wings

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An Original Should Not Be Tinkered With

Tonight I’m going to try an original sauce on my wings. 

an original should not be tinkered with

About a year ago I started making hot wings at home. I had a spot that I always got my wings from but, during one of the COVID lockdowns, they closed and I needed a different source for my weekly craving. 

It was a good thing I started making them myself because my wing guy didn’t open back up for almost six months. 

Think about that for a moment: I might have gone without wings for half a year! 

… I’m not sure I would have survived. 

Along with taking on the role of head wing chef in our house, I also needed to have a sauce that would match or rival my old wing joint. I experimented for weeks, tweaking my recipe each time I had wings until I finally found a taste to my liking.

I’m sure that most high-level chefs go through the same process when they are trying to create a new dish. They add a dash of this and a pinch of that, always with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. 

… I know those spices from listening to Simon and Garfunkel in the 60’s. Those four spices always have to go together – not in my wing sauce, of course, but when a chef is inventing a new delectable delight to satisfy the taste buds of his customers.

We all tinker with things, trying to make them more to our liking. We might try to tweak something to make it easier to use. We might try to make something more affordable, or appeal to a wider range of people. 

Sometimes it doesn’t work. 

When I was growing up, my mother would occasionally buy us Alpha-Bit cereal. I remember really liking it. Over my formative years I ate my way through many, many boxes of that early reading tool.

Then recently I had a chance to try Alpha-Bits again. There was something that just was not right about them. It had been so long since I’d eaten them, but I knew there was something different. 

I read on the box, “new enhanced flavour”. In this case, no, it was not “new enhanced”, it was “not very good”. I won’t be trying Alpha-Bits any time soon.

But back to my wing sauce … 

I had a few wings on vacation at my brother’s cottage. Of course he didn’t have my sauce, but what he did have was the main ingredient in my recipe: Franks Red Hot sauce. 

So I decided to try it straight up on his wings. You know what? There was something about it that was really good … maybe even better than my sauce. 

I’m not sure, so tonight I will try it at home with my wings – Frank’s, straight up. 

It’s possible I should never have tried to tweak the formula. Sticking with the original may be the best way to go.

Don’t overthink or try to improve on something that is already just the way it should be. 

Here’s the thing: There are times that we want to tweak our faith a little to bring it into line with some of the current thoughts and trends of the day. Remember that the original is the best. The Word of God is our timeless authority and we should continue to follow it and not try to massage it more to our liking or the world’s liking. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you tweaked that you realized you shouldn’t have? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Tweak Something To Make It Better

There are several ways you can tweak something – some are bad, but some are good. 

tweak something to make it better

Everyone has tweaked something at some time or other in their life. 

You might have tweaked a muscle … that’s a bad kind of tweak. It’s not really bad, but it is painful. You can still walk around with that sore thigh or calf muscle, but you might have a slight limp for a day or two. 

That’s the other thing about a tweak. When it applies to a muscle, it never lasts too long. In just  a day or two that bicep muscle will feel good again. But at the moment it happens, you grimace, rub your arm and say, “I think I tweaked my bicep a bit.” 

That’s just the way it is. 

Now there is another not so nice tweak I know of. I hesitate to mention it, but I guess I will anyway. 

It happened mostly in school between boys. Every once in a while a guy would come up and grab another guy’s nipple and twist it. They would tweak it and it was painful. But that was what you got for not paying attention or being aware of who was around you.

There is another use of the word, “tweak”, and that is to make something better, or to make perfect something that is already good. 

You might tweak a car engine to make it run a little smoother. You could tweak the design plans for a house to make some dramatic enhancements.

Today I’m in the middle of tweaking my hot sauce. As I’m writing this, it is the Saturday before the Super Bowl so the timing is perfect. 

I wrote about getting a deep fryer not long ago (read about it here) and since then I’ve been working on my sauce. 

The main ingredient is Frank’s Original Hot Sauce, but I can’t divulge the rest. It is fast becoming a family secret. 

I started with reviewing about seven different recipes and whittled it down to three that I thought I would like. Each recipe had about five different ingredients that supplemented the Franks – something I didn’t realize until now.  

I had thought you just dowsed the wings with Frank’s and that was it. 

NO, NO, NO. There is more science behind the perfect sauce than that. 

So I’m on my third attempt to get the sauce just right. Today I will tweak my recipe again. I’m going to add more Frank’s, reduce one ingredient, and add another ingredient. 

The sauce is good; it just needs something more to make it perfect. So I will continue to tweak my recipe until I get it just right. 

I may have to eat a lot of wings before I patent my sauce, but that’s just the price I’ll have to pay.

Here’s the thing: Let me encourage you to tweak your time with God every once in a while. Your quiet time with God may be good, but there will come a time when you need to tweak it to make it even better. If you don’t have a fulfilling time with God right now, don’t just keep doing the same thing. Don’t lose interest. Take some effort and tweak the time you spend with God. Change where or when you meet with Him. Add journaling or a guide. Begin to read through the Bible. Whatever it takes, make the most important time of your day a little more meaningful. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life needs some tweaking right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’m A Contradiction And I Don’t Care

Most people are going to think that I’m a contradiction to what I’ve said I believe and practice.

I'm a contradiction and I don't care

But before you get your shirt in a knot, I’ll assure you it has nothing to do with my faith.

There are a lot of things these day that are contradictions. For example, there was Biden’s executive order of wearing a mask on all federal premises and then he was seen on federal premises without a mask. 

I’m a contradiction because I recently wrote four blog posts about a plan for losing weight. And now in this post I’m going to tell you something that seems to go directly against all I wrote in those previous posts.

Adults have this problem of not acting out what they say they believe. Parents will even tell their children, “Do as I say, not as I do.” The reason they say that is because what they are telling their children directly contradicts something that they are doing. 

No wonder, by the time kids reach junior or high school, they no longer believe anything their parents say. To teens, their parents are a contradiction. 

We’ve seen in our society where people condemn the violence that took place at the Capital Building, but then defend the violence of the many protests which took place in US cities during the summer.

We are a complete contradiction. 

So be kind to me when I tell you I just bought a deep fryer. 

That’s right, I wrote about how you can lose that weight you desperately want to get rid of and then I bought a deep fryer. 

It’s like I was saying, “Do this, but I’m going to do something contradictory instead.” 

It seems like I’m a contradiction and not just on the surface. You may be thinking “I’d like to see you get out of this one, you phony.”

Though I admit it seems like I’m a contradiction, I really am not. 

You see, the four posts I wrote about losing weight were not tied to a diet. I didn’t encourage anyone to only eat certain foods. In those posts I was advocating a lifestyle. I was saying this is how you can live your life and lose weight. 

One of the things I do each week is have chicken wings. I didn’t stop eating chicken wings in order to lose weight. I am, however, careful not to eat them too often. 

But I enjoy them and I will enjoy my life. 

Recently, the place where I get my wings each Saturday night (and I only have them once a week) has been closed. I’m not sure they will open up again, but if they do, they were going to start selling fish as well. 

Lily is highly allergic to fish, so it was looking like the end of getting wings there any way … best wings in town, by the way.

So I thought I would try to make my own wings. There is no difference in ordering wings from a restaurant once a week or making them myself once a week. 

No contradiction. 

By the way, they were delicious. … Now I’ve just got to perfect my hot sauce recipe. 

Here’s the thing: There are some people who say that the Bible is filled with contradictions. That is as good a reason as any for them not to believe the Bible. But the truth is, if you take a deep and closer look into what the Bible really does say, you will find that the seeming contradictions are not there at all. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What might be some contradictions you are living with now? And what will you do about them? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Different Rules Apply

This is a reblog of a post I wrote March 26, 2013

There are different rules around our house when I’m on my own … to be accurate, it was my son and I who were on our own this weekend. Lily was away speaking at a women’s retreat.

wings and pizza copy

Before she left, she gave us some rules to live by while she was gone. But even as she shared her expectations with us, I knew that when the door shut, a whole different set of rules would kick in.

I listened to her directions and got some tips, like for meals she wanted us to eat the leftovers in the fridge and not spend money on food. However, I made it clear to Mike that the leftovers were for lunches and evening meals would be pizza and wings. … not together, mind you … pizza one night and then wings for the hockey game Saturday night.

I’m sure that as Lily tells us what we should eat, by now she realizes what will really happen. I think it is her eternal, optimistic, pie-in-the-sky hope that maybe we will actually follow her rules that forces her to tell us.

Along with the eating rules, the cleanliness rules go out the window as well. She knows better than to expect us to keep up to her standards. She only expects that when she returns the place will look like it did when she left. Whatever happens between then, she tries very hard not to think about.

Lily has this rule that is etched into her brain that she can’t leave the house or go to bed unless the dishes are all washed and the kitchen is clean. Mike and I don’t share the same etching in our melons! To go a day or two with a sink full of dishes is not a problem. I figure that’s why we bought a set of twelve dishes and not four.

My rule is if you leave it in the sink, put some hot water on it so that when you finally get to washing, the gunk will come off easily. It’s a good rule to follow and over the years it’s saved me a lot of time in the kitchen.

When the kids were little, keeping the place clean was more difficult. There were toys strewn all over that needed to be picked up. But now, it’s a cinch – we don’t make that much of a mess! There’s just a few clothes, crumbs, and clutter that needs to be cleaned and straightened before Lily shows up at the door.

And I know that just before she enters the house she starts imagining what it might look like. She hopes for cleanliness but braces herself for substandard neat and tidy. I know how her mind works. She played a tape in her head of what the house looked like during the weekend just to prepare herself for what she would find.

In the end, disappointment or satisfaction reigns in her, depending on whether she believes we made an effort or not.

Here’s the thing: God’s standard is perfection – something you and I can’t reach. But God has arranged it so we just have to be ready to meet Him when we die or Christ returns. God’s disappointment or satisfaction with us will be based on whether our faith is placed in Christ. And He will be able to tell if it is or not, depending on if we are seeking to please Christ or are not making any effort. Let’s all be ready.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you prepare for an inspection?  Leave your comment below.

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A Week Of Eating Out

I don’t know how single guys do it – I’d be broke and weigh about 500 pounds if I wasn’t married.  I’d never think about it though, if it wasn’t for a week like this past one.

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Reality set in Friday night. I don’t go away all that often, and Lily goes away on her own even less, but this past week we were both away … separately.

I had some meetings in the Toronto area Tuesday and Wednesday, and Lily had work meetings in Montreal Wednesday to Friday.

The hard part was figuring out our vehicle situation because number one son also needed a car for parts of the week. But once that was settled, we were all good.

… Except for the food thing.

While I was away, I was eating meals brought into our meetings and going out to restaurants. When I got home, Lily was gone so it was just eating out at restaurants for me.

Lil said something to Mike our son about checking in with Dad around dinner time and his comment was, “Ya, I guess he won’t be cooking”.

He had that right. I make a mean hot oat bran cereal in the morning, but past that my skills and desire fall pretty flat.

So over the week I had pizza twice, subs once, fajitas once, hamburgers twice, a hotdog, and of course, I had hot wings.

I almost fasted over lunch one day. I had played hockey at noon and missed lunch. I almost thought I didn’t need anything, but when I was nearing Harvey’s, I got a hankering for a hotdog.

So the craziest thing happened – the car just automatically turned into the parking lot and parked itself. It was just like one of those Ford car commercials where they let go of the steering wheel and the car takes over and parks.

I just had to go in then!

You can see that if this was a regular pattern of eating for me, my weight would skyrocket and I would be burning the strip right off my debit card.

Though I might not get that far, according to my doctor my cholesterol would soar, and my arteries would clog up like putting a drain stopper in a sink.

I have to be careful, and I’m glad that Lil’s now home and I’m getting good healthy meals … well except for tonight – it’s Saturday night and there’s a hockey game on.

You know what that means: it’s hot wings and a Dr. Pepper . . . mmm  . . .  I can feel by blood pressure on the rise just thinking about it.

I know what you’re thinking: Paul needs an intervention. But listen, it’s only one week, and I’ll be back to eating carrots, broccoli and almonds for lunches before you even get to read this.

That’s right, I’ll be back saving money and getting slim. I just have to finish off that darn candy sitting around the house from Christmas.

Here’s the thing: There are all kinds of interruptions that come into our day, our week, our life. They get us off track from taking time with God. Don’t let them permanently derail you. Don’t get down because you missed a few days. Just start today and get yourself back into the groove of taking that regular time with God. He’s waiting for you, and He’s not going to beat you up about missing some days. He’s happy to have you back spending time with Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What patterns do you fall into when you fall out of routine? Leave your comment below.

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Here’s A Quick Way To Change Your Perspective

Getting back into an old routine is like slipping into your favourite sweat pants. There is something about it that feels right – it’s comfortable; it’s where you belong.

wings&DP.001

That was me Saturday night: a quick trip to my wing joint to pick up my hot wings, and then home to settle into the hockey game on TV.

It’s what I do on Saturday nights. My wife, Lily has come to accept it and even puts in her order for a half pound of honey garlic wings. It all happens around the TV – wings, a can of Dr. Pepper, and the Leafs on Saturday night.

I went the whole fall and part of the winter last year having to find something else to do on Saturday nights, but man, it just feels so good to have the games back on!

This year I have my red light to announce the goals as if I was at the game itself. The red light flashes like a goal light and I get a big sounding fog horn to boot!

This past Saturday night was very interesting. The red light actually went off before the puck was in the net. Mind you, it was only about two seconds before each goal went in, but it was early for all four goals, and two shoot out goals as a bonus.

You saw the play develop with the potential of a goal, and then the horn went off and the light came on just before the goal went in. I was celebrating before the players on the ice were! I knew they scored before they did … well, maybe.

I found myself anticipating goals, thinking to myself, “This could be it!” And then, before the play was over, I knew it wasn’t going to be a scoring play. I didn’t get all that excited about a great shot because I knew it wasn’t going in before the puck got to the net.

So, in some ways, I was able to prepare myself for what was or wasn’t going to happen around the net of the opposing team. I was able to manage my emotions better, and not get too disappointed when things didn’t work out.

Being able to tell the future really had me watching the game differently than normal. I wish my red light could have told me a little more in advance, but even two seconds was pretty good.

It’s hard to describe the feeling that I had – maybe satisfaction, or confidence, or insight – in watching the game unfold before me … especially during the shoot out when I knew what was going to happen.

It was a new experience for me, and a great outcome for my team. The Leafs have started the season 3 and 0 – not too shabby.

Here’s the thing: The Bible gives us a glimpse into the future, though it is on a macro scale and not a micro one like the hockey game Saturday night. Even so, with knowledge of the future, it allows us to prepare for what’s to come, to celebrate even before it happens and have a sense of satisfaction, confidence or insight as the future unfolds. Those are some good reasons to know what’s in the Bible. Read on.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How would knowing the future impact your life? Leave your comment below.

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What To Do When The Unexpected Happens

Since my wife was away on the weekend, it was just my 22 year-old son and me at home. More accurately, it was like I was home on the weekend and Mike dropped in and out from time to time.

He wasn’t home for dinner on Friday night so I just had some leftovers. Lily usually leaves me with a fridge full of leftovers, not so much to help with meal preparation but to keep me from spending money at restaurants when she’s way.

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On Saturday morning, I made my regular breakfast of hot oat bran cereal and some fruit. At noon it was still pretty quiet in Mike’s room, so I just had more leftovers for lunch (that my wife had so nicely packaged in plastic containers for us).

Midway through the afternoon, a scary looking creature emerged from his downstairs bedroom. He had worked until 4 am, so 3 in the afternoon was like a “brand new day” for him (check out my blog, “From Plans to Reality”).

There had been an accumulation of dishes in the sink from the past three meals, so I thought I would just clean them up and start fresh at dinner. Besides, I knew that dinner on Saturday night was going to be take out, so few dishes required.

By now, Lily knows that no matter how many leftover meals she puts in the fridge for me, there is a 100% chance that I will be purchasing at least one meal on a weekend. For Saturday dinner, it was a unanimous decision: hot wings from our favourite chicken wing joint.

Three pounds of chicken wings with Frank’s Red Hot sauce … mmmm, I could eat them several times a week. It’s a good thing I have a wife who exerts a little concern for my health and our budget!

Not many dishes for that meal – just a couple of plates, a couple of glasses and we threw the cardboard container in the garbage . . . I mean, the recycling bin.

By the time Sunday morning rolled around, there weren’t too many dishes in the sink. But still, I thought I would just clean them up before I headed out the door to church. By that point in the weekend Mike had been home for one meal and used only one plate and a glass.

When church was over, I thought if Mike was awake, I’d bring home some food for a late lunch. I texted him, and to my surprise he was up and was heading out the door; he didn’t need lunch. So I just came right home.

And that’s when my perfect weekend exploded! The kitchen was a disaster and the sink was full with a bowl, pot, plate, three spoons, a few glasses, an empty container of yogurt or something, and a blender container and parts.

How do you use three spoons in one meal? I thought I was coming home to a clean kitchen and in one meal, my son blew the place up!  Now I know how my wife feels every week!

Here’s the thing: You can be living a pretty clear life before God, pleasing Him with your words, thoughts and deeds. And then out of nowhere, you sin and it seems like you have blown everything with God. When you find an explosion in the kitchen, you just wash the dishes and carry on. When you sin, you do the same – repent to God and carry on.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of messes get you upset the most? Leave your comment below.

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Different Rules Apply

There are different rules around our house when I’m on my own … to be accurate, it was my son and I who were on our own this weekend. Lily was away speaking at a women’s retreat.

Before she left, she gave us some rules to live by while she was gone. But even as she shared her expectations with us, I knew that when the door shut, a whole different set of rules would kick in.

wings and pizza

I listened to her directions and got some tips, like for meals she wanted us to eat the leftovers in the fridge and not spend money on food. However, I made it clear to Mike that the leftovers were for lunches and evening meals would be pizza and wings. … not together, mind you … pizza one night and then wings for the hockey game Saturday night.

I’m sure that as Lily tells us what we should eat, by now she realizes what will really happen. I think it is her eternal, optimistic, pie-in-the-sky hope that maybe we will actually follow her rules that forces her to tell us.

Along with the eating rules, the cleanliness rules go out the window as well. She knows better than to expect us to keep up to her standards. She only expects that when she returns the place will look like it did when she left. Whatever happens between then, she tries very hard not to think about.

Lily has this rule that is etched into her brain that she can’t leave the house or go to bed unless the dishes are all washed and the kitchen is clean. Mike and I don’t share the same etching in our melons! To go a day or two with a sink full of dishes is not a problem. I figure that’s why we bought a set of twelve dishes and not four.

My rule is if you leave it in the sink, put some hot water on it so that when you finally get to washing, the gunk will come off easily. It’s a good rule to follow and over the years it’s saved me a lot of time in the kitchen.

When the kids were little, keeping the place clean was more difficult. There were toys strewn all over that needed to be picked up. But now, it’s a cinch – we don’t make that much of a mess! There’s just a few clothes, crumbs, and clutter that needs to be cleaned and straightened before Lily shows up at the door.

And I know that just before she enters the house she starts imagining what it might look like. She hopes for cleanliness but braces herself for substandard neat and tidy. I know how her mind works. She played a tape in her head of what the house looked like during the weekend just to prepare herself for what she would find.

In the end, disappointment or satisfaction reigns in her, depending on whether she believes we made an effort or not.

Here’s the thing: God’s standard is perfection – something you and I can’t reach. But God has arranged it so we just have to be ready to meet Him when we die or Christ returns. God’s disappointment or satisfaction with us will be based on whether our faith is placed in Christ. And He will be able to tell if it is or not, depending on if we are seeking to please Christ or are not making any effort. Let’s all be ready.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you prepare for an inspection?  Leave your comment below.