I’ve got my vision for this new year: nourishment, greater ease and illumination.
Category: Food & Health Page 1 of 2
This time of year I CRAVE citrus! Especially oranges. That clean, bright, exhilarating color and flavor combine to make an utterly charming taste thrill.
My suggestion: don’t let this pass you by! Savor this perfect mindful eating experience each and every time. Be fully present to the delight! To the color, the shimmer, the scent, and to the way the light falls on the oranges. Splendid!
Most of my close relatives, including two of my three children and myself, were born in November or December. The holidays used to come at us like a tsunami, starting with my father-in-law on November 7 and ending with New Year’s Eve, right after my son Ian’s birthday on December 28. It was a marathon, a test of endurance, one festive feast (8 all together) after another, a muscular demonstration of our love for one another. Whew!
A reminder for those of you who know about it, and an epiphany for those who don’t: It’s the time of year for Magic Mineral Broth!
This time of year, with colds and flu swirling about, I feel naked without it. And that’s a simple problem to fix. A trip to the farm market or grocery store for a sack full of everything on the list—sweet potatoes, red-skinned potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, leeks, parsley, garlic, a strip of kombu—a few minutes to wash, roughly chop and toss into the pot—several hours of cozy reading time while the broth simmers and the kitchen fills with a rich, savory aroma—and you’re good to go. One recipe makes quite a lot of broth, and it’s easy to freeze in quart mason jars for those moments when you need a mineral-rich pick-me-up. My kind of health insurance.
Gleaming black olives, dusty purple eggplants, emerald kale, a splash of scarlet tomatoes on freshly made golden corn tortillas… I cook with my eyes. Color matters, texture matters, flavor matters. I rarely use recipes. I find my art supplies at the farmer’s market on Saturday morning, and my favorite season is now, summer, when the market is brimming with seasonal surprises.
We recently went through an especially rough time. My youngest son, who’s recovering from a traumatic brain injury, had a frightening exacerbation of symptoms, in which he began to feel that his brain was swelling, and eventually that his head was going to burst. (This story has a happy ending.) A 6:30am trip to the ER and a CT scan later, we knew that his head wasn’t, in fact, going to burst. But we still didn’t know what was wrong.