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.....