Yields 4 Modest servings

I use a digital kitchen scale, and have found metric measure to be much easier to manage, so I use grams whenever I can. It’s more accurate and easier to expand a recipe for more servings!

8 oz Shelled Mussels (I use cooked, shelled ready to serve, but fresh is fine if you lightly steam then in advance.)

Chop all the following in a small food processor:

• 35 Grams Garlic
• 30 Grams Capers
• 15 Grams Provence Olives
• 12 Grams pure Dried Pineapple

More ingredients:

• 3 Grams Orange Zest
• Some really good Olive Oil
• 125 ML Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (Beer)
• IMPORTANT: Drink the rest of the IPA
• 1 Nip bottle Grand Marnier (50 ML) (Option 2: Buy a big bottle, pour 50 ml for the recipe and another 50 ml in a glass for you while you cook.)
• 1 tbsp Corn Starch (for thickening)
• 3 tbsp Asiago Cheese (fresh grated)
• 100 Grams Fresh Spinach
• 6 oz Dry Corkscrew Pasta (mixed veggie flavored is really good.) I use Organic Wheat Free Gluten Free Rice Vegetable Twists from Mrs. Leepers

Have all your ingredient ready in bowls like this.

Cooking Instructions:

• Start to Boil water for the pasta.
• Heat a large skillet over med low heat (3 on my electric range)while the water heats up.
• At the same time Simmer the IPA Beer and Grand Marnier over med low heat until reduced to 1/2 a cup. Once it’s reduced, thoroughly blend in the cornstarch and set it aside.

You’ll need about 8 minutes for the following so start your pasta in time for it to be ready when you finish the good stuff!

• Add the pasta to the boiling water

Start the next steps when there are 8 minutes left on the pasta.

• Add olive oil to a large pre heated fry pan, covering the bottom.

Note: Never preheat your cooking oil. An easy to remember rule is “hot pan cold oil!”

• Add Garlic, shake and swirl it out flat in the pan.
• When just starting to brown (about 2 minutes), Add dried pineapple and orange zest
• Saute mixture until the garlic is very light Brown. (about 2 more minutes if your heat is right.)
• Add the olives and spinach and toss the mixture until spinach is limp (about 2 to 3 minutes)
• Add the capers
• Stir in wine reduction and corn starch.
• Add the asiago cheese and stir thoroughly.
• Turn down the heat to low and simmer for about 2 minutes
• At 8 minutes toss in muscles
• Drain and rinse the pasta toss for a minute over the heat
• Pour into serving bowl.
• Top with fresh grated Asiago Cheese and serve.

Recommended Side dishes:

A side salad of Mesclun greens, some chopped almonds, sunflower seeds and a raspberry vinaigrette.

And a Hearty sourdough bread slice!

Make enough for leftovers because it’s even better after a night in the fridge!

More info: Here

Share ]]> http://markfirehammer.com/?feed=rss2&p=789 0 http://markfirehammer.com/?p=181 http://markfirehammer.com/?p=181#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2005 15:46:19 +0000 Mark http://techeffective.net/mfblog/?p=181 Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. A Maori tribe must contend with the distinctly non-traditional concept of having a female leader when young Pai’s (Keisha Castle-Hughes) twin brother — the intended heir to the throne — dies during childbirth. Now, she must struggle to prove herself. Stars Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis

Continue reading Whale Rider (2003)

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. A Maori tribe must contend with the distinctly non-traditional concept of having a female leader when young Pai’s (Keisha Castle-Hughes) twin brother — the intended heir to the throne — dies during childbirth. Now, she must struggle to prove herself. Stars Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis and Grant Roa. Written and directed by Niki Caro.
Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, More
Director: Niki Caro

If you’ve already seen the whale Rider, you’ll know that Paka, the ruling Chief of the Maori people, strictly adheres to Maori traditions as they were passed down to him. That’s my focus for this installment of The Seekers Guide To Great Movies. It is within Paka’s example of rigidly held truths that we can find an answer to the question I always ask!

What’s in it for us?

When is being right, actually wrong? What happens when when we do what Paka does, hold knowledge rigidly as TRUTH? In Paka’s case, the result is an inability to see any other possibilities. Other possibilities exist all the time, all around him, but his mind, firmly made up, can’t perceive them. Paka’s traditions say his son, grandson or suitable a tribal male will replace him when he can no longer lead his people. His son rejects the responsibility in favor of more modern pursuits. His grandson dies at birth, only a granddaughter survives and the young men of the tribe fail to measure up to the task!
Translation of Paka’s belief: The first absolute requirement of a leader is manhood. We watch how it blinds him. How it actually creates his problem!

A reoccurring metaphor in this film comes in the form of rope. It first appears in a scene where Pai is watching Paka trying to start an outboard motor.
Paka: “You see that there, look at it closely, what do you see?”
Pai: “Lots of little bits of rope all twisted together.”
Paka: “That’s right, weave together the threads of Pikea, so that our line remains strong.” “Each one of those threads is one of your ancestors.” “All joined together and strong.” “All the way back to that whale of yours.”

Paka then tries to start the outboard motor with the rope and it breaks. Referring to the rope that he just used to describe that strength is found in threads twisted together, Paka says: “Useless.” (Casting it aside.) “I will fetch another.”  While he is gone, Pai figures out how to weave the rope back together making it strong enough, once again, for her to start the motor!  Pai yells: “Paka it’s working Paka it’s working!” Paka returns at the sound of her outcry. His response to her accomplishment is, “I don’t want you to do that again.” “It’s dangerous.”
bullet

• He could have recognized her accomplishment.
• He could have praised her.
• He could have done any number of things that allowed for a better overall outcome.
• He could have recognized this hint at an answer to his problem!

But his perspective doesn’t allow him to see any of those other choices!

What’s in it for us?
Based upon his perspective of the way things should be, Paka is right!  But being right in his way results in a shared experience that is emotionally negative. An experience defined by anger, frustration, disappointment and even fear.

For Paka,

What other way could he choose to be right?
What beliefs might allow him to be right and feel right?

What principles can be employed if we find ourselves in Paka’s situation?

Responsibility: My perspective is in conflict with what is right now.  I’m assigning negative emotions as a result.
Initiative: What result do I really want and need right now? How else could I look at this moment? What’s right about it, right now?

Haven’t seen Whale Rider? See it, and witness whole tribe transformed with one man’s paradigm shift!  What’s beautiful in film, is infinitely more so in our lives!
…….How are you right?

Remember you are what you watch!

Mark

Our strength as a people does not lie in the dogmatic adherence to the traditions represented in the knowledge handed down by elders and leaders.  Instead it lies in the adherence of the community as a whole to the principles upon which that knowledge and those traditions were based.
Seloge

Share ]]>

Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, More
Director: Brad Bird

The Incredibles is an opportunity to question the wisdom of conforming to the expectations of others, and of society in general. A point that The Incredibles makes for us, if we choose to see it, is that if the imperative is to fit in, to be like everyone else, then what is being special. About 15 minutes into this film the son, Dash, and his mother, the forced to retire superhero, Elastigirl, are riding home from a visit to the principal’s office, where Dash is being scolded for using his powers of speed to be mischievous in class. Dash says to his mother “Dad always says our powers made us special”, his mother says “everyone is special Dash.” Dash says “which is another way of saying, no one is.”

This family of supers known as The Incredibles, is a metaphor for every person in every family living within a society that is sending us a mixed message. Be great, be successful, be productive, but be all these things within a set of expectations that society says is acceptable. Fit in, conform, and don’t rock the boat. This voice of society tells us which skills and professions will make us more valuable than others and which skills and professions lesser members of our society, those with less intelligence, less beauty, less charm, less ambition, pursue. Where in these clear messages that say conform or else, do we find the space to discover who we really are, what makes us special, what are we good at, what are we passionate about, where is my voice to be found, what is the highest expression of me?

What’s In It For Us?
What The Incredibles so playfully gives us is the opportunity to discover that under the pressure of society’s narrow framework of conformity, we have come to fear that we are inadequate in some way. What can we do to turn that around? How about we redefine the power and meaning of fear?

Now with fear powerfully redefined to say go, then let us choose our fears carefully! After all, what we put our attention to is what expands! So, from now on let’s fear that we are infinitely powerful, that we shine so brightly that the light could be described as blinding, only to discover, that by shining that brightly we give other people permission to do the same. In doing so we give birth to a new kind of conformity, one that takes no persuasion, no convincing, and no pressure from voices or expectations coming from outside of us. It is a natural conformity of birthright.

We are all born a perfect reflection of that which creates us. Call it what ever you want, the name doesn’t matter. The entire universe and all life within it are a model of perfection and we are a unique piece of that glittering and diverse perfection. Because of that birthright, the perfection is not just in a few of us, it is in us all.

Remember you are what you watch.

Mark

There is a simple beauty and wisdom in this movie. Omar Sharif comes out five year hiatus because of the quality of this script! You won’t regret having taken the time to watch this film. It has much to offer us as we witness the blossoming of human potential that results from the relationship between the grocer Ibrahim and the young boy, Momo.

What’s In It For Us
What’s in it for us are many powerfully simple lessons in paradigm shifting, self-worth, love, trust and more. And even more powerful than the lessons are demonstration that these lessons don’t have to take a lifetime of hard work, it can happen in an instant, as the following dialogue shows us.

Ibrahim: Momo how come you never smile?
Momo: I can’t afford to. Smiling is for the rich.
Ibrahim: No, smiling is what makes you happy.
Momo: When I say smiling is for the rich I mean it’s for happy people.
Ibrahim: You’re wrong, smiling is what makes you happy.
Momo: Like how?
Ibrahim: Try it you’ll see.

From this point on much of Momo’s world changes as he begins to transform the reality of his experience by employing the power of a smile in his world. Soon he is teaching others around him on Blue Street, about the power of the smile!

Ibrahim also gives Momo Wise words about what love really is, what happens when we give it and when we don’t. In a scene with Momo and Ibrahim, Momo has just made the painful discovery that his girlfriend dumped him for another boy. He takes it to mean that the other boy was better than him and therefore won her heart.

Momo: There is always a Paulie eating me up inside. (Paulie is a brother that his father always measures him against.)
Ibrahim: It doesn’t matter, your love for her is yours. It belongs to you. She rejects it, but she can’t destroy it. She’s just missing out on it. What you give Momo, is yours for good. What you keep is lost forever.

Momo clearly is shows an openness to Ibrahim’s offering of a new understanding of love. This moment brings to to mind this question.

What’s the difference in a young mind and the mind of someone much older? And what is the significance of that difference on the willingness to consider a new perspective?

One answer is, conditioning! The cumulative effect of memories and the classification of them into good and bad, right and wrong steadily gives an individual the stuff that perspective is made of. As the memories begin to pile up, the tendency to ask simple exploratory questions like why, what or how begins to fade. Have you ever known a young child to drive you crazy with the question why? Ever wondered why they stop? What has happened in the mind to cause the diminishment of wonder?

Eventually the mind is made up about nearly everything it experiences almost in the moment it is experienced. For myself, when I came upon this understanding of the effects of my conditioning, I chose to adopt the following belief.

As I experience things, my conditioning might limit me to only those possibilities represented by the nearest match that my mind can find in it’s memory. Knowing this, I choose to refrain from comparison, and the conclusions it offers, so I may be open to the infinite possibilities, not yet experienced, that are offered in that moment.

I’m curious, do you disagree with this notion? If so, what fragment of your memory, what belief, contradicts it? Does your fragment give you greater power than the power of being open to infinite possibilities? If the answer is yes then I am open to any perspectives and understandings offered that is a key to more effectively saying “yes” to that which I imagine or desire. Your comments are always welcome.

Remember, you are what you watch.

Mark

Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, More
Director: Yimou Zhang

Don’t let the movie blurb above throw you off of this movie.  There is way more going on here than this blurb leads you to believe!  House of Flying Daggers is absolutely brilliant.  This film has it all. A Compelling story, well-written minimalist dialogue, exquisite cinematography, special-effects visuals and locations, breathtakingly artful Chinese dance and drumming, martial arts choreography and some of the finest acting that I’ve seen to date!  But most importantly, from this writer’s perspective, is the way it captures the essence of conflict and the very nature of love. Which brings me right to the point of The Seekers Guide To Great Movies.

What’s in it for us?

The message of this story is this:

Life is not about being right, it is about being whole, and one cannot be truly whole without love.

This is what is demonstrated to us by the main characters in this beautiful film. Two characters, whose relationship begins with mutual deception, eventually find themselves deeply in love, in full mutual awareness that they are on opposing sides of an ancient and deadly conflict.  As in any conflict, each side believes that they are right. That is the nature of conflict.

In the face of something that they know is true love, can they choose to exchange the position they have fought for their entire lives, one that is based on fear and hatred, for an alternative position, one of love, that allows them to be whole?

Witness the holding fast to opposing positions, within deadly conflict, in the face of love. There is a moment where two lovers discuss the future. He says, “When can we see each other again?” she says, “We cannot.” “We belong to two opposing sides.” “If we meet again one of us will have to die.”

After watching this film I was asked, “Was that a true story?” After a moment I answered, “it is the most  true story there is!”

This film can show us that if we loosen our grip on positions that keep us in conflict with others, there lies the potential to discover a third common alternative that allows for what really matters in our lives. Being whole rather than being right.

I highly recommend that you watch it with the original Chinese soundtrack with subtitles. You can’t catch the true emotions and degrees of intensity being conveyed by these fine actors if you choose the path of a dubbed in voiceover audio track, in your preferred language.

Remember you are what you watch.

Mark

Director: Peter Howitt

If you haven’t seen Sliding Doors, the blurb above and gives you a good idea of what to expect.  For the seeker movie lover, this film is a chance for a voyeuristic ride through the answers to a classic question that almost everyone has asked themselves at some point in their life.  The question, What if? That question can take on two very distinct forms depending on who you are and how you look at the world. First, here is the difference between the two forms.

The difference between two forms of the “What if” question.

Here are the two forms:

Interestingly enough the difference between these two versions is the same as the difference between opinions on either side of an age-old philosophical debate.

Do we live in a universe ruled by determinism? Or do we live in a universe ruled by free will?

No matter which side of that debate you are on, you are right, and your experience will prove it! There is another option however that you can choose to believe if you want to. And the only reason that one should choose to believe what I’m about to share is that it gives them more power in the creation of their own life.

Got power?

The following belief can give you more!

I live in a universe that is both of free will and determinism simultaneously! I believe it is how I respond to what happens to me, instead of what happens to me, that creates my life. I am self determined.

Examples of other kinds of determinism would be; genetic determinism, economic determinism, psychic determinism, social determinism etc.

It is a very powerful and proactive decision to choose to believe that no matter what cards are dealt to you in your life it is what you do in the gap between stimulus, and response, that creates your life. The stimulus is the random event and the response is the action you take following the stimulus. No matter who you are, or how bad things might seem to us, there is a gap between stimulus and response. It is a conscious choice to widen that gap and allow yourself to see more possibilities in every decision you make. In that gap is where the active choosing occurs. It is the domain of the proactive mind.

The principles that guide the proactive person are:

• Responsibility
• Initiative

What’s in it for us?

Sliding doors is terrific film and an incredible opportunity to witness what I have just described. I recommend that you watch it again and look for the difference between the two different scenarios that are given to you. Try to identify the moments that Gwyneth Paltrow’s character is taking responsibility and showing initiative toward changing the conditions of her life, rather than just taking her lumps and playing the victim to a series of events completely out of her control.

Remember you are what you watch.

Mark

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, More

Director: Peter Weir

W hat’s in it for us?

This movie allows us to ask this question about the quality of our actions in our own lives; Do my actions in my life have the quality of acts of creation, or are my actions better described as acts of maintenance?

How can we tell the difference?

Acts of creation, are motivated by clearly imagined desires for our life. These acts intentionally move us toward the fulfillment of those desires. A life like this demonstrates an anticipation of and excitement about the coming results!

Acts of maintenance: There is no clearly defined and desirable destination that is being moved towards. A life like this doesn’t demonstrate the anticipation and excitement of knowing that it is moving towards the fulfillment of desires. Instead it reflects an uneasy sense of striving to avoid what it doesn’t want. In this kind of life actions are chosen to maintain a distance from those things.

Imagine being in a car and taking a trip toward a very exciting and desirable destination. This trip has been planned far in advance, all of the details about the excitement and pleasure that the experience of the chosen destination has to offer, have been imagined again and again during the preparation of this trip. How would it feel to be in that car? What would the facial expressions be like? If there were more than one person in the car what would the conversation sound like?

Now imagine traveling in a car without a chosen and desirable destination in mind. Instead of that, there is only a sense of where you don’t want to be. All the driving decisions are based upon the need to avoid places you don’t want to be, but never result in getting any closer to any place where you do want to be. How does it feel to be in that car? What would the facial expression be like? If there are more than one person in the car what with the conversation sound like?

In Fearless the main character Max Klein was maintaining the absence of fear. His new belief system and therefore his actions after surviving the plane crash were not aligned with creativity. He focused all of his attention on the saving of other people with no consideration for his own needs or desires. In his recollection of the crash experience he remembers himself, in the moments before impact, surrendering his fear of death. Whether this is a real memory or imagined doesn’t matter. What does matter is what he chooses to do with it. In the days and weeks following the crash he begins to formulate a new belief system that tell him that the absence of fear was the very thing that allowed him to survive.

For survivor Max Klein, life now equaled the absence of fear.

It became enough for him to avoid the presence of fear rather than move toward the presence of that which he desired. His actions became acts off maintenance rather than acts of creation. The absence of fear represented life, rather than the experience and fulfillment of self chosen goals and desires that were worthy of his pursuit.

This illustrates an age-old discussion about human existence and the relationship between the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. The discussion of this relationship and its significance is often way oversimplified simply because in discussion we rarely reach beyond our intellectual intelligences.

We are not just mind; we are mind, body, heart and spirit.

In the formulation of our idea of a life worthy of living we must access all of those components and the intelligence that they represent. For example, in the pursuit of pleasure, is the pleasure worthy of our pursuit, and why do we seek that pleasure? Do we seek it because it offers us an opportunity to be a more complete and pure expression of ourselves, or does it represent a need to distract us from a pain of another sort, as in the seeking of some form of physical pleasures to avoid emotional pain. It works for a short awhile, but the pain returns when the pleasure is past. If we simply live in our minds then it would be enough to formulate the opinions and belief systems that guide our actions in our lives with just our intellect. But we don’t just live in our minds. To be whole, we are better served to access the intelligences of our entire being to get a more complete guidance of what to choose for our lives. This is the kind of oversimplification the Max Klein suffered in fearless. His new belief system was entirely intellectual, a reaction to traumatic experience of near-death. For Max Klein, life equaled the absence of fear, and so his life became about the avoidance of it.

Look at other life on earth! If a plant stops growing, developing and expanding, it’s dying! If we stop growing developing and expanding in our own lives we are not living at all, we’re slowly dying as Max Klein was in Fearless. In life, can we just avoid things we don’t desire and call that a life? We need to have worthy goals and desires that we’re moving towards, each action being one of creation toward the fulfillment of them. In the end Max Klein saw the light, and instead of being the savior, he decided it was he who needed saving.

Watch this film again and pay particular attention to the significance of the strawberries. Remember early in the film, he tested his new belief system and ate a bowl of strawberries when he knew he shouldn’t. This was not an act of creation. Max Klein was not moving toward a desire to enjoy strawberries. Instead he was proving his new belief system, that the absence of fear equals life.

Remember, you are what you watch!

Mark