Always a student…

While I’ve been teaching cooking and belly dancing for a long time, I am always a student. I am constantly searching for new techniques and strive to get better every day with both my passions.

For example, I learn from each new student I teach at belly dance. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they hold their weight, or can they ground themselves? Do they have body awareness?

According to Healthline…Body awareness is how conscious and connected you are to your own body. It’s also known as kinesthesia or the awareness of the position and movement of body parts in relation to muscles and joints. In short, it’s how you recognize where your body is in space.

I use body awareness when teaching dance moves with this similar technique… A simple way to increase body awareness is to practice a type of meditation called the body scan. This is a technique of intentionally paying attention to different parts of the body in sequence, and to really focus on the sensations that are present without judging them. Source UVA Health

When I am teaching any dance move, I ask everyone to notice what side of their body their weight is on and what part of their feet or legs they are using. Is their chest lifted? Are they looking down? It goes on and on but makes people understand what I am feeling, not just doing.

In the last belly dance class my friend Bethany taught with me, I learned something new when making the ribcage rotation move. I heard her say she put her weight slightly back for a more extensive range of motion.

I am positive Bethany said something similar over the decade we taught together, but this was the first time I was ready to hear it. That’s right, hear it.

Three weeks ago, when we explained how to turn for one move, Kathleen shared with the students what she did with her one foot. We tried it, and it worked easier than how we were doing it. Has she always said that, and I wasn’t ready to hear that tip too?

When I say ready to hear, I mean at the point or level of understanding what your body has to do to better the technique of the move you are working on.

Students will always say, “Oh, now I get it; you never said that before.” I always reply, “No, you weren’t ready to hear it before.” Ask any of my students because this couldn’t be closer to the truth.

The same thing applies to cooking. I am a great cook. I’ve cooked professionally and love to cook at home and entertain. I am not a chef; I am a cook. I taught myself everything I know and have been practicing for decades.

I cook a lot, two meals every day. That’s a shit ton of cooking, but I love it. It’s my relaxation, how I show people how much I love them and how I can express myself through my food. Like dance, it’s my creative outlet.

Saturday, we had an unexpected absence from our farmers market in Troy. Marty drove himself to the ER because his heart was in A-fib. Did he wake me to go with him? Of course not. He’s a stubborn asshole of a German, that’s why. He wanted to let me sleep. That was a nice gesture, but I was upset, to say the least.

When he got home from the hospital, he asked me if I still wanted to go to the market. The first thing I think I asked him was if he was out of his fucking mind, then I went on to say it was too late to go to the market, he was awake all night, and my back was still killing me. I also needed to pick up a new prescription for him at 11 am.

How did we spend our “sick day” on Saturday? It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole when watching YouTube. Marty can get lost for hours watching foreign food factories make different products. With no talking, just machinery sounds.

One night when I got home from belly dance, Sam reported that Marty had been watching videos of Korean food factories since I left 5 hours ago. We died laughing when Marty said it was interesting.

On Sunday morning, we stumbled on a series called “Not another cooking show.” The guy was a guido-type chef from NY, and we liked him. We watched him cook a few dishes, including how he makes his Thanksgiving turkey, and he introduced us to mini meatballs. He blew my mind! Seriously, he did; it was brilliant! 🤯

I will be making my turkey stock for gravy and turkey his way. Where has this guy been hiding for so long? He has dozens of shows making many of my favorite or most popular foods. I can’t believe he never came up before on Youtube.

He is an excellent teacher who explains everything clearly and shows his technique using a dozen different cameras to catch the correct angles. He has a good personality and is cut to the chase like I am.

I NEVER buy a kitchen gadget based upon watching someone else using an item; I always thought it was a paid endorsement or a scam; until today. I went on Amazon and purchased the fat separator he used with a release button on the bottom. Again, where has this thing been for the number of gravies, stocks, and soups I make?

The spätzle orders are pouring in for Thanksgiving, and I started feeling overwhelmed today. I had to tell myself we needed to fill one order at a time, take one production day at a time, put our heads down and work our asses off. Our distributor has a reduced delivery schedule next week, so things must be brought to them sooner than usual.

Late this afternoon, while I made tonight’s dinner, I also made tomorrow night’s since I have a follow-up appointment at my doctor’s office in the afternoon. Having dinner almost ready to go will help make things smoother when I get home, and we are starving. This takes the pressure off me, making it worthwhile.

I made the mini meatballs and sauce by following the Youtube guy’s video. I followed the meatball part exactly but made my sauce the way I usually make it. I tasted one of those delicious little balls and was happy with how they came out.

The guy tells his audience this mini meatball dish is a dish of love, and it is. I like getting into the zone when doing kitchen prep and banging these suckers out quickly for the first time. Let someone else make it for you if you don’t like to cook. It is a lot of work if you aren’t used to cooking.

Here are the two links to the videos: Turkey & Meatballs.

It’s late, and we must be in the production kitchen before dawn tomorrow morning, so good night! I’ll let you know if the mini meatballs were a hit or not.