Baby Steps

Even as I write this, my girls are sitting on top of my desk by my side. I'm not sure what it is about this age for babies. I guess they're too big to sleep all day and too small to do much for themselves, so it falls upon the mamas to lead the babies where they go and show them what they may want to see. Such is my life at this moment. I am taking baby steps to get back into the swing of things. Baby steps back to photos, baby steps back to art. A little here, a little there. Sometimes I wish there were so many more hours in the day for babies to sleep and mamas to play!!!

Raw Tortilla Soup

I am so excited! Last night I began brainstorming how I could make a raw tortilla soup. I just love hot, comforting soups. They remind me of snuggly, comforting fall. Getting used to cold soups will be an adjustment. Though, from what I've read, they can be heated, just not above 118 degrees to avoid destroying the food's natural enzymes. The soup turned out fabulous even though it was cold. This recipe requires the use of a blender (not a super high peformance one) as well as a juicer.

Raw Tortilla Soup

Soup Chunks:
1/2 avacado, diced
1/4 green bell pepper, diced
1 green onion, chopped
1 small carrot, cut diagonally in thin strips
1 tablespoon or more fresh cilantro, chopped

Broth:
large cucumber
celery stick
medium sized tomato, quartered
1/2 garlic clove, shredded or microplaned to allow for easy combination
1/4 - 1/2 jalapeno, chopped (depending how spicy you like it)
1/2 tsp. dried coriander
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
dash of smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne (optional/depending on how spicy your jalapeno is)
1 tsp. fresh oregano
1 sun dried tomato, soaked and chopped
salt to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Soak sun dried tomato in water for 5-10 minutes. Prepare the soup chunks as specified. Set aside. Peel and quarter cucumber. Using a juicer, juice the cucumber and celery stick. Pour juice into a blender and add the remainder of broth ingredients except for the olive oil. Blend until smooth. While blender is running, drizzle in olive oil and allow to run for a minute or so (this heats the soup slightly). Pour broth into a serving bowl, add soup chunks and enjoy.


Other soup chunk variations:
shredded cabbage, kale, spinach
cashews or other nut of choice
chopped fresh tomato
corn kernels
fresh squeezed lime

I would have taken a picture, but I really wanted to try this before posting. It's pretty and yummy, maybe I can get a picture when I try this again. The great thing about this soup is that the ingredients are pretty easy to find, they are almost always in season and are interchangeable allowing for seasonal changes! Hope you enjoy!

Thought Bender

What is that you say? A thought bender is a lot like a drunken bender in that it's completely out of control, impossible to reign in and just has to run it's course, either leaving you completely sorry that you ever went through with it or stoked that you came out the other side intact and enjoyed yourself immensely. I go through these quite often. Well, I suppose I can use the excuse that I don't drink anymore but I'd still have thought benders even if I could go on the alcoholic ones (some days I miss those margaritas tremendously...sigh).

My current thought bender is all about simplicity. I want a simple life. Is there such a thing? I'm not sure but perhaps I should consult the Amish. I want to live away from the screaming sirens (and sometimes screaming inhabitants) of this suburb. A couple years ago our entire neighborhood was blocked off by police in pursuit of some, uh, 'bad guys' shall we say. Two were caught, but the one who actually shot at a cop two houses down from us escaped, via the river no doubt. About four months ago, one of the neighbors living around here actually pulled a gun on our local police representative who was going around the neighborhood to cite people for blight, but was also accompanied by lovely fire fighters who were offering to inspect people's fire detectors. Why pull a gun? Because he was angry that he might be cited for blight in his yard...he stated that the government was too much in "our" business. So, pull a gun??? Really??? Additionally, the Pizza Hut was robbed at gunpoint, it's about four blocks away, one bullet round was shot into the ceiling. I'm telling you, our neighborhood is nice, really it is, yet this is what living in the supposedly safe suburbs has become. This is not simplicity.

I just want to toss my Dish subscription out the window and opt for public TV and bunny ears (which will no longer exist as of February, humf), I want to get rid of the house phone...who really needs a house phone and a cell phone??? I want to live where my yard doesn't back up to four other yards, I want to live without fences, I feel so confined and everyone eaves drops around here. I want to go to town, instead of living in town. I want to get to know the people around me (not live too close to them though) instead of pretending we hardly exist to each other. I want to say hello to Sue and Dan who work in the grocery store in town and chit chat with Brandie at the coffee shop who knows what I always order. I want to show some artwork in the local coffee shop and meet up with other women who knit so that we can discuss our lives and new patterns we're trying. I want to go to Yoga at least once a week with a slightly neurotic teacher and some of those knitting buddies. I want to grow much of my own produce so that I know what goes into it. I want to know my children's teachers and I want my children's teachers to know them, i.e. smaller school, teacher accountability and one-on-one instruction if necessary. I want to sell arts and crafts at the annual Christmas festival held in old town, where I would imagine everyone knows and graciously says hi to everyone.

Maybe this doesn't sound so simple to some but to me it sounds amazing. I don't even know if this exists but it would be nice. I have a feeling this thought bender will be around for a long time. There's nothing like that around here that I know of and the hub's job is super stable so moving is not really an option at least not for now.

So I guess I'll just have to satisfy myself by fulfilling other thought benders, like the knitted fingerless gloves and a cute yoga bag that needs to be sewn. Countless others will follow no doubt.

Gone Raw

Oh, how I love to take just a bit of time each morning to catch up on some of my favorite blogs and surf for new recipes. I have only a few moments really. I keep staring longingly at my knitting, at my camera, at my art supplies. They are lying idle these days, very idle. I think knitting has gotten the most action because it's quiet and requires little clean-up. I'm trying for my first pair of gloves (fingerless)! They'll be so great. I've made a few stitch mistakes but I don't have the heart to fix 'em. Gives 'em character.

Little Emmy is making super strides in the sitting department, she still HATES her tummy time and my hopes that she'll start crawling anyday now are still on pause. But she can sit great, she's even starting to get that she can get her balance by putting her arms out on the floor. She's so attached to me right now. ...sigh... She even cries if daddy wants to hold her and mommy is across the room. I vaguely remember this phase with Lily...vaguely. I hope it passes soon. Love her but I feel so bad whenever I go to Yoga and come home and she's cried her eyes out for 2 hours. That's hard on everyone, especially daddy.

So, the recipes that I've been looking up are of the 'raw' variety. I received an email from my yoga teacher with a link to another yoga teacher who has MS. On her site was a link to Ani's Raw Kitchen which got me started on all this. I love it! I thought when I started eating raw I would be starving all the time but I'm not at all. I've been eating mostly veggies, fruits and nuts, salads and some more gourmet type recipes that I've come across on Ani's site and others. I still have meat every now and again, fish mainly. But it was too hard for me to alter the way I was eating before in order to determine if this or that caused my MS to flare up more...this way the main things that can effect me are types of nuts and I still have soy products, which should make it easy to experiment. I had both almonds and soy sauce last night and something caused my hand to stiffen, so I've decided to have soy sauce today and almonds tomorrow to see how it affects me.

Ah, I hear baby, so bye for now!!!