i become one with the soup

i meditate two hours. so satisfying. so relaxing. it never ceases to amaze me. really. i just sit quietly, keep paying attention to the way the breath is coming in and going out of me. i am not doing anything really. after a little bit there is just this sound of waves massaging the body, mind and i lose the sense of what is within and what is without. i feel boundlessly expansive. i feel abundant beyond measure.  simply sublime.

occasionally i see this thought and that emotion appear. none of them bother me. and then a gentle and sweet reminder comes up. you haven't tried the thai turkey soup yet. o, yes. i refreshed the soup yesterday with the last and big piece of carcass, threw in more carrot, turnip, potato. i was so absorbed in it that i completely forgot about the thom yum. somewhere around this point i realize i am caught up in a thought wave. one thought pulls out another, and another. i summon the spiritual force to bring attention back to the breath wave and choose to ground my understanding in this. it doesn't matter what the content of the thought, or whatever mental activity, is. that's irrelevant. any mental activity is a temporary flash of pure consciousness, which is my essential nature, reflected on the screen of mind. i experience satisfaction and joy not because of the thoughts. as a matter of fact such satisfaction and joy are not derived from the food, or anything outside of me. they are what i am. they add the taste of oneness to whatever i eat. indeed i can safely say i become one with the soup. it is complete and perfect as it is.

i am still going to try it with some thom yum though.

reborn turkey soup with thai touch

hwubby walks in the door from the dark cold outside. he says, it smells beautiful. i ladle out a bowl of steaming turkey carcass soup. he says, this smells like a dream, looks like a dream and you are a beautiful dream. i gotta say this turkey soup is a beautiful dream all right. cubes of carrots, turnip and potato float. i layer the bowl bottom with slices of the bright white, juicy breast meat that i carved out earlier. the aroma is intoxicating with notes of celery, pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, sage. it's so good that i have three big bowls and that's my supper.

today i'm going to take it up another notch. how? listen to this. i come downstairs after meditation to make my chai and what do i see? an almost empty jar that has a little bit of thom yum paste. this is the interesting part. it's been loitering on the counter for a while. i mean to but somehow i never get around to make a thom yum. in this moment i know why. today i'll spoon a little bit into the soup, not to make a thai soup out of it but just to heighten it with some spunk. now that's a truly inspired inner message:) hwubby says, we'll have old soup today? i say, no, the turkey is too huge for the pot so i had to leave a big piece out. therefore today's soup is not leftover but reborn. this is really something fun to look forward to.

what fabulous cousins and nephew and niece i have. i am truly lucked out. thank you tommy, daisy, byron and agnes.

turkey carcass and inner self

here's the way i love to eat turkey. the day after thanksgiving i take out the carcass and start digging in and tearing out with all fingers. somehow cold leftover turkey meat, particularly those that are hidden in the nooks and crannies, taste even better. this year i take it to another level. check this out. my cousin, tommy, made the gravy by reducing the juices for two hours. really. this baby is deceptively simple. it's naked. there's nothing else but the bird essence infused with sage butter and flavors of cornbread stuffing. i warm it up. the aroma is subtly rich. it's a great dip for this high quality turkey meat. then i have an inspired idea. i ladle it over steamy basmati rice. truly a meal in a bowl. so now what do i do with the rest of the turkey meat? no worry. the cranberry sauce that agnes, my niece, made is spot on for the purpose. under her dad's supervision there is a fine balance of sweet and sour, smoothness and texture. it really brings out the gentleness of the meat.

and so it is that the turkey we didn't get to eat on thanksgiving serve fantastically for days after, and still counting.

tomorrow i'm really getting to the top fave of turkey activity. carcass soup. in this morning's meditation it comes to mind that there's a bag of shiitake stems in the freezer. brilliant prompting. it will make the soup that much more special. i know the inner self really knows. yet it never ceases to amaze me.