Fall Soups- Gotta Love This Time Of Year!

Fall is Finally Here! And I made some Roasted Squash Soup w/ Sage. It was just awesome! And that is coming from someone who would sit for hours at the dinner table growing up as a child not wanting to eat the acorn squash that Mom would make with sausage and maple syrup. I would gag on it! It's been probably forty five years or longer and this is a winner in my book. This recipe was just published in my new Sunset magazine. Actually, Sunset has made me a fan of another dreaded vegetable growing up and that was Brussel Sprouts. Last year I posted pics of a Brussel Sprout/Andoulie Sausage Soup that was in Sunset and now a favorite of ours when the cooler weather hits. Phil saw the Dentist today because of a toothache so wanted to make something for dinner that didn't put any pressure on that side of his mouth. I think what made the flavor "pop" was the smoked paprika that I used. What a wonderful flavor!

Week-Ends Come and Go So Quickly!

Last week I stopped by Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which is just a couple miles south of our house, to check out Allegiant Air. In August, they started offering non-stop flights to and from Grand Rapids to Gateway Airport. They also had some flights that were only $99.99 each way. I stopped in at the ticket counter and asked some questions, regarding leg room between seats, check-in luggage and so on. I got some questions answered for Dad and Mom, so they decided to give it a go for their trip to AZ in January. I stopped back by then on Saturday, to buy their tickets for them. Both times that I stopped by, it was eerily quiet and empty. Really quite bizarre for an airport! Anyway, Missy and I had to go back today because she needed to pick up a rental car and the airport had the only rental facilities open on a sunday (Missy's car is getting transmission work done) and guess what? There were people everywhere! A plane had just come in so it actually looked and felt like a very "tiny" version of a real airport!

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport

Allegiant Air Ticket Counter in the Terminal

After stopping at the airport, I stopped by Ross! Can't help myself!

I know this looks pretty sick but after Ross, I stopped by a farmer's market that was being held at the Bashas grocery store by my house and bought some Santa Clara chiles that they were roasting. I made some Chicken-Roasted Chile soup for dinner Saturday night. It really warmed our stomachs! I froze some to bring out when winter comes!

Sunday Missy and I stopped by Mike's. Missy returned his car that she had borrowed since mid last week. She decided to rent a car, since the shop needed to keep it until this coming Wed or Thurs. Mike's been busy doing some home improvements so the house looked great!

Mike also planted Rye grass to grow this winter, so he will have green grass all winter long!

Home Again, Home Again- Jiggetty Jig!!!

I flew home on Saturday, and arrived back in Phoenix around 3pm. Missy happened to be working, so volunteered to pick me up at the airport. I called her when the plane landed, and left her a message to say that I would pick up some Starbucks for the two of us at the terminal. She quickly called back to say that she had just stopped at our favorite coffee shop and was on her way with iced cafe mochas. Isn't she a sweetie!

The last week of my visit just flew by. When I got in, two weeks sounded like such a long time but the time just flew by. Sure wish that I lived closer to Dad and Mom, so that I could help out when needed. That's always a real bummer when you live so far away. I was able to help out with a few things, so was glad that I could. I am very grateful to my brothers and their family's (as are my parents) that they do live close enough to help out when needed.

Me- raking the front yard. There were two large wind and rain storms that went thru West MI. Winds were up to 50 miles an hour. Lots of trees and large branches down. We drove by one house, where their tree fell down right on top of their boat. The news showed a picture of the lighthouse in Grand Haven, where a wave was coming in taller than the lighthouse. The waves also covered the huge dock there as well!

Rain and dark gloomy weather seemed to be a daily occurance. A few days, you had to run out fast to see the sun because it only lasted for an hour or two. I had hoped for rain but not guite so much!


Friday, Dad and Mom took Tami and I out to lunch. We went to their favorite place for pizza. Mom and I had a little 5" white pizza with gorgonzola and parmesan cheese and a salad.

We were seated right next to the fireplace, so mom and I put our purses, coats and umbrellas on the hearth. After about 15 minutes or so, I started felling pretty warm. So I turned to my right and saw that they had turned that gas fireplace on. Mom and I quickly got our stuff off the hearth. About halfway thru dinner though, I had to ask the waitress if she could please turn it off. Way to warm!!!!
That same afternoon, my nephew Stephen stopped in for a visit. Mom had made him some peanut-chocolate chip cookies to take back with him. He had come into town to celebrate an early 20th birthday dinner. He goes to college at a school on the east side of MI. I hadn't seen him since he was 15 years old, I think. He was very excited about the hunting that he was going to do the following morning. He loves to hunt fowl of any kind.


This is saturday morning. Bill and Anya came to pick me up and take me to the airport @ 9am.
Dad and his first cup of coffee
My good-bye picture with Dad and Mom

Bill and Anya

This is Lake Michigan and the Chicago coast line

Saturday-Day 7 Trip back to Holland and Dinner in Grand Rapids with Gregg and MJ's Family

We got up this morning around 8am, got dressed and headed down for a bite to eat in the hotel's little breakfast cafe area. We checked out around 9:45am

On the way to the freeway, we made two stops. The first was to a DressBarn, where mom found a few new tops for the colder weather and then of course, Starbucks! We had torrential rain most of the way back to Holland. I told everyone back in AZ, that I was looking forward to cooler temps and that I wouldn't mind some rain while I was in MI. I changed my mind! I don't like driving in the rain at all!

We got back to Holland a little after 3pm. We unloaded the car and shortly there after I got back in the car and headed up to Grand Rapids to have dinner with Gregg and MJ's family. Gregg, MJ, Emily, Marcos, Jill, Linnea and I went to a very nice restaurant in downtown GR. Had a great meal and got to do some nice visiting with everyone. After dinner we went back to their house and continued our visit for another couple of hours. I got back on the road around 9:30pm, and wouldn't you know it, had rain all the 45 minute drive back to Holland!

Emily and Marcos (he was being shy)

Jill and Linnea

Gregg and MJ

Friday- Day 6 Trip to Detroit

Mornings start best when your on vacation, with a trip to Starbucks!

The morning drive started out about 9:15am with the temps in the low forties and rain, rain, rain!!!

We got to Canton, MI (SW Detroit area) just a little after noon. Mom did some damage in IKEA, as you can see the trunk was full! We also had some swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and some lingonberry sauce for lunch in the restaurant there.

The next stop was our hotel room for the night in Utica, MI about an hours drive away from Canton.

We got our things into the room and gave Phil's folks a call to say that we would be on the way. Their place was about 20 minutes away. We stopped along the way to pick up some Chinese food for dinner from one of their favorite restaurants "Leong's". I should have checked the bags before we left the restaurant because they left out the egg drop soup that Jay likes.

We had a real nice visit with them. We all had a lot of laughs as usual!

Tina stopped by after dinner to visit as well. It was great seeing them all. The time flew by so fast.

Day 4- Wednesday "Visit to ArtPrize"

The morning started off @ 50 degrees. The bedroom window was left open and I was cozy under the blankets! We drove up to Grand Rapids for our first visit to ArtPrize. This contest has turned into quite a big affair for the past week, and will continue for one more. The streets of Grand Rapids are just full of people out walking, checking out the art and voting for their favorite. Once we got parked, we called Bill to see if he could slip away to join us for lunch. We enjoyed a very nice lunch and after, Bill took off back to the office. He's been doing alot of interviews for TV stations the past week. We've seen him on TV quite often. We took off ourselves to check out the different venues that were housing the artwork. Some were in resturants-big and small, hotels, parks, business buildings and federal buildings. We didn't even make it to see a tenth of the displays. We might have seen 100 and there were 1262 pcs of art, spread out over 159 venues. The following pics are of just a few of the pieces. Here's a quick stat from ArtPrize- there were over 30,000 registered voters, who cast over 300,000 votes.