The Latest News

Has it been over a week since I last posted? So much for my New Year's resolutions. I was determined to post twice a week but somehow, amid everything, the blog got neglected yet again. Actually my journal hasn't had an entry since April 2009 so it could be worse. The thing is, I have been truly busy with all things raw and more than just the blog is falling to the wayside. My holistic nutrition studies, my music, my social life are all on temporary hold. I have recently been offered a book deal to write a raw food recipe book with a really great publisher. I've been working on recipes for some time but now that I have deadlines and high expectations my time is spent either in the kitchen or on my laptop researching and writing. It's been amazing so far and it's exciting to see it already taking shape. I'm making the book that I wanted when I first went raw, a book for the uninitiated and intimidated. My dream is to see raw foods become mainstream, so this is my labor of love to get the information out in a way that makes sense and is easy to follow. It's also the main reason I haven't posted new recipes or photos on the blog or website. I'm saving them for the book but I'll probably be able to spare a few here and there, especially come summer time.

Just an FYI that I recently started a YouTube channel that is going to feature a variety of lifestyle and raw related topics. I'm currently shooting my ex-supermodel brother-in-law's 30 day raw food journey (he's in his boxers, you don't want to miss that one!) and I'm going to show you how I trained my cat to use the toilet. There will be some product reviews, food demos and much more. Once the book is completed I'll have more time to work on the videos so check back regularly for updates.

Other things on the agenda: another trip to Costa Rica in February, Longevity conference with David Wolfe in March and Coachella in April. If anyone is going my way let me know!

xoxo
J.

...aaand I'm Back!

So nice to be back in southern California. I was at Living Light Culinary Arts Institute for two weeks and in NYC for four weeks teaching my raw food basics as well as learning some cooked culinary arts as well. I took a class from the Natural Gourmet Insitute in Manhattan. They offer a range of different healthy cooking classes from vegan, to raw to meaty things. I took the Southeast Asian Vegan Banquet class and just loved it. We made: hot and sweet sesame nori fins, watercress and green mango salad with peanut dressing, red bhutan rice with roasted baby vegetables with lemongrass and cilantro, yellow pepper-coconut milk sauce, spinach-thai basil sauce, baked tofu triangles, Indonesian sambal, crispy rice sticks, and mango-lemongrass ice cream. It was really fun to try something new, heating food!, but I kept thinking about how I'm going to convert these into raw. Can't do that with the rice but the sauces, definitely. I often find my inspiration for raw foods from the cooked food world as opposed to leafing through raw recipes books. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, I would rather do my own spin on things. At least that's how I'm approaching the recipes for my, one day, raw book bestseller. :) Here are a few photos from the class.



Though I don't advocate eating tofu I did appreciate that everything was cooked in coconut oil (minimizing the formation of cooked toxins). We got to chow down at the end of the class and enjoy our hard work. Everything was absolutely delicious and they even served white wine (you can bring your own, too) with our dinner. I would certainly take more classes like this in the future.

Since I've been home I've been going to commercial auditions, detoxing (I'm on day 6 of 10), and working on various raw food endeavors. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but I have lots of great things on the horizon. Raw foods has put me on such an amazing journey. I never know what unique opportunity is around the corner. The other night I made an appearance at the Center for New Medicine to promote my upcoming class and a woman asked if I could develop a raw cookie/treat for horses. Sure thing! The head of the center wants me to come to her home and teach her housekeeper how to make raw foods. OK, will do! and a couple of weeks ago I got an offer to go to Tulum, Mexico and Brazil to make vegan and raw food for two different retreats. Alrighty! I'm super excited and grateful for all that life is offering me right now. I think when your heart is in the right place things just start to come together. In the near future, I'm going to be doing some filming, as well as a lot of writing, so I will keep you all posted. Thank you to all who have been keeping up with my blog and sending great comments my way. xoxo.

G Living Interview

Last week I did an interview for one of my favorite websites G Living. Check out my Q&A here. Rock!

On The Road Again

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Living Light with my friend and fellow raw food chef, Kirsten Gum, for a week of ethnic food exploration and recipe development. Check back to see some of my new creations!

Home At Last

Sunday night I returned to California with fun memories, great experiences, tons of luggage and a massive hangover. That's pretty much the way every NYC trip ends but this one went much longer than I had anticipated. It went from a six week internship to a three and a half month adventure. After I had finished working at Bonobo's I decided to stick around and sign up with Innovative Artists and Ugly Talent to see if I could do in NY what I do in LA. I booked a Reebok and a Nationwide Insurance print campaign which is not bad for a newbie to the scene but was hoping for more commercial auditions which are, unfortunately, few on the east coast. Nevertheless, it was nice to see that I can book jobs on both coasts and an impetus for me to come back next year. Matt and I will be doing some apartment shopping out there next summer but for now I've got plenty of projects to complete so I'll be hunkering down at home with studies, music and screenplay writing.

A few of my favorite things that I will miss:
My flat


McCarren Park Pool


Moto


Walks over the Williamsburg bridge


Cruising around the neighborhood


Roebling Tea Room - my favorite brunch spot


It was such a cool experience to finally live and work in my favorite city in the world. It was hard to stay home and study when there was so much going on in the city. Almost too much going on. I think I stayed home about a dozen times the entire time and it was only because it was raining or I was exhausted from the night before (explains why I haven't blogged in 2 months). Definitely looking forward to going back when the weather warms up and I've accomplished what I need to do here. Hoping to finish the Scouts record over the holidays and then raw culinary school early next year. Either that or riding Matt's coat tails over to Europe again next year. We shall see...

NYC So Far

It's been almost three weeks since I arrived here and I'm amazed at how fast it has gone by. Seems like I just got here yet I've done quite a bit. The first four days I used just to catch up with friends and get settled in. The six days after that I spent training at Bonobo's. It's been an eye opening experience to say the least. I've never worked in a restaurant before and, well, never had to deal with so many rude people in one day. New Yorkers are CRAZY. I'm at Madison and E. 23rd which I thought was a pretty mild mannered business area but for some reason it seems to be a weirdo vortex. Maybe it's because we're right in front of Madison Square Park which can be a little sketchy in the evening. Yesterday a guy high on heroin started lunging at people on the sidewalk. Luckily, I was on the opposite side of him and slipped out of danger. Anyway, I've learned a lot about the raw food restaurant business and realize it's not for me. I'd much rather be a personal chef and work with individuals than try to please hundreds of hungry people every day. I'm only working three days a week there now for the rest of the month and then I'm done. On my off days I'm studying and writing new songs. Matt was here for three days last week so we visited as many raw food places as we could and walked around the city fantasizing about where we would want to live if we could afford a place here. I absolutely love it here and would love to spend half the year here and half in California. I don't do winter so you will not see me out here with snow shoes but the summer is fantastic. I don't mind the heat and humidity. My skin looks so great, no wrinkles! woot!

BRB

About to hop on a redeye flight to Costa Rica to hang out with Ginger Pumpkin in San Jose. We'll be attending Festival Imperial (Imperial is one of Costa Rica's signature beer companies) and one of the last Smashing Pumpkins concerts for a little while. On Sunday Matt and I will go to Mal Pais to hang out with the monkeys and eat coconuts. I'll have lots of amazing photos to share since Matt just bought me a Leica camera for my photo endeavors. He calls me 'Leica hurricane' now. For now I'll leave you with this photo of two super cute lunch coolers I got. I have been searching for some discreet coolers I can tote around on set or when I go out. I guess the doggie lunch cooler on the right isn't exactly discreet but it was too adorable not to get. My goal now is to convert a Louis Vuiton bag into a cooler. Gotta keep my raw goods fresh while looking sassy.

Twenty Dollar Make You Holler!

For Matt's birthday I took him to one of those $20/hour massage places that have spread like wildfire all over southern California. They advertise as foot reflexology salons but they do head to toe massages. It's pretty crazy. I went on yelp.com to find the best one and found LH Foot Massage in Little Saigon to be our jam. First they soak your feet in a hot herbal foot bath for 20 minutes. You lay down (clothed) in the reclining chairs and they do pressure points on your head, neck, shoulders and arms. Then they work your feet. Just as you sink into a state of pure bliss they turn you over, climb on top of your back and smack the crap out of you. I was grunting because she was working me so hard. I looked over at Matt and he was getting pummeled too. It was hilarious. I wanted to get my camera out so bad. Even though it was a bit rough, I would definitely go again but I'd ask them to take it easy. I almost felt bruised afterwards. I also felt super thirsty. I'm not sure if that's a normal response to massages as this was the first time I ever got a 'professional' massage. It was definitely a birthday to remember for Matt. He said he'd go back for sure.


As we were leaving the massage parlor, Matt and I came across a Vietnamese vegan supermarket that sold all things soy and I mean ALL things soy. I was shocked to find soy chicken feet and internal organs as being something that people would want. Is there really a market for this? I'm going to have to ask my Vietnamese friend what the deal is. It was kind of ironic that we ended up going to a wedding last night that served a seven course Vietnamese feast. I completely forgot to pack some raw goodies but figured at least there'll be some salad. I guess they don't eat much salad in Vietnam because all they served were tons of fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried fish, lo mein with meat chunks and whole roasted duck, including the head. Oh and sliced oranges...to clean the palate...I had quite a few of these. I also had some tiramisu. I know, I'm bad. I need to find a discreet, fashionable cooler that I can tote raw supplies for emergencies like these. I almost always have Larabars in my purse but I brought my little Chanel bag that can hardly fit anything... I think I might have just come up with a brilliant raw food marketing idea! hmmmm...:)

Green Smoothie Anyone?

As the weather starts warming up in California I am going gaga over smoothies right now. This is my typical breakfast, a tropical delight with a few leaves of romaine in there. It's an easy way to sneak in an extra salad and you don't even taste it. Really! And my blender is so badass it breaks the cellulose down so I digest every bit of life force it's got. I've been getting crazy in the kitchen lately as well. My dream right now is to go to raw culinary school but it's a bit out of my budget at the moment so I'm learning as much as I can through the dozens of recipe books I've been acquiring through Amazon. I'm trying 2-3 new recipes a day and I'm surprised how proficient I'm getting. I made a rocking dark chocolate ganache tart for Matt's birthday.

The recipe is from Raw Food Real World and it's pretty simple to make. It's more rawish than it is raw but I was really just hoping to make a great vegan dessert so this was perfect. The main ingredients are cocoa, maple syrup and coconut butter. The icing is vanilla cashew cream made from cashews, coconut meat, agave and vanilla. Its a very rich and elegant dessert that makes a big impression. It was a big hit with the friends. We've been hoarding the leftovers and take little nips off of it every day. It's like crack so be careful!

Officially Swedish

This sad face...

...made this awesome kitchen.

IKEA and Matt make a great team don't they? The kitchen isn't completely done yet but it's functional. See me juicing those apples? Yep, life is good. How about that stove top and oven I'll probably never use. I tried to convince Matt to return it when I went raw but he said no. I might get a big chopping board made to cover it so I have more counter space. I'll post the before and after shots once it's completely done.

Getting There

So our cork floor is in. The electrical got redone. We painted the walls. We assembled the frames of the cabinets with some help from our friends (one of them worked in high heels, fierce). A few more days and we're going to have a functional kitchen. I think. Most of the work has gone pretty smoothly though, I had a total freakout at the customer service department of IKEA. I'm not even going to say what happened. It was ugly, but it's all good now. Time to take the rest of the day off and get ready for tonight's festivities. Going to dinner at Oaxaca Mio with a bunch of friends and planning on having one last crazy, cooked meal for 2007. I'm going out with a bang because for the next month I'll be on a strict raw vegan plan. I've only been 50-75% raw since mid October when I went on vacation and have started to put on the pounds. I definitely have more energy when I'm totally raw so I want to get back to where I was over the summer. I felt better, looked better and had more clarity and creativity. I need all those things in abundance in my life right now. I've got a lot to do this next year!

Happy New Year, dear friends!!