In the same time that it takes us to go from Dallas to El Paso, we have traveled from Houston to Lousiana, Mississippi, (It makes me so proud to still be able to spell that after being out of school 48 years), Alabama and then on into Florida. As we drove through New Orleans, we had stopped to have lunch at Guys Po Boys, but apparently someone was so hungry, they drove their truck through the middle of it, so it was closed. Because I had scraped one tire rim trying to park on the narrow street, Randy said that he didn’t care where we ate now, as long as they had a parking lot and could deliver our lunch in less than 5 min, as we were anxious to get on to Destin. So we stopped at Popeyes for a chicken strip and biscuit. Do not judge us. It was already 2:30 and anything sounded good. Well, not anything, I don’t think that Jack In The Box would even sound good after a 3 day fast.
We arrive in Destin to find that in the few short years since we have been here, it has changed quite a bit. Now, more restaurants to choose from and just a shopping Mecca. Today, Randy wanted us to put our swim suits on and venture out to the pool and walk along the beach. After a struggle of trying to pull up my one piece, I decided then and there that no matter how badly I had to go potty out there, it would just have to wait, knowing that I did not have enough energy to pull it up twice in one day. Guess I have gained a little since last wearing it a few years ago. So with two swimsuit coverups (one did NOT cover near enough) and 3 layers of sun screen, we head out. As beautiful as the beach looked, with the white sands calling to us, we head out to walk on the beach. Maybe we had aged a little more than I thought. All I remember is the both of us, the last time we were here, walking up and down, allowing the sand to just sink between our toes, finally settling to sit along the water’s edge. Now, these short years later, we were not only afraid that if we sat on the sand, it would take a fork lift to get us up. By the time we had walked about a block in the sand, I told Randy that if I walked any further, there was going to be a hip replacement surgery right there on the beach. So we headed back to our “safe” place, beside the pool. We admitted that maybe we were more mountain cold weather people, as we looked better in layers of sweat pants and parkas than we did swim wear. In spite of the years, we will be leaving Destin with great new memories, planning to return one day, IF my hip replacement is successful and we can find swim suits which cover me from my neck to my knees. I wonder if Spanx makes a swimsuit?
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Arizona, Land of Enchantment, No Wait, That’s New Mexico
I guess since I’m going to live there, I had better find out what it’s motto is. I bet it is something like, “OMGosh it gets hot here” or “Look at all the old people that live here” Seriously, any time I have flown in there to go see the kids, the rows of wheelchairs waiting to board the planes make you feel like you have just landed in a retirement home. AND NOW WE ARE MOVING THERE!!!! What are we doing? We have only 3 days before the movers come to whisk all of my baking pans and mixer away, only to be stored until we can get in our new house sometime in May. Already, it is exciting to think about some of the first things I will bake in the new kitchen. We are moving to Arizona where the air is crisp, the skies are blue and IT GETS REALLY HOT IN THE SUMMER! Most of my adult life I have dreamed of having a screened in porch where you can just sit in a wicker rocker and gaze at a beautiful green fern (which might have a chance since it will be indoors and not out in the 120 degree heat). Sitting beside the rocker is a plate of sugar cookies with a huge pitcher of almond iced tea (which the recipe is on the blog). So as I pack away all my baking sheets and vanilla, I look forward to what lies ahead. Moving is always so bittersweet. It conjures up so many different feelings; excitement, fear of the unknown, and sadness of leaving family and friends who will be left behind. Moving is easier for some than it is for others. It is interesting that for the first 45 years of my life, I only moved twice. In these last 20 years we have moved to 4 different cities and about 9 houses. I have to admit, I do love to move. It is an adventure to learn new places, meet different people and discover things which are new and out of our comfort zones. Am already planning on going Zip lining with my son-in-law and daughter. Have always wanted to do that.
We are moving to an over 55 community. Never would I have dreamed that we would do that. I always said I would never move anywhere that just had “old” people. But, now discovering that when we were there last week looking for a house, not one person came up to either of us and said, “my but aren’t you to young to be living here”? So we have faced the fact that we are now “one of the oldies” who gets excited about playing Bingo on Monday nights, learning how to lawn bowl or sitting in our new “Arizona Room” playing cards. Randy promised me he would get us a little golf cart so I can run around the community and deliver cookies to neighbors. One of my greatest fears of moving is “will I be able to pass a new Drivers test?” Studying for the California test almost had me on Zoloft. I kept thinking that I might not pass the eye test or be able to remember all the answers to the questions. And that was 6 years ago. The good thing about AZ license is that once you get it, it doesn’t expire for about 20 years, so I figure I won’t be driving in another 20 years anyway. So if I can pass this last time, I have it made. Knowing that AZ has many snowbirds which live there from about Oct to May, I told Randy that we have to do something to not look old, as I just don’t want to look like I “live in a over 55 community” so am thinking that maybe we need to get new haircuts and spiffy up our wardrobes. He has already been instructed that he is not allowed to wear black or white knee socks with sandals. He told me that I am not allowed to join the Red Hat Society. The first time I see him driving that little golf cart through puddles trying to splash someone, we are moving. He does have a mean streak.
We will be leaving for Florida, a few days after the movers pack us up. Since we cannot get in our home until about the middle of May we thought it would be fun to go see our kids in Orlando and then…Paula Deen Country! I cannot get that close to her restaurant and not go back there. From there we will go visit friends in Richmond before heading back West.
So here we go, off to another adventure. Hopefully as soon as I get away from all the wonderful Tex-Mex food, I will shed some weight. Nope, forgot, we are headed to Paula Deen country. Well, maybe when I get to Arizona, the heat will make me not want to eat. Nope, I will just eat more ice cream! Nevermind, I give up! Love me, love my stretch pants!
New Mexico Restaurants
As I posted yesterday regarding restaurants which we have grown to love while traveling, this post will cover our favorites in New Mexico.
ALBEQUERQUE
Located to the west of Interstate 25 in the Rio Rancho community is El Pinto. It is a great place for sitting outside on their beautiful patio while dining on New Mexico cuisine, beginning with deep fried jalapeno strips. Delicious.
Flying Star Café, located on Central is the place to go for the best fruit pies you have ever had. The crust is the flakiest you have had. Delicious desserts of all kinds to take on the road for keeping you from being bored while driving through the desert.
Charlies Front and Back Door. The Front Door for when you want to be seen and the Back Door for when you don’t.
The Mexican food is traditional New Mexican.
DEMING
Si Senora on the main street is our place which we drive all the way from Phoenix to have their stuffed sopapillas. Their green chile sauce is above reproach. Our opinion is that these are the best sopapillas you could have. Before you finish your lunch or dinner, they put a basket of cinnamon-sugar sopapillas on the table for your enjoyment. Randy is all about free, so he leaves this place with a smile on his face. The prices are so cheap you will be amazed. Our lunch plates were about $7.00 each.
ROSWELL
Martins The Capitol, according to our kids (but they haven’t been to Deming) has the best stuffed sopapillas. I have to say that if you can’t go to Deming, then this is the place.
Burrito Express is, once again according to two of our kids, think that their burrito’s are the best this side of Heaven.
If we go to Roswell, we have orders to bring back as many as will fit in our trunk to Dallas. Their green chile steak burritos are huge and just so great.
SANTA FE
Now we are talking great New Mexico Mexican food. Our first stop as soon as we reach the city limits is The Shed.
To tell you how much we love this place, our last visit of 3 days saw us there 3 times, twice for dinner and once for lunch. How is it that the best garlic bread is found at a Mexican food restaurant? But it is! Randy goes for their
blue corn stacked enchiladas. This place has so much history and just entering through the door that can’t be more than 5′ tall, is just a perk.
Café On The Square for breakfast. We were excited to have Val Kilmer walk past us Great place to watch people go by and the breakfast selection is just great. Good food and a place where the locals frequent.
The Shed is the place to go for Steak Diablo. Ribeye with green chile sauce atop makes this beautiful little restaurant right off the square a winner. While we were at dinner there one night, we caught sight of Jerry Seinfeld.
Steak Diablo and Seinfeld, all in the same place. Great memory.
The French Bakery is such a perfect spot for resting your feel from sight seeing and munching on a dessert and a cup of coffee or tea. This place is just around the corner from the Chapel of Loretta, which is a must see when you are there.
SAN ANTONIO (the one in NM, not TX)
The Owl Bar is the place to go for the “world known green chile cheese burgers” I ask Randy if I called someone in Paris or London would they really know about the OWL Bar, but he just glared at me. So I don’t know if their claim is true, but they really are amazing. IT is certainly worth pulling off Interstate 25 at Socorro.
IF you have others which you love, let me know and I will add them to this list!
New Mexico Restaurants
New Mexico Restaurants
Traveling Delicacies
We are headed back to Texas! We have been in Phoenix where we went looking for a house! We found just the perfect one for us! Actually we looked at it last August for the first time! It had just been listed and the minute I walked in the door, I could sense the feel of “home”! We returned to Phoenix again in November, after being in CA, to see our kids and to once again go “looking”! The house was still available! When we were told that it would not be available to buy until the end of April, we began to ask the Lord to please “hold” it for us! And that He did! We went back this past Saturday and put a contract in it! We are thrilled that God showered us with this gift of the only house we looked at that, each time we looked at it, there was just not any negative in it! We loved the beautiful back yard, the Arizona room (that’s the fancy name for screened in porch) and all the windows just was exactly what we wanted!
Green Chile Breakfast Casserole
Looking for a great dish to serve Easter weekend? This breakfast dish is a little different from the usual one you see and is “lighter” since there is no meat. Whip up some sausage balls to go along with this and a fruit compote and you have a perfect beginning to your Easter Celebration.
10 large egg
1/2 cup flour
1 teas baking powder
1 pint small curd cottage cheese
1 lb Monterrey Jack wheeze, shredded
7-8 oz can chopped green chiles, drained
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13×9″” baking dish with oil or Pam Cooking spray.
Lightly beat eggs in large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until casserole is bubbling and lightly browned on top.
Allow casserole to sit about 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 8 to 10.
Almond Tea
This past week has been a full week of packing up to leave Texas to a new adventure. In the midst of the packing, there was a luncheon I attended where I was just invited. I didn’t have to cook or bake anything. It felt a little weird but was nice to just go through the buffet line, load (and I do mean load) up my plate with salads and finger sandwiches. The hostess served this almond tea. It was just a hit with all of the ladies there. She kindly printed up the recipe and handed it out to anyone asking for it. I think I will just make up a huge pitcher and have it sitting in the fridge so I can drink it all day long. Kept thinking about this summer, our first in Phoenix and how good it will taste when it is 120 outside.
3 Tables lemon instant tea, (unsweetened)
1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 (6 oz) cans frozen lemonade
3 teas vanilla extract
3 teas almond extract
Mix tea and sugar together. Bring 2 cups water to a boil and pour over the tea and sugar mix. Add extracts and thawed lemonade to this and mix well. This is very concentrated, so use 2 parts water to 1 part concentrate when ready to use.
May be store for several days in fridge.
Makes 1 gallon: serves 10-12 unless I am at your house, then will serve about 2.
Sassy Saturday
Such a cold rainy day here in Dallas, and out of packing boxes until it quits raining and we can go buy more, I decided to look through some of my old post. This one was from 2012 and brought back so many fun memories! Hope it makes you smile!
Well, we were up and ready to head out this morning. Randy was feeling good after having gone back to work after his surgery this past week and life was good. We were excited to be having a “normal” Saturday in front of us as we headed out to storage to take some winter items and bring out new spring bedspreads, etc. We left storage feeling good that the storage unit did look like maybe there were getting less and less boxes to have to go through each season. Maybe the prior visits of us going through and refining really was working. Well, we load up our car, you know the one, the new one with the navigation system which, by the way, I have totally mastered.
We have arrived at Wal Mart and am just visiting and talking about how fast Randy’s head is healing after the surgery and…
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Baked Cabbage Steaks
Last evening, we discovered that something very simple to make can be extremely good! Wow, we were shocked at how good the cooking method could change the normal flavor of boiled or fried cabbage. I had seen this on FaceBook and decided to just try it last night. Even picky Randy who isn’t a real cabbage eater, said, “this is really so good” and ate all of his plate full. So see, something good does come from FaceBook!
1 large cabbage head, cleaned and outer leaves peeled away.
Seasonings: onion powder
Salt & pepper to taste.
Fresh garlic, minced (amount to your liking)
Olive oil
Cut cabbage into about 1 1/2″ “steaks” (I got 4 steaks out of the head of cabbage)
Place in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the steaks and season with the onion powder, garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
Place a sheet of foil over the dish and bake in preheated 350 oven for about 40-45 minutes. I took the dish out after 40 minutes and removed the foil, placing cabbage back in to get a little brown for about 5 minutes. Serve with a spatula onto plate.
Chocolate Castles 