The Liable Asset

First, an apology for the long hiatus - given a combination of Sandy-effects, work busy-ness, and the school term wrapping up, a small blogging sabbatical seemed in order.  But one of my professors made a comment recently that sparked reflection:

Your biggest asset can be your biggest liability.

The professor referenced certain companies, long successful in a certain historic line of business, who grow emotionally attached and cannot give up the line even after it has become unprofitable.  Or they become so bogged down in how “things used to be” (and how successful they were at it historically) that they cannot adapt to a changing world and eventually go under.  

Ok, fair enough.    

                                                      

I found the comment more thought-provoking when turned internally – what is it about my own life that represents a great asset becoming a great liability? 

Career?  The more talented we are in a given area, and the longer we work in that area, the more unable we are to see ourselves as doing anything else; our career has become entrenched in our identity.  In reality, a change is sometimes a better fit for our gifts/talents, but the stronger an asset we see our careers to be, and the more “successful” society deems that career track to be, the more difficult it is to change directions.

Finances?  The more money we make, the more we seem to need. My husband and I try to live conscientiously, but particularly in a high cost of living area like NYC, it can be easy to get caught on the hamster wheel. One of my serious goals for 2013 is to get back to giving away 10% of our income – but this will take literally sitting down to figure out how much per month this would mean, and what has been holding us back (though the last two years it has been business school tuition!).

Safety and Stuff? A need for security is at the heart of many human instincts – and in many ways this is healthy, driving people to ensure food and shelter for their families. It can also become a burden, as we find ourselves in “stuff jail,” with so many possessions we become buried (hopefully only figuratively) underneath them. The drive for safety often also keeps us from healthy risk-taking: seeking new chapters for ourselves, new beginnings, new adventures. 

 Or, as J.R. Tolkien puts it:

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

Perhaps our homework for setting a 2013 New Year's resolution should be to consider: which asset is your greatest liability?

The Magic Store

We traveled last weekend to Disney World with two objectives: 1) family bonding 2) running a 10-mile race through Hollywood Studios.

Both were accomplished in spades; we enjoyed time with Chris' parents, and managed to at least survive the run. Though we made a few hard-learned notes for next time:

1. Night races sound like fun. Having to wait until 10:45pm to get across the start line, finishing after midnight, and not getting back to the hotel room until 2:30am because you’re stuck in hordes of sweaty people waiting for transportation is not fun.

2. When running a 10-mile race at night, do not spend four full days before that walking around amusement parks. Your tired feet will not thank you.

3. Do not put your camera (even if it is in a hard case) in the runner’s checked bag area. Apparently moving these bags from the start to finish line involves letting a chimpanzee fling them against a hard surface, because your camera will somehow mysteriously stop working while in bag check.

4. There are some very, very dedicated fans out there. Dedicated enough to make it 10 miles, in the dark, in the sticky heat in full-body Disney costumes. Props, my friends, props.

Our running exhaustion aside (and I over-complain a bit for effect; we really were glad we did the race), one of my favorite events from the trip was a “Keys to the Kingdom” tour, a five-hour behind-the-scenes tour of Magic Kingdom. While I will respect the Las Vegas-like code (read: what happens off-stage, stays off-stage) so as not to ruin the magic, our tour guide explained a few interesting elements of Disney’s strategy:

“Some call this fantasy.  But this is not fantasy, because fantasy is not real. This is our version of reality.” This was one of our tour guide’s opening lines, and it perhaps best sums up the Disney experience. The whole idea is for magic that is completely submerging – you see it, touch it, even smell it (apparently the Main Street confectionary bakes pans of water/spices that smell like cinnamon rolls when they aren’t cooking the real thing to still give you the right effect). 

There are also over 500 Disney employees that do nothing but maintain the park landscaping. Are people there to look at flowers? No. But will they lose part of the experience/magic by walking around a concrete desert all day? Yes. Moral: Consider your purpose from 360 degrees. If any one of the elements fails – the bakery looks great but doesn’t smell like anything – the entire experience falters.

“Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency.” These are the four pillars of Disney, in order of decreasing importance. Interestingly (and importantly), show comes before efficiency. Disney convinces thousands of people to pay hundreds of dollars for time in their parks by immersing them in an experience. Wisely, they know that cutting corners on that experience, to perhaps reap more profit today, will eventually destroy their brand. Moral: Know thyself. If thy selling point is thy customers’ experiences, thou shalt not cheapen their experience.

“Find the right role for everyone.” One of the “human capital” (to use a business school buzzword that I hate) elements Disney strives for is fitting the right people to the right role. Fake happy is not pretty, and both kids and adults can sense it from a mile away. Disney spends considerable time and money making sure that they have everyone in a roll that best suits them. Moral: Grumpy Mickey = emotionally traumatized children, but grumpy Mickey might flourish as creepy elevator-intake employee at the Tower of Terror.

“Lost but not forgotten.” When classic rides or characters are replaced, Disney’s Imagineers leave (often hidden) nods to them throughout the parks.  For example, when the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride was replaced by Winnie-the-Pooh, the tree house entrance to the new ride included a discreetly hidden compass sign from 20,000 Leagues. Also, like the opening credits to a movie, windows above Main Street stores as you first walk into the park cite important people and friends that helped Disney begin. This includes, of course, a window to Roy Disney (in the adjacent picture if you can make it out in the third story windows) as well as many others. Moral: Just because times have changed doesn’t mean that you can’t remember from the past. Carry your memories and lessons into the future.

“A good guest experience, no matter what it takes.” This one sounds obvious, but takes patience, and a long-term view. As our tour guide explained, the goal for park guests is not that they spend a lot of money in the parks; it is that guests make positive associations with the Disney brand name. The end goal is not even that people continually come back to the parks; instead the goal is for people to continually come back to the Disney franchise.  While this broader view takes long-term thinking and team-playing, it’s quite brilliant, as the brand locks in kids and their parents with a magical park experience (even if the park experience isn’t hugely profitable), that brings them back to stores to buy movies, merchandise… and one day, a trip to take their own children back to the park, beginning the cycle again. Moral: Being willing to go the extra mile – or extra 10 miles – to ensure a good guest experience doesn’t just make you a good business owner. It can make you a very profitable one when viewed correctly.

“Because we’re Disney.” A final thought, and a refrain we heard frequently throughout the tour. For Walt (and his brother Roy), details made the experience. Moral: Quality, quality, quality, quality, quality. Did we mention quality?

“Tourguide, why did the park go to the trouble of actually measuring out a real horses’ paces to mark off horse-shoe imprints in the concrete sidewalk to precise, correct specifications?” “Because we’re Disney.”

“Tourguide, why did the park hang leather-bound shutters for a year to see exactly how much they would have sagged in Colonial times before replicating that exact angle with still bindings?” “Because we’re Disney.”

“Tourguide…”

You get the picture.

Apple Palooza

Yesterday we went apple picking in Warwick, NY at Maskers Apple Farm with friends from church. 

The free-all-you-can-eat-apples-while-you-pick policy meant that I went home not wanting to ever really see an apple again. But at least 25 lbs of them are sitting in our fridge, so I have been unearthing my favorite apple recipes. To share the apple/fall love, they are discussed below. Oh, and if you are serious about apples, save yourself the agony of mass-peeling and buy yourself an Apple-Peeler-Corer-Slicer. It will be the best $40 you ever spend, believe me.

Well, maybe not the best you EVER spend. But it will be pretty high up there.

Grandma Mooney's Apple Pie

I am starting with the best, first. This recipe was handed down by my grandmother, and has created probably hundreds of delicious pies over the decades. The beauty is the simplicity. Don’t be tempted to add cornstarch, or lemon zest, or anything else that those fancy-Dan TV people tell you to add. Stick to the simple recipe below, and let the apples speak for themselves.

Ingredients:

·         4-6 cups cored, peeled, thinly chopped apples (the more tart, the better. If you’re going store-bought on the apples, I like Granny Smith)

·         1 Cup white sugar

·         3 Tablespoons flour

·         1/8 teaspoon cinnamon  (I usually bump up to ¼ teasp)

·         Dash salt

·         2 Tablespoons cold butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix apples and sugar/flour/cinnamon/salt. Prepare bottom crust of pie crust (8 or 9 inch pan), place in apple mixture, and dot the top with small pieces of butter. Put on top crust, cut slits for steam, and cover the crust (only the crust, not the whole pie!) with strips of aluminum foil. Bake for 25 mins, remove foil, then bake for an additional 15 mins. Pie is done when crust is golden brown and pie juice is bubbling through the slits.

Now – for those who want a quick (yet still delicious pie), go to the refrigerated section of your grocery store and buy a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. There is no shame in this, and I will not judge you.  My grandmother converted to Pillsbury crusts at some point, and what’s good enough for Grandma’s standards should be good enough for you! But, if you are feeling truly masochistic (which I occasionally am), my homemade crust recipe can be found at the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie post.

On to the next apple adventure - apple butter! For those who don't know what this is (cough, friends born north of the Mason-Dixon line, cough) its a spicy spread that's sort of a thick applesauce. But better. And excellent on turkey sandwiches, biscuits, toast, pretty much anything. Yum. (And no, there is no actual butter in it).

Apple Butter

• ~10 lbs of apples (15 to 20-ish small/ medium apples, different varieties are ok. If you use a really sweet apple, use less sugar)
• 2-3 cinnamon sticks (or 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon)
• 1 t freshly grated nutmeg (I am supremely lazy when it comes to spices, so “fresh grated” for me means “use spice drawer from our wedding 4 years ago that I’m still working through." But this is probably not an ideal habit, so go for it on the fresh grating if you like!)
• 1 t ground cloves
• ¾ cup orange juice
• ½ cup water water
• sugar to taste (optional, and depending on the type of apples you used, but perhaps 1-2 cups. Or for a slightly healthier version, use 1 cup honey. Or no sugar at all. It's always easier to add more sugar later rather than ending up with butter that seems more like an apple lollipop)

Directions:

Peel, core, and finely chop apples. Put into crock pot with orange juice and water. Mix all dry ingredients separately, then add to apple mix. (If all your apples don’t fit into the crock pot at first, no worries – it will cook down significantly over the first hour and you can add more as there is room in the crock pot). 

This is a set-it-and-forget-it (well, don’t totally forget it) recipe… it needs AT LEAST 12 hours, and depending on the heat of your crock pot, maybe more like 18 hours. More time won’t make the butter burn, it will just make it thicker, so you can let it go until you get to the consistency you like. Once you are towards the end of 12 hours, if you want a smoother consistency, use an immersion blender to blend the mix in the crock pot. Or leave as is for a thicker/chunkier spread.

To make sure that the butter is at least minimally done, take a spoonful and put it on a saucer to cool. If water begins to separate away from the butter, keep cooking the mixture.

Add more spices to taste if you like, and enjoy! I recommend canning… properly canned apple butter can last for a year or more. Recommended eating suggestions: on a hot, fresh buttermilk biscuit… or on a cracker with brie cheese. Yum!

Apple Nut Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

 1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups apples, peeled/cored/chopped

 Topping:

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions: Combine all cake ingredients except apples in large bowl. Beat on medium speed with mixer, scraping bowl often, until smooth. Gently stir in apples. Spread batter into greased 9x13-inch baking pan. Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl; mix and sprinkle over batter. Bake for 30-35 mins or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out cleanly.

Apple Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups peeled, diced apples
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon flour

Directions:

1. Mix flour, cinnamon, soda, salt and baking powder together.
2. Beat eggs and add sugar and oil.
3. Add vanilla and dry ingredients.
4. Stir in apples.
5. Mix walnuts in a tsp of flour and add to batter.
6. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour

 That's it! My loaf pans are fairly large (and my oven is a bit unpredictable in heating), so I ended up baking for ~70 minutes. Just bake until a toothpick comes out fairly clean (at least not gooey).

There you have it - an apple feast!