Gorgonzola Tomato Salad Riding without training wheels

I am finally done with training wheels.  Im finished teaching Children how to ride without their wheels. Son learned how to ride on his own, without his two helper wheels a couple of days ago, and Im thrilled to be done with this phase of life.  Now everyone can ride their own two wheelers and its one less thing I have to worry about teaching them.  

Each time Ive taught Children how to ride, its been difficult, because there is fear in learning how to balance.  There is fear about falling and there is fear of failure.  They each wonder if they wont be able to actually ride the bike.  Each child dealt with these fears in different ways.  Daughter #1 closed her eyes, clenched her teeth and faced her fear head on.  Daughter #2 calculated her fear against the benefits, and adamantly sat on the sidelines refusing to do it.  Son kept on wanting to try, but needed continual reassurance that someone was right nearby to catch him, should he fall.

And each child managed to overcome his or her fear and learn to ride.  I did have one rule for all of them, and it was try it 10 times before they could give up.  Daughter #1 kept on trying it way beyond the 10, and mastered it quickly.  Daughter #2 and I fought for every single one of those tries - each one was a battle of her screaming and my cajoling her and reminding her, reassuring her and finally forcing her to finish her 10 tries. (She was riding by try 11.)  Son only wanted to try 2 times, but I explained that no one could learn it in two times, and that each time it would get better.  Each try for him was a look of fear on his face followed by whines of reluctance and complaints of how he didnt like his bike anyways.  

And it made me think about different fears that I have.  What do I fear?  And what can I try over and over again 10 times and see if I cant overcome my fear?  After all, Ive asked Children to do it - what can I do?  It came to me.  I want more practice praying for the impossible.  Ive had experience praying for healing for others, and praying for things for other people - but I want more practice praying boldly for me.  I want more practice asking God boldly for what it is that I want.  I dont want to fear failure, lack of faith, or disappointment.  I want to practice asking boldly.  10 times as it were.  So Ive begun this prayer.  10 times to ask for what it is that I think that I cannot ask for.  Ill let you know how it turns out.

In the meanwhile, I challenge all of you who are scared to cook and scared to try new things to try this simple salad.  You cant mess it up, I promise.  If youre invited to a bbq in the next couple of days or to a potluck dinner where you know the host is cooking up some nice steak or tri-tip, bring this.  

Gorgonzola Tomato Salad
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 lb cherry tomatoes (a variety is lovely)
½ cup finely chopped red onion
½ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Slice cherry tomatoes in half. Place in bowl. Add chopped onion and cheese. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over. Toss and season with salt and pepper.

If you are taking this to a potluck, place tomatoes, red onion, and cheese in a bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper right before serving.

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Roasted Squash with Gorgonzola Relaxing

Husband has been been saying it over and over again for the past couple of months, "Relax honey. Teach less, stress less, yell less, work less, just do less."

Its not really in my nature to do less.  I may be one of those people detailed in the New York Times piece "The Busy Trap" who feel a sense of worth from the amount of "busyness business" in his or her life.  Or it could simply be that I have a lot to do and I cant see my way around doing less.

This certainly was the case in June where I almost couldnt find time to breathe.  I think there were days where I literally didnt go to the bathroom after waking up.  I talked to more people during the month of June that I did for the 5 months prior.  I had more to do, more to arrange, more to teach and more to plan.

But suddenly July has hit, and literally my work load has been cut into a third.  Many of my students travel, so they arent around.  Son and Daughters activities have wound down, so there isnt as much driving to do.  I have all three kids going to the same day camp, only half day, which means no lunches to pack and one drop off and one pick up.  Suddenly the day stretches before me and I just have less to do.  And I think God had this little mini break planned for me.  He knew, even when I didnt, that I needed this breathing space.  Believe me, Im taking advantage of it.  I built a crazy lego staircase with Children, practiced my own music (interrupted by Children very quickly, but no matter), talked to friends on the phone, wrote letters to people, and even took a nap one day.  I took the kids to the library on bikes, talked about summer reading, and even had time to do a goofy dance in the mirror with the kids as they were brushing their teeth.  Their giggles were a sweet sweet sound to me.

I keep relaxing in the kitchen.  Friend SH gave me a peeled, cubed, butternut squash and told me to use it up.  I looked at it and thought, what is the EASIEST thing I can do to this?  I decided to roast the squash and toss some sage and gorgonzola with it.  Voila.  Easiest, most relaxing side dish ever.  This will taste great with chicken or pork, but I just relaxed and had mine with buttered toast.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage and Gorgonzola
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash (about 1 lb)
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 leaves of sage, finely chopped
1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Preheat oven to 400.
Toss butternut squash cubes with olive oil, sage, salt, and pepper. Roast squash for 20 minutes, or until tender. Sprinkle gorgonzola on top. The heat of the squash will melt gorgonzola. Serve.

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