Fun is just around the corner

I am blessed to live just a couple of beautiful tree-lined blocks from our community food co-op, the best video store ever, and an award-winning hair salon that I have yet to check out, despite my desperate need for a haircut.

This past weekend was the co-op's 5th Birthday. They celebrated in typical Asheville style with face-painting, balloon animals, and a fantastic bluegrass band. A great highlight of the evening was when the President of the co-op joined in with her harmonica. The sense of community is so strong here.

I've noticed myself falling into my regular reclusive tendencies of staying in my comfy home instead of making the effort to join friends in whatever they've invited me to. But when the fun is just around the corner, count me in.

Raw food recipe of the week - Apple Pie

Not too shabby. The cool thing about this recipe is that I didn't actually follow a recipe. I morphed ideas from two different recipes in order to use ingredients I already had on hand. And it actually tasted pretty good!



Crust: Almond meal, dates, agave nectar.

Filling: Apples, figs, dates, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Feng Shui

We had a feng shui expert come to the house. She said we needed a "water feature" in the back yard to help with our prosperity and prevent money from flying out of our life. So far she seems to be right because before we had that fountain hooked up, $99 flew out to pay for the feng shui expert and another $300 went for the water trough and solar pump.

Other feng shui rememedies the house needed: tons of metal in various rooms, some furniture rearranging, and a "mountain feature" in the front yard to protect us from the onslaught of "chi" coming from an oncoming street.

I actually love the changes so far. The living room looks cozier, the bedroom is much more bright and open, and the fountain fills me with glee every time I catch a glimpse of it. I'm not sure what to do for the mountain feature. Right now, we've just got the car parked out front to block all that darned chi.

Raw recipe of the week - Whipped sweet potatoes

This is one of those recipes that seems great when you take the first bite and then you're totally done. It might make a decent side dish at a raw Thanksgiving, but it's definitely not so great as a main entree.



Ingredients: Sweet potatoes, cauliflower, pine nuts, leeks, onion powder, flax oil, filtered water, Celtic sea salt, and parsley.

Maybe I don't hate building software, per se

I think I've made it pretty clear that I hate working with computers, I hate spending 30-40 hours a week chained to a computer, staring into monitors, creating technical solutions that only matter to some executive jackass who doesn't even use the internet. It's so mind-numbing that I actually tried to find a job doing anything else - dog groomer, waitress, receptionist - but no one would have me.

I'm now surprised to find that not only am I still spending 30-40 hours a week at a software job, but that I am also spending almost all of my personal time building a web application at home. Even more shocking is the fact that I am having so much fun doing it.

My work day is infinitely more painful now because I can't stop thinking about how much I could be getting done on my own project if I weren't stuck wasting so much time on some executive brain fart.

Raw food dish of the week - Dill cream cheese dip

My recipes lately have been pretty simple and unexciting. The house and work and whatnot have kept me busy, but I'm not one to abandon my New Years resolutions, so I've been finding easy recipes to try. Hopefully they will start getting more interesting again soon.



Ingredients: Cashews, water, dill, herbamare.

Composter!

Asheville doesn't have yard waste and food scrap pick-up like Seattle does. Ever since I moved here in June, I've been having to throw away all of my perfectly good compostable food waste, sending it to a landfill where it will never have a chance to break down and return to the earth. I make all my food from scratch, so this makes up the vast majority of my trash.

I was about to break down and spend the $190 plus shipping to get one of those rotating barrel composters. Being the ever vigilant Craigslist shopper, I found the exact one I was going to buy for only $25! I am the luckiest girl ever.

I've been happily putting about a 1/2 gallon of food scraps in there every day. At the rate I'm filling it up, I probably ought to keep my eyes open for a second one.

Raw food recipe of the week - Creamy Avocado Dressing

I really should learn by now that when I look at a recipe and say to myself, "It will probably be just fine without that ingredient", that it isn't going to be that good. Truthfully though, this was still quite tasty, but it was clearly missing the apple cider vinegar.



Salad: One of whatever vegetables were in my fridge (corn, cucumber, red onion, tomato, red bell pepper, clover sprouts).

Dressing: Avocado, cucumber, olive oil, agave nectar, and Celtic sea salt.