Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    You Can Do This!: Cooking up a Happier You for You and Yours
    You Can Do This!: Cooking up a Happier You for You and Yours
    You Can Do This!: Cooking up a Happier You for You and Yours
    Ebook184 pages2 hours

    You Can Do This!: Cooking up a Happier You for You and Yours

    By Jim Te Selle

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This is not a cookbook! You Can Do This! Cooking Up a Happier You for You and Yours is instead a self-help guide to happiness.

    This book is a sort of Self-Confidence 101, says author Jim Te Selle. When his life was at its lowest, he came up with a plan to get it back on track.

    In his own words: This is a product of what I had to learn in order to get my life squared away. I woke up one morning in a treatment center. My wife had left me. I was almost broke and was raising twin boys by myself. I couldnt believe it. I had done all the things an American dad is supposed to do: college, marriage, job, mortgage, kids. And yet I was totally unhappy and not a little bit screwed up. What happened? I had no clue.

    If your life isnt going quite the way youd like it, if your dream seems out of reach, dont worry. I had to learn to believe in myself. This book offers one way to do that. You can do this!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateJan 31, 2013
    ISBN9781466972476
    You Can Do This!: Cooking up a Happier You for You and Yours

    Related to You Can Do This!

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Let’s Eat Cake!

      Aug 5, 2021

      Let’s Eat Cake!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Special Order

      Dec 1, 2021

      Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for the culinary industry. Food is undoubtedly the center of every celebration causing restaurants to have long waiting lines outside their doors and a reservation list that is already full months bef

      5 min read

    • Article

      Biscuit Bonanza

      Feb 11, 2020

      Biscuit Bonanza
      3 min read

    • Article

      STRESS LESS Party More!

      Jan 31, 2022

      STRESS LESS Party More!
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Diet Showdown

      Feb 12, 2019

      The Diet Showdown
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of… Hospitality

      May 23, 2021

      The Art Of… Hospitality
      3 min read

    • Article

      Deli Breads

      Apr 7, 2020

      Deli Breads
      13 min read

    • Article

      All Hail The Queen Of Cake

      May 13, 2019

      Maida Heatter’s cookbook is a keeper thanks to the decadent recipes, including zingy gingerful biscotti and ethereal orange puff cake.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Beauty From The Pantry

      Sep 2, 2020

      Want to try the latest in natural beauty? Well, look no further than your pantry. The food you eat nourishes, nurtures and heals the body, helping it to work to optimal efficiency. But everyday foods can also soothe and beautify the skin, hair and na

      7 min read

    • Article

      Celebrate Spring with Pea Salad

      Feb 11, 2020

      Celebrate Spring with Pea Salad
      3 min read

    • Article

      Shopping News

      Dec 5, 2021

      Shopping News
      1 min read

    • Article

      Desserts

      May 12, 2020

      Desserts
      10 min read

    • Article

      Cheesecakes

      Feb 1, 2020

      Cheesecakes
      17 min read

    • Article

      Plant Power

      Dec 25, 2020

      AS WE FOUND safety and sanctuary by retreating into our homes over the past year, one at-home trend has become even trendier: houseplants. And these green additions to our spaces do more than just make for prettier pads; houseplants can reduce fatigu

      1 min read

    • Article

      Flavour Fiesta

      Oct 10, 2021

      Flavour Fiesta
      10 min read

    • Article

      Happy Halloween

      Sep 23, 2021

      Happy Halloween
      8 min read

    • Article

      White Rose Tea

      Nov 26, 2019

      White Rose Tea
      7 min read

    • Article

      Coffee Filter Butterflies

      Dec 1, 2020

      Coffee Filter Butterflies
      6 min read

    • Article

      Icebox Cakes

      Apr 14, 2020

      Icebox Cakes
      12 min read

    • Article

      Kim-joy’s Cute Christmas!

      Nov 5, 2020

      Kim-joy’s Cute Christmas!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Where to Shop & Buy

      Jun 29, 2021

      Pages 13–15: Jan Karon is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of twenty-five books. Set to open in Hudson, North Carolina, The Mitford Museum pays tribute to the novelist and her beloved Mitford series. To learn more about Jan, visit her websit

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cheesecake DREAMS

      Mar 31, 2020

      Cheesecake DREAMS
      1 min read

    • Article

      THE Broth SISTERS

      Jul 12, 2017

      THE Broth SISTERS
      5 min read

    • Article

      One-Bowl Baking

      Nov 24, 2020

      One-Bowl Baking
      4 min read

    • Article

      Caramel Date Splendour

      Jun 30, 2021

      Caramel Date Splendour
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for You Can Do This!

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      You Can Do This! - Jim Te Selle

      YOU CAN DO THIS!

      Cooking Up a Happier You

      for You and Yours

      JIM TE SELLE

      Order this book online at www.trafford.com

      or email orders@trafford.com

      Most Trafford titles are also available at major online book retailers.

      ©

      Copyright 2013, 2014 Jim Te Selle.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      ISBN: 978-1-4669-7246-9 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4669-7248-3 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4669-7247-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012923385

      Trafford rev. 04/12/2014

      21097.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Banana Bread

      Knives, Utensils, and Other Tools

      Measuring

      Setting Yourself Up For Success

      Day One   Taking That First Step

      Salad:

      Baby Spinach Salad with Fresh Mushrooms

      Entrée:

      Roast Beef Tenderloin

      Baked Potatoes with Butter and Toppings

      Steamed Broccoli

      Dessert:

      Mixed Fresh Fruit

      Day Two   Cooking More Than One Thing At A Time

      Salad:

      Mixed Greens Salad with Fresh Fruit

      Entrée:

      Roast Pork with Garlic

      Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Maple Syrup Sauce

      Steamed Snow Peas

      Dessert:

      Strawberry Schaumtort

      Day Three   The Pace Quickens

      Salad:

      Three-Green Raspberry Salad

      Entrée:

      Porterhouse Steak

      a la Thai

      Parsley Boiled Potatoes

      Sautéed Asparagus Tips

      Dessert:

      Chocolate Pudding

      Whipped Cream

      Day Four   A Lesson in Time Management

      Salad:

      Caprese Florentine

      Entrée:

      Roast Chicken with Stuffing

      Oven-browned Potatoes

      Candied Carrot Pennies with Snow Peas

      Dessert:

      Bread Pudding

      Crème Anglaise

      Day Five   A Touch of the Exotic

      Salad:

      Sorbet à la Framboise

      Entrée:

      Broiled Salmon Filet

      Jasmine Rice

      Sautéed Spinach with Garlic

      Dessert:

      Mixed Fruit Balsamique

      Day Six   Final Exam

      Salad:

      Hearts of Romaine with Queso Fresco

      Entrée:

      Prime Rib of Beef

      Mashed Potatoes

      Steamed Artichoke

      Sautéed Mushrooms

      Dessert:

      Angel Fluff

      Day Seven   Graduation

      Salad:

      Chili

      Entrée:

      Home Made Ice Cream

      To You

      I’m very grateful to many people who helped me write this book, but there a few that I’d like to give a special thanks to—

      To Tony, who believed in me at a time when I couldn’t believe in myself.

      To Kimberly, who wouldn’t let me give up.

      And most of all to that beautiful woman who loves me and married me even though she didn’t know what she was getting into.

      Introduction

      A friend of mine is a first-class lady, happily married and mother of two boys. She never cooks. She doesn’t want to cook. She doesn’t like cooking. And if all that weren’t enough, she doesn’t know how to cook, which isn’t too surprising. The kids get a microwave-something for breakfast. Lunch is brown-bagged. The evening meal they eat in a restaurant. Every night. She claims this is easier than cooking and cleaning up after, and even that it’s cheaper. She’s certainly right on the first count, maybe even the second. But is it fun? Does it bring the family closer? Does it make her happy?

      Most importantly, how does it make her feel about herself?

      You’d better brace yourself because I have a confession to make—this cookbook that you’re about to spend some disgusting amount of money on isn’t really a cookbook. Sure it has recipes and some pretty good ones if I do say so myself, but its real purpose is not to teach you how to cook. It’s to teach you how to live. Buy it. You’ll learn things about living without doing it the hard way, like I did.

      So how’s a cookbook that’s not really a cookbook going to put spice back into your life? Simple: the objective of this book is to help you build a happy life for yourself and those you love. It’s about doing things, small things, that make you feel good about yourself, and it uses meal preparation as the means to do that. Other cookbooks don’t. Their objective is to produce a dish or a meal; the objective of this one is to help build your sense of self-esteem. Why meal preparation? Because we all do it, we all value it, and doing it well gives us a sense of accomplishment. Best of all, we do it for people we care about.

      There are many people who try to do it all—cooking, cleaning, kids, job, wife, husband, dog—and end up passed out on the couch. Maybe that’s what The American Dream has come to mean. It’s too bad but for many people, that’s what life has become—get up, go to work, come home, eat, go to bed. O I forgot—take the kids to soccer, get the car washed, cut the grass, pay the bills, etc. etc. For most of us it’s a way of life. The only positive thing about it is that in six or 12 or 15 more years the kids will be grown up and move out, and we can live life the way we’ve always wanted to. Yea, right. Do any of us really believe that? This is a life? Frustrating. Discouraging. Purpose-less. A terrible way to face each day. I think it’s one of the reasons we Americans have high divorce rates, too much debt, and a host of other stresses.

      I know, I’ve been there. Over the course of my life I graduated from college, married, got a job, bought a house, raised kids, and bought a new car every other year. I ended up in an alcoholic treatment center. I was broke and divorced with identical twin boys to raise. I could not understand it—here I was doing all the things adult males are supposed to do in our society, and yet my life was a mess. It took me a long time—and a lot of help—to figure out that the problem was me, and that unless I did something to change myself, this misery would never end. In the process of learning how to do it, I discovered that focusing on success in small things gave me more successes with big things, because it created within me a feeling of self-confidence.

      So many of us are unhappy. So many of us are alone, even with others close by. So many have no dream. So many have a low opinion of themselves, which keeps them from trying to fix their lives. As a good friend of mine, a Priest, once told me:

      "Most people live their lives and dream their dreams, but the people who are truly happy live their dreams. You must live your dream. I can’t tell you how to do it, all I know is that when you’re doing it, you’ll know."

      You must live your dream. Believe in yourself.

      Wow. When he told me that, I couldn’t even come up with a response. I just sat there, dumbstruck.

      But he wasn’t done.

      When you were a little boy, did you have a dream? he asked.

      A dream? Yes I’d had one when I was little—I wanted to go to Africa and live with the animals. I loved animals. I even persuaded my little sister to go with me. She wasn’t too thrilled with the idea but agreed to go if she could take her Raggedy Anne doll. One day we packed a suitcase with socks and long underwear (it’s cold in Africa, you know) and of course Raggedy Anne and started to the bus stop to catch the bus to Africa. I know it sounds pretty silly but hey, my Mom didn’t raise no dumb kids; of course I knew that bus didn’t go to Africa. But I did know that you could ask the driver for a transfer to another bus and that one went to Africa.

      Just then Mother called us.

      Where are you going? she asked.

      To Africa we answered.

      Well, said Mother, with the wisdom of mothers everywhere, wouldn’t you like to go to Africa after lunch?

      What are we having for lunch? we asked.

      Chicken noodle soup with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Mother said.

      Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Africa, but the dream remained.

      Little boys can dream things like that, but big ones can’t. So what was I supposed to do? How could I figure out what my dream was, and how could I live it? I sure couldn’t go to Africa and live with the animals. I had absolutely no idea what to do. But he said it again:

      You must live your dream. Believe in yourself.

      It’s been a long time since those days and a lot has changed. Today I’m married to a beautiful and sensitive Thai lady, I’m retired so I have time to do things I’ve always wanted to, and have the money it takes to do it. Not much, but enough. The boys are good, solid young men with a very successful business of their own. The bills are paid. Obviously, something changed.

      What changed was that I began to listen to others. Nothing I tried on my own helped. I had to understand that this was my problem and only I could fix it. I didn’t want to but I had to; it was the only thing left. I discovered something: people are pretty smart, and they know things I don’t. It paid to listen and let others help me. I began to succeed in small things, which gave me confidence and made me feel good about myself. I discovered that if I learned how to handle small things, I was much better prepared to handle big ones. Life is a long series of small things with a few big things thrown in here and there to make sure we’re paying attention. Learn to deal with the small things and the big ones will be much easier to handle. Success, even in small things, builds self-confidence. That’s what this book is for—it presents you with a menu of small but useful things for you to succeed at and gain confidence in yourself. Of course it’s not going to get you speeding down the freeway of happiness but it’ll at least get you to the on-ramp.

      I believe that having confidence in yourself is the first step in living your dream. We need to believe that whatever the problem, whatever the obstacle, we can overcome it. So, in this book we’re going to start building your confidence in yourself.

      *    *     *

      We’re going to prepare seven evening meals that are both good to eat and easy to prepare. Meals you can prepare and come away from with a good feeling about yourself. Well OK maybe they’re not really easy, but they have enough pizzazz so that you can see that you’ve accomplished something. We’ll start with something simple, and work up to something impressive. There will be a recipe for each item on the menu. We’re going to ignore cholesterol and fat so you can focus on the preparation of the food.

      But easy-to-prepare doesn’t mean you can just pour-mix-cook. You’ll have to follow the recipes, measure, and watch temperatures and cooking times. Nothing comes with no effort, but it’s OK to start with things that only require a little.

      When I was a little boy I loved to watch my mother cook. I followed her all over the kitchen and even tried to climb up on the counter because I couldn’t see what she was doing from down where I was. I must have missed a meat loaf or two because the truth is that I’m a very amateur cook. I’ve had no training, never went to Le Cordon Bleu, can’t tell a frappé from a frijole. If I know anything at all about anything, it’s because I’ve learned to pay attention to people

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1