Cook With Susan

Check out COOK WITH SUSAN @
http://susan-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.com/
for recipe ideas.

My Cookbook?

To my family and friends,
I think that I may finally assemble my cookbook this year.
If you have any request or suggestions.
Pass them on at susan.howzit@gmail.com

Blurry Vision

This one is for my B.F.F.

Its time to get back that 20/20 vision!!!

Life is so short, that there is no time to waste. Live it up and live it REAL.

You are the most genuine person I have ever met in my life.

I wish I was your mirror so you could see what I see. You are so lovely inside and out. You naturally shine with a light that is yours and yours alone.

It always amazes me how true you are to everyone but yourself. I need you to be as true to yourself as you are to me and everyone else in your life.

I want you to see yourself as I feel others see you. Not just me.

Your qualities are unmatched. Your heart is so full of love that there is no room for hate. I have never met anyone who has mastered this quality the way you have. This makes you vulnerable to being taken advantage of and unable at times to speak out loud and say what you really feel.

I encourage you to SHOUT (in your soft and gentle manner) to the world that nice people should be appreciated not taken advantage of.

I love how you have a natural way about you that makes others comfortable. You unconsciously move through a room and assure that each and every person in your presence is acknowledged and accepted so that they won’t feel out of place. I think it’s the GRANDMA syndrome. And I like that you’re my grandma.

You have become my standard of how REAL people should behave.

I needed to jot this down in black and white so you might have the opportunity to see your reflection as I do.

Written with love from your B.F.F.

I'm not you, Please let me be me

This one is for R.F…

The cycle of life is pretty simple. It comes in three stages. Birth…..LIFE…..Death.

The beginning and the end are fairly easy to understand., it’s the middle that gets complicated.

What we choose to do with our life is what determines self satisfaction that morphs into emotions experienced when in a state of well-being. Otherwise known as Happiness. It’s a child like phrase that to often gets the shaft, from very serious and driven people who find it impossible to be satisfied. Money is important and can buy comfort, but it can’t buy happiness.

I have always told my children to choose well when deciding what to do to earn a living. For one simple reason, they will have to wake up everyday either happy about their choice or hating life.

It appears that your dad is a very unhappy man because his life didn’t turn out the way he expected. This is probably true for at least 90% of the population, possibly even more. How we handle this disappointment determines the emptiness or fullness of our lives.

As he attempts to relive his life through you, he fails and you fail alongside him. The confusion lies in a simple misunderstanding. Just because you are from his loin does not make you a carbon copy of him. So it’s literally impossible for you to satisfy him. Unless he can one day see you as an individual with your own path. Only then will he be able to appreciate you for who you are.

One of my favorite sayings is, No one is better at being you than you, so don’t waste your time trying to be someone else.

Start today and be who you are and go get the life that you want and live it as yourself. Make sure that your choices allow you to obtain self satisfaction which will equate into that simple child like phrase “Happiness”. This action will surely result in success. Be confident, and remember you may fail, but you are not a failure. Pick yourself up and keep moving forward.

As you walk through life and LIVE and LEARN. You will become exactly who you should be, a truly independent individual. There will be a cost for independence. As you know all too well, there is a cost for the alternative also. Nothing in life is free. Choose well.

Remember you are you, not your dad. So practice mature ADULT behavior. No more arguing or yelling. He wants you to react to his actions, grow thicker skin and stop being a sponge and gain super powers that will allow your fathers words to bounce off your chest and back at him without a single word out of you as defense. It takes two to argue, unless you are in a mental asylum. Then you can argue with yourself and probably with great success.

I realize that your dad will think that what I have written is just a bunch of crap. But that’s ok, I have super powers.

Your journey through life is about to begin. You only get one chance, so make the best of it.

The Bag Lady

Its 1990 and my oldest daughter was 3 years old. We call her the bag lady. She loved to take her little basket and walk around the house and fill it with miscellaneous items. Then she would draw bar codes on the things that she could. Like books, just lines in a square. Then I would hear her voice saying beep, beep, beep. I would find her at a small table in the living room scanning her items then placing them in the plastic bags we got from the grocery store. These bags would pile up and the household items would simply vanish. I should have known then that she would be a shopper when she grew up. I can say with confidence that at 21 she is a professional shopper.

The Cook and the Lounge Singer

We all have something that we are good at and enjoy at the same time. For me its cooking and for my youngest daughter its music. We do what we do purely for pleasure, yet, occasional recognition is always appreciated.

It happens everyday unnoticed. I get home from work and start cooking dinner. Shortly after, my youngest daughter will show up without being prompted and begin singing beautifully while she plays the piano.

I keep chopping and stirring while she belts out yet another wonderful song. We comfortably do this with a bit of simple conversation mixed in. Do you have any homework? What do you want for lunch tomorrow? She answers my mundane questions often times in the middle of her song while adding in the events of her day. This interaction is going on while everyone else who is at home at the time just go about their business including having full conversations with me and each other as if there is nothing going on. No talent in the kitchen or on the piano.

Then one day I say to her, Its as if I'm the cook and you’re the lounge singer at a dark smoky bar with very few customers.

She says to me, yah, it would be the same. They would be talking over my singing and not really caring who was cooking their food. What a pair we make. Shows are nightly in our kitchen at our home sweet home.

Meet My Mom

I'm with my mom at a restaurant and she sees Won Ton Noodle Soup on the menu. And says to me, do you think this comes with noodles. I reply, yes, it says that it comes with noodles. She says, well I had better ask just to be safe. When the waitress comes to take our order she asks if the Won Ton Noodle Soup comes with noodles. The waitress says yes. But it doesn’t end there. My mom now wants to know what kind of noodles they are and if they are Saimin (Japanese style, served in Hawaii) noodles. The waitress doesn’t know but says she will ask. She comes back to the table to inform us that they are Won Ton Noodles not Saimin. Ok, my mom says, and proceeds to order. She says to the waitress, ok, I'll have the Saimin.

My Virgin Run

This is my very first time blogging so I appropriately named it my virgin run. The most important things in life for me are FOOD-FAMILY and FRIENDS.
The abundance of good food & spirits are the greatest ice breaker in any situation. It's a comforting feeling that allows even strangers to put down their guard and relax. Which brings me back to FOOD-FAMILY and FRIENDS.

I plan to put up a recipe once in a while (scroll down to the bottom). I know you all have this one. Thanks Bonnie, it has been a family favorite from the day you brought it over to share.

To those who know me well. Send me suggestions on what to write and join in at any time.