Favourites Of 2008

It's fun to stand back and see all that's happened in the span of a year, especially when in the minute, things can seem so ordinary.

The other day, Carmi gave her "year in review" with a great recap of her life and activity on RFC, in addition to her 28 favourite recipes of the past year. She has now passed the torch on to me, knowing how much I enjoy little projects like this. I'm excited to share with you a quick recap of my year-of-food along with the my fave recipes.

As 2009 rolls around, I have to stop (and look at old pics) to remember all that's happened in 2008- it seriously went by so fast (is it just me, or is time as we know it speeding up?)!
I had to check back on old posts to see what I was doing in the kitchie last year, and here are some of my highlights from each month, revisited...

Turns out I was still doing a bit of holiday entertaining, taught a fun Mexican raw food class, and put on a raw dinner party extrawvaganzza (love these events), in January. Really gotta keep busy during this coldest month.

In February I was inspired by Shannonmarie to make donuts and cookies of all kinds. There were rawgalongs, samoraws, mallowmars, and blueberry sandwich cookies....Mmmm.

At the end of the month, my mom and I took an amazing trip to Gabriel Cousen's, Tree of Life center in Arizona. Wow! What an experience! It sure was great to escape the snow and cold, temporarily.

Freshly inspired from being at The Tree, I started getting into raw ice cream recipes more than ever, playing with this flavour, and that.

March brought a tropical getaway to the Bahamas with my good friend Kristen. We enjoyed the beach, ocean, fresh fruit, and trips to the markets.

In April I had a hoot making veggie pot pies... and held 2 birthday parties for each my mom, and boyfriend Darwin, complete with raw food, of course.

In May I was dehydrating crackers, making Carmi's fruit n' nut chocolate, and playing with jicama.




In June I finally got around to posting the Triple Berry Cake I made for Raw Freedom Community's Birthday, and had a blast hosting a big raw brunch for out of town guests.

This month is also the arrival of summer, yay! And I got into it with refreshing drinks!


July was filled with sweet treats: Carmi's Ferrero Rawcher, pecan truffles, Chocolate Vanilla Raspberry Cheesecake, Vanilla Berry Tarts, and Ca~Raw~Mello Bars. Mmmmm!!!

August was blueberry month! I picked berries to my heart's content and made desserts in celebration.

The berry madness continued in August when I enjoyed making blueberry sorbet, and raspberry ice cream. My hunny and I also took full advantage of the hot weather, with a little canoe trip to a cabin in the woods.

The beginning of September was a wonderful celebration of my birthday, with friends! Then it was off to BC to visit Carmi again where our time together had a definate dessert theme - we were doing the final testing for my dessert book! There were so many cool pics to share that I had to break the post into 3 parts! : part 1, part 2, part 3.


October means Thanksgiving here in Canada, so I made raw pumpkin pie ,and Carmi's Chocolate Raspberry Rhapsody Cake, yum yum!

In November I went cupcake crazy, with more cupcakes, and MORE cupcakes!


I guess the saying is right "save the best till last" - because on December 1, my "baby" was born. My Just Desserts Ebook was finally released into the virtual world - the same day I arrived at Carmi's for our second visit this year! Double whammy! More desserts and dancing in the kitchie!

Ah, what a year....on that note, it's a tough decision, but here are my top 30 recipes from 2008!!! (in no particular order)

1. Carmi's Just like Cambell's Tomato Soup

2. The Famous Onion Bread
3. My Bluberry Cardamom Ice Cream
4. Raw Food Real World's Cranberry Maple Granola

5. Ingrid's Tomato Dressing
6. Carmi's Chocolate Raspberry Rhapsody Cake
7. Ocean's Oh My This Is A Tuna!
8. My Strawberry Lime Mousse Cake

9. Ginger's Best Coffee Ever

10. Carmi's Dill-icious Dressing

11. Matthew Kenney's Rosemary-Garlic Mashed Potatoes

12. Carmi's Fruit and Nut Chocolate
13. Creamy Italian Dressing
14. Any Green Soup with Herbs!!
15. My Peppermint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
16. Cheddar Dip

17. Garlic & Dill Cheeze
18. Cafe Gratitude's Cinnamon Buns
19. My Caesar Dressing
20. Just Like Ritz Crackers

21. Russell's New Pizza Crust

22. My Granola Bars
23. Spinach Mini-Quiches
24. Russell's Spinach and Mushroom Quiche
25. Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms

26. Zucchini Hummus
27. My Chocolate Orange Cake

28. Cafe Gratitude's Falafels
29. Carmi's Lasagna

30. Snowdrop's Fruitcake

What are your favourite recipes? Cheers to a great 2009!!!!

My Just Desserts Ebook Now Available!

I am extremely thrilled to announce the release of my first ebook, "Just Desserts: Nutritious, Delicious Raw Delights".

If you're new to raw foods or have been feeling too intimidated to tackle raw desserts, not a problem! I will walk you step by step through the process, and give you helpful and ingenious tips so that you, too, can create beautifully decadent raw desserts with minimal fuss.

In a nutshell, here's what you will find in “Just Desserts”:

-A list of ingredients and equipment frequently used in raw dessert making

-A detailed table of contents for easy navigation

-Helpful hints and tips

-Gorgeous mouth-watering photos for nearly every recipe

-A text-only version for easy printing

For more information, and to purchase the book, CLICK HERE.

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that another whole year has passed. All kinds of interesting things happened in 2008, and I'm excited to see what 2009 will bring - I wish you all a Happy New Year (from my winter wonderland) full of wonderful surprises! Have you made your resolutions yet?? Things have been busy around here, but I plan on writing my list within the next few days.

The holidays have been a fabulous time of visiting with friends and family, along with a super indulgence of food/drink. I've had fun making food here and there for get togethers, but its been so busy that I didn't stop to take any pics! I brought these wonderful chocolate orange balls, by Snowdrop on RFC, to a party, and they were well recieved. In fact, I too enjoyed them so much that I made them twice during the Christmas season. I also made coconut almond joy truffles from Sweet Gratitude. Pooey that I didn't snap a pic of those, as they're amaaaazing, especially if you like chocolate and coconut! For those of you who have the book, give em a try.

Chocolate Orange Confection

1 c sunflower seeds

1/2 c raisins

1/2 c dates (since i didn't have enough raisins in the pantry, & i think it worked better with the dates creaminess)

1/3- 1/2 c cacao powder (i made it very dark with chocolate yummm)

1 T maca (why for energy of course!)

1 T orange extract/flavor

1/2 t cinnamon powder

1/2 t vanilla extract/flavor or some seeds

1/3 c (6T) coconut oil melted

pinch salt

food process as smooth as possible

roll a scant tsp full into a small ball shaped candy and dip one side into sprinkles. seal and refrigerate till firm.place on a lovely candy dish sprinkle sides up,and watch them disappear! i hope you enjoy them as much as i did.

sprinkles

1 T raw sugar crystals (or anything like that)

1 T orange peel (dried & ground into a powder w/coffee grinder)stir & use to dip one side of candy into.

Heathy's Notes:

- I used half almonds, half sunflower seeds

- I omitted the maca and cinnamon

- For the orange flavour, I used grand marnier for a little kick

- Instead of rolling in the dried orange peel (which I didn't have), I added orange zest to the dough. I just rolled them in the raw sugar.

Me and my hunny got to spend lots of time together during the holidays. No workies for us! :D

For New Years day, I had a few close friends over for lunch. I made a starter of fresh salsa and guacamole layered in a martini glass with a bit of shredded lettuce in the bottom. They dipped shrimp and crackers into theirs, while I went for celery sticks. A basic salad of mixed greens, cucumber, tomato, sunflower seeds, and different dressings went with the main course, which was cooked - not bothering to make myself anything separate, I went for 2 helpings of salad ;)

As dessert it always in order at my house, I went for Sweet Gratitude's turtle pecan cheesecake - guess I didn't get enough at Carmi's. It really is great, and my marbling turned out better this time, creating a more even combo of vanilla and chocolate in each piece. As you can see, I omitted the chopped pecans around the side of the cake - I wanted some white. It was definately a hit with my friends! Yum Yum!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and best of luck with those rawsolutions!