Monday, April 23, 2012

Apache Trail

 We went around the Apache Trail loop today. I hadn't done it in a long time. It was a little warm, but a nice trip. Here is the first of three manmade desert lakes- Canyon Lake.
 Cacti in bloom.

 At the top of Fish Creek Hill. Great views. And the scenery was nice too.


 Apache Lake was very long and skinny.
 The dam at Roosevelt lake.
 We checked out the Pickle Barrel in Globe.
 And finished with a dinner and show at the old Mining Camp restaurant. We used to love to come here as kids. Thank goodness there is a freeway now. I remember it took us ages to get there from Phoenix.


Sunday, April 22, 2012

New Project

I started this cat afghan. It is going to take awhile because I don't seem to have much time to work on crochet projects lately. There are 6 big black blocks and 6 big white blocks. Then the border is white and it will have black mice running around the edge. Cute huh?
I'm not sure what I will do with it when it's done, but I thought it looked fun.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Baby Artichoke!

I have a baby artichoke! How cool is that? This is the first time I have grown one. I hope it makes it to be picked.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

LA Fabric District- 2nd Time

 Last Fall, Cindy and I went to the LA Fabric District. We had a great time. We told lots of people about it and so they wanted to go too. This weekend I went back with Bob, Lynne and Lezlee. Lynne did the planning and all the driving. It was nice to just be along for the ride.
We stayed in the Ayres hotel. It was much nicer than what I usually stay in. Lezlee and I had a little wall between the beds in our room. I had never seen anything like that before.
 We stopped at the Outlet mall in Cabazon on our way over. Lezlee got this great Kate Spade bag. We also got to meet up with Bob and Lynne's daughter for Dinner on Friday night. She is going to college in California. Everyone loves sushi but me. I had noodles.
 This time we only went to Michael Levine. This is a shot of the inside of the store with the fashion fabrics. It's pretty inspiring. It makes you want to sew whether you are a seamstress or not. I did better this time. I only got stuff on sale. And I got some great deals. It will be make some clothes out of them.
This time I got my trims and buttons there too. That was a good idea. I spent as much on the trim and buttons back home as I did on the fabric in LA, last time. I got some great deals this time.
 This is the bead shop we went into. Got some great things there too!
 We were all inspired by the moving food courts we saw. This guy has hot charcoal set up in this shopping cart to make his grilled corn. He even was doing curb side service for some folks who stopped in cars.
 Fruit, Sonoran Style hot dogs.
 Some fun old signs in the middle of the old part of downtown. It was a vital and vibrant scene.

 I love going to the accessory area. I am currently stocked to open up my own shop in hair accessories. Bob and Lynne had a lot of excitement trying to get the car out after it was stacked parked in. After the excitement, we needed some more relaxing time. They took us to a shop in Culver City called Room and Board. Really nice furniture, reasonably priced, clean quite!
 I liked this outdoor set up. the furniture and the little portable firepit.
 I thought Lynne's shoes were fun.
 My haul for the day.
 On our way back, we stopped at a Pasadena Antique mall. Lots of fun stuff to look at.

 Lynne and I thought this dental cabinet was really cool. Not sure what we would do with it though.

 I loved these midcentury lamps, there was a pair of them, strung with ribbon. I couldn't afford them, but could so see them on my buffet.
 This was my purchase there. I had this book as a child. As soon as I saw it, my whole childhood passed before my eyes.
 We enjoyed driving through Pasadena and looking at the beautiful homes and neighborhoods. We were moving and I didn't really get good photos.
Sonoran Hot dogs on a bench in downtown.
 The big rainstorm on Friday night, brought beautiful snow up on the mountains and clear, smog free weather for us!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter Dinner 2012

 Keegan and I had my friends Penny and Maryann over for dinner. I love getting the table set nice. I found some Easter colored pots at the 99 cent store and used them for Easter baskets. I think they looked pretty cute. I also found some lemonade flavored martinelli's at the same store.
 The food was all really good. Here we are getting ready to eat.
Thank you everyone for the nice Easter meal. I really enjoyed church earlier in the day and since Keegan didn't get off until 6pm, I even had time to relax before dinner. Happy Easter everyone!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Taste It Tours

 I love culinary tours! You have an opportunity to check out lots of different restaurants and try different foods. There hasn't been any in Phoenix until just the last few months. Taste it Tours started up and offered a Groupon. I was all over that. So my niece, Keegan and I, checked it out.
They had us start at Province. This is the new restaurant in the downtown Wyndham. It's a beautiful space. As usual, I was so interested in tasting the food, I almost forgot to take any photographs until we were almost done. I got better as we went.
 Taste it Tours says they choose resturants that are about fresh, local ingredients. There are other places downtown I would have liked to have tried, but we had fun. Province made us two different flatbreads with two different types of homemade sausage, chorizo and linguica ( a Portuguese chicken sausage). The linguica also had roasted eggplant.
 There was also a goat cheese fondue with homemade pretzel chips. I liked putting a dab of it on the flatbread. And small little balls of ground hominy and cauliflower, rolled in bread crumbs and fried, served with an aioli. I really liked those.
The quanitity was pretty good. Sometimes you barely get a taste, but they were pretty generous here. For those who paid extra, there was a cocktail option.
 In additon to the food, we did a little bit of a downtown walking tour of Phoenix. I learned a few things. This is the lobby of the Security Building, built by John Heard in 1928. I know there is a penthouse. You can kind of see it from the ground. I would love to check it out. It's owned by the city of Phoenix and we aren't allowed in. :(/
 We walked through the lobby of Hotel San Carlos and got to hear about the ghosts, celebrities and gangsters. Kind of fun.

 She pointed out Hanny's and talked about it, but she said their hours weren't conducive to their afternoon tours. I would love to go back there and try it out. It's an old department store that is now a restaurant.
 We did end up at Tom's Tavern. Tom's started in the 20's in the old city morgue. They have changed locations several times and are now recently reopened and remodeled. They have very convivial and enjoyable staff. I know that the rest of our group really enjoyed the cocktails there. Keegan and I enjoyed the pulled pork slider with homemade pickle. They gave us coupons to come back and try their poppers which sound amazing. They smoke all their own meat there, including bacon, which they wrap around the poppers.
 The old downtown courthouse, which now houses various offices and will someday have a musuem open to the public.
 Walked by City Hall and the Orpheum. I never realized that the Orpheum was actually connected to City Hall.
 We went to Seamus McCaffrey's. I have to say this was a disappointment for me. I was glad to finally be there, I have always heard about it. The shepherd's pie was not very good. I don't know if it was their version, or just shepherd's pie in general. I think I am not a big shepherd's pie fan.
 Shepherd's pie, a little meat and veggies in the bottom, topped with, what I am pretty sure was instant mashed potatoes and a piece of Irish Soda Bread. Keegan loved the bread.
 They have a collection of leprachauns and police badges in Seamus McCaffrey's.
 By far, my favorite stop was Thai Basil. Look how beautiful the food was. And it tasted just as great. We had a small cup of soup that was beautifully flavored with lemon grass, a plate of veggies with some chicken and the most delicious Pad Thai ever.

 The space was cool, clean and beautiful and the staff efficient and personable. I will definately go back. The sauce on this Pad Thai was most delicious.
 It was pretty hot now. We walked past the Westward Ho and through the old post office. Apparently they used to call the Westward Ho, the Ho. And the club on top was "On Top of the Ho". Not politically correct these days, but pretty funny.
 Keegan seekingt out some relief from the sun.
 In side the post office were some really nice old murals and the old brass post office boxes.

 Our last stop was supposed to be pastries at the Fair Trade Cafe. I am not sure what happened but, we had little sandwhiches instead. I forgot to take a photo. We felt a little gyped of dessert and still had room, so I took Keegan to the Gelato Spot and introduced her to Gelato. She likes it. What's not to like?
I also enjoyed seeing this mural of Wallace and Ladmo on the side of the old channel 5 studios! How fun is that? I don't remember seeing it before.
It was a fun day, and as usual gave me lots of ideas of my own culinary tour possibilities!