Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Recipe Shared by Member: Annique Cree

I have this wonderful group on Facebook called:  Women Talking about Change.  This group of women are beyond wonderful.  We all try to share mouth watering recipes and this is one from one of our members Annique Cree.  

This recipe does make a lot so you may want to cut it in half.

Nut Roll

Nut Filling Ingredients

1 pound Walnuts Chopped
1 pound Pecans Chopped
2 1/2 cups of sugar
2 sticks of melted butter
2 eggs
1 large apple grated
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

First combine all ingredients together except for the butter. Add the melted butter and mix well.  Heat mixture in a large saucepan until the ingredients blend well and thicken slightly.  Set a side and allow to cool and make the dough mixture.

Dough Ingredients

6 to 6 1/2 cups of sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 packages yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup sour cream
2 sticks butter melted or softened
3 eggs beaten

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and add a teaspoon of sugar. Stir and set it aside for a couple of minutes.  Mix the remaining ingredients together then add the yeast mixture.  Blend well.  Divide the dough into 4-6 parts depending on what size you want the rolls.  Roll one part out at a time until it is about 1/4  inch thick. Spread some of the nut mixture over the dough and roll up like a jelly roll.  Continue to do the same thing to each of the dough parts. Cover and let them rise for 1 hour.   ** A good tip about rising bread and dough made with yeast is: to cover the dough and place in your oven to rise.  Make sure your oven is not on.**  After an hour or until the dough has doubled in size, place in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Icing (optional)

2 cups confectioners' sugar
2-3 Tablespoons Milk
1-2 Tablespoons butter

Combine everything together and drizzle over cooked nut rolls.




Thursday, November 1, 2012

Empowerment



Empowerment

In today's world one of the most common statements you hear is how busy everyone is.  Everyone is working hard to support their families, to achieve goals, to make their business successful and simply put to make ends meet.  We are currently in a situation that is driving us very hard to network with people both online and offline.  We are all; in one form or another pursuing a very firm action to self-empowerment. When obstacles appear on our path, we begin to weaken and that causes us to lose a lot of our power. 

However, what does being empowered mean?  Does it mean independence?  Does it mean having pride in yourself and the work you do?  Does it mean believing in yourself and your abilities? YES, to all of the above.  In order to make positive things happen in your life, you MUST believe in yourself, you MUST take pride in whatever you are doing and you MUST keep a hold of that speck of independence you carry within yourself. It is as important to remember to stay as grounded as possible when obstacles appear on our path. 

How do we stay empowered? Many people will use tools such as  oils, meditations, affirmations, we will burn candles during the different moon cycles, we will read books and we will pray.  Regardless if we do things consciously or subconsciously, we do many things to empower ourselves. Yet it only takes one comment from one person to bring everything you have worked so hard for- to crumble.  That brick wall appears and you walk straight into it!  Why do you think that happens?  I believe it is because it is easier to doubt ourselves instead of believing in our self. Of course, this is not true for everyone, hell some people could care a less about what others think!

Not everyone will like the things I like, and I will not always like what others do.  That does not mean either are positive or negative, it just means it is a personal opinion.  We are all here in this life to learn what we need too.  Everyone of us has a different destiny, that is not always easy to remember but it is very true.  We walk our own path alone because it is what we must do. Oh, we meet others for a while, but in the end, each of us walk alone.

A long time ago, a friend sent me this book, "The Science of Getting Rich" by: Wallace D. Wattles.  This book was written about a hundred years ago.  There is one phrase in the book that feels like it has embedded itself in my mind: "You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want, you cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself."   Other words, if you do not know exactly what you want, how are you going to get it?  Many of us want many things... and soon everything begins to jumble together thus creating a mess! If you want a successful business, you must clear every thought from your mind and ONLY focus on the success of your business.  Plans on how to make your business a success comes so much easier if you allow yourself, to begin with a solid firm start-which is: the thought of your business being successful.  No, I am not going off track with this article, all of this has to do with empowerment.

The thought of my business being successful, empowers my goals, my determination and gives me the strength to work hard at making things happen.  For me personally, doing my photography, writing and artwork, is not like working a job at all.  I enjoy these things so much.  However, let's face one thing right off of the top, everyone-no matter who you are or what you do will have off days!   During the days when you feel your business is at a stand-still, or you feel is all of this worth it, trust me it is.  When one door closes another one will open.  DO NOT ALLOW yourself to be taken down because of a bad day use it to your advantage.  We are given these days to learn from-As hard as is this to believe, it is very true. You create the empowerment in your mind, but you must focus and believe it will happen.  I believe in you!