The Upside to Procrastination

HAIKU:

PROcrastination.

As the dishes pile up.

I make a cheesecake. 

This weekend Joey worked on Saturday, so I was bored and sad. At first, I was motivated and said, okay, that's fine, I'll do the dishes. Then I looked at the dishes and immediately decided I had much better things to do. This was Friday night. I was in good spirits and had the best intentions but then I got bummed out because it was Friday and he wasn't coming home, so instead of doing the dishes and cleaning up the destroyed (I mean, put off for days) kitchen, I would write a song. I sat at the counter, facing the mocking dishes, and instead penned and strummed out a song that actually made me fairly proud. So that was a Friday well spent, I'd say, even if my kitchen was a disaster. The first lesson in procrastination..sometimes, putting off doing the dirty work allows you to create something new.

On Saturday, I thought about cleaning up the kitchen again but just wasn't in a cleaning shit up mood. I figured, since Joey's ETA wasn't until after 6, I would make my leap into cheesecakery. I finished up the song I wrote the night before and played around with it a bit, but then I started to bake, regardless of the state of my kitchen, which is something I'm not usually inclined to do. I usually prefer to have it cleaned up if I am doing any kind of fun baking and added mess making. I have never made a cheesecake from scratch before, but my mother had given me a 9" Wolfgang Puck springform pan as a gift this Christmas, because I had said about wanting to make one. So I finally got around to trying it out. This baby was from scratch. I mean, not from a box, but an honest to goodness cream cheese heavy whipping cream concoction of a for real cheesecake. My first!

I found a recipe on the internet. It is allegedly The Perfect Cheesecake, a twist on another woman's recipe posted by another woman. I didn't even look in my books and for some reason just searched the net and went with this one. It's a New York Style cheese cake, that actually required a water bath and everything and had a few steps. Leave it to me to go with a harder one, because I don't believe they all require a fancy pants bath and foil wrap? I also found out that our oven is incredibly uneven and needs leveled before I make my next cheesecake or a cake of any type for that matter. So, it's a little lopsided, but that doesn't affect the taste at all. It's still a beautiful thing.

This cheesecake actually called for a sour cream based topping spread on it, and then an optional fruit (raspberry) topping drizzled over it. I was at my mother's last week when she had been picking rhubarb out of their garden so I got some off of her to try out. Surely I should be able to make a fruit concoction for cheesecake from it? So I tried it out. My rhubarb topping wasn't exactly drizzlable, so I just spread it over top of the sour cream topping layer after I chilled that a bit. It worked. It ended up tasting quite sweet and yummy; rhubarb and cheesecake actually go together well.

The cake, as a whole, was a success. The butter in the crust was perhaps a bit much, or the salt wasn't stirred into the crumbs enough, perhaps, and I would let the cream cheese come a little more to room temperature next time, but I'm still mmmmmcredibly pleased with the end result. We ate a bunch and gave a bunch away. The second lesson in procrastination...sometimes putting off the dirty work is pretty tasty! It's all about priorities. A dirty house doesn't need to be the end of your endeavors; you aren't putting things off if you are still doing something worthwhile. I got a song and a cheesecake out of the deal. There are so many better things to be doing than dishes!! So there. My first cheesecake, a rhubarb New York Style one, even. Delicious.

SOURCES: Perfect Cheesecake Recipe

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_cheesecake/

Non-Fishy Fish Bread

This is one of my favorite Korean snacks! This is Gold Fish bread. It might look and sound like it is, but it is not made of fish or anything. It's a not fishy fish. It's made with red beans and actually has a sweet taste. It's kind of like a morning doughnut or pastry, only less sweet, and is yummy with coffee! They also come stuffed with a yellow custard and in a tiny baby fish size. Cute and tasty!

Post Pub Noodlage

March 19, 2016

This is a bowl of handmade noodles lovingly prepared by a sweet "aunt" street vendor lady. They were excellent! On this night, we went to What the Pub, which has basically been my sister's Cheers here in Korea, where everybody knows her name. The owner, Spikey, is like her Korean brother and is super cool. We drank some wine and beers, met some of her friends, and then hit the streets for noodles. 

Getting this dish is basically like their version of getting French fries with gravy at the truckstop after tying one on at the bar. Vendors set up mini tent restaurants on the streets and work all night making noodles and soups and other things. The street vendors in Seoul are some hard working people, that's for sure!

#seoulfood #foodasfriend

The First Supper

Our first dinner in Korea was exciting! And thus began my love affair with chop sticks, and schooling on all of the sides you get with meals. Kimchi is eaten like applesauce here so it tends to grow on you and I quite enjoy the cooking tables. A lot of meals are cooked in front of you. It's just neat! And spicy. Super neat and spicy. I'm enjoying the food so far. I learned to say "Excuse me! A little more water, please!" I'm pretty sure I said the right thing, because the server brought me water. Score!

#seoulfood #foodasfriend

Been My Valentine

February 14, 2016

For Valentine's Day this year we went down to the Casanova Nostalgia in Munson/Casanova. They were having a Valentine's Day dinner special so we decided to partake. I got shrimp fettuccini and Mr. Joseph had a lasagna dinner. We even got a complimentary cupcake after the meal. It was cool that we could go somewhere so close to home and local that was still really cool and we didn't really have to see many people. Ha! Perfect.

Celie and I also received roses and chocolates, because what is Valentine's Day without roses and chocolates, right? That's what makes the consumer holiday go-round! It was a good day.  

BOOK REVIEW: Savor

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung was a very interesting read. This book was able to combine a great amount of nutritional information with mindfulness practices. 

As Cheung highlights better eating choices and patterns, Thay's mindful action plans are woven around them. This approach utilizes breathing exercises and the untying of your internal knots. Mindful Eating is discussed as well as Mindful Movement. The book is filled with practical meditations you can practice daily to improve your mindfulness with food and exercise. 

One of the biggest things I got from this book was the discussion of the nutrients we physically ingest as well as the nutriments, which includes all of our interests we take in, people we engage with, media we consume. These nutriments have as big of an impact on our psyche as the nutrients we consume have on our body. It is best to be aware and mindful of everything that we are ingesting in our daily lives. 

BOOK REVIEW: How To Eat

How To Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh was a fun little book. It's a pocket book, so it is small in size but vast in truth. It is filled with small passages pertaining to food, eating, drinking, and cooking. The main teaching of this book is mindful eating, experiencing your food with all of your senses and seeing all of the Universe in every meal that you consume. The orange is nourished by the sun, the soil and the rain, and thus contains those aspects of the Universe and, in turn, we are nourished by it. 

Thay explains how the monks eat together in silence and refrain from chewing and swallowing their problems along with their food. He suggests similing as you eat with friends and experiencing them in the moment as well. In these meditations he talks about everything from the proper way to do the dishes to the Five Contemplations we should always consider when eating. 

How To Eat was a quick yet enlightening read, and because of that I will probably enjoy this book again sometime. I am sure I would get something out of a second helping of these simple yet profound teachings.

BOOK REVIEW: The Tao of Eating

The Tao of Eating is a wonderful book! It is up there with Eating in the Light of the Moon for me, and it was actually a recommendation from Johnston, so it makes sense. 

The Tao is known as "the way". This book focuses on the Tao of eating versus the way of dieting. The author explains how to "undiet" and eat according to your desires, for your mind, body, and also your soul. She advocates having a soulful relationship with food, deeming no food off limits, no time of day taboo for eating--NO RULES regarding food, and no eating with the goal of losing weight at all!

Some of the suggestions seem rather radical, but only if you still believe what you have been taught by the way of dieting. When I started applying these practices to my life I felt a little out of control and uncomfortable not restricting ANYTHING from my body. Especially because I am recovering from disordered eating patterns, this book was helpful in supporting me in eliminating all eating restrictions. The theory is your body will find its balance once again as you are applying no negative beliefs or thoughts to food. This was a slightly scary yet liberating experience,

Aligned with the teachings found in the Tao te Ching, the main text of Taoism, The Tao of Eating explains how to live a diet free lifestyle and truly find your soul using the cues your eating patterns have to offer you if you choose to listen. It is suggested that we listen to our body's cravings in order to bring awareness to its needs.

BOOK REVIEW: The Only Diet There Is

The Only Diet There Is by Sondra Ray is quite a different book. This is basically another LOA read about weight and body image. The author explains that our way of thinking about ourselves is of the utmost importance when it comes to reaching and maintaining our ideal weight. She discusses psychological reasons for your extra weight and explores your belief system about your body and food. This isn't a diet in the normal sense, but a diet from negative thinking. According to Ray, it is this negative thinking that is sabotaging our attempts at weight loss.

This book is a little crunchy, but very therapeutic if you read it with an open mind and allow it to sink in. It is heavy on God and uber heavy on affirmations. The author explains that it is our thoughts about the food we consume that make it "good" or "bad". I actually wrote out ALL of the affirmations in this book. Some of them are pretty ridiculous seeming, but others really hit on some key reasons why people have weight issues and clicked with me. I see the affirmations as a tool to re-frame your subconscious mind and in affect change your belief systems about your body, food, and eating. 

In changing our mind, I can see where the affirmations could be helpful, as affirmations in general are great tools for change, but I can also see where many people could hate this book with a passion and believe it is utter bull shit because of their absurdity. It really is about what you believe. Self-change is a lofty endeavor for anyone, but you might have better results by starting from the inside. Your weight is a physical symptom of something else that is going on and it is true that in any weight loss attempt the best thing to change is your mind. As within, so without! 

BOOK REVIEW: Why Quantum Physicists Don't Get Fat

This was a different read. It was an interesting take on diet and unwanted weight from a quantum physics perspective. I found it interesting, while being also a little absurd. All in all, though, still an interesting and informative read. It describes how our belief systems are what essentially manifest things into existence, through our thoughts and emotions. How we feel about what we eat or do not eat or how we move our bodies, according to Kuhn, is what will determine the outcome.

The author first explains the difference between classical physics and quantum physics. He describes the first scientific revolution as the action-based paradigm and says the rules for most diets you were taught come from this paradigm. He suggests you shift your paradigms and embrace the laws of quantum physics, which are the energy-based paradigm and the holistic paradigm. Our bodies aren't machines, but rather a group of complex systems that are greater than the sum of their parts.

A lot of this is Law of Attraction stuff, which if you think about it, is quantum physics, but most of this book deals with your thoughts and feelings. The author talks about the "stories" that we tell ourselves about things. Nothing in and of itself is ever "bad", per se, it is the story that we tell ourselves about the event that determines how we perceive it. Basically, in an energy-based paradigm, what we give off is what we take in, so if we feel fat we will, essentially, become fat. If we think and tell ourselves food is going to make us gain weight, then it most likely will. 

One of the most interesting things in this book was when the author cited the work of Dr. Candice Pert, who discovered evidence in the 1990's that our bodies are really a unified whole. She found that are thoughts really are physical things in that they each have a unique neuropeptide associated with them and each time we have a thought or emotion, our brains produce these neuropeptides and our blood stream is flooded with them. These neuropeptides are then assimilated by your body's cells, inserting themselves into special receptors on the cell's membrane, essentially being absorbed into the cells of your body. Overtime, your cells begin to crave the neuropeptides that they are most often exposed to. So your cells actually start telling your brain to produce these thoughts or emotions, and we essentially become addicted to certain ways of thinking or emotional states. This explains why changing your way of thinking can be one of the most difficult endeavors there is. 

The author's solution is basically to change your way of thinking and feeling by changing the stories that you tell yourself. As in LOA systems, he suggests feeling the state of success before it has arrived and by the laws of physics, through the quantum field, you will draw it to you. He highlights the importance of gratitude and meditation. It is thought provoking, having these concepts applied to eating and exercise, but it does make sense, I'll give him that. It isn't magic, but if you change the way you perceive things, you could potentially have better results from more assistance from the quantum field. It's really one of those easier said than done deals. Change your mind, change your life. 

BOOK REVIEW: Eating in the Light of the Moon

Eating in the Light of the Moon: how women can transform their relationships with food through myths, metaphors, & storytelling by Anita Johnston, Ph.D.

Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through Myths, Metaphors, & Storytelling is a book written by Anita Johnston, Ph.D. about disordered eating in women. This book points out that 95% of people diagnosed with eating disorders are female, and therefore focuses on women and the divine feminine qualities that she believes become imbalanced with eating disorders. Johnston uses myths, metaphors and fairy tales to explain how the problem with food is really just an illusion; food is a metaphor for a hunger inside of us that is much deeper than physical hunger. In fact, we’re so used to tuning out our bodies’ true signs of hunger that we only know when we are famished or completely stuffed. She explains how it is essential that we learn again to pay attention to the subtle signs that our body is giving us. This book is full of symbolism and is a great journey of self-discovery. 

"Storytellers speak in the language of myth and metaphor," the author says. "They tell us a truth that is not literal, but symbolic. If we hear the stories with only the outer ear, they can seem absurd and untrue, but when listened to with the inner ear, they convey a truth that can be understood and absorbed on a deeply personal level. In this way, stories help us connect with our inner world, to the natural rhythms and cycles of the earth, and to the power of our intuitive wisdom." This book utilizes symbolism throughout to shed light onto the dark places of your psyche and explain that feelings are important and meant to be dealt with, not numbed out or covered over.

Johnston focuses on rediscovering the inner feminine, our intuition, and using that to shed light on our disordered eating. Through stories, the author tells of our struggles with food stemming from hidden feelings and an imbalance in our energies, our intuition has been ignored and our light has been extinguished. There is some reason that we turn to food for sustenance. Johnston explains a woman’s recovery as being a journey into a great labyrinth, where we have to wind around and around until we reach the very center of it, our core where all of our demons dwell, and then we have to face them and make the spiraling journey back out of the labyrinth into the world again. A woman must heal her relationships with her femininity, her sexuality, her body and her Self before she can conquer disordered eating.

I loved the use of metaphor in this book, it really speaks my language. What I got most out of this book was that food is a metaphor for other forms of sustenance, for a different kind of hunger, not only the physical. The most memorable part of this book for me was the metaphor about the animals that were starving and that couldn’t reach the fruit from the splendid tree because they couldn’t remember its name. They sent 3 different animals back to the lion to learn the name of the tree so they could eat of its fruit. Both the gazelle and the elephant could not make it back from the lion without tripping into a hole and forgetting the name. Finally, they sent the tortoise, whose great-great-great grandmother had told about the tree and how to remember. After getting the name from the lion, the tortoise repeated it to itself over and over again until it reached the other animals, “Ungalli. Ungalli. The name of the tree is Ungalli.” It repeated this over and over again until returning to the tree and announcing the name, and immediately the limbs of the tree extended to the ground and the animals were able to eat of the fruit. This story explains how you need to know the name of your hunger in order to recover and how you must keep it in front of you the entire time of your journey. Johnston says that it is only when your hunger is named that you can be truly fed. She explains the difference between nourishment and Nourishment with a capitol “N”. The woman who suffers from disordered eating must keep the name of her hunger in the forefront of her mind and repeat it to herself whenever she struggles with her own personal food symbolism.

This book focuses on how women who suffer from disordered eating have lost touch with their bodies and have become disconnected from their inner feminine; there is an imbalance between their masculine and feminine selves. It highlights the importance of the symbolism in our dreams and suggests using them for knowledge about our hidden fears and feelings. It also guides you, through insights and practical exercises, toward empowerment, explaining how to regain the power of your intuition and get in touch with your feelings, instead of stuffing them down or numbing them away. It focuses on feeding your “shadow sister” who wishes to be heard instead of starved or stuffed, by recognizing those parts of you that have been hidden or lost. Once you can see through the illusion that food is really the issue, you can dive deeper into your feelings and really begin to feel them again. Remember your hunger; always know what it is that you are truly hungry for, be it acceptance, love, respect, or creative expression. Keep it in front of you at all times and you will be able to give yourself the Nourishment that you TRULY desire. The name of the tree is Ungalli!!

SOURCES:

Eating in the Light of the Moon: how women can transform their relationships with food through myths, metaphors, & storytelling by Anita Johnston, Ph.D.

Johnston, Anita Ph.D.

Carlsbad, CA. Gurze Books. 1996

Almost Anorexic: A Book Review and a Personal Revelation

Almost Anorexic is a book published by the Harvard Medical School’s The Almost Effect series, which discusses the grey area of medical conditions that aren’t necessarily a diagnosable condition but are still definitely not in the “healthy” range. Eating disorders and other medical conditions exist on a spectrum. This book is about falling on the spectrum between healthy and full blown eating disorder, in the grey area with subthreshold conditions that don’t get the attention diagnosable conditions receive. It was a collaboration written by Dr. Jennifer J. Thomas, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and Jenni Schaefer, author of the book “Life Without Ed”, who has recovered from anorexia nervosa, and is chair of the Ambassadors Council of the National Eating Disorders Association. I discovered Almost Anorexic while searching for books that would actually address my personal experiences with disordered eating. This book was the key to helping me to unlock and unearth what was probably my dirtiest not-so-secret secret. I call it this because it is not something that I am proud of and I have a great deal of shame and guilt surrounding the subject and while a few people know, I have never blatantly verbalized or acknowledged it publicly, so perhaps this is a revelation of sorts as well as a review on this helpful book.

People look to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to know if they have a true problem, but while helpful, it also can be one of the biggest impediments to their actual healing if they can’t find themselves in the book. How do you properly treat your illness if you don’t feel you have a legit problem or it isn’t even recognized as one by professionals, family, or friends? This is one of the things that Almost Anorexic addresses. A lot of the reason people think that they don’t have a problem is because of the diagnostic criteria. Sadly, this can keep them from getting the help they really do need. If someone doesn't meet all the criteria for a disorder, they are typically diagnosed as EDNOS (Eating disorders not otherwise specified) or OSFED (Other specified feeding and eating disorders), which aren't even considered officially recognized eating disorders. I would have been in this group dubbed by some clinicians as “diagnostic orphans”. The point is all subclinical eating disorders are worthy of help.

I never became underweight which is required for an anorexia nervosa diagnosis but, like many other diagnostic orphans, I exhibited all of the same behaviors as someone diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Had I taken the EAT-26 (Eating Attitudes) test back then, I'm sure it would have indicated I had a real problem. I also lost 35% of my body weight which actually WOULD get an anorexia nervosa diagnosis according to earlier versions of the DSM, which called for a weight loss of at least 25%. The DSM has changed since then a couple of times and is now on its 5^th edition. In the newest edition I would be diagnosed as OSFED, atypical anorexia nervosa. Even though I gained all of the weight that I lost back after I stopped restricting on top of my intense exercise regime, I still carried many of these behaviors with me into my 30’s; I still struggle with the Binge/Purge pattern even in other areas of my life. Ed is still in my head and still has a big say in my daily life, whether I am fully aware of it or not. Awareness is half the battle. Eating disorders are behavioral disorders, and let’s face it...behaviors don’t just magically go away because you refuse to acknowledge them or time passes. There is still a residue. And while I am not currently dealing with full blown disordered eating anymore, I am still dealing with a lot of behavioral residue from the days when I was. I believe you need to acknowledge and change behaviors or you will unconsciously relive them repeatedly. You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.

There is a drastic difference between healthy weight loss and an eating disorder. What I did in high school was not healthy and I know now that I most likely lost my gall bladder at the age of 16 because of how fast I lost the majority of the weight. I also know now that intense restriction is not a sustainable way to achieve weight loss...period. Restriction wasn't my only problem, though, as I also developed an obsessive relationship with exercise. Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body, but not when you force your body to do it as a punishment when you haven't fed it anything for a week. I starved and abused my body, I desecrated my temple. My body didn't trust me anymore after this ordeal, and I am still working on regaining it's trust 20 years after the fact.

I was amazed by how much I found myself in this book, maybe not so much my current Self, but pieces of my Self, and especially that younger aspect of my Self. She was there in all of those pages. The book uses many case studies and personal anecdotes that I definitely found relatable. Almost Anorexic deals with the subclinical end of the eating disorder, while using stories from Jenni’s personal recovery to explain the obsessive relationship people can develop with food and exercise. It not only covers food related problems like binge eating and restricting, but also discusses compensatory behaviors and the highly important subject of body image. Dr. Thomas and Jenni discuss the physiological and psychological changes that occur in “almost eating disorder” syndromes. The second half of the book gives solutions and suggestions for recovery, and also includes helpful activities for you to do on your own, including identifying your social support network, and creating a personalized relapse prevention plan. An interesting exercise from Chapter 6 has you write two letters to your eating disorder, one as if it were a friend, and one as if it were a foe.

In my therapy, I have recently started to dive into this aspect of my story. I thought it would be helpful to "tell someone" as this book instructs. This secret casts a dark shadow on me and I am now working on bringing everything into the light. “For good and for real.” This book is a wonderful read for anyone who has had, has, thought they had, or may have an eating disorder. It is filled with an extensive amount of resources for help. I encourage anyone that thinks that they may have a problem with food and body image to read this book. I also encourage anyone who thinks that their loved one may have a problem with food to think about reading this book. I spent the majority of my life in a state of limbo, somewhere stranded in the middle of the spectrum. Almost recovered isn’t the same as fully recovered and while I’m almost there, I’m not going to settle for almost recovered anymore.

For Good and For Real,

Missie Sue

SOURCES:

Almost Anorexic: Is My (or My Loved One’s) Relationship with Food a Problem?

Thomas, Jennifer J. and Jenni Schaefer

Center City, Minnesota:  Harvard University/Hazeldon, 2013. Print.

A Yen for Sweet Solitude

The blueberries balance the tea bean buzz,
I'm driven by chances, I'm driven by was.
Compelled to sit silently just before midnight,
Searching for something not found in the daylight.

Coffee and pancakes, a simplified yen,
I sip at my mud and forget about when,
I found strength in failure and knew no success,
I came out with more when I needed less.

I go out walkin' searching for truth,
In the late night hours, after I've fallen through,
The hole in my heart when I've hit the floor,
I hunger for solitude and the sweetness of yore.

After the Goldrush Jerky

So, I don't exactly know when it started, when I first spotted the face of that rugged pick-baring gold miner on my first package of Gold Rush jerky, but I will forever be changed by the tasty meat inside his package. I have purchased and eaten such a great amount of this product, I should own stock in the company, so I figured it deserves a blog post at the very least. You know, spread the word. It's good stuff! After tasting the tender pieces of beef made by Goldrush Farms, there has been no other jerky for me!

I've always been a big jerky fan; there's nothing like protein to keep you going. I've tried many kinds. I can honestly say Goldrush is my favorite, hands down. The package declares "Moist & Tender" and "Delicious" and they aren't just whistling Dixie! You get 3.25 oz (91 g) of yum for around $5.25 and although jerky in general is pricey, it is seriously worth every penny. My husband even says he would gladly pay a whole dollar more for it. The package says to refridgerate after opening, but it seldom lasts long enough to need it. That's mostly what sucks about paying over 5 bucks a pop.

Goldrush is better than Oberto, and even better than Jack Links, in my opinion. It has great flavor, is incredibly juicy and not overly salty. I have only seen it at The Market Place, it's sort of a local buy, being made in Litchfield, Ohio. They have it at The Market Place, and as long as I see it there, I'll buy it like milk and bread. It's a staple. It comes in Mild, Sweet Barbecue, Spicy, and Teriyaki. Sometimes I wonder if I'm forming an addiction to this meat. It's marvelous. Marvelous meat!

Overall Goldrush Jerky is an excellent buy. It's the best jerky I've had aside from homemade venison jerky. As long as it's there, I'll buy it! That old bearded gold miner has the key to this girl's heart; after the Goldrush jerky, nothing else will taste quite as good.

Munches From the Mission Jar

I have two of these awesome little crock jars that clasp shut, old school.  They are nice pieces alone, but one of them ended up with an even cooler purpose because it has become so much more than a mere vessel.  It's maximum volume is limitless.  It symbolically holds unlimited potential.  This jar has been dubbed "The Mission Jar" and it can be fun and sometimes challenging.  I love it; constructive and creative play!

I found this site last year that had the idea of the jar, so I didn't make it up or anything, just pounced on it.  There was a page of squares to print out, some with missions on them, others you filled in yourself.  After adding your own personalized missions, you then cut out the squares and place these into some sort of container.  Everyday (or whenever) you pick out a square slip and do what is required of you.  It can be fun!  And it gives you a project to work on that you aren't in complete control of deciding.  Makes you think!  Good for the brain...the spirit....the boredom!! 

"Write a Song About Your Day" proved to be an adventure! "Give Someone a Compliment" wasn't too challenging, but important work nonetheless.  I reckon the transcended vessel could be called the Cup O' Challenge? I'm still working on my "Create an Image with Dots" challenge, which is my latest assignment.  The image here is of my last challenge to "Bake Something, for a Friend or Neighbor".  I made these lovely and festive cup cakes for my friend Leslie, even though Celie and I ended up eating most of them!  Oops! 

So, straight from the Mission Jar, there's something sweet and savory that didn't exist before.  This is a great way to do something creative once in awhile.  You can make all of your slips pertain to something in particular, being a writing prompt or a certain topic, what have you.  Whatever works for you.  The simple act of having random goals and challenges accomplished is good for the spirit and keeps us in a playful and thoughtful state of mind.  Keeping the creative mind active with projects as you age is probably just as important as stimulating the analytical mind with crossword or sudoku puzzles.  "If you don't use it, you lose it!" I guess they say, so flex that creative muscle and keep your mind open!

St. Severin's Fish Dinners: A Seasonal Dish for Lent

An Adult size fish dinner for $9.00!

Friday is usually a busy or weird day and I usually want a dinner that is fast and easy.  I have been enjoying the fish dinners that they have been serving during Lent at the St. Severin Community Center once again this year.  Today is the last Friday before Good Friday, meaning it's the last week of fish dinners.  I'll miss this weekly meal, but look forward to getting them next year, as it has become a Lent tradition of sorts in our family.

The fish dinners at St. Severin have been being served in our little community for a good number of years now.  I don't remember when they started it, but can remember how big they used to be back then.  For years we used to get the child sized portions because they were plenty big enough.  They have since changed the size of the meals, but I feel that the overall quality of the food has improved.  It is all in all, a decent meal for $9.00.  You get plenty of food!  We will often get 2 meals out of each serving.  The food is incredibly good; I craved and demanded the coleslaw during the Lent of my pregnancy!  It has chunks of green peppers in it, by far the best I have had.  My husband raves about their stewed tomatoes and Celie loves their "magic cheese" (mac & cheese).  They offer fried and baked fish, we always opt for the baked when available, but both are delicious, especially alongside the buttery red potatoes that they come with.  Each serving  also includes a portion of mixed vegetables, sometimes green beans with almond slivers, even.  These seem to change from time to time as well; it's always a surprise!  You also get a dinner roll and a packet of butter.

The meal also comes with a dessert, which is a random helping of one of the many pastries and cakes provided by the church ladies and gents who help to make these meals possible.  You can eat in or take out; if you eat in, you get to pick your own dessert off of the dessert table.  If you get take out, as we do, it is yet another surprise!!  Like Forest Gump says, you never know what you're gonna get.  Sometimes it's cherry pie, apple crisp, blueberry cheese cake, Angel food, chocolate cake or cherry cheese cake.  Either way, you are sure to be pleased, unless you aren't down with dessert, in which case, pass it along to a sweets aficionado.  

The St. Severin Lent Fish Dinners are a decent dinner for your dollar.  This meal is incredibly filling, fairly well-balanced, and community provided.  The ONLY downside to it I see is all the Styrofoam being used, but I'm sure that is for costs and Jesus would probably even turn the other cheek if he ate the mac and cheese on the buttered roll in a sandwich dipped in the stewed tomatoes.  It's a seasonal staple that we eagerly look forward to every year.  Look for them every Friday during the Lent season, the 40 days just before Easter, at the St. Severin Community Center in Drifting.  It's a good eat!

The Map to My Sweet Heart

My Valentine came home with a lovely heart shaped box of Russell Stover fine chocolates for me this week.  My initial reaction to candy is always "Great, you brought me five more pounds of ass fat! You hopeless romantic!"  I do, however, like it, of course, and find it is more worth my time and gluttony session if it comes in a cliche red heart shaped box.  I'm a sucker for staples, and symbols...and presentation, and, oh, hell, they're just fun!  The candy box heart is a good symbol and metaphorical gift.  It says, "Darlin', take my big, fully-loaded sweet heart!!  OH!  AND, here is a helpful map so as to avoid your least favorite parts and likewise find all the best pieces in me!!"

The idea of mapping out your heart makes much sense.  It almost seems like that should be an initial part of all new relationships.  Forget vows, celebrate the exchanging of your heart maps.  Think of how much heartache and time could be saved if it were that easy?  The truth is, I guess, that everyone HAS a heart map, per say, it just isn't laid out as simple as it is in the chocolate world.  A lot more gets lost in translation.  So we spend months, years, and decades getting to know our partners and find the best route to the different chambers of their heart.  Sometimes we devour what we find, sometimes we spit it out.  Sometimes we just put it back in there and hope whoever finds it next likes it better...and doesn't so much mind the bite marks and lip stick ring we left?

I wish I could be as helpful to my husband as a heart map is for chocolates.  I wish I could warn him beforehand which pieces have been all eaten up, which have been picked at, and which have been left for the next.  I could warn him about the maple nut butter, or the maple nut cream.  How many chocolate truffles are left?  Am I only nouget and coconut cream in there?  My heart map, like a trail of emotional bread crumbs I have left over my lifetime, is there.  Like everyone else's, it is continuously being drawn and presented over time.  It resides in cues and stories and reactions and gazes and habits and passions and words and embraces.  I'm no cartographer, but I do my best to maintain a legible heart map for my husband, because let's face it, man can easily become lost in the deep forest of woman, and likewise.  Understanding and finding your way is a team effort.  Joey does a pretty damn good job at finding his way through my heart, and doesn't seem to mind being left with my discarded fruit and nut clusters.

Do you give good directions?

Musing Through,
Missie Sue

The Cheese Man Cometh

So, let it be known first and foremost I.love.cheese! My father really is a cheese lover from way back and he turned me on to the wonderful stuff at an early age like any caring father in his right mind with a soul would. We feast on mass quantities of the stuff for holidays...gatherings...fun. We cover it with pesto, lay it on crackers, or just enjoy a chunk by itself. Multiple kinds, flavors, milks, we love it all. We're Italian...cheese holds a big place in our hearts. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST CONSUMABLES INVENTED BY MAN!

Okay, so I love cheese but what I love me some more of is a Cheese Man! No, not a man made entirely of cheese, although that would be quite impressive and delicious.  My dream man...tall, dark, and sharp. Anyway, NOT a life sized Man of Muenster, but the artisan behind the taste, the texture, the smell (and did I mention the taste?) of cheese. Well, I have met such a man in my travels. I don't know his proper name, most simply call him "The Cheese Man".  If you get to the Avondale Hotel on the right day, you'll see him and if you have any lucky piece of bone or cartilage in your body at all you will get some cheese.  He periodically stops into the local pub with his local cheese, and a couple of weeks ago he was back!!  Cheese Man used to take an order sheet, but now it is FIRST COME FIRST SERVE!  Eek!  I know!  They were out of Swiss Rye by the time I got there, but thank goodness he still had Garlic...and Horseradish...and Hot...and....it's GOOD stuff, trust me.  Cheese Man will talk to you about the fine art of cheese making if you ask him, he's very approachable despite his celebrity, he meets and greets his fans, always!

The Cheese Man makes his cheese in 1 1/4 lb. blocks.  He used to offer a smoked and non smoked version of each kind.  Now he only appeared to have the smoked cheese, unless I totally missed it?  You're better off, as I am told that the smoked cheese will last you a great deal longer than the regular even though most people find it hard to keep their cheese in the house for very long.  Rumor has it the cheese will draw you out of bed at night to eat it, the is stuff is that good!  True story!  The blocks are wrapped in cellophane and marked.  He has boxes of cheese; it's GLORIOUS!  Cheese so pungent that you can smell the delicious fire smoke through the Saran coat.  It's an exciting day at the Avondale when the cheese comes in.  Usually SOMEBODY cuts into theirs and shares.  This time we had a Cheese Party, with 4 blocks opened up for our sampling by awesome friends.  Someone even contributed crackers, as I was slacking and didn't have a box of Triscuits on me.  (I don't know what I was thinking.)

It is moments like these that I wish I had my Moleskine with me more often, but there I am, Twisted Tea in hand, chatting it up with the man of the hour!  I "interviewed" CM this time, asking him many questions about his craft, but I can't remember exact names of places.  WHAT is interesting and commendable, though, is the fact that Cheese Man strives to keep all of his ingredients coming from Pennsylvania.  He makes the cheese in "The Cheese House" that is a small little house that was used, I assume, to produce cheese on his family's farm back in the day.  He and his brother, I believe he said, acquired it from the family for cheese making.  He hand builds the smokers and chooses to make multiple smaller ones instead of larger ones, so as to have more control over the smoking process.  He purchases his milk from a local milk farm.  He acquires all of his ingredients and flavorings (the peppers, the horseradish, the rye, the garlic, etc.) from Pennsylvania.  He JUST stopped making CHIVE which was possibly my favorite, so this is sad.  Cheese Man said that this was because he couldn't get the particular chives for in it that he had before in prior batches, the suppliers seemed to have simply fallen off the map.  So, because of his cheese making integrity, he didn't even proceed with an inferior product this time around.  We'll see if he is able to find something in the future.

"CHEESE PARTY!" at the Avondale Hotel! From the bottom left going clockwise are blocks of Swiss Rye, Horseradish, Garlic, and Super Hot.

The Cheese Man also takes great pride in the smoked flavor of his cheese, he is very particular about the hickory chips that he uses to produce it.  These also hail from Pennsylvania.  There is something about this taste, smell, flavor, feeling...I swear I can FEEL the smoke, now!  I have had a fridge full of smoked blocks of cheese for over 2 weeks now; I am inundated with the aroma every time that I open the door.  Our milk is smoked.  It's like someone has a camp fire in my refrigerator.  GLORIOUS! 
  

"Air is cheese's worst enemy!"  -  The Cheese Man 

I bought 5 blocks of cheese off of the Cheese Man on this day.  2 I got for us, 2 for friends, and a block for my dad.  We've all but finished off our two, and I cut into a block of Garlic that was supposed to be for my buddy today.  I broke down.  I couldn't take it.  I only had a half inch of horseradish left and I panicked!  I made Celie and I gourmet grilled cheese with it tonight for dinner. I have that block of garlic and a full unopened block of HOT for my dad.  The smoked lasts quite awhile unopened; in the words of CM "Air is cheese's worst enemy."  I thought Dad would LOVE it, so I grabbed him a block.  After all, he's the one that started this.  He will love this cheese and he will also appreciate the tale of the man known in my local world as The Cheese Man.