Mrs. Teabody Asks You to be Mindful

Chez Teabody is a very warm and aromatic place on this rainy February day because there is a big pot of soup on the stove. The soup was an end product of a troubled sleep night and I shall share with you how that came about.

Anyone who so much as dabbles in philosophy has read about the importance of mindfulness. It is no new idea that mindfulness means being totally present in each moment. This requires us to be fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. When we are mindful, we are filled with the momentary happening, whether that may be standing or sitting or lying down, being comfortable or uncomfortable, feeling pleasant or unpleasant. Whichever it may be, it is a non-judgmental awareness, "knowing only," without evaluation.

These are not easy times for many of us. Great shifts take place daily and it is easy to be buffeted by these shifts, so much so that we live in a perpetual state of anxiety. Those of us who have lived a few decades know that change is inevitable, that upheaval is sometimes unavoidable, but that eventually the world puts itself back to rights and  spins along on a more familiar trajectory. One hopes this truth is still true . . .
You don't have to be a recovering addict to know the "Serenity Prayer."

Of course, there ARE things even in such turbulent times that still lie within our control:  our breathing, our interior dialogue, remembering to feel gratitude, having an awareness of the signals we send from our body language,  when and where and how long we sleep, the exercises we need to maintain mental and physical well being and what we eat. When things get really tough for Mrs. Teabody, she makes soup. Today was a soup day. Perhaps it was a soup day for you as well?

In the early 1970's, Mrs. Teabody worked as a waitress in a popular restaurant called Rillo's where one of the most revered items on the menu was wedding soup. Fast forward to a cooking class in 2001 when Mrs. Teabody finally learned that wedding soup was a perfect marriage of ingredients--not a soup made for a wedding. If you have ever eaten well-made wedding soup, you know it is delicious.

 The most tedious part of the soup-making process is making the tiny meatballs. There are no fewer than fifteen ingredients in the meatballs and there is a fair amount of chopping. Cooks have especially zen moments when chopping. It is lovely to render an onion,  carrots, celery, garlic down to diced bits of comparable size and the aroma whilst doing so is heavenly.  You cannot make these lovely meatballs without fragrant fresh parsley and lots of it and grated pecorino Romano cheese--no substitutions, please. Eggs. Some salt and pepper and then it's time to start up the meatball-making factory. 

This is somewhat tedious but it requires a degree of precision if one wants even cooking. One does, of course. As the meatballs line up in their tiny speckled deliciousness, the process leads one into a zone where nothing else interferes--not the bits of parsley clinging to one's fingers or the nice cuppa English breakfast cooling on the counter nearby. This is all about the meatballs and when they are ready for the oven they are a joy to behold. One may not be able to control cabinet selection on immigration policy but one can make beautiful meatballs.

Tiny meatballs after baking and being shaken about

   Once the dozens of tiny meatballs are placed in the oven for a quick baking, it is time to make the soup and it starts with classic soffrito. That's the Italian term for onions, carrots, and celery, diced small and cooked in a bit of butter or oil until soft and just this side of brown. GOLDEN. Mrs. Teabody had a few days of in-house cooking classes from an Italian chef named Massimo just before Christmas and he shared the importance of mindfulness in the kitchen. "When you cook, you stay. If you go away, you don't cook," he said and that's how I learned not to burn things, not to cook all the time at a high temperature, to take the time to do things properly. "When you cook, you stay."

Tuesday is Valentine's Day and the Teabodys will host some of their favorite friends for  classic Irish "Bangers and mash" because nothing says LOVE like sausages and homemade mashed potatoes, right?  (amused sniff) O, ye of the perfect filet and champagne must be screaming by now. It's all right. You need not partake. Yet you ARE WELCOME to join us. 

Last week Mrs. Teabody found herself in front of the sausage counter at Balducci's mulling over the presented varieties and wondering aloud which would stand up best to onions and Guinness-spiked gravy. The butcher behind the counter was from Wicklow, Ireland and asked in his very best Irish brogue: "Would you like to try something I've been working on?" Free food at Balducci's? Really? Who turns that down? That's how I ended up with a packet of sausages. We'll have those as well as some patties made from an early morning butchering on Saturday and brought us by a friend. There may be places that have better sausage than Fulton County, but I doubt it.

Sausages from an Irish butcher in Rockville

Let go of that which you cannot control; 

use your time to enjoy and master what you can.

At twenty minutes till six on this rainy second Sunday in February 2017, there is still much ambient light; Ella Fitzgerald is singing on the radio; I am in stocking feet and comfortable clothes;  I may pour myself a glass of wine or make another cuppa. I feel okay. I feel blessed. I hope you feel okay and blessed, too. Be mindful. Make soup.