On the third day of Diva’s birthday, her favorite thing to share was…..

Cooking Light Magazine
Cooking Light is a trusted source for those who want to cook and enjoy healthy, delicious food. Whether you’re in a hurry to prepare a quick and easy dinner tonight or need a game plan for the perfect party, Cooking Light offers nutritious, kitchen-tested recipes for every day living or special occasions. And whether you’re a novice or an adventurous cook you’ll find great food and healthy lifestyle tips in every issue.

• Recipe Index is positioned immediately after the Table of Contents and includes recipe listings by category, including tags for Quick and Easy and Kid-friendly, as well as Staff Favorite recipes.
• Editors’ Dozen is a seasonally oriented selection of 13 fun and healthy food, fitness, and lifestyle items, products, and news.
• Superfast features 20-minute dishes that are simple, fresh, and easy entrées.
• The Stress-Free Zone provides strategies for dealing with everyday stressful situations, such as staying on schedule during a hectic morning, job interviews, medical tests, and more.
• Ask Our Dietician answers to questions from readers about their dietary dilemmas.
• Moves of the Month shows effective, simple workouts, along with gear and nutrition tips.
• Taste Test evaluates food products, such as pasta sauce or soy sauces and recommends those offering the best quality, value, and nutrition.
• Travel explores the flavors of top destinations, such as San Francisco or Atlanta, through its iconic dishes. Includes travel recommendations and recipes that exemplify the area’s cuisine.
• Wine matches favorite foods with appropriate wines. Seasonally chosen with references to recipes in the issue.
• Beauty offers ways to look younger and improve your appearance and well-being.
• Menu Navigator examines popular restaurant foods and helps you make the healthiest choices.
• New Uses for Everyday Ingredients discusses three common pantry ingredients and provides interesting and lesser known uses for each.
• Kitchen is a roundup of useful tools, including equipment, gadgets, and other favorites.
• Dinner Tonight is Cooking Light’s most popular department with 7 time-tested, fast meals with tips and game plans to make life easier. Plus shopping list.
• Nutrition Made Easy features healthy eating tips with recipes devoted to a single topic.
• Cooking Class shows step-by-step methods for making a popular comfort food, and provides ways to build on the basics for more creative variations.
• Recipe Makeover lightens a classic recipe but maintains all the taste of the traditional version.
• Budget Cooking offers recipes that feed 4 for under $10.
• Reader Recipes features the very best recipes from the more than 12 million readers of Cooking Light.
• Kitchen How-To illustrates quick cooking techniques.
• Everyday Vegetarian showcases vegetarian fare that suits the season.
• Recipe Hall of Fame highlights one recipe that is absolutely, positively best of class.
• Feature Articles in Cooking Light offer highly evocative and beautiful photos of food and recipes, and delve in depth with topics ranging from seasonal cuisine to nutrition, and from cooking instruction to profiles of intriguing people in the food world. The entire feature sections in our June and November issues are presented in cookbook format, as well as special sections on how to start the year out right and the best of the holidays.

The new design of Cooking Light features photos with every recipe and a design format that emphasizes light and airy pages, brief text and fun graphics. The food comes alive on the pages thanks to vibrant colors and natural light settings, and cooking technique is made simple with step-by-step instructions that couldn’t be easier to follow. The focus is on reader service, and articles offer tips, shopping advice, nutrition facts, cooking short cuts, and hundreds of helpful bits that make Cooking Light a great learning tool and source of inspiration.

I few weeks ago Amazon.com was offering 1 year Cooking Light subscriptions for only $5.  I bought one for myself and one as a gift for TJ.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe in the magazine that I follow to the letter, but it is great inspiration for trying your hand at new ideas.  It promotes being adventurous with food.  I believe I learned how to saute’ spinach on the Cooking Light website.  I love it.

Lesson of the day:

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect….it just has to make YOU happy.  Last Easter we were expecting 25 people for dinner and my mother came to town as well.  So 2 days before I went to the store and bought some closed tulips because they are my absolute favorite flower and I kept them preserved in a bucket until that Sunday when I could put them in a vase that I found at Home Goods the year before.  The vase was beautiful….but it had a small neck and I had about 4 bunches of tulips.  Unsure of myself I called the Grand Diva for advice.  She said “put em in a water pitcher.”  And at the end of the day the only person who said anything about it was my mother.  I was just happy to have all 4 bunches out to be seen and tickled to know that I wasn’t the only person in the history of the world who bought flowers that wouldn’t fit into the vase.  I still struggle with perfection….but I’ve reached the point where I know I need work.

Today I am grateful for good food!  I met a young lady 2 years ago at a birthday party who gave me some tips on improving my salisbury steak.  I am still pleased at how that dinner came out!

To good food!