I find the key is to pick a few relatively easy recipes that don’t call for a lot of ingredients. And if you don’t mind being repetitive, go ahead and make them every week for a while to get you through the crazy times. Repetition means you don’t have to think so much. When there’s so many other details to keep straight, that’s huge.

Over the past three or more weeks, this is one of those recipes for us. It’s easy and we love it. A good friend got the recipe from her doctor and shared it with us. We’re not sick of it yet.

Sausage with Wilted Spinach  & Fennel
Ingredients
1 lbs. ground sausage
2 T almond oil
1 bulb fresh fennel, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 chicken broth
1 bag baby spinach

Directions
1. Put the sausage on a lipped baking sheet (in small chunks).
2. Place the baking sheet into oven, set to broil.
3. In a large frying/sauté pan heat oil on medium high.
4. Add garlic and fennel. Cook for 4 minutes.
5. Turn sausage to finish cooking in the broiler.
6. Add broth and spinach to pan. Stir until spinach wilts.
7. Spoon spinach mixture onto plate and top with spinach.

The recipe didn’t call for it, but we’ve also served it on quinoa.

We signed a purchase agreement on our anniversary!

times I’ve wanted to sit down and just jot a few lines here. I find it difficult to throw a few lines together and post them because I feel like the post should be more than just an online diary. In other words, I like to try to bring you my thoughts after I’ve had a chance to think about it and offer you, dear reader, something more valuable than “what’s happening now.” In the comments let me know if you disagree. Especially valued are the thoughts from fellow bloggers who have thought about this before. I’d love to know how you keep fresh, relevant and new insights going in the midst of limited time to really think about it. If I get enough responses I can try and post shorter, more frequent updates about what’s going on.

Lisa and I have been preparing for a move for over a year. We’ve been praying and waiting on the Lord to let us know where that should be. Recently my employer announced they would be moving a huge number of workers to a second headquarters location that is not in downtown Minneapolis. I am included in that move. The good news is that they are letting us know about this move 2 years in advance. That’s pretty fair in today’s world. Why does it matter?

It matters because it helped us narrow down where within the Twin Cities we wanted to focus on for a move. We were open to moving to either side of the river (which is another topic for a future post.) With the announcement it helped us focus on the north and western suburbs of Minneapolis. We spent a couple

Bike paths with key locations important to us marked in orange

weeks with a map of bike paths in Minneapolis and all associated suburbs. We marked the items we thought were important to us for shopping: SuperTarget, WholeFoods, a Co-op and Costco. We wanted to find a place that supported our enjoyment of cooking (hence all the supermarkets) with easy access to the fabulous system of bike paths. Our current location is great for both. And we felt the new location needed to continue to serve those those requirements.

The bottom line is we had only looked at 2 or 3 locations when we found a spot last Sunday that really spoke to us. Some might say it was an accident, but we think it was divinely directed (more on that story next time.) We were offered incentives to close before the end of February. We went home to think about it and on Tuesday we went back with our realtor to look at it again. That’s when God made it clear we were in the right place at the right time. I’ll leave that as a teaser for the next post. Suffice it to say we found ourselves signing a purchase agreement on Tuesday night – which just happened to be our anniversary. So it made for an exciting evening.

More to come….

When I first tell people where I live, the reaction is the same. Eyebrows raise and then furrow, “Isn’t that a long way from work?” Yep, it’s quite a commute, particularly when winter weather shows up. So, the goal is to leave the house in time to miss as much traffic as possible. That means the alarm goes off before 5:00 a.m. And that means anything that can reduce the morning routine is a good idea.

My latest idea is to cut down breakfast time. I came across this recipe on Pinterest. (Now, there’s a whole other blog post!). I whipped up a batch tonight and we tested one out. These will make a quick and tasty breakfast tomorrow morning. I’ll freeze the rest to be ready to go whenever we’re in a hurry. I imagine these egg muffins would be great for kids getting ready for school too.

What do you do to help your morning routine? Someday we’ll shorten the commute time, but in the meantime, it’s egg muffins!

Broccoli and Italian Sausage Egg Muffins
Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference)
( I added several about 1 tsp. of dried fennel to the sausage mixture.)
1 cup broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half depending on how you’re feeling that day)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp baking powder
Salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional as needed)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian sausage for about 5 minutes or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with oil. Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage and broccoli.
6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. (I didn’t add this.)
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Originally posted on “Snacking in the Kitchen.”

Facebook's Timeline heading. The timeiine runs underneath the new profile.

If not, you will soon, the feature goes live on January 21st. In short, it transforms your personal homepage profile into a running timeline of events that tells your life story. Facebook already knows when you’ve added content from the time you created a Facebook account, so that content is easily prearranged for you. Plus, if you’ve provided enough personal information, they know when you were born, where you went to school and where you worked and when, etc. They leave you space to fill out significant events beginning with your first birthday. There’s a yearly slider on the right side of the screen and you can slide the handle up or down to jump from one set of events to the next. You can add as much as you’d like to your personal timeline that fills in the gaps. Once you begin, Facebook gives you 7 days to publish it so you have time to customize your profile page and only you can see it until then. Only the people who you originally allowed to see a post will be able to view it.

This concept isn’t new, online genealogical software sites like Geni.com have been presenting personal homepages and profiles like this for awhile now. What’s new is integrating it with the rest of the widgets and app’s available within Facebook’s social network. Your wall becomes a living timeline of events that will (presumably) make it easier to influence your friends’ choices and decisions (or the general public depending on your security settings.) This is done by creating a new class of social Apps. For example, if your friends use the same social apps as you do, and you use those app’s to share what you’re watching, listening to and reading, then your friends will be able to more easily get a sneak preview into those same things, e.g. listening to the same song or watching the same video.

I haven’t decided what I think of this change yet as I literally began messing with the options while typing this post. If you’ve been designing your new Facebook Timeline or have already published it, please comment as we’d like to hear what you have to say!

(Lines from: The Ballad of Bouillabaisse by William Makepeace Thackery)

Adding the Claw!

Our 2nd annual New Year’s bouillabaisse party was a success. Last year we introduced you to our recipe and posted it here. This year we prepped ahead and ordered most of the seafood a week ago and picked it up fresh from Byerly’s on New Year’s morning at 8am. I didn’t have walleye this year (too bad), so instead we substituted a white fish that I’ve recently noticed at the market called swai. I was curious about this fish so I did a little investigating.

What is swai? It’s a very mild, flaky, inexpensive white fish eaten throughout Southeast Asia. The texture of the meat and the skin of the fish is like a catfish, and

Setting the table!

thus it’s often called an Asian catfish, but it’s not. It’s usually sold in long fillets that can be broiled, baked or breaded. Ask your butcher or read the label on the package to confirm the origin. It should say “Vietnam or Mekong Delta” vs “Mississippi Delta.” If you Google “What is swai,” you’ll see plenty of posts that describe this white fish.

All in all it was fine to include swai, but next time I think I might try some fresh flounder instead. Experimenting is part of the fun. The other changes I brought to this year’s recipe were fresh shrimp, fresh snow crab and fresh cod. Instead of using frozen, I wanted to see how this might change the character of the bouillabaisse. I was pleased with the results.

I was pleased because the fresh fish cooked better and looked terrific. We invited 2 friends over to enjoy the meal with us. We began prepping the base 3 hours before the guests arrived and then as they came through the door, we were ready to begin the process of adding the fish. Part of the process is to add the shrimp, white fish and shell fish in separate groups bringing the broth up to a slow boil and back to a simmer each time. So the guests can hang out with you in the kitchen and watch the magic happen. Once the seafood starts going in, it takes less than 30 minutes to complete the process. The bread can bake and the bouillabaisse can simmer until everyone is ready to sit down. Did you try a new recipe over the long New Year’s weekend or have a suggestion we could try for the next batch of this delicious fish soup? Please comment as we’d love to hear!

One story leaped from the screen because it awakened old memories of my childhood. As a child, on Saturday mornings my sister and I would often sit together on the couch and watch Saturday morning cartoons and often we’d watch an old black and white movie. The movies were usually the 3 Stooges, Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy and Tarzan.

I recall my mom and dad telling us about the actors including Johnny Weismuller who appeared as Tarzan a dozen times. I wonder if there’s a biography on him? Check out the link to his Wiki page, he led a fascinating life. And Maureen O’Sullivan who played Jane – she’s the mother of Mia Farrow if that helps you – the only reason I know that is because Mia was married to Frank Sinatra at one point. Anyway, it was a reference to Tarzan that caused me to click on this People article on the death of Cheetah, Tarzan’s chimpanzee sidekick.

You can donate to the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Cheetah's memory for the benefit of other primates

Of course there were several chimpanzees that were used to make the films, but Cheeta-Mike was one that lived on Johnny Weismuller’s estate in the early-sixties before finding a home at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Florida. They’ve set up a FaceBook photo album for him as they collect donations for the sanctuary. I assume they won’t mind if I use their photo of him as long as I provide proper acknowledgement and a link to their page. If they contact me to take it down, I will.

I can still recall the scenes where Tarzan is in trouble and somehow Cheetah is able to rally dozens of animals to come charging through the brush to rescue Tarzan so that Tarzan could rescue Jane. When he wasn’t doing that, he was providing some comic relief.

I’m still entertained by those old black and white movies with simple story lines, do you have a favorite that takes you back to your childhood? Comment and tell us which old movies are your fav’s as we’d love to hear!

Last Friday, Brent and I spent the evening with paintbrushes in hand. No, not another home project. This time it was Van Gogh and Botticelli!

One of my birthday gifts to Brent was a trip to the “Simply Jane” studio in Minneapolis. I discovered the offer through “Trubates” which meant 50% off the usual $40 fee for Jane’s “Paint the Greats” event. This gave us three hours of painting masterpiece-inspired work, including all materials and instruction. It was inspiring, relaxing and lots of fun.

“Painting the Greats” might sound a little intimidating, but Jane does a great job of making art accessible to every level of student. When you arrive, the canvases are already prepared with a sketch of a well-known work of art. That means you get to bypass one of the most challenging parts of painting: drawing! From there, she provides all the supplies needed as you fill in the sketch and she teaches tips on highlighting and texturizing.

We may not have come away with masterpieces, but after many years of not picking up a paintbrush, this was the perfect way to step back up to a canvas.

One of the many things that Brent and I share is a love for the arts. Years ago, he picked up a pencil and started sketching and then he signed up for painting classes. His work shows that a formal arts education isn’t necessary to produce beauty on a canvas. He captured wonderful scenes from his years in the Peace Corp that are hanging in our home today.

I focused on Graphic Design as an art major before graduating in Journalism. I loved being able to experiment and learn about everything from drawing, three-dimensional design, lettering, photography, art metals to print production and more. Today I’m thankful my job provides opportunities for creativity almost on a daily basis.

But, for both of us, it’s been years since we’ve actively pursued something like painting. “Paint the Greats” reminded us how much we love it. As we ended the evening, Brent commented that he couldn’t remember the last time he felt that relaxed. We realized we really needed to prioritize opportunities for creativity for that reason if none other. So we walked away a little more relaxed and dreaming about possibly having an art studio in our home one day.

Whether you have some latent artsi-ness you want to re-visit or you just want to have fun with friends, we highly recommend Jane’s studio.

———————————————————————————————————-
What do you do to inspire creativity? Let us know in the comments below.
I haven’t read it yet, but this looks like a great resource for artists. I’ll give you an update when I get to read it!

• “You Need to Read the War of Art” by Jeff Goins

Commercial-grade washer

Before this week, I can’t remember the last time I stepped into a Laundromat. I have a vague recollection of waiting in one for what seemed like an eternity with my mom when I was young. If memory serves me at all, I think we were on vacation. Can there be a worse spot for a kid on vacation, let alone on my day off this week?

I was dragging my feet that morning, wavering on the question, “Should I go to the Laundromat or not?” Our new wash machine wasn’t due for another 10 days and we had a pile (a VERY large pile) of wet towels. My mother-in-law is kind enough to let us use her appliances in the meantime, but those towels were getting rather nasty. When the flood of water came rushing across my feet while doing laundry earlier in the  week, every towel within grasp went on the floor to mop it up.

I had many other things I preferred doing that morning than sitting in a dirty, crowded Laundromat for hours. Besides, I had no idea where one was located or exactly how they worked these days. (Brent reminded me later that I should have asked Siri!) And so I dragged my feet and went about doing other things on my list. When I ran an errand, I drove past a Laundromat just a few blocks from home. I’d never noticed it before. Never needed to. Hmmmm. Seemed just too convenient not to seriously consider now. Drat.

It would be a new adventure, right? So, I piled up the mountain of wet towels, grabbed some soap and gathered enough activities to keep me occupied for hours.

When I arrived, I first noticed how clean the place was. There were about a half dozen other women there

Your basic washer

and once the mom with four energetic sons left, the place actually became quite peaceful. I was pleasantly surprised to see how HUGE these washers were. Could I do the entire, overflowing pile in one load? I started buying into the whole Laundromat thing at this point.

New to the scene, I read and re-read the instructions to the commercial-size wash machine, filled it with towels (all of the towels!) and soap in the dispenser, and then inserted $5.75 in quarters. (I’ll bet my mom didn’t need that many quarters!). I shut the door and sat down. The best news was that it took just 27 minutes! This one load would have required about three loads in my home wash machine. I was almost disappointed because I didn’t get to finish one project in my bag.

What had I been dragging my feet over? Yeah, it’s a bummer to be without a wash machine right now and sitting in a Laundromat for even a short time still doesn’t rank high on my list. But here’s the good news:

• I’ve wondered where to take some of my larger loads, including things like comforters and blankets. Now I know a nearby spot that’s clean and easy to use.

• The towels were done in one load vs. three at my mother-in-law’s place.

• I pretty much have the system down when I revisit. It’s really not difficult. Just remember to bring:

- LOTS of quarters. I used the commercial-grade washer which seemed to indicate it could handle 4X the normal load. There were also small units that may be less expensive. And then there were a few mongo-size washers. I wonder if I’d need to stop at the bank before loading up one of those.

- Something to pass the time. Have a grocery list to finish? A good book? If you have a smart phone or iPad, you’re taken care of. Maybe some headphones in case the four energetic boys arrive.

- Need I say it? Your laundry, soap and whatever else you use in the whole laundry process.

- A friend? Next week a friend of mine has agreed to join the adventure. We’re going to pick up some lunch on the way. This could actually be fun!  

Most importantly, this all seemed to be yet another reminder on a larger lesson in life. What else am I dragging my feet on that probably isn’t that big of deal and, in the end, would provide huge benefits that I’m missing out on? What are you dragging your feet on that may actually not be as big a deal as you think? Is it time to jump in and give it a try?

Official MOA app and MegaMallMN2 app

assured us a decent parking spot and we arrived about 25 minutes after the Mall opened. We were there about 6 hours and managed to pick up several Christmas gifts for family and friends. However, for what was accomplished, we should’ve been able to do it in a couple hours or less. While we were there I downloaded a two iPhone apps for the Mall that I thought would help us get our shopping done more efficiently. I’ll let you know what I think of the 2 apps I found and invite  you to comment. Maybe you know a better MOA app or you’ve tried one or both of these app’s yourself and have an idea on how to improve them.

This year was a little different as Lisa needed a wheelchair to get around due to her broken foot, and I was in charge of pushing her chair. We both have a new appreciation for the struggles of moving around a mall using a wheelchair. So I thought using a MOA iPhone App might help a little bit by showing us the easiest way to move from one location to the next. We had a list with some ideas of gifts to buy, but once inside the Mall, the size of the building makes it difficult to know which way to go to find stores. The Mall has plenty of maps scattered throughout main intersections on every level. But my experience is that once you’ve found a map and located your destination, inevitably it’s on the exact opposite end of the Mall. Then when you’re ready to move to the next item, you learn the next store you need is back where you started.

I tend to create shopping patterns at big box retailers and grocery stores to minimize my time and effort. So I really wanted a phone app that would help me figure out how to get in and manoever through the Mall efficiently. Neither app came close to helping minimize time or effort, there is a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps no one at the Mall wants people to shop efficiently…kind of like Casinos that don’t have windows or clocks visible. Maybe if you lose track of time, you stick around and spend more.

Official “Mall of America” App: by Ximarc Studios Inc.

This is a super disappointing app. Here are its main features taken directly from the app About/Help screen:

Official MOA App by Ximarc: The maps don't make use of the phone's GPS capability

• Takes you to the mall Map screen where you can view a graphical layout of each floor.
• Takes you to the Retail Listings screen where all the store names can be viewed alphabetically or by category.
• Takes you to the Favorites screen where you can view, add or remove your selection of favorite stores.

The only labels on the graphical layout of each floor on the map are Nickelodeon Universe and the 4 corner anchor stores. It doesn’t even tell you compass directions even though the Mall itself is marked that way. The maps don’t make use of the phone’s GPS capability so you can’t see where you are in relation to even the 5 labels they provide. The retail listings make use of the alpha listings like the phone’s built-in Contacts app and can be resorted by store category. Unfortunately, you have to toggle back to the home screen to jump to each app function.

After selecting a store from the list, a photo of the store is displayed with its phone number and web address. You can touch the web address and open up the store web page, but you can’t select the phone number and auto-dial the store. I expected to be able to see the store location highlight on the map, but it doesn’t even tell you where in the Mall the store is located. You can save your favorite stores to a separate page, however, unless it can tell me where I am in relation to where the store is, then it’s pretty worthless to me.

MegaMall MN 2 app: by Twistbyte LLC

Store listings with useful filters and toggles

This is a better app than the official MOA app. You can access the main features of the app directly from the map versus having to toggle back to a home screen.The map is oriented properly with the portrait view of the phone. There are compass directions on the map as well as the 4 anchor stores and Nikelodeon Universe. You can toggle on the locations of restrooms, mark and save favorites from the map, toggle to your current location by selecting a store name from the list and it will show you where you are on the map. It also has a built in compass, but the compass isn’t really useful. It would be much better to utilize the GPS capabilities of the iPhone. You can pick a store and toggle to store information, but photos of the store are not yet loaded into the database, however at least a store address (e.g. E260) is provided so at least you can tell which compass direction to search.

The stores web sites are not provided, however you can press a Phone icon and dial the store directly or save it as a favorite. By picking a current location and then selecting store info for your next location, you can see where you are in relation to where  you want to go (current location = blue dot, next Store Location = red dot). That’s as close as you get to seeing yourself actually move across the screen. The store list also uses the alpha listing like the built in Contacts, however they also allow you to filter by category, compass location and/or floor. That’s a nice touch. This app also provides mall hours, a list of the day’s special MOA

Better map, toggling features, ability to show current loc and next store location

Events that pops up event details by selecting the event, the ability to create  your shopping list (and with the iPhone 4S I can use Siri to speak my list versus typing it in). Finally, there is a “Deals” tab, but so far I haven’t seen anything listed there. Considering we were there during the Thanksgiving 2 day sale, I would expect the “Deals” tab to be full. My assumption is the Deals section is a future capability that hasn’t been fully implemented.

The other obvious options to add to either app would be the ability to toggle on elevator  and escalator locations. The elevator locations are especially useful for disabled guests who rely on them to move from floor to floor. The other option would be to include maps of the parking garages and the ability to mark and save your car location to a garage map so you don’t have to remember where you parked. Enabling GPS on this app would also help you with relocating your car.

If you’ve used these apps or know of other ones that are better, please comment as we’d love to hear your thoughts!

A Tasty New Soup Recipe

It’s soup season. I can somehow “swallow” that a bit easier than admitting it’s the season that starts with a “w.” Besides, officially, it’s still fall. But the white stuff on the ground makes that point irrelevant. Why must we be over-achievers in Minnesota?

I like soup a lot. It’s on my list of what’s good about the “w” season. A few years ago I posted this list in my office to help me maintain a better attitude. I think it worked. There were actually a few dozen things on that list. Maybe I should dig it up again. 

With the chill in the air and the roads icy on the way to church, I knew it was time to bring out some real ammunition. So, we found a new soup recipe to help beat the chill and the tendency to complain.

It was quite yummy. On one of those upcoming cold, blustery days I recommend “Italian Lentil & Sausage Soup” to warm you up.

Italian Lentil & Sausage Soup

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils
• 1/3 cup pearl barley
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 1/2 cups broth
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 14 1/4 ounces Italian-style tomatoes (crushed or diced)
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 pound ground Italian sausage (crumble and cook over medium) Remove this ingredient for a great vegetarian option.

Directions

1.     Sort lentils to remove debris and shriveled beans. Rinse good beans.

2.     Add lentils to crock pot, along with barley, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, dried herbs and bay leaf.

3.     Pour in broth, water and tomatoes.

4.     Cover and cook on low heat for 12 to 14 hours or on high heat for 5 to 6 hours.

5.     Discard bay leaf and just before serving stir in parsley and vinegar. (The vinegar is a key ingredient.)

6.     As soup begins to cook add in cooked sausage.

 7.     A lengthy cooking time is needed unless you like fairly al dente veggies and beans.

8.     Serve with salad and crusty bread.