It was a fantastic weekend! Friday night was dinner at Po’s Dumplings with my friend, Judith. They have an eggplant dish that is sweet and spicy and absolutely divine! Po’s is the perfect place to go with everyone. They have gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, seafood and a lot of meat dishes. Delicious!
The high point of the evening was going to see the documentary Let Me Be Frank about a 50-something, New York Italian, who in the year 2000 was 5'7", 287 pounds and living in San Francisco. He was a former heroin addict in recovery for 17 years, and the doctors were treating him for Hepatitis C. Frank swallowed a handful of pills every morning including antidepressants; he was miserable both physically and emotionally.
One day he stumbled onto Café Gratitude, and thinking it was somehow related to the recovery community, he went inside and sat down. It became clear that this wasn’t an AA or NA hangout; These were people eating healthy, no one was smoking, and there wasn’t a cup of coffee in front of everyone. He stayed. Something about the feel-good atmosphere grabbed hold. Outspoken and funny, and honestly quite frank, Frank became a regular at Café Gratitude, a raw vegan restaurant.
One day Ryland, his brother Cary and his friend Conor offered to transform Frank’s life in 42 days. They insisted that Frank sign a contract stating that he would follow their rules, including filming the entire process. The rules included eating a raw vegan diet, weekly colonics, and daily affirmations.
When a filmmaker from New York moved to San Francisco and met Ryland, Cary and Conor, and looked at the raw footage, he knew there was magic to be made. The magic is Frank’s transformation, but it’s more than that: Frank’s honesty and humor make people fall in love with him. Friend them on Facebook so you can attend a screening when they’re somewhere near you, or for those in KC, come on over and we’ll watch it at my place. It is inspirational!
Frank came out and did about a 30-minute Q&A and he looked so good! His humor and language were exactly the same. He was relaxed and enjoyed the audience as much as we enjoyed him. A truly wonderful evening!
When I returned home from the movie, the homemade Maple Baked Beans that had been cooking in my Crockpot all day were done. Delicious! I had never made baked beans from scratch and they were so good I thought I’d inadvertently added bacon. I adapted a recipe from the book 1000 Vegan Recipes, by Robin Robertson. The original recipe was baked and called for canned beans, dry mustard and cayenne pepper. I changed quantities based on the beans used and threw it all in my slow cooker.
The recipe: 6 cups of mixed black beans, pinto beans, and black eyed peas. (These had been soaked overnight and measured after soaking. I'm confident that you can use any kind of bean you have on hand. If using canned, drain and omit the salt.) 2/3 cup pure maple syrup, 3 tbsp of blackstrap molasses, 1 sliced large onion, 2 sliced cloves garlic, 1-2 tbsp yellow mustard and salt. I salted these as uncooked beans, so probably 1 tbsp of salt. Put the beans in the Crockpot, cover with water, add the other ingredients and cook on low for 8-10 hours. I took the cover off for the last hour of cooking.
Yesterday I made a vegan, gluten free Mushroom Risotto that was delicious. I adapted that recipe based on the mushrooms I had available, from www.thekitchn.com. I substituted tamari for the balsamic vinegar, and fresh mushrooms for dried. I didn’t have shitake’s so I used portabella and cremini. This is a dish that would fool your friends into thinking it’s not vegan. It’s got a richness that I haven’t found easy to create since I took meat out of my diet. Wonderful!
My journey has been a wild ride, but I wasn't filmed during the tough times. Frank's journey has allowed him to be the person that was under all the crap. What a gift!
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