Jane Says

This is the place where don’t have to write about work, or food, or fitness, here I can really get down to the heart of every matter in my life and since we’re all friends, I just figured something out about myself, it’s a little scary, but I think I might be non-committal.

You see, I have been homeless for more than six months, well, not exactly homeless on-the-street-homeless, I have my car and have been staying at my sister’s house, chillin out at my mom’s and crashing on friend’s couches all while working four jobs. I may look polished on the outside but sometimes I worry about where I am going to sleep! Not that I can’t always drive “home” to my sister’s but it’s SO far south of the city that sometimes convenience in a hectic world is all I need. 

Anyway, I’ve been basically living out of suitcases for the last 8 months and would like to get my belongings back because I only packed winter clothes when I left Atlanta and I really like to sit on my leopard couches. So, I found an apartment downtown and signed a lease.  Sounds like a plan, right?  Well, among all the excitment of my family and friends, I got cold feet! Cold feet to sign a year lease! My heart was pounding, I was looking for any excuse not to sign it, I was 20 minutes late to do it, I felt sick… It’s not like I am getting married, not like I am buying a home…just a simple little apartment, a place to put my stuff, make life a little easier, for one year, and I get cold feet!  What’s wrong with me? You better believe I know that’s a little weird.  And you thought MEN were the only ones that were non-committal!

I’ll be 39 tomorrow and can’t believe I just finally figured this out. I am unable to committ…for a while I thought my biggest problem was that I had too any hobbies!  It’s clearly committment issues.

Geez, no wonder why I am single, sleep on couches, do freelance work, and think that it’s easy to just pick up and move to a new state when the urge hits.  Maybe my focus this year should be settling down… maybe a Birthday present for myself is to stick around and see how things work out!  I can make a plane or car ride my weekend escape to somewhere and be thankful when I come home that I have a big closet to put my shoes in.   I think an extra large spoonful of stability is what I need and that starts with a permanent place to call home! “Happy Trails” will no longer be my theme song, now it’s just “Sweet Home Chicago”.

When WCIU asked me to host the cooking segments for the morning show I was thrilled!  I love to cook and I love to eat… I consider myself a pretty good home cook and it’s something I really enjoy… not to mention I’m Greek, so it was a natural fit. 

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and in my case it’s true! Cooking has always been in my blood.  During World War II, my Dad was the first officer to go to Cooks and Bakers School.  He ended up retiring as a full Colonel but waaaay before he flew up the ranks, the commanding officer took one look at my Dad’s last name, recognized it as Greek, and threw him in the mess tent.

My Grandfather owned a restaurant on Chicago’s South Side which my Dad took over after the war.  The restaurant was at 63rd & Kedzie and was called The Wheel Inn Cafe. 

Both my Dad and Mom were excellent cooks.  They were creative in the kitchen, we always sat down at the table for dinner and they loved to try new recipes.  My mom was even featured in the local newspaper for a great recipe she submitted…I was fascinated with the photographer and media even then.  When I was growing up my Dad cooked weekday meals and my mom the weekend so I can remember spending a lot of time in the kitchen with both of them.  The grocery store was a daily stop for my Dad and my mom worked hard to create a monthly menu planning calendar for the family. 

When I was 7 years old my parents had me in cooking classes and I continued cooking because I saw the joy it brought people (and I knew one day I actually might have to cook for my own family).  I’ll let you in on a little secret, my reading material of choice is…a cookbook!

The Chefs we work with on these segments are true professionals and we are lucky to get their top secret recipes.  It may look like I get to eat all of that food they show us how to make but most of the time it’s just a bite.  So when do I get to eat?  After I make the recipe at home and, you best believe, I eat.  My goal, to give you my experience, tips, and how to’s making these recipes from a home cook perspective. I look forward to sharing with you For the Love of Cooking. So be sure to check out www.wciu.com/jane for all the recipes and demo videos and remember to tune in to WCIU “The U” channel 26 every Wednesday morning at 8am.

We’ve all heard of psycho therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy… all things that are meant to help you resolve problems. Lately I have been extremely busy with work life, home life and just life in general…seems like there is never a moment to myself. Until today when I thought my stop at the mall was part of the “errands” I had to run but rather was a moment of relaxation. As I stood on the elevator heading inside I felt an unusual sense of calmness, nobody needed me, I was finally alone, there were no pressing issues running thru my mind, I was relaxed and I thought, “Ah, so this is retail therapy.” Retail therapy is defined as shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer’s mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as “comfort buys”. So I bought shoes… shoes I don’t need, but shoes that, for a few minutes, made me feel stress free!  

Leisurely shopping is not something I normally do nor make time for… it’s always a mission, always done under time restraints so this time is was different, it turned into a welcomed treat. 

We talk about living a healthy life; after all, that is what this show and blog is all about. So how can shopping be healthy?  Seems to me it can be more of an addiction but, when I am walking around in a stressed filled daze because I’m worried about when I’ll work out again, what nutritional meal I am going to make, is my mom ok, will I get to bed early, and how will I be recharged for another busy week? I realized that sometimes a unplanned break in the pattern of healthy living is found in the little things.  The reality, it’s the balance of all things in life that allow for optimal healthy living. So today, retail therapy was what I needed to continue living a healthy life.

Original posting for www.livinghealthytv.com.

When we take note of things happening in the world of pop culture today we have 2 Chicagoans on the verge of winning top reality show prizes and one Chicago team on the verge of winning the top trophy in sports…Evan Lysacek on Dancing with the Stars and Lee DeWyze on American Idol, both days away from winning it all!

And we can forget the Chicago Blackhawks who are 2 games up in this series and on there way to playing for the Stanley Cup… If I breath now will the house of cards come tumbling down?

It’s exciting to think about… I mean, I don’t know Evan or Lee and I don’t even follow hockey, but I just love it when all eyes of the nation are focused on the Windy City.  Even though sometimes I can be mad at Chicago for its nasty weather, parking tickets and taxes. And yes, we’ve got the famous politicians already casting a national glare on Chicago with Obama and Blagovich, but its the unknown to celebrity-status-super star that is exciting to me!

So for the next week I will be holding my breath that we win… that the BLACKHAWKS take it all (I’ll never be able to say that about the CUBS), that Evan dances home with the Mirrorball trophy and that DeWyze takes his amazing pipes to shatter all sorts of billboard chart records!

Next up, Oprah is looking for her newest disciple to host their own TV show on the OWN network…Could America’s Plain Jane finally be discovered? Audience I’ll need your votes….  just like Evan, Lee and the Blackhawks, I could help keep Chicago on the winning streak!

So I’ve been in a really crabby mood lately…well, not so much crabby but sort of the nothing’s-wrong-with-me-but-I-have-no-reason-to-smile-blahs. For anyone who knows me, that statement is probably difficult to believe. I’m usually the type of person who bounds in the room with a huge smile on my face full of energy and zest for absolutely no reason. Some people I know even have to take medication just to deal with my contagious enthusiasm. But latey, I’ve had the blahs…

Even the gym and a great workout, which I promise you, releases those endorphins that I love so much and 100% of the time works to get me excited again and back to normal, didn’t work. The thing is, it wasn’t for one day it was for a week straight; I just wasn’t my usual peppy, life is great self. Until this morning when after a workout at Lifetime Fitness that I didn’t think was great (an odd result to say the least), I was in the locker room and smelled a smell that made me smile.  It made me happy.  I was smiling and it as because of a smell (which is a strange thing to say about locker room anyway), but, it was afterall the one thing that broke the spell.  So I turned to the girl next to me and said, “what is that smell? It just made me so happy.”  She replied, Japanese Cherry Blossom and pulled out a bottle from Bath & Body Works.  Of course I started to tell her how I was crabby, and how that smell suddenly made me happy, and it was unreal that a smell could make me smile, and… Kindly, she reached in her bag grabbed the body lotion and said, “here, try some.”  I put it all over my hands and forearms and walked out to the world smelling myself. 

Since then I have taken a shower and didn’t have any Japanese Cherry Blossom to replace the lotion I put on earlier but I doesn’t matter; the first smell of the scent seemed to do the trick. I am happy, gleeful and smiling once again. Man, it’s good to be back. I will be buying my own bottle of Japanese Cherry Blossom tomorrow.

“The Strudle”

Have you ever felt so close to being on a sitcom/reality TV show but it was really someone’s real life? Every day I over hear someone saying, “they need to have a show about this place!”.  Well, I was THERE yesterday and YES, they really need to do a sitcom/reality based show at Pompeii on Taylor Street in Chicago.

Why? Well the family of owners, The Davino’s, are characters in themselves…they are: A permanent fixture at her Dad Luigi’s store, Aunt Carm (Carmella doesn’t like to be on film for fear someone might see her), The 87 year old Mother of Ralph and Carmella, they call her Grandma Precious, The beautiful daughter of “Ralphie” and “Ro”, Kim, The Italian Bride of Ralph Rosemarie aka Ro, and owner, chef, and Luigi’s son, Ralph Davino.  There are a lot more relatives there but I can’t remember their names because everyone is related.  The people in street clothes working behind the counter are family members, everyone else, well, I guess, more family members…

Yesterday I had the honor of learning the secrets behind cooking an original Pompeii Poor Boy Strudel with Ralph.  A smart business man, a great dad, a man who honors the history of family, a hard worker and a golfer in his spare time with a wonderful spirit…he has Chicago’s Mayor Daley on speed dial and every Chicago cop coming in for lunch!  The restaurant sits across the street from RUSH-Pres Hospital so it really IS the safest place in Chicago.  And, can I tell you, Ro and Ralphie met when she was 14 years old and he 16… now that’s love on some limoncello!

“The Family”

The place is packed daily with hungry customers and a line around the block for lunch. They have secrets…no, not like Soprano’s secrets… recipe secrets for dough, pizza, taramisu… the tradition of the original bakery on Loomis Street lives on in Pompeii on Taylor Street. The ancestors are hung in a huge painting above the dining room watching the customers, workers, and most of all the family carrying on the traditions, and making sure they don’t spill any family secrets.

Here’s the deal, you can really only get “those” kind of family secrets if you speak Taylor Street which is another thing you can learn from the Davino’s but you’d have to be a regular, or a cousin, or work there to learn…I mean afterall ”yous caint leern it in da burbs ya’s gotta git it on Taylorstreet”

I may not have walked away with a Taylor tongue but I definitely got the secret for Pizza Poor Boy Strudle… click on our photo to watch the video, recipe included!  Manga! Manga!

“the man”

“the bread”

Many of you send me emails and ask where I am at or what I am doing .  I feel like I owe you…you’ve been patient and concerned.  I feel like I need to spread the word just so you can start sleeping and stop wondering and worrying!

As of April 4th I took over hosting duties for the show “Living Healthy Chicago”. It airs on WGN TV 9 at 11:30am Sunday mornings and re-airs on sister station CLTV on Saturdays at 6a, 10a, 4p, Mondays at 10a and 8p.  The show is all about how to look, live and feel better… I’ve done fitness segments about Bowling, Zumba, Bikram Yoga, Running, SuperSlow Training, Boxing, Hula Hooping, and lifestyle segments about Vitamins, Hobbies, Bikini Fitting and more… Celebrity Chef Art Smith weighed in on his weight loss and dealing wtih Type 2 Diabetes. This is just the start with so much to come. If you have a story suggestion, let me know, I love to hear from my friends!

I have also started working WCIU’s You & Me This Morning.  I am doing restaurant segments in the kitchens with the Chefs learning to cook their favorite recipes and bringing them to you… its fun, informative and I get to eat! Good thing I work on a fitness show too!

Coming this summer I will be hosting the WNBA’s Chicago Sky Basketball games at the Allstate Arena.  I’ll miss the NBA but I am happy to be back on the court with the Sky and having my way with contestants, the fun, the games and my signature role call response, “Hey Jane!” If you get a chance come to a game and have some fun with me!

There are some other things I am continuing to work on so stay tuned… I mean it, really, tune in because its radio either in Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago or all three!  Also, more JEM-Stone t-shirts designs are on the way to a boutique near you!

Thanks for the support and now back to the real “whats on my mind” blogging….cheers! Jane

Just when I think I am living the healthiest life possible I start to get a little sniffle. Of course I chalk it up to allergies, which I don’t have, so naturally it ends up being a full blown head cold; my nose as red as Rudolph and I’m carrying around a box of triple-ply kleenex. It’s then that I realize that maybe I’m not so healthy right now. When we don’t feel good we typically go running to our mommies or mother figures, so I asked my mom…

what to do because “I don’t feel good”… that is after I laid on the couch most of the week looking for a little TLC, feeling miserable and wondering why I didn’t have enough energy to work out. My mother is a 76 year old, retired school nurse so she had a few tips in her bag of tricks. There are a lot of remedies for the common cold but since Mother Knows Best

 Here are My Mom’s Top 10 Common Sense Health Tips for a Head Cold:

1. Wash your hands after you blow your nose and keep your hands away from your face.
2. Blow your nose gently; if you blow your nose too hard then you blow all the mucus back in to your sinuses; and then you’ll really have a problem.
3. Drinks lots of fluids, that’s water and orange juice and avoid pop and coffee.
4. Chicken soup really is good!
5. Cover your sneezes.
6. Rest and check for a fever.
7. Boil water on the stove and breathe in the steam thru your nose and open mouth for at least 5 minutes or as long as you can stand there. Why? Because the virus has a very narrow tolerance for heat.

8. Go to work but DON’T shake hands or give hugs. You can go to work with a cold but not a fever.
9. If you are feeling a little better do a light workout or go for a walk, it might make you feel even little bit better but remember…
10. Listen to your body because your body wants to heal. If you’re tired, rest, if you are hungry, eat. Your body will tell you what it wants.

Since she’s my mom and I’m a wisecracker, I asked her if a shot of whiskey would do the trick and she said she didn’t believe in the “hot toddy” method but most of her family growing up did. Go figure, we’ll use any excuse for a drink and then maybe we just won’t remember having a cold!

Baby’s got back…yes, I said it and I am talking about your gluteus maximus and how much or, how little, there is.  I’ve got no room to talk; my nickname in college was B.O.B. (Big Ole Butt) because the J-Lo look wasn’t popular then.   But now in some gym circles, I am referred to as “high and tight” and I’ll take it.  Really, no matter what we do we are truly never really satisfied with our backside, even men (some of you have told me so).  While I was trying to figure out the latest and greatest rear end shaping moves, I happen to come along an article on how to have the Best Butt Ever…  They’ve got the right moves for the most common bootylicious butt types: 1) Flat Butt, 2) Droopy Butt, 3) Ample Butt.   BUT, if you have a mixture of all three or none, then you’re probably perfect and don’t need to worry about your derriere! So with swim suit season right around the corner and spring break already here it’s time to get serious about your behind.  I’m going to give these moves a try along with my daily exercise and diet and maybe, just maybe I can graduate to B.O.B. (Beautiful Ole Butt). 

I am the only person who gets teary eyed while watching the America Idol auditions?  Yea, I know, its been on now for weeks but I am trying to chalk it up to PMS but I can’t because it happen again tonight.  It is even a strange situation to me.  I am boggled by my own internal reaction to these dumb kids on televison. 

After the almost face washing pressure of welled up tears and the lump in my throat subsides, I think, ‘Get a grip! Its American Idol with all the misfits and horrible singers and SIMON!’

The reason…it’s so moving to hear their story, watch them sing (especially the humble ones) and then they get a “YES, welcome to Hollywood!” They run out extremely overwhelmed with excitement to the open arms of their cheering, loving, joyful family and friends!  Everyone is SO happy you can feel the love. 

They may be excited but boy, I’m an emotional wreck at that point!

The only thing I can compare it to is the feeling you get when your ultimate dream comes true; the joy you feel when someone finally says YOU’RE IN! YOU WIN! YES!  When the flood gates open in pure elation after you work so hard for something and a stranger tells you  that you are worthy.  I imagine I would compare it to winning an Olympic gold medal or a championship ring or an Academy Award or when the love of your life says ‘Yes, I’ll marry you.’  Although I really wouldn’t know how any of those examples feel because none of them have ever actually happen to me.  But if they did I would probably cry.  Oh heck, just thinking of those senarios makes my heart ache.  Is it too late to get a spot on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics U.S. Ski Team?  

Or maybe Ryan Seacrest will propose to me?

So I wonder…is going to Hollywood on American Idol an accompishment worth the excitement, or am I just a wuss and need to stop watching TV?  Maybe I need to find other things to waste my emotions on…perhaps a job, maybe a boyfriend, a book, just another interest aside from TV reality shows??  Oh wait, I got it…I’ll really punish my lacrimal glands and make them work over time by playing the Sarah McLachlan Animal Cruelty video on You Tube over and over again.  Talk about a tear jerker! 

Make it STOP!!! Make it all STOP! and pass me a kleenex please. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gspElv1yvc 

(Link alert, this video is pure emotional torture. Watch at your own risk.)