A Sukhasana Life

We put so much effort into our physical practice. But often times that effort can turn into stress. I had a teacher ask this week, “Where can we put forth effort, without bringing us stress?” I asked the same of my students and immediately saw their shoulders sink an inch, while their arms still reached higher. We move our physical body to find more ease. We want to find more ease so we can sit comfortably in mediation and not notice our physical body. Any stress that we find in our movements will be doubled by the time we find ourselves in the so-called Sukhasana, “easy pose” for meditation. ’Tis not an easy pose….but regardless….

As you move through your Friday, can you find strength in your day but ease in how you handle it? What’s the end result?

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And in Yoga News - lots of subbing next week! Check out my updated schedule here: SCHEDULE.

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For so long Yoga has been part of my self care routine but now as it becomes a career, I’ve struggled with how to keep the same peace. To not always be mentally jotting down the teachers sequence, noting if I have liked (or not liked) how they worded something, or just wondering how I would do the same thing differently is a constant tug of war. It is a mental struggle to keep peace with myself on the mat more than ever. I know I know, I need to use my yoga. But in an effort to take it off the mat, I’ve made a concentrated effort to return to writing and baking which are two things that give me peace of mind and allow me to find a source of strength.

All of this has lead to me to Irish Soda Bread! Thank you Barefoot Contessa. I was never into Irish Soda Bread until an old co-worker turned me onto it with her homemade version. Bread-y and sweet. Accessible for breakfast, enjoyable for a mid-day snack, and, as J proved last night as I caught him chomping on a slice after his run, great after a workout. This is a great all around thing to have around, says the yoga teacher who is trying to cut down on her sugar…. If you can’t trust me, who can you trust?

This has to be one of the easiest recipes of all time. I used raisins instead of currents because that’s what was in the pantry. No orange to zest? Leave it out. Check out the original recipe here. Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 cup dried currants

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.

With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet. This is not a joke. 

Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and give it a snow dusting of flour to allow it the room to be kneaded a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.

Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A Practice in Patience

Persimmons, much like our yoga practice, can take what seems to be forever to ripen. If we push too soon, our bodies, our minds (and yes, our permissions) are hard and inflexible. Our movements - not easily digestible mentally or physically and (in the case that a persimmon is thrown at you) injury causing.

It takes time to ripen. It takes time to tune in, draw our awareness inwards, deepen our attentions to our subtler senses. Our goals always seem to be just that. GOALS. If I can just nail that pose, I will be done. But that’s never it. The beautiful thing about yoga, is that one can practice for forever. There is always and consistently something to learn in each pose. You can always move deeper into Virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2) even after the front leg is properly externally rotated and your torso is straight as a board. Where can you soften to explore more? What can you give up so you can gain strength somewhere else? 

The yoga sutras tell us at the asana, our physical practice, is at once steady yet full of ease. Strong yet soft. Comfortable but concentrated. What can you let go of?

In making this cake, I had to let go of the expectation that fruit should ripen at least within a week. I purchased a case of persimmons at Costco a few weeks before Christmas when they are most frequently in the store. I figured they would ripen in a week, I would let them get extremely soft and make an exceptionally sweet fruit cake for Christmas. 

Unfortunately for me, that was not the case. These suckers took SIX WEEKS to ripen. (Yes, I realize this post is extremely dated.) These things happen when one doesn’t buy local I suppose. But consider this a forewarning to those of you who hear next hear the siren call of this bright orange fleshy fruit. Much like achieving handstand, in waiting for a permission to ripen we must practice our patience for a long time, without break and in all earnestness. And just when you think it’s ripe with a touch of give, wait longer. We want them mushy and what we would consider overripe. This is when the sugars are at it’s sweetest.

This recipe is from Beard on Bread by James Beard. It’s an excellent book to have in your repertoire. My big brother gave it to me over 10 years ago and I still take the time to flip through it. You can also see the recipe here at David Leibowitz. It makes two 9-inch loaves. You can also make a round cake or muffins with the batter. I used a scant two cups of sugar because my fruit was so ripe it was basically crystalized. Enjoy!

• 3½ cups sifted flour

• 1½ teaspoons salt

• 2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 2 to 2½ cups sugar

• 1 cup melted unsalted butter and cooled to room temperature

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten

• 2/3 cup Cognac, bourbon or whiskey

• 2 cups persimmon puree (from about 4 squishy-soft Hachiya persimmons)

• 2 cups walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped

• 2 cups raisins, or diced dried fruits (such as apricots, cranberries, or dates

1. Butter 2 loaf pans. Line the bottoms with a piece of parchment paper or dust with flour and tap out any excess.

2. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC) degrees.

3. Sift the first 5 dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

4. Make a well in the center then stir in the butter, eggs, liquor, persimmon puree then the nuts and raisins (optional).

5. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Storage: Wrap in foil after cooling. They will keep 1-2 weeks. Wrap firmly in foil and plastic wrap to freeze. 

Refilling

Going through yoga teacher training is exhausting and exhilarating. You leave with a love of movement, a respect for your body, a peace of mind and most of the all, the intense drive to share yoga with everyone. I left my first teacher training exhilarated. I have never felt so open and free to be in my life. My skin tingled with sensation every time a loved one brushed my arm. The sky was always blue, the sidewalk GOLD. I wanted everyone to feel how yoga has made me feel. 

Simple right?

Not so simple. Being a great teacher takes time. It takes experience, knowledge, the ability to keep constantly learning and failing and doing it all again. All of that leads to exhaustion - physically and mentally. I started this journey two years ago and now I’m into IT. It requires one to always be a student even when you are the teacher. And as I delve deeper and deeper each day, I’m learning more and more how to listen to myself. There are times when I am so drained, I feel like an empty vessel ready to float away. Often after a day of teaching and studying, the mere act of talking can be a chore worse than cleaning the bathroom. 

The thing is, is that I do love teaching. I love being tired at the end of the day from working hard and not from being irritated from whatever office politics I had to deal with. I worked my body, my heart, my soul fully. But when one does that, we must refill our coffers so to speak. We have to refill so we have more to give. When something speaks to us, we have to go for it. And for me, that’s baking. Yesterday specifically, graham crackers. 

I first made them for Valentines Day. My Valentine is into them, specifically when they are layered in-between chocolate pudding. I made both from scratch, because that’s what I like to do. I used this graham cracker recipe from Food52. It was good but the graham flour made things a bit too nutty for me. Yesterday I delved into this recipe from Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery as found on Smitten Kitchen and 101Cookbooks. The result was much much better and while it required the extra step of re-chilling the dough before baking,  it was totally worth the extra time.  Next time I will replace a 1/2 cup of the flour with graham flour to see how that effects things. The bake time calls for 25 minutes. This makes a very crisp cracker. I would check after 20. I pulled mine out after 22 minutes. Enjoy!

Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen

1/3 cup mild-flavored honey, such as clover

5 tablespoons whole milk

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse or mix on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off on and off, or mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse on and off a few times or mix on low until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.

To prepare the topping: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.

Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so flour as necessary. Trim the edges of the rectangle to 4 inches wide. Working with the shorter side of the rectangle parallel to the work surface, cut the strip every 4 1/2 inches to make 4 crackers. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place the crackers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets and sprinkle with the topping. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more flour and roll out the dough to get about two or three more crackers.

Mark a vertical line down the middle of each cracker, being careful not to cut through the dough. Using a toothpick or skewer, prick the dough to form two dotted rows about 1/2 inch for each side of the dividing line.

Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the tough, rotating the sheets halfway through to ensure even baking.