Hommage a Klee

 Playing with the dark of the year and Photoshop :)

new cowl finished!

Now that I live in a cooler climate, I can play with knitting and crocheting! This is a new cowl I just finished..... the idea was for it to look tribal... not sure the day-glo yarn carries that off; and also to use the Knifty Knitter that I bought 4 years ago. I don't like to store things that don't get used, so I decided it either needed to be usefull or go..... I did the body of the cowl with the large ring and then added on the design elements using my imagination :)

starting a new group

     Settling into my new/ old locale (I've lived in the Seattle area before) and looking to meet up with other crafters. I couldn't find quite a local group, so I'm starting one up myself! We'll be meeting at the Burien Press on 152nd St., from 5-7 pm on Tuesdays. It's right across the street from the library. This group is primarily for knit and crochet, and it's called Dang Knit!  I'm so hoping some of you will want to do some friendly yarn-bombing! ie, stuff we won't get arrested for :P

new necklace

This new necklace I designed represents Goddess energy: white shell for purity, the sparkle of clear consiousness, a moon dangle, dragonflies for the transformative power of nature :)

more yumminess

I was in the kitchen looking at a bag of tangerines from Costco; you know where you get like 20 of the beauties at once, and thinking "how are these going to get eaten?" Cause even eating 1 a day in my fruit salad for breakfast, they'll go bad before I can eat them all. My boyfriend love sweets, but there's no way he's going to peel a tangerine and eat it; it would be more accurate to say he loves SUGAR. An idea started forming in my head as I also had half a coconut worth of coconut meat......... "I wonder if coconut and tangerine together would taste like a creamsicle?" Now, I'm sure someone else has totally come up with this type of recipe before, but it was new to me, so I set out to try it. First I put the coconut into the blender with @ 2 cups of good water (I'm not very technical about measuring) Blended it up and strained it thru a nut milk bag (ok, it was really a wort bag for homebrewed beer, same diff)

I'll throw the strained coconut milk into the dehydrator to use as coconut flour or to roll up raw food treats

Love my Excaliber dehydrator. Next I peeled 5 of the tangerines and threw them whole into the blender cause I'm kind of lazy; blended them up and strained that in the nut milk/ wort bag into another container.

Then I poured the two liquids back into the blender to blend them together!

Yum, tastes just like a creamsicle, but not so sugary. Now I would be happy at this point but the previously mentioned boyfriend likes it sweet, so I chopped up some fresh stevia from my garden and threw it in. It'll steep in the juice for a few hours until we have dinner and I'll just pout it thru a strainer when I"m ready to serve! I prefer not to use the overly processed and bleached stevia powder from the store, but if that's all you can find I guess it'll have to do. Tell you what, the first person that subscribes to my blog and sends me their address will get a packet of stevia seeds in the mail. :)

12 Hours for Haiti

I will be vending at this event on Saturday in Lauderhill.Come out and support the relief efforts! Copy and paste the address below into your browser for address:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=273616549428

chocolate and coffee giveaway!

Love is in the air........... which means a good excuse for coffee and chocolate! Fair trade and organic, of course.......... you wouldn't have any other kind.......... would you?

Mambo Sprouts is hosting a giveaway of fair trade organic chocolate and coffee to somone lucky on their blog. Go to http://www.mambosprouts.com/mambo-articles/food-nutrition/is-love-fair-it-is-with-organic-fair-trade-chocolate/    for the details on how to enter. No wait........ maybe I shouldn't tell you cause I WANT TO WIN!

Fresh Almond milk

Gee, I've been on quite the raw food kick of late! Today I made fresh almond milk. It's so wasy to make, and I know what's in it :)   Soak a cup of almonds in good water overnight, rinse the next day. When you rinse them you'll see all the gunk that comes out! You'll always want to soak them after this.... Anyhoo, throw the drained nuts into the blenderand start at about medium speed. When that's going smoothly, use the fastest speed to grind them really finely. If you want that little sweet flavor, like from the box, add a couple of dates (don't forget to take the pits out!) next set yourself up with a fine mesh strainer, a pitcher or jar for the milk, and a container for the strained out nuts. (Oh no! don't throw the nuts away! some recipes below) pour the mixture in small batches through the strainer and press on the solids to extract all the milk. If this is too time consuming for you, use a big bowl and a big strainer with fine mesh or get fancy and find a nut milk bag from a store or online and do it all in one shot. Almond milk is a great sub for cow milk and can be used for baking (the dried almond meal is great for crusts), cereal, creamer, making healthier white sauce, etc. It's good for you!!!

Use the strained nut meal to make a healthy dip! This is how I like it:

1 cup almond meal

1/2 cup tahini (raw if you can find it)

Bragg's Amino Acid- dash

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 chopped tomato or any veggie

1/4 chopped onion

1/2 cup soaked sunflower seeds

olive oil to consistency

dash sea salt

Throw it all in the food processor and give it a whirl!

I have a dehydrator and dry the meal to make my own almond meal at about half the price of the store. I use it to make gluten free pie crusts.

Raw Sushi mmmmnnnnn

I've been adding more raw food into my diet, it's yummy and makes me feel alot better than dead food!

dehydrator in the dyhanaverse!

Fresh raw bread from the dehydrator. I'm wheat and gluten intolerant, now I can eat sandwiches again! Now to make some almond cheese as a sub for mayo...... add some tomato, avocado and onion and lettuce and yum!!!