Well it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere and raining like mad out here in California…perfect weather for ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!!!

As promised, I’m posting the final episodes of ORGANIC A to Z from Southern California. Both “I” and “J” were taped back in a warmer, sunnier and more ice cream friendly Los Angeles. If you’re too cold to rock the ice cream, just make these awesome cookies. If you’re sweating down under this January, enjoy the whole sando with some OG ice cream in between!!!

MUCHOS APOLOGIES!

I AM BACK!

I never intended to be away for so long, just thought it’d be a quick break from the show, but an adventure ensued! I started working as a pastry chef again, then started teaching cooking classes, finally decided to get into wine—literally. I moved to Sonoma County and took a job as a Harvest Intern doing all the grunt work for a family-run, sustainable winery.

And now, I’m back with new videos, new recipes and more info than ever all from my new home in the ultra -organic Sonoma County!

Coming in January we’ll have regularly updated posts on local, organic and sustainable eating, cooking and living! Till then I’ll post a few appetizers as well as the remaining two shows taped in Los Angeles.

Side tracking a bit, we're showing you how to GROW HERBS for the letter H!

G is for GINGER, my favorite rhizome!

More info and recipes to come SUPER SOON!

-GGG

For the letter F we rock the FENNEL BULB!

I used to be afraid of FENNEL simply 'coz I didn't know what the hell it was or what to do with it. But now I love it and eat it every chance I get! Watch on and check back soon for recipes and more info on this glorious veggie!

EGGPLANT, YUMMY!

Eggplant rocks, a most glorious fruit! I know some of you out there are not fans…but I blame that on poor execution. Eggplant is so versatile and there are so many varieties, you need to expand your repertoire! Go out there and try some of the funky ones you can easily find at any health food store or farmer’s market. Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and the real Italian varieties are my favorites because they are sweet, tender and easy to cook. As they’re not bitter they do not require any salting and sweating—just cut ‘em up and cook them!

D is for DAMN GOOD!

Dates are cute, wrinkly, healthy, sweet and yummy little buggers! A great raw choice for sugar!

I remember the first time I ate a real date—not the crusty cigar kind you find in lame groceries. A real date isn’t dried out, it’s plump and moist with a thin skin, long seed and an incredibly intense sweet flavor. I have fond memories of eating dates and spitting the seeds out into humid Florida nights with my crazy old raw food friend Jason.

Dates are high in iron, potassium, fiber and a bunch o’ vitamins. They’ve got no fat or cholesterol. YES they are 50 to 70% sugar…but it’s a good, natural sugar. Most dates don’t even have sucrose. If you’re looking for a healthy way to satiate a sugar craving dig on a date!

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Hey Hey!

Here's the third installment of ORGANIC A to Z! Featuring C we jump off the vegetarian tip and cook one of my favorite tasty treats: CHICKEN!

YES, the bird. I know a lot of the vegetarians out there are retching at me for doing chicken on the show. Oh well. I love to eat chicken and I think the majority of people out there do too. I also suspect that the majority of folks out there don’t think about chickens enough and assume poultry is a lesser evil of meats. That’s not true baby.

Conventional poultry production is just plain wrong. Tens of thousands of birds “living” together under bright lights day and night, with no access to sunlight, fresh air, or a space to walk, which is irrelevant anyway ‘coz many chickens have been bred to have ginormous breasts that are so large their little legs cannot support the weight! Imagine eating a sickly, depressed, mutant bird that rooted in its own shit, rarely slept, couldn’t walk and was kept alive by antibiotics and freakish growth drugs? Doesn’t sound very appetizing, nutritious or ethical. So make an effort to go organic—it’s really the only way to ensure you are eating a healthy, happy bird that was given a humane life.

BELL PEPPERS aka SWEET PEPPERS aka CAPSICUM

Being a staple in my house I was both fascinated and frightened to learn that the Bell Pepper is so toxic when grown conventionally, and when you go to go a regular grocery store…you’re not likely to find an organic offering. Yet peppers at FARMER’S MARKETS are cheap, cheap, cheap and pesticide free, free, free! Remember though, ORGANIC FOOD is more than just pesticide free—it’s a whole farming culture supporting the food, the farmers and the land...and it pretty much guarantees a superior crop so chew on that!

I really hate green bell peppers, I think they taste insipid…kind of remind me of cut grass and Old El Paso taco sauce. Not good. I only stick to the colorful varieties—which are the same damn things as the green ones, only more mature. In fact, green, white, brown and purple are all immature bell pepper colors. Red, yellow, light purple, and orange are all mature colors. A red bell pepper has double the vitamin content as a green one!

Hello Hello! Here's the first episode of ORGANIC A to Z! We're featuring the amazing letter A. Guess what we're going to cook? I'll be posting recipes from this week's show and lots more info soon so check back amigos! Thanks for coming, thanks for watching.