How Do We Do It Without Running Water? And One More Teaphernalia Piece, Final Forbidden Foods (One Bar); Joy of Being Less Rigid

Happy Wednesday/Hump Day/whatever you call it! Thanks for all the kind comments about my previous post. Today, I'm going to share one more 'teaphernalia' item and also attempt to answer the question of how we manage without the running water. And I keep talking about how I'm not going to have the foods I'm not supposed to have, now that we're back home, and there keep seeming to be 'one last thing!' I'm going to share the last (honest!) of those.

Teaphernalia: we call this one 'the rhino condom' - that's what I thought it looked like when I first got hold of it!

Put leaves/powder in, and set in the jar/mug. It hangs down lower than the copco one that I mentioned last time, and works pretty well, apart from its propensity to fall in the jar and spill out the contents! It also doesn't arrive this teastained color: it earns that through many loving brews...

Before I start sharing the 'forbidden foods,' I have to acknowledge how good it feels to be out of the grips of rigidity. For my first several years as a rawfoodist, I wouldn't have eaten steamed broccoli, as I sometimes do now, let alone steamed carrots. I wouldn't have eaten a larabar or other raw food bar in case the nuts weren't 'really raw.' My friends and I worried about what temperature things like cinnamon and ginger were ground at. It feels so good to embrace less of a black-and-white outlook. I used to prowl the aisles of natural food stores picking up raw or gluten/dairy free bars, reading the ingredients, putting them back down... Actually, I still do that to some degree. A lot of them have things that I can't eat, and for the foreseeable future at least, I should probably accept that I can't have cacao or 'sugar' (dates, agave, etc).

I would certainly never have bought this to try in my old ideology. But it was marked down to 96 cents and I wanted to encourage that grocery store to carry things like that (it's a new item and I'm afraid it wasn't selling well), so I picked up two, one for me and one for Phil's daughter.

It does have sugar added, and it's a creamer: the listed 'serving size' is a tablespoon. I mentioned before having the experience of sugar-added foods tasting alcoholic: I kid you not: to me, this stuff tastes eerily like Baileys Irish Cream! Seriously! You should try it and let me know if I'm deluded (obviously it's been years since I've had the real Baileys).

The other 'indulgence' arrived with my recent order from The Raw Food World, the rest of which is much more 'virtuous' and I'll talk about soon.

This is 'the one' chocolate bar. It contains cacao - butter and powder, mesquite, maca, agave, sea salt.

So, it does contain agave, but fairly far down the ingredients list, and it also contains some of my favorite superfoods. I think that maca in particular helps to balance the cacao. I've eaten about half of it over the past two days (it's a small bar - just 28.5 grams, so 1oz).

It is delicious, and quite satisfying in that small quantity. With the added powders, the texture is slightly more 'munchy' than 'melt in your mouth,' but I like that sometimes. Calls itself 'the only chocolate bar you'll need,' and (allowing for the fact that (a) I'm not supposed to have chocolate at all and (b) I always prefer to make my own), I'm actually inclined to agree.

I should also mention that the price was good enough to make me decide to try it, since so many raw cacao bars are exorbitantly priced. And, it's made by Gabrielle Brick, another rawfood superhero whose path I've crossed before - when I was cheffing at Raw Spirit 1997, I think. Gosh, I miss that world!

So, how do we do without running water?
These two big 6-gallon jugs on our porch (took this photo at 8am, still dark up here) are part of how - the two trashier jugs off of the porch are the rest.

We take them down to the Safeway, where there is a public spigot (lots of homes around here have no running water, but most such folks don't spend winters here), and fill them up. I remember one time last winter when the spigot was frozen and we were out of water - wasn't much fun. Soon, we'll have to bring those jugs indoors - they're right on the verge of freezing outside now.

We have another jug, with a little faucet on it, that we heave up to our little sink area (usually I let Phil do this: it's heavy and high)! As you can see, it's a tiny sink (which also doesn't drain - we carry out the dishwater) - hard for washing a Vita-Mix pitcher!

Next to that is our cooking area - toaster oven, two-burner propane stove, little fridge (too little)

And, as dawn breaks, there is the tea kettle and Vita-Mix station at the other end of the counter! That spot in front of the Vita is also where I often sit to work. So lots of mess potential there! You can see our full-spectrum 'Sad' light there too: we're using it in the mornings to help protect against SAD.

For 'other end' plumbing needs... This is an old and weird picture (I was sick at the time and it's super-unflattering) from snow-bound March, but if you look out of the window and ignore me, you can see our outhouse.

When you need to go 'real bad' and it's snowing outside, you still have to make the time to put on a heavy coat, etc. And that is one mighty cold toilet seat! Honestly, we have old gallon jugs with lids on inside for '#1' needs (hope that's not tmi).

To finish - we found a beautiful sculpture on the beach, hiking the other day. We hauled it home! Phil might equalize the length of the 'legs,' which will make it rather more x-rated, but we might just leave it as is.