Habits.....

 I would said one of my habits is organization.  If you ask my husband, I am OCD.  I was raised in a house with seven people.  My parents and 5 children.  I am the middle child but the oldest girl.  When I was about 5, I would love to help my mom with house work.  It gave me more time with my mom.  She would set up an ironing board and let me iron with her as we watch TV.  I would be in the kitchen to help her bake cookies and other goodies.  But as I was getting older, it was becoming more of a chore not so much to just hang out with my mom.  I had ask my mom why it seems like she doesn't sit down to just breathe for a few minutes (in other words, to take time for herself)  My mom had said that you never know who would be knocking at your door to visit so it is best to at least have your living room, kitchen and bathroom clean just in case. 

I didn't understand this so much until I had to share my room with two other sisters.  I didn't like making my bed but it had to be done day.  So I got to the point where the covers would be tucked in nice and tight.  I would then climb up on my pillow and shimming my way into my covers without getting them messed up.  My mom said that I would not even roll around in bed while I was sleeping.  She said it seemed like I knew that I would have to make the bed when I wake up if the bed was messed up.  I look back on this now and laugh because I still cannot go to bed if it is not made.  If the husband is already in bed and the bed is messed up, I will straighten the bed while he is there and tuck in the covers before even climbing into bed.

Successful People have Successful Habit. Unsuccessful People Don't!

Success?  Take a look around you and do you see successful people and wonder how did they become successful?  We all would like to become successful but just don't know how to go about it.  But if you take a look at some well known people around you, you would be able to see how they became successful.  It could of all started out as a dream and once they thought about it and kept playing it through their mind, I believe that the next step would be putting it into motion.  You first need to make sure you have motivate yourself to be successful.  You have that dream, you can see yourself in the future running this company or accomplishing that dream.  You know that it won't do it on its own.  You have to apply yourself to this adventure.  You need to motivate and keep your eyes on that goal.  Look at a local business man here is Springfield.  His name is Jack Stack.  Him and several others had worked for a company name National Harvesters.  The company was closing their doors do.  Jack and several others did not want this to happen.  These seven people had a dream.  They did not want to loose their jobs.  They wanted to continue.  So seven employees put a business plan together and went to the bank for funding to by out National Harvester.  The bank took a gamble on this.  The bank loan them the money and the company became known as Springfield Manufacture Company.  This was a dream for these seven people.  But they all had to be motivate.  They all had the same goals.  There is now 13 sub-companies for SRC.  This is an employee own business.  All the employees have invested themselves into this company.

Matches......

How would you use matches when it comes to cooking?  Matches gives you fire that helps you expand the flavor of your food.  Be it that you are grilling, baking, roasting, saute' or even smoking.

Let us talk about smoking and how matches get it started.  If you have a char-broil grill you will need the matches to help get things going.  After you have soaked your wood chips in water and added fuel to your charcoal, you would need to have something to light it with, that is where matches comes in.  You would open your box of matches and strike it on the side of the box for it to ignite.  Once the match is lit you would then carefully place it on your charcoal so your coal will get out and make your wood chips start to smoke.  Once the charcoal is lit, blow out the match so you will not get burned.  While this is all coming together you have time to gather up the products that you want to smoke.  It can be different kind of proteins, vegetable, fruit or even cheeses.  When it comes to the protein, I would have to say that it is very important to have a meat thermometer so you can keep an eye on the internal temperature of your meat.  I picked one up at Wal-Mart and I love it.  The probe goes into the meat to the center then it has a cable that is couple of feet long that connects to a base.  You have a body that is detachable from the base.  So while your smoker is going.  You don't need to go back and forth to look at the temperature.  The body is wi-fi to the base so you know that whole time your smoker is going.  The only thing that you would need to do is to continue to had your wood chips when need be.  But you don't have to worry about the temperature of the meat because you meat thermometer will tell you.  When it is done the thermometer will set off a buzzer.

Chocolate.............

What is chocolate?  Where does it come from?  Chocolate actually comes from the cac0a bean that is grown in Africa.  This is the only place that you can grow the cacao  because you need the hot climate.  The cacao goes in a tree and when it is time to harvest the fruit, you pick the fruit and then remove the outer shell.  Once you have remove the outer shell you will find the cacao bean.  You then need to lay the beans out to dry.  This takes several weeks.  Once the beans are dry, they are then transported to the USA to chocolate maker or you could say people that like to be Willie Wonker.  You then have to mill the cacao bean to squeeze the chocolate butter out.  The butter is used to make white chocolate.  The rest is used to make dark chocolate.  By adding a milk product to dark chocolate you will then get your milk chocolate. 

There are several varieties of chocolate.  There white, dark, bitter, semi-sweet, and milk chocolate.  These are the basic or foundation of chocolate.  We have chocolatiers that enhance their chocolate by adding flavors to them.  They way that you can full appreciate chocolate, you would need to know the proper way of consuming it. 

Chocolate is like wine.  When you have a glass a wine, do you inspect it?  Do you look at the color? Do you smell the aroma of the bouquet?

Fall Is Coming....

How do you know Fall is coming?  What makes you think or feel that it is here? Is it the weather or the colors?  There are so many things that makes you feel that Fall is coming.  Just take a moment and look outside.  What do you see?  The sun is out and shining but the temperature is not as hot as the summer.  The temperature stay around the 70's.  Look look out further and start noticing the plant life, are the trees starting to go to sleep, are they changing colors?  You notice the people are not wearing shorts as much, you notice that they are in sweat pants or jeans.  They might even have a jacket on or a hoodie.  Everything around you is starting to slow down.  You notice that people are doesn't seem as rushed.  Even yourself, you start noticing that you don't feel as stress.  You decide to go outside and feel for yourself what you have notice.  There seems to be a calmness around you.  You get a closer look at the trees and you see that the leaves are starting to change. so you know that the tree is getting ready for the winter sleep.  The last of your summer flowers are falling off there stems.  It is time to trim them back and prepare them for there winter sleep.  The mums are blooming and bring the beautiful autumn colors to the world around you for the last season until winter comes.  You feel like you need to go to Starbucks and get that cup of coffee so you can sip it as you are gazing upon the Fall has it is coming.  You wonder how long will this season will last.

What Type Are You?

     I have had the opportunity to take the Myers-Brigg Type Test several times in my life.  It has been for business that I have worked for to see if I am was in the right position for the company.  Now I am here doing this test for my English Comp. class.

     It is very interesting to see if I have changed any from the past.  Oddly enough, I have not.  The test shows me that I am an ENFJ which means Extroversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging.  So before I go farther let me just highlight one.  Extroversion means I like to talk to people.  Which I totally agree with that.  I like to learn about the different type of people that makes this world.  Intuition means you imagine the possibilities.  I know that I always look and listen to the situtation, then I always try to see the outcome by the different paths that I would take.  Feeling means you consider people.  This one is the hardest one for me.  The reason for this is everyone has a voice and I would always put them before me.  We are all different but no matter how bad things are for me, I believe that someone is worse off than me and I want to help.  Last is Judging.  This does not mean that I judge people.  It means that I am organized and time management.  Well if you ask my husband, he would say that this is so true.  He tells me that I am major OCD on organization and everything has its place.  I told him that I am not so he had to prove to me that it was true.  So he had taken an angel that I had on a shelf in the living and move it to the shelf above it.  He then looked at me and said, "You will not last long with this angel here.  You will move it as soon as my back is turned."  Well, I was very hard for me not to move the angel back.  Everyday that I sat in the livingroom and saw that the angel was not in its place, I had to continue to tell myself not to move it.  I wanted to prove my husband wrong.  Well.... I did I lasted a year and when that time was help, I moved it back.  Well that is a little about me.  But how is this going to help me be a better student and writer?

     As a student, by being an ENFJ, I know that it will stay organized by having my planner filled out with my weekly function.  My days will be fulfilled by being around people and learning more about them.  Watching their body language.

     As a writer, I might struggle a little because I have some much going on upstairs.  I am always full of ideas but when I put it down on paper, I feel like I need to write like I am talking to someone.  For me, even if I need to write about rock, I would make it come alive.  It needs to have character.

    So this is the beginning of my blog.  You have learned a little about me but the blog will be more on my adventures of becoming a chef and a caterer.  How this all came about.  So come along on this journey with me and enjoy.