Don't be a jerk!

My cooking adventures continue.  Last night I made Jerk Chicken.  It was very easy.  Bought a bottle of jerk marinade at the store, marinaded the chicken pieces for a couple of hours in a plastic bag, dumped it all into a glass dish and baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes.  SWMBO introduced us to jerk chicken but she used to make her own marinade.  Mine was just as good, I thought.  However, the curried green bananas I fixed to accompany the chicken didn't have the proper sweet flavor to go with the hot.  We sprinkled them with a bit of sugar which helped but SWMBO said she thought the bananas were "too" green and therefore not sweet enough.  White rice and a tossed salad accompanied the entree.

Forgot to take any pictures.  I suppose I could take a picture of my full mid-section.  Naaaaahhhh.  Wouldn't be prudent, as George H.W. Bush used to say.

I just finished making a couple of balls of pizza dough.  This time I added some Italian seasoning and some Parmesan cheese to the flour so I'll see how that turns out.  It looks good so far.

And the beat goes on.

Why I'm staying inside today!

Sunday, Sunday, and Baby It's Cold Outside.  Either song could describe mid-day in my town, Arizona.

Do you see that white stuff on the branches of our mimosa tree?  That's snow!

The little evergreen closer to the ground seems huddled under a white blanket.

We could go for a drive, if the windshield wipers aren't frozen in place.

Hmmm, maybe a backyard picnic lunch?

Oh, sure, just take a seat!



And honey, this honeysuckle vine seems like it's shivering.


Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Chinee food!

O.K. I know I'm going to offend someone with that title.  But it goes way back, decades, to my Charlie Chan days on television.  Maybe even before.

But . . . I made some egg drop soup tonight for SWMBO and I.  It was easy.  It was delicious.  The recipe came from the internets.  Again, can I say: it was easy, it was delicious.

That was a preview to my Kung Pao Chicken.  My Kung Pao Chicken.  I do exaggerate.  It came in a frozen bag from the supermarket.  Heat it up in a large non-stick frying pan, throw in the bag of peanuts, toss in the bag of sauce.  Combine it all with the microwaved bag of rice.  It's dinner!

It's amazing what they can do with frozen food these days. 

But, by gawd, my egg drop soup was made from scratch.  And it was good.  And there's enough left for tomorrow.

Snow again

Well, I've done it again - bragged about our wonderful, balmy, warm Arizona weather to all of my friends in much colder and snowier climes.  And this is what I get for it.



The weatherman says we may have 4 inches or more by tomorrow but the temperature is forecast to go up to the 50's by Monday so this will not last.

The worst part is that the wet, sticky snow messes up my television reception because it sticks to the satellite dish and blocks the signal from coming through.  I've been up on a ladder brushing it off and even sprayed the dish with silicone spray but so far that's not working.  Next up: cooking spray.  Or maybe WD-40.  That's supposed to fix everything.

Bridge progress . . and weather

Here's the latest update on the bridge construction on Highway 89-A over Viewpoint Road in Prescott Valley.  Concrete on both sides of the road now.  First the north side.

 Then the south side.



Then the weather.  It's getting breezy and the temperature is dropping.  There's a prediction of rain and snow for about the next week.  We don't expect much, if any, snow here but perhaps in the upper elevations to the north and the east.  But . . . in 1996, SWMBO and I opened a bookstore here on March 3rd.  The weather up until then had been dry and mostly warm.  But during the night before our grand opening, a snowstorm hit and the big day dawned with a lot of snow.  SWMBO said "I'm staying home," but I was determined to open the store on schedule.  I think we had about three customers all day.  It definitely wasn't worth it.  The only thing good about late snowfalls here is that it never lasts long.  Within a day or two all the snow had melted away and the sunshine was back.  Now that we're retired (mostly) we can just stay inside at home and watch the weather through a window.  So, I say . . . "bring it on!"

Blackness

The weather is changing.  There's a cold breeze out there tonight.  Possible rain, possible snow is on the way.  The moon is 98 percent full tonight but shrouded in clouds.

It's a Sherlock Holmes kind of night.  One could imagine hearing the howling of the hounds on the moors.  If one had hounds.  And moors.

What could protect me against the terrors of the night?  There's only one hope.

My faithful companion.  Blackwell.  The blackest of cats.

Pizza

O.K.  This is my second.  I'm kind of proud of it.

It's actually round!  Well, mostly.  My first one was shaped sort of like an infected kidney.  But I figured out how to roll one out with a rolling pin and made this one mostly round.  I also doped it with a lot of sauce, a lot of cheese and a lot of pepperoni.  And a lot of Italian seasoning.

My second one was a lot better than the first one.  I should have baked this one a little longer to firm up the crust a bit but I'm learning.

Now, if I could just be a little more patient with my photography . . .