I, for one, welcome our new Vegan cupcake masters.

Hello, everyone!

Last Friday, I held a second Demarle party. We had good company show up there. It's a pretty entertaining way to spend an evening.

My bakeware had come ten days earlier on a Tuesday night. In that time, I made four recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, plus four batches of cornmeal muffins. Not a bad production! Fortunately, I found people to give away a lot of the baked goods.

I was having too much fun. I made Agave Nectar cupcakes, Chai Latte cupcakes, Basic Vanilla and Basic Chocolate cupcakes. My favorites were the Chai Latte cupcakes. Doug preferred the Basic Chocolate. Since cocoa powder replaces one-third of the flour in that recipe, they may even be a better choice for him. So, that's all good.

I'm planning to make the Rose Water and Pistachio cupcakes and the Rum Raisin cupcakes soon. I'm scheming to find some Matcha -- Japanese green tea powder -- so that I can make the Green Tea cupcakes.

In the meantime, having discovered that I needed a break from editing, and that my muffin tin and cooking utensils were conveniently clean, I'm now baking cupcakes from a mix even as I type. This also is bold new territory for me. I don't believe I have ever bought a cake mix before, much less baked one. But, I have new cookware, and they were having a sale at the cake mix store. So here I am.

The four batches of cornmeal muffins happened like this: I needed two batches to perfect the recipe, and then made two batches so I could feed the guests at my party abundantly. Mmmm, this is a complete experience of living richly. I can promise you that no one left my party hungry.

Almost time to stick a toothpick in today's cupcakes!

May you all live well.

Anna

Seventy-five Dozen Cupcakes

I've been wondering what I'd do with 'em.

The Demarle party left me with a fascination for cupcakes. Sue made a cake in one of the Demarle pans -- it was lovely. Light, moist, beautifully browned -- it was remarkably good, the best cake I've had in a long time. I picked up a muffin tray and a charlotte tray -- originally with the admirable intention of making low-fat individual crustless quiches with them, hereafter referred to as timbales -- but that cake! What if I actually made some cupcakes!

It didn't help that I've been reading Veganomicon, and it has been making me very happy. The combination of attitude and solid vegan comfort food -- they really do seem to hit the mark of "the dishes you wish you'd grown up with" -- absolutely nourished my vegetable-seeking heart. Then there's all these desserts in the back! Including some amazing-looking cupcake recipes! So how could I not go out and borrow their previous volume, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World?! Especially when it was just sitting there on the shelves of my friendly local library?

So, now I've read Vegan Cupcakes cover to cover -- about 40 main recipes, with variations carrying the total to at least 75 -- and I plan to try at least a couple when my Demarle order arrives.

I think I can take some to the networking group. My new mastermind group could try a few. Still, seventy-five dozen -- what I'd have if I tried every recipe in the book -- is rather a lot. Especially since we've basically been living a flour and sugar free lifestyle since Doug developed diabetes. It was just a couple months ago when our neighbor tried to borrow a cup of flour, and I had to admit I didn't have any.

So, who knows what this fascination with cupcakes is about.

Here is a vegetarian but not vegan recipe for fast timbales -- more appropriate for a low glycemic lifestyle. Than cupcakes. I made this in my friend Sue's charlotte tray the morning after the Demarle party.

Fast Timbales

3 cloves garlic
1 zucchini
1 carrot
6 eggs
2 tablespoons cream, optional
Salt, pepper, and oregano to taste -- approximately pinch each of salt and pepper, 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Press the garlic cloves into a medium bowl. Grate the zucchini and carrot on top of the garlic. In another medium bowl, beat the 6 eggs with the seasonings and cream, if using. Fold the vegetables into the eggs, then pour into charlotte or muffin trays, filling each form no more than 3/4s full. (If there are any empty spaces, put a little water in them for more even baking.) Bake until lightly brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into a timbale comes out clean -- approximately 20 minutes, depending on the size of the individual timbales.

These puffed beautifully, and were nicely brown underneath, when made in Sue's charlotte tray. Plus, of course, since it was Demarle, they popped right out of the forms, no oiling, no spraying, no flour. I liked the fluted round shapes of the charlotte tray very much for this -- I felt surprisingly gourmet with no extra effort.

Well, maybe I can find someone who is having a bake sale. I really do want to try making some cupcakes. My muffin tray and all are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. I have recipes, and I bought ingredients -- baking ingredients are remarkably economical.

This is one of those times when having a family of six, like I did when I was growing up, would be more convenient than having a family of two. The math is just better for dividing a dozen cupcakes between six farm workers than two knowledge workers.

Seventy-five dozen cupcakes will likely be too much. I'll make a couple recipes of a dozen each, and see where I go from there.

I wish you indulgent and happy food.

Anna

Demarle Party Saturday Jan. 31st at 11:32 am

Hi, folks!

Well, I'm making my first try at having a cookware party. Here's the flyer I handed out:

Bakeware Party

January 31st at 11:32 am

See what absolutely non-stick cookware can do!

What if muffins popped right out of the pan? What if cleaning up after roasting vegetables was a snap? What if even eggs wouldn’t stick?

Come see a demo of Demarle bakeware. Come hungry, and eat the results! Demarle makes everyday and fancy shapes, both large pans, and trays of small shapes. Check out the fun, new possibilities. Even bring a friend!

Come to the home of Anna Paradox, at 2100 Thomas Dr. Please RSVP to 522-5358. I want to feed you abundantly!

I'm really intrigued with the possibilities. My friend Sue started representing Demarle a while ago -- food really pops right out of the little shapes. No oil, no muffin papers. Very neat, and very easy to clean. At first I thought I wouldn't hold a party, because I wasn't sure who'd I invite and I've never done this before. And then I started being intrigued with the possibilities. I could make individual quiches, with no crust, putting just the ingredients each person wanted in theirs, and baking them. I could roast vegetables without using a disposable pan liner. I could make fancy-shaped desserts and show off. It really sounded fun to play with the new possibilities. Ice cream shapes, I bet I could make non-dairy ice creams shapes in them. All sorts of things.

And I do like to eat, and see new things. So, I changed my mind, and scheduled a party. Sue and I will make lots of food. She'll demonstrate the bakeware so you can see how it works. That does sound like fun, doesn't it!

If you think it would be fun, too, please come! Just call so I can plan, thanks.

And if you can't come, but you want to try the bakeware on your own, you can order from www.DemarleAtHome.com. Do Sue a favor, and put in her rep code when you do -- 7187.

Or email her with what you'd like, and she'll take care of you: easycooking@comcast.net

She'll work with you if you want to have a party any where in New Mexico, too.

So that's what I'll be up to this Saturday -- making and eating food with friends! I am really looking forward to it.

Anna

New Blogs!

Hello, everyone!

I've created two new blogs to hold my business posts. www.creatingspace.annaparadox.com now contains all of my Creating Space newsletters. I even broke the entries into categories so that you can look at just the Book Reviews or Small Steps portions of the newsletters if you wish.

(When I say I broke the entries into categories, I actually mean I hired Joe Rossow of Rossow Futuristics here in Las Cruces to do it for me. He did a great job archiving the entries and touching up the banners. It's a task that I've been meaning to get to for months, and now it is beautifully done! I'm very happy with the results.)

I've also made a place where I will write new posts strictly focused on writing. The first official post will arrive on September 23rd. There's already a bit to do and look at at www.BridgeOfWords.com.

Please check them out! And I'd be very happy if you would link to them or leave comments.

Thanks for dropping by!

Anna

We Can't Know

A few days ago, I received a request from a friend to blog about invisible illness. It wasn't a term I knew, so I asked her for more information.

Recently people with health challenges that are less obvious than wheelchairs or seeing-eye dogs have begun networking. One of their challenges is that, because they don't look ill, they may receive glares when parking in disabled spaces, or have people not understand when a sudden migraine or flare up of chronic illness or other disability stops them from doing things. To help gain support, they are having an Invisible Illness Awareness Week. As part of that week, my friend asked all her friends who blog to write about invisible illness this week.

I still don't feel I know too much about this. There is a lot of information available at http://invisibleillness.wordpress.com/

For my part, I'm glad to have the reminder to practice compassion. Yes, I may not know why someone has a disabled tag or cancels an appointment at the last minute. But I can give them the benefit of a doubt.

And doesn't it feel better to offer them compassion than to surge with anger?

Anna

Leisure

Hello, everyone!

I'm practicing taking weekends off. It has been a very good practice for me. Plus, I get to play with concepts like "What is off?" and "What do I do when I'm doing things just for me?" and "What am I trying to avoid by staying so busy?" Lol. I suspect that for many people, such questions feel more like work than play. I enjoy them. That may be why I ended up a coach.

Cooking is my new hobby. I've cooked in varying amounts for a long time, of course. (My story of a conversation when I was ten: Mom said, "Anna, cook that roast for dinner." I said, "But I don't know how!" She said, "Yes, you do, just do it." "But wait -- how long do I cook it? What temperature? When do I add the vegetables?" Then she answered those, and I cooked it.) After I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I arranged to get meat from a local, free-range, grass-fed ranch, and I found a farm that would let me get a weekly vegetable subscription in the Community Supported Agriculture model. It's local and organic -- very cool. The food has been really good. The meat arrived Wednesday, and we've tried two cuts, both very good. My first vegetable share I picked up on Thursday. Agriculture, of course, is slightly unpredictable. I love that about it! The challenge of figuring out to how to use what comes has been making cooking more fun for me. The meat available immediately was an entire lamb, properly butchered and frozen, of course. The vegetable share included probably more eggplant than I had prepared in my life. So, I spent a pleasant time reading eggplant recipes and lamb recipes. Also, I received a lot of hot peppers, some tomatoes, one pattypan squash, one beet, some chard, and a bunch each of basil and lavender. I feel very lucky that he could add a subscriber mid-season -- usually in this business model, you can only join at the beginning of the year. The food has been fabulous.

Eating great food is on my vision board. Looking at it this morning, I'm getting good coverage of what I wanted. I've added a circle of female friends, I'm taking time to read, my name is on the cover of books, I've made it to several of the vacation destinations I pictured. Doug is working on his electric car, so driving an electric car is coming along well. That covers well over half the surface of my vision board. Very cool!

Looking at the vision board is part of my morning routine. Since I read Steering by Starlight, I've been using Martha Beck's suggestion most of the time, and it seems to be working. That is, I look it over, appreciating what's on there, and then say, "Thank you. I quit."

So, life is going well. I'm looking forward to doing the teleseminar on Tuesday, and to working with my clients next week. Today, I'll spend some time on my new hobby.

All the best to all of you,
Anna

Somewhere along the way I lost the anger

Fifteen or twenty years ago, I was captivated by Bob Kanefsky's song Creature in the Wood. I patiently replayed the tape, learning the tune in the slow way my ear requires, copying out the lyrics, and I sang it often, with much gusto, for several years.

Part of it was the expressiveness of Heather Alexander's performance of it. So rich and nuanced! Very beautiful. She performed the parody of her own song, Creature of the Wood, full out, with the good will typical of the filk community. The melody was lyrical, strong, comfortably in my range, and in a minor key as I still tend to prefer. The words were smart -- an entire story with emotion and surprise.

And, I admit it, the story of a tree that seduced and eventually ate men, made me feel strong.

That was anger. I had hit situations where I was treated like I counted less because I was female. I had found doors that were closed to me, or at least weighted and padlocked, because I was born an innie instead of an outie. I'd seen salesmen's eyes pass right over me to address Doug if I asked a question when we were together. I didn't yell at anyone, or punch anyone. I did vote for women's rights and speak and write in acceptable (yes, I hear the irony) forums. And I sang this song, and a number of other angry songs. Mostly when I was alone, and I took joy in them.

As I wrote last entry, I recently listened to some songs from that time. That led to me browsing Bob Kanefsky's lyrics this morning. They are now online, and you can read Creature in the Wood here.

I found it uncompelling. It's not just that it was written instead of sung. I'm still finding Zombies Robbing the Grave compelling, and I could sing it myself if I wanted to. But the cruelty doesn't work for me any more. It feels sad instead of strong.

Somewhere along the way I stopped being mad at men.

Times do change. I've been happily monogamous with my beloved Doug for twenty-two years now. Heather Alexander has been succeeded by Alexander James Adams. I've spent some years working on my personal situation, and I'm more concerned about people than about women these days. There are still some inequalities. There has been a lot of progress. And I simply don't have the anger any more. (At least not about that. There are still some causes that hit my buttons, and alert readers probably know what they are.)

A few weeks ago, I found myself describing the platform of an organization to advance women in business as "so 90's". Yesterday, when offered a chance to join a coaching organization dedicated to bringing affordable coaching to all women in North America and eventually the world, I found myself with very mixed feelings. I like coaching men. They've treated me well and paid me well and been enjoyable to work with.

I like coaching women, too. Now I find it hard to think of the differences between us as more important than the similarities.

There are a lot of lines of thought I could follow from this. I think this is the critical one. If the work I did on myself could bring me to peace with men, could bringing such work to everyone bring peace between other groups now in conflict? Would this kind of education not be more effective and less expensive than guns and armies?

Anna