What a Yogi Eats

PICKLES!

Delicious, delicious, fermented, dill flavored cucumbers. And I found the easiest recipe in the world for them! And I will now share it; sort of because I don't really follow recipes I just start tossing things into a pot.

First go pick some cucumbers. What?! You don't have any cucumbers growing in your garden? You have to try them next year, promise me you will. They are super easy, even in this crazy drought year this is what my cuc patch looks like:

Cucs Gone Wild!

Now before I go on, this is a recipe for Refrigerator Pickles, so they aren't water processed, they don't keep as long as "canned" pickles but they are so good you'll eat them before they have a chance to turn.

My first batched I made 3 pint jars which is the measurements I’ll share with you

Enough Cucumbers, thinly sliced, to fill 3 pint jars
3 Cloves Garlic
2 tsp celery seed
3 TBL dried Dill (fresh is better, you need less if you are using fresh, but I didn't have any)
1/2 tsp Turmeric (this is optional, mainly for color but it's very good for all 3 doshas if you are practicing Ayurveda)
1/2 cup Sugar (more or less depending on your taste)
1 1/4 cup White Vinegar
1/4 cup Salt, a scant1/4 cup or less if you are watching your sodium
1 1/2cup Water

In a pot combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the cucumbers. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. While the brine cools to room temp slice your cucumbers and fill the 3 pints jars.

Note* this is more than 3 pint jars, this recipe is only for 3 pint jars.

After the brine is cool, strain the liquid into a bowl or large measuring cup, preferably something with a pouring lip. Pour the brine over the cucumbers.

Screw the lids on and place in the fridge. Let them alone for a few days until the dimple in the top of the jar goes down and then eat up!

From all the recipes I read online about fridge dills they all vary on shelf life so here is what I have to say about it:

1st I AM NOT A FOOD EXPERT! It is quite possible I have never gotten botulism by sheer luck. Fermenting food can be dangerous so please follow the recipes and suggestions of a qualified food professional.

2nd If it smells bad, it probably is.

3rd These are so good, if they come out ok, there is no way they will last long enough to turn. But I said that already so I’m going to stop blogging now and go eat some pickles. Yum.

What a Yogi Eats...

on Harvest Day.

Veggie Stir Fry

 

I love having a kitchen garden! I love food right out of the ground and this morning I harvested:

Carrots
Rainbow Chard
Swiss Kale
Green Beans
Paprika Peppers (ok just one pepper, but its early still)

Perfect for summer stir fry. Here's how I did it...

1st Get some water boiling for your rice, noodles or anything else you might like to serve your stir fry over, or if you are Paleo or Low Carb or just don't have anything you can eat the veggies on their own.

2nd toss a little oil in your skillet while it heats chop the Carrots into your desired shape, toss those into the heated skillet. Next, chop the Green Beans, toss them in. Next, slice the pepper and in with it.

Usually between the Beans and the Peppers the rice water is boiling, so add your rice, noodles, etc...Cover and get back to the veggies.

While those veggies are cooking, stem and chop your Kale and Chard. When the Carrots are just shy of soft toss in the greens.

CHEATER STEP (because I'm not good at Asian sauces), over the greens drizzle some of your favorite stir fry sauce. Instant flavor, no effort!

Optional Step: I like to pour about 1/4-1/2 a cup of water over the green and sauce before giving it a stir. I do this because it helps my greens to wilt and spreads the sauce more evenly, it also helps to soften the harder veggies if they aren't done all the way yet. I cook it back down so the sauce doesn't lose any umph.

Optional Step #2: Protein: Now I’m not a vegetarian but my Ayurvedic Consultant told me I should limit my meat intake, really I'm supposed to just eat chicken and fish but I'm terrible at cooking chicken in a skillet and I don't like fish in stir fry. So instead I used TVP, Textured Vegetable Protein, it has a great texture and no taste so you can season it however you want. It is a dehydrated product so I pour about 3/4 a cup into a bowl, sprinkle it with seasoning (for this I used a little turmeric and a 5 pepper blend) and let it sit, I do this before I even put the water on to boil, so by this point in the recipe it's fully rehydrated/marinated and ready to go. SO into the skillet with it!

Cook down till all the extra water is absorbed and serve over your rice, which should magically finish right when your veggies do.

I garnished mine with a few fresh cucumbers with dill which is very cooling for my Pitta digestion, just in case the sauce had too much spice in it, and sesame seeds which you don't see here because I forgot them. 

ENJOY!

Home Is Where You Hang Your Head

It’s an odd sensation of realizing you have attained what you wanted. As I yogi I try not to “crave” things but as a human I still yearn. When I moved to my tiny town I knew how awesome it was, I knew how awesome the people are and I also knew that building a yoga community takes time but that that community of people coming together to share a practice, no matter how far along in their journey they are or what their ultimate goal is, is the kind of community or rather circle of friends in which I would find my niche. I was practicing so much patience and trying to hard not to want that group of people that I didn’t realize it had found me. Until New Year’s Eve.

Me and New Year’s Eve have a long tumultuous relationship, which normally ends with me off alone somewhere wallowing in self pity. This year with the overall roller coaster like frenzy of my emotional state, adding one more year to a very long spell of singlehood and then timely death of my last Grandparent (my Mom’s Mom) which meant that I would be spending New Years Day on an 11 hour haul across the country to attend her funeral well the closing of 2010 didn’t hold much optimism for me. And in fact I woke up that morning sicker than I’d felt in quite a while and praying I didn’t have the awful stomach flu that had been going around. But by Noon I was able to hold down toast and by 3 I even managed a trip to the studio to meet with the woman who would be subbing for me while I am in Erie. And by 5:30 I had made it to my tiny towns local spot to see the local band play and be among the living. And that is where I realized that the yoga community I had been waiting for was here. People who I have connected with through the studio because of our shared yoga; I melted into hugs form other yogis, I rested my head on the shoulders of students, I held and danced with their kids and I cried as I looked around my heart so full of love. I knew the next morning I would be off to visit my family and grieve and celebrate with them but right there in that moment and blessedly for the rest of my time in my tiny town I have a new family. I can’t say it’s the yoga that binds us but for me it’s definitely the language that lets me understand that where compassion is, family is.