Category Archives: yoga

Eat in the Heat

WARNING: If your name is Jeff Lewis or Kath Younger you probably just want to skip the following post altogether.  You’ve been warned.

Summer may be 3 weeks away but apparently the heat arrived early to the party.  Drippy, intense, wilting heat.  I actually have a serious pet peeve with complaining about the weather but it is such a strong influence in our lives it’s hard not to talk about it!

And plan my meals around it.  Our kitchen is very small and not well insulated so the idea of standing over a hot burner to make dinner has been totally unappealing.  Time to get creative with the grill!

We do a lot of the usual grilled veggies, fish, shrimp, and tofu but lately I’ve been interested in exploring some more creative options for outdoor cooking.

Grilled Onion Rings!

I used red, obviously, but a sweet onion like Vidalia would be great for this recipe too.

The crust was a mix of course ground local cornmeal, rosemary salt, and smoked paprika.

Each ring was dipped in an egg wash (1 beaten egg) then dredged with spiced cornmeal.

And laid to grill over medium heat.

I served the crunchy rings with some homemade ketchup, garden picked salad, sauerkraut, and quinoa.

The onion rings were good but there is definitely room for improvement.  Tate’s suggestion was to “cook them quickly in really hot oil”.  Umm, not exactly what I am going for here.  Next time I will use a finer cornmeal and spray them with a little olive oil before cooking.

Dessert, however, hit it out of the park.

Organic frozen strawberries purred with a splash of soy-milk and topped with chocolate-coconut magic shell.  My magic shell consisted of liquid coconut oil, a spoon of peanut butter, cocoa, stevia, and a splash of vanilla.  I made a big batch (4 ounces?) and stored the leftover in a jar.  Cannot wait to try it over purred frozen banana!

I am still figuring out what my workout will be today, I don’t mind sweating but I find that a hard workout in this heat can be challenging to recover from.  Time to slow down and enjoy a slow flow vinyasa!

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Filed under cooking, Fermented Food, food, workouts, yoga

Happy Place

Between the ages of 6 and 27 my life focused around dancing.  I had other identities, sure.  I was out-doorsy, loved to cook, began practicing yoga and becoming a runner in my teens, and even worked for a few years as a whitewater raft guide.

But dance was who I was as well as what I did.

When we moved to Peru in January, 2009 I had every intention to seek out dance there.  And I tried.  I even attended two classes and a few performances but my heart and head weren’t fully in it.  EVERYTHING was so foreign to me there.  I felt completely disconnected from my dancer-self, in fact I felt pretty disconnected from myself in general while living in South America but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

So I let the dancer rest.

And into deep hibernation she went.

Honestly, as much as I love Charlottesville I never would have moved here if I was an active dancer when we were looking.  There are some very talented and ambitious dancers here but it’s a small town and the support and opportunities are very limited.  I’ve taken a few classes, met a few movers-and-shakers, attended a few shows.  What I really needed was someone to light a fire under my ass and remind me that, among other things, I am a dancer.

Trillium Performing Arts to the rescue!

I grew up dancing in Trillium’s dance school and after high school was invited to teach, choreograph, and perform.  While in college I returned to perform and choreograph again.  Next week I will once again return to the Trillium stage to perform as a guest artist in their Spring concert.

You can read more about the show here.

The above photo is from the last time I performed, September 2008.  I was a guest in the company Tere Mathern Dance and yes, we are dancing in a fountain.

The fountain is in downtown Portland and was designed by the famed landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.  Halprin was married to a dancer and designed the Charlottesville Downtown Mall.

Dancing is my happy place.  When I dance I feel confident, strong, comfortable in my body.  And I feel nothing, it’s a moving meditation where there’s no space for thoughts, concerns, or questions.  On my two+ year dancing hiatus I’ve managed to find this happy place in other activities; running, hiking, biking, yoga, but nothing fills and fulfills me the way dancing does.

I sincerely hope that you have something like this in your life.  What is your happy place?  Time with your spouse, children, family?  Playing music?  Writing?

Wishing you an extra happy Wednesday!

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Filed under goals, workouts, yoga