5 Reasons to Celebrate Mistakes

1. Mistakes get our attention, give us a starting point for change.
2. Permitting mistakes allows us to take risks.
3. Noticing mistakes show our commitment to quality, to making our life work.
4. We can use mistakes to practice. Look through the lens of your values.
5. Mistakes make powerful teachers. Help us learn new value, new behaviors.
Adapted from Falling Awake by David Ellis

Quick Pickled Mushrooms made with Kitchen Pride Mushroooms

• Cook Time: 5 min
• Yield:
4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
• 2 large bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1/3 palmful
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 red pepper (Thai Talon)
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• A generous handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
• A few sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 pound very small button mushrooms
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
Into a food processor add the bay leaves, peppercorns, mustard seeds, garlic, chile, onion, parsley, and thyme and pulse-chop into a paste. Place the vinegar, 1/4 cup water, sugar and salt in a pot and bring to a simmer to dissolve. Then add the paste and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Place the mushrooms in a container and douse with the hot brine; cover and steep 1 minute. Stir and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

Mi Mi’s Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

This recipe is for a 1 gallon freezer can.

Custard

5 Eggs

3 Egg yolks

1 Large 13 oz. Can of Evaporated Milk

1 Can Water

1 TBS Flour

1 Cup Sugar

Combine custard ingredients and cook, stirring until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. You may want to use a double boiler for this. Strain and cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Next, in freezer can combine the custard mixture with the following:

1 16 oz. Carton of Whipping Cream

1-2 TBS Vanilla Extract

1 13 oz. Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Enough Whole or 2 % milk to fill to line

Place lid on freezer can and hold can in place while filling the freezer alternately with ice and rock salt. Put crank on and begin cranking or plug in to outlet. Operate freezer according to directions for your machine. Add more salt and ice as needed. The freezer may stop from time to time when ice gets in the way. So, readjust ice by turning off the machine and picking ice with wooden spoon and turn it back on. When ice cream maker stops completely, remove the can and enjoy the ice cream or place in deep freeze until it has reached desired firmness.

My mom makes the best homemade vanilla ice cream. My first memory of making ice cream was on the ranch where I grew up outside a small East Texas town named Rusk, in an even smaller community named Atoy. Making homemade ice cream was an all-day event and everyone had a job. First of all, my dad believed that the best ice cream was made from a fresh block of ice that you bought, brought home and chipped up yourself. So, while my mom got all the ingredients together to cook the custard. My brother, sister and I would ride with dad 20 minutes to Rusk in his1963 green Chevy pickup to get the block of ice from the ice house, where we could watch the ice slide out of the freezer down a conveyor belt. We would wrap the block in a blanket and set it on the back of the truck. Then we would dare each other to sit on the covered block and count to ten. Boy, that was cold! When we got home, dad would painstakingly chip up the ice with a pick, and mom would pour the now cooled custard in the can, carefully filling the rest of the can with that rich custard mixture and whole milk. In went the ice and the salt, on went the top of the freezer. Then, it was our turn. My brother, sister and I would sit on the wooden steps of our carport and crank the ice cream by hand. Sometimes, we had watermelon or blackberries on the side. Sometimes, we had company and other times we had the ice cream to ourselves. Even when the ice houses closed down in Rusk, we still drove to the neighboring town of New Summerfield to buy ice.

My father has been gone now for many years; I live in a big city now and have kids of my own. However, my mom is here this week visiting and guess what? Yep, we are making ice cream using her recipe. It still tastes great! Although we used ice from our refrigerator, it brought back memories of truck rides into town, laughing with my brother and sister, and how a family working together can reap sweet rewards and even sweeter memories.

As I was driving to work recently, I saw a young cardinal hopping along the grass on the side of the road as I stopped at a stoplight. The image that comes to mind when you hear the word cardinal is probably of a tall majestic beautiful red crested bird with a black mask around its strong triangular beak designed for cracking seeds, but this is not what I saw. This cardinal was caught in a phase just after the fuzzy cute baby bird stage but before the poor creature developed its beautiful red flight feathers. It wasn’t chubby and cute anymore but it wasn’t the sleek flying creature it was meant to be one day either. Many things in our life go through stages that aren’t so pretty.

Barbara Sher, a world renowned career coach and best-selling author, says that ideas start out like babies animals. Human beings give birth to ideas and at first, we love them. We imagine how they will turn out with incredible pride and romantic optimism. When it comes to working out the logistics, budgeting time or money or both, for this new vision, the wonderful idea can molt away some of its attractive newness. As this idea develops you may find a need to further plan, to polish, to gather support of others and overcome obstacles. At some point it may be hard to share this vulnerable, not quite developed idea, at this ugly stage. However, this is a time that not only the idea needs support, but also the person who gave birth to the idea may need support. I encouraged a group of friends recently to set a goal, and some of these friends might be at an ugly stage of reaching this goal, just as you may also.

Some common goals are related to health, like starting a new exercise program; others wanted to reconnect to art they had put aside years ago. I had set a goal to complete two art works this month, and really had some great ideas that I wanted to bring to fruition. One of the ideas was a collage on canvas in tribute to Frida Kahlo, a well known Mexican artist. However, this idea did not come together on the canvas the way I had wished. So, I could stop, give up on this project at this ugly stage, but instead I have decided to work at it some more, ask for support and ideas. I may change my tactics, redo some of the piece, allow myself to struggle with the details, step back and look at the big picture. I am hoping that in sharing this photo of my work at this ugly stage that it might encourage anyone who reads my blog to do the same with their life, their ideas, and their relationships. So, here it is, and here are some of the steps that I am willing to do to make it a better piece of art. I am leaving some of the steps blank you, as you will notice, for you to fill in because I know that there is no way that I could have all the answers. No one really does. How are goals going for you?

1. Make a goal.

2. Plan some small steps.

3. Take action.

4. Assess the progress, from the detailed perspective and the big picture view.

5. Adjust as needed.

6. Share your goal.

7. Ask for help, or support.

8. Be willing to make changes, or redo’s.

9. __________________

10. ____________________

1.

Post-It Note Goals

There are lots of models out there for goal setting which can be very complicated and very technical. You can even sign up for a service through Pronagger.com to pay someone to nag you professionally! Let me know if you want to know more about that.

1. Take a stack of post-its out with a pen. Write down any 3-5 things you would like to see appear in your life quickly. Make the goals nouns. It could be a feeling like, Love, Health. It could be something that you haven't made time for like, Art, Romance.....

Write anything that is important. There is no selfishness and no one watching. This is for you!

2. Take time to be with the words on each post-it and choose the one that calls out to you the most. Let me know if you struggle with this part.

3. Now, to take the first step, think of one thing you could do towards that goal. Even if you chose "World Hunger", I want you to think of a small step that you could do in the next few weeks, an easy win, like donating 4 cans of food to the Foodbank.

This goes back to the old adage:

"How do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time, just like you eat anything else."

4. Did you choose? Now, how do you want to motivated or supported?

Some of us choose nagging, others choose encouragement.

Here are some examples:

Art- 2 completed works (they don't have to be perfect, just finished.)-Encouragement

Health/Exercise-walk with friends 4 times a week- nagging

Health- Going to the gym 4 times a week- nagging

5.Now put the post-it note somewhere you will see it everyday. I like mine beside my alarm clock in the beginning. Then after that no longer works, I move it to my bathroom mirror to catch my eye.

Talking With My Mouth Full

“We cook and eat for comfort, nurture and companionship. We cook and eat to mark the seasons and celebrate important events. We cook and eat to connect with family and friends and with ancestors we never knew. And through this baking and breaking bread together, we come to know who we are and where we came from.”

Talking With My Mouth Full, Bonny Wolf’s book

It's Never Too Late To Have A Happy Childhood

Walk in the rain, jump in mud puddles, collect rocks, rainbows and roses, smell flowers, blow bubbles, stop along the way, build sandcastles, say hello to everyone, go barefoot, go on adventures, act silly, fly kites, have a merry heart, talk with animals, sing in the shower, read childrens' books, take bubble baths, get new sneakers, hold hands and hug and kiss, dance, laugh and cry for the health of it, wonder and wander around, feel happy and precious and innocent, feel scared, feel sad, feel mad, give up worry and guilt and shame, say yes, say no, say the magic words, ask lots of questions, ride bicycles, draw and paint, see things differently, fall down and get up again, look at the sky, watch the sun rise and sun set, watch clouds and name their shapes, watch the moon and stars come out, trust the universe, stay up late, climb trees, daydream, do nothing and do it very well, learn new stuff, be excited about everything, be a clown, enjoy having a body, listen to music, find out how things work, make up new rules, tell stories, save the world, make friends with the other kids on the block, and do anything else that brings more happiness, celebration, health, love, joy, creativity, pleasure, abundance, grace, self-esteem, courage, balance, spontaneity, passion, beauty, peace, relaxation, communication and life energy to...all living beings on this planet.
-Bruce Williamson, It's Never Too Late To Have A Happy Childhood, 1987