Carrot & Orange Cake (RAW)

from http://therawchef.com/therawchefblog/carrot-orange-cake

3 cup carrot, finely grated
2 cups pecans, ground in a food processor
1/4 cup raisins, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice*
Date paste**
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

* Mixed spice is a blend of cinnamon, coriander seed, caraway, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. If you’re in the US you can use pumpkin pie spice.

** Make the date paste by grinding 1 cup soft dates and 1/2 cup orange juice in a food processor until smooth.

- Thoroughly mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Shape into individual cakes or press into one large cake, ready to be cut at the end.
- Place on a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 8 – 12 hours. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can simply place the cake into the fridge to set.

For the frosting

1 1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons agave
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

- Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.
- Place in fridge to achieve a thicker consistency and spread on cake when you’re ready to serve.
- Garnish cake with nutmeg.

Going Raw

Mm mm!!  Makes you feel good!  Is good for you!  Is fun!  It’s the way to go!

If you’re new to it, check out a recent article that discusses what it is, how to follow such a diet, and even side effects.

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/Raw_Food.htm

A great book which goes into good depth and doesn’t necessarily suggest that a 100% raw diet is right for everyone is Becoming Raw.  There are numerous good recipe books also.  Two of my favorites right now are Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day and Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People.

Raw Zucchini Hummus

  

I’ve made this twice now, using sunflower seeds.  Not only is it good, but it keeps well in the fridge for a good 5 days.  We love this stuff.  In preparing this, I started out by blending the zucchini and lemon juice and found that it was a tasty porridge in itself – try it before it gets too smooth and see what you think!

INGREDIENTS

3 raw zucchinis, peeled and chopped
6 tbsp lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 pinches ground cayenne pepper
1/2 cup raw tahini
1 cup sesame or sunflower seeds, soaked
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzle
Fresh parsley, minced for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all ingredients, except oil and parsley, into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth or to desired consistency. Drizzle with oil and garnish with parsley. Complement it with crudités, raw flax crackers or whole-grain pita bread. You can also spread it on sandwiches, mix it with salads, use it as a dip, etc.…

NOTES

If you’re using a regular blender, I find that it’s easiest to blend the zucchini and lemon juice first.  Then add the soaked sunflower seeds in slowly.  Then the rest.  For the garlic, I suggest using a garlic press and letting the garlic sit for 10 minutes.

I could not find raw tahini, even at Whole Foods, so I used regular tahini.  However, making your own tahini is not difficult and I will be trying that once I get my Vitamix blender!

Wilted Kale Salad with a Creamy Chipotle Dressing

from http://therawchef.com/therawchefblog/wilted-kale-salad-with-a-creamy-chipotle-dressing

Chipotle peppers are jalapeno that have been smoked, and so are not raw. However, I love to use them as they have such a great taste and you don’t need to use many! I have provided an alternative combination of ingredients in the recipe as a substitute to using jalapenos that will give a similarly distinctive taste.

This is a real hearty meal with a kick that’s perfect for those cold winter days!

Wilted Kale Salad with a Creamy Chipotle Dressing

Serves 2 – 4

For the wilted kale

2 heads kale (this will seem like a lot but will wilt down when the salt is added)
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup baby tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds

For the dressing

2 avocados
1 chipotle pepper*
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon agave
1/4 cup lemon juice
Chipotle soak water as needed to blend

*If not using chipotle peppers, substitute with 1/2 teaspoon each of onion powder, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and tamari/nama shoyu.

- Remove the stems and then wash and cut the kale into small pieces. Place into a bowl, add salt and start to massage the kale until it wilts and takes on a ‘cooked’ texture.

- Add the tomatoes and hemp seeds to the bowl and mix in by hand.

- Blend all remaining ingredients in a high-speed blender until creamy and mix into kale by hand.

Karen's Taste-Bud Tantalizing Salad Dressing

from http://karenknowler.typepad.com/living_in_the_raw/2006/04/a_salad_dressin.html

Simply take each of the following ingredients, place into a salad dressing shaker or jam jar with lid, and shake well until fully mixed:

Base: Approx. 1 cup of olive oil + 1/2 cup of pure water (the water makes it less oily and gummy)

Sweet: Honey OR Agave nectar (about 1 Tablespoon)

Sour: 2-3 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Salty: A liberal shaking of a natural flavoured salt like Herbamare

Bitter: The juice of half a lemon

Pungent: Crushed garlic if you haven't used a spicy salt (above)

TOP TIP: Make more than you need as this will last well in a fridge for at least a week - and you'll be glad you did!

The type initializer for ‘System.Net.DNS’ threw an exception.

This error has come up and may be related to a known issue with Microsoft .NET 1.1.  If there are more than 50 bound protocols across all network adapters, this and other socket-related exceptions appear.

References

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815209
BUG: You receive a "The operation has timed-out" error message when you access a Web service or when you use the IPAddress class

On the above page is a link to a program called enum.exe that will list the bound protocols.  If the list is more than 50 long, you can either try to reduce the number of bound protocols or install a hotfix from Microsoft.  Unfortunately, this hotfix must be requested from Microsoft Support Services; there is no public download link.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/3/0/930e1ecb-a6c6-445f-bd79-82fc3e66f009/enum.exe
Link to enum.exe program to list installed protocols.

This can also be downloaded from our website at http://www.ndpcci.com/Downloads/Newtin/enum.zip

Converting a White background to Tranparent (Photoshop)

Here's a great tip if you have to "peel" a white background off an image which is much cleaner than using the magic wand, as the magic wand often leaves either a halo or a jagged/untidy edge.

1. copy the image to a new layer and delete the background layer
2. copy the image to a new layer again and INVERT it
3. copy the inverted layer into the clipboard, and switch off its visibilty for now
4. go back the the +ve image and create a layer mask
5. press ALT whilst clicking on the mask thumbnail
6. paste the inverted image, then click back to the image thumbnail in the layer palette
7. duplicate this new layer until necessary (5 times?) and delete the inverted layer you created at the start
8. merge down the layers one by one (Ctrl-E) choosing to "apply mask" each time