Summer Roses by kristin

There’s nothing like early summer – my niece Stella’s favorite time of year. Here in California we’ve got lots of blooming plants already and my all time favorites are roses – might be because I hark from the City of Roses, Portland, Oregon. The ones in my yard (I moved last fall) have been neglected for a few years, so I’m carefully picking off all the leaves that have black spot and trying to get them to feel better. As beautiful as they are, roses aren’t the easiest to take care of, and yet they are kind of resilient at the same time. Like people, they respond to care and attention. I made a promise to myself to stop and smell the summer roses this year. We’re still plenty busy at Living Light, what with the Raw Food Revolution Tour heading East and Drs. Rick and Karin Dina beginning their Science of Raw Food Nutrition Tour in just a couple of weeks, but this is the first time in the seven years I’ve been at Living Light that we don’t have a MAJOR EVENT like a Vibrant Living Expo or a Chef Showcase at the end of August.  I have a little more breathing room, and a bit more freedom to balance my life and remember that it’s important to enjoy the long days of summer.  Mmmmmm – smell the roses! This weekend I’m going to the Mendocino Film Festival. What are you doing this summer?

Two Famous Ladies by kristin

Judita Wignall posted this photo on Cherie’s Facebook page. It’s from her visit here for the Living Light Chef Showcase, Hot Chefs, Cool Kitchen this past August. It was a very fun event, and all the chefs who participated said they had a great time learning new tricks of the trade from each other.

Judita is a musician, actress, and the inspiration for a character on Guitar Hero, a popular video game. Now, I’m no gamer, but I love to see multi-talented people in action, and all of our chefs from the showcase certainly fill that bill. We want everyone to know that even if you missed the online showcase, you can still watch the entire event on DVD, and replay to your heart’s content. Comes with a complete recipe book of all 80+ recipes, and guaranteed to please friends, family, neighbors, and other assorted people you’d like to “turn on” to raw foods. We also have the complete 2010 showcase on DVD, including Chefs Chad Sarno, Nomi Shannon and 10 other super chefs! And if you want to see our real life chefs in Action, don’t miss Alicia Ojeda and Martine Lussier in Austin, TX, and Martine and Cherie Soria in Las Vegas coming up this October! Whether you decide to watch the DVD or take FUNdamentals on the road, we’re pretty sure you’ll want to learn more about Living Light, and that’s the truth!

Fresh Fruit – Doesn’t Get Better Than That! by hilloah

 Esterlina Winery had their annual picnic in Philo of the Anderson Valley.  They had the usual picnic fair, but their side dishes of salads and fresh fruit were the most interesting and delicious.

The trip to Esterlina was a good break for Archie.  He works so hard on our Great Room.  Right now he is putting up redwood siding on the house and building a new hearth for the fireplace.  He is making it to where you can sit on it and warm up if you are cold.  In the winter we will group chairs around it as everyone will want to chat in comfort.

This week at Living Light we are having the 2011 Showcase where twelve of the top raw food chefs will demonstrate their best raw vegan recipes.  If you can not make it to Fort Bragg, you can still watch the event by purchasing a Gold or Silver package and viewing it on your computer.  You can also upgrade the packages by adding the DVD selection to your cart and get last year’s showcase as well.  Now that’s a deal!

It’s About Time by mary elizabeth

Here in the good old Admin. Office at Living Light, we’ve been experiencing some technical difficulties with our clock.  First, our fancy atomic clock went nuts, complete with some very “through the looking glass” spinning, and wouldn’t keep the time even with new batteries and trips outdoors to better connect with it’s atomic brethren.  So, we got a regular old battery operated wall clock to take its place and all was well for a while, but now – not working.  But we’ve discovered that it works just fine when we take it down off the wall, yet when re-hung, it stops.  It seems to me that the only logical explanation is that spot on the wall of the office is some sort of time vortex – an anomaly, if you will – where time stops.  If only we could figure out how to use this to our advantage!

You may want to use time to your advantage and register for the on-line version of our 2011 Chef Showcase as quickly as possible.  Right now it’s being offered for almost $50 off the regular price!  Quite a deal, and so worth it!  We have such amazing chefs participating this year – you don’t want to miss out on all the new, cutting edge recipes they’ve developed.  And there’s lots of bonuses that come along with it – so don’t let time slip away – sign up today!

Things to Do by hilloah

This weekend was pure bliss. Saturday I did the laundry, organized and cleaned up a bit and in the evening we went out to dinner at Chapter and Moon with friends.  And then to Cotton Auditorium for a production of Broadway tunes put on by the Gloriana Singers. We have some real talent here in Fort Bragg!

Sunday I just sat outside and watched the wind ruffle the small yellow flowers on the ground, the white butterfly setting on one flower, then another, the bees hovering around the peach tree. I had no desire to read, crochet, watch a movie, or bake. I did do a little weeding and found some of our Naked Lady bulbs. Now that they will get some sun, perhaps they will bloom.

Here at Living Light, we are all looking forward to the Chef Showcase in a couple of weeks. Imagine sitting in the audience and watching renowned chefs preparing some of your favorite foods and then you get to taste it as well. Yummy! On the first evening you can join the chefs and eat at Ravens Restaurant at the Stanford Inn in Mendocino. The day before the Showcase begins you can Take A Walk On The Wild Side: Discover Raw Green Super Foods From the Ocean! Thursday, August 25, 2011 from 6:45am to 11:00am; class will meet promptly at 6:30am in The Company Store.

The Sounds of Silence by mary elizabeth

My daughter’s been away at camp this week and my son’s been with his dad. Needless to say, it’s been very quiet at my house. I don’t really like it. Sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed with all the needs and personalities that go along with a full house, but it’s definitely more interesting than the alternative. And less lonely. Often, I hear myself complaining about never having any time to myself, but evidently I don’t really like it that much. I know I’m supposed to be a whole, complete woman all own my own, but I do really feel like my kids are a part of me, and when they aren’t around I feel kind of empty. And, on a more practical note, I like having someone to comment to during our favorite shows or someone with whom to share a late night snack. I guess I’m just ready for them to come home.

Speaking of coming home, our Chef Showcase is coming right up and lots of our old friends will be here. Living Light graduates who are presenting include Solla Eiriksdottir, Alicia Ojeda, Tina Jo Stephens, Judita Wignall and Christina Archila. We’ll also get to have our own Colleen Cackowski back with us for a few days. Don’t forget Living Light Instructors Vinnette Thompson, Martine Lussier and Amy Bacheller. And new to this year’s line-up: Chef BeLive. Of course, Cherie won’t just be demonstrating some fabulous new recipes, but will also be hosting the event with her usual poise and style. It’s definitely an event to look forward to, and tickets are still available. So – if you’d like to see all these chefs do their thing live and in person, give me a call and I’ll sign you up. It’ll be exciting here at Living Light during the three days of the Chef Showcase – not quiet or lonely at all!

Solar Eclipse, Grand Cross, and New Beginnings by kristin

It’s that time again,  just after mid summer when all kinds of things are happening in the sky, in our world, our solar system, and inside of ourselves. Time for some Virgo Magic. I was reading astrologer Emily Trinkaus’s post on what’s happening right now-a solar eclipse takes place at 1:45 AM PDT tomorrow in Cancer, ruler of “watery deep emotions and the subconscious”.

And that’s not all. The Sun and Moon are uniting in Cancer, which makes squares to Saturn and Uranus, opposing Pluto (our old friend), and catalyzing another Cardinal Grand Cross. Might just throw us a bit off kilter temporarily, and help us realize that we need to be in touch with our emotions and with what we really want in life. One effective way of accomplishing our heart’s desires, is to spend time writing down our dreams. When you believe it you see it, to turn a phrase. And since the world keeps on spinning, we might as well find an attunement that works both for us as individuals and for  planetary good.

If one of your heart’s desires is to become an accomplished raw food chef, July and August are the perfect time to begin. You can sign up for the full Gourmet Raw Food Chef Certification™ series complete with all of our advanced classes, including Ethnic Flavors in Recipe Development™, RawFusion Gourmet Spa Cuisine™, Raw Event Catering and Elegant Entertaining™, and Pastry Arts-Unbaked!™. You can attend the Living Light Chef Showcase, Hot Chefs, Cool Kitchen. AND, right after the showcase, we’ve scheduled all five of the Science of Raw Food Nutrition™ courses and a brand new Raw Culinary Arts Associate Chef and Instructor Training™ series.  P.S. Don’t forget to vote for the next Hot Raw Chef. Voting opens July 2. Living Light can help you make your dreams come true.

Summer’s Here by mary elizabeth

Summer has really arrived. I can tell because here at Living Light we’re gearing up for our Chef Showcase, my daughter is gearing up for her big summer camp adventure and it’s misty outside.  Except for the mist, these things are super exciting, but also require lots of preparation, and include all sorts of deadlines.

I have to get my daughter off to camp in less than a month. As I may have mentioned before, I’m more efficient with a deadline, but for her sake I don’t want to be too last-minutey about it. She’s flying all the way across the country – by herself for the first time – to a music camp for teenaged girls. Super fun, huh? I’m really excited for her but also really need to get her stuff together. She’s going to need stuff there that we don’t need here like sun block and bug spray plus music stuff like extra bass strings and probably other stuff that musicians know about plus stuff to keep her entertained on the plane plus, plus, plus…I should probably make a list.

Speaking of deadlines – tomorrow is the last day to submit videos for the Hot Raw Chef Video Recipe Contest. So finish up and upload it now! I got to take a sneak peek at some of the entries we’ve received so far and I must say you people are so creative! “Five ingredients in five minutes” doesn’t sound like it would give much scope for the imagination, but there are some fabulous submissions. I’m looking forward to watching the rest and you can watch them too from July 2 – 15. And don’t forget to vote and help pick the next hot raw chef!

OLD FASHIONED TIPS ~ by hilloah

old fashtioned sewing kit

One of my favorite websites, actually a blog site, is Old Fashioned Tips by Brenda Jean. She uses vintage clips to accent her article. My favorite gifts are those that are beautiful yet useful. Beauty for beauty’s sake can be boring, and “things” without beauty are unappetizing. She talks about recipes and home cleaning tips, and uses such beautiful pictures and quotes from old books that are mostly out of date.

I love old things. I have a modern made cookbook from the wives of Fort Collins in Colorado. Each recipe has the wording from the 1800’s and the modern equivalent. Instead of saying 1½ Tablespoons of butter, they said “butter the size of a walnut”. Each recipe was tested to our standards of taste and they work. Some of the recipes have quotes from the creators. One such was a “Jenny Lind” cake that the creator made in honor of the evening she went to hear Jenny Lind sing.

All this talk about food, makes me hungry for the  Living Light Chef Showcase where the premier raw food chefs will be preparing food for us. Last year Chad Sarno and Victoria Boutenko were here and you should have heard the “Ooh’s” and “Ahs”. One of my favorites was Kirsten Gum and her “Great Green Cilantro Dip”. She made enough and brought some down to us in the office along with some of her raw crackers. Yummm!

Instant Replay by mary elizabeth

Hey – if you missed it in August, you can still see Living Light’s 2010 Chef Showcase by purchasing the replay available now on our website! We all wrote so much about it while it was actually happening, I kind of feel like posting the blog equivalent of a flashback episode and just pasting in a bunch of last summer’s stuff –  a blog replay in honor of the showcase replay. For example, from Kristin’s post about top tips from the showcase celebrities:

 Just close your eyes and listen.

Mother of Gourmet Raw Vegan Cuisine, Cherie Soria

Infuse your food with love, and eat mindfully. Commune with your food when you buy or grow it, wash it, peel it, slice it, and of course, when you eat it!

“Mr Flavor” Super Chef Chad Sarno

‘Don’t fear getting in the kitchen and exploring your creativity, take the jump and let the quality of the ingredients guide your dish;

The perfect dish is 60% quality of ingredients, 30% technique and 10% risk; all contribute to the final product.

Raw Cacao Queen Colleen Cackowski

Food is information. The minerals and nutrients in food give your body and its DNA information to do its job perfectly. The more high quality information you give yourself, the more equipped your body is to perform at an optimal level.

Or from Hilloah:

We have been working every day these past two weeks to make sure our culinary showcase was a success. I believe it was. Every chance I got I would ask an attendee if he or she thought this year was enjoyable. Without exception the answers came back: “Loved it!” “I learned so much!” “It is amazing what you can do with a tomato!”

See? I could fill this whole space with interesting things we already said about the showcase. But, I can probably come up with some new ones. I know from my own experience that the demos were fabulous and Cherie made the whole event a real treat, both as information and entertainment. Chad Sarno’s tomato demo was fabulous – I wish you could taste the consomme. And, of course, you can learn to make Vinnette’s desserts - she is the master. You can also find out why Victoria Boutenko thinks fruit flies are our friends. Another fun demo to watch is Cherie’s with the bok choy. Jennifer Cornbleet was acting as host, and once she got a sample she was rendered speechless as she was so enjoying eating it. In Nomi Shannon’s soul food demo, she makes a raw sweet potato souffle that is out of this world – just in time for Thanksgiving. So – check it out.