There is Nothing Smart About Smart Balance

There is Nothing Smart About Smart Balance

Simple Cinnamon Chicken Oven Fried Recipe

You can use this recipe with or without the cinnamon. It's actually a recipe that you fry crispy in the oven.

You will need:

A cut up chicken or just thighs/breasts With skin on
Cinnamon
Cookie sheet for chicken
I'd use some foil on the rack underneath to catch drippings


Wash chicken then dab with paper towel. Sprinkle lightly all over with Cinnamon. Place on cookie sheet with skin side up. Cook on 400 degrees if using full chicken or breasts for 30-40 mins. However check them at 30 mins. They can take up to an hr depending on ovens. If just using thighs cook for 25-35 mins. checking at 25 mins. When juices run clear chicken is done. Please be careful by turning oven off and waiting 5-10 mins before removing chicken. The juices will still be hot and you must be careful since your chicken is on a cookie sheet and there is a lot of juices so please wear 2 hot mitts (one per hand) so you are not going to burn yourself hopefully. The chicken should be like fried chicken whether or not you used the cinnamon. Enjoy with you favorite side dish.

Retailers putting up the holidays all together

In October you go enter a store,nowadays, and you see Halloween items. Then just a few days later you see Thanksgiving items for sale. A week later are Christmas decorations and then follows the toys. Retailers are just rolling our holidays into one full holiday we may as well call "HalThaMas" or something like that.

Stop and think. Halloween is the 31st day of October so the retailers have the entire month to sell just for Halloween alone. But they don't anymore they add Thanksgiving items in which Thanksgiving is the 4th Thursday of November. That's not good enough they still want more more more in the store to sell. So they add Christmas which is the 25th day of December.

Now follow me here. It's October and the costumes for my grand-girls are still full price. Most people just take their kids out trick or treating for candy in costumes. The Origin of  Halloween's annual holiday, was celebrated each year on October 31, that has roots in age-old European traditions. It originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. However most of us just get costumes for our children and take them trick or treating for candy.  So while and before Halloween comes Thanksgiving items are already up weeks in advance and marked 50% off.

 It's as if Thanksgiving is the middle child and not a big ado about it. However, Thanksgiving is more important than Halloween. Thanksgiving is a time we thank God or Mother Earth for all the blessings of bountiful food we have had this year. Even if you are homeless being thankful for what you have been able to receive may mean you will get more next year (but no promises).

Thanksgiving meal includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

The holiday dates back to November 1621, when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for an Autumn harvest celebration, an event America considered as "The first Thanksgiving.” But what was really on the menu at the famous banquet, and which of today’s time-honored favorites didn’t earn a place at the table until later in the holiday’s 400-year history? While no records exist of the exact bill of fare, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow noted in his journal that the colony’s governor, William Bradford, sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the three-day event. Wild—but not domestic—turkey was indeed plentiful in the region and a common food source for both English settlers and Native Americans. But it is just as likely that the fowling party returned with other birds we know the colonists regularly consumed, such as ducks, geese and swans. Instead of bread-based stuffing, herbs, onions or nuts might have been added to the birds for extra flavor.

 However, as a holiday Congress requested a proclamation by George Washington for it to be celebrated as a Federal Holiday and has been every year since 1863. Each having a prayer first for the thankfulness of bounty. In my home we go around the table and ask each person what one item they have been thankful for this year. I know I have many but some don't seem to see the blessings they actual have and they are younger ones.  I keep hoping as the years go by they will come up with something.

By now all the Christmas items have been up for a nearly 6 weeks. There is Black Friday and then Cyber Monday. But both are extended online with more discounts like 30%-75% off and free shipping. You are drawn in like a shark. But all this is really not Christmas is about. Sure people like to get a present - but isn't one enough or a card catching you up on their year with your friend faraway. I find giving better, just like the Three Magi also known as the Three Wise Men or Three Kings. These Three followed a path led by a star to find the reason most celebrate Christmas. If you are of different religion please don't take offense. They found the baby Christ and each wise man one by one gave the child gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is how the tradition of gift-giving came about.

I believe Christmas is more about giving than receiving. If you have no money you can still talk to someone, sing a carol, have a coat drive for the homeless and deliver them, make scarfs and hand those out to those who seem to need them also. Go to a Nursing home and take your children and grandchildren "as a child lifts up the hearts of the elderly" I have seen it myself. Have the children pass out candy canes and for those diabetic some other candy. Sing Carols while you are there. Give gifts of socks or scarfs, hats, handmade cards from the kids. Make it wonderful for others. You can also work at a soup kitchen serving Christmas dinner this teaches you Children what Christmas is about. Christ (whether you believe he's a savior or a man) walked among us and did good things for people, especially the needy.

Now our answer to why all this is happening is called: Christmas Creep in which the phenomenon is associated with a desire of merchants to take advantage of particularly heavy Christmas-related shopping well before Halloween and Black Friday.

In my eyes just keep each holiday to it's own month. This monopolizing and mashing of holidays make it just go so fast and less enjoyable for myself,

All thoughts and comments appreciated.

American Horror Story (AHS)

How many of  you out there are fans of this show? What has been your favorite Season? What so far has been you least favorite season?

AHS premiered in Oct. 2011. Each season is like an anthology or self-contained mini-series.

The first season began with "Murder House" in 2011
Season 2 was "Asylum" in 2012-2013
Season 3 was "Coven" in 2013-2014
Season 4 was "Freak Show" in 2014-2015
Season 5 was "Hotel" in 2015-2016
Season 6 was "Roanoke" in 2016 in this version they did the story then had the actors come back and talk about there parts but portraying it once again as living it thru themselves. I was quite confused and this one was my least favorite.
Season 7 was the "Cult" 2017 which is more modern day because it dealt with Trump's election night. The last episode aired Nov. 14th 2017.

Currently they have contracted one to two more seasons.

Rural Northern California Shooting

Two days now in a row now there have been killings. This time in Rancho Tehama California. A local man's truck was stolen his room mate killed. Five people confirmed dead and 10 injured. Among the injured are some children, one from a local school and one was injured in a vehicle with it's mother. The shooter, Kevin Janson Neal, was one of the of the deceased. 

All this violence is horrible. I believe in our right to legal gun ownership. But this man had a history of Assault with a deadly weapon and should never have been able to obtain a license to own a gun. 

My prayers go out to the families who endured this tragedy and the town who endured the terror of Kevin Neal.

Stabbing at Mall of America in Minnesotta

Wow! What a horrible incident. Between 7:30 p.m.-8p.m. Sunday Nov. 12th. People in the Macy's Men's department were stabbed near where the children where lined up to see Santa. What is this Country coming to? People yelling and hiding best they can yelling out call 911! There is too much violence for our children to witness on television and at school nowadays. Then this....in the land of Santa - a myth for young minds and hearts. I wonder what kind of effect this will have on these precious children now seeing the police with guns and men being stabbed?

I was not able to vote last year because I had just recently moved to a new state so I couldn't vote due to being registered in my last state at the time. However, Trump would have been who I would have voted for. I know many of you feel that Hillary would have been the best choice. Everyone has their own rights to their own opinion and probably has very good reasons to those. The reason I would've voted for Trump was for someone new who had a business sense that may be able to fix our Social Security and get us out of the trillions of dollars of debt. Many believe this is NOT going to happen. They may be correct. I just want to see what he can do in his 4 years is all. He can either make it worse or make it better---just like any other President in the past has. 

We never really know if any of the Presidents will be able to keep all or any of their promises. We must realize that they also must deal with the Senate and Congress. Therefore, they may fail due to not being able to communicate or use the correct language when they put something before either house. Also, sometimes there may just be some Senators or Congressmen who just don't like the bill and won't budge. They have their reasons for it. And they represent the people of the United States also and are trying to keep our interests in check and not allow a President to get away with something that may not be good for us.

The item though that really has me upset most is the rioting the slandering and just outrageous lies and things we the American people are doing. WE Americans must allow the process of the President, whether or not you like him, and the Senate and Congress make the best choices for us. We don't need to act like children who got their lollipop taken away because we didn't exactly get the person we voted for. Please remember there are other people who will assist in stepping in if they feel your rights are not being looked after by the current President. That is what the Senate and Congress are there for. So let's act our age and give Trump his 4 yrs with the fact that he will be overseen by the Senate and Congress just as our children are overseen by their teachers and principal. 

Just my two cents....I know a bit late..but here it is....