Columns

I know that I’m going too deep down the rabbit hole of investigating Italian dishes when I start seeing Italian versions of another country’s dishes. That was the case last week when I came across “Colatura di Alici” on the NYT website and coyingly subtitled “with a sauce from fish drippings”. If not a great dish then I knew I would, at least, have a disgustingly funny column for you AND I’d have fun putting it all together.

Time is one of our most valuable commodities. There are 24 hours in each day, which equals out to 1,440 minutes. We aren’t guaranteed a certain amount of time to live, so we need to make each minute count.

Yes, in order to survive, we have to work to produce an income. In addition to our job, we also have homes to maintain, yards to mow, errands to run, and still find time to eat and sleep.

What we fail to remember is we also need time to pursue other fun activities. In order to maintain a healthy physical and mental life, we need time to play, relax, and enjoy life. That’s when a Time Budget may come in handy.

A Time Budget works similar to a financial budget. It can show us at a quick glance where we are ‘spending’ our time.

Battling the Grumpy Monster

I caught myself being grumpy this past week. It got to the point where I had to sit down and have one of those hard discussions with myself. The end result was every time I found something to complain about, I had to switch my thoughts and name at least five blessings. I’m up to about 355… This led me to wondering… there are days set aside for almost everything. Grandparents Day. Mother’s Day. Father’s Day. There is even a Blueberry Pancake Day, a Kazoo Day, and a day set aside for popping Bubble Wrap (yep! It’s the last Monday in January!) But is there a National Day of just appreciation?

Although there is a Celebration of Life Day, it is designed more to appreciate the lives of the people in our life. From my search, I couldn’t find one that is just for appreciating all of the simple joys in life. There should be.

What’s Your Superpower?

We all have superpowers- we truly do. Not the cool Superman strength or Wonder Woman’s invisible jet (wouldn’t that be amazing?) But we all have unique abilities.

My husband’s superpower is Telling Time. You can ask him what time it is and, without looking at any clock, he can tell you within ten minutes the time. It’s one of the many things I love about him.

My dad’s superpower is that he can fix pretty much anything with duct tape and Wd40he’s amazing! I imagine a lot of us have or had dads like that.

Let’s get shakin!!!

That’s right s’mores in the summer, it’s a thing, or it could be. I’ve never been considered completely sane and with it 100° or hotter outside, I probably got ya attention. But seriously if you like them, you like them, if you have ever made them with the kiddos, you know they love them. I grew up in the country and when we were kids out at the camp, we were always by the fire making s’mores!

They are perfect for those nights out by the fire when it’s cool out, camping, and perfect for family time. Well with one of the best kitchen inventions in a generation you don’t have wait until fall to toast that marshmallow! In fact, you don’t even have to go outside.

If you are a faithful reader of this column you will know that one of the main objectives is to keep alive the history and culture of DeSoto Parish. Today’s article is devoted primarily to a historical fact that will be new to some - World War II German Concentration Camps in Mansfield!

The philosophy of “Jubolism “ the power of positivity, when you awaken let this be the day you say I am some body, no matter how many times you may have stumbled in life let this be the day you say it stops here, align your footing broadly stick your chest out, boldly hold your head up high, then step into the world as if you owned it, tell that person that’s looking back at you in the mirror that you are somebody, you will not let no words take away your will to achieve, for you are in tune with your higher self and will nothing or no one bring you down, you are as hungry and ferocious as a starving Lion at its prey, tell yourself I demand perfection and I want settle for less, even if you were to amputate my legs it wouldn’t stop me from finishing the race, it’s quite a accomplishment when one can conquer others but it’s genius when one can conquer themselves, you’ve spent most of your life miserable wanting what you don’t have now spend what life you have left enjoying what you g

Let’s get shakin’ Here we are y’all!! We have sprung forward, we are feeling the warmer days, and not so welcoming the mosquitos. We are right in the midst of crawfish season!!!

Big boils for fundraisers and crawfish festivals are getting geared up.

Over the years of crawfish boils, I have seen almost everything thrown in a boil and honestly, that’s one of my favorite parts. Everything from your standards of corn, potatoes, onions, sausage, and mushrooms. But there’s so much more, maybe even some you haven’t tried.

DeSoto Extension Agent

You Don’t Have To Finish, Just Get

Started

The trees need to be pruned, the lawn needs to be cut, weeds need to be pulled and new mulch needs to be put out. The blueberries need to be picked, the aphids have ambushed the aster and you need to side dress the vegetables.

So your garden is a mess, and you just don’t know where to start. We’ve all been in this predicament at some time or another. Mark Twain said it best when he said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

A Scratch Cherry Pie

Most of you who read my columns know that, although I love to cook, I am “Pastry Challenged”. In fact I am “Gravy/Sauce Challenged”, too, but that doesn’t pertain to this column. That’s why you may be curious about the title. Most people think of a “scratch done” dish as one done completely by a recipe with your own ingredients in your own kitchen. AND because I couldn’t do a real scratch cherry pie if my life depended on it I bought a Sara Lee frozen cherry pie at Brookshires. Now I DID scratch the side flap of the box it came in to open it and I DID scratch the cellophane wrapping to remove it before baking so that’s my take on a Scratch Cherry Pie. It sure does taste good, too, especially with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top while it’s piping hot!