Fire Season 2005 Southern California

Southern California fire season generally starts mid-October due to the Santa Ana Winds ferocious flaming fires out west. Southern California generally does not get too many fires during summer because the winds from offshore blow in ambient air, in fact they generally get fog. Unfortunately the winds shift in October every years and blow very hard out of the east and bring with them hot, dry air. It is truly miserable with sometimes gusts of 50-60 mph, sometimes even 75 mph. It just is not fun with such hot air, sometimes in the hundreds. But worst of all are the fires, which come every year and generally burn hundreds if not thousands of acres of dry brush. Some of the greatest wildfires, which are the most ferocious and hard to fight, come from these hot east winds.

For the most part we see these winds very dry and during very high temperatures, because the normal winds are from the West coming in from off shore are being pushed back out to sea. We saw the Hurricane Season 2005 start two-weeks early, does this mean that the Santa Ana winds will start two-weeks early? Or could one say that this horrific Hurricane Season could be delayed and thus delay the start of the east winds? If the Santa Ana East Winds are early well then that means they will start now. If they are late we will see them at the end of October and generally that is the worst time for Santa Ana dry east winds.

Fire Season 1005 in Sunny Santa Ana Southern California East Winds may not be so bad this year since most of the sagebrush is still somewhat green. Also the Hurricanes off the coast of Baja are sending up some rain and cloud cover. But we also know that Santa Ana winds can last into December, thus perhaps Fire Season might be a little late this year? It is hard to predict a fire season as it has to do with so many factors and the weather is just one of them. There is also the stupidity of mankind, whether it be arson or carelessness. Will Southern California get off easy this year and save the taxpayers millions or will fire season 2005 more resemble that of 2004? What ever is to happen, we must be ready for anything just in case. Can Southern California react fast and get these fires out if they start? Or will we see more government incompetence as we did in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Season comes every year, just like fire season, so there should be no surprises. Think on this.

Bowed Before the Winds

Children love to use new, strange words. Sometimes, when we stopped to rest on field trips, we would have a "Nature Spelling Down." In the schoolroom, whenever we came across a new and grand-sounding word connected with our Nature-study we would write it down on the board in a special corner, where it could be left undisturbed. Since "Teacher" had a pair of binoculars that the children were free to use, that word headed the list, with other such words as "petiole," "deciduous," "stomata" and "lenticels" of plants; and "mandibles," "primaries" and "nape" of bird lore. Since they were not required for their regular spelling lessons, most of the children thought these words were fun and vied with each other in being first to learn them.

Always, on our field trips, each child watched out for his particular tree, and there was friendly rivalry over who counted the most specimens of "his tree." One sparkling, autumn day, with goldenrod and chicory lining the dirt roads, with the maples aflame and Lake Erie in the distance blue as the sky above with great, white, billowy masses of clouds, we walked three miles to see a hundred-year-old "stump fence" made of the upturned roots of white pines.

Again, in spring, we walked five miles to see a dogwood in bloom, for dogwoods are rare in that northern hill land. But the children had seen the picture of the flowers in Keeler's Our Native Trees, a well-thumbed volume by the end of the school year. The American elm, with its graceful, vase-like form, was the first tree that the children learned to identify at a distance. So large was this scarlet oak that we thought it must be at least three or four hundred years old. As we sat and rested under its shade, we tried to imagine all that it must have seen happen.

Throughout the year we visited the same woodlands and isolated trees, to know them in autumn when the color parade was on; in winter, when they were bare, and, again, when they wore glittering mantles of snow or crystal; in spring when they were in bloom. And during all seasons we learned to listen to the winds in the trees, and found that Nature has a different tune for her winds, whether they go creeping softly or roaring through her various kinds of trees. We watched to see how the different trees reacted to storms, too, contrasting the rugged oak, which was tortured and buffeted by them, with the supple birch, which "bowed before the winds."

Salespeople Should Negotiate the Biggest Guaranteed Salary They Can Get!

A mere 90 days ago, I published an article touting the glories of being paid on a straight commission basis, if you are a salesperson.

Among other things, I pointed out that the upside can be tremendous, if you are effective in the art of persuasion. Typically, you'll be paid for your results, and this can actually qualify you to receive what you're worth, which is very gratifying, financially and emotionally.

But now, the world has changed, based on plummeting home values, worldwide recession, and a tanking stock market.

Money is tight. Access to credit, by businesses and by individuals is being restricted by miserly lending practices. Even bailout funds, issued by the government and backed by taxpayers, are being hoarded.

Cash-is-king, and a bird in hand is now worth several in the bush.

In compensation, this means if you sell for someone else YOU SHOULD NEGOTIATE THE BIGGEST GUARANTEED SALARY YOU CAN GET.

In effect, I am revising and for the most part, reversing, what I recommended only three months ago.

Here's my reasoning:

(1) Spending is being cut across the economy, so you're probably going to make fewer sales.

(2) Companies are likely to cut back on the generosity of their commission plans, making your pay envelopes thinner.

(3) It will take longer to open and close deals, even when pursuing super-qualified buyers.

All of this points to the necessity to self-finance if you accept a commission-only post. You'll need more or your own or harder-to-get-borrowed dollars, for longer that I ever contemplated 90 days ago.

Not only should you go to some form of a salary, as in a draw against commissions or a salary plus commissions; but you should also barter, if you can, for more frequent pay periods.

In a small business or mom & pop situation, you can probably get paid weekly. I see some ads that will pay salespeople DAILY, and in this banana-peel-prone economy, that no longer seems flaky; it looks good!

Nazi Jews - A Historical Paradox

Would it surprise anyone to learn that there were upwards of 150, 000 soldiers of partial Jewish descent serving in the Nazi army during World War II? I had no idea until I attended a lecture by Bryan Mark Rigg discussing his book entitled Hitler's Jewish Soldiers. What is even more startling is that Adolf Hitler was aware of this and for a while allowed them to serve. In most cases these soldiers had no knowledge of the Holocaust killing machine. From their point of view they were simple German patriots fighting for their country. Many did not even consider themselves Jewish. Some were unaware of their "Jewish blood". According to his book, at least 20 soldiers of "jewish blood" were awarded The Knights Cross. Included in the ranks were two field marshals and fifteen generals. The most prominently known of these commanders of Jewish descent was General Erhard Milch who had one Jewish parent. He was deputy to Herman Goring, the head of the Luftwaffe(German Air Force).

When I look back at my own Jewish Immigrant background, the "specter" of Jews fighting for the Nazis in the traditional sense sickens stomach. My ancestry is much like other Jewish immigrants. Both sides of my family immigrated to the Unites States from Czarist Russia in the early 1900's. They came to escape the brutal exterminating pogroms of the Russian authorities much like the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. Czarist officials not only promoted pogroms to blame Jews for government failures and economic depressions but also to isolate jews and keep them fearful. They forced the "Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion," a documents used the to justify persecuting Jews ans stil in circulation now in Middle Eastern Countries to "prove" that Jews controlled World Finance. Moreover, the Czars conscripted Jewish youth as young as 12 to serve 25 years in the army. Some Russian Jews immigrated to Poland only to be ultimately persecuted by both the Hitler regime and their very own. German born Jews treated Eastern Jews as inferior calling them "Ghetto Jews". Jews of this background constituted the majority of the Jews massacred pursuant to "The Final Solution".

The common public notion is that no one of Jewish descent would have ever been allowed to serve in the Nazi regime and, if discovered, would be immediately deported to a forced labor or extermination/concentration camp. This was not the case. The Nazi racial classification or "Nuremberg Laws" were complex and bizarre as to who was classified as a "Jew". (see Nazi classification chart) This classification dispute is responsible for some controversy. Some scholars have complained that the title of Rigg's book is sensational and misleading because it implies that these Nazi soldiers were Jewish when, in fact, many of them would not be classified as Jews under Jewish law (Young men were considered Jewish if their mothers were Jewish.). Many of the soldiers interviewed did not consider themselves Jewish at all and had been baptized into a Christian tradition. I view this as a simplistic criticism since the overall issue of how Hitler bent and twisted the racial laws of his regime to serve his own bizarre purposes in the face of the Nuremberg laws is a fascinating idea that Riggs explains from a unique perspective. Riggs demonstrates the willingness of the Nazis to bend their own laws of racial classification and Jewish persecution and documents Hitler's extensive , obsessive involvement in deciding which "Jews" received a pass ,which would be discharged, and which would ultimately be deported. Riggs also explores the historical, religious and cultural individual personal conflicts of "The Jewish Identity". A very interesting side-note to Rigg's book is that his research has popped up on Holocaust Revisionist websites as support for their outrageously bizarre claim that there was substantial support for Hitler from parts of the Jewish Community.

While most of Jewish descent were ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, some rose to very high ranking positions of authority in the Nazi Regime. Some either directly or indirectly participated in the Jewish killing machine. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country whose official policy was that they were regarded as second-class citizens and, in most cases, not even human. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country that was deporting their relatives to concentrations camps for eventual extermination. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country who, some say, planned to ultimately exterminate them also when Germany won the war. How could these "Jews" fight for a country that planned their extinction? Why did Hitler allow this to take place? We know it is not due to the common misconception that Hitler was part Jewish. Scholars universally agree that there is no evidence of this. Rigg's thesis certainly goes against everything I believed about my identity as a Jew and what it means to be a Jew. Does having "Jewish blood" in itself make you Jewish? While the simple answer seems to be no, it was quite complicated in Nazi Germany.

A fascinating aspect of the lecture and the book is the method by which the Nazis determined who was Jewish and who was not. For racial and military purposes, the Nazi Party classified Jewish people as full Jews, half Jews, and quarter Jews. Each classification was treated differently with regards to whether they could serve in the German military and what rights, if any, they had under German law. As previously mentioned, according to Jewish law, a person is determined to be a Jew if the person's mother is Jewish.

I would have been a full Jew under Nazi laws. All four of my grandparents on both sides were Jewish. I am also of Russian descent. Not only would I have been prohibited from serving in the German military, I would have in all likelihood been on the first train out to to Auschwitz or some other extermination camp. Jews of Eastern descent or "Ghetto Jews" were also looked down upon and discriminated against by German born Jews as well as the Germans. It was a double whammy. (it was an upper vs lower class type discrimination as compared to the totalitarian discrimination of the Nazis)

Many of those of partial Jewish descent while Jewish by both Jewish law and Nazi racial classification had become so assimilated into the German-Christian society through mixed marriages that they did not consider themselves Jewish. Some were practicing Christians. This was only changed through Hitler's racial classification system and the Nuremberg Laws which officially made the majority of people of full and partial Jewish descent second-class citizens called "Mischling", meaning they came from a mixed marriage and had partial Jewish ancestry. Germans of partial Jewish descent who had practiced Christianity all of their lives, were suddenly classified as a "Mischling," Jews under Hitler's racial classification laws. They were suddenly stripped of most rights under German law.

Interestingly, the situation was not just a German/Jewish phenomenon. In 1941, Finland joined the war as a "co-belligerent" of Germany. (Finland refused to call itself an ally.) There were 250-300 Finnish-Jews fighting alongside Germany on the eastern front against Russia, and some of the Finnish-Jews were even awarded German battle decorations. Soldiers with Jew ish heritage also fought along side the Nazis when Romania was aligned against the Soviet Union as well as for Italy.

There was a huge ideology gap between what occurred in Finland and Nazi Germany. Finland was not under Nazi rule. Finland, from its perspective, was fighting for its independence from Russia rather than to support any anti-Semitic ideology or German persecution. Finland as a nation refused to endorse the Nazi anti-Semitic policies and refused to deport, persecute or discriminate against its Jewish population. It is quite the paradox that despite this policy their fighting alongside Germany certainly helped Germany achieve military goals and indirectly aided in the Jewish persecutions. The Finnish-Jewish soldiers were not blind to what was going on. It caused quite a bit of internal conflict and tension with the German soldiers. This was also not a racial classification issue. Finland did not discriminate against or classify their Jews. In this situation, full, practicing Jews were fighting alongside the Nazis against the Allies, fighting predominately at Leningrad.

The German racial classification system for Jews and the resulting disparate treatment with regards to military service in the Nazi army highlights some of the fundamental issues of Jewish Identify that exist even today. What does it mean to be Jewish? What qualities and beliefs make someone Jewish? If your mother is Jewish you are certainly a Jews by definition of Jewish Law but that may not be how you may look at yourself if you were not raised in the Jewish tradition. Are we as Jews defined by our culture, our religious practices or how other view us? As an example, several years ago I got into a heated argument when a person who was close to me told me in her opinion I was not Jewish because I did not adhere to Jewish religious practices. I was infuriated. It was and is my belief that my bond to Judaism is through culture, common history and suffering. The bond that all Jews share. That is what defines me as a Jew. She could not grasp this concept. This was the dilemma faced by many of the Mischling in Nazi Germany. This is a historical and religious conflict faced by Jews today as mixed marriages have become much more common and accepted in the United States. Jews argue among themselves over this issue. It is a conflict that transcends time.

Autoresponder Script - 3 Tips For Writing Your Own Well-Oiled Autoresponder

So you set up a great new company, got a fantastic website off the ground and now you are getting tons of interest from potential customers. They have written into you but now you have to respond to them. That is why you need to have a great autoresponder script. What you write to people is going to determine how they feel about your company and is going to confirm your first interaction with them. Here are a few ideas of how to do it right.

Tip 1 - Be clear. When creating an autoresponder keep in mind that people have short attention spans and want to get the information as quickly and as easily as possible. Don't waste their time by writing information that they could get off your website- just let them know that you got their mail and the next step that they should take.

Tip 2 - Make your autoresponder script sound personal. OK, this is going to be a challenge because an autoresponder by definition is an automatic response to people, but there are ways to make it personal. Set the tone by writing a script which is friendly, gracious and applies to the majority of people who respond.

Tip 3 - Check, double check and then triple check the spelling and grammar. If there is any type of grammatical error it can turn people off permanently. Don't take that risk.

Writing a great autoresponder script is crucial to your business- why even have an automated response if it is not going to catch people's attention and promote your business? If you make sure to be clear, sound personal and check for mistakes you will be sure to have success.

Making a Flood Claim on Your Home Insurance

The flooding, during the summer of 2007, has saddled the UK insurance industry with a huge, one billion pound claims bill. More bad weather would push this figure even higher.

A 24-hour emergency helpline is offered to customers by most major insurers, to be used if they are flooded. You must make a call to this number as matter of urgency to find out how you should make your claim. A useful website, which is run by the Association of British Insurers, gives a list of help lines operated by the major insurance companies.

What is the next thing to do? - Try following these steps, they will act as a good guide to help make your claim successful.

The water levels should be marked on the walls as a reference and you should keep a photographic or video record of all flood damage. All correspondence between the insurers and yourself regarding the flood should be kept. Emergency repairs can be carried out to stop matters getting any worse. You should keep all receipts to support your claim. It is prudent to get professional advice before carrying out lengthy repairs. For example, your insurer may have a list of approved tradesmen. You should always take up references as there are a lot of bogus tradesmen around.

The magnitude of the repairs may be so extensive that you may have to move out of your home. You will find that the cost of alternative accommodation, up to a specific limit, will be paid for by the insurer. Your insurance company may wish to contact you after you have vacated your home, so leave them a contact telephone number.

Beware of con artists - There have been reports of criminals, posing as water officials, trying to con their way into the homes of people. So you must be very careful! Thames Water, in particular, have reported that several residents have had suspicious callers. Fortunately the householders have turned them away. However, the Water Authority has issued a warning to the public, to be careful about whom they allow into their homes.

Checking the ID of a visitor - There are precautions you should take if a visitor says they represent the Water Board. Check their photographic ID, making sure that their photo resembles them and that the card is up to date. If you are in any doubt, what so ever, call the Water Board to check that they are genuine, whilst they remain outside. If you have any reason to suppose that the caller is bogus, tell them to leave and get in touch with police immediately. Never leave the door open whilst you use the phone to check them out or call the police.

Making a complaint - If you have to complain about how your claim is being processed by your loss adjuster or insurance company, you should write or telephone your insurer, keeping a record of what you have said or written. Details of the complaints procedure of your insurer can be found in your policy.

You can get in touch with Financial Ombudsman Service if your problem is not resolved satisfactorily and they will investigate, assuming the complaint is within their terms of reference.

Preview: Susanne Schleyer - A German Photographer Confronts German History

My brother continues to be a great source for new story ideas. Just like he recently linked me up with Bruce Bell, one of Toronto's most well known experts and historians, he recently read about a German photographer by the name of Susanne Schleyer who had just published a new book, "Unterwegs" ("On the Road") with 100 photos and stories from 12 different cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, London, Paris, Prague, Rom, San Francisco, Saint Petersburg, Venice and Vienna.

I started doing some research on Susanne's website and realized that she had done other interesting projects and yesterday I spent two hours on the phone, talking with her in Berlin. Susanne is an interesting individual. She is in her early 40s, and studied art and German philology in Berlin and later photography in Leipzig. From 1990 onwards she has undertaken travels for photography projects to Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Chile, Argentina, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, Italy and the United States.

For her recent book "Unterwegs" ("On the Road"), Susanne created photos in 12 different cities. Then she selected authors to whom she presented the photos and she requested them to write stories, using the photos as inspiration. The book was just recently published in September of 2005.

The project that fascinated me even more is called "Trilogy - A German History Project", that she did jointly with another artist, Michael J. Stephan. "Trilogy" consists of 3 exhibitions composed of images and sound collages that are each independent but connected. The exhibitions explore German history, sixty years after the end of World War II and the collapse of German National Socialism. With the last witnesses of these times nearly gone, Susanne and Michael set out to search for traces, to come up with a way for asking questions about these times on an artistic and subjective level.

In Part I "Asservate" ("Exhibits" - A German Family Chronicle 1907 to 1997), Susanne explores her grandfather, a family taboo, as he was an official in the NS regime. The exhibit explores 3 generations of German men, her grandfather, her father - a totally apolitical individual, and her brother, all of whom lived in 3 different social orders: the Third Reich, the former communist East Germany, and today's reunified Germany. While working on this project, she realized that this part of history, which was presented in high school as if it was as far removed as the Middle Ages, was much closer and still touched the present.

In Part II "Bueno! Alemanes en Argentina 2000" Susanne and Michael travelled to Argentina to explore the world of German immigrants who came to Argentina before, during and after WWII. In total they spent almost a year connecting with German immigrants in Buenos Aires. These German immigrants encompass a variety of different groups, including Jewish refugees, non-denominational leftists, economic adventurers and outright National Socialists. They are truly a motley collection of victims and perpetrators who have shock-frozen an image of Germany as it was at the time when they left.

Part III "Sologubovka - Russia" is anchored around the consecration of Europe's largest war cemetery in Sologubovka, a small village near St. Petersburg. The five-hectare burial site was chosen by the German War Graves Association, which scouted various cemeteries with the unmarked graves of German soldiers in Russia before deciding on this location. The remains of German soldiers from smaller burial sites in the region were also collected and buried at Sologubovka., which is now the resting place of 60,000 German soldiers, around half of whom have been identified. It is estimated that up to 80,000 will be buried here when the cemetery is completed, making it the largest war cemetery in Russia. This lavish cemetery stands in stark contrast to the one single symbolic grave commemorating hundreds of thousands of Soviet victims that died during Nazi Germany's 900 day siege of Leningrad (the Leningrad Blockade). Incidentally, Susanne Schleyer's grandfather fell in 1941 and was reburied in the Sologubovka Cemetery, closing the loop of the Trilogy..

For all these projects, Susanne and her partner did years of research, studying historical and sociological texts in addition to spending substantial amounts of time on location to produce photos, interviews and sound recordings. These 3 components of Trilogy were produced between 1994 and 2004 and the exhibitions have been shown in various cities in Germany, including Berlin, the Netherlands, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Buenos Aires.

In my upcoming interview Susanne will talk to us about what motivated her to do this enormous Trilogy project, and she will tell us of her fascinating experiences along the way, confronting herself with her own family's history, meeting German and Jewish immigrants in Argentina, and she will share her experiences in Saint Petersburg.

Susanne's work is of particular interest to me personally, since my father was a Nazi as well who was drafted in 1941 at 17 years of age to fight in the Second World War. As was the case with Susanne's grandfather, my father is a great enigma for me. I was never close to my father and left my home country of Austria at the young age of 20. It was only in the last year of his life that I had a real conversation with him, with him opening up just a little bit.

My father has been dead now for more than 10 years, and to this day I have never been able to find out what his personal involvement was during the WWII years. The one thing I can say is that my attitude today in terms of being a fervent supporter of intercultural openness and racial, ethnic and religious tolerance was shaped to a great degree as a response to World War II history that touched me personally in the form of my father.

The Second World War still has weighs on many people, 60 years after it came to an end. And it weighs on the descendants of the perpetrators as well as on the descendants of its victims, albeit in different ways. The concept of "collective guilt" in subsequent post-war generations is not fictitious.

My father and his role during this time have remained a mystery to me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have linked up with Susanne Schleyer, a woman who has taken the initiative to explore her own family's history in the context of World War II.

Law School Essay - This is Your Personal Statement

A law school essay is a personal statement about yourself. Of all the requirements and documents that will be submitted with your law school application, this is the one that you have the most control over.

This is where you can have a direct influence on what the admissions committee will think of you and why you should be chosen over all the other candidates. This is not a rewriting of your resume or a summary of your transcript; this is your opportunity to prove to them why you would be a great lawyer.

Present the facts about yourself and give overpowered reason on why you should be in their educational institution. Prove you can contribute to your class and those around you.

One of the best ways to get your point across is to know your target audience. This will be a group of people that are reviewing many applications every day. Explain in detail why you want to become a lawyer and your life experiences that can contribute to your success in this field of study.

You should also have some real life qualifications with law. This does not include being arrested, but possibly working with a free law clinic or assisting lawyers in some other way. Explain your experiences, but get to the point. Remember, these reviews do nothing but read applications all day. Do what you can to set yourself apart without boring them.

If you have a disability or of a persecuted minority, exploit it for all that it is worth. Separate yourself from the masses and stay focused so the essay will be a compelling read.

Your law school essay is your best chance to shine. Make the most of it.

Chicken and Rice - Easy, Healthy, AND Gourmet?

I know what you're thinking! Sure, chicken is easy and yes, it can be healthy, but can it really be gourmet? Absolutely! It's all in the presentation. Grab a pen and paper; here's how you do it.

Preferably, it's a heck of a lot easier to use an electric frying pan. This way you can make your sauce. Add about 2 Tbls. of extra light virgin olive oil into your pan. Take two nice size garlic cloves, peel them, smack them with a knife, chop them up and put them in your pan. Slice up some red onion (about 3 inches long and a half inch thick). Quarter a handful of mushrooms and sauté them on low along with the onion and garlic. This is a great meal with a yummy Pinot Grigio so I'll pour myself a glass and use about a quarter cup of it to throw into the sauté. Let that reduce a little and stir it around a few times. Next, add about 2 or 3 Tbls. of Balsamic Vinegar (I like Colavita because it's a little sweeter), stir and cover. Onto the next station!

Now, rinse off the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, removing all of the fat. I used 3 7 oz. breasts. Turn up the pan to about 300 and sear the breasts tenderloin side down first. After about a minute and a half, turn the chicken over and repeat the sear. Turn down the pan to about 200 and add two cups of water. Once the liquid begins to boil again, add a teaspoon and a ½ of low sodium, plain chicken broth paste. Stir it around so it dissolves properly. Add about a quarter size amount of Thyme on top of the chicken along with some fresh ground pepper. Startin' to sound good yet? Now, you just let it go! Onto the next station!

You can do this with really any kind of rice. My personal favorite is jasmine white (because it's not as mushy) but you could do whatever you like. Also, you could even dress up your rice a little by using some slices almonds or cashews. Cook your rice about a half hour before you would like to eat but make sure that it's not too mushy. This way, you're not pressured. Anyway, the longer the chicken is in the sauce, the yummier it will be! You just want to make sure that you stir it and turn them every 10 minutes or so and keep the temp down to 200. Make sure that you keep about 2 cups of liquid in the pan at all times.

Ready to eat? Okay, remove the chicken and cut it into slices or chunks (whatever suites you best). Take a 1 ½ tsp and mix it with a small amount of cold water (maybe a ¼ cup of water). Pour the mixture into the sauce and stir. Once it gets a little thicker, add another teaspoon to a ¼ cup of water and do it again. Add the chicken to the sauce and stir it up. Let the sauce cook for about 10 minutes... stir it often. You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat the chicken nicely. Onto the next station!

Here's where the presentation comes in. Now I'm one of those people who would use his or her "nice stuff" any time I could. So, my philosophy is, if you've got it, use it! While you're messing around in the kitchen, finely julienne some pretty peppers. Red, orange and yellow are my favorite because they add some really nice color to the dish. Sauté them just enough to be limp and you can either clump a little bit onto the plate or spread it out a little. You don't want it over powering that's all. Ladle about a cup and a ½ of rice onto the plate. Now make a small pocket into the top of the rice. Ladle a nice amount of sauce into the top of the pocket. Add your chicken to the top and garnish your plate with your peppers and the final touch which is a nice piece of herb. I like to use rosemary sprigs because they're so pretty. But you could use virtually anything I suppose.

Viola! You have now created Chicken and Rice dish that is EASY, HEALTHY and GOURMET!