The Art of Zen Living

One of the ways I’ve been living simply is by making my own bread.  Week in, week out, one night a week (while I do other things) I “make me this night my weekly bread”.

As good as my basic Honey Whole Wheat recipe is (re-posted inside), a bit of variety is also good.  Here are a few things I’ve tried and what I thought.

1. Rolled Oats: Yummy.  I just throw a handful into the flour when I’m mixing it in.  Changes the texture in a subtle but pleasing way.
2. Spelt berries (seeds): Uncracked, they’re teeth breakers, but provide a nice nutty flavor.  I suggest cracking them with mortar and pestle, or perhaps placing them in a bag and using a mallet.
3. Millet: Very tasty.  Again, it’s more of a texture change.  Adds a nice, pleasant “pop” sort of crunch.  Again, I added this to the flour before I mixed it in, about a 1/4 cup.  No need to soak or crack it, but be sure it’s washed.
4. Rye Flour: Substitute 1/2 cup of rye for 1/2 cup of the whole wheat.  Gives it a nice, rye undertone.

I have a few other things I want to try over the next few weeks - quinoa, graham flour, cracked and toasted buckwheat to name a few - so I’ll keep you posted.  I’m also going to try some more traditional bread flavorings, cinnamon raisin swirl among them.  Look for that post in the next week of so as well.

See inside for the recipe, and stay tuned for more “Dough!”

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When I set out on this path, I remember thinking “What could be easier than living simply?”

Heh.  It didn’t take long to figure out that simple and easy are worlds apart.  The simple way to live is to bake my own bread.  It’s wholesome, nutritious, and has lots of good things store bought bread lacks, and lacks all of the bad things store bought bread has.

Easy is running to the store and picking up a loaf of bread for a dollar.  That bread, even if it’s marketed as “healthy” is likely to have a variety of preservatives, processed and enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup and any number of other things that you probably don’t want in your food.

Ironically, this is what I was thinking about tonight as I baked my bread.

So if living simply isn’t easy, why would anyone do it?  Let alone do it on purpose?

I can’t answer that question for everyone that lives this way, but I can answer that question - for me - in a single word.

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It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A few quick notes inside!

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Go to a farmer’s market.

Check Local Harvest or the Eat Well Guide. Another resource that is still under construction (but has a bunch of interesting information) is Food Routes.org.

Buy “low milage” food.

Start small if you need to, and select foods that are from closer to you if you aren’t quite ready to eat local. Every mile food has to travel means more air pollution, water pollution and higher prices for fossil fuels. Agriculture and food distribution accounts for over one fifth of our consumption of fossil fuels. Your food may seem cheap, but don’t forget you’re also paying for it at the pump!

Not sure where someplace is? Check Google Maps.  Make a game of it with the kids and turn shopping into a fun educational experience!

More tips and tricks inside!

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Something happened last Friday morning that got me to thinking, and I thought I’d share it with you.

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’ll set the stage.  I have a birthday coming up, and mom got my car’s windows tinted for me.  For those of you that don’t live in the tropics, down here tinted windows something you really do want to have.

While the car was at the shop, we had some time to spend so we went and got breakfast.

She was telling me that the night before she’d been watching an old home movie from 1986.  My grandparents were in it, and they’re now both gone.  We were also a family then - my sister and I have grown up and moved out, my parents are divorced, and my sister has a family of her own now - the newest member of which is pictured to the left.  Specifically, that’s her “Enough with the pictures Uncle Dan - come and play!” look.  She was right, so that’s exactly what I did!

Mom said it was a little sad to watch it.  There were parts that made her laugh, but it was sad that it was all gone now.  Lost in time.  My mother and I have, in the past, had conversations like this, about the past, and what Once Was.  This time I had a different perspective.  I thought to myself “Yes, life is ultimately unsatisfactory - and the reason is impermanence and change…”

The Buddha told us about this long ago.  So what else did he have to say about it?

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The days are long, but the years are short.

Over at The Happiness Project, Gretchin is talking about the third splendid truth.  Which I’ve quoted above.  I should also clarify that when I say All Things Mulch, I’m not talking about garden supplies.  Mulch is my male cat, pictured to the left.

Yoda, of course, is the little green jedi guy that chided Luke:

“All his life has he looked away—to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing….”

Wow.

What is the Present Moment, anyway?  To my mind, it’s the unchanging now.  Time is something that we have invented to help up make sense of the ever changing flux and flow that happens inside the unchanging Present Moment.

I know, right?  Makes my head hurt a little just thinking through that sentence.  Let me put it a different way.  Right now, in the present moment, I am writing this blog post.  Also in the Present Moment the Buddha attained enlightenment.  Also in the Present Moment, Jesus Christ hangs on the cross.  Truman gives the order to drop the first atomic bomb.  The first atomic bomb detonates.  The Spartans defend the pass at Thermopylae.  Babylon falls.  Rome rises.  All happening in the unchanging Present Moment.

So why do we spend so little time there?  Why do we always look away - to the future and to the past?

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You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world…

Not too long ago, I got serious about the concept of frugal living. I put together a spreadsheet on which I listed the things I purchase on a regular basis (rice, beans, milk, flour, chicken breasts, etc - it’s an old list, going back to the pre-vegetarian days…), along with their prices at various places.  What I found was that (no surprise) Walmart was almost always the lowest price.  Price, however, is different than cost.

I know a number of people that take a measure of pride in the fact that they don’t shop at Walmart.  They’re Target shoppers. The problem is that Target is as bad or worse than Walmart.  Target does have a major advantage in being the second largest - the microscope isn’t on them.  They also have better marketing and PR.

In the meantime, I’d still like to live in a frugal manner, even if Walmart is trying hard to steal the idea of frugal living for their “save money live better” marketing.  That they’re using it for their marketing is enough to make you reconsider.  In this case, “save money” doesn’t mean “live frugally”, it means “be cheap”.  Have I lost you yet?  Bear with me, I’ll explain:

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