I always love January.  To me, January is a time for new chapters in our lives, new beginnings and a time for improvement.  And being the type A personality that I am, I tend to seek projects I can sink my teeth into and January signals me to do just that.

Lately, I’ve been reading magazine covers, blogs and Facebook posts that read something along the lines of “start the new year by juice cleansing” and also the usual standby – “lose weight and feel great.”

The difference this year is I actually did heed the cliché advice and did in fact begin a juice cleanse and did finally agree to clear myself of clutter.

Both the juice fast and the de-cluttering process were fairly easy.  The juice fast is 30 days and honestly, I didn’t think I would last one week but surprisingly, I feel great and every week I feel like I’ve reached another level of cleansing.  The basic premise of this cleanse is to juice only vegetables until dinner (no more than 64 ounces of vegetable juice per day).  At dinner, I can enjoy more vegetables, including sea vegetables and a few grains such as Quinoa, Amaranth, Teff, Millet and Buckwheat Soba Noodles.  The only fruits that are allowed are tomatoes, lemons, limes, avocados and olives.  For those that are not vegan, you could eat fish, eggs and real butter at dinner because those are considered “quick exit foods.”

The second task to tackle in January was to de-clutter our garage.  You see, I don’t know if you know this about me but I’m a closet packrat.  I use the term “closet” because I keep my things out of sight and in our large “closet” – our garage.  So, when people come to visit, they don’t necessarily know that I’m a packrat because I try to keep the inside of our home streamlined.  But, if you were to venture into our garage…well, that’s a different story entirely.  Not proud of it really, just learned to close the garage door behind me and live in denial for many years. So, after 17 years of collecting things, I finally decided to de-clutter my life.  Three large trailer loads later and we can now proudly walk through our garage without having to be acrobats.  My husband Steve is over the moon about this!  And that alone made all the hard work worth it!

Currently, I’m gearing up for teaching culinary classes in March and hosting a food photography workshop in April.  By the way, if you are interested in attending, below is the information on the food photography class.

Hope to see you there! And yes, recipes will soon be flowing…working on that as we speak

Blessings to you and yours!

Class Taught By: Clare Barboza

http://clarebarboza.com/

Whether you are a food blogger or just a person who enjoys snapping pictures of your meals, this class will show you how to take beautifully appetizing food photographs.  We’ll talk about depth of field, available light, reflectors, choosing props (and sometimes making your own), photo composition, styling, and more.

Where: Southern California @ a private home in Ladera Ranch

When: Saturday, April 21, 2012

Fee: $300

Length of Workshop: 5-6 hours and includes lunch

To Register: Email:  clare@clarebarboza.com

Following are pictures of the project:

My husband used a sod-cutter to efficiently remove the grass from its roots

Goodbye water-hogging grass and hello organic produce

We hauled the grass away to a green waste recycling facility

We then tilled the soil with a roto-tiller to further remove roots and to aerate and de-compact our heavy clay soil:

Tilling our soil

We then had to amend our heavy clay soil in order to make it a thriving environment for plants and worms.

In our home, we have embraced the gardening staples of composting and use our compost to feed our plants and ultimately feed ourselves.

In our plan, we included water and energy conservation practices as well as incorporating the Three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

Following is a picture of our completed organic garden project:

We plant crops twice a year:

Warm weather crops in spring (April, May)

and

Cold weather crops in fall (Sept., Oct.)

Following are pictures of some of the warm weather crops that we plant in spring (April, May):

Delicious Organic Sweet Corn

Organic Heirloom Yellow Grape Tomatoes

Organic Heirloom Green Tomato Variety

Organic Jalapeño Peppers

Organic Black Sweet Peppers

Our beautiful Organic Peaches and Blackberries

We also plant:

Organic Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries

Organic Eggplant & various other varieties of Sweet Peppers

Many, many organic herbs and more

Following are some pictures of cold weather crops that we plant in fall (Sept.,Oct):

Red Beets

Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts

Broccoli getting an organic compost tea bath

 Cauliflower

We also plant:

Asparagus

Carrots

Celery

Turnips

Butter Crunch Lettuce

New Red Fire Lettuce

Rainbow Brite Swiss Chard

Kale

Spinach

Italian Parsley

Basil

Red Zeppelin Onion

Chives

and lots of herbs (including mint for wonderful mint teas this winter)

We also have two apple trees that give us beautiful apples every fall:

And we have an avocado tree that produces fruit around the first day of winter (typically around December 21st).  This variety of avocado is called a “Holiday” avocado tree.  Following is a picture of the beautiful fruit it bears:

Lastly, we have three citrus trees (Orange, Lime & Lemon) that give us delicious fruit.

We practice companion planting as it is based around the idea that certain plants can benefit when others are planted next to or close to one another.  Companion planting exists to provide plants with natural pest control without the use of chemicals and in some cases they can give a higher crop yield.

Following is a picture of borage being used as a companion plant:

As a bonus, bee’s love borage and I love bee’s!

Finally, I have some good news: as of today, I’ve lost a total of 40 pounds on a whole foods, plant-based diet and I feel wonderful.  I am a 1/3 of the way to my ultimate weight loss goal and I’m enjoying every moment by eating the most amazing fresh, organic foods in the process.

I hope that by reading this, I inspire you to grow your own organic produce:-)

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Blessings to you and yours!

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 4

My Almond Maple Brittle Gift Shop Project

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 4

Day 19: Tiramisu

Today we completed making Tiramisu.  Following is a picture showing what the Tiramisu looks like after sitting in the freezer for 24 hours:

Hand model Chef Sean Murray holding frozen Tiramisu “cake”

Next, it was time to cut the 2.6″ x 2/6″ slices:

Hand model Chef Sean Murray

Now that each piece is 2.6″ x 2.6″, it’s time to make the Espresso Foam:

Hand model Chef Megan Massoth making Espresso Foam

Following is my plating interpretation of this recipe:

Tiramisu resting in an Espresso Foam – YUM!

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings to you and yours

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 4

Day 18: Tiramisu, “Gift Shop Project” & Pistachio Nougatine w/ Dark Chocolate & Orange Marmalade

Today we learned how to make Tiramisu.  But this Tiramisu is not like the traditional Tiramisu with Lady Fingers, Espresso and Rum.  Instead, we used a technique common in raw food cuisine and that is, to mimic the flavor and textural elements of the original dish in every bite.  In fact, that’s the basic strategy for most high-end contemporary raw food cuisine.

This recipe has six components to it.  Two of these components need to be frozen and then processed by the Paco Jet in order to create a whipped texture.

Today, we made the cake batter and pressed down firmly and evenly into a 13 x 9 pan:

Hand Model Chef Megan Massoth

Notice how Chef Megan has packed down the cake “dough” firmly and evenly

After pressing the cake “dough” into the 13″x9″ pan, it was time to spread the Chantilly Cream which had already been whipped by the Paco Jet:

Hand Model Chef Megan Massoth

Notice how Chef Megan is evenly spreading the Chantilly Cream with an offset spatula until nice and smooth.

After the Chantilly Cream is smoothed out, loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap ensuring not to touch the Chantilly Cream you worked so hard to evenly spread.  Then place the pan into the freezer for 6-8 hours to prepare for your next layer of Tiramisu Whip:

 Notice once again the importance of evenly spreading the layer of Tiramisu Whip

Every layer on this dessert must be firmly and evenly pressed down and spread.  Once the Tiramisu Whip was added, we then placed the entire pan in the freezer again until tomorrow…

The next project on the agenda was my ”Gift Shop Project”

Almond Nut Brittle

Following is a picture of two different techniques I used to make the brittle and I am finding that one technique might just give me the “Snap” I am seeking in my brittle:

Same recipe, same ingredients, two different techniques, two different colors

What do you think I did differently?

Our final recipe for the day was:

Pistachio Nougatine w/ Dark Chocolate & Orange Marmalade

Yesterday, I showed you “Chocolate Covered Nougatine Bon Bon’s.”  This is the same recipe but I shaped the “dough” differently.  Instead of making the dough into balls, I pressed it into a pan.  Also, this is served with an Orange Marmalade Sauce. Following is my plating interpretation of this recipe:

YUM!

Well, that’s all for today.

Only two more days of school left and I graduate!  Tonight I have homework and studying to do.  I can’t wait to show you how my “Gift Shop” project turns out…keep your fingers crossed that my brittle snaps!

Blessings to you and yours.

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 4

Day 16: Lecture, Food Costing and Q & A (no food preparation)

Day 17: Chocolate Covered Nougatine Bon Bon’s,  Almond Maple Brittle (my recipe), Caprese w/ Mozzarella “Cheese”, Balsamic Reduction & Pesto

Yesterday, we didn’t prepare any food.  Instead, we listened to lecture, learned about food “Costing” and engaged in some Q & A.

Today, we began the day by making:

Chocolate Covered Nougatine Bon Bon’s

For the nougatine, I used coconut flour, various nuts including pistachio nuts, honey, almond extract and rose-water.  Then I coated the nougatine bon bon’s in a chocolate glaze sauce that was really fun to make from scratch.  For the chocolate sauce, I used cacao butter from the largest block of cacao butter I have ever seen!  Following is a picture:

This is roughly 30″ Long x 24″ High x 15″ Wide

For the chocolate glaze I used cacao butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, salt, vanilla and added the cacao powder last to create a lovely, shiny chocolate glaze.  Following is a picture of the chocolate covered nougatine bon bon’s:

For our next project, we had to create our own recipe for a product we want to sell in the Matthew Kenney Gift Shop.  I immediately thought of Nut Brittle.  I really want to create a recipe that will produce a hard candy snap in raw cuisine!  So, the challenge is on and since we don’t have enough time to test the recipe, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will SNAP like proper brittle should.  Following is a picture of the brittle as it gets ready to go into the dehydrator for 4 days:

I will gladly share this recipe if it works out

Our final recipe for the day was:

Caprese with Mozzarella “Cheese”, Balsamic Reduction & Pesto

Following is my plating interpretation of this recipe:

Well, that’s all for today.  I have three more days left of school and I will graduate on Friday – YAY!  I’m not sure how many other dishes we will be preparing in class this final week as we are all busy making our “Gift Shop Projects” and preparing our presentations.  On top of that, we are busy studying for our final exam this Friday. I hope my Almond Nut Brittle turns out for my “Gift Shop Project.”  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Have a wonderful evening and thank you for visiting my blog.

Blessings to you and yours.

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 3

Day 15: Pomegranate Red Velvet Cupcakes, Strawberry Banana Napoleon w/ Chantilly Cream Topping, Wine & “Cheese” Tasting

Our first recipe for the day was:

Pomegranate Red Velvet Cupcakes

We had so much fun learning how to make cupcakes without them being dense.  I couldn’t believe how moist and spongy these are for being raw!  Following is a picture of this recipe:

YUM!

Our next recipe was:

Strawberry Banana Napoleon

This recipe began this past week when we made Macadamia Pastry Crisps, Strawberry Ganache, Chantilly Cream and Solid Chocolate Sheets.  After a lot of prep work for this dessert, today, we assembled all the components to create one decadent dessert.  Following is my plating interpretation of this recipe:

We froze the Chantilly Cream on top to resemble ice cream – YUM!

As a nice start to the weekend, we ended the day with a wine and “cheese” tasting.  Following are pictures of the wines and my “cheese” plate:

Brazil & Macadamia Nut “Cheese” Rolled in Basil & Chives served with Pesto & Marinated Fresh & Sundried Tomatoes

Aged Cashew “Cheese” Rolled in Walnuts & Black Pepper Served with Lavender Infused Honey & Candied Pecans

My third “Cheese” was Brazil & Macadamia Nut “Cheese” smoked with Applewood

Well, that’s all for today.  I can’t believe I have only one more week left of school and I will graduate.  Thank you for visiting my blog.

Have a wonderful evening and lovely weekend.

Blessings to you and yours.

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 3

Day 14: Homemade Vanilla Extract, Basic Solid Chocolate & Warm Pecan Tart

Today we learned how to make:

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I was amazed to learn that the process of making vanilla extract from scratch is really easy.  Following is the process:

• Sterilize a glass container (mason jar is perfect)
• Using a knife, slice 3 medium vanilla beans lengthwise to expose the seeds but do not scrape the seeds out
• Place sliced vanilla beans in mason jar
• Pour 1 cup of high quality organic vodka over the beans and seal jar tightly
• Store the jar in a cool, dark place for 2-6 months and extract will be ready to use in a minimum of 2 months

Following is a picture of the one we made today:

Solid Raw Cacao Butter

Look at that gorgeous color!

Chef Sean Murray’s reflection is an example of how glossy your chocolate sauce should be

 

LEVEL 2: Advanced Raw Cuisine

Week 3

Day 13: Braided Bread, Mozzarella “Cheese”, Gingerbread Cookies, Herb Crackers & Italian Chia Chips

First thing I did today was check on the braided Italian inspired bread I made yesterday (sundried tomato, kalamata olive, onion/garlic).  It was ready to be removed from the dehydrator and tastes wonderful!  Following is a picture of the finished product:

When I’m ready to serve it, I’ll brush a little olive oil on top of each strand and voila!

Our next recipe was:

Mozzarella “Cheese”

For this exercise we used small ring molds because we want to make small rounds of soft Mozzarella “Cheese.”  Following is a picture:

Hand model Chef Megan Massoth

For our next recipe we made:

I scored the dough into triangles because I thought the crackers would be nice in that shape

Our next recipe was:

Gingerbread Cookies

YAY – This was a fun and festive recipe to make as we listened to Christmas music in the background.  Following are some pictures:

Rolling out the dough

Cutting out the cookie shapes

Decorating the cookies

Into the dehydrator they go…