Missing my aunt this Christmas

I’ve lost a lot of family in my 38 years. More than many of my peers, yet less than many people in the world. Unfortunately, many of those losses have been due to long, drawn out illnesses like cancer.

3 years ago my mother’s sister finally lost the war against her cancer. In the end, I don’t know if it was worse that we spend three years not being able to be around her for fear of infection, or that she was gone. Either way, we didn’t get to enjoy her wit and wisdom.

It started out as ovarian cancer and quickly spread to — well, everywhere. This was on the heels of my grandmother’s death from cancer, and my own brief, but scary bout with stage 4 cervical cancer. Oh, throw in a lump removal for my own mom. That’s just on my mom’s side of the family. Yes, that was all within the span of about 6 months, and no, we did not live near a nuclear facility or even toxic waste dumps.

I’ve even lost a dog to cancer.

I’d like to acknowledge how cancer affects us, as humans. For some, it makes us incredible human beings, and for others, it is complete and utter defeat.

Please support cancer research – but more importantly, support a cancer patient because sooner or later, it will touch your life and you’ll appreciate any help you can get. 

This post is sponsored by American Cancer Society.

5 more types of pots and pans to cook with

Last week, I shared some popular pots and pans that should and can be included in your kitchen. Today, I want to cover some more options for useful cookware.

The Wok (not the same as the stir fry pan) is a bowl shaped version of the stir-fry pan (see? I told you!). It’s great for quick cooking over high heat. While you can get a wok with a flat bottom, most woks will have a very small flat surface area at the bottom center. They come with either one long handle, or two handles on either side of the belly. They are usually made of carbon steel, cast iron, or metal with a non-stick coating.

The Stockpot is a deep, tall, straight-sided pot with two big, loop handles. It is used for simmering large amount of liquid, such as stock, soup and stews, but also works well for thick soups, chili and for boiling pasta. Some stockpots will come with a pasta insert – made of stainless steel perforated insert that fits inside a stockpot and acts as a colander for draining pasta. Growing up, my mom used one to make home made sand hill plum jelly.

Grill pan - this is a heavy metal pan like cast iron, that has ridges spaced evenly across the bottom inside of the pan. These closely simulate the grilling process. You’ll find grill pans with both shallow or deep sides, and in different shapes and sizes. Just pick one that will cover the bulk of the size of meat you’ll be grilling most of often.

Double boiler  - It’s actually two pans – one inside of the other. The bottom pan holds hot water and the top pan holds the ingredients that are being cooked. This is generally used for making delicate sauces that have a tendency to separate if cooked on direct heat. Double boilers can be made of stainless steel, enameled steel, glass and aluminum.

The Fondue pot used to be made fun of but has made a comeback in recent years with chocolate and fruit fondue. A fondue pot is a pot to melt something like cheese or chocolate. It has a heat source below the pot that can be plugged in, or may use a candle to keep the food in a liquid state. The whole idea is to be portable and commonly used at parties. You use skewers to stick in pieces of bread, or cut up pieces of fruit.

 Pots and pans with metal handles allow for more versatile cooking and movement between stovetop and oven. Just beware; they get hot, so use mitts!

Financial IQ – Understand The 3 Basic Elements

Do you know how your money works? I bet you don’t. Don’t take that personally! It has been my very real personal experience that most people don’t understand how to use, save or manage their money. Until recently, I didn’t even understand it, and I still struggle with managing it and planning ahead for it sometimes.

There are three main parts to financial IQ that can be broken down into hundreds of sub-topics. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll focus on the three basic areas of financial IQ.

Making the switch

Thanks for the guest post by Neville Mcintyre

I’m so glad that I finally decided to sign up for 4G internet from Clear. I was thinking of changing for a while and have been so happy since finally taking the plunge. I don’t know why I was so worried about it.

I work from home so my internet service is really important. I need to stay available at all times so that I know what’s going on with my team. My company’s preferred method of communication is always email, so if I can’t respond immediately during business hours it’s a huge problem.

Now I can just keep my laptop in my car and break it out wherever I am. This is such a huge help. I used to try and do everything on my phone, but sometimes that is just impossible. I remember having to drive around and search for places that offer free wifi connections too. That was terrible and such a waste of time.I’m really glad that is in my past.

Now I have my own wireless hotspot, which has changed everything. It is so nice not being chained to my desk every day!