Living Rawesome

Day #147 Cinnamon Graham Cookie pg. 94 and Cubist Mushrooms, White Asparagus, and Red Pepper Curry Sauce pg. 68 entertaining in the raw

December 19, 2009

I decided to finish the rest of the recipe for the black sesame crackers.  This was a 6 part recipe to make the entire meal.  I made the black sesame crackers on December 17; Jason tried them today.  They are airy and light but crunchy, unlike most flax crackers that we have made.

I made the white asparagus first.  I didn’t have fresh rosemary and thyme so I used rosemary that I won the other night from the potluck in Gainesville.  Theresa dried it herself:)  So it is fresh.  I also used dry thyme.  I cut the asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces and covered it with olive oil and salt.  Then, I placed it in the dehydrator.

Next I had to do the mushrooms, they all must be done around the same time because dehydration is the same for 2 kinds of mushrooms and the asparagus.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the mushrooms I needed.  I wrote an email to MK and asked him what mushrooms I could use instead.  He very promptly and kindly responded in a day.  He recommended using chanterelles, oysters, shiitakes and cremini – the only one he would not recommend is portobello because of the color they give.  I chose to use shiitakes and cremini.  It calls for morels, almond, and enoki.  Which are all beautiful.  I especially love enoki.  They are tasty and light.  I love the appearance of the enoki.  They remind me of mushrooms that would grow by the fairies in the forest.  I poured olive oil, salt, black pepper on the mushrooms.  I used cremini to replace the enoki and morels.  I used shiitakes to substitute for the almond mushrooms.  The creminis dehydrated for 2 hours then I poured the celery and cucumber vegetable stock on them.  I only used olive oil, salt and pepper on the shiitakes.

After preparing the mushrooms, I made curry sauce.  I first pureed the red peppers.  The peppers are supposed to be strained, so I strained them through a nut milk bag.  Then I added it back to the Vita-mix with the mangoes, salt, cayenne and curry powder.  The mangoes were brownish on the inside.  They were beautiful on the outside, but the outside deceived me.  I managed to get 2 cups of decent mango from 3 big mangoes.  This mixture whipped up in about 2 minutes.  I placed some in a small bowl for us to try and refrigerated the rest for our meal.

Asparagus Ingredients
white asparagus
olive oil
salt
black pepper
sprigs of thyme
sprigs of rosemary

Mushrooms Ingredients
morels, almond mushrooms, enoki (I used shiitake and cremini)
olive oil
salt
black pepper
Vegetable Stock (celery, cucumber, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper)

Curry Sauce Ingredients
red pepper
mango
salt
cayenne powder
curry powder

After I completed the recipe on pg. 68, I decided to go ahead and make the cinnamon graham cookie for Sabby.  He has been wanting me to make this recipe since I started this project.  I didn’t even invite him into the kitchen to help, but he asked.  I love it when my boys are in the kitchen with me.  I made the cashew flour and oat flour in the food processor.  The cashew flour always comes out so grainy for me.  The oat flour is more smooth.  Sabby helped pour the flours and mix the dry ingredients in and added the wet ingredients.

Sabby even measured the agave and poured it in to the mixture.  Then he mixed it up so that I didn’t even have to.  Once it was mixed we put it on the Teflex sheets and spread it out to about 1/8 inch thick.

Of course after spreading it, the boys had to try it.  Christian missed it.  He is away in Georgia with his friend for a few days.  They are hiking, but when he returns I am hoping to have a fire and eat the smores.  Sabby was so confident after making the first tray with me he wanted to do all of it himself, even carry the tray to the dehydrator.  I am so proud of him.

Graham Cookie Ingredients
cashew flour
oat groat flour
maple syrup ( I used agave and maple syrup)
salt
cinnamon
vanilla

What an awesome day!! Now we are going to decorate the tree.  We just bought it a few nights ago and we have 10 ornaments on it.  My boys don’t seem to mind.  I guess I may never get into the Christmas spirit.  I prefer to live like it’s Christmas all year round.  But that doesn’t involve buying gifts, just the thankfulness and gratitude and the spirit of Jesus!

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.-Calvin Coolidge