eat; raw zucchini spaghetti with aioli and basil

hughesfpi.com

I've decided to kick posting the numerical days of my raw week on the 'eat' section of my blog, as my raw week has now turned into my raw month, which I predict will simply turn into my raw adventures. I have just ordered a spirooli as I was sick of spending half an hour cutting zucchini by hand to create spaghetti (you'll see what I mean when you read the below recipe!). I'm super excited as this means I am going to create some amazingness with raw zucchini pasta!! Soooo excited!!!!!! I am changing the meaning of Sofia Lorens quote; "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." Bring on the raw spaghetti!!!!

This weeks recipe I created just a few days ago. I am now getting close to the point where I don't need recipes and experimenting from the basics of raw food 'cooking' I have been teaching myself. I must admit to some disasters during this learning period, but the more I 'cook' raw, the better the dishes are getting. One of my housemates said that my cooking has jumped up 10 notches, stating that the food I prepared before going raw was at a high standard anyway. I was soooo grateful for her kind words :0)

A few days ago, I made this zucchini spaghetti tossed with aioli. YUUUUUUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!! 

Serves 4

 What you need;
4-6 zucchinis
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbl lemon juice
3 garlic cloves
salt to taste
4 large basil leaves
cracked pepper to serve

If you have a Spirooli, go ahead and make the spaghetti, if not, follow these steps to cut by hand. If you wanted to, you could use a vegetable peeler to create pappardelle pasta. That is entirely up to you. For this dish, I think the green from the zucchini skin compliments the basil so I have left it on. Entirely up to you.

Start by 'leveling' out the zucchini by slicing a little off so that it can sit flat and even on the chopping board.

Holding the zucchini lengthwise, cut thin slices just over the thickness you might get from a vegetable peeler.

Once all the zucchini is cut, lay pieces flat and cut into thin stripes, placing them into a big bowl as you go along. The above picture is what you are aiming for. Don't worry if some are thinner than others or shorter or whatever. It will all taste AMAZING either ways and thats all that matters!!!!!

  

This what it will all look like. Yes it does look stiff, but once mixed with the Aioli, it will soften like pasta.

To make the Aioli, simply put all the ingredients (of course not the zucchini!) except for the basil and cracked pepper into a food processor and wizz away! Once all blended and creamy, add the basil leaves and 'pulse' it until chopped. Pour over the zucchini spaghetti and mix it through by hand.

Place a handful onto each serving plate and add cracked pepper. Serve with a really good chilled white wine...YUM!!!!!

Buon Apettito!

pink; just love me

arttattler.com

I thought it would be appropriate to feature Tracey Emin today, seeing it's V Day, for all you single people (and perhaps coupled) who have had a string of bad relationships and have worn your heart on your sleeve that one too many times. Emin has created many works in pink but I wanted to focus on her neon pieces and have added some of her collection of pink neons at the bottom of this post.

Before Facebook updates, tweets on Twitter or even blogging, we had  Tracey Emin.  Described as a Post Feminist artist, Emins practice is autobiographical, re creating her own life experiences as instantaneously as social media allows us to do today. Through the use of needlework, sculpture, drawing, video, installation, photography and painting, this trashy diva of the English artworld wears her heart on her sleeve in bold text for us all to see. She is spoken about as being difficult, demanding, vile and down right disgusting. Gotta love the description of the difficult art star!!!

Her work is confronting, sometimes disgusting and very melodramatic portraying a craving to be loved. She takes from her life parts of her own very personal and very specific experiences to create works based on words she may have said, or words others may have spoken to her. The result is a sense of the universal pain and vulnerability that comes with love, which we can all relate to. We do say things or hear things about ourselves and others, that we do not allow or would never consider, to pass our lips again. In short and simple statements and sometimes obvious quotes, her work becomes guttural through the use of text,  hitting us were it hurts so to speak. 

Emotionally charged, there is no mistaking that this is a hurt, burnt, trashed on woman who has created these works. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. We feel that same emotion she felt when creating the work and we feel it as if it is our own. We can relate to these works because we have felt the pain of them, we have felt the desperateness that exists within them. Raw and open wounds are presented to us, making us feel like a voyeur into another persons private and emotional life, but whose life is it that we are really voyaging in to through experiencing Emins work?

As Andy Warhol predicted in the 60's, "In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes", the array of social networking sites today, and as time goes by, we are certainly seeing this more and more. We are even widening our own individual boundaries to share with the world how we are feeling at this very moment. These social networks are allowing us to project onto the world our own autobiographies, instantly, as they are happening right now, from where we are eating dinner to how we are feeling. One must remember Tracey Emin was doing this before social media became what it is today. I wonder if she ever thought that through her work, she may have been predicting that we too will be 'spilling our guts' out onto the world our very personal and very specific life experiences.

celebrity743.blogspot.com

thisrocked.blogspot.com

artslant.com

artslant.com

tjfineart.co.uk

love; 10 things I love this week

http://store.wherethehellismatt.com

1. This video. Yes I know it's an oldy but how good does it make you feel?!?! It's definitely a reminder to share the love! LOVE!!!!

far-shanghai.net

2. Ai Wei Wei. He is an amazing artist doing amazing things. There is a feature film being made about him and the website dedicated to the film has some great videos attached of his work and his impact on the Chinese people and government. Check them out here. He currently has a show in the Turbine Hall at the Tate if anyone is planning a visit to London before May 2nd. Don't you love this photo of him?!?!?! LOVE!!!!!

bunnylicious.org

3. I was reminded of my love for David Lynch this week through a friend on F.B who I introduced my work to. She linked me to this video which of course is WONDERFUL!!!! Check it out and enjoy the ride!!!!! BTW, before coming here to L.A I decided I wanted to meet David and make him a raw strawberry cheesecake. I am yet to make the cheesecake! LOVE!!!

realpoor.com

3. Speaking of rabbits...This pic of a giant bunny?!?!?! I'm working on a video at the moment that has a bunny (am I trying to be a female Lynchy or what?!?!?) and I think I might be falling in love with bunnies!!! I do love this pic! Initially, I thought it was photoshoped and didn't want to know details as details can ruin the imagination, but it is real! Check this link out!!!! JUSHIKA! Find out where he lives so we can meet him!!!! LOVE!!!!

city-data.com

4. Maine Coons!!!!! Speaking of giant domestic pets!!!! I discovered these cats just last year. Marie Antoinette apparently had her cats shipped over to Maine on the East coast of the U.S, planning to follow them, but she was beheaded before she could escape. The people on Maine thought they were a cat bred with a raccoon, thus their name. Check out this video, they are MASSIVE cats!!!! LOVE!!!

5. Now I really have gone crazy on giant fluffy domestic pets!!! How cool is this photo and this dog! I do love it when dogs think they're humans. Shows the love their owners have for them. LOVE!!!!

6. These nails!!!! Those of you that know me well, know my alter ego is a Nail Technician from the outer 'burbs of Melbourne, so you would expect me to LOVE this!!! You can find the instructions on how to create your own here, but it is in French. Words printed backwards on your fingertips?!?! LOVE!!!!

7. Following my Number 6 this week, I used Google Translator to translate the instructions for how to create the newspaper nails. I LOVE GOOGLE TRANSLATOR!!!! I've been playing around with really dirty talk and listening to it in different languages. Soooo many hours of fun!!! LOVE!!!!

8. These plates!!!! How cool are they?!?!? My housemate recently bought them and they are like those little love candies that are around for the upcoming V day. I do LOVE these plates and rumor has it, I may be receiving some soon! Can't wait to serve some raw love on them for my friends! LOVE!!!!

fashionsaccess.blogspot.com

9. Homemade face masks! Tomorrow night for V Day, the single ladies are gathering at our house and I'm making fresh face masks for everyone! I do love putting what I eat onto my face! Something kinda strange yet satisfying about it! LOVE!!!!

capecodawesome.blogspot.com

10. Vodka and Cranberry! Last night I went out and drank this all night and today I have NO hangover! I'm convinced it's because the cranberry has Vitamin C that helps the body to recover (well, that's what I'm sticking with!).  LOVE!!!!!

eat; raw curry pumpkin soup

commons.wikimedia.org

Day 2 of my raw week was this raw Curry Pumpkin soup. I used the left over bits from the pumpkin pappardelle pasta I made and the other half of the pumpkin. Nuts are a huge part of raw 'cooking' and this recipe calls for raw cashews. They are always soaked before using them as it brings out the enzymes that aid in digestion.

Serves 4

What you need;
2 cups peeled and chopped butternut pumpkin
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups cashew milk
1/2 cup  fresh orange juice
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1/4 cup chopped shallots
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
1 tsp curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
finely chopped fresh corriander (cilantro) and paprika to garnish
Cashew milk
1 cup raw cashews
2 cups filtered water

To start, soak raw cashews in filtered water for 2-4 hours. Drain and place in a food processor with 2 cups of filtered water. Whiz away until smooth. Strain through a sieve into an awaiting bowl.

In a blender add all the ingredients except garnish ingredients and blend until smooth. Add more filtered water if the consistency is too thick. You may need to do it in batches so have a big bowl waiting.

Once smooth, pour into individual servings and sprinkle with a little paprika and top with chopped fresh coriander.

Buon Appetito!

pink; casting call

e-flux.com

Charlie White is a Los Angeles based artist who created a one day performance at LAX Art last year in September. Casting Call was a prelude performance to find a 'typical' Californian girl; blonde hair, blue eyes, for an upcoming Billboard project, organised through LAX Art. You can check out the images of the performance here.

What I find interesting about White is his fascination with the American pop culture that is projected out onto the world, especially his interest in teen girl culture as a 30 something male.  He makes us aware of the cliche images of American society that is created by the media and throws those images back at us with irony. The truth is that the typical Californian girl has dark hair, dark eyes and olive complexion often coming from a Hispanic background. But this is not the image that has been projected onto the world of the typical Californian girl. We almost resist this idea as being true as we have been subjected, for a very long time, that blonde hair and blue eyed babes are Californian. Even movie stars of the 1950's and 1960's were advised to pull out the bottle of peroxide if they wanted work in Hollywood.

There is definitely a weirdness that happens when teenage girls are involved in any form of projection into the media. For some reason, we (including males) can all connect with the 'crossover' they are about to experience between childhood and adulthood. Of course it has everything to do with sex and we, both male and female, seem to relive our own experiences through an image of a teenage girl. But is our own experience of the 'crossover' really as bad as we think or is it societies prescribed story that it is a loss of some sort that we carry with us? And why is it that when we do see an image of a teenage girl we think about sex almost straight away? I certainly don't know but I am jolted a little and can't seem to find out why I am when I do see images of young teenage girls in their swimwear or presented in such a way as White has done here. It urkes me too, that these images do that as I feel I am somehow being seduced into a way of thinking that may not even be my own.

This strange feeling of not really knowing how I feel, or how I should react, came upon me when I checked out Whites Casting Call performance. I wasn't at the performance unfortunately, but judging by the images and the little that has been written about it, it seems the audience were not sure how to react either. Here they were, within a gallery space in the dark, invited to sit back and watch through a dividing glass wall, a room lit up with teenage girls and the casting process of viewing 100 girls. The audience could only watch what was going on as there were no speakers to eavesdrop on the verbal process. This forced the audience to create their own dialogue with what they were seeing. As we watch these teenage girls being judged by their physical features, we are listening to ourselves judging them being judged, judging the judges doing the judging and judging ourselves for judging everything! Confusing? Yes! I can only imagine the cliched dialogues the audience were creating, as I suspect this was Whites intention by shutting off the audience from the verbal communication. The audiences internal dialogue about the event would have come from many places, mainly from what they had been told to feel about such an experience through the media. I suspect this is exactly what White wanted to create as an experience for the audience. The process and the environment makes us aware of our own thinking and where that thinking may be coming from.

Below is the final image that was chosen to appear on the Billboard. The gridded background is reminiscent of the mug shots these girls would have for agencies to judge the proportions of their features. The girl stares at us staring at her with an expression that may ask why are we judging her. No text is needed as the simple image says everything as a billboard. 

http://www.laxart.org/events/view/charlie-white-casting-call/#images

In 2006, White created the video below as part of Adidas:Adicolor campaign. He uses pink in alot of his works when commenting on the American teenage girl culture and this video, titled Pink, is no exception. It has a very melancholic feel to it as if how sad (?!?!?!) it is that the girl has transitioned, through the act of sex, to become a woman. It appears to reflect our (societies) projections of what the transition is to be for a girl from adolescence to adulthood. How sad indeed that this is how we are 'told' the transition will be like; a loss of some sort.

love; 10 things I love this week

apartmenttherapy.com

1. This website! My friend Julishka from Berlin sent me the link and I love it! He is a French designer and his site reminds me of my favourite book covers as a kid...remember the ones with a hologram on the cover?!?!?! I used to put them up close to my face and get lost in their 3D worlds. LOVE!

2. Speaking of websites...my friend Kiera got me onto this one last year but I have just rediscovered it this week after talking about it with another friend. Alannah Hill is an Australian fashion designer and her website is definitely a reflection of her style. LOVE!!!

roadsideamerica.com

3. Jackalope. It is a mythical animal of North American folklore, being described as a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope I love this sooooo much! Last night we came across two of them (well kinda) taxidermy on the walls of the places we visited. I love the idea of creating hybrid animals that don't exist (well in photoshop of course!). LOVE!!!

schultkl.blogspot.com

4. Cheshire Moon. Am I like the ONLY person in the world that has never heard of the moon being referred to as the Cheshire Moon?!?!?! Have I been hiding under a rock or what! I always called it a sickle (which is awful!). My friend Greg referred to the moon as the Cheshire cat moon a month ago and now, every time I see it like this, I give the moon a big huge grin back. LOVE!!!!

5. This bag my friend Katya gave me for Christmas. She was in the gay district in Chicago and happen to stumble across this bag in a drag queen shop and thought of me....ummm....YES!!!!! I took it with me to Vegas and everyone commented on it!  Any which way you look at it, it has a face with a big smile on it! LOVE!

6. My souvenir from Vegas. I'm not much of a trinket person but I do love to bring back something for myself that is not your average souvenir. I found this in the gutter in Vegas and it is perfect! It seems to be a pipe of some sort that has been flattened by a car (or few!). LOVE!!!!

7. Talking about souvenirs...this is mine from Los Angeles. It is road kill! Well, doll road kill! I imagine some girl throwing a tanty at her parents and in retaliation, throwing out her doll from the car window. Looks like the doll had a few lives under its belt even if she don't look to good right now. LOVE!!!!

8. And San Francisco is this headless, armless tin toy. I found it in a recycling place and couldn't leave him behind! He is even wearing his price tag on his chest; 10 cents! LOVE!!!!

9. Palms restaurant here in L.A. It is a Thai restaurant in Thai town and they have a Thai Elvis impersonator who is very pleased with himself. It is super cheesy and really fun to watch! Oh and the food is really good too! LOVE!!!

http://www.lebarcito.com/

10. Mexican Gay Bar. Last night as we were heading to get something to eat at 1.30 am after starting our night early downing the drinks, I dragged everyone into a bar we were passing and it turned out to be a Mexican gay bar!!!!! Something soooo hot about seeing two Latino men pashing on the dance floor! LOVE!!!!

eat; raw carrot cake topped with vanilla cashew icing

tinyfarmblog.com

On day 1 of my raw week, I made this little slice of heaven to overcome any cravings for sugar I may experience during the first few days. It really is a slice of heaven! The vanilla cashew icing is sooooo divine that I couldn't believe how good it tasted. I interrupted my housemate Natalie while she was working so she could enjoy the fabulous flavours with me! This recipe is from Russell James and makes 12 servings, as the serving sizes are small. The cake is dense so make sure to cut the pieces small. Halve the recipe if you don't see yourself eating raw carrot cake for days or don't have extra mouths to feed.

The cake will keep well for up to four days, refrigerated.

What you need;

3 cups carrot, finely grated

2 cups pecans

1/4 cup raisins, roughly chopped
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground corriander

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup fresh dates

1/2 cup orange juice

Vanilla Cashew Icing

1 1/2 cups cashews
1/2 cup water
2 Tbs raw honey or agave
3 Tbs coconut oil or canola oil
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Start by soaking the cashews and pecan nuts in separate bowls with filtered water for between two to four hours. Once the time is up, drain and rinse and place the separate nuts onto separate kitchen towels and roll to dry a little. This stage can be done the day before, just put the nuts into separate containers in the fridge.

In a food processor, add dates and orange juice and blend until a smooth paste is formed. Set aside.

Making sure your food processor is dry, add the pecans and whiz until crumbed.

Peel and grate the carrots finely as in the picture above and place in a bowl. Except for the icing ingredients, add everything, including 'date paste' and chopped pecans, in with the grated carrots.

I used my hands to mix as I found it easier than with a spoon. Whatever works for you is fine.

 

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and spread the mixture to about 1 1/2cm in thickness. My tray was too big so I ended the mixture with a clean edge, 1/4 of the way in from the side of the pan (see image above). Press the mixture evenly with the back of a spoon. Alternatively, you can shape them individually as balls or circular cakes but remember to make them small! Cover with cling wrap and chill for a few hours.

To make the vanilla cashew icing, simply blend all the 'icing' ingredients until really creamy and smooth. Place in a container and refrigerate for a few hours to thicken up. 

Just before serving, cut into individual squares (about 8x8cm as it is very rich!) using a really sharp knife and either spread or dollop the icing on each individual serving. You want to keep the icing and cake separate until serving.

And voila, an amazing little sweet treat that is actually good for you!!!!
 

Buon Appetito!