Well, you may have noticed that I’ve been absent from the blog for a couple of weeks. Mr. Stone Soup and I took a road trip that turned out to be much more adventurous, or perhaps I should say arduous, than either of us had anticipated. I really thought I was going to be able to post along the way, but due to circumstances beyond my control, alas, it was not to be.
I won’t bore you with a whole bunch of details, but here are some of the highlights:
We traveled about 4500 miles round trip first in a rented Tesla Y and then in a rented Hyundai Santa Fe. We followed a high pressure dome through the western states, it was about 110* every day we were on the road and the a/c on our Tesla was always temperamental. It went out entirely about halfway through the trip and we traded the Tesla for a Hyundai Santa Fe.
We got to see tons of family, including both our parents, which was great.
I visited a cute little kitchen store where I acquired this beauty:
That’s the 11″ deep skillet by Smithey cast iron. I’ve already used it three times since returning home–look for a review in an upcoming post!
On our way home, Mr. Stone Soup fell and sprained his ankle rather badly, necessitating a multi-hour visit to an emergency room, and we ended up staying at the beautiful La Posada in Winslow, AZ for a couple of days just to rest before making the long journey home.
When we got home, long story short, our refrigerator failed and we had to replace it. As I’m sure many of you can relate–that’s just never a good day. In any case, we replaced it with this
I’ll be reviewing it in an upcoming post, as well–and spoiler alert: so far, I LOVE it! But I haven’t had it for very long, so I’ll let the newness settle in a little so I can give it a good, honest review.
Finally, while getting some well-needed rest at La Posada, Mr. Stone Soup and I enjoyed some absolutely wonderful meals at their gorgeous Turquoise Room restaurant. We both had meats left over from our meals each night and the staff was kind enough to store it so we could take it home with us. I made this wonderful “leftover meat” stew the day after we returned and I’ll be sharing that recipe in an upcoming post:
Now that you’ve got some updates and glimpses into upcoming posts, let’s get back to cooking up that very special birthday dinner!
So far, we have a delicious arugula, tomato, mozzarella, cucumber and vinaigrette salad. Next up, are sides to go with the salad and the main course.
I made two versions of my birthday dinner for friends with different dietary preferences.
Since one of my July birthday friends is diabetic, instead of a starchy side, I concocted these beauties:
And for version two of the birthday dinner, I made these dreamy Hasselback potatoes:
Thanks for reading this latest post and tune in again on Friday for the main course and dessert for our very special birthday dinner!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
