Comfort by the Bowl

Last month I invited readers to share soup recipes as a way of connection during the cold, darkness of winter. I have been overwhelmed with responses! The process of making soup, the slow cooking, the simplicity of ingredients, the ability to pause and savor, make soup the ideal mindful food. Soup is also part of our collective cultures, it gives us sustenance and connects us when the world feels very divided. I am grateful to my friend Karen for sharing her wonderfully satisfying Chicken and Kale Soup. In the spirit of mindfulness she remarks, "The more you gently simmer it, the tastier it will become"  Enjoy mindfully and keep those recipes of comfort and connection coming!

KAREN’S CHICKEN AND KALE SOUP

Ingredients for One Full Soup Pot
Olive oil
2 large, chicken breasts, with skin and bones
6-8 Celery stalks, leaves included
1 large yellow onion
Big handful of fresh parsley
Ground black pepper, about 2 teaspoons (we like it spicy, less if desired)
Thyme (2 -3 teaspoons dried), lots, if fresh, remove little leaves from stems
3 boxes of chicken broth
1 1/2 pound of carrots (about) sliced into rounds
Several large bunches of washed kale.  Remove leafy parts from thickest stems and chop, not too finely

Recipe
Wash, dice/chop onion, celery, parsley, thyme
Drizzle olive oil into soup pot, enough to cover bottom of pot and a bit more
Saute chopped onions, celery, parsley, thyme, ground black pepper in oil
Stir frequently
When ingredients are thoroughly sauted, add the chicken breasts to pot
Stir the ingredients while continuing to saute, turning chicken breasts frequently to
mix with the celery, onion, herbs
When the chicken breasts begin to brown, add one box of chicken stock, or more, so as to barely cover the chicken with stock
Stir the pot, so chicken stock mixes in with everything else
Bring pot to simmer, add two other boxes of chicken stock
Simmer gently until the chicken meat is cooked and tender
Remove the chicken breasts, let cool enough to removed meat from the bones
Return the chicken meat to the gently simmering pot
Add carrot rings to soup
Add chopped kale to soup
Simmer gently until the carrots are tender
Soup is ready!  Enjoy!  The more you gently simmer it, the tastier it will become!

Serve with some sort of artisan/tasty bread. We like to have St Andre cheese for the bread, or some type of chedder

Let's Meet 2017 with Hygge and Mindful Soup

A new year is unfolding....

 I have been considering how we create comfort during  challenging times, apparently I am not alone in the urge to cocoon. I recently read an article in the New York Times on the Danish concept of hygge (pronouned HOO-gah) which is an all encompassing way of embracing coziness and warmth -- body, mind and spirit. In considering this concept, I was drawn to one of the comments I received in November when I asked readers what they wished they had had when they were caregivers to loved ones who were seriously ill...I received a response that was profound in its simplicity and accuracy...it simply stated "I needed soup" (thank you LL). Yes! Exactly! That's hygge! 

What better way to comfort ourselves during challenging times than with a bowl of hearty soup. Soup exemplifies the tenants of mindfulness...it does not have to have perfect or expensive ingredients, it can't be rushed, you need to turn the high heat down and let it simmer (as with our thoughts in meditation) and it soothes and warms the body, mind and spirit from the inside out. 

So this January to help you get started in the practice of hygge...let's share soup together. While it may be impossible to physically gather around a table in my house or yours, I invite you to join me and others in a virtual sharing of soup.  I will be posting soup recipes throughout the month of January and would love your contributions. You may either post them directly in the comment section of the blog posts or you may email them to me (pressler@StressResources.com)and I will post them on the Stress Resources blog. Do you have a story that goes with a recipe...share it with us! I hope that the recipes will connect and inspire us all to practice hygge this January.

To get us started, here is a favorite recipe of mine...enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups carrots, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion, diced

3 stalks of celery, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 T extra virgin olive oil

3 T butter

1/2 t dried basil

1/2 t dried oregano

6 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

24 oz egg noodles

In a 6 quart crockpot add in whole chicken breasts, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, olive oil, butter, basil, oregano. Next add in chicken broth, water and season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook on low hear for 6-7 hours

Remove cooked chicken breasts and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place chicken back into the slow cooker. Now add in egg noodles. Cover and cook just until noodles are tender.

Our Shared World -- Fear and Hope

We find ourselves, again, at the intersection of fear and hope. The horrific violence in Paris on November 13 played out in real time through news coverage and social media shook us to our core, as many could identify with random sense of violence while going about one's day to day life. Human nature is to protect our families and our tribes, but who are our families and tribes in this day and age of global connection? 

Only two months ago, "we" rose up in horror at the sight of Aylan Kurdi, the three year old Syrian boy whose body washed up on the Turkish beach, as his refugee family was trying to escape the horrors of a war torn country. We are now confronted with many political voices refusing to offer sanctuary to families such as Aylan Kurdi's due to the violent assault on Paris we witnessed last week. But by viewing the world as "us" and "them" aren't we also losing a bit of humanity by separating ourselves from the image of Aylan and replacing it with an image of a terrorist. 

I don't know what the answer is, but I hope that as we each struggle with finding resilience in this horrific event we don't lose sight of the hope that exists by being blinded with fear. We live in a shared world, one in which I choose to give more energy to hope versus fear. It is with this intent that I share with you the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye, Gate A-4

Marmool Cookies

Gate A-4

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
please come to the gate immediately.

Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.

Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
did this.
I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—
she stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late,
Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.

We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
would ride next to her—Southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.
Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered
sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament.

The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same
powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—
non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,
with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
this is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped
—has seemed apprehensive about any other person.
They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.

This can still happen anywhere.
Not everything is lost.

9/11: The Paradox of Horror and Hope

For some it may be hard to recall a time when "9/11" wasn't the shorthand phrase meaning "catastrophe". Before that bright, sunny, September morning fourteen years ago,  September 11 was simply a date on the calendar. In the blink of an eye it changed from ordinary to extraordinary, similar to what a previous generation may have experienced in early December 1941 when Pearl Harbor became synonymous with "war". At the time of these events our nation galvanized, we found a sense of collective empathy in our shared experience. In spite of the horror and fear we also found a sense of connection and community.

Through tragedy we found resilience. This is the magic of the human spirit. As we remember the terrible events that unfolded on that September day fourteen years ago, let's also remember the incredible goodness and hope that emerged and transformed us:  strangers helping strangers, kindness given without expectation, sharing of resources, a sense of hope and community. How will you honor the date that transformed us -- with horror or hope? There is no denying the horror of 9/11 but can we also honor the hope that unfolded?  Will you join me in sharing some hope and goodness on September 11?

Here are 5 simple ways to share hope on September 11:

1. Feed someone's parking meter

2. Buy coffee for the person behind you in line

3. Hold the door for someone

4. Text a <3 a="" friend="" nbsp="" to="">

5. Smile at a stranger

What will you do to share hope today?

Pam

A New Notebook and Sharpened Pencils

 "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~Mary Oliver

 

For me, September signals new notebooks, sharpened pencils and anticipation of a new adventure. It doesn't matter how many decades removed we are from our back-to-school days somehow the idea of new beginnings continues to resonate.  It is a season of reflection and introspection, as is the custom during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but also one of unlimited possibilities and opportunities  Mindfulness can help us to pause, notice and choose opportunities that were previously hidden. Perhaps by making a few tentative marks in that new, clean notebook we will forge a new direction or circle back to a passion that we have consistently ignored due to the busyness of our everyday. 

This is a month of new beginnings; metaphorically a month of clean notebooks and sharpened pencils. I invite you to pause and consider, in the words of the poet, Mary Oliver, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Wishing you a month of new notebooks and many sharpened pencils,

Pam