Delightfully Raw Near Walla Walla - Part II

I'm back with more about our adventures near Walla Walla, although this time it will all be food talk! Yippee!

First off, I want to start with a photo that really belonged to my previous post, but hey, what can you do? These things happen. *shrugs* I was mentioning how our hosts live right in the heart of apple country. During one of our walks in the orchard across the street we found the odd apple still in the trees. Among them was probably the largest one we've ever seen! The pesticide coating was so thick (yuck!) that we had to rub it energetically to make it nice and shiny.

While we walked we noticed how some of the trees in each row were bearing teeny miniature apples that hadn't been picked at all. Brian explained that the main purpose of these is to act as pollinators.

Apples, big and small

In Matt & Dawnen's Sunny Kitchen
As I was saying before, Matthew and Dawnen have been experimenting with raw foods for a good while. Often times when we stay with folks, we're the ones who end up sharing a lot of our knowledge. This time it was my turn to be in the apprentice's position and learn a bunch of new tricks and techniques. In the coming weeks you can expect to read feature posts on how to grow micro-greens, make Coconut Yogurt and assemble Matt's famous Hot & Cold Salad.

We happened to be there for Dawnen's birthday, so we all got together for a little feast.

Me with the birthday girl

One of the challenges of living in a trailer is the lack of sufficient light. Like me Matt is a sucker for having his working space very well lit, so he's come up with the perfect solution: a head lamp. Actually once you get used to seeing so clearly you sort of get addicted; now Matt wears his lamp pretty much all of the time! he he

Closely watching Dawnen preparing a Dipping Sauce for veggie rolls. Notice that she's wearing a head lamp too; it's contagious I tell ya!

Whizzing up our raw soup du jour. And nope, that's not a head lamp near my forehead. ;-)

Smile!

For the main course we assembled our own veggie rolls with both rice paper and nori sheets.

Matt making sure everything is looking good.

At some point Brian got hold of Matt's super duper camera and took all sorts of shots throughout the evening.

Mr. Donnie...



... looking very much relaxed, as usual. ;-)

Feasting at Vedra & Merle's
We were invited for lunch a couple of weekends ago by Dawnen's mom and step-dad. They eat fairly healthy to begin with, since, as members of the 7th day Adventist Church, honoring the temple of our bodies is particularly emphasized. I certainly didn't expect to partake in such a raw feast, though! Vedra really went all out in whipping up a bunch of yummy stuff!

See for yourselves...

A nut based Chili

Cauliflower and Jicama Rice

 

Ranch Dressing

Cheeze Sauce

 

Dawnen and Matt contributed lots of goodies for salad, including freshly harvested micro greens as well as a curried quinoa dish.

We brought a blender container full of the ingredients for my Tomato & Herbs Soup which we just had to whiz up on their brand new Vitamix machine. (Very nice!)

Don's ginormous pile! It looked like a LOT of food (and it was!), but he didn't come anywhere close to beating Matt's 3 servings! lol  I'm still not quite sure how can so much food go into such a thin man? ;-)

More of Vedra's handiwork: 2 kinds of sweet nut balls.

Giving Thanks in Good Company
We walked over to Matt & Dawnen's trailer on Thanksgiving day to share a lovely meal. On the menu was a soup concoction of Don's, a large salad with Peppercorn Ranch Dressing, Neat Balls, mashed potatoes freshly harvested from their garden, and Miso Gravy.

Most of the salad ingredients also came from their garden. So vibrant in both colors and flavors!

The Neatballs recipe came from Gabriel Cousens' Rainbow Green, Live-Food Cuisine. I thought that they had a nice flavor from the herbs but they were a tad too salty for my taste.

Garden Neatballs
From Gabriel Cousens' Rainbow Green, Live-Food Cuisine
Recipe posted here

1 C almonds, soaked
1/2 C walnuts, soaked
1 C olive oil
1/4 C leeks
2 celery stalks
1 T sage
1 T marjoram
1 T thyme
2 t Celtic salt

Homogenize nuts with oil.

Finely chop and stir in leeks, celery, herbs and salt.

Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and dehydrate for 2-3 hours at 140F.

Matt's Mods: He used only 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 cup of leeks and 5 celery sticks.


The recipe calls for serving these with Marinara Sauce but Dawnen opted for her own rendition of Gravy made with cashews, veggie broth and South River miso.

Afterwards we just hung out for a while. Almost as soon as Don and I got settled on the couch Mr. Bean hopped on so that he could snuggle between us. Awwwww! It seems that every time we come over he feels more and more comfortable in our presence. ;-)

Beanie was all chilled... until Dawnen got dessert out: raw vegan pear ice cream freshly made in their fancy ice cream maker. He was so thrilled at the prospect of this treat that the poor fellow tripped while coming down from the couch. It's not easy to maneuver around when you've lost the partial use of two of your legs! ;-(

Matt played around with our Sony a-57 camera for a while and captured this nice shot of Dawnen drinking her tea.

Meet the Matt-Man

During our stay Brian came up with the brilliant nickname of 'Matt-Man' for Matthew, partly inspired by the latter's quirky old Subaru which was instantly dubbed the 'Matt-mobile'. he he Anyhoo, one afternoon we all climbed into the Matt-mobile and went grocery shopping in Walla Walla. It turned out to be quite the funny expedition. Not sure what had gotten into him that day, but Matt-Man sure was being a goofy guy!

 Nice hat, Matt!

But the funniest bit was when he managed the considerable feat of getting (most of) himself and Mr. Bean into one of those kiddie buggies. Mr. Bean seemed to enjoy the ride, especially when Matt beeped the horn. ;-) The tough part, though, wasn't so much getting in as getting out of the thing afterwards! lol

One thing is for sure, Matt is a super interesting character! ;-) He knows heaps about all sorts of topics. Oh, the fascinating (and long!) conversations that Don and Matt had! I also spent a good deal of time hanging at their trailer, picking his brain and soaking up all kinds of helpful info.

Matt likes to amp things up; his motto? The more the better! When Matt does something, he likes to "go all the way, including the postage." For instance a few weeks ago he made such a huge amount of sauerkraut that I could barely lift up the bowl. It filled something like 9 two-quarts Mason jars. ;-)

Chocolat

One Sunday Dawnen and I took over her mom's kitchen and turned it into a raw chocolate factory. Woo hoo! We had several recipes on our to-make list, but it all went very smoothly. Even so, by the time we finished cleaning up our mess it was nearly 7 hours later. Eeek! Call it the 'Raw Choccie Marathon'! ;-)

We worked with two basic chocolate recipes: the one featured in Matthew Kenney's Raw Chocolate book as well as Pamela Vinten's Recipe #1 from her Amazing Guilt-Free Chocolate. We also experimented with different kinds of sweeteners - maple syrup, agave, honey and coconut nectar - although neither of us thought of taking notes of what was in what. Ooopsie! We also kinda lost track of which choc recipe we used for some of our goodies. Ah well, as it happened all the variations turned out marvelously well! ;-)

Both of us felt drawn to certain recipes from Matthew Kenney's book, so we each played with those individually. In the end we split all of our goodies anyways. Yay! I thought that the lighting wasn't the greatest for some of the pics I took that night, so I got more shots in daylight, hence the double pics.

Marzipan Stuffed Choccies

Mint and Candied Nibs

Hazelnut Almond Chocolate Bars

As a matter of convenience we used the dehydrator method for melting the cacao butter and paste, as recommended in Matthew's book. We did end up returning the chocolate mixture to the D while we were working on other recipes. I'm not 100% sure how that affected the tempering process but most of our choccies did turn out nice and shiny, except for a couple of recipes. I'm actually thinking that the molds might have been the culprits for these.

Walnut Maple Chocolates

We both really like Cafe Gratitude's Coconut Almond Joys which we've prepared on a number of occasions. And so we split up a batch between us. I think that the last time I made these I worked on a picnic table at a California campground under Kylo's intense scrutiny. How he used to love chocolate! Not to worry though, we never let him indulge in this compulsion. One time he ate several artisan organic chocolate bars that we'd made the mistake of leaving in the vehicle with him while we continued our shopping. When we returned he had wolfed them down, wrapping and all. He didn't even so much as burp. hehe

 

There were a little bit of left over coconut filling which Dawnen turned into these gorgeous treats.

My intention was to also tell you about a potluck that we recently attended with their local health group, but this post is already getting long. How about I save it for another time, eh?

In Diane's Sunny Kitchen - Part II

This post is so ridiculously overdue! I meant to put it out while still in Santa Barbara, but with all the gorgeous sunshine happening I somehow always seemed to find something more appealing to do than sit in front of the computer. I'm sure you'll understand. ;-)

Homecoming
After spending a good chunk of the winter in SoCal I'm now back in the Great White North. It's actually not that bad, really, but nevertheless a major adjustment. It's quite a shocker to go from spending several hours out of doors every (mostly sunny) day to being confined to four walls, except for our daily walk. I'm slowly getting used to my new routine of piling on the layers of clothes and knitting or reading cozy by the wood stove.

As you can see, I'm not the only one who likes to hang out where it's warm. Are you sure you can't she get any closer, Puss? lol

We'd never been separated for such a long stretch of time before and I was very much looking forward to being reunited with my family. (I was about to say with Don and the furries but with Kyky being gone, I guess this familiar phrase is now a thing of the past.) ;-(

It's been so wonderful to be with Donnie again - oh how much more I appreciate the truly special human being that he is! And of course I could hardly wait to see my dear little Miss DaPuss; closely connected as we are I missed her more than I ever imagined. After my long 12 hour journey and flying on 3 different airplanes as soon as I walked through the door I crashed on the bed. Pu came running over and the two of us spent several minutes snuggling. It was such a sweet moment! She was purring away and even drooling - as she sometimes does when she's especially excited.

Don has taken very good care of her while I was gone, perhaps a little too much, in fact, as she's put back on the weight she'd lost since her change of diet last summer and then some! I'm trying to remedy that now that I've returned to my duties of being her primary caretaker.

Over the last three months Pu and Don have deeply bonded. She loves hanging on his lap and sleeping cuddled against him. I felt somewhat left out at first but she's gradually warming up to me again.

Predictably, with Kylo passing only a few days before my return, his absence is being heavily felt, particularly on our walks. I can appreciate however the perfection surrounding his departure; as painful as it was for us, we don't think it could have happened any smoother. Thanks to a strange set of circumstances his burial was delayed until after my arrival, and for that I am grateful. It feels so right that he is now resting next to his sweet heart Angel, on the land that he so loved. We are highly aware of how much more difficult this whole process would have been if we'd been on the road.

I had a huge amount of stuff in my luggage, just barely meeting the accepted allowance. Mostly specialty products I bought at the Raw Food World's warehouse in Ojai and lots of yarn, as I recently picked up my knitting needles again after 5 long years. (Yay!) I also had several special treats that I wanted to share with Donnie: passion fruits and cherimoyas I found at Santa Barbara's stellar Farmer's Market. Thankfully these gems made it safely through the trip and the border crossing. Yippee!

Enjoying cherimoyas (also known as custard apples): a delightful fruit grown around Santa Barbara.

So now let's get back to the topic of Diane's kitchen, shall we?

Let's Talk About Food
I've already shared some of the raw yummies that we've whipped up in Diane's kitchen in this post. As I mentioned to you then, we got into the routine of her preparing the morning fresh juice while I concocted the smoothie. I don't consider beverages my forte, but it wasn't hard to be creative with the abundance of fruits that we were blessed with.

Persimmon Gogi Goodness

1 orange

1 Hachiya persimmon (the acorn shaped type)

1 frozen banana

2 tbs cashews

1 tbs lucuma

1 tbs gogi berries

1 cup water (or until desired consistency is reached)

1/2 cup ice

Blend all ingredients in a high power blender until smooth.

During one of my by-weekly visits to the local market I spotted strange dark wrinkly spheres at a stand. I learned that they were passion fruits. I vaguely remembered seeing it listed on the ingredients of a favorite childhood tropical juice blend but had never tried it on its own. Passion fruit is absolutely heavenly; it has the most exotic aroma and flavor ever and I fell completely in love with it! Soooooooo good! Inside the hard shell is hidden a juicy yellowish content with small black seeds. These seeds make it difficult to eat the fruit directly, but it is lovely in juices and smoothies. The flavor is also quite intense so a little goes a long way.

Since I learned that passion fruit season can be sporadic - you could never tell if the farmer would pick any that given week - I learned to stock up on those babies whenever I saw them. I scooped out the precious content of 3 or 4 passion fruits, depending on their size, and froze it in silicon cups for future use.

Here's a delicious blend that I came up with that instantly became a staple. I find that it perfectly highlights the wonderful tropical flavor of passion fruit. I could drink gallons of the stuff!

Passion Fruit Delight

2 servings

Flesh of 3-4 passion fruits
2 oranges, peeled and seeded
1 cup mango, fresh or frozen
1 banana
2 tsps lemon or lime juice
2 cups water

Blend all ingredients in a high power blender until smooth.


This next one is slightly more complex, with the addition of coconut and pineapple.

Tropical Bliss

2-3 servings

1/2 cup young coconut flesh
1 cup young coconut water
1 cup filtered water
Flesh of 3-4 passion fruits 
2 cups pineapple
1 cup mango
2 oranges, peeled and seeded
1/2 cup ice

Blend all ingredients in a high power blender until smooth.


For dinner, along with our customary raw soup, for the most part we stuck to simple entrees, such as Tostadas or Spring Rolls, or a ginormous One-Meal Miso Soup. Some other dishes we enjoyed include...

Kelp and Zucchini Noodles in Mushroom & Chive Cheeze Sauce

Tuscan Pizzas

Kelp and Daikon Noodles and Veggies in Satay Sauce

Celery Root Slaw

On one evening's menu: Cheezy Spinach Almond Soup, Hemp Veggie Burgers on crackers, home made Sauerkraut, and salad with my House Dressing.

We went all out on a couple of occasions and assembled something more fancy. When I learned that Diane had never tried Alissa's Calzone and my Lasagna Magnifica how could I stand to not initiate her to these wonderful raw delights? Both dishes are quite labor intensive but soooooo worth the effort! I like to prepare the various components over two days so that it's not so intimidating.

First, let's tackle the Calzone. I've already shared the recipe some time ago in this post. I thought it might also be helpful to break down the steps in photos.

Instead of making one huge Calzone I like to make 2 smaller ones for easier handling. Plus, I find that it makes it easier to cut up and store. Calzone freezes beautifully so you don't have to worry about eating it all within a few days.

After partially dehydrating the crusts shaped into half moons, I spray the edges with water in order to make it easier to seal the Calzone.

The Mozzarella Cheese layer goes on first.

Then the Pesto...

... followed by the Marinated Veggies.

Time to close it up and carefully pinch the edges together. Don't worry if some of the filling starts oozing out; just wipe it off. If you see the crust breaking or splitting, you can repair it using your fingers and a little water.

Tuck these babies cozily into the dehydrator overnight.

I'm always amazed at how cooked the finished result looks!

We enjoyed some Calzone warm out of the D, topped with a fresh Tomato & Herbs Sauce.

Fresh Tomato & Herbs Sauce

2 cups tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped

1 garlic clove

1 tbs olive oil

3 tbs fresh oregano

2 tbs fresh basil

1/2 tsp salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor until chunky.

Our other major project was the Lasagna Magnifica featured in my Delightfully Raw book. Once again, it seems complicated but it's just a matter of preparing all your various elements ahead of time and assembling them together.

The first step consists of placing a layer of thin slices of zucchini at the bottom of a glass rectangular dish. I find that slightly overlapping them helps the Lasagna hold its shape better.

Then I spread half of the Walnut Not Meat...

...followed by Cheesy Nut Cream.

Another Zucchini layer.

Time for some Basil Pesto,

and Tomato Sauce.

More zucchini slices.

Next comes another layer of Not Meat and Cheese Cream which are again topped with Zucchini Noodles.

A final layer of Pesto followed by Marinated Spinach.

Nearly there... One last layer of zucchini slices which is then covered with more Tomato Sauce.

I tip the dish gently in order to spoon out the excess liquid.

 I pop the whole thing in the D for a couple of hours and voila!

Absolutely decadent!

Phfew! I'll pause here for the time being and be back soon - I promise ;-) - with more of our kitchen adventures.

For now I thought I'd leave you with a photo of a vegetable we found at the Farmer's Market. It was probably one of the most beautiful veggie that we'd ever seen! It felt such a shame to destroy Nature's delicate fractal artistry by eating it!

 Can you guess what it is?