Dianne's Fudge Brownies

Dianne Linderman spent a lot of time creating this delicious brownie recipe!  Why? Because she didn't like brownies that tasted like they were "store-bought," or “boxed.” She wanted something entirely different - brownies that were crunchy and delicious on the outside and gooey on the inside. Doesn't that sound delicious?

This recipe is very simple to make, and takes less than 10 minutes. Dianne doesn’t use white flour or white sugar, which makes these brownies a whole lot healthier! 

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla (not imitation vanilla)
• 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2.5 cups organic brown sugar (maple sugar or maple syrup work great too)
• 6 1-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• organic olive oil spray (like PAM) to coat the bottom of your baking pan

To make the brownies:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (this lower setting will make brownies turn out gooey on the inside)
• Except butter and unsweetened chocolate, place all the ingredients into a stand mixer and mix well
• Take the chocolate, add it to butter and melt it; then add into the mix
• Mix everything until smooth, and then stir by hand to make sure that you get everything from the bottom
• Coat the bottom of your baking pan with organic olive oil spray; pour the mixture into the pan
• Bake for 35-45 minutes

You want your brownies to be a little soft on the inside when you pull them out of the oven. When you insert a toothpick into the middle, you want it to come out with a little bit of batter on it; this is a perfect time to get your brownies out of the oven. Brownies actually keep cooking for at least 5-10 more minutes when they come out, so leaving them soft on the inside makes them taste gooey and oh so scrumptious!

Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

For this and more of Dianne Linderman's recipes, please visit http://www.everythingthatmattersradio.com/recipes/fudge-brownies.html
 

Getting Back to Basics

Because of this crazy economy, we all start to think about the real possibility of losing our jobs and our way of life. Unfortunately most Americans have searched most of their lives, not for long term financial security, but for comfort! We buy beautiful things for our homes, nice cars, overpriced clothing and jewelry. We wine, dine, and pay for expensive entertainment, all the while not thinking about what we would do if it all came to a sudden stop!

It is never too late to start planning, and because I have had to find a way to survive a few financial disasters in my life, I can now look at any adversity in life as a total adventure. It’s all about your attitude and how willing you are to live with less. I call this getting back to basics. What did you do that made you money when you were a very young person? I was 16 years old when I became a silversmith. At first it was just for fun. I took my simple, plain sterling silver bands to school and sold them for a hefty profit to all my friends. After making dozens and dozens of plain bands, I had to really start thinking of new and more interesting bands, so I purchased some silver stamps, and stamped my bands to make them look unique and was able to sell my new designs to the very same friends. I moved on to setting stones on my simple bands, and, before I knew it, I was a full fledged silversmith.

I am sharing this story with you because everyone has a creative base, and even if you think you don’t have one, you can start this very moment. Jewelry is not only a craft, but it is also a passion, an investment, and, if you don’t mind sitting outside all day, it can become the perfect business for anyone with even a small amount of creativity. My favorite memories were the days at outside crafters fairs with my 14-year-old brother in the sunshine just hundreds of yards from the beach. Even then I thought, “What a way to live!” When my brother and I returned home at night, we counted our bounty, and, on a good day, at 16 years old, I pulled in hundreds of dollars, and as I told you in a previous article, on my best day ever, I made $800.

So many of us have forgotten the simple times in life, always believing that, if we could get the perfect job and make lots of money, we would be able to relax, but what most of us found out is that we spent the first half of our lives acquiring things and the second half of our lives getting rid of things. Having too much becomes a burden and then you can’t enjoy anything that you have acquired. I guess as we get older we start to appreciate the simple things in life again, and that’s where I am at.

Plant a garden, rid yourself of stuff you never use, redecorate your home in things you have made or found and painted, even photos you have taken. Set up a monthly yard sale and even embellish and recycle some of your old junk. I know people who make a huge living doing this, and they are happier than they have ever been, spending days going through thrift stores and yard sales. And, once a month, they have what they call a barn sale, or even something quaint, like a garden sale. These same friends of mine used to make six-figure incomes and are so much happier being creative, treasure hunters. Some of them buy antique jewelry and add new beads and crystal to make unique, beautiful jewelry.

Getting back to basics is really about finding your original passions in life, and, before you have to, start thinking of what you could do and simply start doing it. Go to crafters fairs, flea markets, and farmers markets and even find others who have an online presence and grill them about what is effective. Learn photography; everything I have ever done in life has required some photos, and just like everything else, they represent quality. I buy hundreds of magazines, and look for ideas in decorating, colors, and even the way photos are taken. Educate yourself, and don’t be afraid to fail. If you start thinking about the basics before you need to, you will have security and will not find yourself without them.

Nancy Pelosi's Policy Gone Wild

Recently, I went on a road trip across America to the Great State of Texas where they have some of the best restaurants I have ever been to. My husband and I and our two kids frequented a certain buffet as we traveled from state to state, and something fascinating happened one Texas evening. There was the usual long line of families waiting to belly up to the buffet bar for delicious food at an unbelievably low price when I noticed that the workers behind this somewhat well-run establishment were sort of rude and were flexing their contempt toward the excited buffet eaters.

As the drooling eaters moved along the well-designed food line toward a grill cook turning tender sizzling steaks, he suddenly shouted, "Everyone has to wait!" Subtly making fun of the people who were waiting for the ribs and steaks, he sarcastically announced “You will get some—in two hours, hee hee!” I noticed that instead of the buffet eaters thinking there was something wrong with the out of control grill cook, drunk on the power of his long supper tongs, the drooling public stood quietly, perfectly in line, with eyes fixated on the prize of the slow cooking steak and ribs, as if they behaved the way the cook told them to, they would get the prize. I suddenly envisioned Nancy Pelosi standing there with those long supper tongs and her crazed smile, and I realized that the cook represented the politicians who keep us in line by always offering us something that they can make us wait quietly in line for.

Would you really trade your principles for a piece of meat? If only a single person would have stood up to the rude grill cook or walked out of the restaurant, he might have been put in his place, but the illusion of juicy steak for next to nothing price appealed to human greed and hypnotized this crowd of eaters giving power to the grill cook and feeding his contempt for them. The buffet eaters were putty in his hands, and like hungry animals, they obeyed his commands. In retrospect, I realized that he purchased his power over the eaters by first supplying something they thought they were getting for just about nothing and then by intimidating them into submission, threatening them and making them feel they might have to do without the steak.

That same morning, ironically, I was watching Nancy Pelosi as she explained to a news guy why she had to get the health care bill passed even though the polls show that 75% of Americans do not want government-run health care. Nancy Pelosi is holding a giant pair of tongs as her contempt for all Americans, especially the ones who want something from her, is starting to bud and peak its ugly head out. We Americans are beginning to realize that the ugly buffet grill cook is really high on power.

My thought that morning was, “Am I really hearing what I think I am hearing, the tong-wielding third person in line to the Presidency is telling 75% of the country that she is in control of the buffet line and that she knows what is best for us, and we Americans can just shut up and stand in line?!!”

Wow, where is the outrage when our pubic servant has the audacity to ignore us? We are the employers, and she is our employee! We voted in power-mad, tong-wielding grill cooks to run our country. We did it to ourselves, and as long as we stand in line instead of taking a stand against these over-paid grill cooks, we are not much different than the Jews in Nazi Germany standing in line for a shower.

Iceberg Wedge Salad Recipe

"How to make wedge salad out of iceberg lettuce."


This is the same type of salad that has become famous at Outback Steakhouse and Johnny Carino's.

Ingredients:
- 1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into quarters
- 1 tomato
- gorgonzola dressing
- bacon (optional)
- sunflower seeds (optional)

Dianne Linderman is a cook, entrepreneur, mother and the host of nationally syndicated talk show "Everything That Matters." Hear more recipes on her podcast "Homemade Recipes Radio".

Balance

I was taking a walk the other day and passed by the window of a yoga studio. A sign in the window said, “Learn to find your center.” In that moment, this statement struck the core of my being, and the word “balance” came to mind.

Life is all about balance, and when things are out of balance, nothing works: when you bake a cake and forget an ingredient, complete failure; if you forget to put a bolt in an engine, the engine dies; when two parents don’t work together in harmony, kids get out of control; eat too much and you’ll get fat, but eat too little and you’ll become skinny; too much stress makes you sick and not enough stress makes you lazy; not using enough fertilizer in your garden produces weak, slow-growing veggies, but use too much fertilizer and your veggies get burned; when husbands and wives communicate too little, they end up in divorce; too much knowledge makes a person feel inadequate, but not enough knowledge makes a person feel inadequate; too much personality makes you look needy, not enough personality makes you look needy; spend too much money and you go into debt, don’t spend enough money and it all goes to taxes. I could go on forever and give a billion out of balance scenarios, but no matter how hard you work at anything you do, nothing will ever work properly until there is a perfect balance.

Take our government: too much liberalism, the country falls into a deep hole; too much conservatism, the country becomes rigid. There is a natural balance in life and without it no administration will ever succeed. It will only push us further away from the center where the majority of most good people are! If a leader does not understand what perfect balance is, he himself is out of balance and can only lead us to failure. To find perfect balance in anything you do takes discipline, awareness and thoughtfulness, nothing more and nothing less.

Nature is a very powerful equalizer, and as our leaders try to push us out of balance the good people of America will push back in order to correct the tilt! I see only good things ahead as more people begin to realize they don’t like living on a slope. Most people are lazy and won’t move unless they are pushed. As I see it, the slope is becoming unbearable. There will always be cling-ons who hold onto the tiny morsels that are promised to them and make these morsels the center of their universe. These people live on a slant and would feel very uncomfortable if their lives were level. The frightening thought is that it seems like our President is increasingly attempting to put our country out of balance by stacking more cling-ons on the left-leaning slope, even if he has to create another country that he has basically purchased by entitlements. Buying votes in exchange for entitlements seems to be a mainstay for his administration.

The complete out of balance co-leadership of the present administration sets the agenda for what they want our country to become, and they think that if they push hard enough, we will all tumble over and grab onto the tiny morsels they throw to us. The good people of America, the brace that holds our country steady, will never tumble to the left-leaning slope. They are the steel cross bars of our country’s frame and cannot be moved or tilted, and, in fact, get stronger as the pressure on them persists. These Americans have a core that is immovable and they keep themselves thoughtfully and properly in balance in all matters of life, country, business, family, and even politics.

No matter how out of balance its leaders try to push this country, the spring back on them will be a force they do not understand and won’t know how to deal with. They are interfering with the balance of human nature, and even though they think they figured out how to manipulate the outcome, nature always wins and balance is its end result!

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Could Sarah Palin Really Be President?

Why couldn’t any thoughtful, strong, business-like, entrepreneurial, well-spoken mom with vision and ideas who loves her country be the president of the United States? It has always pissed me off that unless you walk like a duck and quack like a duck, you won’t be able to rise to power with the rest of the quacks! If you have not received your degree and the approval of the uppity-up liberal professors from a name-brand university that indoctrinates and trains the minds of America’s youth, then you are degraded and dragged through the media’s arena. They devour you, spit you out with the rest of their victims and then call you stupid.

My father has always liked the saying, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” Education is a doubled-sided sword; we all need to be educated, but who is doing the teaching? Who taught the first teachers, and who died and made them royalty? Who questions their authority, and how do we know what they are teaching is right? The media, politicians, doctors, lawyers, and all the powerful white-collar professionals are taught the same message by the unbreakable chain of powerful, elite universities. We all buy into the belief that we all must fit into the same box, read the same books, and look, act, and spout the same type of rhetoric, and the moment an unusual, free-thinking, independent woman is introduced to our country it simply freaks out everyone who has become so comfortable in that box.

Let this be your first experience meeting an average, real, true American patriot. Sarah Palin did not ask to be thrust onto the world’s stage, but is now compelled to speak her mind. The day that McCain unearthed her from her happy life, I believe she accidentally slipped through the cracks, and before the media knew what happened, they lost their footing. God forbid, if the media does not anoint you as the next leader, then you must be bad, because you did not ask their permission to be yourself and rise to power! The exciting part is that one of us is on the loose, using the freedom that has always been available to us, and she is an example of what we all can achieve. The power of a real American is undeniable. I believe the reason why so many liberals hate her is because she has reached this place in her life without going down that predictable path where so many lose themselves, but instead is forging her own path with her soul and her independent nature fully intact.

It has become a challenge to explain life to my 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. They see the media approving of Barney Frank, with all of his personal improprieties, and the many other unprincipled politicians who are in power, and they also see how the media treats someone like Sarah Palin. It has also become a challenge to keep my son focused on the college program that is being offered through his high school. The writing assignments are not interesting to him, and he feels like he is jumping through phony hoops to write with passion about something that is meaningless and boring just to get a good grade. I had to tell him the truth! I explained that if he wanted to get a college degree, it is a requirement for him to not be himself. He is a free-thinking, passionate, young entrepreneur attending an incredible private school that is all hands on. He is a straight-a student and wants to get a degree in engineering, but he is hitting reality head on and does not like what seems to be the beginning of indoctrination. Call me naive, but what are we turning out of these colleges and universities, leaders or followers? It takes a great amount of strength not to lose your true self when these types of requirements are thrust upon you and the carrot at the end of the stick is greatness and a degree saying that you are greater than a person without a degree.

My son asked me, “Can’t I become an engineer without going to college? Can’t I create and build because that’s all I dream about? Why do I have to write these stupid assignments to be able to be an engineer? Why can’t I write about what I am interested in, Mom?” I explained to him that it’s for the same reason Sarah Palin is being crucified by the media. “They want you to jump when they say jump, and write what they want you to write, but Luke, watch Sarah. She is smarter than them all, and will turn this fiasco into an opportunity not only for herself, but for the rest of America.” He laughed and understood.

What most people don’t get about Sarah Palin is that she is smarter than those who despise her. Every time you hear anyone say that she is stupid and she could never be the President of the United States, just understand that she is already a leader in our country, and they never saw it happen. All it would take now is an election to make it official. Now, who are really the stupid ones?

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Sure Glad Cows Don't Fly

Don’t look up now—it’s too late! The B.S. was coming down in buckets as Nancy Pelosi and her posse took advantage of hard-working entrepreneurs who were too busy making a living in order to pay for the millions of unemployed Americans. Maybe that’s part of the plan, keeping the American work force and business owners so busy trying to foot the bill for our country’s bad money managers that we don’t have time to protest or read the 1000-page health care bill. I don’t know about you, but I woke up on Sunday morning to find out that 220 people had stolen a piece of my children’s future. I would love to plant a few of the money trees that our new health care system is going to require.

Many of us have become a society of believers in a dream. Not the American dream, but a twisted dream where you wake up and have everything you ever wanted, without working for it. I have been blown away listening to people who think that we are actually going to have free health care for all. These are the same people who sign up for every free give-away that pops up in their e-mail, buy hundreds of dollars of lotto tickets, and gamble away their life savings in slot machines never wondering whose money is jingling around inside. Drunk with visions of their own freedom through gifts and entitlements, they are betting that they will win, never believing that they will most definitely lose. They want to believe in a lie because they don’t believe in their own abilities to achieve the real American Dream. Instead of grasping onto the reins of their own horse, these people believe that the fairy godfather is going to deliver them happiness and equality without their ever having earned it.

The do-gooders, who are the (mis)leaders of our country, paint such a pretty picture for their followers. These followers don’t really want the truth anyway; they love the excitement of the lie. The misleaders have been trained in engage in deceptive warfare on good Americans and with such sureness, they explain to the hopeful that the money to pay for all of the freebies will not come from taxpayers.

But these misleaders aren’t wearing their own boots because they have been bribed to wear someone else’s. In their greed and cowardice, they have chosen not to represent Americans, but to represent the special interests of those in our highest offices. They have been promised the same twisted dream that they have been asked to sell to us, and even though deep down in their toes they know the truth, they have given up any desire to stand on principal. They have been promised that their elite positions will be protected if they just all stand together. They have been told not to show fear and to charge forward no matter what the silly American people want or think.

This type of bullying can be seen in every schoolyard. Just last week my 12-year-old daughter had to stand her ground with a pushy 14-year-old who uses her personality, cuteness, and over-bearing aggression to get exactly what she wants from the whole class. She has learned that all it takes is pure irritation and an overzealous personality and the understanding that, when she gets people mad enough, she can point her finger at them as the problem and then she is in control.

My daughter was able to take her on because she did not get irritated. Instead, she spoke up with love and conviction, showing the other girl that she was actually the problem and not accepting her craziness. My daughter gave her a dose of correction, and put the controlling girl in her place and did not think another thing about it. She left that girl in a daze, because when you stand up properly, you affect the weak confusers, leaving them without a handle.

Now is not the time to get mad but to get strong. Don’t be confused by the misleadership in our country. These misleaders are betting on your anger and confusion. Try something new; confront them with conviction, strength, love of country and understanding of your rights. Never give them the upper hand by doubting your beliefs, your passion and your true love of the Red, White and Blue!

Together we stand!

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