19 minute read
Special Valentine's Section Meet Mayor Mike Mendenhall | p28
Make a Romantic Dinner at Home
Having Valentine’s dinner at home is super easy! Pick a meal you know how to do, then fancy it up! Have at least an appetizer, entree, and dessert, regardless of how small and simple. Here are some simple ideas.
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Steak • Cook in lots of butter • Caramelize onions to put on top – Or garnish with chopped parsley and lemon zest
Pasta • Dress up a dish of pasta by adding shrimp (or favorite seafood) • Use wine with your sauces (white wine for white sauce, red wine for red sauce) • Shave prosciutto or sprinkle some lemon juice over the top Chicken • Fresh not frozen, is much juicier • Marinate with a rub for 12 hours, stab with a fork so the flavor penetrates the chicken • Cook in the oven but finish on stove top (or grill) for the last 5 minutes • Sprinkle your favorite herbs over chicken, top with thinly sliced lemon, and cook in butter Potatoes • For extra flavor, mash a combo of two different types of potato • Use heavy cream as you mash the potatoes • Make a butter sauce to mix in by sauteing with rosemary, thyme, and garlic • Top off with chopped chives and/or bacon chunks • Drizzle olive oil over top when serving Garlic bread • Consider topping with slices of tomatoes, mozzarella, and drizzle with dark balsamic vinegar Beverage • Sparkling Apple Cider • Make your own sparkling drink by mixing your favorite juice with seltzer water
Dessert • No bake cheesecake • Hot fudge brownies with vanilla ice cream over top
Here are some simple ways to make your stay-athome dinner fancy and extra special:
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Send a romantic dinner invitation • Whether digital
or on paper, she’ll love getting a “special invite” earlier in the day or on the day before. Background instrumental music • bonus points for a
commercial-free playlist. Scatter rose petals with chocolates on the table •
Hershey’s kisses, bonus points if they’re unwrapped! Use fancy utensils and/or plates and cups • aggran-
dise the table setting for an extra special touch. Light candles • Go for unscented or lightly scented candles to not interfere with food flavors. Use floating tealight candles • Place them in glass
bowls or cups filled with water to reflect the light. Lay out a strand of led lights • Place them on the table
around the flowers or around the room. Adorn the entryway/dining room with candles or
rose petals • It's a touch they won’t expect! Shock ‘em! Keep the menu simple • Focus on special appetizers, desserts, and beverages to dress up the meal. Dress up • This will coverup even the plainest of table setups! Don’t skimp out on looking sharp. If you’re ordering food, deliver it early to transfer to your own cookware
Valentine’s Strawberry Chex Mix
Directions:
1– Measure out Chex cereal into a large bowl. (Note: if you're using the Strawberry Candy Melts, you'll use 4 cups of cereal. If you're using the white chocolate chips + pudding mix, you'll use 6 cups of cereal.) 2– Pour chocolate into a small glass dish. Add 1/2 tsp shortening, if desired, to help the chocolate coat the cereal easier. Microwave for 1 minute 20 seconds. Let sit in the microwave for 3 minutes. Remove and gently stir. If chocolate looks smooth, it's done. If not, return to the microwave in 15 second increments, letting it sit for 2-3 minutes each time, until melted and smooth. 3– If you used White Chocolate Chips + Pudding Mix: Add 4 TBSP of the strawberry creme pudding into the white chocolate and stir gently until smooth. Add 2 drops of red food coloring, if desired. 4– Pour the chocolate mixture over the Chex cereal and stir gently to coat. Transfer cereal mixture to a large piece of wax paper. Sprinkle with M&M's and Valentines sprinkles. Let cool to set. Break pieces and store in an airtight container to save.
5– Candy can be made up to 3-4 days ahead, if desired. It saves well!
Ingredients: 4-6 cups Rice Chex cereal 1 8-oz bag Strawberry Candy Melts OR 1 bag of white chocolate baking chips (12 oz) AND 1 box of Strawberry Creme Jell-O Pudding (NOT gelatin!) Valentines M&M's and/or Sprinkles
Easy Homemade Rose Body Scrub
Ingredients: ½ cup coconut oil 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. Vitamin E oil ¼ cup dried rose petals
Directions: 1– Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until completely combined. Scoop into a gift jar.
2–To use: in the shower or tub, take a small amount of scrub in your hands and gently massage all over your deserving body. Rinse away scrub with hot water and soap, and enjoy your smooth, soft, scented skin.
Note: The roses will turn the water a rose color and it may possibly stain clothes or towels. It is best to use this scrub in the shower or tub.
10 Valentine’s Gifting Pitfalls
1–Nothing. Doing nothing is bad. Even if you’re single, show the gals in your life how much you love them! Your mother, sister, friend, whoever! Don’t let a chance to celebrate someone else go to waste! 2–Last-minute grabs. Nothing says “you are special to me” more than buying roses on your way home from work on Valentine’s day. 3–IOUs. If numbers 1 and 2 weren’t bad enough, combining them into one gigantic let-down will take the cake. 4–A gym membership. Nothing says “you’re not good enough” like “please work out some more.” 5–Tools. Practical and romantic don’t mix. Unless we say it’s practically romantic, but not quite. 6–The cop-out. Explaining that you do XYZ to show your love every other day doesn’t make up for failing on the most important love day of the year. 7–The drive-thru. You might as well slap her in the face. A restaurant with a 2-hour wait is 2 hours of quality time together. Be willing to brave the crowds. 8–Clothing. Are you trying to improve their fashion? How romantic! Skip this one, every time. 9–The blank card. Not being a “writer” is no excuse to just sign your name on a card with printed poetry. Try “5 reasons I love you.” It’s not rocket science. 10–The trap. Don’t say you don’t want anything for Valentine’s. And don’t believe it if she tells you! Take the opportunity to do something, anything, to make this day a little more special.
Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients: 10-oz jar maraschino cherries ½ cup butter, softened ½ cup shortening ½ cup sugar ¾ cup brown sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 3 Tbs. reserved cherry juice 2 eggs 2 ½ cups flour 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. baking powder ¾ tsp. baking soda 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips Directions: 1– Preheat oven to 350˚F. Drain the jar of cherries, but be sure to reserve 3 Tbs. of the juice. Chop cherries and set aside.
2–Cream butter and shortening together; add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla, cherry juice & eggs, mixing well. 3–Add flour, salt, baking power and soda and mix until well combined. Add the chopped cherries and chocolate chips. Mix until just combined. 4–Drop dollops of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edge begin to brown just slightly. Enjoy on V-day with your loved ones.
It's a good idea to learn about money at a young age. Money touches nearly every aspect of our lives and it's not as easy and straightforward as you might think. But don't worry, it's not that hard to learn the basics. Let's go through some of the beginning fundamentals to help you on your money journey. Following these steps will give you knowledge, means, and an opportunity to get started on the right track.
Know Your Income – Whether you make money at a job or you do odd jobs around the house and for your neighbors to earn some extra cash, total up the amount of money you make each month. Whatever the amount is, build your budget around it.
Creating a Budget – Creating a budget is really easy and very important. You can create a budget in three steps once you know your income. First step, list your current expenses. Second, list what you'd like to save up for. Third, pick a budgeting strategy that works for you.
Choose a Budgeting Strategy – The most important thing is to make sure you have enough to pay your expenses. What you have left you'll need to divide into first saving for your goals, and then your spending money. Although spending money can be fun and is necessary for a good life, you'll want to make sure you save a good amount as well. Trust me, you'll thank yourself later.
Get a Bank Account – Set up a checking and savings account. This is really easy. You'll use your checking account for spending money. I love Aspiration for this because you can earn more off your savings there than anywhere else.
Get a Debit Card – You can either get a debit card right there at the bank, or if your parents want to track your spending, I recommend Copper. They have no fees, easy transfer, fun referral system, and parents can monitor all transactions and money. Plus, as a teen you'll get a free $3 each time you refer one of your friends.
Round Up – Use a round-up app like Acorns to save your spare change. Add your debit card information and every time you use it, the remaining change up to the next dollar will be saved in an account for you there. It's quite the surprise how much spare change can make.
Establish Credit – Everyone has a credit score and the better or higher your score the more financial options you'll have in the future. Establishing credit early is important and it's simple to do with a secured credit card or a self loan. Your bank can give you a secured credit card or loan. It's easy and they'll report it to the credit bureaus to help increase your credit score.
Understand Interest – Interest is both your friend and your enemy. With credit cards, interest is always your enemy. If you spend money and don't pay it off, they will charge you interest, and then you'll have to pay more than you spent. But when you're saving or investing in different accounts, then the interest gets paid to you, so you end up with more than you started with.
Invest – There are lots of quality apps out there that allow you to put a little money in and try your hand at investing. Coinbase allows you to invest in cryptocurrency. Stash and Robinhood allow you to purchase stocks and set up portfolios with automatic deposits. Whatever option/(s) you choose, the fast and hard first rule is to never invest money you need. Always use money that you don't mind losing. In other words, don't invest your savings or your expense money. They are more important to keep. Invest a portion of your extra money.
Keeping to these simple rules will help you for when you are out on your own. You'll learn important lessons of budgeting and living within your means. You'll learn that word of mouth pays out and there are creative ways to make money. You'll learn that credit is incredibly important and having a good credit record will make your life so much easier. You'll learn how to use interest to your advantage. And you'll learn that investing can be really good for you and is a lot of fun. For quick links to each of these resources, go to linktr.ee/mcumoney.
Seth Lowell
Meet Mayor Mike Mendenhall
I want to personally express my gratitude for Mayor Steve Leifson’s 16 years of amazing service to the city, during which he has built a solid foundation for the city’s success.
I am humbled to continue serving Spanish Fork City, in a new capacity, as Mayor. I’ve always loved Spanish Fork and am grateful to call it home. I was born and raised in Palmyra and Spanish Fork, by my parents John and Lenna Mendenhall. I graduated from Spanish Fork High School in 1998, and attended Utah Valley University in 1999. I’ve also had the privilege of working in finance for 16 years in Spanish Fork, currently as a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments.
My biggest goal is to continue to build on the solid foundation that has been laid by those before me. There are a lot of things going right with Spanish Fork, and it’s a place that we are lucky to be able to call home.
In public service, I have learned at the feet of servants who have had no agenda above the progress of their community. They have been an impact for good in furthering the collective mission of those who they represent.
For me, the learning started in 2011 as my wife, Amber, and I were asked to serve as Fiesta Days Chairmen. It was an amazing experience that opened my eyes to all that goes into such a great event and the many, many hands that make it possible. I was also privileged to serve as president of the Spanish Fork Area Chamber of Commerce in 2011, and later as President of the Rotary Club and President of the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Each of these opportunities have helped me to serve with others who put others before themselves.
When I was elected to the city council eight years ago, I did so to give back to the community that gave me so much. I have the same sentiment this go-round, and just want to serve the place and people that I love.
My vision is to continue to be the home of pride and progress by finishing some of the great projects that have been in the works for some time. This includes the completion of Library Hall, some major transportation projects, and a new wastewater treatment facility. Additionally, my hope for this year is to have a path forward for a new pool in our city. This is the first year I can ever remember that we won’t have a community pool. While I’m thankful for other amenities, we will need to figure out together what to do about a place to swim.
More than anything, I want our residents to be happy and safe. I want each of them to be proud of their community, regardless of whether they’ve lived here 40 years or 40 days. I want them to be engaged in city functions and events and with the city council. We’ve always been a community of service and volunteerism, and with the community lifting and serving together there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish. -Mike Mendenhall
Mike is married to Amber Geslison of Spanish Fork and they have three children, Nash, Monroe, and Jagger; an English bulldog named Mocha, and a cat named Boomer.
Read. Rate. Review. Repeat
-by Trish LeBaron —Resident Submission
It’s an interesting position we authors end up in when we finish a literary work. Our novels are launched into the world for readers to devour (which we love!) and then regurgitate their experience by way of posting online ratings and reviews (which we need). A reader’s experience serves as “social proof” for other bookish browsers who are seeking out their next story. And a reader’s glowing review does so much more to promote our work than anything we could ever say for ourselves. But sometimes we find that the crossfire we stand in—between what we want and what we need—is unfriendly reviewer fire.
From working and playing in Utah’s stellar writing community, I’ve learned that authors generally have a thick skin for receiving feedback. When you’re in the business of crafting stories you rely on feedback to know what’s working, what’s falling flat, and where you have room to grow; critiques are necessary for improvement. Unfortunately, oftentimes there are reviews left to be permanent fixtures on Goodreads and Amazon that lack tact or even a measure of constructive criticism—which would at least offer a sense of how an author’s work fell flat in the particular reader’s mind.
Authors understand the power of words and the experience they can create from ‘Once upon a time’ all the way to ‘The End’. We experience our own ups and downs from the opening line of a review to the number of stars left at the close. I’d love to offer up a sweet idea for you to savor this month: What is your personal rating system?
By approaching a book review with a personal rating system in mind, it can bring constructive verbiage into even the most dismal of feedback. How? Because it offers up a ‘why’ to the review. Why a three star rating? While this story wasn’t a gripping page-turner, it was still entertaining. Why a one star rating? Though I’m an avid reader of this genre, the graphic nature of the content took even me by surprise and readers should be advised.
I love readers and I love writers and we all truly belong to the same community! So you keep reading and writing your positive reviews, my friends. (Using your personal rating system!) And we’ll keep reading those reviews and feeling positive as we write.
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The Victory Bell at Spanish Fork High
The game is over. The crowds are cheering exuberantly. The scoreboard is clear: Spanish Fork High School has won! The team gives a hoorah and clammors over to a bright red bell, perched high atop it’s stand a couple dozen feet in the air. With gusto, the winning Dons tug the rope and pulley to loudly sound the final verdict: they are the Victors!
With every winning game, the red Victory Bell at Spanish Fork High rings the good news into the raucous air. No game-time celebration is complete without its notable peals piercing through the revelry. Fifty-four years of wins have been marked by the Victory Bell, a tradition that predates even The Rock.
Little may it be known, however, the bell which now brings cheers and untethered exuberance, might have once induced bemoaning, panic, or even cursings from late students scurrying to class. Perched in the belfry of the yellow brick Central Schoolhouse on Main Street for 67 years, the Victory Bell (without a bright red coat of paint) was a much more humble, everyday school bell. From 1896 to 1963, it’s peal announced the commencement of classes, shepherding students through the stairways and halls of what is now the City Offices.
A fire siren replaced the bell in 1963, the same year the Central School was retired from educational use. Once ringing almost daily in sun, snow, or rain, the bell sat silently in the dark for seven years.
The Senior Class of 1968, however, brought not only resurrection to the bell, but also a promotion. The bell found a new home next to the swimming pool. There, it rang to announce successes, rather than to alert students about classes. It was relocated to the old football field for the same purposes, becoming known as the Victory Bell. When the new, highgrade football field was completed, the bell again was moved nearby to ring out important victories.
Spanish Fork High is growing into its 3rd brand new building soon. The bell which first summoned a couple hundred students to class in 1896 is ensured to continue ringing out wins and victories for the growing student body of Spanish Fork High School in years to come.
Dustin Smith 801-318-7154 dinodust@gmail.com
Protect your interests; Protect your future.
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