5-Senses Sunday

the 5-things rocking my 5-senses this week

Taste:

Pickles and Pickle Juice

Photo by Vino Li on Unsplash

A few days ago my husband spotted an empty pickle jar in our fridge with just the brine leftover and attempted to throw it out. He was perplexed when I ran over and grabbed the jar from him saying “Don’t throw this out! I like to use the brine in my cooking!”

Pickles sometimes get a bad rap due to its high sodium content but let’s talk about the myriad benefits of eating and using pickle juice.

Benefits of Sour Foods:

Evolutionary speaking we are primed to desire sweet foods and avoid bitter or sour foods as it was the best way to determine if a food was poisonous or had turned. (fermented)

It wasn’t until much later when we understood the vital benefits of fermented foods and its effect on our microbiome (and immunity).

Some have argued that we have a predisposition towards sour citrus fruits in the body’s attempt to get adequate vitamin C. Indeed, many sailors' lives were saved from debilitating scurvy by adding oranges and citrus fruits on the ships.

But, often, we enjoy pairing sour foods with another flavor component like salt or sweet to offset the pucker-inducing sour response.

When it comes to pickles and in particular, pickle brine, the culinary uses extend well beyond dirty martini’s (which, of course I adore)

Some of the ways I plan to use the leftover pickle brine in my fridge:

• Adding a few spoonfuls to a zesty salad dressing

• Using it instead of vinegar (or in addition to) to finish off a stew or soup

• Adding it to the batter for fried chicken and other fried foods

• In my marinades for meat and vegetables.

Want even more pickle juice inspo? Check out this article, a gazillion ways to use leftover pickle juice

What’s your take on pickle juice and other sour foods? Are you a fan or do you avoid it at all costs?

Scent:

Old shirts

There is a poignant scene in the film, Brokeback Mountain, where one of the characters discovers an old shirt hanging in the closet of his deceased lover and begins to breakdown crying.

About a month ago, I had a similar experience when I came across a box of old baseball caps that belonged to my Dad before he passed in 2017. Just taking in a whiff of the inside of the cap revealed his unique scent even years later which conjured up many memories of him wearing each of those caps on hikes and trips we took together.

Scent is our most ancient sense and plays a huge role in memory formation and feelings of safety. I remember my entire being relaxing when holding my newborn babies and taking in the musky, sweet smell from their scalps. Likewise, newborn babies know who their caregivers are through scent as their eyesight is not fully developed yet after birth.

The unique combination of microbiota on our skin, what we eat, and aromas we choose to wear (like perfume) make up so much of our “scent identity” that often lingers in our clothes, rooms and unconsciously helps us determine who we trust and who we love.

Perhaps more than any other sense, smell connects us to our deepest memories and most fundamental feelings of belonging and safety.

What scent immediately brings you back to feeling completely safe and loved?

Sound:

Drumming sounds and rhythm

Photo by Lee Pigott on Unsplash

If you’re familiar with the marvelous 2014 film, Whiplash, you can get a sense of the frenetic beauty that is drumming. There is something about being so locked in to the repetitive rhythms and beats that it can sometimes render people into a trance-like state, leading to feelings of euphoria and other-worldliness.

Recent studies on this show that depending on the complexity of the rhythm, some drum beats (especially ones with more than one type of drum) create syncopation that is often so compelling that they catalyzes people to get on their feet and move rhythmically to the sounds.

Drum circles also promote community. In just a short online search I did I found several drumming circle events nearby that promise leaving you in a meditative state ripe for self-healing and deeper connection with yourself and others.

Here is me performing in a drum circle with my friend back in 2015. Can’t you just feel how much FUN we were having?

Touch:

Eating with your hands

Photo by Rosalind Chang on Unsplash

Before utensils, our hands and fingers were our eating implements.

Think about it. Our fingers are designed for fine motor skills and dexterity and have thousands of nerve endings that can detect different temperatures, textures and even minute changes in firmness, like with mangos, that can signal freshness or ripeness.

Humans LOVE to eat with our hands. My daughters, as babies, used to make creative art installations on their highchair trays simply by smearing their sweet potatoes. They also often threw their spoons on the floor opting instead for good old-fashioned finger foods.

But, because we also enjoy cleanliness, many of us have abandoned messy finger foods in favor of hand-held foods like wraps, sandwiches, empanadas, burritos, panini’s, among many others.

There are many cultures, however, that continue the ritual and tradition of eating full meals with fingers and hands.

In Ethiopia, meals are shared from a common platter using injera bread as both plate and utensil, with diners tearing pieces to scoop up stews and vegetables. This practice, called gursha, creates intimacy and requires you to slow down and invite mindfulness into the meal.

Indian cuisine encourages eating with hands because it's believed that touch helps assess temperature and texture before food reaches your mouth, preventing burns and enhancing digestion. The fingertips can gauge whether rice is properly cooked or if bread has the right give.

My favorite foods to eat with my hands:

• Pizza

• Blueberries

• Nuts and Seeds

• Mozzarella Sticks

• Ripe peaches

• Any kind of raw vegetable with some kind of dip

What's your favorite food to eat with your hands? Notice what your fingertips tell you that utensils miss.

Sight:

Colorful cities

Photo by Seondol Son on Unsplash

I came across this article that lists some of the most colorful cities in the world and my antenna went up. I am drawn to bold, bright colors, especially in architecture and adore ornate and colorful buildings that are clustered together.

Examples that come to mind that I’ve actually visited include:

San Juan, Puerto Rico (the old city is just gorgeous)

Nyhaven in Copenhagen, Denmark

Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden

Istanbul, Turkey

Marrakesh, Morocco (everything is this gorgeous cobalt blue)

Examples of the colorful bucket list locations on my list:

Burano in Italy

Jodhpur, India

Willemstad, Curaçao

Rainbow Row, Charleston, South Carolina

Which colorful cities or destinations have you been to lately?