how will you refresh this july?

June 30, 2014 by anne fassnacht Leave a Comment

Katie of the blog, Twin Stripe and I are collaborating for a visually exciting and inspirational social event.

We worked together to come up with a theme for the month of July which is….

Refresh

July can be a hot month and everyone is so busy that we need time to cool down, take a break and refresh.

Here are the details:

Who:Anybody with some kind of social media account that supports hashtags
What: Word themed photo challenge
When: You can link up all month. We will be highlighting some of our favorites on Friday, August 1
Where: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or your blog
Why: To meet new people to follow on twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Bloglovin
How: take an image and explain why it makes you think of the theme word on social media and use the hashtag #refreshjuly
Link up:Stop back by this post and link up your favorite photos throughout the month. You can link up as many photos as you want as long as it keeps with the theme. Even if you don’t have a blog you can still participate.

There are no wrong answers, sharing your idea of a summer refresh is all you need to do. It can be refreshing drink recipe, a pretty view that makes you feel relaxed or a new addition to your summer wardrobe.

The first of my #refreshjuly images is a mocktail I made the other day. A pineapple mint mojito with coconut water. Want a cocktail just add rum. It is getting hot here and making new coconut mocktails has been a fun way to refresh while sticking to my Whole 30 diet. Head over to Twin Stripe to see how Katie interpreted refresh.

Remember this is all about inspiring each other and building a community so don’t be afraid to look around and follow some more people and hopefully the favor will be returned. Katie and I would love if you followed us on one (or more!) of our accounts so you can see updates through the month.

An InLinkz Link-up

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priority check

June 27, 2014 by anne fassnacht 10 Comments

My dad has taught me many lessons. In my opinion the most important was one about priorities.

When I was little we drove by the trailer park in our brown station wagon with the wood on the sides & I saw somebody had a new Trans Am in their driveway, (told you I was young).

“Dad, why don’t we have a nice car like that.”

“You have to pick which things you want. Do you want our nice hose with a pool or that car?”

I shut up, finished the conversation in my head and quietly chose the pool. No shocker there. I was under the driving age and was 1/2 fish growing up. I loved the water more than anything.

When I moved to California many years later we covered this lesson again on a phone call home.

“Rent is so expensive here in the bay area.” At which point I regaled him with shocking stories of just how expensive, expensive was.

“Well, you can have cheap rent you just have to live in some place more like Indiana.”

I laughed and chose California. I never forgot the lesson after that.

Priorities are a funny thing though. They have a sneaky way of changing on you. With a driver’s license that pool/car question might not have been as easy to answer. Well actually it would. I would still take the house and the pool. Which is exactly why we are moving to Indiana.

We have decided it is time for us to leave California and head to the land of affordable living.

When I left I swore up and down, left and right and every which way in between that I would never go back. So when I called and told my parents and they seemed rather surprised I was only slightly shocked.

We are really excited about the move and all the fun things that will come with it. This move is going to allow us so much more freedom. I will hopefully be able to work fewer hours. Which means more time with the amazing man in my life and time to figure out starting my own business. I don’t know what that looks like yet so stay tuned.

We are most looking forward to finally owning our own home and hopefully starting a family.

This could be my first Christmas with my parents in a decade. This will also be my first winter in over a decade. Please let it be nicer than last year. 16 years on the west coast has made me a bit of a weather wimp!

Have you left your childhood home? Will you ever go back?

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what happened to the food network?

June 16, 2014 by anne fassnacht 9 Comments

When I was in college food network was in its infancy and the term celebrity chef was a few years from being part of the daily lexicon. From years of watching the food network I learned a lot, branched out and tried new foods, and became more confident in the kitchen. Some place down the road a lot seems to have changed with celebrity chefs and food programing on television.

The chefs on the food network used to seem so passionate about teaching us about food. Every time I tuned in I felt like I had been personally invited to the kitchen to learn how to make their favorite dish. It was the next best thing to learning in the kitchen with my mom. Alton Brown taught me about the science of food, Bobby Flay taught me how to grill, Emeril taught me to try and enjoy my time in the kitchen and there were other chefs that left an impression on me. Even Rachel Ray, who had less prior cooking experience taught me how to make quick meals.

Now food programming across all channels and even HGTV seem to have succumbed to a sensationalist style that focuses on competition and is more about personality than substance and teaching.

Because of those early chefs I believed that all chefs cared about what people ate. I believed they wouldn’t endorse products they wouldn’t themselves use. When I see Rocco DiSpirito and Carla Hall endorsing Kraft Recipe starters.

Duff’s face on a boxed cake mix, icing and ice cream it makes me come unglued. The box claims it is bakery quality. Nothing about the ingredients in that cake are bakery quality.

I feel strongly that people should learn to eat well and take care of themselves and that should involve the smallest amount of process food you can muster. When the chefs that put themselves out there as people who know good food start talking about how easy Kraft recipe starters it makes teaching people about real food even harder.

If they decide to endorse products I wish they had higher standards. They don’t all have to be Jaime Oliver and champion the cause of people eating better, but it would be nice if they didn’t perpetuate a problem they were at one point actually helping to solve. Getting people who are afraid of the kitchen into the kitchen is the first step to a healthier life and they were good at that once.

Do you think that celebrity chefs have a responsibility to their fans? Should they be helping to educate people on eating properly?

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