Spicing Up Your Life

How do you attack life? Are you kind of bland or do you bring a natural zest to your life? No matter how you approach life we welcome you to Spicing up Your Life.

Our goal is to bring you ideas and recipes that you can use to bring a little more zing to your life. We love spice and believe that everyone can use a little more spice in their lives. To that end we will be sharing recipes and ways to cook good tasting and healthful meals, ideas that can improve your overall health and our philosophical approach to life in general.

Please take a minute and add us to your RSS feeds so you don’t miss any of the ideas we want to share with you.

We welcome you and your comments and hope that you will contribute to what we are creating here.

We hope to fill your day with a little spice.

Marc

Marc and I are very excited to introduce our new website on “Spicing up your life”. This site will include delicious recipes, healthy tips and ways in which you can Spice up your life in all areas.

Marc and I have been together almost 10 years and we have created a unique relationship together. We are fortunate that we hold the same values, beliefs and philosophy in regards to our lives. I had always been searching for a partner that wanted to make a difference in the world and I found this wonderful quality in Marc. We have been through some ups and downs in our relationship, but we always come back to what is really important…our relationship. Neither one of us is shy when it comes to growing as individuals or as partners. We continue to learn and search for ways to improve our lives and have a fun time doing it!

Let me give you a little background on each of us:

Marc has been a financial planner for 21 years and he believes in taking a wholistic approach towards ones finances. He is interested in people and in making life better in all areas of life.

As for myself, I have been a register nurse for 22 years. It has been a wonderful experience. My career has spanned the continuum, from a critical care nurse to preventive healthcare. The various ends of the continuum in my career have provided a unique perspective on how I lead my life. This website will reveal lessons and tips that I have learned along my journey.

Marc and I are so excited to share our wisdom and the lessons we learned along our path.

My first contribution to our new website will be to discuss the health benefits of cooking with peppers. When I first met Marc he introduced me to new spices and flavors that I have become accustom to in each meal.

Sandy

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I’m kind of a nut about hot peppers but I haven’t always been. In fact, like most of you I could not understand why people ate hot food. Why would you want to burn your mouth up anyway? I have to blame my mother though for I think my palate comes from her.

My mom was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1913 to Carlos and Cresenciana Chavez. Her mother died shortly after she was born and since her father was a cowboy and could not raise her properly he allowed her to be adopted by a missionary named Mary Johnston who moved with her to Iowa where she grew up and met my father. Although she grew up eating mild Midwest food most of her life, she enjoyed a hot pepper with most of her meals throughout my life.

I would try her peppers on occasion but never quite got why she so liked them but as I grew and my palate developed I learned to not only like peppers, but to crave them. My love for cooking came from my mother while my love of gardening came from my father. I would spend time in the kitchen watching my mom cook, asking questions and getting in the way, but in the process I discovered what mixing flavors together did for food. I am one of those people who rarely use a recipe when I cook and even if I start with one, I always add my own herbs and spices to give it a little more zing.

Somehow, over the last couple of decades I have developed into a pretty good cook but when I discovered a love for hot peppers I think my cooking got even better. There is something about the flavor that a little pepper gives to a dish that just works. I have found that my own peppers, the ones I grow in my garden, seem to have a better flavor than adding hot sauce off the shelf. It could be that I use less vinegar in my sauce or that I don’t put any other things in the sauce when I prepare it. You can find my recipe for hot sauce in our recipe section. The three main peppers I grew this year were Kung Pao (a pepper similar to Cayenne but a little larger and a little hotter), Tai Chili (a small bell shaped pepper that is hotter than the Kung Pao but very flavorful), and the Tai Hot Chili (a very small pepper with a giant kick).

I encourage you to experiment with different peppers to discover new flavors and different degrees of spiciness. I would also be interested in your feedback from what you have experienced or how you have used this wonderful ingredient in your kitchen. I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

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You have probably been to a Waffle House at one time or another. If not you should stop by just for the experience. Try about 2:00 am on the outskirts of a small city or get there when the breakfast crowd shows up. You usually will get a decent show with every meal.

I stopped by for breakfast today. I was on my way back from Morganton where I had dropped Sandy off at her sister, Lora’s. Lora, Sandy, Marcia, Tina and her daughter, Lauren were all headed to Orlando for their maternal grandmother’s funeral. She was 95, so she had a good long life. It will be a good time for all four sisters to bond again.

Anyway, I stopped at the one at the second exit going East past Highpoint. You never know what you will experience when you walk into a Waffle House. As I opened the door 4 people said hello to me; one patron going out and 3 of the 4 waitresses behind the counter. It made me feel good even before I sat down. My waitress, Rhonda, was young, quiet and had a handmade nametag. All of the others had yellow plastic tags with their names embossed on them. After she took my order she just stood and waited to deliver it to the cook. Finally, one of the other waitresses, Cathy, said “go ahead honey”. With that she belted it out, waited for the cook to repeat it back and then confirmed it. I asked Cheryl, a third waitress, if they were breaking in a new one. She said “no, she has been here a couple weeks and she almost has it down. She just can’t remember all of the items yet”. I was really impressed with how the two older waitresses were coaching her along.

As I waited for my food the 3 of them began to banter back and forth about what they were going to do tomorrow, if Cheryl was going to cook dinner and whether and who was going to come over. It was obvious that they were either all related or close friends. They talked as if they were the only ones in the place while they included us all in their light, friendly chatter. It felt a bit like eavesdropping on a private conversation, you didn’t want to seem too interested, but you also didn’t want to miss anything. So you found yourself laughing right along with them.

I was enjoying myself so much I hardly remember eating my eggs, bacon, grits, toast and waffle. It was all over too quickly and before I left I complemented the manager on the fine people she had working there, loud enough so that the whole staff could hear. I left a nice tip, really paying for the entertainment rather than the service, and paid Cheryl at the register. As I left they all wished me a good day and I walked out feeling full, satisfied and happy.

It is funny how being a part of someone else’s life, even for a short time, can make you feel good. As I drove away I thought, what if everyone could feel that for everyone else, would there still be killing in places like Iraq, Darfur, and Durham?

You see, deep down we all want the same things.

To be heard, to listen and to love.

So the next time you sit down in a Waffle House or anyplace else, take a minute to listen in on the lives that make up your world. We all have something to share with each other, listen, appreciate and thank them, for that is what makes life smile.

Marc

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