Often weddings are in the evening, but this one was at the same time as my Nia class so I couldn’t teach and then rush off to the wedding.  The wedding was in the morning, at 10:15 am.  (Wow!  Now that I think about it, I think this is the first wedding I have ever been to that started on time!  Wow.  I just realized that.)  It is my opinion that they could not have asked for a better day weather-wise.  It was so gorgeous.  There was not a cloud in the sky.  The sky was clear and blue.  The ceremony was performed out in the open so the sun was shining, but there was enough of a cool breeze that kept if from getting too hot in the sun.  It was just perfect.  The setting was amazing.  It is somewhat of a local place that I had never even heard of.  It is a gorgeous spot.  The Pulgas Water Temple.

After the ceremony the reception was held at the same place that my husband and I got married and had our reception fourteen years ago.  It was so nice to see how the place and “grown” and thrived.  The bride’s room is full of glass cases where they have a favor from the weddings and receptions they hold there.  I spotted ours, but the picture didn’t come out.

The real reason I am posting about this wedding is they did something so lovely at the reception I wanted to share.  I have never seen this done and I loved it so much I wanted to put it out there.  After the bouquet toss, they called all the married couples to the dance floor.  Then they invited all of us to dance including the bride and groom.  Then the DJ started calling off years.  Asking who had been married less than . . . . as they called the number of years couples left the dance floor.  So at the end the couple married the longest was left dancing with the bride and groom.  This might be a tradition of the reception hall because the couple that remained received a bottle of champagne from the bride and groom “and Freedom Hall and Gardens“  I thought it was so cute.  So special.  It is a reminder that marriages can last.

The couple that remained was the grooms grandparents.  They have been married 61 years.  That is definitely something to celebrate and deserves a bottle of champagne.  Of course, it didn’t even cross my mind that I would be posting about it so I didn’t take a picture of them.  But it really was special.  I love this idea!

The day was gorgeous, the wedding locations was gorgeous, the reception hall was gorgeous, the bride was gorgeous, it was all just gorgeous.  And I really loved the “married couple dance”.  I look forward to the day when my husband and I are the last ones remaining on the dance floor for this very special dance.

I felt I had to share that because there really is so much in the book.

That popped into my head as I was sitting here thinking about going to go make dinner.  Here is what we are having:

Terre’s version of the Rantings of an Amateur Chef’s recipe:

Cauliflower Stuffed Portobello Caps

4 large Portobello mushroom caps
most of an entire head of cauliflower
3 green onions
1/2 C cooked and chopped bacon
1/3 C milk
3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 C shredded Gouda cheese
salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Cook the bacon.

Scrape out the inside of the cap to remove the stem and gills.

Chop the green onions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the cauliflower into large pieces. Steam for 6-8 minutes. Place hot cauliflower into the blender and some of the milk.  Blend. Add milk as needed to achieve a mashed potato-like consistency. Mix with bacon and onions.

Fill caps with cauliflower mixture. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Sprinkle with shredded chesses.  Put a few onions on top. Place on a cookie sheet.  Bake for about 15 minutes on the lowest rack in the oven.

The first time I made this I didn’t use the bacon and I will be doing that version a lot more often.  It is really good!  But I also wanted to try it with the bacon.

So I am going to go cook, then take pictures and post it all at one time!**

Do look at the Ranting Chef’s blog as he cooks some amazing things.  The difference between his recipe and mine is he did not determine from the get go how many mushrooms.  His recipe calls for only one half of the cauliflower head, he used bacon bits out of a package (which is uber smart because it helps keep the recipe easy!), his seasoning is pepper and pepper only, and his instructions are to cook it only for 5 minutes.

I don’t like pepper so what I do is just sprinkle each mushroom individually so that my husband, who likes pepper, can have more of that flavor, while I just barely do a turn of the pepper grinder.  I also like my mushrooms more cooked when they are stuffed.  I have made stuffed small mushrooms and find that I like to cook them a bit before hand.

It’s your turn.  Make this recipe and let me know how you like it.  Let me know how you adjusted it.

**Ok, so I didn’t like it with the bacon, but my husband did.  I like crisp bacon and putting it in with the cauliflower made it just like bits of meat in the mix.  I also forgot to mix the onions IN so ended up with them just on top.  The bacon bits from a package might make it worth it, but dealing with bacon was not worth it to me.

Don’t The Cauliflower Stuffed Portobello Caps sound yummy? 

As you might have noticed, when I try a new recipe, or just try making something I sometimes like to share.   Even if the recipe still needs some adjustments I have to start somewhere.  I like to post my recipes because I find myself using my blog when I am going to make something.  I can even be at the store and get the idea that I want to make a certain recipe then I think, “Shoot I don’t know what it is in . . . . ahhhh, but I posted it on my blog!”  So I use my blog at the store to grocery shop sometimes.   Here is a recipe of something that I made that I need to work on.

I haven’t always liked hummus, but once I started eating it.  I really liked it.  There is a brand that my husband found that is really good.  It is smooth and creamy.  We used to eat it often.  But it has Canola Oil in it.  I prefer not to eat Canola oil.  I have always wanted to make my own hummus so I thought not eating our favorite brand would inspire me.  It did not.  My issue was tahini.  I don’t think of tahini.  So when I go to the store I am not thinking, “Oh yeah, I need tahini.”  I know you can make hummus without it.  I believe my friend makes hummus all the time and she never used tahini.  I haven’t tasted her hummus that I can remember so I don’t know if it is good without tahini or not.

The other day I was online and I actually bought tahini.  I decided on wanted to finally make some hummus.  There are a lot of recipes out there for hummus so I took some ideas from several of them.  I need to work on it.

I used:

2 cups canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
3 teaspoons liquid from the beans
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon garlic flavored olive oil

I put everything in the blender and blended until smooth.

I prefer my hummus a little more smooth and actually creamy, but the blender was making odd noises so I didn’t want to push it too far.

First of all I think it is too salty.  Next time I am going to use less salt and less tahini.  I am also going to use less lemon juice.  I am also going to use fresh garlic.  I used some we have from a jar.

Not too bad for my first try, but not so great.  But sometimes I just need to get in there and do it — make the recipe — so I can see it is easy to do so then I can play with it and make adjustments.

Do you like hummus?  Do you make your own?

There are a lot of stretches that can help lengthen this group of muscles.  The yoga Pigeon Pose comes to mind.  This is a great pose because the leg that is straight out towards the back get the lengthening benefit and sensation, while the bent leg assist in opening the groin area and stretching those muscles.  The butterfly stretch really stretches the groin area, too.  The closer you can get your feet to your pelvis the bigger the stretch, and the close the knees to the ground the bigger the stretch.  This is a great stretch you will definitely feel in the inner thighs.  The spinal twist both supine and seated can bring great relief.  So whether you are laying down and allowing your legs to be on one side of you or whether you are sitting up with one leg out and hugging one bent knee, you still get a nice stretch for the pair of muscles whose origins starts in the lower back.

One stretch I love to do is somewhat like a spinal twist in that you let the legs twist to one side, but instead of bringing them over to one side as a pair you let one leg start its journey to the other side of your body and the other one follows in its own time.  Think of your legs as pages in a book.**  One leg goes then the other leg flips (as a page) slowly.  No rush.  Also if you allow one leg to fall to one side while the other is on the first side (think open book) it is similar to the butterfly stretch but with hips completely open.  Then ”close the book” having your legs end up on one side while gently twisting to the other, you get the nice gentle stretch in your back.  In Nia our floorplay cycle often includes many of these.

Swinging your leg from front to back either in a standing position or lying down on your side can stretch the muscles.  Let the leg swing as far to the front as comfortable and then as far back as is comfortable.  In both the standing and lying position you want to keep you back straight.  Don’t let it get into the swing of things, just let your leg swing.

Some exercises can assist in stretching the muscles too.  The lunge, especially a long lunge, helps stretch and lengthen the muscles and open the hips a bit.  The leg that is stretch back with get the stretch in the front.  You can either do the lunge stepping forward or back, but the longer the step the bigger the stretch.

These are just some simple stretches that might help loosen up your hips if you have tight hip flexors.  If you tend to sit at a desk that could be something that is happening.  Make your hips juicy and happy by stretching them a bit.  It might even help you walk taller and with more ease.

**This image I learned from Debbie Rosas at my Nia White Belt Intensive. I use it all the time in class.

Do you ever sit so long when you stand up you kind of are bent over at the hips?

Back in 1931 a chemist (Arthur Fox) was pouring a powdered chemical (PTC) and some of its dust got in the air.  His assistant said the dust tasted bitter, while he couldn’t taste anything.  The chemist proceeded to experiment with PTC and the taste on his friends and family.  Some could taste a strong bitter taste, while some could taste a mild bitter taste, while some could taste nothing at all.  Seventy-two years later in 2003 the gene that is responsible for this was discovered.  They call it the PTC gene or TAS2R38.  This gene has seven forms, five of which are rare, and two of which are common.  The two common forms are the ones that allow for tasting bitter and one that does not.  Since all genes come in pairs we can end up with both being the tasting gene, or both being the non-tasting gene, or one of each.

If an individual ends up with both of the genes that allow for them to taste PTC then they will be able to taste bitter things more strongly than others.  If an individual has the genes that are the “non-tasting” genes then they don’t taste bitter.  Then there are the individuals that have one of each. It has been found that there is a familial link, if some family members can taste the PTC than other can too.

I would imagine that if an individual has a set of bitter-taste genes then it would be almost impossible to cover up the bitter taste of many vegetables.  I am thinking that my friend and her family must have a set of those genes because she says she has cooked some veggies a multitude of ways and her comment is still, “It is so bitter.”  Probably the only way to deal with the bitter is to cover it up entirely in a sauce but then that would somewhat defeat the purpose of trying to eat a nice green healthy vegetable.  Plus I would bet that most of the sauces contain ingredients she is trying to avoid.  She is determined though.  She knows that the bitter vegetables have really good stuff in them so she keeps trying.  In the meantime her family is still getting the nutrients even though it is bitter and doesn’t taste good.

There are test strips that can be purchased to see which gene you have.  I found some on Amazon.  Interesting, huh?

Do you have a good sense of taste?  Do you taste bitter really strongly?

I had noticed when my husband was trying to work out the knot I had the strangest sensation.  The spot of the pain was right beneath my shoulder blade but when he was pressing on it a tingling poking kind of sensation travelled up my entire shoulder blade.  I thought that was very odd.  I thought the muscle must contain a lot of nerves that run along the scapula.  I thought it was odd that I had this disbursing sensation over my shoulder blade.

That was over the weekend and after Nia class on Monday one of my Nia students, a physical therapist, said she would look at it.  She found the knot - as it was easy to feel and she began working on it.  She said it was fascia!  Ahhhhh!  That explains why when my husband was trying to rub it out think it was a knot in the muscle I was sensing it all over my shoulder blade.  (Wiki:  “A fascia is a structure of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding some structures together, while permitting others to slide smoothly over each other.”)  She pressed on both ends of it and was able to work it out.  The next day it was sore, but I used the ball and it has been fine since.  Fascia is fascinating.  Fascia is the yellow stuff that is sometime still connected to chicken breast.  And I am sure if you work with whole chickens you can see it too.

Here is a video about “fuzzy” fascia. Below the video on YouTube, Gil Hedley has noted that since the video was made in 2005 he has somewhat changed his ideas a little bit.  But the video itself is still fascinating as it shows you the fascia in the body.

WARNING this video is of a cadaver.  Mr. Hedley is using it to show what fascia is. He stated in his updated write up “ . . . it is normal for there to be “fuzzy” tissue between “individual muscles” within the muscle layer. As with all tissues of the body, all the matter of which it consists is transitioning at various paces, some quicker, some more slowly. “Fuzzy” tissues indeed cycle more quickly then some more dense tissues.”

As we know it is not just keeping our fascia mobile as the reason for moving, but it is interesting to see another part of our bodies that benefit from movement.  I knew about fascia before discovering Nia, but I was introduced to Gil Hedley via Nia.  Nia often makes the scientific connections in our continued education.  There is a lot of continuing education material that deal with anatomy.  Moving our fascia is just one reason why we dance.

The recipe said to bake it at 200 degrees for 45 minutes.**  I didn’t think I had 45 minute so I put the temperature up to 300 and left it on for 30 minutes.  I didn’t feel that the eggplant was cooked enough so I turned the convection oven on and set the timer for 30 more minutes. I turned it four times because it was getting flat on the pan side.

In the meantime I was cooking my soup.  I only had one bunch of baby bok choy, a bunch of kale, and some broccoli.  I swore I wasn’t going to put broccoli in a soup again, but . . . I didn’t think the rest would make it.  So while I was trying to fake making soup I wasn’t really paying attention to the eggplant.  My soup finished before the eggplant.

By the time I finally thought the eggplant was cooked enough to split I split it.  I was thinking that I would make one half for me and one half for my husband.  I salted it, I put a bit of garlic on it, I put a little bit of parmesan cheese on it.  Then I looked over and I saw the onions I had chopped to put on it.  And the kale.  So I decided to put the onions and kale on one half and hubby and I would just get a half of each half making a whole half.

I put it back in the oven and let it bake for a bit more.  Half way through the end of baking portion I saw the ginger and turmeric on the counter.  Snap!  I forgot to put it on.  So I sprinkled a little turmeric on both halves.  I put the broiler on for about 10 minutes.

Here is the result.

From the time I thought to cook the eggplant to the time I put it in the oven to finish baking I had thought of three different ways to flavor it.  I had originally thought to use garlic, turmeric, and ginger, then I thought of garlic, onions, and kale, then I thought of garlic, and cheese.  That really is not a big deal the big deal is that I forgot one each time I thought of the new one.  Geez!  What I ended up with was ok.  I think it needed a little bit more flavor.  I will work on that.  I don’t even think I tasted the turmeric.

I like cooking eggplant this way because it is much less time-consuming than turn the slices all the time.  But I think I like the roasted slices better.  But I will continue to experiment with this.  I might try slicing it into three pieces next time.  Although a baked eggplant is not easy to slice.

**It just dawned on me that the 200 degrees was probably Celsius and not Fahrenheit.  So it would actually be about 400 degrees F.  Ha!

I can’t wait to try this again!

What do you think of this way of cooking eggplant?  What would you put on the eggplant?

Closed stance is one of the six stances in the Nia 52 Moves. There is Closed Stance, Open Stance, A Stance, Sumo (or Riding) Stance, Bow Stance, and Cat Stance. I believe that in its basic form closed stance is the easiest. But when other elements are added that might not hold true.

We can practice our agility by walking quickly then stopping in closed stance. We might choose to be in closed stance while we allow just our arms to be agile . . . moving around in a starting and stopping fashion. We could just let our closed stance be stable as our arms are mobile. We could do an entire body dance . . . close stance dance. For some this is a challenge, even though our feet are formed into a rectangle and the idea is of a stable base it is still a practice in balance to have your feet secured to the earth while the rest of your body moves around.  As I said, what we do with a close stance might not be so simple.

Practicing walking and stopping in closed stance is a good check to make certain you are not landing in “toes in“. The heels shouldn’t be that far apart as if you are doing toes in. Yet the toes should be touching. Coming from other stances to closed is good for conditioning the legs. Moving from Sumo to closed, or from at to closed is something to practice. Again we don’t want our heels to land too far apart making us pigeon toed.

I know of several routines that have us going through the stances. We start out in closed, then go to open stance, then go to A stance, then go to sumo. In some routines we work back through the stances, but in some we do move right into closed from sumo.  I can’t think of one where we go from closed to sumo, but I bet there is one and I just can’t put my finger on it.  Nia loves to mix up the moves to get the most out of the workout.

Can you sense the stability in the Nia Closed Stance?

Nia is a unique cardio dance exercise that combines nine movement forms into a fun and energizing workout.  Nia has moves we call the 52 Moves.  Many of them are common to other dances.  I am posting here about Toes In, Out, and Parallel.  I know I have seen these moves in other dances if not done together at least done separately.

To do the move as one move you start with your feet parallel to each other.  They can be hip (joint) width apart.  Then turn your toes in to face each other.  Turn them in as far as you comfortably can.  Then swivel your feet out so the toes are pointing in opposite directions.  Again, only do it as far as you can — comfortably.

This is the whole move.  There is a routine where we are in A Stance and I have the participants dance toes in then toes out.  Which I consider a lot of fun.  You can play with this move by trying to walk with toes facing in, then with toes facing out.

I like to play with the move by doing one foot toes in and out.  Sometimes just letting one foot do a dance all of its own; in, out, in, out, tapping my toe to the ground with each twist of my leg.  I also like to do this move with varying stances.  My instructions here say to start in open stance, but it can easily be done in A Stance  (as I mentioned I do in my Nia class).  You’ll notice that different muscles are used when you change the width of your stance.

Moving the feet in this manner allows for all the bones in the leg to rotate which gets the thigh bones moving in the hip socket.  Movement is a way to keep the joints health.  Movement helps fluid into the joints.  I say “juicy joints.”  We move to have juicy joints.

In addition to helping the hip joint this move helps keep the ankles mobile and the knees flexible.

With healthy hip joints, ankle joints, and knee joints the enables walking and moving in general to be done with ease. So even though this is one of the moves we use in our dance exercise routines that does not mean the use of it is limited to that.

You can decide to walk with toes in for a bit during your day, then with toes out.  While standing you can stand with toes in, then out, then parallel.  It is an easy exercise to play with and incorporate into your day.  And it really does help with the health of your joints.

Are you gonna do it?  On your trip from your desk to the coffee pot?  While you are going about your day with the kids?  Which on in your favorite, in or out?

The vowel sounds related to the chakras are as follows:

CROWN CHAKRA:  EEE as in “me”

BROW/THIRD EYE CHAKRA:  AAA* as in “say”

THROAT CHAKRA:  EYE as in “my”

HEART CHAKRA:  AH as in “ma”

SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA:  OH as in “go”

PELVIC CHAKRA:  OOO as in “you”

ROOT CHAKRA:  UH as in “cup”

The idea is to say these sounds in a specific note.  If you have a keyboard or a phone with an app that has a keyboard or an app that can give you examples of the notes it might help you.  Or you might be musical and know what the notes sound like.

EEE is to be made in the B note
AAA is to be made in the A note
EYE is to be made in the G note
AH is to be made in the F note
OH is to be made in the E note
OOO is to be made in the D note
And UH is to be made in the C note

These sounds are to help open and heal the chakras.  Or to keep them balanced, all depends on your needs and your practice.

As with everything there is a wealth of information out there on how to “do” the vowels.  The commonalities I am seeing is to sit comfortable with a lengthened spine.  Be relaxed.  Use a normal breath.  Repeat each sound seven times.

I have used these sounds in my Nia classes when we are using a chakra as a focus.  I am going to take this list and use the vowels sounds just as I did the healing sounds.  The focus can be the chakra vowel sounds and we can create an intent from there.  Yay!  I love thinking of things to use as focuses in my classes.  I also think that sitting down to make these sounds as a specific exercise is a good idea. What do you think about chakra vowels?  Might you try the exercise?

*Many places note this as “AYE” but to me that is AYE, as in what a pirate says.  So I noted it as AAA, like Fonzie would say.