PopConsumer

What Have You Done Today?

Often, doing > analyzing.

Building something (like a company) is hard and I admire people who are.

We live in amazing times.

I am really 'effin privileged. (h/t Amy Gahran at Contentious)

Tip of the Day: Sweet Potato Pie

I read a review in Real Simple Magazine that found Wholly Wholesome brand organic frozen pie crusts to be the best ready-made in their testing.  I noticed that my little neighborhood grocer carried them so I picked up a pack and paired it with a couple of cans of TraderJoe's organic sweet potato puree to make pie. The sweet potato puree has a handy recipe on the back and since there are two pie shells in a pack.

I tried it once faithfully following the recipe on the can. The pie was too sweet and had a poor texture. I made some adjustments to the recipe and tried it again tonight. Once again it was a disappointment.

The pie crust was improved by allowing it to thaw out a bit and pre-baking for a few minutes before filling.  Using it as directed and filling it still frozen resulted in a cardboard-y texture.  Pillsbury and Trader Joe's fold-out ready-made pie crusts have both worked (and tasted) great for me consistently in the past.

For the filling I substituted agave nectar for the sugar and it was not sweet enough. I think possibly using refined sugar rather than the fancy organic, raw, fair-trade sugar I have might have solved the sweetness level but ultimately I think the problem is the texture of the sweet potato puree. I've always made sweet potato pie with sweet potatoes I've cooked and mashed myself with a thicker texture.

So, tip of the day is for sweet potato pie - cook and mash your own taters and unfold a crust. Then enjoy!

Tip of the Day: Jane Velez-Mitchell

I'm going to try out a new feature here. A daily pointer to something I think is worth knowing about. I come across lots of great stuff every day and I want to share the good stuff. It might be a thought provoking article, a useful website, a product I've found to be indespensible, an incredible image, groovy places to visit or someone you should know. You can always check out my del.icio.us account (mrniles) down on the left sidebar or follow me on twitter or friendfeed (marianiles) or read my BlogHer blog to get a sense of stuff I'm finding but this series will serve as a spotlight.

I very much enjoyed this profile of HLN (from CNN and formerly known as Headline News) host Jane Velez-Mitchell. She seems like an interesting person whose life has lead them to some insights that have supported her success. And it gives hope to those of us past our teens and twenties that new frontiers and the best of our life and career can still be ahead of us. Here are some choice bits but I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Jane Velez-Mitchell is a true-crime author, a television talking head, a lesbian, an animal activist, a recovering alcoholic and a vegan. She was until recently a glorified freelancer for Headline News, the sister channel of CNN.

Now she is one of Headline News’s nightly hosts — and her 7 o’clock show is setting ratings records for the network....

After almost two decades in Los Angeles, chasing local news for its CBS affiliate and covering criminal trials for the syndicated show “Celebrity Justice,” Ms. Velez-Mitchell, 53, was content to fill in for Ms. Grace, promote her book about crimes and write a memoir.

In appearances on Ms. Grace’s show starting in 2005, she had been enticed to share opinions, a marked change from her years in local news where, she recalled, producers would tell her to “stick to the copy.”

Having made the leap from news to views, “I kind of sensed that I couldn’t go back” to local journalism, she said. “Which is O.K.: life’s an adventure, and you keep moving forward.”

Ms. Velez-Mitchell said she drew her one-day-at-a-time philosophy from the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. She will celebrate her 14th year of sobriety on April 1. “That’s really the main thing that informs how I look at the world,” she said. “I’m not in control of anything, so why bother trying to control it?”...

“It’s astounding how little you need to survive, it really is,” she said.