In Pursuit of a Fine Mind: My Top Four Podcasts Recommendations

I will admit, I am a bit late to the "Podcast" game.  I listened to a few episodes over the years but haven't genuinely looked forward to new episodes of a particular Podcast until last Spring.  Upon finishing Shannon Ables book, Choosing the Simply Luxurious Life: A Modern Woman's Guide, I ventured to her website and was delighted to she not only had a weekly Podcast, but also a plethora of episodes I could "binge" listen.

Since last Spring, I have found several other Podcasts that I thoroughly enjoy.  Since I firmly believe that Cultivating Your Mind  can be a very fine thing, I wanted to share with you my top four podcasts recommendations that turn my daily chores, morning walks, and car rides into constant learning opportunities.

I use iTunes Podcasts to subscribe and listen to all of the following recommendations.  I am not super tech-savvy, but I'm sure there are other Podcasts apps where you may find these recommendations as well.

1. The Simple Sophisticate

This Podcast is the one that got me hooked on listening to Podcasts.  Shannon Ables shares 20-30 minutes of inspiring information, ideas, and insights on how to curate your own simply luxurious life.  Airing every Monday morning, this Podcast brings me inspiration to start my week with purpose and beauty.  The end of each episode features a "Petit Plaisir" where Shannon recommends a book, a film, a play, a recipe, or anything else she is eager to share.  Each episode, along with show notes, can be found in the above link.

2.  The Splendid Table

Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts this delightful radio series which is then published as a weekly Podcast.  Like many of you, I've enjoyed The Splendid Table for years via my 90.1 F.M. NPR station, so I was thrilled to find I could listen to SO MANY EPISODES at my convenience.  The Splendid Table declares itself, "The Show For People Who Love to Eat," and delves deep into food through interviews of chefs, writers, travelers, any many others.  Additionally, Lynne answers questions from listeners who call in with the culinary inquiries.  

3. Financial Rock Star Scott Alan Turner

While finances is not one of my favorite topics, Scott Alan Turner presents tips to "Get out of debt, save money, and retire early," in a fun, upbeat, and SIMPLE way.  Even though budgets have been a part of most of my adult life, I never knew the difference between a 401k and Roth IRA and was completely petrified of the Stock Market.  I am not [yet] wheeling and dealing with stock market day-trading; however, I do feel as though I am much more informed (and have a better understanding) investment opportunities as well as the best ways to save and get out of debt (tip: getting out of debt doesn't matter one flip if you don't change your spending habits).  Thanks, Scott!

4. Wire Talk with Karen Stubbs

This is the most recent addition to my Podcast collection, and I couldn't be happier to have found it.  I was introduced to Birds on a Wire from a dear friend (thanks, Angela!) and fell in love with Karen and her ministry to encourage and equip moms.  I've attended several BOAW groups and had the great pleasure of taking part in the first BOAW Conference a few years ago.  Karen provides such awesome, motherly advice from discipline and boundaries how-to's to helping our children grow their own faith.  

I would love for you to check out these Podcasts and hope that you'll enjoy them all!  What Podcasts do you currently enjoy?  Please share in the comments below!

In Pursuit of Steel Cut Oats Breakfast Recipe

A few weeks ago (five, to be exact) I posted a picture of my first attempt at Shannon Ables's recipe for "Buttery Steel Cut Oats."  Since then  I have fallen in love with the recipe and have made it nearly every morning.  We've always been a big oatmeal family, but these buttery steel cut oats definitely top the charts.

Y'all, I seriously had doubts that steel-cut oats could taste so good, but decided to give them a whirl after hearing @thesimplyluxuriouslife share her recipe. I toasted my slivered almonds right before adding them. This stuff was amazing! I literally devoured the entire bowl. #heathyfoodwin #tsll

A photo posted by Ashley Craig-Diaz (@inpursuitofthefinerthings) on Apr 19, 2016 at 9:32am PDT

I received several requests for the recipe and rather than just directing  you to Ms. Able's website, decided to share the recipe in a post.

The necessary ingredients include:

• 1/4 Cup Steel Cut Oat Meal (original, not quick cooking!  The one pictured is John McCann Steel Cut Oatmeal, but I've also used Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats, and both are good)
• 1 Tablespoon Butter (I've been using Président Salted Butter)
• 3/4 Cup Boiling Water
• 1/4 Cup Cream (pictured is Organic Valley Heaving Whipping Cream.  I've also used Regular Whipping Cream, and they're both good).
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• Handful of Toasted Slivered Almonds

I've been toasting my own almonds while the rest of the meal (pun intended) cooks and decided quickly to toast enough for a whole week and keep them in a small glass jar (exactly what I did with the walnut and rolled-oat mixture for the Magical Breakfast).  These directions will tell you the steps I take to do this, but once your almonds are toasted for the week you would (obviously) leave those steps out of the process.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place your kettle of water on the stove to boil.  Place several handfuls of slivered almonds on a lightly sprayed baking sheet.

In a small skillet, melt butter with oats over medium heat to begin toasting the oats for 2-3 minutes.

Once the oven is preheated, begin to toast almonds for 5 minutes.

When the water in the kettle begins to boil, add 3/4 cups to the oats in the skillet.  It should immediately continue to boil.  DO NOT STIR!  Add a dash of salt and reduce heat to low.  Allow oats to absorb liquid for 8-10 minutes.

I normally enjoy my cup of coffee while waiting for the timers to go off.  Check out this super cute "Milton" mug by The Scribble Studio that I picked up from 

Cheeses and Mary a few weeks ago!

 After almonds have toasted for 5 minutes, stir around and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.  NOTE: There is a very fine line between perfectly toasted almonds and over-toasted (aka, burnt) almonds.  Keep an eye on them and take them out RIGHT as they start to brown in color.  

(You'll notice in the above picture that I've found the "hot" spot of my oven 

and have learned to work around it. :)

Once your oats have absorbed liquid, stir and add 1/4 cup cream.  Allow cream to become absorbed then transfer to bowl.

 

Add honey and small handful of toasted almonds.  Save the remainder of almonds in a small glass jar to use throughout the week.

This recipe is for one but can very easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled for more!  Just as with the Magical Breakfast, have fun adding different toppings to make it unique to your taste.  I've played with a few toppings, but the honey and almonds are definitely my favorite!

Summer Movie List + Book List Update

Longer days. Easier schedules.  Much more flexibility.  Just as Ms. Fitzgerald sang, "It's summertime, and the livin' is easy."  Man, how I love summer!

In case you haven't noticed my theme, I view the start of each new season as a fresh slate.  Inspiration in itself to continue creating a life I love to live.  Living in each moment and soaking up every bit of relaxed state of mind.  That's what I plan to do this summer.

As soon as Fiona's school ended, we started our Summer tradition of evening movies.  Every year we try to stick to a theme (last year was Shirley Temple; the year before was Disney animated movies).  This year's theme is musicals.  The old fashioned classics.  Below is our list:

1. My Fair Lady

2. The King and I

 3. Annie, Get Your Gun

4. Oklahoma!

5. On the Town

6. An American in Paris

7.  Anchors Away

8. Holiday Inn

9. Meet Me in St. Louis

I foresee us finishing one or two movies a week as we'll probably end up splitting most of them into two evenings.  You may be asking where's The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, or many of the other, most popular musicals.  We've seen these so many times (and LOVE them!), so we (I) decided we'd see movies she had not yet seen (and, to be quite honest, I have not yet seen!).  I'm excited to share this experience with her!

I'd love to receive more recommendations!  We've got a few spots left to fill and I'm sure we're missing some of the greats!  I'd also love to hear if anyone else has summer movie lists and if you have a theme or just go with the flow :)

Quick update on the progress of my book list:  I've finished two more books (Marrying Mozart, and The Happiness Project), and am almost done with Joie de Vivre, which I am enjoying tremendously.  I am also still reading through Spark Joy.  At this rate, I won't finish them all by the end of the year (there were 15 on my list and I'm only on my 5th!), so I decided to help my chances by ONCE AGAIN moving my phone charger away from my bed.  It's been moved for three days now and I've already noticed the difference in how much further into my book I've progressed.  Go figure.

Update: Completed Books and Purchased Books

The book I finished first was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo.  Marie introduces her KonMari method of organizing, which basically has you "tidy" your entire home by organizing in a category-by-category system.  Within each category, she has the reader hold each item and ask the simple question, "Does this item spark joy?" If it does, you keep it.  If not, it is discarded.  The result is a lot less stuff.  She then goes through the process of deciding where to keep these items and how to store them.  Her second book, Spark Joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up is considered the "Companion" book to the first, and contains illustrations on her organizing and storage methods.  I keep this book with me on-the-go, as it is easy to open and read a paragraph without needing to remember a previous story-line.

       

In keeping with my goal to complete the 14 started-but-never-finished book on my 2016 reading list, I now keep ONE book on my nightstand (to discourage switching from book to book and loosing interest again), and ONE TWO books in my car.  Slight confession: I completed the ONE book (see above) that was in my car- I would read while waiting in the car pool line, bank line, Starbucks line, you-name-it-line- and was so encouraged when I finished it that I *may* have picked up the sequel at Costco.  So, while I have completed the first book of my 14, I have now started another, which keeps my number of books to read in 2016 at a solid 14.

Just in case you were wonder, the book kept on my nightstand is Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell.  I read this book at night when I have a larger chunk of time.  I am not sure how historically accurate it is, but I am enjoying it, nonetheless.

The second book I am keeping in my car is The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  This book is broken into months, starting with January.  I am currently in the middle of April and being motivated and challenged every time I pick it up.

In all honesty, I can see how I so easily accumulate books.  Last Saturday I even attended a symposium session called, "The Piano Teacher's Bookshelf," and highlighted at least 10 more books to purchase.  The promise of wisdom and knowledge promised by books make them so irresistible to me!  

In Pursuit of Flexibility

This past week was CA-RAZY!  Between meetings, birthdays, group lessons, and a broken dryer, my normal household cleaning schedule was almost non-existent.  In the past, this would have driven me completely bonkers and I would have spent every day rushing to "catch up" on the previous day's chores.  Fortunately for me (and everyone else in my household), I decided about this time last year to choose grace over perfection.  Don't get me wrong, there is something very deep in me that loves perfection and wants to strive towards it.  It's a battle I frequently have to fight with myself. Occasionally, perfection wins.  More and more, however, it's grace that wins.

Eliot's First Ride on the Carousel!

While the desire for perfection has been in me for as long as I can remember, the true effects of striving towards it became very clear to me after we had been in our new home for about a year.  I would diligently clean all the floors by sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping them.  I would then sit back and just wait for someone to track something in from outside.  The anxiety that gripped me was crazy!  However, it was the anxiety that helped me see my idea of perfectionism was so out of wack: in my mind, if the floors were perfectly cleaned, then everyone would be happy because clean floors make everyone happy.  In reality, no one cared about the clean floors except for me and really it was just the idea of perfection that gave me the illusion of happiness.  What really made me happy was watching my children playing outside then welcoming them back inside with hugs and kisses.

Celebrating Fiona's Birthday at Mittie's Cafe on Main

So when our week turned topsy-turvy, I decided to embrace it along with all of the wonderful things the week brought.   I strongly believe that because I had firmly stuck to my cleaning schedule for several weeks, it really made the messes easier.  For instance, when our dryer broke towards the end of the week, we didn't run out of clean clothes!  I had stayed on top of our laundry schedule up until it broke, so pushing our next laundry day back until the dryer was fixed was no biggie.  Knowing that some weeks are going to be crazy and being flexible when those weeks come is so important to keeping a positive attitude and cheery spirit.  Sticking to your own chore schedule before and after those crazy weeks certainly helps as well.

SOOOO Excited for her Big-Girl Bike!

I would love to know- have you developed a chore schedule?  How to you handle crazy weeks?

ALWAYS make time for Gelato!

In Pursuit of Completion

I am generally pretty focused.  I tend to complete tasks set before me.  I also love to read and at any given time am reading at least 4 books.  Every January, one of my goals is to read more.  Beginning 2013, I started to record lists of books I read throughout the year.  I averaged about 12 books a year but was very disappointed when I looked back on last year's list and saw a mere 8.  I decided I needed to up my reading game and started another book immediately!  That was when I realized: I had actually started more than 8 books in 2015, but only actually finished 8...  I began to look around my house where I (and I'm sure everyone else) keep books (in my nightstand, the bookcase, my desk) and realized I had quite a few unfinished books.  They had not necessarily been abandoned because they were uninteresting but rather because I had started another book and the poor thing got left behind.  I gathered all of these books (there were 11, including the three I had started this year) and decided for 2016, before I ventured onto any more books, I would finish these.

I also thought it would be fun to go on Amazon and see when the books had been purchased.  Of course, not all of them were purchased on Amazon, but it was interesting to see just how long these books had been on my "To Finish Reading" list.  And I actually found not one... not two... but THREE additional books that I had forgotten I started... so, I added those to the list as well (and started to get a bit nervous that I may not finish them all... again.):

1. Joie De Vivre: Simple French Style of Everyday Living by Robert Arbor and Katherine Whiteside (purchased on Amazon, March 2006)

2. Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

(received as a Christmas gift some time ago)

3. Women, Work, & the Art of Savoir Fair: Business Style & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano

(this book was published in 2009, so I'm sure I picked it up somewhere soon thereafter)

4. Backyard Birding: Using Natural Gardening to Attract Birds by Julie Zickefoose 

and the editors and writers of Bird Watcher's Digest

(purchased at Scottsdale Farms, 2012)

5. Beautiful Ruins, a Novel by Jess Walter

(purchased on Amazon, December 2013)

6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

(picked up at a second-hand store, 2014)

7. French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Grace by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased  on Amazon, July 2014)

8. The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased on Amazon, September 2014)

9. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

(borrowed from a friend Spring 2015 :-/)

10. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

(purchased from Goodwill, Summer 2015)

11. You Matter More Than You Think by Leslie Parrott

(purchased on Amazon, September 2015)

12. Madamoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick

(received as a Christmas gift 2015)

13. Marrying Mozart, a Novel by Stephanie Cowell

(I cannot even remember when I purchased this one, but I started it a few weeks ago)

14. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

(Purchased towards the end of 2015)

Whew.  I didn't really expect this list to grow as I was writing this post.  I just kept finding them... in a bathroom, on [yet another] shelf.  

I would love to know... am I the only person who starts books and doesn't always finish?  I am certain I am not... Please comment below and let me know what books are sitting in your "To Finish Reading" pile!

In Pursuit of the "Magical Breakfast"

One of the first (THE first, perhaps?) books I read on French lifestyle was French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano, former CEO of the luxurious Veuve Clicquot.  In this first of her six book, Ms. Guiliano introduces the simple secrets of the "French paradox" of how French women enjoy their food all the while staying slender and healthy.  

One of Ms. Guiliano's "secret weapons" in her arsenal of tricks and recipes is introduced in her fourth book, The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook .  The recipe is for her "Magical Breakfast Cream" and has come to be one of my breakfast staples as well as go-to snack.  There are many variations to this recipe- an entire page of tips and tricks to help you find your own favorite version is included with the original recipe!  The recipe below is the version that I make and have varied little from over the years:

Ingredients:

• About 1/2 Cup of plain, fat-free yogurt
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
• Juice of half a lemon (I love Meyers but any yellow will do)
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 tablespoons raw rolled oats
• Half a dozen walnuts

Ok, so this definitely looks like more than 1/2 a cup of yogurt... which means I will make up for it by using more of the other ingredients.

Start by mixing the flaxseed oil into the yogurt.  Squeeze the juice from one lemon half and mix completely.  Add the honey and mix completely.  Ms. Guiliano states that "It is important to add each ingredient one at a time and mix well to obtain a homogeneous preparation."   

Next, prepare the oats and walnut mixture.  I add my 2-3 tablespoons of oats and half a dozen walnuts to my chopper and chop away.  I actually do this a few times and keep the mixture in a jar in my fridge.  This really helps save time!  Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the mixture over the top of your honey and enjoy!

So, why does Ms. Guiliano call this recipe "Magical?"  In addition to the benefits of detoxifying lemon juice and high-fiber flaxseed oil, it's a perfectly complete breakfast that will keep you from getting hungry until lunch.  Substitute this for a week after a more indulgent period of time (ahem, Christmas holidays, anyone?), along with omitting two other "offenders" (foods you tend to consume out of proportion) for the week and see if you don't say good-bye to pounds that accumulated during said time.  

All Photos ©Fiona Diaz, 2016