"The Mustard Seed Cafe"

Mornin' folks!

Say hello to....the Mustard girls!!

There's Debbie Mustard-Gibson (our hostess on the left), her sister Darla Mustard and her other sister, Cheryl Mustard (i don't know their married last names....!!) Isn't Mustard the coolest last name?

Last night at Debbie and Ken's house, for our farewell to Ohio dinner, i made a huge buffet of raw vegan living food for me, the Mustard girls, Ken and Cliff.

Everyone flipped! I made Gaspacho, stuffed mushrooms and celery, blueberry/apricot cream pie, parsley tabouli salad, chunky veggie salad with the blue stringbeans and a powdered mustard sweet dressing, and zucchini spaghetti with sundried tomato-red pepper sauce.

These girls are SOLD on raw foods. Darla knows more about spirulina and raw apple cider vinegar than I do! Who would think i'd take a trip to visit Debbie and Ken, only to discover the 2 sisters of Debbie who live close by are totally into raw foods and wannabe raw foodists? What was to be a friendly vacation visiting a longtime friend of Cliff's turned into a total raw inspired trip. Amazing! And totally unexpected!!!

I made fast friends with Debbie, who had been to our house once, and her sisters became fast friends almost immediately. What wonderful girls! Debbie says, "They complete me."

The Mustard girls kept oohing and ahhing at the raw dinner... They made me write every recipe down...uh, i don't use recipes so that was challenging, and Debbie photocopied them for all. They even made me promise to write a recipe book! I'd love to, but, help! Darla got up in my face with a wink, "i'm gonna be callin' you every day, darlin, did you write it? did you write it?" JUST WHAT I NEED! I hope she does!!! The Mustard girls all have southern accents, so you have to imagine how cute Darla sounded...

We planned an imaginary cafe here in Dayton called the 'Mustard Seed Cafe' or 'Ketchup and Mustard'! Darla would be sales and promotion, Cheryl the waitress, Ken a fabulous guitarist, the entertainment, Cliff would run the register and handle the money, Debbie a nurse would be the nutrition end and interior design. Did i forget anyone? Me! I'd cook! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow??!!

I said to Cheryl, you know, nothing happens without a dream first. So, let's keep dreaming... The Mustard Seed Cafe will be all yellow, sunny, cheery...live music, i'll sing every once in a while. Cheryl said, 'Wouldn't you just die to have a job you'd really enjoy?' The Mustard Seed Cafe will be a place of happiness...and joy!

It's nice to dream.

Because dreams...can turn into reality.

The food pictures look gross because everything's eaten up! And i'm not a good photographer or photographic designer like my friend, Meredith is! www.therawseed.com

We're driving home today so i gotta run and pack. I'll save your eyes today.

Scared to go home on the scale. Eek. Cheese and lots of agave. I did exercise alot, but not yesterday. It stormed all day. Oh, well, i'll deal with it! Time to be happy...not scared!

xoxox michelle joy