Bleu Cheese and Apple Cups

Ingredients:

• 1 can of uncooked flaky biscuits
• 10 tsp. bleu cheese crumbles
• 4 Granny Smith apples
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 T. Triple Sec (optional)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Apple filling:

1. Core and cut apples into small chunks. In a large mixing bowl, toss together with brown sugar, cinnamon, Triple Sec, and vanilla.
2. Bake in a pie pan at 350 F for approximately 12-15 minutes.

While apples are baking, make the bleu cheese cups:

1. Divide each biscuit in half.
2. Roll each biscuit half and drop 1 tsp. bleu cheese crumbles onto one half, top with the other half, and seal edges with a fork.
3. Drop filled biscuits into Shell Baker.
4. Close Shell Baker and cook for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown with toasted cheese "lace" edges. (See photos below.)
5. Remove cups from Shell Baker and fill with apple mixture. Serve warm. Makes 10 servings.

 

Shows rolled biscuits on parchment. To the rear, there are two bleu-cheese filled biscuits on a plate.

Filled cups about to be baked in Shell Baker.

Apple filling, completed bleu-cheese and apple cups, and baked cups waiting to be filled.

Nutrition Facts

Calculated at SparkRecipes.com

10 Servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 189.0 Total Fat 7.7 g Saturated Fat 3.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.7 g Cholesterol 6.7 mg Sodium 476.5 mg Potassium 92.4 mg Total Carbohydrate 26.3 g Dietary Fiber 1.3 g Sugars 3.1 g Protein 4.0 g

Vitamin A 1.8 % Vitamin B-12 1.8 % Vitamin B-6 1.9 % Vitamin C 4.1 % Vitamin D 0.0 % Vitamin E 1.0 % Calcium 7.8 % Copper 1.9 % Folate 1.2 % Iron 5.7 % Magnesium 1.5 % Manganese 3.8 % Niacin 0.7 % Pantothenic Acid     1.9 % Phosphorus     3.9 % Riboflavin 2.4 % Selenium 2.1 % Thiamin 0.7 % Zinc 1.8 %

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Hangover Relief

Since 2009 is off to such a bright, sunny, happy start, I feel generous. The following has been known to provide quick relief for hangover pain and ickiness:

One high-potency B-complex vitamin, one multivitamin, and 400 mg. ibuprofen (optional) with a full glass of water (16 ozs.) and a large glass of orange juice, followed by one small (8 oz.) glass of water every hour or so.

Forget "hair o' the dog that bit ye" unless you're simply trying to induce a coma or vomiting. Remember that acetaminophen and alcohol are not a good combination; save the Tylenol until all the alcohol has left the building.

NOTE: I'm not a doctor; I don't play one on TV or the Internet. Use your own best judgment (or not - would you be here right now if you were in a state to use good judgment?) before trying any of this, and do not take ibuprofen or acetaminophen if you are allergic to any of the ingredients or have drunk so much you already have perforations in your stomach lining. None of this is to be construed as "medical advice." In any case, drink the water. The main cause of "hangover" is dehydration and depletion of water-soluble vitamins.

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Happy New Year!

Yeah, I'm a dork.

Happy New Year. :)

12 Things to Do (Besides Break Your New Year's Resolutions) in 2009

Stop That! (A Response to Chris Brogan's "12 Things to Stop Doing in 2009")

There's only ONE thing to stop doing in 2009:

Stop expressing your goals and aspirations in negative terms.

Learn to phrase your goals and aspirations in positive terms. Focus on the result you want, rather than the one you don't want. Here are a few things to START doing in 2009:

1. Write about something other than Twitter. This is the social media rockstar's equivalent of a writer writing about writing. Yes, there is a never-ending market for it, apparently - but you owe it to yourself and your readers to stretch and keep your mind nimble. (See also) That said, if your blog is wildly popular and focused on a niche, don't stretch so much you look like Gumby and surprise your readers with a complete change of topic; apparently, that upsets people.
2. Explain, for those of us lacking the "any-interest-whatsoever-in-sports" gene just what an "inside baseball" post is. Use standard English words; eschew jargon. Make "Buzzword Bingo" obsolete.
3. Up yours, too! (Sorry, that was a flippant response to Chris Brogan's "Stop putting yourself down.") Seriously? Take a moment each day to record and reflect on your accomplishments. Build yourself up - but stay humble and remember to build others up along the way.
4. Invent a panacea to prove Chris Brogan wrong. Patent it.
5. Learn to read minds. Or accept that empathy and compassion are reasonable substitutes for mind-reading, and develop them more fully.
6. Ask for help, sometimes. It makes others feel useful. The only thing standing between some folks and the abyss is a sense of purpose. You could save a life!
7. Try new things in old places. Try old things in new places, if they are old enough to be marketed as "vintage" or obscure enough that everyone has forgotten they're old, and thinks they're new.
8. Strive for excellence (not perfection) in all you do. Your career will move ahead of its own accord.
9. Remember that your mother doesn't work here. Take ownership of the problem (yes, even if you didn't cause it) and fix it. (See #6)
10. If something has been said 50,000 times before, and you have nothing novel to add to the conversation, pick the best expression of the idea and share it. Then shut up. Oh, the irony inherent in this post...
11. Strive to be less creative and more original.
12. Git 'er done. (Sorry. It just...like a brain fart.)

Chris Brogan says, "it’s hard to actually remember 12 things, let’s just do 6 things in the to do list." I like Chris's list. I spent some time, this morning, reviewing my own list and revising it for 2009. I'd accomplished even more than I remembered! It didn't take constant focus, but it did help to write it down.

I've managed to pare down my 43Things to 20-something things, but it's a fluid, ever-changing list. Tomorrow, it could have ten things, or thirty. I don't care if the site's called 43Things, I can only juggle so many plates at one time. I've added them to the sidebar on my blog, though, to keep them visible. Feel free to join me if any of them appeal to you as things to focus on in 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write about something other than blogging or writing, too. They say "write what you know," and if that's all you know, you need to get out more. Or as they used to say in the 1980s, "Get a life!"