In the spirit of full disclosure I’m admitting to List Addiction. My favorites are Self-improvement Lists like How To Strengthen Your Core: 8 Steps; Ten Tricks to Look 7 Years Younger or 9 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Retiring by 55. There are even audiobooks of Lists, 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life. I usually keep all that great advice to myself but this week I discovered a List that must be shared: Six Mini-habits That Can Drastically Change Your Life by blogger Rizwan Aseem.
I used beef instead of veal for this week’s French Friday’s recipe, Beef Marengo.
Before I drastically change lives, however, I am going to feed you. This week’s French Fridays recipe is Veal Marengo, a dish created in 1800 by Napoleon Bonaparte’s chef to honor his boss’ success at the Battle of Marengo. For those of you unfamiliar with that battle, the French beat the Austrians on Italian soil. That was a very big deal, deserving of a celebratory entrée and commemorated by Puccini’s three-act opera, Tosca
Unlike Napoleon, I don’t like veal. I substituted beef. If you prefer chicken, that works wonderfully also. Supposedly, Marengo, an upscaled version of stew, was created with food supplies available on the battlefield… meat, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and white wine. Someone found a few potatoes and a French classic which has endured for over 200 years was born.
The top-of-the-stove duties are completed and the stew is ready for the oven.
Veal (Beef, Chicken) Marengo, with a salad and crusty bread, is an ample and adaptable meal. I had freshly harvested leeks in my fridge so substituted them for onions. After refreshing a package of exotic mushrooms, I used them instead of ordinary ones. What makes this recipe so useful is its adaptability. Any vegetable you have in the fridge will work with your choice of meat, onions, tomatoes and wine. You will find the recipe, have fun with it, here.
Dorie suggests putting parchment paper between the pan and the lid to keep the liquids from evaporating. A new technique that worked.
Now back to drastically changing your life. The best thing about this List is you’re probably doing half of them already. To my thinking, that’s instant success. Your self-esteem is rising rapidly. You’re halfway home.
Habit #1: Make your bed shortly after you wake up in the morning.
You’ve finished a daily task immediately, leaving a neat, tidy bed to return to at night. When you return home in the evening, you’re weary. Maybe some efforts haven’t gone your way. The end of the day not only brings relief but also an inviting, comfortable bed.
Habit #2: Put things back where you’ve found them.
When you return things to their proper places you drastically clear clutter in your life. What is more important, when you need them again, they will be there.
Habit #3: Pick up clutter before you go to sleep at night.
Practice #2 so this habit will not swallow up your time. If you wake up to messy and cluttered, you wake up grumpy. You just do.
Last week-end was cold and blustery. It was perfect for my Beef Marengo menu but not so nice for the Great Egret.
Habit #4: Dress slightly better than the occasion calls for.
My daughter, Melissa, was once asked for the best advice her mother ever gave her. She had two answers. “The advice I now most appreciate from my mother,” Melissa said, “I hated while growing up. My mother insisted upon handwritten, timely thank-you notes. Her philosophy was: if someone did something nice for you, they needed to be thanked in writing, appreciating not only the gift, but the giver, and helping me realize how lucky I was to have both.”
The second piece of advice I gave her was when she left the house, wherever she was going, to look nice, to be presentable, showing respect. “My mother’s reasoning,” she said, “was if you’re dressed for the part, whatever it may be, you walk out the front door, confident, not having to think or worry about it.”
Habit #5: Be consistently enthusiastic and optimistic.
“You won’t even notice this,” Aseem writes, “but you’ll wake up happier, and with more energy and a skip in your step.”
Habit #6: Plan your day on a post-it note.
This is my favorite, unchartered territory for me. I’m giving it a month
Here’s how the post-it technique works. Whatever projects you have to do tomorrow, choose only the five that will make the most impact on your professional and personal life. Everything else goes on the back burner, in the drawer, forgotten for another day. Write them on a post-it. Then, post it. Check them off as you knock them off. At the end of the day, mission accomplished. Your mind, on most days, will no longer need to focus on the things you didn’t get done.
These shorebirds are hunkering down on a dark and gloomy Sunday.
My report card is #1, #4, #5, A-Plus. #2 and #3, C to C-. I’m not a slob but I plead guilty to messy. If I followed #2, I would not need 10 pair of glasses scattered around my house. If I followed #3, I would not need to devote three hours tomorrow morning to picking up my house. Right now, as I’m heating up Beef Marengo for tonight’s dinner, I’m thinking about tomorrow’s first post-it. And also wanting to remind you that French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table cookbook. You can visit the FFWD site here.
I am addictive self improvement person too. I make a list each night, tidy up, dress for the occasion, yup, yup, yup…
My father always told me to dress for the position I wanted to be promoted too. When I was in high school and worked at Macy’s I dressed like a department manager and people used to mistake me for one all the time. I was promoted to assistant manager (had to be a college grad for manager) my senior year of high school.
I’ve also learned the trick of making the bed while you are still in it!
We are going to have so much fun in the fall…glad you liked the stew.
Leeks for onions – now why did I not think of that, dried shitakes? And love that dutch oven (correct?) – what material is it?
#s 1, 2 and 3 – already doing; #4 – hubby will approve, #5 – 50%, #6 – will start immediately!
For Diane: how about a tutorial of making up one’s bed in the morning while you are still in it?
Great advice. I am thinking Bernie is good with handling #1. I also like the idea of cleaning up your act at night when you aren’t good for much else. I especially love the post it note idea ….tomorrow starts the week-end and I have some ski dates with Jenny & Marisin so will probably just say R&R. Will get back on it Sunday nite. Promise.
TTR
Love your birds, of course! I am anxious to try this recipe with beef – I’ll be it was just wonderful!
Have a lovely weekend!
xoxo
Hmmm I feel like I need to go back to school… Though I am getting better at 1,2,3 and 4. I have a hard time with 5 but I have BOOK I carry around with me every single day FILLED with lists of things to do, make, buy, etc.. (even gym time scheduled in there). Crossing things off those lists every night gives me a deep sense of satisfaction 🙂
Dear Mary, what a post – loved reading through all the advice…I am “list person” but at the end of the day my lists keep getting longer and longer…
Your substitutions sound like they worked very well – I also could not find those small white onions for the life of me – I used shallots instead but leeks also sound delightful- I also used baby portabellas because I consider them to be much more flavorful – your exotic mushroom mix sounds fabulous.
Hope you are continuing to have a fabulous time in California!
Have a great weekend,
Andrea & Co.
It’s not too cold but quite dreary here, I could use a bowl of your Marengo! Great list, I’m okay at a few of them but need a lot of work on the rest. I probably have more than 10 pair of glasses everywhere in the house, my purse, the car….
Wonderful post Mary. I am always making lists, shopping, planning lists, etc., too. I think it keeps me active in
a lot of ways. When we drove cross country with Tricia, I mapped out a hotel plan
arrangement all the way out and back. Great fun. I love planning trips, (especially to France), I think that is half
the fun of the vacation. Have a great weekend.
Some great tips there Mary. I don’t do 5 too well, so that’s the one I’d have to work on. veal is not that easy to get here but I found it especially for this dish, and I liked it a lot.
LOVE these habits– have #1 and 4 down—but the others need work. I’d rather sleep than declutter at night 😉 I’m going to have to make this dish with beef—I actually think I’d like it even more.
I used beef, too, and thought this stew was wonderful.
I’m better at some of those items on the list than others. The sticky note trick sounds like an interesting one – a way to prioritize the day quickly, as well as setting yourself up for a feeling of accomplishment at the end of each day.
I am a chronic list maker. As a Project Manager I even get paid to make lists for other people. If I’m being honest though, I could stand to work on all the items on your improvement list except #6.
Great post as always. We have a rule last one out of the bed makes the bed, that would be my husband:) I put things back where I find them, my husband and son not so much. Clutter removal gets done twice a month when my house keeper comes. I say all flat surfaces have to be clean of clutter before she shows up. My house is clean for 5 minutes after my house keeper leaves:) I don’t use post-it notes but I am a list maker. If it doesn’t make the list it doesn’t get done. Have a great week.
On most days I give myself A+ to B+ for most of them…and then there are days that I would give myself a C. I do admit to having about 10 pairs of glasses that I leave all over the place!
Your stew looks delicious! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Hope you’re enjoying your time in Ca. Love your bird photo!
Man. I don’t do any of those consistently, as evidenced by today’s to-do list which consisted of 20+ items. I do like the list, though. It’s always good to have something to strive for…I’m hoping to get around to making chicken marengo sometime this week. I’m glad that you enjoyed the beef.
Mary, you can list up my life any time you want. XO
This stew was delicious, and I’m glad you thought the same.
I’m laughing at the lists. I kept an open mind, but I just don’t think I’m up for drastically changing my life. I remember having long lunchtime discussions about bedmaking at work. To everyone’s surprise, I am not a routine bedmaker. The first month after I stopped working, I did try to remember to make the bed every morning, but then I started to forget. Some of the others I do, but none of them faithfully. Not sure why the resistance. We can analyze it in October.