What’s Cooking?

What’s your favorite recipe?

I am not a cook. Professional or home cook. I didn’t even want to learn how. I remember being a young girl telling my mom that I was not going to be a housewife, so I did not need to learn housewife duties 🙄. What a childish statement. The reality is everyone has to eat, and it is best and cheaper to be the one cooking the food. As a home cook, you can season the food just the way you like, add or delete ingredients, and make as little or as much as you want. Even if cooking isn’t your thing, I recommend you learn how to make a few dishes. At this age, I won’t starve, but don’t expect too much from me. I can’t cook for an event or family gathering, but I can bring a dish that I have mastered.

My favorite recipe is white chicken chili. I love this dish because I believe it is one you can eat year-round, and it is delicious. You can make it simple with a can of cannellini beans, cut up chicken breast, and the white chicken chili sauce pack. You can substitute the chicken for turkey burger. Or forgo the meat altogether and just use beans. There are so many different ways to personalize this chili. Add cheese or vegetables. I like to make mine with cannellini and great northern beans, turkey burger, corn,  petite diced tomatoes, and at least two sauce packets. I like it to have a little kick. Then, I eat the chili with tortilla chips. So yummy 😋. I make this chili in every season, but of course, more in the colder months.

I have found another recipe I like, taco cupcakes. I don’t feel like I have perfected it yet, but I will continue to work on it and the different variations I want to try and make. What is your favorite recipe? Is it one you found or one that was passed down through the family? I do have a rule not to cook anything with more than 5 ingredients. Do you have any cooking rules? Let me know what you are cooking up. Stay well and whole. Much Love 🧡 💚

P.S. I finished my first 1000 piece puzzle of this year. I’m in a puzzle swap with my friend and her dad 😆. He has the good quality puzzles, not the cheap dollar store ones.

Café Librerio

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

Once again, Day One Prompts saving a sister. This is actually the prompt from August 10th. Either I didn’t pay attention to it on that day, or I had something more important to talk about. Who knows? I guess I can always go back and see what I did talk about on the 10th.

Seven years in the future, I am unlocking the door to my coffee shop, Café Librero, in Tulum, Mexico. The smell of coffee greets you as you walk through the door. There are small circular tables with comfortable, plush chairs. Along the left wall are bookshelves filled with books showing Spanish and English titles. On the right wall, there are mugs with Spanish sayings and shirts to match. The walls are beautifully painted in a rusty orange with floral designs that looks real enough to touch. The barista calls out a greeting in English followed up with the same greeting in Spanish. You approach the register to place your order, knowing that you will be understood in either language. You speak slowly, using choppy Spanish, because you are still learning, and you are happy to have a place to practice.

As you wait for your order to be prepared, you browse the books on the shelves. You find the latest romance novel by Jasmine Guillory and tuck it under your arm. You have been looking for this book, but have been unable to find it at any of the other bookstores. You grab a seat at a yellow table with a mandala design painted on the top. The orange and yellow chair you sit in is made for chilling and reading a book. Another worker brings your order to your table, and you have another opportunity to practice your Spanish. They are patient with you as you speak and offer encouragement on what you did say right.  You laugh, a little embarrassed, but happy to be getting real-world experience. As you sip your hot, but not too hot to drink, coffee, you dive into the first chapter of the book.

My dream is to retire at 55, move to Tulum, Mexico, and open up a coffee shop. I want to sell coffee,  mugs with Spanish sayings and t-shirts. I want to allow people to borrow and purchase books in English or Spanish. My cafe will be advertised as a place for new Spanish speakers to come in and get an opportunity to improve their Spanish by speaking with the workers and others who frequent the establishment. I know Duolingo isn’t the way to learn, and others have stressed how important it is to immerse yourself when learning a new language. My café will be a stop  on your journey to mastering a new language. What I’m really selling is an experience. One that you will remember long after you return home.

Your turn. What would be the name of your shop? What would you sell? Tell me your wildest dream. I’m nosy and I want to know. Be well and whole. Much Love 🧡 💚

Movie Night

What are your top ten favorite movies?

The Day One Prompts have been pretty good lately. Or maybe they are always good, and I am just now noticing them because I am writing more often. This prompt is going to be a little hard for me because I don’t know if I even like 10 movies. I wanted to do this one to see if I could come up with 10 movies. I don’t really watch movies more than once. It isn’t that I do not like the movie, it is that I can remember what it is about. It seems pointless to keep watching a movie when you already know what is going to happen. Now, there are a few movies I have watched more than once that I will include:

  • The Holiday with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, and Kate Winslet. Jude Law looked the best he ever had any other time in life in this movie.
  • Robots – Cartoon movie with a great message, “See a need, fill a need.”
  • Klaus – Another cartoon movie. Netflix Original Christmas movie with a song that has made it to Ebony’s Playlist.
  • John Wick, John Wick 3 and John Wick 4 – Action and Keanu Reeves, enough said.
  • The Matrix – One of the best movies ever and once again, Keanu Reeves.
  • Hudson Hawk – Such a stupid movie starring Bruce Willis and Andie McDowell, but I love it.
  • Majority of the Marvel Movies – If it is not a cartoon movie, it will probably be an action movie, or two, or more. Lol
  • Mulan – My favorite Disney princess, even though she isn’t technically a princess. 
  • The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies – Legolas with the bow and arrow has my heart.
  • How to Train Your Dragon 1 – 3 – I know, I am such a big kid. I loved each and every one of the movies and was sad when it came to an end. I even watched the animated series on Netflix.

I cheated a little bit because it didn’t say movie series, but I can’t pick just one from the series I listed. I know I can’t be the only one who would do this. What are your top 10 favorite movies? Do we have any in common? Let me know. I would love to hear from you. Be well and whole. Much Love 🧡 💚