End of Summer

For Arizonans the end of summer means we can all venture back into the great outdoors!   The temperatures start to drop (just a little) so we can now elect to eat in the patio of a restaurant,  we can take evening strolls and we can start spending time in the backyard patio!   With the temperatures starting to drop little by little -- it was our queue to start getting the patio ready!

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Earlier this year we bought a pergola at Lowe's and Sweetheart and his dad installed it in the back patio.   We added lights to it to give it a little bit of outdoor charm.   This weekend we washed down the patio furniture and added new flowers to the pots that sat sans flowers for too long.    I don't know about anyone else that lives in Phoenix but keeping flowers alive during the hot summer months is next to impossible.  It's just too hot.   

It's a work in progress.  I want to get an outdoor rug for the patio and you see the orange extension cord along the left side of the picture?   We are looking for a black one that we can tack down so it blends with the column.  

Sweetheart and I love Talavera Pottery.   We started buying it years ago and we add a little to the mix every year.   We go to a little shop in Guadalupe called Mercado Mexico.  It's a quaint shop and if you are ever in the area stop there -- it's quirky but we always find good stuff there!

We added a cactus and some succulents to the planter on the wall.   Fingers crossed that they will thrive there.    This picture doesn't really show the charm of this planter with Talavera pots -- it's one of our favorites.

We're hoping that the cooler temps and the covered patio will keeps these flowers happy.

We stopped by Mercado Mexico today to buy some saucers for the pots we have on the spiral planter in the corner:

They were waiting on a shipment to come in so hopefully within the next two weeks or so we can give the pots below a proper saucer.....

When it gets a little cooler, we can have breakfast and dinner in the patio on the weekends.

Sweetheart did a great job of cleaning the patio and getting it ready for us.  

That's why I call him Sweetheart. 

:)

We have a home game against the 49er's tomorrow.   Look for us in the Red Sea -- we'll be there!

Go CARDINALS!

Week Two - Twice Baked Potatoes

Happy Sunday!  It was another great day of football watching.  My Cards won, Sweetheart's Cowboys won and the Seahawks lost.  If the Bears could pull it together and beat the 49er's, life would be good.   If I sound bitter, it's because I am.  :)

Sweetheart's menu pick for this week:  Potato Skins and Hamburgers.  And chips and salsa and beer and wine of course.   

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  Sweetheart didn't want me to discard the inside of the potato so I figured this would be a good one to try.  I was surprised at how easy they were to make and just how good they were.  We both enjoyed them!

*I always modify the recipe just a little because I'm generally watching TV while I'm making the meal and I don't have time to follow a recipe to the tee.   

Twice Baked Potatoes

• 6 red potatoes
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup fresh green onions
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

1. preheat oven to 360
2. rub potato skins with olive oil and salt
3. place in oven and bake for 1 hour
4. after potatoes are done and out of the oven, I cooked the bacon in the oven
5. once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice each in half lengthwise.
6. scoop out the flesh, leaving a thin rim around the potato skin. 
7. mash the potatoes with a fork, stir in bacon bits, 1 cup cheddar cheese, sour cream, onions and pepper.  
8. spoon potato mixture back into the potato skins and return to the baking ray. 
9. sprinkled with reserved cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese.
10. return to over and bake until potatoes are lightly browned and heated through (about 10 minutes).

Sweetheart handled the hamburgers:  Lipton onion soup mix, salt & pepper, garlic and ground beef.  Wheat buns, lettuce, tomato, cheese, mustard, pickles and of course, green chiles. 

Go CARDS!

Wishes for a happy work week!

TTFN
~Yolanda

iPhone 6 anyone?

Are any of you as excited as I am about the iPhone6?  Seriously I was on the edge of my seat all evening yesterday at the thought of placing my pre-order.     Pre-orders were starting on Friday at midnight, eastern standard time which is 9:00pm Arizona time. 

I waited and I waited and I waited all evening.   Then at 8:45 I walked into our office and decided it was time to log on.  At 8:58 I logged onto the Apple Store site.  Two minutes too early; the pre-order was still unavailable.   So I impatiently waited for 9:00 p.m only to find that the site was down.   Too much traffic that the site had shut down.  

Aughhhhhhhhhh!  The "we'll be back message" mocked me as it flashed the message in several different languages over and over and over!

I had no choice but to wait until morning to order.   So at 5am this morning I got up and walked straight to my computer and placed my order!  I was surprised because I went to bed thinking it might sell out before I got to log back in.   

BTW, I went with the iPhone6 over the 6plus because of the size.  The 6plus seems like the size of a mini iPad.  

I can't wait for it to get here! 

Rain Day in Phoenix

It's basically an oxymoron.   So we are clear, a rain day is the equivalent of a 'snow day'.   I was born and raised in Arizona and I have never had to stay home from work or school because of mother nature.   Ever.

I will say, however, that I have never seen so much rain in my entire life.   Yes, we have monsoon storms that come through here every year.   Sometimes the winds are so strong they uproot trees or knock down power lines.   Sometimes, we have flash flood warnings and the washes throughout the area will flow for a couple of hours.  Sometimes streets get somewhat flooded.   But on Monday, September 8, 2014 we had torrential rains and flooding throughout the Phoenix Metropolitan area as a surge of tropical moisture from former Hurricane Norbert.   So much rain that the Department of Public Safety advised residents to stay home.   Schools were actually closed.  Businesses were closed.  My corporate office sent out email and text notifications that employees were to stay home and not report to work.   The city was shut down.

The 10, 17, 51 and 60 (interstates) were all shut down in certain areas due to severe flooding:

1-10 and 43rd ave

Neighborhoods looked like this:

 

Sweetheart had to start digging a trench so the water could escape the back yard that was filled with water:

it was about 7am, he was still in his pj's.....

By mid morning, it stopped raining and the water started to recede.   The next day it was back to work as usual and everyone was talking about their experiences....     

 

Week One - Chicken BLT Lettuce Wraps

I am sure this will come as no surprise to anyone, but we LOVE football season!   We love the games, the sports bars, the Fantasy Football and of course, the food!   I am sure it will also come as no surprise that I love to be organized and I live by my calendar -- which contains my numerous "to do" lists, house cleaning lists, grocery lists, meal lists, etc.  You get the picture, yes?

Every year, I prepare a list (way in advance) of what meals we will have for days we watch the games at home and what we will have when we tailgate.   Everything, and I do mean everything, is planned out.   This year I thought I would post my at home meals.   We also decided we would eat at home more and make healthier choices for our football grub. 

After mass this morning Sweetheart and I had breakfast at one of our favorite spots, made a quick stop at the Home Depot to get some propane for the grill and then headed home just in time to kick off the first week of the regular season by watching the Red Zone pretty much all day.  

For dinner, I made some Chicken BLT Lettuce Wraps: 

click to enlarge

I found the recipe here as I was browsing one day.   I thought this would be a relatively great alternative to the typical greasy, carb-filled foods that we tend to gravitate to when we watch football.

I made slight modifications.  I had Sweetheart roast some green chile on the grill when he grilled the chicken for me.   It added so much flavor and just the right amount of heat:

Chicken BLT Lettuce Wrap

• head of butter lettuce
• 3 chicken breasts, grilled and sliced into strips
• 6 slices of bacon -- I cook my bacon in the oven so that so there is no splatter mess and perfect bacon each time.   To cook the bacon in the oven, line a baking sheet with foil, line bacon side by side but not touching.   Set the oven to 400 and place the bacon in the oven (do not preheat). Cook for 20 minutes.  Transfer the bacon from the baking sheet to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the grease. 
• handful of grape tomatoes
• 2 roasted hatch green chile -- seeded and cut into strips  

Creamy Honey Mustard Dressing

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise - I use Best Foods Olive Oil mayonnaise 
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup honey 
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• pepper

I made the Honey Mustard Dressing in advance, placed it in a glass jar and put it in the fridge.   The more I can prep ahead of time works best so I can spend more time in front the TV and less time in the kitchen.  

_________________________________________________

For lunch, at Sweetheart's request, I made some Nachos.  Pretty basic:  tortilla chips, nacho cheese, turkey meat with taco seasonings, green onions, salsa and sour cream.  I don't like sour cream so my plate below doesn't have any on it.  :)

Quick and easy but oh so tasty:

Wishes for a happy work week!

TTFN

~Yolanda

Touch of Fall

Sweetheart and I went on a bike ride this morning and I ran into some pinecones along the path.   I thought they would be a great addition to my self in the kitchen.   Then I thought fresh clippings would be a good too.  So when we got back from the ride I went straight into the back yard with scissors and a small basket in hand.  

The colors are perfect for my Fall shelf:

I added some to the living room table as well.   There are those dollar store pumpkins I was painting last night.  They look so much better in white:

I added some clippings to the front table too:

See how pretty the color of the clippings just blend in with the gold pumpkins?

And to my pumpkin in the hallway I added some glittered pumpkins to give it a little more color:

Those are the pumpkins as I was added color last night:

The front door also got a little bit of Fall added to it:

And I made a banner last year year to hang by the front door but all I could find was the four letters.   I used the same banner for Halloween, Valentine's day, Easter, 4th of July and Labor day.   I must have tossed it out because the actual burlap banner was nowhere to be found.  So, I just made another.  I had everything I needed:

There it is peeking out from the inside:

Simple, but I like it:

I know that it's not officially Fall until September 22nd.  But putting this stuff out just gives me a great sense of what's to come:  cooler weather, footballs, holidays, birthdays and a lot of fun stuff!

It's that time!

It really is that time of year again!   It's football season!   And that means a very busy schedule -- we have football games and tailgating, birthdays, holidays and a non-stop schedule all the way through the first of the year!  

We have our first regular season football game of the year this coming Monday.  Yep, it's MNF and we will be there with bells on! 

This weekend I am going to work on putting a few "Fall" touches around the house.  Not too many, just enough to satisfy my need to start decorating the house for the holidays.   Since Fall in Arizona doesn't mean cooler weather -- it's still very hot and temperatures will remain high for a couple more months -- it does mean that Football season is here!  So how best to celebrate than to place a couple pumpkin lovelies around the house.   I just finished painting dollar store pumpkins this pretty off white color because the original orange color just wasn't speaking to me.

Just a sneak peak below:

So, I'm off to finish the rest of the pumpkin placing as I sip on a glass of Merlot.   That usually slows down the process, but I'm totally okay with that.  

And as they say "Happy Fall Y'all"!!!