Angela & Blake Costa Rica Wedding

Juice Detox

“Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work.  The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.  Our food should be our medicine.  Our medicine should be our food.  But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.” – Hippocrates

I’d remember when my mother would look at my pimples during my not-so-sexy adolescent years and say — “Aiya! Huo qi tai da! Your fire energy is too big.” I’d immediately place her odd and off-putting comments in the you obviously don’t know anything category and religiously scrub my face with oxiclean wipes with no prevail.

[Sunflower seeds from our neighbor, Scott]

Now as adulthood creeps at my heels, I come to realize that mother knew everything all along.  How annoying.  But you see, Chinese culture has always practiced holistic methods when it came to healing.  In order to treat a disease we must start with the root of the problem and heal our bodies, opposed to treating them.  Hence the strong influence of acupuncture, herbal remedies — truly homeopathic remedies that still runs prevalent in the culture today.

When I would pull a muscle, mother didn’t give me Alleve.  She made me lay down and she’d pull out her tray of tools — long acupuncture needles, weird smelling plants, gigantic fire sticks that she’d stick in large glass globes to help suck the “Bad Qi” out of the body. It all goes back to the whole “respect your body and it’ll respect you” thing, that the basis of health includes a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  (World Health Organization)

So often in modern society, we dismiss the roots of our own problems and are quick to place the blame on others.  Our quality of life is solely dependent on our own personal practices – our habits, virtues, morals, and core beliefs ultimately mold and determine the state of our well-being both mentally and physically.

Recently, having to deal with excessive work overload along with the stress of wedding planning has left me at an unhealthy state of mind and body weight.  I’ve felt irritable, constant tightness and stress in my neck and shoulders, and often wake up exhausted and unrested.  With work overload it usually leads to bad eating habits, mostly late night and often found comfort in foods high in sugar and fats.  So I had to stop.  Reset myself. So I’m starting a juice detox for the next 14 days.  <insert shock and WTFs here.>

It’s something I’ve been curious about doing for a couple years but I guess I just never mustered up the self willingness to do it.  But sometimes you just need a big kick in the ass to get things kicking into gear.  So what better reason to detox your body when you’re feeling your worst?

I do not recommend anyone to detox or practice any form of fasting without doing your own personal research and consulting your doctor first.  What I choose to do is under my own discretion so please take my experience with an open mind and a grain of salt. My curiosity for juicing was reignited after watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  Joe Cross was more than 100 pounds overweight, on a butt load of prescription medication for his various illnesses, and was tired of not finding relief with struggles of poor health.  He trades in the junk food and vowed to drink only fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days.  The documentary follows Joe across 3,000 miles with a goal to get off his prescriptions and achieve a balanced lifestyle.  After watching the film, it reiterated to me the excessive nature of our eating habits, the amount of poor quality food we ingest knowingly and unknowingly and the exhaustive and often detrimental effects of stress and negligence that has slowly evolved into a normality in our lives.

Fasts have been practiced in many different cultures and religions since the beginning of time as a way to enlighten the inner spirit and purifying and reviving the body.  After looking through several cleanses, I’ve finally decided to try the juice detoxification cleanse which I will talk more about in the coming days.

I went for a check up with my physician where I had a complete metabolic panel, blood enzyme and chemistry, and CBC test performed to note any differences that may occur from my fast.  I will also be taking daily photos of my complexion and body to note any differences along with chronicling any physical and emotional observations to see if there’s a direct correlation between the increase in the rate of health and better state of mind.  I’ll be sharing the before and after results at the end of my fast.

I invite you to follow my journey for the next 14 days.  There will be tears, laughter, I’m sure plenty of anger but hopefully the outcome will be rewarding.  I invite readers who may have had experiences in detoxes in the past to share their personal experiences and knowledge as I am merely a fasting detoxing virgin.  So here’s to good health, good spirituality and good energy throughout my fasting adventure…here goes nothing!

Update

So a couple happenings have been going on here at Joylicious.  Sorry for the lack of updates but I am back and ready to attack!!  I hope you guys are enjoying the new layout.  I figured it was a better representation of who I am and it also gives you guys the freedom to poke around at my other works outside of food :). 

First and foremost, Artizone has launched some new vendors that will surely make Dallasites swoon.  These partners include Rex’s Seafood, Larken Farms, Kessler Cookie Company, Holy Ravioli and more — check out more here.  I recently made and photographed this simple dessert — Blondies with Roasted Peaches topped with a generous scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.  Yes it tastes absolutely ridiculously delicious.  Check out the recipe over at Artizone. 

I’ve also recently had the honor to guest post for some of my favorite blogger friends.  Liren from Kitchen Confidante is simply a beautiful soul.  Based out in San Francisco (you lucky lucky girl), Liren finds inspiration in food through her beautiful yet simplistic recipes and certainly her wonderful photography. I went ahead and shared my recipe for a Spicy Basil Walnut Pesto as a way to use the abundance of basil that’s been growing in our garden.  Please be sure to show Liren your upmost love!

 

Next up is the uber-talented Sukaina from Sips and Spoonfuls.  I truly admire Sukina not only for her obvious talent but her unwavering strength and attitude on life.  She writes a beautiful blog that inerweaves stories of her past present and even future and ties them into her awe-inspiring recipes.  You can only imagine my delight when she asked me to guest blog.  I wanted to feature a refreshing Summer recipe that used cucumbers from our garden and decided on a  Chilled Soba Noodle dish and topped it with a farm fresh egg from Busy Bs.

I also did a photoshoot for Red Fork Restaurant here in Dallas — this was one of my favorite images.  Doesnt that burger just scream ” Eat the sh*t out of me???” Check out their menu for more tasty fare…

Lastly, this image I captured on a flight home to Dallas from Houston.  Sometimes you find God’s miracles in some of the most unexpected places.  I had my camera stowed away because I was sitting in the first row but I couldn’t help but shuffle it out to capture such a view. 

 

 I’ve really miss yall this Summer with all the traveling and such and I am glad to be back :). Hope you guys have a great weekend – eat lots, drink often and be merry!

Sunday Brunch with Tim Byres

There are many qualities that define a good chef: a well organized kitchen, an inviting dining space, and certainly delicious food that’ll keep you coming back for more.  But what makes a great chef?  At Smoke, Chef and co-owner Tim Byres is finding the roots of great food again.  He pushes the limit when it comes to finding resources and suppliers for ingredients and goes even further with going back to basic good ‘ole fashion cooking techniques.  This week for Sunday Brunch, Chef Byres will be sharing his infamous Blueberry Pancakes served with Vanilla Poached Apricots and Fresh Cream.

 

Byres first discovered his love for cooking through family get togethers, he often helped his mother prepare for backyard parties, relishing in the energy and hospitality that came along with entertaining.  “There’s this service, fun, unpretentious kind of happiness that happens at these parties that I hope to share with people.”

During high school Byres started working as a busboy at restaurants and soon after decided to attend Johnson and Wales in Miami. Upon graduating, he worked under Jonathan Eismann from The Pacific Times at the age of 18 and from there he went on to work at several other prestigious restaurants including Stephan Pyles and The Mansion in Dallas.

Dallas is lucky to have a gem like Smoke.  Chef Byres really wants to bring diners back to the basics again with good old-fashioned recipes like breads made from scratch, house-cured and smoked meats and pickled vegetables, along with sweet and savory jams.  It’s this beautiful earthy simplicity geared towards renewing the reminiscence of how cooking use to be: simple, natural, and family-styled.

“They call it heritage inspired food but you know it’s more like old fashioned American cooking, like with wood fire cooking.  We have all these lost recipes that really aren’t done anymore because now you just buy bread from the stores, pickles in jars…I want to bring it all back.”

What a magical wonder he’s created.  The most beautiful part of it all is how Byres strives to make diners feel right at home with a simple dose of Southern hospitality where the forks and knives may not match, but rest assured you’ll always leave Smoke with a happy stomach and a full heart.

“I’m trying to demystify any real funky ole recipe that no one knows about and then bring them out in a fun way.  Also there’s just a certain nostalgia level to everything – when this place [Smoke] gets busy people will start talking to other tables around them.  I’ll even have long tables full of friends and family that share a family-styled meal together.  So if you’re in this real fancy fuddy duddy formal arena, you don’t get any of that.  I guess breaking some of those rules down and bringing it back to what it was, you know the beginning.”

 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Chef Byres was selected as The People’s Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine this year.  He is after all a great chef: he respects the history of American cooking; he strives to find only the very best local ingredients through developing close relationships with farmers and purveyors; he goes to great lengths in ensuring that every diner has a fun, memorable and comforting experience.  It’s chefs like Byres that makes food feel alive again, nourishing our minds, bodies and souls.

Visit Smoke for brunch served every weekend from 8am-3pm.

Whisk cake flour, all purpose flour, and next 3 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk and eggs in medium bowl. Gradually whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter.

Heat griddle or 2 heavy large nonstick skillets over medium heat. Brush lightly with additional melted butter. Working in batches, pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto griddle. Sprinkle each pancake with 1 heaping tablespoon blueberries. Cook until bottoms brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn pancakes over and cook until second sides brown, about 1 minute. Divide pancakes among plates. Serve with syrup.

Recipe for Honey Vanilla Poached Apricots from Epicurious

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 3/4 pound fresh apricots, halved lengthwise and pitted

In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan simmer water, honey, sugar, and vanilla bean, covered, 5 minutes. Add apricots and simmer, covered, until just tender but not falling apart, 2 to 5 minutes, depending on ripeness of fruit.

Transfer apricots with a slotted spoon to a bowl and boil syrup until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Pour syrup over apricots and chill 25 minutes.

 

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