Visitors!

From A:

We had a great time this weekend with two very special visitors, Colleen and Isaac!

We had lots of fun playing with Isaac's moose, crab, dump truck, and crinkle books.  We also went shopping and ate some delicious local cuisine.

Isaac's "Auntie" is so glad that he and his mommy came to visit!

Technology

J and A have entered the Android world.

More details to come.

The Proposal

From A:

Three years ago on this day...

... J asked me to marry him.

I'm so glad he did.

What's for Dinner? Pasta Edition

From A:

I found last night's dinner recipe in the latest issue of Publix Family Style magazine.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love Publix?!  Anyway, this recipe is a keeper!

I was initially interested in making this recipe because I had almost all of the ingredients on-hand, with the exception of the peppers and fresh parsley for garnish.

Here are the ingredients the recipe calls for:

• 8 ounces dried bowtie pasta (about 3 cups)
• 1 12-ounce package cooked sweet Italian poultry sausage links (or cooked chicken and apple sausage links) (12 ounces is 4 links), cut into 1/2 to 3/4-inch pieces
• 2 medium red and/or yellow sweet peppers, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (I used one green pepper instead)
• 1/2 cup beef broth or chicken broth
• 1/4 cup snipped fresh basil or Italian parsley (I used Italian parsley, but we decided it really wasn't needed, and actually didn't match the flavor of the dish very well - maybe basil would have been better?)
• 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan cheese (I used a grated Parmesan and Romano blend that we hand on-hand)

Here is what you do:

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions.  Return pasta to saucepan after draining. (Note: I added the parmesan cheese to the pasta at this point so it would flavor the pasta - this is in lieu of sprinkling the completed dish with the parmesan).

2. In a large skillet cook sausage and peppers over medium-heat about 8 minutes or until sausage is brown, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir broth into sausage mixture.  (At this point, I chose to deglaze the pan with a little white wine since the sausage had left some delicious color on the bottom of the pan during the cooking process).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

4. Add pasta and toss gently to coat.

The finished dish!

New Mexico - Part 4

From A:

This is the final installment of the New Mexico series of blog posts!  After my group's journey along the Turquoise Trail, we arrived in Santa Fe.  As we learned from our tour guide, Santa Fe allows three different types of architecture:

1. Pueblo Style - this is the traditional New Mexico architecture style that looks like the Acoma Pueblos explained in New Mexico - Part 2. 

2. Territorial Style - this mostly looks like the Pueblo Style, but a brick detailing is added around the top of the building.

3. Northern New Mexico Style - this style has a slanted metal roof and dormer windows (typically).  The reasoning for the change in roof style is because there is more snow in Northern New Mexico, which would just sit on top of the flat roofs of Pueblo and Territorial Style homes.  With the slanted roof, the snow can slide off the roof (and melting snow can flow off).

Now that I've explained about Santa Fe architecture, back to our tour.  We went to Old Town in Santa Fe, which is really charming (and has great shopping).

We also toured Loretto Chapel, which has been featured on the television series Unsolved Mysteries.

If you're interested in reading more about Loretto Chapel and its "Miraculous Spiral Staircase," there is a good Wikipedia article here.  The abridged version is as follows:

"Needing a way to get up to the choir loft the nuns prayed for St. Joseph's intercession for nine straight days. On the day after their novena ended a shabby looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. The identity of the carpenter is not known for as soon as the staircase was finally finished he was gone. Many witnesses, upon seeing the staircase, feel it was a miraculous occurrence."

As for the interior of the chapel, it is absolutely beautiful.

After an afternoon of exploring Old Town, my group made it back to our tour bus just as it started raining.  J and I must have brought the rain with us from Florida, because it rained twice while we were in New Mexico, an area with 300 days of sunshine each year.

Speaking of Florida, on a completely unrelated side note, the University of Florida football team broke our three game losing streak with a win over Georgia yesterday.  Go Gators!  And Go Chas Henry!

New Mexico - Part 3

From A:

On our way to Santa Fe, my tour group took the scenic route along the "Turquoise Trail."  Our tour guide did an excellent job of pointing out interesting locales along the way.

For instance, we stopped in a very small town right off the highway to visit a few of the shops.  The shops cater to tourists driving through, and not surprisingly offer a wide variety of turquoise jewelry, pottery, art, etc.  But the most interesting part about this little town is that the 2007 movie "Wild Hogs" was filmed in it.  The diner featured in the film was built specifically for the movie, with the keys being turned over to the people of the town.  It's not used as a diner today, though, because the cost of bringing in food considering the small number of potential customers wouldn't turn a profit.  And the fair that takes place in the movie looks fairly large (no pun intended) but it was actually shot in a small parking lot that only fits about 10 cars.  The magic of film, right?!

Another small town we visited looked like a very small, run-down, wild west downtown.  And as it turns out, this is where the 1988 movie "Young Guns" was filmed.  And as if that wasn't enough, we saw a real-life cowboy riding his horse along the train tracks with his two dogs following.  Talk about a taste of the southwest!

We also passed the community of Sandia Park where last year's HGTV Dream Home was built.  Apparently, the woman who won the home had lost hers in Hurricane Katrina.  However, she decided to take the money for the home (over $2 million) since she didn't want to relocate to New Mexico (and probably also because of all the taxes she would owe).

After our couple of tangents to see "famous" towns, we finished the journey to Santa Fe.  I was pleasantly surprised by what a nice town Santa Fe is.  And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so since celebrities such as Oprah and Randy Travis live in Santa Fe during part of the year.

The actual visit to Santa Fe will be featured in New Mexico - Part 4.  I'll give you a hint - it involves a visit to a place featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries. (insert creepy music here)