The Tortilla Factory
Well, my husband is in Texas. WHAT??? I know, right? Yep, he left Wednesday for the great State of Texas to spend the long weekend with his sister. His nephew, Billy, is graduating high school today. So I have a nice long weekend to fill. I was REALLY excited about it until my car started acting funny. No one ever figured out the problem and it's rattling now, so I'm afraid to take my adventurous day trips. No day trip through Vermont to the Singleton Store or Maine for a lobster roll. No trips to NY, no checking out New Haven.....Nope.....I don't want to get stuck somewhere and not have any help.....all my "help" is in TEXAS!! (I'm not bitter) Anyway....
I decided this weekend to hangout and enjoy the place. I never mind spending time alone. I rather enjoy it. I like my company....ha...I think most introverts feel the same way. I am going to clean top to bottom and hopefully, if the weather cooperates, I'll hang out on the back deck and read and read and read some more! Soak in the sun. Go for a few walks. Enjoy the weather I have been SO looking forward to. Only thing is, I didn't really have much summer reading. So, I stopped by the book store on the way home Thursday. They say you should never "judge a book by its cover", right? But come on. Isn't that all you do unless you have a title in mind? I grabbed the first two Narina books (The Magician's Nephew & The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe) as I plan to read the series this summer. Then I proceeded to walk the store for about an hour "judging covers". It's a funny thing, book jackets. I guess I hadn't really thought about it before. But if you are not a "famous" author, next to the actual manuscript, the most important thing must be the people who design and create the cover that attracts the eye and generates interest in an instant. There are thousands of books on the shelves, most with only the spine showing, and somehow the "magic book marketers" have to get you to pick up that book out of all the rest and at the very least read the back cover.
What an interesting study that would be....what kind of person picks up what book...and why. Okay, romance is easy, right? Whatever appeals to your liking....a southern belle or a beach scene....a period French or early English book.....and science fiction, okay.....the most interesting looking monster or alien or spaceship. But among all in the fiction book section (male and female, thrillers, funny, chic books and political dramas....on and on) as vast and varied as it is, why do you choose a certain book and flip it over. The colors? The script and fonts? Photos? A catchy title? Fascinating.....
I looked over the memoirs (another personal favorite read of mine) and the mysteries, the scary books, new releases and the "local" books. I made my way to the fiction and was just about to go ahead and check out when I saw this cover....four adirondack chairs in bright colors with the words "Second Time Around" jumping out at me. I picked it up thinking it might be about finding love again in a summer
y lake type setting....love those chairs, always have...but when I turned it over and read the back, I was even more intrigued. Here's what it said:
"Every summer, a group of former English majors holds a mini-reunion. They laugh, reminisce, and commiserate about their soul-sucking jobs. Maybe they should have listened to everyone who warned them to study something "practical". Then an unexpected windfall arrives - one million dollars, to be exact - with the stipulation that they use it to jump-start their new careers. Almost overnight, a professor, a bartender, a copywriter, and an administrative assistant reinvent themselves as a novelist, an event planner, a pastry chef, and a bed and breakfast owner. ...."
That's all I needed to read. I picked it up and went to the checkout counter anxious to read my new find. The "catch line" on the front? They spent ten years asking "what if?" Now they're going to find out....
I suppose that it struck me so because recently David and I have a favorite "what if" that we like to plan out over dinner or on a long drive somewhere....after a long day of work and we're worn out from our jobs....it gets us laughing and talking and dreaming. I don't think he'd mind me sharing...I'd ask him, but HE'S IN TEXAS!
If someone handed me part of one million dollars and said I had to start a new job with my life as it is now, I think I know what I'd like to try....Guess you'd have to know a little about where I am. 1.) There's not really any good mexican food here. 2.) There are about four kinds of tortillas in the grocery store and they keep them in the refrigerator section by the cheese (David and I think it's so they can last longer because they don't sell). 3.) The only takeout in Hebron is a pizza place, Subway and an awful chinese place. And not much more than that elsewhere. There is no delivery. There are a couple of small (not very good) restaurants. 4.) I love to cook and have had to become much better at my mexican cuisine as it's the only way to get it up here in these parts.
....I think we should open up a small market/takeout type place with a cold case to sell mexican food! The Tortilla Factory! We would have a tortilla maker like the one in Central Market. Fresh, hot tortillas of all sorts for wraps and mexican food. It would be in a window where the kids could watch when they came in with their busy, hard-working mothers to pick up dinner before soccer or after swim lessons. We would have sauces, salsas, guacamole and pico! We would also have packaged meals that could be re-heated at home (again like the take out case at Whole Foods or Central Market). ....my green chicken enchiladas with cilantro lime rice and fresh corn salad....carnitas.....skirt steak fajitas and all the fixin's.
Marketing? We have that planned out too! I could create the flyers and the business cards, menus and the rest. We would be big on labels.....dairy free, gluten free, no preservatives, no peanuts, etc. We would incorporate smaller, local vendors for our veggies and dairy. (People love that kinda thing up here!) We would participate in sponsoring local school events, town fairs, fundraisers of all kinds.
Plus, you know, I'd have to make many "business" trips back to Texas and Mexico for shopping and inspiration!
It would only be open from 2:00pm-7:00pm so I'd have time to cook in the mornings. We'd have high school kids work the counter until Evan and Olivia got old enough to work the front. Olivia could probably work that whole place....I can see it now! She'd make a friend with every customer that came in!
But my favorite part of the daydream is this: Me back in the kitchen...knives flying...everything smells like cumin and fresh cilantro....latin music of all sorts playing in the background. No English allowed. The walls are painted bright, happy colors and the ceiling corners are filled with giant tissue paper flowers and ribbons. I can decorate for the different seasons. A giant metal mariachi band member (like I've seen in a garden at this one amazing Spanish-style house in Plano) stands next to the cold case holding call ahead take-out menus and a basket with free "treats" for the kiddos. I'm in a bright colored dress every day....think the Chiquita banana lady minus the fruit hat.....of course in my daydream I look more like Salma Hayek.....but whatever. The heat is turned up to 75 degrees everyday and a giant sunlamp is overhead. So even in the dreaded 30's of January & February, I walk into my small dream paradise store and shed the coat and snow boots......and am transformed into the world of warm, festive, yummy Mexico right off Exit 13! Once we get things rolling David can be the "pit master" and perfect the art of smoking and grilling in the morning and then head off to the boat on summer afternoons. He could deal with the vendors and be "charming" and make the deals.
Oh, I could go on and on.....it's my newest and favorite daydream right now. Doesn't it just sound muy bien? Well, all that to say....ummm....I got a new book yesterday afternoon.
I decided this weekend to hangout and enjoy the place. I never mind spending time alone. I rather enjoy it. I like my company....ha...I think most introverts feel the same way. I am going to clean top to bottom and hopefully, if the weather cooperates, I'll hang out on the back deck and read and read and read some more! Soak in the sun. Go for a few walks. Enjoy the weather I have been SO looking forward to. Only thing is, I didn't really have much summer reading. So, I stopped by the book store on the way home Thursday. They say you should never "judge a book by its cover", right? But come on. Isn't that all you do unless you have a title in mind? I grabbed the first two Narina books (The Magician's Nephew & The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe) as I plan to read the series this summer. Then I proceeded to walk the store for about an hour "judging covers". It's a funny thing, book jackets. I guess I hadn't really thought about it before. But if you are not a "famous" author, next to the actual manuscript, the most important thing must be the people who design and create the cover that attracts the eye and generates interest in an instant. There are thousands of books on the shelves, most with only the spine showing, and somehow the "magic book marketers" have to get you to pick up that book out of all the rest and at the very least read the back cover.
What an interesting study that would be....what kind of person picks up what book...and why. Okay, romance is easy, right? Whatever appeals to your liking....a southern belle or a beach scene....a period French or early English book.....and science fiction, okay.....the most interesting looking monster or alien or spaceship. But among all in the fiction book section (male and female, thrillers, funny, chic books and political dramas....on and on) as vast and varied as it is, why do you choose a certain book and flip it over. The colors? The script and fonts? Photos? A catchy title? Fascinating.....
I looked over the memoirs (another personal favorite read of mine) and the mysteries, the scary books, new releases and the "local" books. I made my way to the fiction and was just about to go ahead and check out when I saw this cover....four adirondack chairs in bright colors with the words "Second Time Around" jumping out at me. I picked it up thinking it might be about finding love again in a summer
y lake type setting....love those chairs, always have...but when I turned it over and read the back, I was even more intrigued. Here's what it said:"Every summer, a group of former English majors holds a mini-reunion. They laugh, reminisce, and commiserate about their soul-sucking jobs. Maybe they should have listened to everyone who warned them to study something "practical". Then an unexpected windfall arrives - one million dollars, to be exact - with the stipulation that they use it to jump-start their new careers. Almost overnight, a professor, a bartender, a copywriter, and an administrative assistant reinvent themselves as a novelist, an event planner, a pastry chef, and a bed and breakfast owner. ...."
That's all I needed to read. I picked it up and went to the checkout counter anxious to read my new find. The "catch line" on the front? They spent ten years asking "what if?" Now they're going to find out....
I suppose that it struck me so because recently David and I have a favorite "what if" that we like to plan out over dinner or on a long drive somewhere....after a long day of work and we're worn out from our jobs....it gets us laughing and talking and dreaming. I don't think he'd mind me sharing...I'd ask him, but HE'S IN TEXAS!
If someone handed me part of one million dollars and said I had to start a new job with my life as it is now, I think I know what I'd like to try....Guess you'd have to know a little about where I am. 1.) There's not really any good mexican food here. 2.) There are about four kinds of tortillas in the grocery store and they keep them in the refrigerator section by the cheese (David and I think it's so they can last longer because they don't sell). 3.) The only takeout in Hebron is a pizza place, Subway and an awful chinese place. And not much more than that elsewhere. There is no delivery. There are a couple of small (not very good) restaurants. 4.) I love to cook and have had to become much better at my mexican cuisine as it's the only way to get it up here in these parts.
....I think we should open up a small market/takeout type place with a cold case to sell mexican food! The Tortilla Factory! We would have a tortilla maker like the one in Central Market. Fresh, hot tortillas of all sorts for wraps and mexican food. It would be in a window where the kids could watch when they came in with their busy, hard-working mothers to pick up dinner before soccer or after swim lessons. We would have sauces, salsas, guacamole and pico! We would also have packaged meals that could be re-heated at home (again like the take out case at Whole Foods or Central Market). ....my green chicken enchiladas with cilantro lime rice and fresh corn salad....carnitas.....skirt steak fajitas and all the fixin's.
Marketing? We have that planned out too! I could create the flyers and the business cards, menus and the rest. We would be big on labels.....dairy free, gluten free, no preservatives, no peanuts, etc. We would incorporate smaller, local vendors for our veggies and dairy. (People love that kinda thing up here!) We would participate in sponsoring local school events, town fairs, fundraisers of all kinds.
Plus, you know, I'd have to make many "business" trips back to Texas and Mexico for shopping and inspiration!
It would only be open from 2:00pm-7:00pm so I'd have time to cook in the mornings. We'd have high school kids work the counter until Evan and Olivia got old enough to work the front. Olivia could probably work that whole place....I can see it now! She'd make a friend with every customer that came in!
But my favorite part of the daydream is this: Me back in the kitchen...knives flying...everything smells like cumin and fresh cilantro....latin music of all sorts playing in the background. No English allowed. The walls are painted bright, happy colors and the ceiling corners are filled with giant tissue paper flowers and ribbons. I can decorate for the different seasons. A giant metal mariachi band member (like I've seen in a garden at this one amazing Spanish-style house in Plano) stands next to the cold case holding call ahead take-out menus and a basket with free "treats" for the kiddos. I'm in a bright colored dress every day....think the Chiquita banana lady minus the fruit hat.....of course in my daydream I look more like Salma Hayek.....but whatever. The heat is turned up to 75 degrees everyday and a giant sunlamp is overhead. So even in the dreaded 30's of January & February, I walk into my small dream paradise store and shed the coat and snow boots......and am transformed into the world of warm, festive, yummy Mexico right off Exit 13! Once we get things rolling David can be the "pit master" and perfect the art of smoking and grilling in the morning and then head off to the boat on summer afternoons. He could deal with the vendors and be "charming" and make the deals.
Oh, I could go on and on.....it's my newest and favorite daydream right now. Doesn't it just sound muy bien? Well, all that to say....ummm....I got a new book yesterday afternoon.
Comments
ok and...need these recipes:
my green chicken enchiladas with cilantro lime rice and fresh corn salad....carnitas.....skirt steak fajitas and all the fixin's.
and wait...who's Olivia?
Olivia is Wendy and Eric's daughter (Evan's sister). She has SO MUCH personality. She's a cutie. She is like her mom - she can make friends with ANYONE! She's a talker!! No introvert there! ;)