Good Fruit Gone Bad!

 I bit it before it could bite me!  Happy Monday.

Cooking with fire - or gas burners...

Seeing that I cook about 5 or 6 out of 7 nights a week I think it might be appropriate to start adding in some of my successful as well as failed culinary undertakings. Nothing too "foodie bloggie" just attempts, and results and my favorite (Jonathan's arch nemesis) recipe modifications :)

So far this year I've been cooking from Cooking Light and been having pretty good results. First item of the year was a Thai Coconut Chicken soup which turned out quite delicious. I cut out the fungi since neither of us eat it and got lazy on shredding the chicken, instead choosing to chop it into small chunks. We both agreed that the texture of shredded chicken would have been better, and perhaps an addition of a white fish would be a nice extra, but again, great flavor overall. The second chicken dish I made that week was chicken enchiladas in a green sauce. Actually followed the recipe pretty well this time and it was again a other tasty meal. Admittedly the tortillas lost some consistency and it became a little homogonous.  I didn't mind the texture but Jonathan would have preferred that the tortillas were a little more identifiable. Both are guaranteed repeats.

Moving on to desserts, this past Sunday I made Cooking Light's Grapefruit Pound Cake, and it was, key word "was", fantastic!  The first minor modification was the addition of a tablespoon of sour cream since we only had fat free milk and the recipe called for 2%.  Not sure it even works that way but what doesn't a dab of sour cream make better/  The second and final modification was made to the glaze.  After mixing the fresh squeezed, then reduced and concentrated, grapefruit juice with the powdered sugar, the icing was way too sour.  To compensate I added about 1/2 of an ounce of cream cheese and about an additional 1/3 cup of powdered sugar.  The frosting was still a little tart but it had a pleasant grapefruit flavor and was a perfect pairing with the pound cake.  As you can see I didn't spend too much time on the photography, but even these simple pictures make me want another piece.

                   

Jackson in action

During a quick visit to Jonathan's office Jackson was eager to help out. A little file review here, little dusting there, couple of keep up the good work licks.

In keeping with the spirit of a true criminal defense attorney's canine Jackson made it clear that he doesn't take lip from anyone!

Pokey plants!

Thanks to a new years day holiday Jonathan and I had an extra day for house projects, perfect for dealing with the excess mounds of rock sitting in our front yard. We started by building a rough storage container in the back yard using our ever-present supply of broken concrete and random walk way blocks, but learned quickly that it would not hold all of the extra rock.  Once we hit capacity we started re-distributing the rock on the east side in a, slightly thicker than before, top layer. Because the rock is small the increased thickness isn't discernible from the street and was a much needed improvement from two random lumps.

Jonathan, having decided the East side of the front yard was looking a bit barren, came up with a plan to spruce it up a bit. The plan included three rows of plants, each row containing a pair of similar cactus, or agave.  The first row, closest to the street, which will remain the shortest of the rows contains two agaves.  One, a gift purchased for us at the Phoenix botanical garden brings a nice splash of dark green to the yard.  Its paired with a lighter green, variegated agave that we had previously housed in one of our back yard pots.  Its pretty fair to say that as we got closer to the house, the planting became a little more treacherous.

                     

 The second row contains two prickly pear cactus, one deceptively called the "Teddy Bear Cactus", and the other, well I'm not quite sure what its official name is, but its native to Arizona and should have some lovely flowers in the spring/fall.  Sure the Teddy Bear, with its little fuzzy looking spines gives off a cute appearance, but I'm pretty sure its the plant equivalent to the Devil!  Our planting approach was to bring the ceramic pot as close to the hole as possible, break the pot on site and hope we could guide the plant into the hole without too much glove-near-plant assistance.  Turns out we did pretty well.  Yes, there was plenty of tweezing throughout the whole process since the Teddy Bear is like a porcupine and pretty much ejects groups its spines when clothing or skin is near, and we did have to toss our gloves rather than deal with the constant pokes, but overall, it went well.  Since the spines on the second prickly pear are larger, and more spread out on the plant, getting it out of the pot and into the ground was pretty simple.

     

The third ,and eventually the tallest row of plants, contains another gift bought from the Phoenix botanical garden, one of my personal favorites, the Mexican Fence Post.  I do not know the name or type of the second cactus in the row, but it will eventually grow tall, is pretty lanky already, and has thorns the length of cocktail weenies.  The Mexican Fence post was another easy to plant item, but I can't say the same for its row-mate.  The second cactus also came from our back yard and was also in a pot that had to be sacrificed for planting/personal safety.  Mind you, at this point I am gloveless thanks to the Teddy Bear planting adventure.  After we broke the pot and were guiding the plant down into the hole, the little beast decided to tip towards me.  I moved my hands away from the danger zone at which time Jonathan tells me "get your gloves on".  I understood the theory, but no gardening glove was going to protect my finger from being skewered had I sacrificed my hand and tried to catch it mid fall.  Nothing broke and cactus tend to be pretty hearty so we finished planting without further drama

             

                                                     

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Running low on energy, but wanting to finish up our landscaping efforts for the day, we managed to plant what served as our 2011 Christmas tree, a recently purchased Mexican Fan Palm.  This little guy is the same type of palm planted closer to the street in the front yard, but is a bit younger and a bit smaller. 

The front yard has really taken on a new look and we're quite happy with how its shaping up.  Our goal is to finish the walk way this weekend (fingers crossed) and perhaps fill in some of the focal areas with white accent rock.  Mid planting Jonathan asked if I ever thought I'd be planting cactus. I chuckled and responded "Nope, but I also never imagined I'd live in New Jersey/Virginia/DC, meet and marry an Alabama boy and buy an atomic ranch in Arizona!"   

Fiesta at the Fiesta Bowl Block Party

 Jonathan and I started the last day of 2011 with a run, a bike ride and a quick trip to Ikea.  Out evening plans included meeting up with friends to go to the Fiesta Bowl Block Party, so until then I spent time outside with Mr Jackson enjoying to 78 degree weather. Sure we can have some above toasty summers but I will take 70+ degree winters as a more than a fair trade off.

Once Brad and Alicia picked us up we navigated to the Parlor for dinner before lightrailing to one of USA Today's "top ten new years eve destinations". The Parlor is a locally owned Phoenix pizzeria known for its delicious pizzas, mid-century style and fresh from the on site garden herbs and veggies. Before becoming the Parlor it was "the Salon de Venus beauty parlor".  As part of a "the newly adaptive-reuse project" the architect and designers reused "the pre-existing materials from the old building for... main accents and features. The old beauty salon chairs became seating for the dining area bar, and what was once the old sprinkler system of Salon de Venus now becomes The Parlor’s lighting fixtures, wine storage sculpture, fire place / heater, and countless other details that allows the project to keep the essence of its historic past."  (Experts taken from the following site http://www.archdaily.com/162319/the-parlor-pizzeria-pathangay-architects-with-aric-and-jennifer-mei/)

Ok, back to the evening at hand.  After debarking from the train, we zig-zagged through the tightest weaved, yet completely empty, gerbil-maze/crowd control fencing I've ever experienced. Never before has reaching a ticket gate been so rewarding and slightly nauseating. Map in hand we navigated to the nearest beer garden which was one of about five, spread throughout the sectioned off streets. They had maybe two types of beer, one red wine option, and one white wine option, and seemed too expansive for their own good.  Each beer garden abutted a concert area, which for our first stop was the country stage.  Not much to see there. Back on streets we made a quick stop to heckle some mechanical bull riders before getting in some quality people watching at the techno dance area. We also walked past a military recruiting station complete with pull up bar competitions and opted not to participate and kept our heckling to a hushed minimum.

Before we left the fiesta we were determined to find the "Chip drop", and boy oh boy were we disappointed.  Seeing that this chip drop was compared to the ball at time square we were hoping for a massive tortilla chip, hopefully accented with nacho cheese or another appropriate chip accoutrement.  FAIL.  The only chip we could find, which no one working the event had even heard of, and wasn't located where it said it was to be dropped on the street map, was outright pathetic.  You can see it here, a lovely pic taken from the highly over touted iPhone camera. 

As I re-read my post I realize its a bit on the negative side, but you'll have to believe me, despite the critique, we had a very fun new years eve with friends.  We got home in time to see the NYC ball drop and headed to bed soon thereafter.  I'm not one to believe that the new year brings about a fresh slate, but rather another year filled with new adventures, plenty of projects and maxing out my free Picasa capacity limit.

Oh and of course, Jackson advises everyone to stay healthy and safe and Toby recommends not working, or playing too hard.

Christmas 2011, part 2

 The day after Christmas I put on my cold weather running gear, tightened my watch and headed out for a morning run with Sandy. Thanks to a cold, dark mornings and air pollution I had not been able to run for over a week but was determined to get in 3 miles. We made pretty good time and thanks to my new watch actually ran an accurate 3.1 miles.  By far my favorite way to start a day!

We spent the remainder of the day running a few errands and preparing a few more courses for our anticipated family dinner. With the appetizers nicely displayed and the floral arrangement perfected by Carolyn we welcomed our guest's arrival a little before 6 PM that evening.  Almost instantly upon their arrival our little atomic ranch rilled with familial warmth, chit chat, laughter, and plenty of entertainment for Jackson.  Despite a few pieces of ham jerky, secretly joked about by Jed and myself at the end of the table, dinner and dessert went pretty well.

 

The following day Sandy and I again suited up and braved 30+ degree weather to get in a short run to start our day.  After breakfast and a quick Jackson walk we loaded into the car for a little downtown touring and made a few stops at a few vintage shops. Despite a bit of purchase indecision over a classic optical cabinet, I managed to make the only purchase of the day which happened to be a print from a local tattoo artist that caught my eye and couldn't be passed up. I've seen work by this artist before, and just may have some plans for this artist in my future, but I digress.  Anyway, back to the day at hand, we all decided it was a good time for a lunch break and stopped at Windsor for a tasty meal.  We recently discovered Windsor, located around mid town and have had consistently great experiences. 

 

Despite our chilly start to the day the temps were in the low 70s by the time we took Jackson for afternoon walk.  We pretty much hung out until dinner when we made another culinary adventure to Hana, by far one of the best Japanese sushi restaurants I've ever enjoyed.  Yeah yeah yeah, get your jokes in about buying sushi in a land locked state, but I dare you to try Hana's sushi and make any other comment than a food appreciation noise. 

 

On our final day to visit with the Hupps we spent our time outside, enjoying a beautiful day at the Phoenix Botanical Garden before enjoying a family dinner at Pomo, a neapolitan style pizzeria.  Jonathan and I have been interested in the Botanical Garden for quite some time, but have never made time for a visit. Thank goodness for out of town visitors because our day at the botanical garden was fantastic! The light crowed, thanks to a work day visit, made for a terrific viewing experience of  not only an exceptional amount of cactus and desert plants, but also of a visiting exhibit of gigantic, beautifully crafted insects. Their larger than life size made them a delight to come across while admiring the diverse flora and fauna. My favorite insect fact had to do with the praying mantis who greeted us upon our entry into the gardens. Apparently, before the matting process takes place, the male praying mantis offers his head, resulting in an eventual decapitation, to his mate in order to provide a protein boost to the future mother of his children.  This protein boost is intended to ensuring a healthy brood of mantis babies.  Talk about taking chivalry to a whole new level.  Pictures of our trip can be seen on the right.

 

The following day Jonathan dropped his parents off at the airport bright and early as Jackson and I got back into our pre-dawn walking routine.  Both Jonathan and I agreed that returning to our respective works and settling back into our daily routine felt a little odd after so much time off and so many family festivities.  We are certainly fortunate to have enjoyed such a wonderful holiday season with so much family and are happy to report that all family members arrived home safe and sound. 

 

Christmas 2011, part 1

This year for Christmas Jonathan and I stayed in Phoenix with our pets and were fortunate to have some family visit the valley.  We had a few decorations about the house indicating a bit of holiday cheer but as of  Saturday, Christmas eve, we were still without a tree.  In keeping with our non-Christmas tree tradition we opted for a Christmas Mexican palm that will eventually be planted in the front yard.  We hung a select few ornaments on the tree, enjoyed a crab cake dinner and did a little last minute preparation for our Christmas guests. 

Christmas day arrived with such high particulate matter levels (aka: polluted air), that all weather services advised against outdoor exercise.  So, determined to get some sort of exercise in, I set up my newly acquired bike trainer and got to cycling while Jonathan took Mr. Jackson for a nice little walk.  Finally it was time for our gift exchange, but first, a little back story. I had been waiting patiently to give Jonathan a gift that I'd kept secret for over a month.  The day I was able to start the gift purchase I loaded the appropriate website and sat poised for the clock to click over to 9:00 AM. The very second ticket sales became available off I went.  I clicked, waited, refreshed, waited, clicked again, got set back a page, failure to load. Curses!  For 48 minutes I clicked and waited and back buttoned and Ok'd my way through purchasing two 4 day passes to the Telluride Blue Grass Festival for June 2012.  Rarely before have I felt so accomplished as when I finally received the email confirming my ticket purchase. Fully aware that there wasn't much time to spare when it came to making hotel reservations I booked our stay within hours of completing the ticket purchase. 

Ok, ok, back to gifts.  I handed over a creatively self crafted cardboard banjo which contained the tickets as well as some info on our hotel stay.  I'd be lying if I didn't find the images of the massive hippy crowds from years past a little overwhelming, but we are both very excited for our future Telluride adventure.  Jonathan did a great job with my gift and went above and beyond the item I'd asked for.  Originally I'd asked for a GPS watch to track my running mileage, but Jonathan took it one step further by getting me the newest, latest and greatest watch as well as the corresponding components for my bike to track cycling mileage as well as cadence.  Since Christmas I've been on 3 runs with my watch and its amazing!  Previously I'd used the stove clock (quick look before my departure and quick look upon my return) to see how long my estimated distances took me to run, but now my watch does it all.  Times me, paces me, measures my distances accurately, hands down fantastic!!

Later Christmas day Jonathan, Jackson and myself headed to Scottsdale to enjoy dinner with Jonathan's aunts, uncles and cousins, including his aunt and uncle from Florida.  Dinner was tasty but the company was my favorite aspect of our visit. Time spent with Jonathan's Floridian family is often few and far between, but as always, I enjoyed the splendid, impeccable wit and wisdom of Jonathan's uncle Jed as well the familial warmth of the whole gang.  Around 8:30 we made our departure to pick up Mr. and Mrs. Hupp from Phoenix International Airport. Thankfully our timing was impeccable since we arrived  right as the Hupps were already at the luggage carousel waiting for their bags. Despite an initial protest from Jackson, thinking some strangers were loading into his car, we hugged our hellos and headed home. A lovely Christmas indeed.

The day after Christmas, as well as our adventures in the Phoenix botanical garden to come soon!