Day: January 2, 2020

Self Help Review: Made for More? Nope.

I’m switching things up a bit this year, trying to keep the blog fresh. I will review a self-help book, or in the case of January, a self-help movie, the first Thursday of every month. I’ve certainly read my share.

One thing you’re going to learn about me is my skepticism. You may think I am a negative person, but I’m really not. Positivity is my number four strength, according to the Clifton Stengthsfinder assessment. But I’m skeptical. Or maybe I should say I’m wary of being conned.

My then-manager showed the Rachel Hollis documentary Made for More to us as a team building exercise. Rachel Hollis, in case you didn’t know (and I didn’t), is a guru of self-help for women. Her book Girl, Wash your Face was a best seller. A friend recently told me there have been accusations of plagiarism, but I don’t really know enough about it to comment. What I do know is the first half of the movie. (I declined to watch the second half, which was shown in another team meeting).

The first thing that struck me about this movie was while Rachel was discussing how her organization is all about empowering women, the video showed her husband driving the family van with the caption: CEO of her company (The Hollis Company).  I thought an empowered woman would be empower other women. Making your husband CEO of your company seems contradictory.

Further into the movie Rachel tells us about her boob job. How she hated her breasts because after nursing four children they were like yogurt, so she decided to get a boob job to increase her self-esteem/body image/whatever.

After she has justified why she wanted a boob job, she went to a scene from one of her RISE sessions (3-day personal growth conferences) where she asked the attendees how they felt about their bodies. Everyone was in tears, because everyone hated something about their bodies. It was very moving. She went on and on about how awful it was that these women hated their bodies.

I had a problem with this–not with her having a boob job–but the mixed message (and her tears) she sent to that conference of crying women with body image issues. If I had been in the audience that day, I would have felt used.

In about 40 minutes of documentary, the woman managed to turn me off. Not every “method” of self-help works for every person. Rachel Hollis is not my guru.

 

 

 

MJ Monday: MJ’s Meals-Chili

If you are a chili aficionado, you’re going to hate this recipe.

If you are a person who thinks everything should be created from scratch, you’re going to hate this recipe.

If you’re a busy person who sometimes needs a quick and easy meal, this recipe might suit your needs.

I got the “original” of this recipe when I was the executive producer of a cooking/monster movie TV show. It came from a local new anchor, who is a legend in the city where I live. Being me (and having a husband who has definite likes and dislikes), I’ve tweaked it a bit to suit our tastes.

  • Brown 1 lb of ground meat (the original recipe called for ground turkey; we prefer ground beef). Drain.
  • Add 1 can of Bush’s Best Chili Magic
  • Add 1 can of diced tomatoes (the original recipe said stewed tomatoes, but we prefer diced. I used to buy ones with chilies in them, but they are no longer available, so I used store brand “chili style”.)
  • Season with garlic powder to taste.
  • Season with Tabasco sauce to taste. (For years, I used roasted garlic Tabasco, but that seems to have gone the way of diced tomatoes with chilies.)
  • Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve with shredded cheese or sour cream.

That’s it. Enjoy!

 

MJ Monday: MJ’s Meals–Fall Dinner

I’m going to share the recipes for one of my family’s favorite fall meals.

The first recipe is one I found on line. My adult son likes it so much, he makes it for himself in his bachelor apartment.

The chicken recipe originally started as a butter advertisement in a magazine that my friend Robin shared with me, but has gradually morphed into something else. This is one recipe my daughter begged for when she was at college. I’ve served it to almost everyone who’s come to my house for a meal. It has been my “secret” recipe for years. I’m sharing the bare bones. Yes, I give measurements, but I mostly eyeball the general proportions.

SERVES 4

  • 2/3 cups butter
  • 1/2 cup finely crushed Keebler Onion Toasteds*
  • 2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 TBS dried basil
  • 1 TBS dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1/4 cup apple juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Melt the butter
  3. Combine cracker crumbs, Parmesan, basic, oregano, garlic powder.
  4. Dip chicken in melted butter, then coat with crumb mixture. (Reserve leftover melted butter)
  5. Place chicken in an ungreased glass baking pan
  6. Bake for about 30 minutes
  7. Add apple juice,  green onion, parsley to reserved melted butter.
  8. When chicken i s golden brown, pour the butter-apple juice sauce over the chicken and bake for another 3-5 minutes.
  9. Serve with sauce spooned over the chicken.

Miscellaneous notes:

  • Chopped fresh chives also work well in the sauce
  • I usually melt more butter, because my family really likes the sauce over the chicken.
  • The Keebler Onion Toasteds are crucial to the success of the recipe. If you opt for another type of breadcrumb, add onion powder to the crumb mixture.

 

 

MJ’s Musing: SEP-Natural Born Charmer

Many people I know consider Natural Born Charmer their favorite SEP novel. It’s definitely in my top five, but it didn’t make my top three because I really hated the end.  It has marvelous characters, a great plot, the best secondary love story in a SEP book, humor, pathos, community, texture, art, music…and a really lame ending.  For me, it was almost anticlimactic.

I went back and read the ending again, and it’s not as lame as I remember, but the problem is I remember it as lame. I simply couldn’t believe the heroine’s initial reaction when the hero “returns” to avoid a misunderstanding. And that’s where I get stuck. The heroine eventually returns to “form” and all is well, but it’s that initial bit that I remember.

I guess that’s my problem, not the book’s, but  that is why the book is only in the top five and not the top 3.

Two Seemingly Unrelated Memories

I don’t pretend to know everything. Heck, I don’t even know most things. But I do have an awareness of the world on a certain level. There was one year, though, that I began to wonder about that.

It began in the summer. Swatches were new and “the thing.” I made a comment about them, and the sister of a colleague looked at me and said, “How do you know about Swatches?” I looked at her and said, “We do have cable TV, you know.” OK, the city in which I live may not be the hotbed of the latest fashion trends, and probably never has been, but seriously? This was the 1980s. The Pony Express was long gone.

A few months later, a man I’d just started seeing  and I were watching a movie. The movie was not set in the US. There was a scene with some sort of fireworks-y celebration going on, and I murmured, “Oh, it’s probably Guy Fawkes Night.” The man paused the tape, turned to me and said, “How do you know about Guy Fawkes Night?” Now, this man was not British or any other nationality where Guy Fawkes Night is observed. I had just as much right to “know” about Guy Fawkes Night as he did.  The budding relationship got nipped right about then.

I read. That’s how I know things.