Stop being a doormat

Ms. Slim is having some epic growing pains on the career front. Okay, "epic" is an exaggeration, but I can sure feel them. Learning to stand up for myself isn't easy.

Until recently, I had avoided out-and-out conflict at work, preferring to surrender rather than cross swords. This habit hasn't always stood me in good stead, as you might imagine.

In my no-longer-quite-so-new role, playing the nice card doesn't work as well as it did when I was assisting a high-powered manager. Luckily for me, our on-the-ball HR department recently organized a series of webinars on... how to navigate difficult conversations. Jackpot! I couldn't make all of the sessions, but the ones I heard were packed with useful information.

I love this quote. I wish Queen Elizabeth had
said it. (The web's been attributing it to the monarch of Merry England. LOL.)

Did you know there are techniques you can use to state your case clearly so that you don't feel tempted to back down?! Mind-blowing! That there are ways to describe a problem without immediately raising the other person's hackles? That it's possible to respond to excuses, threats, defensiveness or statements you disagree with in such a way as to get your message heard?

Obviously, two webinars do not an ex-doormat make, which also means that it will be a while before I can give you any tips of my own. In the meantime, grow your straight-up vocabulary with a little help from Barry Moltz's powerhouse phrases. While you're at it, read Do you know when to shut up? to find out why less (in the way of words) can be more.

Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.:)

Recipe alert: Leek, eggplant and tomato roast

Today's leek, eggplant and tomato roast falls into the happy-accident recipe category. A good friend was coming over for lunch on the weekend, and I had a leek and some Campari tomatoes to use up, not to mention a skinny Japanese eggplant and a plump orphan garlic clove.  Tada! Necessity gave birth to this pleasant culinary invention.

It takes all of 10 minutes from fridge to oven, another 35 minutes of roasting, and then you're away to the races. Read on to find out how to make this irresistibly easy dish.

Leek, eggplant and tomato roast

 Ingredients:

• 8-10 Campari tomates, halved
• 1 leek, minus dried out or damaged leaves, sliced in 1/2" rounds
• 1 smallish Japanese eggplant

• 1-2+ cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp+ herbes de Provence  
• salt and pepper, to taste

 Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400F and set a rack in the centre.
2. Line baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Wash and chop vegetables.
4. Mince garlic.
5. Toss vegetables in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then add minced garlic, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper.
6. Once vegetables are evenly covered, pour onto the baking pan. (And modify suggested amounts of balsamic and olive oil as needed. I added both liquids by guess and by gosh, and these are my best estimates.)
7. For best results, set the tomatoes cut-side down on the parchment paper. They will cook best this way. There's no need to do this for the leek or eggplant rounds.
8. Pop pan into preheated oven. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or as long as it takes for vegetables to turn into mouth-watering medley.
9. Serve as hot side to a main dish -- say leek and spinach frittata, for instance.:) You'll like the way the sweet, savoury and smoky flavours mingle.

 Tell me how it goes!

Recipe alert: Leek and spinach frittata

I've missed blogging away for you over the past 2 weeks. Between beautiful, sunny days, a month of free Netflix, shopping for (pretty) curtains, proofing a friend's job application and serving as a main course for a swarm of woman-eating black flies whose bites I mistook for the work of bed bugs, life has been on the full side. Thank God for good friends, kind parents, a nice boss, and yoga!

You'll be glad to hear that I haven't neglected cooking, though, and that I've invented two splendid, simple recipes for you to try: a leek and spinach frittata garnished with slices of Campari tomatoes, and a side dish of roasted veggies using the leftover leeks and Camparis, plus a Japanese eggplant.

Tonight, I have just enough time to divulge the secret of the toothsome...

Leek and Spinach Frittata

Ingredients:

• ghee or butter and coconut oil
• 2 c baby spinach leaves, washed and chopped
• 1 leek, chopped in 1/4" rounds (use the deep-green leaves, too, but cut away any that are tough or dry)
• 15 egg whites (or 1 x 500g container of egg whites or 7.5 eggs)
• 1/4 c Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp thyme
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 Campari tomatoes, sliced in rounds

Yellow tulips sunnified my late-April weekend

Preparation:

1. Rinse the leeks and spinach separately. Get rid of as much sand or dirt as you can.
2. Chop the leeks and spinach.
3. Preheat oven to 400F. Make sure one of the racks is in the middle.
4. Put a 9.5" oven-friendly frying pan on medium.
5. Once it heats up -- not before -- add enough ghee to cover the bottom of the pan. (Ghee gives the frittata a deeper flavour and a nice density.)
6. Pour in the chopped leeks. Saute them until they get soft, but not flaccid.
7. Add the spinach. Saute it until it wilts and the leek rounds are quite soft and almost falling apart.
8. Scrape the leek and spinach mixture out of the frying pan into a separate container.
9. Wash frying pan and grease inside with coconut oil.
10. Pour egg whites into a bowl. Whisk them a little: you don't need to do much.
11. Add Parmesan cheese, herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
12. Add leek and spinach mixture.
13. Quickly stir everything together.
14. Pour mixture into greased frying pan.
15. Decorate with rounds of Campari tomatoes. If you feel so moved, mill some pepper over the top.
16. Set frying pan on middle rack in preheated oven.
17. Set timer for ca. 25 minutes. It make take longer for your frittata to cook. You'll know it's ready when the edges are golden and your egg pie swells up in the centre.
18. Let it cool, then cut it in wedges.
19. Pair with a side of roasted leeks, tomates and eggplant, and congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Next up: simple and succulent roasted veggies... Stay tuned!