It's a Date

My husband loves pizza and Friday night seems the perfect night to order in after a long work week. Because we've been dissatisfied with the pizza shops in our neighborhood, I've been having fun making my own. It's actually pretty easy ... a little extra time is needed for the dough to rise ... but that gives you time to relax, have a cocktail (or two!) and decide which movie you're going to watch.

Dream Deck

Ahhhhh .... doesn't this look wonderfully relaxing? All this photo needs is me (!!) in one of the chairs with something to drink and a stack of magazines.

We are in the beginning stages of planning a backyard remodel and this is one of our inspiration photos. Sadly, we do not live on a lake. But hopefully by next summer we'll be sitting on our little piece of paradise without fear of falling through our current deck!

Here is the deck now:

Sunday Treat

Monday was going to be rough day for me this week. So to comfort myself on Sunday night I made a root beer float. Like the rest of the country, the Northwest weather is upside down! So it didn't seem odd at all to enjoy this treat at the end of September with all the doors and windows open.

So glad Monday is over!

Split Pea Soup

Clearly, I am on a soup kick ... even though I am still wearing shorts ... welcome to living in the Pacific Northwest!

Mexican Soup

There are several Mexican soup recipes around and I've tweaked a few over the years to suit my taste and save on calories. As a bonus, I make this dish in my crockpot and readily have all the ingredients on hand.

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I use whole breasts and shred after cooking)
2 cans drained beans (any variety) or make your own
1 14oz can of diced tomatos and juice
1 cup sliced peppers (green, yellow, red)
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup salsa
4-6 cups chicken broth (enough to cover all ingredients)
Seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, chile powder, oregano (adjust to your taste). Cook on low for 8-10 hrs. Top with low-fat sour creme and cheddar cheese.

Chowder

I love soups and stews of all kinds. I didn't include chowder in that sentence because to me, chowder is in a category all alone ...



To accommodate for the ingredients I have on hand, I typically follow 3 or 4 different recipes when I make chowder. This version included wild salmon, wild mahi-mahi, corn, potatoes and a bit of half & half ... I would have loved to add a pat of butter right before serving ... but a glass of wine won out as the more "needed" calories that night!

Petroglyphs

The Columbia River Gorge is cool. We stopped at Columbia Hills State Park to check out the petroglyphs that were moved to this site in 2004.





It's memorizing to wonder what these images meant and how long they have endured the harsh elements in the Pacific Northwest.