Creamy Shrimp with Corn and Bacon, followed by Chipotle Shrimp and Salad

I'm not sure who cooks up the recipes that appear in Real Simple magazine, but here's more of the tried and true favorites from there.


Cook 1 cup dry Jasmine rice according to whatever recipe/directions yields your best rice. I put 1 cup of rinsed Jasmine/Basmati rice in 2 cups of water with a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. I let it sit 20 minutes, then turn the heat on High until it boils, then reduce the heat to a slow simmer until the water is gone.

While that's in the works, cook a package of bacon by whatever method yields your best bacon. I pan fry, slowly. You'll need 8 slices for this recipe. Put the remainder in the refrigerator for other recipes. What's the sense of cooking half a package of bacon, ever? Set the eight pieces of bacon for this recipe aside for now.

With a little of the bacon fat left in the pan, saute 1 large, chopped white onion. Cook it until it's translucent and soft, about 4 - 6 minutes. Add 1 cup of dry white wine and cook until it's reduced by half - about 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and bring to a boil.

Stir in 2 pounds of large shrimp, peeled and deveined, and 1 pound of frozen corn. I like to use PictSweet Frozen Baby White Corn in this recipe. It's sweet and tender, and is flavored perfectly for this dish. Simmer all together for about 4 - 6 minutes. Ladle the soup over bowls of warm rice, and garnish with crumbled bacon.

Serve with garlic bread made with thick slabs of Italian bread slathered with butter, pureed garlic and a liberal sprinkling of Cotija cheese.



Here's my OTHER favorite Shrimp dish from Real Simple.

Chipotle Shrimp with Radish and Jicama Salad (except I don't use Jicama)

The recipe calls for one small jicama (about a pound) that is peeled and cut into 2 inch matchsticks. I substituted Granny Smith apples when I couldn't get jicama at my local grocery store, and it is every bit as delicious. You can also mix the apple with julienned celery, although I wasn't quite as impressed with that as using just the apples.
8 radishes sliced into thin half-moons
1/2 of a bermuda (red) onion, sliced thin
A bunch (about 1/2 cup) of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup of golden raisins
Mix together with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/4 cup lime juice (fresh is best) and salt and pepper.

Cook 2 pounds of large peeled and deveined shrimp in Old Bay according to the Old Bay package directions (only takes about 4 minutes.) Drain the liquid, and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the shrimp in the pan, and sprinkle liberally with chili powder, and toss in pan until fully coated. Do not cook more than 1 minute. Serve with the salad.

I serve this one with Saffron rice, and Vera Cruz corn, chips and guacamole for an all out feast.

The Vera Cruz corn is corn, either cooked on the cob or off (again, I defer back to that PictSweet Baby White Corn...PictSweet vegetables are fabulous time savers in so many of these recipes, and they are excellent quality.) If you use corn on the cob, coat the cob with a liberal portion of mayonnaise. Yep, I said mayo. Roll the cob in Cotija cheese that has been finely grated. Sprinkle with Cayenne pepper and serve with fresh wedges of lime. If you use the frozen bagged corn, stir in a few tablespoons each of mayo and Cotija cheese. Sprinkle with Cayenne and lime juice.

My Guac, as made by Caliente Cab Company in NYC...an avocado, mashed. A small onion, chopped. A tomato, chopped. Juice of 1 fresh lime. Half a bunch of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped. Salt and pepper to taste. Lots of blue corn chips for color and taste.

Dos Equis, or Corona on the side, Pearl if you are lucky enough to find it.

Best savored with your best bitch girlfriends.

Memphis Soul Pork and Beans

I love to cook...because I love to eat. I've decided to blog some of my favorite recipes. I have to admit they aren't original, and in fact, most of my favorites are either family recipes adapted somehow to suit my taste, or from Real Simple magazine. So, giving credit where credit is due...here's the first. This one is an adaptation from a prepackaged kit. I just didn't want to buy the kit anymore, because I knew it could replicate it. I can't remember what it was called, but I call it Memphis Soul Pork and Beans.

You'll need:
2 large fresh sweet potatoes - not to be confused with Yam, which is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea, and can grow up to 2.5 meters in length[2] and weigh up to 70 kg (154 pounds). Cut into 1" cubes

1 cup of dried pinto beans, rinsed and picked over

approximately 3 pounds of pork - I like to take a roast, and cut it into 1" cubes. It's easiest to cube the meat while it's still partially frozen.

1/2 cup of barbeque sauce - I prefer a sweeter molasses based sauce

1 package of onion soup mix

14 oz can of diced tomato, or the equivalent of fresh, chopped (about 2 medium)

6 cups water

cumin - about a teaspoon
ancho - about a half teaspoon
chili - about a half teaspoon

Arrange the cubed pork in the bottom of a crock pot or dutch oven. Next add the pinto beans, then the cubed sweet potatoes. Dump in the can of tomatoes. Mix the package of dry onion soup mix with the barbeque sauce and 6 cups of water and pour it over the pork, beans and sweet potatoes. Add cumin, chili and ancho spices to taste. We love cumin, so I use a rounded teaspoon, and about a 1/2 teaspoon of chili and ancho. Cover and set crock pot to low, or place dutch oven on stovetop and simmer LONG and slow - for at least 6 - 8 hours.

Serve it with cornbread and your favorite Elvis CD.

In case you haven't already heard or read about the six year old boy who was suspended from school for bringing his boy scout utensil - which happened to include a knife, to school, here's the link to The Early Show on CBS. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/13/national/main5382972.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea Now, I've got to tell you, I am NOT happy about this at all. Let me start by saying that I believe all Zachary Christie learned is that if you make enough noise, you can be relieved of your responsibility to own your transgressions. Not a great lesson to teach a six year old.

While I believe the 45 day suspension was probably not commensurate with the crime, and for an otherwise good kid to be placed in juvenile detention isn't the answer, what Zach Christie's family did was clearly wrong. His parents KNEW the school had a zero tolerance policy for knives. Maybe Zach isn't the kind of kid who would ever hurt anyone with a knife, but did his parents ever think they still were breaking the rules when they allowed him to go to school with the knife? Did they ever think what might have happened if another child had taken possesion of the knife and been hurt, or hurt another, either accidentally or intentionally? And what would they have felt had the schoolboard not reversed it's decision and sent Zach to juvenile detention for 45, or even ONE day?

If his parents disagreed with the rule, why didn't they petition the school board to review the policy, instead of breaking it and then complaining it wasn't fair. Would they have petitioned the school board as strenuously as they did had another child been subjected to the same disciplinary action under the same terms? Would they have championed the cause had another child been injured, even unintentionally?

I don't like rule breakers. If you don't like a rule, the best way to change it is from within. You honor it, you petition it, you march against it, you demonstrate, but you don't break it because you don't like it or think it's unfair. There are a lot of rules in this life that are unfair and seemingly arbitrary. That does not give you the right to break those rules, nor does it give you the right to endanger anyone else as a result of your not following the rules. Keep the knives at home folks. They don't belong in school...not even if you're a Boy Scout.

Stream of ...

It's Friday night, and here I am again...as Ginsberg said, "vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey leaving a trail of ambiguous picture postcards of Atlantic City Hall, suffering Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone-grindings and migraines..." Well, at least not of "China under junk-withdrawal in Newark's bleak furnished room,"*

My husband and I chat via Yahoo...I at home, he at work in Philly, from this awful job he has that I meet with great ambiguity. In this economy, it's a job...but with his hours, noon til nine Monday through Friday, an hour commute in each direction, and mine, 6:45 am til 3:15 pm every Thursday, and every other Monday and weekend, well, we are lucky to have dinner together four nights a month. Did I mention he has children from a previous marriage who either live with us (she's seventeen. What more does one have to say about a kid than she (or he) is seventeen?) or occupy our occasional weekends as well? And that his 81 year old parents live with us? And the cats...let's not forget the three cats - Moishe, Pippin and "no name yet." Did I mention I'm 50 and feeling ancient? I get even for it all by having as many of my six grandchildren stay with us for the summer. This year we had three of them stay. Ha. Trouble with that was, everyone here loves them. Some revenge.

Perhaps my "stream of consciousness" should become unconscious.

What scares me is that this is the best my life has ever been. I hear you saying to yourself now, "what kind of life has she lived until now?" Perhaps a far less complicated life...but when all is said and done at the end of my day, at the end of life, my worst regret may well be having let Jesus walk in the snow. Not bad for an atheist.

I miss walking down long hot city streets in the summer, where I can almost hear the humidity hitting the asphalt in spittles and sizzles, like a bead of water dropped on a hot griddle. I miss my kids. I miss that less than $100.00 worth of subway fare can get me ANYWHERE in the five boroughs, and for a little more, I can travel far beyond that by train, and that all the while I am traveling, I can sleep, read, chat with some interesting stranger - and never have to pay attention to much beyond where my stop is. I miss that every once in a while, I just might bump into someone famous - like Steven Tyler, or Tim Robbins, or Christopher Lloyd, and how much that always impresses my friends in Connecticut.

So, in suburbia, I suffer ennui. I get up every morning, usually before anyone else. Sometimes my husband gets up before I. Whoever is up first pads down two half flights of stairs and starts the coffee brewing, retrieves the newspaper from the driveway (unless it's raining, where it inevitably lands on the lawn, just to keep it interesting. I swear this is how the delivery guy (no kid, he drives around in a black SUV) gets even because my father-in-law gets the paper by subscription but never sees fit to give this guy a tip during the holidays - and quite honestly, I have mixed feeling about that too. I mean, I'm a nurse. I hold dying people in my arms when their family isn't there, and I don't get a tip. I do it because I give a damn that someone holds you when you're dying. But I digress. Then there's the recycling that it seems no one else can manage to bring to the big blue bucket at the back of the house. My husband usually empties the glass and cans, but leaves the newspapers for me. The cats weave around feet until they are fed and given fresh water. I start laundry. My husband heads for the computer.

We started gardening this year. When we bought this big house, the one we moved into with the kid, three cats (not the same three that we have now), and his parents, a year ago, there was this ugly rotting woodpile in the back yard. It extended from one side to the other, and down about a quarter of the side. Every week, my husband would throw as much as a bucket or two would hold, and drag it to the curb. Bonus for living in this neighborhood is the city trash accepts yard waste. So, in a year, it was gone. We tilled, and began to plant. I have a friend in Connecticut whose garden inspires me. While I know mine will never rival his, I also know whatever we do here is a vast improvement. So, I garden. It ameliorates the ennui. I get to be alone for a while as I pluck the weeds from the soil. I get to curse that if my husband and I don't do it ourselves, it just don't get done. But the garden yielded a lovely crop of Heirloom tomatoes, with the bonus of instantly being four years old again, sitting in my grandmother's garden with tomato juice dribbling down my chin when I took that first bite.



* HOWL by Allen Ginsberg, c 1956, 1959, in it's 57th printing.

What It Means to Be a Wanter

One of my favorite books as a child was "The Velvet Room" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Everything in life was summed up in the sixth chapter of the book, when Robin realizes, "But there were uncomfortable hollows, empty except for vague longings - like when you're hungry but not for anything you can have. And that was wanting, all right, wanting, wanting - wanting." I knew in an instant what the author meant when she wrote those words.

Tonight, I want freedom.

Subway Stories

I lived in NYC for several years. My experiences were varied. Friends from my homestate, which happens to be Connecticut, would come to the city to visit, and I would regale them with my stories. We called them my Subway stories, even though they all did not take place on the subway. They said I should write a book. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I should just blog.

This one actually happened after I left NYC, and moved to South Jersey, just outside the city of brotherly love. My husband knows how much I love the city still, and honors my birthday with a long weekend in the city. He also knows my love of live jazz. And so, to honor me two years ago, he managed to score tickets to see Chris Botti at the Blue Note.

We arrived early, but not early enough to get really terrific seats, and settled for the first table at the left of the stage, and took the two end seats at the stage end. First round of drinks comes, and a second. Chris opens the show with Ave Maria, and there I sit, with tears streaming down my face, I am so moved.

In the middle of his second or third song, Chris (I can call him that, after you read this story, you will understand why) puts his horn down, and says to his bassist, "You're kidding me, right?" And then, "Is there a doctor in the house?" he asks. I don't respond. I'm not a doctor. Several minutes go by, and there is a request made to call 911. I cannot from my vantage point, see the problem, but understand from what is being said that someone across the room is having a cardiac event. A second plea for a doctor is made, and Jon urges me to respond since, "No one else is."

The only way to get to the other side of the room is to climb over about 300 people, packed tightly in this club. It will take me 10 minutes just to navigate the room. So, what do I do? I dive under the piano and keyboardist directly to my left. "Excuse me, coming through, nurse here," I say as I emerge on the other side of the piano, at Chris's feet. I am now close enough to the patron in trouble and quickly ascertain a history, but I am in no position to provide much more than reassurance, and some cursory care, and in the worst case scenario, initiate CPR or hook up an AED if there is one available. I ask for Aspirin, and someone in the crowd complies. I give it to the man, tell him to chew, and loosen his shirt and belt. I say he needs to be lying down, and Chris is now standing next to me, offering his dressing room. Several men carry the victim to Chris's dressing room, and I follow. Shortly after getting the victim on Chris's leather couch, getting him in shock position, the door swings open and in walks another woman, not too much older than myself, who says, "Oh, good, you've got him in shock position."

"Who are you?" we say to each other, almost in unison. "I'm the nurse/first responder" I say, as she says, "I'm the doctor." Hmmm, took you long enough. My job here is done, and I turn and make my way downstairs to my husband, still waiting at our table at the back of the room. I get a rousing round of applause from the room.

Now, I gotta tell you...I was dressed pretty nicely, being it was my birthday, and we'd been out to dinner. I had on a low cut dress, black stockings and a pair of CFMP's to die for. My husband said it was like his own version of a Mastercard commercial.

Tickets to see Chris Botti at the Blue Note....$120.00
Dress by Old Navy............................................$35.00
Underwear by Victoria's Secret.......................$135.00
Chris Botti's and the entire band's eyes glued to your wife's ass as she crawls across the stage on her hands and knees............Priceless.

Bad Drivers and Other Annoying People

I hate bad drivers. Trouble is, now that I live in New Jersey, and can no longer use subways and buses as I did in New York City, I am forced to deal with them on a regular basis. It's compounded that I live in a state where you have to make a "jughandle" turn...and all too often, one doesn't know if the jughandle turn is from the right or the left lane. No wonder people suffer from road rage. Here's (another) list of the biggest offenses that drive me (okay, so it's really only a short putt) crazy:

1. Passing on the right. Especially when I am in the left lane and traveling at or about 5 miles (my personal maximum) over the speed limit. Are you exempt from the law?
2. Failure to use a turn signal. Especially when changing lanes. Especially when illegally passing on the right.
3. Monopolizing the left lane as a travel lane, especially when traveling at speeds LOWER than the posted speed limit. Are you that oblivious to other drivers on the road? Or are you just that self-righteous that you think you can set the appropriate speed limit?
4. Failure to yield right of way. Especially when it's clearly posted to "Yield". Especially to pedestrians.
5. Failure to use headlights when windshield wipers are in use.
6. Texting and talking on cellphones. Period. EVEN with hands free devices, because you're simply not paying attention to driving.
7. Stopping past the white line...especially into the crosswalk. "Cheating up." Blocking the box. Honking from behind when I refuse to block the box.
8. Driving in the "lane ends" lane, and speeding up to pass the adjacent lane cars, instead of merging in behind the car that was ahead.
9. Driving a vehicle that is too large to handle. Yep, that's all you soccer Mom's driving those SUV's that you can't see the four fenders of, and your lack of knowledge in using your mirrors correctly. It goes along with my distaste of conspicuous consumerism. Yes, I see you all in your SUV's at the local Whole Foods. Without your reusable shopping bags.
10. Thinking simply because you drive a big vehicle, you have right of way.
11. Straddling lanes, again, because that vehicle you're driving is too big for you to handle.
12. Not staying in your own lane when turning.
13. Failure to move into the center lane of the highway when no one is there, thus not allowing entering traffic to merge onto travel lanes.
14. Bicyclists who do NOT follow vehicular rules. Yes, those rules apply to YOU too! You travel with the flow of traffic, and you follow traffic signals, among other things. But I guess you're the ones turning without using signals, so what can I expect here?
15. Drivers who are not careful around cyclists, be it bicyclists or motorcyclists.
16. I know it's rush hour. I know you can't travel several car lengths behind me. Ever hear of the 2 second rule? Make it three if it's just started to rain. And turn your cruise control off.
17. Road ragers who swear at law abiding citizens because they THINK they have some entitlement to the road over others.
18. Drivers who are "too nice." A very nice little old man stopped his car in the middle of an intersection to motion me to turn in front of him. I didn't have right of way. He didn't see the car coming from my right that would have hit us both had I proceeded at his request. I am also certain the driver of the car behind him was annoyed that he stopped when he shouldn't have.
19. Illegal turns. Of any kind. Without using your turn signal. Especially here in Jersey, the home of the "jughandle."
20. Drivers who don't pull over for emergency vehicles. Or funeral processions. Especially those who use the opportunity to pass everyone who do.

Despite a challenging career in health care, having a newly licensed teenager AND my 81 year old in-laws who both have serious health issues, living with us, not seeing my beloved husband enough (we work different shifts), my blood pressure is NORMALLY lower than that of my peers. But every time I go to the doctor, she wants to start me on antihypertensives. I had to go so far as to monitor my blood pressure at home and at work for a month to prove to her that it's driving to her office that raises my blood pressure.

Helena Bucket

Written in Cora, Wyoming, August - December, 1982. Words by John Perry Barlow, music by Bob Weir. Copyright Ice Nine Publishing.


Well I was drinking last night with a biker
And I showed him a picture of you
I said, "Pal, get to know her. You'll like her,"
Seemed like the least I could do.

'Cause when he's driving his chopper
Up and down your carpeted halls
You will think me by contrast quite proper
Never mind how I stumble and fall.
Never mind how I stumble and fall.

You imagine me sipping champagne from your boot
For a taste of your elegant pride
I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe,
But at least I'm enjoying the ride.
At least I'm enjoying the ride.
At least I'm enjoying the ride.

Now miss sweet little soft core pretender
Somehow baby got hard as it gets
With her black leather chrome spiked suspenders,
Her chair and her whip and her pets.

Well we all know you're the reincarnation
Of the ravenous Catherine the Great.
And we all know you love your ovations
For the Z-rated scenes you create.
For the Z-rated scenes you create.

You analayze me, pretend to despise me,
You laugh when I stumble and fall.
There may come a day when I dance on your grave,
If unable to dance I will crawl across it,
Unable to dance, I'll still crawl.

You must really consider the circus
'Cause it just might be your kind of zoo
I can't think of a place that's more perfect
For a person as perfect as you.

And it's not like I'm leaving you lonely
'Cause I wouldn't know where to begin
But I know that you'll think of me only
When the snakes come marching in.
When the snakes come marching in.

Another List - I am unable to take credit for as well. I don't know who to give credit to for this one. I'll be happy to publish that info if it can be cited.

1. Leave the (fill in the blank) that makes you miserable.
2. For one month, accept every invitation that comes your way.
3. Be a 7 day drop-out. Do without all the usual things you normally do: work, TV, MP3, Blackberry, cell phone...etc.
4. Reveal yourself.
5. Ski a steeper hill (challenge yourself).
6. Call a friend with whom you've lost touch or had a falling out with.
7. Trust a stranger.
8. Cut off all your hair.
9. Purge your possessions.
10. Buy 100 shares of stock.
11. Buy 12 new things a year.
12. Commit to someone flawed.
13. Speak your mind.
14. Heed your inner urges.
15. Buck the trend.
16. Travel somewhere new - ALONE.
17. Tell someone important to you how much they mean to you
18. Dare to pursue a dream.
19. When you sense danger - SCREAM.
20. Forgive someone.

Lists

I love lists. I make them, I read them. I am fascinated by them. They bring order to my life, they allow me to take stock. I wish I could take credit for this one, but I cant. This list is authored by Melina Genosa in her "The Fun Book: 102 Ways for Girls to Have Some" published by Simon and Schuster, 1998.

100 things to Do in a Lifetime

1. Buy a gorgeous evening dress without an event in mind.
2. Build the dollhouse you never had as a kid.
3. Buy a chaise lounge and spend an afternoon relaxing on it.
4. Buy a Wonderbra.
5. Take an art history course and make the pilgrimage to your favorite painting or sculpture.
6. Rent the Godfather trilogy. Open a bottle of Chianti and order pizza for delivery.
7. Plan your dream vacation, down to the last detail. Open a secret bank account and start saving.
8. Learn to tango, salsa, merengue.
9. Celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square.
10. Swim with a dolphin.
11. Get a massage.
12. Learn how to apologize.
13. Make one improvement in your diet.
14. Spend an entire day without plans.
15. Learn to play the guitar, piano, kazoo (insert whatever you want to learn to play here).
16. Go on a cruise. Stand on the deck and toast the sunset (or sunrise).
17. Go camping. Toast s'mores.
18. Buy beautiful stationary and write someone a heartfelt letter.
19. Get involved with a cause.
20. Paint your bathroom sun-drenched yellow.
21. Get a makeover at a cosmetics counter before going to a party.
22. Drive a convertible sports car along a coastal highway.
23. Try Yoga.
24. Learn to change the tires (or oil) in your car.
25. Go skinny dipping.
26. Invest in a good camera. Take a photography course.
27. Stargaze from the top of a mountain.
28. Have a bonfire on the beach. Bundle up in blankets and tell ghost stories. Bonus for being on the beach in August, during the Perseid meteor showers.
29. Learn to knit. Make your beloved a scarf. Or sweater. Make yourself a scarf or sweater.
30. Stop blaming your parents.
31. Go to a green grocer and try all the fruits you've never eaten.
32. Commit to your spiritual life.
33. Try a new sport. Take a ski lesson, kayaking lesson, in-line skating, golf, learn to swim.
34. Start a book club and read at least three great works of literature.
35. Buy a new perfume.
36. Try at least one food you hated as a child.
37. Teach yourself to prepare one dish from an ethnic cuisine you've never tackled.
38. Start a daily journal.
39. Pay off all your credit cards. Live within your means.
40. Spend a Sunday reading the paper from cover to cover.
41. Learn the lyrics to a song you've always loved.
42. Put your photos into albums.
43. Volunteer for your community. Convince a friend to do it with you.
44. Fill your pantry with essentials...chocolate and champagne. Get snowed in.
45. Go to a wine tasting party, picky your favorite variety and keep in on hand.
46. Go to the Smithsonian and see Dorothy's red slippers.
47. Send a man flowers.
48. Host a girls only slumber party, put on PJ's and stay up late. Do this in a fancy hotel if possible.
49. Bike through the countryside in the Autumn.
50. Plant a tree on your child's birthday and note it's growth each year.
51. Get to your ideal weight. Better yet, get to your "happy weight"
52. Write a letter to your grandchildren to be read 50 years from now, detailing your life. Keep it with your important papers.
53. Train for and enter a sporting event for fun.
54. Tell you Mom and Dad you love them.
55. Shoot a roll of Black and White film and have the pictures developed in sepia tones. Or hand color them.
56. Really get your financial affairs in order - life insurance, IRA's, will.
57. Stop beating yourself up.
58. Buy yourself (insert that something special you've been yearning for). Enjoy it.
59. Look up your best friend from 5th grade and give her a call.
60. Splurge on beautiful wine glasses.
61. Change your haircolor.
62. Buy stock in your favorite company.
63. Go to a karaoke bar and sing that favorite tune you've been practicing in the shower all your adult life.
64. Buy flowers for yourself.
65. Create a time capsule.
66. Bake chocolate chip cookies and send to a friend just because.
67. Clean your closets. If you haven't worn something in the past year, pack it up for charity.
68. Plant flower boxes.
69. Learn how to make the perfect toast for any occasion.*
70. Wear sunscreen every day.
71. Stand up for yourself.
72. Write down your goal of where you want to be in five years, in your career, you personal life, etc. Be as detailed as possible. Envision it. Live it.
73. Give yourself permission to (fill in the blank).
74. Learn to meditate. Do it.
75. Buy an antique to bring something from the last century into this one.
76. Keep a journal to count your blessings.
77. Take your best friend out to an extravagant lunch, dinner, whatever.
78. Ask for that promotion at work.
79. Memorize your favorite love poem, recite it to someone you love.
80. Find an exercise you can commit to three days a week.
81. Write your siblings a letter telling them how much you love them. Fill it with funny memories.
82. Go berry picking. Learn to make the perfect pie crust.
83. Get season tickets for baseball, basketball, football. Take a kid.
84. Have your astrological chart done.
85. Drive across the country. Blast your favorite music on the radio.
86. Hug more.
87. Quit smoking. For GOOD.
88. Quit complaining.
89. Give people a second chance.
90. Slow down.
91. Buy something made of cashmere.
92. FLOSS.
93. Work less, laugh more.
94. Start Christmas shopping in July.
95. Write a letter to your favorite teacher.
96. Let the answering machine pick up...at least during dinner.
97. Listen. Really listen.
98. Sing in the car.
99. Become a Big Sister or Mentor.
100. LIVE WITH PASSION.

I figure I've done, or continue to do, at least 75% of the things on this list. I happily came to that realization the first time I read this list. Some are a way of life, not just "been there, done that". Some of the things I haven't done simply because I never had the desire to. Life is good.

*refer to "Last Minute Speeches and Toasts" written by my friend, Andrew Frothingham, for tips on how to make the perfect toast.