Monday, August 24, 2009

Samuel Johnson's Thoughts on Happiness and Choice

Next month marks the 300th birthday of this great moralist, lexicographer and writer.  You will see one of his quotes on my home page of this web site which hit me right between the eyes when I read over 10 years ago his advise on happiness.  He wrote a book, Rasselas, about this subject and it was published in America 9 years before our Declaration of Independence defined the pursuit of happiness.  But duties, not rights, were at the core of Johnson's ethics.  As you prepare to start your cooking duties in September be inspired by Johnson's wisdom from this book- "perseverance and persistent self-persuasion" are key to a quest for happiness and " the pursuit may derive more meaning from the activity than from it's prospects of reaching fruition."(from Thomas Keymer's article on Johnson)  Translation:  The weekly duties I have taken on by choosing to commit to prepare and deliver dinner for my family and 3 others for these past 22 years, has required perseverance and lots of self-persuasion, but the joys of being in my own kitchen, creating one special meal a week for my family and friends has brought me much happiness which I wish for you.  Choose today what you will serve!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Come September- Be fruitful, Not Just Busy

Schools here in Virginia don't start till after Labor Day- your schools might already be underway. In any case, have a goal to start a cooking co-op in September- revolutionize your schedule to be fruitful and get dinner on the table in an affordable manner. Now is the time to show my DVD to your friends and propose the idea of banning together to get dinner on the table. Battles are fought by banding together to fight the enemy. The enemy is your schedule of busyness. I maintain that the joy of sitting down with your family at mealtime on a reular basis will help your week fall into place. So to get started, you need 3 other people to help with the cooking(remember 4 is the perfect #). Also go shopping now to get the equipment you need. You will need a slow-cooker(I think every family should have 2), a food processor, 2 large cooking pots, a large skillet, and a very large bowl(to mix dishes like home-made mac and cheese for 20 servings). Also get pyrex casserole dishes- some to use for baking and some 4 smaller pyrex dishes to deliver your meal. One friend found fabulous pots and pans on E Bay and I have found great skillets and large cooking items at Tuesday Morning stores. Map your way to the vineyard in these last weeks of summer.

Monday, August 10, 2009

9 Cash-Saving Strategies That Pay Big Bucks

This article was posted last week on yahoo:customsites.yahoo.com/financiallyfit/finance/index.  And #1 is: Form a Cooking Co-Op!  It references this web site and my DVD, "If It's Tuesday... it's my night to cook."  Review my April 27th blog- Economy means Management of a Household.  Just last night, a young lady who works at a fast food restaurant, said the average cost per person was in the $10 range.  My home-made taco salad and fresh fruit cost $3.60 per person plus I had left overs.  Also I saved on fuel costs because I had to go to the grocery store anyway.  Food costs are going up and one economist I spoke with believes food costs will continue to escalate- actually for a happy reason.  People in third world nations are earning more money and are adding meat and other foods to their 1 or 2 meals of rice/day.  Perhaps people in China and India will go as crazy for ketchup as we do in my family.  So what is your plan to deal with rising food costs?  Once again, let a bad economy get you into a good habit- starting in September- cook for a night, eat for a week!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Good Morning Richmond! Time for Cardiovision2020

I am in the financial industry and I love reading the Wall Street Journal. This week the headline read," Cost of Obesity Soars"- stating "the medical costs of treating obesity-related diseases may have soared as high as $147 billion in 2008... Reversing obesity is not going to be done successfully with individual effort."  As I have been clipping articles which back up the need for cooking co-op, I found a WSJ front page article 1/14/03 titled: "Community Chest- Finns Find A Fix For Heart Disease:Vast Group Effort- Doctors Cajole Whole Towns To Change Their Habits, From Bad Diet to Smoking- Praise From The Mayo Clinic."  The approach was to get the whole community involved- to change the lifestyle of the entire community- exercise, cooking courses, exhortations by the local grocer to eat more fruits and vegetables, cook with less fat,  yellow cards which documented patients lower blood pressures just to name a few creative ways a community in Finland dramatically decreased cardiovascular and cancer diseases.  Google CardioVision2020 and Pekka Puska to hear their call to business leaders and communities to come together and  to live better.  Richmond- let's lead this fight.