As the end of the year is pretty much upon us, I thought I ought to bring it to a proper closure by getting you up to speed on
Raw Goddess Heathy's most recent visit earlier this month.
If you're regulars of my Sunny Raw Kitchen, then you know that Heathy and I 'met' online a couple of years ago. We've been inseparable ever since, writing back and forth about our latest raw food experiments and discoveries (among other things, of course!) We have also been blessed to get together a number of times in the last 13 months.
Heathy's first visit was in the fall of 2007 and turned into a veritable
uncooking marathon. Wowsers! It's a wonder we managed to accomplish so much in terms of food prep! We were in the kitchen from morning to evening nearly every day, somehow also finding the time
to update our online friends on what all we'd been doing on a daily basis.
Heathy came for her second visit last September, when we were living in our
tiny hobbit house at Ashinah. Even though the kitchen was minuscule, we did whip up a few wicked feasts (including several recipes from
Russell James'
Thai ebook) and pumped out luscious desserts faster than we could eat them. What can we say? There was lots of last minute recipe testing that needed to be done for her ebook. Tough life, eh?
We had gorgeous Indian summer weather for the most part of her stay, and got to spend a lot of time outside sunbathing, doing stretches and walking on the nearby logging roads. We even spent an afternoon at a natural hotsprings in Nakusp. I had every intention to post about our time together, but as soon as Heathy left, I got caught up working on her ebook and our move to another location. Plus, she did a fab job recounting her
Adventures to The Sunny Raw Kitchen on
her blog, so I figured I could get away with letting her be the spokesperson. lol
As is always the case, each visit has its own distinct flavor. This time around, with the release of Heathy's
Just Desserts (the very first thing we did when she got here!), we didn't have anything specific to work on. It was nice to take it easy and not be 'on a schedule'. It gave us the opportunity to play to our hearts' content with the new recipe books I'd recently purchased:
Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw by
Mark Reinfeld and Cafe Gratitude's
Sweet Gratitude.
As we were in the prime of persimmon season, I served the Orange Persimmon Cheesecake from
Sweet Gratitude on the day Heathy arrived. Super creamy smooth along with a burst of sweetness from the
persimmon slices!
Now onto the sweet treats we prepared together ...
After such a promising start, we were both excited to put to the test more creations from
the Cafe Gratitude's book; one truly after our own hearts... completely dedicated to desserts! The first one on our wish list was the Pecan Turtle Cheesecake. As you can see, we were happy to be side by side in the kitchen again!
This cheesecake is to live for!
Absolutely stunning looking and with an a-ma-zing flavor and texture!
I'll still have to work on that marble effect as the cake ended up with gigantic blobs of chocolate filling throughout. But you know what they say... "Practice makes perfect" and I intend to practice a LOT! lol
On a lighter note, we prepared the Raspberry Tart as our freezer was still full of berries that I picked last summer. We made this one with a mixture of saskatoons and black and red raspberries. The Irish moss glaze is so cool; makes it look just like SAD fruit tarts!
I was intrigued by the Spiced Chai Orange Cake. Although I haven't drank chai in years, I used to really enjoy this exotic blend of spices. At first, both Heathy and I thought the orange filling was a bit plain, but once assembled it did complement beautifully the delicate Chai Cake layer. This stuff totally grows on you!
But we didn't limit our dessert making to
Sweet Gratitude (although I admit that it was very tempting!) Before I move on though, if you'd like more detailed feedbacks and photos about Cafe Gratitude's dessert book, you might want to pop by
this thread.
We also prepared some of my original sweet creations. To think that I'd tried my hand at raw cake making only a couple of times before Heathy's first visit. Look at me now! Can't stop cranking those out! lol It does prove the point that I got to train with the very best, hey girlie!
Heathy had been planning to make my version of
Chocolate Orange Cake, but didn't get around to it before she left. Since some folks on
Raw Freedom Community had arranged to simultaneously make it in the course of
another Project RAW, we hopped along for the fun!
It was the perfect occasion to tackle my
Chocolate 'N Cream Charlotte as an extra pair of hands is welcome for this more intricate dessert. We had dehydrated the ladyfingers a couple of days earlier and were all set to go. I thought it would be a good idea to let Heathy assemble the Charlotte, just to see if she'd come at it differently. As a matter of fact, we did stumble upon a slightly different effect; the Whipped Cream must have been less firm than when I assembled mine, as it spread behind the ladyfingers. We added a final touch to the Charlotte by decorating the sides with pieces of dark chocolate.
On a less extravagant note, we also had a Sundae night. Simple but soooooooo yummy! We made brownies - somewhat based on Matthew Kenney's recipe - that we warmed up in the D for an hour or so. We then chopped the brownies into smaller pieces and served them along with Vanilla Ice Cream,
Heathy's Caramel and Chocolate Sauces and banana slices.
Mmmmmmmm
And lastly, we recipe tested one of Heathy's new creations that will be included in her next
Just Desserts ebook: Peanut Butter Chocolate Caramel Tart. Pontifex said that of everything we whipped up, this was his favorite dessert! Must be a guy thing as it also especially hit the spot with Darwin, Heathy's hunny.
From the look of it, you'd think we had nothing BUT desserts, but believe me, we did have a bit of savory here and there. Somehow it just wasn't in the flow to take many pictures of main courses. *shrug* Amongst other things, we enjoyed my
Cheddar & Smoked Veggies Pizza,
Spinach & Mushroom as well as Greek pockets, Matthew's Silken Tofu, Russell James'
Falafel and Hummus Wrap, his
Spinach & Wild Mushroom Quiches which we served with Elaina Love's Mashed No-tatoes and his
Vegetable Samosas with
Cucumber & Mint Raita. (Guess we also had a bit of a Russell theme going on too, eh? lol)
I did manage to get a pic of the Samosas before we wolfed them down...
Definitely an interesting combination of flavors, but I gotta warn you: hold back on the garam masala!!! He calls for 2 tbs in the filling which completely overpowered everything else!
Oh, and we had zucchini pasta topped with an Alfredo Sauce and marinated mushrooms for dinner one evening.
Not sure what happened (Mosaica probably put a really good 80s song on Utube!), but Heathy and I dumped our respective projects and threw a little dancing fit in the kitchie.
The girls also found another vocation besides Raw Kitchen Divas. Heathy showed Mosaica and I how to French braid, so we also got to play hairdresser!
Meet the Braidy Bunch!
We kept the braids overnight and ended up with wavy hair the next day; an extremely rare occasion for yours truly. I mean, my hair is soooooo straight that when I tried to perm it in the past, it wouldn't even take! lol
Showing off our be-yu-ti-ful curls!
That just about sums up our time together!
Wishing you all a growth-full, health-full and fun-full New Year 2009!
See you next year!
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