Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Dungeness crabmeat (or local crabmeat)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons crème fraiche
• 2 each: fennel bulbs (1 shaved thin on a mandolin, reserve the frawns)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup Madeira
• 2 sheets gelatin (soaked in ice water)
• 1cup cream
• 1/2cup pomegranate seeds
• 2 each: parsnips (peeled and shaved with a peeler into long strips)
• 2 cups canola oil for frying

Fennel sauce
Bring water to a boil. Blanch spinach until tender. Shock in an ice water bath, drain out excess moisture. Place fennel in a pot with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sweat for 20 minutes or until the fennel is soft. Add cream and simmer until fennel is tender. Place fennel and spinach in a blender, blend till smooth, salt to taste. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and cool.

Madeira gelée
Bring Madeira to a simmer, whisk in gelatin. Place mixture in refrigerator and let cool until set.

Crab
Combine and mix; crab, crème fraiche, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt to taste. Mold crab into 15 1-ounce stacks, refrigerate and set aside.

Fried parsnips
Heat oil to 300 degrees. Fry half of the shaved parsnips until crisp.

Salad
Combine shaved fennel and parsnips with remaining olive oil and lemon juice. Salt to taste.

To serve:
Place fennel sauce on plate, top with crab, place salad on top of crab. Pull the gelée into chunks and place where desired. Garnish with fennel frawns and pomegranate seeds.

Serves 5

Related article: Taste of Travel-Say yes to Yountville

By Charlene Peters –

Biking alongside the setting sun, past Stag’s Leap to a tasting at Cliff Lede vineyards, or walking the glorious one-mile expanse of Yountville’s epicurean enclave and you’ve entered nirvana, especially when at the same time, you get to taste fine vintages in the luxuriating comfort of such wineries as Domaine Chandon, Girard Winery and Silenus Vintners.

Yountville’s annual Moveable Feast is a culinary adventure that offers a quintessential exploration of the quaint town in Napa Valley, California.

Sporting six Michelin stars among 15 restaurants, including Bistro Jeanty, Bottega Ristorante, and Hotel Luca’s Cantinetta Piero, Yountville attracts the best of the best chefs, drawn to an area that boasts The French Laundry, Bouchon and ad hoc, three of famed Chef Thomas Keller’s famous restaurants. It’s no surprise that town locals refer to Yountville as “Kellerville,” especially knowing that he’s willing to share the crops grown on his 48 plot organic garden.

Dining is almost as important to Yountville’s economy as wines are, and due to Keller’s success, and the likes of Domaine Chandon (the only winery with a Michelin-star restaurant open to the public), the best young chef’s flock to the area to tout their craft.

It doesn’t matter that there are only 3,200 residents living in Yountville, and it doesn’t matter that half of those residents are retired veterans. Tourism is thriving with foodies and oenophiles heading to hills of wine country every month of the year. And through February, Moveable Feast features the town’s 11 hotels and 15 restaurants that encompass the 23-acre town, concentrated with restaurants and wineries that offer a walk-able visit.

Brussels Sprout Salad at Bottega

For those who prefer not to walk the 10 minutes it takes through town, there’s the option of Napa Valley Bike Tours, or you can jump on a free trolley to take you wherever your taste buds beckon.

Visit Yountville.com for more information and to get your passport to savings. And in the meantime, Brussels sprouts are the vegetable du jour, and Dungeness crab is the seafood of the season, so here are a few recipes worth whipping up to get a taste of the valley.

• Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Asparagus Salad
• Dungeness Crab with Shaved Fennel and Madeira Gelée

Located north of Boston, Massachusetts, Charlene Peters has spent years experiencing spas, food and wines of the world. She enjoys sharing tales on the best stops in her travels, and hopes readers will follow the footprints she leaves behind via her reviews. To reach Charlene, e-mail: charlenepeters@comcast.net.

Brussels Sprout Salad at Bottega

Shaved Brussels sprouts and asparagus salad:

• 4 cups Brussels sprouts, thinly shaved (using the mandoline)
• 4 cups asparagus, thinly shaved (using the mandoline)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil fried and salted Marcona almonds, chopped
• 4 tablespoons hard-boiled egg whites, sieved
• 4 tablespoons hard-boiled egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons pecorino Romano cheese, grated

Just before serving, place the asparagus, Brussels sprouts, eggs, almonds and cheese in a salad bowl, add about 1/2 cup vinaigrette and toss well. Add more to taste and adjust the seasoning.

Whole citrus vinaigrette:

• 2 lemons
• 1/2 navel orange or 1 small orange
• 1 shallot
• 1-1/2 cups pure olive oil
• 1 teaspoon gray salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Juice the lemons, orange and shallot in a juice extractor. Put the juices in a bowl and whisk in the olive oil in a slow stream to form an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Whisk again, cover and refrigerate for up to three days.

Makes about 2 cups.

Related article: Taste of Travel-Say yes to Yountville

Fresh Start Health Retreat Center

By Charlene Peters –

For many, British Columbia is a long way to travel, but the journey to wellness is worth the commute. Aside from Vancouver Island’s beauty in watching the whales and seals frolic in the sea, there’s a place where attaining inner and outer beauty is within reach. Fresh Start Health Retreat Centers is located on beautiful Oyster Bay, and might actually be the true Fountain of Youth. OK, it’s not in Florida, but the weather on Vancouver Island is mild and the air is clean. Most importantly, it’s where Ania and Vasili Kastashchuk run Fresh Start, offering 5-, 10- and 14-day intense programs for healing, as well as weekends catered to relaxation and raw food menus.

Beet and Wheatgrass Cocktail

De-toxing, cleansing and healing is what Fresh Start is all about. And although you have to experience a Fresh Start program to truly appreciate what good it can do for you, I’ll share the experience of a 5-day cleanse.

With open arms (literally, as everyone at Fresh Start is open to affection) you are greeted by everyone at the Center, where you arrive at dinnertime to enjoy your last solid food for a few days. The food, however, is all “live,” meaning raw, uncooked — but, deliciously prepared by Chef Carol Kopp. Think salad, vegetables and grains. But don’t think about drinking with your meal. What you’ll notice is that no water is served with your meal, for reasons of proper digestion.

Rasberry Crepes

The dining room has picture windows overlooking the ocean, and a large dining table and many accessories made from local driftwood. It is here that you will first meet other attendees in your group. Within your time spent at the Center, you’ll become quite intimate with everyone.

Following dinner is orientation, so that before you call it a day, you’ll know where to go come morning. A good night’s sleep is in order, so an early retreat to your Ocean Resort room is spent unpacking, washing up and gearing up for an early morning exercise class. Alternating mornings spent with the soothing Gabriela Eikeland, who offers massage and reflexology, and the best personal care products made from natural resources.

Following your first morning exercise class, held downstairs at the Fresh Start Health Retreat Center, you’ll head upstairs to the dining room, where a 2-litre bottle of isotonic drink must be consumed within a half hour. Made with warm water and Celtic sea salt, it was soothing … sort of. While drinking the solution, some members in my group who had been at the Center for 10 days already, began to share horror stories of the isotonic’s outcome. Each person will react differently, but every single person will begin cleansing straight away. “You feel great afterwards,” I was told. This was not the case for me. I felt exhausted after the isotonics, which we consumed for three days in a row. Apparently, if you’ve been living a life fueled by stimulants (think coffee, sugar, anxiety); you will feel the most sluggish after isotonics.

Although a juice smoothie shortly followed the isotonic, I was OK with not drinking it, or for that matter eating – as I was full for hours from the isotonic still lurking in my stomach. Plus, after weighing myself, I realized I was the heaviest I’d ever been in my life. We also had to measure our chest, waist and hips, take our blood pressure and heart rate — every morning after yoga or meditation.

Although the isotonics proved to be the most challenging during my visit, there was one member in my group who actually wanted to continue one more day, when the rest of the group was told they were done. That is how rewarding the cleansing and detoxing experience is for those who can muster the courage to do good for their bodies.

In fact, one member in my group was there for the second time. So, I knew there was something about this place that worked. But it’s hard to determine your success when you’re in the midst of detoxing. In addition to the isotonics, many in my group signed on for massage therapy, and then there’s colonics, performed at the Center, and recommended to do twice during the cleanse — once to hydrate your six-foot colon, and once to flush everything out – including that Barbie shoe swallowed as a young girl, or that crayon or candy wrapper, and the barium leftover from a lower GI test. Yes, you can count on a total cleanse if you sign on for colonics. Although I chose to skip this part of the program, which costs extra, it was definitely something I should have done. In hindsight I know this, but at the time, I was still in shock over what was happening to me. It was a stripping down and then building up with nutrients.

All through the cleansing days, juice smoothies were doled out, and our itinerary became labeled as a kidney cleanse day, a liver cleanse day, and a blood cleanse day. The juices of the “day” were actually delicious, and “warming stomach soup” proved successful to all in our group. This smoothie was extra thick, served in a warmed bowl, yet cold, but offering the effect of soup. And it worked for dinner.

Group counseling after isotonics seemed appropriate, as you were, figuratively, stripped raw by then, the perfect time to deal with emotions. You might discover a better appreciation of what you have in your life, or you might realize what you need to change. There may be tears shed, intimacies discussed and decisions made. And then there’s juice. More juice. Beet juice, kale juice, every kind of juice that will add nutrients to your body. And 2 shots of wheatgrass, daily. You also have the choice to sit with a doctor of naturopathy for a blood analysis and energy testing (additional cost).

If you choose to do this, be prepared to know the truth about what you’ve been doing to your body via emotions, lifestyle and food choices. After this, you will be scared straight, for sure. Animal proteins will show up, as will a sluggish digestive system. And the energy testing is in a realm of its own. After this, you’ll know yourself better than you ever thought you could.

“Chew your juice and juice your food” is a common theme around the Center, where a showing of “Food Matters” is just one of a selection of educational tools utilized.

Facts discovered while at the Center include:

• Black spots on bananas mean they were gassed in order to ripen.
• Stick with organic everything possible.
• Drink milk thistle tea to cleanse your liver, and drink it 2-3 times each day.
• You have free will to choose what you will or will not eat.

But, whatever you decide, know this. Two weeks after I returned from the Center, still eating healthy, mostly raw foods in my diet, I had a blood test with my doctor, which showed my cholesterol dropped 62 points — and I’d lost 12 pounds (4 pounds during my time at the Center), and gained a lot of energy – without coffee in the morning (not planned, but you feel so much better without stimulants!).

So, after relaxing, exercise, steam baths, counseling, lectures, art class and walks in the magnificent outdoors, including a few walks inside the on-site labyrinth, what is one supposed to do once you leave the Center?

Well, first things first: eliminate temptation by cleaning out your kitchen cupboards as soon as you get home. Next, purchase the proper kitchen equipment, such as a dehydrator (recommended: Excalibur 9-trays), a Vita-mixer for chowder and green smoothies, and learn how to make raw desserts. Add protein to salads, such as hemp, nuts and avocados, and know that vitamins are not intended for long-term use, but are transitional supplements until your body is working at peak performance. Eat two-thirds vegetables to one-third fruits and purchase a raw food cookbook immediately.

Leaving Fresh Start, I felt proud of my accomplishment in detoxing/cleansing, and empowered by the experience. And please know – it’s definitely worth the investment of your cash, time and energy. To take your health to the next level, visit http://www.healthretreat.ca/.

Located north of Boston, Massachusetts, Charlene Peters has spent years experiencing spas, food and wines of the world. She enjoys sharing tales on the best stops in her travels, and hopes readers will follow the footprints she leaves behind via her reviews. To reach Charlene, e-mail: charlenepeters@comcast.net.