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I got this recipe from a a great list of bread machine bread recipes, and we love it around here. The notes read that it’s pretty hot, but we find it to be mild – maybe this is because I used jalapenos from a jar. Makes fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches. Enjoy!

Jalapeno Cheese Bread

3/4 cup sour cream
1/8 cup water
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated (4 oz.)
3 tablespoons fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (about 4 peppers)
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Wow … hot stuff!! Serve this coarsely textured, very spicy bread at your next cocktail party and watch it disappear. It’s great with a glass of wine or a cold beer, but its perfect partner is a frosty margarita! Place all ingredients in bread pan, select a light crust setting, and press “start”. After the baking cycle ends, remove bread from pan, place on cake rack, and allow to cool 1 hour before slicing.

Title: Sanity Secrets for Stressed-Out Women
Author: Sue Augustine
Summary: I judged it by the cover: a book recommending bubble baths had to have good stress-relief tips, and it did.

This book begins with the quote: “Some mornings it seems hardly worth the effort to take the cat off your face,” and I could tell it was the book for me! Sue Augustine approaches stress-reduction with practicality and a sense of humor, and I found many useful tips in this book. She certainly hit the old stand-bys (eat right, exercise…) which I usually find singularly unhelpful. That is, when I am stressed out, I don’t have time to exercise and cook, so I tend to do fast food and skip workouts. Thus, when I hear these recommendations, I just think, “Come on! Give me something I can use…”

However, her book is designed for people like you and I – people who may be so stressed, they can’t read an entire book: we need relief and we need it now! She organized the book around 25 “secrets” to reduce stress, with one chapter covering each secret. This way, you can skip right to the chapter that makes sense for you, whether it be “simplify your life” or “celebrate the joys of aging.” If a whole chapter feels like too much, skip to the end of the chapter and read the bulleted list of tips for that topic: you will still get the benefit. In addition, she wrote a number of sections called “the first resort,” in which she points out how to rely on your faith in God to reduce stress, and not as a last resort.

The last section of the book provided a new way to look at stress, and was very valuable. Augustine notes that stress is often caused by how we perceive circumstances, and describes a cycle of stress: (1) Event, (2) Thoughts about the event, (3) Self-talk, (4) Emotional response, and (5) Physical response (i.e. stress). Thus, we can interrupt the stress cycle at any point after the event occurs. She offers a formula called “CPR” – Circumstance + Perception = Result. If we challenge our automatic perceptions, manage how we talk to ourselves about events, and give our emotions only the appropriate amount of weight, we can actually reduce our stress even in the same circumstances that normally cause us problems. (more…)

My husband and I just saw this play last night (opening night) at Taproot Theatre in Seattle, WA. We thoroughly enjoyed the program – even more than I expected! The play is based on a novel of the same name by Jules Verne, born in France in 1828. Verne, in some ways, was one of the first science fiction authors of our time, as the inventions he came up with in his imagination have become reality today.

“Around the World in 80 Days” is known as one of the most realistic of his plays, in that he does not feature these futuristic inventions. Rather, he features a wager: Phileas Fogg, a bit of a stick-in-the-mud who prides himself on precise estimations, bet that he could circumnavigate the world in 80 days. The play follows Phileas, as well as his French man-servant, Passepartout, around the world via steamship, rail, and various other modes of transportation employed on the spur of the moment.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the play was watching four actors and one actress play over 20 individual characters. In addition, they did not employ CGI, mechanics, or any other trickery. Rather, the players successfully used a few props and their ingenuity to give the play life. The play was humorous – almost slapstick, with a bit of Monty Python tossed into the mix. We both found it to be great comedy, and I felt inspired to go back and read the book. If you go, we can recommend Olive You, a casual Greek restaurant and Wild Mountain Cafe (get the fried chicken – yum!) for a great dinner. Let us know what you think!

Title: Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents
Author: Deborah Gray
Summary: Surprisingly readable and eminently useful.

This book is completely awesome for adoptive parents, especially if your child was adopted at age 6 months or older, or if your child has any special circumstances (past abuse, neglect, trauma, etc.). The book is a bit like a textbook, but a very readable one – I did not find the presentation dry, and the material was all compelling.

If anything, some of the vignettes (illustrative stories about adoptive children/families) were so compelling as to be heartwrenching – it is just such a shame what some children have been through! However, every story was wrapped in hope, as the author gives concrete steps regarding what you can do to help your child in virtually every situation.

The first half of the book covers the various problems that may occur related to attachment – what it is, why it is important, and the impact of grief, trauma, cultural change (i.e. international adoption), etc. I felt that these chapters laid an excellent groundwork for the remainder of the book, which covers practical steps for handling the various issues. In fact, throughout the first part of the book, as each issue was described, the author cross-referenced the later chapter which would address that issue.

Chapter 8, one of the longest chapters, was particularly helpful. The author covered all phases of child development (from birth through teen years). In each phase, she described the characteristics of that phase, what the parents’ role is to help the child through that phase, and what we can do as parents if our child did not get the proper attention (i.e. has an emotional delay) in that area.

This is an excellent and thorough coverage of attachment in adoptive families!

Did you know that many cars today have a little icon on the dashboard fuel guage that shows which side of the car your gas tank is on? How did I not know about this before?

We were on a camping trip with a group from church recently, and were driving an unfamiliar van. The driver stopped for gas and wondered out loud where the gas tank might be. Someone reminded him that it would show on the gas guage, and I looked: sure enough, there was a little arrow pointing to the driver’s side of the van.

I thought to myself, “Gee – it would be so great if our cars had that,” since both gas tanks are on different sides of the cars, so we forget which is which all the time. Imagine my surprise when I came home and looked – both cars have the indicator. In fact, the Toyota, which I drive most, actually says the words “FUEL DOOR” along with the arrow. Kinda’ felt a little dumb at that point, but I post here in the spirit of self-sacrifice: YOU can benefit from my ignorance!

I have recently been taking steps to learn about trans fat and remove it from our family’s diet. I know… kind of jumping on that bandwagon a little slowly. What can I say? I love fried foods! A few weeks ago, I was meeting family for lunch at Great Harvest Bread Company in Lake Forest Park, and we happened to run into the proprietor. Since I am a bread maker myself, I wondered how they were handling the trans-fat question, so I asked what they were doing or planning to do about fat in their breads.

To my pleasant surprise, he said, “There isn’t any.” Talking further with him, he mentioned that not only is there no fat, but very little sugar, (usually none or honey) and they use whole grains. What impressed me even more is that I have tasted many of their breads, and they do not taste like cardboard, as many whole grain breads can. I was so thrilled with all of this, that I wanted to share a big “Way to go” for Great Harvest Bread. You can find one near you with their bakery locator, and if you stop by, they will always give you a free slice of any of the fresh breads on their menu that day. If you go to the Lake Forest Park branch, I recommend the Cinnamon Chip… not completely healthy, but it’s only one slice, right?

I recently purchased an HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One printer, and it works like a dream. I can print to it via my wireless network, so I can finally print when I take my laptop off it’s docking station. I’ve been very happy with it until a couple of weeks ago. All of a sudden, I started seeing a wide black stripe down the center of any photocopy or scanned image.

I researched the problem on their support knowledge base, and found an applicable help article right away. After I tried all of the things listed, I was still having the problem, so I contacted their online chat support. The man who responded was knowledgeable and helpful and didn’t make me re-do all of the things I had already done. (I hate that) He had me try several things that seemed reasonable, and after all of it, there was still a stripe.

So, they deduced that it is an issue with the hardware and they are sending me an entirely new printer at their expense! Plus, I will be mailing the old printer back at their expense. I am very impressed with this. Though I would have been happier if there was no stripe in the first place, this customer service has been really great, and I wanted to reward them by spreading the word!

Google: what’s not to love? Though I did have to laugh when the courts recently rejected their anti-trust suit against Microsoft, saying (paraphrase) that Google was probably big enough to handle the competition! Here are two Google features that I especially like:

Phone Info

Okay, raise your hand if you’re tired of paying $1.50 to get a 411 call on your cell phone… Yeah, I thought so. Well, memorize this number: 800-GOOG-411. This is Google’s FREE 411 service. It’s all mechanized, but it really works! Plus, you can request to have the phone number/address and link to a Google Map texted to your phone, also free. Woohoo!

Calculator

Who can ever keep track of how may cups are in a gallon? Or the exchange rate for Euros? Well, just type convert X to Y into your Google Search box, and click search as you normally would. The first line in the search results will be the answer. It’s like magic!

Type: convert 30 euros to us dollars
Answer: 30 Euros = 38.52 U.S. dollars

Type: convert 3 quarts to cups
Answer: 3 US quarts = 12 US cups

This is a recipe I got from my friend’s mom (Sue), and I love it! Chili is naturally low in fat and high in protein, and this turkey version just improves on those. Plus, you just can’t beat the ’set it and forget it’ conveniences of a crock pot… mine is simmering away now. Thanks, Sue!

Turkey Chili

2 pounds ground turkey
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can tomato sauce (more…)

I love it when I can support a great cause and get a great deal, and Wendy’s is offering both at once. If you donate $1 to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Wendy’s will give you a booklet of 5 coupons for Junior Frosty’s. A Junior Frosty is pretty small, I admit, but I just think of it as the “low-cal” version!

You couldn’t ask for a better cause – St. Jude helps children with cancer and their families. The coupons are good until December 31, 2009, so they would make fantastic stocking stuffers! Note: I could not find anything on Wendy’s website, so this may not be a national offer, but the ones in Western Washington seem to be participating.