Pig is Nude, Unashamed

Spicy Cashew Pork and a Haircut

This Spicy Cashew Pork checked all my boxes, colorful, a little heat, bold flavors and textures.  I toasted the rice and it's nutty bite paired so well with the juicy vegetables.  

 I used this as a base recipe.

Before I got to porkin', I was to get a haircut.  I could go way shorter or try another layered shag. 

My dear friend recently mentioned she thought it was wrong that I referred to the mind as the ego and it's been a point of contention for the last years, all these related words.  You get to processing some of this higher thinking and you can start losing it when you try to make any sense logically instead of letting it wash over you.  Choosing the wrong words like brain instead of mind, or mind instead of ego probably does matter somewhat.  You almost need to be in an altered state to comprehend who operates the ego or where it originates.  It exists mainly as thought, your story, your perceived projection onto the world. Perhaps the ego goes in and manipulates the brain as it's tool, like those insects that take over the bodies of other insects and use them as hosts.  When you're in consciousness, we use the mind to deal with life therefore the ego cannot take the wheel.  Some believe the sooner we can all shift to living more through consciousness, we can begin to evolve to a better way of living on this planet, which we clearly need to do.  This shit is broken.

So many people live only in the material world and it's getting more and more hollow there, so I believe we'll see more converts. 

The brain is the organ that controls the mind but could also be the zombie host for the ego.  This becomes complicated and reminds me of sitting in Religion class at Catholic grade school.  The nuns taught us God is one, but also made up of the father son and holy spirit.  It's that Holy Spirit that gets a kid wondering, if that  is our soul, the light in all of us, the eternal flame.  We are so many things at once, our mind, body and soul.  Then you throw in brain, ego, consciousness, God, our environment, our perceptions, experiences and more.  Some say nothing is real, what we think we see is just a creative way to process this vast universe.  Some say consciousness created the universe so that it could experience itself.  

How is it that we can't fully comprehend these complex ideas, yet we sense the truth of it in some very distant way.  Distant where though?  It is as if you can feel truth deep somewhere, but not necessarily inside of you.  

Some say we carry pain, our pain-bodies, as if that is a separate identity too.  The pain could be from our own experiences, or many generations past.  They say women carry unique pain.  But the pain body is not you, it is another bodily manifestation of ego, even though it seems to have real roots, possibly in our DNA.  There is presence and being present, which is being, which they say is what we are, a being, a human being.  Living is being.  When you are being present, you are in the state of awareness, which is consciousness. There is a presence in dogs and cats and flowers, we can sense it but it's almost impossible to distinguish this from ourselves.  We are part of that presence.  We are awareness.   So, I got a shag. 

Hey Baby, You're a Free Girl Now

Summer Shrimp Delight

My friend Lisa sent me this Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing idea and I finally made it, put it on my taco's and as a salad dressing as well as a nacho sauce.  It's very versatile and just like she advertised, it's addictive!  This time I created this wildly refreshing and spicy shrimp over polenta with greens and corn.  I carry some pride on this one.  Also it's the first dish post-COVID that I got excited about making.  I was filled with if not energy, at least more will then before.  COVID zapped me clean of my vigor along with muscle strength and breath more long term than I care to admit.  But it's coming back slowly.  It's hard but I'm accepting what is, as they say.

And I can't allow myself to get depressed because I no longer believe in depression.  It's only a thought in my mind.  I tell ya, they need to teach this stuff in grade school, could have saved me years of pre-teen ulcers.  It's the single best thing I learned probably ever, that nothing unreal exists.  Mind-blowing, life changing, earth shattering!  And it's the greatest news that should be shouted from rooftops.  The mind really loves chaos and works very hard to keep us in these troubled states and believing all sorts of idiotic concepts.  The ego isn't real either.  In fact, her only power is when we allow her to control our thoughts.  Many spiritual teachers explain these ideologies in different ways, and I've searched for years for answers, something just finally clicked.  To be fair I was raised Catholic and many of these teachings were there hidden inside these beautiful, poetic, but way too complicated stories for a child to grasp.   But the most important basic truth, that we are not our egos or minds, but instead a unified consciousness, that one was lost on me until my late 20s, when my ego said, 'Uh, yeah yeah, we'll get back to that.  Hey, come check this out!'  and not until now did I ever really fully come back to it.    

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

I don't have to fight my demons anymore!  I just have to breathe and stay in the present.   Those looming dark clouds, potential calamities, cannot bring me suffering when I stay in the moment and don't allow my mind to come in and start running things.  And in one of those free moments, I had the great opportunity to make magic out of a bag of frozen shrimp.   I put a little extra jalapeno in the creamy sauce, so the Cotija cheese and green onion cut some of the heat and gave it such brightness. The wilted spinach was that just-right bite of bitter, the sweet corn, the earthy Polenta and then those spicy shrimp!  What a delight!

Thich Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese Buddhist Monk

You Ain't Never Caught a Rabbit

Is it world wide consciousness that puts ideas out there for me to create or do I develop ideas in my own mind?  While pondering the universe I wonder about where inspiration really comes from.  Where does that creative spark originate?  I could swear some of my best thoughts come while riding my bike home from work.  I've always considered this to be me, Andy..oh what an inventive girl is me!  But now I wonder if my mind has turned off so the thoughts are able to come in from the unending stream of consciousness that exists in and all around us.  One must be very present when you ride a bike, in Brooklyn.  You are living in the moment in a way that is forced but effective and pretty awesome.  And while there, being super aware, alert, present....great recipes come.  It's beautiful and effortless. 

Creative ability is not always present, especially lately.  I go looking for it in a part of my head but it's not there and never will be apparently.  You are told to kill your ego and to stop your endless mind clutter in order to allow your real spirit to come through.  That you can't look in your brain, you need to step outside of your physical self and mind to actually witness that they are separate entities and then you can feel your true presence.  That is when you might hear a thought, but it is coming from your mind so you think how can I hear a thought in my mind and that is because you are not your mind and not your body.  I'm really loving and getting this concept.  Sort of.  In spurts.  In teeny tiny moments.

This Garlic Butter Steak and Zoodles is not my recipe but I did come up with the idea to season and smash up the roasted baby potatoes with the same flavors to make the meal complete. 

And for steak and potatoes and a vegetable, I thought this was kind of creative plating.

recipe from www.eatwell101.com