Stephanie and Janeryic,
Hi!
You gals were having such a lovely interaction, I just thought that maybe I could share something useful.
Since moving in with a longtime macrobiotic teacher, I've been learning a newer and different way of cooking foods.
For instance, now instead of using lots of seaweed and in big chunks in miso soup, for instance, I'm using a small piece of wakame (maybe an inch or so presoaked and then cut up into finely shaved pieces).
When cooking vegetables like nishime, we use an inch or two of kombu also cut up into smaller pieces.
One does not need a large piece of kombu when cooking beans, as the algin and enzymes from the sea vegetables spreads out and completely permeates, tenderizes, and softens the grain, vegetable or bean that it is cooked with.
So one both saves a lot of money on food and a little goes a long way.
Check out Mitoku's information page and click non the sea vegetable and recipe folders
http://<a href="http://www.mitoku.co.../products/</a>.
Now Michio and the senior macrobiotic teachers place a lot of emphasis in using 2 to 3 year (darker) barley miso for the healing of most sicknesses and maladies, but what we have been doing in our house is using a combination of darker older misos with the lighter and younger misos (Like either the Organic Mitoku Sweet White or Westbrae Mellow White misos), and it helps to relax the digestion more a give one and much brighter experience of eating miso with one's meal.
mix a teaspoon or less of one with a teaspoon or less of the other in a glass measuring cup and some purified or spring water and add it to your simmering soup.
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine