Leon Gaudi

Today I decided to get creative in the kitchen and make a big pot of chili.

My chili has big chunks of a chuck roast that have been dredged in flour and browned in a cast iron skillet with shortening before spooning into a big crock pot. Then I add about 6 cups of water, a cup of dry pinto beans, a large onion chopped up, and a handful of special spices and peppers.

The crock pot will simmer everything on low for the whole day, which makes the house smell wonderful every time you walk in the door. Tonight I will throw together a batch of cornbread and have a great feast on homemade chili and hot buttered cornbread, and I won’t care how cold it is outside.

There are actually only two people I know that have had a remarkable success with weight loss. The first person I think of is a teacher in Maryland who had the lap band surgery. She was facing life threatening complications from her obesity and had no choice. The surgery worked but it has been a long hard road, with multiple expensive surgeries that her insurance won’t cover.

The other person was my secretary for several years. She once showed me a photo of her first wedding and she was so heavy I didn’t recognize her as the bride. She had lost over 60 pounds since that photo and she looked great when I first met and hired her. Still does.

Of course, I asked her secret for such dramatic weight loss, and she gave full credit to the Nutrisystem plan. She said that she lost an average of 10 pounds each month for 7 months of seriously following the NutriSystem diet.

I have heard the name NutriSystem for years but never really looked into it for my own weight loss needs. But on her recommendation and obvious success with the NutriSystem, I checked out the NutriSystem Review web site and learned quite a bit of good information that all makes perfect sense.

When you sign up for NutiSystem you choose one of seven different programs:

1. Men’s Program
2. Women’s Program
3. Women Over 60 Program
4. Men Over 60Program
5. Women’s Type II Diabetic Program
6. Men’s Type II Diabetic Program, or
7. All-Vegetarian program

Each of the NutriSystem plans have 55% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 20% fat for balanced, nutritious meals and snacks that include portion control. They are delivered complete to your door. It is convenient and it works. How can you not give that a try?

Stopped in the convenience store when I bought gas this morning and they had a basket of candies and gum with a hand written sign saying anything in the basket was only 10 cents. Well, most candy and gum sells for about $1.40 these days, so 10 cents was quite a bargain. I asked the clerk if there was anything wrong with the candy and he said no, they were just trying to get rid of it because they are aren’t popular flavors and they were taking up too much shelf space. So I bought 4 packs of mint gum for 10 cents a pack. That’s a great deal!

Have you seen the commercial where a guy and his dad are going on a trip to Europe as a journey together to learn more about their family roots? They do all kinds of authentic local traditions and eat and drink like the locals. Then they discover that they were in the wrong country and have to do a second trip. I suppose that is a possible scenario for someone who didn’t seriously trace their ancestry and just made some assumptions about their family roots. But there can be huge differences in a country of origin if the last name is spelled “…son” versus “…sen” and other common naming subtleties.

I know that on my mother’s side of the family we have ancestral roots in Czechoslavia. Of course, with the past dozen years there have been huge political changes to our homeland. The country has been divided into two separate countries: The Czech Republic and Serbia.

If we were to be fortunate this year and plan a trip to my mother’s homeland, I would love to go to both countries and see all the sights. We’ve actually talked about it and have started looking into the top tourist destinations and planning a sample itinerary. Ideally we would have a full two weeks to visit the region, and my thought was to have a nice apartment for most, if not all, the time away so we have a base camp of sorts to make me feel more settled. I’m not a big fan of checking in and out of a variety of hotel rooms. You never know what you will get in a hotel and it is such a tedious chore to check in and check out, unpacking and repacking, and learning your way about. I would much rather have a Prague apartment where we unpack just one time and make ourselves at home. We might even start to feel like we live there - even if for just a short time.

If we have a nice furnished apartment with TV and internet access, we will have much more freedom and discretionary time to do some fun things in Prague while having our creature comforts. We can use the very helpful web site called www.coolpragueapartments.com to make the arrangements. All the info we need to find comfortable lodging starts with that web site. So at the moment we are making plans and setting aside money from each paycheck to finance our vacation to the Czech Republic.

Christmas Night used to be a big family gathering night for my father’s side of the family. The original 6 brothers who settled in America all lived in the same small town - 4 of them on the same street. So getting together on Christmas Night was pretty easy and they each took turns hosting the gathering at each other’s homes.

Of course, my father and all his brothers passed on many years ago and the extended family has moved away to all parts of the country. So they don’t have the Christmas Night gathering any more. But I do miss those great nights of music, singing, fantastic food and treats, and everyone showing off to each other their new clothes and favorite Christmas gifts.

This Christmas was a nice, quiet day. I got to sleep in late, ate a delicious meal that I didn’t have to cook, and I saw all the family members that live within 30 minutes of my house. So it was a nice day and I hope the rest of my family and friends enjoyed their Christmas as much as I did.