys and passed on various tips that we have learned over the years to help us maintain the raw lifestyle in a wholesome and balanced way.

Afterwards we withdrew to the kitchen to get dinner ready while Ulla and the others continued to exchange ideas and personal experiences.

Got everything ready!

Demoing how to make raw Pad Thai.

 

And for dessert we treated ourselves to Heathy of Sweetly Raw's Beautiful Chocolate Berry Pie from her Just Desserts ebook.

Sunny Raw Kitchen 2012 Tour Update
We have now begun our US travels and are presently staying with the Knoeflers near Walla Walla, OR. They've been exploring the raw lifestyle for a long time and Matthew has been sharing with me all kinds of really interesting techniques and recipes. Guys, brace yourself for a series of awesome posts about their amazing garden, how to grow micro-greens, how to make coconut yogurt and much more!

Where to Next? 

We'll be staying here until at least November 26th in order to attend their local health group's potluck. We'll then continue our way down to Salt Lake City to hang out with our friend Thomas Fox of Omniblender.com and his family.

As usual we try to make as few fixed plans as possible in order to leave room for the magical encounters that Life will undoubtedly put on our path. This is what our general itinerary sorta looks like so far for the coming months:

• Salt Lake City (early December) 
• St-George, UT (mid-December)

Then we'll spend time in the following states:

- Arizona (we'll most likely be RVing there from late Dec. until mid-February or so)

- California (mid-Feb. until late March)

- Oregon (late March)

- Washington (April)

We'll be having some kind of raw get together in most of those places, so drop me a line if you'd like to be kept posted or get more info about the scheduled events. Also, if you live somewhere along the way and would like to hook up or even help put together an event, please send me an email at:

sunnyrawkitchen(at)gmail(dot)com

Raw in a Flash Video: Cheezy Spinach Almond Soup

We just held our Raw Radiance Retreat over the weekend and it went super smoothly. Yay! It was definitely the first one of many. There's a wonderful complementarity between Ulla and us, and working with her was such a delight! I took lots of photos over the weekend and still have some editing to do, but I'll be posting about our experience within the next few days.

In the meantime here's another short video in my Raw in a Flash series. Today I'm showing you how to make a Cheezy Spinach Almond Soup. It is super creamy, has an incredible flavor and is very satisfying. One of my favorite comfort foods!

Cheezy Spinach Almond Soup

Serves 2-3

2 cups packed spinach
1 1/4 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup almonds, soaked for 8 hours or overnight
1/4 avocado
1 garlic clove
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tightly packed fresh parsley
1/4 cup tightly packed fresh dill
1 tsp light miso or 1/2 tsp salt (or more, to taste)
Water until desired consistency is reached

Blend all ingredients in high-speed blender until smooth.

If you wish a warm soup, use hot water or heat it up gently on the stove while stirring constantly.

Omni V 3 HP
If you'd like to learn more about this more affordable 3 HP blender, Don and I share our impressions of the Omni in greater details on this page.

 You can visit Omni's website directly by clicking on the banner below.

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My Other Raw in a Flash Videos:

Strawberry Banana Shake 
 Kelp & Zucchini Pasta in Mushroom & Spinach Cheeze Sauce
Vegan Tarragon & Mustard Cheeze

Pad Thai

Basil Pesto

Cucumber Dill Soup

Almonnaise (Almond Mayonnaise)

Ranch Dressing
 

Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour Update
I was telling you in a recent post that we are slowly getting ourselves ready to get back on the road; we'll be once again headed down to the US for the cold months this fall. This will be our first time traveling in the luxury of our RawVee rather than a tent (woo hoo!) so we're mighty excited about the prospect. What a relief not to have to constantly unload and reload the van. Yay!

Anyhoo I mentioned that we would love to connect with some of you guys along the way and that we'd need a bit of property, a large yard or driveway to set up our RawVee, with hopefully the possibility of water and electric hook up. It occurred to me shortly afterwards that this might be a major limiting factor for many of you who live in the city or just plainly don't have much parking space. Sooooooo we'd like to emphasize that our first priority is to spend time with you and that we'll be happy to stay at your home or set up at a nearby campground or RV park if need be. ;-)

One of the fun aspects of the way we like to travel (with minimal planning and maximum fluidity) is to watch the itinerary gradually take shape according to the invitations we receive. The initial part of our journey is now starting to come together. Yay! We'll be headed down to Milton Freewater, OR via Spokane, WA and continue south to Utah. We'll then make our way through Arizona, California, and most likely drive back to BC along the West coast.

If you live somewhere along the way and are interested in hosting us or connecting during this next phase of our rawdventures, please send me an email with the subject line “Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour 2012” at:

sunnyrawkitchen(at)gmail(dot)com

For more info about our Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour and how we propose to go about it please read this post.

Raw in a Flash Video: Cucumber Dill Soup

The weather has started to cool off noticeably since September has arrived. It's as though Autumn is suddenly in the air. I was hoping for an extra month of heat since Summer was so late but I guess that was wishful thinking. *sigh*

Anyhoo, I've got just the perfect recipe, whether you're tucked away in a warm corner of the globe or getting ready to bunker up for the cold months! It's no big secret that Don and I are huge fans of raw soups. We've been starting off our dinners with them for years
and years.

Just Like Campbell's Tomato Soup

For us, soups are the perfect healthy savory fast food; just chop everything and dump it in the blender with some water, exactly like for a fruit smoothie but with vegetables instead. A fantastic way to consume lots of fresh veggies with minimal preparation!

Here's a wonderfully alkalizing and refreshing soup that is a major staple for us. We make a variation of it at least a couple of times a week. We're partial to warm soups - they're sooooo comforting! - so we like to use hot water for a lovely lukewarm mixture, but I'm sure it would also be awesome served cold.

"What? Hot water!?! Doesn't it cook the soup?," you wonder? No need to worry, there's a trick to insure that your soup retains all of its nutritional value and precious enzymes in the process. See, because the veggies are usually coming straight out of the fridge, once combined with hot water we've found that the soup comes to the perfect lukewarm temperature. It does require a little practice, however, as the density and temp of your ingredients will affect the amount of hot water that you need. For instance a tomato soup will require less hot water than a zucchini or celery soup. It sounds complicated but, really, you get the hang of it very quickly. The key is to start off with a small amount of hot water at first, run the blender for a few seconds in order to pulverize everything, then adjust the temperature by adding more hot or cold water, depending on what's needed, in order to reach the consistency that you'd like.

Another option would be to use cold water and then very gently - and meditatively! ;-) - warm the soup up on the stove on low while stirring constantly, so as not to cook the enzymes touching the bottom of the pan.

Cucumber Dill Soup
From Carmella's Delightfully Raw 

Serves 2

1/2 medium avocado
2 cups lettuce, packed (optional)
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped cucumber
1⁄4 cup parsley
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 green onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon light miso
Salt, to taste
Water, until the desired consistency is reached
---
 1⁄4 cup fresh chopped dill

Blend all ingredients except fresh dill in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.

Add dill and process briefly only to incorporate.

If desired, break up seaweed, such as a sheet of nori into your soup bowl for extra traced minerals. Just make sure to omit salt in the recipe!

P.S. If I've gotten you curious about raw soups, hop over to my Recipe Index where I must have close to a hundred more yummy soup ideas!

P.P.S. You can learn more about the Omni 3HP blender on this page or visit Omni's website directly here.

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My Other Omni Contest Videos

Strawberry Banana Shake

Vegan Tarragon & Mustard Cheeze

Raw Vegan Pad Thai

Raw Vegan Basil Pesto

Delightfully Raw in St George Utah

As I was mentioning in my last post we very nearly didn't make it to St George in time for a raw potluck that was scheduled at Barbara and Duane's home. Vegetarian Society of Utah (VSU) members are used to getting together regularly to share food but it is usually vegan and oil free. I thought it might be fun since I was going to demo a couple of recipes to make it a raw get together.

We've had the opportunity to attend a number of potlucks along our travels and I must tell you that I was very impressed with the variety of dishes that the VSU people contributed. Since most aren't really into raw per se I was expecting lettuce, veggie sticks and fruit platters, but nope, the dishes included different kinds of salads, spreads, dehydrated crackers and even calzone! Barbara invited some of the participants to tell us a little about the dish that they brought. I thought it was a really nice and fun touch! Take a peek at all the beautiful food that we partook of...

The Boutenko's Garden Burgers

Live Garden Burgers
From Eating Without Heating by Seigei and Valya Boutenko
Posted here

1 lb. Nuts (soak overnight and rinse, if time permits: makes for easier digestion)
1 lb. Carrots (finely grated)
1 Medium onion (finely chopped)
1 Tablespoon sweetener (date syrup, raisins or very ripe banana)
1 Tablespoon oil: extra virgin olive, sesame, or your choice
1 or 2 Tablespoons poultry seasoning

If the mixture is not firm enough, add one or more of the following thickeners: dill weed, dried garlic, dried onion, dried parsley flakes, nutritional yeast, psyllium husk powder, ground flaxseeds.

Form into balls, cutlets, or fillets and sprinkle with a little paprika before serving.

Note: If you want "fishburgers," add seaweed in the form of dulse, kelp or nori to the mixture.

Carmella's Note: Lillie made these with almonds and replaced the poutlry seasoning with Braggs (I'd recommend using tamari instead) and herbal seasonings.


Jan brought dehydrated stuffed bell peppers. The texture was surprisingly; like they had been cooked!

Jan's Organic Stuffed Peppers
Green cabbage, finely shredded
4 large avocados, ripe but firm
2 lemons, juiced
6 red bell peppers, cut in halves
1 pound carrots, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 to 2 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
Salt, pepper and lemon pepper, to taste

1. In a food processor, grate the cabbage on a fine grating blade.

2. With the S blade chop the carrots, celery, green onion until finely chopped but not mushy. Chop each separately!

3. Stir the cabbage, carrots, celery and onions together then add the juice of one lemon and the spices. Be sure to taste as you add the spices.

4. Mix well.

5. In a separate bowl peel the avocados and dice into cubes, then add the juice of the 2nd lemon. Stir gently careful not to make the avos mushy.

6. Gently fold in the avos into the veggies mixture.

7. Prepare the red bell peppers; cut in halves and remove seeds.

8. Spoon the mixture into the pepper halves and place on a dehydrator mesh. Dehydrate at 90 degrees for about 12 hours, then continue to dry for a few hours depending on how you like them.


A man named Michael drove all the way from Cedar City to join us that evening. He has been following my blog for some time and expected to meet us in Las Vegas during last year's tour, but the stop was canceled. ;-( We were glad to get a chance to connect this time around!

One of the stars of the potluck was his Calzone. If they ever thought that raw food was boring, they surely had a taste of how versatile and interesting it can be!

Calzone
Adapted from Alissa Cohen’s "Living on Live Food"

Dough
4 Cups Sprouted Buckwheat
1 1/2 Cups Soaked Flax Seeds
3/4 Cup Olive Oil (I used more like 1/4 cup)
1 1/2 Cups Carrots
1/2 Cup sprouted lentils
1/2 Cup sprouted garbanzo beans
2 Cloves Garlic
2 teaspoons Curry
1 teaspoon Rosemary
1 teaspoon Thyme
2 teaspoons Sea Salt

Mozzarella Cheese
1 Cup almonds
1 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup dried tomatoes
1 1/2 Tbs Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Water

Spinach Dip
4 Cups Spinach
1 Large Avocado or 1 1/2 small Avocados
1/2 Tbs Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoons Herbamare Seasoning Salt
(I added a little water as the dip was too thick to my liking...)

Marinated Veggies
1 Cup Broccoli, diced
1 Cup Mushrooms, diced
Lemon juice
Tamari

For the Dough:
Grind the carrots in food processor. Add in rest of ingredients and blend well until reach dough-like consistency.

On teflex sheet, form half the dough into a half circle about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Repeat on second teflex sheet with remainder of the dough.

Dehydrate at 105 for 3 to 4 hours; then turn over and dehydrate for another 1 to 2 hours. (You don't want it too dry though!)

For the Cheese:
In a food processor, blend all of the mozzarella cheese ingredients together until its completely smooth.

For the Spinach Dip:
In a food processor again, blend all of the ingredients for the spinach dip together until smooth.

Marinated Veggies:
Marinate the broccoli and mushrooms in the lemon juice and sea salt for about 20 minutes or until the dough is done in a few hours.

Now let's assemble the Calzone:

1. Remove one sheet of crust (the dehydrated dough) from the dehydrator and spread the entire mixture of Mozzarella Cheese on top of the crust.

2. Place the spinach dip on top of the mozzarella cheese that is now on top of the crust. (These layers will be thick!)

3. Drain the marinated veggies and place these on top of the spinach dip.

4. Remove the other "half" of the crust from the dehydrator. With a very large spatula and with your hands flip the crust onto the top of the "loaded" crust.

5. You will have to push this down a bit and may have fillings seeping out. That is okay.

6. With your fingers, go around the sides of the calzone and pinch together the crust. You may have to wipe away any filling that is leaking out as you pinch. Just be sure to close the sides well.

7. Dehydrate your assembled calzone at 105 degrees for 14 to 18 hours.

This will stay in the refrigerator for a day or two but is really great warm, straight out of the dehydrator.

Notes: If you see the crust breaking of splitting, try to repair that before it goes back into the dehydrator by using your fingers and a bit of water to smooth it out. You will have to remove a few sheets to fit the assembled calzone into the dehydrator. You can re-warm your calzone by putting it back into the dehydrator for an hour or two before serving.

Carmella's note: For a quicker, less involved version, you can make the calzone recipe into sandwiches or pizza.


And on the sweet side someone had brought a recipe created by my friend Eva Rawposa of Uncooking 101. (It's such a small raw world, isn't it?) Actually Eva was just telling me the other day that she has revamped her website and to celebrate she has all kinds of deals going on at the moment. So make sure to drop by and check it out!

Raisin Walnut Truffles
Posted in Eva Rawposa of Uncooking 101's Raw News Bite, Vol. 1 Issue 4

Ingredients
4 cups walnuts
3 cups raisins
2 7-8" vanilla beans
3/8 t sea salt
1/2 T cinnamon

Instructions
1. Chop 1 cup walnuts in a food processor until well chopped but definitely not powdery! You want to keep some texture to them. Set aside in a bowl, then mix in the cinnamon.

2. Put the remainder of the walnuts and other ingredients into the food processor. Keep processing until it starts to form a wonderfully oily glob of a ball.

3. Hand roll this mixture into separate balls, about 20-25 of them. Roll the balls around in the chopped walnut mixture.

4. Share! And make sure when people are mmm-ing and hmmm-ing that you inform them this is actually a health food. (Yes!)


One of the faithful attendees to VSU potlucks is Frank. He's in his 80s and over the months he has been tweaking to perfection a delicious berry pie creation made from almonds and dates (crust) and mixed berries.

Frank's famous Raw Berry Pie

Everyone was glad to dig into all this yummy looking food...

... including yours truly, of course! ;-)

Did I ever feast or what?

Spreading the Good Word about a Plant Based Diet
I've already told you a little about Barbara's amazing transformation and healing by changing the way she ate. As President of VSU she organizes several programs every month, and during our stay she happened to be the one doing the presentation. Barbara and Duane are really doing a fabulous job at raising awareness about the benefits of a whole food plant based diet.

Barbara had a contract with Hollywood for 20 years as the official Liza Minelli look-alike. She used to do cabarets and shows all over the country and even abroad. And so she started off her program with a short renditon of 'Yes!' that got all of our attention.

She then walked us through her incredible story and the 8 steps that have allowed her to heal herself from a number of diseases, including obesity and cancer.

In Barbara's Sunny Kitchen
The night of the potluck both Don and I got hit with the symptoms of a vicious flu. I had fever, a stuffy nose and my body was aching all over. It's rare that either of us get sick, let alone at the exact same time. I was just grateful that we had a roof over our heads and a cozy home to rest in. We basically stayed in bed for an entire week, having only juices, green smoothies and soups so that our bodies could focus on healing.

Once we started to feel better I joined Barbara in the kitchen and whipped up a few delicious meals. Here are some of the foods that we enjoyed...

Green Celery Soup

My Curry Soup

Don, The Soup Man, whipping up a green soup.

Popeye Gone Raw Cream of Spinach

I recently shared with you a video in which Barbara demoed how to make a vegan cheeze. She was also interested in trying some of my cultured cashew cheeze.

All the fixings for lettuce Wraps: Garlic & Dill Cheeze and various veggies.

So simple and sooooooooo good!

Barbara and Duane don't consume any processed oils. I had never really delved into this aspect of diet although Don and I used to eat very little oil before we got into gourmet uncooking. When you think about it, though, it does make total sense that natural oils from avocados and nuts are healthier than the man-made/processed stuff. We'll be experimenting with oil free recipes although we've decided that we will continue to enjoy raw coconut oil in our desserts. For one thing we are not quite ready to let those go yet and also coconut oil feels better to us than the other varieties.

Barbara made again her outstanding contribution to the raw potluck: Celery Root Slaw in Cashew Cream Sauce. She has become quite the expert at converting recipes in order to make them oil-free. In this case she substituted the oils called for with nut butters. Oh my goodness! This is to live for! I had never tried celery root before and loved it!

Celery Root Slaw with Cashew Cream Sauce
Adapted from a recipe by Gena of Choosing Raw

Serves 4

Marinated Mushrooms
1 tbs tahini
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs tamari
1 tbs finely minced shallot
1 1/2 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced

Cashew Cream Sauce
1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hrs, rinsed and drained
1 garlic clove
1 tsp salt
1 tbs agave
2 tsp almond butter
1/3 cup water
Freshly ground black pepper
2 large or 4 small celery roots (about 2 cups), with the exterior peepeld off
Fresh parsley for garnish

1. In a bowl, whisk together the first 4 marinade ingredients. Toss mushrooms with marinade and let sit for at least 3 hrs.

2. In a food processor or blender, combine cashews, garlic, salt, agave, almond butter, water and black pepper. Process until smooth. Add more water if necessary. (This also makes a wonderful all-purpose sauce or dressing!)

3. With a box grater or mandoline, grate celery root. Pat with paper towels to remove excess moisture. In a large bowl, toss celery root with 1/2 cup Cashew Sauce, and then add more as needed.

4. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Getting ready to enjoy one of our raw dinners.

Quinoa with Cauliflower Curry and a mixed green salad with an oil free version of my House Dressing

She had rice paper in her pantry but didn't know how to use it, so one night I showed her how to make Spring Rolls.

Rolling Away...

Aren't they gorgeous? I love love the vibrant colors!

We served them with my Satay Sauce.

Barbara was particularly excited about making a raw cake. As we had lots of left over almond pulp from my demoing how to make nut milk at the potluck, we opted for my Blackforest Cherry Cake. The cake layer turned out marvelously well.

The big challenge, however, was how to make the Whipped Cream without using coconut oil! We had to tweak the recipe quite a bit, replacing the oil with the same amount of Irish moss gel (achieved by blending 1/4 cup packed soaked Irish moss with 1 cup water), adding an extra 2 tbs of cashews, and 1 tbs kuzu (another type of seaweed) diluted in 2 tbs of water then heated for a few seconds in order for the gelatinous properties to be released.

The result was a wee bit softish but still, I was mighty proud of our achievement! Yay! It was very very decadent!

Our last kitchie experiment was to make one of the cheeses from the 'Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook' by Jo Stepaniek completely raw. (If you have missed Barbara's demo of how to make amazing firm vegan cheezes, go here!)

This 'gooda' cheeze turned out absolutely delish! We modified the recipe slightly by not cooking the carrots and replacing the agar with Irish moss paste.  I used the same ratio as mentioned above but next time I'll make a firmer paste by cutting down on the amount of water.

Gouda Cheeze
Adapted from a recipe from Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook

1 1/4 cups Irish moss paste*
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup roughly chopped carrots
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tbs tahini
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tsp onion pwd
2 tsp psyllium husk
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic pwd
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin

Blend all ingredients in high speed blender until smooth and creamy.

Pour Cheeze mixture in mold lined with saran wrap.

Chill in refrigerator.

* To make Irish moss paste, blend 1/2 cup packed soaked Irish moss with 1 cup water.

Carmella's Notes:  

~ When we first made this Cheeze we used Irish moss gel using a ratio of 1/2 cup soaked Irish moss to 2 cups water. The result wasn't as firm as we'd like. I've modified the above recipe accordingly, using a lesser amount of water.

~ You could also sub the Irish moss with 1 1/2 cups water and 1 1/2 tbs agar powder. In that case the instructions would be as follows:

Combine water and agar in a small pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring often until completely dissolved, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Add mixture to the other ingredients in the blender and process until completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender jar as necessary.

Pour into container and cool uncovered in the refrigerator.

When completely cool, cover and chill several hours.  (I usually serve it after 1 hour or so).

To serve, turn out of the container and slice.


Comfy Furries
Barbara and Duane aren't used to having pets in the house but they kindly took our furries in. As you can see they made themselves right at home.

Puss in her favorite chair.

She had a long massage session with Barbara one night. Ahhhhhhhhhh, heaven!

Mr. Kyky keeping cool on the tile floor.

And that just about wraps up the highlights of our time in scenic St George, Utah. As it turns out we have a long stretch of amazing natural beauty lying ahead of us, with a visit to Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I can hardly wait to bathe in their majestic presence and of course, share it all with you guys!

Stay tuned!