Get Your Organic Cocktails On with Modmix

Modmix, the organic cocktail mixer, is shaking things up in Hollywood. Featured in the LA Fashion Week parties and the MTV movie awards VIP party hosted by Jeremy Piven of HBO’s Entourage, Continue Reading / See Additional Photos

A Brit Fembots Tea Fantasy Gadget The Teastick Scoop It, Slide It, Steep It

Tea aficionados know that the best cup of tea comes from the full steep of fine loose tea. However, loose tea doesn’t offer the convenience of a quick single serving cup like the tea bags. Now you have the freedom to choose any of your favorite loose-leaf teas without a complicated ritual and having to brew a whole pot. The Teastick is the modern infuser for tea junkies – with it’s sleek “scoop-slide-steep” functionality, and pure 304L stainless steel design. So no more drippy, messy tea bags with dioxin containing bleach, glue adhesives and staples – and no more bulky egg-shaped strainers that always seem to fall apart.

The long straight shape of the Teastick spreads the tea out to make sure it comes into contact with the largest surface area of water, and can be gently swirled and stirred for the optimum infusion. The Teastick, brought to you by Gamil Design, is a scooper, measuring spoon, and infuser all in one – insuring you get the perfect cuppa every time.

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Juli Novotny | Creator of Kookie Karma

It may seem as though I have fallen off the face of the Earth – well, at least in cyberspace that is. The truth is, I’ve been busy having babies – yes – and not one but TWO babies! Which as some men and women know, takes a lot of a person’s ’spare’ time and energy. But, I’m back, and back with a vengeance.

My latest endeavor is this pregnancy blog I started. It’s all about modern “G” baby products as well as optimal nutrition for pregnant woman, new moms (and dads too), and babies alike! It’s full of raw vegan recipes, daily menu ideas, lunchbox ideas and pregnancy foods.

The blog will help you learn the importance of, as well as how, to feed your kids right and how starting now is the key to calm, loving, smart, and healthy children. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos

Hemp Is The New / Old Perfect Food

Photographer: G Monkie (CC)

Milk is for calves. Soy is for losers. So, what’s the alternative? Hemp.

Hemp is the oldest food known to mankind, but only lately has it been receiving massive buzz as the next must-incorporate-into-your-diet super food. The reasons are clear. With its nutty creamy taste, hemp has a lot going for it. It’s got all ten essential amino acids, it’s a great source of protein, it has good fats in the form of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, and it has naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

The crazy thing is, all of our hemp is currently imported from Europe and Canada, as the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that bans hemp production. Something to do with its fun-time relative, marijuana.

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Anti Cheese/Cheese, The Best Cheese On Earth Is Actually Vegan

Beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, just off the East River, multitudes of microbes are silently ripening a viscous concoction formulated by two Argentinean transplants. The contents of this mixture, and of the modest kitchen itself, are poised to transform the face of one of the most impassioned and rapidly-growing foodie cultures: vegans.

Legend has it that thousands of years ago, in the deserts of Arabia, a nomad carrying milk in a sack made from sheep intestine produced the accidental first batch of cheese curds. Her movements agitated the amalgam of milk and intestinal enzymes and, under the hot sun, produced what we call cheese. Rennet (or Rennin), an enzyme that is a product of calf stomachs and sheep intestines is a key ingredient in typical cheeses – not only making most cheese undesirable for vegans, but also for vegetarians – many of whom imagine that cheese is somehow produced without harming animals. Some veal with your cheese?

The world of vegan cheese-like-imitations usually consists of heavily processed soy products simply made to look like cheese at first glance – and never followed through by taste or texture. Some Vegan cheese-esque products are notorious among the adventurous, and tend to elicit the response “well it tastes ok if you cook it in something and add a ton of nutritional yeast, but never on its own”. Placing a block of vegan ‘cheese’ on a board among fruit and crackers would be considered heretical among cheese connoisseurs and self-aware vegans alike. “It Melts!” is usually the selling point for these rubbery replicas and even the long awaited ‘Scheese’, imported from Scotland is a yucky disappointment after months of anticipation by American dairy-abstainers. The only tolerable soy-based cheese is ‘Follow Your Heart’ Monterey Jack. Even still, none of these so-called cheeses even deserve the title ‘cheese’.

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Ingredient Spotlight | The Spicy Organic Chipotle Pepper

Chipotle Chili [chee-POT-tleh] is the famous jalapeno of Capsicum annum, smoke-dried to bring out the distinctive smoky and biting flavor characteristic of a lot of Mexican and Tex Mex cuisine. Chipotle is moderately hot between 5,000 to 10,000 Scoville Units and has been described as having a complex smoky sweet flavor with subtle molasses undertones. Smoked for several days in sealed chambers, the chipotles dry up like prunes. The smoke drying turns the chilies from bright green to dark brown and shriveled up, taking about 10 lbs of jalapenos to make one pound of chipotle. It is speculated that the Aztecs smoked the chilies for long term storage as drying the chilies was a difficult process due to the thick flesh.

Chipotles can add a spicy and smoky flare to soups, sauces, salsas, dips, guacamole, dressings, marinades, and even some deserts.

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Food Glossary | Allspice

Also known as Myrtle pepper, Jamaica pepper or newspice, allspice is a large, brown peppercorn from the West Indian allspice tree. Contrary to the commonly mistaken belief that allspice is a mixture of ground spices, it is actually a single dried fruit, given that name by the English who thought the taste resembled a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. You can buy it ground, or whole, and grind it fresh yourself. It is commonly used in sweet and savory dishes along with similar aromatic spices like cinnamon and cloves. It is used frequently in Caribbean cuisine in jerk seasoning, as well as curry powders and mole sauces, pickles, marinades, mulled drinks and Christmas pudding. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos

Simple Lemon Juicer | Citrus Reemer

I use a lot of citrus. I use it in everything from my energized water to my daily dressing to my summer ginger limeade. If a good amount of your diet is raw friendly, chances are you use a lot of citrus too.

Back-in-the-day I would squeeze lemons/limes by hand and I can’t tell you how much time that would take. Then one day my mom gave me a simple tool to make my life easier – a lemon juicer (I was 19 when I started eating raw). Most of the lemon juicers that I’ve had have been plastic (from Ikea), but I’m on the look-out for a good metal one or wooden one. There are all sorts of complex citrus juicers you can get, but from my experience a simple one will do just fine – especially if you already have a juicer.

Juicers Pictured
Wooden Lemon Reamer $8.50
Melamine Reamer $3.95
Citrus Squeezer $16.99

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Blue Agave | Sweet Nectar of the Gods

I fell in love a few years ago with a new all natural liquid sweetener from the exotic agave plant – the same plant that is processed into tequila. This sweetener is a golden amber color like honey with a similar taste, yet it is subtler, smoother, and doesn’t overwhelm the palate like honey or sugar. And unlike honey it is low on the glycemic index, safe for diabetics and soluble in cold drinks. Which is probably why agave nectar is the new it ingredient showing up everywhere from smoothie and juice bars to hip cocktail bars. It’s paired with gin at the Orbit Room in San Francisco, with grapefruit vodka at Sonoma County’s Cyrus Restaurant, and stirred into the Margarita’s at Manhattan’s Employees Only. Even Coca~Cola has jumped on the scene and released a new energy drink called, Full Throttle Blue Demon in Blue Agave flavor. It’s surprisingly questionable if it has actual agave in it however. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos

Microplane | The Grater For Your Zesting

Originally found in the wood toolshed, this handy tool was adapted for use in the kitchen. I guess someone noticed how well it grated and shaved down the wood and figured it would work just as well for limes and nuts. And it does.

Made of stainless-steel, this razor-sharp rasp is the perfect essential tool in any G Kitchen. It makes zesting citrus, nuts, garlic, ginger and many other foods fun and easy. Many recipes in GreenChefs and in recipe books will call for you to zest something. This is the tool you need for that. All you do is grate it up and down on the blades quickly and then scrape off the goods on the other side of the blade. $14.95 at the Microplane Gourmet Rasp Graters is a good deal. It has a solid feel and is well made.

If this type of grader doesn’t do it for you, there is also a few other styles you might like.

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