Marching Into Spring 🌸

Dear Friends,

Can you believe Spring is here?! (It may not feel like it with all of the cold weather recently... brrr!) With Spring comes celebrations, which means

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Birthday to Napa Café!

Twenty-five years ago, Napa Café was born. It is my pride and joy, and it seems like it was just yesterday that we opened our doors for the very first time to welcome our first set of fabulous guests! It has been an absolute joy to welcome our amazing guests, who continue to support us daily, for the past 25 years. It's been a heck of a ride, and we're not finished!

In celebration of Napa Café's 25th birthday and mine, you know we will have the most extravagant event ever! I will let the creative vision strike in perfect timing and you will be the first to know. We are looking forward to celebrating a momentous anniversary with all of you!

March is National Nutrition Month and National Celery Month, so my Hastings' Tastings is all about celery juice! Did you know that celery juice has AMAZING benefits for your health? I have some tips on juicing celery that can help you on your health journey!

If you're planning a rehearsal dinner, reception, birthday, or another life milestone, consider our spacious and versatile dining rooms that comfortably seat up to 65 guests.

If you've recently dined in or ordered delivery, we'd love for you to share your dining experience with us by posting a review to our OpenTable or Facebook page!

Here's what you can look forward to in this newsletter:

Hastings' Tastings: Celery Juice

Dishes of the Month

Thank you for Dining with Us!

We look forward to seeing you for dinner soon!

Cheers!

Glenda Hastings and the Napa Café Family

Hasting's Tastings: Celery Juice

March is National Celery Month and it’s this month’s

Juice Pick!

If you have spent more than five minutes with me, there is no doubt my love and devotion of celery juice has made its way into the conversation. I cannot begin to tell you all of the benefits celery juice has brought into my life. I have consumed probably close to (wait, I have to get my calculator out for this…) 50,000 ounces of celery juice in the past 8 years! Yep… that’s correct! Close to 400 gallons of it. Celery juice is my medicinal tonic, my preventative medicine, and my cure-all to most things for my well-being in health and life. How can you possibly create, build and maintain a good life without good health? The simple answer is… you can’t.

Glenda out in the wild with

her celery juice!

I juice celery almost every single day. I even have 2 juicers because one was slowing me down. I do not care what anyone tells you - you must juice it yourself and consume at once to get all of the benefits. Plus, fresh juice from your own kitchen cannot be matched in freshness, taste and cost. But, if you can’t juice and drink on the spot, juicing now and consuming hours later still has great benefits.

I am not promising celery juice as a silver bullet or a “magic pill” but I am blown away by how I have kept illnesses away or lessened the symptoms because of it. Every time I feel something “coming on,” I drink about 40 ounces twice a day and BOOM …see ya cold, bye-bye flu, see ya whatever was trying to bring me down.

I have tried many different juicers since I started juicing decades ago. Remember the “Juiceman”? Back then, I only juiced carrots and apples. Now, I juice it all! I will share my special concoctions in future newsletters but the first one MUST be celery juice.

Tips for juicing celery:

Buy the biggest, heaviest heads of celery. You’ll yield more juice.
Buy organic. If unavailable, really scrub the conventional celery.
Clean and wash the celery, remove the leaves (they can be a little bitter but keep if you like). Chop off the end caps. You can leave the stalks whole.
I like to pop the celery in the freezer for about 8-10 minutes so it’s really cold.
Juice the celery.
And here is a big tip: STRAIN THE JUICE. Even though the juicer removes most of the pulp, there will still be a little bit in your juice. You do not want the pulp (fibrous pulp is for another conversation). Strain the rest in a handheld strainer into your glass and consume at once. Do not sip it like a latte. Drink as quickly as possible.
Also, try to drink first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or 2 hours after a meal. It’s best if the body is only focused on the celery juice. You will receive the most benefits this way.
Celery juice is NOT a meal replacement. Wait 30 minutes after drinking it before having your breakfast or drinking your coffee, water, or anything else. Do not add ANYTHING to your celery juice. You want pure, pulp-free celery juice.
After consuming celery juice, you may feel some bodily disruptions. Do not see this as if you are allergic or having a “reaction” to it. This means the juice is going to town on the viruses, bacteria, and toxins that have built up in your body. It will take time to get used to this, but you will soon love the positive benefits you are receiving from this healing tonic. And you will build up your intestinal gastric juices at the same time. Your digestion will never be better. Your goal is to do this daily, or almost daily, for the rest of your life. It is that powerful, beneficial and necessary in today's world.
I recommend starting out at 10-16 ounces a day. I started out at 16 ounces 8 years ago and built up to 20 ounces, then 30 ounces and now I consume 40- 50 ounces when I juice. You get to decide the amount and what works for you. The more you consume the faster the healing and greater the benefits. Gradually build your tolerance.

Benefits of consuming fresh, strained celery juice:

1. Raises hydrochloric acid in the stomach to help digest food with ease.

2. Reduces acid reflux… eventually getting rid of it altogether!

3. Boosts a sluggish liver by expelling fats, toxins, poisons, viruses and bacteria. Purging and healing the liver is the foundation of creating a healthy body.

4. Reduces joint pain

5. Reduces/eliminates acne, psoriasis & eczema especially when combined with the Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie mentioned in the last newsletter.

6. Reduces symptoms of all autoimmune diseases: Lupus, MS, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s, IBS, etc.

(There are dozens of symptoms and conditions that are healed from celery juice. I can't say it loud enough.)

Celery juice produces remarkable results from most all, if not all, general body diagnosis. I use celery juice to treat anything and everything that is a health disruption in my life. It cannot fix a broken bone, replace organ transplants, or make everything perfect in your life, but it has changed my life and health in so many great ways. Even if only one of you takes this to heart and gives it a try, I have done my job. As always, my door is open if you have any questions!

Here is the juicer I have 2 of: https://omegajuicers.com/products/mm900hds-low-speed-juicer

Happy Health Everyone!

March Favorites

Little Gem Salad

One of the million great things that came from the pandemic is this salad - The Little Gem.

One of the things I would do to keep my spirits flying high during that time was take a trip every six or seven weeks to South Beach. I would fly out at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and I would be on the beach or at the spa by 10:00 a.m. I’d spend all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the sun, getting beach butler service, spa services, lounging, dining… recharging. I’d fly back on Tuesday night and get back to work on Wednesday morning without anyone knowing. It was kind of my little secret.

(Side story: The most luxurious hotels were practically giving the rooms away for about 16 months during the pandemic. By my third visit, I went from being just an average Joe to...."Welcome back, Ms. Hastings. We are delighted to see you again. We have upgraded your room to a suite." This happened each visit. My regular room became the Ocean Front Corner Suite. I am convinced that I would have made it up to the Penthouse had things not gone back to normal. Dang it. A few months ago, I saw a picture of a famous rapper in "my suite". I can only imagine how much those rooms go for now. But I sure enjoyed those days to the max and I am forever grateful to the calm and peace it brought into my life during a challenging time.

There was a salad that I loved so much that I would have it twice a day – at lunch and then again as a late-day snack while I was getting ready for dinner. Yes, I did love it that much! After things started to get back to normal – or a new normal - I was no longer taking my secret getaways, and I started to miss my salad. So, I decided to create a version of

it… a version that’s a tiny bit better if I say so myself. I hope you will try it the next time you’re in and think of a peaceful place to relax and recharge. It’s one gem of a salad.

The Little Gem Salad: Japanese lettuce, Campari tomatoes, radishes, avocado, miso vinaigrette, a shake of toasted sesame seed and poppy seeds