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I had not intended to take a week off from blogging. I had plenty of things going on, and lots of stuff to blog about. Honestly, I had too much going on and as a result, I was too exhausted to sit down and write about it!

There will be recipes this week – Posole, Moscow Mules, Perfect Steamed Artichokes, and more. Then on Friday, I’ll be off to San Francisco to “Say Yes to the Dress” with Marissa, along with her maid-of-honor and a couple of her bridesmaids. We will be dress shopping, eating out, and having girl-time all weekend long!

But for today, I shall share images and notes from my busy exhausting week.

On Friday night, Dave took me to Café Monarch for an early birthday dinner. The Café has a prix fixe menu that changes weekly. The only thing you choose is your entrée. I had the trout and Dave had the filet. The ambiance, service, and food were all pure perfection. I highly recommend it!

After dinner, we drove to Sky Harbor to pick up Marissa. Having my girl home, making it the perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Saturday morning brought a shock in the bathroom. While in the shower, I looked up. There above the bathroom door – a scorpion! I got out, dried off, and yelled for Marissa. It was beyond hilarious as we tried to decide how to kill it without risking it falling on us. There is a video, but it contains too much swearing and screaming to share. Rest assured, the thing is dead and we were not stung!

Later that morning, Marissa, Connor, and I went to El Chorro to meet with a wedding planner and to show Connor the wedding venue.

That evening, Connor went to work while Marissa, Dave, and I went to Steve and Tram’s annual Okbirthdayfest party. Steve’s birthday is October 9th, hence the “Okbirthdayfest” instead of the usual Oktoberfest.

But, as you can see, Birthday Boy-Chef Steve cooks up a traditional Oktoberfest menu. How about that gorgeous job Tram did on the chalkboard menu!?! Love me a chalkboard menu!

Chef Steve with his prized heat lamp-board of outstanding tender and delicious Sauerbraten!

Plus a very happy Marissa – holding sweet Zoey!

Guests were asked to bring their favorite cocktail to share. I brought Moscow Mules. Recipe later this week.

Sunday was our neighborhood Fall Fling. It was a blast! I spent the entire preceding week hunting and gathering items for the party.

All patios and nearly every flat surface were covered with party fixings. This is the part of event planning I love.

I love the party part too. Over 100 neighbors had a great time.

Even the setup was fun.

We had plenty of things to do for young and old alike.

As usual, I didn’t take nearly enough pictures. Darkness fell quickly on a cloudy night. The cleanup consisted of getting everything off the street and onto my driveway and patio.

This is what greeted me on Monday, my birthday, morning. Thankfully, my kids and my fantastic neighbors also woke up early and helped clean it all up.

An added bonus – my beautiful friend and neighbor, Karin, brought me birthday flowers! How sweet and thoughtful!

Before the day was through, I had flowers from not only Karin but also from Dave and from my beloved friend, Lori, all the way from Tokyo! xoxo

Connor took the day off work, which was a gift in itself. After cleanup, he and Marissa took me to The Biltmore Spa where the three of us had hot-stone massage pedicures! The perfect thing for weary legs and feet! We had a delicious early dinner at Pizzeria Bianco Town & Country.

To end my “mom and kids” birthday, after we dropped Marissa off at the airport, Connor and I stopped by the Salty Sow and tried a bunch of different cocktails and had quality mother and son time.

Tuesday brought a birthday lunch with my dad, an HOA committee meeting, and work that night.

Wednesday I spent most of the day trying to put away all the party stuff. As of today, it’s still not all put away! Maybe by the end of this week.

Peggy and Anne took me out for birthday dinner at Rusconi’s. We met at Peggy’s house, where grandson Cruz was visiting and Anne fell in love.

If you haven’t discovered Rusconi’s American Kitchen yet – get over there and thank me later!

As you can see, we loved every bite and wished it was in good taste and manners to lick the plates.

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My fall series classes at Les Gourmettes are filling up, there are only four seats left.

Here is the description from the Les Gourmettes brochure and registration:

I’ll give you one guess –  What cocktail will we be making on Week Three with that Ginger Beer from Week One?

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Today is my favorite day of the month! It is the third Thursday and that means one thing – it is opening day for the 4-day Sweet Salvage Sale!

The theme this month is “Hallowed Haven” and I’ve already had a sneak peek at all the wonderfulness!

Yep, last night, Peggy and I attended the Preview Party. We and 98 other guests scoped out all the fabulous finds and made long lists and strategic plans on what we wanted and just how we were going to get it!

Our personal strategy? Peggy goes one direction and has 6 treasures on her list (2 for her and 4 for me) while I go the opposite direction and snag 7 finds (4 for her and 3 for me). I hope our plan works, I shall keep you posted!

Remember how I was one of the lucky VIP 15-minute early entry recipients last month?  This month they had a really fun theme game going – it all centered around the board-game CLUE. You must go to their Facebook page and see how amazingly creative these women are. They blow my mind!

Here is your own personal sneak peek – the doors open at 10 AM, I hope to see you there. Look for me, I plan to be at the front of the line!

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If you’ve read this blog for more than a month or two, you already know that I adore Sweet Salvage and its occasional sale. I’ve written about my monthly obsession nearly two dozen times in the last two years. Sweet Salvage is only open on the 3rd Thursday of each month for four days. The rest of the month the über-talented “Sweet Gang” are out “picking” new merchandise and using it to create mindbogglingly beautiful vignettes – all centered around a fun monthly theme. I’m consistently blown away by the gorgeous scenes these ladies set with their well-priced vintage finds.

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This weekend, Sweet Salvage celebrates its 2-year birthday with the “Chapter Two” themed sale.

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Each month on the Sweet Salvage Facebook page, there are questions posted that followers may answer to then be entered into a contest. The names of a lucky five are drawn. Then the chosen few receive VIP 15-minute early entry into the sale on the highly anticipated opening day.

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Guess who was one of the lucky five to be drawn as a winner this month.  Yeah, ME!

I didn’t realize I’d won until I was sent an alert that blog follower, Betsy, had tagged me in a FB comment. Thank you Betsy for the heads up!

I invited Sheila as my BSB (best shopping buddy) and we had the best time during our 15 minutes of stress-free, first-pick shopping spree. Maybe too much fun in my case. Here is part of what I snagged this month at Sweet Salvage. Ooh, and they gave us a burlap shopping bag too. Sweet!

I’m going, to begin with my favorite find this month, instead of closing with it. That is how EXCITED I am to have found it.

It is a 12-inch round, 2-inch high metal plate with a list of recipe ingredients around the perimeter.

Can you figure out what these ingredients make?  (1  1/4 cups flour; pinch of salt; 3 eggs, beaten; 1  1/2 cups milk; 2 tbsp butter, melted)

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APPETIZERS/HOR D’OEUVRES

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Wedding Taco Bar Recipes

These are recipes and stories from Cody and Chanté Howard’s amazing wedding weekend in northeastern Arizona over Mother’s Day Weekend in 2018. You may go to this LINK to see the complete taco bar with all the chopped toppings that are not included in this recipe list.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

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