Today I’m sharing a special Connect Through Reading post – it includes a really fabulous Banana Beignet recipe – but it’s special for other reasons! I have to give you some backstory first, though.

About 9 years ago I was working from home doing a job I hated. I was working as a recruiter for a 1 man company. Recruiting was my background and the pay was good, but the type of recruiting I was doing required me to be on the phone a lot throughout the day cold calling. Cold calling is something I detest, but the job paid well and I really liked the guy I was working for. Now, mind you, I had a 2 year old and an infant at the time. I was really trying to balance it all, and was stressed out to the max. I thought I should have been grateful to have a job from home that was flexible so I could be at home with my kids, but again… every time I would pick up the phone to make a call, I wanted to throw up and cry.

I was part of a book club and along came our month to read the book Tending Roses by Lisa Winegate. This book, with the quote to describe it being “The lessons that most enrich our lives often come at unexpected moments and from unlikely places. ” absolutely changed my life. This one story, so tender and achingly real, touched my heart in so many ways and taught me an important lesson about recognizing what the priorities in our life should be… and how quickly life can pass us by. I quit that recruiting job the day after I finished the book and decided to find something more rewarding (hello Dine & Dish!). It was one of the best moves I’ve ever made and I owe it all to a book.

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So, Fat Tuesday is here…and after stepping on the scale this morning I can tell you that Fat Tuesday it is indeed.

Today is the end of the fat food around here for awhile… and by fat food I mean the food I’ve been cooking up in my new deep fryer. You know, the homemade yeast doughnuts, the fish tacos, the beer battered onion rings? Those recipes have been so easy to make since my deep fryer has been out. I’ve now packed my deep fryer away after using the heck out of it for a couple of weeks and am looking forward to some non-frying days to come….

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