Kitchen / Garden / Sanctuary - Urban Homesteading to Nourish Body + Spirit
My mom & I had a sweet little leisurely walk together in the sunshine and long shadows of this quiet Monday afternoon, along with a café stop afterward for hot chocolate with whipped cream! We both loved it so much. I was totally exhausted again today, but felt that I really wanted to get out of the house into the outdoors. I had to practically peel myself up off the living room carpet to do it, but I’m so glad I did.
Medicine for the soul is very important.
*****
~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~
Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!
Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!
***
– A lot of down time to think and process and read and ponder and write and be inspired. Physically I felt very droopy this week from the drugs, and most of my days were spent really just lying around. But mentally I felt good, and there was a lot going on in my mind (there always is, but it was all good, positive stuff this week). Strangely I didn’t feel depressed, didn’t let it get me down, didn’t read too much into it. It was simply like, ok, this is how I feel today. I’ll just hang low and do quiet stuff. And that’s that.
– That I have the flexibility of schedule to have a really droopy week; to just allow my body to do its thing. I’m definitely on the mend and feeling that I’m pulling out of this, though not there yet. This healing process is quite the process indeed; I can only describe it as “squirrelly.”
– A beautiful, warm day with all the windows in the house wide open. That was also the day I took down our sweet Christmas tree. It was sad to see it go, but I also love how the living room feels more open and spartan now. I also moved around a couple plants which created a slightly new look. I keep wanting to rearrange our living room, but how it is now is functional in such a nice way that I don’t want to wreck that. But still, it needs a bit of new energy. Trying to decide how to change it up more…
– Freshly washed windows, inside & out! I forget what a pleasure that is.
– Remembering to smudge the house with piñon incense on a regular basis.
– The library, and how you can check out books that sound good online, but then turn out not to be. I love how it’s risk free! See it, hate it, return it!
– That I share my life, and home, with such a sweet and wonderful person. I love my F! ♥
– A bad dream that contained an important reminder. I have a lot of bad dreams, and always have. But then again, bad dreams often have the most important messages.
– Ordinary days, where everyone arrives home safe and sound. After Sonja died, I never took that for granted again.
– A sweet afternoon visit to mom & dad & my cat yesterday on another gorgeous shorts-‘n-t-shirt day. Visiting, puttering around, snacking, doing outside stuff. Then later after dark, soaking my feet in hot water at their kitchen table and resting, while smelling my mom’s delicious cottage cheese dill bread baking in the oven!
– Feeling happy 🙂
– Randomly picking up my half-read book from many many months ago, and finishing the whole thing today! The information in it was really pertinent, and I love the satisfaction of finishing a book. I also thought it was interesting how today was the day I suddenly felt inspired to finish it. Sometimes I put a book down and don’t pick it back up for a long while; that’s totally okay with me because often I have to evolve in myself a bit more in order to fully appreciate and digest the information contained in the rest of the book.
– Our space heater. I love how I can sit really close to it and be warm, any time that I’m chilly.
– How our kitchen looks at night, after stringing some Christmas lights in the recesses above and below the cabinets. I do love Christmas lights… perhaps they’re not super classy, but they add such a warm glow.
*****
What gratitudes have graced your week?
*****
Some scenes from our house on this bright, sunny, kinda warm, and very windy Friday:
Cranberry-Pumpkin Muffins
Sagebrush on the bedroom wall
Hanging dragonflies
The Ficus
Homemade basket
The hoosier
Heat register
Crown of Thorns - Euphorbia milii
Taken in Sydney
Peruvian Rug
Typical
In the living room
Bits o' nature
*****
We love sushi at our house, though we don’t often go out for it. Actually though, I prefer to make my own — because then I know the source of the fish (which I think is important if you’re eating it raw). And of course it’s also much cheaper to make your own at home. It’s simple and fun, too!
Let’s begin!
To make one batch of sushi rolls, you’ll need the following. This can easily be multiplied. Today we’ll be making a Raw Salmon-Avocado Roll. But you can fill your sushi roll with anything! That’s part of the fun!
***
You’ll need:
1 sheet of toasted nori seaweed
1/4 cup raw sushi rice or short-grain rice + 1/3 cup water. (This will make enough rice to fill one sheet of nori. To fill about 4 sheets of nori, use 1 cup rice + 1 1/4 cups water.)
half an avocado
about 2 ounces of raw salmon from a company you trust (I always use Lars Larson Trophy Salmon — they’re a Colorado company selling wild, line-caught Alaskan salmon that they process and freeze right on their boat.)
soy sauce to serve with sushi (Nama Shoyu raw soy sauce is our hands-down favorite)
***
1. Cook your sushi rice. You do want to get the actual sushi rice/short-grain rice because you need that sticky texture for your sushi to turn out right. Combine the 1/4 cup rice with 1/3 cup water in a saucepan. Salt the water. Bring to a boil and cover the saucepan. Turn to a very low simmer and cook for 25 minutes. Don’t lift the lid at all during that time.
It’s best to cook the rice right before you plan to make the sushi. Fresh rice gives the best results.
2. While the rice is cooking, slice your avocado and salmon.
Halve the avocado, then cut into slices
Peel the slices
I like to buy the pre-toasted Nori sheets
3. Let the rice cool a little and then spread it all out onto your sheet of nori, except for 1″ at the end.
4. Arrange your salmon and avocado down the middle.
5. Wet your fingers with water, and moisten the entire 1″ strip of nori that you didn’t cover with rice. This will be your glue and will hold your roll together.
6. Beginning at the opposite end (not the moistened strip), roll your sushi up. It’s effortless; you don’t need any fancy bamboo sushi rollers or plastic wrap or any other tool. Just your hands! (I threw away my sushi roller many years ago; I found that it just got in the way.)
7. Your roll will end up seam side down, and while you slice it, the gentle pressure will help glue the seam shut.
8. Slice the roll. To get nice clean slices without squashing the roll, work with a nice sharp knife. Wetting it first also helps, as does cleaning it off under running water after every couple of slices.
9. Arrange on a plate and eat it up!
*****
~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~
Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!
Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!
***
– More snowfall! We woke up one morning to the scene above!
– Accomplishing projects, and beginning new ones I’ve wanted to start for a while.
– Thankful again for the good insurance I have. Saw the statement this week for my night and day at the hospital — $7,640!!!! INSANE. I’m so thankful that I received the much-needed care there, but didn’t have to fork over that crapload of cash.
– That the doctor, lab, and pharmacy are so close to our house. I’ve been over there more times than I can count this past year, and it has been such a huge advantage that they’re so close, since we don’t own a car. And I’ve become such a frequent flyer at the lab that they know me, and we catch up on what’s been goin’ on each time I go there. The people there are so nice.
– Being exhausted after a long day and wanting to just vege out in front of the TV, and then having three of my favorite shows come on in a row — Globe Trekker, Rick Steves’ Europe, and New Scandinavian Cooking! That was really fun.
– Sitting on my ‘balcony’ in a tank top one warm and sunny afternoon. (Then waking up to snow the next morning!)
– The library.
– Making snow ice cream, and its ever-so-familiar flavor from my childhood!
– Snowy, cloudy days, for the way they make me feel like hunkering down and digging into projects I’ve put aside for so long.
– A mid-day bath on a snowy day.
– A wonderful lunch out at a vegetarian restaurant with my mom and her childhood best friend who was turning 65 that very day! I had a vegetarian Reuben sandwich made with portobello mushrooms instead of meat. It tasted so close to the real thing! My stomach is still really touchy, and even though I crave Reuben sandwiches, I can’t eat them. But my stomach was good that day, and I could eat this vegetarian one!
– Being home and therefore having the private space to weep if that’s what comes up. Now and then, I will all of a sudden miss my best friend Sonja so intensely that tears well up. Other times, this illness gets the better of me and I just need a bit of a cry-n-release. I remember those things happening while I was at work, and I would wipe my eyes, stuff the feeling back down into myself, and hope a coworker wouldn’t walk into my cubicle at that moment. Now it feels good to just address the feeling as it comes, shed a few tears, and quickly and quietly release it.
– Catching some of the Red Green Show last night before going to bed. My parents and I used to watch that religiously, and I haven’t seen it for so many years. Funny!!! Especially the earlier episodes.
– Hanging low yesterday, watching some cooking shows, doing some art, just being together with F, doing separate things yet still hanging out together. A nice day.
– Seeing my folks today, and my cat!
– Going out to the garden today and discovering fresh green oregano beneath the dead leaves! I love it fresh on Greek salads — especially from this plant, which isn’t as overwhelmingly potent as other fresh oregano I’ve tried.
*****
What gratitudes have graced your week?
*****
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"There's nothing more pleasurable than making things by hand, and nothing more beautiful than handmade things."
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
- Theodore Roosevelt
"Only after the last tree has been cut down; only after the last fish has been caught; only after the last river has been poisoned; only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Nation Tribal Prophecy
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