Holidays and Dinner Parties

Trying to avoid cooked foods and stay raw on holidays and at dinner parties--for me--is probably impossible at this point in my life.But, it is possible to improve on past performance.

On the 4th of July my family has a huge picnic. With 10 brothers and sisters, on my mom's side, and all of them having kids, and their kids having kids, well, it's a big party. All the cousins are very close having grown up together. And everyone brings their specialty dishes.

My plan was simple. I filled myself up on fruit before going and I brought my superfood smoothie to drink once I got there. Then...let the potato chips fall where they lie. In the end I did have some barbecue chicken that my son made, some cake, and two hamburgers. Not bad compared to previous years.

Last night my friend Mike Ryan had a little dinner party at his beach cabana. Mark and Gerre were there, as were Mike's two dates, Susan and Christine. I just brought myself. There was another man there whom I don't recall his name. But I do remember his fixation on health care. I told him to change over to a raw food diet and he wouldn't have to worry about health care anymore.

In his invitation Mike assumed that I would bring something raw. I brought zucchini squash chips that I drizzled hot pepper sesame oil on and then stuffed in the dehydrator for a few hours.I also brought a dip for some of the chips that had no oil. I think everyone liked them because they were almost all gone by the end of the night.

The dip, or dressing (I use it as my favorite salad dressing) is made with:

2 cups of olive or flaxseed oil
2 TBS of Nama Shoyu or Soy Sauce
2 TBS of Tahini (raw if possible)
6 cloves of garlic
2 inches of ginger
2 the juice of 2 lemons
1/2 or more cup of nutritional yeast (most important ingredient)

Put everything into a blender until smooth. My daughter Gina gave me this recipe.

I came to the party after eating as much raw fruit and vegetables as I could so I wouldn't be hungry. That worked fairly well as I didn't do too bad. I did eat most of the my bowl of Mike's paella, I drank the wine that Mark and Gerre brought, and some other things. I think the health care guy brought bread...white bread. (He better keep thinking about health care.)

I will say this, we all spent the night laughing (and making trips to the john). I like raw food, reasonably, but I love my friends!