Dinners and progress picts

Happy Monday everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Mine was pretty good! It was busy and HOT. I started the weekend by making a beautiful dinner.

Nemo is very curious of my garden and all the crazy things that come out of it!

Clearly not impressed!

This is a raw vodka sauce from Bonzai Aphrodite. A wicked new blog that I found on G Living.
Yummy Yummy!

My veggie pasta with zucch and carrots that I made using my potato peeler. Why haven't I done that before? Loved it!

The beautiful platter! the raw vodka veggie pasta, coconut oil roasted beets, my garden salad with miso ginger dressing!

After dinner I was asked to babysit my little godson and his brother! It was quite an easy time as they were both asleep by the time I got there:) Their dad was very excited to tell me about a new book that he had just read that has changed his viewpoint on buisness and he thought I should read it. The book is called The 4-hour workweek. Have you heard about it or read it? I only got to page 30 but I like what I've read. Once I'm finished I'll tell you guys more about it.

On Saturday we went to another wedding. This time it was my beautiful cousin who got hitched! The wedding took place at a resort near Cultus Lake. It was nice because we didn't have to drive anywhere as the ceremony and the reception were at the same place:) Everything was beautiful and the weather was simply over the top gorgeous! It was so, so hot though so everyone was seeking the shade and a cool brews!

I LOVED her dress!! Stunning!

We stayed overnight at the resort and then I was lucky enough to have aunt flo visit me and so I was down for the count! It sucked too because we could have stayed around and hung out by the pool. GRRR! After I recovered we headed over to a friend's house for an awesome dinner and good times out on the patio.

Now for some kitchie progress picts!

Okay, so this is a new project! I went and picked the last of the raspberries at the no spray u-pick by my house. Then I remembered about red raspberry leaf tea. So, I picked some of the newest leaves and thought I would give it a try drying them.

I washed them and placed some in the dehydrator (YAY!) and some outside in the sun.

They dried super fast and I have been drinking the leaves in cold and hot water. They are really good for pregnant women or for women wanting to get pregnant as it tones the uterus. It also contains many vitamins and minerals including vitamin C and calcium:)

Guess who else was thrown into the dehydrator! Buckwheaties!

My rejuvelec was ready too! I have never tried it before so I'm not really sure what it is supposed to taste like. This batch didn't taste like much at all. I may or may not have added in too much water..lol! I made a second bathc with the same grains and it was a bit stronger, although it didn't really taste like much either. Maybe that's what it's supposed to be? I plan on making a raw cheese with it...post more about that next time!

My Kraut was also ready! I totally can't remember how kraut tastes like so I can just describe mine as perfectly tangy? I have to figure out a way to make it without attracting a gazillion fruit flies. Seriously, they were loving it! I have been keeping my eyes out for a crock:)

My beautiful wheatgrass! This was easier than I thought! I used a mix or peat moss and organic seedling soil that I mixed up myself from work:)

Grow, grow, grow!

This is the first tray that I started and so I am getting excited to make some shots soon!!

And last but definitely not least, my scoby! Or make that plurel..scobies? I'm glad to see her working away on that sugar! I get anxious with new kitchen projects and so I check up on her a bunch of times in the day..lol!

When we got back from the wedding I found that brown goop in my mix. I panicked and thought I did something wrong and my scoby was ill. So, in this time of need I did a crazy google search and one site said that its some sort of yeast growth and its normal. Apparently you just filter it out. So, calling all bouch masters out there! Have you ever had this happen? I'm still a bit nervous about it!!

As you can see I like to totally bombard myself with kitchen fun..apparently I didn't learn the one-thing-at-a-time rule!!

Are you somebody who get's excited and takes on multiple projects at once or do you think it out and do one thing at a time?

Have a great rest of your day everyone!

A face only a mother could love

Happy Thursday everyone!

I've been busy since I got home from my little vacay so sorry about the absence! When I get home from being away for awhile, it seems like there is so much more house work to do than before I left. Even though I thought I took care of everything!! So is life:)

My vacation was good, not great. We did a lot of fun things but there was also some big miscommunications between Ry and I. Yes, I'm human and I get mad and have arguments with the hubby! Unfortunately it had to happen over the weekend! But we worked it out and we learned a lot about what we each were thinking and how to prevent that miscommunication in the future. Anyways, enough marital therapy for today, here are a few picts from the weekend!

Parade time! It was Peach Festival time (yes, my home town has a festival dedicated to that lovely fruit:) and so every year there is a great big parade. I haven't seen it in years so it was fun to be there again.

Gotta love the bagpipes!

The clan! My sister-in-law Sheena and her boyfriend Brad. I think you know that last two peeps:)

Ahh..my favorite place! The market was a bustling with the most amazing produce. It was unfortunate that I was going to be walking around so I couldn't buy more great eats. I did pick up some peaches (which I dropped on the beach later on because the bag broke:( and some AMAZING nectarines!

It's a cow...no, a horse!! HAHA Actually just a HUGE Newfoundland!

My mom gave Nemo some smoked trout and so he decided to wait on the table for more LOL!

This is yerba mate (you have have seen yerba in the tea aisle) but instead of steeping it like tea, we added lemonade.

It is SO amazing and quenches your thirst greater than any beer will ever do!

That straw is called a bombilla and its stainless steel with some other metal at the top which prevents bacteria from thriving. In my mom's country of Paraguay this tea was passed around in a circle and this was the time when the grown-ups got to socialize about their day.

I love how purple and yellow we both are!! Not planned by the way!

I've actually been busy in the kitchie this week too! I saw the video tutorials by Meredith and her hubby of The Raw Seed on using rejuvelec for making raw nut cheeses and raw cheesecake. I picked up some organic barley and it's sprouting as we speak!! I can't wait to try it out. More about this later when I have the goodness made! One thing I noticed was that Brigitte Mars in her book Rawsome said to not rinse the grains and just leave them to sprout, while Ani Phyo in her new book Raw Food Essentials, says to rinse them for the few days that they are sprouting. Any thoughts on this? I'm rinsing them just because I feel more comfortable with that method.

I also have some wheat that I'm soaking for starting my first batch of wheatgrass!!! Wahoo! I'm going to be planting them today and so hopefully all goes well.

I was reading Angela's blog, Oh She Glows, and I saw here recipe for black bean and summer squash enchiladas and I instantly knew what I was making for dinner!! I added in some kale to the mix but kept pretty much to her recipe. I ended up making Nikki's amazing sun-dried tomato hummus which I used to make Mae's humnut cheese sauce. For the enchilada sauce I made my own using the PPK's enchilada chile sauce. Again, as this was a last minute dinner decision and I was too stubborn to buy anything store bought, so this took awhile to get everything together. I made quite the mess during this process too!! I'm glad I don't do the dishes. WAIT??...I did do the dishes that night. Boo!

Ready to go in the oven!!

Ready to devour!! These were really good and worth the effort! I just wish there was more enchilada sauce to go around! I will double the batch next time. I looked everywhere for Ezekiel wraps and nobody had them where I went so I chose ancient grain wrappers which were the healthiest I could find. I finally found some Ezekiel wraps yesterday and I bought them so I'm ready for my next enchilada attack!!


I don't know if you remember what I found on Craigslist last week..but I picked it up yesterday!! Here are a few hints to trigger your memory. It involves the following pieces of equipment...

green tea plus big glass containers

Maybe some black tea for a little more flavor! Plus another jar

Some super wicked old-school Grolsch beer bottles

Aren't these awesome? And do you know what's going in them?

MY SCOBY!!! Well, more like fermented goodness my scobies are going to make! I'm doing the giddy dance wahoo!! I went to pick up my scoby children from the lady who emailed me last week. What a doll she was!! She let me taste her kombucha (my first taste ever!) and OMG so delicious:) She gave me a heap of scobies plus she sold me those cute beer bottles. She gave me lots of advice too which I really appreciated. I love people who take a little time to teach others how to do new things! As I have to say, I am a little intimidated by the whole process. But I really want to learn so I went with what she told me and some additional directions from Ani Phyo in Raw Food Essentials.

Check out this tea I bought from my local health food store! I was told not to buy tea that had beramot (not sure if that's the right spelling) oils in it. I found this ONE package that said it didn't have it listed so hopefully it's not in there. Check out their packaging and their moto!! I love that quote and am thinking about getting it as a tattoo:)

I boiled 4 liters of water and then turned the heat off. Placed the loose leaf tea in the pot and added a cup of sugar.

I got this honkin' bag of sugar from a friend and I didn't know how I would ever use it up because I don't use cane sugar anymore. Now, I'm hooked up for many a kombucha-making sessions!

I let the tea cool down overnight and then I placed my scobies into tea/sugar in my huge jars. I was scared to seperated the scobies so I just put all of them in there. Hopefully it will be okay! My little kombucha maker is happily resting in my pantry! Can't wait to taste it in a week or so!!

MY scoby is smiling at me..I think it likes it's new mom:)

I also wanted to share with you guys and gals a site that I think is really awesome! It's called G Living. They talk about all things green including fashion, architecture, food, and celebrities! Some of your favorite people are over there including Sarma Melngailis, Brendan Brazier, Heathy, and so many more! You can sigh up for their newsletter (called Monkey Mail) which is always filled with amazing info and you can also sign up for their forums. If you take me word for it and sign up for the amazing forums, you have to become a member of my group dark, cool, and green blogging so that you can talk about your blog and share it with the other members! Just a suggestion anyways:)

Alright you awesome people, I'm outta here!! Have a great rest of your day and what kitchen adventures are you up to these days? Have you seen Russell's new video for spicy BBQ kale chips? Oh yum!