August 2004
In This Issue:
Special Thanks
The Recipe for Results fundraiser in July was a smashing success—thanks to the tremendous efforts of our volunteers and generous support of our sponsors and other contributors. This culinary team-building event, which sold out a month in advance, raised more than $2,000 for Suited to Succeed, a non-profit organization that provides business attire and career development training to women in transition. A good time and delicious meal were shared by all! Click here to check out some snapshots from the event. Read on to find out how you can create A Recipe for Results for your team!
Cooking in the Kitchen of LifeReprinted with permission from On Purpose Woman, June/July 2004. My prowess in the kitchen certainly has improved since my newlywed days 17 years ago when a typical dinner included chicken nuggets, tater tots and applesauce from a jar. Sure, I experimented with more complicated dishes, but the results were not always worthy of a write-up in Bon Apetit magazine. Take my mother’s tried-and-true recipe for baby back ribs: After the one and only time I attempted to prepare the dish, my husband and I affectionately renamed it "baby tar ribs." I’m not quite sure how the transformation occurred, but I am pleased to say that I can now hold my own among the likes of seasoned cooks like my mom. Nurturing this talent through years of collecting recipes, hosting dinner parties and using my husband as a guinea pig and taste-tester also has helped me discover the remarkable parallels between the skills I use in the kitchen and the skills I need to successfully navigate the challenges of my life and business. Here’s a "taste" of what I’ve learned. Use the finest ingredients. Cooking with the best chocolate, olive oil, cheeses or the freshest herbs, produce or seafood elevates a meal from good to great. Since food is one of life’s simplest pleasures, quality ingredients are a worthwhile splurge. Life lesson: Put your finest effort into everything you do and, if you can’t do it yourself, hire the best to do it for you. You get what you put into it—and what you pay for. Keep everything close at hand. Cooking progresses more smoothly when all of your ingredients, supplies and equipment are within arm’s reach. It may take more time up front, but it will save you stress and prevent mishaps in the long run. Life lesson: Before you embark on a big goal, carve out an adequate amount of prep time to hone your skills and gather the resources you’ll need to improve your chances for success. Savor the process. Cooking is as much an art as it is a skill and, as such, requires focus and concentration to achieve the best results. You miss out on the joy of culinary creation if you have too many complicated dishes going at once, or if you are multitasking with other projects. Life lesson: To fulfill your priorities with skill and finesse, you may have to put some of your less important projects on the back burner. Be a creative problem-solver. In an early attempt to bake a pumpkin pie, I once forgot to take out the clear plastic liner in a ready-made piecrust before I put in the filling. I only realized it after the pie came out of the oven. To save the dessert, I took out the plastic liner and dumped all of the filling into a blender, whipped it up, put it back into the crust and topped the whole thing with whipped cream. The result: pumpkin mousse pie—delicious! Life lesson: Things will not always go as planned. Push the panic aside, roll with the punches and put your heart and head to work to come up with a solution. The outcome might be even better than you had originally planned! Add your own personal flavor. Recipes are guidelines, not rules. Because cooking is a personal expression of who you are, you shouldn’t be afraid to "spice it up" to suit your taste. Life lesson: The combination of your unique purpose and passion make a perfect pairing. Finding the right mix will help you create your own recipe for success.
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