1. Season the roast with garlic salt, salt and pepper.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees then…
3. turn it down to 475 degrees and cook your roast for 21 minutes. Then…
4. you turn off the oven and leave it there for 2 and a half hours.

Mine turned out tender and juicy and delicious!! (TIP: use a good, sharp knife so your meat doesn’t seem tough.)

Heat up a can of your favorite green beans and a box of rice pilaf as sides and Viola! Dinner is served! (I like Near East brand rice pilaf)

Some great tips to help make getting healthy meals on the table a snap! I talk about cooking 6 meals in one day to serve for the whole week, double-baggin a second portion, freezing techniques, using Press N Seal, Reynolds Wrap, Ziplock containers and more!

One of my very least favorite things to do is assemble an artificial Christmas tree. The tightly wound steel wire ends shoot out like unassuming razor barbs waiting for me to run the palms of my bare hands down to release the “branches” into full, pine bloom. With each branch, more and more fake needles fall to the floor like winter’s first forest-green snowfall adding the extra duty of pulling out the vacuum when I’m done. Someday, all that will be left of the tree will be a pitiful, Charlie Brown, wire skeleton in the shape of a 7-foot-tall triangle.

Once it resembles an actual tree, I have to jam fists full of lights into it every two feet spiraling upward to the top. In the end, my hands and arms look as if I’ve helped Chino State Prison replace 100 miles of barbed wire fencing with no gloves on.

This weekend, while at Big Lots getting Barbie dolls and Matchbox cars for our favorite restaurant’s Toy Drive box, I happened upon a sale that actually made me rubber-neck and turn around for another look. It was an “easy assemble”, 7′ spruce with lights already attached! “Magnificant!” (I actually said the word aloud.) The best part, it was only $49.99. I doubled back to get a better look but by the time I got through the throngs of moms with kids and carts and stockroom boxes filling the aisles I noticed a man with his fingers locked behind the yellow packing band of the last tree on the rack. He was on the phone telling his wife, “The other store was out but I got the last one at this Big Lots”. I know it was his wife because no man in his right mind would call another man or a co-worker or even his parents and announce that he was spending his Sunday afternoon shopping the local Big Lots stores for the last $50 Christmas tree.

“My tree will last another year or so.” I thought as I made my way back up to the register where my wife and daughter were waiting.

As I stood there I started to run down everything I would have to do to make my house all “Christmas’y”. The mental notes started to pile up and, for some odd reason, I started to become very tired. 1) Bring the plastic totes in from the garage with all the decorations. Scratch that… 1) Move everything in the garage that’s in the way OUT OF THE WAY so I can first gain access to the totes with all the Christmas decorations. 2) Bring the totes in from the garage. 3) Arrange the containers for easiest access in order of importance. I know said “order of importance” because I’ve been a married man for a very long time and fully understand the chaos that disorganized containers can create. 4) Drag the oblong tree box into the house. 5)… 6)… 7)… The list went on and on. I was starting to get pretty stressed out when I looked over and saw my girls standing by an end cap near the “stocking stuffers”.

My 12-year-old was gazing longingly at eye shadow gift sets while my wife gingerly arranged small, ceramic figurines in a cotton-laden Christmas town display. My wife was mumbling something and when I made out what she was saying I realized she was singing along to the Christmas music being broadcast throughout the store. Then, my daughter made her way around the shelf to the dolls and smiled as she inspected the latest included fashion accessories. “Oooo… this one has a pretty dress.” she said to no one in particular.

Okay, so I’m a sucker for my girls. I am powerless in the face of their unintentional sweetness. It’s all I needed to remember why I drag that horrible, monster of a tree and 400 pounds of other decorations from the garage each year. Right there, in that overly packed and obnoxiously loud discount store I had my “Christmas moment”. Last year my Christmas moment didn’t happen until my wife forcibly dragged me out to look at the colorful strands of lights a bunch of guys had stapled to the eaves of their houses. The year before, not until Christmas morning. Why it usually takes me some time before I can get into the spirit of the season is beyond me. Until I notice what it means to my family, I just see it as, well, a pain in my ass.

For my wife, it seems to happen the moment Halloween is over and the TV commercials start to air. For her, the season means family and baking and laughter and providing thoughtful gifts for our children and giving. For my daughter, it means hopes and dreams and magic.

So there we were, buying these toys and it hit me… like a ton of glittery, green and red, Christmas bricks. My heart sank as I thought of all the fathers who will put these gifts under their little girls’ trees. I imagined their trees. Will they be big and beautiful like mine or will they even be able to afford one? If they had my tree, would they be thankful or dwell on why it sucks to have to put it together. I felt like an ass.

I didn’t let on to my wife what I was feeling. When I got home, I wasted no time in getting our tree assembled. Once it was done, I plugged in the light strands, turned off all the other lights and we all watched a movie together. And I was thankful for my tree.

I wish I could say I’m the picture perfect example of the Christmas spirit right now but I’m not. It’s not my style to run around with bells on my shoes or a wreath on the front of my car. What I am feeling, though, is the spirit of giving, love and togetherness. I’m looking forward to the older kids coming home from college for some much needed family-around-the-table bonding, laughing and eating my wife’s delicious, home-cooked meals. On Christmas morning, we’ll all clutch large cups of hot coffee (even the 12-year-old) and be blessed enough to be able to gather around the tree to exchange gifts. Our big, wonderful, Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays!

Debi talks about her Albertsons grocery shopping trip where she used her Albertsons stamp book and got 2 Thomas Rosenthal Cookware pieces for 2 pennies!

Kevin Nealon gives Debi some Christmas shopping advice from the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. November 30th, 2010

Debi is approached by this hip, 20-something guy who had just seen her perform at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood. He says, “That was hilarious. Her act cracked me up dude!”

Thanks, Laugh Factory Guy!!

I get you! I know you don’t have the time and energy to buy all these ingredients, prep them and drop them into 6 other little bowls you have to wash! Now, I love my family and go to lengths to make them a wonderful dish now and then, but most evenings you’ll find me rushed and trying to get dinner on the table before the natives get restless!

It starts with a can…Here is a simple and easy recipe for a hearty autumn soup your whole family will love and it will not only be a staple for Halloween and football game nights, it is a dish company will love.

It is a pasta and bean soup but you can call it what you like. We refer to it as bean soup but it’s really called Pasta Fagioli (fa-jol) I know Giada has a much more complicated recipe, but I know your time and budget can be limited. Keep the ingredients in your pantry and you will always be ready. Another great tip is to buy these items when they are on sale! I stock up when Albertson’s has the 10 for $1.00 sale going!

Please note, I don’t always give exact measurements; I cook like you! Eye ball measurements and add to taste. The Food Network chefs always serve their food to a fun group of family and friends and you can too if you abandon guilt and expectations, keep it simple and skip to the fun part of enjoying your family!

Bean and Pasta Soup

Level: easy
Cost: amazingly budget friendly
Clean up: easy

Ingredients:

• 2 cans canneli beans *(white kidney beans)
• 2 cans chicken stock
• 1 large can of chopped tomatoes flavored with garlic, basil and oregano.
• 1 small brown onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• leftover ham or 4 slices of bacon or salt pork…whatever you have on hand!
• olive oil
• small sized pasta (salad macaroni or small shells, even alphabet pasta is a fun choice!)

Instructions:

1. In your soup pot, saute chopped garlic, onion and leftover ham or bacon in olive oil.
2. Rinse beans and add beans, chicken stock, tomatoes and about a cup and 1/2 of water.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I add a few crushed red pepper flakes)
4. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat and add about 3/4 cup of uncooked pasta.
5. Let this soup slowly simmer for about an hour.

Tips:

Be careful when adding pasta; keep in mind it can as much as double in size.
Serving tips: serve with a loaf of fresh baked bread always avail at the front of the store, canned bisquits, or corned bread.
Shopping tips: buy chopped tomatoes already flavored with herbs for quick and easy italian or mexican meals!  These tomatoes usually go on sale when the plain ones do.
Cooking tips: Cube and freeze those last few slices of ham from your next holiday dinner for this dish.

Debi talks about her Albertsons grocery shopping trip where she saved $115! She uses coupons, re-usable bags and CASH to get the most out of her trip! She also explains Albertsons’ cookware stamp book and how to get quality pots or pans for just 1 penny!!

Learn more about Albertsons here: www.albertsons.com

This year, my husband was in the kitchen when I was in my cooking frenzy. He watched as I poured two bowls of cranberry sauce and held one into the air. “This one,” I announced, “is for us”. He shrugged his shoulders and said “OK”. He was completely underwhelmed. He stole some shredded cheese from my bowl and said very casually, “I don’t like cranberry sauce”.

I have been feeding this man for over 17 years. I thought back to all the Thanksgiving dinners we have celebrated together. I mentally pictured his plate: no yams, no green bean casserole, no lime jello, double serving of stuffing and a turkey leg and, yes… my cranberry sauce!

“But you eat it every year! ” I was floored.

Every year since our daughters could reach the stove, we have made the sauce. Sometimes we make a fancy one with orange zest and nuts, but we always have one bowl of the original. It was so wonderful to see our little girl proudly place a dish she made on her grandmother’s table and listen to the compliments from family members.

“I only eat it because you make it.” he said as he casually ate more shredded cheese.

“But you don’t eat all the other food you don’t like. You don’t eat yams or jello and will pass up dessert completely if there is only pumpkin pie”. I really was confused.

“Yes, but you don’t make any of that.” he answered, stole more cheese and then went back to his office.

This was a learning moment for me. It was a lesson about the language of love spoken by a husband and father. You see, when a man speaks his language of love, it rarely includes words. A man’s language of love come from actions.

Every Thanksgiving, my husband must have watched me and one of our daughters making a simple cranberry sauce over the stove, put it into a crystal dish and set it on my mom’s Thanksgiving table. All these years, I thought he never really noticed or cared. But he had. Even though he never liked cranberries, he knew his wife and daughter would be watching to see who would eat what they had prepared. He always took a good sized serving and complimented us in front of everyone.

I love this about my husband. Even though he is a vet having served with the Marine Corps, this simple action every Thanksgiving makes him my hero. He would never want his wife’s or daughter’s dish to go untouched.

His language of love is there and I must remember to watch for the actions, which, after all, speak much louder than words.

On her way to a show in Thousand Oaks, Debi gives some encouraging words for friends and fans to support local businesses on “Small Business Saturday”. (November 27th, 2010)

Fiamme – www.fiammerestaurant.com
Fringe Salon Covina www.fringesaloncovina.com