Saturday, December 25, 2010

CHRISTMAS LOOT

Leighanne and Tom (my parents) really outdid themselves this year. We had an amazing day that started far later than usual. We were up at 10:30 (gasp), and we didn't finish presents until 3pm! We took it slow, and made sure that there were ample amounts of breakfast and tea while we received gifts.


There was a definite theme in 2010: cooking! I got all sorts of great stuff for the kitchen... I'm so pumped to get back to California to use them all!!! Here are some of the new shiny toys:


My mom has been on an awesome health kick during a whole 4 months of "empty-nesthood." My brother Glenn and I were both at college and our littlest brother Tommy was away in Switzerland for the semester, so Mom got the chance to take charge of her health! I got her a yoga mat to catalyze the process. :-)


This was one of the first presents I opened, and I flipped! My own juicer! YAHOO!


Sur La Table gift certificate. A definite must.


AND THE GRAND SLAMMER! My very own vita mix! It's mini sized (perfect for my apartment) and I can't wait to get this thing up and running. My mom was saying that we should ship it, but frankly, I'm going to pack it in my suitcase. I can't live without this another day! My food processor shouldn't be making anymore smoothies!


Also, the night before, my Aunt Juli and Uncle Dennis gave me this book! Yes it's Betty Crocker, but I was looking through there, and I have a feeling that there is a ton of good inspiration potential for this thing. I just might lay off all the cheese and butter Betty's so fond of hahaha... But seriously, my Aunt and Uncle hit the nail on the head.

So basically my family's the shit and I'm so excited to get cooking again! YAHOOO!

Merry Christmas!

Cliff

The Stand

It's Christmas morning! Yahoo! I'm waiting in my room because I've been awake for about 15 minutes, but I can't go downstairs until 10:30. My parents have this tradition where we aren't allowed to go downstairs until they have finished "setting up." Frankly, it's just a method of torture, and when we were little, we would literally be screaming from the stairwell to "hurry up!" and to "have mercy!" Anyhow, I thought it was lame that I wasn't going to post all the way until the 8th of January, so here is a bit of an update on some of my vegan-ness in CT.



I've been going back to my all time favorite vegan / raw place in CT: The Stand. I have their blog link on this page, and I used to work for them. It was such a blessing to have worked there, and without their influence, I never would have been set on my raw food journey. Mike and Carissa are the owners and Amy is their all-star manager. Mike and Carissa are like the older siblings I never had, and every time I see them it's a blast. They're hilarious and if you're ever in Southern CT, definitely stop by for some of their world famous smoothies, juices, sandwiches, wraps, and VEGAN DESSERTS.



Anyhow, they've commissioned me to come by on the 27th and repaint their store! I'm so excited to help out and redo their chalkboard menu, and to paint a wall. They're paying me in FOOD (my favorite kind of currency) and Carissa are just going to have a dance party that night and get some work done. I'm so pumped!



Also, I met up with my two brothers at a new Chipotle chain that opened up in the town next to us. The northeast, (unlike southern California) is starved for good mexican food. While I don't eat there often, I LOVE the Chipotle business model. I am so excited to see things like organic beans and rice, humanely raised meat, and LEED certified restaurants go mainstream. While it's far from perfect, I believe that these baby steps are signs of massive progress! Chipotle is a sign of good things to come! Organic, fresh food can be lucrative, AND popular.



ALSO! For christmas dinner I had morning star farm "chicken strips" seared in a marinade by The Raw Foods Witch: ACV, honey, nama shoyu, and olive oil. Delicious. It was paired with mashed potatoes, and a big salad. Merry Christmas everyone! I'll post if I get any exciting kitchen gadgets!

Best,

Cliff

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Home for the Holidays

I got into CT this past Friday after a whirlwind of exams, and now I'm sitting here on my family room couch composing this post. It's been absolutely FREEZING, but some warm soup, a fire place, and a few beers with my friends have helped me to acclimate.

Being in this weather makes me realize just how fortunate I am to eat the way I do in California. The year round produce and mild weather make it the perfect climate to eat raw food. While I'm sure I could eat raw if I wanted to in CT during the winters, I'm not quite sure that it would be the most ecologically friendly way to eat. Considering the fact that the vegetables and fruits I would consume would be shipped from far away places, I just can't see how I could keep my "food miles" low while still keeping raw out here. I would love some insight from somebody who does eat raw full time in CT during the winter. I would be interested to hear what they have to say!

Anyhow, expect a lull in recipes and such because I'm essentially back to ovo-lacto vegetarianism for the time being. I'm allowing myself to eat whatever I want, and then when I return to California, I'll be more than ready to go back to raw foods.

Happy Holidays and I'll be sure to post after the holidaze!

-Cliff

Friday, December 17, 2010

Food Inspiration

So I went out with a few friends last night to Wabi Sabi in Venice Beach for a bit of dinner. While it was definitely not raw by any means, the Japanese fusion cuisine gave me a few ideas. My first dish was ironically, a take on jalapeño poppers: mushroom stuffed tempura jalapeños. So good. Perhaps I should figure out a recipe for something similar.



The next dish was a miso teriyaki glazed eggplant that was amazing. The presentation of the food was cool too because they used a hollowed out ring of the eggplant to act as a bowl for the fried teriyaki mix. It was amazing and it could definitely be replicated in a raw vegan version.


Anyhow. I'm in the airport waiting for my JFK bound flight. I'll be sure to post stuff about Christmas recipes!

Best,

Cliff

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, December 13, 2010

Raw Vegan Jalapeño Poppers!

Ok so I have a pretty exciting recipe that I just discovered. I was eating (very UNvegan and very UNraw) nachos at Sharky's Mexican Grill and I was thinking about just how much I love jalapeños. While normally I'm not a big spicy food kind of guy, jalapeños just work for me. I have no idea why, but I can't get enough! Then I remembered this time that I had jalapeño poppers I had that were filled with MOZZARELLA CHEESE! As much as I loved the conventional version, final exams is no time to put up with clogged sinuses and a compromised immune system.

Then, I started thinking, "what if i made jalapeño poppers with the same "nacho cheese" that I use for kale chips?"et voila. My new obsession was born.

I bought about 6 or 7 jalapeños and sliced them in half, took out most of the seeds (but kept 7 or 8 in each little shell for spice), and filled them with the "nacho cheese" recipe below.

They take FOREVER to dehydrate, but you can start eating them about a day into the whole process. They're so good and I'm proud of myself for this discovery.

Here's the recipe!


- Get 8 or 9 jalapeño peppers and wash them thoroughly
- Cut them in half lengthwise
- Scrape out excess innards and seeds (but make sure to leave a few in there!)
- Place on a plate and put aside

- In a food processor, mix the following ingredients:
          1 red bell pepper de-stemmed and de-seeded
          1 cup cashews (soaked for 4-8 hours)
          1T nutritional yeast
          1/2t herbamere (or pink himalayan salt)
          2t raw local honey

- Take a spoon, and fill the jalapeño halves with the "cheese" mixture
- When filling is finished, take 3 scallion greens, and dice them into small rings, and garnish the peppers
- Dehydrate at 105 degrees until completely dry (should take more than 24 hours to completely dry, but you can begin eating them after about 12 hours)

This recipe is madness!


Best,

Cliff

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Malibu Mud Pie

So ever since June Louks has given me a taste of her AMAZING Malibu Mud Pie, I've been hooked. I've tried so hard to replicate the same delicate taste I experienced at her house that fateful day, but for some reason the recipe won't turn out quite right. It still maintains this really heavy and not very sweet nut flavor. While I'd still give the end product an 8/10 I'm thinking I need a vitamix to make this one. Anyhow, here are some photos of how I assembled the pie.


So first I blended up the base and stuck it in this container for a bit while I assembled the crust and chocolate layer.


I lightly pulsed a mixture of dates, almonds and salt in the food processor until I had a moldable, yet still chunky consistency for the pie crust. I pressed it into these glass containers after I had lined their insides with coconut oil to act as a greasing agent. 


Close up of the crust


I didn't manage to take a picture of the chocolate, but essentially I spread it along the walls of the containers, and on top of the crust. Once it had frozen, I infilled it with the coconut filling and let it set over night in the freezer. The end result looks a bit janky. I need to get a 9" pie plate. As for now I only have an 11" one which is far too big for something like this. It turned out ok though. I just want my pies to look AMAZING and not average. 

PEACE,

Cliff

Food Ideas

Here are some of the meals I've had lately. Nothing too fancy, but interesting enough to post.


So this was just a very basic salad with mesclun greens, my portobello curry mushroom burger bits, enoki mushrooms, sunflower seeds, olives and some cranberries. I tossed this with that honey mustard dressing which... unfortunately... has not turned out as well as I hoped. After I tweak it I'll be sure to post.


This is some sushi I made with radish sprouts, enoki mushrooms, avocado, and some pomegranate dressing slathered on there. It was good, but it needed a parsnip or almond rice to thicken it. Way too light.

Anyhow, I know that I posted about finals coming up, so fair warning that I'm not going to have a whole lot of time to post about food. :-(  I'll try my best though. 

Best,

Cliff

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Finals




Buckle down!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Some foods






Ok so this is a picture of that dressing I was talk about. Note, it is NOT made by good mood foods. I bought the lemon tahini dressing in the hopes that it would be as good as their honey mustard dressing. BIG FLOP. DO NOT BUY GOOD MOOD FOOD'S TAHINI LEMON DRESSING. IT SUCKS. However, Rod Rotundi's pomegranate dressing HAPPILY took that shitty dressing's place. So delicious.






This is a picture of some sushi I whipped up. I have a lot of leftovers at the moment, and the filling is made of (yet again) the curry mushroom burgers I had made, the rest of my kimchi, radish sprouts, spinach, and ENOKI MUSHROOMS! I can't wait to eat those for lunch tomorrow! Yahoo!






Finally, here's a picture of the pesto pizza I made today. It's a spelt cracker topped with my famous walnut pesto, marinated tomato and mushrooms, and some pitted kalamata olives. amazing.

that's all!

-cliff

Rod Rotundi's Pomegranate Salad Dressing

So... I will post pictures later but, this dressing is AMAZING. I just had it with a salad of mesclun greens, radish sprouts, pomegranate kernels and kelp noodles and I'm still reeling from the tasty goodness. This dressing is seriously life changing. Plus, expect a recipe for a mustard honey dressing that's pretty great too.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Personal Update / Raw Sandwich Porn

So thanksgiving was a real trip. I got fat as hell (surprise surprise) and ate like a king. It was worth every second. I reintroduced all of the toxic and decadent favorites like: bagels and cream cheese, omlettes, pizza, ice cream, and of course, some pumpkin and apple pie. My thanksgiving dinner was AWESOME though.

I never knew this before, but Wholefoods offers a pre-made vegan thanksgiving dinner! My mother, being the very wise and intelligent woman that she is, ordered it for me and it was AMAZING. It started off with a serving of almond crusted green beans that I heated up in a skillet, and was followed by an amazing "winter soup." After that, there was a breaded vegan "turkey loaf" with a wild rice and cranberry stuffing in the center. Mind blowing stuff. To top it off, there was an oyster mushroom gravy that brought the entire meal together. I was a big big fan.

Returning home was good, and while I got off to a great start with my rawness, I was thrown off track by two events: One was a hannukah celebration with my neighbors. They had yam latkes (which i could NOT resist) and of course, wine. I did however manage to fend off a hilarious offer to blaze with them, and stuck with wine instead. The next day I had the typical symptoms of a runny nose and puffy eyes, and had totally forgotten that I was going to a sorority formal with my friend Holly. I ended up eating cheese, (gasp!) crackers, and even drank a bit of vodka and club soda. I'm now recovering from my self sabotage, and am beginning to feel good again.

Here's a close up of a sandwich I made the other day. It had a curry mushroom burger, romaine lettuce, radish sprouts, tomato slices, guacamole and it was all on onion-flax flatbread. YUM.
Best,

Cliff

Azzurra and Yana's Detox

I had the awesome opportunity to help two of my new friends go through a 4 day detox. They wanted some help and guidance through it all, and we came up with a detox program for the both of them. Below is a picture of our AMAZING groceries, and a list of the items on their detox program. It was amazing to hear their stories about feeling nourished, and satiated with less foods, and how they were able to experience greater levels of energy, stamina, and mental clarity. They were inspiring!Here's what their plan looked like:
Breakfast: Water with cayenne pepper powder and lemon juice, a green smoothie (with bananas, two types of fruit, and spinach) Lunch: as much vegetable juice as they want, a fresh young coconut, a salad with olive oil and lemon juice dressing, Dinner: vegetable juice

They did this every day for 4 days and I was so proud of them for sticking to it! Great job ladies!

Best,

Cliff

Cheese Results

OK. So here's how the cheese turned out. I made 3 batches, two of which were a chive, onion, and shallot blend and the other was a macadamia, thyme, and lemon blend. They were both DELICIOUS and i miss them now that I've eaten them a long long time ago. Here are some picture and advice on how to better approach the whole process.


Here are some tips that I've learned from trial and error:

1. Use a blender. Although I don't have one at the moment, a highspeed, highpower blender will make all the difference in making this cheese. Having it light, fluffy and thoroughly blended will make a creamier, tastier cheese.

2. Also, when straining the cheese with cheese cloth, make sure to cover it with an added layer of protection. Fruit flies will flock to the fermenting mix and it could possibly contaminate it. Don't let this happen!

3. Finally, dehydrating this cheese is also a great alternative to letting it set in the fridge. The rind is a lot sturdier, and it tastes great warm as well.

I'll be sure to post in more detail later about these cheeses!

Best,

Cliff