My Taste of Health cooking demo!

Hiya guys! Well, I was a bit absent last week. Not only has it been very busy as a mom with the girls, but it's also been busy with the release of ED&BV and preparing for my Taste of Health demo yesterday.

I had a super time at my demo!! Some of you reading may have been there, and if so, I hope you had fun and enjoyed the munchies! :) I did meet a few of you in person, and that was truly a treat for me!! How special to actually put a face to a name... like Angie with her beautiful little girl. So, thank you all for coming out to my demo. Yay, I love cooking for you!!

Here's a picture from after my demo, and the Earthsave volunteers you see here in matching shirts... well, they were just marvelous - helpful, keen, and lovely people. Can I have you help in my own kitchen?! Evan, thank you for all the food prep and serving all those samples. It was tricky to pull off the 4 recipes in 45 minutes, but we did it!

So, as I mentioned I showed four new recipes from ED&BV at the demo. I started with my Acai Antioxidant Smoothie, followed by Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, then my Living Caesar Salad ('raw' foods dressing), and of course.... of COURSE a sweet! I finished with 5-Star Ice Cream Sandwiches, and did another version using my Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Vive. So, needless to say we had LOTS of samples floating out to the audience.

I had a number of people comment on how 'authentic' the Caesar Dressing tasted. One of the volunteers, Emma, kept saying "I'm just shocked... it tasted like Caesar... for the first time... and not like tofu"! That's EXACTLY what I was going for with this dressing. Hurray! And there's a story behind this dressing. I originally had a 'Classic Caesar Dressing' for the book, which was delicious but like many vegan caesars, it used silken tofu. Then, I came up with this 'raw' dressing, using raw nuts. I remember e-mailing my publisher as we were close to finishing edits with the book, saying "we really need to add this Caesar... can we?" They did, thankfully, and we decided to swap it out for the other Caesar so the recipes wouldn't get confused in the book. Later I'll give you info about the soy-based Caesar, along with some cool and exciting news, but it will be a couple of months before I tell you about it (and no, it's NOT another book)! And isn't this the prettiest picture? We did this outside at our photo shoot... I love this photo, though I tend to use more dressing on my own personal Caesar. As I've said many times, I'm a saucy girl!

One more thing about this Living Caesar Salad. The recipe gives two versions - one with nuts using cashews and pine nuts, and the other using seeds. I wanted to give you two options because of nut allergies. So, the second option uses sunflower and sesame seeds... and is just as delicious! You simply need to add a touch more agave nectar to the seed version because the seeds are not as naturally sweet. You'll see this in the recipe sidebar. Finally, this is another photo from my book, showing the salad with my Polenta Croutons. The polenta croutons obviously aren't 'raw', but they are delicious - and EASY to make! So, use what you want as an accompaniment to the salad - traditional croutons, my Polenta Croutons, or use raw or roasted pumpkin seeds. Any way it's delicious!

Now that I've raved about this Living Caesar recipe, I won't tease you much longer. I WILL post the recipe this week, once I have the electronic edited version.

I will also publish the Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, shown here in another photo from ED&BV. So, check back for those recipes... unless of course you already have ED&BV! Do you?... has it arrived yet?!!

I sampled a few foods at TOH, which were really yummy, but I didn't stick around too long. I was rather wiped after the entire week, so I headed home early knowing I still had a bit of a drive ahead of me. But, if I lived in Vancouver, I'd be back there today getting some nummies! Taste of Health is still happening today (Sunday), so go down to the Croation Cultural Centre if you want to check out new veg foods and samples!