A Citrus Hurricane

Grapefruit Granita- Raw

If you don't follow professional golf and weren't watching the televised tournament last weekend, then you probably missed the little hurricane wind episode we had here in the California desert. The golf tournament formerly known as the Bob Hope Classic, now called the Humana Challenge was in full swing when hurricane force winds over 90 mph swept into town and blew over stands, leader boards, etc on the course and trees everywhere. It was so dangerous, they halted the play and called it a day. President Bill Clinton was here so you might have maybe heard something but probably not. With our mostly sunny climate, we get very little sympathy from the national news around here during the winters.

It was wild how the wind storm came out of nowhere and attacked us for the better part of the afternooon.  But during the winds our citrus trees were pelting out fruit to anyone that might get too close, kind of like the scene in the Wizard of Oz with the apple trees throwing apples at Dorothy and her crew except these trees had no visible arms. The fruit just came a flying!

The next morning it was completely still, the course was miraculously cleaned up and the golf tournament continued and looked like nothing happened but the rest of us where left with the aftermath of massive debris everywhere.

Eucalyptus trees were the biggest casualties, as they are just too bulky for the high winds around here.
This is our neighbor's unit as one of the golf course trees came colliding with their unit across the cart path and fence.

Trees out of the ground, roots and all.  See how "foggy" the sky is? Thats' sand!

The best little surprise out of the whole ordeal were scenes just like this one...

Citrus Fruit Everywhere!

Grapefruit both regular and pink, Tangelos, Meyer Lemons, Regular Lemons

It was all so exciting to get so much fruit but then we realized we only have so much time to eat it all! I'm a little acid sensitive so I can't do too much at once but Rich just loves "eating off the trees" as he calls it. This year they hacked up our beautiful Minneola Tangerine tree, the one I wrote about as giving off the juicy "Tangelo Bombs" last year. There are hardly any branches left to bear fruit. (That really irks me as it was totally unnecessary and we look forward all year to these delicious fruit!) Hopefully next year!

So in honor of all the fruit we have at our... table, I'm going to be exploring some citrus options for the next few posts, hope you don't mind. It's just that time of year.

First Up.... 

Grapefruit Granita- Raw

This is so simple and yet so refreshing. 

2 cups fresh grapefruit juice, strained

1/4 cup filtered water

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/4 cup lemon juice, strained

Blend together agave and water in a blender until well combined 

(room temperature water makes this easier)

Then add in the grapefruit and lemon juices and blend again. 

Pour into a non-reactive pan, I used a 8x8 baking pan.

 And freeze. 

Check every hour and scrape back the frozen top with a fork or back of spoon. 

3 times should be enough. 

It should take about 6 hrs but can be left for 3 days if you like.

Serve in a chilled glass with sprig of mint for garnish 

and eat right away!

Alternatively, you can let freeze solid and when ready

 break into chunks and pulse in food processor to get ice crystal shavings.

Add Some Booze!

For those non raw peeps reading this, 

you can add in a little vodka too- about 2 tbsp

 (this will keep it from freezing solid, among other things.)

Another option to dress this up is place in a chilled glass and 

pour your favorite champagne over for

 a specialty drink style bubbly slushie.

That's it for now!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for a great week ahead!

And The Fun Continues...

Raw Vanilla Cashew Creme Parfaits

I have to tell you, I feel like I've discovered something brand new! I've been making cashew creme for a while now and while I thought it was a good substitute for regular creme, I wasn't too excited about it to tell the truth.

Then I stumbled on a blog, TheRawtarian.com and saw her raving about this "fruit dip." I had to try it! I wrote down the recipe and made it while I was playing with the raw Nutella (last post.) 

It seemed all too familiar but...

I was surprised! and R, who was always a little mediocre about the creme, really liked it too! 

So I was all excited to share a new recipe with you, only to find as I compared it to the previous one I've posted about here, that it's pretty much the same with just a subtle difference- vanilla! and a little less sweetener.

It's like a whole different thing and I'm amazed! 

Just a little tweak and it made all the difference!

So in the interest of being complete here is the new version and I'm calling it:

Vanilla Cashew Creme

aka "Fruit Dip"

1 1/2 cups Cashews, soaked 1- 2 hours

1/2 cup Water

3 Tbsp Coconut Oil, in liquid form

2 Tbsp Agave or Honey

1 Vanilla Bean or 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

splash of lemon (optional)

Blend until creamy

Chill in Fridge

This really is amazing with fruit!

Vanilla Cashew Creme Paired with RAWtella, Bananas and Raspberries

For the Crepes, I tried a couple different ways to go. I came across a video of Ani Phyo making crepes and she uses flax seeds with either apples or bananas. Some reviewers said that the apple was a little less sweet so since I was pairing mine with raw Nutella and fruit, I thought that might be better.

I found the recipe and was a little bummed that it was vague about how thin to spread it or really what the desired doneness would look or be like. She also said it should make 4 crepes and I spread it really really thin and only got 3 crepes. Plus I let it dry almost twice the time she suggested and it still wasn't completely dry. But my thinking was, if it's completely dry, won't it be more of a chip? How will I fold it without it breaking? So I had to guess when to remove it from the dehydrator and let it go as long as it was dry-ish and still pliable. It wasn't tacky to the touch. She said her recipe with the flax would be less leathery but it still was. Maybe I did something wrong? Not sure but...

Apple Crepes with Bananas and RAWtella and Chocolate drizzle

It looked good! It tasted good!  Very mild in flavor and a little hard to cut through but I get that it won't really be like a crepe and I'm okay with that.

Ani's Apple Crepes

1 cored and diced apple

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

2 Tbsp Agave

1/2 cup water or as needed.

Blend apples, flax,agave and water until smooth.

spread evenly on a lined dehydrator tray.

Dehydrate 4-6 hrs at 104 degrees F or until completely dry. 

You can flip off the liner and dry a couple more hours.

After I tried that, I had to know what the banana crepe from The Rawtarian would be like so I whipped up a batch of that as well. So simple!

Banana Crepes with Vanilla Cashew Creme and Berries with Strawberry Drizzle

Banana Crepes 

4 bananas

 1/4 cup of water 

Blend up in the blender 

Pour onto a lined Dehydrator tray
Tilt tray to spread mix around 

 Dry overnight

 Peel from Teflex and flip
Dry about another hour
But still pliable

and I got me (4) 8"crepes!

Banana Crepe or Fruit Leather

This was very banana-y, very sweet and delicious! It's more like a fruit leather and that's is not bad at all. It is a little stickier and harder to cut than the flax version though. 

(You need a very sharp knife to cut through and your crepes get kind of smooshed so expect that.)

I would almost recommend making large full dehydrator tray square crepes, cut into quarters and then cutting into bite sized strips before rolling creme and/or fruit inside. Or maybe even a burrito style roll up would be good! Just a thought. But very tasty!

Strawberry Sauce

1 cup Strawberries

1/4 cup Agave

Blend until well mixed.

Add more agave to taste

Chocolate Sauce

1/2 cup cacao powder

3/4 cup agave (or maple syrup)

4 tsp melted olive oil

Blend in a small blender.

Will keep fro a week or so.

I hope you enjoy these simple delicious basics!

Breakfast is Served

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

We are really loving the citrus right now and with the trees still ripe for the picking, 

we are still exploring new combinations.

These little gems were almost too beautiful to eat!

But we got over it.

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

As you can see the ingredients are pretty straight forward.

Ingredients:

3 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

2 Kiwi, peeled and sliced

Pomegrante seeds

Mint for garnish

To use the tangelos as cups, I just sliced them in half and segmented with a grapefruit knife. 

Then used the electric juicer to swirl out the insides and get any remaining juice (to enjoy as I worked.)

Assemble all into the tangelo shell or bowl and garnish with mint.

Tropical Fruit Salad

This has been a total surprise!

While I love pineapple and bananas,  R. doesn't care for either of them and yet

 he's already asking for me to make this on a regular basis.

Go figure!

This recipe would be great all thrown in the blender too!

Ingredients:

2 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

1 Mango, peeled and diced

1 cups Pineapple, peeled cored and cubed

1 Banana, peeled and sliced

1 Lime, juiced

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar

1/4 cup shredded Coconut, unsweetened

Assemble first 6 items in the bowl and toss gently to mix.

Cover and let chill for about an hour.

Sprinkle with Coconut and Serve.

This morning's repeat.

Mmm....So good!

I called this breakfast but these are both good anytime!