Show of hands, how many of y’all are fans of a great vision board workshop? Each year, David and I take a weekend to create vision boards. We find they help us identify and focus on our life goals and dreams. This retreat traditionally happens between Christmas Day and the first week of the new year. With a couple of poster boards, scissors, glue sticks and a stack of magazines, we get to work, cutting out and gluing to poster board the pictures, words, and phrases that grab our attention. Some years, our vision-boarding takes us away to some seaside locale and features the sound of waves crashing onto a gray winter beach as we cut and paste and dream. Other years, we’re home, serenaded by our sweet, I mean, fierce dog, Karma, protecting us from the mail carrier sliding letters into the mailbox, or the random squirrel crossing our backyard. Either way, these couple of days give us a chance to check-in with each other, and dream out loud, as we create the visual roadmap we will use to navigate the next leg of the journey toward our dreams.
For whatever reason, as we enter 2020, we haven’t indulged this winter ritual yet. Maybe it’s because we can’t get past giggling over all the fabulously awful puns and dad jokes associated with the phrase, 2020 Vision Board. The looking forward, the hindsight, the clearly seeing of it all is too much for our inner-12-year-olds to handle. More likely though, it is because after many years of step-by-step, goal-by-goal travel, many of our hopes and dreams have been realized. Our children are grown, healthy and happy. Our beloved baby granddaughters bring more joy into our lives than we could’ve ever imagined. And, our love and desire to nourish others has extended our kitchen table out into the world in the most delightful ways, making room for each of you and yours to pull up a chair, grab a plate and gather at it with us. We can’t wait get to know you, maybe swap a few recipes and hear all about all the fun things we might find on your vision board!
Speaking of swapping recipes, as some of you might already know, David actually developed his gourmet roasted salsas to serve as his recipe-elevating “secret ingredient.” Can I tell you how easy his hard work has made MY time in the kitchen? Seriously! Last night, we hosted a meeting at our place. Chicken plus a jar of his Chipotle salsa (and the recipe on the side of said jar)made for a seriously easy yummy Taco Tuesday for all. Y’all! It was so well received, out of almost six pounds of chicken, only one cup remained when we said good night to our last guest! Plenty to enjoy on top of today’s lunch salad!
In the weeks to come, be on the lookout for more of our favorite recipes. I can’t wait to share them with you! Here are a few to get you started. And, if you’re so inclined, feel free to share how you elevate your recipes with David’s “secret ingredient.” If you don’t already have some on hand, run, do not walk to your nearest H-E-B Grocery Store and grab some today! I’m always on the Look-Out for yummy ways to cook with my favorite salsas. In the meantime, here’s to you and to your 2020 Vision! [Insert your favorite fabulously awful 2020 pun here!] Happy New Year, and
Carpe Diem Y’all! Michele