For some reason I’m very drawn to the raw foods movement. Actually, maybe it isn’t so surprising considering most things in the raw diet are gluten free and vegetarian, but every time I think about trying it, I manage to talk myself out of it by asking, “why eliminate even more things from your diet and make eating even more challenging? Just add more salads into your life.” It just sounds so good for one’s body to eat almost all fresh food with enzymes in tact and such, and I think it is an all or nothing kind of thing. I’m sure the more fresh foods one eats, the better, but to get the full benefits it seems you would have to be at least 75% raw. I just read The World Goes Raw by Lisa Mann and most of the food not only sounds delicious, it is also mostly gluten free. There are some wheat berries used in some recipes, but it looks easy to replace them with quinoa. I really think I need to try this for a good month, at least, maybe even 3 months, and see how hard it is to eat totally raw while still cooking for picky boys and a not-at-all-raw hubby. I just don’t know if I can do it without a dehydrator, and I also think I would have to add beans into the diet, not just bean sprouts. I love beans and I read somewhere else that the longest living cultures (as in the cultures where people live the longest in a healthy state) eat a lot of beans. The recipes in The World Goes Raw rely heavily on nuts, and I think that would just get old. I don’t know, maybe next summer after I do more research into the diet because there is just quite a lot that I still have questions about, such as; can you drink tea if you make it without heat? (Like sun tea.) Is coffee just out of the question? What about wine? And that’s just the beverages!  Hm.

There’s been a lot of grumbling about the weather around here. I know there is a big heat wave in most of the country, but here in the Seattle area it’s been cooler than usual, rainier than usual, and definitely not what July normally is here. Most Seattle-ites will tell you that July and August or gorgeous, sunny and warm without the humidity most of the states deal with in the summer. People move here from all over after visiting Seattle in the summer, at least that is the old version of the story. The updated version of that story is that people move here from all over for Microsoft. Either way, the newbies must be having a hard time right about now. This drizzly day has me thinking, in the kitchen, which has led me to baking, something I haven’t done since the colder winter months, and I must admit I’m glad it’s not ‘baking’ outside with 90 degree heat because I’d never turn on the oven in that case. The other day I bought beautiful, voluptuous blackberries at Whole Foods. My oldest son used to adore picking blackberries in late summer and eating them off the prickly vines. Unfortunately, the berries in the clear plastic container just did not have the same allure. This got me thinking of blackberry biscuits, cobblers, crepes and such. So, I readied the gf biscuit dough (ala the Flying Apron cookbook) and it is chilling in the fridge. That only calls for a cup of berries though and I’m anxious to make something else, so I’m looking for a regular ol’ wheat flour kind of recipe for my husband to enjoy. Maybe the coffee cake from the Horn on the Moon cookbook. Then maybe tomorrow the weather could change…?

For our picnic lunch yesterday I made a wrap that reminded me of the Greek hummus veggie pita sandwiches I used to love. It was simple~ hummus on a corn tortilla with lettuce, tomato chunks and cucumber sticks. I wanted to add tzakiki sauce on top but was afraid it would be too runny for a packed meal. It hit the spot at lunchtime, especially with the cucumbers cut into long thick strips instead of thin circles~ it gave my teeth something to sink in to. Later for dinner I steamed broccoli and squares of extra firm tofu with a little soy sauce and balsamic vinegar for about 3 or 4 minutes. I warmed a tortilla for my oldest son and put the broccoli and tofu in the wrap with garlic sauce. (I ate mine on brown rice because there was some leftover in the fridge, although I love the wrap version my son ate.) He liked it although I was hoping for a more passionate response such as when he discovered the joy of artichokes and garlic sauce. At least I know I can get just about any green into him with enough garlic sauce!

While perusing the tortillas section at Whole Foods the other day I almost bought some corn tortillas that I had never noticed before. Just because it is such a habit, I read the ingredients and lo and behold wheat was listed. Why?! This really bothers me on several levels. One, there’s just no need to add wheat to corn tortillas~ there’s a reason they are called ‘corn’ tortillas. For another thing, it just panders to the wheat-saturated appetites that are bombarded with it in every single little thing. The biggest thing for me though was, does that mean corn tortillas cannot be trusted at say, a Mexican restaurant? That just sucks, quite frankly. There are very few carb-type things gluten intolerants can safely count on while out and about, and corn tortillas (I thought!) was one of them. Now I’m going to have to add to my annoying customer list of questions which is already quite long, “are these purely corn tortillas or is there wheat in them?” which just sounds bitchy, really, but now I won’t be sure. I mean if Whole Foods has the two flours mixed, then it is probably pretty common.