Monthly Archives: March 2014

How to Get Rid of Dead Bananas and Avocados

The other day when we were dropping the glambaby back home, my daughter-in-love, Nikki, asked if I wanted four avocados. They were pretty ripe and she wasn’t going to use them. I love avocados so I said sure. 

Paleo Chocolate Pie

I needed to use them right away, though, four of them. They were very ripe. That’s a lot of avocado for me to eat alone. I remembered seeing a chocolate avocado pudding recipe so I searched for it.  Since I also had some dead bananas, it was a perfect thing to use the avocados for. 

I thought, just maybe, that if it was good enough, David would eat it. And he did. He said it had an unusual flavor but he liked it. Awesome!

So today, I still had two very ripe avocados and two very ripe bananas left. On Tuesday, Nikki had given me some dates so I decided that I would make a chocolate pie with these things. I made the chocolate avocado pudding I made last night and then made Fudge Babies into a pie crust. 

I’m really looking forward to trying this after dinner. It looks delish! The best part is, it’s healthy and has no sugar in it. 🙂

Book Review: Spin Sucks

Spin SucksI was super excited to be selected as one of the brand ambassadors to receive and review Spin Sucks before it was released.

I’ve long been a fan of Gini Dietrich and consider her a mentor and a friend. She is a smart cookie!

The book is great. I learned things I didn’t know and I implemented them while I was reading. I’ve only ever done this with one other book.

Gini is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a digital marketing and communication firm in Chicago. In this book, she tells you how important it is to recognize how public relations and reputation management has changed in the digital age and gives you great suggestions of how to make this work for your company.

I loved the actual real life stories of companies who have done it right as well as the ones who have done it wrong. There is much to be learned from both!

If you have a business today, I strongly suggest you read this book so that you know how digital media can impact your company and how you can use it for growth and success.

 

 

Book Review: That Touch of Ink

That Touch of Ink (Mad for Mod Mystery #2)That Touch of Ink by Diane Vallere
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book! It was a fun, fast read.

Madison is an interior decorator who designs mid-century modern and dresses like Doris Day. I loved her character. She received a $5,000 bill from an old boyfriend and that begin a story that was suspenseful, funny, and quick.

This is the second book in the Mad For Mod Mystery series and I’ve not read the first but I definitely will.

Two thumbs up! 🙂

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People In My Neighborhood: Motorcycle Cop

This morning when I was walking, I passed the shopping center on Sheridan. A man came out of the laundromat, got into his white truck, and blew out of there like he was in a high speed chase. 

He even sounded loud.

I wondered, “Hmmm where’s the motorcycle cop when you need him?”

And just like I conjured him up “vroom vrooom”, lights flashing, he came out of the side street and took off after the guy in the white truck.

Everyone else stepped on their brakes. Except for the guy in the white truck who had already gone over the hill.

Tulsa Motorcycle Police

I had to laugh out loud because the motorcycle cop is a person in my neighborhood. Even before I moved here, I remember seeing him (or someone like him) and I now see him every day when I’m walking.

Oh the motorcycle cop will sit and wait

And if you speed he won’t hesitate

To pull you over to the side

Cuz the speed limit you didn’t abide.

Oh the motorcylce cop’s a person in my neighbohood

in my neighborhood, in my neigh bor hoo ood

the motorcycle cop’s a person in my neighborhood

A person that I meet, when I’m walking down the street

He’s a person that I meet, each day

And give a thumbs up to. 😉

 

Book Review: The Power of Visual Storytelling

The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your BrandThe Power of Visual Storytelling: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand by Ekaterina Walter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book about how to use images across the social media landscape to market your business.

I was excited to read this book because I’m familiar and impressed with the author’s other work. I was not disappointed!

From the beginning, this easy to understand and implement book grabbed my attention and I started thinking of people I would recommend it to.

A picture is worth a thousand words and this book shows you how to put that into practice towards your success. I loved the detailed graphics throughout the book, too. Visually appealing!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in using social media in a way that’s highly appealing to the consumer.

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Special Sauce

cookiesI was reading Gini Dietrich’s new book and in it she says that even if you give someone your recipe, they will never be able to make it like you do. She was using a cooking analogy for why it’s okay to let people know how you do your business but it’s really true.

I am known all over the world for My Cookies (a.k.a. Lauri’s Cookies). I give the recipe out freely and it’s a really precise recipe. And, yet, I still get people asking if I left something out or changed it so no one could make them like I do. The answer to that is no. Because you will never be able to make them like I do so I don’t have to. 🙂

Back when we lived in Clearwater, the Tampa Tribune interviewed me. I gave them the recipe for my cookies and for my Kahlua Fudge Poundcake (which is extremely photogenic, by the way). Being a Rottmayer in the day of phone books, it was hard to hide and when my cookie recipe didn’t turn out, my phone rang off the hook with people wanting to know why.  I give pretty detailed instructions so I couldn’t give them an answer. I could only ask, “Did you follow the recipe exactly?”

In the facebook group for Gini’s book, I left this info about the cookies to confirm what Gini had written. This had Gini  and others ask for the recipe. A quick search of my blog showed that I have NEVER put this recipe here. I couldn’t believe it. So here it is.

My Cookies (a.k.a. Lauri's Cookies)
Yields 3
My famous cookie recipe
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Ingredients
  1. 1 cup Butter; (I mean the real stuff. Land O'Lakes unsalted preferred)
  2. ½ cup Light brown sugar (C&H)
  3. ½ cup Sugar (C&H)
  4. 1½ tsp Pure vanilla extract; (NOT imitation)
  5. 1 teaspoon Baking soda
  6. 1 Egg
  7. 1.5 cups Gold Medal flour
  8. 2½ cup Old fashioned Quaker Oats; (not the quick sawdust stuff)
  9. 6 ounces Semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Guittard)
Instructions
  1. Melt butter in microwave. Stir in sugars, vanilla and soda and mix well.
  2. Mix in egg. Add flour until smooth. Add oats and chocolate chips.
  3. Drop by scoops onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack until the next sheet comes out of the oven, then remove to rack or platter.
  4. Makes approximately 3½ dozen awesome cookies
Lauri Rottmayer http://www.rottitude.com/
Please let me know if you try them. If it doesn’t work out for you, please don’t call. 😉

Book Review: The Commandant of Lubiczek

The Commandant of Lubizec: A Novel of The Holocaust and Operation ReinhardThe Commandant of Lubizec: A Novel of The Holocaust and Operation Reinhard by Patrick Hicks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy moly what a book. I have read many books about the Holocaust but I think this is the first time I realized a difference between a death camp and a concentration camp.

The camp written about in the book, Lubizec, is a fictional death camp. As I started reading, I thought the book was non-fiction even though I hadn’t heard of Lubiczek before. However, it’s a work of fiction based up on the camps Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Written in a documentary style, the story is told from the viewpoint of one of only seven men to survive mass murders over over 700,000 people, Chaim Zischer.

This detailed, fictional account of a Nazi death camp is one that should be read. I worry that people will forget the atrocities that happened in these camps as the population grows older and the survivors finally pass away.

I would highly recommend this book. I couldn’t put it down.

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