Borrowed Books and Gooseberries

In an effort to not spend all my money on cook books I went and took out two raw cook books from the library. "The Complete Book of Raw Food", edited by Julie Rodwell, and "The Raw 50" by Carol Alt. I am not eating all raw, but I am always looking for new ideas on how to use raw vegetables and inspiration for dressings, snacks and desserts.

I'm not too impressed with the raw 50 - I guess I'm spoilt by all the new, glossy books that include a full-page photo for every recipe. Also, many of the recipes don't go with the diet I'm trying (SCD) - no flax seeds, no buckwheat - but there are a few things I would like to try. The Complete Book of Raw Food is just epic, and at first I didn't know where to start, but then I just "read" it cover to cover and ended up bookmarking only six recipes to try - not exactly an impressive score, so good thing I borrowed rather than bought.

It feels like it's my birthday every time something I ordered arrives in the mail; this time it was snacks and also my yoghurt machine, which arrived when I wasn't home, though, so I had to pick it up. I must have been a sight, coming from the store with two big plastic bags, one holding a yoghurt machine as well as groceries, and my backpack full of clothes - I went straight from the gym and it is now a proven fact that I am not too vain to pick up a parcel while wearing my gym pants. The yoghurt machine - which is quite an old-school, small plastic contraption that heats up seven lidded glass jars - is installed, and my test batch is chilling in the pot while the little yoghurt jars are drying from their first wash.

One of the snacks I received is a date "tea", made from dried dates, rasins, coconut, cinnamon and ginger. The spices remind me of christmas and I may just continue drinking my own "Cheat's Date Tea" instead - one tablespoon raisins and one sliced, dried date steeped in boiling water. I even have a use for the leftover soaked fruit: I was making a very small batch of jam the other day while finishing a glass of date tea and adding the plumped-up dates and raisins seemed like the naural thing to do. The jam was made from a small portion of red gooseberries - leftovers from a portion brought by my mom - and two peeled and sliced apples, which I boiled and then sweetened with a bit of honey. I added plenty of vanilla powder and dumped the soft raisin/date leftovers in the mix - the resulting jam is the best thing on breakfast.