Lasagna and cheesecake!

I think I am having a bit of beginner's luck because I had what I consider another successful week in the kitchen.  I made wonderful raw lasagna that got some pretty good reviews.  I am continuing to stretch myself with balancing savory flavor profiles and while that challenge is more of a struggle the other challenge I have is maximizing on the forgiving formulas in raw cuisine.  I love the resourceful aspect of it.  Being resourceful, is the kind of kitchen challenge that brings everything "home" for me.  So after I ate and shared all this lasagna, 

I still had some almond "base" cheese leftover, so I decided to make a raw cheesecake.

I improvised the entire thing, and while I sort of took notes as I went along, I did not include everything because, it was really a little of this and a little of that.  Now this is really a shame because everyone who tried this cake, to my surprise, loved it!!!  This included my toughest critics, my four kids!  My son even wanted his girlfriend to try it and my daughter wanted her boyfriend to try it!

Here is Kari (my son's girlfriend) trying it ...

And here is Kari really enjoying it!

Now I had leftover cookie dough from last week's ice cream sandwiches (which were NOT a big hit) and some left over cheesecake crust.  What to do?  Make cookies!

Another big hit! 


Now I had to turn my oven on though, to make a dairy free birthday cake for a 7 year old.  All he wanted was a chocolate cake with white icing and balloons and sprinkles.  I think this will do the trick.

No one with any kind of food allergy should be deprived of a yummy birthday cake!


I have granola in the dehydrator, coconut yogurt in the refrigerator, sun-dried tomatoes marinating in the juice from the drained lasagna tomato sauce and a notebook of recipes I need to go over to be ready for the gluten free expo this coming weekend.  Am I excited?  That would be a "yes"!

Busy in my kitchen!

I have finally gotten around to making some raw food.  Not exclusively, but some just the same.  I have also had to make some gluten free goodies.  This is the plate of gluten free goodies I brought to lovely Lori Murphy at Murphy's Health Food Store.

Clockwise from the top, apricot scones, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate walnut brownies.  These may soon be making their debut in her store!!

I continued to clean out my freezer.  Found one lonely gluten free chocolate cake layer in there.  It became a three layer cake that I shared with my sister.

Came across a new recipe that I was curious about trying also.  A gluten free dairy free orange coconut muffin.  (I love coconut!)

A very good base recipe that I will change just a bit.  Loved the flavor, but the texture could be more tender.  Worth keeping though for future work.  (for that B & B dream I have)

And ... yahoo!  Finally got to making some raw food, too!

Kale Chips!  My poor little dehydrator worked so hard this week.  It was on nearly 24/7!  Cannot wait until my new bigger excalibur arrives!  What was I thinking two years ago when I bought such a small one!

Sprouted buckwheat with Brazil nut milk for breakfast.  Such a treat!

Raw tomato soup for lunch!

Broccoli raisin salad for dinner!

Ice cream sandwiches for dessert!

Broccoli Salad "take-out".  Taking this to someone! 

Love and peace to all from my happy busy kitchen!

Highlights of my first week back!

It should come as no surprise that I open this post with a cupcake!  I really had some baking withdrawals that I had to honor upon my return.  We were invited to a small social gathering with wonderful St. Lawrence friends less than a week after I got back and I was just a little nervous about introducing something "raw" so instead I brought something a little more familiar but still a bit of a risk.  I brought a gluten free, dairy free, coconut layer cake.  I only made a six inch cake to bring, so I had plenty of batter leftover to make some cupcakes.  Good thing because I had unexpected company.  Here is one of my little friends, enjoying her second one of the afternoon! 

She loved them.  They are gluten free, dairy free and instead of refined sugar, I used organic evaporated cane juice, so this probably isn't the worst thing she could have, is it?


The cake was four layers, with strawberry jam, buttercream, and organic unsweetened toasted coconut between each layer.

Did not have much time before we had to leave so the only thing I could do to add a bit of color and decoration was to add some organic strawberries to it.

That helped.  I meant to take photos of the sliced cake so that you could see the layers but once the cake was sliced and served it was consumed fairly quickly so the photo never happened.  I was very pleased to see clean plates all around!  


Shared the remaining cupcakes with my friend Tracy when she came for tea the next day!

Yes, we ate them all. 


One of the first things I got to work on with regard to pulling my home back in order after being gone so long was a lot of purging and cleaning out of food items in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer to make some much needed room for some "raw" items that I plan on making ... soon.


I found myself finishing some gluten free, dairy free, sugar free brownies.

The recipe is from The Spunky Coconut Cookbook, by Kelly V. Brozyna.


Also in my freezer waiting for me to bake were some cranberry scones.  This is my own recipe.  Gluten free. 

Some Udi's gluten free toast begged to be eaten, too.

I also could not resist purchasing and trying a new gluten free product for pancakes.  I have a good one already, but so many people ask me for my opinion on gluten free products, I feel compelled to try about as many as I can.

They were delicious!  I am supposed to say here that another young visitor, Jordan Porter, also thought they were incredibly delicious!  This is the plate I had prepared for my breakfast when he walked in the kitchen that I gave to him to eat instead.  Once he gave the two thumbs up, well, I quickly made some more!

Here is the mix and the syrup I used.

The last priority was collecting spring water!  We were completely out!  It was quite a different excursion going myself and in the spring when the ground is soft and muddy but it is all worth it! There is no comparison to any other water!  A constant cool clean stream of beautiful water just 40 minutes north in Kenosha!

In this beautiful setting.

It streams down into this lovely little natural rocky pond of sorts.

Finally all done collecting, after many trips uphill and back.

Time to go.  Definitely had plenty of time for reflection going back and forth up and down the hill carrying water container after container.  Realized how incredibly fortunate I am because, I am making the choice to collect clean water, when so many others must collect water under far worse circumstances because they have to.  The fact that my shoes got so muddy, well, that really isn't such a big thing, is it?

Thank you for sharing my journey with me.  It is good to be home.

For Sale!

I am a Certified Raw Food Chef!  The last week at 105 Degrees Academy was a customized project that focused on what we want to be doing with our new skills when we return home.  As you know, I am thinking about selling products.  Therefore, I was to come up with three products to sell in the 105 Degrees store.  The following is what I presented on my last day.  Yes, there are actually four different things there.  I was not sure what would work, so I needed backup, but they all worked!  Go figure!

From left to right, Chocolate Coconut Almond Gems:

Almond Butter Pecan Cookies:

Granola Bars:

Lemon Raspberry Cake Slice:

I enjoyed every aspect of this final project.  The ideas for items to sell, the ideas for recipes, ways to package everything, etc.  These are all guilt free little indulgences!  Even the chocolates! 

We did have one last collective class project earlier this week that I did not have a chance to blog about but it was the following:

A Chocolate Raspberry Banana Napoleon and a Vanilla Cream French Macaroon.  They were actually two separate projects but I just thought they plated incredibly well together!

I can't wait to begin more food exploration when I return home!  

Weekend Fun!

It should not come as a surprise that I would start my weekend by returning to Green Goodies for another incredible gluten free cupcake.  It should, however, surprise you that I only purchased one!  Well, one for me, the one you see and a vegan one to bring to Lindsay.  I enjoyed this one at the shop while I visited with Tiffany the owner, who is just delightful.  I woke up Sunday morning wishing I had more and wondering why I hadn't just purchased half a dozen to enjoy throughout the week!  They are that good!  


Next stop, The Culinary Kitchen again, as my friend Claude, the owner was making something gluten free for me.  This place is great!!  It is quite the local gathering place where everyone seems to gather knowing that Claude is usually cooking something.  Locals just seem to pop in, making themselves at home, helping him cook, helping themselves to beverages in the refrigerators and just relaxing, visiting and eating as if they had just popped in on a neighbor or relative!  It is the most delightful atmosphere, filled with fun, laughter, food and friendship.  I am sure if I lived here I would be in the kitchen with Claude every weekend.  Keep in mind, this is a place of business, where one can purchase the absolute best in kitchen everything.  But, unlike other kitchen stores, there is a huge center island surrounded by a magnificent working kitchen and everything you can buy just so happens to be being used to cook anyone and everybody it seems, lunch!  I have never seen anything like it!!!!!!  You can see how happy Claude is in this picture and the woman helping him, Rhonda, is another one of my new best friends here!  She was one of the most fascinating women I have ever met.  She gave me her card and suggested we get together before I leave and I definitely plan on taking her up on it!

Next, another wonderful adventure!  Corinne, another student from 105 Degrees and I drove to Rush Springs to collect natural spring water!  Some of you might know how much I love collecting this at home in Kenosha and to finally be able to have a chance to drink natural spring water here was quite a treat.  It was worth the hour-plus ride to get there.  The pipe was very easy to access, right by the road.  In fact, just as we got there, a car pulled up and four young boys jumped out to enjoy the water, too!

It was really quite enjoyable to see!  The one young man was quite talkative and when he found out I was from Chicago, he told me how much he loves the Bears, the Bulls and the Cubs!  And he is from Oklahoma!  Go figure!  I love it!


Sunday was another great day.  With it warm and sunny outside, there was no way I was going to spend most of it in my hotel room, so out I went to find Forward Foods.  A former 105 student, Amber, suggested I check it out.  Wow!  It is the most incredible gourmet food store!  I realized I had walked right by it last week on my long journey.  The most incredible foodstuffs I have ever seen were here!  Was dying to buy more but my budget and suitcase would not allow for more than the following.

Yes, not one, but two different kinds of goat cheese are there.  And the little plastic container holds nicoise olives.  I could not help it!  


Before I returned home I checked out Michaels to get some ideas for packaging for my final project.  While they had a number of options, I was fairly disappointed in the fact that they did not have one thing that I could use that was made from recycled materials, which is my goal.  I know there are online options, but I was hoping and assuming they were more widely available.


When I returned to the hotel, I exercised more control than usual and instead of diving right into both cheeses like I really wanted to, I treated them more like the treat they really were and included one of them, along with the olives, in a salad of sorts for dinner.

I have to tell you, it may not look like it, but this was one of the best salads I have ever had.  The goat cheese and olives made me groan with every bite!  What is wrong with me!?!


You know what?  And this addresses your question,  faithful follower and friend Linda... yes, this week is actually bittersweet.  I am genuinely beginning to feel a connection here.  Wow.

Perigee Moon!

On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years.


Just wanted to make sure everyone knew this!

This week at 105 Degrees, we made two different cake "batters".  One is a layered pomegranate red velvet cake, still in the freezer and the other is blueberry cake which we made into these cupcakes. 


We also fermented more cheeses for our cheese plates for the wine and cheese pairing lesson we had this afternoon.

Clockwise from top left, honey balsamic cheese, pesto cheese, fresh pear slices, tangy tomato cheese, herb cheese, salted pistachios, herb crackers, mint mango chutney, and in the center, kalamata olive bread.  My favorites were the honey balsamic (a surprise) and the tomato.  I also found out, my choice of wines will have to change slightly if I am going to eat more raw food.


I can't believe next week is my last week!

Monkeys who fall out of trees...

An entry on Russell James blog comforted me along my journey today.  Now that I have relaxed my restrictions a bit with regard to raw food, I set out on foot on a mission.  After a breakfast of kale and avocado, the first place on the list to go was Green Goodies  for cupcakes!  This is the one I enjoyed after my hour walk to her shoppe.  It is yellow cake with salted caramel icing and was very good, especially the cake part of it.   Had a chiffon like texture.  Before setting out again, I picked out a regular cupcake (not gluten-free) for my classmate Lindsay who is staying at the same hotel as I am.  I also could not resist bringing another flavor back for me to try.  Chocolate!

Check this out!  This is the box it was in for take-away!

The little cardboard insert kept the cupcake perfectly intact on my long walk and the little openings on either side made it so easy to lift the cupcake out!  And they are made from recycled materials!!  I love it!  Before I left, the owner gave me some much needed words of advice about where to walk and where not to walk, her telephone number should I need it and because she was so impressed that I walked so far just for a gluten free cupcake, she gave me one for free!!  Thank you lovely Tiffany!


Next stop, The Culinary Kitchen.  I can't find a website to direct you with a link, but if you are any kind of "foodie", you have to check this place out!  It is located at 7302 N. Western, Oklahoma City.  (to those at home reading this, it is a cross between Someone's in the Kitchen and ABT)  Wow, wow and wow!!  This place makes Williams-Sonoma look like a Walmart.  It is like having the best, and I mean the BEST of everything professional in kitchen equipment at your fingertips!  The owner, Claude, is another one of my new best friends here!  I could have talked to him for hours!  He is quite the ambassador for Oklahoma City, explaining all the wonderful things about the city that I knew nothing about.  For example, they have implemented a "maps" program here that is done in stages over several years, decades actually, that is designed to improve the city in many innovative ways.  He said it is well on its way and I should return in five years!  One of the big things they are working on is making it more pedestrian friendly!  He invited me back next Saturday because he wants to make me a gluten free lunch!  Says he knows all about that because his daughter has Celiac disease!


Check out the retro-look refrigerators he had in his store...

I wouldn't want this in my home but it would look great in a little shoppe!  Or would you prefer blue?!

What I just could not resist for anything though was this perfect little sauce pan.

It holds maybe 16 oz max if I had to guess.  The picture is a bit deceiving.  It is really quite small.  Happy early birthday to me!  I love my new little pan, my new friend Claude and his amazing store!  I just may have to come back to Oklahoma City in five years! Who would have guessed I would have said that when I first got here!


Continuing safely in the direction Tiffany from Green Goodies directed me, I treated myself to another little indulgence that I rarely have anymore.

A latte.  The barista was as kind as anyone could possibly be!  They were giving out free petite goodies with any drink.  These were some of the choices.

None of them were gluten free, but I did grab one for Lindsay to enjoy!


Next up, The Red Cup.  It is the most wonderful eclectic local vegan and vegetarian friendly little place. I sat in this sunny corner,

to enjoy this!  A salad mixture with brown rice.  It was the friendly employee's favorite dish and they made it vegan and gluten free for me by leaving out a few things.  It was delicious!

With it getting later and fuel in my body to take me back I returned to my hotel, happy and satisfied.  I calculated the miles I logged on foot today and I can't believe it!  Had to do the math twice to make sure!  I walked 10 miles!