I stumbled across this really practical and well done video on how to make water kefir. Although I have been reading about kefir for years, I hadn't had an opportunity to make it myself until this year when my sister brought some up to me from a friend who had given her some. This stuff is fantastic. Convenient, quick to…
Published August 2009 in Healthy Options magazine, New Zealand Recipe for homemade lacto-fermented dill pickles. Lactic Acid Fermentation: Symbiotic Man's Secret Ingredient for Health and Longevity Many years ago, I worked at the Inya Lake Hotel in Myanmar which also does catering and events for the various embassies in Yangon. It was Korea's National Day and the embassy was having…
I had a strange experience the other day. I was in the shower and suddenly got a weird metallic feeling in my belly button. It seemed to originate from my navel piercing and shot upward towards my breastbone. It felt like the sound of a fingernail on a chalkboard and sent shock waves through my cells.
I pierced my belly button the end of the summer in 1994. My friend and I had been working at a boy scout camp in Lake Arrowhead as cooks for the summer. These were some spoiled boy scouts if you ask me — they had a heated pool, we cooked them 3 meals a day 6 days a week, and on Friday they had BBQ ribs. Anyway, whatever, it was hard but fun work and we were so glad to be done for the summer that we rushed into the nearest tattoo parlor and got our belly button’s pierced. We had been warned to eat beforehand, but didn’t heed the advice so my friend passed out when she leaped from the chair right after her piercing. I took my time getting out of the chair after that and was fine – but it took a while for my belly button to heal. I was at a point where I was going to give up, when it suddenly healed up and has given me no trouble for 14 years. Part of the reason it was strange to suddenly get this nerve grating metal feeling from it.
With the global mind shift moving into high gear, more people are getting interested in other ways to slow down and live consciously. As a result we are regaining respect for many things we had dismissed because we did not understand them. Using yarrow stalks to read the I Ching is one of these things. I have found using the I Ching or other methods of understanding your present moment (such as runes or tarot) can be much more useful than talking to a psychologist. It is also much more affordable =)
I had used three coins to count the lines for years so it took me a few tries to figure out how to use the yarrow stalks. This method puts you into a meditative and receptive state of mind. Yarrow encourages this being a plant that collects energies and sends them spiraling down through it’s hollow stems. The counting becomes a mystical experience with the sound of the stalks clicking and resonating together as they are thrown down, or collected together. Then, when the hexagram is formed, trying to understand what my translation of the I Ching is saying and how that relates to my situation. The whole practice is a wonderful exercise that gets the whole body, soul and mind involved.
I finally got around to searching for the recipe to this amazing almond and honey energy paste that they eat for breakfast during Ramadan in Morocco. It started niggling at me a few months ago, but the truth was I couldn’t even remember the name of it. I soon found results coming up that were pointing to a treat called Sellou. Soon I was on youtube watching this video by cookingwithalia.com:
Many years ago I lived with a Moroccan family in Rabat. The family had a son and daughter who were around my age. The daughter was wiry, smart and a black belt in taekwondo. The son was refusing to follow the Ramadan fast as he was as skinny as a rake and in the middle of intense exams at his school which are highly competitive. The mother was possessive and passionate, an amazing cook, the father was rarely seen but seemed a very quiet mild-mannered fellow.
Sellou is eaten before the sun rises during Ramadan and is power-packed with energy to get you through a long day of fasting. Each family has their own recipe and whenever I asked for it they would always wave me off, saying that it was so easy just almonds, roasted flour, sesame and honey so I never bothered to write it down. Perhaps this was just their way of keeping their household sellou recipe their own special secret.
I haven’t got much money
I don’t like to make a show
But when it comes to real good friends
I love to share my ‘dough’
-By Hal ‘Lucky Luke’ Lucas
Some of you may remember passing round Alaskan Sourdough Starters to your friends and family along with your own yarn of how you came to possess such a precious, delicious, practical and ancient culture. Here is a version I discovered on a scrap of paper mixed in with my grandmother’s recipes:
This starter originated from the Sour Doughs of Alaska in early gold rush days, and has been handed down from igloo to ice-box to electric refrigerator and propagated through friendship channels. The original sample was brought from the Yukon. It was smuggled out by a successful miner who found the original in a deserted miner’s cabin on Sour Dough Creek; he in turn, shared his secret with the Captain of a four-master sailing vessel. The Captain gave a sample to the mayor of San Francisco. From him it was stolen by the mayor’s cook who in turn sold ‘starts’ to wealthy Spanish Grandees. My sister in San Jose got her ‘start’ through connections from a hermit who lives back of Mt. Hamilton.
(You may pass this along to your friends, but be sure to add your own flavor to the above story.)
This recipe followed the above yarn:
Sour Dough Hot Cakes
Serves 2 to 3 people
Do this at night:
- Take 2 cups of sifted flour and add
- 1 c milk and one of warm water more or less
Mix in your sourdough starter to thickness similarly to hot cake batter. Cover with oiled paper and set over night in a warm place; (on top of the pilot burner is a good place.)
The rose family, which is under the blessing of Venus also has a powerful effect on the heart, strengthening it with their delicate aroma.
The Burmese make some of the most sophisticated, nutritious and delicious salads I have come across in my world travels. My favorite place to get a hand-tossed salad in Yangon is near Sule Pagoda.
Symbiotic Relationships are Key to Digestion on a Variety of Levels You help me and I'll help you. Like Sesame Street...co-operation. When our digestive system is operating under the right conditions a symbiotic shield is created of friendly, helpful micro-organisms and our mucous membrane. Within our digestive tract these yeasts and bacteria create a diverse garden boundary. At the same…
A Journey to Become a Craniosacral Therapist Originally published in Healthy Options Magazine, New Zealand Riding my bike in a desperate dash to get to the ferry after a long day of cooking on Waihike Island, I felt extremely lucky there was a taxi behind me. For once I could actually see down the unpaved driveway. Unfortunately my speed was…
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