Candida Cookies and Job Hunting

I'm on the jobhunt, and the stress requires sweets. This recipe was invented to use the ingredients I've got...ingredients I can actually eat on this diet. Many of the ingredients could be substituted. If you aren't on the Candida diet, try this recipe with sugar instead of the erythritol/stevia and stick a hershey kiss on each one. Also, any nutbutter or combination of nutbutters would work, and 1 1/4 cups of almond flour would work if you don't have the crushed pecans. Experiment- have fun!

4 Nut Cookies
* 1 cup almond flour
* 1/4 cup finely crushed pecans (reeeally fine- the stuff used for pie crust)
* 1 teaspoon guar gum
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg
* 1 cup erythritol
* 1 tsp stevia extract
* 1/2 cup nut butter (I used 1/2 cup cashewbutter, 1/2 cup peanutbutter)
* 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using a blender on low, cream the erythritol and stevia with the egg first. Then add the butter and vanilla. Next, add a cup of nutbutter (I used half each peanutbutter and cashewbutter.. I technically shouldn't have peanutbutter on this diet, but I'm almost through my 1st month and I couldn't resist adding juuust a little bit). My Mom's tip: Put 1 cup of water in a measuring cup, then add nutbutter to the water until it raises to 1.5 cups to measure. This way it's easy to get out of the cup- just scoop it out of the water with a spoon.

Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Then slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, blending on low. When you're done, carefully lift the beaters out of the ingredients but keep them as low as possible in your bowl and turn the speed up a little to get all the ingredients out of the beaters.

Make small balls and drop them onto a greased cookie sheet. Criss-cross the tops with a fork to give them the standard peanutbutter cookie appearance.

I baked mine for 13 minutes, didn't wait long enough for them to cool, and burnt the heck out of my mouth. But.. they're delicious!!

-Jess

Go Two Point Oh

My old man's business is constantly looking for ways to reach the younger generation, and recently dinner has become a nightly advice session on using Web 2.0. For those not yet in the know, a quick Google define: Web 2.0 gives the wiktionary definition: The second generation of the World Wide Web, especially the movement away from static webpages to dynamic and shareable content.

There's not a business I can think of that couldn't benefit from knowledge of Web 2.0. Even those gearing their services toward our oldest generation can benefit from the business networking and open collaboration our new internet allows.

As a 22 year old recent college grad (Go Hokies!) my focus to date has been primarily reaching my own generation using the internet. I've worked for artists like Bassnectar and Basshound developing guerilla marketing campaigns that seek help from fans in spreading a message- often with an attempt at going viral. These were good projects to take on- entirely different scales and resources, and both open to creative ideas and new tactics. These campaigns combined with street work helped each of them to establish a strong presence on the east coast. Further, I've worked with United Way of Montgomery, Radford, and Floyd in developing Web 2.0 strategies that will be enacted in the coming year, and won first place in a contest to write an integrated marketing plan written for a proposed web offshoot of the Roanoke Times.

I'm a creative marketer, an internet junkie, and an avid blog reader with a growing Twitter addiction. I'm going to try to add some Web 2.0-specific content from here out. If you like my ideas and your company could use someone like me, hit me up and give me a job, won'tchya?

Looking forward to sharing my ideas and learning from the process.

-Jess

How to Dance with Girls at the Lantern

There's this awkward exchange I keep having, and I'm not sure the solution to this. I'll be dancing at a club, and some guy will come dance with me. So we're dancing together, I'm having fun, and then he'll ask me to dance with him.

But... we already are dancing.

What he really means, isn't, "Can I dance with you," but rather, "Can I touch you." To which, the answer is, "No."

I love dancing with guys when they don't invade my space. A guy who can really dance moves with you without being all over you. I love to dance with a guy who can play off of the way I move. And I'll play off of the way he moves. And yeah, it's possible at some point we'll end up touching each other, but the whole ordeal isn't two people seeing how many parts of their bodies can possibly be smashed up against one another at the same time. See the picture for a good example. Notice the large space between us?

I mean no hurt feelings to anyone with whom I've had this awkward exchange. I appreciate, at least, the politeness of asking rather than just grabbing like some men do. But you'll earn a lot more points by figuring out how to move with a lady. And if you can't do that, don't try! Just dance next to her and have fun and let her do her own thing. I'm going to be more attracted to a guy who's rocking out next to me having a blast than the same guy attempting to dance with me and failing at making me comfortable. The women around here are free-spirited. We go out to dance and move to the music. If you hold our hips too tight and take away our ability to choose our own pace, you're not earning any points.

-Jess

Feeling empowered

I spent over $70 at Eats today, so I'm hoping this commitment of my tax return actually clears up this terrible skin of mine. I bought Candida Clear: a combo of Pau D'Arco, Oregano Oil, Black Walnut & Caprylic Acid, a bottle of Acidophilus (a probiotic), brown rice flour, guar gum (a yeast-free leavening agent), and stevia (a natural sweetener). I also bought an awesome multivitamin complex that gives me a ton of energy- he had given me samples the last time I went, and sold me. It's called "Unbounded Energy" by New Chapter Organics. This stuff is AMAZING. If you live in Blacksburg, do yourself a favor and inquire about it and then ask for a sample. It works quickly, like caffeine, and makes you feel amazing.

I'm feeling totally empowered by my choice groceries- there are a ton of recipes I can make now using these substitutes. I'm going to knock out some schoolwork and then try to find some sweet goodies I can make... maybe some cookies or muffins. I'm thinking snickerdoodles or something else with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm.

I'm still making two huge sacrifices for awhile. The first is chocolate. I freaking love dark chocolate, but I'll have to give it up at least in this next month. The second is alcohol. I'll do my best to skip on the wine and whiskey for awhile. Hopefully my skin will love me for this and I'll be wearing shorts in no time.

Time to crunch out some serious schoolwork...

-Jess

Candida diet

Oh, drat. The foodie and wino in me are both frowning and very upset, as my path to healthy skin has limited my consumption of so many wonderful things for awhile. I've been trying to heal myself of eczema for the last three years, having success with a few changes.. particularly eliminating caffeine and soy and by identifying a few key food allergies- Goodbye strawberries! :(

I've read quite a bit about Candida over time, and according to many claims, sticking to this diet could heal my skin while improving my ability to focus and increasing my level of energy overall. That said, Candida is apparently over-diagnosed by holistic doctors, as the symptoms are extremely broad. Considering that I go through a bottle of Cortisone a week and that I've had about as many steroids as I can take and I'm STILL dealing with this project that is my skin... I figured, hell. How bad can this be?

For those unfamiliar, the Candida diet begins extremely strict, and then slowly you add in different foods and see how your body adjusts. The idea is to cut out things that promote mold growth, so no sugar, no yeast, no dairy (except organic yogurt, which promotes good bacteria). The biggies for me were- Bread, pasta, cereal, fruit, and milk, so I went seeking alternatives for three of the four.

Today I bought hemp bread and hemp milk, yeast and dairy free respectively, and no- there's no THC in these. I had read that hemp is supposed to curb sugar cravings, so when I saw these options I thought they'd be worth a try.

The vanilla hemp milk tastes a lot like soy milk (which I can't drink)- it has a similar, light nutty flavor, and is more dense than rice milk.. which is too watery for me. It was great over cereal, and I think it would be fantastic in a smoothie. Served very cold, I can drink it plain as well, although I probably won't. I have heard that the chocolate version is fantastic alone, but that wasn't available in Kroger.


French Meadow's hemp bread, made with hempseed, flaxseed, and pumpkin, is absolutely delicious. It's a very dense bread, and if you've had a sprouted-wheat bread or anything similar, the taste won't be too surprising. But alas!! My lack of education on this subject failed me, and it turns out despite claiming to be "yeast-free" the bread is not gluten-free... Damn. What am I going to do with this whole loaf of expensive bread, now? Still deciding how bad this is for me..

A few other new purchases..

Lundberg's Wasabi Rice Chips were on close out sale for $1.20 a bag. I grabbed two, and glad I did- these things are delicious! Unfortunately I plow through them.

Honest Tea has a wonderful Yerba Mate that's- hooray!- sweetened with agave! Bottled tea is usually overloaded with sugar, but this one holds true to the words on the label: Just a tad sweet. The other flavors are cane-sugar sweetened, which I'll avoid for now, but the low-glycemic agave works for me. If you're a sweet tea drinker this won't be sweet enough for you, but for me it was perfect. And I was thrilled to have something I can grab other than water to drink! They're also certified organic, which both makes my sensitive body feel better and satisfies my need to be kind to the earth.

Speaking of which, I've learned a little bit about organic wine this week. A very long (sorry my underage Eve, who was waiting in the car!) conversation with one of the nice men in The Vintage Cellar educated me as to the details. I came in seeking a sulfite-free wine in order to ease my allergic reaction, but learned that there's actually no such thing.. The process of wine naturally creates sulfites. That said, most wine production in the United States involves adding sulfites. The reality is, he said, you really have no good way of determining the amount of sulfites in a bottle of wine. That said, by choosing organic wine you are more likely to avoid extra chemicals (including sulfites) that contribute to allergic reactions. While they do carry wines that claim not to have sulfites, I ended up leaving with an organic Cono Sur Pinot Noir. An interesting fact: Many organic wines from small wineries do not actually say this on their label, because it is expensive to earn this certification and small wineries can't afford to do this. That said, if you go to a wine store like The Vintage Cellar, they can tell you which wineries (like Cono Sur!) are committed to creating organic wine. At this store in particular, they have all the little shelf labels for organic wines colored green, even if the winery has not earned that label. What does this mean? Organic wine for cheaper- because you don't have to pay for the government seal!

I've yet to taste this wine, so I'll report back once I do. I finally submitted to modern times and bought a screw-top bottle, which is said to be smart-sealing but is decidedly unsexy. I have not bought a Pinot Noir in awhile, having started to consider it too plain in comparison to the Red Zinfandels and Chambourcins I've grown to love alone or the Syrah or Chianti I often pair with food. But unwilling to censor my wine adventure, I let myself be talked into this bottle to try later in the week. It is a 2008, though, so my bets are I'm going to be wishing I had a decanter.. but a few minutes/swirls in a big fat red wine glass will have to do.

That's it for now. I'll post my attempts at gluten-reduced (free is too hard) meals in the upcoming days as I find the time around cramming out my last few weeks worth of schoolwork. Oh, summer.. come quickly!

-Jess

Easy Poached Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce and Veggies

I'd never really attempted to make poached eggs before, because everything I'd ever heard or read made it sound like some extremely difficult task. I eat eggs in the morning, so my energy level was never enough to take on such a challenge.

But au contraire! The poached egg is no longer elusive. Here's how to make this morning's breakfast:

Saute chopped breakfast veggies in a pan with oil- I used green peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and left them in the pan on med-low while I made the other ingredients.

Turn a pot of water on high to get it to come to a boil.

Grab a blender, and add one egg yolk, dijon mustard and lemon juice (a tiny bit of each if you're like me.. and lemon pepper will suffice if you don't keep fresh lemons on hand), any other spices that appeal to you (I added thyme, basil, cayenne and black pepper).

Turn the water down to half, gently crack two eggs into the water (some people use a spoon so that they don't break in the process, but I find if you turn it down to half and quickly add the eggs this isn't necessary). After you drop in the eggs, turn the water back up to return to boiling. These will need to cook for around 3 mins, so hit a timer if necessary. If you cook too long you'll just have funny-shaped boiled eggs- you want the yolks to stay runny!

Put an english muffin in the toaster.

Heat two tablespoons of butter in the microwave for 1.5 mins or until hot. Turn the blender on high and pour in the hot butter in a slow stream.

Hopefully at this point your eggs will have been cooking for 3 mins, your english muffin is toasted, and your sauce is ready. Using a slotted spoon, remove the eggs and set on a towel (paper towels will do) to drain excess water. Then spoon vegetables on top of the toasted english muffin halfs, place the eggs on top of the vegetables, and top with the hollandaise sauce. If you want, crack some pepper or add a sprig of parsley or something as a garnish.

Add a mimosa and a cup of hot tea, and voila! Sexy, delicious breakfast.

-Jess

Legal Issues for Music Venues in VA

Artists and venues alike in Virginia are constantly dealing with socio-political clashes which set huge barriers to the industry growth. Musical censorship is one of Virginia’s most established traditions. Local bars find it extremely difficult to establish themselves as “music venues,” because they have to constantly deal with an outdated bureaucracy.

Posting this to gather details on the specific legal issues facing venues in VA. It seems strange that the state wouldn't support this. It's healthy industry- it's service-oriented, it doesn't pollute the air, and it's a potential cash-cow. To develop this would increase tourism, which is more healthy industry...

Share the legal barriers you know of that VA venues run into- cite the laws if you know them. Trying to find out more on this.

Thanks!

-Jess