Four Candles

Four years ago on January 2nd 2007, I was typing my very first lines on this Sunny Raw Kitchen blog. Wowsers, has it really been that long!?!

When I look back at the impact that opening our kitchen to the cyber world has had on our lives, it brings tears to my eyes. My original intention in doing so was to reach out from our very secluded home at the time, in order to share some of the recipe experiments and insights on my raw health journey. "If only my words could be of assistance to a single person," I thought (and still do!), "then all the time and energy that would go into blogging would be worth it!"

I remember feeling my heart swelling and on fire as I first conjured up words for an unknown audience, so grateful to be provided with such an extraordinary medium to reach out to people all over the planet without even having to leave my home.

As has become a bit of a tradition, here's a little overview of what all has been going on in my sunny raw kitchen this past year.

The summer of 2009 saw a new element come into The Sunny Raw Kitchen; that of a travel journal. After years of a very sedentary lifestyle we gave away most of our belongings, packed our kitchen, some clothes and our two furries and began a long trek that was to take us along the entire periphery of North America. January 2010 found us passing through Louisiana and Texas, right in the middle (quite literally!) of our Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour. Besides camping at various state parks, we also had the privilege to visit and uncook with over 20 different readers of my blog and members of our Raw Freedom Community forum.

We actually kicked off the new year somewhere in Mississippi. To mark the occasion I managed to whip up some chocolate truffles in the tent; a feat that seems to have inspired many and certainly spoke to how creative you can be with raw foods regardless of your circumstances. ;-)

Some of the highlights of our trip in the winter/spring 2010 include a close encounter with alligators in Texas, walks in the Sonora desert and magical Sedona, Arizona, picking avocados right off a tree in California, getting the grand tour of Cafe Gratitude's Central Kitchen in San Francisco and flying over Washington state in a private airplane.

At long last, 18 states and 13, 000 miles later, in the spring we finally landed back in British Columbia where we started the whole journey. What followed was a period of mostly cyber silence as I went into mega 'recovery mode', completely exhausted by the previous 10 months on the road.

But amazingly, energy eventually began to trickle back and then with a revenge, I might add. After almost 3 months of doing almost no food prep whatsoever (thanks to my invaluable sous chef! hehe) I hit the kitchen running and managed to create over 40 new recipes in less than one month! I had barely enough time to assemble these, along with other old favorites, into my third recipe book, Delightfully Raw, before we were becoming nomadic again this past November.

This time around our intention is to take things more easy and be mindful not to over extend ourselves during this new phase of our travels. And so far so good... we've been getting plenty of rest, lots of walks and exercise, yummy food, AND I've even been able to stay up to date on my blogging! Yee-hah!

And to wrap up this short recap of the past year, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes of 2010. As I was jolting down the list it occurred to me that more than half of them happen to be my own creations, but what can I say? Them's how it breaks!

My Top 10 Raw Recipes for 2010:

(In no particular order)

1. My Curried Kale Chips

2. My Spinach & Almond Soup

3. Russell James' Olive, Caraway and Fennel Cheese


4. Russell James' Cauliflower Cheese

5. My Heavenly Berry Jubilee

6. My Zucchini Pasta in Mushroom & Chive Sauce

7. My Green Cucumber Soup

8. Natalia of Glowing Temple's Creamy Peppercorn Ranch Dressing

9. Cafe Gratitude's Brazil Nut Truffles

10. My home-brewed Raspberry Ginger Kombucha


I thought it might be fun to also share the ingredients/products I had most fun playing with this past year, again in no particular order:

1. Irish moss
2. Hemp seeds
3. Thai young coconuts
4. Durian
5. Kelp noodles
6. Ultimate Superfoods cacao products
7. Penzeys Spices' curry and herb blends
8. Chia seeds
9. Macadamia nuts
10. Almond extract

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being part of what has been an amazing, growthfully challenging, fun and full-of-deliciousness adventure!

Here's to a rawesome new year in every way!