In this episode: Discover how food can be so much more than what's on your plate — how it connects us to our cultural roots, deepens our relationships, and becomes one of the most powerful ways we build community, with Emmy-recognized food storyteller, cookbook author, and founder of Muy Bueno, Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack.

Yvette grew up in El Paso, Texas, spending her afternoons in her grandmother's kitchen — breathing in the smell of roasting chile, listening to stories of the Mexican Revolution, and watching flour tortillas get made entirely by feel and touch. She never planned to be a cook. But when her grandmother passed away and her own daughter asked, "Do you have these recipes written down?", something shifted. What started as a family cookbook became three published cookbooks, a thriving blog, and a Substack called Cocina to Career — all rooted in the belief that recipes are more than instructions. They're stories. They're heritage. They're the reason people show up at your door.

In this conversation, we talk about what it really means to preserve a food legacy, why the dinner table is still one of the most underrated places for connection, and how getting into the kitchen — even as a total beginner — might be one of the most radical acts of community-building you can do.

If your family recipes live in your mom's head, your dinner routine is more DoorDash than dining table, and you've been meaning to do something about both — this one's for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Food is not just sustenance — it's identity. The recipes passed down through your family carry stories, history, and belonging that no AI-generated blog post can replicate.
• If your grandma or mom is still here, write the recipes down now. Not because you'll forget how — because one day they won't be there to call, and the pinch of this and the dash of that will go with them.
• The dinner table is where your kids open up. It doesn't have to be every night, but when it happens, it becomes the conversation that doesn't happen anywhere else.
• You don't have to be a trained chef to start cooking. Start with a dish you love, find a recipe made by a real human, and let the passion carry you further than any skill ever could.
• The food blog world is a creator economy — and it's under threat. When you skip the blog and go straight to AI for recipes, you're cutting off the real people who did the research, tested the recipes, and built something worth supporting.
• Mexican food is not a monolith. Northern Mexican, Tex-Mex, Oaxacan, Yucatecan — the regional diversity is vast, and learning the difference is part of honoring the culture.
• Human connection is the secret ingredient for creativity. Whether it's a retreat with fellow creators, dinner with your photographer, or traveling somewhere new — sparking energy with other people in the room is how inspiration finds its way back to you.

"If you have your grandma, if you have your mom, write these special recipes down — because one day they won't be there if you don't.”

CONNECT WITH YVETTE

Website: muybuenoblog.com

Instagram: @muybuenocooking

Substack: Cocina to Career

Cookbooks: Muy Bueno, Latin Twist, and Fiestas

Connect with Teresa

• Join the Becoming Obsessed Playground, the weekly email for curiosity-led women building a life they love.
• Instagram: @becomingobsessedpod and @teresaajean
• Leave a review on Apple or Spotify Podcasts. Reviews are the biggest thank-you, and reviews help ambitious women find the show.
• Website: teresaajean.com

Topics: Mexican food and culture, preserving family recipes, food as community, heritage cooking, food blogger business model, cookbook author life, Latino food traditions, AI and the creator economy, cooking for beginners, dinner table traditions, food and identity, Muy Bueno, food storytelling, personal growth podcast for women, building a life you love, becoming obsessed podcast, community through food, cultural preservation, family legacy, recipe testing

Mentioned in this episode:

Save 68% on Your First Year of Dubsado!

Nobody starts a creative business to spend their days on admin. Dubsado's September Sale is making it easy to cut the admin time in half. From September 14th to September 21st, save 40% off your first year of Dubsado automatically! Stack an extra 30% off with code: OBSESSED This is an affiliate code, and I may receive a kickback when you use it. I only share about things I LOVE and use myself. Thank you for supporting Becoming Obsessed!

Dubsado

A lot of us take for granted our family and my grandma.

We're so blessed that she lived to be 98 years old.

And for some reason, I thought she'd live forever.

And so she passed away when my daughter was like one and a half years old.

And I just remember having that aha moment, like, oh, my gosh, my children aren't gonna know my grandma.

She's my world.

And to think, like, they're not gonna know her, like I know her.

And none of these rec have ever, ever, ever been written down.

I always tell people, if you have your grandma, if you have your mom, write these special recipes down, because one day they won't be there.

Welcome to Becoming Obsessed, where curiosity leads you to a life you love.

I'm Teresa Stasney, and after over a decade of traveling the world, working with small business owners and creating a couple businesses of my own, I know a thing or two about playing by your own rules.

It's not always easy, and it's often messy.

It can be hard, especially if you're doing it alone.

I've seen way too many incredible women shoot for the stars only to burn out along the way.

Or worse, live on default and never chase their dreams.

We're done with all of that.

Together, we're going to challenge what keeps us stuck and figure out what it takes to live a life we truly love.

Today we are talking about something that is so worthy of obsession and that is food.

And we're gonna get into not just talking about food, but how it can connect to our identity, how it can help strengthen our community and just our sense of relationship to people.

And if you are hungry right now, go get a snack because I bet at the end of this, if you haven't eaten, you are gonna be even more hungry.

I know I already am.

But I'm so excited to welcome today's guest today, Yvette Marquez Sharpnick, to the podcast.

She is the founder and owner of Muy Bueno.

Yvette is an Emmy recognized food storyteller and author, on camera host, home chef and author of three cook cookbooks.

And I am so excited to have you.

Welcome to Becoming Obsessed.

Thanks for having me.

I'm excited to chat food and chat everything about business.

Yeah.

So I want to just start by getting an idea of how you became a cookbook author and what place food has played in your life.

And now that it's your career as well.

I grew up in El Paso, Texas, and my mom was a single parent mom, and we lived next door to my grandma's house.

And so I grew up with my grandma.

And my grandma was from Chihuahua, Mexico.

And so every day after school, I'd go to grandma's house, and she was always in the kitchen.

So if I could think back to my childhood, I was always in the kitchen with my grandma.

I just used to love hearing her stories about growing up in Mexico and having to migrate to Texas during the Mexican Revolution.

And I was just obsessed with those stories.

And.

And so that was favorite dishes that she would make every day.

She'd make homemade flour tortillas.

As you walk into her home, you can smell roasting chile on the stovetop.

I loved food.

But what was funny is, growing up, she would tell me, I'm not gonna get married because I didn't like to cook.

I just would always see her in the kitchen.

My mom always in the kitchen.

I was like, I'm not gonna be that woman.

But I loved food and I loved to entertain.

And that was usually when I would cook.

And I love to host.

And then, as you know, I got older and had children and met my husband.

That was our thing.

His family was about eating in the kitchen, eating at the table, making that a tradition.

And that was how I grew up.

And I said, when we have kids, I want that.

I want dinner time.

And we're not going to be short order cooks.

The children get what we serve.

And so our motto with our kids was always like, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

And so it was my daughter, as she got older, when she turned 8 years old, she was the one who said, do you have these recipes written down so that when I go off to college, I can have these recipes.

And I was like, oh, that's such a cute idea.

Like, I'll start writing these recipes down.

Because anytime I was craving a traditional Mexican dish, I would still call my mom and be like, okay, I'm making red enchiladas.

How many chile pods do I add and how much garlic?

But I would never write it down.

Maybe in that moment I would, but there'd be on a post it and be thrown away later, and I'd be calling her again for the next recipe.

So.

So I thought, that's a great idea.

I'll start really writing these recipes down.

And that's how it started.

And it evolved into wanting to write a family cookbook that Turned into, maybe I can really publish a real cookbook.

And then started the blog, and that started into a business, and the Muy Bueno brand just grew from there.

I love that so much.

As you were talking, I have, like, a little card on my table next to me that is like, share family recipe.

And it's for a bridal shower for someone on my partner's side of the family, for one of his sisters.

I've done that once or twice before, and I love that idea because so often I do feel like we don't have family recipes.

I love that you get to call your mom and call your family and get those.

But it's like, I go to Pinterest and I know you talk a lot about not asking Chat GPT for recipes, and I completely agree.

But half the time now I go to Pinterest and I'm like, okay, well, that's a chat GPT photo.

That's AI photo.

Is that a real recipe or am I going to find out halfway through that this is not working?

Yeah, that's a big challenge in itself.

I mean, things have changed so much in the last couple of years where, you know, I'm having to educate my mom, who the older generation gets very gullible, and so I have to educate her.

If a photo's too glossy, if it just looks too perfect, if there's like that perfect cheese pool, if it's the hands look weird, just know that that's AI.

So there's AI photos out there, and they're called Frankenstein recipes.

They're getting images and recipes online and kind of putting it all together and making it their own.

And there's complete websites that are fully not a human behind this blog.

So bloggers are the ones who basically gave the Internet recipes, and now AI is taking those recipes and jumbling to make it their own to have these own fake websites.

So if you're unsure, I always say, don't follow a recipe on social media if you don't see it be made by a human.

Some people just put the full recipe in a caption on Facebook.

But if you have questions, there's nowhere to go to.

So my husband is a perfect example.

He really wanted to make some cherry chocolate chip cookies, and I was like, babe, that photo looks totally fake.

But he is insistent it's perfect.

That recipe was horrible.

And AI's gotten smart and makes fake AI people and tells a fake story.

But you could tell whether the person really looks human or they just look too perfect.

So it takes a little bit More homework for the end user.

With this day and age, with ingredients being so expensive, kind of have to do that homework so that you're not going to have a failed recipe a hundred percent.

And the other side of that, too, you kind of started to touch on.

I've always been in the creator space, and so I love creators.

I'm like, let's get more artists making more money.

The starving artist thing, let's get away from that.

But now even I saw a travel blogger who really talked about this, and they said, just like our cooks who are making these recipes and making these blogs, they did the research, they did the hard work, they put in that effort, and they're getting paid.

When people come to your website, click your affiliate links, and now AI is just basically stealing that, making it so that no one is coming to your website.

They're not sharing the links, they're not using your affiliate links, but they're taking the work that you put in.

And so I know with the travel bloggers they were talking about, it's like they're recommending the things we recommended, but they're not using the links, and they're only linking to the big companies, not the small creators, not the real people.

And I hadn't thought about it really clearly in the recipe space, but if you're listening, guys, go find a creator that you love, make sure they're real, and support them, because that's how we really lift up our own communities.

Is working with a person, not a huge company.

I could get on my high horse about that, but I really want to dig into more of your story here.

And something you said that I clocked and I think is so fun is that when you were little, you mentioned that you actually were like, I don't want to be at the kitchen.

And then now your career is in the kitchen or bringing people into the kitchen.

When did that shift happen?

Or when did you kind of notice that?

Was it throughout high school and college, or was it really like you mentioned, when you had your own family and were cooking for that?

A lot of us take for granted our family and my grandma, we're so blessed that she lived to be 98 years old and to think, for some reason I thought she'd live forever.

And so she passed away when my daughter was, like, one and a half years old.

And I just remember having that aha moment, like, oh, my gosh, my children aren't gonna know my grandma.

She's my world.

And to think, like, they're not gonna know her, like, I know her, and none of these recipes have ever, ever, ever been written down.

And I was thankful at the time that my mom knew how to make all her recipes because she loved being in the kitchen, watched everything my grandma thinking, like, one day I'm going to be a grandma, and I want my grandchildren to remember those cooking recipes, be excited to come to grandma's house, and look forward to the recipes that I looked forward to growing up with and eating and, you know, have so many memories around the table and in the kitchen.

So that was when it really, truly hit me that I one day will be the grandma.

And I want people to remember coming to my house and eating the same recipes that I grew up eating.

So put me in the kitchen.

I'm in the kitchen with you now, and you have these recipes from your family.

But of course, when the recipe is in your mind, there isn't like a.

Okay, one cup of this.

It's like a pinch and a dash.

And so how did you take the recipe from, let's say, in your mom's mind and make it into something that you could put on paper and that you could really share with the world?

How did that process go?

I was following my mom as she was in the kitchen.

She's really good at making flour tortillas, just like my grandma.

But a lot of things like that is just a pinch of this.

I feel in touch with the dough and how much water you need.

And so I remember her making the flour tortillas, and she went and got more salt.

And I'm like, wait, Mom.

Like, I'm catching it with a measuring spoon.

Like, how much?

She's like, I don't know.

And so then we'd have to make it again.

I remember just flour tortilla recipe alone.

How to make it 11 times, test it, because it's just by feeling touched.

And so I'd have to keep catching her.

Like, no, like, don't add the more water yet.

I need to measure it.

And of course, you know, there's still notes depending on your altitude, or your dough might be drier, might need more water.

So you still have to add those kind of little notes in a recipe.

And what was funny is when we were writing the recipes down, and I would print them out and mail them to my mom, because she lives in El Paso, Texas, and I live in Colorado.

So I would print them out.

I would make it just to test it, and then I would send it to her, and I'd say, mom, here's the recipe.

Follow it.

And Test it.

She's.

But I already know how to make it.

I was like, I know, mom, but I just need you to test it.

No, but I already know how to make it.

And I was like, no, you need to test it just to make sure that it works.

I don't like measuring things.

I was like, I get it, mom, but it's like, I need to make sure that it completely is going to work.

That was 15 years ago when I started that first cookbook.

And now she's older, gonna be 80 years old.

And now she's like, I'm so thankful that we have all these recipes written down because there's so many times that she forgets little things.

Do they have baking soda or did I add baking powder?

Things like that.

We all get older and we all can forget things.

And that's why I always tell people, if you have your grandma, if you have your mom write these special recipes down, because one day they won't be there if you don't write them down.

Yeah, well, and you mentioned enchiladas.

And you have me now thinking about cooking with my mom and all of her recipes.

And one of the things makes a lot is enchiladas.

But we have these nice little store bought sauces from the little cans.

And on your website, one of the first recipes that popped up was an enchilada sauce recipe.

So I'm gonna get that and I give it to my mom and that's gonna be the next time we do enchiladas.

That would be great.

Yeah.

And I think for us, that's such a basic recipe.

But for somebody who's not familiar with dried chili pods might be intimidated to work with them.

But I have a freezer full of different salsas and roasted green chile.

But it's so nice.

Once you make it, then you have this sauce that you could make enchiladas, or you can make pozole, or you can make all kinds of recipes just with that same sauce.

I'm excited.

My favorite restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, where I live is called Santoro.

And I'm taking my sister there with my family for the first time this week.

And they have like the best mole I just have found in my own life is that I used to be somebody who would always eat on the go.

I got a little ADHD thing going, so I'll forget to eat so often.

And something that has really changed my relationship with food the last few years is community and having this group that once a week somebody hosts and we all go to Dinner at somebody's house, and sometimes it's a cereal bar.

And then some people are like real chefs.

They're making such incredible meals.

But it is almost this connection.

Like, as we've lost a connection to food, it's kind of like we've lost that connection to the heritage and to the family time and just to the community in general.

And I would love to hear kind of your take on how that shows up in your own life, especially being so involved with food, how those other pieces have evolved as well.

Yeah.

And I think with my husband, he's a great cook as well.

His mom, I'd call her like Betty Crocker because she had a degree in home economics, and she did a really good job at teaching him how to make certain recipes.

And when she passed away, I love seeing his face light up when he has a notebook that she left for him of all her recipes.

And a lot of them weren't recipes she developed, but they were his favorite recipes.

Like, she would cut them out of a magazine, or she would type them on her typewriter, or she would handwrite them on little index cards.

And he loves those recipes.

So as we would talk about those city nuts, the table with our family.

And he was always in sports in high school and saying how after school, his friends would come over and love to eat his mom's food.

And I was like, that's what I want to be.

I want to be the mom that everybody wants to come and have food at.

And it was cute because now as my kids got older, their friends follow me on Instagram and they're like, oh, we see your mom's making enchiladas.

Can we come over tonight?

So it's really cute because they all tell our kids what I'm making before they even know it.

But I love being the house that whether it's a holiday that I'm hosting or that if comes over, I know that I can whip up something really quick that we can sit down and eat together, because I think that is special.

I think you remember when you go visit somebody and if they give you something to eat, I feel like it's just so welcoming.

And I feel like that's definitely changed.

You know, where people like, oh, we'll just meet at a coffee shop or whatever it might be.

So it's nice to just have something at home and just eat together.

I remember one time I had an amazing opportunity to meet Michelle, Michelle Obama.

And it was a round table with other Latina women, and we were there talking as Mothers and talking about everyday motherhood.

And she was saying how even though she was the first lady at the time, they still had dinner time together.

And I just thought, like, that was amazing.

You know, the first lady can still make time for dinner time.

It's important.

And she's like, that's when your kids open up and that's when they start telling you things.

And it's so true because when we have dinner at the the table, your kids tell you their whole day and they're talking and it's beautiful.

I mean, there's times I'm not saying that I'm perfect and that we do that every single night.

There's times where it's like, okay, can we just do it in front of the tv?

And we do.

Or some kid is at practice or one's working.

It's okay, Tim.

And eat and whenever.

But when they were younger, we definitely made a good habit of doing that.

It's so nice just to have those conversations around the table that don't happen anywhere else.

They're just.

For some reason, you just have an amazing conversation around the dinner table.

I'm very curious because of course you are honoring and have cookbooks on Mexican food.

How often do you explore other types of food?

When it's your business and it's your family, you're kind of like, okay, everything's Mexican food, but how much are you exploring making other types of food?

What's so funny is, like, people have asked me, like, did you grow up eating Mexican food?

And yes, but we just called it food.

Yeah, it's just food.

Well, and even in.

In the US So much like the restaurant I was talking about, I hate to be like, I'm going to go get Mexican food because I'm like, it's kind of like Yucatan, like, Peninsula love.

More like regional and not like Tex Mex or just like American Max.

Yeah, so usually if I'm cooking, it's a lot of Mexican food, but also make Italian food.

I'm not the best at it, but I make the basics.

My husband's great with making Italian food, so he makes like his mom's homemade lasagna that'll take him a whole day.

But I also love to grill, so I'm braid on the grill and do like steaks and burgers and things like that.

And then Asian food.

You know, I do a lot of stir fries.

I just gravitate towards Mexican food because it's literally what I crave.

Like, I love spicy food.

A lot of people think Mexican food In general might be not the healthiest, but there's so many great dishes that are so, so healthy, you know, and so many vegetables, avocados and chiles and nopal, which are cactus paddles.

I mean, there's so much great produce in Mexican food.

And so it's not all about fried food or tamales, but those are our special occasions, yummy ones as well.

But yeah, I love to experiment in the kitchen, and I love cooking different varieties of food.

But Mexican food is definitely comes easy to me for St. Patrick's Day, you know, I make the whole corned beef brisket, and then I make my mother in law's.

She makes like a bow tie pasta with cabbage.

So it has a lot of butter and sesame seeds.

And so when my daughter came home, I said, I kind of changed up the recipe.

And she's like, what did you do?

You better not have Mexicanized it.

And I was like, you know, I just added, like, a little bit of sauteed onions with some bacon.

She's like, okay, that sounds good.

But, you know, like, there's so many times when she's like, you better not chile or whatever, you know, when it's like a traditional other dish.

But, yeah, I love playing in the kitchen.

I feel like I'm lately the opposite of your daughter in that scenario, so.

So I was lucky enough to spend a month in Italy last year, and everyone talks about Italian food and how good it is, and I admit, like, it's really fresh ingredients.

We had a lot of great food.

But it's the same how, like, in Omaha, we have so much beef, so there's like a cheeseburger on every corner, and a lot of it is great, and some of it is just a cheeseburger.

And in Italy, I felt like we would go to the little corner spot, and I was like, this food all has the same four ingredients.

I'm like, give me some chili.

Give me anything, because I need something, because everything just tastes like tomato and basil.

I'm like, give me more butter, give me more salt, like, Americanize it.

And I literally came home craving my favorite Italian restaurant in Omaha because I was just like, I need something with, like, more flavor.

When I've, like, told people this story, I'll compare it to when I was in the Yucatan Peninsula a couple years ago.

My eyes were, like, always blown at all of the mix of flavors and textures, and there was always something that you couldn't quite place.

It was so dynamic and diverse.

And I'm like, I'm not saying one's better than the other.

But it was so interesting, the different experience of feeling like, okay, everything is these four ingredients.

First, I don't even know what is in this because it is so dynamic.

And so when you joke about your daughter being like, don't do that, that's what I think of.

I'm like, please put something more into this.

Yeah.

And I mean, even as I went through this journey, I mean, I grew up in El Paso and my grandma's from northern Mexico.

And so the cuisine I grew up with is Northern Mexic gym food.

Being from El Paso, people automatically assume, like, it's Tex Mex, but El Paso literally is.

My mom's house is one mile away from Mexico.

And I remember when I left El Paso and moved to San Antonio, I was like, oh, this Mexican food is completely different.

That is more Tex Mex vs. Northern Mexican style food.

So even traveling through Texas and through the Southwest and now living in Colorado, you know, New Mexico compared to Colorado to Texas is completely different Mexican food.

And then going to Mexico, whether it's Oaxaca or the Yucatan, I mean, completely different.

That's what I love also learning about.

I mean, it's just vast.

Mexican food is just so interesting.

I'm going to pivot us a little bit because I read either in something that you sent or on your substack how you've talked about the business side and how most people who sell cookbooks like, their money is not really coming from the sale of the cookbooks.

And I know that's kind of a common experience for most authors.

I've worked with over 100, like 20 businesses in the last decade, never with like a food blogger or author in your space.

And so I'm really curious what the business side looks like for you.

Yeah, so I write a lot about business side on my substack page.

It's called Cosina to Career.

And I remember looking back and thinking about when I wanted to write this cookbook, but initially it was just going to be a family cookbook.

But then I was like, oh, okay, maybe I can figure out how to sell this.

And then I was looking into self publishing.

And then if you self publish at the time, you had to buy thousands of copies of books and then figure out how you're going to get them into retail stores and ship these products.

And I was like, oh, I don't want to do that.

I want to find somebody who can get them on Amazon, get them at Barnes and Nobles, get them at Target.

I had high hopes thinking I'm going to get such a huge advance, you know, I'm going to be rich.

First of all, now I just think, like, how naive I was.

I wasn't a trained chef, I wasn't a celebrity.

And I'm pretty lucky that now, looking back, that I was able to even have a book published by just a home cook who was passionate about her home recipes.

You know, I really didn't have a huge following at the time, so I feel so blessed that it happened that way.

And now that I'm able to keep growing.

Once we got our offer, the first cookbook, I wrote that with my mom and my sister.

So we negotiated in advance.

We didn't have a literary agent at the time, so we really, they didn't know what we were doing.

But still, you're not going to get rich by publishing a cookbook.

I mean, maybe if you're Ina Garter or Martha Stewart, then you're getting the amazing advances, or maybe a huge content creator who has a huge following, millions of followers, then they could get a great advance.

But it's not common.

And so, yeah, I wrote an article about that.

The average advance could be anywhere from like 10,000 to $50,000.

And $50,000 sounds amazing, but if it takes you two years to write a cookbook and you' getting that 50,000 divided in three payments within two to three years, it's really not a lot of money.

And it's a big commitment.

So I love writing about the business side and just kind of the myths of what we think and the reality, even my blog is still so mysterious to so many people and how I make money because they automatically assume if I'm not writing a new cookbook, I'm not making any money.

So I think now people kind of understand working with a brand and partnering with a brand and being a brand ambassador or influencer.

And so then they know you're making money with that deal.

But just in the blog itself, you know, I have ads on there, and so I work with an ad network and so I make revenue monthly from just people visiting my blog.

And that's how I can offer my recipes for free.

So the book selling portion is a very tiny portion of my revenue, but it's one that I love because for me, that's like a gift to my children and to future generations to keep these recipes in print and sharing my stories.

And it's just a family cookbook.

I mean, it doesn't get any more precious to be able to say that I have published books out there sharing My grandma's story and my mom's story and our family recipes in a way,.

Like a time capsule.

Yeah.

And it's like, I wish that my grandma was still living so that I had more pictures of her in the kitchen.

So we all didn't have the mobile devices in our back pocket like we all do now.

Like a camera everywhere.

I'm very grateful for the photos that I do have of her.

But, yeah, I love capturing my mom every time she visits in the kitchen.

And so, yeah, when we look at the old cookbooks, it's super cute because my kids were tiny, and just to see them in there, when my daughter's 8 years old and my son is 2 years old, and now my daughter is 23 years old and my son is 17.

So it's just crazy how fast the years have gone by.

I know you mentioned that when Your daughter was 8 years old, she kind of sparked this whole idea.

How involved have they been in the process?

Like, you mentioned having photos of them, but did they like being in the kitchen with mom, or do they just want to be like, okay, my friend told me that you're making enchiladas.

We're all coming over.

My daughter is, like, a natural.

She's so good in the kitchen.

She's fast.

I mean, I'm not a fast, fast cook.

She's like, has amazing chopping skills, and she's worked at restaurants, and sometimes she would help in the back.

And so people like, how do you know how to cook?

I grew up in the kitchen with my mom, so I love that she learned that skill and that she appreciated it and that she loved showing it off.

And my son works at a grocery store, and, you know, it's really cute that he can explain certain ingredients.

When people having to look at the book for a produce and be like, like, what is that?

And they're like, oh, it's a jalapeno.

It's a serrano.

So I think they just grew up in the kitchen, and they grew up going to the grocery store with me and my son.

He loves to eat.

He's more like me when I was in high school.

Just give me the food.

You know, he knows the basics.

He can whip up and make guacamole.

I'll give him a task, but he's more of the table setter.

And whether it's putting drinks on the table and making an appetizer, but he's there to eat.

My daughter's always like, okay, what do I do?

When we host parties, we're very good at figuring out what we can make days before, whether it's.

It's Thanksgiving.

And, okay, now we just got to make the stuffing.

Now we just got to make it that day.

You know, whatever it might be, we're just.

We've got it down now.

Where before, when I would host parties, it was hysterical.

Is it's a Latino thing too, where it's like, we're always late.

So when people would show up to our party, I'd still have, like, hot rollers in my hair and my robot.

So now it's like a family joke where people like, I'm in the driveway.

Are you ready for us?

It's like, yes.

Come on.

And I've learned after a few years,.

I can just hear somebody listening right now and being like.

Like, I feel weird in the kitchen.

I never cooked.

I can barely make eggs.

Where is a good entry point for them to just start feeling more comfortable and confident in the kitchen?

I think if it's a recipe or a dish that you love, it's a family dish.

I have a Mexican bread pudding on my blog that is a traditional dish that we have during the Lenten season, and it's a dish that you either love it or you hate it.

Like, it's just an odd kind of dish when you think about it.

But people will message me and say, you know, my mom passed away or my grand passed away, and I used to love when she made this dish, and nobody ever knew how to make it, but I followed your recipe, and it was like being at my mom's house or being at my grandma's house.

So I think if you have a special memory of a dish that is special to you, just find a recipe online that looks similar to it that reminds you of it.

And I feel like if you put some passion, the love literally behind a dish, it's going to come out better.

You know, if you're really not comfortable in the kitchen, just start with basics.

Whether it's learning how to fry an egg or hard boil an egg, or nowadays there's so many YouTube videos that you can learn how to make anything.

And I still go to, how do I poach an egg again?

So just get in the kitchen and try something, and little by little, you'll get more confidence.

People tell me like, oh, I did your recipe, but I added this and this, and I was like, good.

You don't have to follow my recipes exactly.

Once you start getting comfortable in the kitchen, you're going to start adding little spices that you want to add to change it up, and that's a good thing.

That's when you know you're growing in the kitchen.

That's easy to do when you're cooking anything savory.

When it's baking, that's a science.

But savory, Yes.

I mean, definitely taste as you go.

And so many people say, I wish you told me how much salt to add, because I do so much salt taste as needed because my palate might be completely different than your palate.

And so of course you add salt, but then you don't want to over salt it.

And then you can taste.

Taste as you go.

Well, I have a few more questions for you today, and I want to know when it comes to, obviously, cooking, I feel is such a creative outlet and can be.

But when it comes to those moments where you're like, okay, how do I rest, Play, add some more creativity, spark some joy in your life outside of cooking, that one, I think, is a given.

What other ways do you like to play and get creative?

I'm going through that right now, trying to figure out how to.

To spark inspiration and how to keep being creative.

And I think for me, it's around being surrounded by other people who are in our same space.

I have a business manager who handles all my collaboration projects, and she hosts a retreat every year.

And so just recently, she lives in Denver too, which is so nice.

So she has clients that are in Florida and Las Vegas.

And so we all got together at an Airbnb here in Denver and just had three days of, of talking about business and talking about what's working, what's not working, new things.

Geo, SEO, AI, all the acronyms, and trying to figure out what's new.

And so for me, just having human connections, we're so in our own behind the computer, in our virtual worlds.

And so for me, it's human connection.

So, like tonight, like, I'm gonna go have dinner with my photographer who photographs all my recipes and cookbooks and just hang out.

Once you're in business for yourself, it's hard to take the time to get out of our little comfort, sitting in front of our computer and working.

And so for me, it's just that human connection and just that sparks like a different creativity and just hearing different opinions and their excitements for me is what brings me more energy.

And I love traveling.

Traveling is huge for me.

It's like different personalities.

I have my mom personality, my being a business personality, and then my travel where it's like I can let loose and have fun and just be like my former younger self.

I love traveling and exploring because it just kind of rejuvenates a lot for me.

Yes, I'm right there with you.

I'm like, yes, yes, all of that.

Sometimes I can be too social, but a lot of times it's like I'll start to feel a little antisocial or a little uninspired, and it's always because I've been working behind a screen too much.

And so that is such a good reminder for all of us.

My next question is, when it comes to people that you're learning from or things that you're entertained by watching, reading, listening to music, podcast, what are you currently obsessed with?

Oh, I am obsessed with this new series.

It's based on a book that's been around forever.

Como Agua para Chocolate, which is like water for chocolate.

It's an old book.

They've made a movie about it, like, in the 90s, I think.

And now they're doing this whole series.

It's by Salma Hayek, who produced it.

And I love it because it's like going back into time about my grandma's story.

It deals with a lot of northern Mexico and the Mexican Revolution and when my grandma would tell me stories about living in the hacienda and this beautiful ranch.

And then there's cooking and all the Mexican food and how the different.

Different dishes that they make for special occasions.

And so for me, it's.

Oh, that would be my dream.

If I could have my grandma's story told in a movie or in a series.

That would be so amazing.

I go into my pretend mode and think if one day that would be like, my dream if I could share my family story in that way.

But I love that show.

It's so good.

And then I also love the whole.

Have you seen it?

Oh, my God, I'm obsessed with the JFK Jr love story.

Hey, I've been told I have not started it yet.

It's so good.

I was around the same age during that time and just going back into the 90s.

I love that right now.

And I love that my daughter loves watching it with me.

So it's fun just to be able to explain certain things to her that I'm like, yes, that's John Kennedy's son.

So, yeah, I love that.

I just got a new book, El Paso, which I haven't read yet, but I'm super excited to read.

It's a lot of migrant stories and just the history of about El Paso and I'm excited to read it because I'm from El Paso and just El Paso in itself, there's just so much history that I feel is untold.

I already have it packed because I'm going to go to El Paso to visit my mom next week.

So I'm ready to read it on the airplane and read it while I'm there with her.

Oh, and I mean when it comes to podcasts, I love Food Blogger Pro.

I listen to them a lot because they just have some great guests and just some great up to date information about this world.

So I'm always listening to Food Blogger Pro.

I love those.

That is like adding to my list.

I appreciate you joining me on Becoming Obsessed so much.

How can people stay in your world and get your cookbook and follow you on substack?

Where should they find you?

Thank you.

So yeah, so my business is Muy Bueno.

So on Instagram it's Muy Bueno Cooking.

And you can also find me on Facebook.

My blog is muy buenoblog.com and for those who might not know, Muy Bueno means very good in Spanish.

I named it after my grandma who would always walk welcome people into her kitchen by saying sit down and eat.

It's very good.

So that's why it's titled Muy Bueno.

But yeah, I'm on all the things and substack Cosina to Career.

So I am always reading my dm.

So if anybody ever has any questions, I am there.

Amazing.

And you're still here listening.

So go send her a dm.

Send me a dm.

And honestly, what you should go do is try one of her recipes and then let me know what you think and help me decide which one to try next.

And then share this with a friend.

Maybe share it with somebody in your community that you want to make a meal with.

It is such a great way to make a connection and help us uplift each other a little bit more because we are all about living a life that you truly love.

All right y', all, now let's go get obsessed.

You're still listening, which means this episode connected with you.

And I want to know how.

Send me a DM on Instagram at Becoming Obsessed pod.

Then send this episode to a friend.

If you know someone who is building a life that they love or they're feeling a little stuck and might just need a nudge, send this to them.

Then rate and review because it also helps us get the word out.

And as you know we're on a mission for more people to live a life they truly love.

All right, let's go get upset.

Sat.