Under a Red Roof ·

Speaking of Pretzels…

February 2, 2011 in Cooking + Baking by Colleen | 4 comments

Happy Wednesday!

I hope you are warm and happy and getting around safely in all the crazy weather. I think we Pacific Northwesterners have got the best of the lot, dry and frigid, so I won’t complain about my toes being in a permanent state of cold. Which also reminds me, the hubster brought home something nasty from the woodshed, tee hee, no not really, from somewhere virus laden, and has been battling a cold for a week. I was feeling a bit smug thinking my immune system superior and all the yoga I’ve been doing acting like a samurai defense system. Alas, I have been taken down a peg. My nose is stuffy and my throat a bright shade of crimson. Boo. I still practiced yoga this morning (there’s no stopping the challenge today!), and actually feel a tad better.

Anyhoo, I hosted a little Valentine making party last night with some of the ladies and made these pretzels. Truth be told, I’ve been on a bit of a pretzel bender. I’ve made a couple of batches, ordered them at restaurants (Gruner – you’re next! Sorry about the missing umlaut, too. I can’t make them here.), and gone to the mall just to feed my craving. As for these, they are pretty darn good: chewy, with a slight crunch, and super easy to make. The ladies and the hubster loved them, too. Double happiness! Or would that be triple?!

Pretzels

adapted from All Recipes

1 package or 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup warm milk (110 degrees)

3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups flour

2 cups warm water (110 degrees – it’s the magic number!)

2 tablespoons baking soda

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons coarse salt

Dissolve the yeast, brown sugar, and salt in the warm milk and 3/4 cup warm water. Allow to sit until the yeast blooms and is slightly frothy. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about eight minutes.

Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat the surface. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Grease two full size cookie sheets, set aside.

Combine the 2 cups warm water and baking soda in a bowl with enough room for you to swish your hands.

Cut the risen dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a long, thin rope, about three feet long. If you leave it too thick, your pretzels will be more like rolls. Dip the rope into the warm baking soda and water mixture. Place on the cookie sheet, and twist into a pretzel shape. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake at 550 degrees for about 8 minutes or until a dark golden brown. Brush with butter immediately after removing from the oven. Remove to a cooling rack.

I recommend eating them as soon as they are cool enough to handle, served plain or with coarse ground mustard. They’d also be great sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, black pepper, or garlic. Come to think of it, I might add coarse ground pepper to the dough next time.

Enjoy!

Tags: Cooking and Baking, Recipes

Opening with Yoga

February 1, 2011 in Being, Celebrating by Colleen | Permalink

Hello friends –

Thanks so much for the kind words these past days. They warm my heart, buoy my spirits, and are truly appreciated.

Something else that keeps me aloft, and that I mentioned in that last post, is yoga. I began practicing eleven years ago, answering the call to a $5 class at a tiny hot yoga studio on Ankeny Street here in Portland. That first time was a singular experience. The room was crowded with people, and I worked earnestly and completely alone for ninety minutes, sweat dripping from every pore. It felt wonderful, and I enjoyed this new and sometimes baffling way of moving my body: the clarity and stillness of mind, and the particular sense that I found something right for me.

This sense of right came from the fact that I was not yearning to be elsewhere or wondering how much longer it would take. I was immersed in being the postures. I was (and remain) gratified, intrigued, interested, and excited by my body and its capabilities (more with each day, though sometimes less – it’s funny like that). With every other form of exercise, save walking, it is a means to an end with a hyper awareness of time. One dozen bicep curls, a hundred sit-ups, a thirty minute run, spin on the elliptical, or row. Everything is measured.

With yoga, I choose a sequence, and go. I honestly have no sense of time, only the flow of the postures, the challenge and sheer pleasure of each asana. It is never a nuisance or a chore to practice, and a day with yoga is always better than a day without, no matter how troubled my mind. I am nourished, relaxed, and rejuvenated, if only during the space of my practice. It tickles me pink as a summer peony.

There is an expression (Buddhist, I think), “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Yoga is my teacher. It opens my heart, teaches me patience and perseverance, and gives me a flexibility and strength I never imagined possible. With yoga, I am better able to see with clarity, live in the moment, and love what IS. So much for just twisting like a pretzel!

p.s. Yesterday was number seven of twenty-one of the challenge. I am in love and held a back bend, with a smile on my face, for one long minute. It doesn’t get much better, at least for now…

Tags: Depression, Yoga

Me and Camus

January 28, 2011 in Being, Feeling, Learning, Practicing by Colleen | 4 comments

So, I’ve been in a bit of a funk these past few months, mostly depressed with a chance of mild gloom and occasional laughter and smiles. There have been ample examples of feeling the sadness switch come on a hair’s breadth after a moment of sincere joy, bursting into tears in public for no good reason, and spending long spans with my eyes squeezed shut against the world.

Some of it is a sincere longing for accomplishment in my life. I want my novel published! I want to contribute financially to our household without doing crap work I don’t like. Is this ever going to happen? Anyone? The rest, I blame on genetics, as the melancholia, like the Force in Luke Skywalker, is strong in me. Thankfully, it is at its menacing worst only every few years, but dang, when it is here, it’s H-E-R-E, no matter what I do. Just in case you’re wondering about medication to get me through, no thanks. I’ve been down that road, and it was pretty awful. The side effects distracted me from my sorry mental state, to be sure, but certainly were not worth it. I lost hair, felt sick to my stomach much of the time, saw spots in my eyes, felt like I was on a merry-go-round every time I sat down, not to mention the literal and rather unpleasant taste in my mouth. It took my liver years to recover, and that, mind you, was before my fondness for whiskey!

Now, for a bit of cage rattling (like not posting a spotlight today – they’ll come when they come) and my friend Camus. I got to thinking about myself as Sisyphus and my gloom the rock. It should be punishment, right? The rock is heavy and burdensome and only comes rolling back down. But what if, like Camus, I didn’t see it as a burden but a struggle worthy of filling my heart? That’s life, isn’t it? It is my job to keep the rock going. I can do it with appreciation and joy at being given another day to do it, or I can focus on poor little me pushing a fucking rock. My choice. I choose happiness, whatever version that may be. A glimmer seen at a distance, a whole day of sunshine, or a fully belly laugh, I’ll take it.

I also choose to nourish myself with good habits. Instead of beating myself up for being depressed (so helpful!), I’m really trying to just acknowledge its presence and keep moving forward. Though the photo shows me about to indulge in a Beef Wellington (our delicious Christmas meal), I am eating healthier than ever – less sugar, less junk, more goodness. As well, I am shaking it up physically. The hubster and I are off to a big-band dance tonight (gotta love the Norse Hall), and, as of Monday, I started the Yoga Journal 21-Day Challenge – practicing every single day. I am eager to propel my body and mind to a new level of fitness, grace, and ease. Who knows, maybe I’ll push that rock right over the top!

Tags: Depression, Yoga

Interesting Thought

January 27, 2011 in Quoting by Colleen | 2 comments

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Marcus Aurelius

One of Each

January 21, 2011 in Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | 1 comment

I know it sounds terribly cliche, but this is a brutal tour de force, a story of the rare variety that is so horrible, yet so captivating, it boggles the mind. Loosely based on fact, follow the roller coaster ride of a very few brave men searching for the truth behind the vicious killings of the Yorkshire Ripper and the disappearances of young school girls over a fifteen year period. At the center is a police force beleaguered by ineptitude, beastly violence, greed, and corruption, where truth and justice are secondary to maintaining an unwritten code of honor. It is shocking and abhorrent, and there was much covering of the eyes and ears in disbelief, disgust, and fear. We stayed up late and stole moments where we could to see it end and mercifully so. Well written, beautifully filmed, and vividly portrayed, I don’t think you can ask for more of a thriller. Well worth the five hours!

In yoga, much like an ice cream cone or a stiff drink after a hard day, postures are followed by counter poses to maintain equanimity. A series of back bends without inversions (my favorites!) or forward bends and I am smarting with tight muscles and discomfort the next day. With that in mind, I bring you It’s Kind of a Funny Story, for there has to be something light after the creepy darkness of the Red Riding Trilogy. Seriously. Though this story isn’t without sadness and fear, it is hopeful and left me smiling. To borrow the title, it is kind of a funny story (there were some tears shed) about a high school boy battling depression, a whole lot of stress, and a strong desire to end his life. Rather than do that, he checks himself into a psych ward and learns, through the lens of others’ pain, that his life, however mired it might be, could be a lot worse.

Tags: Movies, Yoga