Sunday, November 23, 2025. A story & a search for food.
Our week of Thanksgiving. Seeking raw foods recipes.
Today I am asking a specific & unusual question & telling a story.
It’s about food & seeking certain recipes.
Jupiter is in Cancer & we are under the Light of Sagittarius.
Cancer & Sagittarius are signs in which food is most important.
And it’s also the week of Thanksgiving when food is the focus.
And so….the story & the question.
When living in Santa Cruz (80s,90s, etc.), my friend, Jane, & I had a cafe. It was called Indian Summer. We prepared macrobiotic & vegetarian meals, fresh juices, sandwiches, soups, etc. Many who were ill came to our little place, hidden behind Community Foods. Natural doctors would send their patients to our cafe.
We had a tiny little kitchen and only a few employees. We were closed on Sundays to let everyone & everything in the kitchen rest.
Eventually, our little cafe closed & many of the recipes were transferred to the Saturn Cafe & some to Dharmas. Jane & I continued to prepare foods. Jane opened a restaurant in Seabright. I cooked for families, travelled to Findhorn & cooked in the F. kitchen (early morning baking breads, etc.), helping to create the F cookbook. Leaving Findhorn, I returned to Santa Cruz & opened the Esoteric & Astrological Center (New & Centers Sts.) where all of us prepared foods for our Esoteric Group classes (the building is now a dentist’s office).
And so the years went by. My mother became ill & I lived with her for several years, tending & caring for her ’til her death. The last year of her life Mother was very particular about the foods she ate. She loved the vegetarian raw foods from the Hip Cafe in Ojai, CA – the raw foods that Nancy Samuels created. They were fabulous raw salads, nut & seed pates, salad dressings – in all my travels they were the best raw foods I had ever eaten.
Mother’s home was 30 miles away from the Hip Cafe. So I could not travel often to purchase Nancy’s raw salads, pates & dressings. I called her up one day & asked if she would share with me her recipes so I could make them for my mother. I told her I would exchange astrology readings & counseling with her. But she said no….& I was so disappointed.
Well, the HIp Cafe changed hands & Nancy left the cafe & moved to N. California. Mother eventually died & her home was sold & I moved away.
But I never stopped thinking about Nancy’s extraordinary foods. And I never stopped preparing foods for family, friends, neighbors and especially those who were ill.
Present time:
I continue to prepare foods each day (when not writing). Often I prepare lots of foods – soups, stews, salads, cakes, etc. – & share them with neighbors. People who do not feel well, ask me for soups. At present there is a neighbor who is very ill, is vegetarian & prefers raw foods. She has asked me to prepare foods for her.
And so I remembered Nancy Samuels’ fresh raw salads, extraordinary dressings & pates. I have tried to make what I remember to be the taste & quality of her foods. But I have been unable to reproduce Nancy’s excellence.
My question – does anyone have Nancy Samuels recipes?
I have looked at the present Hip Cafe menu in Ojai (new owners took over from Nancy in 2012). When I look at their menu they do not have Nancy’s original salads, pates or dressings. They are more macrobiotic.
So that is my story & my question.
The person who is ill in our village will be coming over today.
I have made for her roasted veggies, white bean soup w/ kale, rice pudding with cardamom & home made apple sauce. I want her to be warm as the winter is coming on.
So often things are hidden from us until we ask.
I hope I can find answers to my search.
And about gratitude – Rumi says….Put gratitude on like a cloak.
Gratitude warms us….with love, Risa
Photos –
2 salads at the Hiip Cafe (before new owners).
Outside the old Hip Cafe in Ojai.
