Salsa Festival

Click on this line for all photos and video of this event.

Last Saturday as part of our "Family P-day" we had

Hermana Yolanda Calderon over to the mission

home for some serious salsa lessons!

She was a master teacher and it was delightful to try to

speak Spanish with her for a couple of hours while we

worked. Cooking terms were not a big part of my Spanish

tutoring, so this was really interesting.
You can see what we enjoyed the most...Braden is modeling

EATING the delicious salsas.
We had Hermana Alvarez chopping her little heart out.

Hermana Okeson was scribe, writing down all the ingredients

we used for each recipe so we can try to type them up to share

with each other. Go to the link at the top of this post to see

video of how to remove an avocado pit!
It is therapeutic to cook...and after a long week, this was

just what I personally needed.
Here are the salsas that we made: Blended red salsa/ salsa

verde(green)/ Salsa con aguacate(avocado)/salsa rostada (roasted)/

and pico de gallo. They were all exelente! My favorite was the

roasted red salsa, President liked the avocado or the roasted,

and Braden loved the green muy picosa (very hot) salsa.

!Gracias Hermana Calderon por una noche de aprender, probar,

y compartir!

ARIZONA SALSA TIME

Who would have thought I would be blessed with the goodness of fresh produce to actually do any canning while I was here in Phoenix? Not me. In fact, I did not bring my canner down here.

But,thanks to a wonderful donation of produce to our missionaries, and a huge surplus of tomatoes and onions, I brought home two boxes of tomatoes and more onions than you could imagine...we had to take a huge cooler full of onions to the ward here on Sunday to try to give away to ward members.
I bought a new water bath canner...I like it. I can do 9 bottles at a time. It was easier to use than I thought...and I could not find a steam canner anywhere!
We are grateful to have home bottled salsa so we feel we can have it more often. I brought a couple of cases down with us and now I have 27 more bottles to make us feel a little more at home. Later this fall, I want to try to grow some tomatoes here at the house. We will see how that goes!

Yes It Rains In Phoenix

It is monsoon season here in Arizona...which usually means that it rains really hard in the middle of the night and we see no evidence of it by the time we get up the next morning...it just absorb into that dry desert and is gone. But today we got a good downpour in the late afternoon/evening. It was loud and windy and all around lovely. It does not really cool down, it is hot even when it rains, but it looks and sounds so nice!
It was so windy that we lost 2 branches off our "pineapple tree" in the front yard...not that it grows pineapples, it just looks like a huge one itself :)

30 DELICIOUS YEARS

We were pretty entertained when we went to celebrate our 30th Anniversary at CHEESECAKE FACTORY...compliments of Austin and Laura. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

We had very delicious dinners there and an all around good time.

Braden joined us and was the entertainment of the evening. He was really in a strange mood, which means, very silly.
Scott loves to brag about all the places we have been on our anniversary over the past few years...but we are glad to be here in Phoenix for the next 2 more anniversaries. This one was lovely.

HIKING AT THUNDERBIRD REC

I had been wanting to check out a nearby recreation area in Phoenix, and having Breanna visit was a great excuse to get over there. Miraculously, it had really rained a lot the night before so it had cooled off a bit, and it was totally overcast the whole time we were out hiking...it was PERFECT! Later in the day it was hot again with no clouds in sight, so we were really blessed.We took a map with all of the trails, and chose a big loop to take for our first hike day. We met a cute 71 year old Greek fellow out hiking who took pictures of us at two overlooks.
You can see how far out we could see into the city from up here...not anything like "mountains" in Utah, but a good little hike nonetheless! I will want to come back here to explore more for sure!

TRIP TO SEDONA

While Breanna was here, we took a trip up to the Northern parts of our mission to check it out!This row of flags is in Prescott, the old capitol of Arizona. We loved the quaint downtown area of Prescott.
Up in the redrock area of Sedona, we saw some lovely wildflowers, and lots of really neat rock formations.
It reminded us a lot of parts of Utah, especially the National Parks areas that we love.
Speaking of love, Breanna was a very good hug-giver while she was here. We are entertained by the fact that with Breanna looking so young, and Braden somewhat older than he is, people think they are boyfriend and girlfriend.
Here we are at one of the scenic overlooks up by the airport in Sedona. It was a fun family outing and a good chance to be on the road and just talk!

WELCOME BACK/WELCOME TO: PHOENIX

We had our first trip to welcome someone other than missionaries at the Phoenix airport. We picked up Breanna and Braden last Wednesday for a much anticipated visit. We had been really missing Braden while he was gone...not quite ready to be empty nesters yet!!! Can you see who was happier to be here...Yup, you got it!
It was so much fun to show our new environment to Breanna. We are finding we have a lot of pride in Phoenix, our neighborhood and especially our missionaries!

Thanks Bre for coming to see us! It made our week to share time with you...we hope this is the first of many family visits to see us over the next almost 3 years!

MOST AMAZING FRUIT SALAD MEAL EVER!

I am sharing the wealth with you from a recipe I learned this week from a darling new convert to the Church when I spent the afternoon with two of our Spanish Sister Missionaries.
I call it "The Most Amazing Fruit Salad Meal Ever!" Here is what you do...

you go to the store and buy a whole bunch of fruit...whatever looks good and is all colors. I used strawberries, pineapple, bananas, apples, grapes, pears, peaches, kiwi and blueberries...did I miss anything? The mango was not ripe. You could add papaya if you like it.

Cut up the cuttable ones and leave the grapes and blueberries whole. Mix them all together and heap plates full of the mixed fruit. Here is what makes it a meal...you top it with cottage cheese, a little granola and a dried berry and nut mix for the protein. Flaxseed is good too. You can drizzle a little honey on top if you like and VOILA! You will be so full after eating this, and you do not need to feel guilty about eating a ton! Plus, it is beautiful to look at. I could hang this picture on my walls if there was room! I am really looking forward to tomorrow...because there are LEFTOVERS!

CREATURES

OK, , I have been waiting to have THREE creatures to show you to do this post and it happened today! This first creature was luckily dead...I saw it on my run one morning and marvelled at how huge it was. Bugs are just bigger here for some reason.This second creature just showed up at one of our first meetings with our missionaries... There are LOTS of lizards here, but they usually stay outside.

This last creature showed up IN OUR HOUSE!!! Our housekeeper, Argelia, asked me to come and see something...this was not what I expected! Luckily, the house had been sprayed a couple of weeks ago, and this 3 plus inch "critter" was in the throes of death. But he creeped us out! And I was barefoot!

I did some research and here is what he WAS! So...

WHEN DO YOU WANT TO COME SEE US????

Centipedes & Millipedes

Renée Lizotte

Giant desert centipede

Centipedes are arthropods that have elongated bodies with one pair of legs per segment. They range in size from less than an inch to several inches. The giant desert centipede is usually 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) long, while the common desert centipede is 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 cm) long. The larger giant desert centipede is orange with a black head and tail. This warning coloration advertises the centipede as dangerous. The smaller, brown and tan, common desert centipede is less so. While painful, neither bite is especially dangerous to humans.

Distribution

Centipedes are found world-wide, in temperate and, more abundantly, in tropical areas. These 2 desert species are found throughout the southern United States and into Mexico.