Career Options 2009

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Are you threatened by a potential job-loss? Recently I had an opportunity to speak with a woman who loss her job. She had been in the retail business most of her adult life and benefited from the base salary and the commissions received from sales. There was never any doubt that this would be her lot in life, until unemployment made her think, perhaps life would deliver an alternative.

I met this woman just after the demise of her job. She was still fairly hopeful and upbeat and wanted to look at another career field, but really did not know how to do about it. We met through a mutual friend and ran into each other at the Farmer’s Market. She asked if I had time for a cup of coffee and so we drove to a local coffee shop in Cary for a chat.

As we talked about her future and mine, she started to talk about all those dreams from yesterday. She wanted to be a nurse, then a designer, then she finally settled on cake decorating, something she thought she would be great at since taking a Wilton Cake Decorating class. We talked more about developing this cake decorating “business” so to speak, and she decided she would give it a try.

Last week I received a call from my cake decorating friend who started with customized Christmas cookies and miniature cakes. She sent me a photo of one of her cakes and it was beautiful. She is officially on her way to a promising future while collecting unemployment and looking for another job in retail.

I share this story because it may help someone struggling with finding their way in a most unpredictable economy. The woman I spoke of looked to her gifts, something we often take for granted. It might be carpentry, jewelry making, can you sew, paint, is pottery your thing? In this world of Internet searches, Wii and online gaming, it may be time to get back to the basics a turned to our natural God given gifts for answers to our economic and emotional well being. Share your gifts, it might just provided a way for you to earn some much needed extra income?

Home for the Holidays

Thursday, December 25, 2008

This Christmas I spent the holiday week with my daughter’s boyfriend’s family. It was a large boisterous group full of love and laughter. This was sort of the pre-Christmas party slash family reunion at the end of the year, you know a “let’s give it a last hey yall experience.” There was a lot of finger food, special dish contributions, wing dings, mini smoked sausages, seven layer salad and Chris' famous Carrot Cake, seen here to your left.

It has been many years since I participated in this sort of family holiday get together and I forget how wonderful they really are. I am sitting here writing this Blog and thinking about the upcoming New Year and what it will bring in the way of opportunity and future family gatherings. It continues to amaze me how family and food go hand in hand during these special times of the year and what an important part food really does play in the physical and emotional well being of people.

Next year one of my resolutions, besides to lose weight, is to feed the masses, to join a church or become part of a soup kitchen that feeds the hungry and helps those less fortunate than myself. I have always been so busy trying to make a living that I often forget to take the time to create a life and pursue a way to use my gifts.

As I look back over an absolutely divine life filled with God’s grace, the next 50 years will be filled with serving others less fortunate than me. No traveling to the Greek Isles or sunning on white sandy beaches, just serving human kind, making a real difference. This year I am wishing everyone a wonderful New Year and prosperity in every conceivable form.

Jae's Oven Fresh Cinnamon Buns

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Well, my daughter, who is 28 years young finally learned to make cinnamon buns. She loves them and has wanted to do this for many years. What stopped her? Fear of failure. I kept telling her that old adage "if at first you don't succeed" well that didn't work, but for some reason on Monday, she got up the nerve and did it and this is the result.

No, it wasn't easy and they were not perfect. I know they might look good but this was her first try. They were to bake for 25 minutes and they really could have stood 18-20 minutes. They were a bit dry, but that's what learning is all about. I recently spoke to a man who was attempting to recreate his mom's potato rolls and did not know where to get fresh yeast. (fresh yeast is another blog) We talked for several minutes before also finding out that the recipe a family member had may not be the mom's original recipe. He was quite desperate since he wanted to serve these luscious rolls for Christmas dinner. I provided a couple of well respected sites where he might find a good recipe and told him to try the recipe three times. The first time to see if it works, the second time to get the bugs out...if it did work, and the third time would be a charm. He said he did not even want to trust messing up the first time.

This leads me to this question. Why is it so hard to get people to attempt new culinary endeavors? Why do people insist on having recipes work on the first try? What ever happen to "if at first you don't succeed try, try again." I know, I know, food is expensive, but you have to learn some way, right? What are your thoughts?

I teach cooking classes for a living and recently took my show online. I'm gonna teach personal one on one cooking techniques online. (you know schedule a time online and walk folks through the recipe) I'm hoping it will be a blast. With all this technology, I'm looking to reach those lurkers, fearful foodies, cooks and bakers who hide in the booth in the back in the corner in the dark...just dying to jump out and shake their culinary booty! I know you're out there and I'm coming to teach you...you little novice cook, you little budding baker...I see you.

Let me know your thoughts!

Cheap Meat

Thursday, December 4, 2008

One thing I have done to cut corners is ask the butcher at my local market to provide me with "Shanks and Bones with the meat on." For example I located a veal shank and lamb shank with very little meat, but enough meat to make a savory experiment. I asked the butcher how often he had these cuts and he said often but no one really purchases them because it's not enough to feed a family of four. My response was "I'll take it", I'm a family of one and sometimes two (empty nester) and this would be perfect for us. I now have the butcher's phone number and call him on Monday and Thursday to see what he has for the week. Okay, so you want to know how much I paid for the shanks? $3.01 for the veal and $1.03 for the lamb. No way...yes way! This was for the package of meat. Now, we don't eat a lot of meat (anyway) so I stretched it using lots and lots of vegetables. (mushrooms, onion, garlic, sweet and hot peppers etc)

I still have the veal in the freezer and I prepared the lamb into a wonderful lamb curry with couscous, of course served with marinated cucumber and red onion. There were no left overs, but now days I consider that a blessing, I know I'm not wasting food.

Go with the inexpensive cuts and cuts attached to a bone...you really can work wonders.

Share how you save on meat purchases at the supermarket?