Raw Recipe - Easy Peasy Cashew Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Peppers

I know it's going to be difficult trying to avert your eyes from my ample bosom, but this iPhone shot was all we managed to take before we snarfed down our dinner! Before we embark on this cashew cheese journey together, I've got to tell you that eating raw has seriously improved my energy levels! My resolve to eat raw is only for the weekdays, so on the weekends I indulge in all the follies the Standard American Diet (SAD, haha) has to offer. I also had a tuneup on Monday and my blood work came back stellar, HDL, LDL, iron - the whole shebang was looking exemplary. Maybe I'm on to something with this partially raw insanity...

I will say Shug has NOT had the same effects from eating raw that I have enjoyed. Granted, he is eating only one meal a day raw, but he has complained of being tired and fatigued. He also pretty much hated the avocado bisque I made the other night, but the rest of the raw fare he thinks has been pretty tasty. So here's his fav so far...

Cashew Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Peppers
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 Anaheim chile peppers
4 T extra virgin olive oil
2 cups raw cashews
Juice of 2 lemons
3 cloves garlic, with the green shoot removed from the inside of each clove
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1 t sea salt
1/4 cup water

Cut the chiles in half and clean out all the membrane and seeds. Coat the inside and the outside with the 4 T olive oil. In your blender or food processor, blend the cashews, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, salt, and water until smooth. You may have to scrape the sides often, but don't give up until it's smooth! It's worth it! Your mixture should be thick. Once blended, spoon into the halved chiles and set on a bed of greens, spinach, cabbage, whatever! I like a lemon and olive oil dressing on top with a little more salt and pepper, or you can chop up some onion, tomato, cilantro and lime for a raw pico de gallo! Devour.

Exactly.

Via etc.

Remember How Yesterday Was Charmed?

It's because Supermodel and her Love (Shug's Best Bearded Friend) got engaged!!!

To say I'm elated is an understatement.
These are two of the best, yes BEST, people we have the luck of being friends with!
Congratulations!

Photo from our wedding photo booth!

Today Is...

...a charmed day!
Maybe it's just because it's fall,
or there's an edge to the morning air,
or my coffee tastes just right,
or I got to wake up next to Shug...

I dunno...
But today is special.


Via Flickr.

Happy Fall!

I hope you enjoy your weekend!
It's going to be perfect weather here!
I would plan on wearing this to
the farmers market, Martine, and Inglorious Basterds.
Lovely!

From MissRubySue on Etsy.

Letterpress Genius

This has to be one of the cutest/best ideas ever!

I don't know about you, but I was a serious tooth fairy skeptic as a child.
Unlike Santa, who I wrote to every winter, stamped and mailed a thrice-revised letter to,
AND received a letter back from, the Tooth Fairy seemed ever-so-less-legit.
Had I this Official Tooth Fairy Kit, I know my six-year-old doubt
would have been properly managed.

Wait for it...

...A book I actually liked!!! I know! Crazy, right? Well, before you think the book is about gene splicing or the political maneuvers of the Shining Path, I'll let you know this book is a work of fiction! And it's not even by Dostoevsky!!!

This was a "honeymoon read" that I didn't get around to reading. I mean, it has the perfect title for honeymoon fare: A Happy Marriage. I picked this up right before the insanity of the wedding thinking it would be a great lakeside read. Wrong.

Luckily, as we were listening to NPR the afternoon after we arrived in Idaho, Terry Gross was interviewing Rafael Yglesias about his new book, A Happy Marriage. I listened long enough to find out the book is about his late wife's battle with cancer and his inner turmoil with the nasty leftovers of an affair. So, um, yeah, this book was probably not what I needed to read mere days into my marriage. So I tucked it back in my suitcase for later.

"Later" turned out to be one of the most crazy weeks of the semester so far, so instead of doing my homework, I read this book. It was lovely. It recounts a beginning and an end of a marriage. This marriage was far from perfect and I really liked that. Margaret and Enrique (Rafael's pseudonym) are not perfect, either. They are infuriating at times! The book is brutally descriptive about the dying process for the individual suffering and their family, as well. It's visceral and raw, both the beginning and the end of this marriage.

Rafael needed some absolution for his adulterous ways, so he wrote this book. I'm so glad he did.

The Flinstones Are Back!

Poor, poor little boy.
Jeremy Scott's new line has to be joke, right?

Raw Update

Well, it's been about a week with my foray into Rawsville and I've already hit a few road bumps. The major road bumps being nachos at Brewvies and BBQ at Holy Smokes, or to put it another way, dishes so vastly NOT raw they could be considered inedible by raw foodies everywhere. But, in my defense, that was my original plan. I was going to 80/20 eat raw...it's just that 20% was soooo not raw food (i.e. smoked, cheezed, sauced, charcoalized) I kind of feel like the goodness of my 80% raw was completely erased by these few heavenly infractions.

With new resolve, I'm going to eat an entire week of just raw food and see how I feel. I did notice a difference last week in my energy levels, but I'm going to attribute that to the placebo effect of just the action of doing something good for my body.

Here's a recipe I whipped up for my morning shake that is really good!

Morning Green Drink
2 cups filtered water
1 green tea bag
1 T goji berries, dried
1 T maca powder
1 T lucuma powder
1 T hempseed
1 t cocoa nibs
1 t bee pollen
a BIG handful of fresh spinach
a drizzle of raw agave nectar (optional, I like it without)

Microwave the water and tea for about 2 minutes, let it steep and cool off a little bit before throwing in the blender with all of the other ingredients. If you want to be sure it's not above 120 degrees, use a thermometer. Take the handle out of the top of the blender and use a dishtowel to cover, you don't want the warm liquid exploding out of the blender! If your blender's lid doesn't have that feature, just crack the lid generously, use a dishtowel, and start the speed of the blender off slowly. Blend until super mixed, since those goji berries and hemp seed need a little extra spin. Pour into a big mug and enjoy your healthy breakfast!

Love this.

Thanks, Kenzie!

Prickly Pretty

I think hanging these above a doorway would look kinda cool.

From elementclay on Etsy!

Happy Weekend! We made it!

Was your week crazy? Mine was.
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
This is my favorite time of year!

Photo via CountryGardner.

Shoe Porn

Yes or no?
I got these for a song, but the calf is pretty stinking big on me...
I like Hunter Boots because they're so sleek,
but these look kinda like galoshes.
So,
are
galoshes
ok
for gals
over
the
age
of
7
?
?
?

Wow.

MTV Shows

So I've always had a love/hate relationship with Madonna. But I think what she said was eloquent and sincere. Nice work, Madge!

Marshmallow Torture

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

This had me laughing all day! The little girl at about 3:00 is my kinda gal.

Raw.

Soooo, my schedule is super-jam-packed this semester and I'm already feeling tuckered out.

Shug and I had a sweet little six day reprieve known as a honeymoon in some parts of the world just three weeks ago. Shug, the good sport that he is, agreed to a truncated trip in exchange for a real-deal honeymoon to Europe next summer. Now that we've been back and pummeled by real life, I realize how wise he was to want the real-deal following our wedding. I'm still utterly exhausted.

In my anxiety-induced insomnia, I was perusing the interweb for energizing tips and ideas. Being a barista, I already have access to inhumane amounts of caffeine...which I've been consuming for the whole of my young life. Coffee just doesn't WORK anymore, and yes, I know that I'm addicted.

I decided to up the heath ante, if you will. While black coffee has a few benefits to stave off Ahlzeimer's and stain your teeth, I needed something that was actually healthy and energy-sustaining.

Enter the Raw Food way of life.

Now before you freak out and think that I'm going to subsist on lettuce and wheat grass, let me allay your fears. I'm planning on doing an 80/20 split of raw food, mainly for brekkie and lunch, while eating normal people food for dinner. I'm still going to drink the copious amounts of coffee and red wine that has sustained me thus far. I will not be a super-weird fanatic that throws out her microwave in hopes that it will shed a few pounds...because I don't want to lose a few pounds, I just want to not fall asleep in class.

I'll keep you posted on the results. I think I may have even talked Shug into being on board for 20% of the time!

Today I feel...

...married. It's finally sunk in after a month!
.
.
.
And, I love it!

Ooh la la...

At Endless.

Tomato Season

We plan on having tons of these for dinner!

Girl Crush: Audrey Hepburn

It's a no-brainer, really. Aren't these posters amazing?
I'd love to hang the top one in my living room!

Not-So-Guilty-Pleasure #5432: Kombucha

I really, really, really need to learn how to make this! I'm totally hooked on the $2.99 bottle-a-day from Whole Foods. This habit does not help my starving student status as all.

I don't know why...

But I really like these!
From Elisita.

Sci-Fi Movie of the Year...Yes, I Just Typed That

Ok. So I actually have a soft spot in my heart for science fiction. Now before you start inquiring about my Klingon-speaking abilities and if I'm always Princess Leia for Halloween, let me explain!

I grew up watching the Alien movies where the protagonist is a strong and intelligent woman. She didn't have to wear a metal bikini (ahem, like Princess Leia) to kick some serious alien butt. I watched Star Trek, the Next Generation where women also had the same rank and importance as men. I realized that these pop culture staples actually were quite ahead of the curve and it was a good thing I was consuming them on a regular basis as a girl.

Science fiction has always been a good and "safe" arena for Hollywood to fit in political and social commentary. I mean, how many people are actually gonna have a discussion about the state of the Decepticons in Transformers and how they represent American excess and the recession?

But some movies are so well done and so blatantly in-your-face political, that is makes my little heart go pitter-patter. District 9 is a movie everyone should see...well, everyone that can handle gratuitous use of the f-bomb and exploding body parts. But, please don't let that deter you!! District 9 is a smart and fast-paced movie that will have you engaged and thinking from the opening scene.

From the snarky dialogue about why the aliens chose Johannesburg to the way the aliens look, all were well thought out and extremely pointed to a number of social issues we have faced as a planet. Just watch it, it's so good. And then let's talk about it!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you do something fun!

Spikes

Some of the art I like and sometimes even purchase is scrutinized by some friends.
They say, "You could have done that!"
Um, no I couldn't.
From Goodbloom.

Organic

I love these!
Get them at Rokdarbi.

Tim Gunn...

I really love how you say dossier.

Oh hell YES.

n/a



I really can't wait for this one!

Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

From what I can remember, it was pretty fun!
Shots via Shug.

ANOTHER Book to Stay Far, Far Away From...

So I knew that a few people would be disappointed in me for my extreme distaste for "Eat, Pray, Love." And I could continue in my arguments that she still is one of the most self-centered women in the world*, but instead I decided to read the other side of the story.

Let me first alert you to the fact that "Drink, Play, F#@k" is a FICTITIOUS account by a comedic writer who wrote something he thought Ms. Gilbert's jilted ex SHOULD have written. I totally didn't know this until after I'd researched the book...and this research occurred after the fact. This changed my thoughts on this book completely. The real Slim Shady is publishing a memoir in January of 2010 about his divorce disembowelment and I'll probably read that too!

At first, I was absolutely rooting for Bob (that's Mr. Elizabeth Gilbert). He was just a hard-working schmuck who liked his Audi and loved his wife. He never cheats on Ms. Gilbert, provides for her new-agey pursuits, and only looks at her sister's ass once, but claims it was to marvel at the body-shaping powers of bulimia. Nice guy, right?

Mmmmm, not really. He's just kind of...boring. He goes to Ireland and drinks. He goes to Vegas and gambles. He goes to Thailand and falls in with a Hollywood screenwriter and has the opportunity to have an orgy. So essentially this book was supposed to be the BEST. REVENGE. EVER. Supposed to be, anyway.

He is just as vacuous and greedy as his ex. Knowing now that this is a fictitious account, the "Get Out of Jail Free" card I was going to award Ms. Gilbert is still in the deck. I reeeeealy want that written affirmation that she's super-horrible, but after reading "Drink, Play, F#@k," I would have left Mr. Elizabeth Gilbert, too.

*Yes, Ms. Gilbert did raise money for a single mom in Indonesia, but then waffled on her "generosity" (read: the money her friends gave her) when the single mom decides she needs to take Ms. Gilbert for all she was: an American Cash Cow. It comes as a shock to Ms. Gilbert that ANYone in an impoverished country couldn't see her halo radiating from afar. Luckily, we have Gilbert's rich boyfriend to verify, that indeed people are in need in Indonesia and will find any way to survive - and if that means bleeding a self-righteous American dry, than so be it! The power differential, where the white westerner holds the key for a native Indonesian's salvation just grosses me out.