Club Mud, The "Secret", Salt, turkey & the fixin's, the center of the pendulum, and paying off my home....

OK, so, I think I am going to use this to rant and vent and not to write my life story. I need a place to "place" my thoughts and I have been putting them on scraps of paper, wrappers, and in my head only to be found by those surfing the cosmos of thoughts I am putting out there on waves of energy I know I create. I create. I do create. I love creation. I love it when I have a pile of Popsicle sticks & Elmer's glue, or potatoes & meat on one side and nothing on the other but then when I'm done there is "something" to show for it. I envy those who make a living with things they have created. Even if the things are frozen burritos, and not homes or works of art. I mean I have had burritos that I would call works of art but I am simply saying big or small I crave the ability to create. I have thought about this and know this is why I like to cook so much. Creativity makes me feel whole for just a moment. My pendulum finds center. I don't like things that just take up time. Even guilty pleasures because I ask "what will this produce in the end"? This is why I think my work is not important work. I know all work has honor and I find ways to get my pellet everyday. I lead, yes.... I teach, yes..... but in the grand scheme of things unless you are leading Disney, or teaching brain surgery it will not ever produce what it is I am looking for. I keep cooking flour and sugar and wondering why I don't have cheese in the end. Retail has no love for anyone. I have received an education. I can sell anything. Can hire for any position. But in the end all I do is push paper and make other men rich. I'm tired. I went to the mud last week so I could rest a bit with no phones. No dead lines, just the elements, earth, mineral water, salt water, the sun, and sky. Rest... much needed rest. I love a day at the spa and what is does for my ability to give and think again. OK, so, this is where salt comes in. I want to produce flavored salt. I want to sell it in pretty bottles for peoples kitchens and want to make baskets featuring my salt for house warming gifts. This is my current thought of what I might do next...... my dream. Dreams.... thoughts.... and the power of all of that... including Oprah! A few friends have asked me to watch the Oprah recommended "The Secret". Being the self help junkie that I am I went and bought it. I like what I have seen so far. Positive thoughts, powerful thoughts, the answer to everything, yada, yada. Creating your own destiny. Claiming what it is you want from the universe. Which brings me to what it is that I do want. I want my home paid for. I want a better income. I want my teenager to make it through this part of her life with out hating my altogether and ending healthy. I want my other children to find there ways with respect and love. I want new brakes. I want a autographed cookbook from Paula Dean. I want to like me more then I do. I need to be a better friend to me. If I was a better friend I would look out for things and set myself straight more often and put up with less crap from me. Look out me.... I am not going to put up with the usual any more! So, next is my plan for the paid days off I have coming this and next month. I have offered myself up as a personal chef. I may be odd looking, may be short, may be uneducated but one thing I am, is a good cook. I can make a turkey and some stuffing that everyone loves. My mashed potatoes are so good I have received proposal's, my gravy is so good you will want to take a bath in it!! So why waste the day?! Why not make some money?! If you know someone who might like to hire me for the day, please spread the word.

In closing this has been a whole lot of me, me, me, and I, I, I, and I am not telling a story or effecting lives. I will not always rant or be so self centered. As a peace offering to my self centered ways I will offer you a recipe. I have figured out the best meatballs ever this week. I made them for 6 meals for myself over 4 days! They are great if I do say so myself! Enjoy!

Tracy's Secret Meatballs:

3/4 lb ground chuck

1/4 lb ground pork

1/4 stick very cold butter cut up into tiny pieces

2 pieces of fresh white bread, crusts removed, made into fresh bread crumbs

1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs

1 sweet onion chopped very small

1 head (not clove, the whole head) of garlic chopped very fine

1/4 cup milk

4 eggs (yes, 4)

2 tbs olive oil

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped fine

salt & pepper

Saute olive oil, onion, and garlic until slightly brown, turn off and let cool, put milk in bowl and add bread, add meat broken up in small pieces loose between fingers, add the onion/garlic mixture and add everything else and mix lightly, do not over mix, bury the butter pieces into the balls. Spoon into small balls onto a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes or until done all the way through and brown and a little crisp on the out side and add to your favorite sauce. These freeze beautifully too!

** See my next blog for my secret sauce.....

Dreams, wants, & great sauce,

This month has gone by very quickly. Weston was here for what felt like a day and then he was gone. Like a dream. I was left wondering if he really was here.
I took no pictures. This is not like me and I think it was because I am fighting feeling a bit depressed. I am feeling a bit cornered or like I am waiting for something to happen. I know "something" is coming. Change is in the air. I can smell it. Like how animals sense earthquakes. Something is calling to me in the wind. I can not quite make it out. No clarity yet. Maybe it will come as a business change. Maybe a move. Maybe a new opportunity. Maybe it's my cookbook and what it will bring. I am staying optimistic. I received an award this month for community work. It always feels nice to be recognized. In turn, my boss gave me an award for getting the award... lol.
It is said that forming traditions are an impotent element to healthy-happy family units. And considering we do not celebrate traditional holidays where it seems most have there traditions formed we have had to think out side the norm. Weston and his friends started a tradition years ago that I had never participated in, .... until this year. It is called "No Shave November". It is fairly self explanatory. From November 1 through November 30 there is no shaving. To take the temp away from me I through away my razor head all together! The first week was easy. Showers took a few minutes less. Nothing to noticeable. But, as the month went on it did not stay so easy. At about the 20th I walked into some rebar at my work and cut my leg..... my hairy, hairy leg. I could not show anyone. Had to clean it up in the restroom, in the stall. Away from the first aid kit. Tempting as it was I still did not brake tradition. Dallas tried to join me but would not stop shaving her pits but she broke about 11/22 and wondered into the shower only to come out with shaved legs! Wimp. I started counting down the days the last week. I made it. On December 1st I bought a new raver head and I again can wear a skirt! OK, so now I have done it but as for tradition, I do not know.....
I do have some thing to buzz about. I am what is called a "bzz agent". It is a group that tests new products, and web sites and provides feedback. The main thought behind it is to talk about what we feel, find, or figure out. I tried Ziploc steam bags before they hit the market (loved them!) and also tried Listerine whiten strips ( I liked less) and now I was chosen to try Sonicare flexcare toothbrush! I love this item! It said in the intro it gave you that just from the dentist feel but it actually gives me a better then just from the dentist feeling!! I can't keep my tongue off my teeth! I just love this! It is not cheep but worth every penny. And, to as a Bzz agent I am given coupons for $10.00 off. If any of you might want one please let me know and I will gladly get you one.
As I promised in my last blog I will close with a recipe for my Secret sauce. Enjoy.


Secret sauce
2 28oz cans tomato puree
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1 14.5oz can beef broth ( for vegetarian, use vegetable broth)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 sweet onion chopped fine
1 head of garlic chopped fine
1/2 a graded carrot
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
½ cup red wine
½ cup Romano/Parmesan cheese mix
1/3 cup EVOO
Salt & Pepper
*Optional additions are mushrooms (added at the same time as the onion), olives, chopped celery, a finely chopped bell pepper.

In a large sauce pan heat olive oil, add onion and saute until it starts to get color. Add garlic until it is soft but do not burn it because it will become bitter. Add red wine next and reduce for about 5 minutes. Add everything else but the parsley & cheese and simmer for 30 minutes. Be generous with salt and pepper. remove bay leaves add add cheese and parsley and turn sauce off. Enjoy!!!

Things I am looking for that maybe someone out there has that they want to give up:
Rosetta Stone Italian program and Greek program
A signed copy of Paula Deans cook book
Any cookbooks you might not want I collect them)
A new water heater
A new garbage disposer
I always welcome hand me down clothes
My home to be paid off
A commercial food processor
New brakes for my van
I am putting it out into the Universe what it is I need and want and the Universe is to answer "your wish is my command"!!!

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