Sylvia's Scenario

We have been getting ready for baseball season by attending some Spring Training games in Arizona.  We even got a foul ball after only attending two games. Bruce is also playing lots of golf while we're here and tonight we went out to our one "special" dinner of the trip to   The Farm at South Mountain .  We went here seven years ago and I  blogged  about it then in 2011.  And we've never forgotten.  Here's what I said about it then.  This restaurant is on 12 acres with three separate buildings for each meal. The breakfast restaurant is called the Morning Glory Cafe, the lunch restaurant is called the Farm House and we went for dinner so our restaurant was called Quiessence. The acreage grows all their own herbs and greens used in the restaurants and the owner, A. Wayne Smith, has preserved the wondrous sense of rural tranquility and vision of sustainability. Gourmet Magazine describes this dining experience as "a spiritual experience f

With all our cold weather we've been having, our appetites have been very particular.  Soups have been our favorite for dinner while we watch the Winter Olympics.  Last night, it started snowing as we watched Lindsay Vonn's last Olympic race in the alpine combined.    She was ahead after the downhill portion but then she made a mistake early on in the slalom and didn't finish.  She was the last one to go and it had just started to snow right before she went.  Sort of a sad finish for her but she said she was just grateful to be there at all.  I mean, after all, she is 33 years old!  She said she doesn't think her body can take another four years.  Really?  My body couldn't have taken any of it, regardless of age. LOL.  It started snowing there about the same time it started snowing here. We were eating our leftover gumbo  in front of the fire trying to stay warm, as big puffy snowflakes fell outside our window.  This morning we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, sn

It was another soup night with temperatures in the low 30's again tonight.  I went back to the cookbook  Easy Soups From Scratch with Quick Breads to Match  and decided to make Sausage Gumbo.  There are lots of versions of gumbo and this one is quick and easy.  This recipe makes the roux in the microwave, which I've never done before but it worked quite easily.   It used Gumbo File powder that I found at a local deli in our neighborhood called Husky Deli. Husky Deli has been around since 1932 and I stop in there often since it is just a few stores down from Bakery Nouveau where I frequent often.  Husky Deli is a popular lunch spot with their wide variety of sandwiches  and paninis. They are also known for their homemade ice cream where there is usually a line of people and popular as an after-school destination.  The notes on this soup say that the soup is super-adaptable.  It calls for smoked turkey sausage, but you can substitute 12 o