Aaaahhhh! I did it again. I do it all the time. I see things on Facebook that I want to look at but I don’t have time or when I see it is it not the right time to look at it so I open it in another window. Then I can watch it, read it, do it (whatever) days later. But then I forget who posted it. This is a Nia video so I know that one of my Nia friends posted it. It took me days to get around to watching it. Then once I did watch it I was soooo disappointed. It is a video of Carlos Rosas (NKA Carlos Aya-Rosas) at a conference talking about the 5 Sensations of Nia. As he is talking I start looking at the time left and I keep thinking, he’s not going to make it. I kept HOPING he would, but I kept thinking, he is not going to make it. He didn’t. He was halfway through (or so it seemed) his talk about Mobility when the video stopped. Sad face. That is why I was disappointed. I was sad because we don’t get to hear all five sensations. But . . . watching the ones he did get through are well worth it. It is just a bummer that we didn’t get information on all five.
I am not sure what year it is, but you will see that they are being referred to as Debbie and Carlos Rosas. Which I always thought that eventually they were referred to as Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas. But that is not the point of this post or the video I was just trying to see if I could have an idea of what year it was, but again . . . not that important because the information is tremendous.
The information is very helpful no matter when it was recorded. Carlos first walks you through some things you can sense. He connects them to the 5 Sensations. If you’ve read a few of my posts about Nia you might be familiar with my belief that Nia takes everyday things you are familiar with and probably aware of and connects it to Nia ideas. If you watch this you can get an example of them doing that in the time from 2:45 to 7:00.
After the initial connection to the five sensations, the first sensation Carlos defines is Flexibility. He describes it as energy moving out. So not just stretching, but energy moving out. Then he talks about Agility. He describes that as a quick start stop. He uses the adjective “explode”. This is a very entertaining part of the video. Carlos is a very funny speaker. Then he gets a few minutes into a mobility. He describes that as continuous movement. He talks you through a bit of it, then the video stops.
Even though we only get to see two sensations and a portion of mobility it is still great information. I am not giving you too many details because I want you to watch it. It is so much better from the creator than from me just typing what he is saying.
This was posted by Nia, in addition to watching this video you can go to the Nia Channel on Youtube (click here) and see other videos they have posted. Also, you can go to NiaNow.com and watch recordings of classes. From the home page scroll through the pages and you will find videos of Nia classes. You can dance right along with Debbie and other trainers!
I invite you to watch the video and participate with his exercises to connect you with the sensation of Flexibility, Agility, Mobility, Stability, and Strength (this is the first portion I mentioned). Then stick with it for even more connection to Flexibility and Agility.
I teach Nia which is a cardio dance available to any age. At both the low end of the age spectrum and the high end of the age spectrum, if you can safely move about the floor and follow basic movements you can do Nia. So there are young and old Nia dancers. I teach at facilities that have age restrictions, but that is only the facilities, not Nia. Then I also teach gentle yoga to older adults. The classes are held at the “Senior Centers” so while some of the classes are open to those 18 years and older the population in class tends to be older. As I am sure many of you that teach at a facility with older people will attest, it is amazing to work with these people. They come week after week and keep trying. In my class I have a wide variety of experience levels. They come back every week and do the poses to the best of their ability. I am inspired by their drive to keep doing.
I check in with them to confirm that they are seeing and feeling some benefit to the class. With many I can see it, but I want to confirm that they recognize it. Recently one of my students was sharing some things he learned and he said, “I learned that I need to learn how to relax.” I laughed and agreed. It is not easy to do for some. It is not always second nature to breathe and “rest” into a pose. The corpse pose at the end of the class is one of those poses. In fact one class asked if we “had to” do it. I said yes. To me that is part of yoga. That is part of my class. I believe that quieting the mind and relaxing for 5 to 10 minutes after a class is necessary. For many it is a Challenging Easy Pose, it is difficult to be still. Just now as I am typing I remember this person not being able to be still at all when we first started doing yoga. Now there is stillness. I believe every one can benefit from this moment of restfulness. I love that even those who think it is unnecessary, keep trying.
A bit ago we did a pose that several students said is “hard”. I agreed with them. It is hard . . . that is why we are doing it. We are doing a very modified version, but it is one of those poses that works many if not all the muscles in your body, so yes, it is “hard”. And we do it so that they can benefit from it. In working on so many muscles it is a balance pose, that requires flexibility and strength. One of those awesome poses that does so much . . . so we do it. And what spurred me to write this post is that while they were saying it was hard they were not saying, “It’s hard, I don’t want to do it.” They were just saying, “Wow, this is hard.” And then they moved into position to do it again. Love it. Love those inspiring active people in my classes!
I just wanted to share with you that I have some amazing inspirations in my life.
What about you? Do you know any older adults that cause you to think, “I wanna be like that when I am their age”? Some of those people that just keep trying? They might not be doing it in a clearly recognizable way but they are still trying?
You might have seen my post Are You Happy – It’s Your Choice that used the “poster” created by Alex Kopblin. It is a flow chart asking if you are happy with simple instructions on how to stay or become happy. Well, I just connected that to Nia. More accurately to two Nia Principles. I was looking through my Blue Belt Book of Alchemy and it dawned on me that the triad for Principle #1 is kind of like Alex’s flow chart. He asks the question “Are you happy?” whereas in Nia we choose it. His flow chart goes through simple steps to get to happy, whereas the Nia triad leads us to sensation and guides us to “tweak” in order to “sustain” or “increase” our Universal Joy. While I have been thinking about choosing “happy” and joy, I hadn’t thought about either of these ideals/posters. Even though I have Alex’s on my wall, directly in my face. And I certainly hadn’t thought about how they are slightly connected/the same, until right now.
I often feel that Nia and its principles apply to life. That is why it is a practice and not just a cardio dance workout. As I have said many times . . . it IS a cardio dance workout, and if that is all you want to get out of it . . . GREAT. You will get a GREAT workout. But if you want to learn more about it and see how it applies to life you will find things like this.
You will find that Nia and its principle align up with a lot of memes out there on Facebook The information aligns up with so many things because it is body center and it makes sense. Nia is not necessarily the creator of many of these things, but they do have an amazing way of packaging it up. One way they package it up so well is to relate it to movement. There we are back to the cardio dance workout.
Anyway . . . I was a bit surprised to realize both of these ideas pretty much matched up. But then after my initial, “Oh wow!” I realized, as I stated above, Nia connects to a lot of things. While happy and Joy – as in the Universal Joy might not be the same thing, both of these things (the poster and Nia’s principle) are telling us that we are in control. We are in control of our happiness and we are in control of connecting to the Universal Joy. Neither is always easy at all times . . . but they are both always available to us.
I also believe that sometimes we do not choose emotions, sometimes they just happen. There are times in life when we might need to just let them be and experience them. But that might not be where we want to stay and be all the time.
There are many ways to experience the emotion of happiness and there are many ways to connect to the Joy. What is really amazing is that the ways to do so might not be the same for every one . . . everyBODY is different.
What do you think? I am just thinking out loud and marveling at the Nia connection to things. As I wonder – at times – about my choice of Joy.
How are you about finding your own happiness? What do you do to experience your “happy”? What do you do to connect to Joy?
The average body temperature of a healthy, resting adult human being is stated to be at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.0 degrees Celsius. I say average because some people have a slightly higher temperature that is normal for them and some have a slightly lower temperature that is normal for them. So 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.0 degrees Celsius is average. I like what Wiki says: ” Despite what many schoolchildren are taught, there is no single number that represents a normal or healthy temperature for all people under all circumstances using any place of measurement.” Information gleaned from several sources remind us that changes in hormone levels can change the body temperature. Also that the different ways temperature is taken can indicate a different reading. Oral is where you get the average “normal” of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.0 degrees Celsius, where an ear or rectal measure could be higher, and an armpit measure lower. Our weather is too hot for me right now, so I was thinking of body temperature and just thought I note some information. It is interesting to me.
When my mom was first in the hospital a couple of years ago when she had a lobe of her lung removed I first saw the forehead swipe thermometer. I was amazed. I said to the nurse, “What did you just do? Are you kidding me?” I had never seen that before. She picked it up and was done with it before I fully comprehended what she did. I thought that was super cool. Then not too long after I took my cat to the vet and they had an ear thermometer . . . which is GREAT for an animal. Taking an animal’s temperature is the second thing (they weigh them first) that happens at a doctor visit and normally it does not set the right mood. So the ear thermometer is great.
Body temperature can change throughout the day, changing almost a full degree F. It can also change according to its needs, if it is hungry or sleepy its temperature can change. There can also be slight differences from day-to-day. Outside variables also affect body temperature . . . if it is cold or hot outside the body could reflect that. Each body has a “normal” range for it.
I find the difference in heat tolerance to be interesting. I do not like heat . . . at all. To me it is too hot when the temperature is over 75°, but that also depends on if there is not wind. This past weekend the car thermometer said 72° F but there was a wind and it was perfect to me. I loved it. I wish I would have gone outside. My husband likes the temperature warmer. Many people like the sun and heat. Many do not. I find the differences interesting. I often wonder if it has to do with sweating. If I am slightly warm I am sweaty and I don’t like to sweat unless I am working out, like doing Nia. And I know many people who don’t sweat. So they are fine when it is 80° whereas I am too hot and sweaty in that heat. I don’t think my temperature runs high, but I don’t know. I cannot remember the last time I had my temperature taken. And normally I don’t take it unless I think I have a fever so that doesn’t help know what my “normal”.
This is the first day of our “hot spell”. I hope it cools down by the weekend. As they say it will.
So do you know if your body’s temperature is a little higher than the “average”? Is it lower? Do you like hot weather? What do you consider hot?
I imagine I am like all dance exercise teachers, in that when I hear music I enjoy I think about how I can bring it to my Nia class. I think about creating choreography to it. I was thinking the other day about what music would appeal to one of my classes. My train of thought took me on a little journey. First off – before I share my journey – this is not a rant about how modern technology has caused huge chasms between people because while there are some disconnects there are some great connections. This IS a little about how things have changed and how we miss out on somethings but it is more of a ride down a memory rail line then a rant. Many of you that lived through the time period that I am about to mention, have probably heard the “remember when” about when you had to listen to the radio “all” day before you could hear that song (ya know, whichever one you wanted to hear) again. There was no device to turn to that could play it instantly. Unless you held your cassette recorder up to the radio and recorded it, you had to wait for it to be played on the radio. There was also the accidental sharing of music that today’s technology prevents happening.
When I wanted to listen to my music I had to go into the living room and play my records. I usually had to ask if I could. Then I would turn on the stereo with the turntable for the whole house to hear. I am not saying that I played it loud, I am just saying that it was played through speakers so everyone had to suffer through me playing my latest obsession over and over and over. That is why I had to ask permission to play my music. If I was playing it, the people present would have to listen to it. So I am sure my mom got to “know” my music. I shared with her that “latest” tune. The pop music. Now-a-days people have personal devices with which to listen to their music, so it could be that parents never actually hear what their kids are listening to. They don’t get to connect on that level.
Not that parents and kids ever connect on the same level when it comes to music, but sometimes it could happen. I imagine my parents became very familiar with some of my music. I bet they even learned some of the lyrics via pure repetition. I bet that they even grew to like some of it. With these thoughts rolling through my mind, like a leisure train, it made me think that this might be the case with some of my students. I would love to bring music to my Nia classes that reminded them of connections with their children. The connections could even be so tenuous as them not even really liking the song but the sense of familiarity and family would allow their bodies to connect to it. They could move and enjoy the sensation of movement without really thinking about it. They would be able to associate memories to the music.
Ha. These are the thoughts of a Nia Teacher wanting to MOVE her students. But, as I first mentioned, I bet other cardio dance workout teachers think the same way. What do you think? Do you think songs like that could get you moving? Do you think songs with that type of connection could allow you to dance?
This class was held in San Ramon on April 30, 2014!
As you probably know I teach a dance exercise called Nia. It is a cardio workout. If you have read any of my information on Nia you will also be aware that many of the people who practice Nia consider it to be more than JUST a cardio dance exercise. But . . . on the surface that is what I call it, in brief, to let people know what it is. If they are interested then we can discuss some of the other facets of it. Like many exercise disciplines there are star teachers or celebrities. I’ve talked about that before. There is always some people who were there from the beginning and so they have the most experience and often times get categorized into star or celebrity “status”. Yesterday we had a long-time Nia Practitioner and Teacher do a 007 Nia class.
Jason Alan Griffin is one of the first First Degree Black Belts. Nia has created an additional training intensive, they have added a “degree” to the black belt. It is so new that not a lot of information is out regarding that, and I didn’t even think to ask Jason about it. I am Facebook friends with Jason and yesterday was the first time we met in person. Jason likes to travel, so he drives around with his dog River bringing Nia to cities around the United States. He created a routine he called Bond Girls, but recently re-named it to Goldfinger and that is what he is delivering on his current trip. He was in the East Bay last year (I believe) but he packs his travel schedule so tight he doesn’t stay long and so I missed the classes he had. Maybe he was in the North Bay too. I don’t remember. I couldn’t make it. So this trip I was very excited to get to take his class, meet him, and his dog.
Jason is one of those dog daddies that takes his pet parenting seriously and he posts a lot about his dog. So through his Facebook and blog I feel I know both of them a bit so I was happy to finally get to meet him.
Not to use the current happenings in my life as an excuse, but I found myself leaving for the class much later than I intended and also the directions I looked up gave me a different travel time than the day before. I ended up being late for class. And while I felt very bad about that . . . I decided to forgive myself which enabled me to jump right in to his already-started-class. It was so fun.
While the invitation to dress up in something shimmery was there, I completely forgot, but Jason did not disappoint. He had on some shiny silver pants. He led us through many of the 52 Nia moves while we focused on pelvis, chest, head. We used our spear fingers in true James Bond fashion. We danced in our own body’s way and laughed and sang while doing so.
Every time I take a Nia class I realize I am not a Nia student often enough. I love being able to laugh at myself because I don’t get the moves on the first (or how many ever it takes) go around. I love being able to just follow as someone else’s lead. I love being able to learn new pearls and moves. It is so fun. I am so glad that I was able to join the East Bay Nia community while they hosted Jason’s class. It was super fun. I want Jason to come to San Jose to deliver his FreeDance Playshop. 🙂
I hope you jump at the chance to dance with Jason when he is in a city near you. He is really fun to dance with. And if you are lucky, River will sneeze on you!
Thanks, Jason and River. I look forward to your next visit!
Jason leading the class in his silver pants!
Janet and I doing our Bond Girl impressions – with spear finger
Jason and River. River was more interested in the grass than posing!
I love eggplant. I read a blog called Dinner of Herbs and she posted a recipe for Eggplant Bruschetta. Yum. I used to not like bruschetta because I didn’t like tomatoes. But I like it now . . . well it depends. I like some bruschetta and since I love eggplant I thought I would like this. As I was making it I laughed because she only listed amounts for two of the ingredients and it turns out I didn’t use the amounts for those that she stated. Also, I had to laugh–yeah, right!–because I went to the grocery store on Thursday right after my Nia class. I like to do my shopping while I am already out, so on my way home I stopped by the store. My WHOLE reason for going was to get the ingredients for the bruschetta! I even wrote them down. But while I was there I thought of a few other things and completely overlooked one KEY item on my list. I forgot the bread. DUH! Can’t really make bruschetta without the bread. I used to think bruschetta WAS the bread. Then I came to think bruschetta was the tomato mixture. But bruschetta is the bread topped with the tomato mixture. Eggplant bruschetta just has eggplant added to the mixture.
Since I like to run all my errands while I am already out I decided to wait to get the bread on Sunday after my rotation of teaching Nia at the YMCA. HOLY MOLY! My husband is under strict instructions to remind me never to go to the grocery store on a Sunday. Geez louise. I was there over an hour. It was so crowded. But I got the bread! I got two different kind since my husband doesn’t really like bread and he really doesn’t like hard sourdough. So you can imagine he doesn’t like TOASTED sourdough. So I got him some wimpy soft bread and I didn’t even toast it.
Anyway . . . for Dinner of Herb’s recipe I used a very large eggplant and I cut it up into tiny cubes. Way smaller than she shows on her site. I put garlic salt on it. I roasted it for 45 minutes. I only used three tomatoes for roasting. I also roasted them with garlic salt. Then I added a half of a raw tomato along with about two tablespoons of raw chopped onion to the mix of roasted eggplant and tomato. I actually always thought that bruschetta was raw tomatoes so that is why I added some raw tomato.
So I loved it. My hubby ate it. As I said he is not a bread fan so he was not at all excited about it as I was. I thought it was delicious. I think it is so delicious I am going to make it again, but just the eggplant-tomato mixture and put it over pasta.
I am excited about this because – as I just said – it is something else to do for pasta, or heck . . . .anything. To me it is that good that I would just make it as a “salsa” to put on chicken or pork.
I have to say that I did not take good pictures. I was kinda in a hurry. And if you take pictures of food, you know you can’t do it when you are rushed. So . . . .sorry the pictures are not very appetizing, but if you like eggplant and if you like bruschetta you will love this!
Do you like bruschetta? Do you like eggplant? What other type of bruschetta do you make?
Truth. This is not from Trainer Terre or Nia Teacher Terre, this is from The-Daughter-Who-Spent-All-Day-Cleaning-Out-Her-Mothers-Closets. Note: this is the second time I’ve type this as my laptop shut down on me. So now all I can say is that I was ok until we watched 47 Ronin which ends in everyone dying — even those in love – and it was more than I wanted to deal with after having gone through a couple of closets and drawers of my mother’s. It was obvious that my mom loved a bargin. Yet she was very fashion conscious. That she cared for her bargins was evident from how she washed her clothes on the delicate wash cycle and how so many of her things were hung up inside out. It was obvious how much she cared for the clothes no matter how much they cost. It was obvious – to me – that she thought she would be around a lot longer to enjoy said wardrobe.
As I went through each item, so obviously and lovingly cared for, I thought of how much she would have been happy to pass these clothes on to someone who would love them and get use out of them. But we all have our own feelings and ideas of wearing clothes from a dead person’s wardrobe. Many people I contacted were very hesitant. I don’t fault them that, as I said, we all have our own feelings and ideas.
But one person’s response brought tears to my eyes. I told her that I might have shoes for her (depending on her size) and that there were earrings that had her name on them. I asked her if she was she interested. She said, “I’d be honored.” After having seen how well my mom took care of her clothes and stuff. And after seeing all the cute shoes she had that I can’t wear because she had such a small foot. After experiencing that weird feeling of, “this person was keeping things for a life yet to be lived”. It was so wonderful to hear that someone would be grateful to receive stuff from her. It made me so happy to think that my mom’s stuff would be enjoyed. Those three simple words made me humbled to be related to such a woman that would speak them. Those words also made me determined to wear stuff from my mom’s closet and fashion jewerly stash to the family’s Easter celebration tomorrow. I pictured myself standing tall in one of my mom’s color coordinated top ensembles with the dangly fashion gold earrings sparkling as I swished my proud-to-be-my-mamas-daughter-head about! —All this from my cousin’s exclamation.
Thank you, Cousin for helping me though this. Thank you for helping me feel like my mom and the way she lovingly took care of the stuff that mattered to her matters to someone else too. It is very difficult to get rid of things that a loved one had and cared for. When such items can be passed on to someone that will get use of of them, it makes it seem less of a loss–to me.
How do you feel? So you think it is great to pass stuff on? Do you want to just throw stuff away? Do you pass it on to Goodwill? Do you keep it forever? What do you think?
I posted some information on Facebook, but there are Nia students that are not on Facebook, but who read my blog. There are also yoga students who I am not friends with on FB who read my blog . . . and there are many of you who have sent love and support while my mom was dying. I am very grateful for all of the love, support, stories . . . and just everything that has been sent to my family and me. It has helped me more than you know. I will probably go back and tell the story of my mom’s last two years (or so) just because I really feel like sharing the story of the brave woman that she was. Also, it will serve as therapy for me and as a log. I will probably share more about my feelings on this whole “process of dying” that so many people just accept as the way it has to be. I do not agree nor do I feel it is an acceptable way for someone to spend their last days on this earth. The purpose of this post, though is to share with you that my mom died around 11:00 pm on Friday, April 11, 2014.
The hospital called me at a few minutes before 1:00 am on Saturday, April 12, 2014. So I keep thinking date of death is today, but I was told it was about 11:00 pm on Friday. I don’t know the exact time, but that is not all that important. What is important is that she is done with the twelve days of the “process”.
She went to the hospital on Saturday, March 22, 2014 because she could not breathe. They placed a tube in her throat to open the airway because they thought that they would be able to do more for her on the Monday. But her team of doctors decided that there really was nothing more they could do. One of her doctors was willing to perform a very risky surgery if my mom elected to go that route, but she did not. So she was told that she needed to pick a day to die . . . the conclusion reached by her medical team was that once the tube was removed her damaged trachea would collapse shortly there after and death would be relatively quick.
It was a common occurrence though, for my mother to not do anything according to what the doctors have previously experienced or think would happen. That is just how it has always been. She reacted badly to drugs that no one EVER had reactions to. She was always surprising her doctors and teaching them things by way of her body responding to treatments/procedures/etc differently than they had ever seen. This always served as a reminder to them, over and over, that each body is different.
The tube that was in her throat was thought to be keeping her throat open. As I said, the medical professionals thought once it was removed her throat would collapse. While the tube was hooked up to a ventilator it was rarely breathing for her. She was breathing on her own. Only once in a while — when she was tired — did the machine take over. And most often it was only for a few breaths. So she was able to breathe on her own, it was just an airway issue. Because trachea’s can’t be fixed or transplanted she was told she would die and that she needed to decide when that would be.
She sat in bed for 10 days contemplating death. All the while she worried about us — did we eat, we should go sleep, etc. She joked with us and allowed us to talk while she listened. The day for the scheduled extubation was stressful and nothing went as planned. In fact it was twelve days after the tube was removed that she died.
I want to emphasize that the hospital staff and my mom’s medical team was very kind and caring and they did all they could to make the dying process “comfortable”. My issue with the process is not with them nor the hospital. As I said, that is another post altogether, but I wanted to explain that she received good care.
We are now able to enter into the grieving stages of “after a loved one dies” . . . because up until now it was a horrific place of limbo. So, if you are able, please keep up all the wonderful stuff you have been doing. Please keep sending positive thoughts and prayers. Throw over that glitter, sparkle, and shine. I have really been lapping it up and I appreciate it so, so, so, so, so, so much.
Make a toast, take a bite, relish the breath . . . . .
If you have read almost any of my posts you have heard me say that I use my blog as a recipe book and my reminder for things. So today I am writing myself a post about the foam roller. I know I have talked before about using tennis balls to roll out a muscle issue in my back. I actually used a different type of ball – like a huge super ball – because I don’t have any tennis balls, but it helped a lot. This time it was not a muscle issue. And I am not necessarily recommending this as something you should do. I was a little nervous doing it myself, but I really was getting to the point where I couldn’t tolerate the pain any longer. I couldn’t move my head. Driving to teach my Nia class this morning I was doing the full torso twist as I changed lanes . . . I had to lift away from the seat and turn my whole torso because I could not comfortably turn my head. So I used my foam roller to roll out my back.
I believe sometimes stress is held in the body. I think that there is a little stress going on right now. Ya think? And I believe I am holding my stress of late in my back. Normally, as I somewhat alluded too above, I might have stress held in the muscles, but this time it was more in my spine. I am more brave when it comes to muscles or connective tissue issues, but a little leery of trying to adjust my spine, but as I said, it was needed. So I laid down on the foam roller so that I could roll it down the length of my spine.
Now I want you to know that if you have back pain you should see a professional. A professional as in a doctor, a chiropractor, an osteopathic physician , etc. Someone that can treat you and your back. If you are familiar with your back issues and you feel comfortable doing this, that is up to you.
So I used it on my back as I did on my hamstrings in my post Roll Out The Hamstring. But on my back I gingerly rolled on the roller. I started about mid-back,then rolled up, then down. I used my arms to support my weight a bit. Ahhhh, it was fantastic. I moved freely the rest of the day, which was great because I had a Gentle Yoga class to teach tonight. I also did the vertical stretch shown in my first post about foam rollers, Foam Rollers are COOL!
Well, this might be something that might help you, again, I caution you. But I know it will help me, but now I just have to remember and that is why I am posting it. I definitely need a reminder for something occurring during this period of time.
Have you ever used a foam roller? What do you use them for? Do they help with massaging your muscles?
I often feel that Nia and its principles apply to life. That is why it is a practice and not just a cardio dance workout. As I have said many times . . . it IS a cardio dance workout, and if that is all you want to get out of it . . . GREAT. You will get a GREAT workout. But if you want to learn more about it and see how it applies to life you will find things like this.
Anyway . . . for Dinner of Herb’s recipe I used a very large eggplant and I cut it up into tiny cubes. Way smaller than she shows on her site. I put garlic salt on it. I roasted it for 45 minutes. I only used three tomatoes for roasting. I also roasted them with garlic salt. Then I added a half of a raw tomato along with about two tablespoons of raw chopped onion to the mix of roasted eggplant and tomato. I actually always thought that bruschetta was raw tomatoes so that is why I added some raw tomato.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 