Recipe: Risotto Resztki (Leftovers)

Posted on December 3, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Reposing on another of my Polish plates, Risotto is a soothing comfort food, both in the making and the eating. Photo courtesy Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Risotto is an Italian rice dish, but I’m an American of proud Polish background. What I create will no doubt cause a true Italian, and probably a Pole from the Old Country, to cringe, but oh well.

If I stuck to the ethnic food of the land of my birth, we’d be eating Big Macs.

“Resztki” means leftovers in Polish, and no, I have no more idea of how to pronounce this than I do the last names of most of my cousins, but if you click on this link and hit the Listen icon on the bottom right, you can announce tonight’s dinner to your family with confidence and Polish aplomb.

Maybe you’re out of turkey stock; I’m not. What really made this leftovers for me was the short-grain Arborio rice, which is readily available in larger groceries. My own supply of the stuff was down to one cup, and for a reason I refuse to try to comprehend, some member of the family needed the plastic container in which the rice reposed. So they poured what was left into a bowl and stuck it on the counter, where it stared at me, challenging me to do something with it.

So I did, and so you can do. This dish is creamy, dreamy, flavorful, and smooth. Like most of my recipes, it’s customizable to what is in your cupboard and refrigerator, so don’t pass this up if you truly are out of turkey stock.

Oh, and by the way, Risotto isn’t fast food — mine took 45 minutes, with much attention to stirring. Use this as a time to think, reflect, meditate, or pray; the process of stirring lends itself to these activities.

What makes this world so interesting are all the people God has made, and the food and cultures they have developed. Mesa Walk, original oil painting by Steve Henderson sold; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas and Light in the Box.

Recipe: Risotto Resztki — serves two hungry people, three mildly so; feel free to double the recipe

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1/2 head garlic, minced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 cup Arborio Rice 

1 teaspoon salt

1 handful fresh herbs, minced, or 2 teaspoons dried (I used a combination of sage and rosemary, still alive in the kitchen garden)

4 cups turkey or chicken broth, hot (if you don’t have broth on hand, use bouillon)

1/2 cup grated cheese (tradition dictates Parmesan or Romano, but I used homemade goat cheddar. Use what you have. Skip it if you don’t eat cheese.)

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in 4-6 quart pan. Add the onion and garlic; saute gently for 10 minutes (this is a good time to wash the dishes, if they have piled up during the day). Add the celery and carrots, and saute for another 5 minutes, stirring now and then.

Stir in the rice and coat with the oil mixture. I stirred for three minutes or so, just to expose the rice to the hot oil and give it an idea of what was ahead.

Setting the timer for 30 minutes, add the hot turkey broth, 1/2 cup at a time, and stirring until it is largely absorbed before adding another 1/2 cup. If you do this at a quiet, gentle pace, you’ll need the half hour. Toward the end, the rice gets much larger and softer, and the broth wraps itself around the grains like a cream. Don’t panic or freak out — what you’re mainly looking for is the rice to be done — chewy yet not mushy — and it’s really hard to go wrong. You may not need all four cups — I did, because my rice was a bit . . . old. Stop when you feel that the texture of the rice is where you want it, and add as much broth as you want for the texture of the final dish.

In the last five minutes, add the minced herbs. Just before taking the dish off of the heat, mix in the cheese. Stir for 30 seconds to a minute, take the pan off the stove, and cover. Let sit five minutes, then serve in bowls (if it’s soupy) or in deep plates (if it’s firmer, as mine was).

If you have the freedom to learn, research, look things up on the Internet, question, and speak out — use it. Learning to cook is a first step to broadening our world. Golden Sea, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; open edition licensed print at Great Big Canvas.

As the Polish say, Smacznego.

Cooking for yourself is one of the first and easiest way to becoming more independent — both in thought and deed — and it is vital in this country that we wake up and take control of our lives. If you haven’t noticed, there are people and entities out there who would be delighted to tell us what to do and how to live, and they are well on their way to doing so.

Tuesdays, I write about recipes using good, simple ingredients. Please join me.

If you are interested in spiritual matters, I invite you to join me, as well, at my site Commonsense Christianity at BeliefNet, where my primary message to Christians is to wake up, maintain a strong relationship with God, think for themselves, and speak out against what is wrong. I feel fairly strongly about this, and if you agree with me and like what you read, please pass me on. As an ordinary person, I am not privy to the financial and media advantages enjoyed by others.

If you are interested in saving money, I invite you to look at my book Live Happily on Less, a series of friendly essays that will guide you into a different way of thinking that will help you survive economically tough times. (Paperback and digital at Amazon; also available for borrowing through Amazon Prime.)

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Hiking the Himalayas without Leaving My Chair

Posted on December 2, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Fabric, color, light, beauty — Steve’s paintings capture the culture of life. Catching the Breeze, original oil painting sold; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

From Start Your Week with Steve, the free weekly e-mail newsletter of Steve Henderson Fine Art

Steve Says:

As my wife, Carolyn, will readily attest, I rarely give in to a cold. I prefer to work my way through it, but this last weekend, it being a holiday and all, I decided to do a lot of sitting which incorporated a mixture of reading with watching travel documentaries.

Michael Palin’s Himalaya transported me, mentally, out of the chair and into Pakistan, India, Tibet, Kashmir, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh — just typing the names re-whets my appetite for traveling to these countries. One of my first thoughts, outside of the actual exhilaration of walking these landscapes, is the desire to paint the beautiful, colorful people who so effortlessly incorporate textiles, texture, and fabric into their everyday life.

Take a look at Catching the Breeze, up above. Isn’t fabric amazing? It undulates gently in the wind, wrapping around its owner and dancing away within the space of a few seconds. There is a reason why I am drawn to creating figures in colorful clothing, surrounded by a landscape of light and reflection: it’s beautiful.

Many people have told me that they long to be the figure in the paintings themselves, and when they purchase the work and place it on

So many people have told Steve, “I am that person in the painting. You transport me there.” Ocean Breeze, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition art print at Great Big Canvas.

their wall, they are. I have succeeded in transporting them to another place, a beautiful place, in much the same way that Palin squired me through the high mountains just this last weekend.

Carolyn and I have long dreamed of traveling to all of India, as well as its northern neighbors and the land of the Himalayas, for the express purpose of my painting the people in their sumptuous dress, set against their landscape. None of us know what the future brings, but if any of you know someone in the area who wants paintings like these done, and has the means or wherewithal to get us there, please give them my name.

I have no idea how it would all work out, but before you can fulfill a dream, you have to have the dream in the first place. So Part I is done.

Until then, I will continue to hike the area around me — much gentler than the Himalayas but wild in its own way — and paint the people and color who come into my life.

Read the rest, and subscribe, at Start Your Week with Steve.

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Feeling Sad During the Holiday Season

Posted on November 27, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Click the image and see the Youtube video of how it was made. Little Angel Bright by Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Whether you say Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, the fleeting weeks beginning with Thanksgiving and ending at the New Year are a time of celebration, activity, music, joy and . . . sadness.

Part of being a human, and living on this earth, means that you will never be 100 percent happy, all the time, because even in our most joyous moments, we are vaguely aware that good times, eventually, come to an end. Time marches on, the gift wrapping gets thrown away, and it’s back to the office on Monday morning.

Many people enter into the holiday season acutely aware of a loss — recent or distant — of someone who meant a lot to them. In the midst of serving pumpkin pie they remember that, not too long ago, someone else used to serve the pie, but she or he isn’t with everybody this year.

People die. Children grow up and away. Schedules change. Weather closes roads. For some reason or another, during this season when family — and being with family — means so very much to us, we can’t always have what we long for. And that makes us feel sad.

But we’re gutsy people, we human beings, and in the midst of sadness we grab for and bask in the happiness we can find. Yes, somebody is missing this year, but so many of the rest of us are together. Let us talk about and remember that person who is missing, and let us honor them by just loving them, praying for them if they are alive, thanking God for the time we had with them if they are not.

My Thanksgiving gift to you, my good and gracious readers, is the article Surviving the Holidays, at my BeliefNet column Commonsense Christianity. If you, like so many people, look forward to the next six weeks with a combination of hope, yet dread, then please read this story. I have written it for you, and I send with it my prayers for your peace.

Happy Thanksgiving. — Carolyn

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Recipes: Pumpkin Pancakes and Pumpkin Ice Cream

Posted on November 26, 2013 by This Woman Writes

What a great way to incorporate pumpkin in your life! photo courtesy Steve Henderson Fine Art.

With Thanksgiving kicking off the holiday season this week, it’s a given that this week’s recipe will involve pumpkin.

Lucky you — I originally was going to give you just one recipe — that for Pumpkin Pancakes — but as that only uses part of a 15 ounce can of pumpkin and you’d be standing at the kitchen counters, disconsolately wondering what to do with the rest of this stuff, I’m adding a bonus recipe for Pumpkin Ice Cream.

By the way, keep an eye out in the stores during December for cans of pumpkin. For some reason, people associate pumpkin pie exclusively with Thanksgiving, and after that holiday, the poor product languishes on the shelves, dreaming about next year. I walked into a grocery store once and found cans and cans of pumpkin, which lasts pretty much forever, for 50 cents each, so I snatched up the whole two boxes.

In addition to pie, pancakes, and ice cream, pumpkin makes super soup (really!), muffins, and yeast breads. Highly nutritious, it adds a moist, soft texture to baked products, and it’s fairly mild in flavor, so even fussy people may not know when you’ve slipped it in.

Pumpkin Pancakes — serves 4

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (you can use olive oil or butter instead;

Make fine art a part of your life — Steve Henderson offers an assortment of licensed, affordable art prints that fit every budget.

the coconut oil, which tends to be hard at room temperature despite its name, adds a nummy-num flavor)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin, from the can, or mashed from the actual pumpkin

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla (I love this stuff — it makes everything it touches dreamy)

1 1/2 cup preferably whole grain flour (I used two ancient grains, 1/2 cup of Kamut flour and 1 cup of spelt)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Cream the sugar and coconut oil together; add the egg and vanilla until the whole mixture is well blended.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add half the flour mixture to the oil/sugar/egg mixture, then half the milk, then the other half of the flour mixture, then the rest of the milk. Stir until well mixed but don’t be violent about it. You should have a batter with a consistence slightly thicker than whipping cream. Add more flour or more liquid to adjust.

Bake on a griddle or heated frying pan at medium high heat and just flip once.

These taste great with homemade syrup as well as (I hesitate to mention this because it’s sounds nutritionally naughty) Nutella. But then again, what doesn’t taste good with Nutella?

Santa time is coming up! Original oil paintings, signed limited edition prints, and posters by Steve Henderson.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

This is your bonus recipe, to use up the rest of the 15 ounce can of pumpkin, so I don’t have a picture, but the product pretty much looks like ice cream.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Mix the pumpkin and sugar together until well blended. Whisk in the whole milk and vanilla until the sugar is fully incorporated and dissolved. Gently stir in the whipped cream and process the whole thing in your ice cream maker. Add the chocolate in the last five minutes of processing.

Freeze for 2 hours before serving, or eat it right away, if you don’t mind a softer serve.

For more complete instructions on making ice cream, see my recipe, Fast, Easy Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. You can enjoy all my recipes in my Recipe section.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Don’t stress out about Black Friday, and remember the upcoming holiday season is a time of joy, peace, and thankfulness. Check out Steve Henderson’s YouTube Santa videos and share them with your family and friends.

Speaking of stressing out, we generally do this about money, and the first gift you purchase for Christmas may be for yourself — my book, Live Happily on Less (paperback, now on a super sale at Amazon; Kindle/digital outrageously inexpensive at $5.99).  Read it before you get heavily into shopping, and debt.

Consider buying fine art for yourself or others this season — Steve Henderson, my Norwegian Artist, creates original paintings for reasonable, reachable prices, and because he believes that fine art belongs in the homes of everyone, not just billionaires and politicians, he provides a line of licensed art prints well within the reach of many budgets.

If you’re a Christian, or curious about Christianity, I invite you to join me at my column, Commonsense Christianity, at BeliefNet.

Posted in Art, blogging, Christmas, cooking, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, dinner idea, diy, Encouragement, Family, finances, Food, frugal living, holiday, home, homeschooling, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, News, recipe, santa, saving money, YouTube | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Seeking the Simple Life

Posted on November 22, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Simplicity is profound, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. Girl in a Copper Dress 2, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

Ah, the simple life.

So many of us crave this so intensely, it makes our addiction to potato chips look minor.

I know one woman who is convinced that the only way she will find the simple life is by moving to a tropical island and settling down in a hut.

Another man subscribes to every magazine on simple living that he can find, and his bedside table is stacked with books on the subject. Time to read, however, is nonexistent.

Last week, the familia and I settled down, with blankies and pillows and hot drinks, to watch the 198o sleeper hit, The Gods Must Be Crazy, which chronicles the difference in lifestyles between overstressed, overworked, overwhelmed city dwellers and the gentle, quiet, contented Bushmen of the South African wilds.

You can’t watch this for long before you crave a lifestyle in the Kalahari desert, pounding roots with clubs (because there are no rocks), sitting around the campfire and communicating in clicks and whistles, and wearing a breechcloth.

Okay, that last one is too much for me.

But the tranquil, peaceful, halcyon life — free from thumping stereos, wailing sirens, telemarketing calls, truly unpleasant managers and bosses, copious paperwork in a paperless society, too much work required in too little time, not enough money and too many bills, new and improved government regulations — I’m sure you have your own list — we want simple.

Peace abounds outside of tropical islands, and the first place to look is inward. Peace, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

And it seems impossible to find in the society in which we live. The only way to find it, we think, is to run away to that tropical island, far far away from everything that stresses us out everyday.

The problem with the whole tropical island scenario, however, is that even if we could afford the tickets and find ourselves a little property with the hut on it, we still have to eat, and spearing a fish with a sharp stick, if we’re not particularly adept at this, will become a stress of its own. So unless we have a private source of unlimited income, we may want to find an alternative to the tropical island scenario.

No matter where or how we live, we can choose 10 minutes to slow down, reflect, and rest. Sophie and Rose, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

The good news is, there is that alternative. And the better news is, it’s within the grasp of all of us.

Living the simple life is a process, and the first step to achieving our goal is to recognize that there is a problem in the first place. Most of us have probably managed this step, so it’s time to move on to the second step:

Simplify something, anything, in our life and see what if feels like. Once you know what simpler feels like — and you like what it feels like — then you know what to do for the second step. While changing your job may not be immediately possible right now (and for many people, their job is one of the most complicated, stressful aspects of their lives), you can make changes in what you do when you’re not on the job.

Like turn off the phone — constantly being on and available to everyone all the time is stressful and the opposite of simple. If you can give yourself no more than 15 minutes away from being beeped, do at least that, and treasure a quarter of an hour of silence, independence, and freedom. Pretend you’re on a tropical island.

Clear your schedule, one evening a week, and make that yours, or your family’s. Watch The Gods Must Be Crazy (and turn off the phone).

Take out time for quiet, gentle experience with the people you love. Tea by the Sea, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

Find something creative to do — a hobby, like knitting or building model cars or baking — and give yourself time to do it. Focusing on something we create gives us a sense of pleasure, confidence, and peace — especially if we don’t turn it into an obsession and start attending regular group meetings revolving around our hobby of choice.

The upshot is this: the simple life is lived by making one small change at a time, and building the next change upon the one that went before it. It won’t happen all at once, but that’s okay: fast and quick are aspects of our frenetic modern life that we’re trying to get away from.

Take it slow. Take it easy. Keep it up. Don’t get discouraged, and give yourself time.

Literally. Give. Yourself. Time.

Posts complementing this one:

Sham Christians: Don’t Be Fooled by Them

Is Your Job Meaningless

Your Christian Mission Statement

This article was originally published in ThoughtfulWomen.org.

Posted in Art, blogging, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Economy, Encouragement, Faith, Family, finances, frugal living, Growth, home, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, movies, News, self-improvement, success, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Yesterday’s Absurdity is Tomorrow’s Mandate

Posted on November 21, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Whether it’s a picnic lunch along the shore, or muffins at the coffee table, you know best what to feed yourself and your children. Shore Leave, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

One of the perks of homeschooling is that the lunches you eat are generally hot, and they don’t taste like anything you remember from public school kitchens of your childhood.

This, and the good memories we made of family time around the table, represented my major thoughts on the matter, that is, until I read about the Canadian woman who sent her children to school/daycare/preschool (public or private, in areas like this they’re all starting to look the same) with what she thought was a good lunch of roast beef, carrots, potatoes, oranges, and milk.

According to the Canadian Food Guidelines, which the school followed, however, the meal was lacking in grains, and the children were given — without the parent’s prior knowledge or consent — Ritz crackers to supplement. As a bonus, the mother was charged $5 per child for this nutritional “service.”

The article goes on to quote the mother, Kirsten Bartkiw, saying that if she had sent the children to school with “microwave Kraft Dinner and a hot dog, a package of fruit twists, a Cheestring, and a juice box,” there would have been no problem.

No surprises here. The daily assault upon our basic rights as parents and human beings is so regular and pervasive that I read something like this and think, “What will tomorrow bring?” What seems absurd yesterday is normal today and mandatory tomorrow.

Deep inside of all of us is the spirit that can’t be quenched. Spirit of the Canyon, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

What is most interesting about this article, however, are the comments beneath it, which range the gamut from outrage to outright compliance, and a whole lot of apathy in between. Like this one:

“. . .if she dislikes the policy so much, she can find another school or she can try to educate and change the policy, but I don’t see a problem with this as long as they didn’t break a religious/dietary restriction that the kids had.”

I love this: it’s your problem lady. Find another school (that doesn’t conform to government policy? Those are increasingly rare); work through the administrative channels (oh, yes, we all know how well that works); don’t fuss — no religious or dietary restrictions were broken (how do you know? And what does it matter — is it the school’s business to be poking around in children’s lunches?)

The primary foundation for an excellent education is the ability, and desire, to read. Provincial Afternoon, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold.

What is the school’s business, anyway? The automatic response is, “to educate the children,” but even non-homeschooling people get the idea that this particular goal isn’t being well achieved. And as most people who homeschool know, one of the primary critiques they receive from people outside looking in at them is that their children won’t be “properly socialized,” which, apparently, is something the public school sees as its primary purpose. (See my article, The Properly Socialized Homeschooler.)

Poking through children’s brown bags is a natural continuation of probing through their lives.

But back to those comments. When you live a certain lifestyle — homeschooling, say, or eating healthily, or reading good books — you tend to find like-minded people, and it’s easy, after awhile, to think that most people think the way you do, or at the very least, don’t mind that you think the way you do.

But when you read through a string of comments on a story like this, you get this rude awakening that there are

1) a number of people who don’t value the concept of individual freedom and think that you are a troublemaker when you speak up

and

2) far too many people who are apathetic, unconcerned, or so overwhelmed about the problem that they don’t want to think about it, much less fight back.

As a homeschooler, are you unusual? Oh, yes, my friend, and that’s a good thing. She Danced by the Light of the Moon, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

“It’s just too much,” they sigh. “Just give in and hope that nothing too bad happens.”

Not you, my friends. By virtue of homeschooling you are standing up, speaking out, and fighting back, even if you’re quiet about it. You’re not only capable of teaching your child how to read and pointing him toward some fine, fine timeless literature, but you can also rummage through the refrigerator and find last night’s soup, serve it with a slice of toast and some apples, and feed your child’s body after a morning of feeding his mind.

Join me Thursdays for Homeschooling related articles. I homeschooled four children to successful adulthood over 20 years.

My book, Live Happily on Less, gives ideas on how to live with the limited income most homeschoolers enjoy. I am typing this from our home, which has no mortgage on it and never has, but we are a family that knows how to manage our money (that’s one of the things all my kids know how to do). Paperback $12.99 (but generally on sale for less), Kindle/digital $5.99, free to borrow on Amazon Prime.

My kids also know how to write, based upon principles I taught them from my book, Grammar Despair. You don’t need to know grammar to write well. Paperback $8.99, Kindle/digital $5.99, free to borrow on Amazon Prime.

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Thinking Christians: Let’s Be Those People

Posted on November 20, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Thinking, meditating, daydreaming, praying — we can all do more of these things. Daydreaming, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

My four children were all homeschooled, which means that they hear, as adults, sentences like this a lot:

“Oh, you must have been homeschooled. You’re such an overachiever.”

“You try too hard. You must have been homeschooled.”

“Why are you always asking questions? You must have been homeschooled.”

Having gone through public school myself, I can attest that you don’t have to be homeschooled to be weird in today’s society, you just have to value things like finishing the job, working hard, thinking independently, and setting goals. There are plenty of children in public and private schools, whose parents are valiantly trying to instill these values, who are regularly attacked for being different.

We live in a society where a lot of people are forced into cubicles — like

Sassy, classy, confident, chic — let’s be that. Cadence, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

rats — or struggle to make ends meet in a “service economy” (and anybody working in “service” knows that you spend a lot of time and effort not retorting when a customer or a client or a middle manager says something well worth retorting to), so it is important to the controlling business and political echelons that our populace is educated into a sense of conformity, acceptance of leadership, and an unwillingness to step out of line.

Like sheep.

And sadly, the place where we proudly talk about being sheep — our churches and religious establishments — is where we really need to be more like goats — not quite so obedient, submissive, tractable, and compliant.

Lest I sound like some anarchist revolutionary, let’s remember the Great Shepherd whom we follow — Jesus — and observe that, while He was incredibly popular among normal, ordinary people, He didn’t get along especially well with the leadership sect. If you are an independently thinking Christian who reads the Bible for yourself and talks to God a lot, you may find that you don’t play well in groups, and before you start believing people when they tell you that you’re difficult, confrontational, unwilling to be taught, uncooperative, and not a team player, ask yourself:

Am I so very, very bad?

Is it wrong to ask questions about things that don’t make sense?

And if the answers don’t satisfy, should I just shut up?

Did Jesus ever use the term, “team player”?

We found freedom when we embraced our unconventional, spirited, spiritual selves. Aphrodite, art print from Steve Henderson Collections

Years ago, we found ourselves returning from church, bedraggled and bemused, always vaguely depressed but convinced that it had something to do with us somehow. Even when we realized that we weren’t the problem we continued to overstay our welcome, and it wasn’t until our six-month sabbatical from church attendance turned into several years, that we finally realized that we were homeschoolers, only from church.

You may or may not still be attending regular church services — that isn’t the issue. What is the issue is that — no matter where you spend your Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, and Saturday afternoons, you are a vibrantly thinking, active Christian — well read, conversant in many matters, willing to listen, free to agree or disagree, and not cowed by peer pressure, whether it comes from the office, the pews, the pulpit, the television set, or the Internet.

Your leader is Christ, and anything anybody else tells you to do or believe is filtered through the words of the one Voice that matters.

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, thinking Christians are essential to civilization, because as children of the Creator, we are in close alliance with most knowledgeable, intelligent, powerful — and loving — Person in the universe, and by learning from Him, we pass on good things to society around us.

But we can’t learn from Him if we depend upon others to do the learning for us.

 

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Recipe: Sweet Italian CARROTS!

Posted on November 19, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Learning to grow, and cook, your own food is a major component in Living Happily on Less, which I discuss in my book of the same name. Photo credit Steve Henderson.

I have never been a fan of cooked carrots: they’re mushy, tasteless, innocuous, congealing and unappealing.

That being said, today’s recipe for cooked carrots — Sweet Italian CARROTS! — is worth writing in all capital letters and tacking an exclamation point on at the end, because these carrots are tasty, firm yet soft, intriguing, and pleasing to the palate. They’re also colorful — orange flecked with green — and when you live with a Norwegian Artist, color is an important part of your life.

There are few ingredients in this dish, which brings to mind one of the general rules of cooking:

The fewer the ingredients, the better each one of those ingredients should be. I used fresh herbs, which are still surviving — albeit shivering — outside below the porches; organic carrots grown in our garden; organic butter; organic free trade sugar.

You’ll notice the word “organic” a lot, and while yes, organic food tends to cost more than agri-business-produced, pesticide laden, potentially genetically modified fare, it’s worth trying to incorporate it when you can, because it does taste better.

Wide open space is wonderful, but you can grow garden plants in smaller areas as well. Wild Child, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

Consider growing a garden next year and providing something, anything, for your table that you have literally nurtured with your hands. You don’t have to provide all your food, yourself — that’s such an overwhelming thought that you’re discouraged from starting in the first place — but even an apartment grower can baby along a basil plant.

Do not underestimate the sense of pride, self-worth, and independence you develop from growing a food that you prepare and then present at your table. It’s worth as much, or more, than the actual cost of the food you produced.

That being said — use what you have — the carrots that are quietly drying up in the vegetable crisper, the dried herbs in the cupboard, the sugar in your bin. If all you’ve got is margarine, that will have to do, but give butter a try — organic is guaranteed (for now) to mean that no growth hormones, like rBST or rBGH have been used, but some inorganic brands as well are free of these. As a consumer, you just have to look out for yourself and out for your family, because that’s one of the general rules of life:

NO ONE cares about you and your family the way you do. Take care of yourselves.

Now, onto the carrots. They won’t take long, which is why I took more time to chat beforehand.

Recipe: CARROTS! Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

2-4 heads garlic, minced

2-3 carrots, cut into 2-inch long match stick shapes — 2 cups worth

1/2 cup chicken broth (I use Better Than Bouillon organic Chicken Broth base)

1/3 cup fresh herbs (I used rosemary, oregano, and sage; the basil died with the first frost), chopped fine, or 1 Tablespoon dried herbs

2 Tablespoons sugar

Over medium heat, melt the butter in a frying or saute pan and add the garlic. Stir about for three minutes to release the aromatic aroma and flavor of the garlic.

Add the carrots and stir to coat with the butter; pour over the chicken broth; cover and let cook 5-10 minutes, until the carrots are done to the point that you like (I like mine soft but still firm — not mushy). Sprinkle over the sugar and the herbs, stir for one minute until heated through.

One of the most affordable ways to buy a painting is directly through the artist, and that’s how Steve sells his work. Contact me, or Steve, and we’ll answer your questions.

Join me Tuesdays for Recipes that are generally quick, easy, inexpensive, and always, I hope, delicious.

Check out the Norwegian Artist at Steve Henderson Fine Art. He sells original paintings for reasonable prices and licensed prints — because he believes that art should be a part of all people’s lives, not just that of billionaire collectors.

If you’d like to learn to paint yourself, Step by Step Watercolor Success is available at Steve’s website and at Amazon.com.

Look at my book, Live Happily on Less if you want ideas on how to change your lifestyle so that you’re more independent and better able to use the resources you have been given.

Read Grammar Despair if you don’t know when to use “Him and Me” versus “He and I” (many, many people are flummoxed by this).

Watch Steve’s YouTube videos of his Santa paintings, brought to life step by step, or his Painting Women of Beauty and Grace.

Find me on Commonsense Christianity at BeliefNet.

Posted in Art, blogging, cooking, Culture, Daily Life, dinner idea, diy, Encouragement, Family, Food, frugal living, gardening, Green, Growth, health, home, inspirational, instruction, Life, Lifestyle, News, recipe, saving money, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How Much Are You Worth?

Posted on November 18, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Don’t underrate yourself — in the dance of life, you have an important part to play. Autumn Dance, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.

From Start Your Week with Steve, the free weekly e-mail newsletter of Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Steve Says:

Carolyn recently published an article, Is Your Job Meaningless? based upon a recent Internet search I did on the terms, “meaningful jobs.”

We were both intrigued — and a bit saddened, but not really surprised — by the results I found. Essentially, the top answers said this:

“Meaningful jobs are those that make a lot of money.”

Based upon this criteria, the most meaningful people on this planet are the richest ones, and theoretically, they bless the entire earth because of the extreme generosity they exhibit with the resources at their disposal.

It’s Monday. Always good to start the week with a smile.

But actually, there’s nothing particularly funny about the attitude of

Unique, unusual, one of a kind, and irreplaceable — that’s you. Mesa Walk, original painting by Steve Henderson sold; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas and Light in the Box.

judging our worth by how much we make, or even what we do — determining that this person is useful and good because he does this for a job, and that person is not useful or particularly necessary because she does that kind of job.

And while deep down, we know that this attitude is wrong, deep down, we’re also afraid that it’s true.

Allow me to make your Monday, and the rest of the week, by assuring you that, no matter what you do or how much you make, your life is meaningful.

How do I know this? Take a look at the painting above, Autumn Dance, and focus on the little girl dancing with the man.

That’s not just any little girl, and she’s not dancing with a random stranger. That little girl is dancing with her father, and he is the only person in the world who can be what he is in her life.

Bill Gates may make more money, but he cannot be the person in that little girl’s life that the man dancing with her is. Warren Buffett may make impressive investments, but not in the life of that little girl.

You play a part in other people’s lives that no one else can fill, or fulfill. Christmas Story by Steve Henderson.

There are people in your life who interact with you, depend upon you, care about you, in a way that nobody else in the planet can achieve. In your capacity as son/daughter, husband/wife, father/mother, nephew/niece, friend, coworker, even acquaintance, you fulfill a niche in different people’s lives that nobody else can fill for you.

That’s indispensable.

Most of us who are honest recognize that, no matter what our job, someone can take over for us if we have to leave. But in individual lives, we play a part that is unique to who we are, and the meaningfulness of the part we play has nothing to do with our title or our pay rank.

How much are you worth?

In the lives of the people around you, there is no number that can answer that question.

Subscribe to Start Your Week with Steve and make Mondays a better place.

Find Steve’s artwork on his website, Steve Henderson Fine Art, and his licensed work at Great Big Canvas and Light in the Box.

Learn how to save money, and live on the resources you have been given, with Carolyn’s book Live Happily on Less.

Improve your writing skills with another of Carolyn’s books, Grammar Despair.

Join Steve’s Facebook Page, or Carolyn’s, This Woman Writes.

Take a break and watch Steve’s videos on YouTube.
Posted in Art, blogging, Business, children, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Encouragement, Faith, Family, Growth, home, Life, Lifestyle, money, News, Personal, self-improvement, success, Uncategorized, YouTube | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Teaching Your Child Life’s Biggest Lesson

Posted on November 14, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Children learn best by our, hopefully good, example. Into the Surf, licensed open edition print by Steve Henderson at Great Big Canvas.

My mother did not homeschool me, but like most parents, she was a child’s first and best teacher, and throughout my public school education she filled in many, many gaps. Because of her, I know when to use “him and me” versus “he and I,” and have passed this wisdom on to my own children. (I can pass it on to yours, as well, through my book Grammar Despair.)

I also know my multiplication tables, because she went over them as she was styling my hair. Okay, so “styling” is a generous term, since she only knew one style, but what she lacked in cosmetology she more than made up for in general, real life wisdom.

And one of those gems of general, real life wisdom is one of the biggest lessons any of us can teach our kids, to their betterment and to that of our future grandchildren:

Learn to admit when you are wrong.

This is a surprisingly difficult thing to do, it doesn’t come naturally to any human being, and we have the impression that it will make us look weak and out of control. It takes a strong, wise person to admit that he is wrong, however, especially when the person to whom he is apologizing refuses to acknowledge that there is anything to correspondingly apologize for on his part.

Grown-ups — we take care of children. Beachside Diversions, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

Such was frequently the case when my mother apologized to me, a teenager.

“That was a rude thing for me to say,” she would tell me. “I was impatient and thoughtless, and I apologize for snapping at you.”

Grumblingly, I accepted her words, not mature enough to reciprocate with my own admission of guilt, but she never added anything like,

“Your sullenness probably contributed to my impatience, you know.”

She didn’t have to. She was wise enough and mature enough to know that I knew this, and as time went by and I grew up and she pushed me toward doing so, I managed to apologize for my own foibles, thereby learning — from a master — the art of giving a proper apology:

It’s succinct, honest, not groveling, and not seeking to justify itself. One says it, makes physical amends if necessary and possible, and moves on. Whether or not the person to whom it is proffered accepts it, graciously or not, is not the responsibility of the person issuing it.

My favorite apology from mom involved the white station wagon that stalled all the time. When my brother and I mentioned this to her —  on a fairly regular basis in line with the number of times we found ourselves stuck at stop signs — she insisted that we were flooding the thing. That is, until the beast stalled on her.

“Well.” She sat back in the seat and stared through the windshield. “I think I owe you two an apology. And I think that we need to call the mechanic.”

Small people? They have feelings, too, and a surprisingly strong sense of right and wrong. Lilac Festival, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.

Oh, that was sweet.

Too often, parents — especially homeschooling parents who also function as teachers, primary role models, and employers — feel that acknowledging and apologizing for our errors makes us look weak. In actuality, it is our firm denial and refusal to admit our faults that causes us to lose face in our children’s eyes.

By not apologizing to someone whom we have wronged — even if that person is 6-years-old — we are effectively saying, “You’re not important enough for me to make amends to. You have to apologize to me when you’re wrong, but I don’t have to do the same for you.” This may, and can, work while the kids are young and under our roof, but we will not always be the captain of the army, and one day they will grow up and go away. One hopes that they will not grow away from us, tired of our inflexibility and insistence upon always being right.

There is a sense of relief in not having to play the part of a god or goddess, ruling over the minions in our charge with an iron fist and inflexible sense of superiority. You’ll make mistakes. We all do. But the best, and most honest, way to teach your children how to deal with the repercussions of these mistakes is the example you set: admitting that you did something wrong, making the necessary reparations, and moving on.

It’s remarkably liberating.

Join me on Thursdays for articles on Homeschooling, something our family has successfully been doing for 20 years. You can find my book, Grammar Despair, on Amazon.com, as well as Live Happily on Less — an easy-to-read book of essays that will help you manage your finances more successfully. We’ve been doing that for 30 years, and unlike the majority of people, we actually own our home, mortgage-free.

If you are interested in Christianity, I write Contempo Christianity on

Strong, joyous Christians — that’s what we want to be. Ocean Breeze, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

this site Wednesdays, and three times a week I write for my BeliefNet Blog, Commonsense Christianity. My goal is to encourage people to seek God, find Him, and build a strong, individual relationship with Him. Many (not all!) homeschoolers are Christians who focus on teaching their children to memorize Bible verses and read through the stories — this is good, but if we do not teach them, as well, to learn from Christ, and not parrot back everything they are told by the pastor, the Sunday School teacher, or the elder board, then we are raising weak Christians.

If your child asks you a question that you can’t answer, rejoice. He or she is thinking, and trying to reconcile real life issues with the concept of a good, loving, merciful God.

Embrace and love your family this week — they are a gift from God.

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