Tasty Tuesday - Tuscan Beans

I just got back from ten days in Italy. Trust me, there's lots to say about the trip, particularly our inability to get anywhere without taking the scenic route, but the best part of it was how much we learned. Not only can I now tell a Renaissance door from a Gothic door (seriously - and I'm sorta proud of it), but I learned tons and tons about Italian wine, among other things. In fact, I may not ever again drink anything but Italian wine now. I'm convinced now that I absolutely must learn to make gelato, because of course we tried it at every place we possibly could.

As part of our stay, we also had a cooking class and a dinner cooked for us. They were simply amazing. I have so many new dishes to try out now, and I can't wait to begin doing so. Then again, that may be why I replicated two of them while we were still in Italy. This afternoon, I made one of them again in the hopes that the wee ones would love them as much as I did. Little Miss enjoys the Tuscan beans, but unfortunately Mister Man didn't like the texture so much. I'll still be making them regularly.

Tuscan Beans

Ingredients:
2 cans cannelloni beans (white northern beans) - or you can do 3/4 c dried beans, as described below*
1/2 onion, chopped
1 small bunch of sage leaves
1/4 c olive oil
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a pan on the stove on medium heat. Once it's hot (don't use a nonstick pan), add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and let it come to temperature - you want enough so the onions don't stick but don't want to cover the whole bottom of the pan. Exact measurements aren't critical. Add the onion and sage, and saute until it has just softened and turned translucent but before it starts to brown.

Add the cannelloni beans. Our instructor added the liquid in the cans, too, but I find that makes this too salty for me. I'd use maybe half the liquid or maybe a little less, then add some extra water. Add the remaining olive oil, along with the pepper. If you are using the canned beans, hold off on the salt for now. If not, add a bit of salt, as well. Mince your garlic, and add this, as well. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook down.

You want to keep cooking until it's become thicker, forty-five minutes or so. This can hold on the stove for a long time, just add a little water if it gets too dry. Before you serve, fish out the sage leaves. Taste it one last time to check to see if you need to add any more salt or pepper. Drizzle a bit of extra olive oil over the beans just before serving. Enjoy!

Yum! Find this and more with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at The Well this week.

*I've made these both ways. The woman teaching the class made them with canned beans. I tried them first with canned beans and this time with dried beans. I'll be honest. The canned beans taste better and have a - shockingly - better mouth feel. If you want to use dried beans, you will want 3/4 cup of dried beans. Put them in a pot with 3 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and cover. Let the beans sit for an hour and a half, then pull out 2 c water in a measuring cup and save it for later. Drain the beans from the rest of the water, then follow the instructions in the recipe. You'll add the water you set aside to the beans at the step where I add the beans in the can and their "juice."

Win Chicken in the Car and the Car Won't Go, a Chicago Travel Guide

Type A Conference Recap - Getting Freelance Writing Gigs

As I keep going through my notes, I keep realizing that there is more and more from the Type A Conference that I learned. And since I tend to cement things in my brain by sharing them... here is the next session up. Only a couple to go!

This session was hosted by Dianna Brodine (@mamainpajamas) from Mama in Pajamas and Ellen Seidman (@lovethatmax) from Love That Max.

How To Get A Freelance Gig

First of all, you need a good, fresh idea to pitch to a magazine. One of the biggest pet peeves most editors have is when people have ideas but no specific angle. A topic could be how to prevent colds. The angle would be seven unique ways to prevent colds. Also, you want to find what's new - a new way to present it and hook people in. There are only so many topics out there, so it's about repackaging the information.

With magazines, the lead time is significantly longer than with a website. Major publications may be 6-9 months out. Smaller publications may be 1-2 months. Magazines at the very least are thinking of their ideas 4-5 months out. If there is something spectacular, they may be able to accommodate it, but think of the lead time.

People have sent in a list of ideas - a page with ideas and short snippets. Pick your one best idea and flesh it out and submit it. Once you get to know an editor and have a relationship, you can pitch a few ideas at a time. Until then, focus on just one thing. The moderator probably talks to 5-10 PR firms each day where she's getting pitches from small manufacturing firms. You can imagine what larger audience magazines are being bombarded with. The editor won't remember when someone calls to follow up on the idea, so you really have to focus what you're pitching on that one idea.

It does help to know what your writing strengths are. Most of us who have blogs could do essays for magazines. If you're not a reporter and don't have reporter chops, don't bother pitching something that requires reporting. They have people who have been writing for years and years. For an essay, you can just go ahead and submit the essay itself. If you're not happy interviewing sources, don't pitch an article that requires that. The same goes with research and backing up their resources - don't get into those if you aren't strong with this and comfortable. Some travel publications will see pieces about the top ten spots in a city to go visit. If you don't have the ability to research this or have the contacts, don't bother to submit it.

Once you have an idea, you need to figure out where it fits. Go to a magazine stand and flip to see where it would fit. Good Housekeeping for example has a column where they reprint blog posts and RedBook has a Things My Kids Taught Me where they're looking for bloggy voices. Sometimes magazines are looking for something to put into a bigger package, so they may not use it right away but may later.

Magazines may not look at something for their print editions, but they are also looking to stay relevant by having online content. They may use it on the web, and in most cases there is a slightly different angle to what goes online versus in print. Look at what is in both to see what they're doing - what the voice and tone are like. It's usually two slightly different audiences.

Targeted publications are what most of us do. Travel guides, injection molding magazines, local publications, etc. Just because Real Simple isn't right for you or you don't have the time or energy to develop those relationships doesn't mean you can't find something to do. enews is huge right now - always looking for enews content because writers for magazines like to write four page articles, which isn't going to work in this space. This is a great place for us as bloggers to develop. You don't have to think big in terms of what you're pitching.

Consider specialty publications. What are you into - adoption, running, reptiles, HR. The good news about smaller publications is that they're smaller, so when something comes across their desks, they can respond very quickly. Bigger magazines have a larger lead time and more bureaucracy.

When you do online sites, make sure they know that you are a blogger and know how to write for online and how to promote the stuff online. That means you can be more valuable since they don't have to bring a staff person up to speed on this type of marketing.

You can actually resell blog content on local parenting publications.

Go read some back issues of the magazine to get the tone of it. You want to make sure that you have the right voice when you're pitching. Search the site to see if your idea has been done on the site - if it's been done, how are you going to do it differently?

Request editorial calendars for magazines so you can get an idea of what they're working on. They can often be very general, but they can help. You can also request the editorial guidelines to get the Ps and Qs of writing for them, but nothing beats reading the back issues.

One really good way to get your foot in the door is through columns. Often columns are done freelance. They don't get bylines but they do get tag lines. It's a good way to get a relationship in with editors. Writing short (150 words) is harder than writing the longer pieces. If you can do that, you can show that you can do more.

How Do You Submit

When you see magazine clips, you have no idea how much something has been edited, so look for repeat clips for one entity. Your blog is great because it is the purest form of our writing - we know it hasn't been edited. Submit blog posts as clips. Pick your three favorite posts as your clips - make sure the topic is relevant and that the tone fits.

You want your byline on the clips you're submitting. If you ghost wrote something, don't include it. Don't include something where you have the tagline but no byline. Choose clips that are relevant to the topic so that they know what you write like in that format. Take a really good look at what you submit to ensure that it is edited well, that critical facts and key sentences to flow haven't been taken out. You don't want to submit poorly edited clips.

Keep duplicate copies of every single thing you write. Keep all the issues no matter what. You never want to send out the last one and then be stuck in the future. When it's online, get screen prints of everything, too. Before you submit everything, make sure the links work.

How do you find the right person to pitch? For national magazines you want to not pitch the editor listed on the magazine. It's too high. Start low and work your way up. Look at the mastheads and pitch the junior editors. It's part of their responsibilities to look through the pitches that come through. If you can't tell from a masthead, pick up the phone and call and try to find a human to help you find who covers what. You can also google it to find information.

freelancesuccess.com - a site where people share who to pitch

Make sure that you're networking with people in the right niches you want to focus on. If it's local, keep in touch with the chambers of commerce, etc. Keep in touch with the people who know about the topic so they can recommend you.

Write your clip conversationally, and ensure there are no typos. It's the first impression on the editor, so you want to go good. If you're not good with titles, just skip that part. The editors can come up with the title. Include the other angles you'll have - from sidebar suggestions or polls. Those are huge for editors who don't have time to think these through. You show that you have a good feel for the topic and have done the work of the editor who will be more likely to call you for work again. Don't let it get longer than a page - two at the most. Don't write "Dear Sir or Madam."

In general, magazines love lists - websites even more so. Think of the packaging - if you want to write on how not to look tired, then show that you'd do what to do and what not to do. Submit maybe 3-4 good lines, but don't do the whole list. It depends on the site and the editor, as well as your comfort level, as to whether you submit the whole thing or just a portion of it / the idea. For some magazines, the editor wants to see it fully formed. You'll have to use a judgement call, but as you get to know the editors, you'll learn what they're looking for. If you are getting burned after submitting whole articles, there are things you can do - not to get paid for it, but to ensure companies don't do that again.

Especially with smaller publications, have a small bit at the beginning of the email that makes people want to know more. Then have the whole pitch in an attachment. If you include photos, make sure that it fits the demographic - don't send a mature woman in a photo to a magazine focusing on a young demographic, for example.

Magazine editors get excited about Twitter and Facebook. If you can share that you'll be publicizing the article for them, they'll get excited about it.

When you're submitting an idea or article, you first need to set a deadline. Don't say it in the pitch (e.g., don't say that you need to hear back by X), but say that you'll follow up either in writing or over the phone in two weeks - do email though unless it's a super great pitch. State that you're pitching solely to that source. If they haven't gotten back to you, when you follow up - let them know that you are looking to hear about the status of your pitch and if they don't hear back within two weeks, you're going to pitch it elsewhere.

If you've gotten a lot of rejections from one magazine, maybe you should try another. It may just not be a good fit. If you've been rejected, take a look at what you could have done differently. Can you change the angle? Can you make the pitch fresher? Can you pitch it to someone else? There is so much rejection in magazines, but there is also so much need for content. It's all about timing and what's going on with the publication you're working with. There is an X factor.

When writing the piece itself, know what the editor wants. You can ask - do they want surnames? If you're interviewing a lot of people, do they want it from around the country. Try to stick within the word count - within reason. 1200 is ok for a 1000 count piece. If you are doing interviews, write the transcripts and keep them for verification.

Have a niche in your writing, and that will help with getting sponsored posts. Have a niche and own it. Who is a sponsor that you'd be interested in working with who has programs? Find the person to contact and talk to them about doing sponsored posts. These conferences and meeting with brands are amazing for getting recognition for your blog. Talk. A lot. It's just a start though, as they'll meet hundreds of people. Make sure you follow up and how you pitch them later is by mentioning that you met them here and talked about X, then that you had a great idea that you thought might fit them.

What Do Freelance Gigs Pay

Magazines are standard $1/word and up to $2 once they know you. If last minute and great writers, $4 max. For specialized magazines, it's easier to provide a quote for what want to pay rather than by the word. $20 and up for a sponsored post is standard. Website features are typically $75 and up. Sponsored posts are $50 and up - they can be a lot more though.

Whew! There's so much to think about in this vein. What other bits of advice do you have about getting or writing freelance?

Win Chicken in the Car and the Car Won't Go, a Chicago Travel Guide

Type A Conference Recap - Video Editing

Yes, there is still more from Type A Conference, lots more, in fact. I went to a session just about every single opportunity, and there was a ton of useful information that I not only want to share with you but hopefully commit to memory for me by typing it all out here!

Our facilitators for this session were Valerie Rowekamp @charmedvalerie from Charmed Valerie, Danielle Smith @daniellesmithtv from Extraordinary Mommy, Jendi Pagano @jendisjournal from Simple Vlogging Tips.

Video Editing

YouTube is the second most searched engine online.  It's a great way to engage people and get personal with your audience.

A lot of new video bloggers don't know how to edit, know why they should edit, or want to edit video.   You will create a better blog if you edit.  The purpose is to create a video that doesn't look like it's been edited.  You can change the pace of the video - make it move faster or slower.  You can change the story by the order of the clips to make it sad, happy, etc.  

There are free video editing software programs like iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Jaycut, Pixorial, and YouTube.  You can also use relatively inexpensive ones like Pinnacle, Final Cut Express, and there are top of the line options, such as Corel, Adobe, Sony Vega, and apps for your smart phone, too.  iMovie is very simple to use, and Windows Movie Maker (WMM) has about the same learning curve.  Use what you have, especially when you're first starting.  Reel Director is also another good program to utilize.  Pixel Pipe allows you to send video without decompressing the HD file, so it won't end up choppy. This is another free app.

Editing With iMovie

To start a new project in iMovie go to file, then new project.  At the bottom, you can see the raw footage that you have to work from.  You decide which part you want to use for the edited video.  Highlight to select the entire selection you wish to use, then click to drag it into the black box in the upper left corner to start your editing.  To add a title in the beginning, select the "T" button where you can see all the words you can use to make your video - from centered to lower third or subtitles, etc.  Click the one you want to use, and drag it to the project area, then drop it in the section you want to use.  Once you've dragged it there, you can select which type of background you want to use and type the title into the screen.  In the end, you can add credits, just as you did with the title.

The fun thing about iMovie is you can preview it at any time on the right side of the screen.

You can also add music - stuff from iTunes or sound effects of various types.  If it's copyrighted music, it may not make it to YouTube, however.  Again, drag your sounds to the project area wherever you want it to fit.  You can drag it and move it however you want to do so, making it longer or shorter or in another place.  

You can also add transitions - either manual or automatic.  The transition will lead you from one clip to another, making it smoother.  There are different types from fading or rippling or fading to white or black, etc.  

If you want to insert pictures, go to iPhoto, and it will show your whole library.  Drag the photo you want into the project area.  Once you let it go, it will ask you how you want to place the picture in it - how it will cut from the video to your photo(s).  Cutaway is a popular choice.  You can do the same thing with a still frame, by going to the portion of the video you want, right click, and select add still frame to the project.  You can specify how long you want it to stay on the screen.  You can record using the microphone button to narrate it - click the photo, then the microphone and talk.

When you hover over the project, it will give you a little option pop out screen. Choose this to do ducking - this turns down the volume on the clip and increases the volume of the audio that you have imported instead.  You can also use the inspector to do other adjustments for the audio and video options.

Once you're done with your editing, you can throw away unused clips by right clicking and choosing move rejected clips to the trash from the event library.

The written words - there are captions, what the person is saying.  It's something to use if there is a noisy setting or you want to create your own narrative outside the audio, think Mystery Theater 3000.  If you use automatic captions in YouTube, they'll mess up your words a bit, but they're working on it.  Subtitles are great for adding extra words.

Transitions are when you go from one video clip to another - there are four main types.  The biggest temptations, especially for new bloggers, is to put them all in.  Use restraint. The most often used is a simple cut.  Decide your style, and use one type of transition throughout.  You don't want people to be so focused on your transitions that they lose your video.  Jump cuts move from one side of the screen to the other.  You have to plan ahead for it when you make your raw video so that you start on one side of the screen then are on the other at the next clip, or it won't work right.  Wipes are when the video wipes from one side of the screen to the other, new over old.  Fade is where it dissolves to white or black.  Theaters go to black.  Dissolves can be different shapes going out.  You can lengthen both fades and dissolves.

Vlogging Tips

You can add still pictures.  If it's all still pictures, it's a slide show, not a video. The facilitators are not fans of this type of "vlogging."

Angles are important to consider. This is referring to the angle between the camera and the subject being filmed.  Birds eye, high, eye level, low, and slanted (horror film used a lot because it gives you a different feel). Those are the angles possible, from highest down to lowest. Think about the effect you want to create and then choose the angle that best fits your needs. Again, don't play with this constantly, as it's annoying for the viewer.

When you're videoing, smile before you start and when you are stopping and hold still briefly at both the start and the stop.  It gives you the freedom to restart your video more easily.  It also makes a difference when you hold still when you start and stop to give yourself some room to edit.

Music can really add to your videos.  Make sure it is royalty free music.  You can't use a track from a CD you bought. Interestingly, this is a prohibition even if you are playing and instrument with sheet music you purchased.  You can google royalty-free music.  You can do a lot with ten seconds of music, which is generally the limit.  If ever a video becomes really popular, YouTube will ask if you want to share revenue from views with them.  It will ask if you are using any copyrighted music.  If you are, they will actually take your video down at that point, no questions asked. And no, you can't lie; they'll figure it out.

It is possible to make a video too long.  People are lost after 2 to 2 1/2 minutes.  Don't go longer.  Get an outside opinion of someone who isn't familiar with the topic you're vlogging about, and get their thoughts.  The same school of thought goes for text that is placed inside the video.  When you have text you want them to read, so find someone who doesn't know the content and have them read it.  It will take them longer than it takes you because they aren't familiar with the subject matter, and they may need different tidbits of info because they aren't familiar with it.  If they can't get through it in time when there is text, make it stay on screen longer or change up the text.

The biggest recommendations are:

Cut after the breath.  Keep it short.  Try one thing at a time over time.  Watch your video the whole way through.

If you do video all the time, put your brand up there.  Keep it on the screen only for a couple seconds, however.

Distribute your video to make sure it gets seen.  

There is a feature on YouTube similar to Ad Words on your blog.  ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool - description, tags.  You can also add annotation in post production on YouTube.  Ditto with creating playlists for yourself.  Make sure your title is appropriate for your video.  If you find a video you like, copy all the tags they use and put them in yours.  YouTube will see you as related.  Don't be afraid of using a lot of tags.  That's fine.  Put quotes around a phrase to keep it together, as people will typically search for "how to tie a scarf" instead of "scarf."  If you put in simply the phrase without the quotes, YouTube will separate each word itself instead of staying as a phrase.

Description - put the full URL in it and YouTube makes it a hyperlink so that it stays under your video.  You can also make yours a video comment on a video you like.  That will put you in the related video list on the side at YouTube.  If you are in a playlist, the results will show up first.  They like you to interlink videos so people stay on YouTube longer.  Videos with interlinking will show up higher in search results.

To get help with iMovie, go to apple.com/findouthow/movie - they have good tutorials.

What other vlogging tips do you have?

Win Chicken in the Car and the Car Won't Go, a Chicago Travel Guide

Type A Conference Recap - Breathtaking Blog Photography

The latest in my installment of Type A conference recap posts. This one was about creating great photos for your blog. There is so much information here, it could have been an all day session. We did cover quite a bit though!

Breathtaking Blog Photography
Jenna Hatfield @firemom from Stop Drop and Blog
Amanda Padgett @amandapadgett from Everyday Elements Online

Good photos can increase engagement, but bad photos can do the opposite.

Why do photographs matter?  If you're reading in a reader and see a post with a picture, you click through a post with a picture more than you do if you don't.  That isn't to say they won't be clicked on, but we are a visual society.  We see a picture, and we want to look at it.  beyond that, pictures really help us connect with readers, especially personal photos.  They see you, they see what's important to you, and it's a connection you don't get without photos.

What photos should you include?  Know your personal boundaries.  If you don't want pictures of you kids on the blog, don't post it.  You can avoid using stock images by taking your own photos.  If you take a picture of a sunset, you don't need to use stock images.  You have a camera; there is a world out there.

What photos should you avoid?  The ugly ones.  Too dark, washed out, bad white balance, blurry past artistic.   Don't use photos you don't have permission to use.  People can steal your photos whether you watermark them or not, but there are things you can do.  People on Flickr may have granted common license, but if they haven't, don't use it.

If you have blogger's block, look through your memory card.  There's a photo from six months ago that will inspire you somewhere.  Sometimes, the photo speaks for itself, and you don't even need to add words.

For food bloggers, show yourself.  Love to see who is cooking the recipes.  How are they cooking (in their pjs, etc)?  It adds a lot of personalization.  For reviews, use a mix of company stock images as well as your own photos.  It is a million times more interesting if you take a picture yourself than using the stock images.  People respond better to personal photos in reviews.

How to help pictures have impact.  Great writing will hold people at your site.  Great pictures will help them get there.  Learning how to use your camera properly helps more than learning how to edit.  It's easier to change the dial of your camera than it is to fix it in post processing.  

Natural light looks better than any other kind of lighting.  Use it as much as possible.  Sunlight is natural light, but it's harsh - try to get in the shade.  You won't have the shadows, and the lighting will be more even.  When shooting inside, try to go near a window.  Don't use the flash if you can get away with it - try without it.  If you really have to use a flash on a DSLR, you can turn down the strength and let it be more of a fill flash.

Perspective - change how you look at items to make them more appealing.  Instead of taking pictures of kids from above, get down to their level.  Obey the rule of thirds - Don't put the person's head in the middle of the picture.  Place the subject in the intersection of one of the lines of thirds.  This works with portrait and landscape photos.  They do this in tv, too - check it out.

Post Processing for a finished look
Take some time to edit your pictures like you edit your post.  It will add that much more impact.  Make sure the exposure, contrast, white balance, composition, and presentation are their best.

Exposure - You want your images bright and easy to see for viewers.  Try to get good exposure SOOC.  Use Picnik, Lightroom, Elements, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop Elements, etc to get them to the proper exposure.  If you can only buy one, buy Photoshop Elements.

Contrast - Most digital images come out with a little fog and need some contrast added to them.  The colors will become richer and more dramatic.  This is one way you make pictures pop.  Don't just always use auto - the tools will work better when you drive them yourself.

White balance - It is the color temperature of your photo.  Usually it will come out too orange.  You can fix it to look so much better so easily.

Correcting the composition - If you didn't get it set up right, you can so easily crop the photos to follow the rule of thirds.  This is something you can easily do even with free pictures.

Size - when it comes to size, it can be too small or too big.  If it is too small, it will lose its impact.  Look at the size of your posting area.  Generally uses 650 for landscape photos wide and portrait about 450 pixels.  If they are too big or you have too many, the blog will take too long to load, and people will move on.  Pictures can also take over the sidebar and be too wide, which is too bad.  Always preview your posts (even those without photos!).

Add drama with special effects - Adding a frame and drop shadows, rounded corners, actions/effects/presets, etc.  It really brings it off the page some, and it makes it look more professional.

Actions/effects/presets - It can make your photo look different from color pop to sepia or black & white, etc.  The names vary by the program you use.  It's a prerecording of steps.  You can upload the action then play out the action in the photography editing software.  It is one button that is a time saving tool for a series of editing tools.  They tend to work on one type of program only, so make sure you're getting actions for the program you are using.  If you don't know how you want the photo to look, you can play with the different actions to try to see what looks best.  You can create various copies, and there is always a revert button if you don't like something.  Once the action comes up, you can always tone it down if needed via a slide bar.  

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.  Too much sharpening is actually a bad thing for example - glistening, hair like straw, etc.  Flickr adds sharpening to every image uploaded, so be careful how sharp you make your photos.  The bigger the picture, the higher your radius to sharpen.  If you are sharpening for print, you want it almost too sharp - for the web, if it's almost too sharp, it will be too sharp once posted.

Helpful links - my3boybarians.com, everydayelementsonline.com, digital-photography-school.com, thecoffeeshopblog.com (lots of free actions available here), Rocktheshotforum.com, clickinmoms.com, mcpactions.com (lots of actions, both free and not), bigpictureclasses.com (digital scrapbooking, as well as classes)

Post processing programs - Photoshop CS5 (adobe.com), Photoshop Elements 9 (adobe.com), Lightroom (adobe.com), Paint Shop Pro (corel.com)

Lots of info - and there's so much more out there. There are even online classes you can take to learn about it, and I've heard great things about them. Amanda teaches some, for example. What else should we know about photography?

Win Chicken in the Car and the Car Won't Go, a Chicago Travel Guide

Tasty Tuesday - Mediterranean Chicken Cous Cous

Sometimes when I'm inspired by a need or an occasion - or an ingredient - the recipe I want to create or adapt is pretty straightforward. Other times, there's more pressure - for me at least - and it isn't quite so simple. This is one of those latter cases.

I was recently sent a sample pack of Knorr Homestyle Stock and asked to create a recipe using it. It's concentrated stock, something I really miss using. I used to buy super concentrated chicken and beef stock all the time and use it when cooking, but the company I bought from stopped making it, and I've been stuck since. Of course, stuck is relative since I've been able to either make my own stock or purchase stock in containers so that I'm not truly stuck using bouillon cubes, which are far too salty for me.

Why did I need to create a recipe? Well, I've been selected to create a recipe that has the opportunity to be chosen as a finalist to be one of the Knorr Four. The eight finalists will win a trip to BlogHer 2011 and compete for the "ultimate reward." No pressure there, right? The recipe has to use the concentrated Knorr Homestyle Stock, which means I can use it more concentrated like I used to (yay!) or find some completely new use for it.

Wish me luck. I came up with a dish that's a winner in our household, but who know what the panel of judges will think!

Mediterranean Chicken Cous Cous

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken
1 onion, quartered
2 T salt
2 bay leaves
2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (yep, another one)
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
2 c chopped Roma tomatoes (4-5, depending on size)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 t salt
1/2 t pepper, fresh ground
1 tub Knorr Homestyle Stock (chicken)
1 1/2 c water
16 oz whole wheat cous cous
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 c fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
Bring 2 quarts water to a boil, adding the quartered onion, bay leaves, and 2 T salt. Once the water is boiling, add the chicken and immediately bring down to a simmer. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, until cooked through. Once it is cooked, shred or cut into small pieces and set aside.

While the chicken is simmering, begin work on the cous cous.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, and cook for ten minutes - until it is soft and just beginning to brown. Let it cook; this is one where you don't need to stir it constantly.

While the onion is cooking, slice the artichoke hearts into bite size pieces. Go ahead and dice the tomato at this point, as well as mincing the garlic, too. Once the onion is golden brown, add the artichokes, tomatoes, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook for about five minutes, as you want the tomato to soften and get tender. Make sure you stir occasionally.

Add the stock and stir quickly to combine, then add the water and bring to a boil.

Once the mixture is boiling, remove it from the heat and all the cous cous. Cover immediately and let it sit for 10 minutes. Fluff it with a fork, gently. Add the poached chicken, and stir gently. Crumble feta and fresh parsley atop the cous cous and serve.

The total cook time is approximately 35 minutes, allowing for prep, as long as you continue to do the steps in tandem. The recipe will serve 6 people easily. Enjoy!

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In the interest of full disclosure, I received a package of Knorr Homestyle Stock to allow me to create this recipe. I have the opportunity to win a trip to BlogHer 2011, but that is by no means guaranteed. I received no compensation, and all opinions are my own.

There Has To Be A Point

This has been a very exciting spring for the wee ones. For example, Mister Man finally learned how to ride his bike after four years of trying to teach him - yay Autism. It was a huge accomplishment on Mother's Day when he finally got over his fears and issues and just ... did it. And boy did he.

Since Little Miss had her training wheels removed last fall and has been riding all over the place this spring already, the fact that he finally was riding with her meant the world was now open to us. As an incentive, I'd told the wee ones that if they got good enough, we could ride to Dunkin' Donuts to get ice cream (or in Little Miss's case, the lemon sorbet that is dairy free) - yes, this was inspired by the $0.33 scoop night back in April.

My dad had a different idea. He was most excited to go for a bike ride in the forest preserve near our house. He loves to do this, and he was absolutely thrilled that the wee ones would finally be able to join him. And so we packed up our bikes on my and my father's bike racks and headed down to the park.

We unloaded and set out, with clear rules about how you bike around other people clarified before we left. Within five minutes, Little Miss was crying. I want to go back, she wailed. I just want to go home. Since she didn't appear to be in any obvious pain, and I didn't see any major issues, I told her to continue to the next bench where we could stop to talk.

Once we got there, she explained that she didn't like it and just wanted to go home. I convinced her to continue since we'd been biking for all of maybe six minutes at that point. She got back on her bike as Mister Man and my parents caught up to us - because, she was of course flying on the path and we had way outdistanced them. Within seconds, she was sobbing again, choking out I want to go home over and over again.

*sigh*

I obviously wasn't going to get around this one. Since my parents had fortunately driven a separate car with a bike rack and car seats, I asked if they could bring Mister Man home. Little Miss and I turned back around and headed for home. Once we arrived there and I had the bikes loaded, I asked her what the problem was.

But Mommy. We just kept going and going. There wasn't any end, and we were going to keep biking for no good reason at all, she sniffled - loudly.

Because riding in circles through our neighborhood apparently was going somewhere. Go fig. I did clarify then, of course. The result is that if we had brought a picnic with us and stopped along the way and then continued, that would have been fine. Had we started at the opposite end of the park and had a playground break halfway through before continuing on, that would have been fine. Had we started at one end and biked to our cars at the other end, that would have been fine.

That's why I say that Little Miss has lots of personality.

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BlogHer Book Club: What Happened To Goodbye

If you read my blog whatsoever, you'll notice that I love to read. I get to do a lot of posts about books through the From Left to Write book club, and lately also through the BlogHer Book Club. Trust me, I read way more books than just this though. I have another post up at BlogHer about a new book - What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen. It's a young adult fiction book, but I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it. Want to know why? Go read the post reviewing What Happened to Goodbye.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of the book for review purposes, and I was compensated for participating in the book club. However, as always, all opinions remain my own - as you can tell from my review on "A Jane Austen Education."

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