We Belong to the Sea

'Foux Da Fa Fa'

Flight of the Conchords, If You're Into It

Flight of the Conchords - Bret, you've got it going on

The lyrics are hilarious!

Jill & Kevin's Wedding Intro.

The Pioneer Woman

Sometimes I like to visit another persons reality.  The Pioneer Woman's reality to be exact.  ''Plowing through life in the country, one calf nut at a time.''  I have never heard of anything like this in my life!  Ree left L.A. for a life in the parallel universe full of the unknown, only to discover the simpler pleasures of life and started raising a beautiful family away from the hustle and bustle of a cosmopolitan city.  Her wild tale of romance and cow manure is a cross between a Harlequin Romance and Green Acres!

She cooks and photographs food in such an alluring way that I am always left feeling full and satisfied, ready for a nap.  Maybe because the shots are so detailed and up close, my senses are satiated by the time I get to the last shot where the dish is finalized, like in real life.  Maybe I'm eating via osmosis through the wireless technology but because of her, I eat vicariously without putting on any weight!

I identify with many of her yearnings in the earlier years too.  How can I not after moving away from all the conveniences I had at my fingertips?  Now I don't miss a thing.  Well, maybe Trader Joes, the Stash brand chai in the red box, the sesame/honey cashew nuts & maple syrup that used to grace my cupboard for as long as I can remember.  Now I make chai from scratch and have replaced maple syrup with raw honey.  As for the nuts, I am perfectly happy with the cashews, sesame seeds, and honey not touching each other and being raw.


Thank you Ree for all the hard work in your kitchen. 

Here's to you and all your endeavors!!

Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut

This used to be me before having kids.

I used to enjoy coffee with cream and honey for breakfast until I got pregnant.  Then I just didn't enjoy it anymore.  Not even the Brazilian blend that came in the red, white and brown packaging that had a robust full body, almost like a very good cabernet sauvignon.  I was done with it for good.

 

my favorite grapes in the world are used to make cabernets..

Now I will drink Mokambo on days when I feel like shaking things up a bit, or when I'm out of greens for the morning smoothies.  Mokambo is 80% roasted barley and 20% coffee and it tastes like a really good coffee.  Again, it's not that I miss coffee but sometimes, ''sometimes I feel like a nut...sometimes I don't'' kind of thing.

Gnosis Chocolate

I recently discovered Raw Chocolate Girl Vanessa who is the creator of Gnosis Chocolate.  She says, ''Our chocolate is made fresh daily by hand with love. It does not touch a single machine but is made by loving oompa loompas who care not only about flavor, but for your health! When we ship, it comes directly from our kitchen and is never warehoused for freshness!''

 I looked up the term Gnosis in Wikipedia and found this:

Gnosis (from one of the Greek words for knowledge, γνῶσις) is the spiritual knowledge of a saint^[1] or mystically enlightened human being. In the cultures of the term (Byzantine and Hellenic) gnosis was a special knowledge or insight into the infinite, divine and uncreated in all and above all,^[2] rather than knowledge strictly into the finite, natural or material world which is called Epistemological knowledge.^[3] Gnosis is a transcendential as well as mature understanding.^[4] It indicates direct spiritual experiential knowledge^[5] and intuitive knowledge, mystic rather than that from rational or reasoned thinking. Gnosis itself is obtained through understanding at which one can arrive via inner experience or contemplation such as an internal epiphany of intuition and external epiphany such as the Theophany.

I was intrigued and tickled pink at the same time, ready to place my order, only to discover that Germany had the closest shop near me.  With shipping and tax on top of the premium prices, I quickly let go of ever tasting this indulgence and I never believed that I could make anything like this.


Days and weeks passed by as I sampled various dark chocolates from different countries only to be left with a stronger desire for Gnosis chocolates, the most nutritious chocolate in this world.  My imagination went off on a tangent as the most extraordinary images and ideas unraveled in my head (in one of them I was swimming in Gnosis chocolate) and then *poof*!   It came to me.  Why not try to create my own version of this mystically enlightened chocolate?!?  I had access to all the ingredients and the desire to do so!


I scoured the internet and after cross referencing a bunch of raw chocolate recipes, I came up with this formulation:

.5 cup organic powdered cocoa
1 cup cacao butter, melted
1 tspn. maca powder


.5 cup organic raw cashews
sweetener to taste: raw honey with bee pollen
1 vanilla bean
a sprinkle of blue green algae
cacao nibs



Warm the cacao butter and combine the first 3 ingredients and a sweetener with a spoon and pour into a silicon mold tray of your choice while still warm.  Sprinkle in goji berries, nuts, dried cherries or whatever you like on top or below the chocolate and set in the freezer for a few minutes.   

And thank you Vanessa for the inspiration!

Another Reason Why We Need to Move

Photo: Javhlan

Me:  ''Hi Victor!  David said that he no longer needs his tricycle and that we should save it for his cousin Adi because Kenzo is getting too big for it.  Isn't that sweet?  He thought of this all on his own!''

Victor:  ''So sweet..tell him Adi says thank you and that uncle Vicor sends a big hug and kiss.  Do you want me to send you anything?''

Me:  ''Oh thanks, but no thanks, we don't need anything.''  (I lied because I didn't want my brother to pay a fortune on shipping and I another fortune on import tax. )

David:  (in deep in thought before saying)  ''Tell uncle Victor I want a Porsche and a red Mercedes.''

Victor & I:  ...silence...

Are You Leading a Double Life?

Photo Courtesy: Per Olsson