heh.
disclaimer: this has been sitting on my hard drive for aeons. i kept forgetting to upload it for your viewing pleasure.
]]>loved this, found via deb. it's only 2 minutes, and it'll make you feel good.
yes we carve - pumpkins for obama!
]]>soap nuts are a nut or pod which grows on the, wait for it, "soap nut tree" in india and nepal, and has a high saponin content - that means, basically, it exudes a soapy sap. you put half a dozen of them in with your laundry in the washing machine and the warm water encourages the release of the saponin and washes your clothes clean.
we tried a few different combinations over the weekend and found that for most clothes on a 30 degree wash you get a clean load at the end. heavily soiled whites (i managed to stain a towel with leg make-up) don't come completely clean, so you might be better off treating anything like that separately. i used a dozen drops of essential oils on the cloth bag the pods come in to scent the wash, and that was a lovely treat.
soap nuts are wildcrafted and usually fairtraded. there are no chemicals involved in your wash to go back out in to our water supply or to irritate your skin. so, all in all, they're great for the planet and good for you, too.
you can get them all over the place these days, but i bought mine here. if you decide to buy them at the funky raw shop then you should get yourself some conscious chocolate while you're at it. divine stuff.
]]>from where i'm sitting it's hard to feel good about bailing out banks who are responsible for their own collapse. the top echelons and ubertraders get paid phenomenal amounts of money and silly bonuses. i mean, one bonus is more than i will make in my lifetime. then they come cap in hand begging for us, the lowly taxpayer, to stump up the cash they so carelessly lost through mismanagement.
thank god mr brown and company put the proviso on the deal that bonuses were moderate and tied to real performance and not just champagne-fuelled fuzzy feelings.
phew. so glad that's off my chest.
at this rate, perhaps booyaa and i will be able to buy somewhere to live in a year's time. there's gotta be a silver lining, right?
]]>the first time i saw an ad for it i was so outraged i actually went to the site to see how they could possibly claim the results they tout on the ads. but, you know, it's pretty normal, frankly, for this day and age, for marketers to lie blatantly, so i shrugged and ignored it.
then i saw a headline that the ads had been pulled from facebook. hurray! i went to read all about it only to discover that the first google ad under the article was for, guess what? yup, the bloomin pink patch. irony rules ok.
]]>awesome.
by anthony burrill, via one plus infinity via booyaa's news reader.
]]>a polish soap opera about a young woman leaving her family behind to go to college gets dubbed and turned into the story of a dysfunctional - and frankly crackpot - irish family suffering the culture shock of leaving their hometown of cork to move to dublin.
the visual aspect is actually quite slick, and the timing of the new voiceovers is impeccable. the stories the team come up are completely bonkers.
there was a pilot followed by an 8-part series. totally out there. watch part one and if you're not hooked then you're evidently too sane for this world.
]]>why [over+toilet paper=good] and [under+toilet paper=bad].
]]>]]>
booyaa discovered this amazing site which shows you the photo on the packet and the substance once it's on your plate. i'm lost for words, to be honest.
go check it out. but please, don't ever buy any of these products.
]]>one third of the food we buy ends up in the bin. shocking. the reasons given vary from an eagerness to cook complex dishes, with leftover items not being used in a later dish. lack of knowledge of how to store food to keep it fresh is the next biggest reason. simple over-buying and not doing a stockcheck before heading out to the supermarket is another biggie. but the difficulty of buying smaller amounts for today's less numerous family units doesn't feature on the supermarkets' issue list. i wonder why? wrap, the consumer-focussed organisation which attempts to raise awareness around excess packaging and lobby for a reduction of unnecessary wrapping, improved materials and a greater use of recyclable plastics, does bring this up though. lovefoodhatewaste.org is lobbying for more portion sizes to be available in supermarkets and for offers to shift away from 'buy one get one free' to the more sustainable half price model, especially on short shelflife goods.
act
so what should we be doing to cut down our waste? plan your menus ahead to use the other half a packet of an ingredient featured earlier in the week. check what's in your cupboard and make a list before you do your shopping. learn more about sell by and use by dates and how to tell if a product is still good after its use by date. learn about storage and optimise the storage options in your kitchen. and so it goes on. and if you still have too much food then compost it. if you don't have a garden to make your own compost, most councils now have countertop kitchen waste containers that you can put out with the rest of the recycling.
read more
those one-in-three waste figures: investegate.co.uk
packaging optimisation lobby: wrap.org.uk
food waste information site: lovefoodhatewaste.com
by then of course i'd started my juicefeast. so we said we'd go when i finished. but booyaa was on call for three weeks. then we had my parents visiting for the weekend and on it went, until finally we could go. hurray!
]]> so we dressed up a bit, got there early to have cocktails at the bar first, only to find our table was ready so were seated straight away. i chose a jasmine pearl martini which was just gorgeous. i could have quite happily had another two or three. and we chose some nuts and olives to pick at while we were perusing the menu. the curried cashews were ok but nothing spectacular, the sea salt almonds were delicious and so were the olives. i bought some almonds to take home and i would have bought olives had there been any on sale.we were sat quite close to the door and i was not happy about the very strong draught it created when someone came in or went out. next time we'll definitely ask to sit near the kitchen, out of the doorway. we noticed it less as time passed, perhaps because we were more focussed on our dinner, but still, it wasn't great. the decor is clean, light, fresh, with intriguing lighting, an emphasis on wooden tables, tall handpainted canvasses on the walls. the bar staff were bright and breezy. our waitress was evidently new and/or not particularly au fait with the cuisine as she had to run off and ask in the kitchen in order to answer questions (from our neighbours, who i think had a supremely allergic person in their group.)
for a starter i had beetroot ravioli. it looked lovely, with the deep red discs and creamy filling. i think the beetroot had been dehydrated as it felt dry and i was slightly disappointed that along with the heavy nut cheese it lacked juiciness. booyaa had the caviar which intrigued both of us. didn't taste of much, but it was fun. the latkes were nice and i'd like to learn to make them at home. onto the cheese tasting plate. i was disappointed. the cheeses were ok, but a little bit samey by the time you'd got a quarter of the way through. also, one of the crackers, which had a fabulous texture, was heavily spiced with chipotle. and i really don't like anything smoked. can't bear it. so i let booyaa take the lion's share of the shared cheese platter. onto mains. booyaa had enchiladas. this was a dark smooth nut pate, wrapped in finely sliced courgettes. i chose the mushroom croquette. again, a really great texture but so much chipotle that i couldn't taste any mushrooms at all. i left it on the plate but enjoyed the delicious whole 'roasted' baby veg that accompanied it. the greens and flower salad saved the day for me. i was in need of a big dark green salad by this point. then... dessert. now this really was special. i had the pineapple rose and it was divine. a light pineapple sorbet with a rose syrup, an almond biscuit with some little red pearls. booyaa had the day's special, which was a millionaire's shortcake and also very good. all of the dishes had a few different trimmings or a drizzle of sauce, whirl of microgreens and so on. presentation on all the food was truly excellent. they even use interesting plates. i'm convinced they use the same slate floor tiles my sis used to have in her wetroom ;)
so, i think my review has to be that the cocktails and desserts are fabulous and i'll go back just for them. but there's too much heavy food, it's not the kind of thing i want to eat. yes, i want fancy gourmet raw food from time to time, but some lighter, fresh options need to come on the menu, so i could have a lighter starter, not be forced to eat nut-based for each course. ok, so booyaa wanted the cheese tasting plate and if we'd skipped that perhaps it wouldn't have seemed quite so overwhelming. even so, i came out of there feeling lots lighter than i would if i had been out for an italian, chinese, indian dinner. so not all bad...
it came to around £120 for the two of us, with a cocktail each, starter each, sharing cheese platter, salad, mains, dessert each, bottle of wine and a coffee for booyaa. so not cheap, but we got a lot for our money. and i know how much time goes into raw food prep, so i don't feel it was that outrageous. though, fair enough, compare it to dinner for two at vitaorganic and, um, yeah. it's pricey! but it was a special treat and we had no qualms leaving our cash on the table.
i feel like i've been really negative about the place. perhaps i'd been so excited about going that i'd put it on a pedestal and was bound to be disappointed with such high expectations. or perhaps it's just not my kind of food. i really want raw food to ease into the edges of mainstream, for purely selfish reasons: so that it's easier for me to dine out, pick up take out dinner from time to time, have access to a wider range of raw ingredients and get a green smoothie from an ordinary juice bar. and the other good thing would be the growth of the movement, for the health of the planet. but i think we need a few more veggie-vegan-raw cafes around, some slightly greener, more aware juice bars. bit by bit. saf may convince meat eaters that vegetarian food can be sexy (as the various mainstream media reviews prove) but it's not going to spark a raw revolution.
saf restaurant website
cocktail menu
mains
desserts
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when you're sitting up in bed watching your juicefeast videos - or, whatever, getting your vintage duran duran fix - on you tube, with one click of an icon this little cutie stops your screen from dimming/turning off/launching your screensaver by preventing energy saver mode from kicking in.
easy download and install and totally worth it. but remember to leave it off by default and on for special occasions or it'll drain your battery (bad) and you'll lose eco-cred points (very bad).
]]>fruit fasting
this is something i first came across in leslie kenton's raw energy - my introduction to raw food, some 19 (OMG, that long! next year, i'll have to celebrate) years ago. she talked about apple fasting, where you consumed nothing but apples for a whole day, once a week. you could juice them, shred them, eat them whole, whatever you wanted. i tried this shortly after i read about it and had such horrendous detox that i never did it again. but it's a short and effective cleanse for those who need it but can't go for long periods, as with a juicefast/juicefeast.
cleansing
is a fabulous way of righting yourself after straying. i've had a family weekend where, despite best efforts, while eating out part of my meal was cooked food. then i had a hankering for a couple of dishes from my cooked repertoire so, rather than pick around them, i gave in and made them. i sometimes find trying to resist a particular food tempts me to pick at similar foods so i might as well just satisfy the craving and be done with it. i'm having mostly raw most days, with a regular day looking respectably balanced except for the nuts, seeds and oils: i made crackers, bought some nut-based cake and have been indulging in rich, oil-based dressings. that's not how i want to eat as a rule, so i need to keep myself in check. any kind of cleansing pulls you back towards lighter foods, so that's another reason to monomeal.
watermelon
why choose watermelon, of all the yummy fruits out there? hmmm. when i read carrie's blog it felt right to me. she very kindly answered my question as to why she'd chosen watermelon with an in-depth study of this amazing fruit. check it out here.
so, in time-honoured fashion, i list what i ate today:
3/4 small watermelon, chopped
1 large watermelon, juiced
1/4 small watermelon, chopped
mid-morning i started to get a headache and was feeling a bit miserable because my back's aching (chiro tomorrow, hurray!) so i treated myself to my last chunk of conscious chocolate's amaaaaazing love potion no. 9. that made me feel a whole lot better! then in the evening i ate a few forkfuls of booyaa's veggie paella, which was silly and i could have/should have walked away. i guess i still haven't sorted out the whole craving thing. hmmm.
would i do it again?
i sure will. going to aim for a weekly mono-eating day. and next time, no paella binges. no promises i won't have some raw chocolate though ;)
heh.
disclaimer: this has been sitting on my hard drive for aeons. i kept forgetting to upload it for your viewing pleasure.
]]>