A Recipe and a Thank You

        Here is an easy recipe that I got from Pearl.  If you want to find the "official" version, check out her blog. I am simplying the steps.  It's not a hard recipe at all--sinfully easy and delicious--but I am lazy, and usually cook by the seat of my pants, so the amounts (in my version) depend upon your taste.

       I think Pearl calls it Hidden Valley Torte, but I call it Layers of Heaven...

• 16 oz. of cream cheese, softened   (see the note about possible danger)
• 1 envelope of Hidden Valley dip mix
• roasted red peppers
• artichoke hearts (canned or in jars)
• fresh parsley

1.  Take a large-sized cereal bowl and line it with plastic wrap.
2.  Take some of the red pepper and cut it into strips, and lay it in whatever pattern/design you would like. (This step is optional.)  Pearl inadvertently ended up with a swastika, after the cream cheese shifted the pepper around.  I made sure to NOT end up with that same design...(This is going to be the "top" of your cream cheese mold. If you don't want to make it pretty, skip this step.)
3.  Mix the cream cheese and the Hidden Valley dip powder together. Put some on top of the red pepper/in the bottom of the bowl, and mash it down so that it takes on the shape of the bowl.
4.  Mince up the red pepper, the artichokes, and the parsley.  (Stick with the leaves of the parsley.  Throw away the spriggy-twiggy parts.)  Mix together.
5.  Spoon some of the tri-colored mixture onto the cream cheese stuff. Make sure you spread it all the way to the sides of the bowl...It will look pretty if you do it.
6.  Put some more cream cheese yumminess on top of the vegetable layer.  It will take a few moments to try and cajole the veggies into staying put, and make sure the cream cheese goes to the sides of the bowl.  Remember: pretty!
7.  You might have room for only three layers of cream cheese and two of veggies.  Whatever.  
8.  Let it sit for a few hours in the refrigerator.  Invert it onto a plate.  Surround it with crackers.  Enjoy.

Danger:  You might have some cream cheese mixture left over.  You can eat it with a spoon, or put it on a sandwich along with some turkey, or just stick your head into the bowl and...

Okay, so it's not "pretty" but it's the best I could do...

          And here are more thank yous for more followers...

Jenifer
Smaragda Vamvakari
Cecilia Krug---I don't know too much about Jenifer, other than, from assumptions made by the blogs she follows, that she is a mom.  Smaragda lives in another country, or at least speaks a different language that is gorgeous to look at, but is unrecognizable to me. Cecilia lives (or lived) and works in Brazil, and most of you are too young to remember the Simon and Garfunkle song called "Cecilia."  A great song...

Donna Volkenannt at http://donnasbookpub.blogspot.com.  Donna regularly posts news about contests and calls for submissions.  When she's not posting about that, she is writing about life and the writing process.

Jennee at http://jenneethompson.blogspot.com.  Jennee writes with  sharp sense of humor.

Jeff Campbell at http://tennesseemudbug.blogspot.com.  Jeff is a gifted photographer as well as a writer, making him a double threat.

Rohin Kallat at http://yrv-whovr.blogspot.com.  Rohin writes from India, is acutely observant of people and cats and occasionally forays into cooking adventures.  He has the ability to take a simple, everyday experience and make it extraordinary.

Thanks, for making the last half of 2010 more productive (writing-wise) and more enjoyable.  I hope 2011 will prove to be a great year for you...

Another Writer Heard From...

         Somehow, Jennee's contest submission got lost in cyberspace.  I wanted to make sure it was published here. Again, it amazes me that each writer came at it from a different direction.

         The piece had to be 200 words or less, it had to include a bit of poetry (at least a couplet) and it used the photo below as inspiration.

        

photo by Rhodentette

           Here is Jennee's piece:

Rushing around, faster than the wind
Rushing around until you can't stand
Stop. Rest. Relax.
Life becomes a blur, the beauty to pass
Life is a blur, this lifestyle can't last
Stop. Rest. Relax.

The words of the hypnotist make my eyes heavy. I fight to stay alert. I don't have time to relax right now but the man speaking the words is calming, soft and sincere. How can I stop, rest and relax?  I'm too busy.

Forget the worries, forget your stress
Time management is an answer to your mess
Stop. Rest. Relax.
Fulfill your life by taking moments
This isn't a far fetched idea, just common sense
Stop. Rest. Relax.

Everything around me is blurry as I drift into oblivion.  I feel myself sitting in a red chair in the middle of nowhere. I'm sitting there admiring the mountains' alarming beauty. The fresh air softens my tense facial expressions and the voice chanting stop, rest, relax fades.

SNAP.

I'm alert and refreshed.  I glance around to the large auditorium to the 200 business men and women in suits. None of us are jumping up to move on to our next appointment.  We all just stop, rest and relax.

           ---Jennee Thompson and her cheap therapy.