Stash Your Cash Scott Sweetstakes!

I'm on the Scott brand email list and I just found out that they are having a Sweepstakes!!

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Once you enter you can also submit a money-saving tip to get a Scott brand mailer worth over $20 . If  your tip is one of the top 5 you will get a $25 gift card for Family Dollar! You can enter daily through March 31st!

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New Orleans Jambalaya Recipes

Super quick Jambalaya- If you are wanting to make a yummy quick Jambalaya buy a package of Zatarain's New Orleans Jambalaya Mix.

You can't go wrong with this kit.  Follow directions on the box.  I saute up 1 chopped onion, 6 garlic cloves and 6 stalks of celery, 1 green pepper and then follow the next steps.  I add in Andouille sausage (Hillshire farms has a brand that works fine if you can't find it local) and skinless smoked sausage.  Sometimes I'll add chicken or shrimp.  When the rice is just about finished I add in a large can of Ro-Tel tomatoes.  This make a great Jambalaya.  Now if you want to cut down on the salt and processed box mix you can make your own.

Homemade & Quick Jambalaya (click to print a recipe)

1 1/2 c. Uncle Ben's rice

1 can beef bouillon (get the one with out MSG)

1 large can Ro-tel tomatoes

4 green onions, sliced

1 lg onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, chopped/sliced

6 stalks celery, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 T. cumin

1 T. gumbo file (found in some spice aisles)

1 stick butter

1 1/2 lbs shrimp, chicken, ham and or sausages

Saute vegetables.  Add in rest of ingredients and cook 30 minutes covered in a 350 degree oven.  Stir after 10 min.  You can also make this on the stove top. 

CLICK to find more New Orleans recipes and a Link up!

New Orleans King Cake and Coffee Cake

King Cake
This recipe is from my guest chef, Amy! This is her Grandma's recipe for sweet yeast coffee cake. This dough is great for king cakes.  Thanks Amy and Grandma Stahlke! 

Grandma Stahlke's Coffee Cake Dough (click to print)

1pkg yeast
1/4 c warm water
6 T milk, scalded and cooled
4 c. flour
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs
melted butter
2 tbs milk

Filling

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 lb cream cheese
1-2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Icing
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract (opt)
3 tbs milk

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk and enough flour (about 1/2 c) to make soft dough. In another bowl combine butter, sugar, salt and eggs with mixer. Add the soft ball of yeast dough and mix thoroughly. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups of flour to make a soft dough.
Place dough in greased bowl and brush the top with butter, covering the dough with the butter. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled, about three hours.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and 1 cup of the confectioners sugar. Blend by hand or with an electric mixer on low speed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently roll it out into a rectangle about 30 inches long and 6 inches wide.

Spread the filling lengthwise over the bottom half of the dough, then flip the top half of the dough over the filling. Seal the edges, pinching the dough together. Shape the dough into a cylinder and place it on the prepared baking sheet seam side down. Shape the dough into a ring and pinch the ends together so there isn't a seam. Insert the king cake baby or pecan half into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough (the cakes you get in the stores in New Orleans have the baby on top after the cake is cooled, but the tradition is to hide the baby so the person with that piece has to make the next cake and/or host the next party).

Cover the ring with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm, draft-free place. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.

Brush the top of the risen cake with 2 tablespoons of milk. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the icing. Combine the remaining 3 tablespoons milk, the vanilla and almond, and the remaining 3 cups confectioners sugar in medium-size mixing bowl. Stir to blend well. With a rubber spatula, spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals, alternating colors (purple, green and gold) around the cake. You can also substitute lemon extract for the vanilla and almond or three tbs lemon juice if you want lemon icing instead of vanilla.

An alternate filling I plan on trying this year comes from my friend Susan B. (ME!!! whoohoo!), who lived in New Orleans. She says this one is the closest to the traditional "plain king cake" filling. She uses 2 cups pecans that she puts in the food processor until they become a paste,1 stick of soft butter, 1 tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, 2-3 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp of butter flavoring, 1/2 c sugar. Process it all together and then spread it on the dough. Lightly sprinkle cinnamon over the dough before spreading the paste as your filling.

•  CLICK FOR MORE Carnival, New Orleans, Party food ideas!

Happy National Peanut Butter day! Celebrate with Sweet Peanut butter bread

My daughter, Naomi, is the inspiration behind this bread!  She asked me to make peanut butter bread.  She wanted it to be just like my banana bread, minus the bananas and add peanut butter.  It was a huge hit!! Yeah!

Sweet Peanut Butter Bread

• 2 c. flour ( 1 1/2 c. white 1/2 c whole wheat)
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1 t. salt
• 1 c. sugar (1/2 c. white & 1/2 c. brown sugar) plus 1/4 c to top before baking
• 1 c. peanut butter (1/2 smooth & 1/2 chunky)
• 1/4 c. Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil (GIVEAWAY http://bit.ly/b1WpEe)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1/4 c. POM juice
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1 c. peanut butter chips
• 1 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat Oven 350. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar.  Add in peanut butter and melted coconut oil.  Just get it mixed around. It will look dry.  In a separate bowl mix together eggs, milk, POM juice, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon.  Add wet mix to dry mix.  Quickly mix together.  Add in peanut butter chips (and optional chocolate chips).

Pour evenly into greasted, 2 bread baking pans.  Top with 1/4 c. brown sugar and 1 T chips.

Bake 40 min and check to see if tester is 80% clear. If not bake another 5 min or so.  You want the tester to be almost clear.  I was glad that I pulled it out at 45 min.  You do not want to over bake.  It will get dry!

Serve with milk!

Very yummy!

NOTES- You do not need to follow this recipe 100%.  Use more or less flour combination, sugar combonation and use juice of your choice.  I added the juice thinking that it needed something sweet added. The POM juice was perfect! The coconut oil (Giveaway 32 oz Gold Label Coconut Oil) can be substituted for melted butter.

In Honor of bacon Monday Guest Chef Lisa with Cheesy Bacon Calzones

(This picture doesn't go with the recipe. If you click the photo it will take you to a calzone recipe in Spanish!)

Thanks to Lisa for being my Guest Chef!  Like here, TASTY RECIPES, to see more of her recipes! Lisa makes some really cool jewelry! You can see them here, Mockingbird Beads Etsy Store! In honor of BACON MONDAYS this recipe calls for BACON!!!  I can't wait to make it!  Do you have a yummy bacon or calzone recipe to share? If so leave your link! 

 This fun appetizer is a big hit. Its spinach-y cousin can be found on delish.com under “Mini-Calzone,” but that one is not mine. I created this one as a meat lover’s accompaniment and often make the two together.

Cheesy Bacon Calzone

• ⅓ cups Cream Cheese (or Neufchatel)
• ⅓ cups Shredded Cheddar (or A Blend)
• ¼ cups Bacon, Fried And Crumbled
• ⅓ cups Onion
• 1 dash Salt To Taste
• 1 dash Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
• 1 whole Egg Yolk, Beaten
• 1 package 10 Oz. Refrigerator Ready Pizza Crust

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Mix all ingredients except yolk and crust. Chill.

Roll out the pizza crust on a nonstick (floured) surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten a bit more.
Use a 3″ circle cookie cutter to make 12 or more circles. I’ve tried to use a cup, but this was not as easy. If you roll the scraps flat, you may get as many as 16 circles.

Roll the mixture into compact balls. Loose filling cheats the calzone of ingredients and flavor. Place a ball in the middle of each dough circle. Paint a circle around the edges with the egg yolk.

Carefully lift one side of the calzone and press the edges, making a semicircle with the filling inside. If you wish, you may dab the seam with additional yolk, but this is not necessary.

If you have extra cheese, sprinkle a little on each top. This is great for identification if you also make its meatless cousin (see above). Sprinkle the white cheese on the spinach calzones so everyone will be able to see the difference.

Place calzones on a cookie sheet (Air Bake is great). Poke a tiny hole on top of each one with a sharp knife.

Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until golden. Cool SLIGHTLY.

If traveling with this dish, you can bake it first, but allow some heat to escape, keeping the calzones a little crisp. If needed, heat in an oven for a few minutes upon arrival.

The 21st Century Workplace- Are Women the New Men?? Article Review

 

The 21st Century Workplace -- Are Women the New Men?

(Thanks to FSB Associates for providing the article.)

By Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, Ph.D,
Author of Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape

It has been widely reported that for the first time in history, women are less than a percentage point away from making up the majority of the national workforce. The economic downturn has hit men harder. They held nearly 80 percent of jobs that have been lost during what is now being called the "mancession." What's more, The New York Times recently reported that some of the highly educated, high powered women who "opted out" of corporations starting in the nineties to raise children and take care of ailing elders have returned to the work.
So what does this new female-dominated workplace mean for the corporate culture and the nature of work? Will we see a feminist Nirvana, filled with benevolent leaders? Will the new workplace be more kumbaya and less "off with their heads?"
Time for a reality check. While we should be thrilled about the new numbers, there are scant few women heading large companies and who have jobs at the top. (And really, there aren't that many highly educated women who actually opted out of their careers in the first place!)
This year a record number of women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies -- but you still don't need all of your fingers and toes to count them. (You don't even need all of your fingers to count those running Fortune 100s.)
Few as they are, they're doing fine at the top, thank you very much. During the economic storm of 2009, women leaders proved they can be as tough, decisive and competitive as men. USA Today reports that stocks of the 13 Fortune 500 companies run by women for all of 2009 were up an average of 50 percent. The biggest female winner was Mary Sammons, whose Rite Aid stock soared 387 percent!
So, yes, women can keep investors happy, but what about everybody else at the company? Does an estrogen heavy corporate culture emphasize relationship building over backstabbing and throat slashing? Has a surge in female leadership triggered new corporate policies that favor work life balance over the 24/7 grind? Is there less conflict, more "talking it through?" And have women brought in other women, so that the flood gates are open and unbelievably talented women are pouring into management positions?
Despite our hopes, the gender redistribution of our workforce and the small swell in female CEOs has not created a much needed seismic culture shift. The fantasy is much different than the day-to-day reality of managing a company, especially a super-sized one.
Many companies are barely weathering the storm. At Avon, for example, CEO Andrea Jung has had to figure out how to update a business model and modernize a brand that's been around since 1886. And Indra Nooyi of Pepsi is keeping her company afloat even as there's wide talk of a tax on soft drinks. While Avon and Pepsi were up 34 percent and 12 percent respectively for 2009, both Jung and Nooyi are having to make hard choices. There is little time to radically change their corporate cultures. They are putting out fires.
Many women don't want to be seen as "soft" -- and others simply aren't. No one would call Carly Fiorina, the head of Hewlett Packard from 1999 to 2005, a wilting lily. According to her memoir, Tough Choices, she was sometimes referred to as Chainsaw Carly.
Neither is there a secession pipeline for women streaming into upper management positions. Last year at Xerox, CEO Anne Mulcahy handed the reins to Ursula Burns, the first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company. But that kind of thing is rare. Women continue to make less than men and are clustered in the lowest salaried jobs. Overall, we are also more likely than their male counterparts to be employed in lower paying industries like education and healthcare.
Now that there are more women in the workplace, in positions of leadership and even as CEOs, we can feel hopeful. But it's important to keep it real and manage our expectations. While some women leaders may be able to redefine their roles, usher in a more authentic and transparent leadership style and emphasize work-life balance, changing entrenched corporate culture is not easy. Even when you change the leader, the stubborn culture can remain exactly the same.
And as the recession drags on, some things will become worse. With layoffs and restructuring, there are fewer people with more responsibilities working longer hours -- in an already supercharged, high-tech, global, 24/7 environment. And these people will soon be mostly women.
We have to be careful. Men used to be the ones slumped over their desks, dead of heart attacks at 50. Will women become the new men? What are the consequences for women as we careen back and forth between the personal and professional? Studies show that women at every level still leave the office and work a "second shift" at home, caring for husbands and children (if they have them) and doing the lion's share of the housework and looking after elder relatives. The downsides to women's new workforce power are: Stress, pressure, exhaustion, burn out and heart attacks -- exactly what used to kill hard-driving corporate men and sometimes still does.
And what of the men, the ones who have been hung out to dry during the downturn? How are they feeling about the new XY landscape? And what happens when the economy turns around? How and where will they re-enter the workplace? What will their attitude be?
I don't have any answers. But remember that even as we celebrate the numbers of working women -- and offer the 15 women who are heading Fortune 500 companies a group hug -- there are many important questions we still need to ask.
© 2010 Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, Ph.D, author of Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape
Author Bio

Ella LJ Edmondson Bell, Ph.D., author of the new book, Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape (Amistad), is the founder and president of ASCENT-Leading Multicultural Women to the Top, as well as an associate professor of business administration, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University. She is considered by industry and the academy to be one of the leading experts in the management of race, gender and class in the workplace. Her clients include: PepsiCo, American Express, Intel, Goldman Sachs, Booze Allen Hamilton, U.S. Department of Labor are among others. She has written several articles for Essence magazine and wrote the monthly "Working It" column. Frequently quoted by journalists, Dr. Bell has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, Black Enterprise, Newsweek, Working Mother, and Fast Company. Dr. Bell lives with her Jack Russell Terrier, Belle in Hanover, New Hampshire and Charlotte, North Carolina.

For more information, please visit www.CareerGPSthebook.com.

Free Nabisco Cookies! Yummy Coupon of the Day!

 FREE Nabisco Cookies!!!!  Don't pass this up! All you have to do is go fan their Facebook page and click cookies and milk to print the coupon!