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Nov. 25th, 2011 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikI think it might actually be some kind of traditional to, on the day after Thanksgiving, not eat until noon and when I do eat have a slice of mexican chocolate apple bread, some green beans, and a bowl of very good matcha.
It might have been the very best Thanksgiving ever. Which probably tells me a lot about what I like about Thanksgivings. Basically L and I hung out in the kitchen and cooked all day, with breaks to stretch, do yoga and forms, and walk to the grocery for a few last minute things. Which inevitably turned into "well, if we got pecans, we could make pie..." (in addition to the desserts already planned. We never did eat the pear ginger sorbet, and other than a crumb just to taste it, the chocolate bread waited until this morning.)
Actually, to step back a bit, Wednesday evening was kind of epic in its own way. My spine had been being pretty awful, and I had to teach both neurobio and chen, so by evening I was pretty spacey. (I'd encouraged L, by contrast, to take a private lesson with my yoga teacher, which went astoundingly well, so she was in fine fettle. If with frequent digressions along the lines of "My hips feel so much better!" or "My lower back hurts in this really good way!" I just knew they'd get on well...) While putting away dinner I asked L if she were interested in sitting, to which she responded that she didn't really get the how and why of sitting... which led, of course, to us sitting on the floor of the kitchen drinking hot frothy soymilk fresh from the soymilk robot discussing Buddhist philosophy and practice.
Of the many, many things I am thankful for, getting to spend this time together, as grownups, and family, is pretty much at the top. I mean, all the time. I'm coming to not be surprised at the number of things L gets, from her own experience, not to mention the breadth of her sources when it comes to background. There was a lot of her taking something I'd said, turning it around in her own formulation and saying "Oh, yeah, that's pretty much what I'd worked out as my own life's philosophy." Not to mention the digressions into french existentialist philosophers and grunge rock.
And it's getting easier for me to talk about some of these things - and, of course, she's more likely than just about anyone to understand some of the family side of why it was so hard in the first place. Even when I know something is good, true and beautiful, when I've been raised so very much to expect other people to see my experience as freakish... well. That's really been the greatest gift of Chan practice to me. Even more than the community, even more than the institutional history, it has been the chance to see my own experience through the lens of this all just being another aspect of human experience.
And then we sat together. *grin*
Anyhow, Wednesday night I slept long and well, and yesterday I felt much better. And it was Thanksgiving, and our plan, such as it was, was to hang out and cook whatever we felt like cooking, and so we did.
I guess I should include the semi-obligatory menu:
Butternut squash soup
Fennel and tomato salad (those first two being an accidental reprise - I'd planned the soup, and there was fennel at the farmer's market, hey)
Roasted vegetables (parsnips, purple cauliflour, sweet potato, carrots, onion, dressed with lemon and olive oil)
Potatoes mashed with kale (one of L's specialties, and delicious)
Corn bread dressing (more or less the family recipe)
Mushroom bernaise (which isn't really a bernaise, and the execution of which I'd fumbled
Okaro-seitan loaf stuff (a first attempt at an idea I'm rather taken with. The maiitake kind of overpowered the flavor. Still, I think it's going to make some rockin' sandwiches)
Raspberry cider (a bottle of which I'd bought in Seattle before I moved, and really needed to be drunk)
Local apple cider
Pecan pie
Mexican chocolate bread
Ginger pear sorbet (the last two not really appearing as dinner)
I think this is the highest food to people ratio ever.
So, lots of cooking, on a nice laid back schedule as there was no pressure to get the food on the table at any particular time, no elaborate timing or set up plans to manage, and no family drama. A nice rhythm of cooking, doing dishes, grabbing a bit to eat, and checking the computer. Meanwhile we talked about pretty much everything. What we've each been up to recently, things involving nephew T and robots, and dreaming about a future in which we co-own and operate some kind of martial arts, fitness, movement and aerial school (while L has her own aerial dance troupe and I juggle some assortment of research and teaching careers on the side - or possibly clinical practice should I go that route) featuring prominently.
So we set up a table in the diningroom (the designated diningroom table currently being on its top, awaiting repairs to its leg) set out our places, all the food, a beeswax candle in a pretty iron candleholder, and my laptop.
Upon which we watched X-Men, First Class while we ate itty bitty portions of each dish.
Even with itty bitty portions that was a lot of food.
And it was a pretty decent movie, too. (And kind of nice to have an excuse to tackle the food slowly.)
OMG, pie. Yeah, using maple syrup worked well. Though I just don't eat things that sweet anymore.
And then we put away the food, and packed up L's leftovers, and did dishes (for once the dishwasher was run full of dirty dishes, a first since it was installed). And got to bed just before midnight, in plenty of time to drop L a link to the Magneto was Right site.
...and then got up at quarter past four to drive L to the train station. Amtrak does not like Cleveland.
Now it is Friday, and well into the day, and I have a long weekend with few plans and the house to myself. At the moment, at least, I'm actually feel well enough to get a few things done.
It might have been the very best Thanksgiving ever. Which probably tells me a lot about what I like about Thanksgivings. Basically L and I hung out in the kitchen and cooked all day, with breaks to stretch, do yoga and forms, and walk to the grocery for a few last minute things. Which inevitably turned into "well, if we got pecans, we could make pie..." (in addition to the desserts already planned. We never did eat the pear ginger sorbet, and other than a crumb just to taste it, the chocolate bread waited until this morning.)
Actually, to step back a bit, Wednesday evening was kind of epic in its own way. My spine had been being pretty awful, and I had to teach both neurobio and chen, so by evening I was pretty spacey. (I'd encouraged L, by contrast, to take a private lesson with my yoga teacher, which went astoundingly well, so she was in fine fettle. If with frequent digressions along the lines of "My hips feel so much better!" or "My lower back hurts in this really good way!" I just knew they'd get on well...) While putting away dinner I asked L if she were interested in sitting, to which she responded that she didn't really get the how and why of sitting... which led, of course, to us sitting on the floor of the kitchen drinking hot frothy soymilk fresh from the soymilk robot discussing Buddhist philosophy and practice.
Of the many, many things I am thankful for, getting to spend this time together, as grownups, and family, is pretty much at the top. I mean, all the time. I'm coming to not be surprised at the number of things L gets, from her own experience, not to mention the breadth of her sources when it comes to background. There was a lot of her taking something I'd said, turning it around in her own formulation and saying "Oh, yeah, that's pretty much what I'd worked out as my own life's philosophy." Not to mention the digressions into french existentialist philosophers and grunge rock.
And it's getting easier for me to talk about some of these things - and, of course, she's more likely than just about anyone to understand some of the family side of why it was so hard in the first place. Even when I know something is good, true and beautiful, when I've been raised so very much to expect other people to see my experience as freakish... well. That's really been the greatest gift of Chan practice to me. Even more than the community, even more than the institutional history, it has been the chance to see my own experience through the lens of this all just being another aspect of human experience.
And then we sat together. *grin*
Anyhow, Wednesday night I slept long and well, and yesterday I felt much better. And it was Thanksgiving, and our plan, such as it was, was to hang out and cook whatever we felt like cooking, and so we did.
I guess I should include the semi-obligatory menu:
Butternut squash soup
Fennel and tomato salad (those first two being an accidental reprise - I'd planned the soup, and there was fennel at the farmer's market, hey)
Roasted vegetables (parsnips, purple cauliflour, sweet potato, carrots, onion, dressed with lemon and olive oil)
Potatoes mashed with kale (one of L's specialties, and delicious)
Corn bread dressing (more or less the family recipe)
Mushroom bernaise (which isn't really a bernaise, and the execution of which I'd fumbled
Okaro-seitan loaf stuff (a first attempt at an idea I'm rather taken with. The maiitake kind of overpowered the flavor. Still, I think it's going to make some rockin' sandwiches)
Raspberry cider (a bottle of which I'd bought in Seattle before I moved, and really needed to be drunk)
Local apple cider
Pecan pie
Mexican chocolate bread
Ginger pear sorbet (the last two not really appearing as dinner)
I think this is the highest food to people ratio ever.
So, lots of cooking, on a nice laid back schedule as there was no pressure to get the food on the table at any particular time, no elaborate timing or set up plans to manage, and no family drama. A nice rhythm of cooking, doing dishes, grabbing a bit to eat, and checking the computer. Meanwhile we talked about pretty much everything. What we've each been up to recently, things involving nephew T and robots, and dreaming about a future in which we co-own and operate some kind of martial arts, fitness, movement and aerial school (while L has her own aerial dance troupe and I juggle some assortment of research and teaching careers on the side - or possibly clinical practice should I go that route) featuring prominently.
So we set up a table in the diningroom (the designated diningroom table currently being on its top, awaiting repairs to its leg) set out our places, all the food, a beeswax candle in a pretty iron candleholder, and my laptop.
Upon which we watched X-Men, First Class while we ate itty bitty portions of each dish.
Even with itty bitty portions that was a lot of food.
And it was a pretty decent movie, too. (And kind of nice to have an excuse to tackle the food slowly.)
OMG, pie. Yeah, using maple syrup worked well. Though I just don't eat things that sweet anymore.
And then we put away the food, and packed up L's leftovers, and did dishes (for once the dishwasher was run full of dirty dishes, a first since it was installed). And got to bed just before midnight, in plenty of time to drop L a link to the Magneto was Right site.
...and then got up at quarter past four to drive L to the train station. Amtrak does not like Cleveland.
Now it is Friday, and well into the day, and I have a long weekend with few plans and the house to myself. At the moment, at least, I'm actually feel well enough to get a few things done.
