Patchwork
Feb 12, 14
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Ancestors and Applesauce
Feb 12, 14
A few months ago, Mel spent the evening making some home-made applesauce with the apples from our tree in the backyard. He used his grandmother’s recipe. The apples are tart and small and delicious if you have a lot of time to work with them. He peeled and chopped about 40 apples and we ate all the applesauce for dinner. I remember my grandmother having containers and containers of home-made applesauce. I wonder how my ancestors managed to preserve so much food. For the last couple of years, I have been working to try to put some food away. I am shocked by the volume of food that is required if I want to eat it during the winter. I buy what I consider large quantities of things–a bushel of tomatoes, a flat of strawberries, and they disappear as I make jam or sauce. That is kind of what happened with the apples. I have been judging myself by a tough standard, I realized. I am the first woman in my family to continue in a career after I married. The women I admire who were fantastic at putting food away were housewives. If it were my job to put food away, I imagine I would be a fair bit better at it. I picture them never really sitting down, but then I think of the handwork my grandmother did–always making something–and I realize she had to sit down for that. And she watched her soap operas. I am not sure her life was quite as full as I thought it was. She had some down time I think. I spend my time in front of a computer. It is ironic that I work and feel lazy because I can’t do all the tasks women from previous generations...
read moreNot Going to Make My 100 Days of Yoga Goal
Feb 06, 14
It has become clear to me that I am not going to make my goal of 100 yoga classes in 100 days. The end of the 100 days is about 10 days away and I am down 9 classes. It was an optimistic goal. I was on track until I went on a trip. Then I got caught in the polar vortex for an extra 4 nights in Orlando. I have counted so many times to see if I could make it. It is theoretically possible, but not in a way that feels sane or reasonable in my busy life. I am noticing my attachment and I am allowing failure intentionally–watching it happen–because it feels like the right thing to do. I don’t have regret, although I still wish it was different. It is a disappointed dream for me personally as I will be 7-9 classes short of my goal. Now I need a new goal. I have realized I have the possibility of continuing on and resetting the goal for 125 classes in 125 days or 150 classes in 150 days. It would give me time to double up some classes on the weekends. I notice my attachment to this structure of lots of classes and how it makes me feel a little bit special. Maybe I should let it go and just allow myself to be “normal”. Someone who goes to yoga sometimes. I know I have other travel happening soon. I wonder if I will just get behind again–maybe life will “happen” again and again. I worry about my commitment level. I don’t have a great track record with exercise. The daily commitment really has worked for me because there is no opportunity for excuses. I go daily. The goal of daily yoga has served my body, my mind, and my spirit. I don’t like that I don’t trust myself to “do” yoga without a big picture goal. Or maybe that goal is just helping me do what doesn’t...
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French Chef Alexandre Gauthier–a Dinner in My Top Ten
Jan 30, 14
Last night we had a meal that made my top 10 list. It was a meal like nothing I have experienced. Alexandre Gauthier came to the Stratford Chefs School bringing his front of house manager and his pastry chef. Gauthier is a Michelin Star chef with a restaurant called La Grenouillère. Sela was lucky enough to be the student chef during the dinner we attended last night. It was a snowy night but thanks to some great driving by our friend, we made it. There were 7 of us who added to the festivities, and the meal was a tasting menu that knocked our socks off. I can’t tell you how many courses there were. I can never figure out how to count the amuse-bouche at the beginning and the petit fours at the end. There were 12 distinct dishes that we ate plus delicious dark bread. There wasn’t a menu, just a list of ingredients and we continually got the unexpected. What we had: there was a corn tart, a veal and sardine tartar with cauliflower, scallop and avocado roll, a souffle with crab, beet ravioli with eel, a lobster salad, lamb with broccoli puree and wheat berries, an apple curl with celery cream, butternut squash ice cream with meringue, a strawberry gelée, and a truffle that exploded in my mouth. The pace was faster than any meal I have ever enjoyed and the drama of each course kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt excited each time a new course came out. I couldn’t wait for the description of what each dish contained and had to hold myself back. The colors and textures were striking and the uniqueness of each dish was remarkable. Several of the dishes were a little intimidating–it was a little scary to take the first bite of the blood red eel ravioli. But the flavors in each dish were so deep, rich, balanced and satisfying that the food provided a thrill and a world class...
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