Monday, December 29, 2025

Leftover chicken? Easy chicken pot pie is cut up cooked chicken with canned mushroom soup and any cooked veggies (peas, small onions, etc) you might like mixed in. A bit of white wine added if you like it. Top with pastry from the refrigerated section and bake until the crust is brown and it is bubbling on the edges. I usually do it in a casserole dish so it is a deep dish pie.

Yum! I love chicken pot pie! DH isn't much of a fan, I guess he had to eat it a lot as a poor white kid, same with pot roast which he also doesn't like!

Funny how we often don't like what we ate too much of as a kid. I typically don't like meatloaf (other than the one restaurant on the Cape). DH won't eat salmon because his mother made salmon loaf. Same with cooked tuna because she made tuna casserole.

I'm with your DH! Salmon loaf and Tuna Casserole...

Brilliantly sunny, but windy and cold here today. I braved the hikers and went to the store for ingredients to make Senate Bean Soup. Really jus****er, a ham hock, navy beans, and an onion. I plan to add carrots. It's simmering now. Apparently it's been made at the Senate building every day but one for 110 years. Can't be all bad! I do love online shopping apps. They told me the only store with a ham hock was Walmart in Cottonwood, so I braved Walmart. Which was a breeze compared to the road to my house. One friend almost hit a person walking down the middle of the road, who decided they wanted to be on the right and with zero situational awareness, walked in front of their car. 3 point turns in the middle of the road to get a parking spot, bumpers sticking out several feet into traffic, walking 4 abreast on the two lane road. All multiplied times hundreds of cars. Dreadful. (They just closed 1 of the 2 main roads into Sedona because of "multiple accidents". The speed limit is 35, mind you. How do you manage to get into an accident?).

I did reschedule the car update...

They are getting closer to finishing the decking. Slow going.

My folks are having quite the nasty storm. Their power is out as it is for thousands with a feels like of -3. Thank goodness for generators and phone hotspots for internet! The local tribe has opened their casino for a shelter to help those without a generator.

Anyway, will report on the soup. Take care all!

Wow CC, that traffic would be super irritating. Is the public land everyone is hiking state owned? They need to create a parking lot somewhere, and run shuttles. This is not safe.

It'a not safe at all! I didn't even mention the people so busy getting ready at the trunks/hatches of their cars they don't bother to watch their children and dogs wandering into traffic. Or the selfie takers not paying attention to where they are posing.

The city of Sedona has 3 shuttle routes, but none come out by me because I'm outside the city limits. There is a plan for them to partner with the US Forest Service to block the ability to park along these roads and add an additional shuttle route to the popular hikes out by me (Liz did the Boynton Canyon hike that causes most of the problems out here last time she was here). But it all comes down to money. The public land here is federal (Coconino National Forest). They started around another very popular hike called Devil's Bridge by putting boulders and chains along the shoulders to prevent parking, but ran out of money to continue to my section. But at least that part of my drive to town is very much improved.

I really feel sorry for the work people trying to drive their huge trucks out here through all of that - UPS, Fed Ex, propane trucks, USPS, construction deliveries...

The soup sounds yummy but navy beans are on my no-no list. Sigh... I really like beans but can't eat them anymore.

Crazy there! I am so glad we have never been there during "prime time". It would discourage me from coming back.

So glad your folks have a generator! -3 and no heat is no beuno!

Crazy about all the hikers! Hopefully they will be gone soon so you can go back to some normalcy on the roads!

Well Liz, I do hope "the kids" do a better job with getting the faucet fixed before summer season starts.

Thoughts and prayers to the Florida Gals and the cold weather they are facing. Hopefully no Iguanas fall out of any trees near you. All joking aside, it is true that lower temps in Florida can eat right through you due to the damp wind.

I am still eating Christmas leftovers. I made a lot of lasagna apparently. The stuffed shells are long gone, but the lasagna remains. Weight is steady.

I opened my Delta app to check on a flight number, and it said 13 days to check in! 2 weeks from now, at this time, DH and I will be airborne on our first leg of the trip to Atlanta. Then to Rio, then to Porto Alegre. Our initial flight from Rio to Porto Alegre on Gol Airlines was cancelled, and now, instead of arriving at 1pm, we will kill 7 hours in Rio, and get to Porto Alegre at 5:45pm. The entire trip will take 23 hours. We will have dinner with a couple of friends, and the next morning a driver will take us to a mountain town. I'm not planning anything for that day, besides poking around, because we are going to be tired.

Today I booked a tour to hike at a famous canyon in the area. There were no warnings about difficulty levels etc so hopefully it will go okay. DH said that it's probably not a concern to the guide, if it is to hard, well, sucks to be you. But they asked for our ages, and one thing I know about Brazil is they take care of their older senhoras. It would be pretty shameful to them to abandon a grandma aged lady on a too hard trail. : ) I'd better get back to the gym these last 2 weeks!

DD is sleeping in my office/closet room. Tomorrow, after she leaves, (sad), I'm going to start packing. I'm going to need to try on some things because a few dresses I bought at the end of the summer might need some light alterations such as shortening straps on sun dresses. As per usual, I will want to take too many things, and will need make tough decisions. I really struggle with sandals, because I want to bring sporty and dressy in multiple colors. There is never enough room. And I'll need room to bring a few things home too. I can't believe it is almost here.