Not sure how many of you sign up to receive daily inspirational messages from anybody. Even though I post a daily thought for the day here, I enjoy receiving food for my own spiritual journey. Today was no exception. I received this daily inspiration from Don Miguel Ruiz, one of my favorite spiritual writers, which read, “Your heart is like a magical kitchen. Your heart can create any amount of love, not just for yourself, but also for the whole world. Open your heart, open your magical kitchen, and refuse to walk around the world begging for love. In your heart is all the love you need.”
This really made me stop and think for a moment. So often, we think of the kitchen as this physical space where we create amazing food.
Read moreCooking can be a spiritual experience.
While I realize that for some people cooking can be a stressful experience, for me it is a spiritual experience. As I have read the stories of so many chefs, those well known (i.e. celebrity chefs) and those who most of us have never heard of, I have come to realize that for all too many people food saved their lives. Food, for so many chefs, is not just food. It has become the vehicle through which they found a deeper relationship with themselves, with their Higher Power, and with others. Food for them, and the preparation of it, is a spiritual experience.
Cooking for me is like that as well. There are so many ways in which food and the preparation of it is spiritual. Recently, I read a quote by Heather Ash Amara who wrote “When we live our life as art we make room for creativity, flow, connection, synchronicity, and magic.”
Read moreLessons from my mystery box
Since I did not get any ingredients from anyone, I decided I would take one of the mystery boxes from Chopped and create something with them. Before I talk about the ingredients and what I made, I want to reflect a bit more on what it is about Chopped that I find so spiritually inspiring.
One of the things I enjoyed most when I was pastoring, especially when I was going by the lectionary, was taking a series of scriptures that seemed to have nothing to do with each other and seek a way of bringing them together into a cohesive and inspirational message.
Read moreConfessions of a Chopped addict.
Ok, so I will admit I am a Chopped addict. I have been trying to figure out what it is about this show that for me is so addictive. Seriously, I could watch the show all day long. If there was ever a Chopped marathon, I would probably be there watching it and thinking about what I would make with the ingredients if it were me. Although I am mindful that what you see in a 1-hour episode is just a segment of what has really transpired, there are a few things that I find spiritually invigorating about this show. While some of the chefs appear to be a bit more egotistical then others, they all are clearly passionate about food. It is also clear they have practiced their skills until they have mastered this level of expertise and they are there to push themselves beyond their culinary boundaries. Each of these is a quality of creating a Zenful experience in the kitchen. Now mind you, while if you gave me a basket of mystery ingredients I have no doubt I could create something amazing to eat. However, at the same time, the pressure of the clock would keep me staying in that Zenful state
Read moreGod is in the details
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, a German architect, once said, “God is in the details” and Maezumi Roshi, a Zen monk said “details are all there are.” so what does that have to do with cooking. Creating in the kitchen is a process; it is like the story in the Hebrew Bible of how God created the earth. God would create something, look at it, and think it was good, but then the next day, God would create something else to go into this creation and so forth and so on. The creation was not a one time instant creation, it was an ongoing process of paying attention to the details, and tweaking it until it had become what was sought after at that moment.
Creating in the kitchen is also about the details.
Read moreOrange you glad, I didn’t say banana
One of the lessons I have learned in the kitchen is that there are no mistakes. Some of the most amazing dishes I have learned to make have come because I “made a mistake.” While someone else might say it was a mistake, I have come to realize everything I do is a part of the journey to a greater level of awareness, understanding, and creativity. The day that I accidentally bought curry paste thinking it might be a good substitute for the curry leaves I could not find anywhere, opened up a whole myriad of opportunities for me. Once I realized they were not substitutable, I began thinking about ways I could use this jar of paste because I certainly did not want to throw it away.
I guess one could look at this situation and say I was seeking solutions to a problem. However, I saw it as a gift, which was going to allow me to experience a wealth of possibilities.
Read moreUnlearning can be empowering
Recently, I read a quote by Charles Bukowski who wrote, “Knowledge is knowing as little as possible.” When I read it, it resonated with my spirit. Perhaps in part, because I have come to this place in my spiritual journey where I realized that there was much that I believed, but did not know for myself. I had believed this is the way things were because of what others had told me all my life. One of the things I came to realize was that I had to unlearn all that I had been taught and then put myself in this place of rediscovery. What would I do, if I were in a place of creating new knowledge and new experiences in my life? What have I not yet created, accomplished, because of what I thought I knew.
Read moreI dare you! I double dare you!
Do those words bring back memories from your childhood, either good or bad? I can remember times when I was afraid to do something and my friends would say I dare you! Sometimes the fear came from me knowing I was going to do something I really should not be doing and I needed to walk away from the dare. Other times, however, the dare made me push through some fear that was internal and do something I could not have envisioned me doing before.
What brought me back to this place of thinking about being a child was actually a quote from Takuan Soho who wrote, “Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child.” It seems to me that I do my most creative cooking when I am at that place in the kitchen when I have the heart and soul of a little child.
Read moreAre you ready to go through the door?
There is a Chinese proverb that teaches, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” Cookbooks, culinary classes, recipe websites, are awesome and can be a great source of inspiration when cooking. I have learned a great deal about cooking from these sources. For me, these have all been teachers. Even watching the Food Network and The Cooking Channel have and continue to be teachers. However, one of the things I have had to remember is that I cannot depend on the teacher for my wisdom, knowledge, and understandings. To do so, keeps me in a prison where I sacrifice my adventure, freedom, and creativity.
Read moreFreedom and discipline
Gary Snyder once wrote, “Zen aims at freedom, but it’s practice is discipline.” When I read that, it immediately reminded me of how my mother used to say, "Practice makes perfect." As I was thinking about this quote more it reminded me of the teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements. He writes about how we have spent so much time in our lives practicing certain emotions that we have them down to an art form. Most of us have no problems with emotions like anger, jealousy, resentment, fear, etc. yet the emotions that make us feel loved and are positive in nature like love, peace, calm, etc are the ones we have yet to master.
Read moreIt’s a macaroni and cheese kind of story
When I think back on my life, I cannot remember a time when I was not cooking something. I remember as a little girl my mother would sit me on the floor with a pot of water and a spoon and tell me to stir. It kept me busy, but instilled in me a comfort in the kitchen. As I grew older, she would let me experiment more and more. The funny thing is that while my mother could out bake me on any day, I by all family accounts am the much better cook. To this day, my brother and I still laugh about my mother’s dry turkey, meat that was either still mooing or shoe leather and spaghetti sauce made with ketchup, water, and cream cheese. So I think I began cooking for my family because I could not stand my mother’s cookingJ. When my mother cooked the old time Jewish foods like kasha, kugel, knishes, blintzes, and the list goes on, they were awesome and we fought for the last bite. But the rest of the time, well let’s say my brothers and I were glad we had a dog.
Read moreGetting Back In the Zone
For the last few weeks, I have been going through this challenging time with my cooking. It is not that I have not been cooking, I have. However, since Zoë and I made the decision to eat healthier, focusing on whole foods and those lower in the glycemic index, I have found myself going through this time of doubt. Where I had once felt free to be inventive and creative in the kitchen, I all of a sudden found myself feeling pulled back into a world where I wanted to be assured by a recipe. So much of Western culture is about having a recipe in front of you that tells you how to do something. This how to approach to cooking takes all the creativity out of it. I have been so de-inspired that last week, I didn’t even feel as if I had anything to say. Had I been on one of the TV cooking competitions, it would have been one of those bad meal kind of days. My soul was just not in my cooking.
Read moreOur pantry got a remodel
Monday started like any other day. Zoë and I got up, ate breakfast, showered, dressed, and started in on our daily routines. Zoë went to the doctor’s for her past due checkup and I continued working. Then she came home and shared with me that she had to start taking a medication to control her blood sugar and needed to meet with a diabetes educator. Since I do most of the cooking, our doctor suggested I go with her.
To be honest, neither one of us was surprised, well not totally. But there is this feeling when you actually hear those words – you have diabetes. I am grateful that Diabetes is something treatable. Less then 100 years ago, it wasn’t.
Read moreLearning how to eat at 54
So here I am, 54 years old and by just about any medical professional’s description, morbidly obese. I wish I could say they were lying, but the reality is I am fat. And while I would like to blame others for how I got to be as large as I am, the reality is that I can’t. Nobody ever forced me to eat anything. I chose to do put every single morsel in my mouth. And I chose not to exercise on a regular basis while I could. So here I am 54 years of age, with limited mobility and having to learn how to eat all over again. The main difference is that I have come to a place in my spiritual journey where I am being intentionally more mindful about what I put in my mouth and why.
Learning how to eat healthier has not been easy. I would like to tell you it has been a cakewalk, but
Read moreLife is like a waffle.
I had been thinking for the past few days about what I wanted to write about today and felt like I was all over the place. It was not until later today when I asked my wife what she wanted for dinner tonight that things began to come together. What was she craving – waffles. While every once in a while I have a craving for a waffle, usually it is her. She loves waffles. One of the wisest investments we made was in the waffle iron we bought. It is one of those waffle makers that takes all the guesswork out of making waffles. The only challenge was the first batch getting them to the proper level of crispness for my boo. That accomplished, which for her was between a 4 and a 5, the rest was a cakewalk. You plug it in and it beeps when it is properly heated. Put in the batter and close the lid and it beeps when your waffle is done. Perfectly prepared waffles every time.
Read moreAlbert Einstein is my sous chef.
Ok, so maybe he is not exactly my sous chef in the literal sense, but so much of what he has said and written inspires me in my life and in my cooking. For example, one of the things he said that most people have heard is “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.” I have had my insanity experiences with food. I remember eating this broccoli and cheese casserole my mother had made once. It looked so good and you know everyone says you eat with your eyes first. And so I am looking at this casserole and it looked so good and so I put a significant serving on my plate and expected it to taste as good as it looked. It didn’t. And then I thought ok, it really can’t taste as bad as I thought that it tasted. It did. It took me taking a few more bites of it, for some reason expecting that the next bite would somehow taste better or different before I realized that this whole process was insane.
Read moreGoing with the flow
For the last few weeks, well four now, I have been on this spiritual writing adventure. One of the techniques we have been using is called streaming. It is literally just writing from your stream of consciousness, letting the ideas flow through you like water through a creek bed. This whole notion of streaming has reminded me of a quote by Chuang Tsu, who wrote, “flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
Over the last few weeks, this whole notion of going with the flow has kept appearing in my life.
Read moreIt is more then just a kitchen!
When I first was led to foodbuzz.com, I was not sure whether my writing about food would fit. I am not a restaurant reviewer, nor do I spend hours developing recipes. Yet, for me, food is so much more then that. My philosophy of food has changed dramatically over the years. When I was younger, food ranged from something that you had to eat to avoid being punished (my mother could bake, but not cook) to something which amazingly appeared before your eyes at a restaurant and you did not have to do the dishes. Food came from the small markets, the grocery store, and the backyard. My favorite foods were the raspberries that never quite made it from the raspberry patch to my mother’s kitchen and the pickles, pickled tomatoes, and sauerkraut at the pickle king.
There have been times in my life when food was what you ate because you were hungry, but for a good part of my life, food was a source of comfort.
Read moreLessons from Cabbage Casserole
It is amazing the things that you can learn from a single meal. My wife’s favorite dish, which I have been commanded to make weekly, is my cabbage casserole. A dear friend of ours, who is staying with us for a few weeks, loves it as well. The best part about making this casserole, which by the way is not my favorite, is the look on their faces. Sometimes it looks like they are having orgasms in their mouth. I know that look because I have had that experience as well. My guess is that you know that experience as well. You develop an emotional reaction and relationship to this dish that surpasses description. I have several, but one of mine would be a jalapeno bagel with lox and cream cheese. But that is another reflection, back to the cabbage casserole.
Watching them last night as the two of them nearly finished off a casserole that was supposed to serve 6-8 (lol); I had a series of epiphanies.
Read moreMaking Noodle Kugel with My Mother
I had a rather eclectic upbringing. My mother believed in the importance of making sure I knew how to make some of the basics in Jewish cuisine. At the time, she was trying to teach me these recipes, I am not sure that I fully appreciated that what she was teaching me with these recipes was a story, not just about the food, but about Jewish culture, how the dishes came into being, and how the legacy of preparing food made with love was part of the legacy she had gotten from her mother and was passing on to me.
Yesterday, I gathered with a few friends and decided to make my mother’s noodle kugel.
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