The Two Whos

Have you  noticed that when it gets colder, you want to eat differently?   Out go the salads and in come the cooked veggies and then come some soups and foods  that will warm.  Cece has  kept it a secret up ’till now……..but she  gets cold if the temperature goes below 70 degrees! AND it is certainly below 70 degrees in Albuquerque… especially in the mornings.

She saw an interview on  Good Morning America with the Thai chef Su-Mei-Yu who wrote the book “Elements of Life.” Cece  has always liked Asian food and watched the interview with interest. Su-Mei-Yu spoke about eating different foods when it rains and different foods when it is hot or cold outside. This made perfect sense to Cece  as she  seems to do this automatically. She also spoke about finding out your natural element as far as earth, water, wind or fire. Cece used the method in her book, based on your birth,  and found out she  is  3/4 earth and one part fire!  So,  adding in some heavier and warmer foods like pumpkin muffins, squash, green chile stew and homemade soups with fragrant herbs on top makes a lot of sense.

She ,  put the crock pot on and made some pinto beans which are a staple of eating in New Mexico. Check here for a good recipe:
http://www.myhomecooking.net/ Go to Mexican food recipes.

All throughout the night, she  could smell the beans cooking with that little bit of salt pork and when she woke up, she had the most delicious beans imaginable.Too bad the smell could not be transported to you through the computer! Beans are very nurturing.

What Cece also learned from the book is that for her, in the winter, she needs to eat more bananas, dates, applesauce, walnuts, kiwi, cranberry, beans, corn and swiss chard…to name a few. She has identified a few good recipes in the book and will start to try them.

Here is one of Cece’s  favorite recipes for the colder weather. This is a great snack for when you get home from a long cold day of cycling or being outdoors.

Harvest Apples

3 apples of your choice cored in a cone shape with the larger part on the top of the apple. Do not core through bottom and make a hole.

3 TBS peanut butter or for a more earthy deep flavor tahini.

2 large boxes of raisins (3 oz)

2TBS sunflower seeds

Mix all ingredients and stuff 1/3 of the mixture into each apple. Place apples in an ovenproof dish and bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees or until apples are soft, but not mushy. If you put the apples in a loaf pan, they do not roll around while cooking!

324 calories, 7g protein, 55 g carbs, 11g fat, 79g sodium and 8g fiber. If this is too much food for your snack, cut the apple in half! To reheat, just zap for a few seconds in the microwave!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos.

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up  on a weekend morning.  Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast,  and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace.  The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness , food and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.

You may remember the great discussion Yun and Cece had over why did  the chicken cross the road? Well, the topic has come up again!
Previously, it was  decided that maybe the chicken crossed the road  to bring world peace since the making of chicken soup crosses many different cultures. Cece can just see this chicken thumbing its way across various countries!

Anyway, it is getting colder in New Mexico and it is time to make soup again!  As she remembered this post, Cece found herself giggling as she picked out an organic chicken in the market this morning.

But what does making soup have to do with peace making?  Yun thinks that chicken soup is a symbol for love and that it crosses all cultures. So, Cece thinks the chicken crosses the road to bring love and peace between cultures and if only people could sit down together and talk over the soup, perhaps healing could occur!  Maybe simplistic thinking, but why not simple?

Cece  sets out to make a chicken soup from a different culture every so often. So as she got her chicken, she decided to make Chicken soup that has  a Vietnamese  influence.  She also decides to do her own thing and adds leeks to the stock.

Make your chicken soup from scratch or use prepared stock that you add to. Add your dumplings or noodles.   Once the soup is served into each bowl,  put a combination of the following aromatic herbs and vegetables on top: fresh jalapeno pepper slices, bean sprouts, mint, basil,  snow peas, slices of onion, cilantro.  All the aromatic herbs will release their flavors into the hot soup!

We can look throughout the world every day…every minute of the day… and see war and violence and killing at the neighborhood , state and global levels…but let’s begin simply.Let’s begin with ourselves.  Find some friends who have different opinions than you do and sit down and have some soup and conversation together.   And as you are sharing your soup and conversation with people you have differences with, ask yourself, “  Am I going to practice peace or am I going to practice War?”  Let’s begin there and be there.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Cece works at an agency that supports people with disabilities.  It is a multi- faceted agency that provides many services and supports.  One  part of the agency that is in Corrales,  has 4 greenhouses.   In the fall,  they grow over 8000 poinsettia!  Through out the year they grow  organic wheat grass that gets sold to wheat grass lovers and then the majority is sold  to Keva Juice.  They also grow lots of bedding plants and flowers year round.

Recently they were gifted with an organic farm!  Many departments at the agency have taken turns going out to the farm to team build and do some weeding.  As they found out this morning, weeds abound! In the midst of the weeds are asparagus and berries, garlic, tomatoes and other veggies.  They sell this produce to local restaurants.

The management team arrived at the farm!  Some had  experience…. and some  realized they were better off behind a desk!

Cece received instruction in how to wield a hoe and then it was determined that she would do better with a wheel barrow.  She learned that once her weeds were picked up and piled and balanced perfectly in her wheelbarrow,  then she would cart them a way. Others were pulling weeds in other rows and  when she would come back down the cleaned up row,  she discovered that   more weeds would be thrown “willy nilly” into her cleaned up  row…a metaphor for life…often  we have to deal with other people’s weeds.  But , we have to focus on pulling up the weeds in  our own  lives, taking the trash out to the curb and then  being willing to let the garbage man take the trash away rather than to hold onto it…..all life lessons that need to be learned and re-learned in our lives.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up  on a weekend morning.  Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast,  and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace.  The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness , food and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.

Gavin is turning 9.  Yun is having a similar  dilemma regarding  what to buy her younger son as she did when her older son  turned 10 (A gift that arouse deep appreciation of a 10 year old?).   Yun is lost again.  Since Gavin’s father will be  hosting  a swimming party for Gavin’s classmates a week later, she knows he will get lots of gifts then!  Yun  has decided that ” over gifting” …with all these  toys  for kids is  over rated when  celebrating one’s birthday.   What could she do  then to make the birthday special for him?

Friends are what come to Yun’s mind.  So,  Yun called upon a  couple of old friends, whose boys were in preschool together with Gavin.  She invited the boys over as a surprise for Gavin.  One of the families moved out of town for three or so years and just moved back to town… So, the boys have not seen seen each other for about 3 years.  That’s a very long time for a 9 year old!

“It is not a traditional birthday party, so no presents please.  Just your presence would be greatly appreciated.”  Having said that to her friends, Yun felt the need to explain to Gavin about having a birthday celebration but without birthday presents.  Gavin’s eyes opened wide upon hearing such  an outlandish idea or nonsense, “what? No presenst for a birthday party?”

“Well, no toy presents, that is.  But people’s presence would be a  nice present by itself, isn’t it?:    Yun is trying to convey the message as clear as she can….that the child’s friendship is the gift. “I guess.”  the boy says reluctantly.   It is hard for him to look at a birthday celebration differently since all he knows about birthday celebrations is nothing but about ice cream cake and presents.

Also, parents are often tempted to invite many little ‘friends’ over, so to see the birthday child’s face lit up seeing a pile of birthday presents, much like Christmas presents.  Yun wonders what else could we bring that puts  sparkles into a child’s eye besides the glittering wrapping papers and ribbons?  Well,   when Gavin greets his “old” friends at the door, he begins to understand that their friendship is the gift and his  eyes are sparking with pure joy and innocence!

Oh,but let’s not forget the cake!  This time, no store brought mini cheese cake.   Although Yun does not bake,  that does not stop her from making a birthday cake for Gavin on the morning of his birthday.  You should have seen Gavin’s eyes light up seeing the candle lit cake ! His mouth was wide open and salivating! He blew out the candles and he ate  the whole cake just as Yun has expected!  Well, Gavin is a good eater, unlike his brother,  but a whole cake for breakfast?

Off course!  Why not?  Especially if you make the cake with brown rice, decorated with  “Gavin’s favorite chili oil” or the “I do not know chili oil” and soy sauce!  That’s his most favorite food in the “whole wild world”. Gavin says it is the world’s  weirdest cake, and he loves it.  Happy birthday, Gavin!

Cece wonders what’s the next crazy idea Yun will have for the boys birthday next year?  Noodle cake or a day of working at a  food bank?  Who knows…Yun is trying to teach her children that gifts that glitter are not to be depended on to create happiness.  More and more stuff does not make one more and more happy!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Yun has a favorite sauce that she calls  “Gavin’s Favorite Chili Old Sauce”   because, for years, it has remained her son’s   most favorite  food.   For him, he loves it best when he puts  the chili oil on brown rice.  If  he could, this would be all he eats!

Yun’s many friends love the chili oil, and Cece is one of them.  So, one day Cece asked for a tutorial  and cooking lesson on  how to make it.   Yun said seriously,  ‘I do not know. I just put things together.”  Cece giggled and started to observe how Yun made the sauce in Cece’s kitchen.

As Yun uses the chopsticks to stir the sauce in  making, she looks at the pan and smells  the ingredients.  Cece asks,  “What are you looking for? “   Yun says innocently,  “I do not know.  I just look.”  Cece giggles more.

Cece watches Yun raise the little pieces of garlic and red pepper flakes out of the pan on her  chopsticks.  Yun gazes  at them intently.  Well, Cece has to ask a very important question, “How do you know when it is   done? ” Guess what’s the answer?  “I do not know.  When it feels done, it is done.”   Cece throws in the towel, giggles some more, and thinks it  is a bit like talking to a Zen master, but it is just Yun talking!

But nevertheless, Cece follows the procedure.  She puts things together as Yun does, she uses chopsticks,  stirs the sauce, she looks and smells seriously, even though she is not sure what she is looking for. She lifts up the garlic and red pepper flakes on her chopsticks and gazes at them intently.   Cece made the sauce too, with her own flare…and loves it!  She always has her container of hot oil on her counter and it is seriously a staple of her kitchen.

Last weekend, after a grueling ride in the East Mountains, Yun invited Cece over f or lunch.  Guess what she served?  Wonderful homemade pot stickers and egg rolls  hand made by her dad ….and The Spicy Hot Stuff!  While eating , the Two Whos decided to go on an  adventure to figure out what the secrets are in the “I don’t know Sauce!.”  Yun said, “Cece take a picture!”  And that she did!

Here are the recipes.  However, remember, “The Tao that is said, is not real Tao.”  Go figure!  Find your own perfect “I don’t know sauce.”

The basic chili oil sauce:

1 cup of oil (not olive oil and not peanut oil)
1/4  cup crushed garlic
1/4 cup  crushed red pepper flakes
Simmer in a saucepan  in the medium heat for 10 to 20 minutes, or until it feels done ….whatever that means to you. Use your chopsticks to check!  Once cooked, you can save the chili oil at the room temperature and use it  to make dipping sauces for pot-stickers, egg rolls,  or to use on top of veggies, meat and rice

Here is how to make the dipping sauce:

2 tablespoons of the chili oil
2 tablespoons of soy-sauce
chopped green onion
some minced ginger
Mix them in a bowel, you are done!!!  Cece has seen Yun add some chopped up Cilantro and then has seen her add some Spanish peanuts when she is ready to serve this.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up  on a weekend morning.  Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast,  and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace.  The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness , food and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.