Is breakfast the most important meal?

Skip breakfast and you’re going to eat worse food for the rest of the day, and more of it.

Attracting good stuff

"Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. If you're friendly then everybody else seems to be friendly too."

Dr. David Hawkins
Psychiatrist, Physician and Researcher

“Paleo” Nutrition Blogger Will Go to Jail if He Does Not Recant

State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger

Nutrition board says he needs a license to advocate dietary approaches

On being thankful -- and its benefits

"Be thankful for what you have, you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ever have enough."

Oprah Winfrey

Helen Keller sunglasses

This product sounds like something a bunch of middle school boys would have come up with, but it's not a joke: sunglasses named after Helen Keller, from our friends in China who admire her as someone who not only overcame adversity, but was a socialist as well.  Still, I'm not sure they can understand why this sounds so funny.

10 Ways To Craft Your Resume For Ultra-Short Attention Spans

Crafting your resume for 2012 and beyond.

What to do in stress

"In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."

Lee Iacocca

Scotty McCreery: That old King James

World's best coconut cake ... maybe the world's best cake, period

So I wrote yesterday about the coconut cake my wife made for my birthday, but I was writing from what it looked like and from reading the recipe.  And after a big dinner last night (8 of us altogether!) I can speak from taste:  this is the best coconut cake I've ever eaten.  Maybe the best cake I've tasted, ever.

I don't say that easily.  Coconut has long been (from childhood) a favorite of mine, and it remains so.  This cake is moist, flavorful, and full of good coconut taste.  Not a quick cake (as I pointed out yesterday, you have to start it 48 hours ahead of time!) but a good one.  One that you make for an Occasion.  A birthday, anniversary, or just when you want to show Somebody Special that you love them.  Here's the recipe, again.

Is this the world's best coconut cake?

Well, I can't say for sure yet, because I haven't sliced it, though sore tempted.

I'm not a big cake fan.  Most cakes that you get are dry (over-relying on cake mixes will do that for you, as will trying to avoid any butter in the cake -- contrary to what people tell you, applesauce is not a good substitute for  the clean taste of butter), cloyingly sweet, or just lacking taste in general.

But I do love coconut cake.  Growing up, there was a woman at church who made an incredible coconut cake: moist, full-flavored, and redolent of coconut.

The problem?  Finding a recipe that really, REALLY replicates that full coconut taste.

A few months ago, we found this recipe in Our State magazine, a good publication devoted to things North Carolinian.  And since this cake isn't quickly put together (it requires starting 48 hours ahead of serving!) my wife saved it for my birthday.

Which is tomorrow.  So she began on Wednesday, because we're having our children and their friends for dinner tomorrow.  I'm doing pork and chicken Chinese recipes, and while cake doesn't go with Chinese, we all need an inconsistency or two.  Here's mine.  I'll report tomorrow on the outcome of the cake.

Put This Food on Your Hair for a New Level of Luster

Using coconut oil to improve your hair's health.

Looking for good

"If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."

Harold Kushner

Eat Donuts and GET UNCOMFORTABLE

My daughter Alex's guest post on the blog Carrots 'n Cake.

Move Over, Dick Tracy

How A $3 Million Kickstarter Project Could Save The Wristwatch (Yes, The Wristwatch)

Where do I go from here?

"Making a decision usually means taking one of two roads. One is doing the right thing. To take the other road, you have to sit back and spin a story around the decision or action you are taking. If you find yourself thinking up an elaborate justification for what you are doing, you are not doing the right thing."

Wayne Sales

Why Being A Meaner Boss Will Help Your Company--And Make Your Employees Happy

Afraid of being a mean boss? Here's some help.

The clarity of the teachings of the Scriptures

I'm working through Schmid's Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2 pages a day. It's proving good and useful. Some thoughts from recently on perspicuity in the Scriptures, my paraphrase:

1. Salvation is taught perspicuously.

2. The remaining passages of Scripture receive light from these [that is, the salvation passages].

3. From perspicuous passages, we deduce a rule of Faith.

4. If we cannot attain clarity from all passages, we propose nothing contrary to the analogy in their [that is, the "rule of faith" passages] interpretation.

What great minds have

"Great minds have great purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."

Washington Irving
1783-1859, Author, Biographer, and Historian

Newest book idea

Though I've kept a stream of short posts on this blog, it hasn't been active with much in the last year or so. And that's because I've been writing (as in books) and I'm continuing to work on those, but I am trying to go back to a more regular (that is, substantive) schedule here.

I'm working today on my latest book. Tentative title: Eating with Genghis Khan: 26 Authentic Dishes So You Can Eat Like the Marauding Hordes.

In case you're wondering, this isn't a joke. Those who have known me for a while know of my long-standing interest in things Mongolian. This is not one I expect to be a best-seller, but it's fun researching Mongol recipes, and remembering eating this stuff from when I was there in 1995.

How Olive Oil Is Made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieNV3V4b_s&feature=related

The best articles online

Recommended: this site for some of the finest article writing.

Not just new articles, but older pieces, some dating decades back.

But really fine stuff, and free.

http://longform.org/

Today

"Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day."

Excerpt from an ancient Sanskrit poem

Beginning with confidence

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started."

Marcus Tullius Cicero
106 BC - 43 BC, Roman Philosopher and Statesman

When to start doing

"When you have talked yourself into what you want, right there is the place to stop talking and begin saying it with deeds."

Napoleon Hill
1883-1970, Author

Making your life

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."

John Homer Miller
1910-1944, Teacher

Stopping and starting

"The start is what stops most people."

Don Shula
Former NFL Coach

How to get through hard times

"A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose - a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve."

John Maxwell

The key to success

"I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up. Most people in this business gave up and went on to other things. If you simply didn't give up, you would outlast the people who came in on the bus with you."

Harrison Ford
Actor

Making dreams come alive

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

Jesse Owens
1913-1980, Olympic Gold Medalist

Not fretting the small stuff

"Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest."

Beatrix Potter
1866-1943, Author and Illustrator

Where winners live

"Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future."

Denis Waitley

Making a fool out of yourself

"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap."

Cynthia Heimel
Playwright, Television Writer, and Author

Success and courage

"Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act."

Maxwell Maltz

Getting what you desire

"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat."

Napoleon Hill

Take action!

"Life is too short to waste. Dreams are fulfilled only through action, not through endless planning to take action."

David J. Schwartz

Strength in difficulties

"I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties."

James Cash Penney
1875-1971, Founder of J.C. Penney Stores

What love is

"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."

Wayne Dyer

Looking at the goal

"You've got to walk right into what you want and not look at what you don't want. Stay focused on the goal."

Calvin LeHew

What courage does

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, 'I'll try again tomorrow.'"

Mary Anne Radmacher

Get started!

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

Dale Carnegie

Achieving something great

"Nothing great has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances."

Bruce Barton

Noticing people

"The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity."

Thomas J. Peters

Telling the truth

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Mark Twain

Choosing pain

"Each of us must experience one of two pains - the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Which pain will you choose?"

Jim Rohn

True security

"When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer."

Harry Browne
Financial Advisor and Writer

How to make your life better

"Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life."

Harvey Mackay

The power of concentration

"Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets."

Nido Qubein
Author and Speaker

Seeing the future

"See things as you would have them be instead of as they are."

Robert Collier
1885-1950, Author

Do something!

"Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all."

Brian Tracy
Author and Speaker

What we leave behind

"What we have done for ourselves alone, dies with us; what we have done for others and the world, remains and is immortal."

Albert Pike

When you know you're right

"Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something, without feeling the necessity to prove someone else is wrong."

Sydney J. Harris

Starting where you are

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."

Napoleon Hill

Making the world a better place

"I believe in taking a positive attitude toward the world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better than when I got here."

Jim Henson
1936-1990, Muppets Creator

What's in your mind

"Let a series of happy thoughts run through your mind. They will show on your face."

Norman Vincent Peale

Where you're going

"Paths clear before those who know where they're going and are determined to get there."

Leonard Roy Frank
Editor and Writer

Goals and daily life

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."

Robert Heinlein
Novelist

Get going!

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

Walt Disney

Your life

"Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else."

Les Brown
Speaker

Finding happiness

"Plenty of people miss their share of happiness. Not because they never found it - but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."

William Feather
1889-1981, Publisher and Author

Daylight in the mind

"Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."

Joseph Addison

Facing your fears

"Many of our fears are tissue paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."

Brendan Behan
1923-1964, Poet, Novelist, and Playwright

Believing in yourself

"Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you."

Oscar Wilde

Dreaming dreams

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

Leo Jozef Suenens

Never quit

"Your biggest break can come from never quitting. Being at the right place at the right time can only happen when you keep moving toward the next opportunity."

Arthur Pine

Telling someone thanks

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."

Margaret Cousins
1905-1996, Writer

A cheerful heart

"The cheerful live longest in years, and afterwards in our regards. Cheerfulness is the offshoot of goodness."

Christian Nestell Bovee
1820-1904, Author

Giving pleasure to others

"You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow youself to say anything gloomy."

Julia Child

Getting creative

"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."

John Cleese
Actor, Comedian, Writer, and Film Producer

Looking to the future

"Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change."

Tom Clancy

What hard work does

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."

Sam Ewing
Former Major League Baseball Player

Enjoying every minute

"And so it has come to this. I am one of the lucky people in the world. I found something that I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it."

Johnny Carson

The foundation of true progress

"Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress."

Nicholas Murray Butler

When someone says you can't do something

"Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again."

James R. Cook
1728-1779, Naval Explorer

Life and security

"There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor."

Eleanor Roosevelt

How to make progress

"Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."

James Bryant Conant

Taking action

"Life is too short to waste. Dreams are fulfilled only through action, not through endless planning to take action."

David J. Schwartz

When it doesn't pay to be 100% sure

"If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done."

Norman Vincent Peale

2 paths in life

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

Denis Waitley

Coming up every morning

"If you're feeling low, don't despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night, but it comes back up every morning. The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

Dolly Parton

Doing extraordinary things

"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things."

Sir Edmund Hillary
1919-2008, Mountaineer, Explorer and Philanthropist

Enjoying the roses

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today."

Dale Carnegie

The one who benefits most from forgiveness

"Learn forgiveness. If you are the person who has been wronged, always remember that you have the power to forgive. No one else can give this power to you. Amazingly, by releasing resentment or negative feelings, you are the one who benefits most of all."

Cheryl Hitchcock

No peace without forgiveness

"Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness."

Marianne Williamson

Laughter is like medicine

"A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing."

Laura Ingalls Wilder
1867-1957, Author

Determination

"There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed."

Nicolas Chamfort
1741-1794, Writer

Living every moment

"Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materializes. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God."

Mary Manin Morrissey

When money fails

"My father taught me that reputation, not money, was the most important thing in the world."

William Rosenberg
1916-2002, Founder of Dunkin' Donuts

Happiness

"Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly."

Leo Tolstoy

Getting clear with your vision

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens."

Carl Jung
1875-1961, Psychiatrist

What matters

"People who matter are most aware that everyone else does, too."

Malcolm Forbes

What we can do

"We have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here."

Mildred Taylor

Those who win

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."

Bertie Charles Forbes
1880-1954, Financial Journalist, Author and founder of Forbes Magazine

Life's barricades -- or bridges?

"Setbacks and stressors are bridges to be crossed to our goals... not barricades to keep us from them."

Stephen Pierce
Speaker and Author

lifes

"Setbacks and stressors are bridges to be crossed to our goals... not barricades to keep us from them."

Stephen Pierce
Speaker and Author

Changing the world

"Maybe you can't change the whole world, but if you have love in your heart you can make small differences every day, which really does change the world, one life at a time."

Kristina Koncz

Habits

"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us."

John Dryden

Getting started

"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all."

Norman Vincent Peale

Being thankful

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

Oprah Winfrey

Making others happy

"You will find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy."

Lydia M. Child
1802-1880, Abolitionist