I got inspired to post this recipe this morning after making them for the family. Enoy.
Description
A Dutch Baby pancake is a German Pancake that is a cross between a soufflé, Yorksire pudding and an omelet – it is a light, airy pancake with sides. It is made with eggs, flour and milk, and usually seasoned with vanilla and nutmeg, although occasionally sugar is also added (but I don’t recommend it, they are much better with no sugar in the batter). It is baked in a iron skillet and falls soon after being removed from the oven. It is generally served with fresh squeezed lemon, butter, and powdered sugar or fruit toppings or syrup. The lemon and powdered sugar should be applied liberally in my opinion.
Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Directions
Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). I actually use two small 6 inch iron skillets most of the time.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light. Add milk and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, nutmeg and salt.
Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.
Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Squeeze 1-2 lemon wedges over the Dutch baby, apply fruit (or not) and then (using a hand strainer) shake powdered sugar liberally on top.
New Goal – 175 by end of May. I hope by going down to 175 it will be easier to ratchet up my calorie intake and level out at 180. But first I have to break the 180 barrier which I intended to do in the next 2 weeks. Notice the spike and weight gain last week on Vacation, but mmmmmmmmmmmmmm was all that food good.
End Weight: 181.8
Previous Weight: 182.8
Loss: -1.0 lbs
Net Loss: 27.6 lbs
BMI: 23.34
Percent of Goal: 94% Complete
Nothing like a good traffic visualizations. Governments and organizations have been releasing lots of GPS data, and as a result, we get to see some impressive animations and explore some slick interactives. Attached is on showing air traffic over the united states during a 24 hour period. The activity feels very organic as traffic peaks during rush hours and slows down at night.
India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor — not just through trade and politics, but through “soft” power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it’s not the size of the army that matters as much as a country’s ability to influence the world’s hearts and minds.
Below is a example of a website service for data visualization offered by a company called Tableau Public. This particular visualization is from Stephen McDaniel of Freakalytics and demonstrates how to display complex relationships between multiple metrics by looking at the stock market patterns relative to economic conditions from 1901-2008.
Traveling again this week put the hurt on my weight loss. I had to estimate my weight for Friday based on my actual weight Saturday morning. This is the first time in 11 weeks I have regressed and gained weight. Yuck.
End Weight: 185.8
Previous Weight: 185.4 GAIN: +0.4 lbs
Net Loss: 23.6 lbs
BMI: 23.85
Percent of Goal: 80.3% Complete
I’ve gone out a limb and filled out my brackets for the record. And yes that’s right, I’m ever hopeful that youthful athleticism of The Cats and experienced coaching of Calapari will bring home the banner this year. Caroline’s Crimson Tide brought home the football title, perhaps The Cats will be able to do the same on the Basketball side of the Scifres houshold.
It’s judgment day again and time to step up on the scales of truth.
Wow, things really slow down once you start getting close to your goal. I’m working harder and harder to get the weight loss each week. I’m convinced that working out while I am on a serious diet is causing me to gain muscle mass as I lose fat and therefore slowing the pace of my progress. This is probably a great thing but it is destroying the nice classically conditioned Pavlovian worm fuzzy I get when I lose 2+ pounds a week on Judgment day. Those weeks are clearly long gone. I thought I would hit my goal by the end of March and at this point I’m not sure that will be possible. I am however at the lowest weight I have been in 15 years and on the shortest, and last, belt loop on my oldest belt (if I don’t tuck in my shirt ). Progress!
End Weight: 185.4
Previous Weight: 186.4
Loss: 1.0 lbs
Net Loss: 24 lbs
BMI: 23.80
Percent of Goal: 81.6% Complete
A couple years ago I read a great book, from the New York Times Best Seller list, called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni“. Lencioni uses a fictional setting to discuss very real issues that anybody in Middle and Upper management would immediately recognize assuming they had any degree of perception during a typical staff or team meeting. The issues are not clear cut (again realistic) and can easily favor one function or department over another. The team leader patiently takes them through a team building process.
In this fable Kathryn Petersen has been tapped as the new CEO of DecisionTech, Inc. This start-up company is well funded and well staffed with quality personnel, but for the past two years has been unable to produce meaningful results. Sound familiar? As if that task wasn’t daunting enough, Kathryn has to deal with the complexity of working directly with the former CEO. He is now heading up business development and is an integral member of her team. I’m sure you have similar dynamics going on at your level of management don’t you?
At the core of the book is a model related to creating high functioning teams. The pyramid below summarizes the 5 key areas that you need to address starting at the bottom and over time, working your way up in order to build a high functioning project or management team.
Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust
These quotes of Kathryn’s, the CEO, seemed to clearly define this dysfunction:
“Trust is the foundation of real teamwork.”
“Great teams do not hold back with one another.”
“They (team members) admit their mistakes, their weaknesses and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”
“I see a trust problem here in the lack of debate that exists during staff meetings and other interactions among this team.”
Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict
“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, idealogical conflict.” Failure to do so results in:
No collaborative solutions.
Solutions that lack the input of all team members.
A team with “artificial harmony” – skin deep team approval. Tacit agreement followed by people pursing their own interests anyway – sound familiar?
Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment
Essentially this is failure to buy in to decisions.
Share Opinions: “It’s as simple as this. When people don’t unload their opinions and feel like they’ve been listened to, they won’t really get on board.” Weigh in before they buy in.
True Consensus: “Consensus is horrible. I mean, if everyone really agrees on something and consensus comes about quickly and naturally, well that’s terrific. But that isn’t how it usually works, and so consensus becomes an attempt to please everyone.” And when this happens you have a weakened solution that probably will not work well.
Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability
The pyramid continues to build on itself. There must be commitment before there can be accountability.
“People aren’t going to hold each other accountable if they haven’t clearly bought in to the same plan.”
Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results
“Our job is to make the results that we need to achieve so clear to everyone in this room that no one would even consider doing something purely to enhance his or her individual status or ego. Because that would diminish our ability to achieve our collective goals. We would all lose.”
If there is going to be ego, it should be collective ego that is greater than the individual egos. Similarly, people are going to look out for their own interests. However, the team’s interests (results) should be more important than individual interests.
Id’ recommed this book to any senior leader or person responsible for a group of people tasked with meeting a common set of goals. It doesn’t matter if you believe the group is currently dysfunctional or not, it would help you take that group to the next level either way.
I hate traveling and dieting. I spent the week in Ventura California and I have to say, it makes it almost impossible to lose weight. I did manage to take of 1 pound this week so I won’t complain but it wasn’t at all easy.
End Weight: 187.8
Previous Weight: 188.8
Loss: 1.0 lbs
Net Loss: 21.6 lbs
BMI: 24.11
Percent of Goal: 73.5% Complete
In my Leadership MBA class we have been studying many of the issues put forward by the Global Strategy Institute. In particular I liked this visualization or mapping of the future that they presented. Click on any node on the map to read more information about a particular event that the future has in store.
The CSIS Global Strategy Institute is dedicated to promoting long-range thinking about the big global issues that loom before us. To this end, they created a “map of the future” for the years 2008 through 2012. Public and private sector leaders across the country (and the globe) will have to contend with certain inevitable events, unstoppable trends, and predictable developments over the next four to five years. GSIS’s goal is to paint a picture of what the landscape will look like and to identify the major signposts we can anticipate. They have grouped these coming events into seven categories: science and technology; politics; major conferences; forecasts; construction; sporting and culture; and important dates.
Today’s leaders function in an environment marked by rapid change, ever higher levels of complexity, and ever shorter decision time frames. This map is the CSIS Global Strategy Institute’s modest attempt to help us all elevate our thinking beyond today’s headlines and to anticipate the competing obstacles and opportunities we can expect to navigate in the future. As we retreat to higher ground, the hope that we gain clarity and a sense of direction for the years ahead.
Alright, I just don’t understand weight loss at all. I busted my *** this week with exercise which reduced my Net Cals substantially. AND I ate poorly just one day. I started lifting more so perhaps that has come into play or maybe the effort required to reach your goal just grows in magnitude the closer you get to it. Ugh.
End Weight: 188.8
Previous Weight: 189.4
Loss: .6 lbs
Net Loss: 20.6 lbs
BMI: 24.24
Percent of Goal: 70% Complete
). Progress! 
