Scatterday Night's Alright

When the going gets tough, the tough get procrastinating...er, I mean, cooking. Today's theme was stress control, and there are few things better for that than cooking, for this girl. Let's start with bacon drippings, butter, onions, jalapenos and garlic on simmer.




Now, let's throw in cumin, chili powder, and salt.
After that, let's pour in the cooking water from the black beans made earlier, and bring it to a boil and reduce it to a nice thick sauce. Then let's add it back in to the pot of beans.
















Later on, it's time to make banana bread before the bananas become too overripe to use. My great grandmother's recipe is the one I use, with my updates. I'll add it later. For now, I will let you know it involves dark chocolate chips, walnuts, mace, vanilla, whole wheat and white flour, eggs, butter, salt, baking soda, bananas, and ground flax.

Self: learn to manipulate the photo layout!

This is Wisconsin, after all. We like a little banana bread with our butter.

Found a place to use the decoupage box I made a few years ago...cookbook holder. I took the doors off the cabinets over the stove, in an effort to open up and brighten up the space. This is a work in progress. I also added several of the cookbooks to the St. Vincent's donation bag o' the day. I organized a few kitchen cabinets and pared down the contents to the essentials. How the heck do I always end up with ten thousand plastic container lids, and only three containers?

I also finally found a place to use the lazy susan I bought at IKEA last spring. It's too big to fit into any of the cupboards, but this works. Behind the coffee and tea and honey are all my vitamins, easily at hand but out of sight. Win. This is my grandma's breadbox, by the way.

Last but not least, I started some seeds soaking to have sprouts. On the right are mung beans, and on the left a combination of radish, broccoli and clover. So yummy! It's the first time I've grown them since moving into this place...I used to grow them all the time, "back home". Yes, I do miss my old town and my old apartment there at times. But that's a topic for another day. Sweet dreams, everyone, and thanks for hanging out with me on my Saturday tiny kitchen adventure. Peace.

Hibernation, aka Hiding Out.

So, I didn't go anywhere today. No real reason to venture out into the bitter cold and fight the rocky ice floes cemented to the streets unless I had a need, and I really didn't. I watched a little TV, cleaned a little, thought and worried way too much, and tried to stay positive. My job ended between Christmas and New Years. I had been planning to leave anyway after the new year, but it would have been nice to have time to get something else in place first. I'm existing in that limbo place where I have no choice but to make peace and be comfortable with uncertainty. When my son was little, I found it a bit aggravating that he always needed to know the "next and next and next", as I called it. He was uncomfortable with times just spent meandering from destination to destination with no timeline or specific outcome. Right now, I wish there were someone to tell me what's "next and next and next". My horoscope (I'm an Aquarius) says that these early weeks of January are a time for me to spend time alone, be private, lay low, regenerate, ponder, heal, rest. It seems to fit my mood to do just that, so I am going with it. Things always happen when and how they are meant to, and I know that something will happen to re-energize and interest me in time.

Segue! Here's a picture of my jasmine plant, Jazzy. She's been blooming with fragrant blossoms ever since I brought her in from the late fall cold, just before the freeze. She thinks it's summer in here. I am not going to tell her any different. Smelling these beautiful white blossoms each morning is pure bliss, transporting me back to morning walks in New Orleans in the spring. Yes, I do talk to this plant, and sometimes even give her a gentle hug. She doesn't seem to mind. We're old and best friends.

Ok, so the other important development you need to know about concerns my fingernails. I have never been able to grow my nails, ever. They are thin and bendy and peely, like a baby's nails. When shellac manicures came along, they were like a dream come true. Not damaging and fake looking like acrylics, but adding a tough coat of shiny gorgeous color for two weeks. Since my job involved a lot of public meet and greets, I always wanted to look my best, so I was willing to plunk down $35 twice a month to have attractive nails. The problem would occur when they would remove the old coat to apply the new one, and they would always comment on the sad condition of my nails. I really didn't see what the point was in even discussing that. It's my genetics, that's just how they grow, just slap on the new coat and I will be on my way, 'k? They always told me I should buy this nail product they sold for $17 a bottle, promising that it would make my nails completely awesome. After a few months, they finally said, look, we want you to take a break from shellac, and use this product. SERIOUSLY. Well, that made no sense for them financially to tell me that, but these people actually care about their clients and their nails. So I agreed to try it. I had no faith in it whatsoever. I have tried a million nail strengtheners and hardeners over the past 35 years or so of my life. Nothing worked. Ok, so enough of the buildup and back story...this stuff actually WORKS. It takes about a month, and you have to follow the directions, but now I have ten long, strong, amazing nails that are totally mine. No shellac. No acrylic. My own. They don't peel. They don't bend. They don't tear. They are so hard and strong that they will at most get a tiny chip if I accidentally bang one on something really hard, but that's easily evened out with a nail file. They don't even stain if I wear dark polish! So amazing. For me, this is like a bald man suddenly finding a shampoo that gives him a head full of thick gorgeous hair. So behold, here they are. MY NAILS!

So there you go. That's my day, that's what's on my mind, nothing fascinating. Final thought before I go: I wish I had ice cream. Peace.

Of Nice and Men

I'd like to start my post with a huge shout out to my son for this, today. 

I hope you'll do like almost 2,000 others have already done (maybe many more by the time you read this), and "like" this wonderful thought he posted on facebook. He is a phenomenal person in every way, inside and out, and I am so, so proud to be his mom.

Today I dragged the Christmas tree out to the curb. Not such an easy task when the tree is 7' tall and 4.5' wide, and the curb is under about 3' of dense snow. I snapped a few pics of the snow as I ran errands tonight. It's not going to warm up enough to melt any of it anytime soon. I don't mind it a bit. This is a sidewalk near my place at about 6 pm tonight.

To the right is what I saw out

my passenger side window as

I sat at the stop sign. Most lots have snow piled up to 8 - 10' or more. Just another day

in a Wisconsin winter. NBD.

This is the only star that would show
  up when I snapped the sky with my
 phone camera (admittedly not the best). City lights don't make for the greatest star viewing either. This star was pretty bright, though, and the three stars of Orion's Belt were pointing at it. Is it the North Star? I'll have to Google that later. :-) I wish I knew someone who could tell me exactly what I'm seeing when I look at the sky at night.











As I've mentioned before, my apartment is old, and pretty janky in many ways. Tonight the closet door handle came off, and when I tried to fix it, it wouldn't work because the cheap plastic threads were broken. I went to the hardware store across the street and got this very, very pretty antiqued gold metal one to replace it for $1.29. I had to go back again and get the right length of screw, adding a whopping 15 cents to the total, but it's done now. My home improvement projects may be small, but they make me happy. One less janky thing to look at each day!



One of my favorite things about long, dark, cold winter nights is burning candles. I have a motley assortment, and I like to light a whole bunch at once for the warmth and the glow and the fragrance. I found a new favorite Yankee Candle scent this past weekend at Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee -- Pink Sands. Light, soft, warm, a little bit floral. So here are my harbingers of heat and light, all in a row.

That about wraps up today's post. I hope everyone stays warm, and well, and has much love in the new year, more than enough to share. Peace.

Jan 2, 2013 (ok, an hour late)

Today I undecorated my Christmas tree. I had plenty of time, so I got very organized. I put things I was tired of in a bag that will be either Freecycled or donated to Goodwill. This is the box of unbreakable ornaments that can be hung on the lowest branches, so that my cat won't break them when she bats them around. She is going to miss her friend the tree, which has been so much fun to hide under when my daughter's dog Leo is visiting. She taunts him, then sprints away, and he can't follow her under the branches. If cats could laugh, she would.

                                               

Unwrapping the lights from the tree; I've had these for at least 20 years. They have a little control box with 10 different flashing and glowing settings. My favorite is random soft glow, so they look like

stars in the sky. Such a peaceful effect. I hope they never wear out,

because they are very special and I don't know if anyone else makes

them. I bought them at K-Mart, which used to exist in my childhood

neighborhood, but that's been gone for years now.

No picture, but I tried an idea I've had for a long time this year. I got some Martha Stewart glass paint and painted each bulb of a set of 150 white Christmas tree lights. It sounds very tedious, but it was very relaxing for me. Now I have lights to put on my windows in the perfect shade of soft pink, not the garish magenta pink that's mass produced. My lights are one of a kind! They turned out soooo pretty.

 I tend to save things. Today I had time to go through the whole stack of Christmas cards I've received over the past 25 years or so. Some were from people I've lost touch with, some are from people it took me a long time to even remember. I decided to save only the ones which were "picture cards", because I had to draw the line somewhere.  One mystery, though, was two cards I received from my friend in MN for two years in a row, both referring to some great thing I had done. This would have been over ten years ago now, and I just could not remember what I had done that made her so grateful. I finally took a picture of this card tonight and texted it to her and asked, "what was it I did?!?" Once she told me, it all came back. When she was a young single mother and her toddler son's father was in jail, she was having a very hard time. For Christmas, I sent her a care package of toys and books for him, because I know what that is like. She is doing great now, has a beautiful house and a wonderful husband and good job, but she's never forgotten what I did for her that year. It touched her so much that she sent me heartfelt thanks for two years in a row. Things like this make me feel like I made a difference to someone, and that's a really good feeling.

Happy 2013!

 Happy New Year! I hope everyone reading this stayed safe last night and had a great time. My new year started out with a big mess this frigid and blindingly bright morning. I stayed in at my daughter's house on New Years' Eve, watching cable TV and eating pizza while she went out to a party with her work friends. She spent the night at their house, so I was on my own to begin the day. My daughter's coffee making apparatus is decidedly different from mine at home. I struggled and fiddled and finally ended up spraying ground coffee all over the kitchen. After a few frustrated texts, I got it all under control. This event was much funnier later, after the drama was over and I finally had my caffeine fix.

 

Rollin' home on the Badger bus later this afternoon from Milwaukee to Madison, WI gave me time to ponder lots of things. I reflected on the good and the bad of the year just past, and contemplated the hopes, dreams and uncertainties of the year ahead.

Black eyed peas, greens and rice for good fortune.

 

The holidays came and went so quickly, and tomorrow will be spent undoing the decorating and getting rid of the Christmas tree already. After that will be goal setting and organization. This is going to be my year to get it all together and get on top of it, and stay there. Plant my flag and declare victory. I may never be an efficiency expert, but I can get better. It's a promise to myself that I will do all I can each day to keep moving in that direction.

*Foot(ball) note: The Wisconsin Badgers made it to the Rose Bowl for the 3rd time in 3 years, but lost to Stanford today. 

 Recipe: Violet's New Year's Black Eyed Peas

(Normally, you'd have cornbread to represent gold, but I added turmeric to the rice instead.) The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork (I only had bacon fat available), because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.

Peas:
A cup or two of dry black eyed peas
Twice as much water
One jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, chopped
Half a leek, chopped
Large clove of garlic, smashed and minced
Chicken bouillon, 1 - 2 tsp. (I use this)
 T. or so of rendered bacon fat
T. or so apple cider vinegar
Cup or so of chopped spinach
Creole Seasoning to taste

Rice:
Cup or so of Basmati rice
Twice as much water, but a little less
teaspoon of turmeric
salt

Black eyed peas require no presoaking. Throw all the peas ingredients in together. I used what I had on hand. You can substitute kale for the spinach, add smoked meat, do whatever sounds good to you. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on med-low for 45 min or until tender. Watch them, they can go too mushy if you cook them too long.

For the rice, put all in the pan, bring to boil, turn to low, cover, take off heat after 20 min, let stand covered 5 min, then fluff with fork.

Super healthy, super yum, and super good luck in the new year! Peace.

Back to it!

So, the final one of my three top goals was accomplished this spring. For years now, I have been drooling from afar over the community gardens in the city I grew up in, right in the neighborhood I lived in as a child, about a mile from my childhood home. I've lived in the suburbs most of my adult life, for the quiet, the good schools, the sense of safety and community for my kids. It was a good choice, and they both did well in that environment. But I digress. After my youngest graduated and moved to the city for college and the dorm life, soon followed by the college apartment with roommates life, it was time for me to go back to the city. I wanted to be able to bike or take the bus to things I wanted to see and do, if I ever needed to. I couldn't be isolated anymore and totally dependent on car culture. (If you could see my car, you would understand why that is a risky proposition.) I had three big goals: get a better job, one that I didn't hate, and that was in the city; move back to Madison; and then obtain a plot at the community gardens of my dreams. The place is amazing, it does so much good in the community for all ages and income levels, has so many great projects going on, and is so well run and ecologically sound, sustainable and forward thinking. I found the right job, and I 99% love it [nothing is perfect]), and I met my goal of moving to the city last August. This spring I met the third goal. Dream garden at last! It's been different than I imagined in many ways, as things often are in life. Not bad different, just a learning process. It's all good. One thing that's new for me after the other community plots I've been gardening in over the years is the fact that this one does not plow or till the soil. Ever. All weed removal and soil turning is done by hand and by shovel and whatever other tools it takes get the job done. As a result, the soil texture is different, much spongier and less compacted and powdery. Full of fat healthy worms, which is a huge indicator of soil quality. I am a BIG fan of this method, despite the work. It does make for slow going, but slow going is just fine by me. Slow going is very Zen, which is one reason I love gardening in the first place. It's meditative, rhythmic, soothing, creative. I lose myself in it, lose track of time, work until I am beyond tired. The most amazing thoughts occur to me during gardening hours, but of course my hands are caked with dirt; I can't keep stopping to write them down so I can blog about them later. I was really cracking myself up in my head yesterday, but of course by today I have forgotten what was so funny. Anyway, here are some initial pics from the garden. I know it doesn't look like much yet, but just wait. Have faith. Believe. The force is with me.

April 26, 2012. Dismay at first sight. Welcome to my garden! Uh, yeah...ok.

Everything under the Remay cloth, a 10' x 10' area, is dug up, weeded,
planted with seeds, rows and sections labeled. Only four more same-
sized areas to do! Yikes. So glad that Culver's and their raspberry lemon ice smoothies is
just down the road!

May 5, 2012. Everything under the hay is weeded, and the soil is turned and broken up,
ready for planting. I'm pretty much making it up as I go along, and this part of the plot is
turning out to be cool weather crops. You can see the cardboard paths laid out.

This is my thinkin' spot. I guess it's appropriate that it's somewhat fuzzy.

Little Things Mean a Lot

Let's just tell it like it is. My bathroom is ugly. It's old, decrepit, and poorly maintained. However, I did convince the landlord to paint it, covering up the years of disgusting tar and nicotine left by the previous tenant. He had it painted, all right. And the walls look much better, but I don't believe a scrap of painter's tape or a single drop cloth was used, although I saw the guy had both with him. There is dried paint on the tub enclosure, counter top, toilet, floor, towel bars, everywhere. He even painted over the latch that makes the door stay closed. SIGH. I just can't deal with making another call to the landlord right now with the holidays upon us, so I will live with it, temporarily. I just finished scrubbing the bathroom from top to bottom, and it looks and smells nice. All ready for the kids to come home for the holidays. This is going to be my first apartment therapy-style post. Yay! I'm hoping if I make note of each little or big improvement I make, I will begin to see my progress over time, and inspire myself to do more, the way that Apartment Therapy inspires me now. Maybe you'll get inspired too. Anyway, the little bathroom improvement I did today was to hang a decorative shelf. Here it is:

Grandma Becker's beautiful corner shelf

Speaking of the holidays, when I was growing up, every Christmas eve we would head over to my great grandmother Becker's cozy little house, in a neighborhood of cozy little houses on a hill in Middleton, WI. It would always be bitterly cold and of course pitch dark even at 6 pm, but the snow and the twinkling lights made the drive so pretty. Her house was always very warm and full of relatives coming to see grandma, and she put on an amazing spread of Norwegian, German and standard American holiday foods. Some of them were scary to me, like mincemeat pie (I never did try that). Others were wonderful, like homemade lefse spread with butter, sprinkled with brown sugar and rolled. I always loved the inside of grandma's house, it was like a tiny museum, with a lifetime of gathered treasures all carefully kept and charmingly displayed. She had an array of beautiful teacups and saucers, no two alike, and many ornate crenelated dark wood shelves that held little figurines. When she passed on at the venerable age of 97 (I think) in 1993, I was blessed to be allowed to choose from some of her belongings. Other older relatives had picked everything over pretty well before I got to make my selections, but they left things that epitomized my grandma for me. Maybe she had a hand in that from above, who knows, but the dishes, shelves, doilies, embroidered-edge pillowcases and antique cookbooks and such I brought home with me mean the world to me, and seeing them every day keeps her close. She was a very special lady, so kind and very humorous. She had so many descendants, but always made me feel like I was her primary concern the few times of the year I saw her. Some people are just golden like that, and she was one of them. Anyway, the shelves were something that, although loved, never quite fit anywhere in my prior apartments, and they remained in storage for years. Now that I am in my first empty-nester apartment with my kids  grown up and on their own, I am learning to just "do me". My tastes, my time, etc. My tastes in decorating are usually in the realm of shabby chic. These pretty, curliqued shelves finally fit my life, and I am so happy to see one on the wall again after all these years (grandma passed away in 1993). After brushing off the cobwebs and wiping it clean and then dosing it with Pledge to add some shine, it looks great. There are little areas that need some wood glue and touch-up staining, but nothing too major. Something about them even makes me think of India, another decorating theme I love. They are going to work perfectly here. Thank you, grandma...love and miss you. Merry Christmas.

Great Grandma Becker and her first great-great-grandchild, my daughter Brianne. Christmas, 1982.

Gratitude and Catitude

Sometimes I just feel almost overcome with gratitude. Right now, the feeling is inspired by an article I just read about twin boys, one of whom identified as female from the very beginning of his life. I can't even imagine the pain, anguish and confusion that father felt, saying goodbye to his son and eventually accepting and welcoming his daughter. I hope one day all such children can be blessed to be in a society that accepts them for who they are, and that their families respond with so much love. As for me, my gratitude comes from never having to face such a tremendous ordeal with my own two children. We went through enough drama and upheaval just with the usual middle school issues, I am thankful every day that they are both happy and healthy and have no major life challenges on this kind of scale.

Grateful also today and every day for my new job, the people I love working and being with who make me feel valued, and positive work that I love doing, in a beautiful environment. Work and life feel more in balance than they have in a very long time. Grateful for the sweet, warm, fuzzy, purring little kitty draped over my shoulder watching as I type this, even if she is a naughty Christmas ornament snatcher. Grateful for a refrigerator full of healthy delicious food. Grateful for a beautiful Christmas tree and the special decorations that each carry their own indelible memories. Grateful for Christmases past and people I have loved and who loved me, gone now but still ever close in heart. Grateful for breathing, for moving my body without impediment, for enough money to meet my needs if not all of my wants. Grateful for new opportunities, new friends, old friends, good coffee, warm winter days that make travel easy. Grateful for the shoulder massage of tiny little white paws.

A Pearl of a girl.

Home again home again jiggity jig!

My daughter, that is. She moved to South Dakota to make a difference in the lives of school children on the Rosebud Indian Reservation right after college. After three years she continued that journey and calling in New Orleans, at a higher level in her organization. Now three years after that, she is finally home, or close to it, in Milwaukee, having moved up again. I am beyond overjoyed to be able to see her more that 2-4 times a year for the first time in wayyyyy too long. I can hop on the bus and be there in an hour, or she can drive here in the same amount of time. I visited her new home there for the first time this past weekend, and I love it. We had a great Memorial Day weekend, visiting places we frequented years ago when she was a baby and small child and I was a young single mom who just needed to get out of town and see new faces and places every other month or so. A favorite destination was the Grand Avenue Mall, which was quite the cutting edge place to be among malls back then. Glass elevators in the central courtyard, glass ceiling, and a huge food court were among its novel innovations of that time. Food courts weren't yet a "thing" found in every mall. I looked forward to the exotic (to me, at the time) Greek food at a place called Grecian Garden. I would get the lemon chicken and garlicky orzo soup...heavenly.

Unfortunately, the mall has fallen onto hard times now. There are barely any businesses left, and the glass ceiling, once so grand, leaks badly, crumbling the pillars and flying buttresses supporting it. Still beautiful, though, and I hope it comes back to its former glory in time. It's a real downtown treasure.

 

I may have left my heart in San Francisco.

The last time I visited the city was about ten years ago. I really only spent a day there, and didn't see much of the city, unfortunately. However, I DID drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, all by myself, in a humongous SUV. Anyone who knows me well knows I hate driving across bridges in general...so I was not expecting the ethereal experience of driving through a misty golden cloud-shrouded dream. Now I think it may be time to go back. And maybe...to stay. A piece of my heart lives there now. Time will tell if it's meant to happen or not...but for now, it's giving me something nice to ponder instead of how endless a Wisconsin winter can be. I'm so ready for a change, for new surroundings, for a new world to explore. I'm not really seeing any downsides to the idea.

Do try this at home.

India is home to the oldest civilized culture on earth, dating back some 3,000 years. In all that time, an amazing wealth of knowledge was amassed, from spirituality to health and everything in between. I've become increasingly interested in the time-tested healing power of Indian foods, which usually incorporate potent, colorful, fragrant and delicious herbs and spices. Turmeric, a relative of ginger, is included in most dishes, as are onions, garlic, cloves, cardamom, cayenne, ginger, tamarind, fenugreek and many others, dependent on regional cooking styles. It's become a fascinating journey for me, and I have only scratched the surface so far.

My good friend has recently shared his family's recipe for spicy fish curry with me, and although he is in the UK and I am in Wisconsin, we cooked it "together" through the magic of Skype video chat (love my new Mac laptop!). It was my first time cooking with tamarind, and shopping for the correct form of it was a new and fun experience for me. Luckily we have an amazing Asian food store in Madison which carries all types of foods and products from Mexico, the Philippines, Iraq, India, Morocco, Israel, China, just about every middle eastern or Asian country. Surprisingly, I even found a can of my favorite Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory there, which hails from my beloved New Orleans...may all her precious sea life now rest in peace... But I digress. Tamarind has a rich, savory and slightly sour taste; it's one of the main flavors in Worcestershire sauce, so for those of you who have never tasted tamarind, that might give you some frame of reference for how delicious this dish is. Here are the photos of the finished result, which was, I must say, amazing. (My dear friend is home in India for two weeks visiting his family, and I am missing him and our daily Skype chats just a wee bit. I can't wait til he comes back and brings new recipes from home to share with me via our Skype "cooking classes".) ॐ

Click pictures to see larger in more detail...and yes, those are Mardi Gras beads still sitting on my table from my birthday trip there in February. They make me smile every time I see them. 

Here is the recipe, paraphrased. The fish that is normally used for this dish in Hyderabad is not one I recognized or could locate a translation for, so I used my favorite fish, catfish. One large catfish should feed at least three hungry people, or one very lucky empty nester mom such as I for three days...plus the leftover sauce, which made a nice vegetarian rice dish on the fourth day. For a side dish, I made some simple saffron rice (basmati rice cooked with a couple of pinches of good saffron, a few dashes of cumin powder, and a handful of red lentils just for added texture). This is sooooo good! I hope you'll try it and tell me your impressions.

Spicy Fish Curry

Cut one good sized catfish into 1 - 2 inch thick slices (I don't like the deboned fillets; the bones seem to help keep the fish moist and impart more rich flavor). Wash the cut fish pieces and rub with salt and turmeric two or three times.

Put the tamarind pieces* into hot water and let soak, we will use the juice.

Cut one medium onion into small pieces. Chop green chilies (I used serrano, I think; they were just labeled green chilies at the Indian market) one or maybe two, if you want it spicy. I used one. You may want to remove some or all of the seeds if you don't want it too spicy. (I love spicy!).

Place the cut fish pieces into a medium size frying pan with the onions, green chilies, a tablespoon of turmeric powder, salt depending on how much fish you have, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red chilie powder if you want it even more spicy, a tablespoon of dhaniya powder (coriander powder), and 2 tablespoons of garam masala powder (available at Indian and sometimes other stores). Add three tablespoons of olive oil. Mix all of the above with your hands (I used disposable plastic kitchen gloves because of the hot peppers) so that the spices infuse the fish well. Pour in the tamarind water*.

The tamarind water should be enough so that all the fish pieces are slightly floating; the fish will steam in that liquid. Place the pan on the stove on high heat until it reaches a fast simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer about 15-20 minutes. Remove the lid and cook until fish is cooked through and the tamarind water is much reduced into a gravy-like sauce. Do not overcook fish. Serve with rice (traditional) or your favorite side dish.

*This is the correct form of tamarind to buy for this recipe:

It comes wrapped in a block like this; you just break off a few hunks and soak them for awhile in hot water. Maybe half an hour, until they are very well saturated and soft, and can be broken apart easily. For this recipe, we used nearly half a block, and probably 3-4 cups of hot water. Once it's well soaked, you stick your hands in there and squeeze it all up a bunch of times, separating the tamarind fruit flesh from the fibrous parts. Then you press it all through a sieve, and compost the stuff left behind. It doesn't take long. The end result is tamarind water.

I finally did it!

And it only took me twenty years or so. I think I first became aware of nose piercing as a potential thing I could do, around that time in my life. I became intrigued by a girl I went to art school with, a blonde, blue eyed white girl like me, who had a tiny, sparkling diamond stud in her nose. It never occurred to me before that time that anyone could do that, not just women of certain other cultures. And it looked soooo cool on her. It's taken me all this time to finally have the courage to have it done, myself. I've only had it for about four hours now, and it seems like it was always meant to be there. I love it. The pain was fairly intense but very brief. Within five minutes it wasn't painful at all, and now I barely feel like anything happened. It will take about 7 weeks or so of aftercare, but that's no problem. Salt water soak once a day, special cleanser twice a day. No problem. Did I mention that I love it? Here are two pictures I took with my laptop camera just minutes after having it done, from a nearby coffee shop where I went to relax and celebrate. It's a tiny, sparkly pink rhinestone. Yay!!! ॐ

Peace

I have been collecting images of lotuses lately. They're just so beautiful. This is my newest favorite. They seem to emanate peace and tranquility, which is something I need every day. They remind me to slow down and notice the beauty in each moment of the day. I even have lotuses painted on my toenails, with a small diamond set into the center of each. It's a nice focal point while doing standing poses in yoga. Yoga is another thing that brings a lot of peace and centeredness to my life. I had set it aside for a couple of years, but started up again in January. I do one Ashtanga class and one Yin Vinyasa class per week right now. They balance each other out very well for me. Ashtanga makes me work hard and sweat, and Yin Vinyasa brings deep stretch and deep meditation. I feel very blessed to have these things in my life. When I come out of a great class, I feel at peace with the world and want to share that glow with everyone.