Cooking for My Family

This evening I came home from work and started dinner right away. I wanted to make three dishes that I saw demonstrated on Food Network's show Five Ingredient Fix. The premise of the show is that you can take just five ingredients and make a great dish. The host of the show is Claire Robinson and I like her. She kind of reminds me a little of Rachael Ray. Anyway, I made all three dishes from that episode. The first was Easy White Pizza. The ingredients were Garlic infused Olive Oil, store bought pizza dough, mozzerella cheese, ricotta cheese and fresh oregano. Here is a picture of the finished product. It looked great, but it wasn't good. It was very bland. If I made this again, I would put chicken, onions, mushrooms and a little bacon to jazz it up. Oh, and maybe some artichoke hearts.

The side dish was a romaine salad with some of the pizza dough cut into little pieces and fried in olive oil then tossed with parmesan cheese. The salad was dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Again not great. Dessert was more pizza dough coated and rolled in sugar, then cut in 3" rounds and baked for 20 minutes. It made a nice little hockey puck to spread marscopone cheese, top with strawberries and a little balsamic vinigar reduction. It was the best part of the meal.

It wasn't a terrible meal, but it wasn't the best meal I've ever cooked or eaten. I think the 5 ingredient premise is good for people that are just learning to cook, but I think anyone that has been cooking for a while would see right away how to improve these recipes.

I feel like Oprah!

Here it is 2010 and I'm still talking about weight! Could this actually be the year that I get off the hamster wheel and actually get to a healthy weight? I ordered Chris Downie's book, "The Spark" and it is really starting to click in my brain. I know that probably most of what's in the book is on the Sparkpeople website, but I'm really enjoying the book. It's easier for me to read than to sit in front of the computer and try and read everything on the site.

Right now I'm at the part of focus and setting goals. I have decided that as a long range goal I want to lose 70 lbs. A short term goal would be to lose 5 lbs a month. That is do-able. Another short term goal is to exercise 10 minutes a day for the first week. I've almost completed that goal. Next, I want to drink 3 24 oz bottles of water a day. I'm on a streak with that. I'm trying to go to Sparkpeople.com every day and keep track of what I'm eating. Another immediate goal is to remind myself everyday to "Be kind to myself and others." Ban negative self-talk.

I was thinking about "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and if I rephrase that as "Be kind to myself and others", it really is the same thing. It's very hard to be kind to others or love my neighbor if I hate myself. My body really is the Holy Spirits' temple, so I need to give it a throurgh cleaning.

Happy New Year!

New Years Day was wonderful for me. My hubby had the day off for the first time in 12years, so we got to spend some quality time together. He also sent me to My Retreat Day Spa for a 30 minute soak in their hot tub, a 75 minute massage with an aromatherpy salt scrub, and a 45 minute facial. I love that man! I was like limp spaghetti when I left there.
I'm also jumping on the photo a day for 365 days bandwagon. I started a new blog at http://365dayswithawomanofacertainage.blogspot.com Come join me as I see if I can keep something up for more than a week!!!
Happy New year everybody!

Good Friends

Yesterday I called my husband from work and he told me I had a Christmas card in the mail. He told me the last name on the envelop and where they lived and my response was, "I don't no anyone by that name that lives in that state." I told him to open it and it was from one of my dearest friends that I had lost track of and hadn't talked to in a least 8 years. I've been looking for her for at least that long. I realized that the last address I had from her was the address on the envelop and I had a phone number too, so I called. She answered the phone and I was so thrilled to hear her voice. We talked for an hour and it was like we had never been apart. I believe that in this life you are fortunate to make one really good friend that you can tell anything. I have been extremely fortunate to have six women in my life, including the one I just found again, that no matter how far we live from each other, no matter how much time goes by between phone calls or letters, I know they are there for me and me for them. Thank you ladies for being such great friends. You know who you are. Thank you Lord for bringing each of them into my life.

A Conversation with my 6 year old Grandson

Last night my darling daughter and son-in-law and my two grand kids that are visiting, took me to Chevy's for dinner. As we left the restaurant, my grandson ran ahead to the car and opened the door for me. I said,"Thank you very much." I was very impressed with his manners. When we got in the car I told his mom that Papa must be rubbing off on him because my husband always opens the door for me. My darling grandson replied, "No I learned that in my mind." "Do I get paid because I opened the door for her because she's old?" His dad said, "You don't say that!" He replied, "Why not, she's really old!" We were trying really hard not to laugh, but we weren't succeeding very well. Oh the innocence of children!

Songs of my Youth

For some reason today, I can't get some songs out of my head that I learned when I was a teenager at church. Don't get me wrong, I love the music today but for some reason I can't remember the contemporary songs I've learned in church in the last ten years but all the songs I learned 40 years ago are flooding my soul.

Heaven is a wonderful place
Filled with glory and grace
I want to see my Savior's face
Heaven is a wonderful, Heaven is a glorious, Heaven is a wonderful place.

Teenager are you lonely
Do you need a friend
Take Jesus as your Savior
He will be there till the end
He'll be your guide
Stay by your side
Teenager take Jesus today!

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing, I will sing
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfullness, Thy faithfullness
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfullness to all generations.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

Oh Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee
How great thou art, How great thou art!
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee
How great thou art, How great thou art!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see.
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Then when we first began

By the way, what was up when we were kids of only singing the 1st and 3rd verses of a hymm? Anybody know or was that just in the interest of time. I always felt like I was missing some good music when we skipped the 2nd and 4th verses.

BUSY, BUT FUN DAYS AHEAD

This morning I got up at 6 am with the thought in mind that I would finish my quilt block for my 1st Saturday QBM in Winters. Not happening. I cut the material out last night but for some reason, I just can't finish it right now. I have to be in Winters at 8:45 so I guess I have to pay this month. When I finish in Winters, I need to come home and make a grocery list and go grocery shopping. Yuk!

Saturday, Nov. 13th, darling daughters number 2 and 3 will be visiting us with #2's darling husband and two beautiful grandchildren and #3's boyfriend (that we haven't met yet). Darling daughter #4 will also be dropping in (since she still lives in the area)and we wish darling daughter #1 could also be here with her beautiful family. Since we will be having 3 of the four girls here, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday, the 14th. So I have a lot of cleaning , shopping and cooking to do in the next week. We are planning some fun things to do with the grandkids, like a trip to the Jelly Belly factory and baking Christmas cookies together. I want to take them to ride the carousel at the Nut Tree and I'm going to try to take them to see A Christmas Carol in 3D.

It will be a great time and I can't wait to get started.