Goodbye Beach, Goodbye Stove

Well, I've definitely filled up on tasty cooked food in preparation for Raw Week. Last night we actually kicked off dinner with some RAW food. Although, not the kind of raw food I'll be eating next week. While some raw food eaters do eat raw fish, dairy, and even meat, I'm planning on making my raw diet next week a living food diet - which to me, means vegan. And nothing heated above 108º degrees. The only exception I'm expecting to make - tea. I'm not sure I can give up all cooked foods and tea in the same week. I am going to try to brew my tea at a lower temperature though, not boiling water. And I won't be drinking it with my usual skim milk.

So, last night's raw food was one of the best things you can eat raw - oysters!


There's a great seafood store down the beach from us, where my father picked these up along with some littleneck clams to go in the paella. The littlenecks came right out of the river that runs next to the store, a half mile from our house. You can't get much more local than that. For dinner, my father made 2 separate paellas - one with more veggies and only littlenecks and shrimps for me, and one with chicken and chorizo for the rest of the fam. Look how colorful mine was!


Along with the littlenecks and shrimp, this has peas, roasted red peppers, poblano peppers, and artichoke hearts. And lots of saffron. It was delicious. Dessert was rhubarb pie that my mother made with vanilla ice cream.

I ate half of it before I remembered to photograph it. I'm so lucky - my parents are both amazing cooks. You can see where I get my skills from :)

Breakfast was more good food. There was fried eggs and bacon, although I obviously didn't eat the bacon. Derek also really enjoys my parent's cooking - its the only time he gets good meat cooked for him.

I had a fried egg, a cranberry scone with ginger pineapple jam, and a slice of what my mother called "Barbara's Pop Tart." She had some leftover pie crust and made a little galette with sliced mangoes mixed with some of the ginger pineapple jam. Needless to say - way better than an actual pop tart.

There were intentions of going on a family bike ride this afternoon. I was not thrilled about this - I don't think I've been on a bike in 10 years, and really don't feel the need to. But Derek is a big cyclist, and my mom just got a new road bike she wanted to try out. So we were going to adjust the pedals and seat on my mom's old mountain bike so we could all go for the ride together. But - much to my dismay - the seat and pedals on the bike were so wedged into place that no one could budge them. So Derek went on a ride with my parents, and I stayed home and went for a 3 mile run along the beach. Which was just fine with me.

After our activities, we all met up back at the house for lunch.

We had sort of shmorgishboard of random stuff in the fridge. I had half a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and cucumbers and a spinach and grapefruit salad with a grapefruit juice and EVOO dressing. For dessert I had a couple pieces of this chocolate.

Unfortunately, it was American Cadbury, not real British Cadbury. The Bristish Cadbury is sooo much better and creamier.

After lunch it was time to pack up and leave the beach. So sad. Luckily, we'll be back in a couple weeks for my mom's Kentucky Derby party. On our way home, we stopped and bought more of those Swan River littlenecks for dinner. We also stopped at a great grocery store owned my friend Jillian's family - Ring Brother's Marketplace. This is an awesome store - amazing fresh produce, seafood, meats, prepared foods, a nice beer and wine selection. The kind of store you wish you could live next door to! I stocked up on some great produce for raw week.

For dinner I made the same thing my father planned to make tonight - linguine with clam sauce. We discussed and compared recipes before we left. This dish was awesome. Eating a meal this good right before going raw definitely makes me feel like I could never go raw all the way. I'm trying it exclusively for a week to see how I feel and who my body reacts to it. And if it works for me, I want to try to incorporate a lot more raw meals into my diet. But there's just no way I could see doing it exclusively - not when there are meals like this I can whip up!


Linguine with Clam Sauce

serves 2

2 lbs littleneck clams, rinsed and scrubbed

5 oz linguine

1/2 lb chopped clams

1 small onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup bottled clam juice

salt & pepper

1 Tbl butter

2 Tbls EVOO

• Heat heavy pot over medium heat
• Melt butter in EVOO
• Add onions a saute until softened, about 2 minutes
• Add garlic and saute 1 minute
• Stir in red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste
• Meanwhile, cook linguine in large pot of salted boiling water until just al dente
• Add white wine and clam juice and simmer until slightly reduced, about 3 minutes
• add chopped clams and whole clams and cover pot
• Simmer until clams have just popped open, about 10 minutes, shaking pot occasionally to redistribute.  Discard any clams that don't open.
• Once all the clams are cooked, stir in linguine.
• Scoop linguine onto plates or shallow bowls to serve, topped with clams and broth

The broth is the best part of it - so rich and garlicky and slightly spicy.  Derek made me save all the leftover broth - he said he'd just drink it on its own!  I served the linguine with roasted brussel sprouts.  

I'm about to dig into the last of the carrot cake.  And then - its raw time!  Wish me luck!