and olé to you

I'm a ridiculously huge fan of Elizabeth Gilbert - she of the Eat, Pray, Love fame and untold other pieces of writing genius.  What I love most about her writing style (and that of another of my all-time favorites, Martha Beck) is that their voice - their personal, wonderous, unique sounding voice - comes through so resoundingly in their words.  For me, this is what I strive for when writing.  Either for myself or for my clients, it's my sincerest goal to have that honest, true voice speak through my words.  Sometimes it's professional, branded and on-message.  Sometimes it's funny, forthright and a tad sassy.  Regardless, I always hope that I can bring the voice through the message so that it connects and resonates with the people to whom it's directed.

I love how Liz talks here about this insane idea of creative genius, spreading out the love/blame for the quality of writing and just continuing the work regardless.  Olé indeed.

zucchini & leek vichyssoise

This is a recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris to which I have made a teensy alteration, simply because I think my stock was darker than Ina's and my potatoes weren't the white kind, so it didn't have that fresh, bright color I was looking for...so I cheated and added liquid sunshine instead. Also, if you - like me - are in the midst of detox or otherwise avoiding dairy, double up on the olive oil and skip the cream. I swear you won't notice a thing.

1 T unsalted butter
1 T good olive oil
5 c chopped leeks, white and light green parts (4-8 leeks - wash VERY well; soak and change water 2-3x)
4 c chopped unpeeled white boiling potatoes (8 small)
3 c chopped zucchini (2 zucchinis; unpeeled)
1 1/2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock (I love Pacific Organic)
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper
2 T heavy cream (I used half and half and it was just fine)
Zest from 1/2 lemon
1-2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fresh chives or julienned zucchini, for garnish

Heat the butter and oil in a large stockpot, add the leeks and saute over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, zucchini, stock, salt and pepper; bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes and either:

• process through a food mill fitted with the medium disc (Ina's way)
• blitz with a hand blender right in the pot (my way)
• process in small batches in the blender (careful not to fill more than 1/2 way; dangerous hot stuff expands in the blender)

Add the cream and adjust the seasonings. If you're looking for a brighter, summery-er flavor, add lemon. Zest the lemon directly into the pot, and squeeze in the lemon juice.

Serve hot or icy cold with chives or julienned zucchini threads across the top. If you have a bright, fruity olive oil (or chive oil or similar), give the top a little drizzle with this as well.

Green tip: don't be silly; this is a great way to deal with that insane garden bounty. I suspect you could cut some yellow squash in for some of the zucchini with great success although I haven't tried it.

sunny d

I got a newsletter in my inbox today from Oprah and Dr. Oz wondering if I'm getting enough Vitamin D. So kind of them to inquire.

Dr. Oz (one of my all-time health idols along with Dr. Weil) and his YOU book compadre have developed some content on Oprah.com and one segment explains how somewhere between 40-85% of Americans are Vitamin D deficient. And it doesn't take much to make you deficient! If you, like me, are religious about sunscreen for instance, you are leaving much of the sun-generated D on the table. Such a conundrum! Check out this article for more information on how much we need and how to get more.

With that in mind, I'm headed out to soak up a little lower-risk, early day, northern latitude sunny sunshine. I've already added Vitamin D to my supplements, and I eat lots of delicious fatty fish. And, although a major inconvenience, I'll be taking apéro on my deck as much as possible.

series: personal branding, starting out

In the past week, I have been reminded several times of the importance of a personal brand - the individual, identifiable face we put out to the world - in our everyday lives. Things are changing all around us. Things are changing in our checking accounts, our retirement balances, how we make our living. Things changing that much would be enough to send the most secure, introspective person into bed for a week with the covers over her head. Crafting, or really documenting, our own statement about who we are and what we stand for can bring some real clarity. And the truth? It's already in each one of us. Even if it's hidden deep beneath all of those notions about "what I should do," "who I thought I would be," "what used to be passionate about before I simply ran out of time, " it is really, truly, positively already inside us. Sometimes we just need to help it out.

Many people are being sort of forced to self-evaluate due to job loss. I've SO been there over the years, and I know many people I know are in this mode now. To even start thinking about what do I want to do now? is incredibly overwhelming. My answer to so many of these fork-in-the-road life challenges is to research, read, ask people to share their experiences and ask people who do this kind of thing for a living. And I really tend to put a lot of faith and attention towards those who are outwardly living their values. When you meet them, you just know. It's almost electric just being around them or reading their words.

About 3 years ago, I went through my 2nd layoff. I took a year off and did a lot of navel gazing. I thought about the values and beliefs I had deep under the façade of my job, my title, my paycheck. When I could take that GIANT step back and gain some perspective, a few things really stood out for me. I knew - really knew this time - that getting back on the corporate roller coaster wasn't going to work. I constantly felt like a square peg in a round hole. Would you have been able to tell that about me at the time? No. I did my best to put my work face on and go in each day determined to do my best. Even if I wasn't doing what was best for me. I look back now at some of the work situations I allowed myself to get into and realize that I was doing the direct opposite of being authentic. I let others define the role I would play in my work life and, quite frankly, bought into the entire program. Led by false values – title, perceived status, money – I made career decisions that didn’t really fit who I was. And that took me off course. I set my own dreams and aspirations aside. Well, no more.

So how do you start figuring out your own authentic values, your personal mission statement, your brand? Here’s what I’d recommend:

• Do your own self-inventory and exploration. Get a great journal and a nice pen that feels good in your hand. Be consistent about using them both; you’ll have to set aside time to really do this.
• Get inspired. Read books and magazines like the ones listed below. Watch motivational movies. Watch Oprah! Do whatever it takes to get your head into a positive, uplifted, and open place.
• Don’t try to cram it all in at once. If you get a book to work through or just wing it on your own (or even with my guidance), don’t muscle through it with the idea that you’re going to quickly resolve things. It just doesn’t work that way.
• Be patient with yourself. Not every day is a day of significant insight. Leave that pressure to the Nobel prize winners of the world.
• Start with gratitude. One of the first things that I recommend is to take that notebook and about 3 pages from the end, start a gratitude list. Write down 100 things you’re thankful for in your life. You probably won’t crank it all out in one sitting but make sure you do finish it.
• THEN, dig in to the exercises that will help you put a finer point on your personal brand. I'll be pulling together some of these and posting here if you're interested.

A few resources I love:
Oprah's website and magazine and tv show, of course. Lots of great content on living authentically, simply, honestly...in your truth. A definite idol for me.
PINK website and magazine. Good insights for working women...and what woman really isn't working?
Make a Name for Yourself: Eight Steps Every Woman Needs to Create a Personal Brand Strategy for Success
Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live - another wonderful idol
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It - this one is wonderful if you've ever considered going out on your own, but I also found it to be a great resource for the "finding myself" process even when I worked for others.

seedy business

Everyone's talking food these days. Eating better, eating at home, eating cheaper. Mark Bittman recently posted a small piece about growing garden-like items from seed and got a number of really great comments. According to the USA Today, seed sales are already cranking for the year, signaling a return to homegrown and thrifty. I get caught up in this condundrum: I love the concept of growing things but never seem to conjure up the dedication to keep said green things properly fed and watered throughout the summer. I set out with the best intentions and then things just fall miserably by the wayside. Nine of the last 10 summers have started off with me buying little pots of herbs and tomatoes to grow. I totally skipped last summer because I couldn't deal with the guilt. Now traveling 3 weeks out of each month probably contributed to my gardening lethargy, so perhaps life will be different now?

My mom keeps a large vegetable garden, as she has each year since that same plot of dirt was turned and planted by her father. We have a ritual each year that it's my job to taste the very first cherry tomato of the season, thus promising us a bountiful harvest. Or something like that. And in the last 8 or so years, she's started composting which has helped us both by turning out rich soil (really good for pot planting if, like me, you don't have a garden) and by absorbing the scraps which are an inherent part of being a good green girl. But even her passion wanes over the summer. By the time I'm all wound up about having fresh basil and tomatoes, she's over all the weeding and picking that needs to happen daily. Somehow this year, we have to do better together. Otherwise those farmer's market bushels of tomatoes are coming home with me again for fresh tomato sauce...and that just seems dumb!

Yes, I'm a city dweller so don't exactly have the perfect growing conditions at the loft. But truth be told, I have some SERIOUS sunshine available on my deck. I have direct light from about 9am in the summer until about 7pm. This is both a blessing and a pain as with direct sun in that duration comes fried out, dried up green things. You really have to water each and every day. (Last year was a successful year with cacti and succulents, if I may say so myself.) But this year, I want green things to eat. I can do a lot with the downtown farmer's market being just blocks away, and with my mom's garden 3 miles north. What I really want is herbs here, at my fingertips.

So I'm going to start a little research. I have no interest in, nor space for, those stupid greenhouse lights so I am not sure if I have the right conditions to start things from seed. But they're so damned cheap that I'm definitely going to look into it. Right now, the $2.99 per package of fresh herbs is killing my sensibilities. I won't live without the fantastic flavors, so I've gotta figure something else out. Will report further...

chow down?

Ugh. I'm disgusted.

And this feeling comes in waves every time I dig in and try to learn more about greener practices and healthier food. I've always joked that I'd really just like to believe that hamburger magically shows up on the shelf in the grocery on a nice styrofoam plate, wrapped in plastic. Because if I knew more, I'd be the quickest vegetarian convert in town! And then it sinks in, and the whole concept embarrasses me. I'm not kidding, my face is red and warm as I type this paragraph. I read a quote last night in a great green book called Gorgeously Green about how in Nazi Germany "the road to hell was paved with indifference." Well, yeah.

The author was using the quote to draw a parallel to how so many of us choose not to get involved with issues of organics, sustainability, global warming, what have you. We all have our reasons for doing what we do, and that's fine. Sophie (the author, you know, like we're friends now) is quick to lay out the theory of her own greening: no judgment, no guilt for the past, no being anything less than gorgeous (which is more of a life concept and less of an appearance thing).

The companion book in my current green education is called To Buy or Not To Buy Organic and I've actually been picking my way through this one for about a year or so now. And I thought I'd give you a little relevant bite of it here, but then I got side tracked into reading about how conventional meat moves through the consumer lifecycle before it ends up on our plates. And I'm back to being horribly embarrassed about my own apathy. Sigh. I have theories about hormones in our foods contributing to larger baby weights and earlier menstruation in our children. Yep, that's an entirely different blog subject that someone much more educated than I should write.

The truth is, food is one of my passions in life. And honestly, women's health issues has become a really big one for me growing up and becoming one myself. You walk 180 miles for Breast Cancer, you start thinking seriously about your role. And yet, between those two things, I can't help but feeling more than just a tiny bit guilty about the decisions I often make about what goes in and on my own body. To Sophie's point, I will just acknowledge that I can do better and line up my values and my actions. That's the whole point of this blog anyway, right? Moving forward?

So for today, I'll focus my attention on dreaming about the coming months' bounty of fruits and vegetables, and on how we can afford all of this luxurious food. Because, let's face it, eating green takes more greenbacks. And today, that requires choices, people. Choices.

In To Buy or Not To Buy, here are the 12 foods that author Cindy Burke calls the "dirty dozen" - meaning, if you eat them, make the effort to buy organic:

• strawberries
• red/green bell peppers
• spinach
• cherries
• peaches
• nectarines
• celery
• apples
• pears
• grapes
• raspberries
• potatoes

And the "clean fifteen" - you can go ahead and buy conventional here:

• asparagus
• avocado
• bananas
• blueberries
• broccoli
• cabbage
• garlic
• kiwi
• mango
• onion
• papaya
• pineapple
• shelling peas
• sweet corn
• domestically grown watermelon

I read a quick piece yesterday about how 3 families cut costs during this economic downturn, and one of them was committed to organic foods. Honestly, I didn't find it all that helpful. The big organic-related revelations: if you can't give up your pricey supermarket, commit to going half the time; if it has a peel, you don't need to buy organic; use your slow cooker. Hmm. Now, I adore my slow cooker but I think we already know that the peel concept doesn't hold. Potatoes anyone? The list above helps me pick and choose better than these lame directives.

So, I'm going to continue to study this and figure out how to make some impactful decisions. I'll let you know what I find out. Right now, I'm going to stick with juicing from my little neighborhood "crash & smash" produce store and visit them often to see what's come in. And I'm going to stick with organic, hormone-free milk or almond milk. And I guess I'm going to figure out where that cow came from.

Here are a couple of interesting things I found poking around the internet today. First is the blog of my favorite cookbook author of all time. He also has a new book out about more conscientious eating called Food Matters; I haven't checked it out yet, but it's on the list. He's a total idol of mine. The other links I just found worth the read. Enjoy!


Mark Bittman: Bitten Blog
5 Ways to Buy Organic on a Budget
Top 10 Reasons to Support Organic in the 21st Century

getting unstuck

I frequently return to this book when I have those days of unmotivated, indecisive, lethargic blah. And somehow it always seems to make me feel like I can get a grip again. To me, If the Buddha Got Stuck is sort of a digestible and practical take on some basic Buddhist concepts. It's not rife with God or religion or anything that feels heavy or overwhelming, or to the point, something that will make me feel MORE stuck. It's bite-sized chapters that you can just poke through and pick what moves you for the day. There are some journal-y exercises to do, as well. I'm thinking of throwing it on my Kindle just so I don't have to be without it; it's that valuable of a tool for me during this process of transitioning my life. Talk about potentially overwhelming.

Best of all? It has siblings: If the Buddha Dated, which I could definitely use at this point in my life, and If the Buddha Married, which I clearly should have made friends with already. But part of this whole process is learning and not being too hard on one's self, right? Mostly I think this wonderful author, Charlotte Kasl, is joining my list of idols along with Martha Beck.

Today I'm enjoying chapter 50 titled: Seventeen Strategies for Staying on Track. Which could actually be the name of the manual for my life these days. I'll give you the list and just a few of the concepts that are working for me today:

(the bolded portions are directly from If the Buddha Got Stuck by Charlotte Kasl)

1. Do not demand perfection.
2. Have realistic expectations, be flexible, and start with small goals.
3. Develop strategies to make life easier. This is key to success with so many things and she mentions here about eating healthier; buy healthy prepackaged foods like washed salad greens to make the whole good food thing easier on yourself. After my time with WeightWatchers, I absolutely know this to be true. And while you're at it, portion those suckers right when you get home. Nothing like a little bag of potato chips to satisfy a salt/crunch need vs. half a bag to fuel your guilt.
4. Start with whatever is easiest.
5. Get help from a friend or be near other people.
6. Change the setting.
7. Hire someone. This is a wonderful lesson that applies to all facets of life: don't stress about something you need to repair or create or whatever if that something doesn't really fit your passions or your available time. Find someone else to do it. Focus your unique skills and energies on what does move you and let the other experts do their thing. So sensible. And with a new business and a crappy economy out there, this is also giving way to another of my favorite concepts, bartering. Get creative while you move forward!
8. Give yourself rewards.
9. Readjust your goals.
10. Do something for a given period every day. I'm taking this one to heart this week; I've been craving schedule and structure so I figured out how much of my time should be dedicated to writing/researching, networking, finding new clients, taking care of myself, etc and then I'm starting to give them some borders in my calendar. I'm excited about this one.
11. Stay focused on the big picture.
12. Make appointments on your calendar. Whoa. See #10. Fantastic alignment, no?
13. Hang out with your resistance.
14. Give yourself a whack. Kasl describes this as tantamount to "just say no" or giving yourself a little lecture about not going there anymore...wherever there is that keeps you stuck.
15. Take one extra step. This is so critical to finding your way forward, because we all come with these notions of who we are and what we're comfortable doing. Who came up with these ideas anyway? In the end, we're setting (or accepting) our own boundaries, sometimes unintentionally. So, if they're in our control anyway, why not just push through them and set new ones?
16. Do it anyhow - anxiety and all.
17. Lighten up. I'm going to hope Kasl forgives me but I think this is a really important one to leave you with:

"Remember, in the big picture it all matters - but it's not serious. Whether you keep moving down the track, sit by the roadside, or even have your feet stuck in the mud, it is just where you are at this moment - nothing is better or worse - it's all part of the big cosmic dance, the One Energy. We take the steps to lower stress and bring ease to our lives so we can have more clarity of mind and peacefulness of body. Make your best effort, and watch the unfolding drama.

Imagine flying up in the sky and looking down at homes, hospitals, prisons, office buildings, bars, and movie theaters and watch the unfolding dramas of so many lives, very similar to yours. Not on the surface, perhaps, but at the heart everyone wants to be free of suffering, be cared for, know happiness, and find some form of peace. Above all, be kind and merciful with yourself."