Supper Friends

How do you make supper something fun to create and look forward to? Share it with friends and challenge yourselves to stretch your culinary imaginations!

Such was the challenge our friend, Rebecca, put forth 10 years ago, when she suggested we start a Supper Club. They would bring a couple and we would bring a couple. Rotating 4x a year, one would do appetizers, one would do a main course and one would do dessert. The couple that hosted the last gathering would get a free meal.

    

Now, let me say that these three families aren’t food shlubs. They make for dinner and pour wine, on a normal Tuesday, what others have on special occasions in a nice  restaurant. As the hosts of the first club night, I left Rebecca’s, not only blown away by the food and wine itself, but wondering how I could ever arrange a simple centerpiece to reflect such elegance and warmth.

As we gathered last Saturday night to a rousing rendition of “upscale bar food”,  I couldn’t help but be overcome with gratitude for the laughter, creativity and delicious conversation we have nurtured amongst us. As we sat around the dining table in our friends’ lovely home, we gasped at the time. 11:30pm had come too fast.

You see, it started out being about the food and has really grown into being about the people. Together, we have grown. Together, we have weathered job losses, disease, divorce, growing pains, serious stress and uncertain times. Gathering for dinner and pouring ourselves into the care and thoughtfulness of the meal, has given us a shelter in life’s storms.

Saturday night, our friends made gourmet pizzas with the best home-made crust I have ever tasted. I dined at Spago’s last week, the original gourmet pizza restaurant and was disappointed; my fig and goat cheese pizza at Spago’s was not half as good as our friend’s. Their topping selections ranged from rotisserie grilled chicken and fresh sausage on the stove to roasted figs, sautéed red onions, truffle oil and spicy red sauce. The list of  unique and delicious ingredients was endless. Forgetting that John had been an Exec at Domino’s in a past life, the tweaking and cooking resulted in a potential competitor.

 

I was on deck for appetizers and made lamb sliders with taziki sauce, sweet potato fries with ketchup chili sauce and handcrafted beers. We played music we haven’t heard since bellying up years ago and everyone’s hearts, for a few hours, seemed to lighten. When the last course of dessert came out and there was not one, but two amazing options of amaretto cake and homemade mousse, we squealed with delight. Everyone had put their hearts into their course. And we went from simple to complex, without being  complicated.

As Adelle Davis once said, “We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.”

We are all busy and scheduling a time has gotten more challenging over the years. Still we manage to come together. And when we needed to come together Saturday night to challenge life and lighten our loads, we all clearly left, better for the time spent.

So, here’s to you, Howards, for your amazing ability to inspire, uplift and model gracious hosting. And to you, Farbers, for elegance, creativity and generosity. And Johnny D, for fast setting the challenge bar we all strive to reach. While we gather to fill our stomachs, you all get 5 stars for filling our hearts.

How do you MINDfully and creatively cook with friends? Let us know!

 

 

Love Me Tender

This weekend, my brother and his girlfriend of 11 years  got married at The Little White Chapel. Along with 4,000 other couples in Vegas on 11/11/11, they finally tied the knot.

I have no idea what took so long. And what I learned this weekend was that it simply didn’t matter. What matters is that THEY are happy.

As I cracked up while the Reverend Belinda (Melinda?) read the vows, I teared up a bit as well  as I watched my brother and Randi beam. They genuinely like each other and you could see they loved the kitsch. People were swarming The Chapel. Some were married in pink Cadillacs by Elvis at a drive up window. Others waited for their wedding room reservation as if at a chain restaurant that was promoting an Early Bird special.

It could have been easy to snicker. And I am grateful I caught myself. I finally remembered what we all talk about – Be In The Moment.

In that moment, it was all about Love.

I wasn’t so in the moment the week/months before. In all honesty, I brought my “supposed tos” to bear on how my brother planned (or didn’t plan) this momentous event. He just doesn’t have the same Type A gene I inherited. Now instead of cursing him, I kinda envy him. It all turned out splendidly in the end. Darn. Once again I see that things turn out the way they turn out and you can either fret all the way there or save your energy for celebrating when you arrive.

And so, I found a way to show up in joy instead of judgment and ya know what? It became one of the top 10 family memories I will hold forever. Their love was palatable, their kindness knew no bounds. They were so happy we came and didn’t miss a beat in letting us know how much we mattered to both of them. They asked my 13 year old daughter to be their Witness. My father, ever the attorney, asked if that was legal. It was not only legal, it was honoring of their love for her, as well. She was touched. So was I.

After the ceremony, we went back to The Mandalay Bay and ate as if Rome was burning. My childhood memories are made of meals where we over ordered at restaurants. I used to be embarrassed. Now, I am grateful that we can have anything on the menu we want. My brother ordered The Feast; literally one of everything on the menu. We ate til groaned. We laughed. We tasted everything, including delight.

So, here’s to Elvis, Jon and Randi and accepting that your way/my way isn’t the only way. It’s simply A way. And if we are lucky, it will lead us together again, soon.

 

How do you MINDFULLY remember to let go of  “Shoulds? “Let us know!

 

 

 

We All Make Misstakes

“We all know we are powerfully influenced by first impressions – rightly or wrongly. For instance, have you ever taken a test, picked an answer, then thought about changing it – but didn’t? …More than 70 years of research on answer changing shows that most answer changes are from wrong to right, and that most people who change their answers on a test improve their score.”

Such was one of many interesting ditties that caught my eye in a terrific book I just finished, Why We Make Mistakes: HOW WE LOOK WITHOUT SEEING, FORGET THINGS IN SECONDS, AND ARE ALL PRETTY SURE WE ARE WAY ABOVE AVERAGE by Joseph T. Hallinan.

As quoted from the back of the book: “We forget our passwords. We pay too much to go the gym. We think we’d be happier if we lived in California (we wouldn’t) and that we should stick with our first answers on tests (we shouldn’t). Why do we make mistakes? And could we do a little better?”

The cover goes on…”In exploring the reasons behind human error – our eyes play tricks on us and our stories change in the retelling – journalist Joseph T. Hallinan uses real-life stories to illuminate findings from such diverse fields as neuroscience, economics and football. He finds that we are all biased in the way we perceive, not only ourselves, but the world around us… This book not only offers valuable advice, such as how to remember where you’ve hidden something important for safekeeping, but also explains why multitasking is a bad idea, why men make errors women don’t, and why most people think San Diego is west of Reno (it’s not).”

I loved it. Not because I think I make a lot of mistakes (and the author explains why I think I this) but because so many of the little observations and details in life can be found in the understanding – and that makes my MindFULL Monday really Mind FULL.

It was a fast read and a delightful illumination of the reasons behind my mistakes. It helped me to clean up my passwords, trust my gut more often and think about asking my daughter to proofread my work (kids are more likely to catch your errors than other adults).

I highly recommend it. Now, where did I put my keys?

 

What have you MindFULLY read and learned recently? Let us know!

 

 

Out With The Old, In With The Old

What do you do with something you inherit, but don’t really want? Either you try and get your sibling to take it or you re-create it into something you love.

Such was with the old dining room furniture that belonged to my grandmother and was deposited in our home when my parents left Denver. My Bobie (Yiddish for grandmother) had lovely furniture. But let’s face it –  it looked like my Bobie’s lovely furniture.

When we moved last Spring and I gave most everything to anyone walking by,  I suggested to my husband that we keep two of the dining room pieces and try and make them into something we could use to keep my Bobie’s spirit alive in our home – she loved people and her dining room was always filled with the sound of family (I have wonderful memories of sitting in her dining room with my cousins and of the smoked whitefish and lox spreads during Connecticut visits).

My intention with my dining room is to create a space that is colorful and comfy (still waiting to get the curtains hung and buffet lights back from the shade maker – final pic to come). We don’t have an eat in kitchen that fits more than 3, so this room takes on a special meaning. It’s where friends will gather and help us make our house a home.

So, imagine my excitement when my talented painter, Matt, stained and burned the china cabinet to reflect a transitional theme. With a new coat of stain, you can see the old wood burnish through. Now we have Bobie’s china displayed and easily accessible. I am sincerely trying to use what I have and if I don’t love it, I am passing it on. It is said that using your good china, wearing your best underwear everyday and drinking good wine if you are going to drink, are ways to add quality to one’s life.

If you have it, use it. If not, lose it.

As I set the table for casual dinner with friends, I will raise one of my Bobie’s crystal goblets filled with Diet Coke and toast the lady who would have encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to with her furniture. She was all about being who she was and dressing with a skip in her step. I think she would have loved the fuchsia inside that brings out the fuchsia in her china. She always added an accessory or color to her outfit.

Here’s to loving what I have. And to those who give me much to love.

How do you MindFULLY use what you have? Let us know!

Ooops, I Did It Again

A few weeks ago, I once again got caught up in my “downsizing/cleaning out” mode and ripped through my closet. 14 trash bags later, I rushed to GoodWill before I could change my mind.

Darn! In the bags were 3 things I wish I had kept. Red suede loafers that I bought to celebrate my Masters Degree in ‘95, high heeled loafer work shoes that were made for “working women” and a gold lame’ sweater set that gave me a silly sense of elegance. It also made me look like the “Mother of the Bride.” It had to go. The loafers had been re-soled four times and the insides were peeling onto my feet and socks. The high heeled loafers were hard to stand in for more than 10 minutes. Still, I miss them.

I sense a freedom in letting go and also a bit of sadness.

Such has been this sense, after last weekend when my daughter and I spent a rainy and cold Yum Kippur afternoon in the basement, working on journals and talking of atonement and insight. Rather than attend holiday services in the same old way, we lit a candle, turned on the lava lamp and created a new Pandora station. As we cut and pasted into our New Year Intention books, I couldn’t help but think about all of the different ways we had celebrated holidays in years past.

I had the same mixed bag of feelings when I looked inside my closet.  Stuffed with clothes that no longer fit, I took them out and gratefully passed them on to a place that would ensure someone would enjoy them. I realized that an old way I used to celebrate the Jewish High Holidays no longer fit, and gratefully let it go with blessings for the community I used to be part of. I felt that sense of freedom and sadness.

Change is hard. We hold onto things and people, thinking we should; we will wear it again or we will “see them soon.” And for some, that is true. I’m not advocating giving it all away. Heavens no! I have a few wonderful items that I carefully keep tucked on a shelf and many friends/family who live here and around the country that I truly hope to “see soon,” in spite of the time that separates such good intentions.

No, no, no…I am talking of the long brown satin dress that I wore to the fundraising Ball two years ago. The one that a friend held up and quizzically snickered, “How long ago were you a bridesmaid?” Or the group I used to work hard to be part of and now realize that I had given my best intention/love/loyalty/creativity to and  for a variety of reasons, some theirs, some mine, I am no longer part of. For me,  the thing about clearing out is that I make room to add in – the friend I made by being on a new Board, the memory I created by giving an old tradition a new spin, the new clothes I bought that are appropriate for my age, but still make me  look fun.

As my friend Vesna says, there is great peace in Gumzalatova – a Yiddish saying that means “Its all for the best.”

It’s hard to know that when your heart hurts or you long for those old comfortable shoes.

But there is some ease for me in knowing that what I have is what I should have, Today.

A funny, hip and straight shooting friend of mine, who used to be in retail, says the new color combo for the season is gray with brown, taupe or black and that if you add a scarf for zip, you will no longer look like the “Mother of the Bride.” So, I  splurged and bought myself a great scarf at Nordstrom’s last week. It was my metaphor for wrapping myself in something that fits and that I delight in. I wear it, draped around my neck in a new knot, as I look across the table and see my husband and daughter —  and in that moment I know that all of the choices I have made in my life, to let go or to hold on, are right. And that knowing is worth keeping.

Now if I can only clean out the “what if” voice in my head. Where is that trash bag?

What can you MindFULLY clean out of your real and proverbial closet? Let us know!

Shhh…

My daughter has a homework assignment that befuddles me. So, what’s new? I could hardly pass school given the work I see her complete and the load she juggles. I don’t remember having so much to do – or having learned as much as she does.

She is currently studying water. There is more to the story than that, but beyond turning it off when I am washing dishes to conserve it, that is all I really know. I do think about it and understand that water is Political Power, but on a topic much deeper, I plead daily ignorance.

That’s why when we headed to the library to get some “print sources” for her research, I wasn’t as helpful as I would have liked to have been. Picking up one of the books, I couldn’t even pronounce the word “hydrostratigraphy”. Not only did it roll off her tongue, she knew what it meant.

Whether it’s what she studies or how she studies, it is new to me.

But what was familiar and still awe-inspiring, was the library. The downtown branch of Denver Public Library is now blocks away from our new home.

What a gem. Designed by architect Michael Graves, the library is adjacent to the Denver Art Museum.  It is truly a work of art.

When she suggested we head to the downtown branch instead of the small branch in the heart of a neighborhood close by, all I could think of was where to park. But as we got closer, street parking was open and we slid right in. Walking a block or two, the building loomed ahead. I felt a rush of excitement.

Once inside, I breathed in quiet. Then I breathed out gratitude; For the books, music, videos, resources, reference librarians, beautiful chairs, bright light and worlds beyond ours that required no more than a card. All free. It’s amazing to think about. And even greater to experience.

I haven’t been to the library in a long time. Now I can’t wait to go back. I guess I am learning something new. My lesson is how to appreciate something right in my own back yard.

Now, that is a lesson I hope to always remember.

When was the last time you went to the library and what did you MindFULLY learn? Let us know!

 

Mother Knows Best

This is a picture of Chloe. Chloe sits in a chair in my mom’s living room – I am often startled by her when I come around the corner. I forget she is there and yet when I remember, I smile. She is an over sized stuffed doll, book in lap and glasses perched high on her nose. I think she has a Spirit.

I was visiting my mom this weekend and spent a lot of time around Chloe. Mom and I sat in the living room, playing with the new iPad I bought her.  It was as if Chloe was learning along with mom – she sat and listened intently to every detail.

It was a gift to be able to give my mom something so modern and to teach her how to use it, so that the distance between us could more easily be bridged. I miss being around her. She is really a smart and funny woman. Kind, generous and always spouting something political that makes my eyes roll, we teach each other.

My mom has always had a lot to say and has usually been ahead of her time. As a kid, she led a crusade to have all the junk food removed from the cafeteria in my elementary school and fed us Tigers Milk bars instead of candy.  She shopped in the natural foods store when it really was a natural foods store and not a Whole Foods store. She wanted to create a curriculum called Life 101 to teach kids the details of living life with money. Now they are every where. As a kid I was embarrassed. As an adult, I am eager to hear what she has to teach.

So this trip, when she told me I could rinse my hair with leftover coffee to tone out the gray, I laughed as usual, but listened. I actually asked for other tips. Then, I wondered if that was what Chloe had in the book in her lap: Tips from Mom.

Wherever they come from, there are some good ones. In the spirit of  Chloe and E (my mom), I pass them along. You can laugh. I do. But give em try and then remember, sometimes mother really does know best.

Coffee Rinse: Take a cup of coffee that’s left over and cool it down. After you shower, go to the sink, bend over and carefully pour the coffee through your hair. Use an old towel to blot it dry (as it will stain). As mom says, “it doesn’t cover it, but it tones it down.”

Coffee Scrub: Mush a few coffee grounds in with your soap and gently scrub your face. It will draw out impurities and bring out a little color in your cheeks. Rinse with cool water.

Lemon Scrub:

1 tsp Honey

1 tsp Lemon Juice

1 TBL Almonds ground or chopped up oatmeal

Zest of a lemon

A little Olive Oil

Mix it up and use as an exfoliate. Rinse with warm water and pat dry.

Lemon Nail Brightener: Soak in lemon juice for 5 minutes. Rinse in warm water

What natural tips did your mom MindFULLY share? Let us know!

Back In Focus

I love MindFULL Mondays. They encourage me to reflect on what fills me up, especially when I can slip into focusing on what drains me down.

Today’s reflection reminds me that I am one lucky person. I have had the good fortune of crossing paths with some incredible people. People who inspire me. People who leave me feeling the better for knowing them. People who leave a colorful mark on my Spirit.

Its important to remember this when I know better and still waste precious time perseverating on something silly, like let’s say…people who can’t return an email in a timely manner or without the words (every time) “sorry it has taken so long, but…” Or…or…or…

How do we change our focus? Change our lens!

And how do we do that? One way is simply in recognizing the g-dwink moments that show up to remind you that they are here.

I had one of those moments last month. Actually, it was my birthday and I was thinking of all of the things I wanted this year to be about. One was to re-learn how to use my camera. Two years ago, I received a beautiful camera from my family. It was meant to replace the two fabulous cameras I had received from one of THE creative muses in my life, K. James Kropp.

“Jim”, as he was known in my younger days, was a Creative Director in my first agency. Friendly, willing to teach, open to possibility and breathtakingly creative, Jim blessed me with his friendship as I moped over to the Account side and really longed to be on the Creative. When we both left the agency, we stayed friends and for years, talked and inspired each other. When I graduated from The Ed School at Harvard, Jim came to Cambridge and gifted me with his two old Canon cameras. One for B&W and one for Color. We walked the city (OK,  I walked and he rollerbladed) and he taught me how to use the cameras. Months later, when I was visiting him in Chicago, with my new eyes I took a series of city shots that rest on my mantel, today.

So, as I thought about learning how to use my (sorta) new camera this year, I sent a hello to my old friend. Of course, as creative sparks often happen with Jim, he told me in his return note about his new book, “Capturing Beauty with Your Camera – 10 Tips To Taking Better Photographs” (www.capturingbeautybooks.com) and sent me a copy as a birthday present. It is delightful. In 10 easy tips, Jim teaches you how to look through a new lense, using the scenery of his cruise on Le Ponant to Sicily and Italy in October, 2009. He fills the pages with pictures and a few simple points that bring clarity and insight to the reader and doer.

I don’t know which has had more of an impact. The fact this man and his book showed up (again) when I was longing for a teacher or the fact that this man and his book showed up when I was longing (again) to change my focus.

It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they did and so did I. I think you will, too. Even if you aren’t into photography, go online and check out his website, www.capturingbeautybooks.com. Allow him to transport you to far away places. And just maybe, when you return, you too will have a new focus on the moments that matter. And you can delete those that don’t.

 

How do you  MindFULLY change your focus? Let us know!

 

MindFULLY Reading

It’s Labor Day. A funny name, for I think few labor on this day. Nonetheless, it marks the end of summer and beginning of Fall. And the beginning of Fall marks a soon to be Winter.

Having spent the last year in the pursuit of all things outside of myself, I am ready to turn my attention back to my mind. Some days I feel like I am losing it. I think one of the best ways to keep it sharp  is to pick up a good book. Colette would say it is by playing Words With Friends and learning all the two letter words she claims are real, but that is a post for other time. This Fall and Winter, I have committed to reading one Classic per season. However, there are so many. Where to begin? Pondering this notion over our usual glass of wine one evening, Erica shared a Classic Reading List from a friend of hers. I am sure there are many “must-read Classic Reading Lists” out there. But, in the spirit of “pick one and get reading”, I am using this one. I am starting with #26. It has always been on my list.

Maybe something on this list will strike your fancy. On this day of supposed ease, maybe there is an hour embedded for you to put your feet and get started. No matter your choice, may you find inspiration, stimulation and satisfaction. And may the Winter months pass easily with each page turned.

  1. Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevksy
  2. Brother’s Karamazov – Dostoyevsky
  3. Ulysses – Joyce
  4. Native Son – Richard Wright
  5. Passage to India  – E.M. Forester
  6. Of Human Bondage – Maugham
  7. Henderson the Rain God – Bellow
  8. 1984 – Orwell
  9. Animal Farm – George Orwell
  10. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald
  11.  Lord of the Flies – Golding
  12.  Lolita – Nabakov
  13.  The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner
  14.  Light in August – Faulkner
  15.  To the Lighthouse – Virginia Wolf
  16.  Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
  17.  Invisible Man  – Ralph Ellison
  18.  Pride and Prejudice – Austen
  19.  The Catcher in the Rye – Salinger
  20.  To Kill a Mockingbird –  Harper Lee
  21.  One Hundred Years of Solitude – Marquez
  22.   The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck
  23.   East of Eden – Steinbeck
  24.  Brave New World – Huxley
  25.  Madame Bovary -Flaubert
  26.  Anna Karenina – Tolstoy
  27.  Slaughterhouse Five – Vonnegut
  28.  In Cold Blood – Capote
  29. The Sun Also Rises – Hemingway
  30.  Sons and Lovers – Lawrence
  31.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – McCullers
  32.  Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
  33.  An American Tragedy – Dreiser
  34.  Remembrance of Things Past – Proust
  35.  All the Pretty Horses – McCarthy
  36.   Dune – Herbert
  37.   Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein
  38.  Death Comes for the Archbishop – Cather
  39.  My Antonia – Cather
  40.  The Moviegoer – Percy
  41.  Ender’s Game – Card
  42.  The Alexandria Quartet – Durrell
  43.  Angle of Repose – Stegner
  44.  A Room with a View – Forster
  45.  Sun Also Rises  – Hemingway
  46.  The French Lieutenant’s Woman – Fowles
  47.  Native Son – Wright
  48.  Brideshead Revisted – Waugh
  49.  I, Claudius – Graves
  50.  White Noise – Delillo
  51.  Beloved – Morrison
  52.  The Remains of the Day – Ishiguro
  53.  So Long, See You Tomorrow – Maxwell
  54.  The Day of the Locust – West
  55. The Bell Jar – Plath
  56.  Babbitt – Lewis
  57.  Howard’s End – Forster
  58.   One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Kesey
  59.   The Color Purple – Walker
  60.  Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck
  61.   A Farewell to Arms – Hemingway
  62.   On the Road – Kerouac
  63.   The Call of the Wild – London
  64.   All the King’s Men – Warren
  65.   The Jungle – Sinclair
  66.   The Age of Innocence – Wharton
  67.   A Clockwork Orange – Burgess
  68.   A Good Man is hard to Find – O’Connor
  69.   Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
  70.   Look Homeward Angel – Wolfe
  71.  This Side of Paradise – Fitzgerald
  72.   Middlemarch – Eliot
  73.   Gone with the Wind
  74.  Catch 22 – Heller
  75.  The Lord of the Rings – Tolkien
  76.  A Clockwork Orange – Burgess
  77.   For Whom the Bell Tolls – Hemingway
  78.   Frankenstein – Shelley
  79.  The Big Sleep – Chandler
  80.  Go Tell it on the Mountain – Baldwin
  81.  Heart of Darkness – Conrad
  82.   Night – Wiesel
  83.   Rabbit Run – Updike
  84.   The Day of the Locust – West
  85.   Goodbye to all that – Graves
  86.   Pride and Prejudice – Austen
  87.  Jane Eyre – Bronte
  88. Wuthering Heights – Bronte
  89. The Stranger – Camus
  90. A Tale of Two Cities – Dickens
  91. A Mill on the Floss – Elliott
  92. The Good Soldier – Ford
  93. Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Hardy
  94. The Scarlett Letter – Hawthorne
  95. The Iliad  – Homer
  96. The Odyssey – Homer
  97. Their Eyes were Watching God – Hurston
  98. Brave New World – Huxley
  99. The Metamorphosis – Kafka
  100. The Woman Warrior – Kingston
  101. Magic Mountain – Mann
  102. Moby Dick – Melville
  103. All Quiet on the Western Front – Remarque
  104. The Crying of Lot 49 – Pynchon
  105. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Solzhenitsyn
  106. War and Peace – Tolstoy
  107. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Twain
  108. Candide – Voltaire
  109. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Wilde
  110. Charlotte’s Web – White
  111. The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
  112. Schindler’s List – Kenealy
  113. Mrs. Dalloway – Woolf
  114. Jazz – Morrison
  115. Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
  116. The Wings of the Dove – James
  117. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Adam
  118. Naked Lunch – Burroughs
  119. The War of the Words – Wells
  120. The Naked and the Dead – Mailer
  121. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Stein
  122. The Wind in the Willows – Grahame
  123. Dead Souls – Gogol
  124. Great Expectations – Dickens
  125. Cry the Beloved Country – Paton
  126. The Man and His Servant – Tolstoy
  127. The Lover – Duras
  128. Ethan Frome – Wharton

 

 What will you MindFULLY choose to read this season? Let us know!

Circle of Life (chocolate cake)

Today was a Circle of Life Day.

I started the morning with a baby naming celebration for twins, born 1 month early, then spent the afternoon at a Memorial Service for Addie’s teacher, Frank, and ended the evening with dinner in the backyard with our cousins from Idaho.

I get it. You’re born. You die. And in-between, you try and spend as much time as you can with people you enjoy.

In honor of this magnificent day,  I baked what I now call my Circle of Life Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake. When folks have babies, I bake one for the family. When I pay a Shiva call (the Jewish ritual for condolence calls), I bring the cake. It’s my dear friend Jill’s recipe. I’ve adopted it and adapted it. I barely follow the instructions anymore. I use what I have in the house (No sour cream? Use plain yogurt. No oil? Butter will do just fine.)

After dinner, we cut large slices and enjoyed every bite. It was our metaphor for taking big bites out of life. That seemed to be the lesson of the day. Whether one is celebrating the beginning journey of life or mourning its’ ending, starting a new chapter as empty nesters or figuring out a next chapter, all we can do is eat up every moment and savor the flavor.

At Frank’s service, they played a photo slide show.  The Vaughan Brothers song – Tick Tock – was the soundtrack. I loved it. I found it on YouTube for you. Perhaps you’d like to bake the Circle of Life cake for your family and friends; pop on this song while you stir the batter. May it become about more than baking a cake. Maybe it become about enjoying a slice of life.

The Vaughan Brothers song – Tick Tock            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLs5REzFvOY&feature=related

 

Circle of Life Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 package of instant chocolate pudding

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 package of Fudge cake mix

6 oz.  chocolate chips

¾ cup of water

½ sour cream

4 eggs

Mix everything together, fold in chips, pour into greased bundt pan and bake at 350F for 40 minutes. If you really want to impress em’ , mash up any kind of berry, drizzle on plate and over cake.  Easy and DELICIOUS!

How do you MindFULLY celebrate  the Circle of Life? Let us know!