Smells like Spring! Cilantro, Snowmelt and More...

It's April 1st and the weather has been mild and forgiving in Vermont. All except for the massive snow meltage that has turned the back roads into a continuum of swirling mud. Last night Jayson and I dined at my mom's house for Easter with her boyfriend, Wayne, and my brother! The road was so nutty we parked my beetle at the elementary school and my brother shuttle us to the homestead, yeehaw! We had ham, baked pineapple (!!!), scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, cheddar popovers and pink bubbly.... wow. My mom also presented me with an Easter bag full of treats and love. Spring time is a great time to be reminded of family and abundance with the new life it brings. It also presents looming days of rain. Today remains dark even at noon with heavy clouds and showers in the forecast, a perfect day to spend in practice, both in the studio and out.

With Intermediate Series calling me I am trying to reshape my weekly yoga routine. Last Friday I went to the Friday morning class at YVT to start training towards the next series in the Ashtanga tradition. It's nice to be learning new transitions and movements along with the seasons, sometimes things just start to click. Today I teach Kids Yoga, attendance has been low but the kids really love to do yoga, so that's great! I've also been obsessed with watching videos of Pattabi Jois teaching the Primary and Intermediate Series. I warn you that the videos are lengthy, extremely inspiring and intensely powerful. Anyways, practicing everyday in the studio(s) feels excellent.

And beside that I've got a regular busy life at the restaurant and in my kitchen. This morning I made hummus with fresh cilantro, lime and garlic. I've been into buying fresh herbs so CILANTRO has been the pick of the week. Yum. Tacos, I even put it in the meatballs I made with mushrooms and onions, and there is still some left to be used! Keeping it fresh and waiting for spring!

A newer obsession has been unearthed in baking my own bread. I find it therapeutic and exhilarating all at once, very much like my physical yoga practice. There are such subtle changes in the recipes of breads that amount to very substantial disparities in the finished product! Now I'm not trying tog et all philosophical and yogic about bread making, but I do recommend giving it a try if you've got the time and capacity to make it happen. Here are a few ideas:

Free Form Sundried Tomato-Garlic-Basil Loaf

Pumpkin Oat Raisin Quickbread (in background of bagel boiling photo!)

Hand Rolled Onion (Mini)Bagels w/ Rosemary

And perhaps one of the more exciting things, mild temperatures have warranted OPEN WINDOWS! This is great for keeping things fresh AND entertaining the kitty who has never had such awesome exposure to fresh airs, smells, sounds, sights and squirrels! These pictures are mostly for you Laura!

Ending with a quick shout out to my and Emily's upcoming Ashtanga Workshop!

Namaste, may spring come in waves of sunshine, xo

Like a Lion...

Once a week? Once a month? Who cares!? I knew February would be a quick month but to already be a week deep in March is a bit of a surprise. Jayson was gone for a week due to an awesome conference in Syracuse and I seized the moment to spend time in the kitchen, a wild-woman I've become... I did spend a night out with my brother the The Black Krim in Randolph, a much loved place by the both of us. And Emma Sanford joined me for a much needed evening of wine and nachos, so I haven't been a COMPLETE dud.

Firstly, I thawed the rest of the fiddleheads we picked last Spring and made fiddlehead quiche, YUM! Next up was a classic, homemade macaroni and cheese. My mom's favorite recipe involves smoked gouda and is topped with freshly cut apples and it is to DIE for. I've added bacon and peas before but this time I tried something new, oven-roasted mushrooms. Even though they were a bit over roasted (crispy, for sure) I think it is my new guilty pleasure. And on a much healthier note, soup! First up was a loose recreation of Sarducci's own spicy black bean that I finished off with organic coconut milk rather than heavy cream. Another score from the freezer was mashed pumpkin from my brothers garden that I pureed with carrots, celery and onion, seasoned with thyme and serve with either a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt. Finally chili, not vegetarian but grass fed beef, tons of veggies and BEER. Needless to say the freezer is restocked and I've been eating chili for three days straight.

This mac & cheese is good with red or white wine, so I tried both!









Here are some photos from what may possibly be my last snowshoe of the season:

I have been starting to re-pot my indoor plants and plant some herbs in hopes of freshness and life and in anticipation of spring. I now have a baby tangerine tree standing at about two inches and my thyme, dill and basil have all begun to sprout! Where does she find the time? Besides feeling slightly under the weather there have been many people in my life telling me to take a day or two off, so I listened. Somehow I've managed to survive financially with a full week off from work at the restaurant, but I'll be back to the grind tomorrow....

Thankfully part of the reason for my "time off" is the fact that I am teaching seven classes a week at the studio now. They are condensed into 4 days and I love each one of them. I am also planning an Ashtanga workshop with Emily (fellow instructor and teacher trainee) which will be a three hour evening event exploring the Primary Series. We would love for the workshop to grow into something we can hold a few times a year, constantly bringing in new material and revisiting basics! I've eased up on my trips to Burlington in lieu of not spending enough time at home with Jayson and Lola, exhausting my gasoline funds and hoping to attend one of the two David Swenson workshops this summer. The problem is that I miss Yoga Vermont immensely once I haven't visited for over a week :)

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, I just bought tickets to New Orleans to visit Emma S-E and Laura is planning to come at the same time. Isham St reunion in NOLA! I'm feeling incredibly grateful for the richness each day brings to life and the opportunities that lay ahead.

Om purnamidah purnamidan
purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnamudaya
purnameva vashishate

This is full
that is full
from fullness, fullness comes,
when fullness removes itself, fullness still remains

Avocado Squirt Gun

I just survived for six days in 2013 without a cell phone, so at least we know it's still possible. I had to check my email on the computer and my primary form of communication was in fact email, or facebook. I felt pretty pathetic. The good news is I now have a function fancy smartphone, we got a huge dump of fresh POWDER last weekend, and the reason I lost my phone is because I went snowboarding on Saturday with Nate. About 14 inches of the fluffiest snow I've seen in years (SERIOUSLY FLUFFY) graced us throughout the day and overnight last Friday, thank you universe!!!! Riding all morning with Nate kicked my butt and we had a ton of fun finding the best (and a little of the not-so-best) snow. Yes!

Avocado squirt gun? My avocado tree has leaves on it! I've been growing this thing for a long, long time and I am so happy to see new life! The kitty ate the first buds it ever had about two or so months ago, but it persevered. And the squirt gun has been brought into play as the official kitty deterrent for plants in the window sill. She will learn, but in the meantime she'll continue to make me act like a crazy person about my house plants.

It feels great to be back in the swing of things after vacation. Classes, classes and more classes. Taking yoga classes, teaching yoga classes, preparing for yoga classes, wanting more yoga classes everywhere all the time.... I am now the Kids Yoga instructor at Studio Zenith and can't wait for class on Monday! It should be a nice challenge for me to teach kids, very cool. I also just submitted my volunteer application for Wanderlust in Stratton this summer! I figure it will be a great excuse to take a long weekend for hard work, practice, new opportunities and sunshine.

Oh right, Valentine's Day. I became obsessed with making homemade caramels for the big day.... So on Wednesday I started by getting all the supplies I needed, ingredients, parchment paper, a candy thermometer and a new pair of yoga pants. DUH. The making of the caramel was actually the easiest part. I let the stuff cool but had some sticky situations and ended up having to put it in the freezer for a flash just to get it to set enough to cut into squares. Somewhere during this process I decided it would be necessary to chocolate coat the caramels and make a variety of flavors.... About 3 hours later I had (with a few minor pitfalls) success! Chocolate covered caramels, peanut butter chocolate covered caramels, chocolate covered caramels with cashews, and sea salted chocolate covered caramels. Phewf. Last night we went out to J. Morgans and I did not cook or do dishes  :)

 

Wishing you all lots of love this time of the year! And so grateful for the return of winter...

You cannot be enlightened as the separate person you see yourself to be because that person has already disappeared, along with everything else from yesterday.
-Buddha

Dear Laura and Tim

Two people have mentioned my blog in the past month and inspired me to start up again: Laura Sturgis and Timothy Perez. This is for you two, so I'm not going to keep it short...

I just got back from a glorious trip to Orlando where my Aunt has resided for 7 years now. It is very much a place I can now visit for a retreat of sorts. Her back yard has a private pool and a bird feeder that attracts not only birds but squirrels, lizards, cats and, a first time sighting for me this trip, rats! We all know that Orlando is great for food, drink, theme parks, gators, conventions and combinations of all of the above, and I of course have been known to enjoy a margarita or two, a bottle of wine (or two), tacky miniature golf and gourmet cuisine. This time around when I wasn't spending time with my dear family, I really took time to chill. Mostly, I'm broke as a joke and have no cash for crap like that (I got a free flight using my Jetblue miles!)...

 How can it be that a bright, young college graduate working a minimum of 40 hours a week still scrapes by on a monthly basis? Oh I dunno, here are a few ideas: my cat, my yoga obsession, my love for extracurricular activities (this season these include snowboarding, snowshoeing, cooking and the occasional social soiree)...

Lola is the cat I've dreamed of owning since I first lived on my own on Mansfield Avenue in Burlington. She is sweet, soft, cuddly, playful and a source of constant love and entertainment. Not that my lovely. live-in boyfriend Jayson isn't all of those things, it's simply a void no person will ever fill. I am trying to get her onto a raw food diet and she uses pine pellets that turn into sawdust for kitty litter. Fascinating, I know. Yesterday was her five month birthday and most of the big expenses are out of the way now, phewf.

Lola in a cardboard box...

Sure, the yoga has sprung me into ultra awareness about my place in the world and what I'm eating/consuming on the day to day, but I've also just finished a book I think you might enjoy that is helping me to stay on track. It's called The Mindful Carnivore by Tovar Cerulli. For the record I still eat frozen pizza and Chinese food so it's definitely a baby step thing for me, it's much easier to force my kitten into a healthy lifestyle than myself.

I received my yoga teacher certification just before Christmas and have registered with Yoga Alliance, you can look me up on the directory. This experience has not only been a whirlwind of a dream come true, but still proves to be life changing just about every time I go to teach a class. BTW Laura, Tim has you beat here because he came to class when he visited in January, just sayin'. There will be much more talk about yoga in my blog posts to come. I am now training towards my 500 hour certification, nexxxxxxxt level ya'll!

Ok, extracurriculars... The winter hasn't been the best for outdoor sports and shenanigans but I've found my way onto snowshoes a few times and to the mountain a handful of times. Here is a picture of fungi on a tree covered in snow especially for you Tim:

And cooking has always been something I enjoy, but now that I'm trying to be more health conscious it also seems like a way to control what I eat. I recently made black bean burgers that came out fairly gooey yet delicious, a lentil-bacon-veggie soup and homemade loaves of bread. The crock pot and cookbook I got for Christmas have only aided my desire to be in the kitchen. Totally off topic but Jayson and I got a tent for Christmas, VERY AWESOME, can't wait for summer!

 BBQ Chicken Pizza

I've been home from Florida for about two hours now and had to get up at 3:30 am for my flight so excuse me for being sporadic and mild, I hope you liked it anyways. I promise that the posts to come will be more entertaining and insightful (maybe). The cat is asleep on my lap and it's snowing outside...

I thank you both for inspiring me to write again, you guys mean the world to me!

"The yogi's life is not measured by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths."
-B.K.S. Iyengar

April 16, 2012: Where were you?

On the day of Jayson's 25th birthday we headed to Jay Peak to check out the new water park. Needless to say I had the time of my life and I think Jayson had one of the best birthdays ever; we both can't wait to go back. Check out the article I wrote for The Free George, and here are some photos from the trip!

Dinner for Breakfast

In the wake of my recent bout of cabin fever, I find myself slowly potting plants and seedlings around my house and placing them in sunny windowsills. Waiting for spring has always been one of the biggest challenges for me as a small-scale gardener with limited space and time. Only 24 years old I find myself already challenged by the balance of life; friends, family, work, boyfriend, writing, garden? Prioritizing doesn't get any easier the older I get because it seems that the number of things on the priority list only continues to grow. I believe more than ever that the more you expect out of life, the more you are likely to find lying in every opportunity. In short, there is no excuse to stop writing, because even if I have to write about what I had for breakfast yesterday, it's always better than nothing. Each time I put something on a page it's an opportunity to share.

And so I present to you, Breakfast Carbonara! Spring time makes me awfully stir crazy and nostalgic of those days in school when all you wanted to do was play outdoors. Digging in the dirt and plating seeds is about as close as I get these days, but with the onset of an early heatwave, I find myself tricked into believing Springtime was actually here to stay. SO I resorted to the kitchen...

In my nostalgia I remembered the shear joy of having breakfast for dinner and began to wonder why it wasn't the other way around. Quiche is as close as it gets, but still, I've had quiche for dinner more times than I've had pie for breakfast... Always a fan of leftovers and their innate potential I created a brunch dish to thrill and satiate everyone:

1 box pasta (cooked)- I use whole wheat spaghetti but anything will work!
1 lb breakfast meat (cooked) bacon, sausage, or meatless sausage all  taste great, esp. the maple
3 eggs (whisked well with salt, pepper, shredded cheese, and seasoning to taste)
1 bag frozen peas (or equivalent fresh peas once in season!)

I cook the meat in a large, deep skillet then drain the fat. Adding a few tablespoons to the same cooled skillet I heat all of the prepared ingredients over medium heat. By first adding the egg mixture (I prefer Romano or Parmesan cheese, BTW) it gives it time to set, then add the meat and epase to coat them lightly in the same flavor. I keep the recipe simple to accommodate whatever may lie in your fridge. Ham would be a fine and economical substitute for bacon or sausage, as I'm sure turkey bacon would be a very healthy choice. I think adding a hint of maple and a fresh garnish of basil, cheese or parsley is a great touch for a potluck brunch or just to feed the family!

Be sure to accompany this with fresh fruit or crispy fried hash browns. Mimosas and juice are a must for any complete breakfast as well... Cheers!

Who Said Size Didn't Matter?

It's not that there isn't as much to do in Central Vermont, it's that there isn't enough time to do all the things that you might want. Why? Because half of the restaurants in this region are closed on Sundays-Tuesdays, or some combination thereof. SO what's a girl to do on Monday night when it's overdue to meet Mom for a night of wine and good eats? Go to the local hotel restaurant. As long as the hotel is locally owned, someone is likely to know about a local date spot. Ask about fine dining. If someone looks at you like an Extra Terrestrial, don't take their advice.

Monday night I went to J. Morgan's Steakhouse, the local hotel restaurant, with my mother. The restaurant offers a recently renovated, swanky appeal, but is eerily quiet. Looking at a reasonably priced wine list with outstanding variety only makes that palate grow larger. FRIED PICKLES?! The appetizer menu is enough to keep anyone on a budget well-fed, but sandwiches and salads for just a few bucks more are also sure to impress. We started with the friend shrimp and calamari. The menu specifies that the customer is to choose between either shrimp or calamari, but my mother keenly asked to have a mixture of both, which was approved by the chef with no problems, as far as we know.

For the main course we had decided to split the flatbread with prosciutto and figs (something striking familiar to a menu at the restaurant where I work) and a steak tip salad, because the place is supposed to be famous for their superior cuts of beef. First, the bread is served as the main course arrives. But the salad is immense. It's even hard to take a bite without pieces falling off the edge of the plate, even more difficult is finding the pile of greens beneath the tower of fried onion rings, which if you haven't already guessed, makes to steak look small. It was dressed nicely and tasted fresh. The steak was cooked perfectly and served piping hot off the grill, yummy, just served with a side of intimidation. The flatbread was deliciously topped with a balsamic glaze and toasted cheese and was accompanied by an arugula salad with fresh strawberries!

The desserts all have the same notorious reputation of size and glory, so I recommend spending $10 on one of their topnotch cocktails to finish off the evening. The Celebration comes with a dazzling recommendation from both myself and my charmingly picky mom. Brunch is wind saved for another review, as I am an avid fan and need not mix my genres.

Cheerio!