A recipe for you

For a late lunch, I made butternut squash, kale and white bean soup. It is unfortunate that D does not like the "orange family" (butternut squash, pumpkin, acorn squash, sweet potatoes) and TW will no longer be coming over for dinner on Tuesday nights now that our mentor meetings are over. This means that my orange family soups will be ending up in the freezer. Oh well. It was very good.

Here's the recipe (from one of Jeanne Lemlin's books):

Heat 1/3 c olive oil over medium heat in a large stockpot. Saute 2 large diced onions for 10 min, or until tender. Add 10 cups vegetable stock (note to self and others: Health Valley is better than Kitchen Basics), 1 c diced tomatoes with their liquid, 1/2 t dried rosemary, 1/2 t salt, and ground pepper. Bring to a boil. Add 1 lb diced butternut squash, reduce heat to a lively simmer and cook for 30 min. Add 1/2 lb shredded kale and 1 can of small white beans (drained and rinsed). Simmer for 15 minutes more. You can serve it with grated Parmesan if you want, but it's really not necessary.

So I was going to go to the studio uptown where I used to go before yoga school took over, but the transit strike made that impossible. I didn't want to walk or ride 80 blocks, so instead I walked 14 blocks downtown to an affiliated studio. The teacher took my name for their sublist. She told me after class I should attend one of the director's classes; apparently the director likes you to do that. (The director won't be back until after New Year's). She also told me how they structure their classes there - 15 minutes of warmups, followed by 5 Series A sun salutations, 3 Series B sun salutations, and "then you can do anything you want."

Because of the transit strike, I was the only person who made it to the 2:30 class. So essentially I had a $10 private - probably the cheapest private ever. The going rate for private instruction is $75-$125 an hour, and this lesson was an hour and a half. Anyway, it was great. It was all tailored to me so it was neither boring nor exhausting. She spotted me into tripod headstand, a few handstands and we did a fun arm balance called bhujapidasana, where you rest the backs of your thighs on your upper arms, lift your feet off the floor and cross your ankles. At first I felt rather naked and exposed being the only person in the class, but I got used to it and it was definitely a good experience.