Last year, February 6th was Superbowl Sunday. It was the first time we watched the big game in our new Arizona home. At that time, we had yet to acquire much furniture and we watched the Packers defeat the Steelers while sitting on folding chairs and using a picnic cooler for a table. I grilled up a couple of tenderloin steaks on the little portable charcoal grill. We ate the meal and enjoyed football afterwards. Click on the grill to see the tenderloin steak, baked potato and asparagus meal we ate that day.

Nobody can say Happy Thanksgiving better than Norman Rockwell . . .

No blogging today. We had a great day of football and cooking one of our favorite steamed Chinese chicken and rice with veggies meals.

If you missed the Notre Dame at Michigan football game, well that’s your loss. It wasn’t over until it was over with Michigan getting the victory they deserved.

After completion of the days chores, the Damsel cranked out her wonderful chile relleño casserole garnished with avocado and refried beans - awesome! Click on the image to enlarge - please do not drool on your laser optical mouse.

We celebrated with beef tenderloin (filet mignon) steaks on the grill and a nice quiet dinner on the patio. Last night, we saw the fireworks from Sunset Park just to the west of us, followed by some awesome summer monsoon thunderstorms in the area.

We planned our cuisine for Fathers Day to consist of a “surf and turf” menu. I went to the butcher counter in the local supermarket earlier this week and asked for a couple of beef tenderloin steaks and some fresh Atlantic salmon filets.

We baked the salmon and some potato wedges on the outdoor grill with the hood closed. When they were mostly done, I opened the hood and put the steaks on the grill. We like our steaks medium rare, so they were on the grill for about twenty-five minutes.

We served the entree with the aforementioned potato wedges, baby green peas and asparagus spears (lots of fiber y’know). A sumptuous Fathers Day meal, indeed.

We’re back at Casa Grande* for Easter weekend. When we arrived yesterday, we were surprised at how well the garden was doing with virtually no attention for over a month. The poppies were going crazy with their bright orange flowers and the artichoke had produced these wonderful flower buds, one of which we’re going to steam early next week and eat it for lunch. Click on the image to enlarge.

* We’re now in to referring to the 2700 square foot two story house in California as Casa Grande (Big House) as opposed to the little Arizona home which we now call Casa Bonita (Pretty House).

For tactical reasons, we’re unable to have this beautiful rib roast on Easter Sunday, so we prepared it a week early on Palm Sunday. My Mom’s 91st birthday is next week which requires a trip to California, and we can’t miss that. We had this great rib roast with garlic/cauliflower mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus and horseradish sauce. Yummers.

The first things to appear in the Arizona garden this year were the tomatoes. Today, I photographed a tiny Serrano chili pepper in front of a pepper blossom which will soon be another pepper. These tomatoes and peppers are likely to be ingredients in salsa or a Tex-Mex recipe this summer. Click on the image to enlarge.

We might be a little short of furnishings and decoration, but we’re not going to scrimp on our cuisine. This is today’s dinner - country style barbecued pork ribs (with Damsel’s killer homemade BBQ sauce), asparagus spears, the all-important beans and coleslaw. I enjoyed a bottle of Samuel Adams Winter Lager and Damsel sipped a glass of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. We ate this sumptuous dinner on the patio table and chairs which are temporarily serving as our dining room furniture. Click on the image to enlarge.