text:
CEO Stories: Leadership Through Communication and Involvement
Steve Odland, CEO of The Conference Board, one of the nation's premier business research organizations, shares his corner office experiences and lessons learned from a career that has taken him from oatmeal to auto parts, from Sara Lee to the U.S. Commission on National Transportation Surface Policy.
Over the course of his career, Steve learned that to serve all stakeholders, a business leader must find the right balance in meeting the needs of customers, employees, owners, community, and the environment.
Steve Odland is CEO of the Conference Board, a premier business research organization, which provides deep insight into the economy and human behavior. He considers it a fitting step for someone who started his career in the low-margin, data-rich supermarket business. Everyone shops at supermarkets, he notes, voting with their dollars and cents, giving critical insight into what drives consumers. According to Odland, big data is nothing new, as grocery stores started capturing data for more than 20 years ago.
His first major CEO job was at Auto Zone, at the beginning of the 2001 recession. While a DIY business focused on keeping cars running is somewhat insulated from other recession-related trends, it was a time, in Odland's mind, to focus on leadership, ethicism, and invigorating both the shopper and the staff with a strong emphasis on culture. Odland's bet saw the Memphis-headquartered company stock increase by more than 400%.
The Committee for Economic Development was a seventy-five-year-old think tank in Washington D.C., which merged a couple of years later with the Conference Board—an unusual move for two non-profits. One of the first products of the newly merged groups: A public policy book called Sustaining Capitalism. Odland points out that he believes Adam Smith did not so much create capitalism in 1776 when he wrote The Wealth of Nations but instead described what was happening around him.
Odland thinks it is the responsibility of the business community to restore public trust that has eroded in corporations and believes that in order to sustain capitalism, it must evolve. One evolution is going beyond the popular B-School theories promulgated from his time as an MBA student, which centered on short-termism and shareholders, in favor of a longer-view that focuses on a broader group of constituents: customers, employees and owners, community, and environment.
This Is Capitalism: Steve Odland
RH: This is Capitalism, this is Ray Hoffman. Steve Odland's career has taken him from oatmeal to auto parts, from Sara Lee to U.S. Commission on National Transportation Surface Policy. Today he's CEO of one of the nation's premier business research organizations, The Conference Board, year after year, the source of a lot of great insight into the economy and human behavior. Meet Steve Odland.
Was there anything in your experience or background when you were growing up in Denver that would have suggested this was the career path you were taking?
SO: Well, it's interesting, I sort of thought through that over time because people say, "well, what advice do you have, how do you…?" And I've just sort of viewed my career as a long hallway and sometimes the doors are open and sometimes they're not open. And you know, you can't go through those doors that aren't open. But sometimes they open.
And my career has been made simply by having those doors open occasionally and then I walk through them. So there's so many people who have things come along, and they say, "well, I don't want to do that, I want to do this." And they try to open a door that they can't open. Anyway, the metaphor breaks down at some point.
But you know, look, I think I have just been really blessed with a great career and an interesting career. And most of the time I've done it just by saying yes to things that just seemed strange and odd and new. So that's always served me well.
RH: And the first door that opened for you I guess was at Quaker Oats and then you went on to be…your first CEO was with Tops Friendly Markets, upstate New York. Is there any better industry for getting up to speed on the daily demands of business, especially a consumer-facing business, than the supermarket industry?
SO: Well, you know, the supermarket industry is interesting. I worked in a supermarket as a kid, bagging groceries from the time I was 14 years old and had the opportunity to interface with customers. And you work a little bit for tips as a bag boy. They don't have bag boys anymore but taking groceries out to cars, but finding out what it is to connect with people and make them happy and satisfied.
So later, I say most of what I learned about the business world happened in those early jobs starting with a paper route, by the way, and then leading to that. But clearly, the supermarket industry is great. A hundred percent of the population in any country shops. They have to eat and the average supermarket experience is two and a half times a week in this country.
RH: People are always voting at the supermarket.
SO: They do. Everything that they do is a vote, isn't it? And you can capture that now. So with these frequent shopper cards, we knew exactly who was in the store, what they were buying. And from that, you know where they live, you know how many kids they have, you know what their buying patterns are. So you know so much about people. And it really allows you to get close to your customers.
RH: And that came in even in the '90s, right, those frequent user cars?
SO: They did. And so people start talking about big data today as if it's something new. It's something we were doing 20 years ago, and by knowing, we knew exactly the price sensitivity, what kinds of specials helped and drove incremental sales. But you could also customize all your offerings because you knew exactly what they were buying. And from that you knew if they had a pet and what the age of their kids were, yadda, yadda. Anyway, so a great industry.
RH: And you cut your teeth in an industry with really narrow margins. That had to help in terms of everything you did afterward.
SO: Well, you know, you count your pennies in the supermarket industry. It starts with how you price because people buy differently on a couple of cents on a can of corn. And that matters. And so it teaches you that it's important to customize things that way and control your costs to be able to provide the best value for your customer.
RH: And that led you to what you're known for in terms of your first major CEO job, that of Auto Zone.
SO: Yeah.
RH: 2001, what month of 2001?
SO: Well, I started in January of 2001. It kind of overlapped with the Bush Presidency. He came in the same month. And I think of it that way because we went right from that period of time, which I don't know if people recall, was great enthusiasm. Any change in administration, regardless of which side of the aisle you're on, there's great anticipation.
And we went right into 9/11 that year. So in a very short period of time, we went right into a very scary period of time. And then it triggered a recession and all of the follow-on from that.
RH: And there was decelerating growth in the early months of 2001 as well, which didn't get us into the recession, but of course, we really fell over after 9/11. So what I'm wondering is, can you take me back to the things you experienced and learned from coming into a company as CEO of a company in a recession year?
SO: Well, it's interesting. The auto parts industry is surprisingly insulated from that because it's mostly a DIY business. It's the automobile, that's the tool that's used by people to get to work, to get to school and so forth. So you've got to keep that car running. And so by definition, the DIY, you know, the do it yourself business is a business that is a baling wire and Band-Aid approach to sometimes keeping the car. So even in a recession, you change your mix, you change your focus in the auto parts business.
But I will tell you that it's scary times. And you have to…when you look back on a recession, you know exactly how long it's going to last, how deep it was, what the impact was. But when you're living it, going forward, it's like driving a car and you're looking through the windshield, you don't know. You don't know when it's going to end, how deep it's going to be, what's going to happen.
Just like in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, we didn't know whether the banking system was going to survive, what was going to happen to the global economy, the country, the dollar and so forth. And so you're learning as you go. And I think these kind of junctures in someone's career are very scary on one hand, but on the other hand, they're incredible learning experiences.
RH: Yeah, and I remember AutoZone in 2001 had culture problems and merchandising problems when you came in.
SO: Well, it was a great company that was founded in the '80s by a supermarket company. And so this was an offshoot of the supermarket company. And so it flowed right in. But anytime somebody's bringing somebody in from the outside, it's because they're having challenges. And so every one of these kinds of assignments is a turnaround and they were not happy with where they were. And it all started with the people and then you got to processes and how you're interfacing with the customer.
Anyway, we changed a lot of things but it worked very quickly and we were able to take the stock from about $20 a share to over $100 a share in a short time, a couple of years, as we expanded the margins. And our customers were happier than ever. So it's a great company still today.
My old team is still there, still running the company. Bill Rhodes is the CEO and followed me. I'm so proud of what Bill and the team have done, and they've carried on all of the legacies that we've had in that company.
RH: And the evidence is in the share price, which I want to get into in greater detail in a different way. But the share price topped at 103. I was looking at the chart yesterday, it topped at 103 while you were CEO, and then, thanks to some of the things that you laid down, it just kept on going essentially right into 2016. What was the high? Eight hundred sixteen dollars a share, no split adjustment.
SO: Yes, it was over $800 a share and you know, the management team that is there deserves all the credit. I deserve none of the credit for that. They deserve all of it. They did a great job.
RH: But you laid the foundation and that was the important thing. And it seems the foundation you put in, and your solutions were somewhat analogous to what Alan Mulally was doing at Ford when he was faced, just a couple of years later, with a poisonous executive culture. And one of the things I read you did was to bring everybody in, not just the accounting department, but everybody in, every senior executive to go over the books all the time, right?
SO: All the time, yes. And I know Alan, and had a chance to interface with him a little bit. He's a great executive, a great leader. But I've always found that people respond well when you bring them in, when you share the good news but you share the bad news. And so my style is to share everything with the organization, the good, the bad and the ugly, and that served me well through the financial crisis.
You know you've talked about AutoZone but Office Depot was an incredible experience. You know, through that crisis, people didn't know if they were going to lose their…by the way, we were headquartered in Florida, which was the epicenter of the housing crisis. People didn't know whether they were going to lose their homes and whether their jobs…There were 200 retail bankruptcies during this period of time. People don't remember how frightening it was. Where was the money going to come from? What happened?
Anyway, we brought people together every week during that period of time and then it went to monthly, but just sharing everything. And I'd come to Washington and meet with the Secretary of the Treasury and people from the Fed and we'd share our data. We'd get it back and I'd go back and tell people what was going on. But I think it brings great comfort when people are there and they feel like you've brought them into the process.
RH: Leadership through communication.
SO: And involvement.
RH: Yes. Now I want to go back to that AutoZone share price for a moment here.
SO: Okay. [Laughs.]
RH: And I know this is something you can't quantify but I'll take a shot at it anyway. How direct was the connection between the more ethical and more completely thorough culture that you installed at AutoZone and that incredible increase in share price, from 24 to 103 while you were CEO and then on up under the next administration to 816 a share? Is there a correlation that you can make?
SO: Well, I will tell you this. AutoZone is in Memphis, Tennessee. The folks in Memphis are some of the finest people that you'll ever meet. And it was a company that worked at the highest level of ethics before Steve Odland and certainly afterwards. I think that that ethical background, their focus, their hard work, I think really does make a difference.
And I think that that group responded so well to a little bit of leadership, the involvement of that and the changes that we made. And they were so customer-oriented just because of the kind of, the highest level of ethics, the kind of people that are in the company, made them so empathetic to the customers and what… But anyway, it was there before, it's there since. But what you're getting at is so important, which is the level of ethics is critical to a company's success.
RH: Exactly, that's what I was thinking. Obviously what you did at AutoZone and then at Office Depot influenced the Conference Board. They brought you in to be the head of the Public Policy research organization.
SO: Yes, and so the Committee for Economic Development, it was a 75-year-old think tank in Washington D.C. And I was always engaged in public policy as a CEO through many different organizations. And so after I left the public company world, the Board of CED asked me to move to Washington and run that.
And then a couple of years later, we merged it into the Conference Board and it was a great relationship and we've built on that as a combined organization. And now the CEO of the Conference Board has retired and so I've been able to come into this role.
RH: I didn't realize that the CED was an independent organization at first when you came in.
SO: It had been, yes. And we brought it together. Which by the way is really unusual in the not-for-profit world. Typically in these kinds of mergers…Because there's no money that exchanges hands in a not-for-profit merger, and there are no owners. But we got together and I think that both organizations are stronger for the combination.
RH: Well, you know among other things, that led to a really well reasoned and very readable public policy book. And speaking as someone who does a podcast for Stephens, Incorporated, called This is Capitalism, a book entitled Sustaining Capitalism is very interesting to me.
SO: Yes, and that was a fun book that Joe Minarik of CED and I put together. But really it was a culmination of all of the various work that we had done. Capitalism is the greatest form of economic modeling that has ever been created. And it's part and parcel interrelated with our form of democracy. So it was created together.
You know, Adam Smith didn't create it in 1776 when he wrote The Wealth of Nations but he was describing what was going on around him. And the government that we have today was put together around this form of capitalism. But what we said is, "look, it's not on a stone tablet somewhere, it is an organic system." And so what was capitalism then was wild and wooly, and now we have a lot of regulation that we've embraced and so forth.
But here we are at another juncture where trust in companies has eroded following the financial crisis and the scandals that happened before that. And it's up to the business community to deal with these issues. Also it's up to the business community to head-on address things like inequality and some of these other social issues that face the nation and to recognize their role in it. That's why if we want to sustain capitalism, we need to evolve it and we need as business leaders to address these issues.
RH: And evolve it away from crony capitalism, this insidious relationship between lobbyists and government regulators and other influential people in Washington.
SO: Well, that's right and so we use the term crony capitalism, some people don't like that, but it's meant to say that it's capitalism that is used to skew the system for your companies or your own benefit, even worse. And that's not what it's all about. It's all about making the system work in total, rising tide.
And I will tell you that capitalism has its faults, it's not perfect. And we need to continue to address to it and get better. But our form of capitalism has caused global trade to increase and it's taken more people out of poverty around the world with this form of capitalism than any other economic model.
RH: Human endeavor with rule of law.
SO: Beautifully said.
RH: One of the sub-chapters in the book I really like, The Economic Cost of Crony Capitalism.
SO: Yes, it's a tax, isn't it? Because if you are skewing the system for the benefit of one sector or one company or one individual, you're not creating value that rises to everybody's benefit, you're taking it and you're shifting it.
And this is the same story, by the way, of another chapter, which is the issue of long termism vs. short termism. And you have all of these people who are engineering things for their short-term benefit but all you're doing is you're moving it away from the long- term owners. And I think to make capitalism sustainable, you have to be thinking about it long term and you have to be thinking about the benefits for all.
RH: But the long term vs. the short term you've got the…how would you ever get away from it based on how the financial markets are all built around quarterly earnings reports?
SO: Well, look, when I was in MBA school, they used to say that there's only one constituency you need to worry about, and that's your shareholder. You take care of your shareholder and that's everything else.
RH: And that was the Kellogg School, right?
SO: That was any school. But I went to the Kellogg School but that was any school at that period of time. But I think that I learned from being a CEO of three different companies that in fact, you have many constituents. And I used to remember it by my title, CEO, customers, employees and owners, and then of course, I would say community and environment. But you have to make it work for all of these constituents.
You know, if you just take care of your customers, well, you just give it away free, right, whatever you're selling and forget the shareholders. If you're just out for the shareholders, well, you don't take care of your customers or your employees. If you're there only for the employees, well you pay them whatever they want and then forget the customer and forget the owner. It's none of that. It's not one, it's the balance of all of them.
RH: And it what you did at AutoZone and at Office Depot writ large.
SO: It's what every good business leader tries to do is strike that right balance so that it all works for all the constituencies that they serve.
RH: And you make another important point by distinguishing the difference between a pro-business government policy and a pro-market government policy.
SO: Yes, and that's a little bit back to the crony capitalism point. And so much of what goes on today is in Washington where I live, is this notion well, let's game the system. And you know, not all lobbyists do that but the whole point of "let's make laws that are to our benefit or regulations that are to the detriment of my competitor so that I can get ahead…" Well, that's not right, that's not what you want. You want to be governing yourself and influencing the government in a positive way for the benefit of all.
So that's why at CED, which is now part of The Conference Board, we talk about reasoned solutions in the nation's interest. So it's not in my own parochial interest, it's in the nation's interest.
RH: And now you're at The Conference Board, you get to look at a lot of data on all sorts of economic activity, human activity, not only in the U.S., but around the world, and is there anything that particularly surprises you about this rip-roaring economy that we see at least here in the U.S. in 2018?
SO: Well, you know, nothing lasts forever and so the question is "well, when does it change and how does it change and what's going to?"…So these are the things that you always worry about. So whenever everything's going well, and we've seen it several times in our lifetime and in our careers where things are just great, and you say, "well, what are the lessons learned so we can continue to repeat it?" And it's always the people who…and when the lessons are not learned, not understanding why they're so good.
I've often said that that's the case in the company too. We always study what went wrong. We rarely study what went right and so what creates the repeatability of that? And the misdiagnosis of what got us here…you know, it's not a politician or this, it's a series of policies, it's a series of regulations, it's the business environment, it's the whole thing that you've got to create. And the study of that is really important.
RH: You know, you just had me thinking back to the early months of 2008. Now we'd already had some of the shocks and the market had gone through some turmoil but there was still a lot of LBOs being squeezed in at the eleventh hour, really terrible LBOs as they almost all turned out to be. And I remember I kept saying, quoting people saying, the world is awash with liquidity.
SO: Yes, it's interesting. I was in Chengdu, China. And I was at a luncheon because we were thinking about expanding Office Depot in that region. I was a luncheon with the mayor of Chengdu, it would be like the governor of a state here in the U.S., and this very formal thing. And the mayor turns to me and he said, "you live in Florida, how's Florida real estate doing?" I'm sitting in Panda country with the jungles in Chengdu, China.
And I said, "Florida real estate, why on earth did you ask me that question?" And he said, "well, Goldman Sachs was in here and we just bought all of these mortgage derivatives. And most of it's based on Florida real estate. It was called strips. And I wondered what the status was. But anyway, this is what happened and we sold these things all over the world," and of course, the rest is history.
RH: And I did want to touch on the Board's latest survey on job satisfaction in the U.S. It shows a big improvement in how we feel about job security.
SO: Yes. So this is The Conference Board's Satisfaction Survey, we do it periodically. The results right now are terrific. I mean, the job confidence is very, very high. And the change, the delta in the numbers has been most prominent in the lower-earning groups, which is great, because it says that there is wage improvement and so forth.
So people are seeing…you know, people work, they want to work, it goes to the core of who we are. They want to be productive. And I think the fact that there is great employment and that they are seeing some mobility in wage movement and moving up in jobs, this is what people want. It's what we have right now.
RH: And the state you were born in, Minnesota, is the place.
SO: Minnesota's the happiest state. It's very interesting. I was born there and I have a lot of family in Minnesota. Look, they have one of the lowest unemployment levels, they've got lots and lots of big businesses there but also the small businesses and they've got the balance with the farming. It's a great balanced economy. And they are the happiest, I guess. Maybe it was because we took the survey during the summer when the weather was good.
RH: Minneapolis-born Steve Odland, CEO of The Conference Board.
This is Capitalism. I'm Ray Hoffman.
About the Series: Featured stories from the intersection of the free market and entrepreneurial success. Here we speak with leading CEOs, academics, philanthropists and up and comers on their contributions and perspectives on the American economy.
About Ray Hoffman: Ray Hoffman, a veteran business journalist, is highly-regarded for his news and analysis features and insightful CEO interviews. Representing BusinessWeek on air for twenty-one years, Mr. Hoffman was the morning business news voice on the ABC Radio Networks from 1995 to 2006. Mr. Hoffman also represented The Wall Street Journal, on air, for eleven years. His daily WCBS CEO Radio feature was recognized by the New York Press Club as best radio business news report in both 2012 and 2015. In this podcast, Mr. Hoffman invites some of America's most dynamic CEOs to share their stories as business builders and perspectives on free enterprise.


text:
Ok, so you're an expert at the basics of small business emails. But what about emails for lead nurturing? You know, follow-up emails. Or, maybe more difficult to master, warming up cold email leads.
If you're reading this section, your follow-up emails probably aren't working the way you want them to. If you're using trust hackneyed phrases like:
"I just wanted to check in…"
"Just following up on our conversation…"
"I wanted to circle back…"
… you're going to want to keep reading.
These kind of follow-up emails are robotic, uninspired, and void of value to the prospect (especially those cold leads).
Plus, they make you look like this:
(fun fact: the picture was categorized: overly attached girlfriend .. do you see the resemblance? )
Lead nurturing is not about "checking in" or "touching base." It's about offering prospects something of value with every connection.
Something to keep in mind:
Inboxes are doorsteps: Knock at the right time with the right message
It's 6:30 a.m. Gary's alarm clock is sounding. He sits up, rubs his eyes, and picks up the smartphone by his bedside.
Gary opens his email app and looks at the dozen messages he received overnight. A few are promotional. They take a backseat to those work emails he received and the one or two personal notes that arrived.
There, in that bleary-eyed state, Gary opens the front door to his inbox for the first time of the day. He'll do so again and again throughout the day. The door knocking never stops.
Knock, knock, knock.
Would you like a moment with Gary? Get in line, and make sure you show up at the right time with the right words. Do you think he's going to get excited by seeing "touching base" pop into his inbox? Will he stop what he's doing and reply to such a message? Don't count on it.
Now here are 4 tips for writing a sales follow-up email that actually gets results.
Prick the pain and provide immediate value
Your prospect has a pain of some kind, and your product is the solution. Remind them of that pain out of the gate and also remind them that you're the best solution to solve that pain.
Only you can determine the best way to do this, and it depends on your buying cycle. It can take the form of sharing a valuable article or e-book. It could be a case study showing how others have benefited from your product. Or it could be a discount or free consultation. Whatever it is, it must remind them of their pain and provide immediate value related to that pain. Otherwise, you're wasting everyone's time.
Use data to back up your claims
Here's a hard truth: people distrust salespeople. They think you'll say anything to make a sale. And, unfortunately, some people will. That's why data gives validity to your claims in a big way. Whenever you can, share case studies, research, testimonials, and more to build trust.
Avoid typos
Typos are easy to make and hard to recover from. They make you look like an amateur and, believe it or not, can be the one overlooked the detail that sinks a sale. Write like a pro by making sure your email copy is error free. Have a colleague read the email over. Also, take advantage of services like Grammarly, which go way beyond your word processor spell check.
Make your emails really shine with these email design best practice
While we'll always stick by our word that the subject line and body of your emails are the most important components to getting the right message to the right recipients, the design of your emails is going to be what really helps bring your emails out on top in the battle of the inbox.
There's stiff competition for the inbox, and you've got to stand out if you're going to catch your recipient's eye. By far the biggest competition in the inbox is spam. According to Semantec, "Spam represents as much as 75 percent of all email sent across the internet." More than anything, you don't want your email to be perceived as spam.
While that sounds a little bleak, the really good news is that when you get your design right, your recipients will actually look forward to getting your email and they'll seek your email out in their inbox.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
As a Southerner and a cook, I often find myself included in lively debates about regional cuisine, long-winded discussions of the dozens of types of barbecue preparations, cornbread recipe swaps, or conversations on the perfect biscuit dough. Those of us who love food treasure the dishes we were raised eating and love to swap recipes and tips.
In my travels, I have done my fair share of boasting about my hometown's specialties. One dish that I speak of frequently, that is such a big component of The Shoals' local food culture, is chicken stew. And almost every time I mention it (outside of my home region), no one else in the room seems to know quite what I'm describing.
"Is it like a vegetable soup?" Not exactly. "A Brunswick stew?" Hmm. Not really.
So, I gradually came to understand that this dish—that was as ubiquitous to every neighborhood kitchen as cornbread or tea—wasn't a staple meal for the rest of the world. In fact, it really doesn't exist much outside of our small region of the Tennessee Valley.
Truthfully, the origins of chicken stew cannot be traced. And, no one can explain exactly why it is so specific to this region. I remember being told by an aunt that, once upon a time, chickens were kept for the eggs they produced. By the time a family killed a chicken for its meat, it was a "tough old bird," only suitable for stews and other slow-cooked dishes. As with many rural households, you made the most of what you had and, logically, a stew fed more mouths than one fried chicken. Most likely, as with most regional foods, the recipe was created when poverty crossed paths with farmers, native people, and West African-style dishes. The result, in this case, is a dish that's similar to existing recipes but that remains explicitly exclusive to one place.
The basic components of a Northwest Alabama-style chicken stew are simple: chicken, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and corn. Some cooks staunchly believe that nothing else is needed or should be added – outside of salt and pepper; others add a few other vegetables to the mix, like carrots, lima beans, green peas, and celery. Most bowls of chicken stew are served with a loaf of white bread or a sleeve of saltine crackers and some Tabasco Sauce.
The dish is so popular here that almost every church, association, club, lodge, or firehouse has chicken stew fundraising dinners at various points throughout the year. My grandmother's kitchen housed several glass multi-gallon containers that were reserved for chicken stew.
Every Fourth of July, we would gather our huge pickle jars (collected from the high school cafeteria's kitchen), take them to the church basement, and get in line to collect the evening's meal. The church's elders were probably up cooking chickens at first light, stirring the giant vats with oars or paddles and measuring salt and pepper by the palmful. The stews simmered in giant pots or cast iron vessels – though these days, many organizations have upgraded to professional-grade pressure cookers or heavy-duty commercial pans. It may seem odd to associate such a hot, savory stew with one of the warmest holidays of the year – but a tradition is a tradition.
The Southern Foodways Alliance documented our delicious regional specialty in a short film by Joe York, titled "Shoals Chicken Stew." If you have never sampled this dish, you can find hand drawn signs pointing to a chicken stew fundraiser during almost any visit to The Shoals. In the meantime, here you have my family recipe for chicken stew…it feeds about 50.
4 pounds cooked and pulled chicken
(There is much that can be said about cooking chicken. I like mine brined and baked, as I feel it delivers more flavor. Traditional chicken stew calls for boiling chicken overnight in a large pot and the liquid becomes the stock for the stew. Choose your favorite method and cook chicken to taste.)
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, cubed
1/2 pound white onion, chopped
4 1/2 cups tomatoes
1/4 pound kernel corn
1 lemon, juice of
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt, black pepper, and red pepper to taste
Serve with Tabasco and white crackers or bread (I prefer to serve the stew alongside the whole wheat sourdough toast we serve here at The Factory Café)
Add all ingredients in a big pot (preferably outdoors) and boil until all vegetables are done.


text:
20th June 2011 Golden Light Project #7 Guided Meditation Project Begins
click here to find out more and how to participate
Another opportunity for us all to get up to speed with the changing consciousness. Renata and I do the same exercises and meditation every time the solstice or equinox comes around we have 13 days of focus… what's happening… what's changing in us… how can I/we become more flexible… where do I/we still resist… what am I/we not willing to look at… The Golden Light Projects consist of 13 daily guided MP3 meditations and written guides for you to play and meditate with, along with hundreds of other people around the world, exponentially increasing the power and focus of our meditations and healing as an extended group.
All this and more! Since the GLP3 Solstice I can see so much has come up for us to look at, and be strong about, to release our judgements… especially in us! How is it for you… are you getting ready for this coming Golden Light Project? and how has it been for you since GLP3? Love you for being out in the world living and wanting to grow and make a difference… Love and Light, Steven If you are interested in participating, click the button above to be taken to the main "About the Golden Light Project" page.
There is no signup required any more, the links will automatically appear and be shown daily, beginning on the 20th June in the GLP menu shown on the right, and under each of the language links currently visible.
We still recommend you signup for news and announcements (use the signup form in the right column) from us to be reminded, and not miss upcoming events and offers such as this one in the future.


text:
"Which is better, Chef Allen's or Mark's Place?"
That both Allen Susser and Mark Militello specialize in dishes that can be termed "New World cuisine" says far more about that catchall category than about either man's style. While they may use the same range of ingredients the results they achieve are dissimilar, which doesn't provide a suitable basis for comparison. But the last person who asked me this question also did me a service: I realized that although I had enjoyed the businesslike snap and high-energy bristle of Mark's Place a few times in recent months, it had been some time since I'd savored the muted hominess of Chef Allen's.
White linens and fresh flowers greet Chef Allen's patrons as they enter a space divided into "rooms" by half-walls and arches. Slightly surreal interpretations of pomegranates and pears adorn the walls, while neon-strip lighting adds a Deco touch. Admirably, this ambiance is equally suitable for dating couples and entire families (one little girl was asleep at the table the night we visited most recently). All are treated with fondness and quiet humor by the staffers, who act as if everyone is a regular. Indeed, many are repeat customers. Others make Chef Allen's their happy-occasion restaurant of choice: I know one family that routinely celebrates birthdays there, and another that visits annually to partake of chef-owner Allen Susser's special Passover menu.
Passover comes just once a year, but the chef sees to his customers' dietary requirements on a nightly basis, with a menu that is revised and rotated frequently. Susser's dishes reflect a tropical outlook, forgoing fats in favor of light, fresh fare cooked with a minimum of oil -- foods that are comfortable to eat in this heavy humidity. One of five salads listed on the menu, a cool mix of organically grown arugula and endive, was the perfect embodiment of this philosophy. The peppery edge of the greens was refreshing and satisfying, cut with pungent nuggets of pistachio-encrusted, baked goat cheese and a subtle vinaigrette. The house breads -- sun-dried tomato focaccia served on a plate, as well as long breadsticks that stuck out of their ceramic canister like antennae -- were a lovely accompaniment.
Rock shrimp hash was another utterly appealing appetizer. Made with sweet, shredded boniato and dotted with shrimp and robust roasted corn, the crunchy pancakelike structure was a delicately fried treat. Mango "ketchup," tangy and fruity, accented the plate.
We also ordered a Caribbean antipasto for the table, a combination of six items, all of them spicy. On the low end of the spice barometer were two tamarind-chili shrimp, curled from the grill and basted in a savory barbecue-style sauce. Charred rare tuna A three medallions of quality ruby fish barely touched by the grill on the outer edges A was edge-of-the-fork tender and slightly more piquant. A supple conch ceviche, tart and vinegary, also warmed the mouth. The real fire was supplied by the jerk calamari, whole baby squid dusted with a Jamaican spice mixture that had us gasping for Overproof rum, which would have gone down like water after that searing experience. Fortunately the antipasto was stabilized by a milder green papaya "slaw" and a delicious, if spicier, black bean salsa.
We thought to cool off with the main courses. A whole yellowtail snapper, crisp on the outside, was moist and steamy on the inside and, as our server put it as we began to separate meat from bone, "more work but worth it." Covered with an understated, smooth coconut milk-and-curry mixture that featured green onions and stir-fried shiitake mushrooms, the sweet-fleshed snapper stood up admirably to a marvelous complexity of flavors.
A plain, wonderfully prepared swordfish fillet benefited from barely embellished basics. Marked from the grill, the succulent meaty fish was complemented by the anise flavor of fennel bulb, also grilled. Horseradish added flair to a scoop of mashed potatoes, while more sparks were supplied by an innovative sun-dried fruit confit, the candied apricots, papaya chunks, and cherries scattered over and around the fish.
Pan-roasted calamari served with pappardelle was another simple but elegant preparation. Enhanced with slightly bitter broccoli rabe and nutty caramelized garlic, the brothlike sauce was excellent. The squid, however, arranged at intervals around a mound of the superb tricolor noodles, were too tough, which defeated the effect of the dish.
Peach-and-chili-roasted duck, though, compensated with a Georgian flair, a reminder that New World cuisine has some roots in the Deep South as well as in South Florida. Served with smoked Vidalia onions, the game bird featured a fruity, crackling skin and a juicy, steaklike texture. Inch-thick circles of roasted yams provided a fine finish.
Dessert is a signature course at Chef Allen's; not many deny themselves the pleasure of pastry chef Michele Kutas's nightly souffle (for timely results, order it at the same time you order your dinner). We thoroughly enjoyed that night's chocolate-brownie version, made more decadent by the dishes of chocolate sauce and whipped cream served with it. So much for light tropical eating and humidity-friendly digestion. On the lighter side, a tropical sorbet sampler -- mango, passion fruit, raspberry, coconut, and pineapple -- was served in a sticky almond-flour pastry bowl and garnished with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and other seasonal fruits.
With the opening of the well-publicized Mark's Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, it may seem as though Mark Militello finally has the edge over Allen Susser. But I say forget the comparisons. At Chef Allen's -- or Mark's Place for that matter -- it's the diner who is the winner.


text:
Lumbini – well the story of Buddha begins here – somewhere in a sacred garden between the homes of both his parents. Yes, Buddha was born while his mother was traveling to her parental home.
Maya Devi
At Lumbini, it is not Buddha but his mother Maya Devi who is celebrated. She is best known for two scenes in the story of Buddha – one when she dreamt of a white elephant indicating the conception of the great one. Second, when she was on her way from her husband King Sudhodhan of the Sakya clan to her parents' home in Devdaha for the delivery. Buddhist literature speaks in detail about the preparations that were made to ensure that she has a comfortable journey. Ponds were excavated at different places for her.
Legend of Buddha's Birth
It was at a pond at Lumbini that Maya Devi gave birth to Siddhartha in a standing position while holding the branch of a tree above her. It is said that the gods of the three worlds i.e. Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva came to receive the child. Buddha took birth and as soon as he was born, he walked seven steps. At the place where his feet touched the earth, lotus flowers bloomed. This incident is believed to be the first miracle of Buddha's life. He would do many miracles later in life.
The scene of Buddha's birth can be seen in most Buddhist sites. It is usually the second scene depicted after Maya Devi's dream. Maya Devi is shown accompanied by Prajapati Gautami – a foster mother for Buddha. Other important associated with Buddha are:
Bodh Gaya – Where he attained enlightenment
Sarnath – where he gave his first sermon and set the wheel of Dharma rolling
Khusinagar – where he attained Mahaparinirvana
Rajgriha – where the first Buddhist conference took place
Vaishali – where he met Ambapali
This scene of Buddha's birth dominates the place for obvious reasons.
Maya Devi Temple – Lumbini Garden, Nepal
Temple dedicated to Maya Devi or Maha Maya as she is sometimes known has always existed at Lumbini. The place is also known as Pradimoksha Vana. However, in the last few centuries, it lay in neglect. Very recently, archaeologists have started excavating sites in and around and conserving what is found.
As of now, the Maya Devi temple is an enclosure that covers the ruins of an ancient temple that existed in the same spot. It is well established through the written records of various Chinese Buddhist scholars who passed through this region. Both Fa-Hein and Huan-Tsang have written about this temple.
Lumbini was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997
The biggest archaeological evidence that supports the identification of this spot as the place of Buddha's birth is the presence of an Ashoka Pillar along with an inscription identifying this spot as the exact spot of the birth of Prince Siddhartha. The Ashoka pillar was installed here in 249 BCE. It was still 300-400 years after the birth of Buddha but one can safely assume that oral tradition would have always kept the location of the important spot intact. Dr. Fuhrer discovered this Ashoka Pillar in 1896.
It was in the early 1990s that a marker stone was found that as per some archaeologists establishes the exact spot of Buddha's birth.
Things to see in & around Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini
Maya Devi Temple is a complex housing many monuments of interest for the visitor.
Maya Devi Temple enclosure
This temple enclosed in white walls with a typical Buddhist stupa-like formation on top houses the ruins of an ancient temple dedicated to Maya Devi. As you enter the temple you walk on a wooden walkway going around the ruins. You can see the large-sized bricks arranged in small box-like formations. I stood there for a long time but could not make out what the structure could be. It is not a hall, it is not a vihara or monastery – the rooms would be too small. It does not even look like a temple. I was not even sure if this is how it was found or if is this how it has been reconstructed.
Most of these structural ruins date back to the Gupta period i.e. 5-6th CE.
Nativity Sculpture at Lumbini Garden
At one end of this hall-like space stands a wall on top of which stands a stone sculpture. It has been so much rubbed that you can hardly see anything. The beauty of the sculpture though is that you can still make out that it is the same Maya Devi sculpture that you have seen elsewhere. The stone called the nativity sculpture dominates this room. Buddhist believe that the sculpture has been flattened by the touch of the devotees who worshiped it for ages.
Archaeologists call it nativity sculpture – the sculpture that depicts the native tale. Chronologically, it dates to the 4th CE. However, excavations have revealed some pre-Mauryan era bricks that are massive in size – strengthening the evidence that this is indeed the place of Buddha's birth.
Pre-Mauryan era bricks have a size of 49x36x7 cm and weigh as much as 20 Kg.
In fact, the size and texture of the bricks in this chamber are intriguing. You wonder what makes them stay as it is after so many years. Pale orange in color they are in different sizes and shapes. I wonder if the difference in size is because they come from different ages or if is it because different sizes were commissioned for different purposes.
Marker Stone
Just below the nativity sculpture a few feet below the ground level sits The Marker Stone. It is an irregularly shaped stone with a faint marking of a human foot. It is supposedly the footmark of Siddhartha. Now, this is a matter of pure faith. If you think it is Buddha's footprint – it is. The logical mind makes it difficult to believe.
At this point in time, it lies beneath bulletproof glass. It is clearly visible and you can see the currencies of all Buddhist countries piled around it.
Usually, there is a queue to have a glance at the marker stone. I was fortunate that both times when I visited it, there were hardly any people and I could spend a few minutes at the place.
Ashoka Pillar at Lumbini Garden
The Ashoka pillar stands at the back wall of the Maya Devi Temple. The inscription on the stone in Pali says that Ashoka himself visited Lumbini and got the pillar erected. It says – 'Hida Budhe Jate Shakyamuniti' meaning Shakyamuni Buddha was born here. It also mentions that since it is the birthplace of Lord Buddha, the taxes of the village were reduced to the 8th part only.
Pushkarni or the Sacred Pond
On the side of the Maya Devi Temple is the sacred pond. This is the pond in which Maya Devi took a bath at the time of Siddhartha's birth. This makes it a sacred place for followers of Buddha. The present pond is, of course, a recent construction.
A large Bodhi tree stands close to the pond where there is a small shrine dedicated to Buddha. There are other Bodhi trees as well. Some of them have a wooden round bench surrounding them. It was a pleasure to see many people sitting under these trees and meditating.
All the trees are tied to each other through colorful prayer flags. Standing at the Pushkarni with your back towards the Maya Devi Temple you see a melange of colors.
Votive Stupas
Maya Devi Temple is surrounded by big and small stupas – most of which are also in their ruined state. However, they are much better preserved than the temple itself, or maybe they have not been touched as much as the temple has been.
There are a couple of large square bases of stupas. There are many circular stupa bases. I found this set of 16 stupa bases very interesting. The information only says they are votive stupas. I like the way they sit on a platform like a chessboard.
Votive stupas are built by devotees when their wishes come true.
Different stupas belong to different eras – most of them are from 1-3rd CE.
Worship at Maya Devi Temple
One evening, I saw the Maya Devi complex come alive with groups of Buddhist monks from far-off countries coming here to perform their rituals.
A group from Sri Lanka sat in a disciplined manner. The head monk narrated the life of Buddha as he repeated the teachings of Buddha to everyone. A Chinese group wore all black and worshiped the image of Baby Buddha. Others lined up oil lamps around the Pushkarni and made it look like a night of Diwali. Another group took another corner and did their chanting.
One group decorated one of the square stupas with marigold flowers while the other one wrapped the Ashoka pillar in bright silk cloth.
A group of local monks sat around the tree. I spoke to one of them and it seems he was not very happy with the way archaeologists have reconstructed the temple. He pointed out that the temple is on the east-west axis and now the devotees enter and exit on the north-south axis. In fact, you can see many photographs of the original temple as it existed in mid-19th CE onwards and you can see the difference clearly.
Soaked in the chants of devotees, the place came alive. It was when the place was full of monks that I felt the spiritual energy in what until then were mere ruins. I sat back and observed them & absorbed the devotional energy they were emanating. This is when I felt my trip was complete. The connection that I failed to make after 2 days of roaming in this complex happened in moments when I saw so much devotion on those faces. As they say, it is the devotion of a devotee that turns the stone into a deity.
Lumbini Park
Lumbini Development Trust has a master plan for the development of the place to make it a world-class destination. The plan can be seen anywhere in the town. However, you must know that this is a work-in-progress plan, and not everything mentioned in this plan is complete.
The plan divides the complex in the middle with a canal. At one end of the canal is Maya Devi Temple and at the other end, you can see a giant white world peace pagoda.
On the western side of the Canal are temples belonging to Mahayana Buddhist countries. It has temples from countries like Korea, China, Germany, Canada, Austria, Vietnam, Ladakh, and of course Nepal. On the Eastern side are the temples of countries belonging to Theravada Buddhism. It has temples from Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia & the Mahabodhi Society of India, Kolkata & a Gautami Nunnery from Nepal. Somewhere in between, you will find glimpses of Vajrayana Buddhism as well.
Both sides have their meditation centers where you can go and learn meditation with a prior appointment.
You need to walk a lot to see these temples at Lumbini Garden
Remember, these temples are open to visitors but they are meant for the monks who live here or the followers of Buddhism. As a visitor, you can admire the architecture, which is quite representative of the countries they belong to. You can see the opulent statues and décor. However, if you want to learn more about either the temple or the religion, you are pretty much on your own.
I would suggest – pick the temples you want to see. If you try to see everything, after a while you are both bored and disoriented. They all are about Buddha and Maya Devi. Unless you follow Buddhism very closely, there is little you would appreciate beyond the architecture.
I liked the Maya Devi sculpture at the Australian temple. I liked the Xuan Zang statue at the Chinese temple and it is a beautiful temple in red and yellow. German temple has beautiful murals inside the temple. Nepalese temple has a huge Buddha statue. Thai, Cambodian, and Myanmar temples are good to look at from the outside.
Lumbini Development Trust Museum
At one end of the central canal, stands a curiously shaped building in brick red. Its arches create the impression of a Buddhist Vihar. This is the museum for you. You have to walk to another building across a pond to buy the ticket. In all probability, you would be the only person visiting the museum – it is not a very popular part of the park. There is a reason why it is not.
The museum building is beautiful, but it has no real artifacts. Everything you see here is a replica of a popular sculpture from other Buddhist sites. Most replicas I counted were from the Nagarjunkonda site in Andhra Pradesh. The replicas are good, but they lack the energy of the originals in stone.
There are photographs of all important Buddhist sites – I wish they used high-resolution images – that are so easily available in this date & age.
Overall, the museum is pleasant but I came out very unsatisfied.
Walk around Lumbini Park
If you love walking as I do, go to the park in the mornings and evenings – it is a place designed for walkers. There are water bodies everywhere where you can spot lots of birds and butterflies. In winter many migratory birds including Saras Cranes visit the wetlands around the place.
However, please be aware, many roads are still under construction. There are sections that are quite deserted and you need to take your precautions.
I enjoyed my small conversations with monks. I spoke to a Bhikkuni who spoke about her journey and the Bhikkunis in general. Young monks in their ochre robes look a curious combination of innocence and mischief as they pose for your camera.
Travel Tips for Lumbini Garden, Nepal
- It is a huge park with large patches of jungle. Wear very comfortable shoes.
- There is no food available inside the park, so eat well before you go inside. I did see some Bhel, ice cream vendors & small water shops on the eastern side of the park. In the western part, there was nothing to eat at all.
- You must carry ample water with you, especially when you are doing Maya Devi Temple or a Western group of temples.
- Transportation inside the park is extremely limited. Be aware of the amount of walking you can do, else hire a rickshaw and roam around using it.
- You can take a boat ride to go from one end to another, but it would not help if you want to see all the temples.
- Dress conservatively as it is a religious place.
- Maya Devi Temple and the Museum are the only ticketed places, everything else is free. For Indians, the entry plus camera ticket costs INR 20/- at each place.
- Temples and museums are open from 9–5 with a break from 1-2.
- Maya Devi temple is open from sunrise to sunset. You must keep 2 hours for this temple and if you have only half a day spend it at this temple.
- The park is open otherwise, though you are advised not to wander around after dark.


text:
This small yet practical bag fits perfectly into the space under the standard luggage rack, looking made-to-measure on its own or together with the side bags 045-5838.
It attaches using strong and easy-to-fit belts, and its large, covered zip provides fast access to the contents.
A small bag that's big on benefits!
- The material that we use is not plain nylon - it is certified Cordura fabric, made in Germany, as also used for protective motorcycle clothing and expedition equipment
- Waterproof coating on inside of fabric
- Fluorocarbon impregnation and Teflon coating by DuPont using nanotechnology for protection against moisture, dirt, oil and fading
- Washable and easy to clean
- The fabric used has been tested for harmful substances and certified in accordance with OEKO-TEX Standard 100
- Made for extreme loads and built to last
- Perfect fit
- Securely attached but can be quickly taken off the bike
- Low-weight bag with high carrying capacity and large usable volume
- All luggage systems are carefully hand-crafted in Germany
Size: (L x W x H) approx. 20 x 20 x 4 cm
Volume: approx. 1,5 liters


text:
English actress23 February 1983 —
Follow this author
I live to give.
We use cookies to personalise ads and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our advertising and analytics partners. By using our site, you accept the use of these cookies. See details


text:
Hi, friends!
As you might remember, I had the opportunity to use Cook Smarts last week to plan our dinners, and I really enjoyed the experience. This post is sponsored by Cook Smarts, but I would be more than happy to tell you guys about this meal planning service even if it wasn't. I truly love meal planning, and if you're a fan too, I think you will really enjoy this service. It gives you great ideas for meals, but it is also really customizable at the same time.
So, in general, I really like meal planning, but sometimes it's tough to come up with new recipe ideas week after week. I often ask Mal for his input, but he usually gives me the old "you know what I like" response, which is cute, but not at all helpful. So when I was offered the chance to try Cook Smarts for free, I was all about it because, each week, the service emails you four healthy recipes along with a grocery list. Meal planning took no time at all last week, and I felt so efficient whipping up a dinner menu (with fun, interesting meals!) and grocery list in a matter of minutes. It was awesome.
If you missed my meal planning post from last week, it looked like this:
- Sunday: Out to dinner
- Monday: Pepper Steak Stir Fry (Cook Smarts)
- Tuesday: Pineapple and Cashew Curried Fried Rice with ground chicken (Cook Smarts)
- Wednesday: Chorizo Breakfast Tacos with Roasted Potatoes (Cook Smarts)
- Thursday: Potato and Chorizo Dobladas
- Friday: Wedding
- Saturday: Wedding
Three out of the four meals I planned were from the Cook Smarts menu for last week, so, as you can see, I didn't use all four of the recipes emailed to me in my meal plan. Mal isn't a huge fan of salmon or curry, so I nixed the Baked Salmon with Curry Sauce and replaced it with a meal of my own. This is totally cool because Cook Smarts lets you customize your meal plan and shopping list. You can select to "do not make" a particular meal and a grocery list will be populated without those ingredients. Genius.
I printed out the grocery shopping list below, went through and crossed off items we already had at home, and then went to the store to buy the rest. It was so easy. I really loved this feature!
Additionally, if you don't like one of the recipes on the current week's meal plan, you can easily swap it out with another Cook Smarts recipe. With a subscription, you can access all of the meal plan archives and even search the recipes by name or ingredient based on your own taste preferences. And if a new week's meal plan comes out and you aren't totally loving the recipes listed, you can even find a whole new week of meals in the archives and use that instead.
I also really liked that each recipe is customizable based on a variety of diets. You can choose between the original, vegetarian, Paleo, and gluten-free recipes for every meal. In our house, this was really helpful. Mal and I tend to eat a Paleo-esque diet with dairy, potatoes, and beans mixed in, so I liked being able to click back and forth between the different recipe options to see how I could best personalize our meals.
One of the most helpful features of the meal plan was the "smarts from the team" sidebar, which includes tips and tricks for making your weekly meals more efficient. Last week, for example, there was a brief explanation of soyrizo (in case you've never heard of it) with possible substitutions for it. There was also a note about making extra rice and curry sauce if you're following the meal plan to simplify and speed up the dinner-making process. I love having ingredients already prepped and ready to go, so I thought this was pretty awesome.
Speaking of prep, I loved that each recipe gave you instructions for preparing ingredients ahead of time. If you're a Sunday cook-up person, this is super duper helpful!
All of the Cook Smarts recipes we used last week were easy to follow and took around 30 minutes to cook. All of the Cook Smarts recipes aim to be under 30 minutes of active cook time.
On the prep instructions above, you might have noticed some orange text, which are hyperlinks to how-to videos. For this particular recipe, you can learn how to chop an onion or slice/cube an avocado via video. Cook Smarts has all sorts of cooking videos to help teach you how to cook and do it more efficiently.
Ok, time to share Mal's and my favorite recipe from last week. The Soyrizo Breakfast Tacos were so easy to make and soooo delicious, I asked Jess, the owner of Cook Smarts, if I could share it on CNC and she agreed. It's definitely one of those delicious, go-to weeknight recipes. Mal and I made these after CrossFit one night, so we were hungry and just wanted to eat, so I was really happy with how easy it was to make this meal.
Mal offered to help me cook, so I could snap some photos for the blog, which was much appreciated. With two people working together, this meal came together in no time. If we had prepped the onion and avocado beforehand, it really would have come together fast.
We ended up using chorizo instead of soyrizo (taste preference), and we didn't make the roasted potatoes, but only because we thought the tacos would be enough food for us and they were.
The Chorizo Breakfast Tacos turned out so well. Mal and I both devoured them. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Soyrizo Breakfast Tacos (gluten-free)
amounts are for 4 servings
- Green onions – 2 stalks, chopped
- Onions – 1/2, diced
- Eggs – 6 to 8, whisked
- Avocado – 1, sliced or cubed
- Soyrizo – 1 lb. (I used ground chorizo)
- Gluten-free tortillas – 8
- Sour cream or creme fraiche – for serving over breakfast tacos
- Hot sauce – for serving
Roasted Potatoes with Paprika
- Baby or new potatoes – 1 1/2 lbs., quartered
- Olive oil – 2 tbs.
- Paprika – 1 tsp.
- Ketchup or hot sauce – for serving
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees. {Check out our how to roast vegetables video.}
- Place potatoes in a sheet pan and then cover tightly with foil. Bake for 10 minutes on top rack.
- While potatoes are cooking, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add in 1 tbs. cooking oil and then diced onions to heated oil with a dash of salt. Saute for ~3 minutes, until softened. Add in soyrizo (remove from casing). Saute for another 3 minutes. Remove from skillet.
- Return skillet back to heat and add remaining tablespoon of oil. Add in eggs and then lightly scramble until you get them to the consistency you want. Remove from heat.
- After potatoes have steamed for 10 minutes, take them out and toss with olive oil, paprika, and a generous sprinkle of salt. Roast for another 10 to 15 minutes uncovered, giving them a shake midway through.
- Warm tortillas according to package instructions. Spoon eggs and soyrizo into warmed tortillas. Top with avocado, sour cream, and hot sauce. Enjoy potatoes dipped in ketchup or drizzled with hot sauce.
Having access to all of these easy, healthy meals made meal planning and cooking so simple (perhaps even somewhat effortless) last week. Of course, I could have searched the internet or flipped through cookbooks or magazines for recipe ideas, but I really liked having four delicious recipes and a customized grocery shopping list sent right to my inbox. I am also really impressed with everything that comes along with the Cook Smarts subscription, including everything from the healthy recipes and cooking tutorials to personalized shopping lists and the user-friendly website. If you are interested in trying Cook Smarts for yourself, you can sample meal plans for free here. If you like what you see, you can sign up for a subscription for as little as $6 a month, which is a great deal if you ask me!
Ok, giveaway time! I loved using Cook Smarts so much, I asked Jess if I could away a subscription to a lucky CNC reader, and she loved the idea. So here's your chance to win a 3-month subscription to Cook Smarts!
To enter: Just leave a comment on this post about your biggest meal planning challenge. I'll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday morning. Good luck!
The post is brought to you by Cook Smarts.


text:
By: Cliff Kincaid The foreign policy elites from both major political parties reacted with outrage to President Trump's withdrawal of U.S. forces from the illegal and undeclared war in northern Syria. This was an indication that the interests of the Deep State, especially the CIA, were at stake. What we have discovered is that this area, known to our "allies" the Kurds as Rojava, was being developed as a … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2019
Investigate Obama's CIA for Syria Fiasco
By: Cliff Kincaid Many Republicans and Democrats seem to think American national security lies with several thousand communist terrorist homeless Kurdish fighters, who are devoted to a mythical "Kurdistan," over and above the Turkish Armed Forces, the second largest standing military force in NATO. Nothing would please Vladimir Putin more. The Russians have long worked to destroy NATO. Now, the Congress, … [Read more...]
The Next Ilhan Omar Could Be a Kurd
By: Cliff Kincaid In response to one of the predictable and common "Trump Betrays the Kurds" pro-impeachment stories, a reader of the libertarian Reason magazine noted, "They are Marxist guerrillas who want to establish an independent socialist state in their ancestral lands. They've been fighting for that goal for half a century and they can and will continue doing so without US support just as they always … [Read more...]
The Secret X-37B Just Landed After 2 Years in Space
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code Though the Air Force doesn't disclose the X-37B's precise orbit, keen-eyed amateur astronomers have managed to track the vehicle from the ground — and so can you, thanks to their efforts. Check out Space.com's satellite tracker to see where the X-37B is overhead during a mission. The view won't be dramatic; the space plane usually looks like a star of … [Read more...]
Big Warnings of China Military Expansion
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code McRaven, the former head of Joint Special Operations Command overseeing the U.S. Navy SEAL team that took down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan compound in 2011, noted that Chinese technologies such as 5G commercialization is already beating the United States. The Chinese military displayed several weapons during its National Day parade, including a … [Read more...]
Democracy Dies in Darkness: ISIS Edition
Doug Ross @ Journal Just when you thought legacy media had hit bottom, they break out the Komatsu tunneling gear and begin drilling new sub-levels. Biff Spackle illustrates: On second thought, "Democracy Dies In Darkness" — the Washington Post's slogan — is an apt description for this failed enterprise disguised as a media outlet. Hat tip: BadBlue Uncensored News, my replacement for … [Read more...]
America's Marxist 'Allies' in Syria
By: Cliff Kincaid Despite what you may have heard, America's Kurdish "allies" are not our friends. They are mostly Marxists. The founder of their movement was trained by the KGB. They are not worth one drop of American blood. In the same away that President Barack Hussein Obama supported Al Qaeda in Libya, leading to the Benghazi massacre, he armed the PKK/YPG Kurdish forces in Syria who are in reality, … [Read more...]
Your Forced RSVP to the Cancel Party
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code This list is hardly a complete list but it should stimulate some critical thought when it comes to Progressives attempting to run our lives and force law and policy upon us. The Progressives equal the Democrats, the Socialists, the Liberals. The notion of civil society is fading fast. Consider the following: The impeachment inquiry consuming Washington, DC is … [Read more...]
U.S. Attorney Durham Seized 2 Interesting Blackberries
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code AG Barr assigned John Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI's counterintelligence operation known as Crossfire Hurricane. Durham is working the globe on the investigation and two key people are Joseph Mifsud and Stephan Halper. There may be others that include Alexander Downer and Azra Turk. It seems that Peter Strzok issued two Blackberries to Joseph Mifsud. Durham has … [Read more...]
Two New Items on Biden and Burisma
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code Due to two recent testimonies, a few fascinating items have surfaced. Burisma was considered a money-laundering operation and in order to clean up the image of the company, they hired Hunter Biden because his last name would point to credibility and a boost in reputation. George Kent, a top U.S. State Department official, told lawmakers Tuesday he warned the Obama … [Read more...]
Schumer, Pelosi to Address J Street Conference: Should Israel be Worried?
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arrive at a news briefing after they returned to the Capitol from a White House meeting with President Donald Trump May 22, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) On Oct. 28, the two most powerful Democratic politicians in the United States, House … [Read more...]
Communist Leader Mobilizes Native Americans For Democratic Victory In 2020
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum on Aug. 20, 2019, in Sioux City, Iowa. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Judith LeBlanc, a leading member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), is organizing Native American communities in several states to turn out in high numbers for … [Read more...]
American Maoists Re-Brand, Focus On Electoral Politics, Target The South
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times Freedom Road Socialist Organization supporters during an anti-Trump march in Washington on Jan. 20, 2017. slowking4/GFDL 1.2 America's largest Maoist organization, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), has re-branded itself "Liberation Road." The new name is in line with a new strategy to place much more emphasis on electoral politics. The new … [Read more...]
President Trump, All The Way Live!
By: Lloyd Marcus Brother and sister Americans, we witnessed a new level of President Trump being himself at his remarkable, energizing, inspiring, and unifying rallies in Minnesota and Louisiana. Democrats have had a lock on connecting with voters emotionally using their fake compassion, cruelly using people as props. Republicans are sorely lacking in striking an emotional chord with … [Read more...]
THE PUPPET-MASTERS: Is China Orchestrating the Democrats` Faux Impeachment Scheme?
Doug Ross @ Journal Last Thursday, a caller into the Mark Levin Show made a brilliant point: Joe Biden has been completely compromised by Red China, and perhaps other foreign interests. His family members, and perhaps Biden himself, have significant personal wealth now controlled by Beijing. While his troubled son Hunter may have forfeited his "board seat" (as an aside, how many no-show jobs does this clown … [Read more...]
Abolishing Columbus Day is Based on Lies
By: Denise Simon | Founders Code Roughly 10 states and 100+ U.S. cities observe some version of Indigenous Peoples Day this month. Native American advocates have been working since the early 1990s to get states to make the swap, the AP reports. From today: Columbus statues in San Francisco and Providence, Rhode Island, were vandalized with red paint, CNN reports. "Vandals had chained a sign to the … [Read more...]
The Frightened Old Woman with her Trump 2020 Flag
By: Lloyd Marcus Scouting a location to shoot a promotional video for my Trump Train 2020 song, my wife Mary and I spotted a lovely home with a huge Trump 2020 flag waving in the breeze on a flagpole. After knocking on the front door and introducing myself, I assured the elderly white homeowner that we would not show her address in our video. Still, she declined our request to allow Mary to shoot video … [Read more...]
American Maoists Building Support for Mexican Revolutionary Movement: Huge Implications for US National Security
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (C), Mexican Navy Secretary Jose Rafael Ojeda Duran (R) and Mexican Defence Secretary General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, take part in a parade celebrating a new anniversary of the country's independence, at the Zocalo Square in Mexico City on September 16, 2019. (Photo by PEDRO PARDO / AFP) (Photo credit should read PEDRO … [Read more...]
Rep. Omar Commemorates Cuban Spy at Far-Left DC 'Think Tank'
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times Controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is about to associate herself with one of the most subversive organizations in this country. On Oct. 3, Omar will present the annual Letelier-Moffitt Awards at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The IPS is a center of both far-left policy formation and support for the Palestinian socialist cause. … [Read more...]
Weekly Profile – Paige Kreisman
KeyWiki.org Paige Kreisman is standing on the Democratic Party line for Oregon House District 42. She is a US Army veteran and identifies as a Marxist-Leninist. She was an active organizer with the Communist Party USA and the Corvallis-based Benton County Democratic Socialists of America, where she served as chapter treasurer. Currently, she is a board member … [Read more...]
For The Soul of America, "Shifty" Schiff Must Go
By: Lloyd Marcus Folks, I don't know about you, but I am extremely annoyed. I grew up believing in Superman's America which stood for truth, justice and the American way. But when I see blatantly corrupt politician Adam Schiff in charge of a bogus investigation to impeach our obviously innocent president, something has gone terribly wrong in our country. My heart is heavy for my beloved country and the rule of … [Read more...]
The Purge of Conservatism from America
By: Lloyd Marcus At the hospital for my annual physical exam, Adam Schiff was on TV in the waiting room. Schiff presented himself as alerting the American people to the "mafia boss" outrageous impeachable demands Trump made during his phone call with the president of Ukraine. Oozing with obnoxious superiority and arrogance, Schiff insidiously deceived viewers to assume he was reciting Trump's actual words from … [Read more...]
The Humanitarian Hoax of Eternal Childhood: Killing America with Kindness – Hoax 50
By: Linda Goudsmit | Pundicity The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy. The humanitarian hoax of eternal childhood is a deliberate political strategy to destroy America from within by regressing its chronological … [Read more...]
Tea and Treachery
By: Tabitha Korol Teas take on different significance in different cultures, but a TeaTime hosted by the Muslim Brotherhood members resembles no other. It is a time to be wary of the dualism of Islam and the gathering's true purpose. The modest event was publicized as TeaTime in a local church. It would not be a four-o'clock, English-style social occasion, complete with porcelain tea service and … [Read more...]
The Humanitarian Hoax of Impeachment: Killing America with Kindness – Hoax 49
By: Linda Goudsmit | Pundicity The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy. The entire 2020 lineup of leftist Democrats and their Congressional sycophants have assured the nation that impeachment of President Trump is … [Read more...]
Time to Set the Record Straight on Slavery
By: James Simpson | American Thinker Antifa is the most public, in-your-face element of the communist Left's decades-long effort to vilify America as a bastion of racism and "white supremacy." Normal people know that this characterization of the United States is simply not true. We have been world leaders in promoting racial harmony and reconciliation and have bent over … [Read more...]
Russia Collusion 2.0
By: James Simpson | CDJ News The most ironic aspect of this entire Trump-Russia collusion charade is that Hillary Clinton and the DNC colluded with Russians to essentially manufacture the entire thing. Now, following President Trump's congratulatory call to newly-elected (May 20, 2019) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Democrats have once again resurrected a phony Trump-Russia collusion … [Read more...]


text:
No products
Prices are tax included
The universal key of OrangeFox is suitable for all door and flex poles. The key is made of plastic weighs up to 50% less, and guarantees no more cold hands!
* Your request will be answered within the next 24 hours
Innovative drill made of impact-proof plastic with interchangeable blades made of hardened steel. Longer service life and up to 60% lower weight than any conventional drill.
Foldabel trolley for an easy transport of poles and
equipment on steep slopes!
The universally applicable gate base allows a quick assembly and dismantling. Already a quarter of a turn for fixing the pole.


text:
Slips & Ladders - Magnetic Game, by eeBoo
The classic game, ready to travel!
Spin for a number and see where you land.
Try for the ladders and avoid the slides, see who gets to the final square first in this favorite classic.
This magnetic game will bring fun wherever you go!
Land on ladders? You can climb,
Moving up in half the time.
But when you spin and reach a slide,
You will have a downward ride!
Don't give up! Keep at that spinner!
You'll reach the top and be a winner!
- For ages 6 and up
- Game instructions included
- Packet includes game board and magnetic rabbit and turtle place keepers
- Now Translated
- Winner of the Oppenheim Gold Award


text:
I still remember that charge like it was yesterday. We were formed up in ranks looking all bright and shiny, and there was me in my new half harness armor standing in the front line all ashen faced trying my best to look brave. This was going to be my first pitch battle; countless hours of drill and pushing straw dolls around had not prepared me for the roar and clamor around me.
I could barely hear our Lancepesade above the cannons and it wasn't until I was grabbed by the shoulder that I realized we were moving with bills at port, and learned that we had been given the honor of leading the charge, of being the first to engage the enemy line and to take the King's Guard. The Lancepesade barked and we moved from port to ready, we quickened now from a walk to a jog. I could see our Lord Zouche amongst us now, sword aloft with the colors flowing before I lost him in the cannon smoke.
Ahead now I could see the King's Guard all dressed in their best with shields ready and locked to receive us. The gentle patter of arrows started to fall upon us and I was thankful for the Sallet that I was wearing and dropped the visor. The Lancepesade barked once more, this time it was charge. I roared my battle cry and picked my target an ocher yellow shield paired with black.
The moment before impact everything slowed down, I remember the wide blue eyes of the King's Guard I was about to hit, the roar of my fellows on my back and the stamping of our feet. Every part of me was wired and smash, we hit… Time became a blur, my opponent skewered fell away and our momentum pushed us through to their third rank. It was now down to moments I stabbed, I hacked, I kicked, punched and bullied, wielding my bill with as much speed as I could muster aware that any time now I would be felled; that our flank was going to be rolled. As soon as it begun it was over, the King's Guard routed and with my blood up I gave chase… We had them and I had not sated my battle lust. Then my Lancepesade's voice was in my ear, "It's over Lad, now let's get out of here before their mates give us a good kicking."
As we melted away from the events of that first charge we soon became scattered against the larger army arrayed against us. Weary at battle end we left the field in triumph cheered on by all that saw our charge, including the King's Guard themselves. It was not until later that I learned I knocked the Reenactor with the yellow shield out, and it was my berserk fury, not the charge of our household that routed them, and that I came close to striking the King himself… Thus my Legend was born…


text:
Even before her "daddy" was elected, Ivanka Trump decided that her signature issue under the umbrella of his campaign would be child care. At the Republican National Convention, she championed "policies that allow women with children to thrive," but since then, although she's held meeting after meeting after meeting on the topic, no concrete policy has emerged.
According to a new report from Politico, Democrats have no faith that the First Daughter will get anything done — which is why on Thursday they're set to introduce the "Child Care for Working Families Act." Senator Patty Murray will spearhead the bill, which will be a key plank in Dems' "Better Deal" platform, and which contains a more comprehensive plan for child care that focuses on — you guessed it — working families.
A summary of the bill obtained by Politico indicates it will do three important things:
The legislation will make federal funding mandatory for lower- and middle-class families to ensure child care doesn't eat up a disproportionate share of their budget, focus on preparing 3- and 4-year-old children for kindergarten, and make new investments in the child care workforce.
Katie Hamm, who works on child care for the Center for American Progress, said the bill "gets at these core pieces and will help actual working families — not just the highest earners." She added that "right now we have seen no details or action from the Trump administration" on a similar measure.
Meanwhile, Ivanka recently met with conservatives to try to convince them to include the expansion of the child-care tax credit in their plan for tax reform, and she's reportedly working with Marco Rubio's office to hammer out the details of the policy. But it's slow going, and as Politico points out, there's a major stumbling block: "expanding any type of tax credit costs money, and the administration is already on a serious hunt for revenue to pay for lowering both the corporate and individual tax rates." Ivanka's "irrelevance" strikes again.


text:
Super KO Boxing 2 Review
- Publisher: Glu Games LLC
- Genre: Sports
- Released: 1 Oct, 2009
- Size: 99.9 MB
- Price: $0.99
- Fun classic Punch Out gameplay
- Amusing opponents.
- High-def arcade style artwork.
- Steep learning curve.
- Fights can be lengthy, not a pick up and play kind of game.
If you're feeling a bit nostalgic, Super KO Boxing 2 can fill that niche with a game that's fairly brutal to play, but rewarding when you learn how to read your opponent.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
Super KO Boxing 2 (SKOB2) is the sequel to Glu's mobile phone fighting series and the first of the series to hit the iPhone. It's a modern interpretation of Punch Out from the NES parceled with stunning hand drawn characters and tongue-in-cheek irreverence. This is no simple button masher and definitely something for serious gamers to check out.
SKOB2 mimics the classic control setup from its predecessors, using virtual pads to control dodge and block with the left thumb and your punches with the right thumb. While there's no variation to the control layout, it's fairly intuitive and quite responsive. Like other virtual pads you're likely to press the wrong button(s) at times, but their layout is generally broad enough to prevent too many wasted attacks or energy.
The graphics are what separate this game from the crowd, with a cell-shaded character designs and complex (and amusing) backgrounds for each location. There are several variations to each main opponent and are more than just a palette swap (for example, an early opponent goes from being a drink-swilling slob to a country cop). The music is interesting, but thanks to OS 3.0 support you can make use of your own playlists in game.
From the single-player campaign and its hilarious opponents to unlocking challenge modes and even playing online, SKOB2 is a great arcade boxing game. What started out in all its 8 bit glory on a humble console is now a marvel to play and enjoy on the iPhone for the serious gamers.
DescriptionBEST BOXING GAME ON THE APP STORE!!
READY FOR AN OLD FASHIONED BEATDOWN? As the K.O. Kid, you return to the ring to face the most outrageous face-breaking opponents who'll use sneaky tactics and dirty distractions to knock you out. To be the champ, figure out each fighter's tells, avoid their signature moves, and when the time is right unleash a super punch to knock 'em out!
Go toe-to-toe against a cast of bone-crushing boxers with unique moves and personalities including 15 Cent, Shogun, and Ka-Rak Übones.
Use quick reflexes to dizzy opponents, throw powerful hooks, unleash flaming super punch combos, and land one-two lightning KO's. To go the distance, you will need to watch out for opponent's weaknesses and avoid their signature moves.
Box your way through 18 bouts across 3 circuits to become the Champion of the world!
Would you be able to defeat your opponent if you weren't able to dodge and couldn't get hit? Face this and 16 other unique challenges that test your skills.
Test your courage to see how many fights you can win without ever getting knocked down against increasingly tougher opponents.
Earn over 65 unique achievements to unlock concept art that includes character sketches, early concepts, and boxers that did not make it into the game
For devices with iOS 4.1 or higher, you can now earn your achievements within Game Center and share those with your friends.
Are you coming unstuck against some of the trickiest bone-crushing contenders in the game? Just purchase a dose of Roid Rage to turn into a monster fighter, with more powerful punches and become almost impossible to take down. Use your Roid Rage whenever you've exhausted your natural abilities to take down the toughest opponents!
- This game is free to play, but you can choose to pay real money for some extra items, which will charge your iTunes account. You can disable in-app purchasing by adjusting your device settings.
- This game is not intended for children.
- Please buy carefully.
- Advertising appears in this game.
- This game may permit users to interact with one another (e.g., chat rooms, player to player chat, messaging) depending on the availability of these features. Linking to social networking sites are not intended for persons in violation of the applicable rules of such social networking sites.
- A network connection is required to play.
- For information about how Glu collects and uses your data, please read our privacy policy at: www.Glu.com/privacy
- If you have a problem with this game, please use the game's "Help" feature.
FOLLOW US at
What's New in Version 1.6.0Now share your achievements on GAME CENTER!
Extra Roid Rages are now also available without purchase by selecting Earn Roids from the Roid Rage menu.


text:
Brisdelle Coupon
Simply bring the coupon below to the pharmacy, and save on Brisdelle at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons, Rite Aid, Target, Kroger, and many other drug stores! These coupons are free and can be used to save up to 80% on all medications.
Use our Medication Pricing tool to find the discount price of your prescription at your local pharmacy.
Save at over 68,000 pharmacies nationwide, including:
Additional Ways to Save for Brisdelle
Many prescription assistance programs are available from manufacturers, federal and state governments, non-profits, and other organizations. They can help eligible patients to get the drugs they need at a reduced cost. You'll need to apply through each program, either online, over the phone, or with your doctor's help.
Brisdelle Manufacturer Coupon
The manufacturer, Noven Therapeutics, currently has a savings offer for Brisdelle
|Pay as little as $25