Made this little flick a few weeks back, while hanging out with my good pal, Sol…. first snow, first snowman test launch. Happy holidays! xodt

Hot on the heels of Canadian Thanksgiving, today’s World Food Day is “a worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed,  year-around action to alleviate hunger.” JC Jones @ Healthline writes “This year the focus is on the issue of climate change and its impact on the poor. Food security for millions is an increasingly urgent global public health issue due to climate change. Each year, hunger claims as many lives as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Hunger and malnutrition are the number one risk to health worldwide.” You can go online to look for related events taking place today in your area. Or check out ‘10 Things You Can Do On World Food Day‘ @ World Food Programme.

Hello to all you sweet tooths out there. FYI- I will be selling my tasty balls + my gp aprons at tomorrow’s Bakers Market. I invite you to come by and visit me at 118-408 E Kent Ave. South between 11-3 and check out the yummy selection of fresh baking and treats. (Click here to read a recent Vancouver Courier article about the market).

My friend, Dave, just sent me this tasty little morsel….. found at kitchen scraps. Seems like I was right all along….. sandwiches are sexy!

My ‘Bird Seed Breakfast Balls’ that is. I’m the first to roll my eyes when someone else draws attention to the fact that a celebrity has used their product or service….. yet here I am doing the same dang thing. I simply couldn’t resist.

I started a little side business back in the beginning of August, the premise being to make healthy tasty food for a select few working on film sets. My fabulous friend, Gitte has been instrumental in getting it all up and running. She has used her job as a makeup artist to inadvertently allow me access to private customers that I would not otherwise have enjoyed. She sells my ‘balls’ onset (energy balls made with grains, nuts, dried fruit, nut butter, honey…..and rolled in toasted sesame seeds), prepackaged in singles or 4’s. Should she be busy making a star look beautiful (like putting body make-up on Zac), purchases can still be made by simply putting one’s cash in the piggy bank she has provided, placed directly beside said balls.

Aaaaaahhhhh! My ‘100 Day Raw Challenge’ is finally over, and not a minute too soon. Yes, I am glad that I did it. I really enjoyed the recipe development component of the experience and am super stoked to have finally lost those last pesky five pounds. But now it is time to return to the pleasures of cooked food….. with a new found appreciation for my stove top, oven and bbq. I can finally dine with friends and family while enjoying all the same menu items as they do, and I can do so without guiltily looking over my shoulder for the Raw Police.

My pantry will be switched back this weekend, to include some of its former staples, such as rice, pasta, home preserves, maple syrup and cous cous. The food dehydrator that has been my trusty companion since June 1 has already been sold on Craigslist for fifty bucks. I plan to spend this money on exciting ingredients like bacon, cheese and baking flour. Aaaaaahhhhh! It’s good to be back.

Dang! Just got back into town and had forgotten all about this….. I thought this dining event sounded really interesting…. Diva Restaurant at the Metropolitan Hotel is serving up a unique dinner experience as I write this post. “Striving for zero greenhouse gas emissions produced during each dinner, while reducing the environmental footprint of the foods and beverages that are sourced …..”

Executive Chef Dino Renaerts and Sous Chef Jeff Van Geest (former owner of locally driven ‘Aurora Bistro’) are working their creative magic and preparing an imaginative 6 course meal that follow the evening’s guidelines, complete with candle-light and live jazz. Sounds like good times.

Photo by Lex Illustrator.

I have an announcement to make….. starting tomorrow, I will be eating a diet of exclusively raw food for 100 days. I mean to say that, until September 8, no food shall pass my lips that has been brought to a temperature higher than 118 degrees. According to Wikepedia, foodism is “Raw foodism (or rawism) a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. If 75-100% of a person’s total food consumption is raw food, he/she is considered a raw foodist or living foodist.” The idea is to consume living food at a time when it still has all of its natural enzymes, the same enzymes that are killed off during the cooking process. Once these enzymes are gone, the body must in turn create its own enzymes to assist the body in proper absorption and digestion. Click here to learn more about enzymes.

While researching this cuisine, I learned that most people seem to embrace a raw food lifestyle as a last ditch effort to overcome some sort of chronic illness. Cancer, obesity, diabetes, celiac, depression, candida…. There are countless testimonials of healthy people whose lives have been transformed through a permanent or long term raw diet. As for me, I have no health complaints. I have a very healthy diet and an extremely harmonious relationship with the food that I eat. So why have I decided to make such a culinary commitment? I’m curious. I want to know what it feels like to eat only living foods for a significant stretch of time. Will I think differently? Will I have more energy? Will I look 5 years younger and be 5 pounds thinner? Will my skin glow like a super model and my tresses flow thick and glossy like a show dog? Time will tell.

In all honesty, I am most drawn to the idea as an exciting opportunity for innovative culinary expression. I anticipate that a summer of raw food eating will quickly become an incredibly inspiring time to explore and showcase fresh, locally grown food in its most elevated form….. as nature intended it, but with a twist. I want to make locally driven (when possible) raw food that is imaginative, flavourful and appealing to the eye. I want to mess with colours, textures and unorthodox applications of ingredients. I want to have a lot of fun with this. So join me as I play with my dehydrator, blender, turning slicer, micro-plane and forage in my own backyard garden for the freshest, most local ingredients possible. Raw-k on!