Tag: Recipe

FREEDOM TO BE LOCAL

Here is a picture of the local July 4th celebration in West Allis Wisconsin, where I live. I believe the group is called ‘The dancing Grannies’. I think it is awesome that seniors continue to be active and it was even better to hear people applaud and cheer for them as they went by. In this country July 4th is celebrated as Independence Day, or the day in which this country began its self-rule.

Here is me enjoying the parade with my mother and her husband. I had such a good time and do not remember enjoying a parade that much since I was a child. It got me thinking about individual freedoms we either take for granted or choose not to take advantage of. Such as who we share our time with. Ideally, this picture would have included my lovely Margie, not only would that have added to the joy I was feeling, it would have added beauty to the picture as well. Alas, she was not able to join us due to prior obligations. I could have watched the parade by myself, or even with any of the great friends I ran into. I chose to watch it with my mother because lately we have been going for walks in nature and sharing some great conversation and fun times. The freedom of who to spend your time with is a very important one to exercise.

Here are pictures of the food truck and the tasty treats that I enjoyed from it. Do you realize how many more options we have when it comes to what we eat? Only 100 years ago small local grocery stores carried a handful of options. Now, we have stores that have thousands of items to choose from. Some from halfway around the world! We can choose to eat healthy or we can choose to eat…well…pizza. Even when cooking at home recipes and even videos guiding us through how to make exotic dishes are at our fingertips.

These are pictures of the party they held at a local park after the parade. There were things to eat as you saw in the above paragraph, as well as a band, children’s games and beverages. This brought up one of the most important freedoms of all. In a world that has headlines dominated by terrorism, racism, hate and violence, a lot of people are afraid to walk the street. Sadly, that is exactly what those committing violent crimes wish for. It is my belief that one of the best ways to combat a world that seems filled with division is to get out and meet your neighbors. Holiday celebrations are a perfect place to do so. On this day I met great neighbors such as Kristin, the mayor of our fine city, my neighbor Dan and lots of others. Do yourself a favor. As you are enjoying that hamburger, sweet corn or even that frosty beverage, take a second to introduce yourself to neighbors. If you happen to see Margie and me out enjoying the holidays, feel free to introduce yourself to us.

LET’S START COOKING!!

Here is a fun and creative idea I just came up with.  Sometimes it works that way.  For those of you who don’t know, I love to cook I find it to be very cleansing for the soul and being able to see and taste something you create always fills me with a sense of accomplishment.  Except for the one late December evening when half asleep I tried to bake cookies and mixed up the salt and the sugar.  Even then they still looked nice.  Back to my brilliant idea.  Ok, in my mind it is brilliant, but trust me my mind is one place we need not go.  I was creating a casserole tonight from a cookbook my grandmother left me when she passed away.  Perhaps it was her inspiration that put this idea in my head, but either way I encourage all of you to try it.  If you do and it works out remember my birthday is July 29th and feel free to send me a copy of your creation.  If it doesn’t work out, feel free to just send cookies.

Back to being serious, which is rare for me.  The cookbook I was using was one of those with the spiral binding.  As I flipped through the pages an idea came to me.  What if I could create a ‘motivational/inspirational cookbook’!  On each page could be a different idea for staying motivated and creating the amazing life we all deserve!  It gets better.  I know all of my ideas, you know all of your ideas, but we do not know each other’s ideas.  So get your self a blank set of recipe cards and hand them out to your friends, neighbors, family, co-workers or anyone else you can think of.  Explain you are making a special cookbook and could they give you their secret recipe for staying happy/motivated/inspired whatever word you wish to use.  You may even give them a self-addressed stamped envelope so they can take their time and mail it back to you when they are done.  You might want to skip that kind of odd crazy friend you have though.  Ok, you can include him, but just put that recipe on the back page. When you are done you will not only have created an amazing list of new ways to improve the quality of you life, but you will also have gained an insight into what makes your friends happy.  That can come in handy on special holidays like…I don’t know birthdays that fall on July 29th.  Ok, my friends, let’s get cooking!