Foodie Friday!

Our Foodie Friday hostess is Gollum at Designs By Gollum!  What a wonderful and fun idea of "Foodie Friday!" 

Thanks Gollum!

So the age old question is presented once again... 

Beans or no Beans in the chili?

 My Homemade Chili with beans...

 My Homemade Chili without beans...

I guess its just a matter of taste... or...

If you do or do not have a can of beans in your pantry!

Thanks for visiting my short but spicy quick Foodie Friday entry!

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Thank you for all your well wishes about the new baby... I am home from spending some time over at my daughter and son in laws, helping out with the new baby! Its going to be nice with no 12:00, 2:00am, 4:00am 6:00am  feeding tonight and sleeping in my own bed!

Here is a picture of my little Grandbaby only 30 minutes old!

QUICK UPDATE!

My daughter and son in law had their baby this afternoon... I have been at the hospital with them since 4:00am so I'm so tired I don't know which way is up... 

Mother and baby are perfect! My new grandson Preston weighed 7lb 4 oz and is 20 inches long...

Foodie Friday!

I'm thinking the best way to start Foodie Friday for me is with my signature dish Salsa. But before I start I want to thank Gollum at Designs By Gollum for the wonderful and fun idea of "Foodie Friday!" Thanks Gollum!

Most friends and family insist if we have a get together... that no matter what else I bring, I must bring my salsa! Here is the process... easier than pie...

The fresh ingredients:

Fire roasting a Anaheim chili, the lazy way.

When its totally charred like this:

Place it in a paper bag to steam...

while you cut up the rest of the fresh veggies.

Peel the chili leaving some of the fire roasted chard-ness for flavor...

Chop chili...

Add everything to food processor... 

Including spices to taste.

Pulse till desired chopped-ness. We like it chopped well for chips... 

chopped less for pico de gallo. 

What ever you like, there really are NO rules to salsa.

Transfer from food processor to a GLASS jar... not plastic.. and refrigerate till chilled.

Make Lemon/Lime aide... or beverage of  your choice... and serve it up!

Sit back and enjoy... 

(Photo is a little grainey because it was taken this afternoon on my iphone while hubby and I enjoyed one of the reasons we live in Arizona.)

Thanks for stopping by the Project table!

*Really Rainey

Welcome to Tablescape Thursday!

Hosted by the charming Susan over at Between Naps On the Porch

Seems Spring is in the air with everyone... We all are ready for those flowers to be bursting with scent and color. Even us here in Arizona! I checked my lavender this morning when I was wondering around the back yard, dressed in my jammies and slippers holding a steaming cuppa coffee with lots of French Vanilla creamer... I can't help it... I love it. Anyway... the lavender had buds! I'm pretty excited as you can tell! So my tablescape features my purple mexican glass bowls and wine glasses... and my everyday dishes. The best part is the real, garlic chives with the real lavender leaves... for color... I had to add artificial color in the way of an artificial lavender bud... But soon I will have a handful of fresh lavender! I hope you enjoy my 

"Almost Spring" tablescape.

Le Menu

I also wanted to add that purple, any shade, is my favorite color!

Outdoor and Wordless Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at 

A Southern Daydreamer. 

Thank you Susan!

A sunny day at the Pheonix zoo! 

Last week I went to the zoo with my son, DIL and grandkids. It was such a beautiful Arizona day, a comfortable 78 degrees and the people and the animals were all so happy!

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Also, Wordless Wednesday is hosted by 

 French Lique, Texas

The word this week is:

Books:

You want to put a pool where lady?

Thank you to Susan at Between Naps on the porch for hosting Metamorphosis Monday once again! I'm working on a new project, so I am posting an older project.

This metamorphosis was done a couple of years ago, and I have been meaning to put the photos in order so this was a perfect opportunity to do that! We downsized our home a few years ago when both our kids got married and move out. So we bought a new house and knew we had to have another pool. Its just too hot here in Arizona not to have a pool! However we have a very small lot and very sandy soil the pool company said "ahhhhhhhhh" and I said "I want it... do it." And they did it! Here are the pictures in order.

Photo #1

The pool guys had to stand around for about a half hour

 "thinking" about digging the hole.

Photo #2

It didn't take long to dig a hole for a pool thats only 5 feet deep. The whole pool is 30' feet long and 12' feet at its widest point. 

Photo #3

We placed a "jumping rock" at the deeper end and shallow steps for the little ones at the shallow end. There are also two underwater seats. 

Here the patio and the pool concrete was also poured.

Photo #4

Then they did the "Pebble Tech" bottom.

Photo #5 

And the faux saltillo cool decking. 

(you HAVE to have cool deck here in Arizona, and even that gets hot)

We also did some landscaping at that time...

Photo # 6

Now all we need is water... Yes, thats hubby filling the pool with a hose... We actually had two hoses running at the same time... It took 10 hours to fill the pool... Hubby couldn't wait. He is in the pool... can you see him?

Photo #7

Pool is finished and ready for swimmers!

Like my Granddaughter and I!

Shopping the sales!

What a morning of bargain shopping!

I went to Kohl's to get some new pillows for my sofa and they were on sale... and some were on clearance! And you aren't going to believe what I paid for these beautiful pillows!

The stripped pillows are down filled and velvet and satin, the clearance price was $12.00 and I was SO happy to be getting them for that price! But they were $4.49 each when I got to the register! The red with gold embroidery is also satin and down filled and when I got to the register it was only $5.24! I couldn't believe it... even the cashier had to take a double take at the price these were ringing up at! 

I had also run across these on clearance and they took off extra for these things too!

The place mats were original $9.99 and they rang up at $1.49!

The dish towel was on clearance for $2.09 and ran up for $1.29!

I was just thrilled with my accidental finds! I went over to Target to get some new pillowcases and found (I still can't believe it) these sheet sets on clearance too! I couldn't pass them up!

All in all... pretty good shopping day! 

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

(This Valentine Card is for my wonderful blogger friends)

In honor of something special on Valentines day I found a recipe from a "Romantic Country" magazine for Rose Pudding. It looked delicious and very festive for my homemade romantic dinner for hubby. So I made it tonight, had a photo session with it, then put it in the fridge for tomorrow!

It's so good. It doesn't taste like a rose either. It just has this light floral/vanilla taste that is so heavenly!

I have cooked with rose water before. To make this I had to make my own rose water because I couldn't find any to buy around here. Honestly, my homemade rose water was excellent and totally organic because I used roses from my garden!

My daughter and I made cookies tonight too. We had fun making them, then we packed them up and she took them home... so she can take them to the fire station tomorrow where her hubby is working.

I hope everyone has a very lovely day!