Lily

One of my earliest memories is of Lilies of the Valley.  I have two spots in my garden where they grow, purely for sentimental reasons, transplants from my mother's house.  Every spring I wait and wait and wait some more for the shy little white bells to appear.  The moment I poke my nose down and sniff, I am magically 5 years old, the spring before kindergarten, smelling them for the first time in our garden.  We only lived at the "lily" house for a short while, and I can't remember a single other thing about it.  But the perfume is so powerful, I can think of nothing else but that day, squatting in the sunshine enjoying my lovely discovery.

Today, finally, weeks later than usual, I found blooms.  Living in the moment allowed me to let go of everything else in the blender that is my brain and just be with my flowers. Then I found myself swinging in the hammock chair, forgetting for a moment that I have to be an adult.

My little friend Ava is 5.  I think I will have to share this wonder the next time she visits.

May your inner child play freely today.

Something yummy for Friday: Barley Soup, two ways + a yummy breakfast idea

Do you love barley?  If you haven't tried it, here are a few recipes to get you started.  Barley is cheap, high in protein and local (at least for those living in Montana).  Not to mention tasty, vegan and easy.


Ash - e - jow (Iranian/Persian Barley Soup)

Ingredients

• 2 quarts veggie stock
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 cup uncooked pearl barley
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• salt, to taste
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt  (you can omit if you'd like a vegan soup)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 8 lime wedges

Directions

1. Heat the stock in a pot to a gentle simmer.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and saute the onion until translucent. Add the pearl barley to the pot and stir for one minute. Stir in the hot stock, turmeric, lime juice, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour.
3. Mix in the carrots and continue simmering 30 minutes or until the soup has thickened and the carrots and barley are tender. If the soup is too thick, add hot water, one tablespoon at a time.
4. (Skip this step if you are making a vegan soup).  Place the yogurt in a small bowl. Slowly pour 1/2 cup of hot soup mixture into yogurt, whisking constantly. Gradually add the yogurt mixture into the soup pot, whisking constantly. Stir in the fresh parsley. Serve with fresh lime wedges. 

Very Easy Mushroom Barley Soup
Vegan yumminess, and so easy, because you just toss everything in a pot and let it cook.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
• 6 cups veggie broth
• 3/4 cup barley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic; cook and stir until onions are tender and transparent. Stir in mushrooms and continue to cook for a few minutes. Pour in the broth and add barley. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until barley is tender, about 50 minutes. Season with salt and pepper before serving. 

Breakfast Barley, with honeyed nuts

I served this with plain, whole milk yogurt.

This cooked cereal stores well covered in the refrigerator and reheats easily on the stovetop in 3 or 4 minutes. Enhance this basic recipe with applesauce, seasonal fruit compotes, and cinnamon. The walnuts provide minerals such as calcium, as well as essential omega-3 fats that are vital for immunity, cardiovascular health, and brain function.

3/4 cup  pearl barley
3 cups  water
1 tsp  sea salt
1/4 cup  honey
1 cup  walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup  brown sugar or maple syrup
1/4 cup  currants

Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add salt and barley, turn heat to low, cover, and cook 45 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a mixing bowl stir together honey and walnuts. Spread on a baking tray and toast 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

When barley is cooked, stir in syrup and currants. Divide among four serving bowls and top each with 1/4 cup of walnuts. Serves 4.

Note: If you only use one or two servings you can reserve leftovers for other breakfasts. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for two or three days.

To reheat cereal, place a 1/4 cup (60 mL) of milk in a saucepan. Heat on medium heat and add barley mixture. Warm through and top with reserved walnuts.


Here's a link from Oprah, about why barley is healthy for you, especially for breakfast + a few more recipe ideas.  I'm off to eat a big bowl right now.  Have a sweet day !

The view from my window

Opening the window, I look out onto the Dharmakaya.
How wondrous is life!
Attentive to each moment,
my mind is clear like a calm river.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

May your mind be clear like a river on this wondrous day.  

May you find yourself renewed in the beauty of each moment.

Something yummy for Friday: Vegan Indian Sweet Potato Stew

Totally healthy, high protein, vegan and yummy too, especially if you love Indian food.  I came up with this recipe while skyping with Hillary one cold fall day.  It's very warming and excellent for fighting off a cold or flu.  Check out the link for Naan Bread if you want to serve it along side.

Vegan Indian Sweet Potato Stew
This makes a big pot, so great for a family or to freeze.
Saute an onion and some garlic in a large soup pot.  Add celery, carrots and saute until softened a bit.  Add 2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp each paprika, chili powder, turmeric and saute one minute.  Add a big can of diced tomatoes, 1 cup of red (orange) lentils and enough water to cover.  Add 1 chopped sweet potato and 1 chopped yam.  Add more water if necessary.  Add 1-2 tsp salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and let cook until veggies are all done.  Then add chopped kale, cover and boil 5 minutes.

Optional:  minced ginger, in with the garlic; red, orange or yellow bell peppers, in with the potatoes; chopped fresh cilantro in with the kale.  You can sub spinach or other greens for the kale.

Ode to Gaudi

"Smile, breathe and go slowly".

Thich Nhat Hanh

When you go slowly, you notice the small details, the way the sunlight gleams through the leaves.  When you breathe, you take it all in, knowing it is all you, nothing is separate.  When you smile, you pass this to each person who perceives your smile, and each person who does not.

 
Antoni Gaudi was a Catalonian who noticed, who felt whole in nature and who could smile through his creations.  I adore Gaudi and his amazing melding of fantasy and nature.  They are a bit Seussian.  I love how he brings the natural world to life inside human dwellings.  One Gaudi house feels as if you are inside a giant dragon creature, complete with skeleton supporting the structure. 

My girls and I read the beautifully illustrated and written children's book, "Building on Nature, The Life of Antoni Gaudi" today in homeschool, and before I got to the 3rd page, B. asked, "Can we go look him up on the internet?  I have to see!!!"  She loved the iguana fountain best.  K., the dragon gate.  I couldn't pick for anything......it's all my favorite.

Not everyone understood or admired his work.  He didn't care.   Nature was his language, his creations, a living poem.  Every small detail in our world caught his loving eye.

Our cottage is filled with little bits of this and that, mostly collected by the girls and myself, out puttering in nature.  Birds' nests and broken egg shells (from a red winged hawk last spring!), shells, and bones.  Lots and lots of bones (a raccoon skull!!).  Here are some of my favorites, resting now in the garden.  I think Gaudi would like our creations too.

Creative blessings to you

Something yummy for Friday: Chocolate blobs

AKA chocolate peanut butter no bakes.  Here's the original, except my mom always used peanut butter instead of corn syrup.

This is my healthier version.  Enjoy!!!
 Chocolate Blobs
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter
Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the cocoa until smooth.
Add 1 cup honey and 1/2 cup milk and bring to a boil, for one minute.  Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup nut butter.  Stir well.  Now add 3 cups of whole oats, + raisins, nuts, dried cherries, seeds, (some people like coconut), whatever you want to add.  Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer.

They are super good on hot days, right out of the freezer.  Because of the honey, they will get melty if you leave them around at room temperature.  


These were the first "cookies" I ever made as a little girl - fond memories of licking the spoon!  (They are really candy.)

Why Thay?

Every day we are engaged in a miracle we don't even recognize.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

I often quote Thay, or relate some idea from one of his books, read over and over again, and many times my listener has never heard of him.  Never heard of sunshine & water, I think to myself?

For anyone who doesn't know his teaching, here's a few places to start:  The River, Plum Village, and Thay speaking of the mindfulness.

Why I come back to Thay again and again:  in his presence I feel peace, I feel truly myself, I can breathe, I am reminded of my connection to you, to the world, to every thing, it's easy to smile and I feel refreshed and my compassion cup is refilled.  He has taught me not to run away, but to look inside.

I love how happy he appears in every photo, even if he's not smiling.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
~Thay

  

Why Montana Makes Me Happy

So, my happiness project Wednesday blog didn't happen yesterday.  I took a nap instead.  

Waking up today, seeing an inch of snow covering the lovely green ground, I had to hit the happiness reset button.  Sometimes you have to realign your attitude if you truly want to be happy.  As Gretchen Rubin says again and again in her book, "It's EASY to be unhappy.  Being happy takes effort."  I wonder if it snows in May where she lives?

Why I Love Living in Montana

• If there is a blizzard in any of the 10 months in which a blizzard can easily happen, rest assured if you get stranded by in a ditch, someone will surely help you.  You don't have to be afraid of the guy in the 4 X 4 who pulls you out, nor is he so afraid of you he drives right by.
• If there is said blizzard, your neighbor will probably shovel your sidewalk if you happen to sleep in.  (You'll do the same for her next time.)
• If you are driving on a dirt road and meet a passing vehicle, the driver will wave at you.  Nope, you won't know them; it's just something that happens.
• Even though winter lasts approximately 10 months, with occasional 70 degree days in March (obviously designed to test your endurance), the sun shines almost every day.  We live in one of the sunniest places on the planet.
• When humans finally get on board with clean energy (hooray!!!), our wind energy is going to power most of the U.S.  Seriously.  
• I love that people here will still barter grass-fed beef, for say, birth doula service.
• Even though Montanans have often been known for being red-necked, and bigoted (not to mention the home of the Unibomber and Freemen), we also have a deserved reputation for live and let live and tolerance.  Really.  We may not be the most diverse state in the union, but we try.  And we've got a long-standing historical ethical of respect for hard work and diverse opinions.  Who elected the first woman in Congress?  (who happened to be a pacifist, no less.)  Look it up.

• What makes me really happy about living here?  I feel safe.  I can see the sky.  I love the wide open prairie where you can see nothing and nothing and nothing forever.  And our mountains are among the most beautiful, spiritual, sacred places on the planet.  Our rivers are among the cleanest and wildest left anywhere.
• You can get lost here.  Physically, sure.  But metaphorically.  It's a place where you can reinvent yourself and we'll let you.
• We are home to just about no natural disasters.  No oil spills (ok, that's not natural anyway), flooding is rare, tornadoes are rarer, no hurricanes or tsunamis (those scare the crap out of me), we're a major earthquake zone, but we never seem to have any (knock wood).  Speaking of wood - forest fires are no fun - but back to happiness.  Can't remember the last time one of our cities experienced a riot either.
• And finally, it's a place that snows in May.  Just to test your love.  I pass!  I love you Montana.  Thank you for taking good care of me.  I'll try to do the same.