Lazy Way to Deal With Pain -- Physical, Emotional or Spiritual

The holidays have a knack for bringing up pain, even if only in the renewed awareness of those that we have lost.  I read a book recently by Sharon Anne Klingler that has been helping me prepare for my first marathon, both physically and emotionally. 

The book is called "POWER WORDS" and the author gives us Power Words, Trigger Words and Uplifting Words, to be used according to our need.  Inspired by this book I stumbled upon one for myself that has been very helpful to me. 

I wrote an article about it for the Huffington Post.  I hope it comforts you in some way: http://huff.to/1c1SiMo.

Best ____ Recipe EVER!

When I search for recipes I always google the "best [fill in the blank] recipe ever."  Usually within the first five hits, I have the magic one. 

Last week I wanted to make a warm wintry soup.  I wasn't in the mood for mushroom, and had just recently made squash soup.  But I really craved both of those ingredients actually.  So, I was delighted to find that the Best Winter Soup Ever had both of these yummy ingredients, plus kale, white northern beans and tomatoes, among other yummies.

This really is the Best Winter Soup Ever.  It hails from Alton Brown.  It isn't often anymore that a recipe gets a full 5 stars.  This one does:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/winter-vegetable-soup-recipe/index.html

And, oh my god look what I found when I was googling the recipe!  A video from none other than Brown saying that this is the BEST THING HE EVER MADE! 

Even he knows!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSeol9RNyhU

Buon Winter Appetito!

Super Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake...um, yeah, it's perfect for the Holidays!

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My uncle's favorite dessert is Pumpkin Cheesecake and since he drove a long way to our Thanksgiving celebration he deserved his fave.  So I looked for the top-rated Pumpkin Cheesecake and it was Paula Deen's (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe/index.html).

It was amazing.  I didn't quite have enough graham cracker crumbs so I substituted about 1/3 cup of the 1 3/4 total in pecans for the crust.  Yum, and the texture didn't suffer one bit.  I brought the crust up about halfway up the sides. 

It is not a disgustingly heavy cheesecake as one would imagine by looking at the ingredients and its chef source. It is light -- really light.   And it really is pumpkin-y even though I thought it didn't seem like enough pumpkin to make a difference. But it is yummy light pumpkin-y delight!  For Christmas I would add a warm cranberry sauce over it for color and holiday sprucing.

For Thanksgiving it was perfect exactly as it was. 

Only warning about cheesecakes if you've never made one before -- don't overbake it. It should be shaking in the middle.  The baking completes once you take it out of the oven.  It's not intuitive, so just thought I should mention just in case!

And, don't be scared of the recipe.  It's unbelievably fast to throw together.  The baking time is what takes long.  This is LAZY DELICIOUSNESS.

Buon Holiday Appetito!