Sunday, November 18, 2007

Mindful Consumption 2007

"May the food we are eating make us aware of the interconnections between the universe and us, the earth and us, and all other living species and us. Because each bite contains in itself the life of the sun and the earth, may we see the meaning and value of life from these precious morsels of food."
-Thich Nhat Han

Thus began "Mindful Consumption 2007", an event that first piloted in 2002 and has since become a yearly tradition. In the words of Stacy (who hosted the event in her home this year):

"...we gather consciously, mindfully, to be present with each other as well as to share and contemplate our sustenance...the plants and animals that provide nourishment, energy, medicine, and health, complex flavors, pleasure...even bliss, reasons to gather and commune, intention for our days, traditions and stories for our families and friends.

If you've never been to a Mindful Consumption dinner before, each person brings a food or beverage to share (it doesn't have to be a full meal...just a taste for each works too...as we may have many dishes/courses). Catherine creates the order and in turn we each share our consumable with the community...and eat them mindfully."



This year, the event took place on Saturday, November 17th. 22 people attended, definitely a record number, including a very entertaining and beautiful 10-month old baby who certainly ate her share. To save time and for added yummyness, a few people combined their food contribution into one offering. For example, Brenda brought home-made jam and Shauna brought home-made bread, so we combined the two into one delectable item (which you can see us gnoshing on, below)!

Our menu for the evening, which began at 6:30pm and ended near 11:00pm was as follows (we ate one thing at a time, pausing to appreciate each flavour):
  • Cranberry and cinnamon goat cheese with crackers
  • Multi-grain bread with pesto and smoked tofu
  • Apples with cream-cheese caramel dip
  • Avocado halves with fresh lime and Himalayan salt
  • Home-baked raisin bread with home-made stawberry jam
  • Shaftsbury Cream Ale
  • Home-made radiccio pasta with tomato cream sauce and fresh parmesan (large photo featured earlier in this post!)
  • Falafel
  • Mandarin Oranges (whose peels we also mindfully played with...)
  • Local apples with red-wine infused cheddar
  • Buns with Chestnut Creme
  • Nederberg Pinotage Red Wine (Claire's wine decanting lesson below!)...
  • Pumpkin-millet muffins
  • Home-made raspberry sorbet
  • Mocha-chip cheesecake (also served as Greg's birthday cake!)
  • Organic peanut-butter double-fudge chocolate-chip brownie-cookie frozen vanilla yogurt (John dictated this title to me, be mindful of it).
  • Local hand-picked berries: thimble, black, salmon, huckle and mediteranian strawberries that grow on UBC campus (featured below)
  • Rice-krispie dark-chocolate roll-up log
  • Cointreau (orange-infused liqueur)

It was delicious. And we had a lovely crisp midnight walk by the beach afterwards. Thank-you to everyone for your creativity and inspiration!