HiHoRosie's Place

I bet all of you raw foodies/JFers have all experienced at least once a stranger asking you in the grocery store what a particular item is that’s in your basket or what on earth are you doing with all that produce! Am I right? It’s happened to me a time or two. Sometimes they think we’re making lots of pies because why else would someone have all that fruit?! I’m usually asked about young Thai coconuts too. Questions range from “what is that?” and “what do you do with that?” and “how do you eat it?” Prickly pears are another good conversation starter or eyebrow-raiser. Today however it was all about aloe vera leaves . I was checking out the fresh aloe vera leaves when an older man on the other side of the veggie display asked me what I was holding. He was so curious he asked me if he could take a closer look then asked what I used it for and was it edible, etc. Very inquisitive. He was so excited that he had learned something new. He then told me that it must be working for me and to ...

I filched this from Pixywinks’ blog and it's not Friday - is this allowed?! Ha ha. Looks fun so I thought I’d play. Feel free to swipe this too if you’d like. Rules are to hit ‘shuffle’ on your iPod or MP3 player then answer each question by hitting ‘next.’ No cheating! I feel I should preface this by saying my so-called MP3 player is my PDA phone, which doesn’t possess the best shuffling capabilities so I will just go with what comes up but don’t be surprised if you see repeat artists (if it's the same song I'll skip)….I actually do have lots of different music on it! Q: What does next year have in store for you? A: Steam Engenius – Modest Mouse Q: What does your love life look like next year? A: Ocean of Noise – Arcade Fire Q: What do you say when life gets hard? A: Windowsill – Arcade Fire Q: Song that reminds you of good times? A: Giddy Up – The Hives (lol) Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning? A: Heroine – Blonde Redhead (hmmm….no need for concern folks...

I have something to toot about, as in tooting my own horn. I have officially dropped two pant sizes. WOO HOO! My current jeans were starting to fall down and looking very unflattering, like I had a saggy seat. I hate it when I have to fight my clothes either to keep them up or to untuck them from one of my rolls. Hee hee! Good fitting clothes are always flattering no matter what size and right now I have a lot of unflattering clothes so I was happy to have some jeans that fit. An observation I’ve made recently is now that I’ve been losing weight I see MORE of my old size than before. I used to always have a really tough time finding my size in stores. Not sure what this means exactly; if it means there are more larger sizes available now or if it means now that I’ve shrunk a little I just notice my old size more. Like when you’re looking for that perfect black skirt and it’s nowhere to be found but as soon as you stop looking for it or no longer need it, it seems to be everywhere! Anyw...

Swiped this from Keely : HowManyOfMe.com There are 11 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name? Now, I just need to enlist one or two of these "me's" to go to work for me and clean house and anything else deemed unpleasant or boring. ha ha!

I took this test by way of my sister's blog and it proved what I've always known about myself: 25% Geek Now, if this was a test for being a dork, then maybe I'd score higher. ha ha!

O’ where o’ where could it be? Yeah, it’s not here. At least, not this week. We’ve been having some whack-a-doodle weather lately and yesterday was one of those days. Snow Rain Hail Sun breaks Snow/slush/rain Isn’t spring supposed to look like this? Instead it looked like this yesterday. This is beyond the saying “April showers bring May flowers.” I’m sitting at my computer with a scarf on. Wonder where my gloves are?

I’ve been thinking about today’s topic this past week and then lo and behold I see a topic of the same nature started by the always lovely and funny Beppa of 123Raw . BTW, if you’re not a member you should join. It’s fun and very social yet helpful and supportive. Update: sorry two of the above links don't work unless you're a member and already logged in but the 123Raw link should work for those interested. My favorite sister in the whole wide world has commented before how different we are in the kitchen. She’s the type that can make things up as she goes and rarely measures anything. Me, I’m the type who does follow a recipe and measures most things because frankly, I don’t trust myself (of course there are exceptions). I’m not that confident in the kitchen to just wing it. When things need to be tweaked I usually call on hubby to taste test and then fix it with what it needs then it turns out great. If it wasn’t for him sometimes, I’d still be in the kitchen trying to ma...

With regards to my previous post, Love Is , I have to tell you those were some of the best fresh strawberries I have tasted in a very looooooooooong time. How long has it been for you when you last had a fresh strawberry or even a fresh tomato that tasted as good as it looked? So often I’d pick some up (not always organic) because they looked so red and juicy only to get home and discover they have zero flavor. Maybe even the texture or scent of the fruit is off too. Recently, I’ve seen/read various articles or headlines about eating organic foods – such as which fruits and vegetables (another article included meat) you should consider buying organic versus conventional, so you probably have seen these also. Over at 123Raw there was a thread started about buying organic foods and Beppa , Empress of 123Raw, included a list of organic foods you should consider when at the grocery store or market. I tried importing the list here so you wouldn't have to click on the link but I have ...

Today’s post is about American Idol so for those who don’t watch or don’t care I give you permission to ignore this (like it was needed – hee hee). I just have to get something off my chest… For those who do watch, I have one question to ask: Whaaat? Okay, maybe two. Why was Michael Johns kicked off this past week? He’s the not the best or strongest singer of the bunch nor is he my favorite but come on! I hope I don’t offend anyone when I say this but he got kicked off before Brooke White ?! That’s not to say she is a bad singer but she is B-O-R-I-N-G. And I’m sorry but sometimes the look that she makes reminds me of Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy . Anyway, I liked Michael Johns and think he should still be on the show but whatever - America got it wrong. I think Brooke should go next (can't believe she wasn't even in the bottom three), then Syesha . Syesha is a beautiful girl who sings pretty well but nothing will put me over the edge quicker than hearing her imitating a ...

Recently I was reading a post by Raw Girl too! about good clean living . She had mentioned having a cold and not getting enough sleep the night before. She went on write how she didn’t display the normal signs one gets from being sick and/or sleep deprived (i.e. bags/dark circles under the eyes). Could this be the result of her “good clean living?” Her post reminded me of a similar experience I had a few weeks ago. I was a bit proud of the fact that I hadn’t gotten sick while so many people around me had been (and with som e serious illnesses mind you). I don’t mean that to sound as bad as it might seem – I just meant I was really happy I hadn’t gotten sick because normally I would have. I work in a large downtown office building and use public transportation so you can see how easy it would be to pick up cooties from anywhere, from anyone! But then, the cough started…then the sore throat…then the sleepies…ah, I realized I was starting to get sick. Bleh! Normally, when I get a cold...

As you may have read from my previous post we like to frequent our local library from time to time. I’ve learned that not only does a library have books but they also have movies, documentaries and music! :-D I’m deviating from raw foods here to just share with you an interesting documentary we watched on DVD; one we checked out from the library. It’s referred to as the Up series. Maybe a few of you have heard of it but I’m going to assume that most of you have not. Hubby was familiar with the series because he saw some of it in college. I hadn’t heard of it, which is pretty silly when I think about it because even The Simpsons did a parody . I don’t watch enough of The Simpsons however to have seen this episode. It’s about 14 British kids who were seven years old in 1963 selected from diverse backgrounds (i.e. social, economic, race, etc.). They are asked various “life questions,” which at that age can be interesting and entertaining; then we see most of them again every seven year...

We’ve been busy visiting our local library lately. It’s a good way to test out those many raw (un)cookbooks before buying them. Of course, it’s also a good way to support the libraries and the authors. Since checking out some of these books (I have many more on my list!) I have determined Ani's Raw Food Kitchen and Raw Food Real World are must-haves for me. My birthday is NOT coming up so if you’d like to get me a present… Ha ha! But seriously folks, I think those two cookbooks are great to have. Ani’s book is one that could be used daily as the recipes are pretty simple and casual. The RFRW one is more gourmet (by my standards) and one I wouldn’t use daily but just would love to have on hand. I still want to try the Spicy Peanut Coconut Noodles with Ginger and Lime recipe from that book but what in the world is galangal ?! And where do I get it? And if it tastes like ginger can’t I just use more regular ginger the recipe calls for? Anyway, tangent…. The other books I’ve checked ...