Wanted to send you greetings and good wishes for a wonderful thanksgiving and a great day off! This past week abruptly shifted in plans which included lots of driving. My friend, Sara, who I've been writing about the past couple weeks died. I so wanted to say good-bye to her as well as to see this feisty woman grow old. But I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to know her at all. Here is a page dedicated to her if you'd like to read it, click here

During my LONG drive from VT to VA, I packed a bag of VT apples for myself, my fudge for when/if the need arose to have chocolate, lots of water and some salad for dinner. The first day's drive was from VT to NJ (7-8 hours). I stopped off at a healthy food place in NJ that I know carries packaged raw food (mostly dehydrated stuff) and I got some nibbly things for the next day's even longer journey. This place has a pretty good salad bar - actually carried chopped kale for people like me who rarely eats regular lettuce for salads anymore. It's great to know these places when we travel. I stayed in NJ overnight and headed out to VA the next day for Sara's celebration service. I don't know what it is about driving but the urge to munch happens quite involuntarily. Having the apples to munch and crunch really helped. Matt hooked me up to hear my books on tape via my laptop and I had the GPS system on so it was pretty smooth sailing for the most part. I heard a lot of disbelief that I was driving 7-10 hour days but aside from my right leg not wanting to stay in one position for a long time, I felt very alert and fine. I certainly didn't like the aggressive driving that I so gladly moved away from and forgot about in DC (I used to live near there) but other than that it was very fine. Of course I attribute this greater ease to travel and my physical/mental state to my food choices. I'm not sure that I would have felt as OK with the long drives physically or mentally if I had been pumped up on coffee and cooked starches and dairy. Anyway, after the whole journey is over, I'm very glad to have gone - to have met Sara's kids and seen all the people like me who were so in love with Sara and sorry to have had her leave this earth. I'm also happy that she didn't have a long suffering time and I believe that she was too feisty for that... :-)

Many of the plans changed this past week and of course we are approaching the holidays which I hope will be pleasant for everyone reading this.

I've planned out the workshops for Hunger Mountain Coop and am expecting to have my raw food in more stores in the new year. 

Please check out the calendar for potlucks, workshops & classes and keep your eyes peeled for more news on raw food for sale. In the mean time, you can certainly check our store to stock up on your raw food staples, call me at 802-223-2111 or email me to set up a mystery box to be delivered to your door and feel free to email me to stock up on raw crackers or eggless egg salad or raw FUDGE! The fudge will be for sale in pretty holiday boxes as they make a kick ass gift for the holidays. Oh and Dec 8th is a holiday fair that I'll be at all day selling and sampling the fudge as well as other raw treats. 

Getting ready for my own raw thanksgiving. I'm planning lots of yummy foods: unturkey loaf with raw stuffing, 2 kinds of mashed un-potatoes & gravy, cranberry relish, big green salad with Matt's ME SO RAW dressing (made with miso), cottage pie and a raw thanksgiving cheesecake. Also planning some baked squash from my garden. I'm looking forward to not being a slave in the kitchen and spending the day with the kids as we did last year.

serves 6-8

Here is a yummy recipe that you can try. Parsnips can be put in the food processor and chopped to make a mock rice that is very tasty. For this recipe, you can blend it into something that resembles the look of mashed potatoes, tastes different but is quite yummy. An interesting note on eating raw root veggies: when you eat them raw, they are said to be lower on the glycemic index than cooking them. So if sugar is a concern for you, know that raw carrots, raw sweet potatoes, raw parsnips and beets taste delicious and, generally speaking, your body "likes" them more in their natural state. You'll see how fast it is to make this and why I say I can make my whole thanksgiving meal in an hour or so:

Ingredients

Preparation

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,