I made a thanksgiving resolution to find something to be thankful for every day until next Thanksgiving. Here’s what I am thankful for this week!
Thursday: Free tupperware! (Went to a Tupperware consultant meeting and got a free Forget Me Not onion keeper for attending. It hangs in your fridge so you don’t forget it! *Note: I did not give in to the dark side and become a Tupperware consultant. hehehe)
Friday: Girl-time! (Co-hosted a Tupperware party with my sister at her shop.)
Saturday: Miniature Golf! (We got to play a round for $1 as part of the River Festival activities. Today was the last day of RiverFest.)
Sunday: Friends with benefits! (No, not thooooose kind of benefits! I mean the benefits that come with having an artist for a friend that can turn an ink stain on your jeans into a work of art. Booyah! Thanks Miss Tara!)
Before–plain jane jeans with an ink stain:
After-my razzle dazzled-up jeans:
I love it!
She even did the leg…
and pimped my booty too!
This is the same friend that pimped my hubby’s guitar with a drawing of Medusa and won second place for it in the misc. art division at the state fair:
Does she rock hard, or what?!
Monday:Dollar Tree & flash cards! (I found a pack of Disney princess multiplication flash cards at the Dollar Tree, where everything is $1. These are helping me with my pre-test studying as I forgot some of my multiplication tables and needed a refresher for the math portion of the test.)
Tuesday: Screaming bananas! (You know, the bananas that have been sitting on the counter so long they turn black and start screaming to be used? Don’t be scared of them–they are perfect for baking! I made the most delicious all-natural, sugar-free blueberry muffins with them.)
Wednesday: My hubby! (I locked my keys in the car at a gas station and he left work to come and save me. I’m also thankful he has a job with the flexibility to clock out whenever he wants to and for how long he wants to, as long as he gets in 40 hours by the end of the week. We were able to have lunch together before he went back.)
Some friends who like to fish gave us a couple pounds of crappie and I came up with this quick and delicious coating for it. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it turned out! Perfectly seasoned and with a slight crunch to it from broiling, the fish turned out really nice with the moisture locked in from the dressing and coating. I think you’re going to like this one!
I just have to share something funny that’s related to this recipe before we get to it. When I searched for “crappie” in the Weight Watchers points tracker online, this is what popped up on my screen:
Let’s take a closer look:
So there’s no entry for crappie, but there’s something called a “crap pie?” I don’t even want to know! I just used another white fish to calculate the points. :)
2 lbs. white fish, such as tilapia or cod
Italian Dressing
½ cup stone ground cornmeal
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon garlic salt
Place fish in a Ziploc bag and pour dressing over it, about ½ cup or enough to coat the fish. Allow to marinate 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees; line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking oil. Combine the cornmeal, parmesan, and garlic salt in a bowl and stir well. Take fish fillets one by one and place on a plate, then sprinkle cornmeal mixture over the top. Lift with your wet hand and shake excess coating back into your bowl. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all fish fillets are coated and on baking sheet. Bake for ten minutes, then switch the oven to broil. Keep an eye on the fish and remove once golden and the fish flakes easily when pierced with a fork.
For a quick and colorful side dish, combine broccoli florets with sliced red and yellow pepper and microwave in a covered dish for 5 minutes, or until tender. Serve with a sprinkle of garlic salt over the top.
Serves 6
Per serving: 246 calories; 9.7 g fat; 9 g carbohydrates; .7 g fiber; 32 g protein; 6 Points Plus
If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard me mention my foodie mama, Marina, before. We met on MySpace three years ago, and she took me under her baking wing, sharing her wisdom and fabulous award-winning recipes with me and all those lucky enough to befriend her. I like to think of myself as a baker, but Marina is a pro, having won literally hundreds of ribbons for her baked goods and recipes over the years, and is also a field editor for Taste of Home. This pie is one of the first recipes I ever made of hers, and I took all these pictures at that time–nearly three years ago now. Since she gave me permission to share the recipe, I thought it was about time I did so!
Marina has won a blue ribbon for this pie every year for the past 11 consecutive years, so that should give you an indication of how good it is. I have to agree with the judges, because the creamy peanut butter filling is just to die for, and the cinnamon-scented graham cracker crust, chocolate drizzle, and crunchy nuts really puts it over the top. The bonus is that it’s a chilled pie, and thus a perfect treat to enjoy during these warmer months.
12 whole graham crackers, crushed
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 (3 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream
1 cup chopped peanuts (I used walnuts and peanuts)
Hot fudge sauce (I used ganache; recipe follows)
For the crust, mix graham cracker crumbs, butter, cinnamon, and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Pack into 9-inch pie plate.Bake at 375 degrees F for 6 minutes. Cool completely.
For the filling, in large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Beat in milk, peanut butter, and vanilla.
In chilled bowl, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
Fold in one third of it into peanut butter/cream cheese mixture.
Fold in remaining whipped cream.
Spoon filling into prepared crust.
Give your nuts a good chop.
And sprinkle over the top and refrigerate overnight.
Drizzle hot fudge sauce or ganache over the top just before serving. I went with ganache.
To make the ganache, place 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl; set aside. Heat 1/2 cup whipping cream until boiling and pour over the chocolate.
Let sit for a minute, then stir until mixture is smooth and shiny.
Allow to cool completely before using. It will get thicker as it stands, eventually becoming the consistency of frosting, and if it gets too thick you can heat it for just a few seconds in the microwave to make it liquid again. It liquefies very fast so you really shouldn’t need more than 5 seconds.
*Note: although the pictures show two pies, I did not double the recipe. I used pie tins, which are smaller than a regular pie plate, and the recipe made a perfect amount to fill both tins.
A cake I made, sugar roses and all, for my cousin and his wife for their 5th anniversary party. I stressed and agonized to complete this cake, took two days off work to do it, couldn’t get it as perfect as I wanted, but overall I was satisfied with the cake when it was finished.
Exhibit B:
A cake I made willy-nilly for a sister’s housewarming, completing it in 15 minutes from frosting to finish, and obviously exerting very little effort by comparison.
The first cake I did my way, striving for perfection. The second cake I made the way my husband would have me do every cake, taking the easiest route possible to get it done as fast as possible, without worrying too much about the end result and not stressing over it one lick. (Funny, but he doesn’t appreciate the level of stress in our home when I’m working on a cake!)
For your optional viewing pleasure, a video showcasing (some of) the stress that abounds during my cake escapades:
Obviously the effort I exerted had a direct impact on the finished cake. Although I think both have their appeal, I’m definitely more happy with the first and find it much more attractive. When I look at the second, I have slight feelings of shame and embarrassment for not putting more effort into it.
Even before making a sub-par (for me) cake, I had been thinking about my crazy perfectionist approach to things, versus my husband’s relaxed and laid-back approach. Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of each, and coming to some surprising (to me) conclusions.
I used to envy, and still do, the way my husband breezes through life with scarcely a care. It is taxing to be as uptight as I am! Everything I do has to be perfect, which of course is impossible, which upsets me, which causes me angst and stress. I stress way too much because I can never attain the perfection I constantly seek.
You can see where I crushed my finger into the corner. Happens every time!
Dennis takes an interest in something and learns how to do it to a moderate degree, and doesn’t bother to perfect it or care that his technique isn’t perfect. His interests are wide and varied and he has talent in many areas, such as playing the guitar, drums, bass, juggling, doing martial arts like Wing Chun, Shaolin Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Kempo, and Aikido, doing Tai Chi, using weapons such as nunchuks and bali song knives, a whip, and a bow and arrow. A little more than a year ago he started taking singing lessons. He enjoys all these things and they never cause him stress.
You can see some of his skills in this crazy random video we made a couple years ago. (Just skip to :47 and 1:36 to see him in action.)
His approach seems healthier and I love the zen thing he has going on (I love everything about the man!), but I have realized there is a profound benefit to my own as well. The few things that I do, (obviously not including martial arts) I do quite well, or at least a little better than average. Which has led me to formulate the following philosophy for myself…
If you reach for the stars and land on the moon, you have still achieved more than you would if you had only reached for the moon to begin with. In other words, if you strive for excellence and come up short, what you achieve will still be greater than if you had little or no regard for the quality of the outcome. If you set your sights higher than what you think you can accomplish, you will attain something much greater than you would trying to accomplish what you know you are capable of.
I shared this perspective with my husband, who recently entered Guitar Center’s King of the Blues contest, and I could see the lightbulb go on in his head. He made it to the store finals here in Kansas, but only by default because they pick two players each night of the preliminaries, and the night he competed, there were only two players. Including him.
As always, his playing was decent (OK, a little less than decent because he was quite nervous), but we both realized it wasn’t on par with the people he would be competing against in the finals. I sometimes have trouble discerning when I should support him without criticizing, and when gentle criticism would be helpful, but I realized that he was going to have to try harder and reach higher, so to speak, if he ever wanted to get to a level where he was worthy of even entering this contest. It was hard to say, and I didn’t know if I was even doing the right thing, but Dennis is very open to criticism (I always forget this, most likely because I do not take it well myself) and was actually extremely grateful for it. Right away, he began practicing with a mental intensity he never had before. Before, he only strived to do as good as he could with the least amount of effort possible. Now he’s striving for excellence and not taking the shortcuts he used to actively seek out.
Realizing this direct benefit to striving for perfection or excellence makes me feel a little bit better about my anal approach to most tasks I undertake, however I feel I need to work on the stress that accompanies my perfectionist tendencies. Despite Dennis following my advice and applying higher standards to his guitar playing, I don’t see him stressing about it one little bit. He’s not screaming every time he hits a wrong note or wailing after he completely messes up the rhythm. (I can be quite dramatic when decorating cakes, and will wail like a colicky baby over every little single thing that doesn’t go my way.) He practices every night for hours, repeating the same things over and over like a machine. He knows what he needs to do and he’s doing it. He messes up, he corrects it, he moves on, and tries to get it right the next time.
“Reaching for the stars” had an impact on his performance at the store finals, which, while still not on par with the other contestants, was leagues better than his performance two weeks prior in the prelims. So if he can reach for the stars without herniating his anus in the process, that probably means that the stress is not a necessary byproduct of striving for excellence! Wow. News to me.
Here is a video compilation of the store finals, in which Dennis plays next to last.
Ultimately, these hobbies of ours have very little importance in the large scheme of things, so it does seem ridiculously silly to get so bent out of shape when I can’t get the sides of my cake perfectly smooth and the corners sharp. Particularly when I know, based on experience, that I can and will get them fairly smooth and sharp enough that the cake overall will be impressive even if it’s not perfect. Particularly when I consider the things that are most important to me. This differs from person to person, but I have to think, what is a finger smashed into a nearly perfect cake in comparison to growing my relationship with God, or helping bring someone to Him?
Not that everything is made unimportant by comparison to what is most important, for certainly our hobbies matter. They give us a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes they are a much needed distraction. They bring us joy.
Which is exactly the point. If I’m stressing over my hobbies, I’m not accomplishing the main reason to have them in the first place. Finding that joy!
I think Matthew 6:34 can translate to more than just worrying about tomorrow, and perhaps to cakes as well:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~Jesus
Perhaps it is high time I put my perfectionist tendencies to good use in applying this scripture to my life.
What about you? Do you suffer from perfectionist-related stress? Or are you one of those laid-back types that I would love to be? Do you think it’s possible to reach for the stars without getting stressed in the process?
I have secrets. Delicious secrets. There are many recipes I’ve made, a few that I’ve won ribbons for, that I’ve never shared. (Not on purpose, mind you, I just forget!) But I can hide this one from you no longer. I stumbled across this old picture in my Garam Masala post while I was indexing all my recipes, and since it seemed so bright and cheerful I thought it would be a nice one to share with you now that the weather is bright and cheerful.
This was one of the first Indian dishes I ever made. In fact, I think it was THE very first. I can still remember the delicious flavor and how taken I was with the dish at first bite. I know it seems strange to use black-eyed peas in a curry dish, but I promise you, it works. I may keep secrets, but I wouldn’t lie to you. This curry is fantastic!
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
pinch cayenne, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
3/4 cup half and half
1 cup vegetable stock or chicken broth
1 can black-eyed peas, lightly drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; saute 5 minutes or until translucent and slightly browned. Stir in garlic and grated ginger root; stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add tomato; cook for 2 minutes. Stir in turmeric, cayenne, salt, paprika, and garam masala; stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add half and half, stock, and black-eyed peas. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro. Serve immediately with rice, chapati, or naan. Although it doesn’t show in the picture, the curry has plenty of sauce to go over your rice. I recall draining it off for this plate to make a better picture. That doesn’t count as a lie…does it? ;)
Makes 4 servings.
Per serving (calculated with 1 cup white rice): 188 calories; 9.5 g fat; 23 g carbohydrates; 5 g fiber; 5 g protein; 10 Points Plus
Thursday: Is there anything better than getting baked goods, like homemade banana bread, in the mail? I bought two loaves, one with chocolate chips and one without, in an online bake sale and had forgotten about it so it was an even sweeter surprise when it arrived! The chocolate chip (not pictured because I totally ate it all before I even thought to take one) makes a yummy breakfast, especially spread with peanut butter!
Friday: Life has been chewing me up this week. First I find out that in order to keep my job, I’m going to have to pass a test I already (barely) passed in order to get it seven years ago. Tests really stress me out, so needless to say, I’m not thrilled about this. Then on Friday, a situation arose with someone close to me that put me over the edge. I was a bit of a wreck on Friday, so I was hugely thankful for the human kindness that helped me through. While crying at work and after asking for prayers on Facebook, I received a lot of it firsthand. As the kind words and prayers poured in from these dear souls, God comforted me and gave me the strength I needed to drive to this person’s house and have a heart-to-heart. While I wouldn’t consider the situation completely resolved, it is much improved and I’m no longer constantly worrying about this person. So I’m also thankful for that!
Saturday: 11 years of wedded bliss with my soul mate, and cheap fun! We celebrated our anniversary by doing all the free stuff that comes with a $5 River Festival button and did paddle boats, kayaking (Dennis went overboard twice and gave everyone a good laugh–see pictures of that here), and saw the Marshall Tucker Band live! Not bad for $5!
Sunday:Aldi! It’s our first stop for groceries because it’s got the best deals. I remember back when we both worked for the Church of Scientology and were dirt poor, we could live off of $15 a week in groceries from Aldi! We make ten times more than we did back then, but Aldi is still a lifesaver when it comes to our tight grocery budget.
Monday: Books, magazine articles, and Weight Watchers often warns people to watch out for salads at restaurants because although they seem diet-friendly, too often they are fat bombs in disguise. Well, I’m hugely thankful for this means of eating a large portion of fat without going (too far) over my daily Points Plus allowance, thank you very much! Using lettuce and other vegetables as the base of a meal makes for a huge, satisfying plateful of food that is very little calories, so I’m totally cool with drowning it in cheese, beans, eggs, full-fat dressing, nuts, whatever strikes my fancy. If it weren’t for salads, my fat intake would come mainly from the butter in my weekly dessert indulgences, so I’m thankful for these beautiful plates of healthful, satisfying, fatty goodness!
Buffalo Chicken (made with real butter) Salad with (full fat) Blue Cheese Dressing (that I thinned with heavy whipping cream-bwahahahahaha!)
Romaine Salad with Chicken, Cheddar, Apples, Spiced Pecans and Cranberry Vinaigrette (made with no small amount of extra virgin olive oil)
Tuesday: checking off most of my to-do list! I have a small planner that I carry in my purse, and I leave it open at my desk at work so that I can add things to each day’s to-do list as I think of them. By the time I come home, the day is crammed with things to do and usually I just put them off until the next day, and then the next, etc. Today I started my day with a prayer of thanks for the day itself, and asked God for help in using it to its full potential. By the time I went to bed, I’d made more checkmarks than I have in a long time. I really love seeing those checkmarks!
Wednesday: Finally! I finally did a good job teaching the toddler Bible class. Not that I was bad before, but I just wasn’t comfortable and knew I could do better. I did tonight! God gets the glory here as well, because both Dennis and I prayed about it and I know He was there with me because it was so different. The children really listened, they didn’t get bored or frustrated, they were adorably polite (plenty of please and thank yous!), they participated with relish, and I think that I got through to them. Here are the cutie patooties I had in class tonight, working on building arks (the focus of the lesson tonight was Noah and the ark, although since the blocks were out, we also went into the tower of Babel a bit):
You can see how cramped we are and why I was so thankful a couple weeks ago that we’re moving to a new and bigger building at the end of the month!
Oh wait! Can I be thankful for two things on Wednesday? Because I’m also thankful that I met my 5% goal at Weight Watchers today! I’m hoping to be up to ten pounds lost by next week. (I started going eight weeks ago so I’m averaging about a pound a week.) I love Weight Watchers!
OK, your turn! Anything you’re particularly thankful for right now?
I’m a sucker for a grilled burger in the summer, so I broke this recipe from Debbi out as soon as it was grilling weather! Usually I just go for a plain grilled burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, ketchup and mustard, but sometimes you want something a little different and this one really satisfies. The chiles give the burger a kick (for more kick, you could use jalapenos) and the cream cheese is a cooling, tangy contrast. I really love grilled onions on any burger and they are perfect with the green chiles on this one. I served mine with Dilly Cucumber Salad, and I found the tangy sweetness really complimented this burger!
1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 of a large onion, diced (I sliced mine)
1 (4 oz.) can of green chiles (I bought canned whole chiles and cut into strips)
Salt and pepper
1 lb. ground beef or bison (click here to find out why bison is better)
4 hamburger buns
4 oz. cream cheese
Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion until softened and is browned in places (it helps to only stir occasionally). Add chiles, season with salt and pepper, saute until heated through. Divide meat into four patties, salt and pepper, and cook or grill until done. Spread 1 oz. cream cheese on each bun and divide the green chile-onion mixture among the burgers. Serve hot.
Makes 4 burgers.
Per burger, using bison, light (80-calorie) buns, and neufchatel: 302 calories; 10 g fat; 24 g carbohydrates; 5 g fiber; 31 g protein; 8 Points Plus. Using 93% lean ground beef makes the burgers 9 Points Plus.
This was one of the pies I brought to the Memorial Day barbecue at my preacher’s home and it was a big hit! Although I really prefer to make cakes, what I do appreciate about pie is how simple it is. Just a few ingredients turn into utter magic in a Pyrex dish. Essentially pie crust, fruit, and sugar and you’ve got the perfect summertime dessert. This one really is all about the sweet berries, gently complimented by flaky pastry!
Pastry for a 2-crust pie (I cheated and used Pillsbury)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 cups frozen mixed berries, thawed & drained
Milk & coarse sugar for top crust
Preheat oven to 450 F. Roll out one disc of dough, line pie plate with pastry, leaving a 3/4″ overhang, and place in refrigerator. In a large bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt together. Gently toss with the berries and let stand for 15 minutes. Spoon into crust-lined pie plate. Roll out second dough disc and cut into strips with a pastry wheel or pizza cutter. Arrange the strips to make a lattice design over filling (I have a tutorial on this process here). Trim, fold overhang from bottom crust over the ends of the lattice top crust, seal, and flute edges (I have a video tutorial on working with pie crust here, in which I include a demonstration on fluting edges). Brush crust with milk (I used my finger) & sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on middle oven rack; place large cookie sheet on rack below pie pan in case of spillover. Bake pie 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 and place a pie shield on the crust to prevent overbrowning. Bake another 40-45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown & filling is bubbling. Cool at least two hours before serving. (I always make fruit pies a day in advance and they are always nicely set up by the time I serve them.)
*Veronica’s Notes: the original recipe calls for fresh OR frozen berries so I guess this recipe will work with fresh berries too, but I haven’t tried it yet. The original recipe also calls for ½ cup more sugar than mine, which you may need if your fresh berries are very tart. Frozen berries are packaged at their peak and are usually quite sweet, so 1 cup of sugar was plenty and more would have been overkill.
Recipe source: adapted from the Three Berry Pie recipe on the side of my Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts box.
Today is my 11th wedding anniversary and Dennis and I are gallavanting around Wichita during the annual River Festival to celebrate, but thanks to the magic of prescheduled blogging, I am able to instruct you on how to make a lattice top crust for a pie despite my absence! This would be even cooler if I could preschedule my hair to get cut and dyed at the same time, but I’ll take what I can get.
OK, I know I promised a pie recipe next, but since the recipe instructs you to make a lattice top crust, I thought it was high time I broke out my ancient step-by-step lattice top crust photos to explain how to do it.
Making the nifty woven lattice top crust only seems complicated but the process is quite simple. See for yourself!
Step 1: Lay 5-7 strips of pie dough on top of pie in one direction.
Step 2: Lift every other strip and pull back half-way.
Step 3: Lay a strip down across the middle in the opposite direction.
Step 4: pull folded strips back down over the horizontal strip.
Step 5: pull back the strips that weren’t folded back the first time.
Step 6: lay down another horizontal strip.
Step 7: lay the folded strips back down over the horizontal piece.
Repeat, repeat, repeat, alternating the strips you lift, and then spinning the pie plate around when you finish the first side to do the other.
Looking dandy! Time to give her a spin and repeat on the other side.
Like so.
Until…
Voilà! Your lattice top crust is complete.
‘Tis a thing of beauty, my friend.
Now. I must tell you, I do not have pictures of how to properly do the fluted edge for a pie with a lattice top crust. On this particular one, which happens to be a Razzcherry Pie, I didn’t leave an overhang on the bottom crust so I chose to simply tuck the lattice pieces underneath the scant edge that remained. Which is perfectly fine and much easier than making a fluted edge. However, if you want a fluted edge, such as I have here on this cherry pie:
…this is what you do: leave a 3/4″ overhang on the bottom crust. After finishing the lattice strips, trim them just beyond the inner edge of the pie, then fold the overhang over the strips and press to seal. Then you can flute the edges using the technique I demonstrated in this video, and you’ll have a gorgeous pie! I will update this post with pictures to accompany these instructions on finishing the edge when I make my next lattice top crust, but for now, I hope the instructions alone will suffice.
I love it!
She even did the leg…
and pimped my booty too!
Does she rock hard, or what?!
Veronica's Cornucopia 