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.

jewish touch in chinese-american thanksgiving

the day after thanksgiving i begin to dig into the bird. or, more accurately, the fifteen pound bird that my cousin tommy and his family prepared and is now sitting in pieces in bags in my fridge. what happens is there are so much fantastic food at the thanksgiving table that i only manage to have a couple of mouthfuls of the sage-buttered crispy, golden brown skin and juicy breast. actually i really wanted to gobble up the fabulous corn bread stuffing that my nephew byron made and the yummy cranberry sauce that my fifth-grader niece agnes whipped up. they are so good that i can just slurp them down on their own.

anyway, i cannot do justice to it all if i don't pay tribute to the outstanding starters. hmmm. where do i begin? how about this one? 'sweetie in a blanket.' agnes pitted a date, inserted an almond into the hole, wrapped bacon around it and secured it with a toothpick. she did it probably twenty-four times, at least. how about a hand for her patience and stamina? yay, agnes. meanwhile her dad has prepared two dips. check this out. a puree of fennel and roasted garlic. caper, raisin salsa. really. i had to summon all the spiritual force that i have accumulated for eighteen years not to go crazy on them. actually it's more that i was looking ahead, anticipating the crabs, turkey, and all that were to come, and trying to save some space in the belly for them. what next? mashed potatoes. byron suggested adding lox. together with chives, they transformed the homely, humble mashed potato into a golden, lush mound. not to mention hwubby was deeply moved because he was brought up on lox and bagel every sunday growing up. so lox has a special place in his heart. and belly. so there you have it. a jewish touch in thanksgiving.

i still haven't got to the turkey. to be continued.

a very crabby thanksgiving

i say, i really had a lot of crab. hwubby says, you must be kidding, you've had crabs enough for a year. look. i have the pic to show for it. look at the gigundo bowl of shimmering crabs next to the fifteen pound thanksgiving bird.

by the way that green patch on the bird's thigh is evidence of my seven-grader nephew byron's great and hard work as his dad's sous chef. he scrubs sage butter under the skin.

i digress. but it's hard not to when i am in stun and awe of this sublime thanksgiving banquet that tommy, my nephew, and his family spent a week and countless hours to plan and execute.

so, what about the crabs? the aroma is that of the fresh ocean and abundant earth merged into a grand harmony. i take a bite and i totally forget the principle of moderation. i'm determined not to leave a piece behind. in fact i keep licking fingers to make sure i suck up all the flavors. and what a spectacular flavor profile he has created. all right, so tommy, my cousin, has not invented the vietnamese way of making crab. but, in my humble, and, okay, maybe biased, opinion, he has perfected it. the foundation of butter and garlic is solid but not overpowering. how do i know? because the crabs at room temperature are not greasy. the garlic hums in the background like the eternal presence of the sacred resonance of om. the texture is smooth and moist. it has a bite, almost al dente, and yet, in a mysterious way, it feels buttery between teeth. peppery heat sparkle on the palate but not tongue-numbing. in fact it enhances the ethereal brininess which is a sure sign that the crabs are top quality material. there is so much life in each bite. there is not a drop of white wine in sight. only the intoxicating scent remains. just before turning off the high, high heat he drips in a teeny weeny bit of lemon. the touch of acid brightens the brininess the way a pinch of salt infuses freshness and lightness into sweetness. the moment he turns off the heat he showers plenty of finely chopped parsley over the creation. he says, this parsley brings everything together. i don't know why. i don't care. i just can't stop eating. i clean the bowl out.

it's surely a crabby thanksgiving. and it's superb.

anyway, as lord krishna says to arjuna in bhagavad gita, yoga is skill in action. from this perspective, that tommy is definitely a yogi.

to be continued...

thanksgiving dream

i come out of a dream the night before thanksgiving. in a blink it disappears from my consciousness. i make an inner effort to stay quiet and still, both body and mind. the sound of the easy breath flows through my awareness. after a while the dream returns like cascades of gentle waves.

here it goes. hwubby and i are in usa for one day. i cram in as many spiritual activities as i can into the schedule. i pack a small glass container of food and a wallet that holds papers and money. then i have to pass through a crowded place to get the chanting venue. i emerge from the crowd only to find that i have lost both the money and food. the clock is ticking away. i am missing the chant. i start to cry and that's when i flip out of the dream. i find myself feeling safe. all that anxiety in the dream are...so unreal. what a reversal in the states.

happy thanksgiving. so much to be thankful for.

connectedness. spiritual workout. twelve-step

of all the bad and negative emotions and feelings which is the most awful? for me it is loneliness. i am even feeling bursts of shame and embarrassment just becoming vaguely aware of the yucky things i did and said out of loneliness. anyway. last night as i sing om with fellow yogis in our regular gathering - i call it spiritual workout - very soon i hear my voice rising and ebbing with the group's sound. without any pre-arrangement we start a round at the same instant and enter the subtle resonance together. it's a great feeling. our inner selves merge into one conducting the flow of sound. the mind starts to look for a word to encapsulate it. it comes quickly. connectedness. then one insight flows out after another as i am carried aloft on this comforter of sacred sound. i am not alone. we come together as earnest seekers to help each other remember that. the outer connectedness shows me the way to connect with the inner self.

it helps too to have vito's pasta sauce made from home grown tomatoes and prepared in the real italian way.

then i recall a core operating principle of the twelve-step program. when people who truly want to make meaningful change come together we help each other to emerge from feeling isolated. little by little, over time, we reach out for support, guidance and, lo n behold, we see so much higher power already within us, always there, ready, willing and able to walk us step by step to become what we ought to be from where we are.

on the day before thanksgiving i feel so fortunate to have such abundant holy company. really, people who work hard on recovering their connection with higher power are great people to be with. and fun too. in their presence, each in his/her unique and wonderful way, i am reminded who and what i really am. above all, i no longer feel alone. and that is a priceless gift. thank you all.

a truly chinese american thanksgiving. 38 m + 8 m

hwubby says, you ate a lot of food. i say, really? he says, yeah, i came back to the table after hanging out with the kids and you were eating turkey all over again. i say, you don't understand, my cousin remembered he forgot all about the cranberry chutney he and the kids made together. he chuckles, that's why you have to eat more turkey?

meditating on thanksgiving menu 39 m + 21 m

the moment i received the thanksgiving menu from my cousin chun yu, aka tommy in america, i'm concerned this morning's meditation will be a challenge. here's why.

i look at it and i go, this is a banquet from the ninth heaven of yumm-iosity. check this out.
- Butternut squash, leek & apple soup
- roasted Turkey
- grilled shrimp
- Cranberry, ginger & lemon chutney
- roasted beet, onion, and orange salad
- roasted potato with rosemary and mustard
- pumpkin coconut cake