Wow…Silence IS Golden…and so is cake…

I want to thank all of you that are reading my blog right now especially reading about my SILENCE!

I started this blog as a combination of commentary on my life and experiences and about food which I believe is one of the most important things in life.  It slowly…well I guess not that slowly!… became more about food and recipes than anything else and most people wanted more recipes and more recipes!

Well, after writing on this blog…not as regularly as I originally had hoped and planned but still off and on for the last year and a half what I have found out about life is way more than I ever realized life was all about.

Yes, I still feel life is all about food.  A big part of it anyway.  Food is something we need for sustenance.  BUT… Food is also comfort, enemy, challenge, addicting, joyful, creative, love, spite, hurtful, tasty, take you somewhere else,  maintaining heritage and history, yucky, memory inducing stuff.

I personally have used food for comfort, for spite, for creating art, for showing love, holding on to memories, to make money, for running away to…for blaming. 

So…what am I getting at?  Well since most of my writing lately has been food and all of a sudden I take a Vow of Silence and write for days about that, I felt I just needed to write today about everything.

In being silent, I not only have learned all the things I have been already writing about, but I just feel more in control of everything in my life…and that includes FOOD.  I LOVE FOOD.  I love the smells, the flavors, the textures, the sizzle, the bubbling, the first bite and the last bite…I love making the food, creating new recipes, making healthy food taste good, designing the food on the plate, decorating cakes…and just about every other aspect of FOOD.

BUT  there have been times when that food has owned me.  In some of my craziness, depression, lonliness, fear, boredom I have eaten.  I’d eat when my head was saying “don’t eat that” yet my hand would go to my mouth just the same.  

In a way it was the same as when before taking my vow of silence I would tell myself to “just shut up Dorina” but my mantra to myself always seemed to come AFTER I had said something stupid…then I’d be beating myself up about it.  Just like when I’d put something in my mouth that I really didn’t want to eat, I’d beat myself up afterwards but that didn’t stop me from doing it again just like my shut ups didn’t really shut me up.

MAKING myself be quiet was awesome.  I have learned that self control should be more about changing your starting point…your initial thoughts…THEN you can control.

If you try to control while in the act…gravity takes over and it’s all downhill.

I used to think changing your thoughts was hard.  For someone stubborn like me…it was for a long time, but only because that is what I told myself. I realized the person that has the most influence over me is ME.  Wow…what a concept!  I was the one keeping me down.  I was the one telling me that I sucked at this and was no good at that.  I was my own worst enemy.  Pride got in the way.  Now really…what the hell did I have to be proud of???  NOTHING!!!!  Not about myself anyway.  I was a big mouth bully talking too much and not listening enough…eating too much yet not feeding my soul. 

I urge you…if you have ANY issues with your life whatsoever…try learning to control your thoughts.  Try a vow of silence for a couple of days, or even a day. Listen to yourself and realize that nothing outside of you matters if what’s inside of  you isn’t whole. 

You may have depression, anxiety, bi-polar etc in your family or you may just be a bit depressed about your life at the moment…or it just may be a short sad time because of some current tragedy in your family or just frustration with kids in high school which sends you spinning….

Whatever it is…these things I have done and am doing can help…they WILL help.  I will continue to write about what I have been doing this year because this is basically the culmination of a year of inner search in which my VOW OF SILENCE  was the clincher that made me understand all the cool stuff I had learned but in a sense only “memorized” but didn’t’ really “understand” as I think I do now.

May any of you who are mothers, or just in your 30’s or 40’s or 50’s (which can be depressing all by itself)…or just feel like something isn’t quite right in  your life, find your own peace.  I am here to tell you it can be fixed, and it is all worth the hard work. 

The first thing I am going to tell you to do is to please say a small prayer today giving thanks to God for all that you DO already have that is good in your life, and then just stop and go about your day thinking about that.  Then you can work on the rest.

Until we meet again, I wish you Peace. 

Love,

Dorina

Vow of Silence- Part 4

You know as I looked over my last three posts about my Silent Vow week, I see how many different things ranging from attitudes and behaviors, inner spirituality and God, self worth and respect for self and others, and just the health of my ears have been affected by the silence.  

I was going to kind of give up on the silence but now I think that just being a LOT more quiet the rest of the week will suffice.  I think an hour here or an hour there might be easy enough and not too annoying to those around me.   

I am actually thinking that my hour of cooking dinner might be good quiet time.  It is time when everyone is here but it is usually a kind of hairy and frenzied time with people coming and going, kids being hungry and homework trying to get done. 

But that one hour is also when I usually get crazy and the noise around me and the voices trying to be heard often include mine.  So I will take mine out.  Might just work…If I can keep my mouth shut during my most frenzied hour of the day, I just might be able to control that much more in my life.

I may do this forever…who knows!?!?!?!  

 Well, it’s time to make dinner…maybe I’ll say a little prayer for strength…

Actually todays quote of the day had to do with strength…

“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do.  But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” 

And the amazing Jack Lalanne once said.. “A healthy person starts the day by counting their blessings”

I think I will follow his lead and add that to my daily routine.

Thanks Jack for all that you did for the world, may you Rest in Peace.

On that note I give thanks right now for my blessings today which are too numerous to list here…

Peace,

Dorina

Vow of Silence-Part 3

The weekend was more difficult.  The whole family around me for the whole day did not make it easy for me to be silent 100% like I would have liked. 

Kids and hubby got a little frustrated when they were talking to me and yet HAD to look at me to see if I heard or was going to respond somehow.

This just shows me how little we ALL give the proper attention to the people we supposedly care about. 

I have realized that undivided attention is one of the greatest forms of respect and also affection and love that we can offer someone.  When I have an upset child as I did yesterday and I took him in my room and he laid next to me on my  bed and I told him I thought that he must really be bummed about the issue and then he began to talk because I spoke to him in a way that showed I had heard him and understood him.  After not more than 5 minutes we had “made a deal” that I was going to help him with the issue and he was going to   try not to react to the situation while I was helping work on in…and he was happy again.

Amazing what just a few minutes of undivided attention does.  And giving that short amount of time at that point actually saved a heck of a lot of stressful time later. 

In being quiet, I find it easier to hold my tongue so to speak.

I say “so to speak” for this reason.

This morning my son Nico asked me why I was talking and I said that no one will allow me to finish out this week the way I want so instead of it being a VOW of SILENCE it is more a vow of pretty quiet.

So he asked…”Like holding your tongue?”  and I was about to say yes when I realize something right then…so I said “NO, because holding your tongue makes it seem like you have to hold something back…when you are being “silent” or “quiet” you are not holding anything back because you had no plans to say anything at all.  SO holding back is different and harder and means nothing has changed in your thoughts, feelings or instant reactions… you’re just HOLDING BACK your immediate reactive thoughts and feelings.

I now on the other hand feel like I have better than controlled my tongue.  I am changing my thoughts and even my feelings on a lot of things and definitely the way I am choosing to react to certain situations.

Words from other people, looks, sighs, gestures have always been triggers for me and set me off.

I am choosing not to read into things so much and just actually listen to the words. 

I feel that people may think they are saying what they want to say and the words themselves may actually have good meaning, but the tone, accompanying looks, and body language that goes along with those words can change their meaning completely.

I realized that I send off LOTS of non verbal signals, looks and negative body language when I am speaking totally NOT getting my original point across the way I had wanted to.  Inside thoughts and reactions to my own thoughts get in my own way!  Now that is sad…or I guess I should say WAS sad…. 

I don’t know if the 100% or even 90% Vow Of Silence I had initially hoped to keep up for a week is actually realistic when I’m living in a house with 6 kids- instead of going on a silent retreat somewhere.  I am sure that being silent when everyone else is also in silent mode is MUCH easier!  Being silent when people are calling you from the other room and trying to get there quick enough so they don’t think you are ignoring them and so then they keep yelling doesn’t help the situation and then would just fill your head up with more noise.  

I still would recommend doing it with the family tho because it really makes you see what you would have said in real life moments and situations and how different those moments became because you said NOTHING! 

So through all this I would recommend doing this for a day or two or three….definitely.  Even the first 24 hours offered me a great deal of insight but I am still seeing more every day now. 

Spiritually I found that it has made it easier to pray when I am quiet.  Instead of my standard….
“Please God…help me”  it almost feels like you can hold a conversation.  It really is almost like you are somewhere else.  Like a fly on the wall. Like invisible…YES  in a way it makes you feel invisible… You sort of feel that no one else is around…because unless they are talking to you, you are not really paying attention to the chatter around you just so you can try to stick in your two cents. You are JUST listening with no plans of speaking in mind.

I often say that 100 pennies still makes a dollar when it comes to saving, and so in this case your two cents should definitely be kept in your pocket…what a savings of your peace of mind and everyone around you if you start saving those 2 cents now.

So anyway, back to God…it’s almost like  you can feel a presence…or something that is more tangible and close- not so far off and distant in the heavens somewhere.  When you are just inside yourself…even when there are people around, it is an interesting feeling.  Like you are floating…like you are on the outside looking in.  It is like you can see yourself and how you “would have” interacted because you know yourself and know what you would have done but then at the same time you see how your NOT being in the fray makes a really big difference…in fact you might even see that you WERE the fray….as I realized I would have been a few of those times I was observing. 

Because of our very busy house…I was not able to be AS silent as I wanted.  BUT in a very short time I have learned amazing things.  About me and about people in general.  I see the speed at which everything travels…whether it is the boys getting food…and it has to be NOW because “I’m starving” or the quick rush in the house to turn on the TV after school…

Can we have a slow conversation?  No…it is a conversations with 10 people all speaking at once…people picking and choosing what they want to hear and what they want to react or respond to..and doing this all while hovered around an “under the counter”  9 inch TV in the kitchen.

I realized this craziness we call life as we currently know it has to stop.  I have to stop.  All we are doing is spinning our wheels and getting nowhere.

I know I haven’t gotten anywhere in years.  But I am going to change my driving habits.  I’m driving with all wheels on the ground.  I’m driving slower.  In driving slower I will never have to slam on the brakes or back up because I will be traveling at a pace where I had the time to respond to a situation up ahead instead of having to react quickly to it…which could still cause an accident.  I will also be able to enjoy the scenery and the breeze in my hair instead of the wind that blows in my face when I’m driving too fast and then my hair gets in my eyes and once again I can’t see clearly.  But I thought I loved the wind in my face.  So I never used to notice that I couldn’t see.  Now I see.  

This QUIETness that has become more me all of a sudden is I THINK the me I was searching for my whole life.  It’s the ME who can actually see ME.  I was always looking outside for affirmation, confirmation, affection, attention, but now…I realize all the love and affirmation and attention I need is within me.  I am within me.  God is within me.  I am good.  I can do things well.  I am strong.  I am kind.  I am compassionate.  I care about others.  I love with all my heart.  I am beautiful inside and out. 

All the things that I didn’t like about myself were really only one thing.  And now that is gone…disappeared…poof…into the quiet air that I hear so much more in now….and I think I have the one thing that will carry me thru the rest of my life…
WOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW….. I just  REALLY figured out what that ONE thing was that Curly the cowboy tried to tell Billy Crystal in City Slickers. Hmmmmmm………..I wish he’d said it out loud in the movie…I might have gotten all this a long time ago! 

I must say…Just be quiet–long enough– and you might figure out what yours is too. 

Thank you God for all that I have and all that I will have and the people that I love and love me.

and thank you God for not letting me get old and die without figuring all this out…. 

Peace,

Dorina

Vow of Silence-Part 2

Well since yesterday at noon when I last wrote, I had a pretty quiet day until last nite when I went to a “business” gathering and got to speak for a couple of hours…altho even there most of the time I was listening…

Oddly, I am finding that even when I MUST speak or have my pre planned necessary “speaking times”  I don’t want to talk! 

So anyway,  yesterday, I pretty much was home the whole day, just cleaning house since it had snowed and I had no desire to go out until I had to in the evening. 

I didn’t talk to Pat on the phone and I didn’t talk to anyone else on the phone either.  I “showed” my mom how to set up “google chat” and we “chatted” for a few. 

She really wants me to share all this stuff and the “enlightenment” I am gaining from it all. 

Enzo (19) and Leo (18) went to a concert last nite and a friend was here with them for a bit before they all left…I was making bread for the meeting I was going to and even with a guest over, I didn’t speak except to tell him briefly why I wasn’t speaking…I didn’t want the kid to think I was some mean mom (he’s a newer friend) who wouldn’t talk to a guest that was waiting for my boys to get ready to leave!!! 

Later when I was at the meeting, someone I was telling about what I was doing compared it to a fast.  It really is a fast in a way….yet I don’t feel deprived at all.

In fact I am almost resenting the times that I have to speak….and when I am speaking, I am finding that I am speaking more quietly…softly almost.  Almost sounds strange even to my own ears, but it sounds nice.

I’m liking it alot.

I am finding that I am “speaking” more with a smile or a look or a short gesture and getting my point across very easily.  I have at times been mouthing words and I think the whole family will be great lip-readers by the time I am done!!!  haha! 

I have found that before this, when I would speak, it would be very easy for kids to pretend they didn’t hear me and not look my way and disappear before I noticed they were gone and hadn’t picked up a dish or whatever…

NOW, I get their attention with a quick snap of the fingers or tap on the counter and they LOOK at me…so they are paying attention and SEE my gesture to clear a dish or pick something up!!!  No getting away with disappearing when you get eye contact!

You can pretend you don’t hear but you can’t pretend you don’t see!

Very interesting! 

But in the meantime, I am finding also …and this is weird and I don’t get it… but everything is a little cleaner.  I feel more energetic I think too, so cleaning up after my crazy crew doesn’t seem as difficult.  Maybe I have more energy for house cleaning etc because I am not expending energy talking or yelling.  I also find I am feeling a bit calmer all the way around.  AND, I think part of it is that everyone seems a bit more helpful…maybe because they are calmer too and so less pissy when I want them to do something…in fact everyone is washing their own dishes and cups more often than ever before. 

I had to speak a bit more today than I had hoped or expected because we went into the city to check out the School of Visual Arts for Leo  but all in all it was still a quiet day for me and I enjoyed it very much. 

Well, it is midnite and I am going to bed…Yay! more quiet time ahead…SLEEP!!!  🙂 

 Buona Notte

Dorina

Vow Of Silence

Hello!

Today I am going to begin writing about something different and unusual.  You see, since noon yesterday, I have taken a vow of silence for a week.  Originally I sent out an email to my mom and few close friends that I speak to most often so that they wouldn’t think I was ignoring them!  But now I am finding the experience to be quite enlightening so I want to document these days.

 First, This is the email I sent out before beginning… 

Hello my friends and family
I am going to come straight to the point…
those of you that know me know that I have always had a “big mouth”…
saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, over-talking people, cutting people off, turning the conversation back to me, taking the conversation over, always needing to be right or in control, etc etc etc—
NOT how I want to be.
 
SO–knowing this about myself…what do I do?
Well I’ll tell you.
For the next week, I am taking a vow of silence.  Except for my two hours that I have to coach and my doctors appt, I will not be reachable by voice unless it is an emergency.  
I will text, email, write on paper or try my hands at sign language but I will not speak to you.
 
What I will do is LISTEN.  
I hope in the end, the thing I will come out with is better listening skills…a clearer head…less need to be heard.  I hope that like Carmelite Nuns or Tibetan Monks, I too can find some peace in the silence.  
I know you all are wondering how the heck I am going to do this– ME of all people…and that is exactly why I want to do it.  Call me crazy,,,in fact call me whatever you want this week….you’ll get NO argument back from me.
 
Love Always,
Dorina

Two of the responses I got were interesting…and different!

*I know you can do this. I know someone that yearly goes on a retreat where they do not talk.  He said that it is very strange at first but you get used to it.

*OMG…….i cant believe you are going to do this. Can you do this??? I couldn’t do it…..What are you going to do when you need to discipline the kids???/                                                                                          BTW…your first statement of having a “big mouth” describes me too!!! I have tried in the past to be more conscious of it…but I don’t think it has worked…..I always fall back into my old habits!  Good Luck!!
I THINK THESE ARE DEFINITELY THINGS I WILL BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO WHEN THIS IS OVER…OR MAYBE EVEN BEFORE!

So…what posessed me to do this?  
Well, I was in a “mood” the other night and stuff just kept spewing out of my mouth that was not serving me AT ALL!!!
So in my frustration with myself, I said…”you know, I should just wire my damn mouth shut!”  then I proceeded to tell whoever was listening about a girl I knew from high school who had surgery on her jaw

and she survived altho she could sort of talk thru her teeth!!! 

Anyway, I went to bed that night and this crazy idea began to form…and “vow of silence” came to mind.  So of course I got up and went to my computer and looked up “vow of silence” and “Tibetan Monks” who everyone knows don’t speak and “Carmelite Nuns” which I knew about growing up going to Catholic school…

What I found was interesting and believe it or not the following 3 points from Wikipedia I think sum it up quite well…

• As an aid to the practice of good, for we keep silence with man, in order the better to speak with God, because an unguarded tongue dissipates the soul, rendering the mind almost, if not quite, incapable of prayer. The mere abstaining from speech, without this purpose, would be that “idle silence” which St. Ambrose so strongly condemns.
• As a preventative of evil. Seneca, quoted by Thomas à Kempis, complains that “As often as I have been amongst men, I have returned less a man” (Imitation, Book I, c. 20).
• The practice of silence involves much self-denial and restraint, and is therefore a wholesome penance, and as such is needed by all.

Well, point one is good…my “tongue has often been unguarded” and has caused me problems… and I am finding that it feels somewhat spiritual.

In preventing evil as point 2 says, it keeps me from saying mean things etc and I do already after only 24 hours think that this is going to turn out, like in point 3 to be something I am going to recommend as needed by all…but I guess I’ll see after the 7 days. 

OK…so here is my story of the last 24 hours.

Before noon yesterday I got all the “business” phone calls I had to make done so that I wouldn’t have to do it later.  Then at noon I shut the mouth.

Even with two of my aforementioned “exceptions” in one day yesterday, –I had an eye doc appt at 2:30 which had already been made and I had to coach last night so I had about 3 hours of “talk time”  I still had many hours of quiet time anyway.  And STILL I already feel I’ve gotten a lot out of it.

So I was texting with my hubby Pat and he wanted to know how the kids were taking it.  I told him they were pretty good.  Then I had to come back and tell him otherwise because my 13 year old son was having issue with it.  He thought it was dumb…especially when I was trying to get him to do something without my “telling” him. He said ” Just talk already!”  But I used my chalkboard in the kitchen or just pointed and everyone seemed pretty much fine with it.  In fact the big boys -the college twins- think its great!!  haha!

By the time the night was over even Mr. 13 was fine.  Just took some getting used to!

Dinner was rather quiet…I guess I often start conversations…but it was pretty nice.

So that is them…what about me?

Well, what I have figured out so far…

When I am talking, I am not listening.

Even when I am NOT talking at the moment, I am more focused on what I am going to say next than listening,  I find I am preparing my response to what someone else is saying before they even finish. So…therefore not REALLY listening,

I’m finding that I am already becoming more tolerant of the things going on around me because I am not reacting to them…which I usually do with my mouth–BECAUSE I CAN’T TALK! 

The kids arguments seemed to be shorter because I wasn’t butting in.  I only had to point my finger and give a dirty look once last night. I think that’s pretty good.

Some of the other questions I got from Pat via text that made me think were…

p-Is the silence maddening?

d- no actually…I realize I don’t like hearing me either

–(interesting thing to figure out about yourself)

and then at one point I told him

d- you know on one hand it’s easy and on the other hand it’s not.

p- I can imagine

(but out of this I realized… no one can imagine this… I did have this grand idea of what it was going to be like but in no way did I realize it the way it is hitting me) 

and then later, when I was at soccer practice he texted me

p-how does it feel to talk?

d-it felt weird actually…like I wanted to whisper at first

p-weird

(it really was weird at first…especially talking to my own kids who I had been quiet with for the whole day!  but I think what was more strange was the fact that it felt that weird already after being quiet only the better part of one day) 

Now… Today…

This morning went very smooth.  Of course with snow and a two hour school delay it gave me more “morning time” … I got up and went about my morning breakfast business…made everyone french toast and eggs and coffee and lunches  AND what was interesting was that when I just pointed to each kid and their dish, they got up and WASHED IT and put it away!  I didn’t have to say a thing!  It was great!  And NO ARGUMENT about it either!

Hmmmmm….maybe there is something to this quiet thing…… 

Well that is it up to now…I have to say so far-so good.  

Peace,
Dorina

Gluten Free Chicken Fingers!

OK Today I am going to send you to my other blog where I post recipes using a raw whole food ingredient called MILA…which is an OMEGA 3 packed seed…Chia Seed to be precise.
Anyway, there is no other higher source of Omega 3’s on the planet and this stuff IS NOT FISHY!!!
It is a plant base (obviously!!! it’s a seed!) so there is no fish oil pill to take and burp up all day…(so wonderful for a date to kiss you with fish breath!!!)

On my other site, I just posted my Gluten Free Chicken Fingers recipe …you see I came to making a few recipes for a friend whose kids need gluten free food. Of course what do they miss the most???
Chicken fingers! I never really make them myself since it really isn’t a staple in an Italian household. I do like my occasional crunchy piece of chicken though and I do LOVE Honey Mustard sauce/dressing which is already here on this site… so look for it to make and serve with these fingers!!!

OK…go to

Mila Meals: How to use MILA in your cooking

and check out todays recipe. Gluten free or not these are REALLY tasty!!! You will be pleasantly surprised!!

Peace!

♥Dorina

Pasta con Lenticchie!!! (pasta with lentils!!!)

Ok let me start by telling you that “lentils” is a word I did not know growing up. It was Lenticchie (pronounced len-teek-yeh)…I only knew the Italian word.
Mom would make some kind of smaller pasta with the lentils and lots of garlic. Yummmy!

This is such a simple dish it is almost embarrassing to call this a recipe but you have to make this sometime. It is a simple, stick to your guts, garlicky and yes HEALTHY southern Italian peasant dish!!!
First…rinse your lentils and then put them in a pot and cover with water….OK now this is hard…I usually use my 3 quart sauce pot and fill it about 1/2 way with water and I use a one pound bag of lentils!
OMG!!! I feel like my old Italian Grandmother trying to pass on recipes that have no measurements!!!
Of course you may not use that much since I do have a family of 8 to feed and that one pound bag and 2 pounds of pasta JUST covers us! So for a family of 4– 1/2 a bag is good with 1 pound of pasta!

***Anyway, bring the lentils to a boil and then just let them simmer slowly til they soak up all or most of the water (which you have lightly salted). If they dry out and aren’t soft then just add more water and take note for next time! In the end, you want the lentils soft and for the whole pot of them to still be kind of moist. Even a smidge watery is fine.
***Now in your other pot, boil your water for your pasta (with a good pinch of salt) and then cook the pasta. I like to use either a smaller pastina like ditalini or elbows, or acini di pepe or the mini bows…but I have also used the big bows, or rotelle, or even taken spaghetti and broken it into 1 to 2 inch pieces and used that. Use what you like or whatever you have on hand!
***Once the lentils and the pasta are both cooked drain the pasta then mix the two together. Now here is where I do it a bit different than my mother used to do…and of course you can do it either way.
My mother used to take a bunch of cloves of garlic and throw them in with a bunch of olive oil and mix it all up. Let it sit for a bit and then serve. She likes hers a little more “watery” than my grandmother used to make it.
I like it this way but I also like to take a small pan ( I have the coolest little miniature cast iron frying pan ) that I heat up olive oil and lightly saute my garlic before throwing it in. I usually do this step while the pasta is cooking.
I saute in a bit of regular olive oil but then I mix in with the pasta and lentils and add extra virgin olive oil.
Then all you need now is a pinch of salt to taste (don’t forget you salted your pasta water and the lentils a bit so taste it first)
***I like to serve this with grated parmigiano or romano cheese or even take a slice of provolone and lay it on top and it melts and gets gooey and is just another amazing variation!

Please let me know what you think of this one!!!

Peace!

♥Dorina

 

New Year’s Dinner!!!

Well, we had the best guests for New Year’s this year and that was my friend Randi and her family up from Baltimore.  Her husband Louis I just love and the kids…Luke and Sami …well they are like two more of my own. (and Sami is my godchild anyway!!)

So Randi calls and tells me she is bringing up two beautiful Sirloin roasts up with her (we need that much to feed the size of my family and hers combined of course!)

So on New Years Day I made wonderful pot roast.  If there were bones in it the meat would have fallen off of it!!!  It was so tender and moist you could cut it with a fork.

So I have to admit though, that as tasty as it all was, it was so easy my 9 year old daughter Angelina could have made it with 2 minutes worth of instruction!

Pot Roast

Ingredients

Roast

Onions

Potatoes

Carrots

Red Wine

Balsamic Vinegar

Broth

Salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions

Rinse the meat, pat dry and lightly salt and pepper the whole thing.

In a nice hot pan pour just a slight covering of olive oil.  Sear the meat by dropping it in the pot letting is sizzle for a couple of minutes then turn it until you have quickly browned all the sides. 

Add the onions all around the sides of the meat and let them begin to soften. 

As soon as the onions are mostly clear, and your meat is seared, begin adding everything else.

Add the red wine (at least a good cup or two or three…and no i’m not kidding.)

Add about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar

Add at least as much no salt added broth (I used chicken this last time but you can use that or beef or even vegetable broth)  as you did red wine so you now have double the liquid covering at least 1/2 the meat.

Sprinkle some cracked black pepper (of course you can use regular black pepper if you don’t use or have a pepper mill!  Silly!)

then sprinkle a pinch of salt now and then test taste for salt at the end.

Once all the liquid is in the pot, throw in the potatoes and carrots cut in large chunks or they will get too mushy to quick!

Let it come to a boil then drop the heat and just let it simmer and make your house smell amazing for at least an hour.

When you go to cut the meat, as you slice it put the slices back in the pot to soak up more of the broth which is soooo tasty!  ( I usually take the potatoes out and put on the serving platter first then there is room to soak the meat in the pot in the juice) then you can take the meat and lay in the center of the platter with the potatoes and meat surrounding and it looks beautiful!

Then just serve with a nice salad or other green vegetable and you have a very nice dinner!

Enjoy!!!

Peace! 

 

Dorina  ❤

 

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

Well the New Year is HERE!  I have accepted a challenge from WordPress to write at least once a week on my blog.  My personal goal is to write more than that …in fact I really want to write daily but life being what it is I am only going to commit to once a week…then if I do better I’m ahead instead of committing to daily and failing by only writing once a week!!!

This year is going to be about SUCCESS!!! 

So now I am going to ask any of you readers for suggestions as to types of foods you may want to know more about or recipes you may want.  I ask  for you to write to me this year.  Feedback does wonders for a writer I have learned!!!  Last year when I started this blog, anytime I got a “comment” it totally motivated me and I couldn’t stop writing more so that I would hopefully get MORE comments!!!  LOL!!!

So ….PLEASE write me…push me…encourage me!  AND….I promise that in return, I will give you all the best recipes from my family that should REALLY be in a book you pay for!!! 

May you all have a wonderful, healthy and successful New Year.

Look for my first recipe of the year tomorrow (after the kids go back to school!!!)

God Bless…Peace…and my love to all,

Dorina   ❤ 

Apology…

Hi everyone,
I must begin my writing again with an apology. You see I started this blog so that I would have something to keep me writing…but I have to tell you it has personally been a really tough year for me.
It has been a year of self evaluation, self re-discovery and new discovery. For example– I started this blog because I truly love to write and I love to cook and share what I know….
BUT I spent a year or so being miserable that I couldn’t find joy even when I was doing things that “made me happy”!

Like Peter Pan in the movie HOOK, I had to fifnd my happy thought again…and I did…
not before I went through hell and high water….but I did it and I am stronger than ever!!!

Now I am going to try to continue my writing and sharing of my thoughts and love of food and what I believe is its importance in life.

I am soooo happy to be back again!
Love tons!!!
Dorina