I haven’t written anything in a very long time.  I am still frustrated with my inability to deal with my new computer and pictures from my camera and phone.

This morning I woke up thinking “very slowly”.  I believe I had been dreaming something and someone said “very slowly” to me.  I awoke and thought “very slowly what?”  My mind went to thoughts of things that I do very slowly.  If you know me, you know that I am pretty hyperactive. And it is hard being hyperactive in this laid-back world.  People just don’t understand.

I have been doing yoga for a very long time.  My first class was when I was in my early twenties.  I’m 66 this year.  I learned quickly that Pranayama yoga was for me.  When your mind is concentrating on your breath you leave stress and anxiety behind for a while.  And so, my first thing that I do very slowly is yoga breathing.

I took a class in Qi Gong a couple of years ago,  If you don’t know Qi Gong is a breathing exercise.  You have body movements but each movement coordinates with inhalation and exhalation.  The movement has to last as long as the breath.  I can breathe really slow and so I must move my body very slowly.  You are supposed to do each exercise nine times but I get so lost in concentrating on being slow that I lose count.  And why nine?  In yoga, everything is even.  My suggestion as to why nine, is because of the shape of yin-yang.  What do you think?

One of my favorite books ever is Shibumi by Travanian.  Shibumi means effortless perfection.  In the book Nicolai has a lover, Hanna, and they perform these erotic sex acts upon each other.  And they do them very slowly.  The hubster and I once tried to do sex very slowly but it didn’t work.  We were too excited.  And so, I don’t do sex very slowly.  But Nicolai and Hanna did and it was exciting.

I do have this recipe for candied peanuts.  It is the trickiest recipe I have ever made, even trickier than my homemade caramel frosting which put on carrot cake.  I use raw peanuts and add cayenne pepper and lime juice to the recipe.  I have made it five times.  I have ruined it three times. You must keep your heat very low and stir constantly.  In the blink of an eye they can burn and be ruined.  But if you go very slowly and they are successful, they are a marvelous treat.

Okay, enough of slow things.  I wish could remember that dream.

Since getting older, yes, I have noticed lately that I am getting older, I write things to remember on my calendar and then can’t read them later.  I just looked at my calendar to see what is up for April and on the seventh I wrote WW Ret.  I could not remember for the life of me what in the world that was all about. As I am writing this I realize that it is the Wild Women’s Retreat in Rockford and I can’t go.  The hubster and Emily the dog do not get along well enough for me to leave her overnight let alone a whole weekend.

The pros and cons of adopting a rescue dog.  I love her and will give up some comforts for her benefit.  We have been walking in the campground this winter.  No one else is around and so I let her off her leach and she runs and jumps and has the best time. She does what I call sproing-boing.  Emmie Lou Sproing-Boing is her new nickname.  She goes potty and then steps away and scratches at the ground to cover it up.  Then she flings herself into the air and turns around. And then jumps some more and runs away.  It looks like sproing-boing.  She is just so entertaining.

I haven’t written in so long but today it seems that I have so much to say.

I love reading recipes online and finding new things to try.  I read one just the other day that called for unsalted butter but they added salt to the recipe.  I read another one today and it called for unsalted beef broth but added salt to the recipe.  Is it just me or do you think this is wrong?

I have been using pink Himalayan salt for the past year or so.  I cut salt out of my diet almost completely several years ago.  I like salt and I missed it. I read that the H salt has more minerals than regular iodized salt or sea salt. I must have salt on 1.  Corn on the cob, 2.  Scrambled eggs, 3.  Tomatoes, 4. Potatoes, and occasionally watermelon.  I like it on sour apples too.

And speaking of iodized salt, one of my friends in high school’s mom posed for the iodized salt girl on the box back in the 1920’s or some time.

Another salty item – corned beef.  The hubster’s trick to corned beef is that he washes it several times the day he is going to cook it.  His corned beef is delicious and I don’t swell up the next day.

Two of the best cooking tricks I have ever learned are about hash browns and tomatoes from the grocery store.

When cooking hash browns and you are about to turn them over, put a dinner plate on top of the fry pan and flip them over. You can then just slide them back into the pan.

And if you have to purchase tomatoes at the grocery store you can make them almost edible if you leave them out and don’t refrigerate them.  Slice them or cut them up and add some salt to them. Leave them out at room temperature. The salt draws the humidity to the surface of the tomato and they almost taste like a real tomato.

I have decided to entitle this article “Very slowly salting.”

Peace be with you.