Cooking Puerto Rican

Last weekend we were treated to a wonderful dinner at my Father In Law's house.  His fiance is Puerto Rican and she prepared chicken fricase, rice, salad with all kinds of veggies and fruit in it and a squash flan.  It was such a fantastic meal, that I decided I wanted to attempt the chicken, rice and salad this weekend while the experience was still fresh in my mind.  We invited our hosts to dinner last night, along with my step sons and their girlfriends. 

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took.  The wine and the company took my thoughts away for the remainder of the evening.  But I think this picture shows off the main dish well.

A Little Fairy With A Tude

I was inspired to make a fairy paper doll for my 10 year old Great Niece

Elaina this week.  She is coming over with my in-laws for dinner tonight, to help me with my first attempt at making a Puerto Rican dish.

I thought it would be fun to give the doll a little attitude.

Perfected??  Or perhaps it would be better if she had a frying pan in her hand???

Till next time...

Lots Of Paper Dolls

I am in love with Character Contructions paper doll stamps.  The idea of creating paper dolls for my grand daughters, great nieces and even for myself inspires me to play.

I had several sets already but when I took stock of what I had, I realized that I didn't have the necessary components to turn them all into dolls.  Okay, okay, this is an obvious ploy, but it is one that I have successfully used over time to talk myself into a stamp purchasing frenzy. 

I purchased directly from Character Constructions.  Look at how cute they packaged my purchase.  The catalog of mermaid images in the upper left corner are the newest sets and are something to wish for down the road.

Voici, à l'intérieur du paquet

 

Aren't these cool?

I can't wait to play with them.

Walking On The Creative Side

Lately, I have been in a creative mood which is resulting in more pages in my Art Journal.  Take a peek.

Next up, paper dolls for the grand daughters and great nieces.

Rebirth

This year, I had several "rebirths" in my garden.  This year's freebies are sunflowers, alysum, snapdragons, and stock.  Talk about getting your money's worth. 

Once again, I was compelled to snap photos of the sunflowers.  It truly amazes me to see a mandala in nature such as the one inside this sunflower.  I find myself staring and tracing the pattern.

Click to enlarge the picture below.  You can see hundreds of tiny flowers opening.

From my perspective, I can understand how mandala's were used as religious symbols throughout civilzation. 

Nature's Art

This is a new plant to the garden.  Sadly I can't remember the name of the plant, but it is a type of Iris and it likes a lot of water. 

The payoff is this beautiful flower.  The flower only lasts one day, but the shoot (stem) has produced 3 blooms so far.  I am hoping this plant will establish itself and produce more of these beauties.

Snow on Superstitions

We had what is probably our last winter storm of the season today and it brought snow to the mountains surrounding the Valley of the Sun.  When I noticed snow on Superstition Mountain, my first thought in was that I should go home, grab my new camera and head out to take pictures. 

  

I am so glad we did this today.  It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.

Trekking Around Up North

Last week, my husband and I were in Payson, visiting my son, enjoying cooler temps and beautiful scenery.  While driving to Pine for lunch, we passed the entrance to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.  We heard that the State was closing this Park due to lack of funds, so when we passed by and saw that the park appeared to be open, we decided that after lunch, we would drive in and spend a couple of hours.

Tonto Natural Bridge State Park is situated in a small canyon, surrounded by steep forrested walls.  At first glance, you will notice that you are in a small valley in the middle of a Pine forrest.  There is a beautiful building, green grass, picnic areas and parking lots.  The canyon opens to the South and offers a wonderful view beyond. 

In the following shots, you can see how errosion as shaped the walls leading to the bridge.

So where is the bridge? Hit the trails and you will eventually find what is believed to be the worlds largest natural travertine bridge.  These shots are directly under the bridge.
 

Further up stream, there is a waterfall that I would have loved to hike down into, not to mention hiking down to where I could get under the bridge, but sadly I did not have the proper foot attire on this trip.  So instead, I contented myself with taking pictures from up top. 

In addition to learning the hard way that I need throw my hiking shoes into the car for those "just in case" moments, I also learned the hard way that I need to make sure my camera battery is fully charged or bring along a spare.  Unfortunately, the battery was drained after I snapped these photos and I lost the opportunity to get some spectacular views of the bridge. 



Thankfully, Tonto Natural Bridge State Park is funded to remain open until July 2011.  We are planning another trip soon and you can be sure that I will bring the right gear so I can hike down this trail and get those amazing shots of this gorgeous place.