Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Vernal Equinox


It's spring! The vernal equinox happens today. The days and nights are equal length. I can definitely see the change in the light. It is stronger and things seem more vivid. This year is special because Daylight Savings Time started a month earlier so the sunset seems to be happening much later in the day. I love this change.

I live in New England where spring is a light phenomenon. The weather does not always fit the season. We had a major snowstorm last week and massive icicles are hanging from my eaves and snow is sliding off the roof. However, I have heard a few birds.

Spring is a time of hope for me. I feel like I am ready to crawl out of my cave and take a good look at what is happening in the world. After I stretch, I want to get moving again. It's time for fresh beginnings.

What is next? Where will I focus during my high energy time?
It is time to cull the seeds and decide what to plant.

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Tuesday Virtual Dinner Partner


The weather is warmer and most of the ice on the roads is gone. Today, I walked country roads instead of in the woods. It was a consolation walk...better than a neighborhood walk but definitely not the woods. I walked in the crusty snow edging the road and ventured a few side trips to take pictures. The weather is supposed to get warmer all week so I hope I will be back in the woods soon. Maybe I'll walk my snowshoe trail one more time.

I am dying to get out my bike. Lots of melting needs to happen before I bike however.

Sleep: about 8 hours
Vitamins

9:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, mineola orange, 2 tbsps walnuts
whole wheat crackers
11:00
chocolate heaven
12:30
big salad with chicken breast and 4 g fat canola based dressing
whole wheat mini pitas with 1 tbsp hummus
4:00
apple
Dr. Kracker flatbread
50% cheese
7:00
home made pizza with whole wheat crust, soy cheese and veggies
grapefruit

Totals: 4 veggies and 3 fruits
Movement and Meditation: country road walk about 45 minutes


The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks.
~Voltaire

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Monday Virtual Dinner Partner


Someone I am close to describes some of her experiences as "off"...things don't go as she expects and as a result, she feels fuzzy, or fussy, or out of sorts. Today was an off day. I don't know why...nothing terrible happened. I didn't have big expectations and I didn't feel disappointed. I got to most things on my lists and still I felt "off."

This seems to tie in with my organization expectations or more accurately the expectations I have about the role organization will play in the quality of my life. One of the maxims I have tattooed in my mind is this: "I will get organized. Things will go well. Life will be good."

When I look at those last three sentences, "will" stands out. In other words, all of this takes place in the future. Maybe a better maxim is "Things are going and life is good." Or maybe "Things are going and life is."

You are probably wondering what happened to my first statement..the one about organization. Today I am rethinking that one. I wonder if I need live from the standpoint "Life is messy and you've got to love it."

Yesterday I wrote from the vantage of keeping a living kitchen...I walked in, discovered a sink and counter full of dishes, a refrigerator drawer with a more than dead eggplant and my thoughts immediately went to "I HAVE to get organized." This was not a happy thought. Then I loosened up and actually enjoyed the cleanup.

Today it's about a bigger picture. AND it's about what I say to myself.

I want to wake up and celebrate the mess.


Sleep about 8 hours
Vitamins

10:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, fresh pineapple, walnuts
oatmeal (1/3c before cooked)
2:00
hoisin chicken breast
butternut squash and New Balance
zucchini
whole wheat crackers
6:30
salmon burger
broccoli
sweet potato and New Balance
grapefruit

Totals: 3 veggies and 2 fruits
Movement: rest day


Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
~Charles Caleb Colton


Yesterday, it was my birthday
I hung one more year on the line
I should be depressed
My life's a mess
But I'm Having A Good Time...
~Paul Simon

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

Living Kitchen


One of the life lessons I seem to need to revisit on a constant basis has to do with organization, or cleaning..or maybe the relationship between both areas. I convince myself that if I find the right system, everything will take care of itself. As I am writing this I am looking at a clean kitchen. Dinner was over about half an hour ago and the dirty dishes are in the dishwasher and the counters are scrubbed. Actually, the kitchen usually looks decent...but then there are those horrible moments when I wake up and realize the dishwasher needs to be emptied and the sink and counter are full of dirty dishes and I wonder...how in the world did this cyclone pass through again?

I had another version of the "cyclone wake-up" this afternoon when I opened the refrigerator. The shelves were packed and I had no idea what was there. I opened the vegetable drawer and found a rotted eggplant I bought probably three weeks ago. Organic parsnips were starting to wilt with dehydration. Beets were stuffed into a tiny space on a top shelf of the refrigerator where jars of condiments are usually located. I bought them over a week ago and forgot about them until today. A big bag of curly endive is blocking the view of everything else.

I like to live with a certain level of spontaneity. I don't want to eat meals planned days in advance. I want to shop for what "looks good." I want to go to my kitchen and create what "calls" to me. I need to find a way to marry my creative urges with a need to know what supplies are on hand and just how messy and time consuming a particular cooking escapade is going to be.

It's complicated. I want easy solutions...and maybe that's how I get nailed. I expect a foolproof system to organize shopping, storing, preparing meals and clean-up. I assume I won't need to think...it will just be done.

Keeping a kitchen stocked and ready for creation is not the same as keeping a bathroom stocked and clean. Extra towels, soap, shampoo and toilet paper are easy to restock. Fruits and vegetables wilt and rot, meat or fish goes bad when I don't pay attention to storage and timing.
Food is all about living.

Maintaining a good relationship with food is like keeping a good relationship with any other living being. These relationships require awareness, sensitivity and responsiveness to stay on course, to be sustaining.

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Saturday Virtual Dinner Partner



Some days feel like a loss, although I know that is never really true. I didn't sleep well last night. The Nor'easter snowstorm brought 14 inches which brought plows and it seemed I woke up every hour to the loud engine noises. At one point I considered getting up and reading I felt so awake. As a result, I felt groggy and out of sorts today. I did things around home and shovelled lots of snow but I didn't really get out and enjoy it. I took a nap late in the afternoon.


Sleep: fitful 8 hours
Vitamins

10:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, mineola orange, 2 tbsp walnuts
2 cups tea
11:00
oatmeal (1/3c before cooked)
1:30
kitchen sink salad with chicken breast and 6 g fat canola based dressing
3:30
chocolate heaven
6:30
Egg Beater omlette with escarole, onions, and 50% cheese
grapefruit

Totals: 4 veggies and 2 fruits
Movement: shovelled lots of heavy snow


Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
Are you in earnest?
Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



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Friday, March 16, 2007

Friday Virtual Dinner Partner

It's winter again today. A late season Nor'easter snowstorm started late morning and is still going strong tonight. I spent a couple of hours walking in the woods. It was fun to watch the snow fall and trudge around in fresh snow. And the spring eqinox is next week!

Sleep: about 8 hours
Vitamins

9:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, fresh pineapple, 2 tbsp walnuts
11:00
oatmeal (1/3 c before cooked)
1:30
deli turkey, lettuce, and honey mustard in whole grain wrap
chocolate heaven
4:30
dried edamame
Dr Kracker flatbread
7:00
hoisin chicken
sweet potato and New Balance
roasted green beans
grapefruit

Totals: 2 veggies and 2 fruits
Movement and Meditation: long walk in the woods during snow storm. Did hour long loop at slower pace because of the snow. I wanted to take it all in.

Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.
~John Muir

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

Hoisin Sauce



In my twenties, after about three years being an ovo-lacto-vegetarian (no meat but I ate dairy and eggs), I started craving chicken. After some soul searching, I decided to heed the cravings. I told a good friend who was also a sensational cook about my dilemma and my decision. She understood the gravity of the situation and wanted to help me rejoin the ranks of omnivores with ceremony. She offered hoisin chicken as the solution.

I bought the chicken and she made the dinner. I ate one small succulent leg. The outer bite was crispy, slightly sticky, the juices savory and sweet. That chicken was mouthwatering and every bite was gratifying. Almost thirty years have passed since that dinner and my memory of it is palpable.


Wondering what hoisin is? It's a thick brown sweet pungent sauce also called Chinese barbecue.

Recently, after rejecting almost every bottle of marinade in my local grocery store because most of them contained high fructose corn syrup, I started to wonder about the bottle of organic hoisin sauce in my refrigerator. It's definitely sweet. What were the ingredients? Organic everything...including cane sugar which was listed fourth on the label.

I make other marinades so I decided to check online for hoisin sauce recipes. The range was interesting. some were made with peanut butter, others black bean paste, still others with fermented soy bean paste. Recently I found a hoisin sauce recipe in a beautiful new cookbook, Food to Live By, by Myra Goodman. I used her recipe as a spring-board for my own.

Her main ingredient is azuki beans, beautiful tiny terra cotta colored beans. I was excited. I had never prepared azuki beans before. I found them at Whole Foods. I adjusted the ingredients and changed the cooking techniques to suit my kitchen. The results are sensational, better tasting than any store bought version.

I have a large jar in my refrigerator and two small containers in my freezer. I use generous amounts as marinade for skinless chicken. The recipe makes about 2 cups but I go through it fast.

Home-made Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup dried azuki beans
3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 c light brown sugar (add more if you like a sweeter sauce)
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c unseasoned rice vinegar
2/3 c tamari sauce (premium soy sauce)
1/4 tsp Asian chili sauce

  1. Soak azuki beans overnight in water. Drain soaking water and place beans in a pot and submerge in fresh water. Simmer until very soft for about 45 minutes to an hour.
  2. Drain cooking liquid in a colander and allow the beans to cool.
  3. Rinse out the pot and place sesame oil in it. Lightly cook minced garlic and set aside.
  4. Place beans, brown sugar, vinegars, and tamari in a blender. Blend at slow speed until everything is smooth.
  5. Pour blender ingredients into the pot with the cooked garlic and warm to a simmer. Stir frequently. Allow sauce to cook down to a nice thick consistency. Add chili sauce to taste and allow sauce to cool before refrigerating or freezing.

Use refrigerated sauce in a week. Frozen sauce is good for a few months.

To make hoisen chicken, arrange skinless washed chicken pieces in a pan. Pour generous amounts of hoisen sauce until chicken is coated on all sides. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Turn chicken over in the sauce halfway through the cooking cycle.

Chicken can also be grilled after marinading in sauce. Watch carefully for burning and brush frequently with sauce to keep moist.




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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Anti-Presentation

Forget the pretty tableware, forget spoons and knives, forget manners. Some eating is best enjoyed with the raw pleasure of a beast with it's kill. The messier the better.

I recently bought a big bag of heavy pink grapefruit at my local buying club. They are probably end of the season fruit so I am enjoying them with end of season fervor. I've eaten one a day for the last week and now two remain.

I started out with a neatly cut half and gently excised the pulp wedges from the membranes with a grapefruit knife so I could politely eat the juicy fruit with a spoon. I could not hold myself back however. After all the pink fruit was removed from the peels, I squeezed the spongy skins to extract the remaining juice and drank from the bowl. These are good grapefruit: tart and juicy with a sweet aftertaste.

I soon abandoned cutting and spooning for a peel-and-eat strategy. Sounds easy? First I bite into the bitter thick peel. Then I pull it off in big sheets by hand. Lots of bitter membrane remains, so I strip it off using my fingernails where necessary. Next, I gore the stem end with my thumb and separate the fruit in half. Juice runs down my wrists.

I separate a section from the half and bite a hole at the thinnest part of the wedge. I peel back both sides of the membranes and shiny pink globules appear. I bite a wedge of pulp away from the membrane attachment. Juice squirts. I am in heaven and I am a mess. I continue wedge by wedge until all I have is a pile of empty membranes, and juice-covered hands and face.

Presentation you say? Those pink shiny wedges are beautiful when they are carefully eviscerated from the membranes but this is a feasting experience similar to eating lobster in its carapace or ribs dripping with barbecue sauce. A bib isn't a bad idea.

Lycopene and fiber? Yes, grapefruit is good for you. But who cares about that when you can abandon yourself to a sensual feast?

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Tuesday Virtual Dinner Partner

Today is my third day publishing the blog after a considerable break to transition from one computer to another. I got away from a level of awareness and practice while I was not doing this. My daily practice, and by extension writing the blog feels as unsteady as my daily walk where the icy trails require caution and occasional backtracking to find a better route. I need to find my stride again.
I lose my way from time to time. It is a signal that I need to recommit to my practice and look for new inspiration. I talked with my original virtual dinner partner and we brainstormed changes.

Asking for help from trusted allies is one of my strategies when I need inspiration and fortitude. My original virtual dinner partner steps up every time I ask for help this way. She is a blessing in my life.


Sleep about 8 hours
Vitamins


9:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, grapes, 2 tbsp walnuts
2 cups tea
11:00
1/3 c oatmeal
chocolate heaven
2:00
whole wheat pita and hummus
chicken breast
tomato with 2 g fat dressing
4:00
whole grain cereal, half banana and skim milk
7:00
corn chips and 1 tbsp guacamole
white beans and escarole with 50% cheese
grapefruit

Totals: 2 veggies and 3 fruits
Movement and Meditation: one hour walk with stops for careful footing.

Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.
~Ella Fitzgerald

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Monday Virtual Dinner Partner

It was warm again today..almost made it into the 50's. I didn't need a hat or a coat. It is undeniable that spring is on the way. I was outside for several hours during my walk and actually lost track of the time. The rough footing slowed me down but the slower pace allowed me to do some exploring. I went off path several times to look at rock formations and to see a trail-side stream up close. I like inhabiting the woods, not just walking for exercise. I got that today.

Sleep: about 7 hours
Vitamins

9:00
1/2 c nf cottage cheese, mineola orange, and 2 tbsp walnuts
2 cups black tea
11:00
oatmeal 1/3c before cooked
chocolate heaven (see recipes)
1:30
hoisen chicken
spinach
cauliflower
whole grain cereal, banana and skim milk
6:45
lentil soup
soy cheese on whole grain pita
carrots
fresh tomato with 2 g fat dressing
grapefruit

Totals: 4 veggies and 3 fruits
Movement and Meditation: my one hour walk in the woods extended by frequent stops for pictures and exploration.


I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
~John Muir

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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Sunday Virtual Dinner Partner


I made some technical changes since my last post. I replaced my old computer and operating system and upgraded. I feel like I went from horse cart to warp speed. I am excited and challenged by the possibilities the changes bring.

Today marks another significant change.... Daylight Saving Time. I love this time of year. It is presently 6:00 pm and the sun has not set yet. I know the sun is setting at the same in an earth-time and body-time sense, but having a culture-time shift does make a change for me. The time change makes me realize how strongly linked I am to the culture. I feel happy that it is 6:00 and daylight.

Sleep: about 7 hours
Vitamins

9:00
1/2c nf cottage cheese, mineola orange, and 2 tbsp walnuts
2 cups black tea
11:00
oatmeal 1/3c before cooked
12:00
turkey loaf with spinach and arugula
cauliflower
2 cups black tea
3:00
small piece of home made veggie pizza with whole wheat crust and 50% cheese
apple
6:00
egg beater spinach and onion omlette
whole wheat toast with strawberry jam
grapefruit
Totals: 4 veggies and 3 fruits
Movement and Meditation: one hour plus walk in the woods. It was rough going with ice and snow covering much of the trail. Melting is significant today however after two days on the 40's. I did my regular loop but I needed to be careful and avoid the ice. It was a sloppy adventure. My new hiking boots and my pants cuffs are covered in mud.


I don't mind going back to daylight saving time. With inflation, the hour will be the only thing I've saved all year.
~Victor Borge

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