Five Things about ME? (final Bliss Challenge)

As another week draws to its close, the days are lengthening! Somehow it got to 6pm here, and the sky is still full of deepening oranges and purples.

The last one of "Bliss Connect's" Six Weeks of Bliss Challenges is a tough one for me. We're asked to share Five Things about ourselves that our readers may not know.

Well, I figure most of you guys know most of the peculiar scoop on me--my word and poetry obsessedness, my remote bluff-edge-tiny-cabin-Alaska domicile, my marriage with a husband whose kids are older than me, my good friendship with his daughter and ex-wife, my gluten-free, dairy-free, animal-products-avoiding food ways, my incapability of following a recipe, my obsession with herbs, my belief that any and every favorite food dish can be converted into a (green) smoothie.

So, how to come up with Five Unusual Things?
Try these on for size...
1) Although I'm left-handed, and generally left-sided, I'm partially deaf in my left ear. I had fluid buildup in my ears as a little kid, and at the time, the waiting list for the necessary operation was two-to-three years--long enough for some permanent nerve damage, fortunately only in one ear.

2) I know the Isha Upanishad by heart. In Sansrkit as well as English. My dad was studying Sanskrit when I was learning to talk, and he tended to practice out loud. I picked up all kinds of extended passages, and still have them in my head. My school had some interest in those subjects as well, and when I was six years old, we had to memorize the Isha Upanishad in Sanskrit--and a few years later, in English, so that we'd have a clue what we were saying. I wonder whether any of my classmates still remember it too? (I think I might have been the only one who actually got it memorized.)

3) I almost became a professional musician. Despite the hearing loss, I was a very serious Classical musician through my second year of grad school. At one point, while I was an undergrad and taking music lessons at one of the London conservatories at the same time, my teacher encouraged me to start auditioning for English Horn positions in serious orchestras! When I decided to do Grad School in academic studies instead, my dear friend Nick, a wonderful conductor, cried. He said, "Who else is going to play English Horn?" (Actually, he said "cor anglais," because that's what it's called in British. And yes, I played oboe too.)

4) I have a persistent auditory memory. My current facebook profile pic commemorates my headstand rendition of a poem during a skit at our last MFA Residency. What you might not know is that when I was an avid oboist, I once memorized a whole piece without playing it once until I performed it for a workshop! It wasn't a perfect performance, but it didn't stop, either. On the other hand, I do not remember everything everyone says perfectly, so if I get in an argument with you, don't let me say "You said xxxx: I remember exactly what you said!"

5) If my life had panned out slightly differently, I might have become an interpreter. Translating is still my favorite job, and I can't wait to start doing literary translation also. I'm reading so many poetry books at the moment, but a volume that arrived in my mailbox just a couple days ago gave me so much delight.

It's a bilingual Anthology of Modern Greek poetry! I work with Ancient Greek on a daily basis, but I adore Modern Greek too, and it's been a while since I encountered it.
I opened the book at random and read in Greek, glancing over occasionally to see if I agreed with the translation:

"The dawn smelled of thyme:

it was the sprightly little Faun, who woke

and put on his cap of bright-gold sun

and rode his gust of wind down to the sea.

"This is the place where I was born."

(My translation is a little different from what's in the book.) And I was enthralled.

Tell me something I don't know about you?

Bliss Connect #3: New Goods in the House and Two Recipes From Yesterday's Pics

Well, I seem to be consistently posting something for the Bliss Connect Challenge right at the eleventh hour! It just so happens that this week's Challenge ties in beautifully with something I wanted to talk about today anyway, with a little personal tweaking. The week's challenge is to mention the health or wellness item that tops my wishlist this year and will make next year the healthiest ever, and to give a virtual gift!

It so happens that four new items have made their way into our household recently, which are definitely improvements to life. And I want to share two recipes for goodies pictured in yesterday's post, for Shannonmarie and Amber, who asked. This might make it a fairly long post, but it's lots of pictures and deliciousness, so please bear with me.

Three of the new things are better replacements for things we had already, and it's kind of coincidental that they arrived during the holidays. They are all certainly health and wellness related. The number one would be...a new rebounder!

I've mentioned a few times how much I love rebounding. The old one was a super-cheapie, though, and I've barely rebounded for several months, because I kept having to mend it after every ten minutes of use, and mending it was very difficult. It lasted about six months and cost $50. If I pay $300 for one that lasts ten years, that's actually cheaper! This one is a Cellerciser and it was a demo model, so it was actually a little less than $300.  Extras include that the legs fold, the whole thing folds in half, and it comes with two spare springs, a carry case, and a bunch of reading material I don't have time to get into right now!

I did have time to jump straight on the rebounder itself, though, when we picked it up yesterday evening. I got straight on and bounced and bounded and jogged and flew for fifteen minutes. It was SO MUCH FUN! And infinitely better than the old one.

Here's the really wonderful thing, though: after that fifteen minutes of bouncing at 6pm, together with a beach hike earlier in the day, I had my first good night's sleep for about two and a half weeks! It's not that I hadn't been exercising before, either--I sure had been. But I read somewhere that improved sleep is one of the benefits of rebounding. I'll have to try that again!

Other new things: I think I mentioned that during the power outages in the storms a couple weeks ago, our tea-kettle and my beloved immersion blender both bit the dust. Well, they're replaced, with improvements!

Our old tea-kettle was very communicative. It had a temperature gauge, which I really liked, and turned color as the water heated up. What I didn't like was that it also squealed. A lot. Every time you put the jug on the base, it would squeal. Every time the water boiled, it would squeal. Every time you turned it on or off, it would squeal. No making tea in stealth while Phil slept!

Its replacement doesn't tell me when the water reaches 175-180 (my preferred temp for tea-making), but I can actually pretty much tell that by ear. The replacement tea-kettle is not communicative, but silent. And every time I put the jug down on the base, I'm so grateful for the silence. Every time! It's been a couple weeks and I'm still not used to it (Ms Oversensitive to High-pitched Noises that I am...).

The immersion blender was the third Kitchen Aid model I'd blown out in as many years, and I was ready to look elsewhere. The Juiceman cost about the same, but has 550 Watts, which is a big step up.

 It comes with the same useful goodies--the wand that does most things, the whisk, and the mini food processor, which is actually not so mini--it's probably twice the size of the Kitchen Aid one!

 The wand has four blades instead of two, and they're shorter, which makes it easy to clean.

I haven't had it long enough to really put it through its paces, but it actually seems a little quieter than its predecessor, and definitely does a good job. One thing I'll need to get used to is that the wand, whisk and mini processor attach to the motor by twisting on and off rather than snapping, like the Kitchen Aid did. With the Kitchen Aid, I sometimes had trouble with the motor and part separating, which was freaky and horrible (nasty grinding sounds and a whirring, unattached motor in my hand), but it'll take some time for me to get used to the much tighter and stiffer, if safer, twist-on-and-off attachment. I liked being able to snap the motor off real quick and leave the wand standing in the mix (with the motor still attached, it would fall over, taking everything down with it. Don't ask me how I know that).

The fourth item: I finally got a food scale! It is tiny--my chef knife next to it is for scale (ha ha).

It only goes up to eleven pounds, so it's not going to be a major all-purpose scale, but it means that I can finally make a bunch of recipes from Sweet Gratitude without guessing what I'm doing.

Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the Pomegranate Fondants. No, they're not in Sweet Gratitude--they're out of my head! But I was looking at what Sweet Gratitude does with Irish Moss in terms of weights and ratios in order to give me some ideas.

I wanted a soft fondant as opposed to a creamier, denser truffle. Some of it, I made into hearts; some, I simply poured into an 8x4 pan, cut into squares...

...and finally covered, mostly with chocolate, but some I covered with carob.

The hearts are definitely the prettiest, though!

And here is the recipe:

1 cup pomegranate juice

1.5 oz soaked, chopped Irish moss (about a cup and a quarter)

1/4 cup xylitol

pinch salt

pinch vanilla powder

1/4 cup cacao butter, melted

2 tablespoons non-gmo soy lecithin

Blend the pomegranate juice and Irish moss very well. You'll need to stop a couple times and scrape the moss fragments down the side of the blender.

Add the xylitol, vanilla and salt, and blend again; taste test ad adjust if necessary.

Finally, add the cacao butter and lecithin, and blend very well.

I think I might have added a half teaspoon of xanthan gum as well, but I honestly am not sure!

Pour into molds of choice, or simply into a pyrex dish, and refrigerate to set.

The fondants are soft, and it's really nice for them to have a coating. I used my home-made very dark chocolate to coat them, and also home-made carob "chocolate" for a few. But you can use any kind of chocolate that you love most to cover it.

I hope the recipe makes sense!

And here's the recipe for the Not Quite White Chocolate:

1 cup melted cacao butter

1 teaspoon vanilla powder

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/3 cup xylitol, powdered in a coffee grinder

7 oz of a combination of coconut cream powder and lucuma (maybe a cup of coconut cream powder and a quarter cup of lucuma)

2 tablespoons tocotrienols

Small handful goji berries, chopped

1 calimyrna fig, finely chopped

Mix the vanilla powder into the cacao butter. In a food processor, gradually add the coconut cream powder and lucuma. About halfway through, add the maple syrup and xylitol, and tocotrienols, and pulse gently until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Pour into molds or into a dish, and mix in pieces of goji berry and fig.

*Note: the coconut cream powder contains a tiny amount of a milk derivative (casinate). It's not more than 1%. I'm pretty allergic to dairy, and I don't seem to have a problem with this in small quantities. I don't feel entirely comfortable using a product that contains dairy, but it's such a minute amount that I'm kind of skating by with it.

As you can see from the photo, I over-processed this and the cacao butter separated. Never happened to me before, and initially I was mortified. But I added some shredded coconut, some sunflower lecithin and more tocotrienols, and decided that I didn't mind the less smooth texture and two-tone color effect. These work especially well with the bits of dried fruit in there, and the two-tone roses are cute, I think. Better luck next time, though!

There's something I really want to talk about on here related to something I said in my last post. But I also think I may have to post the recipe for this thing I made this morning. Simple, replicable and really, really good.

Maybe I can do both!

What's at the top of your Holiday wish list?

Bliss Challenge #2: Destination Present

Here's my tardy response to this week's Bliss Challenge (last week's is here). This week's challenge is to post pictures of where you would go if you could get away from it all.

Without ever making this a conscious choice, I have lived just about my whole adult life in places that are popular as vacation destinations (and at that, I grew up between London and Herzlia, Israel, which are both on the tourist map too). I did my undergraduate degree at Oxford, where in the summer months the tourists were thicker on the ground than students, and sometimes so careless of students hurrying on bikes that I dubbed them "Meanderthals." Yes, that was back in my twerpier days. Then, I lived for many years in the CA Bay Area--less concentratedly touristy, but definitely a "destination." Then, Big Island, Hawaii. Tourists and transients in vast numbers. And now, least likely of all for me, here I am in Homer, Alaska, where everyone says they've "always wanted to visit."

On a day like today, when it's been sleeting and snowing by turns, the attractions are less obvious.

But we get to see both sunrises and incredible sunsets like this one from our windows during the winter months.

And views like these gorgeous mountains...

 ...and teeming salmon, are on our regular route.

I spent many years always imagining where else I might go, how I might be different in a different place, this moment, moving so frequently. But that's all in my head! Nowadays, I find it far more helpful to focus on being present where I am and to use all my tools to keep me in the best possible mental space in that place.

If I could be anywhere else, it would be my grandmother's apartment in Israel, on the right of this picture, or in the yard outside--this view is one of the few constants of my entire life. And I was just there!

Meanwhile, foul as today has been, Phil and I caught a break in the precipitation and went for a longish hike on the beach (which is right below our house--also pretty cool as locations go). We found three rocks that were "keepers."

I'm kind of obsessed with rocks with holes in them. As you can imagine, they're not that common, but there's a certain spot on the beach with enough reddish sedimentary rock with holes that I don't pick up every one I find anymore.

This one's bluish basalt, though--first one like it that I've ever found!

 I hope my choice of "being here now" doesn't seem unimaginative. Everyone knows how much I love warm weather and coconuts! But that would be a whole other story...

What's your favorite "get away from it all" destination--either a location or a metaphysical space?

A Challenge for Bliss

I love the idea of blogger challenges, which bring likeminded writers together, are directed toward a specific and uplifting goal, and provide some focus for the blog. However, I haven't undertaken them very often, usually because I think I'm too busy.

Now, we know that I'm currently "overextended" and ridiculously busy beyond the usual. It also wouldn't be too much of a secret that my emotional/mental poise has been seriously wonky lately. On the other hand, this challenge only requires one post per week, and I have posted so many times about my desire to have my blogging practice help me become a better person overall.

And so...I'm going to participate in Bliss Connect's "Six Weeks of Bliss" Challenge. I'm late to enter this, but I've given thought and decided that I wouldn't be out of integrity to pursue the theme of bliss even when struggling with mood issues.

This week's Challenge is to talk about why we started blogging, and who inspired (inspires) us the most.

The Why
I was very clear about why I started blogging: it was because I wanted to participate. I wanted to add my voice to wide-ranging discussions about the topics dearest to my heart. Initially, I wrote a lot about health issues, high raw food diet. Then, as now, I also wrote about our lifestyle in a small cabin on the very edge of a bluff in Alaska. The constantly changing and wild scenery is always an inspiration to share, with times of green profusion, and times of ice pans.

I still write about those things. However, in my blog, as in the rest of my life, I struggle to maintain laser -pointed focus on just one issue. Outside of my passion for healthy living, I'm a poet and a writer: these elements of my identity are key. More and more, I'm wanting to talk about exciting literature I've read, poets I've listened to, what happened at my writing group today.

"Ulterior Harmony" refers to a quotation by the Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus. He said that the underlying harmony is more powerful than the obvious one. As my life path continues on its rollercoaster, this search for ulterior harmony underlies all that I do, so long as I remember.

The Who of Inspirations
I've shared several posts dedicated to bloggers that have inspired me. See, for example, this one about the Pure2Raw Twins, this one about Gena, or this one for Lori. The whole month of posts on Self Love in September 2010 were definitely inspired by Tina, who curated the series.

However, there are a few other inspirations who deserve mention. Joanna Steven, with her piercing intelligence, tireless research and deep humaneness, was so generous in her communication with me when I was first thinking of starting a blog, and definitely helped me to decide to go ahead with the project. Amber of Almost Vegan Chef and Barbara of Rawfully Tempting are people whom I've watched blossom on their blogs in a truly inspirational way--rising stars. (And by the way, Barbara's currently hosting a giveaway for Medicine Flower Flavor Extracts, which I've talked about on here before and which I love, and Amber's also hosting a giveaway--actually multiple giveaways this month. Today's is a beautiful eBook).

Unfortunately, she had to discontinue her blog, but "Bitt" of "Bittofraw" was another huge inspiration, for her passion, her culinary wizardry and her frank but brave discussion of health issues.

There are various literary blogs that I read too, but the one that stands out is Being Poetry, the online home of my real-life friend Erin. I'm in awe both of her and of her poetry, and always find something to admire on her blog too.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now, although I know --please share your inspirations with me! And I think it's working: I'm feeling all lovely and grateful now.