Recipe Thursday - Beer Cheese Soup

I got this recipe from a friend and I love to make it on those cool fall or cold winter days.

4 and ½ cups chicken broth, divided
1 and ¼ cups cubed peeled Yukon gold potatoes
Cooking spray
½ cup finely diced onion
½ cup finely diced celery
½ cup finely diced carrot
1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves pressed
½ cup all purpose flour
2 and ½ cups milk
6 ounces of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
½ dry mustard
½ teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 ounce can of beer (any brand)

Simmer 2 cups of chicken broth and potato in small saucepan for 15 minutes or until potato is soft. Transfer potato mixture to blender. Remove the center piece of blender lid to allow steam to escape. Place a towel over the blender lid to avoid spills and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Add the onion, celery, and carrot to the pan and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Stir occasionally. Add the garlic to the pan and cook 30 seconds.

Combine the flour with the remaining 2 and ½ cups chicken broth and the milk in a medium bowl. Stir with a whisk. Add this to the pan and bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stirring constantly, add the potato mixture, and cheddar cheese, mustard, worchestershire sauce, pepper and salt and cook for 1 minute or until the cheese melts. Add the beer and bring to a simmer. Cook 15 more minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish with black pepper.

Inspirational Sunday - Peace

This is a church in Colorado that is built into the surrounding mountainside. A friend of mine recently took a trip to CO and brought home this picture. I loved it so I asked her if I could use it in my blog and as wallpaper for my computer. There were a few other pictures of the sun shining through the church and the stained glass windows just lit up, kinda like a Thomas Kinkade photo or picture. One day I will visit this church myself.

The reason I asked to take a copy of it for myself: just looking at the picture, all I felt was peace (which was good after the week I had had and the week coming up - see previous post Busy Busy).

Peace is good. I don't know about you but I find peace hard to describe. I know when I feel it though. To me peace is those moments when I am cuddling with my husband and I feel love and contentment and God. Peace to me is also anytime I am with my children, or I am praying the rosary, or when I notice the little things in life. It can come over me even when I am doing nothing special but that feeling goes deep down into my soul.

Peace then is uncompromising (I can either choose to feel it or not). Personally I can't feel peace though when I want to be the person who is right or have my own way. I can't feel peace when I feel anger or am vengeful. I can't feel peace when I am being hurtful or when I feel justified in having the last word. I can't feel peace when I force my will on others. I can't feel peace and feel my way is the only right way to talk to God. I can't feel peace when I have to take a side in any conflict.

Notice how I am describing those times I can't feel peace and describing who makes me feel peace. Describing that feeling though is hard. It is a feeling of being in the moment. It is a feeling of being content with myself in my heart and brain and body. How I feel peace might not be how you do. Peacefulness only exists in you when you or I choose to feel it right now within our own experience while we move through the world. There is no other way to encounter it. Peacefulness then is a quiet, calm, chosen, felt-condition, resonating within our individual heart. Peace is also a choice and when we choose it as a part of us, we impact the quality of our thinking and our doing.

Peacefulness is an inner sense of calm - it comes from becoming still - in order to reflect and meditate on our inner wisdom and receive answers. A peaceful heart is one that is free from worry and trouble. It's becoming quiet so we can look at things quietly so we can more clearly understand them and thus come up with creative solutions. It is learning to live in the present.

End each day with thoughts of peace. Begin each day with thoughts of peace. Continue thinking thoughts of peace throughout your precious day and happiness will be yours.

When we are present in each moment, the past gently rolls up behind us and the future slowly unravels before us.
- Rev Richard Levy

True peace is found in this moment. Acceptance is the 1st step to inner calm.

Busy Busy

Sorry no post this week. Been super busy with inlaws then a seminar until yesterday. Although I had my laptop with me at the seminar, by the time I got back to the room all I wanted to do was strip and wash my face and crawl into bed. I think one night I was even in bed and asleep by 9pm which is early for a night owl like me.

I finished reading Lost in Translation and will be doing a review on it soon. Haven't read much this week except seminar notes.

This next week also looks to be busy dealing again with inlaws and an article I have to write for the doctor's state association about a conference call I participated in on Tuesday with CMS, and the fall newsletter edition to finish, print, then fold and stuff into 100 envelopes and get out for the state assistant group of which I was just also elected secretary. There are also the 4th quarter edits to download and distribute to the offices and a whole crop of new diagnosis codes to find and put into place by this Friday.

Hopefully I will be back to my normal schedule in a week.

Spiritual Sunday - Seeing the Big Picture

Right now I am in the midst of reading Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones. There was a quote that I ran across last night in my reading that just struck me right in the heart and said it was perfect for Spiritual Sunday.

The worst failing of our minds is that we fail to see the really big problems simply because the forms in which they arise are right under our eyes.

Seeing the big picture is hard. I don't know about all of you but I have been in my own world lately seeing little things because that is what I can cope with. Handling those little things is about all I can handle. But those little things are hard to handle. What I failed to see was all of those little things were in reality parts of that larger picture all broken down and shattered into those small pieces. Putting them together would have allowed one to respond appropriately and see the big picture and thus solve them all in one clean sweep.

So I sat down and thought - what are the larger implications of my issue? How does what I'm doing fit into the Big Picture?

Is it really important to see the big picture? Yes it is. One needs to have critical thinking skills in order to move forward and so we can see the impact of our words and actions. Being able to see the big picture means having an open mind. I wasn't doing that as an office manager. I was trying to put out the little fires without ever seeing the forest fire raging within each of my employees or my bosses. But even more important, I was not seeing the big picture in my own health and life. I was trapped in handling each surgery, each problem with the inlaws, my mother's death, and had neatly compartmentalized them. But I wasn't living. I was reacting.

I had forgotten to see my big lifetime picture. All I saw were the little lessons and I was not coordinating those little lessons and using them to learn. Instead I was choosing to look at life from a more human and emotional perspective. I was standing in place without realizing what purpose those little lessons were in my big picture. I was missing opportunities and failed to see how my interactions with others effected or didn't effect them.

Looking back though, every once in a while I get into this rut and it is normal. Thankfully something happens to raise my awareness and I begin to see for myself what lessons I should have learned and begin to once again look at that big picture. Wouldn't it be nice if we could always do that?

But we can't. We are human. We are a maze of emotional, physical, and mental experiences that don't seem to have any purpose at all but in reality are part of that big picture. Keep your faith in yourself. Learn to take a deep breath, step back, and recognize and respect all those little things that are bogging us down so that we may once again look at the big picture and spiritually grow.

I know I am.

Movie Review - Love Happens

This is the first time I have ever done a movie review. I had 2 or 3 cortisone shots (one in my knee and 1-2 in my ankle) and they are giving me the predictable reactions I usually have so I am back in bed for the weekend. I am catching up on some of my TiVo'd things and this movie happened to be one of them.

I loved the movie. It drew me in and kept me with it the entire time which is unusual for a love romance story. I love Jennifer Aniston (Eloise) and Aaron Eckhart (Burke) in it. Aniston is a really good actress and it shows in this movie. While I don't personally know her, I can imagine she is pretty much down to earth like this character. Eckhart was also excellent in portraying the deep struggle of a man coming to grips with his wife's death and the journey he has to take to face the truth.

Love Happens is that rare romantic movie with emotions other than love at first sight. It is not your typical love story. It is full of quirks like Eckhart as a best selling author of self help books with titles like "A-Okay", the quirky "A-Okay" sign he throws out, quirky dates (sticking gum on a wall or watching a concert in a bucket of a lift truck, and the quirks Eloise has (she saves her favorite floral greetings on index cards and writes SAT type words on hotel walls behind pictures - words it takes a dictionary to interpret them). I also loved the shots of some of the most photogenic spots in Seattle.

The movie works because it's all about getting in touch with whatever is holding you back and the director (Brandon Camp) takes very seriously the anger and sadness of his characters and the deep vein of grief that runs through a person.

The movie worked for me. I loved it and give it an A!

Book Review - The Watson Brothers by Lori Foster

I would like to make a comment before going into this review. I am not a typical reviewer. I review what I read - period. I purchase my own books and refuse to accept any author's freebie books - this way I can state without any guilt what I really feel about the book. I think I have said this in the past but I thought it beared repeating. My opinions therefore, I feel are more honest than a typical reviewer. I will tell you how I felt about the book and I will also not be afraid to tell you what I didn't like about the book. If a particular author is an auto-buy for me, I state that. If said author publishes a book or 2 I don't like and review, I will also state that and why I didn't like it but that doesn't mean I would never buy another book written by that author. It would take more than that to totally turn me off buying that author's books but I will tell you it has happened but I won't tell you that author's name.

Okay, on to the review:

I have no idea how I missed reading this book but this was the first time I read it. I am glad I did. But..........

I will be honest and state that The Watson Brothers are totally different than The Buckhorn Brothers. I didn't like them as much as I liked The Buckhorn Brothers. I read this series right after I had read the other so I didn't review The Watson Brothers right away. My first impressions therefore weren't that good. So instead, I waited to see if some time and and reading 14 other books put some distance and maybe a different perspective between the 2 series before I would reread the book. (I have had that happen with other series from other authors so I always give a benefit of doubt.)

That said, the time did change my perspective so I will tell anyone out there not to read them together. They are different. But a good different. I found myself attaching to all 3 Watson Brothers a whole lot more on the 2nd read than the 1st read so my review will be based on that 2nd reading.

The Watson Brothers are 3 short novella type stories in one book. I understand the one book is actually a reissue and all 3 stories have appeared in prior books (probably in those I haven't gotten to read yet).

The first story was My House, My Rules which introduces the oldest brother: Sam. I loved the title right off the bat (my kind of title - see the title of my blog to get my drift). This story is about 2 very headstrong and stubborn people (I can really relate to that). Ariel and Sam actually know each other (Ariel is Sam's brother's ex-girlfriend). Sam has been in love with Ariel since his brother Pete brought her home. Ariel has been in love with Sam since she was introduced to Sam. Sam is a strong alpha undercover cop though who refuses to get involved with any woman because of his job and with Ariel, he resists her even more because she is 12 years younger than him but that she was Pete's ex and he thinks Pete is still mooning over her. Ariel though decides to take matters into her own hands and purposely dons a very sexy dress and goes to a bar where she knew Sam had been going to. Problem is that Sam was undercover and Ariel almost spoils the bust. Sam takes her to his home (his big mistake) and tells her that he wants to have an affair with her - his house, his rules. Ariel goes along and they are both taken for one erotic hawt ride (pun intended). He quickly learns that although it was his house and his rules, some rules can be changed if they involve Ariel. These 2 people remind me a lot of my husband and I as we spar with each other verbally about as much as Sam and Ariel do and my husband and I end up pretty much the same way Sam and Ariel end up after one of those matches.

The second story was Bringing Up Baby which is about the middle brother, Gil. Gil finds out he has a toddler after a night of sex with the baby's mother while on a business trip (note this is totally out of character for him). Gil is a staunch, stiff, orderly, uptight person who is all into appearances (my term for him would be prick). His home is a designer's dream. But Anabel unexpectedly appears with his daughter, Nicole, and you just see the ice and stiffness disappear as Gil loses his heart to both Anabel and his daughter. Anabel is not the Nicole's biological mother (they were roommates and Nicole's biological mother left all of Nicole's care to Anabel). Anabel though is not the type of person Gil usually dates or is attracted to. I loved this story for the slow Tantric feelings that pull these 2 together along with their love for Nicole. I also loved how Gil changed into a hawt, caring man and father. I am still amazed how Lori Foster pulled off this short story and turned 2 entirely different people into hawt lovers and I was right there rooting for them to get together and it wasn't because of Nicole. I was also amazed at how fast she turned around my impression of Gil as a prick and I actually read this story twice to see how she did it. If you read closely you can see how she did it and I was really impressed!

The third story was Good With His Hands which is about Pete, the youngest brother. Pete was introduced a bit in the first book but he was young. This book has Pete grown up but without any clear goals. He lives next door to Cassidy and they are friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They are attracted to each other but Cassidy is a goal directed person and has a vision of her 'perfect man' and Pete doesn't fit it. One hawt hawt steamy hawt hawt kiss changes the relationship. I loved the hawt factor and both characters who are hilarious yet with all this hawtness exploding off the pages. I was reading this story after my husband had gone to sleep and I woke him up because I could not contain my laughter at a few of the scenes. I am not going to give you all the details about the scenes but one involves parents (had it happen to me in much the same manner) and another involves a tie and yet another involves the title (there is a reason for that title) and another involves payback from Pete's older brothers.

So I am giving this book a big thumbs up. I do wish each story was longer or each of the brothers had their own book and I do wish there was more involvement between the brothers in each story because I think the 3 of them would have played off each other nicely. Just don't read it after the Buckhorn Brothers!

Recipe Thursday - Grandma's Fudge Icing

This icing is simply amazing and really really tastes like fudge but a warning as it does take quite a while to set up properly so make sure you have a really good hand mixer as it averages me 20-30 minutes for the icing to be ready to spread on the cake. My mother and grandmother always put this on a white cake so it does ice a 2 layer 8 inch or 9 inch round cake or a 9x13 cake.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Sugar
¼ Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Cocoa
¼ Cup White Corn Syrup
½ Cup Milk
½ Cup Shortening
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract


1) Mix Sugar, Salt and Cocoa together in a pot
2) Add Corn Syrup, Milk, and Shortening. Stir over low heat until shortening is melted
3) Stirring constantly bring rapidly to full rolling boil
4) Boil exactly 1 min
5) Remove from heat
6) Beat until lukewarm
7) Add Vanilla
8) Continue beating until loses gloss and is of spreading consistency (takes at least 20 minutes) - see picture above for how it looks when it has lost its gloss.