Beer Belly Chicken

This delicious high-protein meal takes only minutes to prepare (excluding cooking time). The chicken meat comes out moist and tasty, and the excess fat drains to the bottom of the pan. Throw two foil-wrapped sweet potatoes in after the first hour, steam some asparagus, and you have a Paleo-friendly meal that is packed with nutrition. Line your pan with foil to make for easy clean-up!

Ingredients:

1 Whole Organic Roasting Chicken

12 oz. can of beer (your preference)

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 375º F. Rearrange the oven racks so that your chicken will fit when standing upright. Line a baking pan with foil. Drink 1/2 can of the beer (leave the remainder in the can)! Note that the beer is not Paleo, per se. 

Unwrap the chicken and remove giblets. Mount the chicken on the half-full beer can and place it in the baking pan. Spray the chicken surface with cooking spray.

Place in oven and bake for about 15 minutes per pound (around 2 hours for the average bird).

"It's dark in here!"

When done, remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Remove the beer can by grasping the bird with pot holders, pouring the hot beer through the neck, and twisting the can as you pull it from the cavity. Serve with baked sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus, or other veggies of your choice.

Bon appetite!

New Rules: Dating Advice for Grownups

All My Single Ladies!

If you're divorced or widowed and looking to get back in the dating game, chances are you'll consider  one of the many popular dating websites such as eHarmony, Match.com, OurTime.com or others. For the most part, all are legitimate businesses (although they often "plant" fake profiles to lure you into buying a package). But all in all, the sites are not sinister unto themselves. Some of the members, on the other hand, may be seeking more than an enduring relationship with your sweet sexy self.

In fact, the online dating pool hosts only a modicum of great catches. The waters are infested with predatory pond scum intent on getting into your knickers or your IRA, or both if possible. Many of them are married with no intention of getting divorced. So it is up to you to navigate the murky and treacherous waters by educating yourself on the basics.

Online dating 101:

• Be honest but not an open book. Tell the truth about your height, weight, age and habits. If you are interested in marriage, put it out there. Seriously, are you really paying a monthly fee to meet "friends?" To predatory men, that is code for "let's have sex with no commitment."
• Be less forthcoming about your economic status, place of employment, children and the type of car you drive. Nothing lures a predator like a "well-heeled mother of teens, executive at ABC Corp., who drives an SL-Class Mercedes Benz."
• Try to keep it local. You may be open to moving from New York to Seattle. But you have a better chance of learning about a partner who has lived in your area for a number of years. I have heard disaster stories of folks, male and female, who have uprooted themselves for love, only to be disappointed when a long-distance romance fizzles. 
• When setting up a date, arrange to meet at a neutral public place. Do not under any circumstances have him or her pick you up at your home! This is for your safety, and that of your family.
• Make the first date drinks or coffee. Or lunch. The shorter time span and lower monetary commitment give you both a chance to feel each other out, and to see if you are interested in pursuing a second date. This approach has saved me more than once from obnoxious boors and sexual predators. 
• Let a friend or family member know who you are meeting and where you will be. Arrange for them to call you at a specific time during the date. If all is going well, you can let them know. If you need to bail, they can be your excuse. 
• Limit your alcohol consumption. Bad judgement is not strictly the domain of drunken teenagers.
• In case you do drink too much, carry condoms in your purse. STDs are on the rise in adults over the age of 50.
• Above all, listen to your gut. Intuition is not a myth. It is a primal alarm system that lets you know when you are in danger.

New Rules: Dating Advice for Grownups

Let's Hear it for the Boys!

Guys, whether you're newly single or have been on your own for awhile, here are a few dating pointers you should consider before getting involved again:

• Most women of our generation are seeking an honest monogamous long-term relationship that is better than the one they got out of. We are not interested in casual sex or "friendship."
• Make a list of the attributes you want in a mate, and decide which traits are deal-breakers. Think with your heart, and not your genitals. Stick to your guns. For example, if smoking is on your deal-breaker list, don't get bedazzled by her charms and overlook her habit. All too often, men end up in a relationship that is worse than the one they got out of, or they marry an inferior version of the same person.
• While most of the adult women you meet have their own careers and their own money, she will not be impressed if you expect her to split the bill. She has likely already invested in your date by having her hair and nails done and by buying a new outfit. When you pick up the tab, you are saying that you value her efforts and the time she is spending with you.
• When you are genuinely interested in a woman, don't rush to have sex. Go by the third date rule. If, after date three, you are certain that you want to take the relationship to the next level, make sure she is also interested and ready. If she says she is not ready yet, ask yourself if she's worth waiting for. If you can honestly say yes, then wait.
• If you are only interested in hooking up for casual sex, stay out of the mainstream dating sites. Try craigslist or the local red light district. And be sure to wear a condom!

Passion On a Platter: This Week's Playlist

Playlist compiled by music guru Jerome Kern Outlaw

Explore your sexy side with this week's menu of steamin' hot platters:

1. Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye)
2. Love to Love You Baby (Donna Summer)
3. Steamroller (James Taylor)
4. Turn Me On (Norah Jones)
5. Tonight (John Legend)
6. Your Body's Calling (R. Kelly)
7. Til the Cops Come Knockin' (Maxwell)
8. Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)
9. Slow (Rumer)
10. Me and Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul)

Can Weed Make You Rich?

No, I'm not talking about growing it in your attic, silly! But ever since November, when Colorado and Washington states essentially legalized the recreational use of marijuana, there has been increasing buzz in the financial sector about the future market for marijuana, and what it means for investors. 

In general, the consensus seems to be that all roads lead to eventual nation-wide legalization for medicinal and recreational purposes. In fact, there are stocks now available for adventurous investors. Medical Marijuana, Inc. is already trading publicly as an umbrella company for PhytoSphere, WellnessManaged Services and CanChew Bio-Technologies, all distributors of medical marijuana products. Other publicly traded companies include Hemp Inc., GreenGro Technologies and Growlife.

But before you cash in your IRA and invest your life savings, bear in mind that, while promising, there are no guarantees that the trend toward legalization will continue. If it does, universal legalization is still years down the road. And when pot finally is legal, the companies presently selling shares may or may not still be around.

So, if you want to dabble in today's marijuana market, take a puff but don't inhale. Your money could go up in smoke!

The Road Less Traveled

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

Take a Hike!

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far." -Thomas Jefferson

Of course we are all aware that walking is beneficial for health and fitness. It elevates your heart-rate to promote good cardiovascular function and burns calories at a faster rate than sitting on your bum. But perhaps the greatest benefit of walking is that it helps to manage stress, which, if you haven't heard, can kill you. 

Stress-reducing benefits of walking:

• Increased oxygen flow to your brain helps activate brain cells and clear foggy thinking, which in turn makes you more alert and astute.
• Altered body chemistry from exercise enhances mood and reduces metabolic disorders.
• When walking outdoors, your skin absorbs Vitamin D, known to enhance mood, improve sleep patterns, and perform many vital metabolic functions.
• Walking in the early morning helps you start your day on the right foot by enhancing your mood, waking up the body's systems, and giving you time to plan your day.
• Walking after dinner helps burn off extra blood sugar, gives you time to wind down and reflect on your day, and prepares you for a good night's sleep.

You don't have to walk for very long or very far to realize the stress-reducing benefits of walking. I recommend walking outdoors, because it is less goal-oriented and less time-bound than treadmill walking (which can be stressful). As you walk, breathe deeply and enjoy nature. Tune in to your senses and feel the sun on your skin and the breeze in your hair. Let your mind wander and ponder. 

I guarantee that walking morning and evening each day will make you healthier, happier and wiser. 

No Such Word as Can't

When the Great Depression hit Michigan’s upper peninsula, it destroyed my grandfather’s successful auto parts business and the family was forced to leave their large home in town, and relocate to “the farm”, a family property some thirty miles south over the Wisconsin border. The property consisted of a two-story log cabin, a barn and a few outbuildings. There, my mother and her four brothers grew to adulthood before joining the military or moving to Chicago to pursue their destinies.

As a child, for a few weeks each summer, I was allowed to abandon city life and spend time with my grandparents on the farm. It wasn’t a working farm per se, although my grandmother cultivated a substantial summer garden of peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, mint and sundry other veggies. There was also an abundance of wild raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, ripe for the picking as I trampled field and forest with the dogs, Butch and Pepper.

During my visits, my grandmother was a great inspiration to me, and her can-do attitude shaped my thinking and worldview as a child and young adult. She was a resourceful woman, and played a major role in supporting the family throughout the depression. She told countless stories of how, as a young woman, she had ridden a cow in the snow to the one-room schoolhouse where she taught; how she had taken a job with the county where she traveled around to teach women how to safely can and preserve fruits and vegetables. She always found little ways to supplement the family income. She never wasted food. What didn’t get eaten at supper was sure to turn up in the next morning’s breakfast.

One of my grandmother’s favorite sayings was “There is no such word as can’t”. Now, I was a schoolish and bright child, and I knew perfectly well that “can’t” was a contraction of the words can and not. So for many years, I was baffled by her insistence that the word can’t did not exist. But it gradually began to sink in. She was telling me that I could do whatever I set my mind to, that “can’t” was a copout, a lazy excuse for the weak of spirit. To this day, her adage is my guiding star. Things may be difficult, and challenges and obstacles regularly rear their unsavory heads. But I know that with perseverance and determination, I can do whatever I set my heart to.

Thanks, Grandma, for being a strong role model. Because of your mentoring and guidance, I have accomplished things and gone places that many only dream about. And I have passed that legacy on to my own sons and daughters, who know that I don’t accept “can’t” for an answer. 

Playlist: Breaking Up and Moving On

Click on Groupie Scoop to view.

Calling All Cultural Revolutionaries

Whether you were an active instigator of the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s, or a hapless bystander swept along in the tide, you know that you had a front row seat to a historically significant era in American and World History.


Sex, drugs and rock-‘n-roll, feminism, pacifism, environmentalism, and civil and gay rights all converged to play a vital role in the Cultural Revolution. If you were a Cultural Revolutionary, you shared a vision for a more peaceful and sustainable way of life, one in which we all coexist on our planet in harmony with one another and our environment.

Cultural Revolutionaries, you have made a contribution, but the job is not done. The war is not won. Refuse to age gracefully! Determine to age with excellence! We need not be guinea pigs for medical science or robots for Big Brother: We can choose be excellent specimens of superlative living. We are Boomer Zoomers!