GreenChefs is the modern “G” Food Network. The new Organic Food Lifestyle featuring luscious organic and seasonal based recipes from the top Green Chefs around the world.
Looking back at the demise of something so dear to my heart. I wrote this post last year as the end was blaring out of the TV, but something this big this important should be shouted from the roof tops, so here is my tribute to not just a magazine, but to an old friend, who for reasons beyond belief, is no longer with us.
Why? Why why why…? It was October 5th 2009, about two weeks ago, I was at the gym, on the treadmill. Loud music blasting in my iPod earphones, CNN on the screen in front of me, both meant to distract me from dwelling on the fact that I’m running on a conveyor belt alongside other people running on conveyor belts. Then I saw it. An image on the TV screen of the cover of the latest issue of Gourmet magazine, and the printed headline, “Gourmet magazine closes after 70 years.” WHAT!? No Way! How is that possible? I’m frantically looking around, for… what… ? I think I was expecting others must have seen this headline and also stopped running out of shock and disbelief, like me. I was thinking I’d see people hugging, comforting one another over the news, shaking their heads. But no, I only saw people still running, pedaling, and the usual sea of heads bobbing up and down in the elliptical section.
I couldn’t keep going. I had to know what happened, so I ran home and checked online and yes, indeed, Conde Nast was shutting down Gourmet. Along with 3 other titles: a cookie magazine and two bridal magazines. I don’t get it. Isn’t there another silly magazine they could shut down? How about Golf World or Golf Digest? Does the world really need both? (or either?) Immediately I emailed my Mom, my Stepmom, and chef Neal, among others, like “OMG, did you hear???” They too were saddened. I wanted to call people and talk about it. I wanted to pull out a bottle of good wine and sit on the floor with all my old issues spread out around me, flipping through them and getting drunk and nostalgic. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos
I’d be totally lying if I said I weren’t a sucker for anything colored pink or purple. Which is why, when I came across these purple hull peas at the market, I couldn’t resist the splurge! The price was high, and I had no clue what I was going to do with them, but that only intrigued me more.
When I got home, I anxiously cracked open a pod, and to my surprise found a bean similar to that of the black eyed pea. ‘Crap’ I thought, I have to cook these! Not because I don’t sometimes eat cooked food, but because my dehydrator’s home is on top of my stove – Basically, cooking (with heat) to me, is so much more work than it’s counterpart. Funny what we get used to…
Any who, I sat in front of my computer, watched two hours of hulu, and shelled all of the beans. Whew, what a job! I knew after all that work, that this would definitely be a one time only purchase!
Parfait is a wonderful thing. It allows those of us who find boredom in single-flavour desserts to enjoy many tastes and textures elegantly layered in one tall glass. This one was inspired by Japanese parfaits, in which the most peculiar colours and foods are combined to make insane edible creations.
Avocado ice cream is among our favourite culinary discoveries of this summer. It seems as though avocado was created for ice cream making, with its smooth and creamy texture.
We wanted this parfait to tell a visual story and paint a delicious landscape. The layers of green ice cream, buckwheat crunchies, fresh cherries, and blueberry and vanilla creams are meant to resemble topography. Mountains and valleys, trees and flowers, and finally, at the very top – snowy peaks.
Just like all desserts on Golubka, this parfait is nourishing and full of ingredients that do nice things for your body. Go ahead, try it for breakfast.
Lindsay Lohan was spotted swilling it, and soon everyone and their damned Chihuahua was talking about that strange, stinky tea called kombucha. But before you could say ‘fermented mucous blob’, the potion was pulled from the shelves of every Whole Foods and health food stores across the nation. Which means those of us who depend on it can no longer find our fix! What’s a jonesing little monkey to do?! Well, we’re taking it back prohibition-style: we’re cooking up our own ‘bathtub brew’.
Why?
Kombucha can be traced to the far east, as far back as 2,000 years ago. The fizzy fermented drink is all raw and claims bragging rights on a whole slew of healthful properties, including improved digestion, increased metabolism, regulated hunger/blood sugar, body detoxification, and immune system strength. The cordial itself contains active enzymes, probiotics, amino acids, and energizing B-vitamins. A little goes a long way, and a daily dose will leave you feeling great.
How?
Oh, Miss Lohan, what have you done? The feds got frazzled over alcohol content and now the stuff’s on lockdown. BUT, if you can get your hands on just one bottle then you’re in good shape, because you can turn it into an everlasting supply. Really, it’s very simple.
Beans and greens. Mmmm. One of the simplest, best tasting meals ever. And since I’m currently operating with three, count’em three stictches in my right thumb, my dinners this week have been dishes without a whole lot of chopping involved.
I’ve made lots of similar dishes in the past, but I’ve always used canned beans, since the thought of using dried beans always seemed like so much work to me. Then I came across this cookbook called ‘Super Natural Cooking’ by Heidi Swanson. In it not only is there a fabulous recipes for beans and green, but Heidi also mentions a company called Rancho Gordo that specializes in heirloom beans. I decided to order a few different kind of beans (there are so many amazing varieties) and am now totally obsessed over their giant Cannellini beans. Oh, and they are ‘kitty approved’ as well… :)
Yes, dried beans are a little more work, but with just a little planning ahead, it’s really not that difficult and sooo worth the extra effort. All you have to do is soak them in water before going to bed and then some time the next day, cook them up which takes about an hour to an hour in a half. In fact, you can find out all sorts of helpful tips and recipes at the Rancho Gordo website.
As the saying goes, you have to repeat your actions, your issues, over and over and f-ing over again until you finally get IT. Until IT, the lesson, sinks into your being fully and completely and you have your AH HA moment. And it’s not until that moment of awakening you realize, all those moments before…the struggling…the suffering…was worth it. Was worth it because now you know. Now you FINALLY know what you want and what you don’t ever want to repeat again. And all those struggles, painful as they may be, make the awakening that much sweeter.
The ever changing, ever present, ever lasting obstacles of life deliciously presented to us all the time. Knocking on our doors to see if we see them, hear them and if so how we react to them. To see if we have changed, grown or need another repeating. And make sure you don’t get too comfortable in your accomplishments of conquering challenges cause the next challenge is right around the corner so you better be ready. Makes life interesting, though. Always exciting. Always shifting. That is, if you choose to see it. Explore it. Embrace it. I am doing just that these days. Have been really for the past 4 months. Embracing with fearless courage and excitement and sometimes patience (I’m working on that one…heee heee) my obstacle rich journey. Finally, interested in excavating why and how and what I do over and over and over again. And ultimately, realizing I have a choice if I want to continue doing what ever it is I choose to continue or not.
With a real name like Callalily, most people assume I was born in a tree house and raised on tofu. Wrong. Instead, it was more like “bling bling, every time I come around yo city, bling bling, pink ring worth about fifty…” Yeah, you get the point. Saving the earth, not a priority.
That is, until I grew up and started thinking for myself.
My journey began with my health. Like quite a few health enthusiast, I was always battling something; hypothyroidism, anxiety, disordered eating, IBS, etc… Fed up with annoying doctors and expensive prescriptions, I decided to take a more holistic approach and alter my diet. Overtime, I slowly learned I was able to manage these things through food alone – and that, fascinated me. Screw self-medication, food was the answer to feeling great.
Lately, I’ve had quite a few flops in the kitchen. Which is why, I was super stoked when I came up with this dish and it actually tasted as good as I hoped.
Since I have issues with purchasing more corn than I (or a family of 5) needs, I wanted to find a way, other than corn relish, to make good use of it. For some reason, corn cakes immediately popped into my head and I decided to roll with it. I had most of the ingredients on hand, so to the kitchen I went…
I was in love with all the colors in the corn cakes… Isn’t raw food pretty!? Enjoy!
During the summers at our Russian dacha, meals were always accompanied by small, curiously shaped cucumbers that we picked from the garden that very day. Sometimes they were so perfectly sweet, that we would simply cut them in half and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Other times, we would toss a basic cucumber and tomato salad. Either way, this vegetable served as a cooling, hydrating, and nutritional companion to any summer meal. Cucumbers are at their best from May to July, and while we are at the peak of their season, here are two undemanding cucumber salads. One is a deserved favourite, and the other – a new addition. They are simple in preparation, and work well as side dishes or as snacks, on top of crackers.
I’ve always liked to pair cucumbers with dill, but came across the idea of combining them with apple cider vinegar in Carol Alt’s book.
Todays salads are the Cucumber and Dill Salad (an old favourite) and Ginger Cucumber Pickles (a Japanese salad).
My uncle and I were talking the other day, he’s not a raw foodist by any means but he’s a health NUT and he owns a supplement company. He drinks green smoothies, makes everything fresh, eats only organic meat, goes on radical cleanses and so on as we do from time to time about health and food.
Our topic on this particular day was COFFEE! Yes, coffee, which I indulge in from time to time. The reason I brought up coffee was because I had read something that REALLY freaked me out. I mean, deep down I know that coffee is far from a healthy beverage. It’s a Fake-Out and a stimulant and bad for the kidneys and nervous system to some degree, it stimulates the bowls, and so on and so forth. Then you hear on the news sometimes that small amounts are actually “healthy for us”! Come on! I don’t believe that {although I listen in hopes that I hear something new and interesting as to why I should drink that espresso}. I mean, MAYBE the good {it’s a great pick-me-up when you are tired} outways the BAD sometimes and won’t really HARM us in a permanent way. Now that I can see!
But again, as with most things, we are always looking for an excuse to drink it or eat it! Right? We like to justify it. I mean come on, there are WORSE things, right?
Back to my story: the blurb I had just read that day was out of Sarma and Matthew’s Raw Food Real World. I had received the book as a gift about 5 years ago when it first came out and hadn’t really read much of it. Of course one of the first pages I turned to was the page on COFFEE and how bad it is for us.
G / Design It’s amazing how easy it is to now go completely leather free, with amazing leather like fabrics by Joseph Noble. They make a range of fabrics with feel better than leather and last longer
G / Food The Ultimate Sausage and Pepper Pizza – RAW It’s Rawfully Tempting!
G / Food Chocolate Fruit and Almond Bark – D E C A D E N T and H E A L T H Y! Sooo Rawfully Tempting!
G / Food The edible cups are made entirely out of agar agar (a gelatin substitute).
G / Design a solar-powered collapsible lamp lights up when unfolded.
G / Food The Ultimate Sausage & Pepper Pizza by Rawfully Tempting
G / Food Creamy Mocha Mousse Cake
G / Video A visual poem by Tanya Davis. How To Be Alone
G / Food Killer Chocolate Fudge Mousse & Banana Parfait.
This is one DECADENT dessert and not for the feint of heart.
G / Style Well, this o so stylish hat called Double Crown O’Thorns, is definitely a bold look, especially if you wear the entire black head to toe suggestive accompanying outfit.
Photographer: 
