Recipe #22: Cranberry Apple Cream Cheese Mold

For roughly 15 years, I have been making this mold. My grandma loves and requests this yearly for Thanksgiving.

Here's the recipe:
1-1/2 cups boiling water
1 pkg. (8-serving size) or 2 pkg. (4-serving size each) JELL-O Cranberry Flavor Gelatin
2 cups cold apple juice or cold water
1 medium red apple, cored, quartered and thinly sliced
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

I add a whole can of whole cranberry sauce. I also add 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts.

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Mockingjay, Part One

Unlike the prior installments of the Hunger Games franchise, this movie was sad and lacking in endearing moments that I'd come to love about Hunger Games. Peeta was barely in this movie and Katniss moped around the whole time. There was no love, not a lot of action sequences and really nothing to make it interesting. Despite my love of the franchise, I felt this movie was stiff and I struggled to stay awake throughout it. Having read the series, I knew that this wouldn't be an upbeat, feel-good kind of movie, but I was hoping for more than I got. The only somewhat endearing character was Prim. I did like where Katniss sang the Hanging Tree.

Here's hoping Part Two gives us all the ending we need.



Have you seen it? Thoughts?

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10 Reasons ABC Should Save Selfie

1. Eliza-Who doesn't love her flawless hair and makeup? I've enjoyed watching Eliza grow as a person with Henry's help. Despite how crazy she can be, you can't help but like her and her real attempts at change.
2. Henry-You cheer for him to find out that there's more to life than work. He's also kind and wants to see Eliza grow as a person. He's dedicated to work and knows how to be serious; though he struggles to let loose and enjoy life. It's nice to see Eliza try to help him with him embrace life more.
3. Charmonique-She's so funny and real; just like what everyone wants in a friend
4. Charmonique's son, Kevin-I can't express how excited I was to see more from him as the season progressed. He's wise for a kid and real. The episode where Eliza babysat him is my favorite; that kid rocks! The clip:
5. Terrence-Despite how mean his father-in-law/boss is to him, Terrence is always upbeat and treats him with genuine respect and kindness. Not sure many of us could do the same.
6. I was cheering for Eliza and Henry to fall in love. They were the perfect balance for each other.
7. The show made me laugh and brightened up my Tuesdays. What else will I have to look forward too?
8. Eliza's one-liners are the best
9. Henry's new girlfriend, who is like his twin. They're annoyingly similar and I must see more!
10. I found it interesting watching the company that Henry, Eliza, and Charmonique work for. How often does one see a show set in a pharmaceutical company? I got a better feel for what that world would be like.

Catch it while you can on ABC.com.

All-in-all, I will miss this uniquely quirky and fun show with real characters that were relatable.



Any other fans of the show?

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Qdoba vs. Chipotle

I'm in a town that only had a Chipotle, so I never had the opportunity to check out Qdoba before. Just last month a Qdoba opened practically across the street from me. I waited until the crowds died down a little and finally checked it out. Now, I was skeptical of trying the grilled beef because the beef at Chipotle was always fatty, but I was in for a great surprise; so good! I kinda feel like I was cheating on Chipotle, but I have to admit that Qdoba is so much better! Their queso and chips are the things dreams are made of! I normally hate guac, but loved theirs! Their Roasted Chile Corn was mild and so good. Suffice it to say; Qdoba wins and it's right by my apartment, which may be dangerous!
Qdoba Manhattan!

Recipe #21: The Best Brussel Sprouts

My grandma gave me a bunch of brussel sprouts, last week and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. The only time I'd experimented cooking them before hadn't turned out very well. So, I gave Pinterest a whirl and found this fabulous recipe for The Best Brussel Sprouts. I love the simplicity of the ingredients: brussel sprouts, bread crumbs, garlic salt, olive oil, and pepper. I appreciate recipes that don't require me to go to the store for lots of ingredients and in general, I love simple. Essentially, you just combine the ingredients in a skillet and cook for 10 minutes. They were so good. When co-workers saw me eating them during a working lunch, today they asked about the recipe.

What's your favorite brussel sprout recipe?

Fear of Public Speaking

I've always had a huge fear of public speaking. I dreaded and felt physically ill before every speech in speech class in college. I also dreaded class presentations in college. I'd rehearse and work on them a lot, but fear and anxiety plagued me.

After college, I still had to speak in public within my first job. The scariest speech was a very short one that was part of several other presentations. It was at Fort Riley with the General, top leadership, my boss, my supervisor, and coworkers. There were roughly 75 people there. I'd written up what I needed to say, but was very nervous. So, I knew my material, but my nerves killed my voice and made it sound like I was about to cry which I wasn't. I was happy to have that done!

When I changed jobs, I don't think I realized how much I would be presenting. In the the first two weeks on the job, I talked to roughly 17 classes, ranging in size from 45-400. Yes, 400!!! Most went okay, but I had to take anxiety meds to make it. Even then, I was still very much out of my element. The worst of those 17 presentations was when I was going to talk to a class of 45. I had to cross the street, walk uphill, and climb stairs from the basement to the 2nd floor. I was rushing to make it on time and was nervous. Once I climbed the stairs, I took a minute, took a deep breathe and then entered the class. Immediately, the instructor introduced me and I started talking. Soon, I realized I couldn't breathe. The walk, uphill climb, and stairs had killed me. So, I started taking some pauses and trying to get some breaths in. I kinda tried to joke about the stairs and how they'd killed me, but the class just gave me blank stares. The instructor thankfully jumped in for a few minutes to let me catch my breath and continue.

In my job, I'm still asked to give presentations a lot. While my gut reaction is to say no, I always make myself say yes. I know that I won't become a better speaker if I don't do more of it.

Here's what I've done to try to improve:
-Communicate why the information is important for the audience. Framing it like that, helps the listener know why they should listen and how that info should help them.
--I spend a lot of time prepping for my presentations. I make sure I have enough content and type up my notes sheet.
-I try to have helpful PowerPoint slides for the audience to follow along with
-When appropriate, I bring handouts for the audience to be able to take with them for future reference
-I literally write down everything I plan to say word for word. This helps me get a flow to my speech, so when I'm nervous I won't have to think of the wording, I'll have a flow to it all. I print my notes and highlight or underline key words or phrases. I spend a lot of time reading over my notes sheet. That way, if I forget what's next I can glance at my notes and find my place.
-I also imagine myself speaking calmly to the class. Visualization helps me remain calm.
-I pray and take some deep breaths also

So far, this semester, I've spoken roughly 25 times. I can definitely see the improvement in my speaking, but I still have room to grow.

Here's something I found on Pinterest:

Any speech tips you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!

Sharing

I love sharing with you all the newest things I love. Hope you enjoy it all too!

Even though Paul Walker isn't in much of it, I will definitely still be seeing the new Fast and the Furious 7. Check out the terrific trailer:

Break Free from Arianna Grande has some lyrics that mean something to me, especially: I only wanna die alive
Never by the hands of a broken heart (from AZLyrics.com). The music video is the most ridiculous music video ever!

Blank Space by Taylor Swift is a pretty cool music video, but don't take my word for it.

I have absolutely fell in love with RaeLynn's voice and new song, God Loves Girls. It's a super cute song and so sweet. I first heard it on iTunes Country Top 50.

What do you think? Love them? Hate them? What are you jamming to?

Praying for My Enemies

A month and a half ago, while at a women's conference, Wonderful Weekend for Women, with my mom I felt impressed on my heart that I should pray for my enemies. Enemies: those people who have hurt or wrongly treated me or my family, etc. I don't have a lot of people I consider enemies, but I know my attitude toward them isn't pleasing to the Lord, but I've had a hard time reconciling the bad they've done. While, I haven't been the best at remembering to pray for them, the Lord has started to work on one of the worst relationships I had. I know the Lord wants me to bring Him all my concerns and I know He'll keep helping me through them. So, sometime He doesn't change the situation, but He changes us. :)

Here are my favorite posts about prayer from Pinterest:

What helps you forgive?

Halloween Costume: Scarecrow

A knew a month and a half ago that I'd be going to a Halloween party. I hadn't dressed up in years. I'm generally not that great at costumes. I'd been trying to figure out that to wear for weeks and got some inspiration from Pinterest. From there, I had to start narrowing them down. I wanted something that would be cheap to put together and easy to pull off. My inspiration:

Decided from this one to put sunflower in my pocket.

I'm pretty horrible at make up, so I was pretty nervous about pulling it off. Here's my progression:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. I borrowed the shirt from a friend and leaves from my mom's decorating supply, so all I had to buy was a small hay bale (nearly impossible to find long pieces of straw) and black eye liner. I gathered the straw in small bundles secured with a hair tie to put in my pockets and shoes. As a result, the landing area outside my door where I gathered it all looked like I was incubating a small farm animal. :) So, overall my costume was definitely budget-friendly ($1 eye liner and $8 for the hay bale).

I ended up having a lot of fun at the two parties I went to.