My youngest daughter sent me home from her father’s last night, with half of the irresistible, gluten and dairy-free, Chocolate Pecan Tart she made for Thanksgiving, some of the Coconut Pumpkin Flan (also dairy-free and irresistible) my sister Lourdes made, the rest of the gluten-free, fresh herb stuffing I made, and the turkey bones and parts after my eldest daughter had removed as much meat as she thought was on them, for leftovers and to take some home to her dog. My youngest daughter asked me (well told me) to make a bone broth with the turkey. Neither I nor my youngest daughter, like to waste food. We compost everything we possibly can from our kitchen scraps and she brings home leftover produce and peels from the juice bar where she’s been working, to add to our composter.
Today was a grey skies, rainy, coolish, fall feeling day in Miami (finally). The perfect kind of day for staying in, reading, reflecting and resting. I was going to buy a new tracking device, AKA iPhone this afternoon, but decided against it. I accidentally (or not) dropped my phone at an event Sunday morning and have been without it since then, without a problem I might add! I’m seriously contemplating getting a dumb phone versus another “smart phone.”
After reading for most of the day, I started cooking the bone broth early this evening. Surprisingly, I was able to get enough turkey meat off the bones to make at least two turkey sandwiches and had one sandwich for dinner, with leftover stuffing and raw cranberry relish I had made for Thanksgiving, some sweet potato chips with truffle salt and fresh rosemary I made tonight in the air fryer. I needed some protein and real sustenance since I had only eaten Chocolate Pecan Tart and Pumpkin Flan for lunch with a cup of herbal tea! Thankfully I only do that during the holidays. I can’t wait for the desserts (even if healthy) to be finished, and will be taking some to share with my private yoga students tomorrow morning. I cannot resist anything healthy with chocolate or pumpkin, especially during the holidays.
As I was putting the turkey bones into my Instant Pot, adding the filtered water, garlic, onion, fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage, plus truffle sea salt, I had the sense that I was creating something ancestral, even artisanal. I don’t recall feeling that way before, since this is not the first time I’ve made bone broth, and I cook home made food several times a week, but something about the process felt sacred tonight. And it got me thinking about all the things that were once held sacred (not religious) in life, especially by the Indigenous tribes that inhabited most of the earth’s plains. How they revered and respected the land, Mother Nature in all her expressions, the seasons, plant and animal life, the cycles of life and one another.
Somewhere along the way, we forgot, or were instructed to ignore the ancient wisdom and ways of life. Its resurgence, and how many are embracing the ancient ways, demonstrates that we yearn for a more meaningful and spiritually infused way of life than the smart, digital, virtual, man-made, artificial, or organized religion way of connecting to one another and what lies at the core of all life forms, which is Spirit.
You made me really hungry.
Beautifully said.