Winter Comfort Food: Borscht

It's finally that chilly time of the year, when soup warms the soul and keeps away the colds. One of the best things about soups is you can add anything to them, and they almost always turn out delicious. We just had a freezing spell, and I wanted to make a soup using vibrant colors and hearty flavors. I decided on Borscht, and concocted a recipe using ingredients with healthy benefits. Enjoy my recipe!

Borscht

2 boxes of veggie broth
Canned beets or fresh beets (your choice, if canned I like to use the juice too)
Rhubarb (cut into small pieces)
Cabbage (regular or red)
1 whole sweet onion
mushrooms
colored carrots cut into smaller pieces
Potato cut into smaller pieces
Juice from 1 whole lemon
Pepper
2 bay leaves
a little dill (because you will be putting fresh dill as garnish when served)
2 tablespoons of Ketchup
a little salt

Garnish:
Sour cream and fresh dill

Throw this all in a big pot and cook until done. Serve with a dollop of Sour Cream and a little fresh dill. Yummy!

Congratulations Oregon!

CONGRATULATIONS OREGON! 

I support same sex marriage. No consenting adults should have to be told they can't fall in love and get married. Equality in love, equality in life. 

A New Year

 

Happy New Year!

On the eve of the New Year, I usually spend it with friends. This year I opted to spend it alone in meditation and chanting. Sending out positive vibes sounded like the best way to ignite a new year that I intend to make a successful one. The results over the last few days have already been magical. Which brought me to an older blog post I planned on adding, but never got around to, it’s about Dowsing.

            This is a short blog post, but an important one. As you read it, I want you to ponder on the importance of using dowsing in other aspects of your life in which you want to improve this year. Align your energy with the earth’s, with the universe’s, and bring some of their energy back into you. We live on a tiny speck of a planet in a whole universe and beyond of massive amounts of forces we can tap into. Don’t shut yourself away from it.

 

No one knows for certain how long ago dowsing was first used, or what it was used for. Modern Dowsing’s applications are restricted only by the imagination of the user. The paranormal community uses dowsing for finding ghosts, while some use it for finding metals and other treasures. I’ve even heard of it helping in the repairing of springs and finding criminals. Perhaps the ancients used this method of divination for locating the perfect place to situate a well, or recovering lost cattle.

            Early dowsers where fond of Y or L shaped sticks, made from varying woods, usually hazel, ash, willow, peach, or oak. Today, angled rods of copper are popular, as are pendulums. My preferred choice of doodlebugging is a feather! I happen to have a love of finding and exploring caves—whether they are old mines or lava tubes, and I’ve had quite an interesting rate of success in finding caves by using a plain ol’ crow feather. Maybe dowsing is all in the mind of the individual, but there are many people who swear by this age old method of discovery.

            The reasons why dowsing is successful is as varied as its uses. Ley lines are one of the best known theories—the knowledge that the earth is lined with straight tracks of energy, and I dare say the very ancient use of feng shui.  One of my favorite books as a teenager ‘The View Over Atlantis’ by John Michell talks much about ley lines and other earth mysteries. Alfred Watkins is another person of note for reading up on ley lines.

            Besides my own use of dowsing with a feather, let’s hear some other stories by people who have delved into their own ‘tuning-in’ rod adventures:

Here are a few articles and organizations for dowsing:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17532-why-dowsing-makes-perfect-sense.html

http://www.dowsers.org

http://www.britishdowsers.org

Books:

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Straight-Track-Alfred-Watkins/dp/0349137072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336839376&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/New-View-Over-Atlantis/dp/050027312X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336839413&sr=1-1

Finding Your Creative Passion Despite Life's Obstacles

 

Let’s face it; life is tough for most creative people. Usually it starts at a young age—we were daydreamers, outcasts, shy, and hated math. Logic doesn’t work for most artistic people, unless it’s the logic of colors bursting from an autumn tree, or a sunset ripe with mystery. From a young age, we learn to keep our heads down and fists up. Of course, this isn’t true for every creative/artistic person I know, but it is true for most of the wonderful people I cherish and love, simply because they never give up on art, no matter what.

 

Being a creative person myself, my whole life has been a challenge. I’m not being arrogant when I say this: most creative people see the world differently, and the rest of the world doesn’t always like it. So, how do we forge a path for ourselves? One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to keep positive, and never let anyone else’s negativity force you away from what you love to do most. There are way too many avenues for artistic people to make a living, even if you’re working a regular ol’ boring day job; there are ways to make extra cash. Here’s a few: showing your art anywhere you can—bars (don’t laugh; as I sat having a beer one night, I watched two of the featured artist’s paintings sell, the trick is to make sure the cost of the art is no more than 50-150 dollars, when people are drunk, they think that’s a steal for art), coffee shops, teahouses, farmers markets, bookstores, and anywhere else you can imagine enough solid traffic to see your work.

 

Writers—there is a plethora of ways to get extra cash for writing online, just watch out for scams (with real online jobs, you don’t pay anything to get started). And for crafters there is etsy, and other places to start your online business. A little bit of research can take you a long way.

 

Relationships, I have found to be (sometimes) particularly hard on creative folks. If your partner has major issues, chances are, all your energy is going to be expended on this persons issues! And, you will be sucked dry from your creativity—get out of the relationship—trust me, you will thank me eventually. I speak from experience. It may be hard to be alone, but love yourself first, and then the right person—who will understand and support your quirks and creativity—will come along.

 

Take breaks often and get outside, or dance, or just roll around on the ground with your special furry friend. This will help the blood flow to your brain and keep you happier and more focused.

 

Don’t be overly judgmental toward other people and their work. This will only stunt your own creativity. Again, I say, stay positive. What you throw into the aether, determines what comes back around your way!

Adam Ant

In this post I’m going to date myself. No, not take myself on a date and make sweet, delicious love, but by showing my appreciation (an fangirldom) of this particular artist: Adam Ant

Yep, I bought my first AA album at thirteen, he was strutting his stuff on MTV (when MTV actually played real life rock star videos), and making girls swoon with his uber liberal sexuality. With a style of a cross between pirate, Napoleonic general, and Native American, I think most people didn’t quite know what to make of him. His roots began in the late 70’s punk rock era in the UK as bass guitarist of Bazooka Joe. He split from them with the decision to forge his own iconic brand of music. He succeeded.

                Let me take a step back, you ask me why I’m expounding on the creamy virtues of AA? Because last night I attended his concert—and it freakin’ ROCKED! After years of manic depression, 59 year old AA has cleaned himself up nicely, and is as good live as I remember.

                My friend mentioned something funny. She said: “I wonder what is going through his head as he looks out at the crowd. When he was young, it was thousands of young, scantily clad girls vying for the stage. Now, he looks out and it’s hundreds of old, scantily clad women vying for the stage.” I had to laugh, because glancing around at the crowd, it was true. There were a lot of older people, my generation in fact, but hot damn, I still look good!

                If you are unfortunate enough not to know who Adam Ant is—and you should, because he is an 80’s Icon, then here are some links:

Youtube Videos:

Stand and Deliver: http://youtu.be/4B2a6l6wM2k

Prince Charming Revue: http://youtu.be/OrbwpMJTIwM

Strip: http://youtu.be/_Z7fV-wB2z8

Merchandise: http://www.adamantmerch.com/

In the concert line-up, he played quite a number of his more punk sounding songs from back in the day and more of his new stuff too. He also sang the song: Wonderful, his sort of only love song dedicated to the actress Heather Graham, who he dated for a brief time.

Here are a bit more tasty tid-bits about AA:

In college, he was anorexic. He is an actor as well as a musician.  He is a supporter of the Black Dog Campaign, which promotes understanding of mental illness. He dated Jamie Lee Curtis and Heather Graham. He is an avid reader and does not own a television. His new album is titled:

Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar and is Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter

The title is a metaphor for how he believes artists are being treated by the music industry: as sailors tied to a ship’s cannon and flogged.

                Adam Ant co-wrote a song with Georgina Baillee titled Rubber Medusa that is about Russell Brand.

                Show your Adam Ant appreciation. He is making new music and selling lots of cool shizzle. It’s how musicians make their money nowadays: they have to tour and sell merchandise. So get out there and buy some musical history, and AA will be able to continue to rock—Vive Le Rock!

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truly Inspiring

Sometimes, as a writer, the world can get you stuck. You wake up feeling gummy and the gears sticking like the brain engine chewed up an alien's entrails, and the goo just won't come off. I found a post via Youtube that really got my gears steaming and clean. Listen to it closely, and feel the inspiration take hold and give you that extra jolt of passionate creativity you need:

http://youtu.be/zBoQK56asbI


The speakers are:
George Clayton Johnson
Mark Fergus
Jimmy Diggs
Dante Harper
Charlie and Vlas Paralapnides

Nishi's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sorry there is no photo of my cookies, they were so delicious, I ate them all before I could snap one!

 

Nishi’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup amaranth flour

½ cup potato starch

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ sticks butter, room temp or soft

1 cup granulated brown sugar

½ cup sugar

(Note: you can try substituting 1 cup coconut sugar if you don’t want to use regular sugar, and leave out the other ½ cup sugar)

1 egg

As many chocolate chips as you want (1 ½ cups)

A little more than 1 tsp vanilla extract

Large pinch of ginger powder

A few large shakes of nutmeg

A few large shakes of cinnamon

(Note: the spices add to the flavor without overpowering the cookie, due to the amaranth flour)

 

What to do:

1.  Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream butter and sugars until combined. Add egg and vanilla.

3. Add flour mix and spices. Mix until smooth. Gradually add chocolate chips.

4. Scoop balls into as big as you want them to be (smaller for small cookies, larger for large cookies), then roll and place on prepared cookie sheet, spacing them because they will spread. Freeze for twenty minutes and preheat oven to 375.

5. Place cold cookies into oven and bake until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.

 

Enjoy!