24-Hour Essentials, Priorities

24-Hour Essentials, Priorities

CONSCIOUS BREATHING
In the morning when we wake up, we believe that we have twenty four hours to live. It is a precious gift. Learn how to live with peace and happiness in the twenty-four hours and teach others as well, so that there is peace and happiness.
Peace is in our presence right here at this moment, in every material thing we touch, every job we do, or things we see. The problem is that we did not know peace exists. With blue sky in front of us, we do not have to go far to enjoy the blue sky. We also do not need to leave the city, if we can see the beauty in the eyes of a child. Enjoying the fresh air that we breathe can tell us how happy we are then.
By letting ourselves go while standing, breathing, smiling and eating, we are always in contact with the wonderful around us. We properly arrange and prepare for our future life but every day is not good in the way we live. We will easily sacrifice ten years to earn a degree to become engineers or doctors, and are willing to work very hard to get good jobs, to buy a house, buy a car, etc., but we forget to live each present moment and can only truly live in each moment. After just waking up, each of us need to breathe and enjoy every step as a source of peace, which can tell us how to have fun and serenity.

Peace in every step. Let us hold hands and walk one step at a time on the long relaxing road disengaged.

Translated from the Introduction of the book "AN LẠC TỪNG BƯỚC CHÂN" by the Zen master 
  Thích Nhất Hạnh

Knowing about living life

Knowing about living life is not just eating breathing, but we must "learn to live". Living a long and beautiful life is everyone's dream, but how to get there? Want to live a long and beautiful life? We need to practice these following deep thoughts:

- Keep a calm mind before all the changes of life.
- Do not start anger and hatred for anything that happens to us.
- Do not become amorously interested in people belonging to others.
- Do not start in your heart and mind to damage plants and animals.
- Living with truth in your heart, even if life is not perfect.
- Living sober, not competing, even passion about life jostled.
- Eat with moderation.
-Knowing how to practice meditation every day. Meditation is going to walk with your mind calm and quiet. Travel without thinking of the destinations wholeheartedly in every step.
- Practice smiling with flowers and children every day.
- Do not listen and tell the story in vain.
- Make efforts to do what you think is best. Avoid regret and keep the mind relaxed while working.
- Practice smiling at the joys and sorrows of the past when they appear within our mind when we sit alone in silence.
- Do not compare yourself to other people. Since karmic retribution in this world is not the same but it is different from one to another, so we do not have to compare. Always have positive thinking about the good and the efforts that make life so beautiful, and make it become a reality in our lives, in the many different forms of life.
- Do not pay attention to the bad things of other people, because man is not perfect. When you let a bad thought enter your mind, it will create bad seeds, and will grow other bad things, making your mind cloudy and making you lose face in holiness.
- You have to know how to practice listening and learning. Learning from life and listening to the change from the feeling and operate from the seed in  mind, and in every breath of  consciousness have the ability to know, what we do not want others do to yourself,  must never do to others.
- Life usually does not last 100 years and only exists in every breath, so we have to live beautifully, wholeheartedly, and carefree in our every breath. For every breath we have the ability to take us to a noble life. Human lives are considered a waste, because they waste within their own existences.
- We must nurture a sense to live. If not conscious of this, you will be feeling as a lonely fool and will starve to death in that feeling.
- Do not mind struggles start with anyone in this world, because in this world no one is number one, and nobody is even important at all. All numbers of importance and hallucinations just fall out and change.
- Practice to see the impermanence of all things, so know no one lives in the midst of bad and good unduly, because bad things in life are good in themselves and often change as fate. Do not allow one's life to fall into the trap of hope or despair excessively.
- Practice the ability of self-knowledge and its limits in time to treat people and all things, so as not to fall into the regrettable mistake, which later leads to remorse.
-  Do practice what is a good investment in our minds and in our lives, it is well invested, significant, and most enduring.
- Know that the investment and business for our mind is good in our consciousness of investments, making it the only capital to grow out of our lives, before beginning the business in any field of social profit.
- Practice good thinking every day when the sun rises and after it sets.
-Know every day how to spend an hour to practice doing difficult things to do, in order to foster the will and determination in us. Maintain willpower and energy to help us overcome difficulties and to succeed in life.
- Do not canonize yourself and do not let anyone canonize you, but no how to create the conditions for the holy seed in  your mind to express, and  everyday make the holy seed in others arise.
- Do not talk about ethics or compassion, but show compassion and live the moral right of action towards other people and in all things.
- Living a long and beautiful life is always nourished by the simplicity of love.

Source : Internet

Crusty Cranberries Baked Salmon

Most of the delicious dishes are easy to implement by using fish fillets. According to some studies, I just know cranberries have a very good health benefit for the body. For that, why not use this small beautiful bright red fruit every day either fresh in the fall or dried throughout the year. The characteristic of sour and sweet blends very well with the fat in salmon and can help reduce everyday stress that we are dealing in our lives. For casual cooking daily, I always look forward to introducing  a new simple dish from which I can contribute some small advice to everyone to pay more attention to food intake. This fruit could contribute to good mental health as well as physical.

 Ingredients:
Two 8 oz. salmon fillets
Juice and zest of one lemon
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne
2 garlic cloves
1 tbs low-fat mayonnaise
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley and thyme
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.
In a food processor, blend cranberries and garlic. Remove and add green onions (blend a few times).
In a mixing bowl, combine diced cranberries, green onions, garlic, parley-thyme, all the lemon zest and half of the lemon juice, salt, pepper, Cayenne, and mayonnaise. Blend well. Add panko and mix well.
In small bowl, add oil and the rest of lemon juice.
Using a pastry brush, brush fish well on both sides with oil and lemon juice mixture. Divide the cranberries mixture and top over fish. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Serve with steamed vegetables, such as broccoli and asparagus.

 

The Definition of a Wife.

Definition of a wife

-The Farmer: The wife is old barren piece of land that although we continue to plow and try to cultivate, no one wants to buy.

- The Teacher: She is a dull student, asked just one sentence repeatedly, forever.

- The seller of lottery tickets: Wife is a lottery ticket that when first bought, everyone hopes to hit the jackpot.

- The philosopher: She is an independent entity existing outside of me –  my unintended. Wife is categorical, indicating the only fear of man.

- Physicist: She can transform from one form to another, from one form to her husband out of the house to form tassels to bruises, she forms the basis for man to dig a big grave and to jump out of a tall building.

- Economist: She is banking lawlessness, not rules: Send in is easy, it is difficult to withdraw, but what cannot be sued.

- In terms of assets: The wife is something very old that cannot be liquidated.

- Sociologist: She is individual liberty, volunteering to live with us, but always accusing us of losing her freedom, and if we try to return her freedom, she refuses to have it back.

- Archaeologist: She is an antique that devaluates with time.

But ultimately, men cannot live without her.

Seafood & Udon Noodles Soup

Udon noodles soup comes with so many recipes and different dashi stock. While I was waiting at the Japan airport, I order Nabeyaki Udon soup with seafood topping. It is thick udon noodles soup that is topped with a variety of chicken, tempura shrimp or fish cake. After tasting this soup, I thought that I could create this simple soup for myself at home because the dashi stock is the basic broth to make any kind of udon soup. The easiest dashi stock is the one using dried kelp and Katsuobushi powder or Bonito flakes (shaved tuna). I am not an expert in Japanese cooking, but I love the Japanese cuisine for its simplicity and healthy benefits. I hope that someday I will create many more easy Japanese recipes. Today, I will make this udon soup to remember my trip to Vietnam.

Ingredients:
Ingredients for the vegetarian dashi stock:
6 cups water
5” x 5” dried kelp

1/2 cup Bonito flakes

Ingredients for the udon soup:
All the dashi stock
Seafood of your choice: cod fillet, shrimps, squid etc..
1/4 cup daikon
1 carrot, sliced
4 shitake mushrooms, soaked in water, and sliced
1 leek, white part only, washed and sliced
3 eggs
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbs miring (sweet cooking wine)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
12 oz fresh udon

Directions:
To make Dashi stock:
Soak the kelp in 5 cups of water for 1 hour. After soaking kelp, bring water to just beginning to boil.

Remove from heat and add A needle flakes. Let sit for 1 hour then drain the stock over a coffee filter.
To make Udon soup:
Pour dashi stock into a soup stock. Add carrots, daikon , mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. Bring to boil and season with soy sauce, salt, and miring. Simmer for 5 minutes.

 Add seafood of your choice (if using different varieties of seafood, cut into bite size pieces). Skim off any residue that rises to the top. Add fresh Udon noodles and leeks. At this point, either carefully poach the eggs  or fry the eggs sunny side up and place on top of the serving bowl. Serve.

Coconut Milk Eggs Curtard

Each country has its own recipe for this kind of ordinary quiche. This common type of custard is widely popular among people. The Asian recipes call for this cake to be formed into small shapes, but in the West, the cakes are prepared in the form of a pie and cut into pieces to serve. Whether as a small shape or a pie, this is a cake that I prefer and moreover it is very easy to prepare. There is nothing better than a piece of egg custard served with a cup of fragrant steaming tea.

Ingredients:
1 unbaked prepared pie crust (homemade or store-bought)
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 drops of yellow food color (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.
In a medium saucepan, add coconut milk and sugar and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and food color.
Add the milk mixture into the beaten eggs. Whisk well. Pour the batter through sieve to prevent any lumps. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting. 

 

 

 

Tuna Baked with Teriyaki Sauce

One of many sauces in the Asian cuisine is Teriyaki. This sweet sauce with a hint of garlic and ginger is a must have in the kitchen. Of course, a bottle of teriyaki sauce is always sold in the grocery store, but homemade teriyaki is what I always prefer. It is very easy to make, and all the chemicals that come with the commercially sold sauce are avoidable. Some teriyaki sauces are very sweet, but the one I make at home has much less sugar.

Ingredients:
Two 8 oz. tuna fillets
Green onions, chopped
Sauce ingredients:
1/2 cups unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs honey
Two garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp fresh chopped ginger
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tsp water

Side dish:
Sweet cucumber and radish pickles

Directions:
Combine all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and let cool.
In a baking dish, place tuna and pour teriyaki sauce on top. Bake in a preheated oven set to 375° for 15 minutes, Top with green onions and bake for anther 3 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1 tsp of roasted sesame seeds.
Serve with hot cooked rice and sweet cucumber and radish pickles.

To make pickles:
2 oz. English cucumbers, thinly sliced
2 oz. white radish, thinly sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tbs sugar or more
1/8 tsp salt

Place the cucumber slices and radish slices in a bowl.
Bring the vinegar, sugar, salt, and water to boil and pour over the slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Add some chili flakes, if desired.