Pickling is one of the oldest and easiest ways to preserve foods. Anything can be pickled. Fruit pickles! Veggie pickles! Pickled fish! Pickled pork! Pickled beef! Pickled eggs! Ok you get the idea anything can be pickled. Once you start pickling things you may not want to stop experimenting.
Generally when we think of pickles we thing of the ones from the grocery store where every bottle tastes the same as the next. Real pickles, homemade pickles have the bite of vinegar the crunch of the cucumber, slightly salty, slightly sweet. The true taste of a pickle is the one you make. When you make your own pickles you can substitute different types vinegar, kick up the heat by adding a dried chili to the jar before you seal them. Have a sweet tooth, make some super sweets. Want to make a crowd pleasing topping for deserts how about desert pickles?
All this pickle talk has made me think of one question. Why do we refer to pickles as only cucumbers? The reality of the situation is that the liquid that the cucumbers is put in is the actual pickle, the result is a pickled cucumber. The real champion of the equation is the vinegar. Vinegar's preservative powers are top of the class. The high acidity of vinegar makes it an unwelcome environment for just about all micro-organisms, which is why we have to add some spices and maybe some sugar to the mix to make the pickle taste less like window cleaner. There are some tried and true combinations that have been handed down over the years. Pickles are probably only limited by your imagination. So get out in the kitchen and get yourself into a pickle! It won't hurt I promise.
"What does open to grace mean to you? "This question creates many different thoughts and feelings that come rushing to the surface. Open to grace means to soften to the unknown, to surrender all of your pre-made plans when things don't turn out just like you want or expected. To climb to the highest mountain and accept that the reason you came up was to step off the edge to spread your wings and fly. Understaning that the next step you take maybe terrifying but you take it anyway not to prove anything to yourself or anyone else but because it is the right thing to do. When you open to grace you connect more fully with your inner truth.
It has been about 6 weeks now that I have been teaching regular yoga classes and in that short space of time I have discovered the freedom of non-planning. I began by meticulously planning each class and trying to create a theme or an idea that all the poses were based around. I then began to look at my own practice. I didn't plan anything when I went to the mat I just did what my body was calling for. During my practice I might begin thinking of sequences to share in a class or thoughts arise that maybe pertinent to other practitioners. Most of the time I keep these things to myself because the class doesn't seem to be asking for that information. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if the students are truly understanding what I am talking about especially when I ask them to move a part of there body that they may have never thought about before. It does seam that most yoga instructors have the same difficulty with this, always wondering if the students understand what they are talking about.
So far I have gotten numerous reviews of "great class" and even more since my lack of planning has created more freedom to try to tailor a class to the students who are there at the time. Sometimes this works out very well and sometimes the students leave with looks on there face that tell me they have no idea what just happened.
Well I think I will just continue to experiment and let things flow.
Generally when we think of pickles we thing of the ones from the grocery store where every bottle tastes the same as the next. Real pickles, homemade pickles have the bite of vinegar the crunch of the cucumber, slightly salty, slightly sweet. The true taste of a pickle is the one you make. When you make your own pickles you can substitute different types vinegar, kick up the heat by adding a dried chili to the jar before you seal them. Have a sweet tooth, make some super sweets. Want to make a crowd pleasing topping for deserts how about desert pickles?
All this pickle talk has made me think of one question. Why do we refer to pickles as only cucumbers? The reality of the situation is that the liquid that the cucumbers is put in is the actual pickle, the result is a pickled cucumber. The real champion of the equation is the vinegar. Vinegar's preservative powers are top of the class. The high acidity of vinegar makes it an unwelcome environment for just about all micro-organisms, which is why we have to add some spices and maybe some sugar to the mix to make the pickle taste less like window cleaner. There are some tried and true combinations that have been handed down over the years. Pickles are probably only limited by your imagination. So get out in the kitchen and get yourself into a pickle! It won't hurt I promise.