PAM.

beauties! here is my interview with PAM's alisa donner posted on their blog today! this is part 1 of a 2 part series they are so generously creating with me! if you are inspired by this, share the love to your tribes & comment on the blog too! check out PAM and all the wonderful things they are doing to support & empower the mothers in all of us xxxx (cut & pasted this & mercury is in retrograde so bear with me please) 
   Renaissance Mama: A Kitchen Miracle Worker                 

When I was a newbie mommy I met an amazing woman named Jules Blaine Davis at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.  She had a son a little older than my daughter, and we had a brief intense conversation.  She closed it by saying we were Renaissance Mama’s.  I remember laughing and thinking, “yes, we are!”   Not too long later Jules and I took a parenting class together by the Echo Parenting Center, and she began the creation of what I believe is one of her life’s work: creating a healing kitchen and encouraging other mothers to do the same, actually teaching them.  To expand out from our breasts as we wean our babies and create beauty and healing in the kitchen for our families and our souls.  It is a complete pleasure for me to introduce you to Jules Blaine Davies, Renaissance Mama and Kitchen Miracle Worker.  This is part 1 of a 2 part interview series.

 AD:  You have a unique approach to food as healing.  In my opinion you go beyond medicinal, it is a holistic approach to nourishment, spiritual really.  Can you explain your vision more clearly?
RM:  I believe that food is life. The adventure of how we feed ourselves, how we gather our food, how we create this dance in our everyday lives is a creative and spiritual act. We carry all of our stories, our fears, our dreams, all of what we come with into the kitchen. It can be intimate and vulnerable as we have an opportunity to meet ourselves in a white peach, a golden beet, a deep & juicy cherry tomato, or even defrosting edamame! Turning on the fire, making food a priority, hearing our stories of where we came from and how we were fed are the main ingredients to making a life that nourishes us in a deeper way.
My work is about inspiring people to cook inside their super busy lives. It’s about pointing to the beauty inside the mess, healing ourselves inside a zucchini mint soup, freeing our resistance, learning to feed each other, make our own medicine, sate our creativity, feed our hunger for freedom while feeding our family. It’s about worth, love, and beauty. It’s also about killing a few birds with one stone.
I mean… welcome to motherhood!
If a doula, a home economics teacher, and a Jewish grandmother were going to have a baby, that baby would be a kitchen healer!
AD:  I first met you at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market when Ocean and Roma were newbies.  I know you still shop there regularly, can you tell us why you love that market so?
RM:  The farmer’s market is all BEAUTY all the time! It’s my beauty church. It not only inspires everything I create in the kitchen, it also reconnects me to the source, to my desire to cook, to my story, to my palette for that week….then I bring it all home and see my family eating what I gathered.  Sticky strawberry fingers and cherry cheeks, being fed by my freedom; this for me is the best part!
Also, the market is an incredible moment in time. We all get ready for the event, the farmer & the consumer, in the hopes that we will feed each other with our offerings. It has ritual and hard work woven into the fabric of coming together to be fed. The farmer and I have the same goal: we are both hungry. The farmer wants to feed me what she/he has grown and I want to fed by the farmer so we can continue this relationship. We have traveled to meet here at the market. We are aligned in our meeting, in our exchange, in our desire to keep each other going. I feel that this exchange is highly nutritious.
AD:  What do you look for in a vendor/farmer to pledge your loyalty to?
RM:  I love this question! I look for LOVE in my farmer & the team. I look for a genuine smile, a kindness and an appreciation for my offering to his/her offering. I look for a generous spirit, a trust in each other, that we will tell each other what we need to know. There is a different kind of energy on the food when you buy it from the farmers hand. If that love is not there, it will not be in the food, and love is the main ingredient to everything delicious.


 AD:  Tell us about your love fests!
RM: It’s all in those two words. Love fests are pure joy happening in random moments throughout a day. Don’t quote me on the exact definition as a love fest can be custom fit to any lifestyle! I just might inspire one to happen when I am having one! We can all do that! They are contagious. Love fests come in all shapes & sizes. It can be our morning snuggle fest with my family or a smoked salmon, radish, Persian cucumber, avocado sandwich that took a few minutes to make. Please come and experience a love fest in my kitchen, or a miracle in your kitchen. They are flexible and love to travel!

Truly Jules creates love fests and beauty in her kitchen on a daily basis. Usually she provides step by step instructions on how you can re-create one in yours too.  Find her at instagram @julesbdavis // twitter@julesbdavis // facebook @julesblainedavis or her blog !  If you live in LA, she does individual consulations and group nourishing kitchen sessions.  They are full of laughter, joy, and amazing food!
 
Jules Blaine Davis is  a consultant based in Los Angeles who inspires women in the kitchen: a kitchen healer! She is also a food blogger, guide, teacher, and mama!
Interviewed by Alisa Donner, MSW, LCSW, Co-Founder of PAM, and mom to an amazing wonder.

roots.




*beauties*
here is a tip:
rooted basil is AWESOME.
i bought this 2 weeks ago
at the farmers market
from a sweet farm called the eden of.....
(yes all the dots are in the name too)
they are the tent with the lady bug flags
they sell gorgeous corn, lettuces,sunflowers & more...

i put this basil in a big ball jar with some water to cover
the roots and it continues to flourish & grow
it's so happy here which is so rare for basil in a ball jar!
it's not only pure beauty on the table
but it's useful and i can just grab some leaves
for a fancy water, some quickie pesto or raw on top of warm pizza
name it.. you can do it
it's the best purchase yet! 

i wanted to share it with you
so when you see it
don't be afraid of the roots
embrace, buy & put it in a big ball jar!
xxxx

and.....
birthday
miracle
july 26
10 - 1pm
my kitchen
$100
2 spots left
xxxx

birthday miracle.


you say it's your birthday
well it's my birthday too yeah
sing it beauties!
there is a july miracle coming up 
and it's my annual birthday miracle!
a menu inspired by the local summer bounty of
BEAUTY

miracles are gatherings in my kitchen
where i nourish you & your stories
with abundance, beauty & love

the miracle is about creating a space
to feed each other in a new way,
learning how to create delicious food
inside super busy lives
& to receive this beauty in a new way

you will leave inspired with new ideas,
excited to cook & your hands full with
the best produce from the farmers market
(your belly's full too!)

FRIDAY//JULY 26//10 - 1PM
JULES KITCHEN
$100//reserve your wood bowl
ASAP/email me here

rule # 58 in michael pollan's
do all your eating at a table
check that @ the miracle
XXXX

watermelon love fest.







*beauties*
i have a sweet story to share with you
it aligns with my mission & mantra
to inspire you with beauty & create cooks out of y'all

last week i had a kitchen healing consult
with a mama who won 'me' at a school auction :)
(i became the lucky one)
as i approached her front door, i gently handled/petted
a few of her lavender stalks as i love to smell the earth on my hands
they were so abundantly oily that foam, yes, white lavender foam
emitted from the lavender! i thought i had pumped EO soap into
my hand from the dispenser maybe this is where they got the idea?
that was the first nurturing offering of the morning

this beauty mama came to the door & welcomed me
into her sweet home where the first thing you can see
from the door is the kitchen....it is the center of the house,
open for all to see & be nourished with some wood board love
and connection to all things food & love

we started talking about her home, her sweet children & books about
autism & diet, gut related issues, flora & birth control pills,
tuna fish & so much more...just another day in the office...
then she offered me a drink....
so, as you may or may not know,
my work is all about healing kitchens & changing lives;
recreating a connection to the kitchen that inspires us to cook &
then learning how to cook inside a life with so much busy, busy, busy.
thinking about food, feeding ourselves, nourishing our world in a
whole new way creating a food culture that resonates
with source, health, love in our homes

so with this said, she asks if i want a fresh pressed juice
i almost passed out
she just started taking whatever she had out of the fridge
she was doing a kind of mumbling chant of run on ingredients
to see what i thought but not really because it was what she had
it was so beauty love fest i can't even tell you

she gets her champion juicer out or something like it
the old school one with the super long neck that turns round & round
anyway - she started with watermelon & it went something like this

*watermelon love fest*
*gather*
super sweet watermelon - chopped up
meyer lemons - squeeze to taste/zest too!
persian lemon cucumber - peel if blending/nothing if juicing
lemon verbena - a little goes a long way//keep tasting

*juice it up*
this is definitely a make it your own kind of dance party
i did this in the blender
but next time (to reach her goodness)
i will use the juicer
they are both good with the best sourced produce
i put everything in and pressed play
cooling it or putting on ice is also so good

what is so amazing about this?
she has it in her to nurture & nourish this beauty
(we all have it in us)
she took out whatever she had & made it feel like a party
(she was growing lemon cucumber & lemon verbena)
she created it on the spot with whatever lead her to it
chapter 4 in the book that i need to write!
(we can do this)
don't wait for the party as it's already
started with your arrival into the kitchen
(get the bread knife & cut up some fruit)
her creation inspired me to make it at home & share it with all of you
these are the kinds of conversations i want to have!
it made me feel special, cared for & nourished
which i feel could just be an enzyme
xxxx


freedom.

i want to talk about freedom
i want to hear yours and
i will tell you mine

 here is the thing...i am not living fully inside of my freedom (or even half way but who's counting?) i feel crazy saying this as we are some of the luckiest people in the world to be so free.

 i have written & rewritten this post, sitting in front of words that are blurring, asking what they want from me, another blank screen, deleting more than usual and trying to figure out what i am supposed to learn (from my words to you) about freedom.. this just in: it's an ENORMOUS subject (heads up if you ever want to write about it).

 earlier on (back in 1776 :) when my canvas on life was a little less full, pre-marriage, pre-kids, with a different kind of chaos, freedom was a key ingredient to the kind of meal i was cooking up with the universe, intentions & independence intact, like a beautiful cork board of pinned images, quotes & thoughts.  i was inside of my freedom creating the next evolution of me. i was in my body, i was inside every choice, inside each creative moment, i was also on my way to yoga, a steam, body work, painting the 30th painting about relationships and taking NAPS... ahhhhh naps.

 split the screen to that cork board coming alive in a real way, with that nonstick tape that ruins the walls & stays there forever: a husband, 2 young kids, financial hardship, health challenges, life in the insane lane & more...

 freeeeedom? freeeeedom? come out, come out, wherever you are!

 when i ask myself about freedom now, today, july 3rd, 2013, my first thought is "i hope i am giving enough of it to my children, i hope they feel free" as though i am the keeper of their freedom and then i realize, i am the keeper of their freedom. it feels absolutely tragic for kids not to have freedom to explore their world, their feelings, their bodies, evolve inside their own rhythms, steep inside the generosity, abundance and beauty that freedom gives us so freely...

 then i go a step further, realizing that my freedom is their freedom... my kids, my family, my community. if i am the keeper of their freedom, i must be the keeper of my freedom...DING! the freedom award goes to....ME!

 then i look at my freedom. oy vey. it's an exhausted, cross-eyed, blurred bit of  self care hanging on a tattered string, it's a pair of crappy black out shades not doing the job, a dash of desperation, an old pair of cushion-less new balance sneakers with the last remnants of paint all over them reminding me of a time when i was free with mental flashbacks of clear ocean waters, pina coladas, endless moments of time (with maybe a nap thrown in) & being able to complete a sentence, a thought, an idea without being interrupted by anyone under 7 years old. it's a time when my words might have still meant something to someone. 

 i feel that freedom is not lost, i just lost it along the way.  the best thing about freedom is i get to create it again, customize it for how i will thrive today in my life, make a shape of freedom that fits inside the chaos so that i can breathe better & live deeper in my life instead of waiting to grab all of it later (like after the storm, which will never end, thankfully). 

 i think i have been hungry, ok, starving for some more freedom. i guess it always comes back to hunger, nourishment and how we are sating these pieces in our lives. i will let you know how it goes.

 happy independence day beautiesxxxx

fried grapes//brussel sprouts//hazelnut salad.






beauties!
this is a great potluck dish
for the freedom holiday
it will go with any spread 
it has the beauty & nutrients
that will save you during a day
that might not be the healthiest ;)
make it yoursxxxx

fried grape//brussel sprout//hazelnut salad

*gather*
2 cups grapes (red or green)
1 cup hazelnuts (chopped)
1 basket of brussels (cleaned/halved)
olive oil//white wine vinegar//honey
salt//pepper to taste
*if want you can add
goat cheese//manchego//pecorino*

*fire it up*
put oven on 400 bake/roast
place brussels face down in casserole dish
with olive oil & salt//leave in there for 15 minutes
then move around and leave for another 15
(total roast time 30 minutes)
chop up hazelnuts (mortar & pestle if you have one)
place in a small pan or small dish for oven
put in oven for 5 minutes OR in a small saute pan for 10 or so
let hazelnuts cool on the side
grab a wider (bigger) saute pan, turn the eye on medium
& swab some butter inside
pour grapes in when it's hot and let site for a minute or two
saute for 5 - 7 minutes & let cool a bit
combine in a good size bowl all 3 ingredients

*dress it up*
this dressing is definitely taste as you go
you can do 2 tbs of each ingredient
white wine vinegar//honey//olive oil
add salt and maybe some lemon
you can add a little more of the vinegar
as the it will shift with the sweet of the grapes
shake it up in a ball jar
(oh and heat honey to make it liquefy a bit
place the jar in super hot water and let it sit for a few minutes)

i want to hear what you think of this one!
click into the blog & share a comment
we all want to hear what you have to say
have an incredible week & sending so much love
xxxx

dark chocolate bark//iphone.






beauties!
how beauteous is this?
and it's SOOOOOOO
good. 
bring in the kiddos
bring in the love fest
this is a fun family activity
in the kitchen!
this is super good for you
in terms of candy makin'
(vegan//paleo//superfood!)

dark chocolate bark
(inspired by it's all good)
*gather*
14 oz. of good quality dark chocolate
(i love green & blacks 70% dark bars)
i used 4 bars for a small baking sheet
roughly chopped//sliced almonds
coconut flakes//goji berries
pistachios//maldon sea salt
as for measurement i just put how
much i wanted on each pan

*rock it*
line baking sheet with parchment paper
i place a bit of oil on baking pan
spread it around & then place paper on it
so that the paper will stick nicely down into pan
(no fighting with the paper and the melted chocolate!)
bring a pot of water to a boil 
place chocolate into a glass bowl
& set it over the pot
i like to stir the chocolate
with a wooden spatula/spoon
while its melting
it can be very grounding
stir until it's completely melted
pour into your baking pan
then go at it with your toppings
sprinkle them any which way you like
put the pan in the freezer for about 15 - 30 minutes
so it has time to set and you can break it apart
to eat immediately or put it in fridge in an air tight container!

this is such a great gift or a sweet to have at the ready
super doable & fun for everyone

i hope you will try this and tell me what you think
click into the blog & let me know in the comment section
what do you think about the iphone experiment? 
will you tell me in the comments too? this is the first time i have 
used my iphone for a full post! i would love to know your thoughts!

AND....
the next miracle is
MY BIRTHDAY MIRACLE
there will be special
happenings for this one!
july 26th//10 - 1pm//$100
rsvp soon//we are almost full
XXXX

summer in a ball jar//white peach & ginger.









beauties!
the old me: who has time to
make a summer drink?
you (& the old me): not me
the new me: we have time now!
this is so delicious!
it's summer in a ball jar!
you: wow, ok, love it.
(or maybe that's you and me)

AGUA FRESCA
white peach& ginger
(inspired by it's all good)

*gather*
3 cups water
1/2 cup raw honey
(i think this was buckwheat or avocado)
2 1/2 pounds white peaches*
(about 8/no pits/chopped)
2" knob of fresh ginger

*fire away*
put everything in a medium sized pot
on high heat//bring to a boil//
turn off & cover pot
let it cool to room temp
puree in blender
here is where it gets tricky
the recipe calls for straining
which is not an RM//julesy thing to do
(who has the freakin' time!!!!)
i just want to make something
fancy//good//delicious//amazing
in the two precious minutes i have
sound familiar? 
so i did try to sieve this beyatchie
but it was taking FOREVAH
so i drank it as is
which was so so so good
a little thicker than intended
(and frothy) but the taste was delightful
it's gotta be over ICE!

it really did feel like the summer
vibration hit me in a whole new way
i want to know your special summer drinks
& if you make this recipe will you share it with us?
click into the blog & comment
XXXX

*if you are close to the hollywood farmers market
go to ken's stand...his stone fruit are the best.
mango nectarines & white peaches are out
right now & they are incredible!
so lucky to be blessed with the best.*