A Good Morning

Ingredients-

• Programmable Alarm Clock
• Prayer Beads
• Exercise Space
• Wife
• Meditation Cushion
• A Good Book
• Coffee

For the Programmable Alarm Clock I use my iPhone.  I set three alarms, each to go off at 5 minute intervals.  I use the Bell Tower, Robot, and Marimba sounds, in that order.  After experimentation I’ve found that I cannot be trusted with a snooze function, so setting three consecutive alarms gives me a much better chance of getting up something like on time.

I set my alarm for 90 minutes before I have to leave the house, or get Daisy (the Wife) out the door, to give me ample time for the rest of the recipe.

Once I actually rise I pray on a mandala of Prayer Beads for 10 rounds.  There are 108 beads, so that’s 1,080 prayers.  Takes about 6 minutes.  The prayer is just a mental repetition of the name of God (for me that’s Ramanama.)  I let this be an expression of gratitude for being.

Then it’s time for exercises.  At this point I usually give Daisy a pat to let her know that the waking up ritual is beginning.  A little warning goes a long way for ease-making later.

My Exercise Space is just a 3′ x 3′ space in the living room that is kept clear.  My exercises ar as follows -

1. A set of 40 Penguin Flaps
2. A set of 40 forward arm raises
3. A set of 30 torso twists
4. Another set of 40 Penguin Flaps
5. 60 Hindu Squats
6. 100 hand grips

What the heck is a Penguin Flap, and what in Buddha’s name is a Hindu Squat?!? Well, I’ll tell ya in another post.

I do this routine and then another pat to Daisy to let her know I am meditating, at which point I hit the Meditation Cushion.   I set the timer on my iPhone (an app called Meditator by SimpleTouch) for 32 minutes. I have three alerts set.  The first is at 2 minutes.  That is the time I give myself to settle in on the cushion.  Once I here the Tibetan monk drone out an, “Ooooommmmmm…” it’s time to get focused.  My main practice these days is insight style, which means noting everything that happens as it happens.  At 29 minutes after the first alert a bell sounds to let me know I’m almost done.  Then the final bell and I bow and get up for three prostrations to the Buddha.

Then I get Daisy out of bed and on her way to her day with two good cups of Coffee and some breakfast (usually cold cereal with yogurt and fruit, or Cream ‘o Wheat with fruit.)  I get my beans from Rodger’s Coffee & Tea, just down the street.

Finally a bit of reading from whichever of the several Good Books, I am currently working through.

This dish works best served warm. 

• 2 pounds dried split peas
• 12 cups of water
• 1 large chopped onion
• 3 large chopped carrots
• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped into eighths
• 2 russet potatoes, chopped into eighths
• 10-12 mushrooms, sliced
• 3 sticks of chopped celery
• 4 table spoons of butter
• thyme
• salt
• pepper

Melt the butter in the bottom of a BIG pot.  Chop up the onion and drop it in.  Stir occasionally until the onions start to go translucent.  Chop up the carrots and drop them in.  Stir in some salt and the thyme.  Chop up the mushrooms, drop those in.  Then chop up the celery and toss that in too.  Stir fry in the butter until the mushrooms start to give up lots of water.

Toss in the potatoes and split peas.  Then add water.  Bring to boil then reduce to vigorous simmer.  Cover.  Check back occasionally to stir and check to see if the peas have gone soft.  Usually takes about 45 minutes.  You want the peas to be mush.

This makes a very thick split pea soup, which is how I like it.  It’s a big batch so you can store lots in Tupperware in the refrigerator, or freeze some for longer term storage.  It’s a snap to scoop some of this lovely green mush into a small pot, heat it over a low heat with some stirs and you have an immediate hot and healthy lunch.  After a couple of bowls though, you might get bored.  Here’s some ways I spice it up a bit:

1. Spices - This one’s a no brainer, but it will change up the dish enough to give it a fresh taste.  A few dashes of spices, herbs, more salt, or cayenne pepper will go a long way.
2. Feta & Pine Nuts – This one is both tasty and festive.  While the soup is warming, brown some pine nuts in butter (I like mine quite dark to get that toasty flavor.)  Crumble some feta and when you bowl the soup
3. Sausage – Cut up some sausage and brown it in a little olive oil (sparing!)  Then just as it’s done, toss it into the warming soup and give it a few stirs.  Serve with crackers!
4. Make it a side – Instead of making the soup a main dish, use it as a side for a main course.  This is a hearty and warming comfort dish, so it would be a good compliment to something else hearty like a small steak, or nice piece of fish.
5. Salad – Ok, not in the soup.  Along side it.  Basically you are making a meal out of two side dishes.  Great way to up the veggie count.
6. Sammich! – Make a sandwich to go with your soup.  I like to try and make it firm enough to dip, like perhaps a grilled cheese.  BLT’s are good too.

That’s my six ideas.  How would you guys spice up your soup?

I searched on the internet for some ideas and found this one as a starting point – CAPE COD COLESLAW

Being that I can’t help but get creative in the kitchen I added a couple of things:

• 1/2 head of red cabbage
• a good squirt of spicy mustard
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3 small fuji apples sliced into thin wedges

Basically you chop everything that needs chopping, grate everything that needs grating, and throw it all in a bowl to toss.  Then spoon (or shake) on the rest of the ingredients and toss again.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours and toss again before serving.

I was making this as my contribution to a meal to share with a dojo-mate while we watched Babylon 5. This slaw made a great counterpoint to the main dish which was crock-pot beef stew with potatoes onions and carrots served over savory fresh grilled waffles.  Yum!

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds Sweet Potato
• 1 Medium Red Onion
• 1 pint heavy cream
• ~1 pound Gruyere Cheese
• Butter
• 1 Tbl spoon Thyme
• 1/2 Tbl Spoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Tbl Spoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 Tbl Spoon Salt

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease up your pan with butter.  Then put away the butter, you won’t be needing it again.

Measure out the spices into a bowl.  I don’t actually measure the spices out myself.  I’ve cooked this recipe quite a few times, and I let my mood determine how much to use.  I highly recommend doing that, always makes the dish more personal, and not often too terrible. 

If you are feeling a little spicy, add some ground black pepper to taste.

Next, bust out your Mandolin Slicer.  These make for great think slices of sweet potato.  If you don’t have one you will have to boil the sweet potatoes first, then cool them, then slice them thinly by hand.  That adds a fair amount of time to prep.  I’m too lazy for that, and was lucky enough to get one of these bad boys for a birthday present a few years back.  Go to your local Japan/China town and get one.  They’re cheap, quick, and safe if you pay attention.

Clean your sweet potatoes, cut a bit off of one end, and go to town!

The Mandolin will also make short work of the red onion for the next step.

Okay, once you have half the sweet potato sliced up, layer them into your buttered pan.  Next half your red onion, cut off one end and peel the top layers of skin.  Hang onto the uncut end for a grip while you slice the onion up on your Mandolin.  Scatter those onions over your sweet potato base layer.

Then repeat.  Slice up the rest of your sweet potatoes, layer them in, and then slice up the rest of the red onion and spread those over the top.

Okay, get out a mixing bowl.  Grate your gruyere, nice and thick.  Toss that into the bowl.  Pour in your heavy cream, and the spices you mixed earlier.  Stir that up with a fork.

Pour that over your sweet potatoes and red onion.  Use the fork to spread out the cheese.

Cover with foil and put into the oven for 45 minutes.

At 45 minutes remove the foil and put back into the oven for 15 more minutes to boil down the fluid and brown/crisp the top.

Take ‘em out of the oven and let them cool a bit before serving.  In a party of 20 people I often end up with some left overs.  They microwave up fine!