Slow cooked BBQ pulled pork sliders

 

Slow cooked BBQ pulled pork

This is a favorite recipe of mine for any potluck, BBQ or game time party. It's very easy to make (hurray for crockpots!) and if you serve it with sliders also looks super festive.

What is your love language?

Is there a more appropriate time of year to talk about the way we prefer to express, experience and receive love? On a day where in general everything revolves around love, giving as well as receiving, it can be helpful to look at the best way to convey love.

About a year ago, freshly into my marriage, an acquaintance suggested we read "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman to use as a guide to start our marriage off with a solid base. It was proposed as a helping hand to getting to know ourselves and each other as partners better.
After my husband and I had both read the book we discussed it at length. As it turns out, for both of us it clarified a lot of behavioral pattern. Not only in the dynamics between the two of us but also the patterns with some of our closest friends and families were cast in a new light.

Delicious lemon bars

Living in California, I feel very lucky to be able to grow citrus. Where I am from, the Netherlands, it is quite cold and citrus won't grow very well. Now I should also mention that I married a man who has amazingly green fingers. Whatever he touches in our garden seems to turn in to pure gold. So far every year we have had oranges the size of store bought grapefruits, more plums than I will ever figure out what to do with and the same goes for our lemons. Although with a family who loves using lemons for Mexican dishes that's not so much a problem. However, I do enjoy using lemons myself as well. And I can't even begin to say how delighted I am to be able to go outside and simply pick some of our fresh lemons every time I have a craving for lemon bars. Besides, with the recipe I use they're very easy to make and taste delicious!

The Eighty-fourth Problem

Once a farmer went to tell the Buddha about his problems. He described his difficulties farming, how either droughts or monsoons complicated his work. He told the Buddha about his wife - how even though he loved her, there were certain things about her he wanted to change. Likewise with his children - yes, he loved them, but they weren't turning out quite the way he wanted. When he was finished, he asked how the Buddha could help him with his problems. 

The Buddha said, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you." 

"What do you mean?" railed the farmer. "You're supposed to be a great teacher!" 

The Buddha replied, "Sir, it's like this. All human beings have eighty-three problems. It's a fact of life. Sure, a few problems may go away now and then, but soon enough others will arise. So we'll always have eighty-three problems." 

The farmer responded indignantly, "Then what's the good of all your teaching?"

The Buddha replied, "My teaching can't help with the eighty-three problems, but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem." 

"What's that?" Asked the farmer. 

"The eighty-fourth problem is that we don't want to have any problems." 

From 'Being Zen' by Ezra Bayda. 

Healthy homemade granola

Healthy homemade granola 

It's an all new year, you know what that means. New Years resolutions. As always we're trying to start the year off right by eating healthy. Here's a quick and easy recipe to help your day off to a good and healthy start. Because breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the day!