2012 – The Year of Power

Settle down, relax yourself, and then play this video. Be patient, close your eyes or watch the images, and let the message wash over you and flow through you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJ_AM5C4ns

 

I don’t know who this guy is, but his message resonates deeply.

Every Season is Cranberry Season

I should write a cranberry cookbook. I love cranberries, in all forms. I almost wrote that I like them even more than blackberries and raspberries, but that’s not entirely true. They’re so different, with different characteristics, moods, and creative potentials.

After Christmas, I buy cranberries on sale and stock up the freezer. I have lots of cranberry recipes.  In fact, cranberries are very versatile and can be chopped and added to lots of different things for a tangy surprise. I make juice, cookies, breads and scones, but most of all, I just like a good cranberry relish. There’s nothing new or different, particularly, in these recipes. They’re just designed to bring out the cranberry flavor.

Here are two recipes, one of which I just made. I love both of these, and we eat them year round.

Cranberry-Orange Relish

1 package cranberries (I chop them in the food processor while they’re still frozen so they don’t turn to mush)

1 whole navel orange, skin included

A good inch of fresh ginger

1 cup sugar

Chop the first three items together, add the sugar, mix and store, covered, in the fridge overnight to let the flavors blend.

Here’s another. Similar, and yet oh, so different:

Cranberry-Jalapeno Relish

1 package cranberries (I chop them in the food processor while they’re still frozen so they don’t turn to mush)

1 whole lime, skin included

1 jalapeno, seeded

1 bunch of cilantro

1 cup sugar

Chop the first four items together, add the sugar, mix and store, covered, in the fridge overnight to let the flavors blend.

Yum!

The Sunday Morning Soak

I don’t always take a long, hot bath on Sunday mornings. Mostly I do that in the winter, after a morning’s work, before the afternoon’s football game.  But whenever I, a shower taker, take a bath, it’s kind of a special occasion.

I’m rarely warm enough in the winter, but I am when I’m in the bath. My tub is deep, my bathroom beautiful, and I use a nice smelling bath oil that helps soften my skin that often dries out during the winter.

The bath gives me enough aromatic comfort to spend time thinking about what I just wrote and what I’ll write tomorrow. I can review my schedule or calendar in peace and in solitude, mulling without distraction. I can spend time giving thanks for my amazing life and find perspective in the silly things I worry over during the course of my busy life. The bath is a time to rest, to reflect, to pamper, to be nice to myself.

I know there are many religious, spiritual, communal and cultural rituals with regards to water, and immersion, and bathing and all of that. I’m sure there is a reason, as when I get out, and get dressed, I feel renewed in a way that only a long, hot soak can provide. I’m refreshed and ready for another stint at the computer or to pick up the knitting and turn on the game.

A Sunday Morning Soak: Worthwhile in every respect.