Category Archives: Education

Trust

Posted on August 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

My dog is belly-up on the couch, a place she was never allowed to be. She got me up at six to vomit in the elevator and then have diarrhea twice outside then again an hour later. Talk about sleeping in on a weekend.

I haven’t fed her this morning. She’s belly up and that signals trust. A dog I visited weekly for a year in a no-kill shelter over 20 years ago was abused by a law enforcement professional. When they talked about putting her down for her fear of men and children (yes, the kids over the fence used to throw rocks at her) I took her home immediately.

It took her about two weeks to show her tummy. I had individual training, a couple of sessions and practiced walking and socializing a lot. I guess the deputy who owned her used to kick her so she was prone (ha, pun) to suspicion. Within a month I could run towards her and jump over her and she just thought of me as that crazy lady who loves her.

Over the years she even dealt with postal carriers, Navy personnel in uniform, any man in a hat and children of all ages who yelled out her name when we entered the park and came and petted her.

They all got a tree for the park when she died. A few years after she was gone my husband and I adopted a new shelter dog at six weeks of age. She went belly-up (trust) the first day and is so right now sleeping like a baby at age 10. Of course our next dog will be a rescue and I hope to live on a farm someday so wild cats come to visit as well. My husband is deathly allergic to cats but outdoors is OK.

My father-in-law, a rancher, was gored a couple of weeks ago by a horned cow at the sale barn. Tale be told, he already had one leg over the fence to get out but she had a mean streak and got him in the gut. Just shows why animals usually keep their guts below and away from danger. I am blessed to have had two dogs and two cats over the past 30 years who felt comfortable always having their belly up, and rubbed, around me. Trust. Dee

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Letting Go

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Whether it’s breaking up with a boyfriend in one’s teens of a dot-bomb layoff (that was before the current 2008 recession) it’s tough and one needs to let go.

I prefer a breakup to be going on to something better, I got a husband that way because I left a jerk, a doctoral jerk and probably CIA spook who stole my ID and wallet so I couldn’t leave but I did from another country home to the USA. Thank you, US Consulate!

As to job separations, they’ve all been amicable but it’s great to always have somewhere better to land. Pernicious fiends always make life awful on the job and tried to oust me. Why? Because I was a proponent of change. People who think they want change really do not want change. It is only when they see the effects of positive change that they realize the advantage of everything in their business, non-profit or life.

People who want change must have a commitment to it and to going through the steps needed to get to their goals, and first they need goals.

We are on a good path today as a negative influence is now gone from our lives and good influences and interesting times beckon. Great Teams, quality work, running for the lives of my team to break through barriers to succeed at the task, and servant leadership. That is my mission.

My husband I had very little in common when we met shortly after 9/11. We never thought our work had anything in common but if you’ve read above we have many things in common.

We hope for the best in people, try to be the best leaders we can be, lift up everyone to be the best for the cause, to meet and gain the goal. He calls it “servant leadership” and has been denigrated for doing so. My husband grew up on a farm with dairy cattle. He knows hard work and that some cows and calves may die.

I only had our family’s “job jar” every weekend with dishes, weeding, folding diapers, dusting, vacuuming, filling up the cars with gas (yes, we had our own tank), Ask Mom and Ask Dad. The latter two were the worst if received together but we learned how to play it.

There are jobs where people just treated me badly and I didn’t know why until now. I was smarter or had more power then them so they needed to bring me down. In elder wisdom, I know they never did bring me down. I always rose above them and vowed to treat others better so became a leader of volunteers, creating projects and temporarily leading teams until they could do so.

I’m an “atta girl” gal and prefer to instruct someone how to do something better instead of telling them what they’re doing wrong and scolding them. For that I have to thank my father. He was the one who said “hand me that screwdriver and go off and play” in Ask Dad when Mom had me weeding for four hours on a Saturday. Of course there was dirt on my face and sweat on my brow as I went to Ask Dad…….. Crayfish were waiting in the Creek! Cheers. Dee

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Piglet

Posted on June 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

Yes, that was my name in my first two years of high school. We all named each other in our little educational group.

I believe Piglet’s personality was tiny and shy and with the biggest heart which remains true to this day except for the tiny part. I’d love to find out what Eeyore, Tigger et al are doing. And Christopher Robin.

Christopher Robin once said “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

I believe every child should know that quote. I remember. Piglet

ps, Thanks, Eeyore for help learning geometry. I believe I taught you algebra, Dee

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Cooks and Garnishes

Posted on May 27, 2014 | 3 comments

I made a perfect steak the other night. I was inside doing baked potatoes and such but seasoned the steaks and my husband did not overcook them. He knows better now that when there’s a wonderful meal on his plate not to douse it in H-P or A-1 sauce.

Come morning when there is a bit of steak left I cook it with his eggs and then he can have sauce with it. I was horrified years ago the first time he asked for sauce.

When I bring something to the table I have tasted it and make sure it is seasoned correctly, which is why I never have salt or pepper on the table. It really hurts my feelings when someone takes a perfectly cooked steak and asks for steak sauce to drown it and lose all the flavor I imparted into that steak.

As for garnishes, forget the parsley “trees” as I asked the butcher for as a kid because I’d never seen a fresh herb before. Only use something that enhances and, at a cocktail party, identifies what is in the dish. My husband is deathly allergic to anything that swims and I failed once to place a little crisscross of salmon over a salmon mousse, only a sprig of dill, and ended up running to get him antihistamines as he brushed his teeth.

If you’ve a pasta dish with cheese, garnish it with that cheese and also basil if basil is in the sauce. When I make a chicken liver mousse with apple and walnuts I place a decorative slice of apple on top with a walnut to make sure those who are allergic to nuts know what is in the dish.

On the slightly crazy side I do know how to make frills of parchment paper. Say I french a rack of lamb leaving only the “lollipop” if I cook it in a hot oven or grill I can make parchment paper “frills” for the tops of the bones. Make them and attach after they cook, while they’re resting.

I always wondered why Julia Child’s turkeys et al always had frills. Perhaps hers were made professionally by food stylists but I can make my own and would love to teach an artistic child to marinate and grill that lamb and while it’s cooking, make parchment frills to surprise his/her parents at dinner.

No foams. No immersion circulators. No room in my kitchen and I’ll stick to old school. We just thought outside the box and sent a friend who got married this weekend a key set of my favorite kitchen tools. They are purposeful but many cooks will not have them so we hope they appreciate the care we put into these varied selections. Congratulations and best wishes, you two! Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Cooking Utensils, Editorial, Education

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Willing and Able

Posted on May 14, 2014 | Leave a comment

Making it a lifelong quest I choose to be able and willing to take care of any situation that comes along.

That was the case for most of my life. Now I take care of a husband and he takes care of me. In a hurricane I pack clothes and dog and he takes care of electronics and drives because he knows I’m freaked out.  We are willing and able to take care of each other.

He and dogma also slept 10 hours during a Cat 5 hurricane and I blogged it by the windows until the power went out, and every place around us was hit but ours. Unable to get food or water for ourselves (we’d stored some water) we gathered what the local shelters were looking for and used precious gas to get there and deliver the items. Blankets, towels, toothpaste, shampoo………

That week we had to use the rest of our gas to get to the airport to spend a week at hospice with my mother. Every time I saw a gas pump I wanted to turn in but we had a full tank in that state and not at home. Do what you can. Be willing and able to make a difference.

As to others, inability is not an issue. Ability and unwillingness to address a situation is intolerable. I’ve been bullied, unfairly judged, sexually harassed and merely tolerated by loved ones.  I forgive them for their errors and hope they forgive me for mine.

Willingness to address whatever situation is important to you is another matter. It usually appears when you have a problem and no-one will help solve it. It takes gumption, chutzpah, and a willingness to get your problem solved despite the ones unwilling to do so.

I didn’t know that years ago. I thought politicians were champions of the people and that lawyers and doctors were knights on white horses. For a while I wanted to go to law school, and chose not to do so. Dad always said I should be a politician but nothing about that or law school appeals to me. The law is another matter that I cherish.

Today I see people who know they have the power to do something but do not do so because of unwillingness to do the right thing or go against the grain. Usually they are concerned that  their power base will be undermined or career derailed.

These people don’t understand that there are folks in the world that only care about justice and fairness in the world. They don’t go to your pricey fundraisers but help neighbors and save the stray cat. They don’t get money from lobbyists and fight to make a fair wage to take care of the family.

I am willing and able to take on a challenge whether it be a lost dog or whatever the community needs from me.

Unwilling is not an option for me and should not be for anyone. Decide if you care for your family, community, life, liberty, freedom and do something positive to correct anything you are able to do. Pick up the phone. Cheers, Dee

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Presents

Posted on April 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

Sometimes my husband buys me flowers. It’s not often so it means something when he brings them home to me.

One could say that my job is to make his job/life easier. This week, so far I’ve made him Pedernales chili and Jacques Pepin’s Lamb Robert and bathed the dog.

My husband is known as the “human tornado” for what he does leaving wet towels, water everywhere and a mess whenever he enters the kitchen. He can also fix my computer and any electrical problem in a heartbeat. When we go on a trip I manage packing all clothing and the dog – he deals with electronics including laptops, cell phones and chargers. He always does the last sweep of home and hotel to make sure we have everything as another set of eyes is always an asset.

A few weeks ago we actually went out to the movies (sorry Netflix, Amazon) and saw Saving Mr. Banks. I was moved by it. While I continue to enhance my cooking repertoire for the person I love most, he bought me a precious gift.

It is an out-of-print book he had sent from London. The Complete Mary Poppins.

In this day of reality shows that really show the tawdry side of life, women who want a man who would not think years later to buy a Mary Poppins for his wife need a wake-up call.

Get an education, get a job. Be thoughtful for yourself and your family. Gals, it’s all about the inner beauty, intelligence and strength. From an old married gal, I married someone I like to sit with at breakfast and talk about the news and family updates. If all you want is one night, that’s what you’ll get. If you want a lifetime perhaps a Mary Poppins will come your way……. Dee

ps Look for a Mary Poppins always. She’s there in so many people you already know.

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Texas

Posted on April 20, 2014 | 7 comments

and the South, of course. Of late I’ve availed myself of other than my treasured cookbooks, gone back to at least my husband’s old favorites and become in a cooking rut.

I love to learn new-to-me recipes from people like Trisha Yearwood and Ree Drummond as they seem to really cook and have a passion for new and old family recipes. My husband is born & bred Texas, a farm boy who loves his meat and potatoes.

He was sick last weekend and recuperating after a long week so I’d like to make him a surprise. Yesterday I tried Trisha’s biscuits and though I’m a trained cook they didn’t turn out so well. They taste great but I had to use buttermilk powder and that may not have worked. The flour and veg shortening came together well but I had to add extra milk. They kind of looked like hockey pucks.

Immediately after they cooled I placed them in a sealed bag in the freezer. What I plan to do for breakfast is a toasted (unfrozen) biscuit with a sausage patty and egg, with cream gravy.

Thanks to this morning’s show with Ree I know making white gravy is as easy as falling off a horse – I know because been there, done that. And I make bechamel a few times a year, but hopefully “Pickles” is finally gone now after decades and throwing me across a creek then tossing me into a sandbox and running home, sending a dinner party to see if I was OK while only my pride was struck, and I never rode again.

A lifelong animal lover who worked over 20 years in shelters and spay/neuter clinics horses sense my fear. I did get over it this past year in part, petting the largest horse I’ve ever met, a Percheron. Percherons were sent into war because they were so large and intimidating. Next is getting me to ride a horse. Perhaps this year.

Hopefully my husband won’t read this today because we have to get two things today, a utensil (under $5) that I’ve wanted for years, and raw frozen dog food. OK, then I’m going for groceries alone.

For dinner, I’m taking him back to TX with my first-ever chicken fried steak, my garlic mashed potatoes, and perhaps an arugula salad with grated black beet on top with a vinaigrette to be named later. Ree, let me hit a home run on this one.

A tip for cooks everywhere. You’ll probably see staff in the produce department. Ask them questions. Get to know your butchers (I can’t get to know my fishmongers because my husband is deathly allergic to anything that swims so I can’t even cook fish at home). If there is a cheese department get to know them and your shopping will be easy. You’ll only have to go into the inner aisles for things like olive oil, rice, soy sauce, jam, flour and sugar.

For those who celebrate Easter, and every reader, enjoy this day. Dee

 

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Posted in Cook Books, Cooking Utensils, Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas

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I Knew

Posted on March 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

he was “the one” when he went on 14 pet sitting visits in one weekend with me. I knew when I organized all his stuff three weeks later and he moved half a country away and returned two weeks later to a new job. A neighbor asked him why he came back and he just said “her.”

I knew when we were out walking a neighbor’s dog and I saw a 2br apartment 1,000 feet from mine and he called the owner, we saw it and he signed immediately. By then it was three months in. We called it the “Barbie House” as it was tiny and had three floors and many steps. I arranged to do all of his laundry if I could do mine as well. Gone, clean pile/dirty pile (his plan, never mine). Over a decade later he doesn’t even notice that the bed is made, the dog is walked and fed and all of his clothes miraculously appear in the closet clean and folded. The absent-minded professor preferred clean/dirty and opined that one never needs to make a bed as one will just get back into it at night. Ick.

I really knew when I was at Pier One, had walked 1/3 mile there and found these glasses we still have. Very utilitarian Picardie glasses for juice et al. They were really inexpensive so I bought the case of 18 glasses of three sizes.

It did not occur to me that glass is heavy, especially 18 glasses in a box. I had to stop every 250 feet and rest. Finally I gave up and crossed our park. I left them, hidden, up even more stairs and left them before his front door and limped home.

When I arrived, there was a note from my dear husband of over 11 years. It said “Home sick, need an aspirin. Do you have a glass I can borrow?” MFEO, if you ever saw Sleepless in Seattle.

He did bring something significant to the relationship besides his personality, wit and wicked brain. One plastic blue colander for the kitchen. Yes, we still have it. I moved half my kitchen in, then my office, then we got married and he got me and a bunch of furniture too.

It’s snowing again and I may insist he take my car today, even though it’s sparkly clean. But his snow tires are in storage next door and mine are on my car and I can easily put on boots and walk to the grocery and take out our old dog. I still have to do our taxes so that’ll keep me indoors a while. Plus I’ve a special home improvement project planned that will make him happy, as well as a casual Friday Pizza Night (all homemade by moi) for our new neighbor from Sweden.

Let’s hope they plow before rush hour. Yesterday after a couple of inches they waited until night until they sent out a lone plow. I’m not even trying to guess where our taxes are going in this city. Cheers and find The One. Dee

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Wake up Singing

Posted on March 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

I do most every morning. Luckily I don’t keep it in my head for days. Right now I’m singing Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight.” I’ll let you know when I awaken with another. I’m thinking maybe Johnny Cash.

Perhaps it’ll be Robert Duvall’s eclectic selection on Crazy Heart, an a cappela treasure.

The snowplows are finally coming by, I just took the dog out as she wouldn’t awaken last night for a final pee. It’s still dark, no sign of sun. She’s back up on the bed with my husband to enhance her beauty sleep. Must be why she’s prettier than me even though she’s older now, 70 in dog years.

You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man is what I sang yesterday morning, in my head. I’ll have to go back to sleep now to get another. Of late I’ve been thinking of the late, great genius Pete Seeger (rip) and To Everything There Is A Season.

Now I want to go NYC and see the new Carole King musical Beautiful. If we could get away for just a weekend that would be a treat. Add MOMA or the Cloisters, and the Met and I’d be happy, but my husband wants to see the Natural History Museum as well, plus we have to take my brother to dinner, my favorite Italian place closed in his neighborhood and we’re already over-booked. Such is NYC.

Let’s see what song today brings. No, it won’t be anything from “Annie.” Dee

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Injuries

Posted on February 12, 2014 | 1 comment

While I understand more about the summer Olympics, I always enjoy watching young people at the top of their game in any season.

In 1972 I fell in love with Olga Korbut at the Summer, that fateful summer in Munich. I was trying to be a runner but took second leg (slowest) on a relay team and convinced the lady who spoke on the old loudspeakers in classrooms that we “came in second” even though there were only two teams.

I switched to gymnastics and didn’t have a place on our team. When we moved, within six weeks I was elected captain and had to train a team. Let it be said that I was a better captain than gymnast.

Back then Title IX was in its first stages. Our male and female gymnasts practiced separately, the guys with a gorgeous gym with a wood floor. We had linoleum tiles over concrete.

I ran for the vault multiple times, barefoot, over concrete and always had shin splints. To this day I remember how to dress them. When I went to college they promised gymnastics and a good “girls'” gym. They never did any of it. I lifted weights in the guy’s gym. The only thing on our side was one of those 1950’s band things that shimmies one’s behind.

At age 27 my knee swelled up. I was misdiagnosed for over 20 years until one doctor said I have rheumatoid arthritis. Many of today’s athletes have access to the best equipment, safety and otherwise, that technology can provide. We had wooden balance beams and concrete floors.

There was no way I was ever going to be an athlete, much less go for Olympic Gold. I do thank Olga and Nadia for what they inspired me to be.

When I did a trick on the rings in practice I had no mat. It was during the State finals and I went on anyway. I had a concussion but all the doctor asked is to repeat after him. He whispered 1, 2, 6 and I repeated it and he told my mother I was fine.

Today all my joints ache. I’ve worn golf bracelets for years so I can still type (magenetized to minimize arthritis) but my feet have hurt for years and I’ve edema so now need to wear compression socks.

Parents, we’ve heard so much about football head injuries and heart failures in that and other sports. I don’t know if we’re pushing our kids further or not protecting them enough.

I know that other injuries will come if childhood safety is not protected and enforced. Everyone cares about the NFL and boxing but no one is speaking up for the girls. Title IX should be enforced everywhere.

Stories, yes I’ve a ton of them but right now protect your kids. Let them play sports but make sure they’ve the right setting and equipment. Thanks, Dee

 

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