Celebrating the Summer Soltice

This morning I started cleaning the back patio--a job a long time in coming. In fact I finished the Christmas tree--taking the needles off to mulch strawberries and blueberries. The timing was perfect as you will see.

Every Tuesday, our friend Jewel comes over for dinner and a performance by Jazz. Jewel is a lovely audience for my little performer and a delightful dinner guest. As the Soltice was yesterday and I did want to celebrate it, we decided to do it tonight. I had a lovely little raw recipe in process and knew it would be ready tonight. My friends Nina and Peter would appreciate the Strawberry Crepes and celebrating the soltice, so they were called and invited.

Jasmine decided she would like dinner on the back patio so she finished the cleaning. The back patio table has been a planting and gardening station for many months and needed a lot of attention. Jazz hosed of the tables and chairs and set the table. We all enjoyed celebrating the soltice with good friends and summer produce. The Strawberry Crepes were to die for. The recipe follows.

I washed my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar rinse today and it did the trick. My hair feels great. Notice below I'm wearing it down which I haven't been doing much lately.

Our Soltice Celebration

Jewel and Jazzie

Jazzie performing

Strawberry Crepes with Coconut and Cashew filling

makes 8 crepes

Ingredients:
6 ripe bananas
1 cup raw cashew nuts, soaked a few hours
1 cup raw mature coconut , chopped up
1 large lemon, juiced
4 teaspoon Agave Nectar.
0.125 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1½ cup strawberries
2 teaspoon Agave Nectar
Preparation:
Crepe Shells
Place bananas in a food processor and blend until smooth. Remove from processor and spread about 1/8 inch thick on to a Teflex sheet on top of a dehydrator screen. Dehydrate for 12 hours or less. (Begin checking the bananas a few hours before to make sure they are formed, pliable, and solid in texture, but not getting crispy). Remove from dehydrator and slice into squares (about 10cm x 10cm)

Filling
Place cashew nuts, coconut, lemon juice, the 4 teaspoons agave and vanilla in food processor and blend until smooth. Then drizzle almond milk in until the consistency is a thick puree. Add more almond milk if need be.

Strawberry Sauce
Combine strawberries and the 1.5 tablespoons agave in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Assemble
Place scoops of filling on to banana fruit leather squares and roll up. Pour strawberry sauce over the rolled-up crepes. When ready to eat, top with a little Maple Syrup and garnish with mint Note: It’s important to let the crepes sit for at least a couple of hours with the strawberry sauce on top. The sauce will soften the fruit leather and make it “crepe-like” instead of hard and chewy. Left longer they will retain their perfect shape but the banana will melt in your mouth. These are also great the next day!
Adapted from an Alyssa Cohen recipe.

This is the recipe as I found it on GoneRaw.com. I didn't use cashews but just used coconut cream (baby coconut meat with enough coconut water to make a creamy texture mixed with a little vanilla and agave syrup) as the filling.