Comfort and Joy!

The winter air is nipping at my neck and ankles, telling me it is no longer the season for low cut socks or thin overcoats. The season of warm blankets, frosty window panes and the smell of fresh baked cookies is here! Yes, I did use an exclamation mark, which means I am happy at the thought of all that snow and winter cheer.

I am looking at winter in a whole new light this year. With my new job, I am not relying on my car to get me anywhere, I will be using the Go Train. The whole scraping, brushing and shoveling routine really start to wear on me, so the idea of leaving it all (and my car) in the driveway and walking to the train station, brings me a sigh of relief, this winter.

My new job at Mountain Equipment Co-op also brings new outdoor activities closer to my finger tips. Among many other things, I am working with cross country skis and snowshoes! I am surrounded by people who are enthusiastic at the thought of the outdoors in winter and their enthusiasm is contagious.

After a long day of snowshoeing or hiking in the brisk winter air, nothing seems finer than coming in to a warm cup of cocoa and a chewy chocolate chip cookie! So here is my favourite cookie recipe for you.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
**Low Glycemic, Dairy Free

DRY:
2 cups Whole, Spelt flour (or whole wheat)
2 tbsp Flax seed, ground
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Stevia (powder)
1/4 tsp Salt

WET:
1/2 cup Xylitol, granulated
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup Walnuts, broken
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1 ripe Banana, diced or mashed
1 egg
1/4 cup Almond Milk (or soy milk)

Directions:

Sift all the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Then in a smaller bowl mix all the wet ingredients together. Pour the wet into the dry and stir them all together. The batter will be wet and sticky.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using two spoons scoop and plop cookie dough onto the sheet any way you like. These cookies will not flatten and spread out very much, they will puff up on the spot, so don't worry about how close together they are.

Bake in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. The cookies may not look done, but trust me and don't over bake them. When they cool down a bit they will be perfectly soft and delicious.

Makes about 17 average sized cookies.


**For a festive touch, add you favourite chai tea to the mix. Simply rip open the tea bag and toss the lose tea into the wet ingredients as if it were a spice mix. Or try a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, or just cinnamon.

Becoming aware

Why do babies cry so much? Is it because they are fully aware of the needs of their body and cannot express it? Or are they bombarded with so much sensory overload that crying is a relief? This debate could go on for years, I'm sure.

What I am talking about is Body Awareness.

Our bodies and our minds are attached. Which means our organs and muscles are in direct communication with our brain, and our brain then translates that to something we can understand as hunger, strain, etc. I believe that over the years we can lose touch with what our bodies are telling us. I was a subject with this loss.

Everyone in the world knows the pangs our body's emits when we are hungry, the twinge in our side when we have a cramp, or the dull pain of a headache coming on. This awareness is simple and basic. You can't ignore those signs, they are innate to our physiology.

The awareness I am talking about is much more subtle and finite. The kind that I believe we start with as a child, but lose somewhere along the way. Eventually those signals turn into whispers and we don't hear them anymore, they are pushed aside by the never ending daily signals like stress, thirst, hunger and so on.

But I am listening, I have been listening more and more on my path to health and wellness. I am 25 and I feel like I have been missing these subtle finite signals for so much of my life, that I am only now truly aware of my inner workings.

One day I noticed a small tightness above my kidneys, on both sides. Nothing more than an oversight, not painfull, it didn't effect my daily movement or mood. Just a minor tightness that popped up in my thoughts as "hmmmm this is new". I did some research online and saw that my Adrenal glands were in that area, and they could become aggitated with too much caffeine and stress.... That made sense, since I was on a high-caffeine fat burner and quitting my job at that time. So I quit the fat burners and found a new job and soon enough the feeling in my lower back was gone. Maybe I wasn't right, it could have been a pulled muscle that just got better. What matters is that I noticed it.

Its cheesy but I am so proud of myself for learning to listen to my body all over again. I eat when I am hungry. If I feel like sleeping I do, when I feel like running, I do. I am doing everything I can for my body to keep it well oiled and energetic.

This Body awareness is a tool we can use to be our own doctors. Do the words "early detection" ring a bell? We are our own watchdogs. This body awareness also applies for skin and hair. We should never feel like we don't know whats going on in our bodies. If you wake up in the morning and you feel more tired than usual. Take a moment to think about why? Don't just brush it off to old age or a bad mattress. Take those things into account but with more detail.

We owe it to ourselves.

me and m.e.c.

me in Taiwan waiting for the sunrise atop Alishan Mountain

I have been heading towards this job for years now. Ever since graduating from Algonquin College with a Diploma in Outdoor Adventure, I have been gaining experience in the industry and in different work environments, which have all been crucial to how I experience this new job today. That's what everything comes down to... out past experiences help determine how we experience the things we do today.

I now work for MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP!

I just finished 2 weeks of training with a few more to go. Training that consists of literally testing all the outdoor gear we sell in the store. M.E.C. is the Toy'r'us for adults outdoor enthusiast. All the gizmo's and gadgets, sweaters and tents, and gear you could ever want.

I have been nervous, excited, calm and exhausted, these feelings changing likes waves depending on what I would be doing next. But I feel good. And that's all that matters.

m.e.c. you make me look forward to winter. You surround me with people who boost my own enthusiasm for the outdoors. You all speak my language. You all recycle and know what composting is.

My mind can grow, heal and rejoice at my job... this is going to be easy to get used to :-)

I earned a badge for my Dirt Pudding!

My recipe for Dirt Pudding was featured on The Back Burner today.
Click on the badge above to see the post.

The Back Burner features receipes uploaded from The Key Ingredient, the recipes come from all over, usually with pictures and a commentary. We all know that some recipes never turn out right even if you follow them precisely, so its refreshing to see real recipes in action.

Funny Munday

What's on the menu...

Round up those veggietarians and fry 'em!

-Photo found on Flicker

Everything tastes good when campfire is involved

Left over Red Lentil and Cauliflower curry from the Veganomicon, and Garlic Naan

Marinated Tofu, Rice Cheese, fried eggs and fresh blueberries.

Just a peek into our Dinner and Breakfast over campfire. We went up to the Elora Gorge Conservation area this summer and had a fantastic time. Clear, deep lake swimming, fishing, hiking...oh and eating!

Make the reservations, fill the cooler, pack the car and GO!
Don't think, Don't stall, just go!

1 - 2 - 3

Summer this year has been the most rewarding summer I have ever had. And the most thinking I have ever done, in one small period of time. Hop into my head and I'll tell you all about it.

I don't usually stop and think about all the good things there are, because I am so busy living through the daily stuff. Unless a cool breeze blows my way, or something beautiful catches my eye, I don't stop moving. I never stop moving. But this week, I have had alot of time to think, which is what vacations are for right? But this vacation I took to get away from daily life. I took it to find the connection to myself that was quickly slipping away. The hustle and bustle of daily life, is a common theme for almost everyone, which leads almost everyone to say the same cliche lines like 'You have to stop and smell the roses or time will pass you by" things like that, ya know?

I am a victim of always thinking one step ahead. When I am eating breakfast I am thinking about lunch, when I am driving I am thinking about what I will do when I get there.

I saw an ad in a magazine for Le Creuset cooking ware, and it showed one of their amazing pots on the stove beside a pile of fresh veggies and herbs, and in the background a group of smiling women around a table. The caption was "This is my Happy Hour" and I laughed because that is the perfect way to describe what I feel.

So I stopped to think about all the good things...

Everyone has their release, and as Happy Hour at the bar is a relaxing thing to do after a hard day, my kitchen is the bar to me, and food is the vice that grips my racing mind and brings me back to the ground.

Standing in my kitchen, chopping, smelling, washing, dicing, every step of the way, is pure instinct. I can pick up two items and smell them and know if they will taste good together. I know by the sound of the oil in the pan if its too hot, I know by the way a mushroom cuts under my knife how old it is. I know by the density of the pizza dough, how long it will need to cook and what temperature I should put it at, so that it cooks slow enough to cook the veggies on top while not over cooking the crust. All these things calm my senses. Knowing things without a doubt, calms me, Life, on the other hand isn't a bowl of produce, I can't anticipate it.

My routine has been thrown off lately. My direction in life is changing. My habits, my complacency in the job world is gone, I am back on the market. There is nothing more sobering than updating your resume and putting yourself through job interviews. Some say that starting fresh is invigorating and wonderful when you are moving in a forward positive direction. But dammit its scary! Its like being the new kid in school, so much to learn, and yet, so much excitement.

But things are different, the jobs I am applying for are in the Adventure Industry, well, the gear and equipment sales of the Adventure Industry. But long story short, is that I know Adventure gear and equipment like I know food. Funny eh? If you were camping, climbing, paddling, hiking, skiing, in hot, cold, wet, dry, high, low, I would know what you need to outfit your entire trip.

So here I am waiting for calls from future employers, waiting to go to another interview on Monday and cooking, at home, on a much needed vacation.

But no matter, what, everything always comes back to food.




Roasted Veggies

2 cloves Garlic
10 cherry Tomatoes
10 yellow Heirloom tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers
1 green pepper
a few turns of fresh cracked black pepper
a pinch coarse sea salt
a few gulps of olive oil

• Slice these all together roughly, toss with olive oil and place on tinfoil. Bake in preheated oven set at 350 for about 20 mins, you don't want the garlic to get too brown so stir the veggies around on the baking sheet every once and a while and pull them out when they are soft and roasted.

• Dump all the veggies into a small high sided container and add:

a handful of fresh chives
a handful of fresh basil.

• Pulse with hand blender a few times for chunky sauce or lots of times for smooth sauce. Toss over some warm pasta with:

a small tab of butter about 1 tbsp.

• A Delicious side dish to accompany a piece of pan fried salmon, or tofu or chickpeas!

Always come back to the things you love.