Reflecting on Session One

Wow, the past four weeks have gone by fairly quickly for me and I have learned a lot, about raw food cooking and about myself.  As the session closed, I had to say good-bye to two wonderful students I have had the pleasure of getting to know, Lisa and Jennifer and that I definitely hope I see again!  I look forward to the next four weeks anxious to learn all I can before returning home to my family.  I cannot wait to get home and start experimenting more on my own.  That is one of the hard parts being here in a hotel room, I cannot come home and "recreate" and play.  I also have a new appreciation for skills I already had and what I came here with, especially how to work efficiently and professionally in a kitchen.  So while I am still new to the raw food "science" of it all, my past training and experience is now serving me well, making this feel more comfortable than I realized, and ultimately, enriching my learning experience.

The spread above is the culmination of the week's efforts coming up with a three course meal of our own choice.  This was really, really fun, especially because I got to do something that is meaningful to me and my life.  As you learned from the previous blog post, Breakfast in Bed, was the theme and I imagined serving a raw food guest in my imagined "inn".  It turned out pretty well, although there are subtle changes I would make if I were to do it again.  First and foremost, the third course plating needs to change.  Looking at that picture drives me crazy!  I should have used one of the oblong plates and only had the quiche, the sweet potato spirals and the heirlooms.  Also should have softened the goat cheese and had it be more freeform on the quiche.  Again, those of you who know me well, appreciate what I am saying here.  It was just one of those things where I let the anxious and chaotic vibe in the kitchen interfere with my focus and I compromised.  Never again!  Mistake one, learned (check).

 I loved getting ready for the plating, though.  It was definitely the best day of the week for me.  This is where it all comes together, and hopefully, beautifully!

Want to know what the hardest part of session one was?  We had to do a self-evaluation!  Yikes!  Seriously, could any of you do that if asked?  

Quick update as it relates to my original commitment to only eat raw and no tv for eight weeks.  So far so good on both accounts!!  Actually, I do not miss cooked food or tv at all.  I just miss my family and friends.

Session One Graduation!

Breakfast in Bed 

Good morning friends!  Your first course welcomes you to the day with:

Tropical Cooler

Fresh Fruit Skewer with Lemon Cream

Maple Glazed Carrot Muffin

Pineapple Crisps with Pineapple Reduction

Your second course features:

Warm Orange and Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding with Hazelnut Milk and Apple Reduction

Orange Yogurt and Lavender Cinnamon Applesauce

Cinnamon Raisin Scone with Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

Your third course includes:

Spinach Mushroom Quiche with Goat Cheese

Olive Oil and Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Spirals

Marinated Baby Heirloom Tomatoes

Last but not least, a warm cup of Cocoa and Candied Hazelnuts for you to take out to the porch and enjoy a bit of morning sunshine!

I hope you all have a glorious day!

Grand Finale but not our final!

Breakfast crepes to start our Friday morning at school!  Ok, that put a smile on my face very quickly!  I needed it, as we had a fairly full day and I was still a bit worried about the dish I created and was going to have to present to my fellow classmates and Chef Haylee.  But before that was going to happen we prepared our Pad Thai:

I don't think I have ever even had the real (or should I say more conventionally cooked) Pad Thai so I have no idea what this was supposed to taste like.  I thought this dish was incredibly fresh tasting and can we all agree, very beautiful!  That is one thing 105 Degrees Academy is definitely doing, expanding my flavor profile for savory dishes!  I am beginning to realize more and more how important this is in raw food cuisine.  Which brings me to what came next:

The assorted cheeses we made ... out of ... yes, nuts!  You would never know it!  The cashew cheeses I made were plain and date and the macadamia cheeses were chipotle pepper/chive and sundried tomato/olive.  I am glad I kept one plain because, I wanted to see if it really did taste like cream cheese like Chef said.  Well, dog gone it, she was right!  I loved the date one also!  To be honest, I wasn't overly excited about making the cashew cheese because it is a bit of a pain to make so I had already decided it would have to be really good to be worth it to make again.  I would say it most definitely is!!  The macadamia cheeses were absolutely delicious.  The chipotle one I am very proud of because that was a bold move on my part as most people know me to hold back on most anything with a "heat bite" to it.


  And now, drum roll please ... my own deconstructed lemon cream "tart" ...

Well, I am proud of the way it was plated.  Most of you reading this who know me well, know how much I love that part.  (Nick Devries, and my son Kevin especially.)  I am also pleasantly surprised that I seemed to have balanced the flavors and textures nicely so I was also pleased with that.  I would have liked a slightly firmer custard though and a crisper cookie.  All-in-all, Chef Haylee, had such nice things to say, I felt pretty good about my first attempt at my own raw creation.  Now I have to focus on our final for next week.  I am making three dishes, none of which are a dessert!  What am I making?  Sorry, it is a surprise!  Keep reading ... until then I leave you with the grand finale of our day ... a sample of everyone's dishes.  They were all fantastic.  No surprise there, my classmates are incredibly talented.  Lucky for me because it really expands my learning!

 Notice there is only one dessert on the plate!!!  :-)

The waiting is over!

This is how I started my day at 105 Degrees!  Yes!  It was definitely as good as it looks!  Can't wait to have this be a regular on my morning menu at home!  It is our granola with our raw coconut yogurt.  Of course, this means I will have to be opening young coconuts fairly regularly, but that is something I no longer dread.  This is worth opening a few coconuts!


Ok, I did not think it could get better than this.  But is did....how about a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of almond milk?  Go ahead, eat a few more than you usually do.... they are raw and actually good for you!

It is a good thing my day was off to such a great start because it quickly turned more challenging.  Well, whatever confidence, I may have thought I had, it just did not seem to be with me this morning.  I wasn't the only one.  My fellow classmate and friend, Lindsay, tasted what she was trying to make and the look on her face made me laugh so hard!  Thank goodness, because that helped me keep things in a learning and bigger perspective.  We are trying to produce a dish of our own design and formula and my ratios were just way way off.  I had to do a lot of adjusting!  I need everyone's finger's crossed  for this to be even OK tomorrow.  What I think I should have done and plan to do more next week for the final is to consult Chef more during the process.  Lunch came just in time.  I needed a break.  The weather was so beautiful today we were even able to enjoy our savory crepes outside!  What a treat!

  
I thank everyone who took the time to read this and I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful day!

More waiting...and winning!

This is our granola!  We did not get to enjoy it yet, but it will be part of a parfait tomorrow with our coconut yogurt!  Really looking forward to that!!  We also flavored and shaped our cashew and macadamia cheeses which we will not get to try either until tomorrow or Friday.  I loved the way the macadamia cheese looked, but was not overly excited about how the cashew cheese looked.  We got to flavor the cheese four different ways if we wanted to.  Well, since I had never had or made raw nut cheese before, I left one of the cashew cheese mixtures plain, for a baseline flavor profile on its own.  I put dates in the other one although I would have liked to have used dried apricots instead, however we did not have any.  In the really yummy (and I mean yummy!) looking macadamia nut cheese I added chipotle peppers and chives to one and olives and sun dried tomatoes to the other (I think this is what I did anyway if I remember correctly).  What else are we waiting for?  Well, the crepes, the caramelized onions and the chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies are actually done, but since it was minutes before we needed to finish cleaning, we did not take time to plate them so I do not have a finished picture of those either.  I did try one and wow, they are really good.  No seriously, you just have to believe me on this one!  They are really good!!  And get this, we made our own, yes, our own chocolate chips for these cookies!  Can you believe it!  We also made "bacon" today, which, yes is not ready and we are "waiting" for!  Tomorrow will definitely be a big taste testing day!  Oooh la la!!


Ok, now about the contest ... If you read yesterday's blog, you knew there was a contest today.  Chef had a number of ingredients on two separate trays that were covered.  (The ingredients on each tray were different.)  Each team got a tray and had to produce two dishes using all the ingredients within a certain time frame.  I kind of felt like we were on Iron Chef!  When our team gathered round the tray and the items were revealed, it was really pretty interesting.  The other three team members chatted immediately about a number of savory options and ideas, or at least I think they did.  My head was elsewhere.  Instead of being at a complete loss as to what to do, I was shocked at how my mind went immediately to dessert suggestions.  Wow, I guess skill and instinct meet where imagination begins.  Instead of being nervous I was incredibly excited to actually try different things just to see if they "worked".   As I was putting everything together, I was surprised at how comfortable I was with what I was doing.  It also helped, and surprised me at how my other team members had so much confidence in me that they basically just let me run with my idea and do my own thing.  The support and confidence from them made me genuinely enjoy this activity.  My contribution ended up being a beautiful combination of carrots, zucchini, dates, coconut and cinnamon, rolled into balls and dehydrated just up until plating.  We had pineapple leftover so Lindsay quickly pureed it with a little agave and it became a lovely complimentary sauce!  The rest of the team did their thing producing a spectacular savory dish, which I would have been at a complete loss to have come up with and produce.  Thank goodness I was on a team and not alone is all I can say!  And, guess what?!  We won!  Each member of the team got a bottle of the new kombucha, which was sooo delicious.

More good things ... classmate and friend Jennifer, gave us all a gift!  It is this incredible tool that we can use with our coconuts to make wonderful shapes with when we scoop them out!

    
And my new favorite fruit:

The dragonfruit!  It is so beautiful.  The skin is a brilliant pink and the flesh is soft and kind of mushy without a whole lot of taste, but refreshing just the same.  Look at how pretty the inside is!  I must start buying and finding a way to use these more!  Thank you Bun for always bringing in the most interesting fruits! 


Last but not least, I ended up helping fellow student and friend Corinne feed homeless people.  Wow, I have done this at home for what, at least 20 years now and it continues to be a very powerful experience every time.   In addition to the obvious blessings one comes away with, this time however, the food component played a bigger role that usual.  I guess maybe it is because I am at 105 Degrees Culinary Academy, a school focused on raw food where at its core is health, nutrition and sustainability.  Corinne and I were at the end where the trays were dumped of any food left before handing them to the dishwasher.  I don't know what was more painful, what was being cooked for the people to eat or what remained on the trays that we threw in the garbage.  Something is very wrong with all of this.

Waiting for granola and other things ...

 I have no finished food to show you today. : - (  Everything is in the dehydrators or in our "cubby shelves".  We have granola, savory and sweet crepes, cashew and macadamia cheese, caramelized onions, coconut yogurt and chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.  Can you believe all that?!  Needless to say, I am pretty excited for tomorrow to see how some of these things taste!  Although, we are having some kind of competition tomorrow too, which of course, I am a little nervous about.  Chef would not give us any clues other than we will be working in teams.  We actually had to write down on a piece of paper who we wanted as a team captain.  I think any of my classmates would be a fabulous team captain.  I know I keep mentioning this, but I continue to be amazed at how fortunate I am to be working and learning with such amazing, kind and talented people.

Should probably bring you up to speed on where I am vis-a-vis raw food and TV.  Since the first day of class on January 31st, I have only eaten raw food.  That means nothing refined, processed or cooked, no animal products, no dairy, etc.  I am feeling pretty good.  Not necessarily exceptional, like I do when I do my juice cleanses (which I highly recommend by the by), but good.  One thing in particular I do notice is that I seem to be satisfied with less and I no longer crave anything processed or cooked.  I actually have gluten free cookies and the best Udi's cinnamon raisin gluten free bread in the freezer in my hotel room right now and I have absolutely no desire to have either one of them.  Now that is BIG for me.  Especially since I treated myself to a jar of ooh .... coconut oil ..... which would be soooo good on the Udi's bread toasted!  I have found it incredibly easy not to turn the TV on so that is also status quo... no TV either.  One thing I lack here is more exercise.  I miss my wonderful walks and bike rides alone and with friends.  The picture I posted was taken on one of these beautiful walks.  Wow, when I get back, I will have a whole new appreciation for how lucky I am to be surrounded by walking opportunities surrounded by nature right outside my door!  So, not as much walking, not as much yoga, no biking and no dancing, that could be why I am not feeling better than I do.  Thank goodness there is a fair amount of movement during class time!  Which brings me to wondering if I want to start a running program.  A fellow student was telling me an incredible story about how her mom started running based on a program she set up for her and I am feeling inspired to at least consider it.  I won't be starting it until I get home, but I may do it.  If I do, I will blog about it, which will hold me more accountable I think and hopefully increase my odds of being successful with such an aggressive endeavor.  Oh well, we will see.

Happy Valentine's Day!

    Well another great day at school today!  It was the first day of week three and it is Valentine's Day!  It started off perfectly with a hug from fellow student, Lisa, taking the edge off my loneliness from yesterday.  She is such a wonderful young woman and when you have some time, I would encourage you  to look at her beautiful uplifting blog, Veganculinarycrusade.com.  Then to my surprise, more lovely things appeared.  Anna, shared some of her leftover almond milk from yesterday's batch. Tenanda gave us all chocolate hearts from Sacred Chocolate.  Lindsay gave us each a lavender truffle from 105 Degrees, and Lisa gave us each an exquisite white fig.  I know there is more to the name than simply white fig, but I honestly can't remember what it is, however, it is out of this world!!  Much better than the black mission figs.


     The first thing to do on our agenda was to make our granola with our sprouted buckwheat.  We added some date paste, apple, seeds, raisins and spices to the buckwheat and put it in the dehydrator.  Wow, did it look delicious just as is!  The aroma during the day as it "baked" in the dehydrators was wonderful!  Then, ooh la la, we got to make the chocolate tarts you see!  Yeah!!  The last thing to do before we left for the day was to start our cheese.  We made two different kinds and they are fermenting for us now.  Very excited to see how they turn out.  Tomorrow...crepes!


So much fun!  Now laundry and some free online yoga!  A very good day indeed!  I am blessed.

Under the Seas (as in seaweed)!

Today was definitely a day of open-mindedness for me.  Even though it was a beautiful 50 degree day in Oklahoma City we were in class this morning at 8 AM sharp.  This was our make up day from when it snowed so hard here we were unable to have class.  The good news is, the first thing we made was almond milk.  As if that wasn't good enough, we were allowed to add whatever we wanted to make breakfast smoothies!!!  Yeah!!  Since I hadn't had anything to eat yet (and I almost always do), I needed some morning fuel to get going so this was just perfect!  I added, as usual, fairly conservative ingredients, mango, blueberries, hemp seeds, and maca.  Delicious!  Then is was on to our "sushi".  Now my earlier experience with the taste of the nori left a little to be desired so I have to admit I wasn't overly thrilled, but I am here to learn.  And learn I did.  First I learned that jicama, believe it or not, can taste almost exactly like rice.  I never would have guessed!  We also have the luxury of having the chef from one of the most famous sustainable sushi restaurants, Miyas, be a student in our class.  He showed us how to roll sushi the regular way and the "inside out" way (rice on the outside).  If I would have had enough rice I would have done it both ways, but I did not so as you can see from the picture, mine are rolled conventionally.  Then we got to sit down and enjoy our sushi for lunch and much to my surprise, I loved it!  After lunch we learned all about the benefits of seaweed.  Basically, people, listen up, it's really, really good for you!!  Try to eat more!  I got to eat more in the afternoon because next we made a seaweed salad.  Again, I was not overly excited, because some seaweed, well, it can really have a strong ocean-like taste.   Once again, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although I wasn't necessarily crazy about the dressing (and Chef Haylee had warned us about the tahini taking over), the salad including the seaweed, was really fresh tasting and did not taste like seaweed or ocean at all!  Finished up the lovely warm afternoon with a long walk outside to the local healthy grocery store!  Today I really felt some loneliness though missing my family.  Haven't had a good hug in a long while!

How do I make this raw?

We have an assignment coming up where we are required to convert a conventional recipe to a raw one.  There is no surprise, here of course that I would like to convert one of my favorite desserts.  Much the same way I began to tackle gluten-free, dairy-free baking and converting my old favorites, I am finding myself once again a mad kitchen scientist.  Based on what I have learned so far in the two weeks that I have been here, I am mostly relying on weak instincts at this point.  I did notice however, when I started looking up some basic raw formulas on the good old internet, that I have a little bit better idea of what I need than I initially gave myself credit for.  The problem is, I am setting the bar pretty high.  Years ago, when my diet changed so dramatically, I felt so deprived of the beautiful desserts I was accustomed to enjoying and was so discouraged that very little in quality gluten-free and dairy-free baked goods were available, I decided to try to recreate what I was used to.  I and my family have been more than pleased with the end results and they are my toughest critics!  Kevin, my youngest, is especially critical.   In fact, this blog's name is a direct result of a comment he made recently while eating the gluten-free birthday cake that he requested I make.  "Mom, seriously, you could create world peace with this!"  With that confidence boost I will forge ahead with this latest challenge.  What you see pictured is the "before" picture of the dessert I am going to attempt to convert.  Stay-tuned for the raw "after" picture.  It is a lemon cream tart in a graham/ginger crust with whip cream and candied lemon peel and mint leaf decoration.  Wish me luck! 

BEST DAY EVER!

What a surprise today in class! Chef Haylee, our wonderful instructor had us make truffles today since we apparently are not only caught up but ahead in our curriculum! Rock on fellow Level One students at 105 Degrees! Another familiar arena for me! It is amazing how I fall right back into the comfortable "groove". I efficiently made my chocolate mixture, first, of course, converting everything to weight, got it into the fridge to set and cleaned up before the inevitable line at the dish sink. While our mixture set, we made a marinated eggplant concoction which I am not overly exited about, but I did not care, I was thinking about chocolate! My mixture was divided into thirds, and I quickly rolled each portion into tiny balls returning them to the fridge to keep cold while I gathered toppings. You know me, ever conservative and a purist at heart, mine were the most subtle in the entire group. I did not want to take a chance that I would not like them. I wanted to get a sense of the true basic recipe; mouthfeel, flavor balance, etc, before I leap off the deep end (which I may never do anyway). What a great recipe it turned out to be!!! I was shocked to say the least!!! I made plain rolled in cacao nibs, mint rolled in coconut (my favorite), and plain mixed with sprouted dehydrated buckwheat rolled in cacao powder, (for something with "crunch"). At home I may experiment with quinoa! Does anyone remember my facebook post about that! One of the best things I ever had! I'll figure it out. Anyway, then Chef made a batch of coffee truffle base, but it was a little too soft to roll well, and when she asked if anyone wanted to try to fix it well, you know me, that is what I love to do, to resurrect the forsaken in the kitchen! There was no way, I was going to let that expensive product go to waste. I took Chef Haylee's suggestion and simply added a little more of the luxurious melted cacao butter and it worked beautifully! I rolled those in my remaining toppings of cocoa powder and cocoa nibs to use them up. Yum, yum, yum!!! (I know I said that yesterday, but this really is yum, yum, yum!) We had a chance to try everyone's and they were all so good. I am always impressed by the flavors that my fellow students come up with! They are really an impressive bunch and I continue to draw such inspiration from them.

The garlic bread came home with me today, however, I think I would have liked to left it in the dehydrator a little longer as far as texture goes. It was also way to garlicky for me (and I am Italian). Otherwise, I really liked it. It reminded me of the delicious manna bread I had at Karyn's in Chicago. I will definitely make it again with a few modifications. Now on to my recipe research!

A very good day indeed!

YUM YUM YUM!

I am continuing to have so much fun at 105 Degrees! It is so refreshing in this setting when something familiar for me in the kitchen comes along. I love when I can feel my instinct and intuition kick in. That is something that takes time to learn to trust and comes from experience and self confidence. Tonight garlic bread is in the dehydrator and it came together so easily. It actually felt just like scone dough to me. Now I have absolutely no idea how it will taste. We will find out tomorrow, but I remain totally optimistic since everything (except the nori rolls) I have loved. Including the tacos shown. (have no idea where on the page they end up so I just say "shown"). It is amazing how the flavor and texture mimic the real thing, however these are so much better for you!

We also finished our pizzas today. My fellow classmate, Jennifer and I made ours together. A pineapple arugula pizza! The strange thing is, I would never order a pineapple pizza at home, although they are somewhat popular, yet, that flavor seemed to pop into our heads almost instantly. We just knew we wanted something a little different. I thought it was absolutely delicious. Ok, I just uploaded the picture and it has ended up at the top of the page! Can you believe it?! Honestly! Oh well, you get the idea. That is our pizza!!

Now we have to try to research a traditional recipe and find a way to recreate it "raw". Wow, that will be a stretch for me since I am so new to this, but I am excited to see what happens. That is what I am here for right! And really, that is what I will be doing when I get home, too so might as well jump in!

I have decided since I do not know how to upload pictures yet in an aesthetically pleasing way I will only upload one each blog post. Oh well, I am pretty pleased with myself that I have gotten this far! OK (no pun intended), let's talk about school today!! Yahoo! Big production day today and those dehydrators are working their magic for us tonight. We have pizza crusts (the picture somewhere on this blog) is mine, taco shells, and refried beans if you can believe it! It was so much fun! I can't believe the flavors. Bold flavors are so key in raw living foods. THAT, is definitely out of my box. So is the relatively freeform nature of the formulas. Coming from the exact science of pastry, this feels a bit awkward for me, but I am slowly gaining more confidence to experiment with ratios and flavors. It is definitely an entirely new way of thinking for me which will be good for me to become comfortable with. I also really enjoy working with all my classmates. I feel we are kindred spirits in a small but growing community of people defining food in a bold new way! I am blessed to be one of those pioneers, and blessed to have family at home supporting me in such a loving way on my adventure!

BIG DAY AT 105 ACADEMY!

What a day we had today! Knife skills, our first written test, Matthew Kenney, camera crew and coconuts! I know I wasn't the only one to lose sleep last night about this. Well the day is now behind us and everything was wonderful. I, for one, am especially glad the knife skills test is over. Let's just say, it is not my strong suit and I should probably practice more, however, my grade was higher than I thought it would be.

Definitely the highlight of the day was when Matthew was in our classroom! He is an incredibly talented chef who seems to have his passion, heart and talent aligned in a positive direction for people and planet. He asked us to think about the "why" behind what we do.

Next we were given a box of coconuts to open. This is another thing I was quite fearful of however, except for the chopping in half part, I have it mastered. By that I mean, I really have the feel and speed of shaving the top and quickly finding the soft spot to open the top in one big beautiful piece! I am going to have to practice the karate chopping in half though. Be that as it may, I was very, very satisfied to have gotten the top off so beautifully!

We also got to try our kale trips that were dehydrating over the weekend! Mine turned out to be delicious! I was so surprised! Loved them, loved them, loved them!!

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying being here! I hope I am successful in creating or finding a supportive group like this at home so that I continue to maintain my new food related lifestyle. I have been "raw for 8 days so far and as a side note, I am also trying not to turn the TV on the entire time I am here. So far so good!

I apologize for the pictures all ending up at the top! That was not exactly what I intended however, I am still new to this blogging business and don't quite know how to figure it out. I would take the time now, but I am really tired and would rather go to bed, so good night!

Wow, I had a great day! I am blessed!

More on Oklahoma City

I don't generally consider myself well travelled, however I have been to a few places other than Chicago which is where I was born and have spent my entire life (30+many, years). Oklahoma City is the only place I have ever been, where I can honestly say, I prefer to be home. I am not that far from home and yet this place feels incredibly foreign to me. I could feel it as soon as I landed in the airport. The first thing I noticed was I could not locate a recycle bin! The city is spread out and sprawling and there do not seem to be a lot of accessible public transportation options. No problem, right? At home, most of you know I try to walk or ride my bike most of the time anyway, so I assumed that would be easy enough here. Not so. It was bad enough trying to take a long leisurely walk on a warm sunny 70 degree day let alone today after their version of a "blizzard" with a lot of uncleared snow melting. There are no sidewalks so I had to walk along a four lane highway on an uneven embankment and I either walked through very wet snow or very wet grass where the snow had melted. Now do you know why I posted this picture? I am hoping my shoes will be dry by tomorrow so, well, so I can walk again. Even though my feet, shoes and socks were soaked, the sun was out and the fresh air felt so good. All in all, it was about a 1 1/2 hour walk. I also noticed, for obvious reasons, no one else is ever out on foot or bike. I honestly think this is the only place I have ever noticed something like that. At the hotel where I am staying (Extended Stay), there are still rooms that allow smoking, so the hallway smells like smoke and from what I understand, there is still smoking in the bars in the area. I automatically began to separate my recyclables and when I asked the front desk if they recycle, the response was surprising. Not only do they not recycle, but they did not even know where we could take our own recyclables should we want to take care of this ourselves.

However, all that being said, I do feel very much connected when I am in school at 105 Academy. The environment, the food, my classmates all make me really excited to be here so in a way, it is just as well that Oklahoma City holds very little for me other than what I really am here to focus on, Raw Living Cuisine!

Here I Am World!

Welcome everyone! I can't believe I am blogging at 54 years old! The image that I uploaded (yes, I did it all by myself!) is a wonderful spicy kale salad that I made today at 105 Degrees Academy. I love being here! Well, let's clarify, I love being at 105 Degrees Academy. I DO NOT necessarily like being in Oklahoma City. More about that tomorrow. This new journey that I am on exploring the beautiful world of raw (living) foods is so exciting. I am so grateful to my family for their support with this!