Between Meetings & Meals 003
Time, Ribeye Chilaquiles, and a Red Blend That Keeps Hitting
This week felt different.
My son turned 15.
Somewhere between a permit photo and a Sunday morning breakfast, it hit me how fast everything is moving.
Here’s the week.
The Pour
This week’s bottle was Troublemaker Red Blend from Paso Robles.
It has quietly become one of Anisa’s favorite casual night wines.
It’s like the little brother of Austin Hope. More than half the price and, honestly, not that far off. Smooth, bold, dry. A little vanilla, a little oak, dark fruit, a little smoke.
Troublemaker has hit more than once.
A good friend ordered it at a restaurant recently and later texted me that his whole family enjoyed it and thanked me for the recommendation. That felt good.
Another friend texted me that he was standing in the wine aisle at HEB looking at bottles because of this newsletter. He doesn’t even drink wine. That made me laugh.
It’s fun when recommendations land.
The Table
Sunday morning was unplanned.
Valentine’s Day was Saturday night. We stayed in with the kids. Ribeyes. Good wine. Low key.
The next morning I opened the fridge and did inventory.
Leftover ribeye.
Cilantro.
Cotija.
Limes.
Corn tortillas.
Salsa I made earlier in the week.
I wanted chilaquiles.
I’m not much of an egg person, so I asked Anisa if we had chorizo. We didn’t.
Then it hit me.
Chilaquiles with ribeye.
I’ve never made chilaquiles before.
Not once.
But I thought about what I had, figured I could piece something together, and asked AI to help me with the steps.
Air fried homemade tortilla chips.
Warm the steak carefully so it stayed medium.
Heat the salsa.
Toss the chips in the hot green salsa for about 40 seconds.
That 40 second toss was everything. Just enough to soften them without turning them to mush. Half tender, half crisp. Layers in every bite.
What made it fun wasn’t just the dish.
I made the salsa earlier in the week.
I cooked the ribeyes the night before.
I asked how to air fry tortilla chips properly.
I’ve never made chilaquiles before.
Now I have.
And they were legit.
The Edge
This one isn’t an AI hack.
This one’s a dad hack.
Build a video library.
I’m 43. Oregon Trail generation. VHS tapes. Burning CDs. Burning DVDs. Random hard drives floating around drawers.
Now we live in the cloud.
Right now, I trust YouTube.
Every TV in our house is signed into my account. If we want to watch old videos, we just pull them up. No cables. No digging.
And kids love seeing themselves on TV. They’ll scroll back years and just sit there watching their younger selves.
My daughter Alanah loves a video of her counting when she was about three. She was going to an all Spanish school and learning English at home. She counts from one to ten half in English, half in Spanish. Instead of saying siete, she says “chicken.” Then finishes with a dramatic “Ah ah ah ah ahhh” like Count Dracula.
That video alone is worth everything.
You can’t slow it down.
But you can hold on to it.
The Lesson
My son turned 15 this week.
Which means I hit my 15 year anniversary of being a dad.
Still my favorite thing in the world.
What messed with me wasn’t the cake. It was the DPS office.
Anisa got Deven driver’s ed for Christmas. From January to his birthday, I knew he was turning 15. I just didn’t feel it.
Then we were standing there taking his permit photo.
And it hit me.
Three short years until college.
There’s a quote that says kids spend 80 percent of the time they’ll ever spend with their parents by the time they’re 18. I don’t know the exact number, but it hits.
When your time is divided, you notice it more.
The calendar rotates. Weeks shift. You start counting differently.
The day after his birthday, I picked him up from golf practice. First day with his permit.
He looked at me and said, “Am I driving?”
Of course.
As we drove home, I was trying to soak it in. His hands on the wheel. The quiet confidence. The moment where a kid starts becoming something else.
It felt fast.
Too fast.
And also right on time.
If you missed last week’s note, The Rope Isn’t the Problem, you can read it here:
https://danielonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-rope-isnt-the-problem