Lynn Butterfield's Monday's Warm Cocoa, 24 February 2025, "With New Eyes"

“He’s never seen snow before.” – Larry Garcia

With New Eyes

“He’s never seen snow before,” Larry Garcia said as he and his crew stood in the great-room of the house they were working on.

The four workers were standing in a semi-circle and as Larry was speaking he tilted his head slightly to the right to indicate the member of his crew he was referencing. As the words just exited his mouth all four of them began to giggle a little bit. It was the biggest snow storm any of them had encountered.  And, their giggling sounded as if was coming from delighted children. It was totally unexpected.

Such glee stood in bleak contrast to the weather’s label heard across the news and individual conversations happening all around the storm-blasted community. Most were calling the storm, which was unusual for the area, “Snowmageddon.” After all, the schools and businesses were closed and all of the roads were dangerous to travel on. They were not plowed or salted. But, for the moment, these details of the storm’s impact were completely lost on the four. The negatives were over shadowed by the joy of new experience. There were other new experiences on the horizon for men as well.

The temperature was about to fall off a cliff and the snow continued. As the sun set, the thermostat plunged. By the time midnight arrived it felt like it was negative 11-degrees because of the howling wind and blowing snow. While still freezing, perhaps the 3-degree thermostat reading would have felt a lot better than that blowing-snow-driven low diving chill. It made the drive to the worker’s Airbnb a very unforgettable experience.

The next morning, the continued adventure slid forward. The men were now enjoying a snowed-in status. Their van was stuck in the driveway and they didn’t know what to do. So, they waited, thinking that snowplows would come to clear their way. It was not to happen.

On the third snow-bound-day they were motivated to dive into another new experience. They pulled out shovels and began to dig their way out. It took them half a day. But, they did it. By afternoon they were back on the job.

You may think they would have lost the sparkle in their eyes as well as that infectious giggle heard three days earlier. But, that wasn’t the case. They were still smiling and enjoying the wonder of a massive storm and snow on a never before seen scale, while others, with a not-new-to-me attitude were still grumbling. What was their secret?

It was their ability to see the world with new eyes and marveling at the wonder of it all.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent and Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmxoi0M4AAIt0kbOKvplZyAd_Qg2SjYd/view?usp=sharing

Lynn Butterfield's Monday's Warm Cocoa 17 February 2025

“It takes time and effort to layer flavors” – Chef Tyler Rogers

Layering Flavor

“It takes time and effort to layer flavors,” Chef Tyler Rogers said with a glint in his eye. He was sitting kitty-corner, sort of across the table talking in his new restaurant, Stonebreaker. And, one of his newly crafted dishes was on the table for tasting.

The moment food left the fork and entered the mouth it became difficult, if not impossible to see the Chef, even though he was so close. The reason is simple. One cannot look straight ahead with eyes rolled way back into their sockets. The taste was exquisite!

Chef Tyler’s smile simply widened as he watched. “It’s all about layering and developing flavors,” he said. Then he launched into a description of some of the steps he took to create the squash mole sitting on the plate. “The nuts have to be chopped and then cooked for several hours, or the mole will taste gritty. It takes a long time to cook nuts for this use.”

It also took him a long time to find local farmers he could count on for food quality as he started building his planned-for Stonebreaker Restaurant menu.

“I wanted to do something to highlight what is grown right here,” he explained. “Most of the food used in the restaurant is from around here, within a three-hour drive from where we sit. It took me a little more than one year to source the producers for the menu I was creating for Stonebreaker,” he continued

It was worth the effort! The depth of the flavor in every dish is astonishing. If you take a moment to savor each bite you can begin to ferret-out the unique taste of each ingredient. And, you’ll discover that they don’t detract from each other at all. The combined, unique flavors build each bite into a crescendo of perception. 

Such a result also happens with the separate components of the entire plate and its carefully curated combination of foods. There is no fighting between ingredients, just taste jubilation. With experiences such as this, it becomes easy to assume that the final outcome tells the whole story. Yet, it doesn’t.

Chef Tyler Rogers began his career in the kitchen as a short-order, line-cook in what could be classified as a greasy, fast food restaurant. But, he had a more expansive vision of who he could become personally and professionally. So, he left his home town of Magnolia and accepted job-after-job seeking more knowledge. Until after years acquiring experience he became a saucier.

A saucier is not only responsible for sauce preparation, but they are assigned as the sauté person stationed on the hot-line in a classically organized kitchen. The sauté station is usually the most prestigious position on the hot-line due the volume and character of the dishes. As a saucier, he not only developed character of dishes, he developed his own character in restaurants such as the “The French Laundry” in Yountville, California.

Chef Rogers’ career-story is more than one of jumping from restaurant to restaurant and place to place. It demonstrates the way every person develops personal character. It illuminates the special nature of life’s schooling process. We are all schooled through a combination of desire, effort and lessons accumulated and learned over time. A lifetime.

And, components of a lifetime create what Chef Tyler Rogers calls the layering of flavor.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent and Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmxoi0M4AAIt0kbOKvplZyAd_Qg2SjYd/view?usp=sharing

Monday's Warm Cocoa, 10 February 2025, "The Initiator"

“I don’t mind being the initiator.” – James Allen Griffin

The Initiator

James Griffin’s statement caused me to be prodded. My memory was nudged. I was suddenly talking to a friend, Mark Pugmire, again in reminiscence, as he mentioned that our mutual friend, John, was wondering why I hadn’t called him for quite some time. My many-years-ago response, “You know, he has a telephone too. He can call me!”

Not long after shooting-off that cheeky rejoinder, my telephone rang. You guessed it. It was my friend John Italasano.  He began with, “Mark wouldn’t tell me what you said exactly, but I’ll bet it was something like, ‘forget him, he can call me as easily as I can call him. If he wants to talk with me he can call me.’ So, I’m calling you!”

John’s call made me laugh and feel ashamed at the same time. It made me laugh because he knew me well enough to feel self-assured as to what my response to Mark had been. It made me feel ashamed because, how hard would it have been for me to touch my phone as a small gesture to connect with a friend, with whom I had shared my life with for so long. And, James’ auspicious teaching instilled his little incident forward to this now-moment, about thirty-five years later.

“I don’t mind being the initiator,” James explained, while sharing his approach to “relationship-farming” more than business. He was kindly tutoring through example as he delineated his approach to building relationships and how it enhances everyday living.

Building strong personal relationships is squarely situated in the heart of his life. In fact, it is his purpose. James calls it purposeful living. He wants to know what makes his friends tick. What inspires them. What drives them. He believes in creating relationships around the passions of those he associates with. He has a talent for melding with others. 

James says, “living well today translates into living well tomorrow, too.”

He wants to help everyone he meets to build a brighter future. He’s always thinking about today’s relationships, as well as those generations to come. I call him a quiet, loving legacy builder.

James calls his approach to life "working the soil."

“I don’t mind being the initiator,” James said as my memory dissolved into the present again. I had finished mind-jogging and was now sitting in appreciative awe at James, “The Initiator!”

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmxoi0M4AAIt0kbOKvplZyAd_Qg2SjYd/view?usp=sharing

Monday's Warm Cocoa, 3 February 2025, "Kindness"

“Even if you cannot feed 100 people, you can feed just one and change a day or a person’s life forever.” - Justin Doherty

Kindness

“I feed people. That’s what my life is about,” Eliseo Medina explained as he reviewed the field of participants from last September’s Tamale Festival. “We wanted people to feel comfortable, to have a place at the festival where they can relax and enjoy the other attendees. That meant we needed a lot of fencing!”

It isn’t as if Eliseo and Chelsea Medina had a lot of extra money sitting around to pay for all of that fencing. After all, the purpose of the festival was to raise money for “Toys for Kids.” They put their heart and soul into making sure that they have at least one toy for every child that otherwise wouldn’t have one in their tightknit town.

“We need all the money possible to go toward the presents for the kids,” Eliseo continued. “And the other people and businesses who help sponsor the festival feel the same! So, when I told our fencing sponsor we didn’t have the money for that much fencing, he answered quickly and kindly with ‘Okay. Can you feed us?’”

“That’s what do! I feed people. So, I replied with, you have a deal!” Eliseo said with his rye-little-smile of sun-bright-wattage. “I don’t ever want anyone to go hungry, whether it is one person or three-hundred people. If someone comes into my restaurant, needs a meal, and has no money, I feed them. I simply ask that they help me by doing a little work around here as payment.”

Eliseo fed more than three hundred workers of the fencing company that day of the festival. He felt it to be a good exchange for everyone involved, as well as for the kids who would receive the toys they bought, wrapped and delivered last Christmas. It was just one part of what made the Tamale Festival a huge success. 

The main ingredient to Eliseo and Chelsea’s Toys of Kids Tamale Festival and business success is more than great food. It’s kindness.

One could be tempted to think that such kindness is a fable, not part of today’s world. Yet, if I had any doubts, they were quickly erased as I gave my parting fist-bum to Eliseo and turned to the door to leave. That’s where I snapped a quick photo of the thumb-tacked sign, fastened just to the side of the door.

“Kindness. Pay it forward. Grab any paid meal ticket. No questions asked. Even if you cannot feed 100 people, you can feed just one and change a day or a person’s life forever.”

I looked over my left shoulder and smiled once again, at Eliseo, as I walked through the door. I had enjoyed the delicious meal he had made and served to me. But, his kindness had filled my soul to the brim.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmxoi0M4AAIt0kbOKvplZyAd_Qg2SjYd/view?usp=sharing