One of favorite things about cooking is when someone hooks me up with a shortcut or technique that makes my life in the kitchen better. One of the first times I was gifted such a prize was from one of my friends, Maricruz. I had struggled making enchilada sauce that tasted as good as hers for years, and finally broke down and asked her how she made it.
“Homemade? (Laughs). I buy the pre-made stuff from the store. Trader Joe’s has a good one if you want a recommendation.”
The trick she also imparted was to buy the best quality cheese, tortillas and produce, which with the store bought sauce made a good cheese enchilada, great.
This week I was complaining on a social media site about the fact that you can’t buy buttermilk in anything smaller than a quart, most of which I won’t use in a recipe and will go to waste before I need buttermilk again. This is when one of the southern women on the thread told me about something I never knew existed:
DRIED BUTTERMILK POWDER!
I gave this a whirl in some blueberry muffins this morning and it worked really well, the muffins had that nice tang and fluffiness you get from buttermilk. And I won’t waste leftover buttermilk, which makes my little German heart happy.
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A New Year is a day away, and I have a long list of things I want to accomplish this year, but most of all I want to try to change my perspective on life and switch gears. So in 2018 I want to:
- Listen to the person who once told me to stop using other people as a reflective mirror. I need to stop validating myself against other’s opinions of my own self worth.
- Stop trying to expect others to fill the voids in my life and fill it instead with the things I love and want to do, instead of what others desire.
- Invest time, energy and love with the right people, those who mean the most to me. And divest from those who will not change, no matter how much I wish they would. These words ran through my head last night before I went to sleep.
You tossed thoughts, superficial
Like fake petals from your hands
Expecting me to rejoice in the showers of their colored paper fabrications
Challenging me to give you real roses in return.
I am going to learn to walk away from these people, because my roses are too valuable to be squandered on those who really don’t care except when it serves their own purposes.
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Happy soon to be 2018. And in the words of T.S. Eliot
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
(Little Gidding)
skullwoman 