Monthly Archives: January 2012

Sherry and Mushroom Chicken Scaloppine

29 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Recipes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Sherry and Mushroom Chicken Scaloppine

As I’m writing this post my mouth is watering. This dish for the elitist in you was found from the pages of Sunset magazine and is perfect for this time of year and my husband devoured it when I made it.  The sauce is like putting on exquisite jewelry with the little black dress you’ve been bored with. Voila! A new you!

Same here with this chicken. Just when you were tiring of the same ol’ same ol’ this lovely girl will change your mind and make you wish you could eat this every day.  But don’t do it. Save it for Sunday dinners or special occasions. Sure she’s easy to make, but she’s not one of those loose girls you gossiped about in high school. She’s really more high brow than that and she’s just been misunderstood all this time.

Or that’s what she wants you to think. (wink)

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 20 minutes

MAKES: 4 servings

Basic chicken scaloppine (you can find it here)

2 tsp. olive oil

6 oz. portobello mushrooms or similar

2 Tbs. minced shallots

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 cup dry sherry

1/4 cup fat-skimmed chicken broth (I use no-added-sodium chicken broth)

2 Tbs. whipping cream

1 Tbs. chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

  1. Keep basic chicken scaloppine warm in a 200-degree oven.
  2. Add olive oil, mushrooms, shallots, and thyme to pan used to cook chicken (don’t wash the pan) and stir often over high heat until mushrooms are browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Spoon over chicken.
  3. Add sherry, chicken broth, and cream to pain; stir until mixture is boiling. Boil, stirring occasionally, until juices are slightly reduced, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Per serving: 349 calories; 28% (99 cal) from fat; 39 G protein, 11 G fat (2.8 G sat); 16 G carbs (1.1 G fiber); 105 MG sodium; 91 MG cholesterol

A letter to my nieces

21 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Dear Nieces,

It’s not a surprise that I have something to say.  I always have something to say. But sadly, I don’t’ have any daughters of my own to pass on words of wisdom and I wanted to pass along to you my list of twenty things to help you be your best in life:

  1. Use eye cream. I wish someone had told me that when I was in my twenties.  So if you’re in your twenties now or once you turn twenty, make it a priority. You’ll thank me when you’re forty.
  2. Always write thank-you notes. I’m big on thank-you notes. You can do this as soon as you can write your name. Sure, email is nice, but a nice card or stationery is always special.

    Me and my red shoes at age 3

  3. Own a pair of red shoes.  This is a must no matter how old you are.  I had a pair of red shoes when I was 3 and it’s stuck with me ever since.
  4. Go to school. And keep going and going. Take classes to learn new things to make you a more interesting person. School always makes you a better person.
  5. Always smile! Learn this while you’re young.  When you go to a new school, smile! When you meet new boys, smile! When you go on a job interview, smile! When you smile it makes you more approachable and people are attracted to people who smile. Plus, when you smile it makes you a happier person.
  6. Don’t be a victim. I decided not to be a victim some time ago.  I once felt pretty picked on and my life was just sad–or so it seemed. At that time I was in my early 30s and one day wrote an email to my childhood piano teacher who I had become friends with and thought I was a little bit funny and acerbic in the email. But it apparently came across as bitter.  This wonderful person sent back to me in the mail a typed letter kindly upbraiding me about my attitude.  Ever since that day I changed my thinking and changed my life forever.
  7. Always carry an emory board with you.  My grandpa Davis taught me this.  Genius advice!
  8. Go abroad. I typically don’t have regrets, but the one regret I do have is that I didn’t study abroad when I was in college.  I love to travel now and I do quite a bit of it, but how wonderful it would have been if I had spent a semester in Italy or England and fully immersed myself in another culture. Remember, the world is bigger than where you are right now.
  9. Don’t waste time. Don’t get sucked in to all the technology around you. (Gaming, Facebook, etc.) Enough said.
  10. Wear a high SPF in the sun.  Like the eye cream, you’ll thank me later.
  11. Be kind to your parents. When I was in junior high my uncle came to visit our family and I gave up my room to him while I slept on the couch. He was visiting for about a week and I don’t recall exactly what happened but apparently I must have been talking back to my parents during the time of his visit. After he had left and I moved back into my room I noticed a handwritten note that he had left for me, counseling me to be kinder to my parents. I was ashamed, of course, but I respected my uncle and his advice and after that point I didn’t talk back to my parents again.
  12. Learn to give hugs.  I’m not a “huggy” person but it seems as though there are gobs of people out there who like to hug.  When I went to college it seemed all the girls in the dorm liked to hug, my roommates included.  I’m not good at it even now.  But I don’t duck or run away anymore when “huggy” people start to approach me with a hug.  It’s still kind of weird to me.  (Just know that I’m working on this too.)
  13. Quit eating processed foods. Eat real food!  Too many chronic illnesses today seemed to be the result of years and years of processed food.  When you get to be old and fortysomething you’ll wish you had been eating fruits and vegetables all your life.
  14. Be gracious.  Say, “thank you,” and “please,” and always think that people have good intentions before you think they have bad intentions.  Trust me, you will be happier.  (See #6 above, “Don’t be a victim.”)
  15. Learn how to spell and learn how to write well.  I’m afraid all this texting and emailing has made us all very lazy writers. If you can be a great writer and communicator it will open up doors for you.
  16. Go see an Opera.  Come on, I really mean it.  At least once in your life you should go see an opera so your spine can tingle during the show-stopping aria.
  17. Learn how to make a béchamel sauce. My mother (or was it Dad?) taught me how to make this.  Essentially, it’s a white sauce that’s a base for so many things.  If you can master this (and it’s easy!) it will get you out of a pickle numerous times down the road.
  18. Be on time.  For crying out loud, you want to be on time. Being on time makes you reliable.
  19. Buy a Mac, not a PC. You’ll thank me later.
  20. Be brave. Do something bold every day. Get out of your comfort zone and be willing to make mistakes.

Well, that’s my advice for all of you sweet nieces. We’re far away from each other but I hope that the lessons I’ve learned can be useful to you. Lastly, have fun in life and make it your best life ever.

Love, Aunt Lisa

I’ve opened up Pandora’s Box

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

I like new jewelry, natch. Especially because I’m not in the mood to be buying new clothes these days since the post-accident weight gain. Jewelry is simple and elegant and always puts a smile on my face (especially the kind that comes in a little Tiffany blue box with a white satin ribbon tied into a bow). And I can gain five pounds and the jewelry still fits. (Rings, on the other hand don’t play nice in the sandbox when I retain water. Phfft!)

But husband doesn’t see the value in jewelry. (sigh)

He feels the same way about my Jimmy Choo shoes, or any shoes for that matter unless it’s a good pair of hiking boots, which he takes great interest in as though he were buying me a space suit that I’d need for, say walking on the moon. He wants to make sure that it’s exactly what I need for every condition I could face hiking. And well, we know what kinds of conditions I end up finding myself in when hiking.

So, while in Roatan, Honduras over the holidays, after a day of diving/snorkeling (Steve dove, but I couldn’t because my ears were plugged up from a cold, so I snorkeled), we were heading back to the cruise ship, passing all the duty-free stores, when I saw the Pandora store.

An example of a Pandora bracelet (from Google images)

AND IT WAS ALL DUTY FREE!

So that meant I could go in and buy me a little something, right? AND it would be inexpensive, of course. (Snicker. I knew better than that.)

I left Steve outside with a poorly made Honduran gelato (I know, that doesn’t make sense: Honduran gelato) while I entered the doors of Pandora.

Stupid me. I let the Pandora sales people put the silver chain around my wrist and we began building my bracelet. By the time it was about 1/4 filled I stopped the two Pandora sales people and said what I never say to a sales person, “Uh, how much is this?”

I’m not going to tell you what they told me, but I’ll tell you this much: I had them shave off about $60 worth of charms/beads and ended up walking out of the store with my bracelet.

I thought I was in the clear, figuring that Steve wouldn’t ask me how much I spent, but all of a sudden the receipt fell out of my hands and the breeze carried it off. Gallant Steve chased it down and then I thought, “crap.”

Yep, he looked at the receipt and then looked at me and I had to walk the Walk of Shame back to the cruise ship as he muttered something about not being able to eat for a month.

“But you got an ice cream,” I told him. “It’s kind of even now, right?”

How to set New Year’s resolutions that stick. (Or how I finally found my husband.)

04 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It was the holiday season six years ago and I found myself 39 and single. I actually didn’t find it a problem being single, but for the first time I felt an acute sense of loneliness. I had spent that Christmas alone and it was as though someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over my head to wake me up. And just like that I suddenly had the immense desire to be married.

Yes, me. The same person who had a great network of single girlfriends, who had been successful in her career, who traveled a great deal, and to be quite honest, liked having yellow walls in her home and a tiffany-blue colored guest room–all without having to manage complaints from a man who might find the walls a little too girlie for his tastes.

So essentially, that year I embarked on a very strange New Year’s resolution: To get married. Coincidentally at the same time I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by Bob Greene–Oprah’s trainer. My own trainer gave me a free ticket to the lecture and I was looking forward to hearing from Greene all about how I could lose weight, be healthier and make my workouts better.

When I arrived at the lecture I, along with all the other attendees, was handed a pad of paper and a little golf pencil. Greene came out to lots of cheers from the mostly-women audience (I’m not going to lie–he’s quite handsome) and he explained that his lecture was going to be a little different than what we probably expected.

Fearing that he was going to make a pitch for some health supplement I was surprised when he asked us to draw a circle on the piece of paper and make it into a pie with eight sections like this :

Click picture to enlarge

Next, he asked us to write into each section things that are important to us:

Click picture to enlarge

For each of the areas he then asked us to reflect on them and rate them a plus (+) or a minus (-). For instance, if you wanted to lose weight or get into better shape, your health category would probably get a minus. If you are comfortable with your financial situation perhaps it would get a plus. This is what mine looked like:

Click picture to enlarge

Then he asked us to circle the one or even two with a minus that we wanted to work on. Again, this is what mine looked like:

Click picture to enlarge

Greene went on to explain that he does this exercise with all his clients before training with them. Of course, he would get puzzled looks (as he likely did from many in the audience that evening), but he said that this process was always life changing for his clients. The way this works is, once you’ve picked the area you want to focus on and have your goal identified, every day you must do something to help reach that goal. So let’s say it’s weight loss. Maybe tomorrow my one thing that I do is read an article on weight loss. And the next day maybe it’s deciding not to have dessert with dinner when eating out. He promised us that if we changed one thing in our life everyday to help reach that goal that we would indeed reach it. In fact, he said that he had clients who worked on two sections of the pie and in a year they didn’t even recognize their lives.

I so wanted to not recognize my life.

To say that I left the lecture inspired is an understatement. I had already come to the realization that I didn’t want to be alone any more and I was just handed a gift by Bob Greene—I now had the tools to help me achieve my goal.

I first had to change my attitude. I wasn’t against marriage at all, but I had spent that last 10 years or so being okay without marriage. In fact, I probably spent the previous 10 years just trying to not get hurt or disappointed that it was just easier not to want marriage at all.

Books about marriage—positive books—replaced my copies of The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly on my nightstand. I also started talking to my married friends more about their marriages and what made it work for them. Let’s face it, there’s a lot out there—most of it entertaining—that focus on when things go awry in a marriage. Arguing mates on sitcoms stir up laughter, and we become obsessed with actors’ marriages falling to pieces before our eyes. Like a dieter throwing out sugary foods from my pantry I had to rid my life of destructive narratives on marriage.

I also let everyone know about my change in course regarding marriage. Each of my single girlfriends, ranging from mid-30s to early 50s were always hopeful about marriage and were thrilled that I finally was on board with the idea. I even joined a matchmaking service. It was a bit of a bust, except for the 3-hour interview where I was forced to look at my list of wants and needs in a companion. The company (now defunct) was a bit of a joke—they were never able to really find anyone who was close to being compatible with me, but the lengthy interview process forced me to break away from a lot of my thinking that was holding me back, and enable me to carve down my list to what I needed.

One day, as part of my do-something-different-every-day strategy I finally registered for an online dating service—It was only a month after the Bob Greene lecture and I figured this would be an easy way to keep up the do-something-every-day ritual required on the Bob Greene plan. It’s simple: log on every night and answer emails from guys.

Five days after I registered, Stephen found me online and sent me a message.

Six weeks later I flew over to Scotland to meet him.

For the next two years we were in a long-distance dating relationship and all the preparation I started when I began the pie exercise was paying off.

Then two years from the date we met—two years and four months after I started my resolution—we were married.

A New Year’s Resolution led to this.

There is no doubt in my mind that Bob Greene’s pie exercise changed my life. The whole process changed my thinking so I was actually ready to achieve my goal. Sure, finding the right companion requires some chance, some serendipity, and the free will of the other person, but it’s not so much about controlling the situation to design it how you want it–for me it was preparing myself to allow something to happen, so I could be ready for it.

I’ve used the pie exercise several times in my life and have actually used it with people who have worked for me for career development. It’s an excellent tool for guidance in one’s life. My pie section titles change from time to time and the pluses sometimes turn into minuses and the minuses sometimes become pluses.

So, if you’re really serious about changing your life and working on your New Year’s Resolutions, give the pie method a shot. You just might change your life so much you won’t recognize it in a year.