Oi there! Hello hello! I’m so glad it’s the weekend, aren’t you? And of course that means it’s time for your feedback. So don’t be shy – get involved! This website is here for you, and building your community – so jump right in and share your comments, critiques, thoughts, support, and suggestions.

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As always, the Feedback Forum will be hanging out here at the top of the page all weekend. So you can check back any time and drop a line. We’d love to here from you! Have the most magical weekend!!!

Up high on Damian’s list of favorite foods, there’s a special spot for curry fried rice. But alas, fried rice is notoriously finicky!  So often it ends up sticky, smooshy, or super oily. I’m really good at getting the ‘smooshy’ type. Curry fried rice pudding? Not so much with the nom.

So I came up with this alternative, which offers the same flavors but without the potential disaster.  It’s easy to assemble and the texture is lovely – no sticky, no smoosh, and no oil slick! The rice holds up well through baking and doesn’t deteriorate at all, yet the overall dish remains moist.  And of course, it’s baked instead of fried, so it’s much better for you. Bonus!

Ingredients

4 cups ‘leftover’ brown rice (cooked and then refrigerated for at least 24 hours)

1/2 a medium eggplant, cubed

white onion, slivered

poblano pepper, sliced

other veggies like bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, etc

4 cloves garlic, crushed

about an inch of fresh ginger, finely diced

1/2 a pineapple, cubed (if you don’t have fresh, use 1 can pineapple chunks)

2 cups vegetable stock

2 tablespoons red curry paste (my favorite)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave

optional: 1/2 cup raw cashews

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º.

Oil a large pan over medium-high heat, and add the garlic and ginger. Sauté until browned.  Add the eggplant, onion, and poblano, and sauté until onion gets glassy.  Add the remaining veggies and cook for a few minutes, then remove from heat.  

Put the rice in a giant mixing bowl and dump everything else on top. 

Stir it around so it mixes together real good.  *Slop slop*  This is the fun part!

Dump the mix into a large, lightly oiled casserole dish, and spread it out evenly.  Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes, then uncover and bake another 15-20, until the liquid is just gone. 

Stir to ‘fluff’ before serving. Drizzle with hot chili oil and soy sauce to taste.  NOM!

I’ve spent the past few days sort of passively reflecting on this experience, gathering the insights I’ve gained and preparing to set my intentions as I re-enter the world of variable consumption. I remember coming off of my last cleanse and feeling like I had really been through an Odyssey. Like Homer’s hero, I had battled my modern mind’s equivalent of the Cyclops and the Sirens. I swear to you, my ten days felt just like the ten years Odysseus traveled.

But this time . . . not so much. So now, the question becomes not ‘What will I do with all this newfound knowledge?’, but instead ‘Why didn’t I have an earth-shaking voyage?’ Here are my three theories:

Animal Poison – I wasn’t a veg*n the last time I did this, and I was carrying a load (a lifetime!) of contamination. Really, I could spend the rest of the night writing about the toxins hidden in meat and dairy, both the ‘man-made’ (antibiotics, etc) and the ‘natural’ (cholesterol, etc), and the myriad health risks that come with consuming them. I suppose that now is not the place. Suffice to say: 1) read The China Study, and 2) I suspect I simply had less to let go of.

Chemical Poison – For a long time I ate organic ‘when I could afford it’ . . . which wasn’t very often. After my last cleanse I tried to eat as organic as possible, without worry towards the cost. Over the course of the year I’ve evolved my habits and loosened my [perceived] purse strings (it’s really, really not much more expensive), and incorporated more organic standards. Then during my raw month, and ever since, I’ve eaten almost exclusively organic. And now a year later, I think I just have less chemicals to expel. Organic matters!

Emotional Poison – Cleansing is more than just a physical healing; it’s also a deeply personal experience. Your body is discharging its built-up waste, while simultaneously, your mind is surrendering its pent-up negativity. Cleansing repairs the whole package. And last time I cleansed, I was immersed in one of my toughest times.  A quarter-life crisis, if you will.  Since then I’ve put in a lot of work, a lot of intentional growth. And though I’m nowhere near the end, my direction is much more clear. Perhaps regaining my strength and stability made for a more mellow journey.

Do I sound like I’m saying this was easy breezy?  Because I certainly don’t mean to imply that it was. I’ve had my rough spots for sure, my splitting headaches and fuzzy teeth and tearful outbursts. But compared to the last go-around? Well there’s just no comparison, really. Still, it’s a valuable experience. There’s always something to learn.

Last time my body had been through hell and was screaming out for change. So I set six ambitious intentions for myself: 1) Drastically cut down salt.  2) Eat organic as often as possible.  3) Eat less meat (ha!)  4) Eat less dairy (!)  5) Sugar for special occasions only.  6) Reduce coffee and alcohol intake.

And this time around, instead of screaming, I feel like my body is singing. Singing ‘thank you’ for those life choices I made. The past year has brought so much positive change, and what I have learned from this cleanse is that I’m on the right path.

So my new intention is simply this:

Keep on being good to myself.  It’s working.

Lot’s of love to everyone out there, especially my fellow cleansers.  We did it!

Today was very much like yesterday – almost identical in fact. I felt great all day, a little cranky in the afternoon, and worked worked worked late into the night. I just can’t believe that tomorrow is my last day!

I feel like I could continue this cleanse indefinitely. I really don’t feel hungry, and my energy is good enough – not great, but okay. I didn’t get it last time, but now I feel like I understand how people can fast for forty days. I see that it’s possible.

But me? No way! I miss food too much. I find myself extremely jealous when my husband eats dinner (partial cause of the cranky, I’ll bet), and I’m excited at the prospect of produce season and farmers markets coming up. Mostly, I believe that the main reason this cleanse has been so easy for me this time around, is simply that I don’t need it as much. So why continue with something unnecessary? More on that in tomorrow night’s final wrap-up . . .

Bed time! I’ve been sleeping like a baby these days, and loving every snuggly minute of it!

Kombucha, that magical mysterious elixir, is actually quite easy to produce with a bit of kitchen chemistry. I wrote about Kombucha a few weeks back, after I’d finished my first batch. And as promised in that article, here’s your step-by-step guide to home brewing.

What You’ll Need:

• A living SCOBY + some starter tea
• A large *glass* jar (no metal, no ceramic, no plastic, etc) with a wide opening (a standard 1-gallon jar, as shown at right, is best)
• Sugar
• Caffeinated tea
• A very clean cloth + a rubber band
• A steel pot and a big metal stir spoon

Prep Work

• Most likely, the hardest part will be getting your hands on a SCOBY. You’ll just have to be creative and snoop around your city for a source. I suggest starting with Craigslist or googling ‘[your city] kombucha’. You can also try poking around your local co-op or health food store – and check the bulletin board.
• Once you’ve secured a SCOBY (and it’s alive, floating in some starter tea), you’re on your way. Make sure your workspace is clean and at least semi-sterile. Gather and clean your tools (see above).
• This is a long process, so set your schedule accordingly. Brewing is a good Sunday project; you can have it going while you’re gardening or cleaning or laying around naked with your sweetheart.

How To Brew

1)  In a large, stainless steel (non-teflon or other weird material) stock pot, boil 1 gallon of water. Keep it at a full boil for at least 10 minutes.

2)  Remove the pot from heat and add 1 1/4 cups sugar, stirring with a metal (non-plastic, non-wood) spoon. I use organic evaporated cane juice instead of white sugar. DO NOT substitute agave, honey, Splenda™, or any other sweetener. 

3)  Add the tea. Any kind, as long as it’s caffeinated. This will determine the final flavor, so if you use a cranberry green tea, you’ll get a cranberry-ish flavored kombucha. I usually use organic plain green or black tea bags. You can use bagged or loose tea, but if you use looseleaf make sure it’s in a fine-meshed infuser. You don’t want any tea leaves floating about! 

4)  Steep the tea for about 4 hours, allowing the water to cool and the tea to get nice and strong. Go ahead and garden or clean or or lay around naked. When the tea is good and strong (many hours later), take out the tea bags/infuser.  

5)  Double check that your widemouth glass jar is very clean, and then pour in the gallon of sweetened tea. A funnel can really help with this.

DON’T USE ANY METAL BEYOND THIS POINT

Metal reacts poorly with the kombucha culture. It’s not a good thing.

6)  Wash your hands thoroughly before handling the SCOBY.

7)  Open your SCOBY + starter  container, and pour the starter into the widemouth jar. There may be gooey strings or giblets – that’s just SCOBY stuff, and it’s fine.

8)  Fish out your SCOBY. Admire it’s alien oddity. Blow it a kiss. Give it a name (mine is Scoby-Doo). Notice that there’s a ’smooth side’ that is lighter, and the other side is darker. The slimy dark stuff is yeast. You’ll also notice that familiar, uniquely komucha-esque odor!

9)  Now carefully slide your SCOBY into the widemouth jar, smooth-side up.  It may sink, which is okay, but it will probably float.  

10)  Place the clean cloth over the top of the jar, pulling it taught and securing with a rubber band. Now you just need to tuck that sucker away for 2-3 weeks. It prefers a warm dark spot, like in a cupboard or closet. It does not like drafts or sunlight, so don’t brew your kombucha on a window sill!

11)  Adjust the brew time for your taste preference. The warmer it is, the faster it will brew. The more caffeinated it is, the faster it will brew. The longer you let it brew, the stronger and less sweet it will be. I like less sugar, so I ferment for at least 3 weeks. It’s not recommended that you brew a batch longer than a month.

— weeks later —

12)  First, you’ll need to remove the SCOBY. Every time you brew, the ‘mother’ (the original SCOBY)  grows a ‘baby’ (a new SCOBY). These names are misleading because the two are identical in every way, indistinguishable from one another. They’ll be stacked together, like two pancakes. You can either leave them be and keep on going with a double-thick SCOBY, or you can carefully separate them. If you do take them apart, each one can brew its own batch. Then you can stagger your batches for constant kombucha flow! Remember: each time you brew, the mother makes a baby.

13)  You’ll need a jar to hold your SCOBY while you’re not brewing.  Make sure the jar has a plastic (non-metal) lid.  With very clean hands, fish your SCOBY out of the widemouth jar and fold it into the storage jar. Then add enough of the new brew to completely cover it.  This is your starter tea for next time.  Store the SCOBY + starter tea in the refrigerator, indefinitely.

14)  Portion out your brewed kombucha into smaller storage containers.  I save glass bottles with plastic lids just for this purpose.  Store the tea in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

15)  Drink!  Experiment!  Enjoy!

Notes on Safety

• Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.
• Sometimes a culture will become contaminated.  It happens!  If your SCOBY shows anything resembling mold, TOSS IT!  If your brewed kombucha comes out smelling funny, TOSS IT!  If your kombucha ends up tasting funny, TOSS IT!  Remember, there’s only a porous rag separating your fermenting sugar water from any and all airborne bugs.  Contamination can happen, so be wise and play it ‘better safe than sorry’, okay?
• If you want to add fruit juice to your kombucha, do it after you’ve brewed.  DO NOT add fruit juice before fermentation.
• Don’t use bleach on any of your kombucha-making equipment. Vinegar is a great cleanser. The dishwasher (with a mild detergent) is also okay.
• Listen to your body!  Start by drinking a little at a time.  Home brew is A LOT stronger than the store bought stuff, and the B-vitamins can get you quite heady. So take it slow and listen to your body!

Close-up during the brewing process - you can see it bubbling away!

***DISCLAIMER – My dears, I cannot be held responsible for what you do with this information.  So please, use your big beautiful brains, and be thoughtful and be careful.***

I know there’s been a ton of interest out there, so I can’t wait to hear how this works for you guys. Make sure to report back! And LUCK!