I don't remember when it was exactly, but a few months ago I was reading an article about how research has proven a link between teenage depression and Facebook usage. (I am sure you could still run the search for it on Yahoo News.) As I read it, I remembered thinking, "how sad that our younger generation has such a skewed view of both friendships and reality!"
Fast forward a few months, and you might be able to compare me to a few of those teenagers.
As lame as that was for me to admit, I have to confess that it's true. Though I wouldn't necessarily say I am "depressed" because I use Facebook, it has been a cause of some gloomy moments for me, and I have had to check myself when I want to jump to some hasty conclusions about my friends.
(Warning: The lame admission trend is about to continue...)
I love how Facebook has kept me connected with so many true friends or family members that I would otherwise be too busy/lazy to keep in touch with if they weren't all in one place. But I also hate the crazy, obsessive person it can create in my own private thoughts from time to time.
The other day, I caught myself looking at the top stories displayed on my Newsfeed page and I began noticing these really extreme numbers for their comments and likes. My initial thought was, "Holy crap! That chick's got a lot of friends! Good for her!" But as I let my mind rest on those numbers later in the day, I almost got a little jealous.
I have to tell you frankly (because honestly at this point, there is little left to lose!) I got a little peeved. I couldn't help but question, why can someone post a status along the lines of "I have decided to cut some people out of my life; it is time for me to make a change" and have 27 people click "like" and I can post something like "I'm pregnant! I am adding another person into my life!" and 12 people "like" it? How can a person post a picture of their breakfast and have 30 people "like" it and I can post a picture of my kid on the moon and only have about 4 people "like" it.
(These are purely hypothetical, by the way. I am neither pregnant nor have my children been to the moon--in real life anyway. Sammi has quite an imagination;))
These questions spurred on additional questions:
Do my friends not like me as much as I thought they did?
Am I not as interesting/funny as I think I am?
What makes that other person more likable than me?
OMG!!! Am I really obsessing over Facebook this much?!?!
And as painful and embarrassing as it is for me to reveal how trivial I have been about all of this to you, in my heart of hearts I know a lot of you can relate on some tiny level. At the very least, don't you get a little excited to see that someone actually has "liked" your status or left a cute/supportive comment? I read another article that said the average person with a smart phone checks it about 34 times a day--and each viewing takes about 30 seconds or something outrageous like that. (I think I saw this on CNN.) "Why?" you may ask... Because people's brains respond positively to seeing a notification either that they've received a new email or have an update on their Facebook page. We like having the visual affirmation that people "like" us!
Thankfully, Facebook has been a relatively new trend for me, and I am able to catch myself when my brain goes a little too far.
Do my friends like me? Yes. In fact, my friends will continue to like me in spite of this pitiful blog! And they don't have to "like" me all the time to prove it.
Am I as interesting/funny as I think I am? Probably not :) But I make myself laugh and that should count for something.
What makes that other person more likeable than me? Nothing. Their friends all have smart phones and are habitually checking their Facebook page lol
Am I really obsessing over Facebook this much?!?! Yes, weirdo. Stop it now. Better yet, pick up your phone and schedule a date to meet up with a friend!!!
Sammi has a book that says: I'm gonna like me because I'm loved and I know it, and liking myself is the best way to show it.
I know I am loved--even if I am not always "liked."
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
If at first you don't succeed...
...try, try again next month :)
Tonight I tried round 2 of entering the Better Homes and Gardens Prize Winning Recipes contest--this one didn't work out so great for me :)
The theme was "Burger Love" with the goal of creating a new take on burgers (to go along with a summertime issue next August.) I loved everything I put on my burger except my burger patty (haha!)
You see, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could craft a new burger from ingredients I almost always have on hand, so I made a patty out of 1/2 lb of ground sausage and 1 lb of ground venison...
--Okay, you caught me. I was just too lazy and too cheap to run to the store to pick up something specially for tonight!--
But in my defense, I mixed the venison with the sausage with sound logic in mind. Because venison is an extremely lean meat (it is almost impossible to make a burger patty out of pure venison without it crumbling--at least in my experience), I thought that the pork sausage would help hold the patty together and give the meat a bit of moisture (aka-delicious, fat-flavored goodness.) Well, while my patties did hold up incredibly, they were a bit drier than I would have hoped for. I think this also had something to do with my cook time. I was hesitant to take the meat off the grill pan early because both sausage and venison don't have the luxury of being served up a little rare like beef does.
Anyway, since I felt like my main component was not up-to-par, I chose not to send this recipe in. However, I saw no reason why it shouldn't make it onto my plate for supper tonight.
Not bad for a Tuesday night, right? By the way, if you are ever looking for a different way to dress up your burger, top your (BEEF!) patty with fried mozzarella slices, spinach, and slather your bun with a dressing made from about 1TBS mayo and 1tsp sun-dried tomato pesto (to be shared equally among all burgers, of course.) Perdy good.
So while I was bummed about my botched burger, it is hard to be completely down in the dumps. For one thing, tonight I taught myself how to make fried mozzarella slices. (SCORE!) But mainly, I realized that I have come a long, LONG way from being the girl in college who only knew how to make Cheerios and thought you were supposed to heat up canned tuna in the microwave (oy...yes, I know, disgusting.)
Oh, and in case you were wondering, no, my pie did not collapse in the freezer. Here's the finished product:
And now to wash it all down:
(Just kidding! I couldn't resist lol)
Tonight I tried round 2 of entering the Better Homes and Gardens Prize Winning Recipes contest--this one didn't work out so great for me :)
The theme was "Burger Love" with the goal of creating a new take on burgers (to go along with a summertime issue next August.) I loved everything I put on my burger except my burger patty (haha!)
You see, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could craft a new burger from ingredients I almost always have on hand, so I made a patty out of 1/2 lb of ground sausage and 1 lb of ground venison...
--Okay, you caught me. I was just too lazy and too cheap to run to the store to pick up something specially for tonight!--
But in my defense, I mixed the venison with the sausage with sound logic in mind. Because venison is an extremely lean meat (it is almost impossible to make a burger patty out of pure venison without it crumbling--at least in my experience), I thought that the pork sausage would help hold the patty together and give the meat a bit of moisture (aka-delicious, fat-flavored goodness.) Well, while my patties did hold up incredibly, they were a bit drier than I would have hoped for. I think this also had something to do with my cook time. I was hesitant to take the meat off the grill pan early because both sausage and venison don't have the luxury of being served up a little rare like beef does.
Anyway, since I felt like my main component was not up-to-par, I chose not to send this recipe in. However, I saw no reason why it shouldn't make it onto my plate for supper tonight.
Not bad for a Tuesday night, right? By the way, if you are ever looking for a different way to dress up your burger, top your (BEEF!) patty with fried mozzarella slices, spinach, and slather your bun with a dressing made from about 1TBS mayo and 1tsp sun-dried tomato pesto (to be shared equally among all burgers, of course.) Perdy good.
So while I was bummed about my botched burger, it is hard to be completely down in the dumps. For one thing, tonight I taught myself how to make fried mozzarella slices. (SCORE!) But mainly, I realized that I have come a long, LONG way from being the girl in college who only knew how to make Cheerios and thought you were supposed to heat up canned tuna in the microwave (oy...yes, I know, disgusting.)
Oh, and in case you were wondering, no, my pie did not collapse in the freezer. Here's the finished product:
And now to wash it all down:
(Just kidding! I couldn't resist lol)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Easy as Pie
So it seems that everyone I love is still on a New Year's high and making commitments for a better 2012. I think I have even made some baby steps in that direction. In the past few weeks I have stayed true to my resolution to drink more water--and even made an unexpected commitment to cut out Diet Coke to aide me in that process. I have also been running regularly every week in hopes to knock out my first 5k by the end of next month. I was on a role making such healthy choices for myself that I decided I should continue the streak and take the next positive step toward checking off my New Year's Resolutions...let's make a pie!
One of my New Year's Resolutions was to enter the BHG recipe contests. I have been a Better Homes and Gardens subscriber for YEARS and have always saved the contest articles from past contests thinking "I should do this!"...but then I never did. This year I'm gonna!! (Why not?! It will give me a nice break from the corny dogs and chicken nuggets I fix for my children the rest of the month.) This month's categories are pies and burgers. Tonight I tried my hand at the pie.
And not just any pie--summer pies--summer, fruit-filled pies. I gotta tell you, this was probably the hardest category for me to start off on. While I do consider myself to be one of the "most-improved" cooks I know, I am certainly not a baker. And truth be told, I don't really like pies all that much. *gasp!* I know that probably sounds pretty un-American of me, and I apologize for that... no I don't. In fact, I am not that big on sweets of any kind--with the exception to that being cheesecakes and Blue Bell ice cream.
That's why I decided to try a frozen pie. It could give me the ice-creamy texture that I like and still fit the bill. (And honestly, who enjoys baking in the summertime?! Or in El Paso in January when it's still 72 degrees outside?!) I once tried a pie that was SO easy and I loved it: the Neely's Frozen Lemonade Pie. (You can look up the recipe on Food Network's website. I am too lazy to hyperlink crap... that's not how I roll on this blog!) It is so fluffy and creamy and sweet without being too sweet (the lemon helps a lot in that department.) But clearly, I couldn't just submit this recipe. First and foremost because it is not my original recipe, and secondly, because it is not fruit-filled. But man did I ever come as close to copy-catting their recipe as I could when I developed my original--Frozen Strawberry Limeade Pie. (Sounds summery, doesn't it?)
Here's what you need:
For crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted
For Strawberry Limeade Filling:
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 cup granulated sugar
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
One 12-ounce container whipped topping, thawed
3 fluid oz-(half a can) of frozen limeade concentrate, unthawed
Whole strawberries for garnish
Here's how you do it:
Before you begin:
In a small sauce pan, cook the sliced strawberries with the 1 cup granulated sugar over medium-high heat until it becomes thick, bubbly, syrupy goodness--about 5 minutes (I promise, I almost stopped making the pie at this point and just ate the syrup...in fact, I made a little more just so I could have extra on hand lol)
After you are done cooking the strawberries you will need to transfer them to the refrigerator so the syrup can chill completely. (Everything needs to be cold going into the filling or it won't work.)
For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In medium bowl, stir together the cracker crumbs, sugar and the melted butter until combined and resembles a mixture that looks like this:
mmmm...crumbly.
Then pour the mixture into a pie plate and press firmly along the bottom and up the sides. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. This is what you'll get:
For the filling: (aka-the fun part.) In a large bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk to the whipped topping. Gently fold them together until combined, making sure to keep the mixture light and fluffy. Add the limeade concentrate and continue to gently fold. Finally, fold in the chilled strawberry syrup. Be careful not to stir or overmix or then the mixture will turn to liquid--that's not what we want. You still want it to look fluffy. Pour the filling into the pie crust. It'll look about like this.
Tuck that puppy into the freezer to chill overnight (or at least for eight hours.)
So there you have it. Mine is currently still sleeping. But so long as it hasn't collapsed by morning, this is the recipe I will submit. (I will post a picture of the finished product to Facebook tomorrow if you're interested to see how it turns out.)
Now I know you're thinking, "what the heck am I supposed to do with that extra half a can of limeade?" Here's one solution I came up with for you...
Strawberry Limeade Punch:
In a food blender, liquify about a half cup of strawberry syrup. *You know you made extra too ;)* Then, in a 2-qt pitcher, combine half a can of limeade concentrate, the 1/2 cup liquified strawberry syrup, and half a can of vodka. Then fill the remainder of the pitcher with your favorite lemon lime soda. Stir together. Serve in a glass over ice.
And I know you're also thinking, "What the heck can I do for 8 hours while I'm waiting on my frozen pie to be ready?" Here are some ideas I have for that as well:
-Do a lot of crunches and floor exercises, because you are about to eat a pie.
-Hop onto Pinterest--I always seem to burn a lot of hours quickly that way ;)
-Take a nap
Bet you can't guess what I'm doing while I wait...
One of my New Year's Resolutions was to enter the BHG recipe contests. I have been a Better Homes and Gardens subscriber for YEARS and have always saved the contest articles from past contests thinking "I should do this!"...but then I never did. This year I'm gonna!! (Why not?! It will give me a nice break from the corny dogs and chicken nuggets I fix for my children the rest of the month.) This month's categories are pies and burgers. Tonight I tried my hand at the pie.
And not just any pie--summer pies--summer, fruit-filled pies. I gotta tell you, this was probably the hardest category for me to start off on. While I do consider myself to be one of the "most-improved" cooks I know, I am certainly not a baker. And truth be told, I don't really like pies all that much. *gasp!* I know that probably sounds pretty un-American of me, and I apologize for that... no I don't. In fact, I am not that big on sweets of any kind--with the exception to that being cheesecakes and Blue Bell ice cream.
That's why I decided to try a frozen pie. It could give me the ice-creamy texture that I like and still fit the bill. (And honestly, who enjoys baking in the summertime?! Or in El Paso in January when it's still 72 degrees outside?!) I once tried a pie that was SO easy and I loved it: the Neely's Frozen Lemonade Pie. (You can look up the recipe on Food Network's website. I am too lazy to hyperlink crap... that's not how I roll on this blog!) It is so fluffy and creamy and sweet without being too sweet (the lemon helps a lot in that department.) But clearly, I couldn't just submit this recipe. First and foremost because it is not my original recipe, and secondly, because it is not fruit-filled. But man did I ever come as close to copy-catting their recipe as I could when I developed my original--Frozen Strawberry Limeade Pie. (Sounds summery, doesn't it?)
Here's what you need:
For crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted
For Strawberry Limeade Filling:
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 cup granulated sugar
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
One 12-ounce container whipped topping, thawed
3 fluid oz-(half a can) of frozen limeade concentrate, unthawed
Whole strawberries for garnish
Here's how you do it:
Before you begin:
In a small sauce pan, cook the sliced strawberries with the 1 cup granulated sugar over medium-high heat until it becomes thick, bubbly, syrupy goodness--about 5 minutes (I promise, I almost stopped making the pie at this point and just ate the syrup...in fact, I made a little more just so I could have extra on hand lol)
After you are done cooking the strawberries you will need to transfer them to the refrigerator so the syrup can chill completely. (Everything needs to be cold going into the filling or it won't work.)
For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In medium bowl, stir together the cracker crumbs, sugar and the melted butter until combined and resembles a mixture that looks like this:
mmmm...crumbly.
Then pour the mixture into a pie plate and press firmly along the bottom and up the sides. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. This is what you'll get:
For the filling: (aka-the fun part.) In a large bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk to the whipped topping. Gently fold them together until combined, making sure to keep the mixture light and fluffy. Add the limeade concentrate and continue to gently fold. Finally, fold in the chilled strawberry syrup. Be careful not to stir or overmix or then the mixture will turn to liquid--that's not what we want. You still want it to look fluffy. Pour the filling into the pie crust. It'll look about like this.
Tuck that puppy into the freezer to chill overnight (or at least for eight hours.)
So there you have it. Mine is currently still sleeping. But so long as it hasn't collapsed by morning, this is the recipe I will submit. (I will post a picture of the finished product to Facebook tomorrow if you're interested to see how it turns out.)
Now I know you're thinking, "what the heck am I supposed to do with that extra half a can of limeade?" Here's one solution I came up with for you...
Strawberry Limeade Punch:
In a food blender, liquify about a half cup of strawberry syrup. *You know you made extra too ;)* Then, in a 2-qt pitcher, combine half a can of limeade concentrate, the 1/2 cup liquified strawberry syrup, and half a can of vodka. Then fill the remainder of the pitcher with your favorite lemon lime soda. Stir together. Serve in a glass over ice.
And I know you're also thinking, "What the heck can I do for 8 hours while I'm waiting on my frozen pie to be ready?" Here are some ideas I have for that as well:
-Do a lot of crunches and floor exercises, because you are about to eat a pie.
-Hop onto Pinterest--I always seem to burn a lot of hours quickly that way ;)
-Take a nap
Bet you can't guess what I'm doing while I wait...
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