Cinderawlla for a Day

Traveling raw is simple. Be prepared ! Like the knowing boy scout, go with yr stock in check - an avocado, some himalayan sea salt, yr own olive oil or Braggs, kelp or dulse powder, dehydrated snacks like sprouted seeds and nuts, Lara bars, dried fruit, and flax cracks, fresh organic fruit, and when possible small kitchenware like a personal blender, a sprout bag or jar, wooden chopsticks, and a good travel knife. Damn, sounds serious ! And going for the day to Disneyland is no exception ! Expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when they actually offer you an orange. For $1.75 !! But that's no surprise, this is a theme park where a bottle of water with Goofy on it is $3.25. He must have gotten a sweet endorsement deal ! Yesterday, we joined the population of a small city at Walt Disneyland. On a raw diet, we were upbeat and on our feet in the heat, all day and evening. Britt and I started our morning with a green juice - loaded with dandelion root and ginger (so our fingers wouldn't swell up with all that arm-swingin) and packed for lunch crazy chopped salads, fresh peaches, chai raweos, and just-squeezed honey dew juice. Disneyland, always open to the poor and the food freaks of the world, does allow you to bring in yr own food and beverage (which I never knew !) and eat it in their picnic area. If yr sack's bulging with raw goodies and you want to stay mobile, there's a bunch of lockers to the left of the main entrance where you can stuff yr stash. This of course makes yr hands free to wave when yr flying over Fantasyland in a Dumbo seat. All around the park, I found fresh fruit stands - most of which you've got to question the freshness. But don't even hope for organics... if yr stranded and starved, this is all you've got - better than burgers but def sprayed with some rowdy pesticides. On Main Street, near the Tiki Room, and twice in California Adventure I stopped to check out the stands. Hilariously, the ones entitled "Fruit Market" or "Fresh Fruit" were half filled with Doritos, Cheetos, and Funyons. Disney visitors: the orange in Cheetos does not provide beta-carotenes and needless to say, there is nothing resembling an onion in a Funyon. To my raw friends, careful of the seedless grapes and don't go near any of the "juices." In classically clean Disney fashion, you won't find any brown spots on the bananas or any bruises on the waxy apples. Pineapple spears and watermelon slices look good but they cost more than you'd pay for a full melon at the farmers market. If all else fails, there's a somewhat scary Jamba Juice at the entrance where you can down a shot of wheatgrass and get a fresh-squeezed carrot orange juice on the rocks. Not too shabby considering I figured we'd be confronted with giant turkey legs, giant lollipops, giant churros, and giant people at every turn !! There was some of that. But some fruit too ! Awesome rides, awesome company, pretty awesome food (all that we made, but hey - when eaten in the sun it gets even awesomer), awesome outfits (check out our Disney duds),awesome Mickey, awesome day. p.s. i wish those nightmare before christmas cakes were raw !! but unfortunately they're 99 percent high fructose corn syrup. cmon goths, get with it !

Peace in the Middle of the Eastside

Diva and I always try to create an atmosphere of love when we prepare our food - loving food for loving people. And I love Helga and Andrew, our dining companions last night for a serious ass buffet of awesomeness. When we first met Andrew and Helga there was question as to whether we could keep them around, basically because we had just only weeks before them made friends with a couple named Andy and Olga. Total mind bend. Keeping them straight wouldn't prove to be too hard. These two are amazing - sound artists, musicians in the band Metal Rouge, fighters of the good fight, aesthetes, and recently real raw food champions. She may be a novice, but Helga makes the best raw no-bean hummus I've ever tasted and she even taught me a way to make pomegranate juice without a juicer. Just squeeze the fruit all around, on every inch, roll it on the counter, keep squeezing, feel the mushiness inside, then yr ready to poke a hole and start sucking. Love it ! On the menu for our Middle East Peace Party:
Carrots Casablanca
Humanity Hummus
Persian Country-style Salad
Doobie Dolmas
fresh cut veg crudite
flax cracks
pomegranate seeds
grapes
Mocha Lemon Chip Cheesecake
Our job was to supply the carrots, cheesecake, and dolmas. Around here, Britt's trying to keep his Lebanese side on the down low - but it really shows when he's rolling those doles. Mary my fabulous foodie mother in law - and incidentally, dolmas dauphin, but of the lamb verite - once said, "Rolling dolmas are easy. It's like rolling a joint." Needless to say, my husband was on a roll. Our grape leaves are washed of their brine, marinated in a bright citrus blend of lemon and orange juice with garlic and salt, and our filling has the best fresh dill, parsley, golden raisins, pine nuts, salt, cinnnamon, cumin, nutmeg, zucchini, and olive oil. We just die. Add some wine, some soothing herbal teas, some african funk, some heated debates on everything from shitty cereal to radiohead, some food conspiracies, and some serious ass serious love. We can all just get along.

No-No-No-Nostalgia

I wouldn’t normally suggest going through old computer files, looking for pictures of yrself – mainly because there’s a thousand other way more amazing things to do when the California sun is shining, but also because you might actually find some. That said, today, randomly, I stumbled across photos from an old Crops and Rawbers pizza party event at our friend Janet’s art gallery, Tiny Creatures. Even though we were siked on a No Age appearance that got canceled due to a bummed out Randy Randall cold, I remember the night being hilarious and full of weird surprises – like our raw candy-filled pinada getting the serious beat down by sugar-craving punks while I was forced to talk it up with some health food naysayer bugging me about protein and calcium deficiencies. Help me, Diva ! But she had pizza to serve and seconds to dish out. Our pies were tropical with pineapple, avocado, red bell pepper, and chilies, and rocket with homemade pesto, fresh arugula, olive oil, and crushed black pepper. We would have been snagging slices ourselves if it didn’t run out so fast. Sadly, there was a hungry dude with a nut allergy who we could not service. And we’re still sorry to this day ! Now we can reminisce together and take a look back to April 2008. Time travel on the internet does truly exist my friends. p.s. as i said, this night was weird and wacky, so please excuse any middle fingers, gum shout outs, or money eating. p.p.s. keep yr where's waldo eye out for my band Pocahaunted's collage art and our only-funny-to-us, very necessary Cuba Gooding Jr. tip jar.

Topical Rap

Here we are with video number 2, new and improved, but no less awkward. Its the adventure of our tropical bbq wraps, as they transform from chopped vegetables, to snug buddies, travel to chinatown, encountering some dc hardcore punk inspired readings and music by Sharon Cheslow and Steve Touchton, and get chowed down on by babies, cheslow, touchton, wendy, friends, I. Macky and more. Some of the wraps made it back home by the end of the night, only to experience the uncomfortable Palin SNL train wreck.

Chew-Tube

So, we are adding a new element to the crops and rawbers blog, and that is video.
Now you can see us come to life through magic of video technology.
We will be posting some how-to recipe episodes as well as just us hanging out at weird events and going to farmers markets...if that sounds like your kind of entertainment, then please enjoy.
Here is our first video (and by first i mean full of awkwardness) about making delicious raw pesto pasta. All the videos will also be viewable in one concise setting on our youtube channel, youtube.com/cropsandrawbers
(video highlight: the crops and rawbers aprons that amanda's mom bought us)

Just Call Me the Angel of Morning

Morning routines are crucial, and in the raw home they’re damn near psychotic. But I say give in to the organization of supplements, stretches, and scrubbing – don’t fight it ! After dry brushing my whole body, trying to have a successful BM (hey, there are no secrets here), jumping on my trampo, and popping my probiotics, it’s time to get serious at the juicer. Diva told me that since she’s begun her green smoothie breakfast regimen life has been siked and beyond. For me, it’s a sipping a green juice before noon from a green tinted wine goblet through a glass straw. This shit is crazy satisfying and sort of luxurious, actually. For weeks, Britt and I have been doing the usual cocktail – kale, apple, celery, parsley, a slice of lemon and, if we’re feeling like royalty, half a grapefruit and a knob of ginger. Fly me to the moon ! But even my fussy pants, obsessed with getting one thing right and recreating that glory over and over, wants to get dicey and through some other combos in the mix. When I suggested getting fruity, Britt insisted we needed more greens. He’s a green fiend, obviously. So now I’m just going for taste and sensation – brain boosters, limb lifters, skin savers, pee pushers, fat flushers, and the like. Today’s delicious mash up – my “PUT UP YR CUKES JUICE” – a whole cucumber, the juice of two limes, and a good shake of crystal manna spirulina. Crisp and citrusy with that perfect hint of algae ! We’re not drinking boxed up Capri Suns around here, people.

OOh Baby I Like It Raw

That fitting refrain from Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Ya” was playing in my mind last night while Britt and I dined with hip hop legend-in-the-making journalist Brandon Perkins. Besides being a RZA chronicler and boy Friday at URB Magazine, Brandon’s juggling scripts for Lil Wayne, an application to Harvard Grad, and all the fine ass honeys on the dancefloor. And yet he still finds the time to show up at our pad carrying a petite sirah and flowers (!), with an empty stomach, in a Honda Civic he’s borrowing from the Wu Tang tour manager. What!? This is the stuff dinner guests are made of ! Before his arrival, we whipped up our now famous brazil nut pesto pasta and a loaded salad drizzled with one of Britt’s amazing dressing creations. The truth is, I’ve seen Brandon suck down everything from shrimp tacos to pizza with the works, so if we’re serving this rural Connecticut man it better be a hearty dish with depths of umami !. Follow that up with our raw Mexican Hot Chocolate “I Scream” – careful there’s jalapenos in there – and we were off to see Josh Brolin totally kill it as our fumbling President in W. Delicious wine, great company, gorgeous fresh food, presidential parody, and a few shout outs to our beloved Ol’ Dirty – an outrageous rapper who liked to do it raw. RIP ODB.