Dear Mindful Cooks,

Tonight my thoughts are with Thich Nhat Hanh, (Thay), our beloved teacher, whose eloquent dharma talk in 2007 inspired our Mindful Cooking project. I know many of us are sending love and healing energy to him in his current sickness. As I write, this remarkable request has come from those closest to him in Plum Village, France :

If someone want to send healing energy to Thay please ask them to keep one day per week avoiding eating beef, pork, chicken and fish (vegetarian) per week and send the merit to offer life to Thay.

Ever the teacher, he is telling us that what helps him is what helps the Earth----the well-being of the Earth is the well-being of Thay and of all of us. Yes, Thay, we are listening.

And our circle is growing: Robert Antonacci is joining us from Sarasota, Florida; Barbara Burkart is joining but we don't yet know where she is; we also have a new Mara---where are you, Mara? We have two new members here in Portland, Beth and Daniel Redwood who moved here last summer from Kansas. Beth and Daniel became vegan ten years ago after seeing the film," Peaceable Kingdom", and both are using artistic expression to raise awareness of animals as fellow beings rather than menu items. Beth is a photographer with her own website: http://www.bethlilyredwood.com/ and Daniel is a chiropractor/medical educator and singer/songwriter, also with a website: http://www.danielredwoodsongs.com/ Welcome, Robert, Barbara, Mara, Beth and Daniel!

This is a good time to remind everyone that we have a sort of "group picture" on our website----a world map with a teardrop showing our locations. If you roam around the map you can sense your connection with people on 5 continents, living in towns you never heard of. In some of those places (the towns with an asterisk), you can click and see the names of your fellow Mindful Cooks. I would be glad to add more of you if you are willing, and if you have a web presence (website, article or whatever) I'll be glad to add that link too. Here's the map----have fun with it----and let me know if I can add your name:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?mid=z83MeVnxaQv8.kyuSjKc6_q1E

This week's recipe is a delicious quesadilla we discovered a couple of months ago when fresh tomatoes were at their best. I'm sending it out now with special thoughts of all of you in southern climes who can still get good tomatoes. The rest of us will make do for now and wait patiently for next summer:
Quesadilla with Refried Beans, Spinach and Avocado

I recently heard from Ellen in Texas who is finding the joy in mindful cooking!
My diabetes is getting better. Just being mindful about eating has helped me to change my eating habits even though I am not vegan. My vegetable consumption has increased considerably. And I have been cooking for a friend who is also diabetic....she said that she would like to hire me to cook for her but I am not quite ready for prime time! LOL. She is enjoying my food experimentations as much as I am! That tickles me since she has awful eating habits! One habit at a time; one day at a time.
Thanks for your encouragement in your emails to the group. Its good to know that no matter where we are, we are part of the dharma. I am so grateful for that!!
Aloha, ellen

I heard, too, from An in Vietnam, about pressure cooking and macrobiotics:
Today I'm sharing with you some info about pressure cooking...
http://www.macrodiet.com/Contributors/Kulungian-PressCook.shtml
http://curezone.com/forums/am.asp?i=378580

And my experience... When I got to know macrobiotics, many years ago... I
pressure cooked the grains... That's what all my books on macrobiotics
advised... Pressure cooking seemed to work fine for some time... But I reached
a point where I felt I needed to change... I researched it a bit and found those
links... I also experimented with both styles, pressure cooking and boiling...

Today I no longer pressure cook anything... Boiling works better for me now...
They have very different energies... Boiling brings a more calmed, yin energy...
Pressure cooking energy is bolder, more aggresive... Boiling is less stimulating
to the immune system and that's what I think I need...

I've also noticed what the first link talked about rupturing... With pressure
cooking, the grains are ruptured... With boiling are not... They become softer
and retain more water... ;)

What about you? Do you pressure cook? Or boil? What have you learnt from your
masters? I'm curious cause I feel most macro teachers seem to prefer pressure
cooking...
... Warmest hugs... :)

Does anyone have thoughts to add about macrobiotics or pressure cooking? Feel free to send them to me. I'll also post this on our website and see if a conversation develops there.

Nancy in California liked the Mindfulness Bell article:
GREAT article, Eve!

Thanks, Nancy ;-)

Last week eleven of us gathered for our Fall Potluck in Portland. This was a milestone----our 20th potluck! The food was wonderful---I hope I will soon have the recipes (ahem---you know who you are!)----and the conversation was stimulating. Linda is inspired by Dr. Joel Furhman and hopes to start a Nutritarian interest group. Beth told us of the World Peace Diet and the movie, "Peaceable Kingdom". We spoke of the confusion caused by conflicting dietary advice and how to "hold it all lightly"---- "no one has all the answers"----"most questions have more than one good answer." We wondered about the issues: factory farming vs. compassionately raised animals; abolition of animal farming vs. improved animal welfare; antibiotic resistance; the precautionary principle. We were reminded of the importance of regarding our meat-eating friends with love, not judgment. We weren't always serious----we heard of Denis' experiments with sauerkraut and John's with "galangal" (a new thing for me----but if I ever use it, I'll know it's important to take it out before serving the soup!) --- and we heard enthusiasm for several Portland restaurants---Prasad, Harlow's, and Portobello. It was a spirited and happy evening!

Portland people----I would like to get next year's potluck dates figured out. I hope you will help me with this----let me know if you have predictable conflicts so we can work around them. Should we always do Saturday or Sunday or try alternating? What do you think of Linda's suggestion that we meet more often----every 2 months instead of every 3?

All of you who are beyond Portland---- if you are doing potlucks too, do send us photos and tell us what you are doing!

I am so grateful to all of us for the mindful community we are creating--

Happy cooking,
Eve

Hello Mindful Cooks,

Tonight my thoughts are with Thich Nhat Hanh, (Thay), our beloved teacher, whose eloquent dharma talk in 2007 inspired our Mindful Cooking project. I know many of us are sending love and healing energy to him in his current sickness. As I write, this remarkable request has come from those closest to him in Plum Village, France :

If someone want to send healing energy to Thay please ask them to keep one day per week avoiding eating beef, pork, chicken and fish (vegetarian) per week and send the merit to offer life to Thay.

Ever the teacher, he is telling us that what helps him is what helps the Earth----the well-being of the Earth is the well-being of Thay and of all of us. Yes, Thay, we are listening.

And our circle is growing: Robert Antonacci is joining us from Sarasota, Florida; Barbara Burkart is joining but we don't yet know where she is; we also have a new Mara---where are you, Mara? We have two new members here in Portland, Beth and Daniel Redwood who moved here last summer from Kansas. Beth and Daniel became vegan ten years ago after seeing the film," Peaceable Kingdom", and both are using artistic expression to raise awareness of animals as fellow beings rather than menu items. Beth is a photographer with her own website: http://www.bethlilyredwood.com/ and Daniel is a chiropractor/medical educator and singer/songwriter, also with a website: http://www.danielredwoodsongs.com/ Welcome, Robert, Barbara, Mara, Beth and Daniel!

This is a good time to remind everyone that we have a sort of "group picture" on our website----a world map with a teardrop showing our locations. If you roam around the map you can sense your connection with people on 5 continents, living in towns you never heard of. In some of those places (the towns with an asterisk), you can click and see the names of your fellow Mindful Cooks. I would be glad to add more of you if you are willing, and if you have a web presence (website, article or whatever) I'll be glad to add that link too. Here's the map----have fun with it----and let me know if I can add your name:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?mid=z83MeVnxaQv8.kyuSjKc6_q1E

This week's recipe is a delicious quesadilla we discovered a couple of months ago when fresh tomatoes were at their best. I'm sending it out now with special thoughts of all of you in southern climes who can still get good tomatoes. The rest of us will make do for now and wait patiently for next summer:
Quesadilla with Refried Beans, Spinach and Avocado

I recently heard from Ellen in Texas who is finding the joy in mindful cooking!
My diabetes is getting better. Just being mindful about eating has helped me to change my eating habits even though I am not vegan. My vegetable consumption has increased considerably. And I have been cooking for a friend who is also diabetic....she said that she would like to hire me to cook for her but I am not quite ready for prime time! LOL. She is enjoying my food experimentations as much as I am! That tickles me since she has awful eating habits! One habit at a time; one day at a time.
Thanks for your encouragement in your emails to the group. Its good to know that no matter where we are, we are part of the dharma. I am so grateful for that!!

Aloha, ellen

I heard, too, from An in Vietnam, about pressure cooking and macrobiotics:
Today I'm sharing with you some info about pressure cooking...
http://www.macrodiet.com/Contributors/Kulungian-PressCook.shtml
http://curezone.com/forums/am.asp?i=378580

And my experience... When I got to know macrobiotics, many years ago... I
pressure cooked the grains... That's what all my books on macrobiotics
advised... Pressure cooking seemed to work fine for some time... But I reached
a point where I felt I needed to change... I researched it a bit and found those
links... I also experimented with both styles, pressure cooking and boiling...

Today I no longer pressure cook anything... Boiling works better for me now...
They have very different energies... Boiling brings a more calmed, yin energy...
Pressure cooking energy is bolder, more aggresive... Boiling is less stimulating
to the immune system and that's what I think I need...

I've also noticed what the first link talked about rupturing... With pressure
cooking, the grains are ruptured... With boiling are not... They become softer
and retain more water... ;)

What about you? Do you pressure cook? Or boil? What have you learnt from your
masters? I'm curious cause I feel most macro teachers seem to prefer pressure
cooking...

... Warmest hugs... :)

Does anyone have thoughts to add about macrobiotics or pressure cooking? Feel free to send them to me. I'll also post this on our website and see if a conversation develops there.

Nancy in California liked the Mindfulness Bell article:
GREAT article, Eve!

Thanks, Nancy ;-)

Last week eleven of us gathered for our Fall Potluck in Portland. This was a milestone----our 20th potluck! The food was wonderful---I hope I will soon have the recipes (ahem---you know who you are!)----and the conversation was stimulating. Linda is inspired by Dr. Joel Furhman and hopes to start a Nutritarian interest group. Beth told us of the World Peace Diet and the movie, "Peaceable Kingdom". We spoke of the confusion caused by conflicting dietary advice and how to "hold it all lightly"---- "no one has all the answers"----"most questions have more than one good answer." We wondered about the issues: factory farming vs. compassionately raised animals; abolition of animal farming vs. improved animal welfare; antibiotic resistance; the precautionary principle. We were reminded of the importance of regarding our meat-eating friends with love, not judgment. We weren't always serious----we heard of Denis' experiments with sauerkraut and John's with "galangal" (a new thing for me----but if I ever use it, I'll know it's important to take it out before serving the soup!) --- and we heard enthusiasm for several Portland restaurants---Prasad, Harlow's, and Portobello. It was a spirited and happy evening!

Portland people----I would like to get next year's potluck dates figured out. I hope you will help me with this----let me know if you have predictable conflicts so we can work around them. Should we always do Saturday or Sunday or try alternating? What do you think of Linda's suggestion that we meet more often----every 2 months instead of every 3?

All of you who are beyond Portland---- if you are doing potlucks too, do send us photos and tell us what you are doing!

I am so grateful to all of us for the mindful community we are creating--

Happy cooking,
Eve