Super Bowl Cooking

Recipe Number 1:

Chocolate Butterscotch Chex Mix

I seriously made this one up on my own because:

1: there were so many versions of a sweet/ dessert-like Chex Party mix that I figured making one up on my own would not be a bad idea

2: there were no white chocolate chips or almond bark or anything White Chocolate (I even looked for Hershey's Hugs) to be found at C-Town at 6:00pm Saturday night. Well, there were Ghiradelli chocolate bars at $3.99 for 4 ounces, and considering I needed 12 ounces... I decided to get creative.

There is no recipe.

But what I did went something like this:

Rice Chex cereal (I have no idea how much I used. And I chose this over Crispix because it was on sale)

Mini Marshmallows

Peanuts

Pretzel squares - butter flavor (again, no pretzel sticks to be found...) But those buttery tasting pretzels are delish!

Chocolate covered raisins

Hershey's chocolate bar and.. (drum roll please)

Butterscotch Morsels

So, I melted some butterscotch, poured it on a little of this and a little of that.

Then, I did the same with the chocolate. No rhyme or reason. But I think it went over pretty well at the Super Bowl party. The one thing I hate about making stuff like this is now I have 1/2 a can of peanuts, 1/2 a bag of marshmallows, some Chex cereal.... Just sitting there in my pantry.

Recipe Number 2:

This recipe was VERY popular.
I found it here. Although they are called Sausage Cheesy Muffins, I call them Sausage Cheese Biscuits. The only complaint I got was that I didn't make enough so that we could leave some at home for Chris to nosh on all week.

And by the way, prior to making this recipe, I had no idea that there was even such a thing as Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup!? What??

I can't imagine what one would ever use such a food item for, besides these terribly addictive biscuits.

Too much time suckage.

On my friends blog this morning, I read that she was doing a social fast. A media cleanse. Setting aside a period of time to NOT give into the master of creativity suckage known as The Internet.

So, based on her recommendation & following her lead, I too will not be surfing websites all day. I will not bounce back and forth from site to site.

THE RULES:

If you work through the internet - meaning FOR PAY - allot the necessary time needed to check and respond to work email. Work through the internet... not so much! But I do just sit behind a computer all day long. I tend to check my email all day & surf the web when I'm not busy actually "working." - My work is to sit here, answer phones and do whatever else might be needed to be done when called upon (binding, typing minutes, sorting the mail... etc. etc.) So, my goal for the remainder of the work week is to check my email first thing in the morning, then once after lunch, then at home after dinner. Respond as necessary and not read all the email subscriptions I get on on a daily basis.

If email is vital to your work as a writer, allot the necessary time. For instance, I am expecting some pages/responses from my critique partners. Email is not a vital part of my work as a writer, BUT, over the next couple of days, I may write some pretty long emails. Otherwise, my energies will be spent, well, just writing. Writing on my blog, probably, and writing some stories that are way overdue. My mind is pregnant with ideas.

NO blogging, reading other blogs, surfing the internet, twittering, facebooking, stumbling upon, digging, gchatting, yahoo talking, AIMing, iChatting, liking, updating books on Goodreads, hating, crying, whining, eating too much ice cream. (Because that's bad for you.) I will blog- cause that is what I do! But, I will not check Facebook, read Blogs, shop on Amazon, read the news online or spend hour upon hour here at work, looking up recipes, or reading about womens health or new ways to tone your triceps, or which running shoes are best, or signing up for races or scrolling through kayak looking of the cheapest tickets to anywhere- just to get away. I will respond to texts on my phone, but that's about it.

9:00AM Thursday, Feb. 3rd- 9:00AM Monday, Feb. 7th. - 48 hour fast... Please, I'm going all in!

I need to spend some time with my thoughts. Perspective. Dreams. Goals. Typing out prayers........... sigh. And reading when I'm at home this weekend. Although, usually on the weekends I hardly ever get on the computer. And we no longer have cable TV.... so that really isn't an issue for me. (Although, I do have plans to watch the Super Bowl- simply to hang out and be with friends.) I do need to dive head first into a new Fiction novel. I spent ALOT of time reading memoir, biographies, and self-help books. I deserve some fiction, an escape, a break from "learning."

Purgatory

Okay, I just realized that, in addition to four bleak, gray, ugly New York City snow pictures, I have also posted two black and white photos within the past month!

This has got to stop. (Thus the bright yellow tree. Quebec City, Canada- 2009) I find it quite odd that even in my choice of photos (and my writing too, no doubt) I've become bleak and quite depressing.

In some ways I feel that is what winter is all about. We move slower. We are stuck indoors with nothing but time to think. We gain a few pounds eating warm, hearty meals of steel-cut oats, butternut squash, parsnips and lentil based stews. We hardly get to walk around. I am so tired of going from tiny apartment (I realize my is quite nicely sized in comparison to most) to tiny and cramped subway to the 19th floor of one building where I sit under florescent lights. Just to break up the treadmill jogs and slip-sliding walks to and from the subway, I do circles in Grand Central Station on my lunch hour, like the white haired retired women in shopping malls in the Midwest.

Seasons happen for a reason. Resting is necessary. Everything comes in waves, in the rise and fall, in the pull and release, but in this season, I feel as if I'm about to unraveled. How much more of this can I (we) take?

From The Psalms:

My heart shudders within me;
terrors of death sweep over me.

Fear and trembling grip me;
horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, "If only I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and find rest.

How far away I would flee;
I would stay in the wilderness.

I would hurry to my shelter
from the raging wind and the storm. Psalm 55

BUT I keep standing on the promise:

He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18

I really am doing okay, and I'm hoping this spacious place that he's going to take me to will look alot like the Outer Banks of North Carolina, or Scottsdale Arizona, or San Diego, or even Austin, Texas. These Northeast winters are harsh and I only realize it when I'm completely driven down to a stub; a hallowed out hull of the vibrant, BIG personality I usually am.

This happened Sunday night when I had a panicked induced, anxiety fed, full on attack of my sanity. For two hours I shivered, vomited, and spent plenty of time "on the can." Worry at it's fullest. Irrational, inconsolable fear which is not something that happens to me all that often. And this was by far the worst feeling I've felt in a long time. I think winter in a place like this can do that to you, and it's not just the grayness, and it's not just the five foot snow drifts, and it's not just the lack of Vitamin D or even the days on end of below freezing temperatures.

But I feel stuck here, on this island, within these four miles. I am caught underground between home and work. I'm forever waiting on Spring. I'm wondering where we'll live when our lease is up. I'm seeking direction for jobs and families and homes and futures. And it's not Chris and it's not me. We are so happy together. We are blessed beyond measure and know it and are so grateful, but this season just sucks! It's literary sucking the life out of us.