Cooking up real estate is back!

Good grief! I haven't posted in my blog in what feels like a hundred years. When I signed up for a blog about food and real estate I promised myself I'd make a point of writing every single day. Alas, one gets busy and although the guilt of not doing so nagged at me, I let it waft from my mind. As it got further and further away, I had even assumed my domain name had expired and perhaps I was off the hook. I tried logging in to see if it had expired but had forgotten my log in info. From time to time, I promised myself to investigate and finally today, almost a year later and I'm here. Maybe I'll give it another try.

So real estate, food...how they doing after almost a year? Yes, I'm still at both, not to my surprise or that of those who know me. Yes, the market is slow but day after day I plug away working with online clients I am so blessed to meet and with past clients who have been loyal through this goofy market. After 23 years in real estate, as a broker/owner, I find myself willing to keep plugging away, selling what I can and keeping the faith that the market will in time change. Of course, it will never be the same but a new normal is building each day and those of us who have hung in there will find we've learned new skills to thrive in these tough economic times.

As for food, well, what can I say? I am fast and furiously cooking, baking and creating new recipes, much of which I am delighted to say, have satisfied the taste buds of many family members, friends and clients. After two year maintaining my weight loss of almost 50 pounds after a successful Weight Watchers run, I have learned to modify recipes not only to be healthier with lower calories, fat and sugar but have incorporated the use of many organic and unusual ingredients. The internet has been a fabulous tool in this process.

This morning when our grown children and grandchildren came to celebrate two of our children's one day apart birthdays, I had the challenge of making a breakfast that satisifes the needs of the dieters, health nuts like me, fat food lovers like my adorable albeit chubby DH and the tastebuds of our precious little grandchildren. How does one accomplish such a feat? I lay in bed at 5 am this morning trying to figure this out, as I often do when when they frequently visit which is always at mealtime. I jumped out of bed and started pulling out various ingredients from the freezer, fridge and cupboards and here's the menu we enjoyed:

• Fresh fruit platter
• Smokey lean bacon
• Orange cilantro quinoa salad
• Egg Beater omelets with sauteed onions, mushrooms, zucchini and sweet red peppers
• Chicken Apple Sausages
• Scrambled eggs with cheese
• Pancakes made from scratch (using white flour for the less healthy in the batch)
• Blueberry buckwheat buttermilk pancakes from scratch)
• Various syrup including sugar free, organic and good 'ol Aunt Jemima
• Rice crispie bars
• Low fat, low sugar "Better Than Sex" cake, full cakes to go for each of the birthday celebrants

I made the cakes yesterday but did everything else this morning and somehow had the food ready by 10:30!!! How I did I don't know! I was so exhausted when they went outside to go fishing that I found myself sitting here at my computer and ready to blog.

So there it is. I'm back. I'll try blogging more frequently and tonight the DH and I will nibble at the leftover pancakes while we hunker down in front of the TV for relaxing night entrenched in mindless dribble.

Ta ta.

Jessica