Making Love in the Kitchen

Monkey balls I say! Is it really September tomorrow?

What? What on earth was that??? Oh my, it was the cool fall breeze blowing in.

I am not happy about this my friends. Not happy at all. But I will learn to embrace because fighting against what we cannot change is a massive waste of energy, totally futile and rumour has it, also causes suffering beyond the crap-olla event itself.

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How it makes my heart sing when I can go to a regular restaurant and order my lover of a food, tempeh. Now, when I say regular restaurant, I’m not talking about nonsense places with names like “Wings and Things”, or “Deep Fry It So You’ll Try It”. I mean restaurants where their overall values- eat organic, local, seasonal etc.- make sweet love with my own.

So wasn’t I over the rainbow excited to see a veg menu with tempeh on it. And this wasn’t the kind of tempeh you might find at most veg/vegan restaurants where it’s kind of just cooked to a crisp and served over a bowl of rice. This tempeh was prepared as if it were the leanest cut of gold labeled cow (do cows come with with gold labels?).

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Please, please, please tell me that you’re not still drinking bottled water?

Water is one of the those questions I get asked after almost every cooking class. Everyone always wants to know what kind of water they should be drinking. My first response is usually that you just need to be drinking it. The second is that you can’t be afraid of bottled water if you’re still drinking juices and sodas that also come in plastic. The plastic has to go, no matter what!

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With all the running around, vacationing, working, and other summer fun happening, many of us are finding it kind of tricky to plan our meals properly. Not having the typical routine set out for us, we often get home from our Summer frolicking h-u-n-g-r-y and not wanting to do much in the way of cooking.

The temptation to turn to foods of convenience may just lure us in. The ultimate in convenience foods- Ramen noodles.

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Now that we’ve defined the dirtiness that is Healthwashing, it’s time we start addressing some of the viscous culprits. Back in May, I received a press release for a brand shiny new cook book by Anna Boiarde, granddaughter and niece to the brothers behind Chef Boyardee (they changed the spelling for phonetic reasons). I thought I should take the PR rep up on her offer and schedule an interview, that they agreed could be filmed. The PR rep claimed to love my website and all my recipes and when I arrived at the downtown hotel for the interview, she went to the trouble of lining up all these Chef Boyardee “foods” beside me.

Anna’s book is truly beautiful and has some really delicious sounding, back to basics style Italian recipes. She claims to shop organic, feed her family well and from our interview, clearly has an appreciation for top quality ingredients.

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I have a kitchen table! Like my own. In my own home. It’s nice I tell you, it’s nice. After three years of working where I live and living where I work, I have my own little apartment right nearby.

That kitchen table, by the way, was the very same table I had in my very first apartment twelve years ago. It has been in my parents garage since 2003 and we cleaned it up and made it good as new. Want to know the best part about taking this table and now using it again? I don’t have to hear my mom bla, bla, bla at me about storing it in their garage anymore.

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Have you ever wondered why every item in the produce aisle doesn’t carry the “Health Check”? Or perhaps how buying a plastic bottle of water might help women with breast cancer (when the bottle itself is contributing to the high breast cancer rates), or perhaps why women on a diet think that a calorie free, chemical soda might help them lose weight?

Did you know the “Health Check” is absolutely meaningless? Companies pay the Heart and Stroke Foundation to use it on their products, and pay various other groups to use various other claims.

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Oh what fun summer has been so far! We’re definitely well into it and I’m sure many of you have been to your fair share of backyard parties. There are so many things to love about patio season – fresh salads, grilled veggies, in-season fruit, the fact that it is bright enough to actually see your friends well into the night!

For many, BBQs are also accompanied by a few (or a few too many) drinks. I’m talking alcohol here. I’ve seen recycling bins filled to the brim with nothing but beer bottles. I will never understand the appeal of that beverage. To me it tastes like cat pee mixed with perrier and maybe a squeeze of turpentine. I know you know what I mean! Other types of alcohol just taste like pure yuckiness to me and I suppose that’s why they are often mixed with delicious juices to make cocktails. So why do you need the icky tasting stuff in there if the juice is so delicious tasting by itself? It’s not like tequila is doing anything for your health that it’s actually worth the nasty taste and corosive heart-on-fire feeling you get from downing it.

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s I may have mentioned before, we don’t have running water up here so we always do our very best to make our food using as few pots and pans as possible. This lends a whole new level of creativity to the cooking process. We like to use up what we have leftover and then build upon to make the best ever dinner there ever was.

This pasta is one of my absolute favourite go-to dinners or lunches.

I always stress the importance in my classes of using up the ingredients that you have on hand- the best whatever to use being the one in your fridge, on your shelf, in your freezer etc. You picking up what I’m putting down.

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The summer is on faya! As we way too quickly approach the halfway mark of this sweet, sweet summer, I sit here thinking- where on earth has it gone? The last week, as I have been busy as ever riding this healing train after that accident last week (And thank you so, so, so much for your love and healing vibes- they’re working over time, let me tell you!), the last thing I’ve felt like doing is spending hours in the kitchen cooking. I know you hear me, my sweet outdoor sunshine lovers!

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What a busy time of year this summer is! We rush, and rush, and rush so we can have weekends or even better, weeks free to max and relax, travel, go camping, whatever it may be.

So the timing was just about perfect when this amazing package arrived for me in the mail from one of our most amazing supporters, Navitas Naturals.

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How can you make a difference through your relationship with food? At The Cutting Veg Organic Farm, we try to inspire and support people to take action in their relationship with food to improve their quality of life, while making a difference. Remember, a healthy world starts with healthy lifestyles.

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We all know that person. You know what I am talking about. That person in your life that you wish with all your might would listen to you, would heed your call, would take action towards their health, their finances, their job… Would maybe get their bottom into a seat at one of my classes…

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Last week I discussed the mystery of the hot dog. We learned what it’s made from and realized that all it really amounts to is highly processed meat with a boat-load of preservatives. Not edible in the least! Today, we’re embarking on some new and equally frightening territory. Hold on tight.

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Happy Monday my loverly lovers. Had a most beautiful weekend up at my cottage- with a sweet visit from my main man. I have been out in the woods now for 10 days and it is sweet as sweet can be. Did you catch my pics from Friday? One of these days, I may need to wage a battle between my hair and a comb- but until then, I’ll keep playing.

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