Yoga Guerrilla

So we're living in Wisconsin now.
I've been working on a yoga experiment for the last 4 months ... teaching yoga for a suggested donation of 5 dollars, but free if you can't afford it. Yoga shouldn't cost a lot, it should be part of your daily practice, whether or not it's a few minutes or an hour and a half. Everyone who sticks with it notices the benefits. The problem is that it's hard to re-prioritize. Such is the lesson of life, the changes you want to make seem good in theory, but that means you have to shunt something in order to make room for those changes.
What I have found is that about 5% stick with it. But, BOY, do they stick with it.
So now on to the next phase. I'm going to start teaching yoga wherever there is a space and doing guerrilla marketing for it. Can't wait to share with everyone what happens, lessons learned, etc.

Notes from a Reluctant Housewife

(Scroll down to see recipes for Split Pea and Ham Soup or Garlic Butter Croutons)

So the clarity is crashing down with a sharpness I didn't ask for. But that's what yoga gives us, more vision than we usually care to see.

We found out my husband had a teaching gig in Harrisonburg, VA. Soon thereafter, I found out I was pregnant with our second child. So, I left my full time job and yoga community in Austin, TX and became a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). No point in finding a job in Virginia for just a year, if I'm planning on quitting to have a baby. And, honestly, childcare is so expensive, it wouldn't have made much sense to work. I had all of those niggling fears from the first child, should I leave her in someone else's capable hands while I advance my career? Am I going to miss everything, all of those firsts? Thankfully, the decision wasn't so hard then, because we really were lucky enough to have her spend her time with a much-loved best friend, nanny, neighbor, goddess.

But we don't have our goddess in H'burg. So now that I've finally gotten into the groove of SAHM-hood, I don't want to leave it. I have an extensive to-do list that I want to accomplish. I want to cook more, write more, read more, knit more, practice more yoga, and giggle more with my children while teaching them how to make things. I don't want to go back to a full time job at a desk. So now I've decided to share more. What DOES a mom do at home with her kids, besides laundry? Well you're about to find out. 

So, mommy wars aside ... the biggest lesson I've learned moving from two incomes to one, is that my extravagant taste in food needs tweaking. I used to traipse through the local upwardly mobile grocery store and grab my fig jam, goat cheese, citrus-brined olives, pâté, freshly-baked French bread, and a bottle of Prosecco. See, I'm so bourgeois that I spell pâté with its diacritical marks. I'm so bourgeois, I know how to spell bourgeois.

Anyway, I have a refined palette and need to make a good meal on the cheap. So after we came back from Passover at the house of Vegetarian friends in NYC, my husband went shopping for food to restock the house. He came home with an Easter ham that had been put on sale for $10.

And yes, I'm a yogi, and my family eats meat occasionally. When we do eat meat, we are thankful for the sacrifice that animal made for us. Fabulous, filling vegetarian recipes also coming your way.

Grocery Shopping Tip #1
Be aware of holidays (that you might not celebrate) so that you can buy cheap meat (and veg) to cook and store.

Grocery Shopping Tip #2
When buying a ham (or turkey or other large meatstuff) make sure you have at least a week's worth of recipes in your cooking arsenal.

Grocery Shopping Tip #3
You can grow almost any herb outside in the ground or in a pot during the spring and summer months.Do yourself a favor and plant some chives, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary and basil.

Eco Village International Network posted this pic on their Facebook page. Beautiful way to grow herbs!

So now we come to the recipe for ... drumroll ...

SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

Whaaaaat, you ask? Seriously? Didn't you just say something about a refined palette, Brienne? Yes, if done well, even the most pedestrian of meals can be exquisite ... and cheap.

So here's a picture, and I'll take you through the process of making a Split Pea and Ham Soup to die for - with a bonus recipe for Garlic Butter Croutons.

Split Pea and Ham Soup with Garlic Butter Croutons and Fresh Mint

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, rough chop
5 or 6 garlic cloves, minced (I LOOOOVE garlic, if you are not a garlic lover, drop this down to 2 cloves)
5-7 cups of water, enough to cover the ham bone from the spiral ham
2 cups of split peas (or add in red lentils, brown lentils, or mung beans)
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
handful of fresh mint leaves (or anything else you've got growing outside)
salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (I like it spicier, but my 3.5-year-old doesn't)
1/2 teaspoon of chipotle pepper flakes
4 bay leaves
2 carrots, 1/2-inch pieces
1 celery rib, 1/2-inch pieces

This recipe serves about 8 people

1. Put the ham bone (with meat on it) in a large pot and barely cover with water, place 2 bay leaves, red and chipotle pepper flakes, and 2 sprigs of thyme in the water in order to make the stock. Simmer covered on low for about two hours. You can do this a couple days ahead of time, if you can't make the stock the same day. It'll keep in a tightly sealed container. On this bone, there was a lot of fat; I had to use a slotted spoon to sift it out and dump into the trash.

The Stock

1/2 tsp chipotle flakes, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of thyme

2. Heat butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring often until onion softens - 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant - one minute or less. Add dry peas, 2 sprigs of thyme, and bay leaves. Cook for a few minutes until peas are fully coated with the butter.

Rough chop on onion, garlic to taste - to be minced

This time around, I only had a cup of split peas, so I added mung beans and brown lentils to make 2 cups.

3. Remove ham bone and any other gristle from stock pot. Dump contents of frying pan into stock pot. Increase to high heat and then bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until peas are tender - about 45 minutes.

4. Add carrots and celery, cover and cook another 20 minutes. (For those who feel "meh" about celery, it really does add a necessary umami aspect to lots of dishes. These days, I always have a bag of it in the bottom drawer of the fridge.)

5. Serve with Garlic Butter Croutons and mint.


GARLIC BUTTER CROUTONS 


You can also make the croutons a few days ahead, if you have some stale bread going to waste. Just put them in a tightly sealed container.

Ingredients

6-8 slices of sandwich bread (I used a multi-nut 10-grain, but anything will do)
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
pepper, salt, and minced (or pressed) garlic to taste

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees. Melt butter (microwave in a pyrex). Cut crusts off of bread and cube.

2. Combine bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and minced (or pressed) garlic. Pour butter into bowl and toss gently with a wooden spoon, so bread gets coated lightly.

3. Spread bread cubes in a single layer on to a baking sheet (or dish) and bake until golden brown or crisp. I usually give them a stir about halfway through. About 10-15 minutes total.

I suppose you can use oil for this dish, but I'm a firm believer in the health benefits of butter. And, for a basic meal like this - that can taste bland very easily - garlic and butter are what takes it to the next level. Stay tuned for an upcoming rant about the myth of butter being bad for you. Obviously, anything is bad for you in large amounts, but your brain needs fat to work, and butter (produced correctly) provides the perfect fat molecules.