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They sit glowing lime green, tawny ochre, brown gold, rusty red, in their bins at the market, thankfully almost always present, because they come twice a year, in summer and early winter. So it is rare that we undergo a dearth of pears, one sort or another always states “here I am” to the grocery list roll call. 

For that reason, pears are a preferred fruit for a poached fruit dessert. Besides, their resolute flesh more than endures a hot treatment, it triumphs in it. But while pears are plentiful, there seems to be a paucity of ideas on how to poach them, almost always entailing some version of red wine. Rather, why not turn to white wine, and for a real twist flavor it with one of the herbal teas so popular now. Here the choice is chamomile tea simmered with white wine into a luxurious, silken syrup.

For fun, crunch, and color, top off the pears with a sprinkle of tasty, green chopped pistachio nuts.  Green tea can also replace the chamomile, and a spoonful of a colorful fruit preserve can replace the nuts, make the dish fruit on fruit. Any way, the dish is an exceptional treat and will draw gleeful applause.

27 January, 2009 /

1__#$!@%!#__Aubrey6 This month’s focus for Jivamukti yoga is an interesting one. I am not sure exactly how the Telluride yogis are going to respond to hasahasana (laughter pose), but I am going to do my best.

One of my gurus and co-founder of Jivamukti yoga Sharon Gannon writes:
“Laughter is an ancient yogic healing technique that can rid you of deeply held negative emotions. It has profound therapeutic value in restoring wellbeing and health, leading to happiness. Laughter induces relaxation, and because of its ability to free the body and mind of pent-up emotions that are obstacles to self-reflection, it is a potent prerequisite to meditation. It is good when laughter is spontaneous, but when emotions have been buried for so long that they have become deep-seated tensions, the conscious practice of laughing can be very healing.”

Gannon then goes on to instruct students to roll around on the ground to induce laughing. Though we are not required as Jivamukti instructors to teach this exact approach to the focus, it is highly recommended. When your guru asks you to do something, a true yogi will take it upon himself to execute the request because performing a service for your teacher is one of the greatest acts of karma yoga.

21 January, 2009 /

SusannaatMicheles Telluride local, Dr. Susanna Hoffman is an anthropologist, (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley), and the author, co-author, or author/editor of ten books, five non-fiction, five on cooking, and two ethnographic films.

The list of her food titles includes “The Olives and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking,” (Workman 2004), “The Well-filled Microwave,” (Workman, 1996),  “The Well-Filled Tortilla,” (Workman, 1990), “Good and Plenty-America’s New Home Cooking,” (Harper Row, 1988), and the forthcoming “America’s Big Bold Food,” the later four all co-authored with Victoria Wise.

Susanna has written numerous papers, articles, columns, and reviews for collective volumes, food magazines, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. She appears frequently on television and radio shows, such as “Good Morning America,” “Oprah,” “Discovery,” “The Food Network,” CNN, PBS, and gives numerous public addresses both nationally and internationally on disaster, food, food history, and other topics. She also gives cooking demonstrations.

19 January, 2009 /

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

January is  when the year’s crop of sweet, juicy oranges begin to arrive in markets. After many months from blossom, to bud, to fruit, they have now ripened on the trees of California and Florida, been plucked and crated, and delivered to stores awaiting their annual appearance.  Oranges are a major crop in the United States. Spanish settlers brought them to America in the 1500s, having acquired them only a century or so earlier from the Arabs. The Arabs in turn had transported them from Southeast Asia to then disperse them on their forays about the Mediterranean. Oranges gave the farmers and cooks of Spain and elsewhere a new taste treat to play with. Soon they developed many types, the Seville and the Valencia among them, and added orange to many of their culinary delights. Following that tradition is an unusual, but stirring preparation for fish, incorporating both orange and Mediterranean-style sweet wine, with a touch of ancient, woody bay leaf.

19 January, 2009 /

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

So standard are the selections in our markets, we rarely see some of the hundreds of varieties of citrus fruit that grows about the world. But every now and then, a sample of one of the ancient or very new sorts comes our way. Some are:

Kumquats - are a small citrus fruit, looking rather like orange fingerlings, that grow on a bushy shrub with dark green shiny leaves rather than a tall tree. They originated, were eaten, and admired in China and were unknown in the West until they were brought to England in 1846 by Robert Fortune, a specimen collector for The London Botanical Society. He envisioned them as a landscaping ornamental, not an edible, and that was how they first spread across Europe and to the Americas, as a garden shrub. Their bushiness is useful in creating boundaries and privacy, plus they are pretty and when blossoming, fragrant. They also taste wonderful, raw or cooked like powerful, but tart little oranges. In cooking they soften up. They are only available for short seasons once or twice a year.     

19 January, 2009 /

Fourteen year old MacKenzie Mansour, from Lone Oak, TX, has been skiing with Telluride Adaptive Sports Program this past week. MacKenzie has a rare genetic condition known as Williams Syndrome. That has not stopped her from enjoying our mountain. I had the privilege of skiing...

17 January, 2009 /

  Regina in namaste
Regina Zwilling

Ana Forrest’s life is grist for the mill of the daytime soaps: She was born crippled, and growing up experienced physical abuse, drug addiction, epilepsy, and bulimia.

Forrest took her first yoga class at age 14, becoming an instructor at 18.  Over the years, a passion for healing herself and others led to complementary studies: Native American medicine/ceremony, homeopathy, martial arts, and psychotherapy.

In the end, Forrest came to embody a spirit who has overcome trauma and chosen the warrior’s path of compassion.

Forrest Yoga challenges students to access their whole being in support of physical, mental, and emotional growth. The idea is to clear emotional and mental blocks that dictate and limit our lives using deep breathing and vigorous sequences to generate heat and eliminate toxins. Long holds in the pose progression flush out the system, oxygenating and rejuvenating every cell of the body.

15 January, 2009 /

Shrink Rap

by Dr. Susannah Smith

Often, as a systems consultant or coach, I get asked to help resolve a conflict within an organization.  In systems theory, there is no such thing as “interpersonal conflict.”  Instead, any conflict is viewed as a falling out of role, with role specifically defined as “the attitude with which one takes up authority in relation to a task.”  Conflict, then, is viewed as a place to begin understanding the culture of an organization.  If one approaches a conflict as interpersonal (they don’t get along; they have a personality clash), then one misses the opportunity for a systems solution.  Moreover, if conflict is dealt with on a personal level, the organization will simply produce the same type of conflict somewhere else, among or between new participants, until the systems issues are identified and resolved.  Each conflict or difficulty within an organization is also “mirrored” throughout the organization.  If you are having trouble getting responses for timely procurement, then you can predict that every level of the organization is having some similar type of difficulty.

14 January, 2009 /