Fun Day in the Kitchen Cooking

Today should be a fun day. Most of it will be spent in the kitchen cooking. We are entertaining some friends this evening and I get to do the cooking. Hooah!

The little get together is planned as a vacation trip review. Everyone is bringing photos of their recent big vacations. We will be showing video and pictures from our cruise on the Celebrity Mercury to Hawaii last November.

The menu I have planned for tonight is:

• Appetizer – Bacon wrapped Bay Scallops
• Salad – Mixed greens with Bacon and Strawberry Vinaigrette
• Entree – Center Cut Pork Roast with a Red Raspberry Sauce
• Side – Stuffed Orange Bell Peppers Italian Style
• Rolls
• Dessert – Fresh Berries and Chocolate Roulade

And of course, it’s a low carb menu.

I rose early at 6:30 this morning to get a good start on the cooking. Savannah’s dance company is doing a couple of quick dances this afternoon at the mall in Sierra Vista (35 minutes away), so that’s gonna kind of crimp the preparation a bit. I think they do these little things around town to get the girls used to performing in front of folks. Suzanne is off at Defensive Drivers school today for a recent speeding incident, so I have to take Savannah to the performance.

Monsoon season is in full swing here in Sonoita though a bit strange of late. Rain is falling every day now. Usually, monsoon season is characterized by late afternoon thunderstorms. These thunderstorms are scattered around the area and are hit or miss. They are fun to watch and they usually contain impressive light shows. It’s not unusual for weather tracking stations to record over 5,000 lighting strikes from one of these little cells in an hour. The last few days, however, it has rained most of the day. It’s been dark and overcast with a relatively light rain falling. That’s very unusual for this part of Arizona. Throughout the day, though, the rain will get very heavy as one of the monsoon cells moves around. It’s still quite impressive, after all these years, to watch the massive amounts of water coming down during one of the cells. Pretty soon the area is going to be very green. We will have to enjoy it quick, though, as it only lasts a week or two.

Okay, enough of a break, back to the kitchen for me.