Arizona's Classic Climate

It's days like yesterday and probably today and tomorrow and maybe Saturday that people think of when they think of Arizona's Classic Climate.  Crystal clear blue skies. Calm, wind-free days.  T-shirt and tank top weather. It's not hot and it's not cold.  It's Arizona late fall weather and it's just about as good as it gets.

Robin and Susun spent the day together Wednesday.  They returned at the nick of Campfire Time.  Susun loves basil.  If she has "geraniums on her cranium," she also has basil on her brain.  Basil is to Susun what catnip is to felines.  Imagine Susun's delight in bringing home that huge bundle of fresh-picked basil from the Yavapai College greenhouse on the Cottonwood campus.

Today she will process it into pesto. We have a LOT of food processing to tend to today.  Since we live so far from grocery stores, we have to revert into some semi-serious menu planning.  We simply can't run off to WINCO on a whim.  Nope, not when the area's best stores are a 50+ mile round trip!  So, we buy lots of food on a single trip and then process it for consumption and storage.  Today we will be trimming and packaging about two dozen chicken thighs and more than two pounds of ground turkey.

We finally got around to doing some outdoor cookery yesterday.  I smoked four center cut boneless pork chops in the Patio Caddie and then used the campfire's mesquite coals to bake a dutch oven full of spuds. Hopefully, the outdoor cooking gig will continue for a few days until the weather takes a turn to the cold and wet side once again.

Many Cheers, jp