One Woman's Crusade for One Thanksgiving

October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated the last Thursday in November.  He believed that even during war, we can count our blessings. But it was the relentless efforts of one woman, Sarah Hale, who for 17 years wrote to 5 presidents, numerous congressmen and governors lobbying to unify the country with one national day  of Thanksgiving.  Up until then, some states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving and some did not.  Sarah Hale was a young widow with 5 children who ran a business making hats for women to support her family.  She also began writing books and poetry.  She went on to become the editor of our nations' #1 women's magazine becoming the Oprah of her time.  She wrote a number of editorials supplying recipes for the Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed this past week: turkey, stuffing,pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes.  Be inspired to keep the joys and benefits of sitting around the family dinner table week in and week out as you ponder these words of Sarah Hale from her book "Manners: Or, Happy Homes and Good Society All the Year Round" 1868- from the chapter "Our National Thanksgiving."  "Such social rejoicings tend greatly to expand the generous feelings of our nature, and strengthen the bond of union that binds us brothers and sisters in that true sympathy of American patriotism...This recreative joyousness, this return, if you please, to the gayeties of childhood, is good for the soul.  It sweetens the temper, it brightens hope, increases our love for each other, and faith in the goodness of God."

And the rest of the story- Sarah Hale was the author of "Mary Had a little Lamb."

Repeatability

It is Thanksgiving week and we in this country have so much to be thankful for.  Our girls start arriving tomorrow.  My family is so excited about getting everyone together under one roof.  Thanksgiving is also a very special meal.  This is one week we all start planning, making shopping lists, and blocking off time to cook.  A great deal of effort goes into the Thanksgiving dinner- we look forward to this special time and the memories last.  Tom Nordland is a basketball shooting expert and coach from California.  "The few great shooters of today and yesterday mastered simple things, not complicated motions.  Improved shooting is now possible for everybody in the game, and mastery is available to those who sincerely dedicate themselves to it." (EzineArticles)  In an article titled "Basketball Shooting: How to Get Accuracy, Consistency and Repeatability", Norland defines repeatability as "the name we give to a motion that is so learned and mastered it can go on automatic."  So how can we get repeatability into our cooking motion?  Take a page out of the Thanksgiving playbook.  Master the simple things: 1) Find simple recipes that excite your taste buds. 2) Write down a meal plan and shopping list. 3) Set aside time to create and cook.  Get into your zone and play your favorite music knowing you are doing something special for yourself and your family. 4) Make it repeatable.  Sunday is your day to plan and write out your grocery list, Monday is the day to shop and Tuesday night is your time to cook.  If you want to do all the cooking, have a month of family favorites in rotation with a goal of trying one new recipe a month.  Or try a cooking co-op which forces repeatability because when your dinner is delivered Monday and Tuesday night, it is your turn to cook Tuesday night and deliver on Wednesday.  One highlight of the Thanksgiving meal is the tremendous variety- turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, gravy, green beans, rolls, biscuits, and 3 different deserts.  I have found that without variety, I eat more than necessary trying to satisfy that craving for "something special to the taste and senses." And maybe, in part,  we eat too much at Thanksgiving because it is rare to have such a wide range of choices.  Get the weekly cooking motion going that is so learned and mastered, it is on automatic.   Then family dinners can start shooting the lights out and scoring in an area that really matters.

Why Were Family Kitchens the First to be Destroyed?

The Wall Street Journal(Oct. 27-28,2012) in it's book review of "The Great Famine in China 1958-1962" by Zhou Xun described how Mao Zedong's drive to make China an industrial giant resulted in the deaths of 45 million people.  Mao's goal was to turn China into a "communist utopia and leading industrial nation."  Mao started the "Great Leap Forward" by turning the country into 26,000 communes.  With the help of the military, these communes became work-slave brigades.  Mao's rallying cry was: "go all out, aim high, and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in socialist construction."  "Family kitchens were destroyed; even utensils were taken over by the commune or fed to "backyard furnaces" and melted down into useless iron lumps.  All food was served in canteens and distributed according to merit; for the uncooperative, starvation was the punnishment of first resort.  When food ran out the canteen closed and peasants were left to scavenge." Mao went on to say "We can start communism with food, clothes and housing.  Collective canteens, free food, that is communism."  In 1962, Mao was politically outmaneuvered. "The communes were dismantled and China's peasants were able to cultivate and grow and cook their own food once more.  Harvests improved dramatically."  So why were family kitchens the first to be destroyed?  Did not even want to leave reminders, such as utensils, of a more civilized way to eat.  Perhaps we take the freedom to grow and cook our own food for granted.  Perhaps we do not realize how vital it is to our own well-being and our community to cook and eat family meals together.  70% of those applying to our military do not qualify and the #1 reason is fitness- obesity.  The studies show more meals eaten at home result in more fruits and vegetables consumed.  It is important to ourselves to be healthy.  It is important to our national security to have more than 30% applicants qualify.  Family kitchens are vital to the well-being of America.

My Web Site is Back Up and Running

I had to change hosts to my web site so please share with others - www.mynight2cook.com.
As fall approaches, it is a great time for the Slow-Cooker Brunswick Stew on the recipe tab.
And I have a new e-mail @ gcbowie@comcast.net.  Let me know your thoughts and questions.
Many thanks for your patience in getting my web site back up to speed.

What's Your Plan for Higher Food Prices?

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article last week and here are some of the excerpts: " Helen Li is helping fuel apple fever in China, and it isn't of the iPhone variety.  The 30-year-old administrative assistant said she has been buying more apples since she moved from a small eastern Chinese city two years ago to Shanghai to work for a U.S. company.  "Chinese people are eating more and more fruit...as our lives get better"...Fresh apple consumption in China, which produces more than half of the global supply of the fruit, has soared 80% from the 2007-2008 crop year to the crop year ending in June 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture...The U.S. imports about two-thirds of its supply from China."  Who knew that China supplies most of the apples in this country?  Our apple and other food costs are rising due to people in Asia having more money to eat more in quantity and quality. In fact the WSJ says the average price of Chinese apple-juice concentrate in August was $10.25 a gallon.  I know this first hand because I went and paid $7.25 for Fuji apples on Friday (about $1.25 each) and even the check out clerk questioned if that was right.  We all need to rethink and come up with a plan to keep our food costs down.  The reasons that cooking co-op works is by cooking in quantity, you save time, lower your purchase costs because you can buy in  bulk, and you save more money with fewer trips to the grocery store(fuel costs) and you save money since your weekly meals are more planned and have less waste.  You save also by having less temptation to eat out or grab expensive fast food since you have a cooking co-op answer to what's for dinner and ready to eat in 5 minutes.  If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, cooking co-op can be an answer to how to manage higher food costs.  So "what's in your wallet?"  It could be more money.

A New School Year- Stability Matters

"Marriage Haves and Have-Nots", an article written by W. Bradford Wilcox (director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia) highlights such facts as : "In the nation's affluent and educated precincts...the future of marriage is bright.  After succumbing temporarily to the marital tumult of the 1970's, college-educated Americans have been getting their marital act together in recent years... divorce is down, infidelity is down...and the vast majority of children are fortunate to grow up with both their mother and father...But in poor and working-class communities...the future of marriage is bleak...For the majority of Americans who do not hold college degrees, divorce rates remain high, infidelity is up, nonmarital childbearing is way up...The privileged reap the benefits of stable marriages, whereas poor and ordinary families are burdened by growing instability and conflict in their lives."

So it is a new school year and where and how can we start to stabilize an instable environment?  We can start by bringing back the family dinnertime.  Many years ago, Reader's Digest did a study on Rhode Scholars- what was the determining factor in these students excelling?  No, it was not whether they had two vs. one parent, female vs. male etc.  The one common thread among Rhode Scholars was they regularly ate dinner with their family.  I was sharing this fact with a recent college graduate in my company's marketing department.  She said that was absolutely true.  She was a Rhode Scholar and her family always ate dinner together.

Studies show that eating 4 or more meals together/week leads to better grades, better health and less risky behavior.  It is a time for parent/parents and children to celebrate the day, discuss the trials and successes, and a time just to enjoy each other.  We are human beings- not animals or cars- and mealtime is so much more than just filling our stomach or tank.  What if the privileged were the families who despite all challenges regularly had dinnertime together?  What would result from more stability and   less conflict in their lives?  What if dinnertime was celebrated and lifted up as a status symbol in America?  What obesity, fitness, and educational barriers could be broken?  It is a new year full of new possibilities!

Waste Not, Want Not

This report just out by the Natural Resources Defense Council: "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of It's Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill."  As one radio announcer described it- we drop 1 out of 3 grocery bags and don't bother to pick it up.  And Americans are wasting 50% more food than they did in the 1970s.  The cost of this food waste is $165 billion per year.  All this in a country where 1 in 6 Americans do not have enough to eat (U.S. Department of Agriculture).   I am guilty of throwing away old fruits and vegetables that I had the best intention of using.  I recently found
canned foods out of date- the list goes on and on.  When I have the least waste is when I am planning my weekly menus and one big benefit of cooking co-op is the cost savings of buying in bulk but having very little wasted.  By planning meals Monday through Thursday, that gives me Friday through Sunday to use my left overs.  One of my favorite organizations here in Richmond, VA is the Good Samaritan Inn.  Their motto is "Offering a hand up, not a hand out."  What a better use of resources to give to these type of organizations rather than throwing the wasted food money out with the trash.  In these times when money is tight, less food dollars wasted means more dollars targeted to good causes!

Color Me Beautiful Foods

I went to a consultant a number of years ago to learn which colors looked best on me and why.  If you have not done this, watch the YouTube presentation.  I can now go into a clothing store and quickly gravitate to my colors.  Color me beautiful also helps you clean out your closet and give away those clothes you never wear- probably because it is not your color.  So I listened this morning to a few minutes of Color Me Beautiful on YouTube and heard these words: "... makes you look great and feel wonderful...comes from nature...season's colors...the secret to the natural, beautiful you...helps you find a more beautiful you."  So at our church,  we have lunch afterwards.   Those who can stay bring food and we all share.  Yesterday "color me beautiful" foods were in abundance.  Our lunch was visibly beautiful to look at and delicious to the taste.  We had a large salad with Hanover tomatoes, red peppers, Napa cabbage, celery, cucumbers, cauliflower.  We had a vegetable salad of green beans, bakes sweet potatos, and white shoe peg corn with a 3-2-1 dressing (3 parts balsamic vinegar, 2 parts mustard and 1 part maple syrup).  We had a big tray of cut up watermelon.  Then bowls of cantelope, strawberries and blueberries.  A slow-cooker dish of green beans, potatos, and sausage and a platter of chicken.  For desert, a home-made diabetic chocolate pie and a non-diabetic butter pecan cake.  These seasonal fruits and vegetables make you look and feel great.  Eating this way (filling 3/4ths of your plate with color me beautiful foods) is the secret to a natural and more beautiful you.  Go to your local produce stand today and enjoy these last days of summer!

How Dinnertime Could Reinvent the Modern World 2

There is much competition for jobs today.  And the deciding factor in being hired can be education and social skills.  There is much discussion about education but little talk about how to acquire social skills.
In the 1700's, a Scottish intellectual, Lord Shaftesbury, raised "politeness" to the top of the list of human virtues.  He described "politeness" as "... a polishing and refining of the self through friendly social interaction with others...All politeness is owing to Liberty.  We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision.  To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Men's understanding.  'Tis a destroying of Civility, Good Breeding, and even Charity itself..."  Dinnertime is the perfect setting to sharpen our minds by listening, interacting and talking about the events of the day and thus teach and learn needed social skills.  No social skills can be picked up watching the TV or playing video games during the meal.  Dinnertime teaches us about obligations to others- planning, shopping, cooking, coming up with new healthy creations, and cleaning up.  Lord Shaftesbury believed we served others, not because we had to, but because we felt a "sense of well-being and pleasure" by helping and serving others.  "Man was born to be with others, and born to make their lives more pleasant."  What better place to be with others than at dinnertime and what a way to make our lives more pleasant, polite, and polished- 3 P's.  So dinnertime could reinvent the modern world by raising up employees with the 3 P's.  What employer could resist such a worker?

How Dinnertime Could Reinvent the Modern World

O.K., so I am reading "How the Scots Invented the Modern World " by Arthur Herman.  Listen to this- pg. 72:"As human beings living in society,we have certain rights that we bring to the TABLE with us from our natural state, such as the right to our own life and our property.  But there are certain obligations we have to observe.  One of the most obvious of these is obeying the laws established through common consent.  But the other is the moral law governing our private conduct towards others.  Without a moral law, no community is possible.  Without community,  there is no protection for ourselves and the things we need to survive, i.e., our property.  When we realize...that our self-interest dictates that we treat others as ourselves, we are ready to live among our fellow men."  This came from the Scottish intellectuals in the early 1700's setting the stage for our Declaration of Independence.  They talked of rights that come with obligations.  They talked of a moral law directing our "private"(everyday) actions toward and for others.  They talked of the need for community for our very survival.  So dinnertime, regularly sitting at your own table, with the TV off perhaps is one of those obligations and actions you can take for your family,even if it is just 2, that cements the family as a small unified community discussing the joys and trials of the day, checking everybody's schedules, making plans for future events, bringing new words to the table( Katie Couric's parents did that), discussing articles, finding out where your teenager has been driving etc.  "When we realize...that our self-interest dictates that we treat others as ourselves,  we are ready to LIVE..."  and reinvent and reenergize the modern world!

"... For the Happy Heart, Life is a Continual Feast."

Yesterday was Father's Day and the restaurants were jammed with families celebrating with food a special day.  I have been quiet as a blogger as I regroup from my daughter's wedding 3 weeks ago.  I never teared up once because the whole week-end, I felt pure happiness.  The same happiness I felt at my wedding 32 years ago.  It was a time to escape the problems of the world, a time to talk with and enjoy the presence of family and friends, a time to enjoy a beautiful setting enjoying the views of gently rolling mountains and beautiful arrangements of flowers, and a time to sit around various tables at breakfast, lunch and dinner to savor carefully planned and prepared food.  The wedding dinner was especially memorable and just a taste of what the banquet in heaven must be like.  That taste of happiness which we enjoy at weddings and Father's Day is described above in Proverbs 15:15.  To have a happier heart, perhaps our lives need to sup on continual feasts which can be enjoyed by planning and cooking your family dinners.  Make it creative and fun.  Don't worry, instead be happy!

Up and Atom

That was the title of the women's leadership fundraising initiative in which 400 women came together at the Science Museum of Virginia for breakfast this week.  I had the opportunity to hear Naomi Vickers, a 7th grade student from St. Catherine's School speak on "Why I love the Science Musuem?"  I had a tear in my eye as her curiousity, intelligence and humor were on display.  She described how the visual exhibitions of science stimulated her ability to learn and understand and made it fun.  So to test out one of my theories, I went up to her mother afterwards, congratulated her on her daughter's talk and asked if they ate dinner together as a family. Her immediate response was "Yes- all the time and it started with my mother who is over there."  So I go and speak with Naomi's grandmother.  She told me she had been a career woman but she wanted to hear from her children the exciting events of the day.  And she could "catch it all at the dinner table."  She added there was no TV on and that she always regulated TV time.  She added that "some things need to be constant."  Let me add that Naomi, her mother and grandmother are beautiful, fit and trim- a picture of a lovely family wise in knowing what's most important on any schedule for the day.  Let the family dinner hour be a constant in your home and see what blossoms

What's Right With This Picture? - A Table of 8

I recently had the priviledge to visit a very special family in Lexington, KY for a very special occasion.  The night before the special occasion, 8 of us sat around a kitchen table for 2 hours laughing, telling tales, discussing world events - enjoying a memorable evening.  Sandra had planned a wonderful meal- baked cranberry chicken, baked rice, asparagus, and salad finished off with daughter Laura's apple, blueberry dump cake a la mode.  As I watched David, crying with laughter at the banter of his 2 daughters, Laura and Becca, I took a vivid mental picture of this Norman Rockwell experience.  How would our country be different if this picture of a family around the kitchen table was the norm?   The next day, Becca was one of 4 given the Distinguished Alumni Engineering Award by the University of KY.  She also received a plaque from the governor who bestowed her with the title "Kentucky Colonel."  What's right with this picture?

Marathon Sports and Family Meals

May is the month for marathons.  I was playing singles in a USTA tennis match. The match started at 6 pm.  Every point, we exchanged 20 hits, it was hot, and my opponent was a lefty.  I won the first set, she won the 2nd set, we change sides in the middle of the tie-breaker and I told her I would hate to know what time it was.  She informed me it was 8:55 pm.  A 3 hour marathon.  I went on to win the tie-breaker and our team won the whole match 3-2!  Then I read the Orioles beat the Red Sox in a 17 inning marathon baseball game which took more than 6 hours to play, 17 innings, both teams went through their 8 pitchers and had to finnish the game with a positional player pitching.  When you are the only one on the tennis court facing an opponent or you are on the pitcher's mound staring down the batter, you have to   go through a mental check list.  Serve to her backhand, remember she is a lefty, move your feet, keep your eye on the ball, imagine winning the point.  And in a marathon, you repeat these mind games over, and over, and over.  The same mental toughness is required for consistently bringing your family together for dinnertime- the planning ahead to have the right ingredients on hand, refusing to take no for an answer (all three of my children played sports and we still consistently had dinners together), the determination to save money and calories by eating at home vs. the let's eat out option, and remembering the joy, laughter , and important discoveries(so you have a big test in chemistry tomorrow?) that come from sitting around your own kitchen table.  So it's mmm(marathons, meals, mind games- not hunger games) - good!

Save a Life With Family Dinners

ABC News reports that Mark Zuckerberg's of Facebook fame came up with his latest idea of using Facebook's "health and wellness" section to include a status and discussion of organ donation over conversations at the dinner table with his girlfriend who is a student in medical school.  So family dinners are MORE important than Facebook!  I found statements from his interview reminding all of us just how important family dinners are:  "Facebook is really about communicating and telling stories..." and that is what makes family dinners vital to a family's well-being and a nation's health.  "We want to make it simple."  Putting dinner on the table has never in history been more simple to do with all the short cut, cost savings and buying/cooking in quantiy opportunities.  "More than 112,000 Americans are awaiting organs..."  How many Americans do you think are out there that are awaiting a loving family meal?  The article describes Zuckerberg as "...lighting up when talking about the dinnertime chats he had with his girlfriend."  That is precisely what has happend to family and friends throughout history while breaking bread. And notice, this idea did not come about while eating out at a restaurant.  It happend over the dinner table.    The importance of hearth and home which is more cosy, private and relaxing.  So maybe to better market family dinnertime- let's call it FACETIME!

Unbroken

Last night I had the priviledge to hear WWII veteran Louie Zamperini speak. I am in the middle of reading the book describing his miraculous survival of floating 47 days on a raft, POW camps and even his road home back to America. At age 95, we would all be thankful to have his sharp mind. While on the raft, he realized he had to keep his mind occupied with good thoughts and one tactic was to describe to his 2 fellow survivors some of his favorite home-cooked meals: "Every conversation meandered back to food. Louie had often boasted to Phil about his mother's cooking, and at some point, Phil asked Louie to describe how she made a meal. Louie began describing a dish, and all three men found it satisfying, so Louie kept going, telling them about each dish in the greatest possible detail. Soon, Louise's kitchen floated there with them: Sauces simmered, spices were pinched and scattered, butter melted on tongues." Perhaps our family and friends will not be faced with such trials and tribulation, but what will they remember of our kitchens? Mr. Zamperini encouraged us last night to take all the survival courses you can. I encourage you to start that process by learning all you can about cooking up your own food in your own kitchen. Instead of survival of the fittest- survival lessons to be the fittest(mind, body and soul).

How To Maintain Intact Communities Without Broken Windows

John Q. Wilson was a political scientist and authority on public administration who taught at Harvard from 1961-1987. He helped put forward the "broken windows" theory of crime- if police ignore public disorder, such as broken windows, criminals will get the idea they can get away with anything. His published report in 1982 in the "Atlantic Monthly" states, "...one unrepaired window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing." His article concludes, "Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police- and the rest of us- ought to recognize the importance of maintaining intact, communities without broken windows." So maybe we parents are ignoring a "broken window" by not insisting our teenagers sit down for a family meal at least 4 times / week. I spoke with a local high school teacher last night who started "team cooking" after reading an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch "Cook for a Night, Eat for a Week." Now she and a neighbor do a "Cooking Co-op" together as she enters her 4th year of a team approach to putting dinner on the table for her family of 4. She mentioned her students were living "very independent lives." One student commented they had not sat down with their family to eat in a year. How can we maintain and keep intact one of the most important communities, family, without regularly sitting down for a meal every week? Many of our big cities like NYC enjoyed a huge financial comeback in the 1980's and 1990's by cleaning up graffitti and repairing broken windows which helped reduce crime. Parents, it's time to insist your teenagers are at your family meal at least 4 times/week. Why 4? Studies show that children eating 4 or more meals with a parent are better students, healthier and involved in less risky behavior. This would make for a dramatic housing and family come back. Resurrect the family meal this Easter.

28% of Americans Can't or Won't Cook

If you asked me if I could mow the lawn, I would admit I did not have the know how. But the truth of the matter is I don't want to know how. I was told ages ago in my early 20's that if I knew how to mow, I would be stuck performing that task forever. If instead I was told that mowing the lawn was a physically and mentally rewarding excercise that improved my health and saved me thousands of dollars a year, and was a benefit to my family, I could learn. In a recent survey, Impulse Research found that 28% of Americans say they do not know how to cook. Others avoid cooking because they hate cleaning up the kitchen, say they do not have time, and/or see grocery shopping as a time-consuming vacuum to their day. Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, directorof Tufts' HNRCA Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, believes, "The results of this survey highlight what we have known for some time: the importance of incorporating food preparation and purchasing skills into the school curriculum. Food shopping, preparation and clean-up do not have to be time-consuming if you plan ahead and know some simple facts. This is the message we need to propagate and we need to back it up with examples of how to achieve it." This is EXACTLY why I have this web site, put together a 15 minute DVD, and blog about the importance of banning together with your spouse, friends, neighbors to form your own "Team of Cooks" to put dinner on your own table!!! My night 2 cook means you find a way to cook one night a week in quantity, then share the planning, cooking, cleaning-up , and shopping with others. Yahoo finance cited "Cooking Co-Op" as the #1 best way to save big bucks( they estimate a family of 4 could save $3-4,000/ per year- maybe more with the high cost of gas). The beauty of cooking yourself is you can always learn new recipes. This week-end I had the most delicious dinner eating out which included a sweet potato- black bean cake with a cilantro sauce- so I will be searching the internet to find that recipe. Where there is a will, there is a way. Don't tell an American they no can do- yes we can!

March Madness- Good Food, Good Results

Saturday I woke my 16 year old up early to play in his first AAU Basketball tournament. He grumbled about not getting to watch the VCU game that evening as he and the team would still be traveling. I encouraged him and said maybe one day he could be playing in March Madness vs. watching it. Now it took time but I had volunteered to make man sandwiches and brownies for the team. I made Deluxe Turkey and Havarti Cheese with Bacon Club Sandwiches in the round loaves of Hawaiian bread(see Youvegotsupper.com for recipe) and cut in wedges. They loved the sandwiches- 8 of them ate 18 wedges. But here is the rest of the story. They won the first game after eating my sandwiches in DOUBLE OT !!! Did the home-made sandwiches vs. eating fast food hamburgers give them the edge? Just 1 degree difference makes hot water boil. Haven't you noticed in these March Madness close games- so often the difference in winning or losing "boils" down to one shot or smart play? Good food brings winning results in games and in our health. And good food makes life so much more enjoyable. You are worth the extra effort! As Nike say, "Just do it"- fix more meals in your own kitchen!

Spring Break

Once again, food serves as the WD-40 to get conversation going. My daughter is home for Spring Break this week and my son came home from a week at the beach after his Spring Break. So I made a home-made-from scratch chocolate cake with fluffy 7 minute frosting. So I get my daughter to the table, and as we take a bite of the cake, "...so mom, did I tell you..." It is amazing what you can find out about your children's lives by listening at the table with good food on the plate. Now earlier, I had chopped up all these veges and made steak stir fry. No matter how hard I try, I can not make as good a sauce as Peking- our local Chinese food restaurant expert. So I have come up with an idea- I plan to call and see what the price would be to just buy their sauce. By the time I buy the oyster sauce and bean paste etc.- it would be worth it. Spend more time cooking and learn more of life's lessons!

Nutrition and Better Performance the Tim Tebow Way

We can learn from top athletes that changing our diet just might improve our performance at work and play. Djokovic with the "Diet That Changed Tennis" discovered he is allergic to gluten so out goes pizza, pasta, and bread. He lost some weight, is more agile, and feels better. Tyler Hansbrough, a 6' 9" 250 lb. NBA player for the Indiana Pacers was frequently sighted at Whole Foods during his years at North Carolina. And I just found out Friday that Tim Tebow started working with a nutritionist here in Richmond in October. He now eats more vegetables and is more careful as to what fuel he puts in his tank. You can gum up a high performance car by using low quality fuel and the same is true for our bodies. We tend to eat low quality foods when we don't take the time to cook or eat with others. One of the best Valentine's presents can be a home-cooked dinner- quality protein and colorful fruits and vegetables- for the top athletes in your family.

What if the Biggest Cause of Inequality in US is Cultural?

Charles Murray in his new book "Coming Apart" points out that a large % of blue-collar America is turning aside core values which have been a bedrock of our country- values such as marriage, honesty( includes obeying the law), hard work and religion. Marriage is down 36% in the the working class( high school grads) vs. down 11% in the upper middle class(college grads) since 1960. Our founding fathers, such as Patrick henry, believed that a stable family was necessary for a stable society. I find it interesting that the decline of marriage correlates to the demise of home economic classes and the decline of the family meal and home-cooking. Isn't it a part of the family culture weather you put time aside to at least have 4 family meals in a week? 4 is the magic # of meals which help produce better students and students with less risky behavior. So what are we going to do about it? Let's have that food revolution that Oprah and Jamie Oliver are talking about- start saving money and have more fun with less stress by cooking home-made meals AT LEAST 4 times a week. To prevent "coming apart" let everyone in your household take a part in shopping, cooking, setting the table, and cleaning. Then maybe Clint Eastwood in his Super Bowl ad might be right- it's halftime in America and we are coming back to restore equality because that is the American way of life!

Cooking for Super Bowl Week-End the Tim Tebow Way

Interesting article- "5 Reasons Why Tim Tebow is the Chosen One." 1) Tebow works well under pressure as noted in his 4th quarter come backs and 4 OT wins. We cooks also work well under pressure and can be creative scrambling an array of foods for a winning combination. 2) Tebow delivers and we cooks deliver every time we put dinner on the plate. 3) Tebow defys the critics. Naysayers tell us there is no time to cook or have family dinner in this hectic day with parent's demanding work schedules and children's sports and after school activities but many of us fighting this trend enjoy the "fruits" of our labor by sitting and enjoying food and fellowship on a regular basis. 4) Tebow has a dedicated fan base. Good cooks also have a dedicated fan base - the smile on a son's face when you've fixed his favorite meal is our equivalent of a touchdown with all the cheers. And finally, 5) Tim Tebow "...is enthusiastic, but not arrogant. He is fired up, but not obnoxious." Cooks fighting for a dinner time slot know it takes enthusiasm, determination, and a sense of duty to make dinnertime a priority in the day. So let's plan ahead our menu, shopping list, and carve out a time to cook the best super bowl lunch ever. Yes, have a big sit down lunch with the TV off and enjoy your family and pre-game meal! Once your victory is in the bag, enjoy the Super Bowl with family and friends.