Picture Perfect

    We see them everywhere, or so we think.  A perfect family that live perfect lives with perfect children, houses and cars.  It appears as if everyone around us has their life, children, money, etc. all together.  There are even days where it appears that we are the only ones who aren't picture perfect so we try even harder to achieve that perfection.  Well, I have news for you today.  If you are reading this current blog series on our journey toward a simpler life and are thinking that I/we have all the answers you are in for a big surpise.  Perfection does NOT exist.  We are in reality just a bunch of ducks on the water.  Looking serene on the outside but paddling like mad underwater (where no one can see our imperfections).  Guess what, I don't care that you aren't perfect.  In fact, I would much rather have you be imperfect because so am I.  That's right, I'm saying it out loud and in a public forum, "I am not perfect".  For those of you that know me this is not a big surprise. 
     My favorite people are those who are comfortable enough to be able to admit their imperfections.  They exude a peace and serenity that few others enjoy.  So, why don't we all cast off the masks and accept and embrace our imperfections?  ...  So, there are either crickets chirping while you seek a fitting excuse, or you have learned the same difficult life lesson that I have learned.  No one is perfect or has the perfect life. We all struggle to keep our masks on so no one will see our imperfections. Why? What exactly wrong with our imperfections?  Why do we feel the need to hide behind the mask?  Even doing the right thing, or even something different leads to negative consequences much of the time.  Why is that? 
     I don't know the answers.  I'm not sure any of us do. So the question then becomes,  what are you going to do about it?   As for me, I choose to remember that it is not my job to be perfect.  One perfect man did exist but we crucified Him long ago.  I'm not Him, nor will I ever be like Him on this side of eternity. Instead, I can simply choose to be me, the imperfect, flawed woman I am.  Someone else can deal with the stress and anxiety of trying to be perfect.  I choose peace and faith.  Faith that can set me free from the insecurities of my imperfections. I also invite you to join me in this decision. Let's be who we really are instead of trying to be who we aren't.  I promise it will be worth it.

Dripping Praise

     We had a deal.  A simple contract between two married people.  It was a wonderful thing, but Uncle Sam interfered and once again the deal is off.  Years ago my husband and I agreed that I would do the Girl Scouting adventure with our girls.  Later, when our son was older, my husband would enjoy Boy Scouts with our son.  It was a perfect plan but never quite seems to work out.  In Georgia, my husband spent a great deal of time overseas so I stepped in and worked closely with the Scouts while he was away.  I know, no surprise there for anyone who read "All or Nothing".  Here in Kansas, things are more balanced (right now) and so I only attend meetings with my son periodically.  Unfortunately, I learned something from one of the scouts last week that still bothers me to this day.
     Last week the scouts were working on flag etiquette, as well as the proper way to fold a flag.  The boys were practicing by making paper flag footballs.  It is one of my favorite Scout memories.  One of the scouts folding his flag perfectly.  So I told him, "Excellent job".  He paused, turned and looked at me and asked me if I was being truthful.  Ah, yes.  I repeated that he was doing a great job.  The scout shook his head and explained that he still wasn't sure what I meant by that because his teacher at school would give praise and compliments ONLY when she meant the exact opposite.  A compliment was usually followed by her taking your paper and tearing it up.  Whoa.  Just stop for a second.  Why?  Why would anyone do that to a class of eleven year old children?  Is the world not tough enough?  What happened to encouragement?  What happened to saying what you mean and meaning what you say?  No wonder he was confused.
     It didn't end there.  As you may know, last Thursday the Midwest was hit with a major snow storm.  I was helping my son shovel a neighbor's driveway with his friends.  One of the boys addressed a friend of his that was walking past by calling him a derogatory term.  The mom in me stepped in me and put an end to that but the boys tried to explain to me that it was a term of friendship.  NO STINKING WAY IS THAT WORD A TERM OF FRIENDSHIP.  I do have to say it wasn't a swear, but ... I was offended even hearing it.  Then it dawned on me how little we say what we mean and mean what we say.  Our children are noticing and copying our behavior.
     Thinking back I can remember as a child and young teenager that everything we said was said with sarcasm.  The words may have been sweet but the tone was definitely not.  It was how we communicated.  How hurtful we are to each other.  It's almost as if we are trying to get our insults/hurtful words out before our friends or acquaintances can do it to us.  The faster one can reply with a slicing comeback the more respected the person is in our eyes.  Meanwhile, we struggle with feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and isolation.  As a culture we are dealing with increases in suicide, violence, and life itself becomes increasingly devalued.  We struggle to blame someone and something but the truth is we have ourselves to blame. 
     We stopped telling each other the truth.  Or, more correctly, now we use truth as a way to wield our words as weapons in an attempt to "help" the other person see how they are all wrong and we know better than they do.  We stopped speaking in love, especially to the ones we love.  Not only do we not encourage them, we seem to deliberately tear them down in an effort to "help" them.  It is no wonder we feel so alone. 
     Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way.  We can once again learn to speak in love.  Encouragement is something that you do as you walk alongside someone.  It is gift you give to those you care about that reminds them that they are loved and that they have value.  As I finish this, I would ask you to join me in encouraging five people every day for the next week.  It can be by text, email, a hug or just the words that you say when you are with them.  Let's do our best to change our words and our world for the better.

Simple Perfection

     There is nothing quite like the taste of it, a perfect blend of crunch, flavor, and an inside that just melts away.  No, not chocolate, the perfect onion ring.  We have had many conversations and comparisons with our friends over the years and are mostly left unsatisfied.  If you find a restaurant that makes good onion rings it is a milestone, perfect onion rings?  Well, that is rarer than a blue moon.  Perfection can however be achieved in the comfort of your own home.
     It was a busy Saturday after all, we had risen early to help work a food concession at the Fort Riley Apple Day.  Think country fair meets Army vehicle displays with a Calvary competition and reenactors.  Yes, it was a blast.  My only disappointment?  The only apples to be found were in pies already.  Sigh. 



     You will see why we were understandable tired at the end of a long day (that had begun at 0600 aka 6:00 A.M.).  We had done a lot!  This doesn't even show a fraction of everything we did that day. 



















     Needless to say, taking the time to make a traditional supper was NOT in our plan anymore.  In fact, I even did something I don't normally do at all.  I fell asleep for about twenty minutes on the couch.  I know, it shocked me too.  However, during the time of this wonderful nap, it was my husband to the rescue.  He looked around at the produce we had left for the week from the farm (remember the CSA?) and decided to make the most delicious, amazing and perfectly cooked onion rings I have tasted in years.   Well, he might just have been trying to make some onion rings as a snack but that is not how it seemed to the rest of the family. 
     The perfection of an onion ring is in the delicate balance of the crispy outside and the fact that when you bite into it the onion is cooked enough so that it makes a clean break and not being mush.  Too many times a delicious tasting onion ring fails this test.  You bite in and end up pulling the entire onion out in the first bite or there is nothing but mush.  These, however achieved that perfect balance through simplicity.
     Too many times we try to complicate things, even onion rings.  What if we fry in a different oil or add more seasoning?  We need a dipping sauce, or two, or ten.  Where and when does it end?  We figure if we take a simple process (heat oil, slice onion, dip onion in batter/breading, fry onion, remove excess oil, enjoy) we can improve on it and make it even better.  We forget that simplicity, and the perfect onion ring, doesn't need improving.  It is enough in and of itself.  Just like us. 
     We don't have to be anything that we are not, we are good enough just how we are.  Being skinnier, heavier, younger, older, lighter, darker, more toned, smarter, better looking, more accomplished doesn't really amount to anything if we are never at peace with who and what we are right now.  So, as I constantly struggle with this lesson myself I want to remind you that YOU ARE ENOUGH!  So don't overcomplicate things.  Enjoy who you are and everything you have been blessed with -- especially onion rings!


 

Scratching It Up

     There is one in every group.  Someone who is just killer in the kitchen.  They make Julia Childs look like a short order cook.  That is the someone I secretly aspire to be.  I would love to be known as a great cook.  However that means something a little different to me than many others.  To me, that means cooking from scratch.  In a world of instant gratification taking the time to made something from scratch may seem a little unusual.  I'm okay with that because it is a major part of our simpler life.   I promise you, in this case simpler is NOT faster. Actually, it is the exact opposite but it is just SO much better and healthier.  As I said yesterday, I enjoy "going old school".  What could be more old school then fresh baked bread? 
     To be fair I have been baking bread for a great many years now and I'm a good baker, if I do so myself.  That, however, has not always been the case.  As a newly married woman more than twenty-three years ago my husband and I faced the same problem as the majority of our society.  Money.  So, we looked at ways to save money. Combine that with my lifelong love of learning the old ways and you find my first attempts at bread making.  My poor husband.  He was so encouraging during those first attempts.  He, my mother-in-law and family suffered with my offerings.  You see, I had one major problem.  My mom is not a baker or even a cook.  She HATES to cook and never developed many skills in the kitchen to pass on to me.  She operated everything on one of two temperatures, high and off.  Therefore, one thing I never learned was that yeast needed to be proofed before it could be used or that the temperature of the water/milk really mattered.  So my "bread" never rose ... at all.  My husband would take the loaf, slice it half and turn the loaf into two slices for his sandwich.  The flavor was great but the density of the loaf was similar to a cement brick.  Completely unacceptable.
     So, the quest began.  I sought to make a better loaf of bread.  I would remind you that this was before the says of the internet and Google.  Cookbooks and people were my only resources.  Bread making was not a popular thing even then so there were not very many people to ask.  Countless recipes were tried and discarded.  Until one recipe talked about the importance of proofing the yeast and the temperature of the liquid.  My determination (read stubbornness) eventually led me to my answer.   The rest is history.  My bread is often fought over by friend and family alike all because of the discovery.  Our pizza crusts are never from a mix or box and the calzones disappear as quickly as they appear.  So, with a focus on a simpler life, bread is being baked on a regular basis in Kansas.  Just not the same was as before, it is being baked with a slight twist now.  Making our own cheese changed it all.
     One of the byproducts of cheese making is whey, and a lot of it. Not being wasteful, and wanting to use everything led me to Google.  After all, why waste the whey?  What do you do with a gallon of leftover whey?  Bake bread products.  Bread in it's simplest state is flour, yeast, salt and water/milk/liquid. Whey can be substituted for that water, milk or liquid.  It adds protein and nutrients to the bread.  We tried it and the whey totally changes the texture of the bread product.  So, we tried it.  After all, we had to use the fresh mozzarella on a pizza.  Wow!  It was incredible.  The pizza dough was so much lighter and more moist.  Likewise, the whole wheat honey bread and white bread loaves were lighter, softer and so much more moist.  It was like the difference between eating the crust of an Italian bread and the soft, warm inside part.  Okay, it might not be exactly that much of a difference but you get the idea. 
     It is over.  That is it.  Now I will be "forced" to make incredibly wonderful mozzarella and other cheeses just to get the whey to make bread.  Hmm. This waste not want not attitude of using everything could add a couple of pounds to my waistline for sure!  However my family and I are loving it.  There is just something about fresh bread just out of the oven that makes the day better.  So join me and make some for yourself.  Even if you don't have whey, you can still enjoy some delicious bread baked fresh from your own oven.  Simply comment below and tell me which recipe you would like:  white bread (makes two loaves from one packet of yeast), honey whole wheat bread (makes one loaf), pizza dough or calzone dough. 
    

Bucket's Away!

     Everyone seems to have a bucket list nowadays.  They are the latest thing, maybe because of the movies or just because people are talking about them more.  I've never had a bucket list, per se.  There are only a very few things that I want to do in my life before I die.  So, I guess I had a bucket list, I just didn't call it that before.  My list is pretty short and simple.  In fact it is so short I'm looking to add to it just because it doesn't seem like it is enough compared to what others have on their lists.  This is a list of worldly things, I have a different one that has more personal/spiritual ones on it.

Lisa's Bucket List:

1. Fly first class
2. Go on a two week vacation at a resort villa with my family (like the ones on television with the private infinity pool, view, etc.)
3. Make my own cheese
4. Buy a brand new car once (did that about four years ago)
5. Own my own business
6. Write a book before I'm thirty (did that at age 28)

That's it!  I told you it is pretty short, and perhaps a little boring.  However I have one more thing to cross off my list.  Can you guess?  Kansas has afforded me the opportunity to make my own cheese. 
     A cheese making kit has been on my Christmas and Birthday list for the past few years.  I always thought it would be such a cool thing to do.  Those of you who know me well, understand that I love to learn the old ways (baking from scratch, canning, sewing, growing vegetables -- despite my black thumb, knitting, crocheting, etc.).  These are skills that are becoming lost in our modern society and that makes me a little sad but just makes me enjoy learning them more.  Which brings me to the cheese making. 
     I love cheese.  It just makes so many things taste better.  My favorite?  Vermont Extra Sharp Cheddar (white not orange/yellow).  Yummy!!!  I think back to the story of Heidi and how they lived on cheese and bread.  I am all for that!  Is it any wonder I love cheese fondue?  I didn't think so either.   Have you ever wondered how to make cheese?  I never really thought about it much as I had no cows or goats to milk and make it from.  That is until I found out that we could make our own cheese from a kit.  I was sold.  Apparently my family not so much as I never received the kit as a gift.  When our friends from Texas arrived we did what we always do, talk about, cook and eat food.  One of the things I mentioned was that I had always wanted to make cheese.  Google was not able to help us find the necessary ingredient but the conversation, excitement and thought had been reinforced by their visit.  All it took was a conversation with my beloved husband, and the fact that the kit was very inexpensive for my dream to become a reality. 
     A child on Christmas morning had nothing on me the day that my cheese making kit arrived.  I was so beyond delighted.  Only one small, tiny issue.  That was the day my daughter and I needed to be in Topeka for a meeting so my husband opened the package.  The issue was that by the time we arrive home it was late, extremely late and so I could not read the book, instructions or make the fresh mozzarella immediately.  The next morning I was up before dawn, literally (although this is not unusual).  I promise you I had read the book, the instructions and watched the DVD before lunchtime.  Then began the wait.  My husband had the vehicle so there was no running to the store to get the gallon of whole milk until he was home from work.  This was NOT a good day for him to work late, yet I survived and he came home with the milk.
     Now I'm going to pause here and tell you a little something about making cheese.  There are basically three major factors in making cheese (lots of minor ones but three major ones).  They are the milk, the additives (rennet, cultures, etc.) and the process.  Mozzarella is the easiest cheese to make and the best for beginners to perfect before moving on to other cheeses.  Mozzarella can be made from a gallon of store bought milk IF the milk isn't Ultra-Pasteurized or heated to a high temperature for too long.  Milk can be pasteurized by heating it to a lower temperature for a longer time or a really high temperature for a very short time.  The pasteurization kills the bad bacteria (and some of the good stuff too) and makes it safe for us to drink.  Unfortunately not all milks are suitable for making cheese because many of them are heated too high.
     We were all excited to make our first batch of mozzarella.  The recipe told us that it should only take about thirty minutes.  Woo hoo!  We followed the directions but the first batch did NOT come out well at all.  More like a ricotta in consistency.  Strike one for Brand A.  Worry overtook me, what if my husband said that was it, he was done making cheese?  Fortunately, he is more like me.  We looked at what could have gone wrong.  We decided to try again the next day.  This time we used a powered milk and heavy cream combination instead of the store bought milk.  We followed each step MUCH more precisely and were rewarded with this:

It was heavenly!  This puts even the store bought "fresh mozarella" to shame.  Needless to shame it was gone in minutes, especially when pizza is on the menu.  We attempted to make another batch with a different kind of store bought milk but that made a perfect ricotta (a to die for ricotta) because the milk had been pasteurized at too high of a temperature.    Our next adventure in cheese making will be with fresh, unpasteurized milk from a local farm.  Can hardly wait for that one.  Until then we will stick for the recipe that worked the best for now. 
     That makes number three on my bucket list ... done!  I'm thinking that the only way to check off number one and two on my bucket list is to do well with number five.  Meanwhile, we will be enjoying some incredible fresh, homemade cheese. 

Dangers of Walking on the Wild Side

     There are only a few things you can pack to take with you in the vehicle when you move (or in military speak PCS).  Kitchen items are essential but let's be honest, you don't have the space for many things.  Normally, we take no appliances and just stick to a couple dishes, a few pieces of silverware, a pot, a saucepan and a fry pan.  This time, however, I decided to go wild.  My husband gets VERY cranky without coffee so we decided to bring his gift for Father's Day (a Keurig).  Less cranky husband, check!  Secondly, came the programmable electric tea kettle.  A must have for a true tea drinker like myself.  Finally, my biggest splurge of all!  Our five quart crock pot.  How is a crock pot a splurge?  Hello!  Set it and forget it cooking is definitely for me, especially since it is delicious one pot cooking! So there you have it, my three appliances.  Pretty wild, huh?
      Into each life a little rain must fall.  Although I'm still figuring out why mine is a monsoon at times.  I can still remember how excited I was to arrive in Kansas and start to move into our new quarters.  Don't they look awesome?

Step one, clean everything (especially the bathrooms and kitchen).  Step two, bring the stuff inside.  Ideally during step two we put our things in the appropriate room although that never quite happens.  Instead we get a huge pile of stuff in the middle of the living room.  Step three, my personal favorite, set up the kitchen.  This is where disaster struck.  No crock pot.  Shock, horror, devastation all converged in my kitchen.  A quick call to Georgia confirmed the worst.  Someone (I won't mention my husband's name) forgot to pack my precious crock pot.  It now sat lonely, twelve hundred miles away in my mother's kitchen.  So, like any good, forgiving wife I turned to the man I married and said, "Now you will just have to buy me a new one."  I'd say I handled the situation with lots of love and forgiveness but some may disagree.
     Replacing the crock pot soon became an adventure.  Remember, we had no internet and the phone service was iffy at the time.  Fort Riley is wonderful in a lot of ways BUT there are NOT very many stores and/or restaurants in the area.  So, the options for a new crock pot were as follows:  Walmart, PX, or Bed, Bath & Beyond.  That is all. We later discovered that there is a Target here.  Okay, no problem I thought.  We should be able to find one at one of those places.  I didn't want an elaborate one, just six quart with low, high and warm.  Simple.  No,  it was not simple at all.  The PX had one that had two compartments but was an eight quart.  I only wanted one compartment and with no Rainbow Cafe in sight I definitely didn't need one that large.  Bed, Bath & Beyond had one that was exactly what I wanted but only a four quart and at twice the price of the PX.  I was beginning to feel like Goldilocks.  PLEASE let Walmart be just right.  Please!  I couldn't face it.  I sent my husband to Walmart to look.  He found one, it had everything I wanted and then some.  He was so excited, he called immediately.  Apparently, it had all sorts of bells and whistles on it.  From the picture message he sent I wondered if an engineering degree would be necessary to operate it but, it had everything I wanted.  Until, that is, I saw the price in the picture message.  I'm sorry, but $70 for a crock pot? Really?  You HAVE to be kidding me.  That was it for me.  My husband returned home empty handed and we ate sandwiches for supper.  We do have a second Walmart for those of you wondering.  It is about a forty minute drive away so the following day we went for another drive.  Fortunately, the second store has a larger selection and it had a crock pot exactly like I wanted for only $20.  Except it was a five quart and not a six.  Yes we bought it!  Are you crazy?  Sacrificing the one quart was nothing compared to the price tag. 
     Now, on to the good part.  As soon as we brought it home and cleaned it out the new crock pot was immediately put to work with one of my old, faithful recipes, Chicken Noodle Soup.  Add some homemade rolls and some salad and we call that supper around here.  Wondering what happened to the crock pot left behind?  Fear not!  It is being well loved by a newly married couple in Georgia.

Chicken Noodle Soup

8     Cups Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
2     Cooked Chicken Breasts, diced
1     Stalk Celery, diced
1     Carrot, peeled and diced
4     Ounces Uncooked Noodles
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put everything except the noodles in crock pot and cook on low about 4-6 hours.  Add noodles.  Cook additional 1/2-1 hour until the noodles are done.

It's Supper Time!

     Interrupting your favorite television show and making you hungry, or should I say HUNGRY you will find those pesky commercials.  Dang things drive me crazy!  I was perfectly content with my water, snuggled up with my husband (IF he is home before bedtime) watching our favorite show UNTIL the commercial for some fabulous looking food decides to appear and tempt me.  Be honest, how often do you see a commercial for food and end up getting a snack?  Most of the time I am able to resist but every once in a while I succumb to the temptation and eat a snack.  No, we're not going to talk about diets, temptation or advertising today.  Today, it's all about the food.
     Belittling the struggles we have with food is not my intent as I like millions of others struggle with weight/food/healthier lifestyle.  These are genuine issues and deserve time and attention.  Yet, because we are constantly bombarded by these our whole approach to food has changed.  Food in some cases is now seen as the enemy.  Food has a don't eat this, eat this battle that wages.  At the same time food remains the center of our social life and life in general.  So there is no way to avoid the battle.  Many of us don't want to avoid it.
     Several of my friends are self-professed foodies.  I'm okay with being a foodie, but PLEASE don't make me be a gourmet.  Eww.  What is the difference?  Wikipedia to the rescue!

Foodie (sometimes spelled foody) is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook. Although the two terms were sometimes used interchangeably, foodies used to differ from gourmets in that gourmets were epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies were amateurs who simply loved food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.^[1] Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food.^[2] After some time of differentiating between the two, the term Foodie is now considered the term for food exploration and enjoyment, whether gourmet or not, thus superseding the term Gourmet.                                                                                Taken from Wikipedia

I would add one thing to the Wikipedia definition of gourmet, they tend to eat food that is in my opinion "fru fru" (Fru Fru, derived from the phrase spelled "frou-frou" meaning fancy, elegant or very elaborate. )  To me fru fru food is the stuff that wealthy people eat, where you get one or two bites of food that look amazing but cost a month's salary and has food in it that I don't recognize or can't find in a regular grocery store.  When I talk about food, I'm talking about normal people food as in stuff you know what it is when you order/eat it.
     New foods, flavors, preparation techniques?  Bring it on! I just like to know what I'm eating and I prefer my new dishes to be made from stuff I recognize.  I know it isn't as exciting but I'm okay with that kind of boring.  Flavors, on the other hand, should be anything except boring!  So, in the land of a simpler life in Kansas how are we making that happen?  We've gone old school!  Yes, Daniel, I know old school is boring to teenagers but mine have NOT been complaining about the old school food. 
     The move to Kansas has brought a certain revival to our cooking and approach to food.  One of the things we didn't have access to in Georgia was a CSA.  CSA is a term that means Community Supported Agriculture.  In other words, a local farm (or group of farms) offer a determined number of shares to local people/families.  We prepay an amount in exchange for a share of the farm's produce/products for that season.  So, once a week I go to the farm and fill my basket of the seasonal produce harvested each week throughout the farming season.  The cost of your share is determined by the size of the basket (or amount) of food you will want/need each week.  We did this in New England when the girls were little and it was AMAZING.  No grocery store can beat the freshness.  The prices are even better than the local farmer's markets.  Joining the CSA has produced a wide variety of changes in what we are eating, how we are preparing it and how we are keeping it simple.  There are too many changes to deal with in just one blog so ... that's right, we're talking about food for the next few days.  Tasty, delicious, healthy food (no enemy food allowed!)  Don't worry, I promise to include recipes and pictures.