Coast to Coast

Val Worthington (http://bjjvisionquest2006.blogspot.com/) and I just got back from doing a Charity Benefit Seminar at TKC in Woodland Hills, CA (where I recently started a grappling and fitness program), taking a red-eye to New Jersey and then doing a Charity Benefit Seminar with Emily Kwok at Princeton BJJ (where Emily recently started a BJJ program with Art). We will be donating proceeds to Safe Passage (www.safepassagelives.com) and The Breast Cancer Resource Center (www.ywcaprinceton.org).
Stay tuned here and at www.womensgrappling.org for upcoming camps, events and fundraisers...maybe coming to a place near YOU!

Also check out Eddie Goldman's interview with us about the seminars...http://nhbnews.blogspot.com/

Reminded again...

that at any moment, your life can change forever. Take every day, every moment for what it is. You will never have it again. It's hard to remember but life gives you little (and big) reminders. Don't take anything or anyone for granted.

House to House

Women's Grappling Camp is over. Another amazing group of women...old friends, new friends...so much learning for everyone...on the mat, in the head, in the heart and mind, in the world. Always getting challenged in some way and somehow intensified and condensed into one week. What a deal! Starting out with the cup of stress overflowing with tears to the trust and acceptance of surrender and floating and feeling the rolling of the waves letting the course of the world play out. And now from the House of Laundry (no clothes dryer in Canada so everything got hung out to dry) back to the House of Ferment.

Can't wait to get back to the House of Ferment and see what has happened. I should have a whole lot of Kombucha tea (or vinegar) waiting for me and some cold and sleepy Kefir bacteriods. Hopefully they haven't died of hypothermia in the refrigerator.

Eggplant...

takes FOREVER to cook. Forever = well past midnight. ARGGHH! Kelly was right.
In other news...
Earlier today I bottled some of the kombucha tea I've been making in the big pickle jar.
Lately, I've been accumulating kefir in the refrigerator. So I'm making it into cheese. The whey is strained off and what remains is cheese. Sort of a ricotta-like cheese. I'm going to put it as a topping on the "Past Midnight Eggplant".
I also put some in a container and mixed in some bits of the "bleu" from the blue cheese I had in the fridge. Let's see if it rots...er...cultures. LOL.
I'm drinking the whey. Tonight I mixed it with ice, water and some orange stevia. Not bad.
When I get back from camp, I'm going to make sauerkraut and attempt Kim Chee with it.
My house is fermenting.

Toronto Camp is just around the corner...

and it's almost sold out. If you want to go to camp, register now! Only two spots left!
www.womensgrappling.org

Muffin Challenge Experiments

Apparently I've taken on this challenge where I try and make everything into a muffin. It's fairly quick and easy and they are portable...easy to take wherever you go to snack on. I love baked things, especially breads like banana, zucchini, carrot, etc. So I just bake them in muffin tins (usually with cupcake liners). So far, I've tired the usual zucchini and banana varieties (with my own little twists, of course)...but also various types of beans, various types of squashes, kefir I make, and anything I stumble upon in the street...
And then there's the additional occasional challenge of taking things OUT of the muffins...flour, sugar, and dairy.
I've only had one batch that was over baked and burned because I got lazy with the timing. Aside from that, it's been pretty interesting and relatively yummy. Relatively...

Fit Prizes and Dry Fruit

Every Saturday morning, I get a box of organic vegetables from www.abundantharvestorganics.com. It's a really cool thing if you are trying to get more organic in as fresh and cost effective way as possible. You don't get to choose what you get, but that's part of the fun. Each week, you get the freshest harvest of what's in season. There's usually stuff that you have no idea what to do with, in which case I "Google" and learn what it is and how to cook/use whatever it is. Sometimes, you keep getting something you don't really like. They do have a trade box so sometimes that comes in handy. This last week, I got more potatoes and I don't really eat a lot of potatoes. I decided to use them for the Ultimate Fit prize. Whoever "won" the workout got the surprise. Congrats, Cory!!! And you win....Organic POTATOES!!!! Enjoy!!!
You can also add on different things that they offer...all organic....meat, nuts, cheese, eggs, beans, oats, even fish. This last week they were offering 15lbs of cosmetically challenged stone fruit for 9.00. That could be things like peaches, nectarines, or plums that are a bit scuffed or have a spot or something like that. So, I took the chance. Why not? I like all those fruit and I still have Drew's dehydrator from the overload of persimmons back in December from Joe. Drew only uses his dehydrator for deer jerky and he hasn't gone hunting and now that he just had ACL reconstructive surgery, I doubt he's going hunting anytime soon. Coincidentally, he came by the gym in a big brace and crutches :( Get on that rehab!!!
So the other project in my fermenting lab is nectarine dehydrating.

Moonshiner

The last few weeks, I've been making and experimenting with Kombucha and Kefir...courtesy of my friend from the farmer's market, Dale. I made Kombucha once before, back in the 90's and then have occasionally purchased it at the store....for a LOT of not-so-pretty pennies!!! Well, since getting the "starter stuff" from her, I've been doing my obsessive researching on the internet and found out that Lindsay Lohan is blaming Kombucha for her elevated alcohol readings. As a result, in June, Kombucha teas have been temporarily taken off the market pending investigation. So, now I'm feeling a bit like a crazy old moonshiner!!! But i still have all my teeth ;)
There are two ways of making Kombucha. The first way is a one time thing and you just keep repeating the process every week. When I did it "back in the day", I had bought two large glass (can't use metal and not so desirable to use plastic) bowls. At some point between then and now and multiple moves, I broke one. The other, however, was ready to return to it's initial life calling. Then I found out about the second way called "continuous brewing". This calls for a very large jug or vat where you have a LOT of tea and then whenever you take some out, you add more in. It's supposed to have all sorts of other health benefits as a result of the prolonged fermentation process. Some sites have these vats and containers for sale and the cheapest one was over 20 bucks, not including shipping. I went to Smart and Final to get some Mason jars to store the Kombucha tea in. I was also looking for a big glass vat type thing if I happened to find one. All the storage containers they sold were plastic!!! Damn plastic!!! There was one big glass one that looked like the one on the internet but it was 21.00. Too much for me. So I kept looking around and remember that my mom had once told me about getting glass pickle jars from restaurants to do pickling and preserving at home. They throw them away anyways. I eventually find the pickle aisle and lo and behold, there are very large clear jars. But...they seem...wait...I knock on the container...and they are...PLASTIC!!! Not just regular plastic, but plastic molded to LOOK like glass jars!!! WTF? Okay, so now I find myself picking up each container and knocking on it to see what it's made of. I'm sure if anyone saw me...well, whatever. Eureka!!! I finally find a glass one!!! It's dill pickles. Everything is packed in plastic except DILL PICKLES. I keep looking around to see if there are any I haven't knocked on and then I start to scan the prices. A big container (probably plastic) of olives is 23 bucks! 16.99...11.99....back to the dill pickles and they are (drumroll, please) 3.99...on sale!!! They are usually 4.99. I get two of these big beautiful glass jars and the bonus of free pickles!!!! How cool!!!! These jars alone sell for at least 5 bucks plus shipping each. What do you do with a ton of big dill pickles? Text people and ask them "Do you like big dill pickles?", of course. Lots of people got free pickles and pickle juice that afternoon and by the next morning, I only had 4 left. I didn't even taste them. Took the jar home, cleaned it out and set up my continuous brew Kombucha tea project.

(H)Mmmmmm......(?)

My newest culinary discoveries:
The use of baking powder
Possible uses of beans in baking
Raw organic sauerkraut
Raw organic kim chee
and that neither raw sauerkraut nor raw kim chee go well with peanut butter(!)
Not really sure that (this brand of) "organic raw sauerkraut" resembles the kind from Germany
Not really sure that (this brand of) "organic raw kim chee" resembles the kind from Korea

Broke

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, you better take some time off and get someone to have a look at it!

MMA ELITE!!!!

Check out my newest sponsor...MMA ELITE!

Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble...

The cheesecake experiments continue...a little on the mushy side today but the testers still have positive responses. 1 week in...but the "ADD" keeps creeping in and I keep adjusting too many things at the same time. I think I'm close, though.
Been making Caesar Salads since I got romaine lettuce in my "organic box" last week. Today trying it out on real people...we'll see how it goes.

Woops...

Change is risk. When you decide to make a change, it will cause other things to change. Sometimes in predictable ways, sometimes in unexpected ways. The unexpected can range from wonderful, pleasant surprises to the "shit hitting the fan" surprises. We usually chose to make changes for the better...but with that always comes the possibility that things won't work out the way you thought they would. Then it's the "shit hitting the fan".
Excuse me, I have to go try to clean up.

Anxiety.

Anxiety can get any of us. So many changes in life always happening. Most of the time, we don't really notice a lot of the small ones. It's usually the big changes that we notice. When they are really big, abrupt immediate rock-the-world changes, we really notice them. We can get lulled into a sense of security from repetition and routine. Then changes happen because it's life and, well, they just do. Maybe small ones are easier to accommodate and we aren't even really conscious of them happening. Bigger ones can be like crashing into a brick wall. The immediate, overwhelming impact forces us to go into "auto-pilot" mode and survive. Then there are the anticipated changes...the "what if" changes. These produce the most anxiety. Not just the anticipated change, but it's more the "what if" part. Thinking about all the things that could happen, that's what brings the anxiety. I remind myself that nothing will happen that is more than I am able to handle and the speculative nature of the mind (which is a wonderful thing and a source of creativity) - in this case - is only working against any sort of sanity and anxiety free (or at least less anxious) mode of living. I keep my head down, see what's in front of me and take the next step.

As I was saying...

You hear the sayings so many times..."Live in the moment". "You only live once". "Life passes in the blink of an eye".
We hear these sayings over and over, yet do we really understand them? Have we experienced it and try to actively live them? Do we really understand what it means to "be present" or to "live in the moment"? Time helps one hone these skills because it IS a skill. It does take practice, mistakes and experience, as with anything. We rarely do anything perfect the first time. It is our repeated trials and errors that give us knowledge and information and learning. If you did everything perfect the first time, there would be no learning. If you were like NEO in the Matrix, it would be called "downloading". It would not be "learning". Learning allows us to experience the permutations and possibilities. It allows us to collect information to accommodate a broader understanding of the whole. Life...like jiu-jitsu...



P.S. to Weezy: Calphalon Unison

New Subject: Food

A new topic addition with my return to the "blogworld"...FOOD. My food. Your food. Our food....no...MY FOOD.
I recently bought myself an present and an investment. I purchased a somewhat expensive set of cookware. I researched for over a week on the internet comparing brands and "greenness" and adjusting my priorities of what was important to me. I read review after review and even took an exploratory trip over to Bed Bath and Beyond so I could see the pots and pans up close and in person. I wanted to see them, touch them, feel them (hi, Tommy! - I never actually saw the movie, though) not just look at them on Amazon on my laptop screen. So, with no intention of purchasing that day, I went and looked. Then I dared to ask the sales guy (after all, what would HE know? He was a DUDE and this was cookware! This was gonna be a trick question! More fun for me!) what he thought the best cookware was. He shows me two lines of one brand and of course (wouldn't you know it???), it's some of the most expensive stuff in there! Duh, of course it is...he's a "SALESMAN" and it's his J-O-B!!!! Duh.
Okay, well I kept the conversation and questions going and of course they (coincidentally) are having a few extra sales incentives going on (I almost felt like I was buying a car!) and he made some really good points and told me about his experience with his set...and it freaking works on me! DAAAMMMMMIT!!!!!!! He got me!!! Well, at least I must say that I did exercise the self control to leave the building without any purchases...only to run home to get on the computer and start researching MOOOOOORE!
I returned the next afternoon pretty set on what I was going to buy (and even had a friend running "text [emotional] support". Jack Bauer has Chloe to help him save the world from a "new-que-luhr" catastrophe and I need help purchasing a...pan). I started talking to another sales dude in the cookware section (thinking I would see what HIS answers were and compare them) and it was pretty much the same. So with text support in hand, I committed to the set, my free extra pan plus my gift card reward. Of course, if I just spent a little more on the same brand, I could get ANOTHER gift card reward! So, what else do I need? A bakeware set and some utensils to go with the cookware? Of course. It took me a while, having to call upon my childhood Price Is Right experience, but I shopped around a put together the most useful and needed group of "stuff" while trying to get above the required amount to qualify for the extra gift card...but not too much above the amount!
I did it! I got my cookware, bakeware and utensils and made the investment not only in my first "adult" cookset but it's really and investment in myself. It's my commitment to learn more about cooking, baking and food.

The Security Of Life

There is none.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Where does time go? How quickly it can seem when looking back. When you are in the moment and living each day it can pass and you don't notice it until you get to some changing point and have to re-orient yourself. Same as in competition, you prepare each day, each practice, and then at the competition, the goal is to be present and to live the moments. After it's done, it seems like it all went by so quickly. How time changes. How time gives us...experience...hindsight....gray hairs.....
The accumulation of each moment slowly adds up to hours, days, weeks, years...and we look back and try to wrap our head around it. The series finale of "Six Feet Under" did an amazing job of contextualizing the moments in the lives of the characters we have watched. How do we do that in our own lives yet stay present? How do we organize time? Chapters!!!

LIfe and Jiu-Jitsu

It's all the same. A philosophical approach. Maybe you can say that about anything in life. Just depends what lens you use to view it through and at what level you look at something. I remember an idea from art school...To make the general specific and the specific general (or it may have been to make the specific general and the general specific. Either way it's the same). I find myself teaching and talking about a specific move that becomes a specific analogy that becomes a general analogy about life (and then I wonder what the hell the move was that I was trying to each in the first place).

USOC Twitter Poll December Athlete of the Month!!!

Thanks everyone for your votes, help and continued support!!!
The US Grappling Team also won the Twitter Poll for December Team of the Month! It's a great showing of support for the sport and another small step on the road to bringing Grappling to the Olympics!!!!!

US Olympic Athlete of the Month Nominee

The U.S. Olympic Committee has announced its Twitter voting is now open for December Male & Female Athletes of the Month along with Team of the Month.

Representing USA Wrestling are Grappling World Champions Kelly Anundson and Felicia Oh. The U.S. Grappling Team, who won both the Gi and No-Gi World Championships last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the Grappling World Championships represents USA Wrestling as the Team of the Month.


To vote and for full article: CLICK HERE