dehydrator – Helen's European Journey

The last few mornings have seen me scurrying outside dressed in wellies and waterproofs to pick the spinach for my morning juice before hurrying back into the warm again – although without the heating on its actually not that warm inside either. Its way too early to justify putting the oil heating back on and frankly to darn expensive. So, the extra duvet is back on the bed and for the past two nights the hot water bottles have been gratefully received by my feet. Oh the joys of an English summer……..

Thankfully I am still churning out lots of goodies in the kitchen which is going a long way towards comforting us against the bleak elements. There is nothing quite like a steaming cup of tea and something scrumptious and chocolatey on a plate to lift the weather blues away and leave a warm and fuzzy feeling behind.

This weekend I finally went on a raw potluck. I have been waiting since June to go on one of these but the dates always clashed with something that I already had planned. But this weekend was it. I had marked the day aside for some time and I thought about what I dishes I would prepare and take with me. Trouble was life threw us a curve ball this week and as it rampaged through our little house all my plans of making exotic gourmet dishes went out the window. More about the pesky ball in a later post.

In the end I managed to throw together some almond and tomato bread – I literally just threw some random ingredients into the food processor, whizzed them together, spread the mix out onto a sheet and dehydrated it over night. Thankfully it came out ok and was actually really tasty. I then knocked up some guacamole to go with it which is always an easy and safe fall back recipe. Luckily I had made some Moonie Pies earlier in the week and so I threw them in as well and off I went.

I had a great time meeting new people and actually sitting down and eating the same food with a group of people who share my views was something of a revelation. I took my camera along but predictably for me forgot all about it when I got there and so I came away without any pictures of all the yummy dishes that I got to try. I did manage to find a picture of a moonie pie though. I got the recipe care of Heather Pace at Sweetly Raw although I did replace her filling with one of my own. I have recently been able to get small coconuts at our local supermarket and so am having fun using fresh coconut in as many different recipes as I can. Using it in the moonie pies made them taste reminiscent of ‘Bounty bars’ and I must say they went down very well with myself, hubby and all at the raw potluck. I have another couple of coconuts in the kitchen and some visitors coming on Thursday so I feel another batch coming on.