pomegranate martini: Şubat 2013

25 Şubat 2013 Pazartesi

Better than Wendy's Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

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Once upon a time I was fortunate enough to live next door to a Wendy’s. I bought dinner there just about every night. Why? Well, I was a 20 something, it was close, it was cheap and I had a love affair going on with the honey mustard dipping sauce. A double stack with cheese plain, a value fry and 3 honey mustard dipping sauces was dinner almost every night. All for $2, thankyouverymuch!

I used to just dip my fries in the sauce. Then one day it occurred to me that if I ordered the burger plain, I could dip it in the sauce too. Oh how I love that sauce. To date, I have never found a honey mustard dipping sauce at a fast food place that I like. Nothing can compare. I remember before they started charging for sauce, I would even get extra and store them in my pantry.

You would be surprised at all the things that can be dipped into honey mustard and how many sandwiches are so much better with honey mustard. Well, last week I made chicken nuggets for Munchkin. She asked for some “dippin’ sauce” and quite frankly the thought of ketchup and chicken nuggets kinda makes me gag.

I remembered bookmarking a recipe for honey mustard that looked promising. I was skeptical, but oh my, it is better than I hoped for. That honey mustard sauce is sweet, mustardy, and perfectly delicious. We devoured the whole first batch and made a double batch after dinner. I was hoping for a copycat of Wendy's. It is even better than that. I have big plans for that honey mustard sauce. Just wait until you see what I did with it next!

Enjoy. With love from our Kitchen Table to yours. XOXO

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Don't miss our favorite dipping sauces! Click on the link or the picture to open in a new window.

Light Blue Cheese Dip is loaded with herbs and spices. Creamy and flavorful, they will never know its light!

Homemade Chipotle Lime Mayo and Dipping Sauce adds a smokiness and just the perfect amount of heat to chicken, burgers, fries and more!!!

Simple Barbecue Ranch Sauce is a great fry dipping sauce, great on burgers too! If you like Red Robins Campfire Sauce, you'll love this!!

Better than Wendy’s Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined. Allow to sit overnight in the refrigerator. You may use immediately, but the flavors meld overnight and become a fantastic creation! Serve and enjoy.

Adapted from All Recipes

Click here for a printable version of this recipe - The Slow Roasted Italian.com

Broccoli Cheese Soup with Chicken and Rice in Just 25 Minutes

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Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Chicken and Rice goes from prep to plate in under half an hour. Loaded with delicious ooey gooey cheese, nutty jasmine rice, chicken and did I mention cheese? Oh, broccoli too. I almost forgot about the broccoli with all the cheeeeeese in there!

Thick, rich, and delicious are 3 perfectly fantastic reasons to make this soup. Need more? How about a scrumptious one pot meal with only 10 minutes of active cook time? That's what I am talking about. Trust me, you want this for dinner. Tonight!

~Get the recipe and read the article after the jump~ <<Click here

Check out these fantastic, quick and easy dishes from our Simple Kitchen: Creating delicious meals in a snap! Click on the image or the link and it will open each one in a new tab.

Fully Loaded Parmesan Frittata for Two in Just 15 Minutes. Serve up this show stopping meal to your sweetie! Breakfast, brunch or dinner!

This Chicken Pot Pie Soup will warm you from your lips to your toes in just 30 minutes! Rich and creamy, loaded with veggies and chicken.

Southwestern Mac & Cheese in Just 20 Minutes! Southwestern flavors, beans and fresh grape tomatoes take ordinary to extraordinary!

Italian Sausage, Pepper, and Potato Skillet starts with creating your own sausage flavor using lean chicken breast. This dish goes from prep to plate in just 30 minutes.

Broccoli Cheese Soup with Chicken and Rice
serves 8 (1 cup servings)

Active Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Cook Time 25 minutes

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
½ tsp ground black pepper
...
click here for the whole recipe
Heat an 8 quart pot over medium high heat. Dice chicken into bite size pieces.

Add olive oil and chicken to pot. ...
click here for the whole recipe

Perfectly Peach Frozen Margarita - Margarita Cocktail Link Party

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It's Ladies Night Slow Roasters! We are so excited to be hosting our second weekly Cocktail Link Party here at TSRI. This week we are celebrating National Margarita Day! It is a paid day off right???? Well, wishful thinking. I guess no one is going to pay you to sip margaritas. Drats! Maybe... Jose Cuervo is giving their people a paid day off for National Margarita Day.

Our cocktail creation for this momentous occasion is the Perfectly Peach Margarita. A sweet, frozen, peachy margarita is just what I needed for this celebration. Pure peach sweetness! Imagine a fresh Georgia peach, perfectly ripe with a heavenly summer aroma transformed into a margarita.

What more could you ask for on National Margarita Day? Perhaps a chance to link up your own margarita creations, appetizers and treats! Be sure to pop over to check out our co-host's Greg and Katherine from Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide favorite pick for Ladies Night. Are you a featured favorite? Make sure you grab a button to post on your site!

Happy National Margarita Day! Kick 'em off and pour yourself one. XO

Peach Margarita
serves 2

1 cup peach chunks (fresh, frozen, or canned)
3 ounces tequila
3 ounces peach schnapps
1 ounce triple sec
1 ounce sugar
1 ounce sweetened lime juice
3 cups ice (adjust to personal preference)
lime slices (garnish)

Add ingredients to blender (except garnish). Blend together until mixture becomes a thick slush (add more ice if necessary).

Pour into margarita glasses and garnish with a lime slice! Serve and enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe - The Slow Roasted Italian.com

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LADIES NIGHT COCKTAIL LINK PARTY FEATURES

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Red White and Blueberries Flirty Candy-Tini

Sun-dried Tomato and Chicken Penne Pasta in Just 30 Minutes

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Recently I came to terms with the fact that it is quite possible that cheese is my favorite food. As they say... absence makes the heart grow fonder. One time (ONE TIME) cheese and I broke up in an attempt to cut dairy out of my life and see if I felt better. It was a heart wrenching break up and I vowed never to do that again.

I enjoy cheese several times every day. 2% cheese slices on my egg white omelets, shredded fat free mozzarella on my afternoon salad and cheese incorporated into dinner.
Truthfully there is only one other thing that I eat and enjoy as much as cheese... SUN DRIED TOMATOES. Good heavens. I am addicted. I sprinkle them into my breakfast omelet, a handful sprinkled over my salads or a small handful as a snack and a beautiful sun-dried tomato sauce over penne pasta. Is this heaven? It sure tastes like it.

This pasta dish is bursting with flavor, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, chicken and penne come together in just 30 minutes to give you a Sunday dinner on a Monday night. It doesn't get much better than that.

Sadly, my three year old is not quite as enthusiastic about the sun-dried tomatoes. Although she devoured this pasta, when I leave them whole she tells me "Mommy, I don't like mo-matoes on my pasta". I assured her that she is mistaken. She is my child. Of course she loves tomatoes. Silly girl!

Enjoy. With love from our Kitchen Table to yours. XOXO

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Check out these fabulous meals that feature sun-dried tomatoes; ready in 30 minutes or less. Click on the link or the picture to open in a new window.

Pierogies and Sausage with Sun-dried Tomato Cream Sauce are a surprisingly perfect comfort food for summer, winter, spring or fall. Ready in just 30 minutes.

Fully Loaded Parmesan Frittata for Two in Just 15 Minutes. Serve up this show stopping meal to your sweetie! Breakfast, brunch or dinner!

Italian Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Bake is loaded with ooey gooey cheese, sun-dried and fresh grape tomatoes. Ready in just 30 minutes!

Sun-dried Tomato Penne Pasta with Chicken
serves 8

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (washed and trimmed)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 (16 ounce) box penne pasta
1 (8.5 ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes with Italian herbs packed in olive oil
4 cloves garlic, quartered
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
kosher salt
pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.

Fill an 8 quart pot with water, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Add a small handful of salt to boiling water and cook pasta until al dente (about 7-9 minutes).

Meanwhile, drizzle oil in hot skillet and immediately add chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through. Remove from pan and set on cutting board to cool.

While the chicken cooks, combine contents of sun-dried tomatoes and garlic in a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth, scraping blender down as necessary.

Drain pasta and pour into a large serving dish. Pour sun-dried tomatoes over pasta, add basil and stir to combine.

Cut chicken into bites size pieces and add to pasta. Add mozzarella and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe - The Slow Roasted Italian.com

22 Soups and Stews - Comfort Food in a Bowl

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A list of 22 of the best soup recipes I have ever had. Thick soups and stews, broths and soups, and chili and bean soups made the list. There is truly something for everyone! 30 minutes soups, crock pot stews and an oven roasted tomato soup that is so good it will make your tastebuds dance.

With all the crazy weather during the last few weeks I have had comfort food on my mind. Needless to say I have received a lot of emails, calls and texts requesting my favorite soup, stew and chili recipes. I though you would enjoy them too! I truly love to see my friends and family post on Facebook how much they loved the recipe. After all, they are the reason this blog began. It has become so so much more!

My personal soup favorites are all in this list. Chad's recipe for chili is even included in this list. Gigi's Chicken Noodle Soup and Nana's Hearty Beef Stew are family favorite recipes that I am so excited to be sharing with you!

Enjoy. With love from our Kitchen Table to yours. XOXO

Do you ❤ love ❤ TSRI? Don't miss another recipe. Click here to Subscribe to The Slow Roasted Italian by Email and receive new recipes in your inbox every day!

THICK SOUPS AND STEWS - Comfort food at its best. Thick and delicious, stick to your ribs delicious soups and stews!

Broccoli Cheese Soup with Chicken and Rice is a scrumptious one pot meal that goes from prep to plate in 25 Minutes!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup ready in 30 minutes. This scrumptious soup is loaded with ham, chicken, cheesy soup and crispy garlic croutons! YUM

Nana's Hearty Beef Stew is a family recipe with a secret ingredient to really make the flavors POP!

Simple Crock Pot Chicken Dumplings is easy as can be and so homemade it may transport you back to your moms kitchen table. Just like moms.

Enjoy your baked potato in a soup, this FULLY LOADED Baked Potato Soup features potato, bacon, cream, and cheese! Warming and delicious!

Homestyle Chicken Stew and Dumplings, thick, creamy, flavorful and absolutely delicious!

How does a thick and creamy Chicken and Dumplings done in 30 minutes sound? No, its not a dream and no canned soup!

Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup - it replaces the cans and tastes so good you can eat it alone! A necessity in your cookbook!

BROTHS AND SOUPS - broths, noodle and Italian soups that will warm you from your lips to your toes!

Ever wonder How to Make 'Meaty' Vegetable Broth? This special ingredient really makes the broth more rich and hearty.

Italian Lentil Soup: A fabulous lentil soup with Italian flair, inspired by my mom. Rich and hearty even though it is meat free, shhh! You are going to love it!

Fall comfort food vegetarian style. Easy Tortellini and Vegetable Soup is so thick and delicious, you can just about eat it with a fork.

Hearty Pasta Fagioli - a traditional Italian dish so thick you can stand a spoon up in the pot. On your table in 30 minutes!

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup - hearty, flavorful and delish! Its chock full of chicken, veggies and noodles on your plate in 25 Minutes!!!

Light Italian Meatball Soup is loaded with veggies and lean meatballs cooked in a light tomato broth. Ready in just 30 minutes.

5 Ingredients and 40 minutes to Gigi's Simple Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. It is delicious!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup. Deep roasted tomato flavor and sweet basil. Sometimes all you need is a good bowl of soup and a spoon.

This Chicken Pot Pie Soup will warm you from your lips to your toes in just 30 minutes! Rich and creamy, loaded with veggies and chicken.

BEAN SOUPS AND CHILI -Comfort food in a bowl!

A hearty vegetarian chili? No, its not a dream. It's The Best Ever Power Packed Vegetarian Chili. Loaded with flavor&completely satisfying!

A fabulous lean side dish or main dish with no meat? Italian Style Crock Pot Beans are a fabulous soup or flavorful enough to enjoy on their own.

Cowboy Up! It's Chili Time! Quick-Draw Cowboy Chili is loaded w/ southwestern flavors, 3 kinds of beans, chorizo & beef. Ready in 30 Minutes

My favorite Italian Chili: Flavorful, delicious chili with an Italian flair! Fabulous freezer meal.

This Rock 'em, Sock 'em Chili features layers of flavors, and warm you to the bone properties that will keep them coming back for more!

24 Şubat 2013 Pazar

ONE Hour a Day

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I'm back at DePauw for the second half of my second year. This month I teach my Winter Term course on children's book writing, which is already off to a delightful start, with so many motivated and engaged students with whom I can share my life's passion. This intensive, concentrated course ends the last week of January; then I fly to Kansas City for a few days of school visits, and then leap into the spring semester, where I'll be teaching an upper-division philosophy course on the work of political philosopher John Rawls.

Over the break I made a plan for how to organize my work time in January. My Winter Term class meets every afternoon from 1-3:30. The course does not require much daily preparation on my part, as (a) I taught it last year in the same format; and (b) my whole entire life has been preparation. So that leaves the morning for me to make progress on other things. I decided that I'd spend an hour a day writing on a children's book, an hour on activities to promote my books, an hour on work-related LTs (Loathsome Tasks) so they wouldn't pile up, an hour on a scholarly writing project (I have many committed), and an hour walking. With ease I would accomplish everything on my to-do list, with evenings set aside for reading and time spent with friends.

So far, this plan is not working out.

There was too much accumulated stuff-you-need-to-do-to-live that I needed to face; plus, it is just too hard to switch gears in this way from one project to another. I've come to realize that I only have in me ONE hour a day that I can dedicate without fail to a designated project; after that, I lose my ability for that kind of laser-like focus on an activity. I guess this is why my blog is called "An Hour a Day" and not "Five Hours a Day," or "An Hour a Day Spent on This, Followed by an Hour a Day Spent on That."

The good news is that I can still get everything in my life done with my original system. Each day I'm going to prioritize ONE hour to give to what I need to do most that day - probably creative writing at least four days of the week, but a focused hour given to book promotion another day, and scholarly writing another day, and alas, an hour of LTs rounding out the mix. I will still do other work during the day, of course, but it won't be special hour-a-day work, just regular well-I'm-at-my-office-so-I-might-as-well-do-something work. For example, my do-or-die hour today had to be spent reading proofs for a scholarly article, and it's done. But I'm still going to work on one book-promotion-related task after I finish this blog. Which is right now.

Basketball Season

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Last night I spent the evening watching two basketball games: first, the DePauw women playing Kenyon College, and then the DePauw men playing our arch-rival, Wabash College. The women, undefeated in their season, won the first game handily; the men had to work harder for their victory. Wabash led the entire first half, but DePauw was on fire the second half, scoring several dazzling three-point outside shots with one satisfying dunk as well.

I sat with my friend Keith, asking him questions as the games progressed. This was how I learned that you can score three points for a basket shot from far enough away, and that T.O.L. on the scoreboard means "Time-Outs Left," and why sometimes a player would get one free shot for a foul and sometimes two (if fouled mid-shot).

Then I had a strange realization.

It occurred to me that there was probably nobody in the entire gym who was more ignorant than I am about basketball. And there was also probably nobody in the entire gym who had written and published not one but two books about basketball.

For I am the author of Gus and Grandpa at Basketball and of Mason Dixon: Basketball Disasters. I have to admit that both are short on the kind of lively, fast-pace sports action that would draw sports-loving readers to pick up the books. In both I had to conceal huge stretches of basketball ignorance (though I also had sports-loving friends help me throughout the writing process). In both I was more interested in the character's inner growth than I was in what happened on the court. Would second-grader Gus learn how to tune out the over-zealous parental voices in the crowd and concentrate on listening to his own voice within? Would fourth-grader Mason, the world's most reluctant athlete, survive his first basketball season, coached by his equally clueless dad, and realize that you can find enjoyment in unexpected places? (Spoiler alert: the answer both times turns out to be YES.)

So that was my odd little thought last night, as I sat watching the DePauw Tigers garner two mid-season victories.

Freedom through Limitations

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My Winter Term class is going well so far. We've had a class trip to the Putnam County library for a presentation on what's new in picture books from our terrific children's librarian, Cortina Ziuchkovski. We've worked in small groups to share the picture books that we checked out and to analyze their structure. We did a point of view exercise, retelling "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" in the voice of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, or Goldilocks, as well as a couple of free writes to excavate childhood memories. And yesterday author-illustrator Troy Cummings came to our class.

Troy lives right here in Greencastle, and it's been one of the joys of my time in Indiana to get to know him as a fellow children's book creator. It was perfect to have him guest-teach my class because he and I are about as different as two people who practice the same profession can be.

It takes me a long time to come up with a book idea; I'm lucky if I come up with one idea in an entire year. Troy has zillions of ideas; he told my students about a "speed-dating" session he had with his editor in NYC, as he shared some thirty (!) different picture book ideas with her to see which ones might strike her fancy. My books are realistic school and family stories; Troy's are wild imaginative romps. I get my ideas by mining my memories. Troy gets his everywhere from playing horsie with his young children to building on the old trick phone-call joke: "Is your refrigerator running?"

As when he visited my class last year, Troy did the following creativity-sparking exercise with my students. Each of us received three randomly distributed index cards containing a name, an adjective, and a noun, respectively. Then we had to draw a picture of that character. Examples included Zak the nervous tugboat, Alice the undercover baby, Julia the elegant snail, Beatrice the dizzy pencil. Last year, I was shocked and shamed to find that I couldn't do these exercises AT ALL - my mind just didn't work that way. But this year I did a tolerably good job with Larry the sad little pinata. And then we had to make a four-page spread of a story about our character - AND use five completely unrelated words taken from a Pictionary card!

Why do this? Because, Troy said, there is a powerful freedom that comes through limitations, whether self-imposed or imposed externally. If I can write a book about anything in the world, if I can create any character at all, I sit paralyzed with the enormity of my options. But if I have to tell a story about a sad little pinata named Larry, while also using the words "matador," "slot machine," and "ripe," well, then at least I have a place to begin. Several of my students left the class with material for a lovely picture book, I would say.

Freedom through limitations: of genre, length, format, reading level, vocabulary, subject matter. It can be quite a wonderful thing, as Troy quite wonderfully showed us in a quite wonderful class yesterday.

Proud and Happy Day

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I've been back in Colorado for the weekend because my younger son, Gregory, had his junior recital as a jazz saxophonist in the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his classmate/friend Adam Gang shared an hour of original compositions by each of them plus arrangements of several jazz classics. So of course I flew back from Indiana to be there for this shining hour and to celebrate his accomplishment with him and the rest of our family.

I remember the day he fell in love with the saxophone, when my husband took both of our boys, who were then in third grade and sixth grade, to the end-of-year jazz band concert at Fairview High School. That was it for Gregory. He wanted to play the saxophone. I rented him an instrument and found him a teacher and went with him to his first lesson. His teacher was a great one for pithy wisdom. I asked him how much he'd like for Gregory to practice each day. Dave shrugged. "He can practice however much he wants. But the one who practices the most wins." And he warned Gregory that it might not sound terrific at first: "If it were easy, everyone would be doing it."

Gregory practiced. He was the one who did it, even when it wasn't easy. He started writing his own compositions. He played in band at school, and in our church jazz band JO3:16. He became an active participant in the fabulous Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts (CCJA), which draws motivated middle school and high school students from all over the Denver Metro area to play together under the mentorship of jazz professors from University of Denver and University of Colorado. I don't know how many times I drove him down to Denver for CCJA sessions, and for concerts at the jazz club Dazzle, and elsewhere.

And on Sunday afternoon he stood on the stage in the small chamber music hall at CU and played his junior recital, as I sat listening with tears in my eyes.

I don't know if Gregory will end up pursuing a career as a professional musician. In addition to the Bachelor of Music degree he's pursuing in the College of Music, he's also pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science in the College of Engineering. But, hey, I've had a great life working in two careers, as both a philosophy professor and a children's book author.

All I know is that Sunday was a proud and happy day.

Off to New Orleans

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I leave in a few minutes to go to the airport to fly to New Orleans for the Central Division meeting for the American Philosophical Association (APA). My APA duties this time are minimal: to provide ten minutes of prepared comments on a paper entitled "Are children persons?" (Spoiler: the answer is yes). So to deliver ten minutes of my thoughts in this professional forum, I'm flying off to spend the weekend in this fascinating city I've never visited before.

I couldn't face staying at the Hilton, the official hotel for the conference, so I found a guest house in the French Quarter, and I'll walk back and forth, or catch a cab if I need to. The session at which I'm presenting is on Saturday afternoon. I might go to some other APA sessions, or I might not. I have dates lined up with beloved former grad students and a dear friend's daughter for dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow, lunch tomorrow, and a museum date on Sunday - for the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. I also have lots of delicious work projects tucked into my backpack, should I find a tempting cafe for work and beignets. And I can stroll around charming neighborhoods and listen to some jazz, though I like jazz vastly better if it's performed by my son Gregory. Work and beignets sounds like the way to go on this one.

Au revoir!

23 Şubat 2013 Cumartesi

Cupid's Cup

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Day 365

Cupid's Cup3.5 shots out of 5

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my wonderful readers!! I do love that you all come to my blog to see what I have been drinking each and every night! Tonight marks a regular year of a cocktail every night, but wait......remember I said that I started this blog last year which in fact was a Leap Year? That's right, one more night after tonight and then my year long challenge will be complete.
I gave tonight's cocktail 3.5 shots out of 5. I found this recipe on facebook today. Hpnotiq had posted it and I thought I'd give their Harmonie another try. This cocktail is OK. If you don't know, I don't like Hpnotiq Harmonie as much as I like the regular Hpnotiq (the blue one). Actually I really like the regular one.......a lot. The Harmonie......not so much. Anyways, this cocktail is OK, I wouldn't order it at a bar and I wouldn't have more then one of them at home. At least it's a pretty color.
Here is the recipe for a Cupid's Cup:

2 oz Hpnotiq Harmonie
1 oz vodka
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz lime juice

In a shaker filled with ice, add all of the ingredients above. Shake and strain your cocktail into a martini glass.
Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. I really do appreciate you all coming to my blog and reading my daily cocktails. Here's to you!
Cheers!!
The Cocktail Lady

Classic Margarita

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National Margarita Day ~~ February 22nd
Classic Margarita5 shots out of 5

I'm baaack! That was sure a nice five days off. I think after a year STRAIGHT of making cocktails every night that I deserve a vacation. If you didn't know, tomorrow is National Margarita Day! Like we need an excuse to have a margarita, right? Not an excuse, just a reminder how wonderful margarita's really are.

I gave today's cocktail 5 shots out of 5. I am EN-JOYING this cocktail right now. If you don't already know, I am not a big tequila person......at all. I searched and searched online and found a handful of classic margarita recipes and (after consulting with my husband) decided on this one that I found on Food & Wine. This cocktail is a perfect blend of alcohol and sweetness to where those who do not like super sweet cocktails will like it, as well as those (like me) who don't care too much for tequila!

I have a list of (including today's margarita) 10 different cocktails for you to choose from below that you can make tomorrow for NMD. Depending on how brave you are, you are welcome to try more then one too!

Here is the recipe for a Classic Margarita:

1 1/2 oz silver tequila
3/4 oz cointraeu
3/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz simple syrup

In a shaker, add ice and all of the ingredients above. Shake and dump everything into your margarita glass. Lift your glass up and salute to NMD!
Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here are photos of my other 9 margaritas I've made, with links beneath each one that will bring you right to their page!

Desert Margarita

French Margarita

Grapefruit Margarita

Kinky Margarita

Mango Margarita

Peach Margarita

Moon-a-rita

Pink Cotton Rita

Pomegranate Margarita

There you have it, 10 different margaritas to choose from for National Margarita Day!!
Cheers!!
The Cocktail Lady

Take Time for Meditation, by my Uncle Gene

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People often talk about how "stress-full" the holidays are. How can that be? Holidays are days off from the serious business of making a living and getting things done, supposedly giving us time to think about the things that really matter. We are all caught in the grind of trying to get more and more done in less and less time, and there are never enough days in any week to get done all the things on your "To Do" list for that week.

The best time management technique I know is also the best stress buster. Set aside ten minutes every day where you will not be disturbed or easily distracted. Find a quiet place, and sit and meditate. Think first about your breathing: breathe deeply, and for a few minutes, count your breaths. You may want to spend a few minutes deliberately relaxing each part of your body, beginning with your toes, and progressing to the top of your head. You may want to focus on a plant that you can see, or a blank wall. You may find a mantra helpful, something as simple as: "There is nothing I have to do right now, there is no place I have to be right now." Whatever trials and tribulations your life has brought you, right now is a moment of tranquillity, when you are neither concerned about the past or the future. Devote ten minutes a day for a week to this simple practice, and you may find you want to make it a permanent part of your day, and you may find you want another ten minutes in the evening, or some other time when you can get away from it all, and focus simply on the joy of being alive.
As Gail Sheehy wrote many years ago, "there are predictable crises in adult life." There are also unpredictable crises, and concerns that may become more serious as you age. Every time you have a doctor's appointment, you may hear something you would prefer not to hear, maybe something you thought only happened to other people. We have our lives parceled out to us one day at a time, and each day is something of a little life, an entity complete to itself. It may be helpful to reflect that as long as we exist we are in motion towards something, but that we should also "delight" in what we have, what we have accomplished, and what we hope to do.
One of my meditating friends of fifty years passed away last week. His dying words were: "I am ready to go, but I am not eager to go." There have been giants of the spiritual life who have looked upon life and death with equanimity, and written words like these: "Let nothing disturb thee, nothing terrify thee: all things are passing, God never changes." While atheists might ask what God has to do with it, and theologians might debate the unchangingness of God, there is a point to having an anchor somewhere where nothing will disorient or overcome you, and the daily practice of meditation may help you reach that point.
Even in these busy weeks, set aside ten minutes where you will not be disturbed. Take stock of your life: do you do some things that aren't really necessary? Are there things you know you should do that you have not taken time for? Do you set aside some time each day for yourself, for your own mental and emotional health? Meditation may do more than any other practice to put you on the path to taking control of your time and your life. Don't wait. Your life, and the meaningfulness of your life, depends on it...

Community, by my Uncle Gene

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Community is one of those words we use all the time, without thinking much about what it means. While it means "those who share common interests," it implies that some kind of "unity" is essential if there is to be a "community." We have a common interest in the welfare of children, and so we quickly became a national community in our grieving over the mass shooting in Connecticut. We "come together" as a community when such disasters occur, and we like to think our patriotism or love of country unites us all in the community of Americans. We acknowledge that our own "families" are our most basic community, and we build our other communities to some extent on that model. Our recent national election, however, profiled what deep differences there are, when we try to think of the community of all Americans. We have personal examples of how the various communities to which we belong are sometimes torn apart by the differences of opinion held by the members. Some of the most vocal disagreements we hear about, come from members of religious communities, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or Hindu. To the ancient question, Why can't we all just live together in peace?, the philosophical response dates back to ancient times, and is brought up to date by lively interchanges between Harvard philosophers like Thomas Scanlon, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Michael Sandel.

But no philosopher has looked at the problems of community more perceptively than Alasdair MacIntyre. From his book After Virtue: "We all approach our own circumstances as bearers of a particular social identity. I am someone's son or daughter, someone's cousin or uncle; I am a citizen of this or that city, a member of this or that guild or profession; I belong to this clan, that tribe, this nation. Hence what is good for me has to be good for one who inhabits these roles. As such, I inherit from the past of my family, my city, my tribe, my nation, a variety of debts, inheritances, rightful expectations and obligations. These constitute the given of my life, my moral starting point. This is in part what gives my own life its moral particularity." MacIntyre claims we have lost the sense of loyalty to a tradition, the sensitivity to the needs that others may have, a willingness to go the extra mile simply for the benefit of someone who stands in need, and is a member of some community of which we are a part.
What has torn us apart in recent years is our own penchant for extreme libertarianism: I am free to choose whatever I want to be or to do, quite apart from the needs of my community or my communities. "From the standpoint of individualism I am what I choose to be." While finding our own identities is no doubt important, we do owe something to each community to which we have belonged, beginning with our own family, but also to virtually every community that has had a hand in making us who we are. (Personal confession: I was a student in Canada for nine years, and I know I owe something to that community, something that can never be repaid, so it remains one of my many outstanding debts…) As MacIntyre comments: "For the story of my life is always embedded in the story of those communities from which I derive my identity. I am born with a past; and to try to cut myself off from that past…is to deform my present relationships."
In a word, we owe something to the communities of which we are members. We owe something on a personal level, not just through the taxes we pay, but through some obligation of community building, of doing something to make every community of which we are a part, better for our having been there. Evolutionary biologists study the phenomenon of "altruism," the capacity to do something strictly for the benefit of someone else, and note that human beings are capable of remarkable acts of altruism, even to the point of sacrificing one's own life. While we may not be called to do that on an everyday basis, certainly there are daily examples when we can ride to the rescue of someone who needs our attention...
Just as we are born into the family that nourished us, and have built families where we may be the primary nurturers, so we are all members of larger communities, and we owe something to those with whom we share common interests, common boundaries, common visions of the future. In pursuing our own private interests, it is all too easy to overlook the obligations we have as community members, to do some good for others. It is the interests we have in common with all those with whom we associate, that truly make us who we are. While we may take pride in our individual achievements, we could not achieve anything apart from the communities that have nourished us. We have obligations of solidarity and loyalty that go far beyond whatever differences that may divide us. We only become truly human by participating in the communities that nourish and sustain us...

Green Juice

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I'm trying to juice more often. Specifically, with green vegetables. I have a sister that has promoted it for years, and you can't watch TV or read anything about health without realizing how popular green juices are. So I decided to read up on the benefits.

Certainly juicing any fruit or vegetable packs an array of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, but green juices have the additional benefit of not messing with your blood sugar. Green juices are very nutritious. All the sunshine that vegetables require to produce chlorophyll help provide us with more oxygen.

When juicing, it seems the most important thing is to use fresh produce. So use the best quality you can, and it's great if it's organic or sustainably grown. If that's not the case, just wash it gently or peel it. I've read that you need to be careful when combining vegetables with fruits because they require different enzymes for digestion. Still, I always include fruit when I juice greens to make it more palatable. Apples are a good choice because they are more neutral than most fruits, but I also use pears.

Green juice enables us to rid toxins and help cleanse the digestive system. And, as with all juices, it’s quickly absorbed and easily digested. Is it a fad? I don't know, but if you read about juicing greens, it's hard to discount it. So try to make it simple, easy and delicious. You should probably change up the veggies from time to time in order to provide different nutrients, but this recipe is easy for me because I can find these ingredients, all organic, at a local grocery store.

Green Juice

2 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
1 apple
1/2 lemon, peeled
1 inch of ginger
a handful of parsley
5 kale leaves

Juice the ingredients and enjoy!