1. Don’t let the added demands of the holiday season steal your joy

2. Ask someone you admire for a recipe

3. Volunteer to help others

4. Purchase a real Christmas tree, chop down your own tree (this is an event in itself) or purchase a real tree to plant later.

5. Do something you have thought about and talked about but have never done. (Attend a concert, look at Christmas windows, go see a Christmas lighted display, etc.)

6. Go to church. There are a wide variety of times and services during this time of the year

7. Send real Christmas cards – You can go online and have them custom made in a matter of minutes

8. Listen to Christmas music

9. With children – read Christmas stories – Don’t spend money, go to the library. Pick them out together. Add Christmas songs to your nightly lullabies

10. Decorate “green” – Use real pine rope and wreathes, cranberries to fill hurricane lamps

11. Bring some sort of decoration to your office to keep work from zapping your joy!  Think good will and peace on earth – and the office.

12. Attend a Christmas concert – there are always lots of opportunities from small to grand

13. Take a walk or drive around your neighborhood at night to see the Christmas lights.

14. Reconnect with someone you’ve been thinking about.

15. Make a favorite treat from your childhood.

16. Start an ornament collection by purchasing one every Christmas.

17. Watch a Christmas movie.

18. Turkeys aren’t just for Thanksgiving! Cook a turkey for Christmas.

19. Write down family stories before they are lost forever.

20. Pray for friends, family, loved ones, our country and our world.

21. Go to any dollar type store and buy Christmas bags if you don’t like to wrap presents. If you are wrapping, make sure you save yourself enough time to wrap and don’t wait until the last minute.

22. A gift doesn’t have to cost money. Give a busy mom a baby sitting gift certificate that you make, give your own gift card for chores, foot massages, back rubs. Get creative. People want the gift of our “presence” not always a “present”.

23. Really read the words of Christmas carols and not just sing them.

24. Take in the stillness of Christmas Eve. Be still and savor some time alone.

25. Sometime between the activities of the day, take a walk and enjoy the most special day of all holidays.

I am blogging daily in more detail on how I am using each of these ideas in December on my other site dedicated to prayer, meditation and contemplative practices at http://guidedchristianmeditation.com/blog – please join me!

As we were eating our Thanksgiving dinner I asked who had their mother’s recipes. I received a lot of blank stares as the conversation came to a screeching halt. My sister-in-law said she had the cookie recipe. No one else knew what happened to the others.

That made me think about how recipes are legacies. Recipes can keep the memory of someone around long after they are gone.

At that moment, I realized that I had just asked my mother for her pie crust recipe to make a pumpkin pie, but I didn’t have any of her other recipes. She is eighty-nine and will turn ninety next month. I’m seeing her tomorrow, so I will start the process of getting all of her classic recipes recorded.

My mother, Bea Bumbicka, is a fabulous cook. My love for cooking I owe to her. She was born in London, England and was trained through the Cordon Bleu, just like Julia Child. In fact, she bequeathed me her Mastering the Art of French Cooking book. The printing date is 1961. We have been Julia Child students for decades.

I hope my “ah-hah” moment to document loved ones’ recipes will inspire you to do the same. We owe it to the people we love to keep their legacy alive. Who would have thought that a simple recipe could do that?

On a side note – I have always let the month of December fly by with being too busy. This year I have drawn my peppermint stick in the sand to put a stop to that and celebrate Christmas for twenty-five days. Each day I will post a new Christmas Idea. Please join me at my other website dedicated to more spiritual ponderings and practices at http://guidedchristianmeditation.com.

I know that looking at all of these words looks like a time-consuming read – but this was truly quick to make. After looking through other casserole recipes, each one included cooking the casserole for another 30 minutes after assembling all of the ingredients. This only takes 3 minutes under the broiler after it’s assembled.

One of the hardest aspects of cooking is getting the timing on everything – in other words, getting it all to come together without getting stressed out. The few extra minutes you spend reading this will translate to more time that you will save.  I believe that people get frustrated or intimidated by cooking because they waste a lot of time in the process.

This will serve 4-6 people. You’ll need a heavy, deep, fry pan to make the sauce, a pasta cooking pot, and a 13x9x2 baking dish for the casserole. The ingredients you need are:

One fresh medium to small onion

One package – 8 oz. of fresh mushrooms (sliced or unsliced)

One package frozen peas – I bought the Green Giant Steamers sweet peas – it’s easy because you just throw the entire bag into the microwave

1/2 cup heavy cream (the 8 oz. carton will say whipping cream – which can be confusing but is correct)

1/4 cup dry sherry (I have a bottle of Taylor sherry. On the bottle it says “excellent for cooking.” Use real sherry not cooking sherry. I find it’s better to cook with wine and spirits that are the real thing. Sherry is great in Chinese recipes too, so you can use it again and again.)

2 Tablespoons flour

1/2-1 Cup grated cheddar cheese

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder (or more to taste)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 Jar Ragu Light Parmesan Alfredo sauce

1 Can Swanson Chicken Broth – 33% less sodium

1 Package Linguine Pasta (I used 3/4 of the package)

2-3 Cups of cooked turkey cut into bite-sized pieces or cubes

Package of your favorite flavored bread crumbs (Panko, Italian, whatever you like)

Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

Get your water boiling for the pasta. Chop your onion fine and slice up the mushrooms. Get a big, deep, fry pan and set it on medium to medium high and throw in the butter until it melts. Then throw in your onions and mushrooms. Saute the onions until they are clear in appearance and the mushrooms have taken on a round, plumpish look.

If the water is at a rolling boil, put in 3/4 of the box of pasta. Set a timer for 10 minutes (read the label on cooking time. If it says to cook 11 minutes, I always set the timer one minute early to check on it. I can’t stand over cooked pasta. If it’s too firm, set the timer for another minute and taste one of the strands again.)

When you are six minutes into the pasta cooking process, put the peas into the microwave and cook for four minutes. The bag will say 5-6, but the peas will keep cooking in the bag. If you cook them too long they will get mushy and mushy peas are the worst! They will still need to be warmed up in the casserole, so don’t over cook them.

While the pasta is cooking, pour the Alfredo sauce into the onion and mushrooms. Save the jar. Reduce heat to medium. Stir. Take the chicken stock and pour about half of the can into the Alfredo sauce jar. (This will get all of the sauce out of the jar and serve as kind of an eyeball measuring cup too.) Shake it up and pour it into the pan. Stir. Take the small carton of heavy cream and pour it into the jar until it looks like half a cup – or half the carton.  Take half of the remaining chicken stock and pour it into the jar. Shake it up and slowly add it to the sauce. Then take the 1/4 cup of sherry and pour it into the sauce and stir. Add about 1/2-1 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and stir.  (I know the nutmeg sounds crazy, but it’s great.) Stir in the 1/2-1 cup of cheddar cheese until melted.

If the sauce is thin, take your jar and pour in the remaining chicken stock. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of flour to the jar. Put on the lid and shake until there are no lumps. Pour the flour mixture slowly into the pan and stir until the sauce is the desired thickness.  If it’s too still thin, you can add water to the jar with more flour and repeat the process.  Use salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.  Also, if you like garlic add more if you wish.

When the pasta is done, (al-dente – Italian for a little chewy)  pour it into a strainer in the sink.

Add the turkey to the sauce and stir to warm through for a few minutes on medium heat.  Open the bag of peas and scoop out about three to four spoonfuls using a slotted spoon (depending on how much you like peas). Don’t pour the bag of peas into the sauce because there will be a lot of liquid left over which will ruin the taste of the sauce and water it down. (I did this once on another recipe!)

Stir all that together and then get your baking pan. Spray it with a cooking spray. Take the pasta and dump it in. Spread out the pasta evenly.  Now take your sauce and pour it all over the pasta until the pasta is covered.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and sprinkle the seasoned bread crumbs on top. The amount you use is up to you. I just lightly covered the dish with both ingredients.

Turn on your broiler and put the dish under the broiler for about two minutes. I first set my timer for five minutes and my gut told me to check on it after two.  I almost burned it! Check and see that it’s getting brown. I left it in for one more minute and that was it. The ingredients are already cooked. It’s just a matter of making it look pretty and brown.

It’s always great to share food that is lovingly prepared. Plus, cooking helps you feel a sense of accomplishment and even gives you courage! The more you cook, the more courage and confidence you will have. Plus, you’ll have a sense of joy. No wonder someone wrote a book on that.  Enjoy!

You need to loosen the metal away from the drumsticks/legs – just push the end of the leg bone out from under the metal piece. Then, reach inside the turkey and pinch the metal together at the base. It’s kind of like a spring. When you pinch the two sides together, it releases the grip and it will pop open. Then you can get that thing out of your bird. I swear this is the hardest part to cooking a turkey – unwrapping the darn thing!  For complete details, read more of how to cook a turkey.

Don’t forget to breathe! Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are afraid of cooking a turkey, you’ve come to the right place. I describe everything you need to know to cook the perfect turkey.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. We all get to pause and give thanks and I get to cook a turkey!  Cooking a turkey is one of my favorite meals of all because the outcome is so dramatic and the preparation and cooking is so easy!

After cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving and or Christmas for the last – gasp -  30 years, I would say that I qualify as a turkey expert.  So, I was shocked when my best friend, Denise, confessed to me today that she had never cooked a turkey! We have been friends for 33 years. I shouted in disbelief, “You’ve never cooked a turkey!” She told me that the act of cooking a turkey was too intimidating for her – she was afraid.

Now, my friend Denise exudes confidence and blazed a trail in media sales a decade before I did. So, I began to think if Denise was afraid of cooking a turkey, others had to be afraid also.

Don’t fear! Cooking a turkey represents one of the greatest (and easiest) joys of cooking! There is always a fear factor in doing anything new.  Here’s a quick step-by-step process to cooking a turkey. This has been fool-proof for me. Even if you have cooked turkeys before, I’ve included some many forgotten details which are worth noting.

As far as purchasing goes, you need to pick out the size of the bird depending on how many people you plan on feeding, if you want left-overs for sandwiches and if people like white meat or dark meat.  I always cook a 20-22 pound bird because everyone in my family likes white meat and turkey sandwiches for the weekend.

Other items you will need are: A roasting pan (I use a disposable aluminum one from the store), stuffing mix – amounts appropriate to the size of the bird, butter, an onion, a bay leaf, corn starch, brown gravy package mix, a pot for gravy, a turkey baster.

A bird this size takes 5-7 hours to cook. You will also need at least thirty minutes for the turkey to cool. So work backwards in your meal planning.

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. If you have two racks in your oven, you’ll want to take out the upper rack.

A fresh turkey is best, but I have purchased a frozen turkey before. If frozen, you need to let it thaw in the refrigerator.  It should say on the packaging how long that takes. Make sure you purchase it in advance to allow for that. If it’s still a little frozen the day of, I run it under cold water.

Unwrapping the turkey is the most difficult part of the process! You’ll have to cut through the plastic and/or netting. Make sure you do this in the sink, that way you don’t get the turkey juices on your counter and all over the place. It will be messy. You also have to wipe down everything and wash your hands after handling, because raw turkey can leave nasty bacteria around.

If you don’t have strong muscles, this is when you wished you would have started a weight lifting program. Turkeys are heavy. Don’t lift from your back, use your legs. Tell your husband, son, significant other, fit daughter that you need their strong muscles for a minute while batting your eyes and have them lift the turkey into the sink.

Okay, now you’ll have a wrestling match with this metal piece that holds the legs together. You need to pinch the metal from the inside part to kind of pop it out. Honest, this is the hardest part! Still having trouble with this?  Here are the instructions to get the metal piece out of the turkey.

Next, you need to look for the inside cavity where there will be a bag or a neck bone. Also, under the rear end is a bag full of the giblets. If you loved biology you will enjoy looking at the liver, heart, etc. If this grosses you out (I don’t particularly like this part), I usually take all of these parts, neck bone included, and throw them into a good size pot.  To the pot I add water to cover the contents significantly and add a bay leaf. This will be the base for soup which will make wonderful gravy.  Bring this to a boil then turn to low, simmer, for the entire time you are cooking the turkey.

Okay, so the turkey is out of the bag and cleared out. I usually rinse it off in the sink inside and out. I do happen to work out, so this is not physically hard, but it’s a little tricky. Pat it dry, then you are able to move onto the stuffing. At this point, put the turkey into a foil or large baking pan. I usually just buy a big foil pan that is large enough to support the turkey. I have a small kitchen and I don’t like to do more dishes than I have to. (Don’t forget to scrub down the areas the turkey came in contact with using soap and water.)

You can use any stuffing recipe you want. I use Stove Top. Instead of just adding melted butter, I add the butter to a skillet and sauté an onion with it. Prepare it according to the directions. If you’re watching cholesterol, you can substitute a low fat spreadable margarine that you like to use.

When the stuffing is done, you stuff the bird lightly. Don’t pack the stuffing in. You want to stuff the inside cavity and the back side. (When I’m stuffing my turkey, I always think it’s funny that I’m stuffing the turkey, but the turkey will stuff me later.)

Take additional butter or spread and just rub it all over the turkey like it’s getting a spa treatment.

Now you’re ready to put the turkey in the oven. Ask your strong helper again, and make sure if you pick up the turkey that you are supporting the weight enough underneath, using your legs, and place the turkey on the lowest rack in the oven.

Take two pieces of aluminum foil or one big piece of foil and make a tent to place loosely over the turkey. You want to make sure that it’s covered so that it doesn’t turn too brown, over cook and dry out.

You did it!  At this point you get to fuhget-about-it  for a while. Don’t be tempted to open the door to check on it like a kid on a road trip, is it turkey yet?  You’ll know it’s starting to cook when your house starts to smell amazing.

After a few hours there will be juices forming at the bottom of the pan. When the drippings are significant enough, put your oven mitts on and pull the lower rack out a little (this is tricky because the turkey is heavy). Take your turkey baster and begin to baste the turkey. You do this by gently squeezing the bulb which makes the drippings go up into the tube. This is kind of tricky too. There’s a fine balance between keeping the juices in the tube and making sure you spray it on the turkey and not all over yourself or the rest of the oven. This is actually a fun process, once you get the hang of it, because the turkey begins to glow. Slide it back in and put the foil tent back on. Don’t baste again for at least thirty minutes or an hour.

So, you’re getting close to the estimated time to be done, but perhaps the turkey isn’t brown enough. No problem. When you are thirty minutes to an hour of the estimated cooking time, take off the foil. The turkey will then turn a lovely, Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post Cover brown.  If it gets too brown prior to it being done, just put the foil back on.

The beauty of turkeys is that they almost always come with a pop up timer. So, when the turkey is done, the little red pop up timer pops up. What’s more simple then that? If you have a meat thermometer, the inside temperature is supposed to be 185 degrees. The pop up timer has always worked for me.  One other trick if you don’t have a pop up timer or you get the one in ten million that malfunctions, shake the legs and if they are loose and almost come apart, the bird is done.

So – your turkey is done. Remove it from the oven. It will need to cool at least thirty minutes before carving. BIG NOTE: Remove the stuffing from the turkey at this time or it will continue cooking. The turkey needs to cool in order to be cut. You don’t want your masterpiece shredding or drying out, so take out the stuffing.

Now for awesome gravy. Take out all of the big pieces of giblets, etc. from the pot that has been simmering all day until all you have left is the liquid. Add the juices from the turkey pan. Before you do that, make sure the pot is big enough for it all.

This is where the brown gravy mix can come in. I like using this in addition to cornstarch because it gives the gravy a browner color. Add about half a cup of cold water and stir in one or two packages of brown gravy mix until it’s all mixed up and stir into the gravy. If it’s too thin then in the same cup mix a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch with a half a cup of cold water. Form a thick liquid that still pours. If it’s thin add more cornstarch, if it’s too thick, add more water. It should be the consistency of Pepto Bismol (which might be what you need later). Just make sure it’s smooth. Stir this into the soup and dripping mixture and keep stirring so that you don’t get any lumps. Bring the gravy to a boil. If the gravy is too thin, you’ll just need to repeat this process until it’s the thickness you desire.

That’s it!  Congratulations for overcoming your fear! Your guests will marvel at the site of your golden creation. And you will be asking yourself, ‘What was I afraid of?’

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you have a man in your life who normally doesn’t cook, grilling is the perfect way to get them involved. There’s something about men and fire! I have an image of Tim Allen in my head from the 90’s series Home Improvement, hearing his signature, “Oh, Oh, Oh – Ar, Ar, Ar,” Neanderthal noises any time he was around a tool or machinery!

You’ll find out that I am all about enjoying good food! This last weekend we saw some friends who for dessert served hot blueberry and peach pies topped with vanilla ice cream. They purchased the pies from a Presbyterian Women’s group. Wow, were they good.

My book, The Freedom to Eat, is all about not dieting anymore, being healthy and being able to enjoy things like hot blueberry pie and peach pie with ice cream – without guilt! Now you can’t have desserts like this every day, but you can have some tasty alternatives that won’t pack on the calories. In the future, I’ll be sharing a lot of my recipes for fast, healthy food. I’m also always looking for great new wines to try. Wine to me is like art. There is so much creativity, love and care that goes into making it. So, if you have any fabulous wines that you love, please respond in the comment section.

With the start of grilling season, here’s a great peach pie recipe without the crust and the labor. I’m basing this recipe on two servings. You can just increase the ingredients to fit. Ingredients: Large peaches, not overly ripe – about the size of a baseball. Each peach will represent two servings. Vanilla (half a capful per half peach), brown sugar or brown Sugar Twin (my husband really dislikes artificial sweeteners, but he can’t taste the difference with the Sugar Twin – I use the Sugar Twin), Triple Sec Liquor.

Cut the peaches in half, discard the pit and put them on a dish pit side face up.

Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the peach. ½-1 teaspoon is all that you need. Pour half a capful of vanilla on top of the peach. Pour 1-2 teaspoons of Triple Sec on top of the peach. You can do this ahead of dinner so that the flavors will marinate a little bit. If the liquid runs down the sides, that’s great.

These will go on the grill. Put the pit side down and pour the remainder of any liquid on the top of the peach. Grill between two and three minutes per side until soft. Serve pit side up with your favorite vanilla ice cream. You can even use light or sugar free ice cream if you wish. It tastes just like a peach pie or cobbler. The Triple Sec and brown sugar cause a glaze that really brings out the flavor of the peach. Enjoy!