Weoooow, I love analyzing poetry and songs correctly and all, but incorporating the romantic lyrics of Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” into my life is irrationally difficult, and in all honestly, I’m sitting here trying to link these lyrics into my life and seeing no correspondence, except for the fact that I light Christmas candles every night because I am romantic to myself and simply because I like Christmas scents.
“Say you’ll remember me
Standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe”
The other day, my foot-spasm bestie snapped me a photo of the sunset back in my hometown neighbourhood, and it made me reminisce of the times throughout high school when we’d always walk to and from school together. Because our neighbourhood was settled on a hill on top of a hill on top of a mountain, walking to school meant going straight downhill, and walking home meant going up four giant hills. I remember the joke we used to make about how we should build a ski lift to bring us back home from school because that would save a whole lot of strength hauling our hefty backpacks up and down hill for four years (probably a leading contributor to my lack of a growth spurt, even though I like to think that I’m still growing). There was a shortcut that we took whenever we felt lazy enough to trod across a septic field; everybody at our school who lived around our neighbourhood took great advantage of this septic field shortcut despite the signs that clearly read “CAUTION” and “PRIVATE PROPERTY: DO NOT CROSS” and despite the fact that the smell was always rather peculiar. As if the signs weren’t explicit enough, wire fences were built and reinforced over and over because we lazy high school kids were too lazy to walk up two extra hills and decided that cutting a giant life-sized hole in wired fences is intelligibly the correct solution to solve all problems. Bringing the topic back to beautiful sunsets, this song reminds me of my family’s vacation to Maui because it was simply magical.
“Drive out of the city
Away from the crowds”
Vancouver beaches are beautiful and all, but nothing beats vacationing on a tropical island because a little sand beneath your toes always takes away your woes. The mile long beaches and grains of honey-gold sands of the Hawaiian Islands gleam in the sunlight, and reminds us all what a great time it is to be alive.
“In your wildest dreams”
This got me thinking… what are my wildest dreams? I dream to be a giver, to hold value to society, to initiate positive change to the world, to be one day a naturopathic doctor, to be the best person I ever could be, and to be a dreamer. Oh and I dream for Christmas to come faster because I need the Michael Buble Christmas album in my life like right now.
It has taken me some time to realize not long ago that we all have similar dreams. I mean, don’t we all strive to be good people, to be successful, and to be able to make a positive impact on society? Don’t we all ultimately want happiness, love, and security? Don’t we all just want to live life to the fullest?
“Say you’ll remember me
…Even in your wildest dreams”
So Dear Future Me and everybody else,
Through the ups and downs, the spirals and curves, the corkscrews and twisters, do not forget all your wildest dreams. Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and think of what could go right!
From starting this blog, juggling school work while running this blog as full-time university students, thinking of ideas for upcoming projects, to dreaming of one day publishing our very own cookbook(s), Leung and I have some pretty wild blogging adventures ahead of us, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring you all along for the ride! We have no idea where this little blogging project plus a great deal of effort will lead us, but hey if we can dream it, we can make it happen!
Oh and not to mention that these mango boats of cranberry cream cheese heaven will take you toward the sunset on a journey to fulfill all your wildest dreams!
- 2 whole mangoes
- ½ of a 227g bag of fresh cranberries
- 1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
- 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 mandarin orange, flesh and zest divided
- 3 tbsp maple syrup, divided
- A pinch of sea salt
- 3 oz cream cheese of choice (about ⅓ of a block), at room temperature
- Crackers, to serve
- Cut mangoes in half, removing the seed, and scoop out the flesh of the mango leaving a ½-inch border.
- In a food processor, blitz the cranberries, cilantro, jalapeno, orange flesh, 2 tbsp maple syrup, and sea salt until chopped up into small chunks (but not pureed).
- Cream the softened cream cheese with 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 tsp orange zest until smooth.
- Spoon cranberry salsa into the mango boats and top with a dollop of cream cheese mixture. Garnish with additional orange zest if desired and serve with crackers. Alternatively, for hor d'oeurves, spread a little bit of cream cheese on each cracker and top with a chunk of mango and a spoon of salsa. Boats can be made ahead of time but prepared crackers should be served immediately.
More 1989-inspired recipes…
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