Link Juice: TEA

TEA

My cooking companion site www.theemptyspoon.com has just posted a three part series on the basics of proper tea brewing. Avoiding all of the big words normally associated with organic products, I will simply state that a tea brewed well is both delicious and nutritious. I love sitting down with some Coldplay and reading some heart warming book about puppies or philosophy, or puppies in philosophy (a fascinating subject!).

So why aren't you drinking extravagant and wonderful loose leaf teas? Because you haven't read this yet.

Also don't fail to check out Alton Brown's "Good Eats" episode on tea. By the by, this show deserves its own post, it is charming, access able, and brilliantly informative.
--"True Brew" part one, part two

Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
6:36 AM- Southeast Texas

Yerba Matte

It is awesome.
Yerba Matte is a tea sort of, and a coffee sort of. Think if green tea on steroids had a baby with espresso, and the baby was ridiculously healthy and completely woke you up without giving you a buzz or jitters.

Yerba Matte takes an industrial leaf blower to that fog that rests just inside your skull and leaves you bright, chipper, and ready to punch a live grizzly bear right in the jaw.

 http://www.guayaki.com/ -- Guayaki is the only brand I trust as of yet, although www.ebay.com ussualy has good quality tea for much cheaper, if I come across a brand I trust I will recommend it to you.



P.S. Tomorrow I will put together a much needed tutorial on how to do tea right (disclaimer: It does not involve lipton, sugar, or tea bags...)

Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
12:50 AM - Southeast Texas

LINK JUICE

BELOW 

A clever blogg post about easing some of life's annoyances, and appreciating your life a little bit more. Enjoy!

http://lifehacker.com/5781093/top-10-solutions-to-real-lifes-most-annoying-problems

FOOD: Brussel Sprouts

IT IS TIME...... TO COOK!

Brussel Sprouts

awwwwww yeahhhhhhhh!!!  

What are they you ask!? They are neat little cabbages that hold little flavor on their own, but when sautéed in butter, olive oil and garlic, and then finished with salt, pepper and (insert Italian esq herb here; eg thyme, basil, oregano, etc.) they develop an interesting and delightful texture (slightly firm, tiny little cabbage leaves flake apart in mouth) and store all of that buttery garlicy goodness in-between their leaves.

They are healthy, easy to cook, and generally an over all food win. Go for it.

INSTRUCTIONS:
You need to go on an epic quest of gathering, be sure to return to your homeland with these mighty items:

Hardware:
1 sauté pan- fancy
1 stove- go gas or go home
1 knife-  Chef's knife, you need no other knife... EVER

Software:
2 handfuls of brussel sprouts (they are usually sold by the box, if so, one small box)
4 or 5 cloves of crushed garlic (break apart garlic, crush with flat of blade, peal, enjoy garlicy wonderfulness)
2 tblspoons of butter (REAL butter not that crap that comes in a bucket)
2 tblspoons olive oil (normal olive oil, virgin will do if it's all you have)

THEN:

Cut brussel sprouts in half
heat pan over medium heat with butter olive oil and garlic in it
when butter is all melted and foamy and the garlic is filling your household with its godlike aroma add the brussel sprouts cut side down down and let them sit there for about 7 minutes (don't flip them).

After 7 minutes start testing the little guys, poke them with your fork, chew on them a little. You want them to be tender and fall apart in your mouth, and you want the cut side to look a little browned and fancy. You don't want them to be bitter hard little half cabbages, nor do you want them to be a congealed mass of cabbage and butter. Firm and flaky is key.

Now you could top them in Parmesan cheese, throw them with pasta, or engorge yourself upon them like a fat kid in candyland. The choice is yours.

Serve them to your lady/gentleman friend to impress them with your exotic taste in vegetables. Peas and broccoli are for chumps.


Keep breathing
Nathan Bihm
9:24 AM - Southeast Texas

Music: Hugh Laurie

Wait.. Music? Yes that's right, the illustrious, wickedly talented Hugh Laurie has jumped from the British sketch comedy show "A bit of Fry and Laurie" to the dark brooding drama "House MD" to creating a blues album called "Let them talk".

Blues in general is extremely fun to listen to, and is a wonderful way to really make the most of the times when one is dragged down emotionally for some reason, like if they are cheated on, or lose their job, or fall incredibly ill. Blues will help life them up.

On the album he is singing and playing piano, it is quite like hearing his character "House" play music which fans of the show (like me) will be delighted to hear. Check it out on grooveshark
or down below.

Have fun revelling in a little blues,
Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
7:41 PM- Southeast Texas

Music: Joao Gilberto

He sings soft Portuguese songs to the tune of a single acoustic guitar. Put your feet up and cuddle with some one, or maybe watch a sunset, or maybe drive into a sunset while cuddling with someone. Whatever you choose to do it is better experienced with Mr. Gilberto playing in the background.       Enjoy-

Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
1:09 AM - Southeast Texas

Intellectualism VS Happiness

I just spent a lovely week and a half with my girlfriend, and had plenty of time to think of things I enjoy. Ironically she has gone back to school so I am not quite at my happiest, but a bit of pain is a part of being alive.

ANYWAY- about being an intellectual wang

This post can be summed up in one sentence- I do not take advice from unhappy people that tell me I should be living my life differently.
In addition, I try very hard not to criticize those who are enjoying life by calling them idiots, when I am wallowing in boredom or depression or some other mental funk.

There is nothing wrong with being a jock and being happy, there is something wrong with being smarter than everyone else and letting that fact get in the way of your enjoyment of life.

Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
12:13 PM- Southeast Texas

Dressing Up

AND LOOKIN GOOOOOD

There is something about wearing clothes that look good and fit well that makes me so much more comfortable in my own skin. It gives me that little bit of extra confidence (read SWAGGAA) and just makes me feel good.

That being said I am super poor, but I do love window shopping and have put together and budgeted my ideal outfit using a very cool little website (www.zara.com) referred to me by the creator of this brilliant little blog, and feel the urge to put it on paper (well... put it in pixels anyway).

Hyper cool leather/maroon shoes

A good slim fitting grey suit, appropriate for just about any occasion

A subtle tie, to bring together all the colors I'm playing with

A little touch of blue in the pocket square

A little touch of blue (and class) down by the wrists with some cufflinks

And the unique eyecathcing item that makes the whole outfit for me, bright blue clubmasters.

Roughly $600-$700 for the whole kit and kaboodle, which isn't bad at all considering there's a suit and pair of shoes in there. So here's to saving up.
Try putting together one of these montages, they are really fun if you are into style and picture montages, and let's be honest, who isn't?

Keep Pimping

And Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
8:19 PM- Southeast Texas

Exercising

It makes you look good. It makes you feel good. It makes you live longer.

And I love it!
I love swinging my kettle bell around and pushing my body a little bit further every time. I love how clear and fresh I feel after a run. I love how accomplished I feel after I went just a little bit farther than last time. Feeling like I am about to fall over from exhaustion and then running that extra twenty feet is just so liberating and wonderful, and the rush you get is probably the closest you can get to *ahem* without the wedding ring.

Exercising makes me feel alive and what is good for the body is good for the mind.

Keep Breathing
Nathan Bihm
3:12 AM- Southeast Texas

Action

I think Thursday should be a theme day, and the theme?
ACTION!

(No, I don't want you to go see the spongebob movie, although that isn't such a bad idea) 

 It is near the weekend, and we tend to glaze over the thin line between Wednesday and Friday as a time period we must endure simply to make it to Saturday. We do this in many of the areas of our lives, mistaking differed gratification for being a zombie until we can be happy. 

So I say let's not waste a day, or even an hour, in sour boring complacency. Let us experience the world around us in an active engaging way, shall we?

Ah, so, your assignment. I want you to take a sense of yours and use it actively. Sight, smell, hearing, touch. Take notice of the world around you in a new way, be mindful of your surroundings a bit more, get out of your schedule a little bit and notice textures, or smells, or the orchestra of sounds our world produces.

Next, inform yourself about your senses, become mindful of how one of them work (this is why the benevolent Internet gods provided us wikipedia), and notice them working while you use them. Our perception is what defines our reality, so in better understanding how we perceive the world around us, we can better understand and appreciate the world around us.
Smell some SCIENCE

I will  leave you to the details, but please do try to engage a little.


Keep breathing
Nathan Bihm
2:28 AM- Southeast Texas

FOOD

FOOD.
Yes, FOOD!!
I love food. Intensely. Most times I feel that I am missing something when it comes to other people, like perhaps there is some lobe in my scull that was left out. I just don't get them, and sometimes I feel like I'm not quite in tune with the rest of the species, so to embrace my humanity I most often take refuge in the world around me, using my precious senses.
That being said, enjoying a brilliant meal of any kind is when I feel most human. Food is experienced in large part through the nose, which is one of the greatest pathways to memory and emotion, and it's a pathway that I apparently have.
My eccentric love of food is sensual, bordering on religious. Eating, smelling, tasting, chewing, they are my closest friends, and on my short list of loved ones. The experience of food is one of the greatest gifts we have received as humans, and too often it is ignored.
Food is one of the many reasons I am glad to still be breathing (after all if I couldn't breath how could I smell!?). I will give you more detail on the day to day about particular bits of delicious goodness I have encountered, where to find them, or how to make them.

Keep breathing
Nathan Bihm
3:34 AM- Southeast Texas

DAY 1- sweat, pain, and getting things done

Today I had a date with a weed eater.

My patient loving Mother has been asking me to weed-eat around the house. Given that today was my day off and the weather was as forgiving as it would be during a Southeast Texas summer, I decided to pull on my comfiest, most breathable work shirt, put in my ear phones, and hack the life out of some unpleasant local vegetation.

Out in the sun listening to Muse I appreciated quite a few things.-

First- Breaking a good sweat. In my daily life I typically laze around in the coldest areas I can find and get lost in either a good book or a good television show. It is easy to become foggy headed and tired when you are sedentary too much, and trapsing out into the sun to have a sweaty adventure of some sort reminds one that they are alive. Whether you do this by running a mile, doing yard work, or playing some b-ball outside of the school is up to you.

Second- Pain. Pain is another thing that reminds us we are alive, and it also makes me feel a little more manly (I don't know if women experience this, but I think maybe their need for pain is taken up by that whole "birthing children" thing). I'm not talking losing a finger or breaking a bone, just getting stung by some gravel the weed-eater is flinging about, or getting stung by a wasp. Pain is by definition unpleasant, but it can also serve as a reminder that we aren't dead.

Finally- Getting something done. Especially something that some one else that you care for has asked you to do. I love weed-eating for the simple pleasure of seeing an unsightly pile of weeds one second, and not seeing them the next (with the added delight of hacking them to bits with a loud motorized device). And the gratitude my Mom felt when she stepped outside and saw that her world was a little more pretty was an added benefit.



I didn't change the world this afternoon, but I did have a really good time. With a weed-eater no less.