Carbs, I just can't quit you!

I just stumbled across a killer - keeper recipe. What makes this awesome is that the ingredients are very simple and boring by themselves, but together, they transform into creamy carby comforting yumminess.

Healthy-ish Rice Pudding

1 cup cooked short grain brown rice
1 cup reduced fat plain yogurt
1 cup skim milk
½ cup brown sugar
zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix ingredients together and - here's the magic part, blend. I use my hand blender, but you can throw it in a regular blender too. It makes it really creamy. I like to eat it warm, but it works cold as well.

Edible Flowers

I can't take total credit for this idea, as I came across the recipe for Flower Pot Banana Bread online a few months ago. I've been wanting to try it for a while and E's birthday seemed like a good opportunity. (She's a baker and a crafter too).

I used a traditional banana bread recipe and baked it right into the terra cotta flower pot. (very very well greased). Then when it was cool, I inserted the chocolate tulips that I had bought from Laura Secord. I loved the way it looked and I think I'm definitely going to make this again. It's also a great hostess/housewarming gift idea.

View from the side and top...mmmm...banana bread!

The Ultimate Thirst Quencher

The reason I haven't been posting recipes lately is because I haven't been cooking, or eating. No friends, I have spent this summer addicted to drinking watermelon juice. I would call it the 'watermelon juice diet' and make boatloads of money if it actually made me lose weight.

For a very long time I used to crave the slushy frozen fancy coffee drinks. The ones with obscene amounts of sugar and cream. Those were refreshing too, but left bad aftereffects of heartburn, a sugar crash and extra pounds on the scale the next morning.

This watermelon drink is just so much better than the coffee drinks in every way. I get the coldness, the refreshment, the sugar burst - natural sugar, and it's 100% natural...no preservatives. I first had this combination in the form of a punch with vodka. Personally, I like it better without the booze. Then I started ordering it at my local juice bar until I realized that I was paying $4 for a cup of pureed watermelon, when I could have bought an entire watermelon for $4 and have my own juice for over a week!

Ok, enough of my rambling. Here's the recipe. Again, I like recipes with very few ingredients and steps.

The Ultimate Watermelon Slushie

1 cup ripe watermelon
3 ice cubes - crushed
3-4 leave fresh spearmint - (I grow this in my garden)

Blend all ingredients in a blender and pour into a tall glass.

Seriously life changing.

Blame it on the Whales

It’s been a while since my last post. I realize that. Truth be told, I have been in a funk since my return from my Alaskan Cruise. I blame it on the whales.

While in Juneau, in a chance encounter, I witnessed a pod of humpback whales engaging in the most elaborate of feeding rituals in nature, ‘Bubble Net Feeding.’

What it looked like was 12 whales performing a synchronized swimming routine.

What was really happening was this: (description taken from National Geographic)

It all starts when a pod of whales dive deep under a school of fish, form a circle, and blow their breath out simultaneously, forming a net of bubbles. Within the ring each humpback has a specialized task.

Some blow the bubbles, while others go down and herd the prey towards the surface. Another group screams "incredibly beautiful and haunting sounds" in order to concentrate the prey and force them up towards the surface into the confines of the bubble net, and they all get together in the group and they come charging up through this tunnel of bubbles, almost like missiles coming up through a silo, and then engulf the prey into their huge mouths at the surface.

Not all Humpback whales know how to do this – it is not instinctual. ‘Bubble net feeding’ is a learned behaviour, which is taught by a mother whale to her calf during the one year they spend together before the calf becomes independent. It is thought that only 50-75 whales on earth know how bubble net feed.

And I saw it with my own eyes. The magnificence of the situation brought me to tears. Tears of gratitude, profundity and great sadness at all the beautiful moments in this world that I miss every day. It hit me all at once.

While I am in my beige cubicle, a piece of a million-year-old glacier is crashing into the ocean.
While I am in the grocery store deciding between name-brand and generic store-brand, a 5-year-old Mayan girl pounds cornflour into a small tortilla.
While I’m watching a commercial, between segments of 24, a whale is teaching her calf the intricate art of ‘bubble net feeding.’

It’s like, all this amazing stuff is happening all around me while I’m living my life. Somehow my life seemed like a joke compared to the magnitude of the world and nature. I’ve found it difficult to reconcile my everyday reality with the miracles that occur in our universe. I guess that’s what they mean by ‘feeling connected to the world.’ Except, instead of feeling connected – I had never felt so removed.

Even the notion of connection in my world is a farce. In corporate North America, success depends on stripping every ounce of connectedness from business interactions. If you read any business etiquette book - especially written for women. They have rules:

• Dress modestly. No cleavage at work. (hide any indication that you’re capable of feeding young)
• Don’t cry at work or show emotion. Remain cool and detached. (emotions show your despicable humanity)
• Remain guarded in your speech. (words may connect you on an emotional level; which could become awkward if one of you quits/gets pregnant/gets promoted/gets laid off.)

We spend so much time at work that hiding our human-ness because messy stuff like feelings, tears, elation, love are reserved our real life, the one we live between 6pm-10pm behind closed doors. Poker-face. No wonder we’re tired, depressed and detached.

This is why I haven’t posted in a while – why I haven’t been as active on Facebook. I’ve been wondering if our so called ‘connected’ society is real at all. We are part of this very alienated world wide web.

I’m not suggesting that one can’t really connect online – that meaningful connection can only be face-to-face. We have more opportunities to connect today than ever before, and yet we say less and less. Shorthand kills our connectedness.

Feeling connected – truly connected, like the connection you feel when watching whales takes work. Modern urban society is not conducive to these feelings. And we're all lazy. It takes mental energy to maintain perspective and remember that the world is bigger than the asshole that cut you off in traffic or the misplaced remote control.

Until very recently – the past few decades – scientists believed that humpback whales were solitary creatures. Except for the mother and her calf, they rarely traveled in groups. With recent developments in sonar technology, they’ve found that whales sing to each other over great distances in the ocean. It turns out they do communicate, but in a manner too elaborate for humans to comprehend.

I’m learning that its easy to be a smug human. We don’t know it all.

just because...top 10 things learned on an Alaskan Cruise

10. Prince Rupert BC is closer to Alaska than anything big in Canada.

9. When you're north of the tree line it feels like you're on another planet.

8. There is a species of worm that lives in glacier ice.

7. Wild Alaskan salmon tastes like candy.

6. Cruises are great for people who don't mind listening to sales pitches 24/7.

5. Bears give birth in hibernation. The mama bear is asleep and when her cubs are ready, they crawl out of the womb. I wish humans gave birth that way.

4. Mixing 2 parts dark rum with 8 parts Ginger Beer, makes a 'Dark and Stormy' and it's delicious!

3. Unlike other Americans, Alaskans have a real understanding and reverence for Canada.

2. The smallest desert in the world is in Carcross, Yukon. It measures 1 square mile.

1. Seeing whales will touch your heart and affect you more than you can imagine.

Halotherapy: Take it with a grain of salt.

**For you gamers out there, not that kind of Halo therapy.

My local newspaper recently advertised that the newly opened Salt Spa on my street was giving free trial sessions. I love trying new stuff, especially free stuff so I called for an appointment right away.

Online, this looked interesting.

"Salt Therapy or Halotherapy is a 100% drug free therapy that utilizes dry aerosol of salt micro particles and minerals to treat a bunch of respiratory and joint issues."

I don't think a hangover counted as respiratory and joint issues, but I booked my appointment for the morning after K&S's wedding. I walked into the Spa, which had typical 'spaliness' to it...low furniture, scented air, the CD's you listen to from the sampler at the drug store. I began to relax already.

The owner took me for a tour of the salt cave rooms. When she bought this property, she had people come in, hotglue the wall and threw a bunch of rock salt on it. Whatever stuck was then baked on with lamps, then voila - a salt cave.

This is somehow meant to resemble the beach. Apparently this is the new it thing in Eastern Europe. I guess in Siberia, this is what the beach would look like.

I first got a glimpse of the children's cave. How to describe it.......a solitary confinement cell on the moon with Ikea furniture. In seeing my expression of sheer horror, the owner smiles and assures me that Halotherapy is even safe for newborns.....riiiight.

She then sets me up in the adult salt cave. I took off my shoes. The floor was crunchy with rocksalt. 'Like the beach' the owner giggled. Riiiiiight.....like the beach. Is that blood on my ankle?
I was seated in one of the eight Muskoka chairs along the room. I was glad I was the only one in there. Before she scurried away, the owner asked me if I had any musical preference.

'I wouldn't mind any Pet Shop Boys'

I guess that wasn't what she had in mind because she countered that with, Bells, Faraway Lands and Rainforest.

I felt like a nerd. I got Faraway Lands.

The Muskoka chairs reclined. They were comfy. I only had 3 hours of sleep, so it was nice. Green lights danced around the walls like fireflies. I'm horrible at relaxation. It's part of the reasons I suck at yoga. The booming subway below was making it even harder to settle down. So I sat there. Watching green lights. Trying to feel, smell or taste the salt. Wondering if salt was penetrating into my skin. Musing about doing a tequila shot on my own arm.

I didn't taste or smell a thing.

25 mins later, I emerged from the room. The owner asked me how I felt. Well, I told her the subway was a little disruptive. 'Think of it as your personal tsunami and work it into your meditation.' Nice try lady. Good cover for picking a bad location for a business.

Overall, I did feel somewhat more relaxed, but that was due to the music, reclining chair and dark room more than the rocksalt wallpaper.

I don't buy it.

i heart Zuko Light

When I was in Mexico, I discovered Zuko Light. It was a bit of a random find actually, much like my Green Tea flavoured Trident gum of which I bought a case.

Zuko light is like Crystal Light, except like, a thousand times better. The same way the Diet Coke/Pepsi tastes better in Mexico. I think the artificial sweetners they use are different - unless it's all really sugar and they're f**ing with us 'cause we don't read Spanish.

I bought a few packs of Zuko in Cantelope, Mango and Pina Colada. And tonight I finished my last pack ;-( I'm very sad about it. I may have to risk H1N1 to get some more. It's that good.