Yummy Yams

Garnet Yams

Now, for one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes—garnet yams. Again, this is super easy, and if you want to, you can do the initial roast ahead of time. I love garnet yams for their flavor, consistency, and versatility.

Now, you get to decide. Do you want super simple with nothing more added? The garnet yams can be just by themselves for the addition to your feast. Or do you want to go sweet or savory?

Sweet Garnet Yam Yumminess

This recipe will make enough for 8 to 10 servings (Though it depends totally on whether your folks eat it as a side dish!)

You can easily reduce the amount for smaller groups.

For 8 to 10 servings, use 5 pounds of garnet yams.

Put on a baking sheet and roast 50 minutes at 400° or until they are barely tender yet hold their shape (not mushy).

Let cool completely at room temperature. (You can do this up to 2 days ahead).

On the day of baking, remove skins and cut yams into ½ inch thick slices.

Butter a 2-quart baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter. Arrange yam slices in the dish, slightly overlapping. Turn oven to 375°.

In a small pan, on medium heat, mix ½ cup your choice of syrup, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and 4 tablespoons of butter. Whisk to combine and pour mixture over yams.

In a small bowl, mix ¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans, ¹/₃ cup flour (easy to use gluten-free flour),¹/₃ cup light brown sugar*, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Add 3 tablespoons butter and rub in with fingers until mixture is evenly moistened and forms clumps. Sprinkle over yams.

Bake yams for 35 minutes or until topping is browned.

Now, imagine making this with apple slices and blackberries. Absolute yumminess!

Savory Garnet Yam Yumminess

For 4 servings, use 2 garnet yams.

Peel and cut 2 yams into ½ inch thick chunks.

Put yams on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast 10 to 15 minutes at 400° or until they are barely tender yet hold their shape (not mushy).

In a large pan, sauté 4 to 6 slices of bacon cut into chunks. When getting crispy and brown, add 1 large onion (cut into ½ inch pieces or larger), and sauté until onions are soft.

Add 2 Granny Smith apples (chopped into ½ inch to ¾ inch pieces) and sauté for a few minutes. Stir in the roasted yams and sauté until they are cooked and starting to become crispy. (7 to 8 minutes)

Transfer to your serving platter and sprinkle with scallion greens and ½ cup toasted pumpkin seeds or toasted almonds.

*A sweet tip from Judy Baker, the Badass Book Marketing Mentor and healthy cook

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Announcing the Deborah Myers Wellness Website

It happened! My new website is live! I’m not saying it’s done, because I discovered along the way that I had to let go of that expectation. Anything we create is always in a state of change. Even when we think we finished a project, we discover something needs changing. And, my goodness, I know that about my garden! I can’t even count the number of times over the last 18 years that I’ve moved plants to different locations because they needed more sun, less sun, more elbow room, a different set of companion plants. Sometimes I discovered I needed to let a plant go because it didn’t work. So, if I knew that, I wonder why I thought a website update would go to a completed state without changes and side trips! Here is my ah-ah for this experience! Just like my garden, projects like a website, a training program or a new product are never in a completed state because they are always being added to and changed up, which allows them to evolve into many bigger possibilities.

It Takes a Team

Thank goodness for my amazing team who worked with me to bring my ideas for the website and the possibilities to fruition. Catch the garden connection? I couldn’t have done it without Heidi, who was my website guru at Planeteria, my longtime website company. I sure couldn’t manage all the intricacies of the content without Ruth Schwartz who has an eagle eye and can comb through minutia with a fine-toothed comb. She’s the reason there will be the parts and pieces that still get found and changed up. Judy Baker was there to make sure we had the right product images and banners. And Victoria Lasin was often my final eye for editing the content.

Along the way, there were critical deadlines, as you can well imagine. I’ve always known that I don’t do well with deadlines when I’m the one who sets them. But when someone else gives me one, I can really get into a state of angst. Well, getting things done isn’t an easy process when we get into that place. I so wish I could remember that each time I set a deadline!

Stay in Flow

I’ve decided that instead of expecting myself to remember how I can be with deadlines, I am choosing to find the flow. Here’s what I’ve realized. And, I hope you can get help from my realization when you decide to create a big project.

Order from Chaos Tip Sheet

Create a master list of all your projects and split big projects into smaller manageable ones
Develop a storyboard to remind you of what you want to see at the end of the journey
Have hope of the completion date and allow yourself room for change
Put timelines to the items listed in the smaller lists (keep lists and projects manageable with 10 or fewer items)
Be realistic that everything on the list (both the actual to-do steps and the expected completion dates) will change when the prior items get shifted
Change the storyboard often. It’s okay!
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Don’t sweat the timing
Celebrate the completions along the way
Give yourself permission to take a break from the project; both you and the project may benefit from some respite
Don’t sweat the small stuff and the timing
And maybe the most important item of all is to be kind to yourself. We are more often than not the hardest on ourselves

Notice how many times I said, “don’t sweat the small stuff and the timing?”

Visit the new website

Please tell your friends to visit my new website. It combines the Health at Your Fingertips and the Daily Clean Your House Flow sites.

To see what we created: go to deborahmyerswellness.com

I am a proud Mama

The new website process felt as if I was giving birth, and it took a full nine months. Thank goodness for my team who helped me with the gestation and the actual birthing.

Stay on the Right Path

Clarity and focus kept me on the path. There is one key energy hold I kept reminding myself to do.

Right hand: cup forehead with fingers on the left side
Left hand: cup base of skull with fingers on the right side of occiput
Switch hands

To release any tension that has built up and to prevent tension and stress, follow these steps:

Right hand: cup sternum below the clavicle
Left hand: hold fingers in a vertical pattern on the tummy below the navel
Right hand: cup left shoulder with fingers near neck
Left hand: hold left sit bone
Switch hands to release right side

I wish you an easy journey with your project, whatever it might be!

Serendipity and Tears

Is it serendipity or is it just a small world? I love how life can bring amazing moments that create goose bumps and make your heart feel full. I totally believe that we can easily attract what we want to receive by walking around in a body that is energetically balanced and harmonized. You’ve heard me say that or read my articles or watched my Energy of Prosperity Workshop DVD. But I have to admit that I still get beautifully surprised!
Last Saturday I attended a BAIPA meeting (Bay Area Independent Publishers Association). Judy Baker of brandvines, my awesome marketing coach who creates systems to get my word out and consistently makes me look good, told me I needed to attend both the meeting and the workshop. She was right one more time! The guest speaker was Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, who spoke about creating your own publicity and the fabulous tools that are available to do so.
I’m sitting in the room, listening to everyone introduce themselves when I realize that the next person is going to be Barbara Hyde, my very dear friend from college. I’ve seen her a few times in the past forty years, but we had lost touch. I hadn’t seen her for at least fifteen years. I had no idea that she had just moved back to San Francisco. Then, I looked around the room and there she was! I couldn’t say anything to her at the moment because she needed to be focused for her introduction. I sat there for another forty-five minutes as the microphone went around the room. When it was my turn I didn’t dare look at her because I knew I would burst into tears of joy.
As I sat down our eyes met and the smiles were huge. You can imagine the hugs and laughter that followed. And, of course, there were tears. I had to tell Barbara that my husband, Randy, had died three years ago. That was not an easy conversation. She was the person who introduced me to Randy one month before we were graduated from college.
So here we are in Northern California, back in touch, spending time together, catching up and feeling blessed that life can bring such beautiful moments. I am indeed blessed and feel very lucky that the people in my world help create magical moments. Thank you Judy and Joan for being a part of the serendipity. And thank you, Barbara, for bringing me to tears!