Make this Simple Recipe to Warm Up your Kitchen

March 4th, 2010

Simple recipe

We asked our in-house foodie to share a simple, easy recipe. Here’s what she sent (we’re planning on tossing it together soon):

Posted by: Christina Turner, Special Events and Community Relations Manager

Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Life is full of bliss when you can devour the simple joys of life. Although it is often challenging to incorporate simplicity in life, I never cease to find ease and comfort in simple cooking.

By sharing one of my favorite simple recipes, I hope you can see that simple sweetness and joy is actually all around you. It’s just a matter of awareness.

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio – Spaghetti with Garlic and Olive Oil – consists of four ingredients from your pantry – pasta, olive oil, garlic and red chili flakes.

Unpretentious and informal, this dish is robust in flavor and immensely satisfying, it is a favorite quick snack or late evening meal.  I was first introduced to Spaghetti Aglio E Olio by a Roman suitor back in grad school.  But that is a story for another blog.

This classic cucina rustica dish exemplifies the importance of using what you already have on hand and paying attention to each part of the cooking process.

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio is an incredibly easy dish to make. But easy doesn’t always bring success!  It can be disappointing if you’re not paying attention or use poor ingredients. Distraction from your work could lead to bitter garlic and gooey, sticky over-cooked pasta.  Bleh.

Because cooking should be a creative and imaginative experience, you can adjust the flavors to suit your own individual taste adding more or less garlic or chili if you like.  Feeling a bit fancy, you can toss in lemon zest, toasted bread crumbs or flat leaf parsley right before serving.

In 5 simple steps, you will have the perfect hearty dish for the last of these wintery days.

Step 1

Fill a large pot with cold water, pop the lid on and bring to a boil.

Tip: To cook properly, pasta needs room to float and dance in the boiling water.  Skimp on the water or worse add the pasta to the pot of cold water before bringing it to a boil and you’ll have a tangled and sticky mess.

Step 2

As the water is heating up, thinly slice 2 – 4 cloves of garlic and set aside.  Rinse and pat dry a few sprigs of Flat Italian leaf parsley. Chop and set aside.

Tip:  If you don’t have fresh parsley on hand, don’t fret.  Leave it out.  Check your pantry for something else that is interesting in texture or taste.

Step 3

Once the pot of water has come to a boil, add 2 pinches of salt. Watch the bubble roar.  Add measured pasta to the pot and give it a good and gentle stir to get things going.  Cook per the package’s directions.  Leave the pot cover off!

Tip:  How much pasta?  Try this easy way of measuring:  Place your forefinger and thumb together and use the space between those fingers as a guide to measure your pasta.  This amount of pasta can satisfy 2 – 3 people.  If cooking for yourself, divide that amount of pasta in half.

Step 4

Heat a heavy skillet over medium-low heat.  Add about 5 – 6 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. Go for it.  The oil is the sauce.  Now chuck in your slices of garlic. Allow the garlic to gently simmer in the oil gaining some color.  Add 1 – 3 teaspoons of chili flakes to the oil and garlic. Add your parsley or a tablespoon of breadcrumbs to the skillet. Add a little more oil.  Give it a swirl.

Tip: If your garlic starts to burn or the chili flakes start to smoke, it is because the flame under the skillet is too high.  You’ll need to start over because burnt garlic and chili flakes are torture to the taste buds.

Step 5

Remove the pasta from its pot and add it to the skillet. A little of the pasta water will accompany the pasta.  That’s cool.  Coat the pasta with the aromatic oil, garlic and chili sauce. Add your fresh lemon zest for brightness in flavor.  Sprinkle some sea salt or even the glorious Maldon salt on top of the Spaghetti Aglio E Olio.  Give it another toss and serve immediately.

Enjoy in the warmth of your kitchen – on your own or with a good friend.  Enthralled by the aromas and simple brilliance of true cucina rustica, you’ll vow to prepare it again.

Buon Appetito!

Teaching Yoga to Girls in Kenya

February 22nd, 2010

Posted by: Zobha

Anne Maggioncalda, a retired Stanford Professor turned Yoga Therapist, traveled to Kenya to conduct a 2-week yoga intensive at Daraja Academy, a boarding high school for girls from remote tribes and the slums of Nairobi. Inspired by Anne’s journey, Zobha donated $4,000 worth of Zobha tops & bottoms to outfit 26 girls. Anne shared her experience and a few photos from her time with these determined young women. We wanted to share with our community:

Dear Zobha,

Thank you so much for your generous gift of yoga outfits for the girls at Daraja Academy in Kenya. As you know, Daraja is a boarding high school for girls from remote tribes and the slums of Nairobi. These are girls would not be educated beyond eighth grade if it weren’t for Daraja. Through a very competitive process based on elementary school performance, need, and passion for learning, these girls have been given the opportunity to change their lives.

I arrived in mid-October and began a two-week yoga-intensive with them as part of WISH – their Women of Integrity, Strength, and Honor program. First, I distributed to them the beautiful yoga pants and tops you donated. The girls were so excited about these outfits and they cared for them like they were sacred, ceremonial costumes throughout my stay. I began by teaching the girls some basic anatomy and physiology. We progressed to yoga philosophy, including the eight limbs of yoga and a few Yoga Sutras. The girls learned Sun Salutations A and B and a yoga sequence I designed for them with a variety of standing and seated poses. My main message was that when we honor and care for ourselves, we become better able to honor and care for others – bringing positive change to our families, our communities and the world.

In general, the girls were very open to learning yoga. I’d say about one third of the girls enjoyed the relaxation and physical movement; one third related to the philosophy and call to honor ourselves and each other; and one third really absorbed the power of yoga to transform their lives. This last third became very passionate about learning, discussing, and practicing yoga. One girl stepped up to start a yoga club and lead her classmates in daily practice.

I found Kenya to be an incredible world of plenty – quite the opposite of what I expected. I anticipated going to Kenya and seeing poverty, disease and misery. Instead, I found a people filled with joy and hope. They have torn clothes, mismatched shoes, and they live in clay huts with thatch roofs. They have no TV, no radio, and no toys. All they have ever known is what they have, and it is enough for them.

Despite being orphans, abused or forced to hard-labor from a very young age, the girls of Daraja school are proud, determined, and powerful young women who will bring change to Kenya. Daraja is a safe haven for them, where they can focus on themselves and their educations. Yoga was a great addition to their curriculum.

Thank you again for your incredible generosity. The yoga-intensive was a magical experience for the girls and for me.

Namaste!

Peace,
Anne
Find more information on the academy and learn how you can help here: http://daraja-academy.org/.

For Beginners: Operation Lotus

February 15th, 2010

Posted by: Circle of Grace Member, Kino MacGregor

The experience of your first yoga class feels like embarking on a mysterious adventure into a whole new terrain. As your curiosity peers into the incense-filled hallways lined with Ganesh and Shiva the open-hearted calm beckons you to travel into your own sacred inner realm. The seductive power of yoga is an addictive calling to go deeper into yourself. Once you experience firsthand how magical yoga is, all resistance becomes futile.

Regardless of your intention, when you plant the first seeds of your lotus flower, the transformative power of this ancient spiritual science works on a deep level of your being. Many people start yoga for fitness reasons only to find that yoga changes their lives in ways far beyond the physical. Even if you are not a true believer and only wish to receive the physical health benefits of yoga, merely attending a yoga class regularly will have a lasting impact on your life. The beauty of the physical yoga postures is that you do not actually need to believe in them in order for the healing power of yoga to work. Hatha yoga approaches the transformation of the human spirit from the body first and then works its way subtly through to the mind and soul.  The body itself is an avenue to the spiritual that works from the inside out. As you water the seeds of padmasana, the full blooming lotus opens in your mind and soul.

Entering the new world of yoga is the first conscious step to live a more peaceful life. The initiatory phase of yoga is your chance to powerful create your life moment to moment and live your highest potential every day. As a neophyte, it is important to remember that it is natural to feel overwhelmed when you realize just how demanding spiritual discipline really is. Rather than a recreational activity that you can keep separate from your life, yoga asks you to transform your whole life to abide by yogic principles. If at first you find yourself drawn to the physical display of power in advanced asana, you quickly see that the heart of yoga reaches far deeper than the postures themselves. Indeed the asanas are only used to purify the body, practice meditative states of unified consciousness and prepare the physical form to be a home for divinity in the world of mind and matter. The more advanced asanas are not ends in and of themselves. Instead the real work of yoga happens on the inner body and is actually the seed of your own enlightenment beginning to flower.

Like an open invitation to the spiritual path, yoga never places commandments on practitioners from above. When you start practicing yoga, the body itself becomes more sensitive and then asks you to live a more pure lifestyle. While the moral and ethic codes of a yogic lifestyle ask practitioners to be an instrument of kindness, compassion and healing in the world, the choice to live a peaceful life is meant to be a sincere feeling that each practitioners feels for themselves before acting upon it. Practicing asana makes the body more sensitive so that you feel more clearly the impact that unhealthy behavior, negative thoughts and destructive emotions have on you. Yoga never tells you what you can and cannot do. It is a path of liberation not bondage. It is a path of direct knowingness rather than rules and edicts. The practice of yoga itself opens your body and mind to desire wholly a new way of being, living and interacting with yourself and others. It is the heightening of your own awareness that facilitates the transformation. You change not because your teacher tells you to but because yoga opens the door to a new way of being that you choose to walk through with joy, ease and grace. The journey into the lotus heart of yoga is a lifelong spiritual practice that bears flowers in this life and beyond.

Faced with the seemingly insurmountable goal of ultimate enlightenment many new students doubt their ability to ever progress along the arduous path of yoga. They look at their teachers or other accomplished practitioners and wonder how they will ever get from their relative feeling of confusion to the clarity, grace and precision they see in the masterful art form of yoga. Yet small seeds do not doubt whether they will become trees. They trust the natural process of evolution and growth that takes them from seeds to sprouting seedlings to flowering, fruitful trees. With proper nutrients, care and love, the flower of your inner lotus is sure to grow to maturity in the fertile soil of your own consciousness.  Every accomplished yogi today has benefitted from the guidance of their teachers and been nurtured by the yoga community. Every yoga teacher today has also nourished their own journey with their own dedication and devotion. If you are a new students of yoga remember that you hold the key to the power of yoga. It is in your own heart that the seed of spiritual investigation must take root, watered by the flow of your own consciousness. When you embark on your own operation lotus, know that this journey is a timeless one that never ends – it only deepens. Small treasures abound when you attempt challenging postures that seem impossible that with time, dedication and guidance, evolve into possibility.

Kino Macgregor is co-owner and teacher at the Miami Life Center in Miami Beach, Florida.  For intermediate practitioners, join Kino for a 2-Week Ashtanga Course June 27- July 9, 2010. Find out more information at http://www.miamilifecenter.com/index.php?page=ashtangacourse

View her full schedule here: http://www.kinoyoga.com/schedule.html

A Good Grounding Goes a Long Way

February 4th, 2010

Pemaquid Lighthouse, MainePosted By:  Jamie Hanna, Zobha Founder and CEO

Every year my husband, two children, our dog and I make our annual pilgrimage from Northern California to Maine for the holidays.  Having grown up on the coast of Maine, it not only holds my earliest memories, it is a place we have all come to cherish for the peace it brings us and good times with family and old friends.

The year 2009 was a more-than usually busy one for me with lots of energy expended on the demands of balancing motherhood and running a growing business.  Recently, my 9-year old daughter drew a rather peculiar picture for me that depicts me inside a rocket about to launch with a caption that reads “racing mom.”  Hmmm…even she could see that some down time would do me good.

Arriving in Maine is always a delicious process for me.  There’s the 3-hour drive from Boston that slowly moves us from city life to increasingly rural towns until we arrive at our little town, fast asleep that time of year.  When we arrive at our house, we all run around with excitement, admiring the painted canvases we left to dry when we closed up last August.  We talk about all of the wonderful projects we will complete during our visit—we are off to a great start!

Over the course of our holiday vacation, Maine embraces my soul like a warm blanket.   The memories of my childhood and the freedom of “just being” when I am there pulls my feet to the earth like a magnet–I can feel the physicality of it.  I have many rituals that ground me back to my true self in this most special of places.  One of my favorites is opening the little box I keep on my bedside table there.  The box holds five stones my sister gave me one year for my birthday.  Little did she know, or maybe she did know, how I would come to treasure these stones and value the words etched into them:  vision, beauty, peace, freedom and choice.  As I feel the weight of each stone turning in my hands, I am reminded that these things are always present, everywhere for each one of us.  We only need to stop the race long enough to realize it.

It is a new year and we are happily back in Northern California and back to our routines.  Only we are all moving with lighter hearts and stronger compasses than when we left.  We know that life is good and we are grounded back to our roots, back to our selves.

I wish you all a happy, grounded 2010 and a year that brings you vision, beauty, peace, freedom and choice. After one month behind us, are you feeling grounded in your new year?