Coconut Macaroons

After two solid months of digging down, cleaning out, throwing away, selling stuff (quite successfully) using Graig's List -- it was time for a break!

We have accomplished SO much in our preparations for moving to the big island of Hawaii!  When we are there, we buy delicious macaroons at the fruit stand just south of Honaunau, near the City of Refuge.  But we are NOT THERE.....and longing for macaroons, I decided to give it a shot.

Because of my limited skills in the kitchen, I had to find a recipe that was EASY. I found that one coconut freshly grated yielded about 4 cups of shredded flakes. 

The recipe is a slight variation on one by Penny Habeck on allrecipes.com.

4 cups loosely packed fresh grated coconut
2/3 cup sugar (I used Phil's Splenda sweetener)
3-4 tbsp of Wondra fine flour thickener
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites (not beaten)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt.  Stir in egg whites and vanilla. Mix well. Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheet.  Bake at 325 for about 18-20 minutes. Makes 16-18
Drizzle with chocolate -- or if you have them, top with fresh macadamia nut piece.
 

Zen Boxing II

We gotta get our heads around the fact that we are actually picking/packing in THREE directions!!

We are sorting out stuff for a giant garage sale in a few weeks, we are identifying those more valuable items that will be part of an estate sale/auction in a couple months....and, r-e-a-l-l-y looking at what we will/can/want-to take to Hawaii.

 Every once in a while we find one another standing in the middle of the room with a blank expression....no wonder!!

The Sun Is Shining...Somewhere

somewhere....but NOT in Eureka.  Although we are well passed the mid-way point of July, it seems we have had less than 12 sunny days in the entire year!   Yesterday, after 7 continual days of cold and grey, we decided to go to a matinee.  Of course, when we came out, the sun was peaking out beneath the grey.

Fortunately we have a dangling carrot out there -- the warmth of our new home.   Thusly inspired, we have worked daily to free our house of stuff, and to some degree to lighten our souls too.

It's odd to be going through things that go back to when you were a kid -- boxes of pictures, mementos of high school, college -- even graduate projects, papers, poems and old love letters.  Yet, the house clearing is a great tonic on all levels.

It leaves a heart feeling lighter... willing to dance in the sun!

Zen Boxing

No matter what you call it -- or even whether you practice any spiritual "path" -- we all recognize a "zen" moment when it happens.  You know what I mean -- you just could not have planned for "it" to work out so amazingly perfect.  Well then, on with the "rest of the story."

My path includes teaching yoga, meditation, Sanskrit chants -- a H57 variety of spiritual teachings, most aptly labeled (if one must) mystic Hindu.

THE POINT BEING....when the "ah-HA" happens it's always a surprise.  So, yesterday while I was teaching yoga next to an enormous windowed view of Old Town Eureka, I was admittedly distracted by the nuclear-powered paper shredding machine that was sending ripples of vibrational energy through our humble yoga classroom.  I don't multitask while doing yoga!!  A contradiction in terms if ever there was one. But, I am thinking ---OMG we are moving to Hawaii: Just look at all those beautiful boxes they are putting in the cardboard recycle shredder/grinder/destroyer!

At the end of the yoga class (without confession) I scurried across the street and excitedly asked the workers if I could have them.  They asked "how many?" and I said ALL of them!  So we loaded them all up tightly packed in the truck back and front!  Happy Me!

But, wait -- there's MORE!  We had just made the executive-level decision to rid ourselves of nearly 60 boxes of "releasable stuff" -- and had done it.   Note:  Of course I talk about this "principle" all the time in my class -- whether it's yoga -- breath-work -- it's all about the letting-go-of that allows space for the "receiving."   And, here it was, so beautifully illustrated!    Ha!   "Zen Boxing"