Day: February 13, 2019

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Got Heart? Got Happy?

That is one bigly Post-it Note heart! I thought it best to wear it only for the selfie. Driving while wearing it would probably result in mayhem and tragedy. Let’s see… I’d be pulled over and cited for DWP. Driving While Post-it-ed.

Jumbo Bow Tie o’ the Day is one of my favorites. Actually, I’m fond of jumbo-size bow ties, period. They give off such happy vibes. And we are here to be happy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m not saying happiness isn’t work. No, it’s something you have to achieve. The happiness a bow tie can give is a fleeting feeling. But if you want real happiness, you have to mostly create it. It’s not going to knock on your door, fully-formed, and say, “I’m here to serve you!”

I think we get distracted by looking to/at others to find happiness. We think: “They seem happy. What do they have that I don’t? I need to get what they have, and then I’ll be happy.” It doesn’t work that way. Your happiness is singular to you. It won’t look like anyone else’s. It is authentic to you, and you only. It is your job to figure out what your happiness will look like. Ignore other people’s ideas of happiness. Mind your own happiness business.

If you find somebody (a spouse, partner, etc.) whose happiness pieces fit with your happiness pieces, you have found a powerful and rare thing. Your happiness inventory will not be exactly the same as the person’s you mesh with. But what would be the fun of that? Do you really want to be married to a clone of yourself? Another person isn’t your happiness. Your chosen person can share in your happiness, just as you can share in theirs. You are a part of each other’s happiness, not the whole of it. Let me make this clear: NEITHER A MATERIAL OBJECT NOR A PERSON “MAKES” YOU HAPPY. You decide to be happy. You make a plan and work to achieve it. It’s an attitude.

Living with another person gives you daily opportunities to express your happiness. You can care for and spoil them with whatever happiness you decide to share. Take the risk to spread your joy around the metaphorical house. You’ll get hurt sometimes, even in the best of relationships. But so what? Remember, you’ll hurt your beloved too. You won’t mean to, but you will. Unless you’re perfect. Be kind. Be brave.

To be happy in a relationship doesn’t mean you feel jolly every minute. You can be happy, yet experience sorrow, anger, frustration, and every other emotion. Real happiness is not an emotion. Happiness is a state of your soul, not a mood.

If you make a habit of working to achieve true happiness, you can weather the relationship storms you will encounter, more easily and more courageously. This doesn’t sound like it makes sense, but I promise it does: When you are in the storm of yourself– when you are aching– muster your courage and every power in your heart to choose your happiness. Open up your happy heart just a bit wider. Share just a little more. Give. And then rain your happiness down on you and your beloved. Take the risk to love your beloved– again and again, day after day, second upon second. Your relationship will grow stronger. Your soul will thank you.

And one more bigly note: Selfishness does not grow happiness. Trying to get everything you want, and always trying to get your way, is as far from happiness as you can get.

This has been yet another bossy sermon. Just sayin’.

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Get Out Yer Recipe Cards

Five Valentine-red Bow Ties o’ the Day are proud to provide a recipe we think you’ll find tasty. It’s cheesy and bready. Who could find fault with that?

Actually, I really can’t call this a “recipe.” Mom’s recipes ranged from easy-peasy to intricate and near-impossible. This is a simple one. Three ingredients are all you need. Oh, and you’ll also need an oven.

1 loaf of French bread. 1 stick or 1/2 stick of butter. And one jar of Kraft Old English Spread.

Lay a sheet of foil across a cookie sheet. You do not want to have to clean baked-on cheese off your cookie sheet. Use the foil.

Hand-mix the cheese spread and butter together. Mom generally uses the whole stick of butter, although I’ve seen her use just half a stick. I always use just the half.

Skin ALL the crust off the bread. Ditch the crust.

Cover the entire loaf of bread with the cheese/butter spread. Spread it as evenly as you can. Since the size of French bread loaves vary, you might or might not use the entire amount of spread. If you want a thin layer of cheese on the entire loaf, you’ll probably have enough to cover two loaves.

Throw the loaf on your foil, and bake for 10-ish minutes at 350 degrees. Ovens vary, you know.

Although it’s this simple to make, it’s important to keep an eye on the browning of the cheese. You need to experiment with how crispy/browned you want the top. You do not want the entire loaf crispy/browned. Well, maybe you do. I suggest experimenting many times with different levels of crispy/brown. That gives you an excuse to eat a ton of cheese bread.

The other thing you’ll want to experiment with is how thick you want your cheese spread layer to be.

I recommend you slice the cheese bread (an electric knife works best) while it’s still hot. And put it on the table hot. But it’s still yummy when it has cooled off.

As any good cook knows, even with an easy recipe the taste is in the details. Mom’s excellent cooking was the result of tweaking good recipes to make them better, and her knack for timing. She cooked primarily by sight, smell, and taste. Measuring ingredients wasn’t much of a concern to her. She guesstimated a lot.

That’s what makes it difficult to pin down her actual recipes. If someone wanted a recipe, she’d give them one, but she also invited them to come to the house while she made what they were asking about. Her candy-type creations are especially almost impossible to re-create, even if you watched her make it and tried to write everything down. She was always changing the way she did it or adding a new twist or a different ingredient. [I’ll write more about Mom’s recipe collection and locating specific recipes in another post.]

Oh. About the potato chips and Diet Coke in the photo. Those are to snack on while you make cheese bread.