Who's in charge in Sleeping Beauty?

Almost every girl that I know wants to be a princess. I’m sure that when I was younger I wanted to be a princess too but from my vantage point of age and wisdom—well at least age—I’ve discovered that the supporting characters have all of the fun. In the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty a wicked witch comes to SB’s baby shower and presents her with a curse. The GOOD fairies then present their gifts and offer to raise and safeguard the princess for her protection. These fairies have the best roles of the movie. They are the heroes (heroines?), they step out of their comfort zones and adopt a foreign lifestyle, and they spend their days playing house in the woods.

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is the Halloween concert with the Utah Symphony. This bubblegum concert is designed for kids so the music is fun and scary, the concert only lasts an hour so I never become bored (not that I ever would at the Utah symphony), but best of all the audience and the orchestra all come in costume.

This past October my sisters and I went dressed as the Good fairies. My middle sister, Susan, made the costumes and argued that we were perfectly typecast. I was Flora and dressed in pink. Flora is the bossy fairy (am I bossy?). Flora always knows the answer to everything and everyone eventually accepts her wishes (don’t I wish!). Susan was Fauna and dressed in green. Fauna is the quiet fairy and people mostly ignore her. Susan was definitely not type cast. Mariann, our youngest sister, went as Meriwether. Meriwether is excitable and busy—Mariann to a tee!

So, am I like Flora? I see connections. I like to be in charge—especially of myself. I like to be organized and plan ahead. I need to know what I will be doing tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Although I hate to be thrust out of my comfort zone I am old enough to have learned that I grow the most and have the best adventures when I’m out of my element. I’m afraid that I also resemble Flora in shape. As a middle age woman, Flora’s figure has filled out a bit. Polite individuals would call her round—mean people would call her fat. On the upside Flora is the brains of the operation. She always comes to the rescue with a plan, and she loves, nurtures, and guides the rest of the group.

All things considered, Flora is a pretty good egg—just like me!

Crunch Time

Well, we have reached semester crunch time--help! With papers due and tests galore the mundane tasks of life fall by the way-side. If you are like me that includes healthy eating practices--when I'm under stress I snack rather than dine. So what do you eat when you don't have time to prepare healthy meals? In the past few years I've tried to upgrade my snacking--fruit, cut up vegetables, yogurt, jerky--sometimes these satisfy and sometimes they don't. What do you recommend?

Chicken Soup

I don't want to brag--BUT, I make the best chicken soup on the face of the earth. If you don't believe me I can provide testimonials from my husband, my kids, and my neighbors. Last night we had chicken for supper and I couldn't go to bed until I had "boiled the bones." Chicken soup experts (even Alton Brown) argue that you can't make a great chicken soup without boiling the bones, it seems that the cartilage and calcium add both nourishment and flavor to the broth.


Side note: Recently my sisters-in-law were reminiscing about their great aunt Vera and commented that the weirdest thing about her was that she always boiled the bones to make soup instead of buying stock at the store. Well, of course she did--that's what soup experts do!


Anyway, I keep a stock bag in my freezer where I save leftover vegetables and chicken bones to make chicken stock. Once the stock is completed (Bobby Flay calls this broth "liquid gold") I refrigerate it overnight to allow the fat to solidify on the top. Once skimmed the broth is the perfect base for chicken soup.


My family's favorite is chicken noodle soup. I start with liquid gold and to that add chopped carrots, celery, and onions. Once the veggies are tender I add chopped chicken, whatever herbs are ripe from my garden (my favorites are parsley, basil, and rosemary) and homemade noodles. I simmer the soup until the noodles are done. Ambrosia.


Lately I've been making chicken tortilla soup and it's delicious. In fact, it was the hit of the night at our Relief Society birthday party last week. I start with liquid gold, add carrots, celery, and onions and simmer until tender. Next I added a jar of salsa, 2 cans of black beans, 1 can of corn, and some chopped chicken. For Relief Society I spiced it up with a few pepper flakes but I don't do this at home because Johnny doesn't like spicy food. When I serve the soup I provide tortilla chips, chopped green onions, sour cream (fat-free), and chopped avocado. Consumers can add as much or as little as they like. Heaven!

Tonight I'm making chicken tortilla soup (it's fast and easy) and I can't wait to eat it. This craving stems from 2 reasons--1) my chicken soup is the best! And 2) I'm unexpectedly substituting for another teacher. Hence, I missed lunch and I'm starving!

GREEN

My favorite thing about the month of March is GREEN. On St. Patick's Day I get to wear green in memory of my Irish ancestry (ironically their name was BLACK but I'll leave that color/name for another blog). In my garden little green shoots are popping up heralding new life, new growth, new hope (I've always argued that this is proof that Heavenly Father's favorite color is also green). Spring picnics are back after a long winter's drought and I always volunteer to make my famous green salad--a little lettuce and every other vegetable under the sun--smothered with creamy green goddess dressing. I guess that you have figured out by now that GREEN is my favorite color--what's yours?

Tag, your it!

Keith answered the following questions on his blog. I thought it would be fun to see how some of the rest of you would answer them.

TEN YEARS AGO -
5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST -
THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE -
3 BAD HABITS -
SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME -

I Love Pizza!

When I attended Greenwood Elementary I loved school lunch. The white garbed and hair-netted lunch ladies whipped up the best lunches! My favorite day of the month was pizza day. School lunch pizza was not the whimpy offering delivered by Caesar or the Hut. No! This culinary masterpiece was a 2 inch thick master piece of doughy bread, greasy hamburger, tomatoe sauce, and stringy cheese. Ambrosia!
Today my mature tastes prefer a thin crispy crust topped with tangy pesto, juicy dark chicken chunks, grilled sweet red onions, and flavorful crumbled gorgonzola. My favorite pizza repository is Citrus Grill, but Wasatch pizza also serves up a good pie. I also whip up a killer grilled version at home.
Do our tastes physically change as we age? Or do we just get more adventuresome? Or are we victims of changing food fads? I can see evidence of this—pesto pizzas were unknown in Utah in the 1960’s. On the other hand, my grandchildren are unadventurous connoisseurs preferring plain cheese pizza to the gourmet versions I love.
Last night on the food network program "Unwrapped" they visited a pizza test kitchen where 6 top notched chefs work to create new pizza taste sensations. How many different versions do we need? On the other hand how sad would I be if I no one had invented my favorite Chicken Pesto Pizza?
What is your favorite pizza? What's your favorite pizzeria? Have you noticed that your tastes change as you mature? Can you give some examples?

Goodbye Grandma Black

My grandmother's death last week has left me in a reflective mood. She was 97 years old and had lost both her sight and most of her hearing in the last 18 month. Up until that time she was the goingest lady I knew--I want to be like her when I grow up. I'm so grateful that she was a part of my life.

For this blog I want to reflect a little on funerals. Funerals are opportunities to commemorate and celebrate someone's life. When someone dies unexpectedly and at an early age many funerals are sad and the "why?" factor needs to be addressed. When someone has lived a long full life a funeral can be, well. . .if not exactly fun then at least satisfying (I struggled to find the right word and this is the best that I can do).

Following most Utah LDS funerals the local Relief Society Sisters provide a luncheon for the family. The menu is set in stone and is rarely deviated from--ham, funeral potatoes, salad, roll, and cake. I'm willing to bet that if you attended 10 funeral luncheons a week that you would find realitively the same menu at every one. Is there something chemically or emotionally comforting about this food combination or is the menu simply a solid tradition. Don't get me wrong, the food was delicious and I really appreciate the wonderful sisters that prepared it but I wonder how this particular menu came to be designated "funeral luncheon food."

It's interesting that funeral luncheon menus change based on location. My daughter Michelle moved to the Hudson River Valley in New York a few years ago and was called to serve in the Relief Society. During the first funeral she was assigned to organize she started calling sisters and assigning funeral potatoes--they had no idea what she was talking about "what in the world are funeral potatoes?" She soon learned that the standard funeral luncheon menu for that area is spaghetti and garlic bread.

I have a question for all of you: what is the standard funeral luncheon menu in your home area? and do you know what "funeral potatoes" are?