There’s something I want to share with you.  The secret recipe for my addiction.  I love  tea.   Love it.  There is a very special tea, which I suppose could be classified as a Chai, that you drink at the conclusion of Kundalini Yoga classes.  The recipe is of the Great Yogi Bhajan.  It is my favorite tea in the cosmos. I know that my sisters want this- and thought I should put it in a place where it can be easily found…  It will always be in the pages to the side as well so that you don’t have to sift through the wordpile to find it.  Enjoy.  It’s delicious hot or cold, and will keep you happy.

As a note– I sometimes change the mix to suit specific things…add fenugreek and/or dill.  And tumeric since my knees have become so kvetchy.  It’s good. It makes your house smell delicious!  When it is finished you just pour it through a strainer and enjoy.

(Thanks to Alexia for giving me the gift of this tea and yoga.)

Yogi Tea

Make at least 4 cups of Yogi Tea at a time. It’s a good idea to make large batches at a time, and store it in the refrigerator without milk; then add milk when you want to drink it. It can stay fresh in the refrigerator for about a week.

For ONE cup, the measurements are:
10 oz. water
3 whole cloves
4 whole green cardamom pods (cracked open is best)
4 whole black peppercorns
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 slice ginger root
1/4 tsp. black tea (optional)
1/4 cup milk

Boil the spices for 10-15 minutes, with the top on the pot(just leave it open a crack to let a little of the steam out). Add black tea and steep for 2 minutes. Add milk, then bring to a boil. Remove immediately from the stove, and strain. Add honey to taste.

For 2 quarts use:
20 cardamom pods
20 peppercorns
15 cloves
5 or more slices of ginger root
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tbs. black tea

Boil at least 30 minutes. Add 1 qt of milk.
Yogi Tea is also available in pre-mixed packages, and in tea bags. (See References for address of Ancient Healing Ways.) Yogi Bhajan says about Yogi Tea: “If you take a really a good amount of Yogi Tea, it will keep your liver very well. It is said to help the liver. And when we started in the sixties, people who had drug habits, who couldn’t even move, we put them on Yogi Tea.” Yogi Tea is actually a combination of foods. It is a tonic to the nervous system. It can help to balance your system when you are feeling out of balance. It has been used often as a remedy and preventative measure for colds, flu and diseases of the mucous membranes. Black pepper is a blood purifier. Cardamom is for the colon. Together they support the brain cells. Cloves help support the nervous system. Cinnamon is good for the bones. Ginger helps strengthen the nervous system and is very good if you have a cold, flu, physical weakness. It can help women when they are experiencing menstrual discomfort, such as cramps or PMS symptoms. You can try making Yogi Tea with extra ginger when you are feeling a cold or the flu coming on. If a man takes a cup of Yogi Tea after intercourse, it can help to replenish his body. In addition, Yogi Tea diluted with milk, can be very helpful to a child who is experiencing the pains of teething.

Excerpted From The Master’s Touch, by Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D., pg 308

Here’s the Yogi’s specific tea for joint health.

It is very yummy too.

Golden Milk

1/8 tsp turmeric
½ cup water
2 Tbsp. almond oil (cold pressed)
8 oz (1 cup) whole dairy milk
honey to taste
Optional: seeds of 4 cardamom pods (boil with turmeric)

Boil turmeric in water for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the milk and almond oil and bring to a boil. When the milk is boiling, turn off the heat. Add the turmeric mixture to the milk and serve with honey to taste. The turmeric should completely surrender to the water. The cardamom seeds may be cooked with the turmeric for added flavor, but they are optional. The oil provides lubrication and energy to the system, while turmeric makes the bones and joints more flexible.

If desired, add sweetener (honey or maple syrup) to taste. You can also make it frothy by putting it in the blender - use the lowest setting. Drink warm. It’s a great bedtime drink.

Excerpted From The Grace of God Manual and Kundalini Yoga: The Flow of Eternal Power, Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D., pg 28

This one has always eluded me… but in  case you are feeling hardcore.

Trinity Root Healing Drink

1 medium onion
1-3 inches ginger root, peeled & sliced thin
1/2 bulb garlic, peeled
1 quart milk, preferably goat milk
1 tsp. turmeric

Finely chop 1 onion, peel & slice the ginger, and peel the garlic. Place these into a pressure cooker along with the milk. Bring to full pressure and cook for five minutes. Cool off pressure cooker and strain the milk into an iron frying pan. Simmer the milk for 15 minutes. Strain and serve.

Note: If a pressure cooker is not available, the same mixture can be made in a crock pot overnight. Just add some extra water, and cook on low. In the morning, strain and serve.

Yogi Bhajan’s comments on this drink: “I drink it every morning. In the goat’s milk we boil onion, garlic, ginger and turmeric at night on a slow fire, and next morning I drink a glass of it. Within minutes you will feel a change. You know how you will feel? Like wings have sprung from your armpits. That’s how you feel. The time has come that you must start taking care of yourself. Medical costs have gone so high, you don’t want to be sick. These are preventive things. These are very good things.”

Excerpted From The Master’s Touch, by Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D., pg 314

Happy to you.

Made paper chains today counting ALL 26 days left.  gulp.

Wool flapping on the line again….

This will be the post Thanksgiving feast!

Merino, Finn, Corriedale, Blue Faced Leicester.

The current shop stock is 10% off for the Holiday season, plus free US shipping and 1/2 price international.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As you can see in the side bar, I played SPARK again this month.  I had the delight and honor of having Amy Souza as my partner.  Amy is the mother of Spark, and was my dreamy roommate in London during our senior year of college.  She is impossibly glorious.  There were a record number of folks participating this round.

I got a wonderful inspiration piece from her-

You can spy  our exchange– as well as some art by Jimmy and lots of other great work  at

http://artspark6.wordpress.com/dawn-doran-and-amy-souza/

Please consider signing up next time– it is a lot of fun!

Been sort of wordless lately.   I thought I’d share some knitting and photos until the words return.

These 2 are handspun skeins that have been hanging around the treasure bowl for a while.  I spun them and loved them so much in strand/yarn-form that I couldn’t even think of making them into “something.”  They were like those experiences I have with painting sometimes… there’s a perfect place or 2 that are so lovely alone that you just need to dwell on it for a bit.

I want to wear them now.  I’m done dwelling :).

Then here’s a new chapeau made with a fellow etsian ( coolclimate’s) handspun.  It is a nice and slouchy hat which with those magical Chinese lanterns makes me feel sort of like a mystical miner…. they cast a very special sort of light ahead of me.

Lots of dyeing going on.  Headed to the Outer Banks next week for the Holiday.  Lots of knitting going with me.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Be Thankful.

Love your family.

xo

Instructables re-post.

This is an absolute genius costume…. behold:

to gnome me is to love me.

garden gnome and his garden.  dress is based on vintage vogue pattern 2962 using silk taffeta.  made an underskirt with lots of layers of tulle. large silk fabric petal shapes added to waist.  added faux flowers, leaves, birds, nests and bugs with fabrictac (great glue).   headpiece using floral wire and faux ivy, mushrooms, foam ears, and a bird (it’s in the back).

glued leaves and flowers onto a vintage purse for my handbag.

gnome consists of fleece pants and top, large ‘fur’ slippers’,  wig is huge blonde wig which i deconstructed and attached to the fleece hat.  pipe was a purchased plastic sherlock holmes pipes covered in a thin layer of clay.   painted with browns and greens, attached moss and twigs, filled with moss.

fun costumes.  it was a great night :).

We had a seriously fun day of celebrating our dead folks today.

In our family, we are still working to establish meaningful traditions and rituals~~ holiday and otherwise.  It’s more difficult when your family is all spread out over the east coast.  It just isn’t automatic for us.

We, the gnomes, have nary a speck of Latin in us….  We do love us some Day of the Dead though.  I think most folks we know do as well.  For one thing, it is so beautiful, and mysterious, and just a little bit scary & macabre, right?

It was so nice to spend this day with the Foster-Jewell family last year.  Though is isn’t a holiday born of our particular heritage, it is one we really enjoy celebrating.

Honoring our departed friends and loved ones.

I think it keeps on through tomorrow, All Saints and then All Souls.

Beyond all of those pretty sugar skulls and loverly marigolds, it’s a really good opportunity to talk with  kids about their ancestry,  plus do a bit of good “circle-of-life” conversing.  The poppets are pretty sensitive, and it became a bit overwhelming for them to talk about after a bit.

There are oodles of craft opportunities. It’s kind of fun to go through the momentos and photos, to remember and share stories and then to gather them all up in one big gorgeous assemblage of life and death.

We had a Chinese food picnic and sangria /tamarind jarritos. Also some bread o’ the dead and of course, Halloween candy.

For the children there are candies and fruits; for the adults, cigarettes and tequila. For everyone there is the hope of having our loved ones at our table once again, sharing for a brief moment of our time as we know it…

~~Oscar Guzmán

No Tequila.

Frida got baked, however.

and some boney breads.

Here’s the recipe we used.

Pan de Muerto, “Bread of the Dead”

In celebration of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, this bread is often shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough rolled out and attached to resemble bones.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
• 2 packages dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon whole anise seed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs

In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.

Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with “bones” placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.

Glaze

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.

If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

We also made a batch where we mixed orange juice and zest into the dough as well as the glaze.  Both breads are yumm-oh.

We had a Coraline and a devil-in-a-red-dress.

More dark houses than not.

What gives with that?

Happy to you all.

Yep, this siter has been *sitting and spinning. (*repeat from asterisk. for days.)

I have a basket full of string that I have been listing on etsy all day.

I have yet another basket in process that should be up there in a day or 2 and a handful of batts.  I am binge spinning.  It feels great, plus we have a sick bird ( hedwig) that needs some tests– please go shop!!

Thanks to everyone who has sent along great reviews so far.  I spin because I LOVE to, but it is so nice to have my work appreciated and used so beautifully in other peoples work.

Also finished a November Ruffle shawl ( by Kate Jackson)  It is a handspun silk and merino mix.  Exceedingly delicious.  I had to shorten the ruffle as the yarn just ran-the-hell-out. But it is ruffle enough for this spinny girl.

I also have some art to conjure for this round of spark ( see sidebar) more on that in the next week or 2.

more in a day or 2!

xo dawn