I belive in a wholistic approach to life and health. Our whole body works in unison to give us energy and health. Eastern medicine teaches us that one organ in our body cannot be looked at individually without considering the body as a whole and how all the organs affect eachother. Earth and her ecosystems are the same way. When our water gets polluted, it can disrupt the sea life, which can have far reaching effects on land and air ecosystems as well. On a broader scope, what happends here in Earth can indeed have an affect on a distant galaxy; everything in this universe from a atomic level to a cosmic level is connected.
I cook because I love eating, being creative, and enjoying how it brings people together. The attitude of cooking from the heart, with love for the art, for the Earth, and for those we are sharing it with, will permeate into your life. Cooking can help us feel that oneness within the body, the planet, and the universe. I love the lessons cooking can teach us about life. When creating a dish we must balance flavors and textures to maximize the joy, vibrance, and nutrition that the dish can bring. In life too must we find that balance - the flavors are our spiritual practice, the textures our physical practice.
Through my yoga practice I am finding how we must hone our inner warrior and our inner yogi in order to be in balance and harmony. To do this we must relinquish our control and accept that which we cannot change and improve that which we can. A balance between the passive and commanding aspects of our lives. Most suffering is caused by an inability to relinquish control. We can bring about an outcome through our actions and our meditation practice by tapping into The Source that runs through us all. We have the power to alter our reality through our mindset and through visualization. Yet we must be willing to accept the outcome and the path that we take to get there.
I was making sourdough bread last week and was inspired with what it can teach us about the world and our place in it. Traditional sourdough bread is made with a starter rather than bakers yeast. I do not wish to vilanize bakers yeast, but it likely came about because of time constraints and our need for consistency, and control. Traditional sourdough bread teaches us to slow down and let nature take care of us. It will, if we simply listen and give up resistance. As we allow our starter to become innoculated with wild yeast around us, we are relying on that which we cannot see or touch to take care of us. The seed has been planted; now we must feed it and watch it grow. Like in gardening (and in life), it is not enough to simply plant a seed and walk away. Whether it is a goal we are working toward, or a habit we are trying to break, we must bolster, prune, and hone in order to acheive the desired outcome. With our starter (the first step in making sourdough bread), we must feed it flour and water daily until it becomes lively and strong. I relate making a starter to planting a seed, because once established, it will innoculate loaves of bread for generations to come. It's just like growing an apple tree will give you fruit for years to come if nurtured. Or learning a key cooking concept (like how to properly hold a chef's knife or how to braise meats) will greatly improve your culinary experiences for a life time.
By not relying on baker's yeast, we relinquish control on the precise outcome of the bread. With patience, the bread will rise if you have planted a healthy starter seed, but the bread will "tell" you when it is ready. Listen to the bread because it will be different depending on certain environmental factors. We must be adaptable and accepting. Even after I had my starter established, my last batch of sourdough bread took 3 days of maturation before baking. But good things come to those who wait, and through patience, trust, planting, and nurturing, I was rewarded with a delightfully tart loaf of sourdough bread with a beautiful crust and an airy soft interior, loaded with flavor. In addition, natural fermentation (through lactic acid), helps break down phytic acid (a nutrient inhibitor found in wheat). This makes the nutrients in the bread much easier for the body to assimilate!
Recipe and pictures to come!
I cook because I love eating, being creative, and enjoying how it brings people together. The attitude of cooking from the heart, with love for the art, for the Earth, and for those we are sharing it with, will permeate into your life. Cooking can help us feel that oneness within the body, the planet, and the universe. I love the lessons cooking can teach us about life. When creating a dish we must balance flavors and textures to maximize the joy, vibrance, and nutrition that the dish can bring. In life too must we find that balance - the flavors are our spiritual practice, the textures our physical practice.
Through my yoga practice I am finding how we must hone our inner warrior and our inner yogi in order to be in balance and harmony. To do this we must relinquish our control and accept that which we cannot change and improve that which we can. A balance between the passive and commanding aspects of our lives. Most suffering is caused by an inability to relinquish control. We can bring about an outcome through our actions and our meditation practice by tapping into The Source that runs through us all. We have the power to alter our reality through our mindset and through visualization. Yet we must be willing to accept the outcome and the path that we take to get there.
I was making sourdough bread last week and was inspired with what it can teach us about the world and our place in it. Traditional sourdough bread is made with a starter rather than bakers yeast. I do not wish to vilanize bakers yeast, but it likely came about because of time constraints and our need for consistency, and control. Traditional sourdough bread teaches us to slow down and let nature take care of us. It will, if we simply listen and give up resistance. As we allow our starter to become innoculated with wild yeast around us, we are relying on that which we cannot see or touch to take care of us. The seed has been planted; now we must feed it and watch it grow. Like in gardening (and in life), it is not enough to simply plant a seed and walk away. Whether it is a goal we are working toward, or a habit we are trying to break, we must bolster, prune, and hone in order to acheive the desired outcome. With our starter (the first step in making sourdough bread), we must feed it flour and water daily until it becomes lively and strong. I relate making a starter to planting a seed, because once established, it will innoculate loaves of bread for generations to come. It's just like growing an apple tree will give you fruit for years to come if nurtured. Or learning a key cooking concept (like how to properly hold a chef's knife or how to braise meats) will greatly improve your culinary experiences for a life time.
By not relying on baker's yeast, we relinquish control on the precise outcome of the bread. With patience, the bread will rise if you have planted a healthy starter seed, but the bread will "tell" you when it is ready. Listen to the bread because it will be different depending on certain environmental factors. We must be adaptable and accepting. Even after I had my starter established, my last batch of sourdough bread took 3 days of maturation before baking. But good things come to those who wait, and through patience, trust, planting, and nurturing, I was rewarded with a delightfully tart loaf of sourdough bread with a beautiful crust and an airy soft interior, loaded with flavor. In addition, natural fermentation (through lactic acid), helps break down phytic acid (a nutrient inhibitor found in wheat). This makes the nutrients in the bread much easier for the body to assimilate!
Recipe and pictures to come!
