My Life's View Somedays!

"Mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom, mom, ma, ma, mommy, mommy... WHAT!!... hi!
 This picture says a lot to me. It is how my kids persist when they want my attention! It's how I must look when I am chasing raccoons away from the food I leave out for a few feral cats I feed outside or scaring squirrels out of my tomato plants. It's even the ring tone I use for my Mom so I know when she calls. There are so many little things I do to keep my days brighter and laughing must be a part of every day. I truely believe that humor is an important part of life and good health.
I came across this cartoon on my daughter's Facebook page and all I could think about was what a wonderful scenes of humor she has developed. I also see that developing in my son. I just had a great call from him and we were talking about cute and funny things that both of my kids did or said when they were little. I loved looking back at so many happy things that came to us in our conversation. It was the way they expressed themselves when they were small and it all fit into who they are now. I suppose they wouldn't want the world to know all of those things but some of them were very precious like my daughter at 2 or 3 asking if she could have a hingabanger and trench tries from McDonald's or wanting to watch "Snow White and the 7 Dorfs" for the 20th time. It made my son laugh and brought a big smile to me and a warm feeling about our closeness at that moment. Finding new ways to improve our connections to our kids is so important as they become teens and then adults. It is so enlightening when you stumble onto new ways to understand them and I think they must feel good when they know you are listening to their thoughts and ideas.
It all comes back to finding common ground and parenting teens in new ways. 
I would like to recommend a great book on communicating with teens. Parenting Teens With Love; Logic by Foster Cline MD & Jim Fay. This is a must read book. It guides you how to ask the right questions to get your children thinking and working out things for themselves. After all we all need to let them grow up and be independent. I have put a link to this book from Amazon and it is so worth reading.

Get Your Business On Line

In today's economy internet sales are booming. I am convinced that putting your own business on line can really boost sales or interest in it. Why not Create and Manage your own website! You can promote your business and link it to a Twitter account or Facebook and reach out to more people who are looking for businesses like yours.
We live in a vastly changing world that has embraced new technologies and made them accessible to everyone. Every where I go I see people with new phones that give them access to their email, play music, read books, find directions and even browse the internet. Our phones are not just for calling family and friends anymore. There are so many ways to stay connected.
Think about how you used to take pictures of important events or fun trips. You carried a big camera in a case, you snapped shots on film and then sent that film to be developed and printed. You probably waited a week to get it back and hoped everything came out. I know! I used to be a professional medical photographer. I will never forget the time I shot a roll of slides of a surgical procedure around Christmas time and sent the film to Kodak to process. When I picked up my slides at the photo shop to take back to the doctor who did the surgery I found the slides were of someones very beautiful Holiday party and several adorable children seeing Santa. All I could think of was what would the person who got my film would think and how freaked out they would be. I never did find out what happened to our film and the doctor was quite concerned. Now most people just pull out their phone and snap a digital shot that they can open on their computer or send to a friend right from their text messaging service.
Everything is close to instant. We share pictures and ideas with friends and family all the time. I like sharing my love of cooking and being creative with anyone who is interested. That is why I stared this blog. I feel like there is no point in being clever or creative if no one knows what you do or think of. When you share ideas and tell others how to do the same thing it can make our world a better place. It even may spark the imagination of someone else to make improvements on your idea. This is called progress! I choose to embrace it! Look around yourself and think about the things you enjoy the most. Ask yourself what you are most passionate about and where do you look when you want to know more about things you love. I for one have a passion about food and helping other people around me. I volunteer helping feed the hungry in my community, I look for ways to get kids to eat better by creating fun and healthy recipes, and I like to find ways to inspire other in the kitchen and teach them how simple and fun cooking can be. I even like to wow my friends with great food that catches your eyes before you even taste it. I run a small catering business and offer cooking lessons. I am trying to create my own website for my catering called Serve Yourself Right. Recently I found a free trial called Andy's Web Tools. Check it out at http://cli.gs/HMZWRZ

The Gift of Spending Thanksgiving with my Teans

As Thanksgiving sneaks up on me I have to start planning the feast I will prepare for my son, my daughter and her friends in San Francisco.This is the perfect opportunity for me to get to know my teens even better and practice what I learned from Love And Logic.  I figure I am helping out a large group of starving students who couldn't get home for the holiday. Last year there were 15 kids and I stayed close to a traditional meal but I want to step out of the box a bit. Of course I will have turkey, brined and juicy but this year I plan to take the sides up a notch. Here is my menu so far:

Thanksgiving 2010

  Shrimp Gazpacho Shooters

 Italian Style cold asparagus salad

Brined and Roasted Turkey

Stuffing extraordinaire

Green been bundles wrapped in bacon

Roasted potato fans

Broccoli Gratin

Home made dinner rolls

Individual molten chocolate mousse cups

 Now that ought to make some mouths drool. I found some white ceramic mini mugs that work for the desert at my local restaurant supply store. Most of the dinner can be made ahead ready to reheat at the last minute. I will have to get the shrimp when I get to SF so they are very fresh and that should be easy. I will do as much ahead of time as I can, pack it in coolers and drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco early in the pre dawn hours on Thanksgiving day. I plan to finish the brown the rolls and the gratin just before dinner and bake the desert after I serve dinner. That will give everyone a chance to digest the meal and relax before desert. I have added the recipe to my best recipes page.

Post Election Comfort Meal

As we all start to watch and listen to the results of a very challenging election I am thinking of what the ultimate comfort meal would be for tonight. My answer is a wonderful go to favorite of mine that was inspired by The Congressional Cookbook of 1970. This is A Meatloaf To Remember by Mrs. Lawrence H. Smith, wife of former Representative (Wisconsin). I have added this recipe to my best recipes page. I often make this in a muffin pan for individual servings and a big scoop of mashed potatoes and peas would be perfect.
This meatloaf is very moist and doesn't have the standard tomato sauce base of many recipes. I love meatloaf sandwiches as well and this works great for that too. Have it any way you like.

Whatever you like enjoy your evening of patriotism and God Bless America!