First up, I want to share with you the Harmony Board that I created for the birthday dinner celebration for my dear friend, Lisa, on Tuesday night.

I’m spending my summer working on a business plan, website, social media pages, logo, etc. for Harmony Boards. Kim and I are going to her family home in Canada later this month to escape the heat and to brainstorm and plan the launch party for late summer or early fall.

Of course, I’ll keep you posted once we have the date locked down.

Secondly, while I was going through the photos on my computer looking for some pictures I took back in April, which I needed for my last post, I came across something I’d meant to share, but then forgot all about.

If you remember in THIS POST from May 2nd, which was about my backyard remodel I said,

“In a future post, I’ll share with you all the drama that occurred on granite delivery day. It was quite the thing.”

Do you think July 26 is too late to finally share it? Hopefully not, because here we go.

Photo credit: Lifted from Ronnie’s FB page

On the early evening of Wednesday, April 4, 2018 my friends and former neighbors, Mike and Ronnie Jaap, stopped by to see my backyard remodel. They were considering using the same company I was using and wanted to check out the progress over here. Afterward, we had plans to go out for dinner.

Earlier that day, in the late afternoon, a load of granite had been dropped off on the road on the south side of my house. The pile was in the street on the other side of my double gates. The pile had orange cones on all sides. This is common practice around construction projects and is allowed.

It was about 6:00 pm as Mike, Ronnie, and I were walking on the far north side of the backyard, talking about how happy I was with Garden Plus Landscape & Pools. Suddenly, we heard a loud crash and looked toward that double gate on the other side of the yard to see a huge plume of dust and dirt explode over the gate.

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As I type this on the afternoon of Monday, June 23rd, it is 115 degrees outside and I am hunkered down in my house. It may be more appropriate to say that I’m hunkered down in my cave because that is what I have turned my home into. And not for some fun reason – like having little kids over and building forts and caves out of sheets and blankets.

No, I live in a cave now because of my most recent electric bill. I only regret that I didn’t create my cave sooner!

The bill arrived while I was in Texas. When I got home, I tossed all the bills on my desk without opening them. I went to pay them this morning and was horrified to see that my electric bill was $150 higher than it was last month. What the what?!?

I’m already exceedingly conscientious about turning off lights and keeping the blinds and curtains drawn in the heat of the day. I don’t run my large appliances until late at night or early morning and I resist the temptation of setting the thermostats too low. In fact, when I go to bed, the A/C on the opposite side of the house is set to 86 degrees, which is quite warm when it often doesn’t get out of the 90’s outside at night. So a $150 increase seemed insane!

(My electricity bills look good, thanks to everybody who helps in keeping my cooling devices in a good condition. Granted there were 3 more days in the billing cycle this time. Last month was 30 days for May 8 – June 7. And this bill was 33 days for June 7 – July 10. But $50 more per day does not add up.)

The front of my house faces west, which far from ideal, especially since the double front doors have glass fronts.

So in anticipation of the summer heat that would stream through those doors, I bought a shade panel at Costco back in April and hung it outside to block the sun from coming in through those doors.

No doubt that has helped immensely. But obviously not nearly as much as I’d hoped.

Here are the steps I’ve taken to see if I can get that bill down into the almost bearable range.

The first thing I did was cut out a large piece of cardboard (thank you Amazon!) and blocked the light coming in through the skylight in the kitchen. I actually did that the week before I left for Texas.

Today, I closed the vents and doors to one of the bedrooms, the office, and one bathroom. Less square footage to cool is the hopeful thinking there.

Next, I put more of the cardboard over the glass blocks in the master bath.

That window faces south, but as you can see, it lets in plenty of light, which translates to plenty of heat. It may not look attractive, but I don’t give a hoot about aesthetics right now.

This house has another front door on the west side, a mother-in-law set-up of sorts. And that door also has a darn window in it.

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On Sunday in Austin, I did something I’ve done on my last three visits and something I’ve never done before.

The first outing of the day was our traditional pilgrimage to Radio Coffee & Beer. It is just down the road from Marissa and Jeff’s house and we’ve walked there before, but not this time. It was far too hot and humid for that.

I’m sure the coffee is good, I wouldn’t know personally since I don’t drink coffee. But what we go there for is the food truck with breakfast tacos.

Breakfast Tacos are a big damn deal in Austin! It’s their staple, they obsess over breakfast tacos. So much so, that a taco place on South Congress has a sign out front that clearly states, “No Breakfast Tacos.”  I suppose that cuts down on people being disappointed when they read the menu. I mean, you know it’s a big deal when you have a sign that says what you DON’T have!

Photo credit: Eater Austin

So yes, Tram got her first taste of one of the favorites of all the breakfast tacos in the city, The Migas, from the Veracruz All Natural food truck.

I posted a recipe for Migas back in November 2013, long before I laid my eyes and tongue on the Veracruz version. Since then, I’ve recreated theirs for an all-taco cooking class I did last fall. I’ll need to make that again in the near future and get the recipe up here for y’all.

If you’re heading to Austin anytime soon, here is an article with the 22 Essential Breakfast Tacos in Austin.

After breakfast, we did a new thing. We toured the Texas State Capital. Marissa works right down the street from the Capital, so I see it every time I visit but have never gone inside. It is beautiful! The building was constructed from 1882 to 1888.

Tram and I went crazy for the gorgeous details. The front door tells you what to expect when you walk inside. That hardware!

The door hinges were my favorite thing. This bulky heavy piece of metal is beautiful but wait until you see what is revealed when the door is open.

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As I said yesterday, we got up early on Saturday morning to drive the approximately 90 minutes from Austin to Waco in hopes of beating the major Saturday morning crowds so we could eat at Magnolia Table.

It was about 8:15 when we arrived and I immediately knew we didn’t leave early enough when I saw the packed parking lot. Tram and I hopped out of the car to get our names on the wait list while Marissa parked.

Our hopes were slightly dampened when we saw the Disneyland-like line winding around stanchions in true Disney form. We got in line and Marissa soon joined us.

We stood there for about 15 to 20 minutes until an employee came around to let everyone know what the deal was. We were standing in line to put our names on the waitlist. She couldn’t say how long it would take us to get to the front of the line, but once we put in our name, it would be another hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes until we got a table.

The three stood there for another 5 minutes or so and then Tram said that she didn’t “have” to eat here to be happy. I was so relieved! Marissa and I said that we didn’t either and we got out of line and went around the building to the “Take Away” part of the restaurant to shop.

One fun find in the shop was the packages of our hometown Hayden Flour Mills that we spotted on the shelves. The store carries the pizza flour, cornmeal mix, and stone ground oatmeal. Local pride right there in Waco!

I can’t begin to tell you how much I covet this CAFE sign in the Take-Away store. LOVE!  The girls each got a coffee-to-go and we were on our way to the Silos, about a 10-minute drive up the road.

As for our Miles to Magnolia, Tram and I traveled 1049 miles from Phoenix and Marissa traveled 102 miles from Austin.

Here is my advice is you go to Magnolia Market. Don’t go on a Saturday or this is what you will encounter. Don’t get me wrong, we still loved it, but I have to believe it is better during the week.

And there is much to love besides the store, the grounds are gorgeous too.

From the Seed-Supply garden store to the gardens themselves, the great lawn, and food trucks, you could easily make a day of it.

I love how Jo beatifies everything, even the rusty contraptions coming off the silos that probably moved the grain in and out – back in the day.

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Tram and I went to Austin last weekend to visit Marissa and to drive to Waco and visit the Magnolia Market Silos (Tram on the steps) and Chip & Joanna Gaines and the family.

How excited were you when you read that sentence? I was all a flutter writing it and imagining it to be true.

We did visit the Silos, Magnolia Table, and other Magnolia-related attractions along with a few not-so-Magnolia sights.

As for Chip & Jo, we found their handprints outside Magnolia Table and…

… we drove by their farm. Driving down the highway in front of it isn’t exactly stalking, but it kind of felt like it.

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I hate to admit it, but I’ve never been much of a gardener. I’ve had an herb garden my entire adult life, so I can grow herbs, mostly cooking herbs. And I’ve always had fruit trees, but that’s not gardening.

I’ve tried to grow tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, radishes, peas, pumpkins, eggplant, okra, and even zucchini. I’ve had success with not a single one! Not even zucchini!

Everyone else I know in the gardening gig grows zucchini no problem, every harvest season I see them begging people to take their surplus. I’m so jealous! If that wasn’t bad enough, many of them even put my herb garden to shame.

This year it’s different. I don’t know if it’s the new house, a new garden, new dirt, or new attitude, but I’m a farmer now!

But it turns out I’m not really a farmer because I thought the photo above was a zucchini. I forgot what I’d planted. It’s a cucumber. Not a farmer.

Here is that same cucumber a few days later.

And here is my current harvest of cucumbers. Why is there Ketel One behind the cucumbers? Because my friend, Jen, told me about the new Ketel One Botanicals. I love the idea of them. They are lower in alcohol and calories. Botanical is vodka distilled with real botanicals and infused with natural fruit essences.

I made a delicious cucumber martini with the Cucumber Mint Botanical and my homegrown cucumber.

Back to the garden, I was also successful with cantaloupe and watermelon.

I’ve harvested that lovely perfectly round watermelon above and now I’m waiting for these weird-shaped ones to be ready.

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Photo courtesy of Pinkerton Photography

My cousin and my friend, Michelle Lorts, gave me a tin of Red Rock Lavender Lemon Pepper. Michelle owns Studio Fiore and is the florist who created the stunning flowers for Marissa’s wedding.

Photo credit: Red Rock Ranch & Farms

A few weeks ago, Michelle and a few girlfriends took a day trip to visit the lavender fields at Red Rock Ranch & Farms in Concho, Arizona.

Concho is in the White Mountains, about a 3½ hour drive from Scottsdale.

Photo credit: Red Rock Ranch & Farms

I’ve always thought about going for the Lavender Festival, but never pulled the trigger on it, maybe next year.

I used her gift to make a delicious chicken dish. You can make it too, even if you don’t have a tin of the Red Rock Lavender mix because I’ve included the proportions to make the herb and spice mixture on your own at the bottom of this post.

I also used one of my favorite local olive oils, Queen Creek Olive Mill Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. You may use regular olive oil as a substitute. Of course, you if want to make this recipe using the unique Arizona spice mixture and olive oil, the links are here for you to order those items online. Enjoy!

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Is it okay if I’m feeling a bit reminiscent and sad when I say that this is the last post, the last recipe, from Chanté and Cody’s wedding?

After the months of planning and anticipation leading up to it, all the work and joy surrounding the wedding weekend, and the fun of posting and reliving it, I’m sad it’s really over. But then again, if anyone knows how to drag out a happy event, it’s me!

Here is a list of the recipes that made up the taco bar with links to each recipe. This same list is posted Menu and Party Ideas over there on the left side of the page, so you can easily find it when you’re in need of taco bar recipes.

Wedding Taco Bar Recipes

Fillings:

• Grilled Chicken
• Instant-Pot Ground Beef
• Spicy Shrimp
• Roasted Vegetables

Toppings:

• Barrio Café Guacamole
• Creamy Cilantro-Jalapeño Sauce
• Pickled Red Onions
• Cilantro Chimichurri Sauce
• Peggy’s Blender Salsa

Sides:

• Roasted Tomatillo Rice
• Refried Black Beans
• Mexican Street Corn

Signature Cocktails:

• The Fox Cocktail
• The Chisel Cocktail

Roasted Tomatillo Rice

• 20 tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and dried
• 3 poblano peppers
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 2 shallots, peeled
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• Olive oil
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 2 cups rice
• Fresh cilantro, for garnish

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Mexican Street Corn was another of the side dishes for Chanté and Cody’s wedding in the woods over Mother’s Day weekend.

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